January 21, 2010 by editor

The Davenport Cement Plant near Buffalo is one of 13 Lafarge North America facilities nationwide that will be required to upgrade its air pollution control equipment under an agreement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The consent decree announced Thursday (January 21) by the EPA requires the Davenport facility to install a dry absorbent addition (DAA) system to lower sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from its cement kiln.

Sulfur dioxide can cause respiratory illnesses particularly in at-risk populations including children, the elderly and asthmatics. The primary sources of SO2 emissions are fossil fuel combustion at power plants (66 percent) and other industrial facilities (29 percent), according to the EPA.

January 21, 2010 by bgierke

In the highly esteemed journal 'Nature' this week was a report of recent research indicating men have evolved more rapidly than women*. The study compared the Y chromosomes (the bit that makes a man male, (you know XY instead of XX) of chimps and humans.

Chimps are our nearest living relatives and over the last six million years our genetic codes have only diverged about 2 percent. Except the Y chromosome which is some 30 percent different. That's a big change in a relatively short period of time.

January 15, 2010 by editor

Despite adding a second hotel and collaborating with the city of Bettendorf on a $24-million events center, the Isle of Capri casino continues to lose gamblers.

Admissions to the riverboat casino in fiscal 2009 (ended June 30) totaled 1.25 million, a 28 percent decline from five years ago. Admissions are off nearly 40 percent from the riverboat's highwater attendance of just over 2 million admissions in fiscal year 2000.

The declining attendance appears to be continuing into fiscal 2010 with December 2009 admissions the lowest in the past five years and just 8,000 more than its sister casino, the Rhythm City in Davenport.

January 14, 2010 by bgierke

I can see a television when I shave in the morning and while I often watch CNN or the local news, sometimes I turn to Despierta America on Univision (must see!) or VH1 or a movie channel. While flipping through early on New Year’s Eve I found, in black and white on AMC, hay bales moving around a field to the tune of Three Blind Mice. Remember that one? The Three Stooges are awesome!

I couldn’t stop laughing and nearly cut myself. Wife rolled her eyes, tisk-tisked me, and asked when I was going to grow up. For the umpteenth time. She’s lost hope. Nyuk, nyuk. After she left though, I began to wonder about the evolution of humor. Later I googled the notion for a bit and found but turgid prose.

January 8, 2010 by editor

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to tighten the health standards for smog and the tougher regulations could impact Quad Cities industries and motorists.

Ground-level ozone forms when emissions from industrial facilities, power plants, landfills and motor vehicles react in the sun, and is linked to a number of serious health problems, ranging from aggravation of asthma to increased risk of premature death in people with heart or lung disease. Ozone also can harm healthy people who work and play outdoors.

The EPA is proposing to replace the standards set by the previous administration, which many believe were not protective enough of human health.

January 7, 2010 by bgierke

Make sure your sound is on and press this:

December 23 by editor

A request to obtain a permanent special use permit for a concrete redi-mix plant along Highway 67 in Bettendorf is drawing objections from neighbors along Valley Drive and the city's only "gated community" which overlooks the property.

The issue before the city's Board of Adjustment also pits the city's planning staff (which recommended approval) opposite the city's former planning head Mark Brockway who owns property across the highway from the site and who helped craft the city's comprehensive plan targeting the property for less intense industrial use.

The board delayed a vote on the special use permit in November, and put off a vote again in December until a full board (5 members) are present. The next board meeting is January 14.

December 22 by bgierke

Ok kids, if you’ve been paying attention, you realize that I (and others) think there’s more going on in one’s mind than can be described by any process identified thus far. That I (and others) disagree with many scientists and probably most neurobiologists who believe that consciousness will one day be understood as a biological process, albeit one quite complex.

I once read a complicated book, 'The Emperor’s New Mind' by British polymath Roger Penrose. He’s a respected scientist who thinks like I do. I guess I should say he thinks like I would if I had an IQ of 220 or so and didn’t have to use a calculator to do simple math. Simply put, he believes that consciousness is the result of quantum processes which occur in structures far smaller than atoms (Planck scale) called microtubules in the brain.

December 17, 2009 by editor

While touting a slowing in the decline of its operating revenue, Lee Enterprises (owner of the Quad City Times) announced this week it was cutting health care benefits for many of its retirees.

The changes to its health coverage/benefits is expected to reduce the corporation's liability by up to $30 million, according to the company's annual report filed with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The move triggered protests by union members outside the offices of Lee's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In its filing with the SEC, Lee said it was eliminating the medical coverage for some retirees and increasing the share other retired employees would be responsible for paying for health coverage.

December 17 by bgierke

I remember hearing years ago in school something to the effect that Eskimos have more than a hundred different names for snow. Recent investigation of that thought took me to a ponderous discussion of linguistic relativism. Whatever the number, it seems obvious to me that a people living in an environment so dominated by a substance would develop a very nuanced relationship with it.

Consider recreational users of backcountry in winter. Skiers, hikers, climbers etc. With experience, they’ll develop acute sensitivity to the nature of the snow through which they tramp, slide, andor ascend and not only because it governs the nature of their progress. The evolution of a particular season’s snowpack determines its proclivity to avalanche.

• Neve is granular snow on the upper part of a glacier.
• Sastrugi is snow sculpted and packed by wind erosion.
• Graupel is that type of snow that looks like little Styrofoam balls.
• Hoar is frozen dew.