Author: Admin

Tuesday, January 25, 2005 A process that would normally take millions of years, scientists have mimicked within a couple of days. Today, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have turned wood mineral by the process of soaking poplar and pine in a chemical mix and then cooking them. The team of scientists accomplishing this feat, led by Yongsoon Shin, bought pine and poplar boards and performed a series of steps. The first step leading to the petrifying of the wood is thinly cutting it, then soaking it in acids and a silica solution, after that, heating it, and lastly, cooling the product in argon. Silica takes up a bond with the carbon left in the wood’s cellulose, creating silicon carbide, widely known as a ceramic.

Friday, January 28, 2005

New York —American manufacturing giant Proctor & Gamble (P&G) plans to acquire Gillette Co. for US$57 billion in stock. The purchase plan calls for P&G to swap 0.975 shares of its stock per share of Gillete Co. P&G also announced a stock buyback program in which they would purchase up to US$22 billion of shares over the next 18 months. Including the stock buyback program, the merger is being financed by 60 percent stock and 40 percent cash.

P&G is known for brands such as Ariel and Tide washing powder, Max Factor cosmetics, Pringles potato crisps (chips) and Hugo Boss and Lacoste perfumes.

Gillette, known for brands such as Gillette razors, Oral B dental care, and Duracell batteries, has had growing problems with the growth of private labels and price cuts demanded by large supermarkets.

After the acquisition is completed, Gillette’s CEO James Kilts will be P&G’s vice-chairman. Kilts said that he expects that this acquisition will cause additional mergers to take place.

“I believe the consumer product industry needs to consolidate,” said Kilts, “we believe we can bring these companies together and create a juggernaut.”

P&G and Gillette have a combined market capitalization of about $185 billion US, which will make it the largest in the sector.

The early morning announcement states that 6,000 employees will be eliminated. Most of the layoffs will result from reducing overlapping management positions and other supporting positions within the combined company.

Antitrust regulators in the US and Europe plan to review the acquisition, to determine whether the combined company will have too much power over pricing and shelf space.

P&G plans to provide additional details about the merger Friday morning (East Coast time) in New York.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

This past Sunday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a bill known as “Rocky’s Law” that requires Illinois high schools, through the local school district, to buy catastrophic injury insurance up to US$3 million or medical costs for up to five years, whichever one comes first, that covers student athletes. The insurance must cover student athletes while they are competing.

The legislation was named after Rasul “Rocky” Clark. In 2000, the Eisenhower High School football player became paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a tackle during a game. His school based health insurance covered the costs of his medical treatment. A legislator sponsoring the bill noted that the need for this type of insurance is rare. Clark’s mother attended the legislation signing. Her son died last year.

Before parents can claim money from school insurance, they first must pay out US$50,000. Schools have until January 1, 2014 to comply with the law. Schools cannot charge students more than US$5 to defray the cost of insurance. If a school district already requires student to be covered through private health insurance, they are exempted from this law.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Two protesters in the United States who are associated with the ‘Tar Sands Blockade’ were arrested Monday after they barricaded themselves inside a portion of the Keystone Oil Pipeline under construction in Winona, Texas. TransCanada, which owns the pipeline, stopped construction once the protest began.

“TransCanada Corporation didn’t bother to ask the people of this neighborhood if they wanted to have millions of gallons of poisonous tar sands pumped through their backyards,” said one of the protesters inside the pipeline, Matt Almonte in a statement posted to the group’s website. “This multinational corporation has bullied landowners and expropriated homes to fatten its bottom line”, added Almonte. Glen Collins, the second protester said, “I’m barricading this pipe with Tar Sands Blockade today to say loud and clear to the extraction industry that our communities and the resources we depend on for survival are not collateral damage.”

According to their website www.tarsandsblockade.org, Almonte and Collins entered the pipeline prior to about 7:30 a.m. local time. They went 25 feet into the pipeline and took with them two barrels filled with cement, weighing 600 pounds each and locked themselves in between them. At around noon, police on scene entered the section of pipe, only to emerge a few minutes later without the protesters. At 12:30, after an ambulance arrived on scene, police once again entered the pipe and began to pull on one of the barrels. They were successfully removed and both Almonte and Collins were arrested. A short time later a third protester, identified as Isabel Indigo Brooks, was also arrested.

In a statement to Wikinews, spokesperson for TransCanada Grady Semmens called the incident “unfortunate” saying, “This project is about supplying Canadian and American oil to U.S. refineries, pushing out more expensive crude oil from foreign regimes that do not support American values of freedom and common sense — Libya, Venezuela and the Middle East.” He also confirmed that construction was halted and staff members were “instructed to stand down and stop all work until local law enforcement resolved [the] situation”.

“It is unfortunate these protestors are trying to keep thousands of Americans from the jobs they depend on to provide for their families. This project is important not only to thousands of workers but also to Americans in general,” added Semmens.

Construction on portions of the pipeline were halted in January when the White House denied permits for it to be finished. “This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people,” said President Barack Obama in January.

The portion of the pipeline affected by the protesters is part of the ‘Gulf Coast Pipeline Project’ that is to be about 485 miles long and consist of a “36-inch crude oil pipeline beginning in Cushing, Oklahoma and extending south to Nederland, Texas”, says TransCanada on their website.

Monday, November 26, 2007

In the 18 months since Andrea Muizelaar was crowned winner of the reality TV series Canada’s Next Top Model, her life has been a complete whirlwind. From working in a dollar store in her hometown of Whitby, Ontario, to modeling haute couture in Toronto, she had reached her dream of becoming a true Top Model.

But at what cost? Unknown to casual television viewers, Muizelaar had been enveloped in the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which inevitably became too much for her to bear. She gave up modeling and moved back to Whitby, where she sought treatment for her disorder, re-entered college, and now works at a bank. Where is she now? Happy and healthy, she says.

Recently Andrea Muizelaar sat down with Wikinews reporter Mike Halterman in a candid interview that stretched to nearly two hours, as she told all about her hopes and aspirations, her battle with anorexia, and just what really happened on Canada’s Next Top Model.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tim Hortons, a popular Canadian express coffee and doughnut chain, has announced that they will be co-branding with another popular chain, Cold Stone Creamery, an American ice cream parlor chain.

The deal includes a total of 100 new stores, at CA$121,690 (US$100,000) each. Each company will have 50 stores that they will build as, or convert into, dual-operation franchises. Each of the 50 stores will offer menus from each company and be located in 7 states, mostly in the Northeastern U.S..

Executives at Tim Hortons believe that mixing the two together is perfect because Tim Hortons makes most of their profit in the morning, while the Creameries are more popular in the evening. The idea proved successful when tested for three months in Rhode Island, in two different stores.

“We’re very excited about the complementary daypart piece. It’s something unique in what we see from a co-branding perspective,” said Tim Hortons chief of operations, David Clanachan. Construction has already started and stores are expected to open in May.

Tim Hortons was founded by Canadian ice hockey player Tim Horton. The first store opened in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964. In July of 2007, there were over 2,700 locations in Canada and 500 in the U.S.. Cold Stone Creamery was founded in 1988 in Scottsdale, Arizona. There are over 1,400 operation, in locations such as Japan, South Korea and the U.S..