Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn
Topic: Cars and Trucks
12:19 pm EST, Jan 30, 2008
A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.
Though it is a bill that is presented every other year in the GA congress, the current form of the Sunday alcoholic sales bill is expected to gain the most ground ever, but still fail. This bill, along with some other previous renditions basically allows a county and/or city to let the citizens decide on afternoon Sunday sales with a vote. The most recent action is that the bill got recommitted in to the Senate 2 weeks ago, but this was after almost a full year of nothingness.
There are some big name supporters behind this bill, including a laundry list of senators and reps. Two of the biggest names are Kroger and Publix. All state breweries and wineries support the bill, of course. The convenient store chains support it, though some smaller package stores are iffy about having to produce a Sunday payroll.
There are plenty of groups highly against the freedom to allow citizens to put the issue to a vote. Already infuriated by the law changes in the last few years allowing home delivery and higher alcohol content in fermented beverages, various religious and socially conservative groups are being vocal.
The bill has a chance of reaching the governor's office. But it is expected that the governors morals and values will prevent him from allowing counties and cities to chose for themselves in a democratic fashion. In an election year dominated by national economic, war, and presidential issues, and with local water and housing issues, this bill and it's subsequent repression of democracy will be overlooked.
This Day In History ... first canned beer goes on sale - History.com
Topic: History
3:18 pm EST, Jan 24, 2008
Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production.
By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.
The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill.
Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20 billion U.S. beer industry
America Needs France’s Atomic Anne - New York Times
Topic: Current Events
3:08 pm EST, Jan 24, 2008
It’s not often that I find myself recommending a French state-owned industry as the answer to major U.S. problems, but I guess there’s an exception to every rule.
In this case the exception is the French nuclear energy company Areva, which provides about 80 percent of the country’s electricity from 58 nuclear power plants, is building a new generation of reactor that will come on line at Flamanville in 2012, and is exporting its expertise to countries from China to the United Arab Emirates.
IBM riles employees with base pay cuts - Yahoo News
Topic: Tech Industry
12:49 pm EST, Jan 23, 2008
Even as IBM Corp. reports record profits, thousands of its U.S. employees are staring at pay cuts.
It's the result of IBM's response to a lawsuit in which the company was accused of illegally withholding overtime pay from some technical employees. IBM settled the case for $65 million in 2006 and has now decided that it needs to reclassify 7,600 technical-support workers as eligible for overtime.
But their underlying salary — the base pay they earn for their first 40 hours of work each week — will be cut 15 percent to compensate.
The decision on overtime stems from the settlement of a federal class-action lawsuit in San Francisco in which 32,000 technical workers accused IBM of illegally withholding overtime pay.
IBM had considered the employees highly skilled professionals exempt from overtime rules as defined in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiffs alleged that they were not executive decision-makers or creative types who can be ineligible for overtime.
Though that case was settled late in 2006, McNeese said IBM needed until now to determine how to comply with federal overtime laws. "We still think it's ambiguous," he said.
MPAA admits mistake on downloading study - Yahoo News
Topic: Industries
12:36 pm EST, Jan 23, 2008
Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong. ADVERTISEMENT
In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.
The MPAA has used the study to pressure colleges to take tougher steps to prevent illegal file-sharing and to back legislation currently before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so.
But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a "human error" in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.
Terry Hartle, vice president of the American Council on Education, which represents higher education in Washington, said the mistakes showed the entertainment industry has unfairly targeted college campuses.
Motorola stock plummets on handset woes - Yahoo News
Topic: Telecom Industry
12:31 pm EST, Jan 23, 2008
Cell phone maker Motorola Inc. said Wednesday its profit fell 84 percent in the fourth quarter and warned that the recovery in its struggling handset unit will take longer than expected. Its shares plummeted.
New CEO Greg Brown, who took over this month after Ed Zander resigned following four rollercoaster years, portrayed a longer turnaround than Wall Street had expected and bluntly acknowledged that what the No. 3 cell-phone maker is doing isn't working.
"Demand for some of our products has slowed in an intensified competitive landscape," he said on a conference call. "Our consistency of new product introduction is still not where it needs to be. And we still have gaps in the portfolio in areas that are experiencing high rates of growth, including 3G (third-generation), China and other emerging markets."
Motorola shares plunged $1.97, or 16 percent, to $10.35 in morning trading after hitting a four-year low of $10.03.
... sales from the mobile devices division, dominated by cell phones, sank 38 percent to $4.8 billion in the fourth quarter as the company failed to connect with consumers over the holidays. The handset unit, its biggest, had an operating loss of $388 million and shipped 40.9 million devices during the quarter, in line with analyst expectations but down sharply from past quarters.
Didn't Moto gamble the company on the Razr a few years ago? I wonder what they will do now to survive.
The Wachowski's Speed Racer Using Revolutionary Full Focus Cameras � FirstShowing.net
Topic: Media
11:41 am EST, Jan 23, 2008
The speed racer movie is going to be more than another cartoon turned into a bleh movie. The biggest "things" about the movie will be the Matrix style action sequences (with the people who invented Matrix style action sequences) and some 2-D "all in focus" camera.
This movie was filmed with some super secret digital camera that comes with security guards. Most of the information known about the camera comes from actors blabbing off post filming. Some kinda film and digital focus tricks cause the entire frame to be in focus. With the seamless CG, the film is very .... interesting to see.
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