Across the straits, around the horn: how far can sailors fly?

Vermont Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama has displayed a quiet dignity in his public celebrity role since his rescue from the hands of pirates off the coast of Somali. He has maintained the same calm that served him so well while being held hostage. Upon his return he is reported to have told a friend that he would prefer no celebration at all but realized that the community wanted a chance to say thanks and shake his hand. So a community picnic was held at a local park near Underhill with a few hundred people and attended by Vermont Congressman Peter Welch and Governor Douglas. He also testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee about his experience and what could be learned from it for the future.
Variety reports:

Weeks after his dramatic attempted escape and eventual rescue from armed Somali pirates, Captain Richard Phillips’ life rights have been acquired by Columbia Pictures. Columbia Pictures Studio, which has also optioned the film rights to Phillips’ upcoming memoir, will bring to the big screen the cargo ship captain’s capture by four Somali pirates and subsequent rescue by the U.S. Navy. Michael, Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunette and Scott Rodin are onboard to produce. Brunette, a former member of the Coast Guard, was particularly instrumental in helping land the rights. He flew to the East Coast to meet with Phillips to discuss how the film would be handled.

The pressure to market ones story after such an adventure must be extreme but it appears that this too was handled smoothly and with as little fanfare as needed. It must be strange indeed to sell ones story but marketing it well and satisfactorily is part of the process and I hope he benefits from this and is satisfied with the result.

One hundred years ago on January 23, 1909 an interesting episode took place which similarly involves heroism, celebrity and very early movie making. Some things were very different and some remain remarkably the same.
The RMS Republic and the SS Florida collided in the fog off Nantucket Island. On board the damaged and sinking Republic 26 year old Radioman Jack Binns spent the next twenty four hours in the freezing radio “shack” on deck sending messages to a nearby sister ship the Baltic.He was hoping that they could find the Republic in the fog before it was too late for the 1,500 people on board the rapidly sinking vessel .Wireless radio which sent Morse code was brand new and was about to be put to a crucial test. By using radio and rocket flares the Baltic located the Republic and miraculously the transfer of the 1,500 by lifeboat in the open ocean was completed. Binns became an instant celebrity. He was offered contracts to perform vaudeville, mobbed by chorus girls at the Hippodrome, and became the subject--much to his chagrin--of a movie short. What he wanted was a federal law requiring wireless on ships, but his testimony before Congress was ignored.
Unable to use his celebrity to persuade congress to require radio equipment as mandatory on ocean going ships Binns became upset that the Vitagraph Film Company had made an unauthorized version of the events on the Republic . He sued the film company for invasion of privacy and won and the film disappeared from circulation.
Unbelievably 3 years later years in a coincidence the type of which seems only too common in sea stories Binns was assigned to be the wireless operator on the Titanic. Personal circumstances kept him from being onboard and as we all know the Titanic sank on April14 1912. The loss of 1,500 lives is the same number that were saved from the Republic in 1909.
American Experience
All about Jack Binns Marconi radioman
There's a hole in the side of the ship "Jack Binns,"
The Captain above him cried;

Funny Vermont business incentive story

Vermont Governor Douglas’s team is in the Burlington Free Press today bemoaning the lack of business tax incentives in the budget .The poster child used is BioTek a Vermont based international company with offices in Singapore, China, India, Germany and the UK.

As he considers expanding, though, Chief Executive Officer Briar Alpert is wondering if he can justify doing it here.BioTek, a manufacturer of high-tech science tools that employs 230 people in Winooski, is working on the acquisition of a California company. That state's research and development tax credits could lure BioTek to locate any expansion there instead of in Vermont, Alpert said.” The rational decision would be to do the expansion out in California," Alpert said. That decision might be different if Vermont had the same offer, he said, but Vermont is one of only nine states without research and development tax credits.

However no mention is made in the article of how in January 06, 2009 approval of up to $692,854 for job creation incentives was given by the Vermont Economic Progress Council to BioTek Instruments. Inc. in order to support jobs in the knowledge based economy.
Also left missing was mention of the nomination of BioTek for the Dean C. Davis Outstanding Business of the Year on May 11 ,2009 .The annual award named for the former Governor of Vermont, honors a Vermont business that shows an outstanding history of sustained growth while displaying an acute awareness of what makes Vermont unique. It was noted less than three weeks ago that, the company already has plans to expand the Winooski headquarters by 7000 square feet to include a state-of-the-art laboratory. This expansion will secure BioTek’s brand in the industry and reputation for producing cutting-edge, innovative instrumentation and techniques.

Webcast of brain surgery to market hospital

The point of Shila Renee Mullins’s brain surgery was to remove a malignant tumor threatening to paralyze her left side.But Methodist Hospital in Memphis also saw an opportunity to promote the hospital to prospective patients.

It is a business after all .Our health care system needs to be fixed but maybe it is nothing a little marketing can’t cure. Methodist University Hospital in Memphis Tennessee substituted a model for the real patient in the promo ads for the brain surgery broadcast.
Maybe this is something that almost had to happen, hospital marketing one step beyond. But,should there be any, would the patient get the royalties? Any discount? What if the video goes viral,a performance bonus? Will there be awards perhaps in the future for best doctor performing in a surgery webcast? Suppose the patient has the poor taste not to recovery as advertised? Ethics?

So, a video webcast of Ms. Mullins’s awake craniotomy, in which the patient remains conscious and talking while surgeons prod and cut inside her brain, was promoted with infomercials and newspaper advertisements featuring a photograph of a beautiful model, not Ms. Mullins.
This time, Methodist did not use billboards as it has with other operations, deeming this procedure too sensitive. But its marketing department monitors how many people have watched the Webcast (2,212), seen a preview on Youtube(21,555) and requested appointments (3).
“The goal is to further our reputation as well as to educate the community, who will ask their physicians about our care,” said Jill Fazakerly, Methodist’s marketing director.
In one unexpected marketing success, after Methodist advertised a coming brain-surgery Webcast, a man called, volunteering to be the patient. Methodist agreed.

“He told Dr. Sills that if he was operating live on the Web, he must be pretty darn good,”

Ms. Fazakerly said.
Brain Webcasts also “build business for our other departments,” she said.

New York Times

Russians' absquatulate into the Arctic

A race (or aggressive rivalry) of sorts may be underway between nations to be the first to build and put into extensive use mini nuclear power plants. As the search for the last oil and energy reserves turns to the Arctic, the first on location with a way of supplying power for this remote exploration and extraction may also determine who controls dwindling energy resources. The Russia government, private US and Japanese firms are exploring mini nuke power plants.
The US plant is styled on a small stationary reactor similar to those used by students of nuclear power, known as Training, Research, Isotopes, General, Atomics or TRIGA. They are made to be buried and generate 25 megawatts. Hyperion, the New Mexico based US firm calls its reactor a "nuclear battery”.
The Russians have been more innovative. They designed a floating nuclear power plant with two units that will produce 35 megawatts each and travel to where it may be needed.

According to The Moscow Times The Russian power plant, which is being assembled at the St. Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard by Energoatom, a subsidiary of Rosatom, is the first of seven floating nuclear power plants that the company plans to build, Energoatom head Sergei Obozov told reporters on Monday

BNET reports There won’t be much to distinguish an FNPS from a regular ship, to an untrained observer. The first will be 472 feet long and 98 wide, weighing in at 21,500 tons. The two reactors inside can produce 35 megawatts each
Although ostensibly built to serve far northern towns like Vilyuchinsk, which lies off the Bering Sea near Alaska, the real purpose of the new design, which will potentially end up in dozens of plants, is to help Russia extend its reach into the Artic if and when it begins to drill there for oil and gas. The only kink in that plan is that the Artic is far from a settled issue, politically.
Energy prices will likely dictate how long it is until the Russia, as well as other countries including the United States and Canada, delay oil and gas exploration in the region. Serious entry into the Artic will come only after the half-dozen countries with a claim have fought it out amongst themselves — potentially dueling it out with another sort of nuke.
For the whole scenario reassuringly headlined The coldest war: Russia and U.S. face off over Arctic resources Daily Mail UK

also posted here Green Mountain Daily

Sunday at UVM with Jim and Howard

We did get sunburned...
but at least it didn't Ben Stein.

"It was an unusually trying year," Fogel said in an interview after the commencement ceremony. "There were some ups and downs and those downs entailed some sacrifice and pain that will long be with us; but it was also a year of great achievement." No doubt.

Yesterday I watched my son graduate from University of Vermont.We sat outside in plastic chairs on the soggy grass.It was a surprisingly chilly spring day yet, much to our surprise, we got quite sunburned.
Vermont Governor Jim Douglas naturally spoke. “The population grows old…” droned Jim and with his sales pitch, “… we need young people”. After congratulating the students and to some extent himself (noting some of his cleverly named state plans and initiatives, some not yet initiated) he pretty much begged the new grads to stay in Vermont .For some audiences he runs the state down, for other crowds he attempts to build it up.

Next up was former Gov. Howard Dean. He spoke; well, he spoke like Howard Dean. His message quite clearly and not unexpectedly was for the graduates to stay active in politics. (Politics broadly defined as everything from office holding to library committees and zoning boards.) Community. Dean noted the role young voters played in the Obama election and very forcefully said “Don't blow it, stay involved! “ “Find the common areas of agreement and build on them”, he said.
Best of all (beside the weather, allowing for an outdoor ceremony) was the total lack of Ben Stein who for a short time had been scheduled to be featured speaker.
It was with great dread, a month or two back, that we all thought we would have to listen to anti-evolutionist Stein’s unique wisdom.
Luckily it evolved into a fine day, good luck to the graduates.

Algae and Pond scum are never far from the headlines

This isn't even directly political.Earlier in the year when fuel prices were sky high several start-up companies appeared headed to successfully market fuel made from algae .When fuel costs hover in the stratosphere all kinds of alternatives are seen as possibly profitable. In January both Japan and Continental airways test flew a jet partly powered by fuel brewed from algae. We have the technology but is it practical or even desirable?
Unfortunately one of the leaders in this new endeavor went bankrupt after being unable to find sufficient financial backing to continue.

The drop in the cost of traditional fuel was one factor. With out the incredibly high costs of earlier in the year these expensive alternatives are not seen as wise investments. But the startup was hit hard by the economic crisis and by the decline in petroleum prices from their 2008 peaks, which took much of the bloom off the biofues rose.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA with slightly different approaches and solid funding are now entering the fray. Yes, DARPA the military research group that brought us such things as the internet and the driverless car competition(my personal favorite)

DARPA’s biofuels program explores energy alternatives and fuel efficiency efforts in a bid to reduce the military's reliance on traditional fuel. For an alternative to be viable, the fuel must be produced at a cost that is economically competitive with current supply costs.

Science Applications International Corporation (SAI) has been contracted by DARPA to develop a jet fuel that is affordable from aqua-cultural and agricultural feedstock materials.

The NASA plan is quit snazzily called OMEGA which stands for “offshore membrane enclosures for growing algae”. This is a process described as putting wastewater and algae in large plastic bags and letting them float out to sea, it will provide good growing conditions for the algae, which will clean up the mess in the bag and produce oil for biofuels.
Given the high costs of research and the uncertainties of the market perhaps this will speed this effort .Still one has to wonder what volume of area on land or in the ocean would be needed to produce massive amounts of fuel .What will be displaced from it’s present location to make way for this. Massive bags of composting biofuel mix floating on the ocean or large areas of harvested algae will have an environmental impact of their own.

It is torture

-- I'll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.
Jesse Ventura on Larry King Live
I am not a big fan of Jeese the Body Ventura but how can one avoid a great quote like this ?
Video here One hour with Cheney

Pressed rat and warthog have closed down their shop

Retailers seek to rein in recovery optimism

Retailers sought to dampen hopes of a quick recovery from recession at an industry summit this week, warning a legacy of over-expansion, changing consumer habits and online competition could curb growth for years.

Pressed rat and warthog have closed down their shop.
They didn't want to; twas all they had got.
Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
And pressed rats collection of dog legs and feet.

Sadly they left, telling no one goodbye.
Pressed rat wore red jodhpurs, warthog a striped tie.
Between them, they carried a three-legged sack,
Went straight round the corner and never came back.
Ginger Baker and Mike Taylor

FairPoint : a poster child for …

Fairpoint Communication executives in a conference call with investors recently put a brave face on their situation according to newspaper reports;

FairPoint Communications lost fewer customers in the first three months of 2009 than Verizon did while operating the same system in the first three months of 2008.

The attitude that “it is not as bad as we thought” or “it could have been worse” is fast becoming the corporate catch all excuse for poor performance. Fairpoint Communication’s switchover of services from Verizon began in January after some delays. For months FairPoint has been plagued by service, billing and equipment troubles .In late January they reneged on an a union job agreement .The states of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire have talked of imposing performance related fines on the company.

FairPoint executives also said Wednesday they expect to receive a large chunk of the stimulus money slated for rural broadband deployment. FairPoint has not only pledged to expand broadband to rural areas, but is obligated to do so by regulatory agreements with all three states. Many of the projects are "shovel ready," the company said. "We are kind of the poster child for the stimulus funds and what they're intended to do," CEO Eugene Johnson said. "And we're ready to go."

Vermont's broadband provider ? This company lost nine million dollars in three months and gives out more than $100,000 in performance –based [!] bonuses. Poor customer service delays and outages for three months, and they will be getting a big chunk of stimulus money for broadband .It is an impressive three month premiere of how the company that may run the backbone of Vermont’s broadband infrastructure operates.
News of the performance- based bonuses and a 30% raise were not mentioned along with the investor conference call story

The two top executives at troubled FairPoint Communications customers received performance-based bonuses recently at roughly the same time that the company was being lambasted over its poorly-executed system cutover in New England. Fair Point's poor response to cutover problems related to the operational transition of former Verizon landline properties drew the ire of customers and regulators alike, but two company execs were still given more than $100,000 in bonuses.
FairPoint Chairman and CEO Gene Johnson received an $83,862 bonus and a 30 percent raise in 2008,according to an SEC filing, while FairPoint President Peter Nixon accepted a $50,000 bonus. Other executives also were reported to have received
raises.

also posted at greenmountaindaily.com

Some additional FairPoint news

Fitch Ratings has lowered FairPoint Communications’ credit rating and has placed the company on its negative credit watch on concerns about its financial situation, said the ratings agency in a Thursday press release.According to Fitch, “FairPoint is considering the engagement of a financial advisor to evaluate its current capital structure and explore options with regard to a potential restructuring,” said Fitch.
Fitch said it was concerned any possible restructuring could lead to “a bankruptcy filing or coercive debt exchange.”

Today's episode

I got nothing ...or:Your name here

Proprietary fluids green and spewing:Updated below

Relax,it concerns proprietary information and hydro fracturing.Last winter I ran up against a puzzle when trying to find out what exactly the oatmeal like slurry spread on roads by the Vermont State Highway Dept as an ice melting agent contained .Recently I came across a press release about a company that has been nominated to win a small business award .The company’s name was Dirt Glue .Intrigued by that name and concept I checked out the website. I found that this business supplies a product that stabilizes soil and prevents dust from forming. Dirt Glue! Great name, great concept. But search as I might I could not find what the stuff might contain.

These products may be perfectly safe or not, my point is that it is next to impossible to find out with any clarity what they are made with. The contents are proprietary information, genuine real life secret formulas. Allegedly competitors would have an unfair advantage if the ingredients were publicly known.
Here is a story that is unrelated to the Dirt Glue and road slurry save by the fact that it involves another compound of unknown contents .In this case however cows have died apparently after contact with it.

ProPublica reports sixteen cattle dropped dead in a northwestern Louisiana field this week after apparently drinking from a mysterious fluid adjacent to a natural gas drilling rig, according to Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality and a report in the Shreveport Times. At least one worker told the newspaper that the fluids, which witnesses described as green and spewing into the air near the drilling derrick, were used for a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. But the company, Chesepeake Energy, has not identified exactly what chemicals are in those fluids and is insisting to state regulators that no spill occurred.
The problem is that both Chesapeake and its contractor doing the work Schlumberger, say that a lot of these fluids are proprietary, said Otis Randle, regional manager for the DEQ. "It can be an obstacle, but we try to be fair to everybody," he said. "We try to remember that the products they use are theirs and they need them to make a living."

Hydraulic fracturing -- a process in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped deep underground at high pressure to break rock and release natural gas -- is controversial because of the secrecy surrounding the fluids and because the process is exempted from protections of the Safe Drinking Water Act and thus from regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress is currently considering legislation to address these issues out of concern that fracturing, and the fluids and waste that are part of the process, may be contaminating drinking water in several states.
Scientists at the EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey have told ProPublica that it's difficult for them to assess the environmental risks posed by hydraulic fracturing chemicals because the companies that use them won't release the exact names and amounts of the chemicals. The energy service companies, including Halliburton and Schlumberger, say that disclosing that information would put them at a competitive disadvantage, and they insist the fluids are safe. Some information about the materials is made available through Material Safety Data Sheets, which can provide cursory medical advice for workers exposed to the chemicals.
also at Green Mountain Daily


Toxic Brew?

Of the 300-odd compounds that private researchers and the Bureau of Land Management suspect are being used, 65 are listed as hazardous by the federal government. Many of the rest are unstudied and unregulated, leaving a gaping hole in the nation’s scientific understanding of how widespread drilling might affect water resources.

Industry representatives maintain that the drilling fluids are mostly made up of non-toxic, even edible substances, and that when chemicals are used, they are just a tiny fraction of the overall mix. They say that some information is already available, and that releasing specific details would only frighten and confuse the public, and would come at great expense to the industry’s competitive business.

“Halliburton's proprietary fluids are the result of years of extensive research, development testing,” said Diana Gabriel, a company spokeswoman, in an email response. “We have gone to great lengths to ensure that we are able to protect the fruits of the company's research…. We could lose our competitive advantage.”