Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Jerzy N., widower of a professor murdered at Virginia Tech - I Demand A Plan
Posted by Linda H on 8:46:00 AM
Hawaii-Based Marines Test Green Waste Disposal Technology at PTA on Mauna Kea
Posted by Linda H on 8:26:00 AM
On an island world-famous for its chain of active volcanoes, Marines are harnessing extreme heat to test a process that could become the future of military waste management.
“It’s not burning,” said Ben Tritt, the MarForPac science advisor for Office of Naval Research. “It’s gasification under a very controlled environment, and it’s much cleaner than burning … It’s (also) a self-sustaining process.”
The machine behind the magic is called MAGS (Micro Auto Gasification System), and perhaps the most impressive aspect of the technology is its simplicity.
Operators start MAGS with diesel fuel, bringing the inside of its insulated drum to temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The machine is then “fed” trash at a rate of approximately 50 pounds per hour, turning 95 percent of it into gas which is used as fuel to sustain the process. The remaining 5 percent is converted to inert ash which can be safely disposed of in landfills, or mixed with compost, asphalt or cement. One machine is capable of meeting the daily waste disposal needs of approximately 1,000 troops.
Justice Dept. To Sue Ratings Agency Over Role In Financial Crisis
Posted by Linda H on 6:30:00 AM
The Department of Justice and state prosecutorswill sue the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’sfor wrongly rating mortgage bonds before the 2008 financial crisis, according to the Wall Street Journal. The suit could come as early as this week, according to the report.
Shoddy ratings from S&P and other agencies played a key role in the collapse of the housing market by signaling that toxic mortgage backed securities were safe investments. While S&P and the other agencies have faced lawsuits from investors, a suit from DOJ would be the first federal action against a ratings agency since the crisis.
S&P said the suit was baseless in a statement to the Journal. “A DOJ lawsuit would be entirely without factual or legal merit,” the statement said. “It would disregard the central facts that S&P reviewed the same subprime mortgage data as the rest of the market — including U.S. government officials who in 2007 publicly stated that problems in the subprime market appeared to be contained — and that every (collateralized debt obligation) that DOJ has cited to us also independently received the same rating from another rating agency.”
source article
Apple Needs to Make it in America
