Looking in at Iowa

From Chronicle of Higher Education:

To catch college students trading copyrighted songs online, the Recording Industry Association of America uses the same file-sharing software that online pirates love, an RIAA representative told The Chronicle at the organization’s offices during a private demonstration of how it catches alleged music pirates. He also said the group does not single out specific colleges in its investigations. …

Here’s how the process works: The RIAA maintains a list of songs whose distribution rights are owned by the RIAA’s member organizations. It has given that list to Media Sentry, a company it hired to search for online pirates. That company runs copies of the LimeWire program and performs searches for…

For the University of Iowa connection, see this Looking in at Iowa post from March: Record companies suing 20 University of Iowa Internet users accused of file sharing.

From Business Wire:

Penford Corporation (Nasdaq: PENX), a global leader in renewable, natural-based ingredient systems for food and industrial applications, today announced that it had begun commercial sales of ethanol from its new ethanol facility. The ethanol facility is an expansion of Penford’s existing wet corn milling operations located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The facility is designed to efficiently produce between 25 million and 45 million gallons of ethanol annually. …

From The Centre Daily Times:

Nitta Casings of Somerville, New Jersey and Islamic Services of America (”ISA”) Cedar Rapids, Iowa are proud to present a ground breaking innovation - an industry first Halal collagen casing for further processed meat products. …

The project was a culmination of nearly one year’s worth of effort which has now been internationally recognized by winning the Halal Journal’s prestigious, “Best New Halal Product” award presented by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The award was presented at the annual World Halal Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday, May 12, 2008. …

In addition, Nitta decided to brand the Halal casings under the Midamar name which is known globally as America’s Favorite Halal Brand. …

Mr. Paul Habhab, the Director of Islamic Services of America, and Mr. Bill Aossey, President of Midamar Corporation, were present at the ceremony to accept the award with Derrick Melanson, Export Sales Manager, of Nitta Casings Inc. …

From SecurityInfoWatch.com:

Per Mar Security announced last week that they have purchased Cedar Rapids, Iowa, based A-1 Alarm Company.

A-1, which was owned and operated by Jim Poorbaugh, installs burglar and fire alarm systems, as well as access controls and closed-circuit television systems. …

According to Finch, the acquisition adds nearly 1,000 customers to company …

Dee Ann Stover of A-1 Alarm Company is pictured in the article. According to the Iowa Secretary of State site, she is Treasurer.

Image via Wikipedia

From UPI:

The U.S. Air Force says it has successfully tested a classified information transmission technology from two F-22 Raptor aircrafts to ground stations.

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors sent the classified sensor data from the air to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and Langley Air Force Base in Virginia with new tactical targeting network technology [TTNT] under development by Rockwell Collins. …

“This is the first time in history that F-22 sensor data was down-linked to the Combined Air Operations Center using a tactical network.” …

Related news from May 27, 2006 Gazette:

Test verifies Collins’ new defense technology
Wireless network on target in Nevada
By Dave DeWitte
The Gazette

The U.S. Air Force has completed a successful demonstration of the Rockwell Collins tactical targeting network technology as part the recent Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Tactical targeting network technology is a high-bandwidth wireless network developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that transmits information used to target munitions from aircraft.

In the experiment, two fighters, two bombers and two command aircraft equipped with the Collins technology participated in five days of flights. Mobile and fixed-forward ground nodes used the network to extend the reach of Internet protocol-enabled software applications and integrate the tactical targeting network technology subnetwork with a fixed ground network.

The demonstration verified the ability of the Collins network to connect cross-service military units to a common network, according to Bruce King, vice president and general manager of communications systems for Collins. He said the capability will ultimately allow the military to reduce the number of manned missions, while delivering a minimum number of weapons against enemy forces.

Later field testing and deployment of the network will be done through the Collins’ multifunctional information distribution system and its joint tactical radio system program. It will be managed out of the Space and Naval War Systems Command in San Diego.

ADM (Archer Daniels Midland Co.) operates corn processing plants in Cedar Rapids and is considered one of the area’s largest manufacturing employers.

Photos at Yahoo! News from Sunday filming of ‘The Informant‘ in Decatur, Illinois:

Matt Damon talks to director Steven Soderbergh on location for filming of ‘The Informant’ in downtown Decatur, Ill. on Sunday, May 4, 2008. Damon portrays Mark Whitacre, in the true story of an executive-turned-informant at agri-business giant Archer Daniels Midland in Central Illinois. (AP Photo/Herald & Review, Lisa Morrison)

Source of photos is Herald & Review, which has a page dedicated to the newspaper’s ongoing coverage of film-related news. They even have a Matt Damon Sightings Map - but beware of look-alikes.

From marketwire via CNN/Money:

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)–Penford Products Company (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), a subsidiary of Penford Corporation is nearing completion of an ethanol plant addition at its corn-milling and industrial-corn-starches plant in Cedar Rapids. Construction on the estimated $42 million plant began in November 2006. The plant is going through the commissioning process and is expected to be fully operational in May.

For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info’s Premium Industry News at http://www.industrialinfo.com/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=132274 …

Image via Wikipedia

Abstract from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

A crossbow having an increased powerstroke and reduced noise. The powerstroke is increased by inverting the limb orientation from the standard crossbow arrangement and locating string guides at least partially forward and rearward of the ends of the limbs. The bowstring is drawn from the tops of the string guides to maximize the powerstroke, reducing noise and increasing the retained and delivered energy over existing crossbows.

[more...]

See also: Historical information on crossbows from Encyclopedia Britannica or Wikipedia.

From Chicago Sun-Times:

In 2004, twenty-something Internet entrepreneurs Ian Andrusyk and Travis Schaffner relocated their company FastServers.Net to Chicago from Sumner, Iowa, hoping to go the distance. In addition to greener pastures, the two sought a deeper pool of tech talent and a place to ease the pain of not having much to do.

“Had we been from anywhere else,” said Andrusyk, “we would not have been bored enough to start this company.”

Eleven years after founding FastServers.Net, the now-27-year-olds have harvested a sizable exit. Earlier this month, the 45-employee company was acquired by Plano, Texas-based Layered Technologies. Although terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the selling price is believed to be as high as $15 million. …

More about Ian Andrusyk, President & CEO of FastServers.Net, and Travis Schaffner, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of FastServers.Net, at company’s Web site.

Flash video report at Realty Times Web site.

And from ‘All Headline News’:

Des Moines, IA (AHN) - One of the exceptions to the declining value of home prices across the U.S. is Cedar Rapids in Iowa, where median home values grew almost 13 percent the past four years and logged a 4.4 percent hike in 2007.

The Chamber of Commerce of Cedar Rapids attributed the continuing rise in home values in the region to its diverse economy deliberately put in place under a plan called Priority One. …

Hmm, that doesn’t seem to match up with 2007 year-end data from the Iowa Association of Realtors, where 2007 Cedar Rapids median price appears to be 7 percent lower than 2006 median price. Am I missing something here? End of 2006 vs. end of 2007 perhaps?

Board: 2007 2006 % Change
Cedar Rapids $129,500 $138,650 -7.0% …

You might also be interested in the Upcoming Sheriff Foreclosure Sales posted at this Linn County, Iowa, Sheriff’s page.