Click the pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to see more:
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- USAF Learjet, Pocatello Airport, Idaho.
VEHICLE I-D: USAF C-21 LEARJET, YEAR OF THE LEAR
Category Archives: Technology
What Economic Recovery? Hoku Corporation voluntarily de-lists, chapter 11 coming soon, “Liquidate Hoku Materials”
“How much longer can Hoku Corp keep the tsunami of debt, liabilities, liens, foreclosures and material breaches of contract at bay? What’s the delay in filing for bankruptcy protection? I believe that it may be driven by their energetic attempts to sell their solar subsidiary before the much tighter restrictions on selling assets that would come under bankruptcy.”-Marco Mangelsdorf, ProVision Solar
Hoku Corporation, parent company of failed Hoku Materials in Pocatello, Idaho, voluntarily de-listed itself from NASDAQ, and will probably file chapter 11 bankruptcy.
On 29 June it was reported that Hoku Corp had enough cash for only nine weeks of operation!
“If Hoku is unable to secure additional financing, it believes it will need to seek protection in bankruptcy from its creditors and to liquidate and wind-down Hoku and Hoku Materials. “-Hoku SEC statement, 25 June 2012
Officials also said they were unable to complete required financial reports and would miss the filing deadline for the end of the fiscal year.
At the beginning of July 2012, Hoku Corp announced it would voluntarily de-list from NASDAQ. This after NASDAQ stopped trading of Hoku stocks, after share price fell to below $1.00 back in December 2011. Hoku said their de-listing would take place on 10 July.
Now, Hoku has been trading as a penny stock, and as of 17 July was worth only 4 cents per share!
Corporate Incompetence or Evil? Investigation into Bile duct cancer spreads from Printing industry to Semiconductors and Metal industries. U.S. workers suffering same cancer!
“The research conducted in the United States shows that the hazardous nature of dichloromethane had been pointed out some time ago. The warning of the health hazard to humans was issued more than 20 years ago!“-Shinji Kumagai, University of Occupational and Environmental Health
Back at the end of June 2012, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced an investigation into the high rate of bile duct cancer among workers in the printing industry. Now, they are warning the semiconductor and metals industries they will be investigated as well.
The common factor is a cleaning chemical called dichloromethane (aka methylene chloride). “Dichloromethane is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in experimental animals.”-Report on Carcinogens, Twelfth Edition (2011)
According to a study by University of Occupational and Environmental Health, cancer rates among printing industry employees is 600 times higher than than the average Japanese man who dies from bile duct cancer!
The identification of dichloromethane, and other cleaning solvents, is leading investigators to look at other industries that also use those chemicals.
Japanese doctors will now question people who get bile duct cancer (or related cancers), as to what industry they work in. Health officials are concerned that industries are not taking the proper precautions, such as proper ventilation of work place.
On 10 July 2012, a report by The Mainichi revealed that workers in certain U.S. industries suffer high rates of cancer. The thing is the study was released back in 1990, not in U.S. publications but in a European magazine! (Mortality update of cellulose fiber production workers)
U.S. health researchers studied 1,271 people who worked at a factory in South Carolina between 1954 and 1977. Workers had developed liver cancer, from cancerous bile duct cells. The mortality rate was 20 times higher than the U.S. average! The main culprit; dichloromethane!
When Japanese health researchers read the study, more than a decade later, they decided to investigate Japanese industries. It was that initial study that revealed the outrageously high cancer rates of printing industry workers!
What Economic Recovery? GE outsources innovation, spends millions building new China Innovation Center!
“These facilities…will play an instrumental role in building out much needed local innovation capabilities in the critical industries that are key to the region’s long term growth.”-Mark Hutchinson, president and CEO of GE Greater China
On 18 July 2012, unAmerican Corporate America giant, General Electric (GE), announced they’ve opened the China Innovation Center.
This as the Obama administration has been calling for more spending on innovation, but I thought he meant in the United States! Here’s what he said: “We now live in a world where technology has made it possible for companies to take their business anywhere. If we want them to start here and stay here and hire here, we have to be able to out build and out educate and out innovate every other country on Earth.”-Barack Obama, September 2011
How can you “out innovate every other country on Earth”, when your own corporations are outsourcing the innovation?
The GE China Innovation Center in Xi’an cost $60 million USD to build. I wounder if GE somehow got any U.S. taxpayer money, or some kind’o U.S. tax break, for their China project?
World War 3: Computer Trojan attacks both Iran & Israel! Is the coming War being manipulated by a shadow government?
“While the malware and infrastructure is very basic compared to other similar projects, the Madi attackers have been able to conduct a sustained surveillance operation against high profile victims.”-Nicolas Brulez, Kaspersky Lab
19 July 2012, several security companies have discovered a new trojan program that’s targeting several countries including Iran and Israel!
“Statistics from the sinkhole revealed that the victims were primarily business people working on Iranian and Israeli critical infrastructure projects, Israeli financial institutions, Middle Eastern engineering students, and various government agencies communicating in the Middle East.”-Seculert statement
The Madi (Mahdi) malware allows remote users to take data from Windows computers. The fact that most of the programing is in Farsi leads computer security experts to believe it came from Iran, yet the strange thing is that the majority of computer infections are in Iran.
Is this really a covert CIA op using Iranians who’re sympathetic to U.S. interests, you know, use Iranians to spy on Iranians?
S-70 Firehawk caught in rain storm, Pocatello Airport 2012
After weeks of hot dry weather, and lots of wildfires, eastern Idaho gets hit with random thunder/rain storms!
Click on pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make bigger:
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- Firehawk practice run, Pocatello Airport, Idaho, 16 July 2012.
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- Comin’ down, storm’s on it’s way!
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- Everybody out!
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- Storm rollin’ in!
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- Gettin’ wet!
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- Batten down the hatches!
EAST IDAHO WILDFIRES 2012: MAINTENANCE DAY FOR SKYCRANE FIRE FIGHTER @ POCATELLO AIRPORT
East Idaho Wildfires 2012: Maintenance day for Skycrane fire fighter @ Pocatello Airport
Photos by AAron B. Hutchins. Pics get bigger when you click on them:
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- See you soon Lil’ Bird.
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- Gettin’ ‘er done!
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- Hoping to wag that tail again.
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- The heart of the matter.
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- Where you goin’ Lil’ Bird?
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- Looks like Skycrane is beating Dodge Ram by a nose!
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- Time for maintenance, 11 July 2012.
EAST IDAHO WILDFIRES 2012: CURRENT FIRES FOR 12 JULY
BUSY 30 MINUTES AT POCATELLO AIRPORT, AS FIRE FIGHTING AIRCRAFT FLY INTO ACTION
SIKORSKY SKYCRANE LEAVES POCATELLO AIRPORT FOR COX’S WELL FIRE
East Idaho Wildfire 2012: Busy 30 minutes at Pocatello Airport, as fire fighting aircraft fly into action
The following pics (which you can make bigger by clicking on them) were taken by AAron B. Hutchins, within a thirty minutes period, at the Pocatello Regional Airport (USFS Air Tanker Base), on 12JUL2012, between 11:30 hours and 12:00 hours.
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- Inbound Skycrane.
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- Outbound Lil Bird Air Tractor…
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- …while at same time another Lil Bird returns home.
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- Inbound Huey.
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- Note crewman ‘saying hi’ to camera.
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- Comin’ down!
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- Neptune outbound.
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- Heat trail from Neptune’s exhaust.
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- Skycrane ready for battle, note airborne Neptune in background.
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- Commuters still fly, even with busy fire fighters taking off every 15 minutes.
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- Skycrane lift off.
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- Keepin’ the fuelers busy!
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- ‘Nother Lil Bird back from the battle. Note staining on lower rear fuselage, from the fire retardant.
Remember, these pics were taken within a 30 minute period.
EAST IDAHO WILDFIRES 2012: MORE NEW FIRES ON 11 JULY, FIRE NEAR NUKE REACTOR, CRATERS OF THE MOON
Crews preping S-64 Skycrane to join in battle against Cox’s Well Fire. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, 10JUL2012.
SIKORSKY SKYCRANE LEAVES POCATELLO AIRPORT FOR COX’S WELL FIRE
East Idaho Wildfires 2012: Sikorsky Skycrane leaves Pocatello Airport for Cox’s Well Fire
Click on pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make them bigger:
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- Cox’s Well Fire, near Springfield, Idaho. As seen from miles to the south, from the Pocatello Airport.
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- Crews preping S-64 Skycrane to join in battle against Cox’s Well Fire, 10 July 2012.
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- Water/Fire Retardant container on S-64.
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- Engines and rotor head of S-64.
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- Take off to join other air & ground crews in the latest Idaho wildfire battle. At least three dozen wildfires have scorched Idaho so far this year!
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- Operated by Erickson Air-Crane fire fighting service.
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- By 16:00 hours the Cox’s Well Fire burned more than 8,000 acres. Fire fighting crews expected to have it contained by 10:00 hours on 11 July 2012.
Corporate & Government Incompetence: Hoku Corp “restructuring” code for going bust! Pocatello wasted hundreds of thousands on tax breaks! Hundreds of hoped for jobs down the drain! Who’s gonna buy those new homes now Mr Mayor?
On 05 July 2012, NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) ordered an end to trading of Hoku stock, pending “additional information”.
NASDAQ requires that companies traded in their exchange can not go below one U.S. dollar per share for a set period of time, or that company will be de-listed. But Hoku Corp was guaranteed doom when, at the beginning of June, a “do not trade” warning was issued to investors!
Rumors are now rampant that Hoku will declare bankruptcy, but get a clue, when a company announces it’s “restructuring” it’s a real good chance that bankruptcy is close behind.
I’ve been following the slow motion Hoku Materials train wreck in Pocatello, Idaho, since day one. This was because I learned that some of the board members of Hoku have a history of starting up corporations on paper, then folding them for technical reasons after selling off stock in the paper corps.
You can search my posts, but briefly; the city of Pocatello, and Bannock County, bent over backwards to get the company to settle in the area, including I believe a $200,000 property tax break on land which only cost $200,000. This was unprecedented for Pocatello, because they had been actually running off businesses, and good paying jobs, because they (city officials) refused to make concessions (the big job loss that started the whole decline for the Pocatello/Chubbuck was refusing to give Union Pacific more land to make Pocatello UP’s new huge Pacific Northwest depot!) .
From day one of construction Hoku has failed to pay contractors on time, or at all! The big guy, JH Kelly, is now using legal action to seize the property!
Hoku was also consistently late paying their massive electric bills to Idaho Power. At one point Tianwei New Energy Holdings announced at the end of 2011 that polysilicon production had begun, however, Idaho Power refused to provide the electricity because Hoku had not met its contractual obligations, so no production was ever started!
Hoku turned to Chinese companies to bail them out of their financial woes. They became a subsidiary of Tianwei New Energy Holdings, which is an affiliate of China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC). All of Hoku Material’s contracts are with Chinese solar product companies hoping to increase their business in the United States.
The hopes of Chinese solar companies, and indirectly Hoku, were finally dashed because the Obama Administration imposed high tariffs on any Chinese made solar power product!
At least 120 of the 150 Hoku Materials employees were laid off, but the massive 50 football fields long polysilicon factory (built at the end of a dead end residential road, those people are not happy) was to employ several hundreds of people once it got up and running. One year, I remember, in one of the monthly city of Chubbuck newsletters the incompetent mayor excitedly reminding people of the boom in home sales when the factory was finished. It was in response to residents questioning the allowing of new home developments, when the housing market was so bad.
So who’s gonna buy those new homes now Mr Mayor?
SOLAR COMPANY HOKU CORPORATION STOCK now WORTHLESS