CEMEX is currently testing if burning tires for fuel at their Kosmos cement plant in southwestern Louisville, Kentucky will affect air quality. In accordance with CEMEX air quality standards, CEMEX is exploring ways to reduce emissions.
By using tires as fuel, CEMEX could potentially improve air quality by reducing the amount of coal and petroleum coke it using. The fuel could also solve the millions of illegally dumped tires that are a blight on the environment. According to Jennifer Borgen, a CEMEX spokesperson, the Kosmos cement plant could use up to 2 to 3 million tires. The ash generated from the burning tires actually become part of the cement, thereby eliminating any waste product.
It’s still too early to say if the tire burning complies with CEMEX air quality requirements. There are still many tests to run. According to Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, the most extensive testing will begin later this year. The Kentucky Resources Council negotiated the terms of the test burn. Fitzgerald is concerned that the tire burning might affect air quality.
Still, CEMEX and the KRC wish to seek to explore ways to reduce coal-based air pollution. CEMEX still needs to demonstrate that burning tires will comply with the city’s toxic air reduction program, said Matt Stull, spokesman for the Metro Air Pollution Control District.
Mayo Shattuck: I’d agree with your premise that we need everything in order to meet the demands that we have from all sources in the US. We need to develop generation competencies in all areas. Particularly in the nuclear side. Renewables are important part of this mix in order to meet the air emission and climate challenges we have ahead. The vast majority of renewable are of an intermittent quality. We need other types of energy when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.
Stephen Leer: Energy is a global scale business. I would add that conservation and energy efficiency is the important part and cheapest form of additional energy supplies. Pricing has a way to choose the most efficient sources for that moment in time. To have a balanced mix…I’m not sure there is such of thing. The markets will determine the balanced mix of energy. Coal is the fastest growing fossil fuel in the world. The challenge of coal is carbon capture resequestered technology. If we don’t developed this technology, it won’t be possible to stabilize CO2 emissions.
Kevin Parker: There isn’t an optimal mix of energy. But the markets will force the energy producers to make low carbon emission. We’re going to crack the threshold that will lead to climate change. The pricing of carbon will become an increasingly important. There will be higher carbon prices in the future. We’re going to need all energy sources, but low-carbon producers will be the winner.
The three CEOs talked about the system of cap and trade to control the price of carbon. The price of carbon will go up. Mayo Shattuck is an advocate of cap and trade system. He talked about a price-caller so certain parts of the United States can gradually adapt to new carbon pricing. Mayo Shattuck feels this is the efficient way to reduce carbon.
Hajari: The mix in the US energy supply: it’s been the same for the last 30 years. There’s no single silver bullet, so as we move toward a diversified portfolio, how can we encourage investments? And is there an ideal mix?
Steven Leer: When you look at global growth, energy requirements are stunning. We will struggle to meet those requirements, and we’ll need every energy source we can develop.
Kevin Parker: Energy producers will be forced to make all of their energy low-carbon. Markets and investors will force it that way.
Steven Leer: If other countries don’t embrace this in a meaningful time frame, it affects their competitiveness. In the US, we’ve seen manufacturing bases relocate when policies don’t support them — we need to make sure that our regulations make companies want to stay and develop here.
Kevin Parker: Because boundaries don’t exist for capital flow, companies are going to go where they have a competitive advantage and stay there. We ignore it at our peril. Example: Germany’s regulatory framework works well to encourage companies — it’s a mix of incentives and taxes to grow efficiency. And it’s evolved as the country has learned how best to improve growth.
Steven Leer: there are a lot of small-scale projects already going on, and we need to work on scaling them. As an example, the carbon capture and sequestration project we mentioned here yesterday.
Kevin Parker: Regulatory uncertainty is dangerous for developing renewable technology.
Question: Nuclear power: what’s the greatest hurdle?
Mayo Shattuck: Policy goal: increase nuclear’s role in the American power structure.
Steven Leer: Tech advances at a different rate than consumption does. It’s a challenge to stay where we are — moving ahead of the game will take even more.
Prior to the appointment, the White House formed a blue ribbon panel led by Norm Augustine, the ex-aerospace manager. The panel’s main task was to explore options directed towards future efforts focused on human space flight.
Charles Frank Bolden, Jr. graduated from the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in 1968. After his graduation, he served as 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. In 1970, he became a naval aviator and flew over Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam from 1972 to 1973. Before becoming a NASA astronaut candidate in 1980, Bolden served the US Marines in various capacities. He became a full-fledged astronaut in 1981 and became a part of several significant spaceflights (Space Shuttles Atlantis, Discovery, and Columbia). At present, he sits on the Military Child Education Coalition’s board and acts as Kennedy Space Center’s virtual host for the Shuttle Launch Experience.
Once he gets Senate approval, Bolden will become the first African American to lead the space agency.
Bolden’s partner, Lori Garver, is the proud owner of a George Washington University master’s degree in Science, Technology, and Public Policy. She received her Political Science and Economics degree in 1983 upon graduation from Colorado College. Garver is Capital Space LLC’s president and is widely known as an adviser for the Democrats in issues related to space policy. She previously worked as NASA’s Associate Administrator of the Office of Policy and Plans.
Both Bolden and Garver will face big responsibilities as NASA continues to work on the new launcher set to replace the space shuttle.
From May 10 to 16, 2009, Nevada’s Reno-Sparks Convention Center opened its doors to talented young science students who participated in the 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Approximately 1,500 outstanding works from students who flew to Reno from over 50 countries competed for scholarships and prizes worth around $4 million.
ISEF is the largest international science competition in the world that focuses on creations and inventions by high school students. Every year, ISEF gathers around 1,600 students from various countries around the world, a number of them eventually becoming big names in the field of science or scientific research.
The competition, which takes place in a different city each year, encourages students to explore their capabilities and the limitless possibilities available in science research.
For this year, 2009, the following budding young scientists took home the awards:
For the Intel Foundation Young Scientist, the winners were:
Olivia Schwib of Boston (for her work titled “How Worms Learn, Part III: Mammalian Gene Expression and Associative Conditioning in Caenorhabditis elegans”)
Li Sallou Boynton of Texas (with her project called “The Use of Bioluminescent Bacteria to Detect Environmental Contaminants”)
Virginia’s Tara Adiseshan (project title: “Identifying and Classifying Evolutionary Interactions between Sweat Bees and Nematodes”)
Each student received an Intel Foundation scholarship worth $50,000
These students received the second grand prize awards: Ritik Malhotra of California and the team of Daniel Y. Peng, Elias Lebovits, and Naveen Murali. They received an award of $1,500
Third grand prize winners Raman Venkat Nelakanti (California), and the team of Cheng Cheng and Aakriti Jain, also of California, received $1,000
Declared as fourth award winners were: 15-year old Jennifer Shuen Chen, 17-year old David C. Liu, and California’s Justin To. The fourth placers each received a cash prize of $500
Intel Corporation, under their Intel Innovation in Education project, sponsors the annual ISEF event.
Construction of Calgary’s Telus World of Science is about to take off after the project received an additional $19 million investment from the city. Expected to open its doors to the public in 2011, the science center will sit on an old landfill right across Memorial Drive. The six-hectare wide land was also a city donation.
The construction procedure of Telus World of Science has two phases. The first phase will cover construction of the main building plus interesting attractions like an exhibit gallery, domed theater, themed pavilions, and theaters for various presentations. The second construction phase will give rise to an outdoor amazement park and indoor exhibits.
The Telus World of Science is an organization that aims to enlighten young minds and encourage them to explore wide world of science and technology. The organization thrives in an environment that focuses on activities, programs, and exhibits that challenge the imagination and generate useful learning. It attracts more than 304,000 visitors every year, a good number of which are schoolchildren. It is one of the best places for schools, tourists, and families to spend their time.
Meant to become one of the best science centers in Canada and the world, the new Telus World of Science will be using only the latest technology features. An example would be the opportunity to virtually participate in different programs and activities.
Some of the galleries expected to rise in the new Telus World of Science are those that touch on subjects related to the human body, energy and innovation, the Earth and environment, space, art and style, and technology.
When it opens two years from now, Calgary’s Telus World of Science will bring the community – and the world – closer to the wonders of science and technology in the most creative, fun, and innovative ways.
Menlo College, known for its business-centric academic structure, rewarded its graduating students with an address by an important business visionary. Richard Li, one of the most prominent figures in media and telecommunications industries, gave Menlo’s graduating class a keynote speech. The majority of the students are slated to become leaders in the technology business.
With Richard Li’s background in media and Internet business, he was an excellent choice to impart inspiring words to Menlo’s graduates before they set out and make their mark in the world.
Richard Li is not alien to business management. Born to a business-minded family, his father being Hong Kong’s successful entrepreneur and Asia’s wealthiest Li Ka-Shing, Li was cut to follow his father’s footsteps but started his own venture in media instead.
Li founded Star TV but later sold the broadcasting company to Rupert Murdoch for $950 million. After selling Star TV, Richard Li shifted his focus towards the Internet and started a trend that resulted to a buying spree for stocks of dormant Tricom Holdings which he turned into the modern PCCW (formerly Pacific Century Cyber Works Ltd.), which became Asia’s premiere Internet company. Despite economic and internal hardships, Li was able to endure the challenges and was even named as one of the finest businessmen of his generation.
Aside from technology, Richard Li is also engaged in other business ventures, specifically in the fields of real estate and corporate finance. His real estate engagements include a 55% ownership of the $400 million Marunouchi building in Tokyo.
Richard Li also ventured into print media when he bought a 50% stake in the Chinese business paper, Hong Kong Economic Journal, for $280 million.
Richard Li’s early violin training placed music and arts as one of his recipients. Being half-Canadian, Richard Li proudly supports the NAC Foundation – Canada’s National Arts Centre for the performing arts.
With a $1.1 billion net worth, Li is ranked among the wealthiest executives of Asian descent.
Cement manufacturer CEMEX and renewable energy company ACCIONA have collaborated to launch the 250 megawatt EURUS wind farm in the southern state of Oaxaca. The wind farm will be located in a 2,500 hectacre area on the Tehuantepec Isthmus, which is known for its windy climate. The wind farm is projected to be complete by the end of 2009. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has already inaugurated the first phase of the project.
ACCIONA is investing $550 million into the EURUS wind farm. The wind farm will in turn supply 25% of the CEMEX’s energy requirements. Developed together by both CEMEX and ACCION, the EURUS wind farm will house 167 wind turbines, with each turbine generating 1.5 megawatts of power.
CEMEX CEO and chairman Lorenzo H Zambrano is eager to get the EURUS wind farm online to implement CEMEX environment policy. “At CEMEX, we are committed to innovation and to becoming more sustainable by the use of alternative fuels, and the application of more efficient processes to save energy, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and to contribute to a clean environment,” Mr. Zambrano said. “We are determined to include renewable sources of electricity into our energy mix, and therefore today we feel very proud of our alliance with ACCIONA, so that the EURUS wind farm can begin to transform the power of the wind into electric power.”
ACCIONA board member Esteban Morra is equally optimistic about the new wind farm, “EURUS is the largest wind farm installed by our company in the world and represents a huge impulse to the development of wind power in Mexico,” Mr.Morra said. “This country has great potential for wind development and should take advantage of this in the necessary transition toward a more sustainable energy model, creating with it wealth and employment in a sector of the future.”
Mr. Morra’s assertion is not just idle talk. ACCIONA Energia has already built 208 wind farms in 14 countries, generating a grand total of 6,000 megawatts of power. ACCION also builds and maintain thermosolar, photovoltaic hydroelectric and biomass facilities, biodiesel and bioethanol facilities.
The team was glad to announce that the test met all the objectives. According to Rick Reginato, MKV-L program director from Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, the MKV-L represents major development of the earliest operational warhead that is intended for the destruction of multi-threat objects through a single missile defense interceptor. MKV-L works through the MKV-L and the Ballistic Missile Defense System data, dispensing and steering the kill vehicles to intercept and destroy multiple lethal targets.
This test was the first in a series of tests that would be conducted to prove the readiness of the payload for complex fight testing on board the ground-based interceptor of the Ballistic Missile Defense System located in Alaska and Southern California.
Lockheed Martin is an advanced technology corporation and a large multinational aerospace manufacturer based in Bethesda, Maryland. With about 140,000 employees worldwide, Lockheed Martin is engaged in the design, development, integration, manufacture, and research of advanced technology products, services, and systems.
Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest arms manufacturer and the world’s largest defense contractor by revenue, with the United States Department System and the U.S. Federal government agencies making up about 80% of its customer base.
Affinion Security Center announced that more than 200 American and Canadian financial companies are now using Affinion Security Center’s Card Patrol in their efforts to thwart identity theft.
Card Patrol monitors and analyzes chat rooms that are known havens for credit card thieves and other identity criminals. Through this real-time, preemptive monitoring, Card Patrol helps stop fraud before it happens. Card Patrol members can register up to ten account numbers, and Card Patrol will scour the web and chat rooms to see if those numbers come up in fraudulent trading and transactions. Clients are also notified for fraudulent use of other coveted identity data, such as social security numbers, mother’s maiden name, and card PINs.
Serge Rivest, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Davis + Henderson, is impressed with Card Patrol’s work. “Card Patrol has been successful in increasing awareness of identity theft as it continues to claim more victims worldwide,” Rivest said. “This service has been a benefit that many of our customers take advantage of.”
Tom Rusin, CEO of Affinion Security Center, warns that identity theft is a growth industry. “The rapid growth of this program indicates consumers’ increased attention to the threat of identity theft, the link to personal finance and consumers’ reliance on trusted financial partners to provide them with reliable solution,” Tom Rusin said.
Affinion Security Center, a division of the Affinion Group, has a long history of providingsecurity, credit monitoring and identity theft protection. In 1969, Affinion Security Center launched HotLine, a pioneer program to stop ID theft and credit card fraud. In 1992, Affinion launched PrivacyGuard, a membership-based comprehensive credit monitoring product which was which is still in wide use today. Today, the Affinion Group offers a full range of security options, including BreachShield, PCSafety Plus, and Identity Secure.
The term karass refers to a group of people arranged to work together in accordance to a heavenly design without knowing what their destiny is. Indeed, the people that are bound in the Microsoft-planned takeover of Yahoo are acting as if they are indeed a karass, sans Bill Gates.
The network starts with Blackstone Group’s Jill Greenthal, who functions as an adviser for Microsoft. Greenthal currently stopped any forms of communications with her old Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette colleague, Yahoo’s Susan Decker. Decker happens to share a spot on the board of Berkshire Hathaway with Microsoft’s Bill Gates.
Berkshire Hathaway’s head honcho Warren Buffett is clearly associated with Google and functions like some kind of a spiritual leader for Google founders Larry Page and Sergio Brin. Google happens to be the rival of Yahoo, which Microsoft plans to take over.
Google and Yahoo have been competing to acquire Trader Classified Media, which is based in Amsterdam and owns more than 550 print titles that include profitable ones such as Canada’s Auto Trader magazine as well as Buy & Sell Chinese in the US. On the other hand, Morgan Stanley banker Charles Cory is now an adviser for Microsoft.
Prior to Bill Gate’s venture, Cory also served as an adviser to Hewlett-Packard (HP), which is a high-profile business ally of Microsoft.
To continue with the karass network, HP’s current CEO Mark Hurd now sits as one of the board members of News Corp., which is planning to stage off Microsoft’s plan to get Yahoo. The media giant is willing to exchange its ownership of MySpace and several other online properties for a stake of 20% or more in Yahoo.
Yahoo co-founder David Filo, in his Facebook profile, said that he is friends with former AOL executive Steve Case, who served on the opposite side of the table from Morgan Stanley’s Paul Taubman on the merger of AOL and Time Warner. Tubman now serves as one of the bankers on Microsoft’s list of advisers.
Finance and investment giant Goldman Sachs is also in the Microsoft-Yahoo karass network. The banking firm was on Microsoft’s side last year, mapping out the viable strategies for the IT company on how to cut a deal with Yahoo. Now, Goldman Sachs is the one walking Yahoo through on how to approach the Microsoft bid.
Microsoft’s $42.1 billion quest to take Yahoo has gone through a lot of fascinating twists and turns and revealed a lot of interesting trivia and facts. Some might be tempted to call the profuse interconnections an “IT karass” but the term would certainly be fitting what with the numerous networks of individuals and organizations involved.