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If you limit yourself to the South you depress your own wages. Whatever your reason, if you stay where supply is high and demand is low, that is the barrier between yourself and better pay, not H1-B visas.

If I believed for a second that most of the nurses down here weren't on H1-B's, you'd be right. Having seen the numbers, you're dead wrong. Most of the nurses in our local hospital as well as my aunt's area in Dallas aren't native english-speakers, and very few are primary Spanish-speakers either.

The problem in the US is that we've devalued - by wage distortion - many professions. We get a decent number of doctors, and why not? The difference between a nursing degree and an MD is a couple years, and the wage disparity is huge. Going into nursing, quite frankly, has becone a losing monetary proposition.

Look at teaching, another great example. Grade/Middle/High-school teaching is a short flight to nowhere, economically, especially compared to college-level teaching. Wages there were depressed because of the immensely high number of women in the field whose income was the second income of the family. Of course, it also hurts that there are so many "hidden" costs to being a teacher, such as having to pay for classroom materials or teaching aids out of your own pocket with zero support/expense money from the schools. "Average" entry-level teacher wages hover around $30k/year, but that includes some of the private/expensive schools. If you're going into public education anywhere, expect it to be more around $26k/year - and remember, YOU have to absorb the cost of pretty much anything other than printed handouts in terms of classroom materials. And unless your significant other has a company plan, expect to be soaked for outrageous insurance rates, too.

Posted by JavaManJim

Re:Something to keep in mind

Where would the homeowners fit into the power generator chain - do they go first before the wind turbines or do they go last
just before the last plant to go online?

Debate flares over wind power in Texas

I live in Dallas TX. On 07/06/2008 the Dallas Morning News had a great article on "Debate Flares Over Wind Power" by Elizabeth Souder. The text edition. The critical part is wind in Texas is always fickle. The incident referred to by the original poster occurred in February 2008. Lets look at the DMN chart. 3:15AM wind blows strong; lowest demand for the day, price per megawatt 41.96. Then during the hottest time of the day 3:15PM; wind generates the least amount for the day, price per megawatt 109.80.

Below is quoted from the DMN article.

WHERE THE POWER COMES FROM IN TEXAS

1. WIND Wind turbines almost always go [online] first. While operating the turbines can be costly, the wind is free and operators bid low to ensure they can sell as much electricity as possible.

2. NUCLEAR Nuclear plants are the second cheapest source of power and tend to operate constantly throughout the year.

3. COAL Coals plants to third and also tend to operate constantly. Nuclear and coal plants are known as BASE LOAD GENERATORS.

4. HYDRO/OTHER/DC ties. Texas has a tiny amount of hydro-generated power. Some of the state's power comes from other types of plants such as solar panels. And some power comes through so-called DC ties, or power lines that bring electricity from outside the ERCOT territory.

5. NATURAL GAS The remaining supply is filled in by natural gas plants. That can drive up electricity prices because natural gas is costly. The newest, most efficient plants turn on first followed by older plants that are much more costly to operate. Some of these plants, called peaker plants only operate a few hours each year to fill in supply when demand surges.

6. MARKET RATE. THE LAST PLANT TO TURN ON SETS THE PRICE FOR THE ENTIRE MARKET. SO EVEN IF A WIND OPERATOR BIDS LOW, THAT OPERATOR'S PRICE RISES THROUGHOUT THE DAY AS PLANTS WITH HIGHER PRICED BIDS TURN ON.

Registration may be required.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/energy/stories/DN-wind_06bus.ART0.State.Edition1.4e033eb.html

Thanks,
Jim

And yeah, it is kind of idealist, but making information readily available (potentially) gives the Cuban public a powerful tool to guide their own country... I could see how that would benefit both America AND the Cuban people. "The pen is mightier than the sword"

What we've been doing so far has just been punishment for being non-democratic, but what could be far more useful and helpful would be only offering Cuba the tools of undoing their very own dictatorship, such as access to the Internet and other forms of communication. This is also fits nicely with Cuba's new found freedoms under Raul, including access to some new technologies (cell phones, in particular).

Let me guess, MBGMorden doesn't work in the White House IT department. Oh, and he's probably never done a consulting gig for Texas Governor Rick Perry, who claims email must be destroyed every seven days.

Seth

why do I need to pay extra for health insurance lately? Because doctors are being sued into oblivion.

Except in Texas (and a number of other states).

http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/05/18/tort-reform-is-healthcare-reform/ talks about how awesome Texas reform has been, and that doctors here pay 35% less in premiums now than they did before. The funny thing is, searching for tort reform in Texas brings up a lot of what you've said (everything is expensive because of lawsuits) and not much followup (tort reform has made everything cheaper).

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-medmal_17bus.ART0.State.Edition2.43983f4.html California has had Texas-style ($250k cap) tort reform since 1975.

So, given that several states have reformed, and given the fact that you cannot currently shop for health insurance across state lines (which implies -to me at least- that the cost of insurance is mostly related to the conditions within the state), can you show that health care is cheaper in a reformed state than a non-reformed state?

Not like they affect how he runs the state? How about appointing a creationist to head the State Board of Education, and change the English and science mandates for religious reasons?

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/DN-sboe_18tex.ART.State.Edition1.3bba4d6.html

http://www.tfn.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5125

Throughout much of the 90-minute service at Cornerstone Church, Mr. Perry sat on the red-carpeted stage next to the Rev. John Hagee. Mr. Perry was among about 60 mostly Republican candidates who accepted the invitation to be introduced to the megachurch's congregation of about 1,500, plus a radio and TV audience.

Yeah, because this sort of thing never happens on land lines.

Your provider can screw up your address no matter who it is. Don't think that just because you're with a provider who gives you physical service at a location that they can't possibly screw it up.

Replying to my own post, far too long after the story ran to get modded up. But the Dallas Morning News *finally* got around to reporting the story -- weeks after a relatively close vote on a DISD bond issue. DISD is under a cloud, withholding audit results that are likely to show the agency in a poor light, and the vote would have clearly been affected by the news that DISD has such a bad truancy problem that they have to put GPS monitors on their students.

The worst thing about the Morning News article is in how it describes the players who stand to benefit from the program.

New York Times: "Paul Pottinger, the chief executive of the company marketing the truancy monitoring system."

Dallas Morning News: "Paul Pottinger, the program's co-director."

This Pottinger fellow is the one asking for a million bucks or so for the program. Whether it has merit or not, it's awfully suspect to fail to report the fact that he will personally receive a sizable portion of that pot.

Here's the story, DMN style: Dallas ISD uses GPS technology to reduce truancy

During a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning, Mr. Rittenmeyer said there will probably be some job cuts as a result of the deal.

But he suggested they might not be extensive, noting that H-P and EDS don't currently overlap in many business areas.

"In terms of job cuts, we are continuing to streamline our workforce at EDS," Mr. Rittenmeyer said. "We've been doing that for some time. There obviously are going to be some changes. We had plans for that this year. We're going to continue to look at automation. We're going to continue to look at quality. Automation makes quality and service better for the client. It's just a natural evolution."

Dallas recently installed red-light cameras. I'll testify that red-light runners were a major problem here, but I didn't support the cameras because of the potential for abuse. There was concern at City Hall, too, especially from the city's most with-it councilperson, Angela Hunt.

To the surprise of just about everyone, the cameras worked! People actually started slowing down in time to stop if the light turned yellow. The city became safer.

But there was an inevitable downside... the cameras' revenue no longer supported their operating cost.

Once again, the unexpected happened. Dallas did NOT tweak yellow light timing to generate more tickets. Instead, they turned off some of the cameras. Apparently, the contract with the third-party camera operator has a clause that reduces the monthly charge from $3,800 per camera to "a fraction" of that cost (blame the Morning News for failing to tell whether that fraction is 1/10 or 9/10). So they're turning some of them off, noting that "most motorists won't realize this and behave as if the cameras are operational."

Which is what we wanted all along.

The city of Dallas is mired in several messes of its own making, resulting in high-profile FBI probes and even a suicide pact between two of its best-known (and most-troubled) behind-the-scenes power brokers. But in this case, the city comes shining through. And the Rangers won a double-header last night, too. Wonders never cease.

More info available from the Dallas Morning News article.

More info NOT available from "theNewspaper.com", a self-described "journal of the politics of driving" that never hesitates to pass on a story of red light camera *abuse*. I sent a link to the DMN story, but it never showed up. Agenda much?

I just wish the person who said this was running:

"All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today... They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture." dallasmorningviewsblog

OK, here's what I don't get: McCain has been unequivocal in stating his conviction that waterboarding is torture, and is illegal. He also traded on his public reputation for probity on this question to lay into his GOP presidential opponents who were anything short of forthrightly condemning waterboarding. He even said in that debate that the Army Field Manual ought to be the standard, and said he doesn't understand how anybody could want an American to torture.

So now he comes out to vote against a bill that would actually have banned waterboarding. How does he justify it? With what strikes me as incomprehensible legalism. Seriously, can someone please explain how McCain's rationale makes sense? Because I'm not seeing it. I think he's flip-flopping -- and on an issue that he's not given any of his opponents any wiggle room on. dallasmorningviewsblog

I just wish the person who said this was running:

"All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today... They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture." dallasmorningviewsblog

OK, here's what I don't get: McCain has been unequivocal in stating his conviction that waterboarding is torture, and is illegal. He also traded on his public reputation for probity on this question to lay into his GOP presidential opponents who were anything short of forthrightly condemning waterboarding. He even said in that debate that the Army Field Manual ought to be the standard, and said he doesn't understand how anybody could want an American to torture.

So now he comes out to vote against a bill that would actually have banned waterboarding. How does he justify it? With what strikes me as incomprehensible legalism. Seriously, can someone please explain how McCain's rationale makes sense? Because I'm not seeing it. I think he's flip-flopping -- and on an issue that he's not given any of his opponents any wiggle room on. dallasmorningviewsblog

That is the WHOLE point.

How can we go to war if there is not an EVER GROWING threat?

Diminish the power of our crime fighters, and more terrorists will perpetrate their deeds. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-redlights_15met.ART.North.Edition1.468120d.html/ - Dallas News

It is about the EFFECT, not the symptoms. The effect will be more crime. They want more crime so they can build more prisons and put false positives in there.

Here's an interesting read on hiring "Millennials" and why it's not always such a good idea:

Quote: "They've been overparented, overindulged and overprotected."

Rather than protectingthechildren, why not simply hold people accountable for what they say?

If a blogger says something that allegedly isn't true and the defamed person can offer some evidence that it's not true, sue the blogger for defamation.

If he's hiding behind the cloak of anonymity, AND there are alleged false statements, and there is enough evidence that if unrefuted would conclusively prove defamation occurred, get a court to order the web site that hosts it to either:
1) get the author to step forward and counter any evidence that the content is defamatory, or if that fails,
2) remove the content

Note that opinions and factual statements are generally not subject to defamation or libel, nor should they be. "CowboyNeal is a jerk" should never be censored. "CowboyNeal is a murderer" or worse, "CowboyNeal shot JFK," on the other hand, is actionable.

Of course, #2 is very likely to ,backfire.
--
As far as children and teenagers go, if Naomi says Kim is a jerk because she won't kiss Paul who really likes her, then if it's true she won't kiss Paul Kim doesn't have much recourse against Naomi.
On the other hand, if Paul is her boyfriend and she does kiss him, Naomi is just telling lies and should be held accountable.

Proof.

you are absolutely right, they should stick to telling kids to cut that hair!

He's against the federal government doing just about anything as long as it's not making it a felony to burn the American Flag or an $8 million subsidy for the the shrimp industry in his district:

Ron Paul is as much a Libertarian as John Edwards is a Socialist.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-ronpaul_27tex.ART.State.Edition1.43bdd5f.html

Accident on tollway kills man, backs up traffic

Irving activist Anthony Bond was driving his brother home from a day of cancer treatment Thursday afternoon when a pickup on the other side of the Dallas North Tollway slammed into the median, he said.

The collision sent a large chunk of concrete through the passenger side of the windshield of Mr. Bond's northbound PT Cruiser shortly before 4 p.m. The concrete struck William Mathew Bond, 57, in the face, killing him instantly, authorities said.

I never thought I'd be typing the phrase Tony Blair Squirrel.

In fact, I'm going to shorten it to TBS.

The TBS is a limited-edition computer bag from Crumpler for 13-inch to 15-inch laptops. It commemorates the recent retirement of Tony Blair as British prime minister.

The east coast of the US gets a significant portion of its annual rainfall in the form of tropical storm-related precipitation. If these storms were steered out to sea, what effect would that have on North American ecosystems? Agriculture? No one knows.

I can tell you that the Southeastern US would gladly take a hurricane right now, as long as it wasn't too severe.

So, one perfectly valid argument against the death penalty is that it is hard, and becoming increasingly harder, to apply. So hard that it's not worth it.

Basically many people think the death penalty is OK, but also don't like to see innocent people die at the hand of the state because of a mistake, or sometime even when the law used to convict is seen as unjust.

Hence the extremely long, costly, difficult appeal process. If a person is executed 20 years after the crime, is it worth it ?

So Pix it is. Today I read the Dallas Morning News (print) which had a picture. That same picture is also on Flickr. Note the HEAVY editing; 1) The white sleeve is to the left instead of right as in the original picture. 2) a brick wall has been added 3) a caption has been added "Dump Your Pen Friend".

From DMN. "Alison's feelings are on view at Flickr.com, where she kicked off a three-month discussion of privacy and copyright law with a post below a picture of the ad that reads, "Hey that's me! No joke. I think I'm being insulted.""

Your obligatory pix is below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sesh00/515961023/

Then the Dallas Morning News article, sans pix. And registration is probably required (don't you hate it?). There are some good privacy quotes in this article that haven't yet been covered in this /. discussion.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/ptech/stories/DN-suevirgin_21bus.ART.State.Edition1.35bdb09.html

Cheers, Jim

Dallas explosion injures 3, snarls traffic
(Sorry about the link, Dallas News is just WAY to heavy in adds)

Saw that one when working. Gezz, you could see those Acetylene canisters fly. People stopped, ran from their cars just amazing. All started with a faulting line filling the smaller tanks too.

This article calls it closer to 40%.

Yes, I read the transcript Did you? It doesn't seem like you paid attention.

The show includes sound-bites from A Few Good Men because Greg Palast is saying that David Iglesias was the real-life lawyer in a real-life military trial on which the role of Tom Cruise in the story of A Few Good Men was based.

The Dallas Morning News (via Wikipedia) concurs:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/n ation/stories/030107dnnatattorney.398bb40.html

"Mr. Iglesias, 49, is a Navy Reserve commander whose role as a defense lawyer in a famous military hazing case was the basis for the Tom Cruise character in the movie A Few Good Men."

Would like to know more about that case...

Instead of listening to the very small demographic of the hardcore gamers and hardcore developers whose world revolves around frames per second, polygon count, pixel shaders and rendering pipelines, they asked themselves (and probably lots of other people) what Joe and Jane want in a gaming console.

Please point out the law that says black people receive harsher sentences. Thanks.

["

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to former President Jimmy Carter, brought Dr. Gates to the White House from the CIA as a Soviet specialist.

'I think the Gates appointment is the best appointment that President Bush has made in the course of his six years in office,' Mr. Brzezinski said.

'I co-chaired with him [Dr. Gates] two years ago a study on American policy towards Iran.

'He is a remarkably intelligent, responsible and balanced individual whose judgment can be trusted and whose common sense is reassuring. This appointment may be marking the beginning of a major corrective in American policy towards the Middle East.'

Mr. Bush said Dr. Gates will bring a 'fresh perspective' to the Defense Department

"]

Jim Landers, "Gates well-armed for tough job", The Dallas Morning News, November 9, 2006

Of course we should not forget that Dr. Gates had a full chapter in the Walsh Iran/Contra report.

As for McCain's chances; if i was making the line, it would start at about 15:1, and i'd gladly take all of the sucker money coming down on him. His play for the right-side hasn't endeared him to the hard-right Republicans, and has alienated him from the independents. As for my take: He's no Bary Goldwater...

Your ex-mayor has even less chance than McCain. Did you see the NatRev cover of him about two months ago?

See this resignation letter form a lifelong Republican who has a shelf full of thank-yous from the Bushes

You're alluding to an indirect relationship.

It may even be a direct one.

The odds that a student entering the ninth grade in Dallas public schools will earn a regular diploma are hardly better than a coin toss. This horrific graduation rate is low even when compared to other large metro school districts. Of the 100 largest school districts in the United States, Dallas public schools rank 80th in overall graduation rate.

Oh absolutely, everyone has completely turned their back on Microsoft

Texas election law says Friedman will also have to collect 45,540 signatures to get on the 2006 ballot. He will not be able to start gathering signatures until March 8, the day after the state party primary elections, and can only collect signatures from registered Texans who did not vote in any primary. Friedman will have until May 11 to turn the signatures in and qualify for the ballot.

And from the Dallas Morning News:

The campaign is on track to raise $1 million by March to collect more than 45,000 signatures, a brick wall of a hurdle for an independent to get on the ballot. The only man to do it was Sam Houston. But then, Sam didn't have the Internet: 30,000 have signed up at www.kinkyfriedman.com.

-l

well, if one grows algea on land you run into the issue of harvesting enough, unless you're using controlled environments where every nutrient level is precisely tuned to the needs of the algea. in which case you're not producing a huge volume, but it's very useful for cleaning emissions from coal power plants. and if every coal plant in the us used algea tanks insted of conventional 'scrubbers' enough algea to produce enough biodiesel to run a large segment of our diesel market would be produced. now that's not using a lot of land at all, to replace a large portion (say as much diesel as every farmer in the US uses annually, plus every schoolbus)

growing algea on land is kinda silly though, when it grows on the ocean. but you're right 'algea' needs to be seperated from the sea water, it's harvesting and it would take a lot of acres of ocean to produce enough algea to say fill a harverster tanker, since you are probally only taking the top inch of water, and getting about 1% of the content of that inch of water back as 'concentrated' algea.

Unless of course you harvest at 'low tide' daily through some sort of automated growing field that's anchored off shore... you'd be expending a lot of energy just trying to collect the algea. it's something that's never beeen tried before, something that's never ben tested, and never been proven, Of course it's full of uncertainty. the only certainty though is that as long as everyone says 'it's unproven' and looks for more ways to exploit fossile fuels the longer it will 'stay' unproven.

BTW, on land algea production in controlled raceways has been researched, and is considered viable, but only at a 'certain' price point historically that price point has always been above the price of oil, but that's changing. the most heavily exploited fields have long since peaked, many fields are projected to peak soon, and the number of untapped fields are projected to grow a lot less slowly than the old over tapped sites begin to run dry, at least here in the US. and in certain parts of the mid-east as well. the united states is likely to 'hit' a new peak somewhere between 10-30 years from now, and if there had been a large outcry against possibly the worst oil spill in the history of mankind, our offshore rigs (the largest sector of field growth potential in the US) could cause that peak to hit even earlier.

I strongly believe that someone is going to come up with a viable business model to produce enough algea from free floating ocean harvesting to make it commercially viable. there is just too much 'under utilized' ocean water. some slow release 'wires' on boyoys could 'fertilize' the crop of algea, as slow moving harvester ships make 'runs' that allow them to harvest whichever 'field' was ripe, to concentrate the useful algea for processing into diesel and ethanol and oils and fertilizers etc. what would really get this going though are subsudies on production of biodiesel and/or ethanol. everyone likes no risk investments, so a government promising that you'll make a profit makes it a no brainer. I believe once the methods are designed, tested and proven, the 'need' for government assurances will go away. Consider sugar farming, sugar was once something only the rich could afford, but increasing production has reduced costs associated so much that it's now a very cheap commodity, so cheap that some growers would rather turn their sugar into ethanol in the hopes that they'll make more profit.

The same should also be true for algea, it will take time, and money, and research and risk taking to make algea viable, but once that has been done it will seem so easy some people will be wondering why we didn't do it 30 years ago. it took some bold risk takers in the 1980's to make soybeans the commodity they are today, and it will take bold risk takers to make algea the commodity it can be in the future.

Any sort of electro-magnetic field decreases as the square of the distance, so to interfere with wireless devices the wireless transmitter must be darn close to these High Voltage lines or the signal must be several 100's of watts to propogate more than a few meters from the line. Last time I looked in rural areas, these High Voltage lines were not close to anything but perhaps a few farmhouses and were strung 100+ feet off the ground. I don't expect TXU would run this service in the city, unless via buried cable where shielding would eliminate interference. Whatever the technology, it has already been rolled out in Cincinatti, OH (see http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/st ories/DN-txu_19bus.ART.State.Edition3.bf6a1c.html) Anyone heard any complaints from that market? I know my Internet wireless uses signals that are up in the Ghz band so I don't expect any problems. The whole problem, best I can tell, is from Amateur Radio Operators ()who as I read the rules are protected (if they are licensed). So I see a LOT of bitching about nothing. I don't see this intefering with any vital communications such as Police, Fire and others who normally use bands above this (155mhz and 800Mhz are common). Some HF aircraft freqs are in this range but most are in the 130's range. So why the big fuss?

About 9 months ago, The Dallas (county) Sheriff's office installed a new prisoner tracking program and LOST some of the prisoners. No, they did not let them out, they were still in jail but they could not find them. (Even the prisoner's lawyers could not find them!) Here is an example: http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/dn/latestnews/stor ies/052905dnmetjailstuck.f2f1f79c.html

The upcoming DST changes will reduce the amount of energy we use. This is good. Hopefully, market forces and high gas prices will change American buying habits for autos. If gas prices stay high people will slowly change their buying patterns on vehicles, their views of mass transportation, etc... I know the DART rail here in Dallas is now over crowded due to high fuel costs. When I drive to work I notice that the parking lot for the DART rail nearby is often overflowing with cars. Here is a quote from our local Dallas Morning news:

"Rising gas prices are prompting a growing number of North Texas commuters to park their cars in favor of buses and trains, but Dallas Area Rapid Transit is considering service cuts to help balance its budget.

Though DART ridership has increased 11 percent on its bus and light-rail lines and 18 percent on the Trinity Railway Express commuter line, the additional passengers have not helped the agency's finances." -Dallas Morning News (Subscription Required) Bugmenot.com

Thats market forces in action and thats how capitalism works.

JOhn

The Dallas Morning News (19-AUG) has a story on this. Registration is usually required, so text follows . . .

Article URL: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/lat estnews/stories/081905dnmetnanosheet.1c9439ac.html
Video URL: http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2005/nanotech/

---------

LITTLE CREATION, BIG STEP

UTD team's chemical ribbons could assist many high-tech dreams

09:01 PM CDT on Thursday, August 18, 2005

By SUE GOETINCK AMBROSE / The Dallas Morning News

Scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas have spun yards of chemical ribbons that are lighter than a feather but stronger than steel a significant advance in the rapidly growing field of nanotechnology.

(Picture: LOUIS DeLUCA/DMN University of Texas at Dallas scientists (from left) Mei Zhang, Sergey Lee, Ali Aliev, Anvar Zakhidov, Shaoli Fang and leader Ray Baughman took part in the research.)

The development could lead to a host of high-tech applications that scientists have dreamed of but haven't had an easy way to create: futuristic clothes that light up, store energy or blunt bullets; car doors that are ultra light, extra strong and double as batteries to store solar energy; flexible, filmy light bulbs that are thinner than a human hair; artificial muscles for robots; and solar sails to propel space vehicles.

A report describing the chemical ribbons, created from tiny carbon tubes barely visible to the human eye, appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"This is a big deal, a real big deal," said James Tour, a chemist at Rice University in Houston, of the new study. "Every paragraph is a gold mine."

The ribbons are created from carbon nanotubes, filaments about one-five-thousandth the width of a human hair. At the atomic level, the nanotubes look like cylinders of chicken wire. Because the nanotubes, like diamonds, are made entirely of carbon, they are extraordinarily strong. They also conduct electricity.

Scientists had known of carbon nanotubes' exceptional properties but had struggled to easily convert them into convenient forms. Last year, the UTD scientists, led by chemist Ray Baughman, had spun the nanotubes into yarn. Other scientists had created small sheets of nanotubes, but their process was cumbersome. DallasNews.com/extra

"The value of this invention is to make it into sheets," said Ned Thomas, a materials scientist at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Clever people will take those sheets and put them into technologies that have yet to be invented."

THE PROCEDURE

Making the ribbons is quite simple, Dr. Baughman said. The UTD scientists started with a "forest" of nanotube trees, about one-third of a millimeter high. Then they stuck a Post-It note to one edge of the forest and gently pulled away. The nanotube trees were drawn out, and as the researchers kept pulling, the trees stuck to each other side by side, forming a long, wispy and transparent sheet.

Sheets more than a meter long, about two inches wide, and less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair thick can be pulled in less than a minute, by hand in the lab, Dr. Baughman said. The process easily could be industrialized, he said.

"There is no limit on how wide they can be," Dr. Baughman said.

The ability to convert carbon nanotubes into such a useful form will be a boon to many small companies trying to use them to create newer or better devices, Dr. Thomas said.

"Nanotechnology needs this," he said. "It's been hyped, and there's been a lot of expectations."

Dr. Baughman, who said the university and a collaborating Australian national lab have

The Dallas Morning News (19-AUG) has a story on this. Registration is usually required, so text follows . . .

Article URL: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/lat estnews/stories/081905dnmetnanosheet.1c9439ac.html
Video URL: http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2005/nanotech/

---------

LITTLE CREATION, BIG STEP

UTD team's chemical ribbons could assist many high-tech dreams

09:01 PM CDT on Thursday, August 18, 2005

By SUE GOETINCK AMBROSE / The Dallas Morning News

Scientists from the University of Texas at Dallas have spun yards of chemical ribbons that are lighter than a feather but stronger than steel a significant advance in the rapidly growing field of nanotechnology.

(Picture: LOUIS DeLUCA/DMN University of Texas at Dallas scientists (from left) Mei Zhang, Sergey Lee, Ali Aliev, Anvar Zakhidov, Shaoli Fang and leader Ray Baughman took part in the research.)

The development could lead to a host of high-tech applications that scientists have dreamed of but haven't had an easy way to create: futuristic clothes that light up, store energy or blunt bullets; car doors that are ultra light, extra strong and double as batteries to store solar energy; flexible, filmy light bulbs that are thinner than a human hair; artificial muscles for robots; and solar sails to propel space vehicles.

A report describing the chemical ribbons, created from tiny carbon tubes barely visible to the human eye, appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"This is a big deal, a real big deal," said James Tour, a chemist at Rice University in Houston, of the new study. "Every paragraph is a gold mine."

The ribbons are created from carbon nanotubes, filaments about one-five-thousandth the width of a human hair. At the atomic level, the nanotubes look like cylinders of chicken wire. Because the nanotubes, like diamonds, are made entirely of carbon, they are extraordinarily strong. They also conduct electricity.

Scientists had known of carbon nanotubes' exceptional properties but had struggled to easily convert them into convenient forms. Last year, the UTD scientists, led by chemist Ray Baughman, had spun the nanotubes into yarn. Other scientists had created small sheets of nanotubes, but their process was cumbersome. DallasNews.com/extra

"The value of this invention is to make it into sheets," said Ned Thomas, a materials scientist at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Clever people will take those sheets and put them into technologies that have yet to be invented."

THE PROCEDURE

Making the ribbons is quite simple, Dr. Baughman said. The UTD scientists started with a "forest" of nanotube trees, about one-third of a millimeter high. Then they stuck a Post-It note to one edge of the forest and gently pulled away. The nanotube trees were drawn out, and as the researchers kept pulling, the trees stuck to each other side by side, forming a long, wispy and transparent sheet.

Sheets more than a meter long, about two inches wide, and less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair thick can be pulled in less than a minute, by hand in the lab, Dr. Baughman said. The process easily could be industrialized, he said.

"There is no limit on how wide they can be," Dr. Baughman said.

The ability to convert carbon nanotubes into such a useful form will be a boon to many small companies trying to use them to create newer or better devices, Dr. Thomas said.

"Nanotechnology needs this," he said. "It's been hyped, and there's been a lot of expectations."

Dr. Baughman, who said the university and a collaborating Australian national lab have

NO! That is a recipe for continuation of the status quo. They BOTH need to feel the heat NOW. Otherwise the Dems will take over and think their social agenda of increasing the loss of our freedoms for different reasons was the cause of their "success" at the polls. You wind up in a perpetual seesaw resulting in the steady elimination of all rights equally between the two. You repeatedly trade bully one for bully two, then reverse and repeat.

There is nothing you or I can do to stop the pendulum of the bi-polar polity, other than convince enough people who will vote to actually change it. There was a chance at a third party with clout, but Buchanan, the Republican loyalist to the end, took the FEC money and trashed them in 2000. Demcorats still blame Nader, the fools, they should be blaming Buchanan, Perot and Ventura.

In the current circumstances, the best that can be achieved is an evenness of parties, and the abrasion that comes with it. I think that a large part of the economic boom in the 90's was due to the great friction between the parties. Neither side had enough power to suck their vigorish off of the top, and the free market that could, did. The equities traders screwed it up, but equity traders should be dealt with. If they didn't venture for capitalisation of the business, they are leeches, sucking from the valuation of the compensation provided to the producers of the product.

An Abridged Listing Why I Beat Upon Republicans Presently

The republicans have gained the upper hand in large part by betraying both their core ideology and the Dreamtime America. NeoConservatism's maturation can be traced from marxism to trotskyite CIA stooges to Scoop Jackson DemoHawks to Reagan to the Son of Bush. They have never given up the marxist trait of spewing rhetoric, the truth notwithstanding. The self-confessed American traitor, David Horrowitz calls Kerry and Fonda traitors, and is given stature within the Right. The putrescence of moral relevancy oozing from the partisan defense of a president who fixed the intelligence and the facts around his policy of familial vengence, and took America into an unrighteous conflict without contemplating the aftermath. a president who sings sweet songs of liberty and democracy, yet gives aid to dictatorial destroyers of democracy, has liasons with leaders loathsome of liberty, and goes out on ManDates with Saudi Princes who come to the USA laden with extra baggage.

When did conservatives begin to support due process of law applied inequally to humans? That is a high crime against America, yet they still repeatedly remind us that a stained blue dress is impeachable? Why not decry Blood-Stained Iraq Sands?

Bush's SCOTUS nomimee Roberts is a dangerous and activist judge who DOES NOT adjudicate using original intent, and all the country can think about is which way he'll decide on abortion cases. His assent in the Hamdi v Rumsfeld appeal is frightful. It posits that a president is above the very law that legitimises his power, stating this is a function of war power, in a war upon unstated enemies, of an indeterminate duration. Why hasn't anyone asked Roberts just what the hell he was doing during that ongoing criminal enterprise: The Reagan Administration? This is ano

Some highlights:

• Florida State University tried to protect player in rape case.
• Essex County prosecutors are still deciding whether to try the accused football players, 15 and 16, as adults.
• Rape trial delayed, football continues.

There are hundreds of other cases listed. And that's at the high school level. The college level is even worse.

Not only does football make rapists, multiple rape coverups involving high school, college, and NFL officials are on record. It's time for a serious crackdown.

Protect the children from steroid-enhanced monsters!

> ...all of your evidence is anecdotal. Because things suck for you, then it must suck for everyone.

No, it doesn't suck for everyone - it just sucks more than it used to for the average person.

This is not anecdotal.

"Two-income families now commit about three-fourths of their incomes to fixed expenses compared with just over half in the early 1970s."

> People considered television a luxury!

In 1955, about 64% of households had one. A color set was about $800, which would be about $5500 today. That's about the price of a nice big plasma TV, and guess what? It's a luxury item. No suprise there. People bought what they could afford, just like today. If cheap TVs and cell phones were available then, they would have bought them.

Yes, you can get ahead by living modestly, and kudos to those who do (I've been there). But the reality is that it's much harder for the average middle-class worker to save now than it used to be. Energy, housing, and health care have all gone up disproportionately. Disposable income is down and continuing to drop. We still have a high standard of living, but personal debt has had to skyrocket to maintain it. Why is that? We're working harder than ever before - is it "whining" to point out that we're getting the shaft?

The reason why I didn't have any sales numbers in the story is because official numbers didn't yet exist.

In fact, despite Sony's promise of an official tally, there is still no hard data.

But American Technology Research just released a report today on PSP sales that estimates that while Sony has probably shipped all 1 million of the PSPs that were promised for the North American launch, only 475,000 to 575,000 have been sold. About 250,000 to 300,000 are still out there on store shelves. Hope that helps.

Victor Godinez
The Dallas Morning News
(FYI, you can read my original story here: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/st ories/032905dnbuspspsales.905f0.html

Also the president explicitly did NOT denounce the ad; instead, he attacked all 527 campaign ads (changing the subject), and quite pointedly refrained from attacking the swift boat ad in particular. He simply said they were all "bad for the system."

Most importantly, the Bush connection is not just Ben Ginsburg but also Kenneth Cordier, Merrie Spaeth, and, less directly, Karl Rove. And everyone in DC knows this crap has Karl Rove's M.O. all over it.

Finally, you keep claiming that Bush "denied, debunked, and dismissed" these claims in 2000, yet NOBODY has stepped forward to tell anyone what Bush was actually doing during his missing year. That's because he spent the year partying.

Which really wouldn't bother me so much if he and Cheney were not painting him as some kind of freaking war hero just because he strutted around in a flight suit pretending we had won Iraq! All the while supporting the aspersions cast on Kerry's war record. By the way, Cheney's comment that voting for Kerry will lead to terrorism in the US tells us all we need to know about whether the Bush Administration is willing to capitalize politically on the Swift Boat Veteran lies.

What is/was the scandal? I'd like to know because I write them a check every month :/

In 2002, their European operations took a nosedive, and they had to borrow a wad o'cash to get things back together. I can't find any decent muckraking on the events, probably because the local paper is widely known to be a corporate tool (just ask these guys or these guys).

But here's one mention (2/3 down the page), and the local paper did mention the problems in a puff piece saying how great everything is now: turn off JavaScript to read without registration (google cache also requires you turn off JS).