Free Republic

The 13 largest U.S. tire manufacturers are facing a lawsuit from a pair of California commercial fishing organizations that could force the companies to stop using a chemical added to almost every tire because it kills migrating salmon. Also found in footwear, synthetic turf and playground equipment, the rubber preservative 6PPD has been used in tires for 60 years. As tires wear, tiny particles of rubber are left behind on roads and parking lots, breaking down into a byproduct, 6PPD-quinone, that is deadly to salmon, steelhead trout and other aquatic wildlife when rains wash it into rivers. “This is the...

Eddy May's electric Mercedes-Benz suffered flat tyre. Vehicle did not come with spare. Many have questioned why EVs do not have spare tyres . ... An Australian driver has revealed one of the struggles of owning an electric car - the fact they don't come with spare tyres. Eddy May and his wife, from Adelaide, were driving their electric Mercedes-Benz EQC-400, worth around $128,000, along a freeway on Sunday morning when something sliced open one of the wheels. ... The majority of EVs do not come with spares due to extra weight they add to the vehicle and amount of...

OBAMABIKE - No Inflation required

PARIS -- Edouard Michelin, the co-managing partner of France's Michelin, the world's leading tire maker, was killed in a boating accident, the company said Friday. A short statement from the company gave no details about his death or the accident. It said that another managing partner, Michel Rollier, would take over direction of the company. A company official told Dow Jones Newswires that Mr. Michelin, 42 years old, died in a boating accident. The accident took place near Ile de Sein, off Brittany's coast. Mr. Michelin took over the company's reins from his father, Francois Michelin, in 1999. Michelin is...

Archaeologists unearth Tyre’s Phoenician rootsDig uncovers 12 burial jars Spanish archaeologists discovered a Phoenician cemetery containing 12 jars during excavations in Tyre on Friday, one of them reported. “We have discovered 12 earthenware jars of various sizes, filled with burned up bones and ashes at the southern entrance of Tyre,” Maria Eugenia Aubet told AFP. Aubet said her team “hopes to find gold jewelry under the ashes, which date back to between the ninth and 10th century before Christ.” “The Phoenicians used to bury their dead in jars along with their jewelry after incinerating their bodies,” she said. The team...