Wired: Garbage In, Garden Out: Inside the High Tech Trash Disassembly Line

Wired: Garbage In, Garden Out: Inside the High Tech Trash Disassembly Line

Now here is a concept... why we try to separate the two entities is beyond me... it is all 'trash' some is just more useful than others... actually it is all re-usable. Maybe the term shouldn't be recycle and refuse centers... maybe is should be 'waste reuse centers' or something... anyways I like this plant... it separates recyclable material (materials that can be reprocessed and used again) and then makes use of other materials in what ever way it can, in particular energy generation, and not only for themselves but the neighboring grid. Now I know the price tag is pretty big, but somehow I just think that we'd see the benefit long before we saw the cost.

So anyone want to take bets on if we will ever see a plant like this in the US?

Bear Stearns Employees Bear the Bad News Sternly

Well hopefully it won' be as bad as they reports are saying. A couple of my wife's classmates have signed with Bear Stearn for summer internships, so hopefully the merger will either not involve tons of layoffs, or at least take through the summer to start. That said, it still wouldn't bode well for the interns. Regardless, only time will tell for the interns and the employees....

The cheerful sound of bagpipes floated over from the jubilant Saint Patrick's Day parade a block away on Fifth Avenue. But for the beleaguered employees of Bear Stearns, they may just as well have been playing a funeral dirge.

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Coming Soon from VW: A 69.9 MPG Diesel Hybrid

It's official - Volkswagen is unveiling a hybrid to challenge the mighty Toyota Prius. And not just any hybrid, but a diesel-electric hybrid it says will deliver 69.9 mpg. This is the Hybrid I've been waiting for! Can't wait till it is released and comes State-side.

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Answers sought in Fla. blackout

Energy experts are trying to figure out today why a small malfunction shut down a major nuclear power plant and knocked out electricity to one-sixth of Florida's population. The good news is that the safety features at Turkey Point worked as designed preventing a larger problem.

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Eskimo village sues over global warming

A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies Tuesday, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence. The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, sued Exxon Mobil

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Microsoft jumps on the open bandwagon

According to a wordy press release issued by the company, the Redmond giant will begin embracing an open attitude by publishing documentation for all of its "high-volume product" APIs free of charge, will detail patents it holds and applications that cover its protocols... at first thought "is it April first already"... but then again, they could be having the tech version of a mid-life crises.. they already have the sports cars.... so the next this to do is to jump in bed with open source... oh wait they did that too with the agreement/deal with Novell... I think the truth is that they are finally realizing there image problem after the fall out with the Yahoo announcement... the blogosphere exploded with dislike and distrust for Microsoft. Heck I'm one of them, I've already started migrating some of my services away from Yahoo. The other problem is that they are loosing developers to web apps since developers are tired of having to fight for information. In todays developer environment, if the docs aren't open and available... we'll look elsewhere for a solution... and solution there are and they are out there....

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Newman wins thrilling Daytona 500

Another thriller, another heartbreak at the Daytona 500. The 50th running was as great as always. Stewart will get his eventually... But that all said, it was a great race, and those Toyotas.. well I think we'll be seeing a lot of them this year in the winner circle. But yesterday was for Newman and Penske. Newman's win gave Roger Penske (a standard in the name of racing) his first Restrictor Plate win and his first Daytona 500 win.

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8 killed in Md. drag-racing crash

Illegal drag racing claims more lives, this time the fans. While I'm always sorry to hear about peoples loss, in some cases you have to think of Darwin. "Survival of the fittest" is now "survival of the smartest". Typically it is the drivers of the racing cars that end up dead, but this time... the spectators took the hit. So who is to blame, the car who accidentally plowed into the crowd, the drivers who raced off, or the spectators.... in this case, the spectators desire to see the event are the reason the drivers were racing. So I think.... well I'm not going to pass judgment, I just hope that those involved in the illegal event think twice next time.

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Yahoo exploring alliance with News Corp.

Yahoo exploring alliance with News Corp.
Business Week is reporting possible talks with NewCorp to 'save' Yahoo... well I don't which I'd rather have... Microsoft or Murdoch... either way... some how I see myself departing from Yahoo.

NASCAR's Busch and Stewart on probation - CNN.com

Season hasn't even started and players are already going at it. Busch and Stewart have been placed on probation for the first 6 weeks of the season which starts this Sunday the 17th in Daytona.

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Secrets of the Great Seal revealed

State Department reveals the 'truth' about the Great Seal of the US. The exhibit is housed in the Exhibition Hall of the Department of State’s Harry S Truman building. Now this is an exhibit I'll have to go see.

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Obama vs. Clinton: Leadership Styles

This article in business week take a different look at the differences between the two leading democrat candidates. It takes the approach of discussing their management 'styles'. Styles in 'quotes' since it describes not how they manage but how they say they will manage if in the white house. After reading the article I was definitely thinking.... regardless of which party wins the final election, they will have to work from what is present now at the end of th current president's term. So it may not be the policies one preaches on their platform, but how they plan to implement them based on the situation they will have to work from. Republican or Democrat, it will be an interesting white house to take over for.

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A Football game everybody could enjoy

First off, when it comes to professional sports my opinion is that they all get paid to much, and that said, we are all way to willing to pay the prices the leagues set so we are to blame for the prices... but that all said, I can't remember a Superbowl that I remember more about the game than the commercials. Don't get me wrong the commercials were good (not as good as a few years ago, but good), but the game was better. I'm not a fan of either team, or like I said professional teams in general, but damn..... So while I'm glad that the Dolphins '72 record still stands alone, the truth was Eli Manning was amazing his receivers were great, the running game did its job, and the defense, that was pure heart... I've never seen a team play with such emotion... you see it in highschool and college, but last night was amazing. I think the last time I was glues to the tv for the last 2 minutes of a superbowl was Super Bowl XXXIV when the Rams stopped the Titans on the 2 yard line preventing the tying score (again 2 teams I don't care much about except I did root for the Oilers sorry Titans). So rather than place links for those who didn't watch, check your favorite sports site and enjoy.

Microsoft to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion

Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn) in cash and shares. WTF?

All I can say, if this happens, Yahoo, I'm out of here. I've been a yahoo mail user for a decade now, and for that same period, I've stayed away from most things MS. So again if this goes through... Google will have my email business.

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Nokia acquires Trolltech, goes cross-platform

I wonder what this will mean for the mobile market and for Symbian. I also wonder what are the real plans for the TrollTech product line. TrollTech is the maker of Qtopia but also QT the cross platform windowing package, which until recently KDE was based on. I can see where this move works with the linux tablets, but Qtopia is also linux-based and meant for phones.... do you think Nokia has plans on merging the two? or shifting away from Sybian, or do you think they may just do what they've done with every other mobile app company they bought... maintain for a year or two and then shutdown.... They did it with IntelliSync and a few others?

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Speeding car in Florida flies 200 feet, kills 5

A car traveling at high speed down a private airport runway ran off an embankment and was airborne for 200 feet before smashing into a tree early Saturday, killing all five young men in the vehicle. Just go to show that dumb people shouldn't be allowed to drive. We've moved into an age where it is no longer 'survival of the fittest' but 'survival of the smartest'. While I do feel sorry for the loss affected by the families, but.... anyone with 2cents in there head know that if you give an idiot a car, they will do idiotic things...

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update: another story about a driver who is not smart or nice enough to have a car: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080125/od_nm/spain_driver1_dc_1

Relic thefts 'huge crime problem' in U.S. parks

Theft of artifacts and relics is robbing not only the US Parks System, but everybody who visits and recognizes the purpose and benefit of the parks for all. While I'm not surprise that things like this happen, heck it happens all over the world... but regardless.... Anyways... I don't know on whom to place more blame, the actual thieves, those who purchase the relics, or to a less extend the government for not funding the Parks well enough those they can attempt to prevent this. I think overall my blame falls on those who purchase these relics, and that goes for all theft related events, from fine art to animal pelts. If no one was willing to purchase these items, then no one would profit from the actual theft of such objects... oh off my soap box....

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BRT vs LRT, issue of developing a mass transit

Tel-Aviv and Israel are in the process of developing a nationwide transit system. They come across a great question of which is better. Bus Rapid Transit(BRT) or Light Rail Transit(LRT) with arguments for and against both.

I'm not sure which side I 'ride' on. I've seen how bus systems work, I've seen how rail systems work. Personally I like the mix that they have in places like Rome and Istanbul.... Basically they have a dedicated line that has a rail/tran setup, but on the same dedicated roadway... both buses and taxis share it. This basically means that at all time the space is being used my a mass transit/car sharing community. I guess what I'm thinking is that there has to be a middle ground. Since it takes several years to dig and build a subway or LRT, but only a few months to build a street.... why not build the bus lanes, and then add tracks as time goes on.....

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Bloglines notifier for beta(a bit of geek talk)

A quick bit of geek talk....
For anyone who used the bloglines notifier for mozilla, I've 'hacked' a version to open the new beta bloglines. Basically it is the same notifier as provided by bloglines with the url modified. So anyone who wants it, here it is:

Notifier for Beta. (you'll need to save it and install it manually)

It is as is, and I don't claim any credit for it or any problems it may cause. I basically did the same thing that was suggested for the MacOSX notifier as seen here.

Again this is the same as the one provided by bloglines with the exception that I changed the url it was pointing to from:
http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs
to:
http://beta.bloglines.com/b/view

One quick note, if you have your preferences set to use SSL, you will get some funny results, so I don't suggest it.

The Colbert Report Television show - Colbert for President - Yahoo! TV

Colbert for President, the TV host of the Colbert report is now the Presidential candidate. He'll be running as a Republican and as a Democrat and only in his home state of South Carolina.Well we all new this was coming.... or at least since 'Man of the Year' came out. I kind of hoped Robin Williams would run, but I could get behind some one like Colbert.... what are half the campaigns about this time around anyways... 'Change', 'Different', 'New Direction' what else says all that like Colbert for President....

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