Venezuela has ordered Royal Dutch/Shell to pay almost $131 million in back taxes. The government is cracking down on tax evasions by oil companies and so they also confiscated financial data form Chevron. Hugo Chavez, the current president of Venezuela, is trying to tighten the government’s control over the lucrative and strategic oil industry. The government has said that they are going to alert two more oil companies in the coming weeks if they owe back taxes or not.
Author: Adam Clare
Rebels in Cote d’Ivoire to Disarm
After many failed attempts to get the rebels in Cote d’Ivoire to lay down their weapons it looks like there is now hope. In addition to the rebels disarming,All Africa is reporting that pro-government militias will also disarm. Both sides are ready to re-enter negotiations as early as the end of the month.
Hydrogen Made Efficiently?
There is a start up company that has researched a new way to produce hydrogen. Producing hydrogen is generally inefficient with (until now I guess) a energy loss of 70% on average when used in a car. So this is promising. Oddly enough the trick was to pour some salt on the wound
Do You Have a Cancer Phone?
C|net has an article up that lets you know how much radiation your cell phone is emitting. The thing with this research is that it only looks into how much your brain can handle at once, but it by no means looks into the long-term effects of chronic exposure to cell phones.
I plan to use this list when I upgrade my cell phone, which I should do soon since the battery casing is paper thin.
Author wants to stop words
“Death Sentences: How Clichés, Weasel Words and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Language†is a book written by Australian Don Watson that wants to change the way we use words. He wants to get rid of ridiculous corporate speak that is destroying our language. Clearly, he needs to prioritize his mission statement to better implement his concepts so the optics of his position are more market-orientated on a multi-paradigm, multimedia medium of……..
His website has examples of what needs to be changed. Here’s an example
Time budget: ‘As in “Sorry I over extended my time budget this morning, it was my wifes birthday”. No, he was late!’