Utility Buys Town It Choked, Lock, Stock and Blue Plume. A power plant, accused of violating the Clean Air Act in Chesire, Ohio, is buying the town. By Katharine Q. Seelye. [New York Times: Science]

Wow.

5:25:07 PM    

World: Disused church collapses minutes after organist's return. 15:09 ET - Ananova [NewsBlip.com]

Never, ever play Sabbath Bloody Sabbath on an organ in a church.

5:15:05 PM    

Spent a goodly part of my weekend trying to get ATI's TV Wonder USB device to work (so that I can watch TV while I sit on the computer doing my news feeds) No joy. Report on that next week, and a full review of the unbreakable keyboard will be up 5/15/2002. For right now I'm off to return the device in question, and to see if I can find a reasonably priced high speed/large capacity HD to put in the firewire enclosure. Details to follow.

2:15:58 PM    

Toyota signs agreement with BMW to supply engines for Mini - Boston Globe 05-13-2002. Toyota to supply engines for BMW's new Minis  - Nando Times
Toyota, BMW Sign Engine Agreement  - Newsday [Google Business News]

While Toyota does tend to put lower powered engines in their own vehicles than I would l like (sedans need 6 cylinders, minimum), they also build some of the most reliable engines on the road today. This should prove interesting.

11:24:12 AM    

World: Water pistol 'safer way to find and destroy landmines'. 08:28 ET - Ananova [NewsBlip.com]

OK, so far today we have bees that can detect explosives, as well as water pistols to find and destroy mines. Next up, if we can use either horseshoes or lawn darts to destroy the mines that we have targeted, we'll have a triumverate of summer picnic items that have been converted to mine removal.

Seriously though, use a potato gun mounted on a Jeep it to target the mines that the bees find. A cheap, low tech solution to the problem. Wrap the barrel of the gun in gauze and rubber cement to minimize the chance of injuring the shooter, and you have a cheap, disposable weapon system for dealing with mines.

10:41:18 AM    

Sears to Buy Lands' End for $1.9 Billion. Sears, Roebuck and Co. said it agreed to buy Lands' End Inc. for about $1.9 billion in a bid to revive its apparel business. By Reuters. [New York Times: Business]

Holy cow! Lands End has some great clothes, but have never had a huge retail outlet, as they have been a catalog business for years. This is a good move.

10:27:15 AM    

NYT.  Bees on my bomb. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Details: Researchers train bees to go after the scent of exlposives instead of pollen.

9:28:46 AM