Chad Clark's Open Journal : 2007-02-01

1)

There is an interesting article about the Google book project at
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070205fa_fact_toobin?page=1

The book project is at http://books.google.com/ .


2) Beer prices.  People are crazy.

Labatt's wants to buy Lakeport.  Lakeport brews cheap beer.  Lakeport makes
money selling cheap beer.

The following news post claims people are speculating that Labatt's will try
to raise the price of cheap beer and try to migrate customers who currently
buy cheap beer to customers who buy expensive beer.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/070201/b020199A.html

There are other companies that brew cheap beer.  Look at how well Mountain
Crest did.  (M.C. sales in Alberta are worth over $55 million annually. [1])
Big Rock brews President's Choice and Alberta Genuine Draught beer.

The CBC article notes "Discount beer holds about 37 per cent share of
Canadian beer sales".  It seems to me there is a lot of market demand for
cheap beer.  I don't expect those people will buy expensive beer.  I suspect
if they wanted to buy expensive beer that they would already be doing so.

I'm not an economist but follow the logic.  1) cheap beer sales account for
a lot of the total beer sales.  2) there are several other companies that
brew cheap bear.  3) should we take our proffitable cheap beer business and
stop selling cheap beer with the expectation that the customers will buy
our other products when there exist several near-perfect substitutes for
the product we are trying to replace?

It seems to me that if Labatt's buys a company that is making a lot of money
in one market and tries to move the customers in that market into a new
market that they would be driving customers away.

It also seems to me that even if the other cheap beer companies / brands
tried to raise their prices that someone would see the demand for cheap beer
and start their own company.  Remember that Mountain Crest was started by
two university students who were both near 20 years old.

I don't see why the people at Labatt's would believe they can make premium
beer drinkers out of cheap beer drinkers.  To be fair I am far from an an
expert on beer drinking or drinkers and people at Labatt's probably know
more about their customers that I do.

In other news Alberta will tax imported beer $0.40 per 12 bottles and $0.25
per 12 cans due to liquor control board expenses.

In yet other news Big Rock stock price jumped up over 6% today.  There are
rumors that Molson will now try to buy a smaller brewing company (who makes
cheap bear) because Labatt's is trying to.  In comparison Lakeport's stock
price jumped over 35%.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Crest_Brewing_Corp.


3)

Recently someone posted a claim that a cheap drug reduced tumors by up to
60% in size in lab animals.  It was exciting news but also sounds a bit
optimistic given how medical research tends to go.

There were claims that the drug would not be funded by large drug companies
because there was little profit in it.

Someone who does related research posted about the hype and explains the
situation.  Find it at
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/01/in_which_my_words_will_be_misinterpreted.php

The research comes out of the University of Alberta who has setup an
informational web page that reads:

  At this point, the University of Alberta, the Alberta Cancer Board and
  Capital Health do not condone or advise the use of dichloroacetate (DCA)
  in human beings for the treatment of cancer since no human beings have
  gone through clinical trials using DCA to treat cancer.

Don't think the research will not be pursued.  The page goes on:

  University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board are committed to
  performing clinical trials in the immediate future in consultation with
  regulatory agencies such as Health Canada.


4)  Build an electricity producing wind turbine

This is a very interesting how-to.  There are a lot of pictures and links
to more information on various stages of design and construction.

http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/index.html


5) We absorb more nutrients from food we find tasty.

 http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=13&articleID=13A84F12-E7F2-99DF-3AAF3B046BF5FEB4 reads:

  When it comes to healthy absorption of nutrients, taste matters. Glassner
  cites a study in which "Swedish and Thai women were fed a Thai dish that
  the Swedes found overly spicy. The Thai women, who liked the dish,
  absorbed more iron from the meal. When the researchers reversed the
  experiment and served hamburger, potatoes, and beans, the Swedes, who
  like this food, absorbed more iron. Most telling was a third variation of
  the experiment, in which both the Swedes and the Thais were given food
  that was high in nutrients but consisted of a sticky, savorless paste. In
  this case, neither group absorbed much iron."