I was scammed and spammed again… by spammers abusing blog comments.
Example:
----- Original Message -----
From: Increase Your MPG
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 7:01 AM
Subject: [Environmental, Health & Safety] 10/24/2005 07:01:28 AM
WOW...you have interesting blog... I have been reading blogs off and on and came upon Save Money on Gas I gave it a try and very happy I did... when you get a chance you may want to check it out as well.
Posted by Increase Your MPG to Environmental, Health & Safety at 10/24/2005 07:01:28 AM
My reply:
Sorry, I work with engineers and scientists on proven "viable" options for saving fuel.
This is a "snake oil" scam. Like magnets or the "tornado" they have a negligible impact on fuel efficiency that is typically driven buy the user knowing they have the “snake oil device” installed on there vehicle. It is a placebo effect….Because the new user thinks they have a “fuel saver device” installed they drive more efficiently. The average user can save increase fuel efficiency 20-30% simply by driving more efficiently (DAHHH).
After awhile, the person forgets they have the “snake oil device” and their fuel efficiency returns to normal.
Examples:
• Set cruise at 55-60 constant.
• Don’t tailgate.
• Coast 300 yards to each stop (huge savings)
• Keep car tuned & tires filled (alignment helps)
• When possible accelerate smooth and constant with RPMS never exceeding 1500-2000.
I do have FREE and recommended items that REALLY increase MPG 5-10 points that are proven and in use on “real world” cars and trucks.
I also submit my findings to outside expert scientists for testing too assure quality and NON-bia results.
If claims and test results are not verified by an outside expert source… one should only presume it is a “snake oil device”.
My personal thought is that this comment was posted by the same person making the claims on the “snake oil device”. At website http://kbgk.com/
emissioncontrol@kbgk.com
PLEASE let me know if I am wrong or inaccurate in any statements I have made.
I would be more than happy to challenge the owners of this device to submit it to our panel of scientists at the “alternative fuel research board” for a real trial. If it TRULY does work, NO company would refuse a viability study.
Email me if you want the list of 20 things you can do to make any vehicle increase fuel efficiency 4-10 mpg (consistently). NO SMOKE, NO MIRRORS – Just legitimate ways to save a little here and there.
Thanks sooo much for replying to my posts.
Chris Haase
Post Disclaimer:
My comments are my own (I plead the 1st) I have NO outside interests or influence.
This is my personal blog used solely for viewing entertainment and national articles of interest to people who protect.
NO one pays me to post this stuff, I do it as a personal service to protect others & the environment.
You know save the world n stuff ;-)
Jun 30, 2005
Capitalist Willie Nelson fan going to "cash in" on green fuel machines
> Interesting > http://www.olympiagreenfuels.com/
For over 100 years this stuff has been made.
The Germans did some wild VW, tank and rocket tests using biofuels
There are hundreds of guides on how to make it in your kitchen & garage.
Back in 98 I watched the "veggievan" go accross the country.
They really "nailed" how to do it small scale and safely.
I am not sure how someone could "patent" the principal? or if they should.
If they are just patenting a process machine, "kodos"
Because most of the original inventors of the Biodiesel process machines are dead or don't care.
http://www.biodieselamerica.org/biosite/index.php?id=3,0,0,1,0,0
http://www.maximonline.com/the_ride/articles/article_6265.html
http://biodieselamerica.org/biosite/index.php?id=70,242,0,0,1,0
What is interesting to me is how you can across this site???
The http://www.olympiagreenfuels.com/ really seem like they are trying to take advantage of an obvious technology being touted as a “new quick fix” to or global energy crisis. But hey, that’s what capitalism is. He most likely got his idea from watching the presidents or Willie Nelsons promo (see link below).
Biodiesel "fun fact"
Neil Young, Willie Nelson, President George W. Bush and Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) are all featured in this Biodiesel Promotional video which has been produced by the team behind the documentary film, 3min 46sec - Quick Time movie
Google?
Source:
Email comments from
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Jun 27, 2005
Support the coelacanth rescue mission!
Virtually unique in the animal kingdom, with a saga steeped in science and popular imagination, the fabulous Coelacanth ("see-la-kanth"), that 400 million year old "living fossil" fish, paddles on. Pre-dating the dinosaurs by millions of years and once thought to have gone extinct with them, 65 million years ago, the Coelacanth with its "missing link" "proto legs" was "discovered" alive and well in 1938! At least three people have perished in the quest for the coelacanth, and possibly several others. Read all about it- including the latest efforts to protect the creature, and its pop-up appearances in "out of the way" places. Click in the navbar to the left. Check the News and Recent History sections and don't miss a visit to the Coelashop for t-shirts and other "Coela-gear." Our favorite "Dinofish" is "age-free" and never boring! (In case you think conservation is dull, we put some of our best stuff on that page.)
The web site of the Coelacanth Rescue Mission, a project under the direction of Jerome F. Hamlin to raise Coelacanth awareness. Your feedback is welcome.
http://www.dinofish.com/
Jun 24, 2005
2005 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey
From computer monitoring and telephone taping to video surveillance and GPS satellite tracking, employers increasingly are using policy and technology to manage productivity and protect resources. To motivate employee compliance, companies increasingly are putting teeth in technology policies. Fully 26% have fired workers for misusing the Internet; 25% have terminated employees for e-mail misuse; and 6% have fired employees for misusing office phones.
When it comes to workplace computer use, employers are primarily concerned about inappropriate Web surfing, with 76% monitoring workers’ Website connections. Fully 65% of companies use software to block connections to inappropriate Websites—a 27% increase since 2001 when AMA and ePolicy Institute last surveyed electronic monitoring and surveillance policies and procedures in the workplace. Computer monitoring takes various forms, with 36% of employers tracking content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard. Another 50% store and review employees’ computer files. Companies also keep an eye on e-mail, with 55% retaining and reviewing messages.
Employers are doing a good job of notifying employees when they are being watched. Of those organizations that engage in monitoring and surveillance activities, fully 80% inform workers that the company is monitoring content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard; 82% let employees know the company stores and reviews computer files; 86% alert employees to e-mail monitoring; and 89% notify employees that their Web usage is being tracked.
Read more at:
http://www.amanet.org/research/pdfs/EMS_summary05.pdf
When it comes to workplace computer use, employers are primarily concerned about inappropriate Web surfing, with 76% monitoring workers’ Website connections. Fully 65% of companies use software to block connections to inappropriate Websites—a 27% increase since 2001 when AMA and ePolicy Institute last surveyed electronic monitoring and surveillance policies and procedures in the workplace. Computer monitoring takes various forms, with 36% of employers tracking content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard. Another 50% store and review employees’ computer files. Companies also keep an eye on e-mail, with 55% retaining and reviewing messages.
Employers are doing a good job of notifying employees when they are being watched. Of those organizations that engage in monitoring and surveillance activities, fully 80% inform workers that the company is monitoring content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard; 82% let employees know the company stores and reviews computer files; 86% alert employees to e-mail monitoring; and 89% notify employees that their Web usage is being tracked.
Read more at:
http://www.amanet.org/research/pdfs/EMS_summary05.pdf
Jun 20, 2005
President cites rising electricity, gasoline costs
President Bush argued Wednesday that consumers paying high gas prices won't stand for inaction on energy legislation, even though some lawmakers say nothing they can do would immediately ease the problem.
"My advice is, they ought to keep this in mind: Summer's here, temperatures are rising and tempers will really rise if Congress doesn't pass an energy bill," said Bush, who pressured lawmakers to get an energy bill to his desk before the August recess.
"The American people know that an energy bill will not change the price of gas immediately," he said, "but they're not going to tolerate inaction in Washington as they watch the underlying problems grow worse."
The president outlined his four-point plan to reduce high energy prices:
Promote conservation; produce and refine more crude oil in the United States;
develop alternative sources of energy, such as renewable ethanol or biodiesel;
and help other nations, such as China, to become more energy-efficient to reduce global demand for energy.
He said it was time for the United States to expand its nuclear power capacity.
[Excerpt] -By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer
June 16, 2005
"My advice is, they ought to keep this in mind: Summer's here, temperatures are rising and tempers will really rise if Congress doesn't pass an energy bill," said Bush, who pressured lawmakers to get an energy bill to his desk before the August recess.
"The American people know that an energy bill will not change the price of gas immediately," he said, "but they're not going to tolerate inaction in Washington as they watch the underlying problems grow worse."
The president outlined his four-point plan to reduce high energy prices:
Promote conservation; produce and refine more crude oil in the United States;
develop alternative sources of energy, such as renewable ethanol or biodiesel;
and help other nations, such as China, to become more energy-efficient to reduce global demand for energy.
He said it was time for the United States to expand its nuclear power capacity.
[Excerpt] -By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer
June 16, 2005
Jun 16, 2005
60 percent of American don't trust the press.
'More than 60 percent of the American people don't trust the press.
Why should they?
They've been reading "The Da Vinci Code" and marveling at its historical insights. I have nothing against a fine thriller, especially one that claims the highest of literary honors: it's a movie on the page. But "The Da Vinci Code" is not a work of nonfiction. If one more person talks to me about Dan Brown's crackerjack research I'm shooting on sight.'
Kinsley takes as his model Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, and which grows by accretion and consensus. Relatedly, it takes as its premise the idea that "facts" belong between quotation marks. It's a winning formula; Wikipedia is one of the Web's most popular sites.
I asked a teenager if he understood that it carries a disclaimer; Wikipedia "can't guarantee the validity of the information found here." "That's just so that no one will sue them," he shrugged.
As to the content: "It's all true, mostly."
What is new is our odd, bipolar approach to fact.
We have a fresh taste for documentaries. Any novelist will tell you that readers hunger for nonfiction, which may explain the number of historical figures who have crowded into our novels.
Facts seem important.
Facts have gravitas.
But the illusion of facts will suffice.
Story emailed from friend http://www.mattpiette.com/blog/
By STACY SCHIFF
Published: June 15, 2005
Why should they?
They've been reading "The Da Vinci Code" and marveling at its historical insights. I have nothing against a fine thriller, especially one that claims the highest of literary honors: it's a movie on the page. But "The Da Vinci Code" is not a work of nonfiction. If one more person talks to me about Dan Brown's crackerjack research I'm shooting on sight.'
Kinsley takes as his model Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, and which grows by accretion and consensus. Relatedly, it takes as its premise the idea that "facts" belong between quotation marks. It's a winning formula; Wikipedia is one of the Web's most popular sites.
I asked a teenager if he understood that it carries a disclaimer; Wikipedia "can't guarantee the validity of the information found here." "That's just so that no one will sue them," he shrugged.
As to the content: "It's all true, mostly."
What is new is our odd, bipolar approach to fact.
We have a fresh taste for documentaries. Any novelist will tell you that readers hunger for nonfiction, which may explain the number of historical figures who have crowded into our novels.
Facts seem important.
Facts have gravitas.
But the illusion of facts will suffice.
Story emailed from friend http://www.mattpiette.com/blog/
By STACY SCHIFF
Published: June 15, 2005
Employers intruding on workers' personal space
A growing trend finds firms policing their workers' off-duty behavior, alarming employees and worker rights groups. Recent cases include a worker being fired for displaying a political bumper sticker on her car and a casino that claims the right to fire waitresses and servers for putting on too much weight. "The shock is that there's no legal protection," a spokesman for The National Workrights Institute said. USA TODAY
"It's a growing trend,"
"But whether or not they will go further to protect workers is an open question."
"It's a growing trend,"
"But whether or not they will go further to protect workers is an open question."
Jun 13, 2005
Pseudoscience: A Threat to Our Environment
"Virtually every scientific agency in the U.S. government has been shaken at its foundation by the substitution of pseudoscience for scientific investigation. If our government is to make sound public policy, true scientific investigation must be allowed and encouraged to flourish untainted by political agendas, industry pressure and the pseudoscience these pressures breed. The U.S. Congress and President must stop sacrificing sound science for shortsighted political agendas and must stop substituting true scientific research with pseudoscience."
EXAMPLE of a pseudoscience orginization
(always read between the lines)
(always read between the lines)
The Greening Earth Society
http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/about.html
http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/about.html
"The Greening Earth Society," was established by the Western Fuels Association, a cooperative owned by seven coal-burning utilities. The Greening Earth Society is a think tank dedicated to the idea that increasing amounts of CO2 produced by burning of fossil fuels is good for the environment. The research is based upon a predetermined result, a violation of the scientific method .
Read more on subjects at:
Pseudoscience: A Threat to Our Environment- http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/environmental/pseudoscience2004-pg3.html
"The Internet Begins With Coal" and written by Mark Mills (The Greening Earth Society) http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/Articles/2000/testimony.htm
Jun 12, 2005
Apples trying to eat Gates - Apple in conspiracy with Intel to destroy Microsoft.
Intel to buy Apple – Robert X. Cringely is not the full quid
The famous PBS commentator Robert X. Cringely has come up with the theory that Apple's decision to use Intel processors is nothing less than an attempt to dethrone Microsoft.
This is what he says:
OS X 10.4 – Tiger – is a 64-bit OS, remember, yet Intel's 64-bit chips – Xeon and Itanium – are high buck items aimed at servers, not iMacs.
The famous PBS commentator Robert X. Cringely has come up with the theory that Apple's decision to use Intel processors is nothing less than an attempt to dethrone Microsoft.
This is what he says:
OS X 10.4 – Tiger – is a 64-bit OS, remember, yet Intel's 64-bit chips – Xeon and Itanium – are high buck items aimed at servers, not iMacs.
So is Intel going to do a cheaper Itanium for Apple or is Apple going to pretend that 64-bit never existed? Yes to both is my guess.
Why announce this chip swap a year before it will even begin for customers?
This announcement has to cost Apple billions in lost sales as customers inevitably decide to wait for Intel boxes.
This announcement has to cost Apple billions in lost sales as customers inevitably decide to wait for Intel boxes.
Then what is the driving force?
Microsoft. Intel hates Microsoft. For Intel to keep growing, people have to replace their PCs more often and Microsoft's bloatware strategy just isn't making that happen, especially if they keep delaying Longhorn.
This isn't a story about Intel gaining another three percent market share at the expense of IBM; it is about Intel taking back control of the desktop from Microsoft. So Intel buys Apple and works with their OEMs to get products out in the market.
That's the story unfolding. Steve Jobs finally beats Bill Gates.
And with the sale of Apple to Intel, Steve accepts the position of CEO of the Pixar/Disney/Sony Media Company.’
That, is the gist of what he wrote. Full artical here: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050609.html
That, is the gist of what he wrote. Full artical here: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050609.html
Jun 7, 2005
July 31st - What happened on...
Why is July 31st Important?
1991: Superpowers to cut nuclear warheads
The US and the Soviet Union sign the Start treaty to reduce stockpiles of nuclear warheads by about a third.
1998: UK imposes total ban on landminesThe British Government announces a total ban on landmines, a month before the first anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.
1962: Violence flares at right-wing rallyFormer fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley is assaulted at a rally in London's east end.
1973: Chaotic meeting of Belfast AssemblyLoyalists disrupt the new Northern Ireland Assembly, the first elected body since the British imposed direct rule in March.
1987: Newspaper caught in Spycatcher rowThe Government sues the Sunday Telegraph over secret service memoirs.
Events
1009 - Pietro Boccapecora becomes Pope Sergius IV
1423 - Hundred Years War: Battle of Cravant - The French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1498 - On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
1588 - The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
1667 - The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
1703 - Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
1790 - First US patent issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins.
1856 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
1917 - The Third Battle of Ypres starts in Flanders.
1919 - German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution (to enter into force August 14)
1930 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
1941 - Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."
1945 - Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
1948 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
1954 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
1956 - Jim Laker sets extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test of taking nineteen wickets in a first-class match (the previous best was seventeen.
1961 - At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain.
1964 - Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes).
1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
1973 - A Delta Airlines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89
1975 - In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.
1976 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1
1987 - A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
1992 - A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.
1996 - MIL-STD-1750A is declared inactive for use in new designs.
1999 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
2003 - WON is shut down.
Births
1396 - Philip III of Burgundy, duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
1803 - John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
1816 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
1901 - Jean Dubuffet, painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
1911 - George Liberace, musician (d. 1983)
1912 - Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics
1912 - Irv Kupcinet, newspaper columnist (d. 2003)
1913 - William Todman, game show producer
1914 - Louis de Funès, actor and comedian (d. 1983)
1916 - Bill Todman, game show producer (d. 1979)
1918 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1918 - Hank Jones, pianist
1919 - Curt Gowdy, sports announcer
1919 - Primo Levi, author, chemist (d. 1987)
1921 - Whitney Young, civil rights activist (d. 1971)
1923 - Ahmet Ertegun, record company executive
1928 - Kurt Sontheimer, political scientist
1929 - Don Murray, actor
1930 - Oleg Popov, clown
1931 - Kenny Burrell, guitarist
1939 - France Nuyen, actress
1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, politician
1943 - William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar
1943 - Susan Flannery, actress
1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, actress
1946 - Gary Lewis, rock and roll musician
1946 - Bob Welch, rock and roll musician
1951 - Evonne Goolagong, tennis star
1951 - Barry Van Dyke, actor
1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, mayor of Fresno, California
1952 - Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice-hockey player
1958 - Bill Berry, rock and roll musician (of the band R.E.M.)
1958 - Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman, producer, Dallas Mavericks owner
1959 - Stanley Jordan, jazz guitarist
1962 - Wesley Snipes, actor
1964 - Jim Corr, singer, musician ("The Corrs")
1965 - J. K. Rowling, novelist
1966 - Dean Cain, actor
1974 - Jonathan Ogden, American football player
1974 - Luca Tiengo, Italian guitar player
1977 - Tim Couch, American football quarterback
1981 - Eric Lively, actor
1981 - Ira Losco, Maltese singer
Deaths
1099 - El Cid, Spanish warrior
1108 - King Philip I of France
1396 - William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury
1547 - King Francis I of France (b. 1494)
1556 - Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits
1784 - Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encylopedist (b. 1713)
1875 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
1886 - Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer
1914 - Jean Jaurès, French politician (d. 1859)
1917 - Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet
1937 - Charles Martine, Apache scout
1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer
1953 - Robert Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate
1980 - Mohd. Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
1993 - Baudouin I of Belgium
2001 - Poul Anderson, science fiction author
2003 - Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist
Holidays and observances
La Hae Hawai‘i - Hawaiian Flag Day
Republic of the Congo - Upswing of the Revolution
Feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
A few hardcore devotees of Harry Potter celebrate Harry James Potter's birthday on this date. The novelist J. K. Rowling, writer of the Harry Potter books, chose this date as the fictional character's birthday as it is her own birthday (see above).
1991: Superpowers to cut nuclear warheads
The US and the Soviet Union sign the Start treaty to reduce stockpiles of nuclear warheads by about a third.
1998: UK imposes total ban on landminesThe British Government announces a total ban on landmines, a month before the first anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.
1962: Violence flares at right-wing rallyFormer fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley is assaulted at a rally in London's east end.
1973: Chaotic meeting of Belfast AssemblyLoyalists disrupt the new Northern Ireland Assembly, the first elected body since the British imposed direct rule in March.
1987: Newspaper caught in Spycatcher rowThe Government sues the Sunday Telegraph over secret service memoirs.
Events
1009 - Pietro Boccapecora becomes Pope Sergius IV
1423 - Hundred Years War: Battle of Cravant - The French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1498 - On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
1588 - The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
1667 - The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
1703 - Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
1790 - First US patent issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins.
1856 - Christchurch, New Zealand chartered as a city.
1917 - The Third Battle of Ypres starts in Flanders.
1919 - German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution (to enter into force August 14)
1930 - The radio mystery program The Shadow airs for the first time.
1941 - Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."
1945 - Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
1948 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
1954 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
1956 - Jim Laker sets extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test of taking nineteen wickets in a first-class match (the previous best was seventeen.
1961 - At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain.
1964 - Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes).
1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
1973 - A Delta Airlines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89
1975 - In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.
1976 - NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1
1987 - A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
1992 - A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.
1996 - MIL-STD-1750A is declared inactive for use in new designs.
1999 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
2003 - WON is shut down.
Births
1396 - Philip III of Burgundy, duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
1803 - John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
1816 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
1901 - Jean Dubuffet, painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
1911 - George Liberace, musician (d. 1983)
1912 - Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics
1912 - Irv Kupcinet, newspaper columnist (d. 2003)
1913 - William Todman, game show producer
1914 - Louis de Funès, actor and comedian (d. 1983)
1916 - Bill Todman, game show producer (d. 1979)
1918 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1918 - Hank Jones, pianist
1919 - Curt Gowdy, sports announcer
1919 - Primo Levi, author, chemist (d. 1987)
1921 - Whitney Young, civil rights activist (d. 1971)
1923 - Ahmet Ertegun, record company executive
1928 - Kurt Sontheimer, political scientist
1929 - Don Murray, actor
1930 - Oleg Popov, clown
1931 - Kenny Burrell, guitarist
1939 - France Nuyen, actress
1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, politician
1943 - William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education and drug czar
1943 - Susan Flannery, actress
1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, actress
1946 - Gary Lewis, rock and roll musician
1946 - Bob Welch, rock and roll musician
1951 - Evonne Goolagong, tennis star
1951 - Barry Van Dyke, actor
1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, mayor of Fresno, California
1952 - Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice-hockey player
1958 - Bill Berry, rock and roll musician (of the band R.E.M.)
1958 - Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman, producer, Dallas Mavericks owner
1959 - Stanley Jordan, jazz guitarist
1962 - Wesley Snipes, actor
1964 - Jim Corr, singer, musician ("The Corrs")
1965 - J. K. Rowling, novelist
1966 - Dean Cain, actor
1974 - Jonathan Ogden, American football player
1974 - Luca Tiengo, Italian guitar player
1977 - Tim Couch, American football quarterback
1981 - Eric Lively, actor
1981 - Ira Losco, Maltese singer
Deaths
1099 - El Cid, Spanish warrior
1108 - King Philip I of France
1396 - William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury
1547 - King Francis I of France (b. 1494)
1556 - Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits
1784 - Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encylopedist (b. 1713)
1875 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
1886 - Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer
1914 - Jean Jaurès, French politician (d. 1859)
1917 - Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet
1937 - Charles Martine, Apache scout
1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer
1953 - Robert Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate
1980 - Mohd. Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
1993 - Baudouin I of Belgium
2001 - Poul Anderson, science fiction author
2003 - Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist
Holidays and observances
La Hae Hawai‘i - Hawaiian Flag Day
Republic of the Congo - Upswing of the Revolution
Feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
A few hardcore devotees of Harry Potter celebrate Harry James Potter's birthday on this date. The novelist J. K. Rowling, writer of the Harry Potter books, chose this date as the fictional character's birthday as it is her own birthday (see above).
Jun 6, 2005
Jun 5, 2005
Protect yourself from a discrimination lawsuit
Protect yourself from a discrimination lawsuit
Even "at-will" employees, those who "can be fired at any time, for almost any reason," have some protected rights when it comes to their employment status, says small-business expert and columnist Steve Strauss, with the most important protection being that a worker can't be fired on the basis of their color, sex, religion, age, ethnic background or disability. To protect your business from employment discrimination claims:
Even "at-will" employees, those who "can be fired at any time, for almost any reason," have some protected rights when it comes to their employment status, says small-business expert and columnist Steve Strauss, with the most important protection being that a worker can't be fired on the basis of their color, sex, religion, age, ethnic background or disability. To protect your business from employment discrimination claims:
- Have an employee handbook outlining your nondiscrimination policy.
- Document frequently, with regular written performance reviews.
Jun 1, 2005
May 10, 2005
Invisible Web - Where to find 90% of what is out there.
The Invisible Web is easily accessible..that is, if you know where to look. Fortunately there are many sites that are set up to be "gateways" to the many databases and otherwise closed-off content that makes up the Invisible Web.
Deep Web Gateways
- The University of Michigan has put together OAIster, (pronounced "oyster") and encourages you to "find the pearls" on the Invisible Web. They have millions of records from more than 405 institutions as diverse as African Journals Online and the Library Network of Western Switzerland.
- LookSmart's Find Articles.com lets you search print publications for articles; anything from popular magazines to scholarly journals. Be sure to check out their Furl tool to organize your search snippets.
- The Library Spot is a collection of databases, online libraries, references, and other good info. Be sure to check out their "You Asked For It" section, where popular readers' questions are featured.
- The US Government's official web portal is FirstGov.gov, an extremely deep (as in lots of content) site. You could spend hours here. It's interesting to note how much stuff you can get done online here as well, such as renew your driver's license, shop government auctions, and contact elected officials.
- Search the vast holding of the UCLA Library online, including their special collections.
- Check out Infoplease.com and its' searchable databases. Results come from encyclopedias, almanacs, dictionaries, and other online resources.
- The Central Intelligence Agency has the World Factbook, a searchable directory of flags of the world, reference maps, country profiles, and much, much more. Great for geography buffs or anyone who wants to learn more about their world.
- University of Idaho has created this Repository of Primary Sources, which contains links to manuscripts, archives, rare books, and much more. Covers not only the United states, but countries all over the world.
- Lund University Libraries maintains the Directory of Open Access Journals, a collection of searchable scientific and scholarly journals.
- Looking for scientific information? Go to Scirus.com first. You can search either scholarly sources or Web sources or both.
- Canada, ay? Then check out the Archival Records of Alberta. This is a gateway to photographs, census records, and other archival records.
- Want to find a plant that will survive overwatering, lack of sunlight, and general forgetfulness? You can probably find something in the USDA's Plants Database.
- The Human Genome Database contains anything you would ever want to know..well, about the human genome, at least.
- If you've got a medical question, check out The Combined Health Information Database, or CHID online. Its' searchable subject directory is very user-friendly, and you can find information on pretty much anything to do with human health here.
- Nonprofit organizations need searching tools too. The National Database of Nonprofit Organizations is an extensive site provides locations and contact information for nonprofits.
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May 9, 2005
Quest lets Dave Wacker go.... with new leadership comes new ownership.
It is always hard to see anyone of value lose there job.
"We all wish you and Kim well and luck in your future."
MORE RAABE NEWS
Huron Capital and Quest Specialty Chemicals Acquire Raabe Corp.
Detroit, MI – November 30, 2004 // Huron Capital Partners LLC, a Michigan-based private equity firm, announced today that it has funded its specialty chemicals initiative in Quest Specialty Chemicals in order to acquire Raabe Corporation. Raabe fit squarely in Quest’s coatings strategy to acquire companies that have developed unique solutions to the challenges of coatings application, surface protection and the bonding of flexible and rigid substrates. Based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, Raabe is a leading manufacturer of custom matched branded touch-up paint and provider of private label aerosol paint filling services. Raabe’s touch-up products consist of ready-to-apply paints that closely match original equipment coatings and are used to repair the surfaces of industrial & commercial products along all points of the supply chain.
Michael R. Beauregard, a Partner at Huron, stated, “Partnering with Quest is consistent with our investment strategy of working with successful executives who have proven track records of building equity value. Through Quest, we have brought together strong operating and investment expertise to create a substantial player in the specialty chemicals industry. In Raabe, we found a solid core aerosol business serving a niche market with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. Raabe’s strong market share and talented management team are critical assets on which Huron and Quest plan to execute a specialty coatings growth strategy. Frederick A. Quinn, Quest’s CEO added “Raabe’s research and manufacturing base made it a unique platform on which to launch our coatings initiative. We expect to make complimentary acquisitions to their core business and to extend their capabilities into new applications. We are also pleased that David Wacker will continue as President of Raabe.”
Quest separately announced today that Gerard A. Loftus, who joined the Quest team in 2003, has been named COO & CFO of Quest. Mr. Quinn stated “Gerry will focus on the operational and financial aspects of our business. He brings a strong financial background and extensive operational experience in running specialty chemical businesses.” Quest also stated that it elected Carol E. Bramson to Quest’s Board of Directors. Ms. Bramson’s professional experience includes leading Banc One Equity Capital’s successful investment in Sovereign Specialty Chemicals.
About Huron Capital Partners LLC
Huron Capital is one of the leading private equity firms investing in lower middle-market companies. The firm typically invests between $5 million and $20 million in equity to sponsor management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate spin-offs of well-positioned companies having revenues up to $200 million. Huron’s strategy is to partner with strong management teams at niche manufacturing, specialty service, and value-added distribution companies that can be built through acquisition and organic growth. For further information, please visit Huron’s website at www.huroncapital.com.
About Quest Specialty Chemicals
Quest was founded and led by Mr. Quinn, a 30-year veteran in the specialty chemicals industry who has successfully built, acquired, and divested businesses in the specialty chemical industry. He has served as CEO of K.J. Quinn, President of Pierce & Stevens (a subsidiary of Sovereign Specialty Chemicals), and CEO of Royal Adhesives & Sealants. Mr. Quinn is a Graduate of the University of Southern California where he received both his undergraduate and MBA degrees.
For further information, please visit Quest’s web site at www.questsc.com.
May 9th, 2005For Immediate Release
Quest lets Dave Wacker go.... with new leadership comes new ownership.
May 4, 2005
Bush administration eyes workplace safety violators
With Little Fanfare, a New Effort to Prosecute Employers That Flout Safety Laws
Published: May 2, 2005
With little fanfare and some adept bureaucratic maneuvering, a partnership between the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and a select group of Justice Department prosecutors has been forged to identify and single out for prosecution the nation's most flagrant workplace safety violators.
The initiative does not entail new legislation or regulation. Instead, it seeks to marshal a spectrum of existing laws that carry considerably stiffer penalties than those governing workplace safety alone. They include environmental laws, criminal statutes more commonly used in racketeering and white-collar crime cases, and even some provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a corporate reform law.
The result, those involved say, should be to increase significantly the number of prosecutions brought against dangerous employers, particularly in cases involving death or injury.
This new approach addresses a chronic weakness in the regulatory system - the failure of federal agencies to take a coordinated approach toward corporations that repeatedly violate the same safety and environmental regulations. The E.P.A. and OSHA in particular have a history of behaving like estranged relatives. Yet the central premise of this unfolding strategy is that shoddy workplace safety often goes hand in hand with shoddy environmental practices.
"If you don't care about protecting your workers, it probably stands to reason that you don't care about protecting the environment either," said David M. Uhlmann, chief of the Justice Department's environmental crimes section, which is charged with bringing these new prosecutions.
The effort is noteworthy in an administration that has generally resisted efforts to increase penalties for safety and environmental violations. It has declined to support such steps as making it a felony for employers to commit willful safety violations that cause a worker's death. Such violations are currently misdemeanors, punishable by up to six months in jail. Instead, the administration has emphasized a more collaborative approach, offering companies increased technical assistance, for instance, on how to comply with regulations.
The new initiative is already at an advanced stage of planning. Hundreds of senior OSHA compliance officers have attended training sessions led by Justice Department prosecutors and criminal investigators from the E.P.A. In several regions of the country, OSHA managers have begun making lists of the worst workplaces and sharing them with E.P.A. investigators and prosecutors, who select the most promising cases for investigation. Several criminal inquiries and prosecutions are under way.
In March, for example, Motiva Enterprises, an oil refining company partly owned by Shell Oil, pleaded guilty to endangering workers negligently and committing environmental crimes in Delaware. The company was ordered to pay a $10 million fine and sentenced to three years' probation.
Even so, it is difficult to gauge the degree of political support for more prosecutions. The initial planning won the blessing of John Ashcroft, then the attorney general. His successor, Alberto R. Gonzales, has been briefed on the initiative and is said to be supportive.
But in March, a news conference to announce the initiative was canceled. The name of the program was also changed. What was to have been called the Worker Endangerment Initiative is now described as a "policy decision" - not an "initiative" - aimed at achieving "environmental protection in the workplace."
Neither Jonathan L. Snare, the acting OSHA administrator, nor Howard Radzely, the Labor Department's top lawyer, would agree to be interviewed about it. But Richard E. Fairfax, OSHA's director of enforcement programs, described the initiative as part of a broader effort by the agency to crack down on companies that persistently flout workplace safety rules.
"This is important to the agency," he said.
If some hesitation exists at the political level, enthusiasm is high in the trenches of OSHA and the E.P.A. Andrew D. Goldsmith, assistant chief of the environmental crimes section, has led most of the OSHA training sessions, in which he describes the many ways criminal and environmental statutes can be brought to bear. It has been a revelation of sorts, he says, to watch agency compliance officers grasp the chance at last to seek significant criminal penalties against defiant employers.
"You see a glint in these people's eyes, and you see them getting very enthusiastic," Mr. Goldsmith said. "You see hands start shooting up. They view us like the cavalry coming over the hill."
If sustained, the enthusiasm would represent an important cultural shift inside OSHA, which has traditionally shied away from referring even the most deliberate of safety violations to prosecutors.
From 1982 to 2002, for example, the agency investigated 1,242 cases in which it concluded that workers died because an employer committed willful safety violations. OSHA declined to seek any prosecution in 93 percent of those cases, The New York Times reported in a 2003 series that described a bureaucracy in which aggressive enforcement was thwarted at every level. But as the series also demonstrated, OSHA's reluctance to seek prosecution had also been fed by an assumption inside the agency that federal prosecutors have little interest in cases that have rarely resulted in prison sentences.
By fusing the technical skills and regulatory powers of the E.P.A. and OSHA with the Justice Department's environmental crimes section, the administration has created a potentially potent means of changing that dynamic.
All federal environmental crimes carry potential prison sentences, including up to 15 years for knowingly endangering workers. And unlike OSHA, the E.P.A. has some 200 criminal investigators with extensive experience building cases for federal prosecutors. In 2001 alone, the agency obtained prison sentences totaling 256 years.
OSHA, meanwhile, has wide jurisdiction over American workplaces, and its inspectors routinely wander the floors of the nation's dirtiest and most dangerous manufacturing operations. Unlike E.P.A. inspectors, they also investigate hundreds of workplace deaths and injuries each year. In short, they are well positioned to spot potential environmental crimes, particularly those that harm workers.
With nearly 40 prosecutors, the environmental crimes section of the Justice Department has a long record of bringing complex criminal cases against major employers. By contrast, before this initiative, only one prosecutor at the Justice Department focused full time on workplace safety crimes. Now, after identifying promising cases from the lists sent by OSHA, prosecutors are also checking for significant records of environmental infractions. If a plant is part of a larger conglomerate, they are checking the records of sister plants, too.
"We can see all the pieces," Mr. Goldsmith said. "We can coordinate."
The value of that coordination became obvious, he and other officials said, during a recent federal investigation into a New Jersey foundry owned by McWane Inc., the nation's largest manufacturer of cast-iron pipe. The investigation was prompted by articles in The Times and a companion documentary on the PBS television program "Frontline" that described McWane as one of the most dangerous employers in America.
Senior officials at OSHA, the E.P.A. and the Justice Department saw a way to produce an indictment that would "tell the whole picture" of how a company could put profit ahead of all other considerations, said Mr. Uhlmann, the chief of the environmental crimes section.
In December 2003, several senior managers at the New Jersey foundry were indicted on charges of conspiring to violate safety and environmental laws and repeatedly obstructing government inquiries by lying and altering accident scenes. The case is pending, but Justice Department officials called it a "pioneering indictment."
The partnership was cemented in a meeting last summer between Thomas L. Sansonetti, then an assistant attorney general, Mr. Radzely, the chief Labor Department lawyer, and John L. Henshaw, then the administrator of OSHA.
In a recent interview before he left the Justice Department to return to private practice, Mr. Sansonetti said he made it clear at the meeting that the Justice Department was prepared to offer training nationwide and a firm commitment to go after the worst cases as a way to send a message of deterrence to other employers. Mr. Henshaw and Mr. Radzely, he said, responded enthusiastically.
"That's where we agreed to take off on this," Mr. Sansonetti said
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