- What can be done to make use of beer waste, something that can benefit one and all? No, not THAT kind of beer waste, the type that ends up being flushed down the sewage lines of bars, restaurants and apartments once the alcohol does its thing and is expunged from the body of the person consuming it. No, the beer waste in question comes from the actual production of the beer and one Vermont brewer may just have the answer for that perplexing question. The makers of Magic Hat beer are turning their operation green by finding an enviro-friendly way to use the waste created during the production process. The tens of thousands of pounds of wet, smelly mess left behind every day when Magic Hat beer is brewed and bottled along the assembly line or poured from the tap doesn’t sound like something that could benefit anyone, but the South Burlington company and energy firm Purpose Energy are partnering to make use of the waste. “If you can first remove all of the carbon and produce a renewable fuel source from it, then it is a lot easier to get rid of,” said Eric Fitch of Purpose Energy. “We just started feeding it about a week ago and as you can see, we already have a small flare going from the biogas that's being produced from the various waste.” Purpose Energy has built a 492,000-gallon digester to convert the grain waste, water and yeast product into usable biogas. At a cost of $2.7 million, the project has been months in the making and at present, the digester is pumping out about 15 cubic feet of biogas a minute. If production can be upped to 100 cubic feet of gas per minute, that would be enough to funnel the gas back into the plant and make the entire brewing process self-sustaining, in a sense. “Well you're talking about close to half a mile going back and forth between this digester and the heat exchanger and back to the building again, and then all the pipes that come out of our brewery, into our flow equalization tank,” said Dan Martell of Purpose Energy. Making beer from one’s own byproduct sounds more than a little disgusting on the surface, but of course the biogas would not come into contact with the actual beer. If the project proves successful for Magic Hat, Purpose Energy hopes to expand the idea to brewers all over the country. With those companies always in search of new means of reducing energy cost and waste from producing beer, the idea seems to have plenty of potential…………
- Irony appears to be lost on the city council members of Aberdeen, Wash. While he was alive, rocker Kurt Cobain would have wanted nothing to do with them or the establishment in general and would have expressed certain contempt for these small-time politicians, but now that the Nirvana front man has been gone from this earth for nearly two decades, the powers that be can blow right past that disdain and pretend that “honoring” Cobain somehow means he was appreciated and accepted while still alive. The latest attempt in this futile endeavor is now underway as the council debates whether to honor the rocker by naming the Young Street bridge in Aberdeen after him. The bridge was referenced in 'Something In The Way,' off Nirvana’s famed “Nevermind” album. The bridge is also where Cobain often claimed to have slept while growing up, near the Wishkah River crossing, which has become a visitor attraction for Nirvana fans and spawned the name of a live album the band released as well. A public hearing will be held on July 27 to debate renaming the bridge, which also includes a motion to name a small public park after Cobain. The council is reportedly split on the proposal, with some (seeking to draw in more tourists and further cash in on Cobain’s fame for the town’s profit) in favor and others mortified by the idea of honoring a man who was known to be a drug addict, regularly derided the city in interviews and died by suicide - although conspiracy theorists still insist the facts to support the suicide don’t add up. Renaming things and creating cash-generating commodities to capitalize on Cobain’s image has happened consistently since his death in 1994 and earlier this year, a statue of Cobain's signature Fender Jag-Stang guitar was unveiled in Aberdeen. Back in 2008, Converse "honored" the singer with his own limited edition training shoe, which bore his name, lyrics, writing and signature. Ironically, Cobain probably had nothing to do with any sort of athletic training during his life and would have hated the concept, but no one involved in these charades could care less about that………….
- A new European invasion is coming to the United States and looking to shake up the American music scene. It’s not a catch British rock band or a bunch of stylish Frenchmen peddling beautiful melodies, but rather Spotify, a Swedish digital music service with a catalog of 15 million songs and 10 million registered users in Europe. The system offers limited hours of music for free or streams unlimited songs for a small fee to computers and mobile phones. Free or cheap music could mean stern competition for Apple and its iTunes store, with 99-cent (or $1.29) digital downloads. Apple unquestionably has a chokehold on the digital music market, which was somewhat stagnant last year with just 1 percent growth from the previous year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Digital sales have somewhat rebounded this year and experts have expressed hope that last year was just an aberration. Spotify executives must subscribe to that theory because they wouldn’t spend millions to expand their business to the U.S. if they didn’t believe the digital music business would continue to grow. Some believe subscription services such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG, Slacker and others will become the preferred choice of users going forward and that Spotify will succeed in the U.S. with the same formula that has worked for it in Europe - a free service supported by advertising and two premium tiers that let users listen without ads on computers and on mobile devices. On the free option, users can listen to the company's catalog from a computer connection for six months. After six months, they are limited to
10 hours a month and up to five plays for any particular song. The next step up is paying $4.99 a month to access the service without ads or limitations from a computer connection. A “premium” level costs $9.99 a month and lets users listen to the service from a smartphone, such as an iPhone or Android, Palm or Windows 7 device. Spotify currently boats 10 million registered users in Europe, 1.6 million of whom spring for a premium service. Is that enough to steal a significant portion of Apple’s 60 percent share of the market? That will largely depend on the response of those fortunate enough to receive an invitation from Spotify or one of its partners to join the service, which is the only way in at present for American users………..
- Every now and then, a country needs to sit down and evaluate its constitution just to make sure there aren’t glaring loopholes and cracks that make it much easier for citizens and non-citizens alike to carry out heinous crimes on said country’s soil. So kudos to Mexico and President Felipe Calderon for approving several changes to the country's constitution aimed at cracking down on human trafficking. Calderon officially approved the changes Wednesday, one that requires those accused of human trafficking to be imprisoned during trials and one that guarantees anonymity of victims who denounce the crime. "It is important that they can give their testimony to the authorities and to society without being at risk," Calderon said. He also gave Mexico's Congress 180 days to approve a new nationwide human trafficking law that will streamline the process of handling trafficking cases across the country. "There are thousands and thousands of cases, in a society that is still unaware of the seriousness of this crime," he said. "We have to break through this curtain ... that is hiding from the Mexicans a criminal reality that is in front of us." This bill might seem long overdue to anyone with a shred of common sense, but its driving force seems to be the trend of criminal organizations that ship and sell drugs and weapons adding human trafficking to their repertoire to increase revenue. As part of Wednesday’s presentation, Calderon also showed a video featuring an anonymous woman who shared a story of how a man lured her into a human trafficking network over the internet. A report published earlier this year by Mexico City's human rights commission estimated that 10,000 women were victims of human trafficking in Mexico's capital alone, yet there were only 40 investigations of the crime and three convictions in the city in 2010. The commission labeled the trend a "new form of slavery” and on Wednesday, Calderon pleaded with lawmakers and citizens to face the problem directly. "We have to create a unified front to end human trafficking in Mexico," he said. "This front is not limited to police or officials, this front starts in the streets, in the neighborhoods and in the communities." Sounds like a solid idea, so why don’t you go ahead and get on that, Mexico, just put it on the “to do” list after “Stop drug violence from destroying country”…………
- If your boat has a giant hole in the hull and is taking on water in the middle of the ocean, hundreds of miles from shore, does it do much good to deny that said hole exists? The question is a fitting one for the NBA to ask it self after it laid off about 114 people over the last two days while steadfastly denying that the layoffs are a result of the league’s ongoing lockout. A league spokesman said Thursday are "not a direct result of the lockout” and characterized the moves as planned cost-cutting steps, which seems like total semantics in order to avoid admitting the unenviable financial position the Association currently finds itself in. The laid off employees represent about 11 percent of the league office workforce in New York, New Jersey and internationally, but spokesman Mike Bass insisted the layoffs are "not a direct result of the lockout but rather a response to the same underlying issue; that is, the league's expenses far outpace our revenues." The argument is as predictable as it is absurd, as the NBA has and will surely continue to do everything possible to back up its claims that it lost $300 million this season after losing hundreds of millions in each previous year of the collective bargaining agreement that expired at the end of the day June 30. The NBA Players Association has disputed those figures and accused the league of, um, creative accounting in order to make its financial plight seem much more dire than it actually is. "The roughly 11 percent reduction in headcount from the league office is part of larger cost-cutting measures to reduce our costs by $50 million across all areas of our business," Bass said. As for the lockout, the players and owners remain far apart on nearly all of the core issues and neither side has displayed any sense of urgency to get back to the negotiating table in recent days. In total, the NBA and teams had trimmed staff by about 275 since October 2008 as the lockout loomed on the horizon. Additionally, the league has cut administrative costs, travel and new technology and consolidated offices in Europe and Asia, closing offices in Paris and Tokyo, and is shutting down the studio in Secaucus, N.J. where it annually holds the draft lottery. Piece it all together and you almost can buy into the idea that a league operating at the height of its popularity is losing more than $300 million a year through no fault of those in charge……………
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