Pasta and oysters and rich Gorgonzola,
Coffee and doughnuts and nutty granola,
Bluegill and pizza and hot chicken wings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
It has been a pretty good year in the culinary trenches. Some good new restaurants have opened, a few have closed, and I didn't get food poisoning once. Here are a few of my fonder memories:
Two timely and useful essays:
The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it doesn't feel like procrastination. You're "getting things done." Just the wrong things.Any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading, if it doesn't consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of type-B procrastination. In fact, possibility is too weak a word. Nearly everyone's is. Unless you're working on the biggest things you could be working on, you're type-B procrastinating, no matter how much you're getting done.
- What are the most important problems in your field?
- Are you working on one of them?
- Why not?
For what?
To establish some form of Kurdish state? The Turkish Government, among our stronger allies, will not thank us for this.
To establish Islamic State(s) in the Arab regions of Iraq? Probably difficult to sell this to the American people as “victory.” Certainly an odd aspect of our “War on Terror.”
To establish a Shiite State in southern Iraq? Good news for Iran, a charter member of the “Axis of Evil.” Bad news for Iraq’s southern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, most of whose oil fields lie in Shiite tribal areas.
Perhaps we can redeem ourselves by learning lessons of sufficient value.
"The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" argues most of the forces that produced the scandals among Enron, Worldcom, et al remain in place.Well worth reading.
This means investors should expect another wave of scandals even as the bad actors of the first wave go to trial.
The people running investment funds and corporations increasingly put their short term interests ahead of the long term interests of the investing public. The status quo has corporate CEO's reaping a disproportionate share of returns by finding ways to align the interests of the intermediaries with their own. The link between executive compensation and stock options produces more activities that boost short term stock price even as they jeopardize long term prospects. Bogle makes the point "the more the managers take, the less investors make." By his calculations, investing owners take 100% of the risk while CEO's, intermediary investment bankers, and portfolio managers get 70% of the compounded return. The currently passive nature of stock ownership follows the decline of direct ownership of stocks from 92% in 1950 to 32% today. Portfolio managers do not hold corporate CEO's accountable because the average stock stays in a portfolio for less than a year versus 15 years when Bogle got into the business in the 1960's.
During the past month, I received 14 pounds of catalogs in the mail. That's roughly a half-pound per day.I didn't ask to receive any of them, either, a claim my postal carrier could hardly be blamed to question.
Yet companies well-known, and some of them not, sent me at least one, sometimes two, three or more catalogs between Nov. 21 and Dec. 22, 2005.
Jonathan Weil continues to dig into the ongoing KPMG tax shelter saga, this time, discussing several large investors who took advantage of the shelters to save millions in taxes.
Mr. Diebold (pronounced DEE-bold) made a career of recognizing relevant advances in technology and explaining them to the likes of A.T. & T., Boeing, Xerox and I.B.M. Through books, speeches and his international consulting firm, Mr. Diebold persuaded major corporations to automate their assembly lines, store their records electronically and install interoffice computer networks.In 1961 he and his firm, the Diebold Group, designed an electronic network to link account records at the Bowery Savings Bank in New York. Rather than being updated after hours, the records immediately reflected both deposits and withdrawals and were available to any teller. Customers could then bank at any branch and at any window.
Another data network eliminated much of Baylor University Hospital's paperwork in departments like accounting, inventory, payroll and purchasing. More important to Mr. Diebold, the system made medical records and statistics available to researchers in electronic form, permitting studies that were otherwise too daunting. The American Hospital Association embraced the project, and hundreds of other institutions created data systems modeled on it.
PC World offers a somewhat interesting "winners/losers" list for 2005, with Apple appearing in both categories
This amazing documentary from Thomas Riedelsheimer won the Golden Gate Award Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the 2003 San Francisco International Film Festival. The film follows renowned sculptor Andy Goldsworthy as he creates with ice, driftwood, bracken, leaves, stone, dirt and snow in open fields, beaches, rivers, creeks and forests. With each new creation, he carefully studies the energetic flow and transitory nature of his work.
Frustrated by government and empowered by technology, Americans are filling needs and fighting causes through grass-roots organizations they built themselves - some sophisticated, others quaintly ad hoc. This is the era of people-driven politics.
People are just beginning to realize how much power they have," said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic consultant who specializes in grass-roots organizing via the Internet.
Now, with Wisconsin on the eve of a major campaign year, state candidates will be confronted for the first time with a growing network of political blogs, many on the feisty side. Even avid bloggers acknowledge that when it comes to reaching voters, particularly undecided ones, their power pales in comparison to newspapers and the rest of the mainstream media (The MSM in bloghand).
The United Express E-170 was a rather pleasant surprise. I flew this 70 seat jet several times recently and found that I could:
Changing planes at O'hare recently, I stood next to an early 20's woman trying to fly standby to Dayton, Ohio. I discovered that she structured work to support her travel wants.
My fellow traveller said that she joined the Air Force out of High School to "see the world". The Air Force promptly sent her to Dayton, Ohio for the length of her tour. Now in the AF reserves, she works part time for United Airlines loading bags at the Dayton Airport and for the local Marriott hotel (also part time). These jobs provide incredible travel benefits - unless one cannot obtain a timely seat.
The recent fruits of her work?The 49ers had not bothered to interview college coaches for the head-coaching job in part because its front-office analysis found that most of the college coaches hired in the past 20 years to run N.F.L. teams had failed. But in Schwartz's view, college coaches tended to fail in the N.F.L. mainly because the pros hired the famous coaches from the old-money schools, on the premise that those who won the most games were the best coaches. But was this smart? Notre Dame might have a good football team, but how much of its success came from the desire of every Catholic in the country to play for Notre Dame?
Looking for fresh coaching talent, Schwartz analyzed the offensive and defensive statistics of what he called the "midlevel schools" in search of any that had enjoyed success out of proportion to their stature. On offense, Texas Tech's numbers leapt out as positively freakish: a midlevel school, playing against the toughest football schools in the country, with the nation's highest scoring offense. Mike Leach had become the Texas Tech head coach before the 2000 season, and from that moment its quarterbacks were transformed into superstars. In Leach's first three seasons, he played a quarterback, Kliff Kingsbury, who wound up passing for more yards than all but three quarterbacks in the history of major college football. When Kingsbury graduated (he is now with the New York Jets), he was replaced by a fifth-year senior named B.J. Symons, who threw 52 touchdown passes and set a single-season college record for passing yards (5,833). The next year, Symons graduated and was succeeded by another senior - like Symons, a fifth-year senior, meaning he had sat out a season. The new quarterback, who had seldom played at Tech before then, was Sonny Cumbie, and Cumbie's 4,742 passing yards in 2004 was the sixth-best year in N.C.A.A. history.
Every year 35,000 new CDs are released. With all those artists clamoring for an audience, it's not surprising that some musical gems get overlooked.
As the year comes to a close, NPR asked a few people who monitor the music business to comb through their files to share a few of this year's releases that, in their view, didn't get the attention they deserved.
Love it or hate it, cabbage is getting plenty of press for its potential to fight illness ranging from cancer to bird flu. It all began a few months ago when South Korean scientists noticed that feeding the spicy cabbage dish kimchee to roughly a dozen chickens infected with bird flu caused most of them to recover. Restaurants selling kimchee ran out quickly and the idea that cabbage cures started to spread.
But to the rapidly aging Baby Boomer population, a plunging windowline and promises of 120hp/liter aren’t what matters: strong door hinges and louder warning chimes are. So says Automotive Body Repair News (ABRN), which examines (and predicts) the effect of a growing senior populace on the face of car design. Advances in active and passive safety top the list of retiree-friendly developments, along with primary and secondary controls that are easier to operate for those with decreasing motor and visual skills. Among the ideas already gaining traction are:
San Francisco's request for proposal for its citywide network is out: The city published a PDF of the RFP today; responses are due Feb. 21, 2006....
So, it's Christmas today (or it will be tomorrow, depending on where you live). Wouldn't it be nice if you had a bunch of freely and legally available Christmas songs you could listen to all day? Burn on CDs and hand over to your relatives? Share with your friends without the fear of being sued to death by big record labels? Well, here's a list of 110 111 songs which are all explicitly released under a Creative Commons license (no, I did not consider songs which are merely "podsafe"!) and thus can be shared, listened to, and sometimes even modified freely. There's a great variety in style, mood, and genre of the songs: some traditional, some contemporary, some happy, some sad, and some just plain funny
In The New American Cooking, cookbook author Joan Nathan showcases some of the more unusual items that are turning up on America's tables -- plantains, pomegranates and other once-obscure ingredients.
his is the third part of an extended look at the deal between Clear Channel Madison and AMCORE Bank to sponsor the WIBA-AM (1310) newsroom. The first part examined the deal and the possibility that similar sponsorships of other Clear Channel newsrooms are in the offing, while part two looked at how the deal could affect WIBA's reputation.
"Never mistake a clear view for a short distance" - Paul Saffo
- Know when not to make a forecast.
- Overnight successes come out of twenty years of failure.
- Look back twice as far as forward.
- Be indifferent
- Tell a story or, better, draw a map.
- Prove yourself wrong
A substantial portion of older Americans now in the work force chose to return there after retiring, and how well they're enjoying their labor now depends a lot on whether they're self-employed, according to two new reports.About 10% of workers 40 and older are retirees who've returned to the work force, according to a recent survey that screened more than 17,200 workers to find retirees who went back to work, conducted for Putnam Investments by Brightwork Partners, a research firm.
ll Songs Considered host Bob Boilen counts down listener picks for the 10 best CDs of 2005, with NPR music reviewers Will Hermes, Tom Moon and Meredith Ochs. They also share some of their own favorites from the year and take calls from listeners. This program originally webcast live on NPR.org Dec. 16, 2005. Below are the top 10 CDs of 2005 chosen in our online poll, with select comments from the listeners who love them.
The Digital Transition Content Security Act would embed anticopying technology into the next generation of digital video products. If it makes its way from Capitol Hill to the Oval Office and becomes law, the measure will outlaw the manufacture or sale of electronic devices that convert analog video signals into digital video signals, effective one year from its enactment. PC-based tuners and digital video recorders are listed among the devices.This is obviously an important issue for Sensenbrenner's constituents.... (and Conyer's Michigan voters). The power of money.House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr., a Wisconsin Republican, introduced the bill, which is backed by Democratic Rep. John Conyers. Sensenbrenner's goal is to protect analog content from theft, which has been made easier in the wake of the transition to digital technologies.
MoMA just opened their show about Pixar last week and on Friday, we went to a presentation by John Lasseter, head creative guy at the company. Interesting talk, although I'd heard some of it in various places before, most notably in this interview with him on WNYC. Two quick highlights:
What percentage of all our conversations include talk about an organization, brand, product, or service?Via Ben McConnellBased on my research with college students (18-29 years of age) the answer is about 17.5%, on average. This is a little higher than the 13.5% I found in an earlier study (see "March 2005" results in the chart and below for details).
But the 35-year-old airline is feeling its age, with labor costs rising along with expenses related to maintaining a fleet of more than 400 planes. As its fuel-hedging benefits begin to erode, Mr. Kelly must continue to tighten spending while maintaining the famous warm-and-fuzzy Southwest culture that has generated some of the most loyal employees in the industry. His ability to do that will be severely tested next year when Southwest must negotiate a new labor contract with its pilots union. The airline's financial strength and its long, unbroken string of quarterly profits could make it harder to keep a lid on salaries and benefits.
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very lon g term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/bet ter" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.Podcasts of many seminars are available on the Long Now Foundation's website.
If you want to find out what’s hot for the enterprise, follow the money: the venture capital money, that is. Interest in old-school business models and applications has waned, but startups that offer enterprises innovative, secure solutions at low cost are attracting big money.
Killer hurricanes, swarming sharks, and wildlife fighting for survival headlined this year's most popular videos from National Geographic News. Replay the year in science, nature, and exploration with 2005's top ten videos.
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The biggest problem seems to be that the talent pool of skilled workers will not able to keep up. Currently there are about 700,000 people working in IT and outsourcing, which is likely to grow up to 2.3 million by 2010, but only 1.05 million new graduates will qualify from local colleges in the next 5 years leading to a shortfall of 500,000 workers! All this despite the fact that almost 2.5 million students graduate in India each year." From the article: "In IT the growth in Indian exports is expected to come both from the software market, and from 'traditional IT outsourcing'--such as the remote management of whole systems, a market now dominated by the big global IT consultancies. This is expected to rise from 8% of Indian sales now to about 30% in 2010, while software-development's share will fall from 55% to 39%. In business-process-offshoring, the big industries will remain banking and insurance. But rapid expansion is also expected in other areas, like legal services."Slashdot. discussion.
The agreements reflect the proliferation of corporate sponsorships in recent years -- think FedEx Field and MCI Center -- and the pressure many newsrooms feel to boost revenue. Close alliances between companies and news enterprises, however, raise a special set of issues related to journalistic integrity, ethicists say.An informed society must understand that advertising, sponsorship or underwriting will always include influence. The real solution, from my perspective, is the ongoing disaggregation of media, with many, many more choices and a number of aggregators.
With journalism still under a cloud from some high-profile scandals, newsrooms must go to the greatest lengths to convince the public of their independence and credibility, said Kelly McBride, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism training center.
"This undermines all the efforts we're making to protect our credibility," she said. "It creates the perception that the newsroom is for sale to the highest bidder."
My one fleeting contact with Bill Proxmire occured many, many years ago (I was perhaps 10 years old). I recall walking around the Dodge County Fair (Beaver Dam) and my hand suddenly swung away. I looked up and a tall lanky guy shook it and said "Hi, I'm Bill Proxmire". He was on the campaign trail, one handshake at a time.
We could use his "Golden Fleece Awards" today.
Another Golden Fleece Award went to the National Institute for Mental Health, which spent $97,000 to study, among other things, what went on in a Peruvian brothel. The researchers said they made repeated visits in the interests of accuracy.The Federal Aviation Administration also felt Mr. Proxmire's wrath, for spending $57,800 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, paying special attention to the "length of the buttocks" and how their knees were arranged when they were seated. Other Fleece recipients were the Justice Department, for spending $27,000 to determine why prisoners wanted to get out of jail, and the Pentagon, for a $3,000 study to determine if people in the military should carry umbrellas in the rain.
He returned to Harvard, earned a second master's degree - this one in public administration - and moved to Wisconsin to be a reporter for The Capital Times in Madison.
"They fired me after I'd been there seven months, for labor activities and impertinence," he once said, conceding that his dismissal was merited.
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Author J. Bryan III once wrote, "My Uncle Jonathan's first car, circa 1910, was an E.M.F. The initials represented the manufacturers, Everitt, Metzger and Flanders of Detroit. But a long series of breakdowns led to their being translated as 'Every Mechanical Fault'" (or "Every Morning Fixit," as Nick Georgano states in the 2000 edition of The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile).Fortunately, no car today could merit such nicknames, right? Wrong.
Designer Kenneth Melville explains how just how tough it is to build a $6,000 car, including some swallowing of prideCars prices have accelerated steadily for the last decade, thanks to an increasing reliance on technology and ever-more luxurious interiors. Even a compact car can easily cost more than $20,000. Shifting into reverse, French auto maker Renault decided in 1998 to design a modern car with state-of-the-art safety features costing only 5,000 euros ($6,000). Renault's strategy was to create a car for people in emerging markets who have never owned an automobile -- some 80% of the world's population.
Dave Winer posts some pix from his trip to New Orleans. My 2002 photos are here.
A couple of hours before the council meeting in the same room, they attended a presentation about the City of Madison Comprehensive Plan. This plan, mandated by state law, and a work in progress over the last couple of years, will serve as a long-term roadmap for the city's infrastructural future. It is also up for a vote on Tuesday, Dec. 13 by the full council, though it is likely to be referred to a subsequent meeting in early January.
For now, however, these subsidies are here -- but who, exactly, gets them?
For that answer, I encourage you to check out the Environmental Working Group's Farm Subsidy Database. Through many, many FOIA requests, they have produced. an interactive website chock full of interesting facts. For example:
EWG also has an interesting proposal to reallocate the ag money away from subsidies but towards rural areas where farmers actually generate high value-added goods already.Half of all subsidies go to only 5% of Congressional districts. Four commodities —corn, wheat, rice and cotton— account for 78 percent of all ag subsidies.
Calculated Risk:
The recent Flow of Funds report showed that household mortgages increased a record $289.5 Billion in Q3 2005. Using a simple formulation for Mortgage Equity Withdrawal (MEW), MEW was $171 Billion in Q3.
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson seems to be in no rush to be implanted with an ID chip, as he told interviewers he would in July.
A TV network recently interviewed Thompson, a former U.S. secretary of health and human services, after he was named to the board of directors of VeriChip, which sells a radio-frequency ID chip that can be implanted under the skin. The chips alarms privacy advocates who worry whether government and corporations will abuse the technology.
Eager to curb the rising cost of health care, many US insurers and employers are considering consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs), which are designed to lower costs by giving consumers more responsibility for managing their own health care spending.1 Indeed, a survey indicates that this interest is more than justified. We found that the plans encourage value-conscious behavior, increase the consumers' level of engagement with their well-being, and may even promote behavior that leads to better long-term health.
In March 2005 we surveyed 2,500 consumers, 1,000 of whom had been enrolled in a CDHP for at least one year.2 We also conducted extensive interviews with 25 of these CDHP consumers and with seven benefits managers who administer the plans.3 Our goal was to learn how consumers' behavior changes when they become responsible for a greater share of their health care costs.
Just two months after it pulled the plug on the massive Ford Excursion, the Detroit News said the automaker is preparing to unveil a vehicle tentatively called the "Ford Everest."
"Excursion was just too much. It went overboard," Joe Langley, and analyst with CSM Worldwide, told the newspaper. "But there's still a market for a (jumbo) SUV."
The Excursion, launched in 2000, was quickly dubbed the Ford Valdez by critics; and Ford (down $0.02 to $8.16, Research) ended production earlier this year as gas prices topped $3 a gallon.
What about future trends, asked Sahlman. Many venture capitalists made money in enterprise software, until the space was saturated. Will venture capitalists have an impact in fields relating to healthcare, education, and the environment—all areas that show a great demand for new solutions?
"Clean energy is big on the West Coast," said Reiss. "Venture capitalists haven't traditionally invested in those areas that you mentioned . . . but given the amount of money that's in the business, somebody is going to try, and somebody will be right."
Is this the right move for you? If so, what does it take to be a successful RIA? What challenges lie ahead? And what steps should you take to prepare for a seamless transition to running your own firm? Listen to this program to gain answers to these and many more questions about what it takes to establish an RIA.
Props to TDS for taking the plunge locally. TDS's fibre to the home service supports 10mbps down and 4mpbs upstream. Not a bad start. Jeff Richgels . Bundles range from $64 to $89/month.
David Eisenberg notes the need for net neutrality amongst the telco's.
NYT Magazine: These are the ideas that, for better and worse, helped make 2005 what it was. You'll find entries that address momentous developments in Iraq ("The Totally Religious, Absolutely Democratic Constitution") as well as less conspicuous, more ghoulish occurrences in Pittsburgh ("Zombie Dogs"). There are ideas that may inspire ("The Laptop That Will Save the World"), that may turn your stomach ("In Vitro Meat"), that may arouse partisan passions ("Republican Elitism") and that may solve age-old mysteries ("Why Popcorn Doesn't Pop"). Some mysteries, of course, still remain. For instance, we do not yet have an entirely satisfying explanation for how Mark Cuban, the outspoken Internet mogul and N.B.A. owner, came to be connected with three of the year's most notable ideas ("Collapsing the Distribution Window," "Scientific Free-Throw Distraction" and "Splogs"). That was just one surprising discovery we made in the course of assembling the issue. In the pages that follow, we're sure you'll make your own. Go to the Issue
A new study suggests the Internet is used as a resource for influencing participation in civic affairs more often than general media and face-to-face communication.Conducted by University of Wisconsin journalism and mass communication professor Dhavan Shah, the study tested the change in media exposure over time. Shah’s work analyzed various forms of data conducted before, during and after the 2000 presidential election.
Very slick, by the Washington Post:
This site offers an RSS feed for every current member of Congress, so you can get notified each time your elected officials vote. Each member-specific feed includes the member's position in the latest 10 votes.Tammy Baldwin's RSS voting feed is here
Schnurman's tough-minded coverage of the issue demonstrates the great virtues of distant newspaper owners. His paper is owned by Knight Ridder, which isn't entangled in local crony capitalism. The Dallas Morning News by contrast seems terrified to even voice an opinion on the issue. (And I'm not just annoyed that they turned down this piece on the grounds that they'd already run too much on the topic. In fact, I'm delighted. D Magazine paid me twice the DMN's rate, and I like them better anyway.)The article is also an interesting look at the "devils bargain" that sometimes occurs between politicians and the mainstream media.
Viewed up close, the whole Wright discussion demonstrates the wisdom of my old boss Bob Poole, who has spent at least two decades arguing for airport privatization. Locally, the only thing any politico seems to care about is what's good for DFW Airport and, secondarily, for the airlines. The traveling public doesn't count--either in the political equation (too diffuse) or, apparently, in airport management. Anyone who's had the misfortune of traveling through DFW knows that, with the exception of its new Terminal D, it's hardly a comfortable or accommodating place. Neither does it seem to maximize revenue. No mall developer would use space so pathetically.
Bradford C. Johnson, James M. Manyika, and Lareina A. Yee:
In today's developed economies, the significant nuances in employment concern interactions: the searching, monitoring, and coordinating required to manage the exchange of goods and services. Since 1997, extensive McKinsey research on jobs in many industries has revealed that globalization, specialization, and new technologies are making interactions far more pervasive in developed economies. Currently, jobs that involve participating in interactions rather than extracting raw materials or making finished goods account for more than 80 percent of all employment in the United States. And jobs involving the most complex type of interactions—those requiring employees to analyze information, grapple with ambiguity, and solve problems—make up the fastest-growing segment.This shift toward more complex interactions has dramatic implications for how companies organize and operate. In the mid-1990s, McKinsey studied the growing impact of interactions on the way people exchange ideas and information and how businesses cooperate or compete. In 1997, "A revolution in interaction" presented the findings of that research.
I'm Ed Fink, and these are my 360 degree panoramas. I believe I'm the first VR photographer in the world to do full spherical (180 x 360) panoramas from a helicopter.
The helicopter is "Photoshopped" out of the panorama, but don't let that mislead you - my aerials aren't artificial, computer generated images - they're real photographs that I shoot while leaning out of a helicopter and stitch together on a computer. Like all my 360 degree panoramas, when viewed online they're perspective corrected in real time as you move around.
As we near the end of the year, I realized that it's been about half a decade since the bubble burst on the dotcom world. At the same time, it seems that a number of similar bubble signs may be showing up again. Based on my personal experience, I'd like to present what I consider the top five signs of a bubble being in place. Some may overlap but I've tried to define some generic rules that can be applied to all bubbles, not just the ones in technology
Two weeks back, Isthmus reported that the Ho-Chunk tribe may be expanding its De Jope bingo hall on Madison's southeast side, adding new machines as well as poker and blackjack tables.Ho-Chunk spokesperson CaraLe Murphy confirmed the new gaming tables and machines are under consideration, but insisted no decisions have been made. "We're looking to expand that because we want to bring in a younger crowd," she said, specifically citing the tribe's desire to attract more college students.
I want to agree with both sides of this argument, but I won't. Given the aging of our population and the competitive pressures of Friedman's "flat world," I think we need to make some choices in this Global War on Terrorism. I think that if we're going to shrink the Gap, we'll need a lot of manpower help, so moving toward strategic alliance with China kills two birds with one stone: takes great power war off the table and frees up resources within the Pentagon for more intensive focus on postconflict (which does cost, buddy, no matter what anyone tells you) while giving us historic access to allied troops we'll need for the "long war" effort that will be shrinking the Gap.
Clear your calendars: the BBC3 will be following on its brilliant Beethoven Experience with A Bach Christmas, broadcasting the complete works of J. S. Bach from December 16 through Christmas (Every Note, Night and Day
How many small and home office (SOHO) businesses would be made possible by services that let people produce as well as consume?Amen
How many small service businesses can't grow because people can't (or don't bother to) run servers in their homes? How many business-building activities are strangled before they are born by prohibitively narrow upstream bandwidths?
Ground was broken Monday morning on Wisconsin's first biodiesel plant, a new facility that could dramatically boost demand for state soybeans.Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that can be made from vegetable oils or recycled cooking oil.
Green Bay-based Anamax Corp. is starting construction on the $15-million plant next to its existing restaurant-grease recovery plant in DeForest on Monday. The plant will be the largest of its kind in the country, WISC-TV reported.The 15,000-square-foot plant could be a boon for the state's soybean farmers as more than 85 percent of biodiesel comes from soybeans.
The plant is expected to produce 20 million gallons annually.
The market potential for biodiesel is huge as Americans burn about 50 billion gallons of diesel every year, and almost all of that is currently petroleum-based
The Internet will reach its full potential as a medium and facilitator for global economic expansion and development in an environment free from burdensome intergovernmental oversight and control. The success of the Internet lies in its inherently decentralized nature, with the most significant growth taking place at the outer edges of the network through innovative new applications and services. Burdensome, bureaucratic oversight is out of place in an Internet structure that has worked so well for many around the globe. We regret the recent positions on Internet governance (i.e., the "new cooperation model") offered by the European Union, the Presidency of which is currently held by the United Kingdom, seems to propose just that - a new structure of intergovernmental control over the Internet.
There's a lot riding on those SUVs, including the jobs of nearly 4,000 workers who assemble Suburbans, Tahoes and Yukons at General Motors' Janesville factory.
The plant was spared from GM's massive restructuring last month, when the company announced it would shutter five factories and scale back a host of others - moves designed to cut 30,000 manufacturing jobs.
The Janesville factory still faces a risk, particularly if oil and gasoline prices spike again, industry observers say.
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Sholnn Freeman:
Troubled U.S. automakers and their allies on Capitol Hill are seeking billions of dollars in aid from the federal government ranging from health coverage for their workers to extra tax write-offs for themselves.They're also asking for one rhetorical favor: Please don't call the requests a bailout.
I don't view it as a bailout," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said.
"We're not looking for a bailout," agreed William C. Ford Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Co.
Rick Lee posts some fabulous photos from Charleston, West Virginia. Via Virginia Postrel
DO House Republicans harbor some sort of deep rage against moderately affluent families with lots of children?Maybe not, but take a close look at the $56 billion package of tax cuts that House leaders hope to pass before Christmas, and you have to wonder.
If it were to become law, any family with two or more children and an income of $100,000 ought to run for the hills.
Sift out dozens of nickel-and-dime provisions, and the essence of the House bill comes down to one provision that it includes and one that it omits.
A C$14 million factory near Montreal started producing "biodiesel" fuel two weeks ago from the bones, innards and other parts of farm animals such as cattle, pigs or chickens that Canadians do not eat.
"We're using animal waste to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said marketing director Ron Wardrop of Rothsay, which runs the plant.
Not a surprise... Sholnn Freeman on the sharp decline in SUV sales:
The sales spiral of the Ford Explorer demonstrates consumers' shifting tastes. It was once one of the nation's most popular vehicles, but Ford sold fewer than 12,000 last month, a 52 percent drop from November 2004.At the height of the SUV boom in 2002, Ford routinely sold 25,000 to 40,000 Explorers a month.
Ford is looking to offset the weakness in trucks with more sales of passenger cars, including the Ford Fusion and Lincoln Zephyr.
