] The labor union for striking workers at the Oyster Creek
] nuclear power plant met with representatives for Sens.
] Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg at the union
] headquarters here Thursday.
]
] The talks mostly centered on the union's version of
] events that led to a massive fish kill at the plant last
] year. The two-hour session came as the union begins its
] fourth week of a strike at the nation's oldest nuclear
] power plant.
]
] At the meeting, two union leaders and six power plant
] workers said on Sept. 23, 2002, that they warned
] management not to turn off pumps that cool water
] discharged from the plant into Oyster Creek.

] "We brought it up several times," said Bill Strako, a
] control room operator. "We said, 'You know, if you do
] that, you're going to violate the thermal limits.'"

] "Does it tie into the strike?" Stroup said. "Yes, it
] does in a way. Our members are the safety net for this
] plant. Now we're walking up and down Route 9 in picket
] lines. And they're bringing in people who will do
] anything they're told."

The plant workers are still striking. Its been about a month now. The outside of the plant has taken on the look of a shanty town. Tents, fires in steel drums, and at least a hundred ragged looking picketers stationed at the plant's three main entrances.. The length of rt9 that runs along the plant is sporting signs every hundred feet or so, "Don't Trust AmeriGen's Lies!", "Who is running the plant?", "Striking for saftey, not money!", etc.. Between the strikers and the heavy national guard presence, its makes for one damn surreal scene..

There has been almost no press coverage.. This is one of the few articles I have found, and I've been looking. The AC Press seems to be the only paper in the area even taking note that there is a strike going on. Of course, all the other papers in the area are Gannet. Still, I find it very strange that the workers of the oldest (and most accident prone) nuclear power plant in the United States or America are striking because they don't feel the plant is safe, and none of our local news papers give enough of a shit to cover it!

Oh the comedy of errors! Plant errors killing fish.. Working striking over saftey.. National guard soldiers accidentally shooting themselves.. At a plant with a rusted and cracked drywell that's over ten years past its design lifetime.

I gotta get the hell outta this town^H^H^H^Hcounty^H^H^H^H^H^Hstate.

AC Press | Union says members warned company before act that caused 2002 fish kill

] I've modified an Epson LQ-500 dot matrix printer into a
] musical instrument. The project has now evolved into two
] different versions. The original project had two
] independent sound generators: a tape based sound
] generator similar in concept to a mellotron and tones
] generated from the print head. The new version of the
] software is written with the concept of turning the
] printer into an instrument without any physical
] modifications to the printer. Since the tape mellotron
] setup does require some modifications to the printer, it
] is not part of the new version.
]
]
] Most of the changes to the printer operation are done by
] changing the software. The printer is controlled by a NEC
] 7810 microprocessor that runs off code on an EPROM inside
] the printer. I have reverse engineered most of the basic
] operation of the printer and now have control of the
] paper feeder motor, the print head, the lights, the error
] beeper, and can read the buttons.

Dot Matrix Synth

] While most people are familiar with the black boxes in
] aircraft, which also serve as event data recorders, few
] motorists know there are similar devices in their
] vehicles as part of the system that controls air bags.
] Only 36 percent of the 38,000 people surveyed by the
] Insurance Research Council were aware of EDRs.
]
]
] But at least 10 million vehicles have them, estimated
] Philip W. Haseltine, president of the Automotive
] Coalition for Traffic Safety, a lobbying group in
] Arlington, Va.
]
] The most sophisticated EDRs collect pre-crash information
] including the speed of the vehicle, whether the driver
] was accelerating or braking and whether the seat belts
] were buckled.
]
] The collection of such information has excited a wide
] range of groups for different reasons, and EDRs have the
] potential to become one of the more controversial issues
] in the auto industry.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I don't want my every (driving) move recorded. On the other hand, maybe people will start to realize that they're accountable for what they do in their vehicles. The story this guy is about, who was doing 114 in a 30 and killed two girls, makes me lean toward the accountability end. But coupled with a GPS and suddenly every move you make is recorded. Now that's scary.

Cars' `Black Boxes' Hold Crash Data, New Privacy Issues

] DOES America need laddie television? The man who feels
] that television lacks respect for his programming wishes
] (fast cars, James Bond and busty cartoon women) should
] rest assured: Viacom has been listening. Tomorrow it's
] launching Spike TV, "the first network for men."

There you go, men. Now quit yer bitchin'.

Babes, Yes Please. Female Viewers, No.

] Sex.com, widely believed to be the most valuable URL in
] the world, has been returned to its rightful owner after
] a six-year custody battle.
]
] The US Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of
] cyber-squatter Stephen Cohen who had been using the
] domain name as the flagship product in an online porn
] empire which made him his fortune.
]
] It is believed that the sex.com site brought in around
] $500,000 per month in advertising.
]
] However, Cohen acquired the domain through unfair means
] when he wrote a letter to registrar Verisign asking it be
] signed over to him, and transferred from its original
] owner Gary Kremen, who had the original foresight to
] register the name.
]
] Kremen, outraged at Verisign's compliance with this
] request, then embarked on a lengthy legal battle to
] regain control of the domain.
]
] However, Cohen's failure to overturn a $65m damages award
] is far from the end of the story. Cohen is holed up in
] Mexico and appears to be understandably loath to re-enter
] the US and honour the pay award to Kremen.

Proof that pr0n hawkers are scumbags.

Silicon.com - Sex.com returned to its rightful owner

] Wild Oats Markets Inc. became the first grocery store in
] the United States to roll out a new type of "green"
] packaging which looks like plastic but turns into compost
] after disposal.
]
] Unofficially called the "Corntainer" in the natural food
] chain's 11 Pacific Northwest stores where it is being
] tested, the clear packaging is made from corn rather than
] petroleum.

Corny.

CNN.com - 'Corntainer' plastic hits the market - Jun. 13, 2003

] Monast, 44 - the mom of five kids aged 11 to 24 and
] grandmother of one - was attacked inside her Chester Le
] Boulevard townhouse, allegedly by a machete-wielding
] neighbour, Wednesday afternoon.
]
] "Both hands are on. The right one doesn't look too
] promising but they're hopeful about the left one," Irwin
] said. "I just hope the woman who did this can never get
] near her again."

Proof that Canadians are nuts. I wouldn't be smiling.

Woman smiling after hands - cut off in attack- reattached

] Cable operators say they may soon be able to offer
] services that would crush their satellite and phone
] competitors following introduction this week of a simple
] device that could free up massive amounts of bandwidth.
]
] These devices, about the size of two cigarette packs,
] could enable cable systems to transmit lots of
] high-definition TV (HDTV), video phone connections, video
] on demand and far faster high-speed Internet connections.
]
] "It allows you to dream, create and do things differently
] than you've ever done," says Comcast Cable President
] Steve Burke.
]
] Operators envision buying millions of these converters
] or similar ones planned by Motorola and others
] and putting them on virtually every TV owned by
] their nearly 72 million customers. Then operators can
] stop transmitting analog signals and go all-digital.
]
] That's a big deal. Analog TV channels consume about 65%
] of the bandwidth on most modern systems and
] operators can squeeze as many as eight digital channels
] into the bandwidth that each analog channel now fills.
]
] That's key for adding HDTV.

Adios analog.

Laughing Boy

Device could change cable

] U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) is
] pictured in this combo image falling off a Segway
] personal transporter on the front driveway of his
] parents' summer home June 12, 2003 in Kennebunkport,
] Maine. Bush arrived from Washington to spend the weekend
] with his father, former President George Bush, who
] celebrates his 79th birthday today and his mother
] Barbara. Bush was not injured in the fall.

Oh this is hysterical - tipping these things really takes some doing! But then we aren't talking about the sharpest tool in the shed either.

Laughing Boy

Bush falling off a Segway!

] Gallagher said there are a number of advantages to
] MRAM, the first of which is that it uses magnetic—
] rather than electronic—charges to store bits of data.
] This is done by controlling the spin of captured
] electrons. According to Gallagher, this technology
] could lead to portable devices that not only can
] store more data, but also access it faster, all the
] while using less battery power.

] Also, unlike electronic memory chips, the non-volatile
] MRAM chips can retain data even when power to the device
] is turned off. That means that PCs and other computers
] could boot up immediately similar to turning on a light
] switch, Gallagher said rather than having to wait for
] software to load up. That also will save power, since a
] device does not need a constant flow of power to keep the
] data intact.

IBM, Infineon Make Memory Advances