"Amazon engages in war of words" by David Streitfeld | New York Times August 11, 2014
Nothing unusual about articles being framed in that context in my propaganda pre$$.
NEW YORK — Amazon must be spooked by the idea of writers massing against it, because over the weekend it launched its own counterrevolutionary force....
I surrender. I don't want to read anymore, sorry.
The confrontation is, some people in publishing argue, a struggle over the future of reading in our time — or at least the future of Amazon and the big New York publishers....
The freshest part of Amazon’s call to arms was the history lesson. It recounted how the book industry hated mass-market paperbacks when they were introduced in the 1930s, and said they would ruin the business when they really rejuvenated it.
Unfortunately, to clinch its argument, it cited the wrong authority:
“The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if ‘publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.’ Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.”
This perceived slur on the memory of one of the 20th century’s most revered truth-tellers might prove to be one of Amazon’s biggest public relations blunders since it deleted copies of “1984” from readers’ Kindles in 2009.
A moment’s Web searching would have revealed to the Amazon Books Team, which is credited as the source of the Hachette post, that it was wildly misrepresenting this “famous author.”
When Orwell wrote that line, he was celebrating paperbacks published by Penguin, not urging suppression or collusion....
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"Newton startup using cardboard boxes to insulate homes" by Jay Fitzgerald | Globe Correspondent August 11, 2014
Most of us toss those cardboard boxes that bring goodies from Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers into the recycling bin without a second thought. But the cardboard may soon be coming back in the form of a cozy blanket of insulation lining the inside walls of homes around the country.
Using technology developed at the University of Maine, a Newton company is pursuing a simple enough idea: Why not turn cardboard boxes used just once into the fluffy cellulose insulation that is blown into the cavities of leaky old homes to make them more comfortable and cheaper to heat in winter?
“Recycled corrugated cardboard represents a fantastic opportunity,” said Mark Brandstein, chief executive of the Newton startup, UltraCell Insulation. “There’s a big demand for green, recycled materials out there.”
I'm not even going to say it, but once you know it is there.
UltraCell was recently awarded two large grants from Massachusetts and federal agencies and is testing its technology to treat recycled cardboard with fire-retardant chemicals that will make the material safe to use as insulation, and slightly more energy-efficient than traditional paper-based cellulose.
Cellulose materials make up only a fraction of a $7 billion insulation market in North America, and nearly all of the 500,000 tons of cellulose insulation made today is from recycled newspapers. However, the growing environmental movement is boosting sales of cellulose by about 15 percent a year, Brandstein said, double the rate for insulation made with fiberglass or foam.
But the supply of newsprint that can be recycled is falling because fewer people are buying newspapers.
Must have been all the agenda-pushing lies and elitist insults.
Related: Were You Selected by the Boston Globe?
I am embarra$$ed that I selected them today.
Cardboard, on the other hand, is on the rise, thanks to the boom in online commerce.
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The university owns the key patent jointly with UltraCell. Brandstein is a former telecommunications executive brought in to grow the company, which was founded by a group of academics, industry officials, and corporate executives.
Recycling newsprint into insulation is a dry process that involves sprinkling fire-retardant chemicals on the finely shredded fibers. The wet process pulps the cardboard into a slurry mix, at which point glues, tapes, metals and other materials are removed. The company’s fire-retardant chemical mix is then added. That ensures a “more consistent and thorough” application, Brandstein said.
After it is dried, the pulp is ground into a fluffy mulch and packaged in 25-pound bags.
Brandstein expects such insulation to cost about the same as that from newsprint. Still, cellulose insulation has a long way to go to be competitive price-wise with fiberglass, which remains the most widely used material for building insulation.
It costs about $6,500 to insulate a 2,000-square-foot home with fiberglass, said Chris Kirouac, a sales manager at Pro Insulators in Berlin and New Bedford.
Cellulose is more expensive — about $12,000 per home — but generally has higher insulating value than fiberglass, Kirouac said. Foam insulates best, but is so much more expensive — three to four times the price of fiberglass — that it is not as widely used in New England.
As for UltraCell’s prospects, Kirouac said his industry “welcomes all new technologies, as long as they work and are priced right.”
Charles Cottrell, vice president at the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association, said cellulose is not as environmentally friendly as its boosters claim. His group represents makers of fiberglass and spray-on foam insulation.
“It’s not as green as people think,” Cottrell said. “If you measure end-to-end how much energy it takes to make corrugated cardboard and then the entire recycling process, it’s not that great.”
Brandstein countered that the biggest environmental benefit of cellulose is that it uses recycled materials that otherwise would end up in landfills or incinerators.
“I don’t know how you can get any greener than that,” he said.
Though UltraCell’s primary goal is to make affordable, environmentally friendly insulation, it could also help struggling paper mills, which have been hit hard by fierce foreign competition and a digital society that uses less paper. A century ago, New England had hundreds of paper mills, but that number is down to fewer than 50.
“There are a lot of paper mills that want to partner with us,” Brandstein said. “We’re talking to many mill owners across New England and even the mid-Atlantic states. This could really help their business.”
The company has been scouting paper mills in New England and upstate New York as possible production sites.
“It’s certainly an intriguing product,” said Don Brutvan, vice president at Crocker Technical Papers, owner of the Fitchburg plant that helped produced the first batch of recycled cardboard. “It looks like a great niche product, but we’ll have to see if it fits the mill’s long-term capabilities.”
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"In Vt., students dig for links to 1787 Mass. rebellion" by Wilson Ring | Associated Press August 04, 2014
Shays’ Rebellion began in the summer of 1786 after small farmers in western Massachusetts, many of whom were Revolutionary War veterans, began to chafe at the economic policies that led to farm foreclosures and imprisonment for debt.
Now we have had fraudulent foreclosures and debt enslavement by the same centralized banking Shay's fought for freedom. I guess we have come full circle.
It reached its peak in early 1787 when the rebels led by Shays tried to seize the federal Springfield Armory. In the ensuing skirmish with the militia, four people were killed and many were wounded.
I'm not suggesting we raid the armory; however, Shay's Rebellion is what caused the aristocrats running this country to write the Constitution.
Sam Adams, btw, was the governor that put down Shays. Time to put down a beer, 'eh?
Shays and some of his followers fled to Vermont, then a republic known for its fierce independence. Vermont authorities were asked to surrender the rebels, but they refused.
That was then; this is now.
Shays stayed in the state for about two years, then left, eventually settling in New York after he and the other rebels received pardons. Some of his followers remained in Vermont.
Butz said the settlement was later abandoned and the buildings burned in about 1810. That’s consistent with what other historical records say was an epidemic — there’s no indication of what disease — that swept the area, killing many.
Town records indicate the area was never settled again. It was owned by a succession of timber companies.
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