The News Review:
- Anti-piracy investigators raid Scots engineering plant
- Close call steers DU grad on land ? but not far from sea.
- A new breed of engineer
- Princeton Kentucky
- Neighbors mining firm clash over way of life
- Power majors bid for MRPL project
Anti-piracy investigators raid Scots engineering plant
Scotsman – Jun 30, 2007
Assisted by police the team from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) carried out the raid at a plant of engineering company Honeywell in Motherwell at 8:40am on Thursday. It is the first such raid on a business. Investigators made copies of the contents of computers to be analysed but did not take any equipment away a BPI spokesman said. The raid follows a two-month investigation after a tip-off from a Honeywell employee. Information passed to the BPI which is the British record industry’s trade association pointed to thousands of files being shared illegally.
Close call steers DU grad on land ? but not far from sea.
Free with registration – Virginian-Pilot – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jun 30, 2007
He got that chance. After he was rescued from the water Savage decided to return to Hampton Roads. He took a job at Ford’s Norfolk Assembly Plant because it offered stability and security. n Thursday with other Ford workers Savage said goodbye. CPYRIGHT 2007 The Virginian-Pilot.
A new breed of engineer
Toronto Star – Jun 30, 2007
com – Ideas – A new breed of engineer June 30 2007 Sumitra Rajagopalan Special to The Star A quiet revolution is underway in engineering classrooms in Canadian universities prompted by a climate change crisis that has unleased a torrent of new green technologies. It’s called Life-Cycle Engineering. And simple put it means engineers will design products that can be manufactured while leaving a minimal environmental footprint. LCE involves estimating the environmental costs and social benefits at every stage of the life cycle ? starting with raw material extraction through product processing transport distribution and finally disposal. More importantly this "cradle-to-grave" approach to engineering allows the engineer to sift through the hype and critically analyze the true impact of so-called green technologies ? their promise and their pitfalls. Take for example hydrogen power. Fuel cells and "hydrogen economy" have been all the rage for some time now and the fiery debate on climate change has given them an added boost… These green composites reduce energy consumption during computer manufacturing by almost half while also reducing their ecological footprint through natural degradation. Here again the devil lurks in the details. Harvesting and manufacturing these plant-based fibres requires a large energy budget that again might outweigh their benefits. Moreover these natural fibre composites wear out faster than traditional material thus leading to frequent replacement and repair ? another kink in the life-cycle chain. Clearly there is a need to optimize both properties and process for green composites to have a net positive environmental impact. All in all new green technologies be they corn-based fuel carbon sequestration solar satellites or sugar-cane panels promise exciting engineering solutions to global warming and pollution in the years to come. However a life-cycle approach to engineering alone will maximize the benefits of these promising new technologies while helping engineers transition from number-crunchers to responsible caretakers of the environment.
Princeton Kentucky
Princeton Times Leader – Jun 30, 2007
net’>staff@timesleader. netSaturday June 30 2007A power partnership that includes the Princeton Electric Plant Board has entered into a final agreement for a share in a southern Illinois power plant that local officials hope will result in lower customer electric rates. The Kentucky Municipal Power Agency (KMPA) a partnership formed by the Plant Board and the Paducah Power System in 2005 has entered into an agreement with the Prairie State Energy Campus for a 7. 82 percent share of ownership in the project as well as an equal amount of electricity output. Plant Board directors discussed the agreement in the board’s June meeting Thursday in a conference call with Rick Soderholm a principal senior director with the R… Beck firm which is assisting the utility as it moves to switch its power supplier. The Prairie State agreement was one of six partner agreements announced recently by Prairie State developers along with an announcement of the completion of a $2. 9 billion engineering procurement and construction agreement with the Bechtel Power Corporation and agreements with three global technology firms for equipment and emission controls. Plant Board General Manager John Humphries said the developments were “a monumental step in moving this project toward construction. “KMPA was formed after the Plant Board and Paducah Power directors declared their intent to end power supply contracts with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). “Prairie State is the cornerstone of our efforts to lower customer rates to a level competitive with other Kentucky utilities and in turn create more economic development opportunities for our community” Humphries said.
Neighbors mining firm clash over way of life
Coos Bay World – Jun 30, 2007
Steve Abel a Portland attorney with Stoel Rives LLP hired by regon Resources told the commission the plant would be located in an area zoned for industrial uses; that the plant would not disturb cultural or riparian areas and that the companies goal to use barges as a mode of transporting minerals met the water-dependent land use criteria. Dan Smith regon Resources' chief operating officer said the company planned to bring 750000 tons of mineral sands to the plant each year from six different pits located between Seven Devils Road and Beaver Hill Road. The plant would operate 24 hours per day seven days a week for about 340 days each year he said extracting mainly chromite but also garnet and zircon. He said trucks hauling the material from the pits to Bunker Hill and waste products destined back to the pits would equal about 10 roundtrips per hour. It was that traffic volume that concerned many of those living around where the mining would occur and also those who lived near the plant. Janet Holst who lives on the main road into what turns into regon Resources' plant entrance helped oust a former mineral plant at the same location in the 1990s after a fine red dust coated her neighborhood daily. She contends the same could happen with regon Resources… Ron pitz the executive director of the South Coast Development Council said the approval of the overall operation could mean as many as 70 jobs and a $35 million investment to the local economy. qqqSeveral opponents cited concerns about possible adverse health effects associated with the minerals. However David Weatherby a geologist with URS Corporation an environmental and engineering firm in Portland that regon Resources hired explained the distinction between two different types of chromium. While hexavalent chromium or chromium-6 is toxic he said regon Resources was going after trivalent chromium or chromium-3 which is not toxic. He noted that neither the U. Environmental Protection Agency and the regon Department of Environmental Quality regulates chromium-3.
Power majors bid for MRPL project
Rediff – Jun 30, 2007
“There are four licenses to be awarded and in the first part design and engineering work has to be completed. Then fabrication and other works will begin and we hope to complete the expansion by 2010″ said Rajamani. During FY07 MRPL had a throughput of 12.