Great Video about time

I have no comment.

Thousands of census workers, including many temporary employees, are fanning out across America to gather information on the citizenry.  This is a process that takes place not only every decade in order to complete the constitutionally-mandated census; but also as part of the continuing “American Community Survey” conducted by the Census Bureau on a regular basis year in and year out.

What many Americans don’t realize, is that census workers — from the head of the Bureau and the Secretary of Commerce (its parent agency) down to the lowliest and newest Census employee — are empowered under federal law to actually demand access to any apartment or any other type of home or room that is rented out, in order to count persons in the abode and for “the collection of statistics.”  If the landlord of such apartment or other  leased premises refuses to grant the government worker access to your living quarters, whether you are present or not, the landlord can be fined $500.00.

That’s right — not only can citizens be fined if they fail to answer the increasingly intrusive questions asked of them by the federal government under the guise of simply counting the number of people in the country; but a landlord must give them access to your apartment whether you’re there or not, in order to gather whatever “statistics” the law permits.

In fact, some census workers apparently are going even further and demanding — and receiving — private cell phone numbers from landlords in order to call tenants and obtain information from them.  Isn’t it great to live in a “free” country?

I am not defending Foxconn, I don't know enough of the details to make a judgement either way, but this suicide thing really feels like a coordinated attack against the company.

To be fair, when you have ~350,000 employees, some will commit murder, some will commit rape, and some will commit suicide.

Genius.

Terribly important news! The Iron Man 2 premier has been moved from London to Los Angeles due to the travel complications created by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. If Iron Men were real, he would have placed a giant filter on top of the volcano, preventing all of this chaos from the get-go. This volcano is now officially the worst thing to happen in the whole history of humanity.

Report: BMW could hault U.S. production due to ash cloud

by Chris Shunk (RSS feed) on Apr 19th 2010 at 1:20PM

2009 BMW X5 xDrive35d - Click above for high-res image gallery

A volcano in Iceland has caused a world of hurt for European airliners and travelers alike, as thick ash in the atmosphere has caused the cancellation of an estimated 63,000 flights. A new report from BusinessWeek suggests that even the auto industry could be affected by the hazardous ash if airlines continue to stay grounded. BMW spokesman Mathias Schmidt has told BW that the German automaker may need to shut down its Spartanburg, South Carolina, which produces the X5 and X6 crossovers if planes remain on the ground more than two additional days.

So, how does the April 14 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano control the fate of manufacturing in South Carolina? BMW ships transmissions and other components from Germany to its sole U.S. plant via air. If BMW can't get parts to Spartanburg soon, the plant will be temporarily shut down. A bit of good news has come in the past 24 hours, though, as scientists say the volcano currently isn't shooting any ash into the atmosphere, though seismic activity in the area of the eruption is still said to be very high.

 

[Source: BusinessWeek]

How the Iceland volcano ash cloud is crippling Kenya's flower industry

Kenya's flower and vegetable industry, which employs tens of thousands of workers and contributes over a fifth of the country’s GDP, is losing $3 million per day because ash from the Iceland volcano has grounded freight flights.

A plume of ash from the Iceland volcano covers the farm of Pall Eggert Olafsson, in Thorvaldseyri, Iceland, Monday.

Brynjar Gauti/AP

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By Mike Pflanz, Correspondent / April 19, 2010

Nairobi, Kenya

Clouds of ash from the Iceland volcano are forcing thousands of workers at farms near the Equator to down tools and robbing Kenya’s flower and vegetable industry of $3 million per day.

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The East African country freights 1,000 metric tons of roses, carnations, French beans, snap peas, and other produce daily on overnight flights to Europe. About 1/3 of the cut flowers sold in the European Union are grown in Kenya.

But the Kenyan, British, and Dutch airlines that fly from Nairobi have been grounded since Thursday, following flight bans due to risks to aircraft from volcanic ash spewing from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

IN PICTURES: Iceland volcano

Already $12 million worth of flowers and vegetables destined for European supermarkets have had to be destroyed or given away.

Jane Ngige, the chief executive of the Kenya Flower Council, estimated that $8 million worth of flowers had been wasted and would have to be composted.

“It’s horrendous," she says. "There are batches at the airport that were due to fly last Thursday which have had to be destroyed, and there are farmers having to dump product on their farms.”

Growers were investigating flying produce to Spain or northern Africa, and then loading it on trucks to be driven to suppliers, who are fast running out of stock.

“We handled drought, El Niño and post-election violence, but we’ve never seen anything like this,” Stephen Mbithi, head of the Fresh Produce Exporters’ Association of Kenya, told the Daily Nation, a Kenyan newspaper.

23 percent of Kenya's GDP

Kenya’s horticulture industry brought $924 million into the economy last year, making it the largest foreign currency earner. The industry employs tens of thousands of workers and makes up more than a fifth percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“If we see this going another day or two, I’m looking at a revenue loss of about $1 million, and that’s just our company,” says Johnnie McMillan, operations director for Vegpro Group, headquartered in Nairobi. “That impact will be replicated across everyone else. It’s already had a huge impact on the industry, and this is only after a couple of days. If it carries on much longer, it’ll be devastating.

The company, one of hundreds in Kenya, was trying to slow production on farms, and by Monday had already been forced to dump 165 tons of vegetables and eight tons of flowers.

Workers told to stay home

Up to 5,000 farm workers across the industry were told to stay home on Monday as efforts were made to keep flowers and vegetables in the ground rather than harvest them.

“We’re hoping for the best, but we’re preparing for the worst. You can’t stop a rose stem from maturing or a field of green beans from growing,” says Mr. McMillan.

Under normal circumstances, produce is same day harvested, packed, chilled, and trucked to Nairobi’s international airport where it's loaded on passenger flights to Europe. Kenyan produce is typically in shops in Paris or London within 72 hours of being pulled from the fields in Kenya.

Supermarkets’ "just in time" delivery schedules mean that while there is some stock kept in reserve, it is only enough to last for two or three days.

IN PICTURES: Iceland volcano