U.S. Army orders bridges made of recycled plastic
Axion International Holdings has won a $957,000 contract to provide the U.S. Army with two bridges made from a thermoplastic composite and recycled plastic.
The two bridges, which are replacing old wooden ones, will be constructed at Fort Eustis in Virginia from a proprietary Recycled Structural Composite (RSC) developed by Axion in conjunction with scientists at Rutgers University.
The railroad cross-ties will be made entirely of a plastic composed of recycled materials from both consumer and industrial plastic waste…
The location is significant. Fort Eustis is home to the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, the branch of the Army responsible for coordinating the movement of personnel and cargo. The Fort Eustis motto is Einstein’s famous quote “Nothing happens, until something moves.” It’s also the location of the U.S. Army Transportation Museum.
But this is not the first military bridge to be made out of plastic by Axion for the military. The Army has previously built plastic bridges for Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall in North Carolina using materials and structural design that allowed for a bearing load of 73 tons for tracked vehicles and 88 tons for cars and trucks. To demonstrate its strength a 70-ton M1A1 Abrams tank was driven across the bridge at its official unveiling in September.
The Pentagon moves forward into the realm of common sense, recycling, 21st Century design.
Skeptics, of course, will stick with coal-fired locomotives and other objects and ideology suitable only for theme parks.
Republicans heading for a bloodbath in Florida
The Republican fratricide in the Nov. 3 special election in upstate New York may prove just an opening round of an even more spectacular bloodbath in Florida in 2010.
In New York, Republican feuding lost the party a seat in the House of Representatives. At stake in Florida is not only a senatorship — but very possibly Republican hopes for 2012 as well.
The battle in Florida pits Gov. Charlie Crist against former Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio. Both men claim to be conservative, pro-life, tax cutters. On the issues, they would seem to agree far more than they disagree.
But on one issue they have disagreed passionately: President Obama’s fiscal stimulus. Squeezed by his state’s desperate fiscal condition, Crist endorsed and campaigned for the Obama stimulus. Inspired by his conservative ideology, Rubio opposed stimulus.
Now Rubio is the darling of conservatives nationwide. Just this week it was announced that he would give the keynote address at next year’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. He has been profiled on the cover of National Review, endorsed by the Club for Growth, and feted by radio talk show hosts.
Crist — who as recently as 2008 topped the libertarian Cato Institute’s list of favorite governors — has been consigned to pariah status…
Silver Arrows return to Formula One
German car giant Mercedes has bought the Brawn Formula 1 team in a move that is likely to see Jenson Button join McLaren as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate.
Mercedes will buy 75% of Brawn in partnership with an Abu Dhabi investment company but will continue as McLaren’s engine partner until 2015. Brawn, who won both world titles in their debut season in 2009, will be rebranded as Mercedes Grand Prix.
Nico Rosberg will be their lead driver, with Nick Heidfeld his likely partner. Fellow German Timo Glock, who drove for Toyota last season, is also a possibility.
“We are talking (with Button) and that’s why we cannot announce the driver line-up,” said Norbert Haug on Monday. “We have to accept that speculation takes place, but that’s the name of the game.”
But he added: “This will be an international team – Mercedes-Benz is a global player.
“We definitely do not want to have a pure German team. It’s an international team and we want to have the best drivers in the car.”
RTFA for all the silly season gossip. It’s the time of the year for drivers to play musical chairs. We get the added benefit of new players in terms of new teams + new money scattered here and there.
GM will start loan repayments 6 years ahead of schedule
Production version of the GM/Chevy Volt
Almost 90 days after coming out of bankruptcy, General Motors is showing signs of getting healthy and moving closer to getting back in the black.
And there’s no doubt, the “new” GM is doing far better than the old GM:
All encouraging signs. But critics will point out some other troubling signs at GM.
GM lost $261 Million before special charges
All of which brings up the question: How much has really changed at GM?
Actually, quite a bit.
So what should we take away from GM’s third quarter financial results?
This company is definitely in better shape than it was before bankruptcy and is better position to get back in the black as auto sales pick up. In other words, it’s steady progress. Not spectacular, but steady.
Beancounters are happy – I’m happy. Doesn’t mean I’ll stop offering advice; but, who listens to me, eh?
Prostitute, Belle du Jour, reveals herself as research scientist
The secret life of Dr Brooke Magnanti, an obscure research scientist, is revealed…as she unmasks herself as the writer behind the pseudonym Belle de Jour.
Her identity has been one of the great literary mysteries of the decade after the publication of bestselling books about her secret life as a prostitute.
Magnanti is a respected specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology in a hospital research group in Bristol. Six years ago, in the final stages of her PhD thesis, she ran out of money and turned to prostitution through a London escort agency, charging £300 an hour. Already an experienced science blogger, she began writing about her experiences in a web diary that was adapted into books and a television drama starring Billie Piper.
There has been huge speculation about Belle’s real identity, including a theory that she was a well-known author because of the quality of her writing. The blog and books were also criticised for suggesting prostitution could be glamorous. Last week Magnanti contacted one of Belle’s sternest critics, India Knight, the Sunday Times columnist, saying she wanted to reveal her identity.
The scientist, a petite 34-year-old, has no regrets about her 14 months as a prostitute. “I’ve felt worse about my writing than I ever have about sex for money,” she said. Anonymity had become “no fun”, however: “I couldn’t even go to my own book launch party.”
Until last week, not even her agent knew her real name. A month ago she revealed her secret to her colleagues at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health, who were “amazingly kind and supportive”. She was preparing to tell her parents this weekend…
Her future lies in medical science, but she also has a literary streak. She has been writing a novel, and the Belle blog will “continue for a bit — I’d like her to have happy ending”.
RTFA. Western moralists – religionists mostly – are still in a flap because she chose to earn an income from the sex trade for a spell.
And maybe it’s s good sign that one of Rupert Murdoch’s favorite conservative newspaper properties still demonstrates the freedom to deal with liberated lives and individual choices beyond the 19th Century.
Illegal immigrants avoiding trial by choosing deportation?
Hundreds of defendants awaiting trial for violent crimes in Dallas County have been deported by federal immigration officials and then set free in their home countries.
The practice goes back to at least 1991 and includes the release of murder, kidnapping and child rape suspects. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they’re required to deport illegal immigrants quickly but are now in talks with local agencies who are trying to resolve the problem.
Across Texas and the nation, defendants post bail and are immediately taken to immigration facilities, where they volunteer to be deported. Just how often this happens isn’t clear…
Those who post bail and agree to then be sent home are taking advantage of the system to escape justice, said Terri Moore, top assistant to District Attorney Craig Watkins…
An investigator with the Dallas County district attorney’s office found nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants who were not tried for crimes they were accused of. He said most were deported by immigration officials before they could stand trial. But many were never arrested. The cases go back to 1991 and don’t include all cases in the DA’s office.
Murder 128
Attempted murder 18
Manslaughter 16
Negligent homicide 3
Child abuse 409
Sexual assault 54
Aggravated assault 307
Aggravated robbery, kidnapping, other 49
I suppose if I ask – no one knows how many return after a while?
Brits apologize for exporting children to Canada and Australia
Gordon Brown is to offer a formal apology for the UK’s role in sending tens of thousands of children to a new life in Commonwealth countries during the 20th century, many without the consent of their families.
Government records show that at least 150,000 children aged between three and 14 were taken abroad, mainly to Australia and Canada, in a programme that began in 1920 and did not stop until 1967.
The children, almost invariably from deprived backgrounds and already in some form of social or charitable care, were cut off from their families or even informed, falsely, that they were orphans.
While their parents were told the child migrants had gone to a better life, in many cases they remained in institutions or were sent to farming families and treated as unpaid labour. A key subtext to the programme, particularly in relation to Australia, was an aim to supply Commonwealth nations with sufficient new white settlers.
A spokeswoman for the prime minister said…”We will undertake a period of dialogue with those affected, prior to a formal apology. We plan to make a more detailed announcement early in the new year.”
The announcement comes a day before Australia’s prime minister, Kevin Rudd, is due to make a wider apology to the estimated 500,000 children, many from overseas, who were held in orphanages and other institutions around the country between 1930 and 1970.
The habits of governments who provide White Settlers are consistently racist, cruel and self-serving.
The fact that they decide to apologize 50 or 90 years later means something to a few folks. I guess. The equation becomes tenuous as the connection is stretched further. I figure they’ll get round to dealing with, say, the Highland Clearances about a century after I’m dead and gone.
I’d rather hear that these creeps are finally pressing their political peers for a change of policies – not just apologies well after the deeds.
Anyone recognize the ‘It-is-not-us’ syndrome?
In a video report shot in Lahore, Adam Ellick asks a few of Pakistan’s top musicians why they have spoken out against corruption, political wheeling-dealings, poverty and the manner in which the country has been done in by everyone from the politicians to the West to India – but never against the Taliban, who currently constitute the clearest and most present of dangers.
Here, verbatim, is what Ali Noor of Noori has to say:
‘We are not going to get up and say that we want to talk against the Taliban – simply because they are probably one of the smallest problems this country has. [...] It’s the West. It’s the West that is against the Taliban, because they are very heavily affected by it. We’re not.’
And here is what Ali Azmat – the man who once sang about ‘zehni ghulami’ – has to say: ‘We know for a fact that all this turbulence in Pakistan … it’s not us. It’s the outside hands.’
What, really, can one say? The Taliban are one of the smallest problems this country has? When we’re having a bombing virtually every day, when parts of the south-west of the country were until very recently in serious danger of falling to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and its associated gang of goons?
Under-17 World Cup goes to the Swiss
Haris Seferovic and Frederic Veseli after the Swiss victory over Germany in an earlier round
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
On Sunday night, Switzerland became the new FIFA Under-17 World Cup holder when they defeated hosts and defending champions Nigeria 1-0 at a packed Abuja National Stadium.
Haris Seferovic gave Switzerland the championship in the 63rd minute when his header from a corner beat Nigeria goalkeeper Dami Paul.
The Swiss had been impressive leading to this championship game, but had to dig deep, especially in defence, to contain the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria, before they dealt the killer blow through Seferovic to the disappointment of the 60,000-strong crowd at the game.
Nigeria were overwhelming favourites to win their fourth Under-17 World Cup, particularly on the back of the senior team’s dramatic qualification for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Matches featuring players this young always drive me a little nuts. This was better than most.
In particular, I think credit has to go to the Spanish coach of the Swiss under-17 side – Dany Ryser. Although the skills of either team were about what you’d expect for the age group, tactically the Swiss were surprisingly smooth and coordinated moving into the final third of the pitch.
Bravo!
Think similarities in Congressional statements are coincidence?
Republican, Joe Wilson, SC – too lazy to change a single word
In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.
Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.
E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.
The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.
Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats…
Members of Congress submit statements for publication in the Congressional Record all the time, often with a decorous request to “revise and extend my remarks.” It is unusual for so many revisions and extensions to match up word for word. It is even more unusual to find clear evidence that the statements originated with lobbyists.
The only reason it’s unusual to find such clear evidence is that not only have the corporate flunkies in Congress spent the last eight years unconcerned about oversight from the White House, they’ve become accustomed to the prying eyes of the Great American Free Press being tightly shut or averted from any challenging gaze.
News as entertainment now thoroughly controls the bulk of what passes for journalism in this land of political conformity.
RTFA. The odds of bumping into it elsewhere aren’t especially likely.
