Canadian Oil Sands

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Robert Collier visits Alberta’s vast oil sands:

Alberta’s oil sands are destined to be the main supply of foreign oil to the United States for at least the next century. The sands hold proven reserves of 175 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia’s 262 billion, and far more than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s estimated 10 billion.
If Americans want to keep filling their gasoline tanks at a reasonable cost, they will need the oil sands industry to push ahead on its expected path of doubling, tripling and even quadrupling production in coming years.
Nowhere else is the conflict between energy use and ecological cost so stark.
“The oil sands are a big challenge,” Canada’s environment minister, Stephane Dion, who has fought publicly with other Cabinet officials for a tougher line on global warming, said in an interview. “They are sending out a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

California Bill Bans RFID in State ID Documents

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Kim Zetter:

The bill, which California lawmakers believe is the first of its kind in the nation, would prohibit the use of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, chips in state identity documents such as student badges, driver’s licenses, medical cards and state employee cards. The bill allows for
some exceptions.
RFID, also known as contactless integrated circuits, transmits information wirelessly, allowing scanners to read cards from a distance, typically a few feet. The technology is widely used in building security and inventory-tracking systems, and is being considered for numerous other applications.
The bill, which passed out of the state Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday with a vote of 6 to 1, also would outlaw skimming — which occurs when an unauthorized person with an electronic reading device surreptitiously reads the electronic information on an RFID chip without the knowledge of the person carrying or wearing the chip.

I assume, unfortunately, based on our political leaders initial embrace of the Matrix personal data mining scheme, that we will not be as wise in Wisconsin…

Pepsi’s Interesting Mea Culpa

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The company that Don Kendall built and Roger Enrico grew has an interesting PR problem.
Pepsico President Indra Nooyi delivered a controversial commencement speech at Columbia Business School. Pepsi has been backtracking ever since on their corporate website.

I wonder what would have happened to a local truck driver who might have given a similar speech to a High School’s graduating class, or perhaps a mid level manager speaking at a regional business conference? Somehow, I think they would be looking for something else to do. Background on her speech via google. BusinessWeek posted Nooyi’s remarks. Diane Brady refers to Nooyi’s inept analogy.

Sugar Water….

Madison Commons Project

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Kristian Knutson on the UW Madison J School and Capital Newspapers Project (backed by a $12K grant):

The Madison Commons Project looks promising as a media literacy venture, but there are several questions are raised by its structure. These are asked below the fold.

Rarely do new initiatives result from a top down process. Knutson muses on generating “free content” for the newspaper world.

Berceau Introduces Bill to Force Big Box Stores to Reimburse State Health Care Costs

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Therese BerceauPDF:

The bill would place a graduated 1% to 2% gross receipts tax on any store that exceeds $20 million in a
taxable year, and that allocates less than 10% of its payroll to health insurance for its employees. The
bill applies only if the retailer fails to pay full-time, entry-level employees at least $22,000 a year; or if more than 25% of the retailer’s workforce is part-time. The revenue would go into the state’s Medical Assistance trust fund.
“Wisconsin taxpayers are picking up the health care tab for the largest and one of the most profitable
corporations in the world, Wal-Mart,” said Rep. Berceau. “While Wal-Mart is banking about $7 billion a
year in pure profit, Wisconsin taxpayers are paying $4.75 million a year (through state and federal
taxes) to care for 1,175 Wal-Mart employees and relatives in state BadgerCare, and 1,952 in Medicaid,” she added.