Word: caterpillars
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Among this urban detritus, something else is moving. It looks like another trash cube--but with binocular eyes, forklift plates for arms and Caterpillar tracks to navigate the rough terrain. The thing is called a Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class--WALL?E--and its job is to clean up the mess of consumerism run amok. It's also apparently the last of its kind still functioning...
...they all have their foot on the gas. At the Aurora North mine, a giant shovel fills up another 797B Caterpillar heavy hauler with a 400-ton load of material that--after being spun in what looks like the world's largest cement mixer to separate the bitumen from the sand--will eventually yield 200 bbl. of oil. "A year from now, that mountain won't be there," says Crisby, referring to the black wall of bitumen-rich soil gradually being demolished by shovel, dozer and a convoy of heavy haulers that operate around the clock...
...Scientist Amit Lal and his team insert mechanical components into baby bugs during "the caterpillar and the pupae stages," which would then allow the adult bugs to be deployed to do the Pentagon's bidding. "The HI-MEMS program is aimed at developing tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis," DARPA says. "Since a majority of the tissue development in insects occurs in the later stages of metamorphosis, the renewed tissue growth around the MEMS will tend to heal, and form a reliable and stable tissue-machine interface...
Those concerns are weighing heavily on UAW members, who are very much aware that VEBAs at Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel have gone bankrupt. Three former UAW executive board members recently signed a letter criticizing the VEBA plan as "knowingly placing members at risk." The other option, though, is losing retiree health benefits entirely. "If you don't go along with a VEBA, the automakers may reach a point where the only alternative is to file Chapter 11," says Eric Merkle of IRN Automotive Intelligence. "The UAW has to take on more of the risk...
...smart kid to be popular too, Annalisee is witty and pretty, and it's easy to imagine she would get along well at school. But until last year, Annalisee's parents--Angi, a 53-year-old university assistant, and Marcelo, 63, who recently retired from his job at a Caterpillar dealership--couldn't find a school willing to take their daughter unless she enrolled with her age-mates. None of the schools in Longview--and even as far away as the Dallas area--were willing to let Annalisee skip more than two grades. She needed to skip at least three...