they pave paradise

The destruction continues unabated.


City-Size Tract of Amazon Forest Cleared in April
06/11/2008, National Geographic Brasil via Amazonia

In just a month, an area nearly the size of New York City was cleared in the Amazon rain forest — an "alarming" and "worse-than-imagined" development, the Brazilian government said in a statement.

At least 433 square miles (1,123 square kilometers) were deforested in Brazil in April 2008. That's eight times more than the 55 square miles (145 square kilometers) destroyed the month before, according to data released last week by the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE), which monitors the Amazon.

The results suggest that the deforestation rate has accelerated, INPE said.

Complete story here

sayings that sound reasonable. but aren't.

As long as you're going to be thinking anyway, think big.

--Donald Trump

it's a (show me) gas

The state is in the heart of the heart of the country, and that's at least partly why Missouri has a lucky position when it comes to the price of gasoline these days.


Cheap Gas in Missouri
What keeps pump prices so low in certain states?

By Jacob Leibenluft, Slate online, Monday, June 9, 2008

While the average gas price nationwide passed $4 last weekend, Missouri could boast of prices around $3.825, the cheapest in the country. How come the Show Me State has the lowest gas prices?

Taxes, pipelines, and ethanol. State gas taxes—which are assessed on top of the federal rate of 18.4 cents per gallon—tend to get the most attention in comparisons of fuel prices across states. At 17.6 cents per gallon, Missouri's gas taxes are low, but they aren't quite as low as some other states'. New Jersey, for example, takes just 14.5 cents per gallon, but its prices remain more expensive than Missouri's. (The Garden State's ban on self-service pumps adds an estimated nickel or so per gallon to the retail price.)

In Missouri, geography helps keep prices low. The state doesn't have any oil refineries, and its share of U.S. crude oil production is so small that the Department of Energy reports it as 0 percent. But because of its proximity to Texas, Oklahoma, and the Gulf Coast states, Missouri is crisscrossed by some of the nation's larger pipelines. Oil barges also pass through the state on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Proximity to producers reduces transportation costs a little, but it also makes Missouri less susceptible to price spikes when individual refineries run into problems. . . .

~ More at Slate

little green monster

Nothing arouses ambition so much as the trumpet clang of another's fame.

--Baltasar Gracián, Spanish writer and philosopher

death is no object

Here's yet another innovative way in which U.S. company behave like pigs at the trough and exhibit absolutely no scruples about greed. . . .


Companies Promise CEOs Lavish Posthumous Paydays
Options Vest, Insurance Flows; Even Salaries May Continue

by Mark Maremont, The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, June 11, 2008

You still can't take it with you. But some executives have arranged for the next best thing: huge corporate payouts to their heirs if they die in office.

Take Eugene Isenberg, the 78-year-old chief executive of Nabors Industries Ltd. If Mr. Isenberg died tomorrow, Nabors would owe his estate a "severance" payment of at least $263.6 million, company filings show. That's more than the first-quarter earnings at the Houston oil-service company.

Dozens of other companies offer lush death-benefit packages to their top executives, according to a Wall Street Journal review of federal filings. Many companies accelerate unvested stock awards after a death, which by itself can amount to tens of millions of dollars. Some promise giant posthumous severance payouts, supercharged pensions or even a continuation of executives' salaries or bonuses for years after they're dead.

The CEO of Shaw Group Inc. is in line to be paid $17 million for not competing with the engineering and construction company after he dies.

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s top officer didn't even need to die to get a death benefit; Lockheed paid out the sum, about $1 million, in March while he was still very much alive.

Death benefits, sometimes called golden coffins, have been around for years, but until recently the amounts were often impossible to determine or were shrouded in the fog of proxy-statement language. A federal rule change 18 months ago required companies to be clearer about what they're obliged to pay if top executives end their employment, under various circumstances. . . .

~ Complete story here

iCandy, iHype

Holy cow, run for your lives -- the great American Apple hype machine has been turned on again! The only catch is: this gadget really is hott.


Apple rolls out thinner, more robust iPhone
Priced from $199, it will compete with BlackBerry

By Eric Benderoff, Chicago Tribune, June 9, 2008

As widely expected, Apple Inc. announced an upgraded software platform, and a slightly thinner iPhone and cut the price to as little as $199 for what Apple now calls the iPhone 3G.

The iPhone 3G will go on sale July 11 and the 8-gigabyte version will sell for $199. An iPhone 3G with 16-gigabytes will sell for $299. Currently, the 8-gb iPhone is priced at $399 and the 16-gb version is $499.

More significantly, the iPhone 2.0 software will be able to connect directly to Microsoft's Exchange software for enterprises. Existing iPhone owners will be able to upgrade to the 2.0 version for free while iPod Touch owners can upgrade for $9.95.

That means the slightly thinner iPhone 3G will now be more competitive with the robust operating systems from Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry devices, and Microsoft's own Windows Mobile devices.

Apple also introduced a sweeping array of new software for individual users, including a new feature called "Mobile Me." That program sends all information a user may want to access--from new e-mails to calendar appointments -- directly to the Internet where it is automatically distributed instantly to any device as changes occur, from an office computer to an iPhone. . . .

~ Complete story here