Baja Bug

Caselli Leading Motorcycles; MacCachren Races Atop SCORE Overall, SCORE Trophy ...

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LOS ANGELES -- Following his third victory in the last five races and second in three races this season, Las Vegas’ All-America racer Rob MacCachren has launched himself into the SCORE Overall and SCORE Trophy Truck point lead after three of five races in the 2012 SCORE Desert Series.

With back to back overall wins in 2012 (Laughlin-Round 2 and San Felipe) after opening the season with a ninth-place finish in the first round in Laughlin, Nev., MacCachren, 46, has earned 177 championship points in the No. 20 Rockstar Energy/MasterCraft Racing Ford F-150. He is not only the SCORE Overall point leader, he is also at the top of the leaderboard in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division for

Source: WhoWon.com

California Team to Tackle the Sands of Baja in a 400-Horsepower EV

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Their quest is less quixotic than appearances may suggest. Mr. Smith won his class last year in a Volkswagen-powered Baja Bug. He’s hopeful that the strong performance of an E.V. at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last year bodes well for his team.

The Baja competition is also something of a family affair, as Mr. Smith’s daughter and son-in-law, he a former professional supercross motorcycle racer, run Strategic Racing Designs , which specializes in building high-performance off-road vehicles. The firm designed the electric racer’s chassis and partnered with EV West to build the electric driveline.

The car’s systems must withstand more than 30 continuous hours of racing across dunes, gravel and shrub-pocked desert. Every team encounters endurance issues, Mr. Smith said, but his team will have the added burden of charging batteries. The four-hour charge times typical of E.V.’s like the Nissan Leaf at 240-volt stations are out of the question, so the team plans a combination of quick battery swapping and 480-volt fast charging, said to be capable of delivering an 80 percent charge in 10 minutes. Competitors outside the Ultra Green class guzzle race fuel at a terrific rate, so the E.V. will not be alone as it makes pit stops.

Source: New York Times (blog)

Budget cuts hit TB clinics at the border

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California Health Report

Even though many Californians think of tuberculosis as a foreign problem, experts say the cough and sneeze-surfing bacteria remains a risk in the state.

Funding for disease control is shrinking, but tuberculosis is still spreading, and mutating new and increasingly lethal strains. The most drug-resistant variety of tuberculosis or TB known to science emerged a few months ago in India. Because it appears immune to every TB drug out there, scientists have dubbed it TDR TB, short for totally drug-resistant tuberculosis.

It’s only the latest in a string of increasingly tough-to-cure TB strains with obscure acronyms: first came MDR TB (multi-drug resistant tuberculosis) followed soon enough by XDR TB (extensively drug-resistant TB). All TB strains are easily contagious, an infected person can spread them by coughing, sneezing or simply exhaling.

Source: healthycal.org