Greg In The Desert

• Ford Ranger sales are up for June – New Mexico Business Weekly: – The Ford Motor Co. sold 8.8 percent more Ford Ranger pickup trucks in June than in the same month a year ago, according to data released by the automobile manufacturer Wednesday.
• ‘Asteroids’ lands at Universal – Universal has won a four-studio bidding war to pick up the film rights to the classic Atari video game "Asteroids." Matthew Lopez will write the script for the feature adaptation, which will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
• www.KOB.com – Naked man diverts flight to Sunport – ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A US Airways flight to Los Angeles was diverted to Albuquerque after a passenger removed all of his clothing mid-flight, forcing flight attendants to cover him with a blanket before he was arrested.
• Revenge of the Fallen is messy, unfunny, and way too long – Ars Technica – The story makes very little sense, and introduces so many strands and subplots that by the end it's nearly impossible to care about anything. The humans pepper everyone with machine gun rounds for very little reason, as it never seems to do anything to anyone. The human characters have very little to do, and no reason to be near each other; there isn't a single relationship that is used for dramatic purposes in a believable way. Megan Fox reprises her role so she can stand around and look hot, jiggling in the appropriate ways when she runs endlessly in slow motion. During one scene, her new pet Decepticon humps her leg as she smiles at him. I guess we know where those egg sacs come from now.
• Intel China fab to use 65nm process, produce notebook chips – Ars Technica – Now, Intel has announced that by a rule change, it will be allowed to produce 65nm silicon at Fab 68, and will abandon the 90nm process. This makes a qualitative difference in the meaning of the new fab, since 65nm will be only two nodes behind the cutting edge in 2010. Current chipsets are produced at the 65nm node, and 65nm processors included the first generation of Core 2 processors, Merom, Conroe, and Kentsfield. If Intel continues to be allowed to produce 2-nodes-behind silicon in China, Santa Clara may drastically expand fab activity in China. Earlier this month, the Taiwanese government announced it was considering allowing TSMC and UMC to operate more sophisticated fabs in mainland China.
• Meltdown 101: Where are the renewable energy jobs? – The Denver Post – Everywhere you turn there is talk of a shift to renewable energy, of building wind farms and solar plants, of making buildings more efficient, of developing biofuels. And of billions in federal funding to help make it all happen. This should mean a whole lot of new energy jobs. So where are they—and how do I get one?
• NM woman hoards 334 hopping bunnies – Rio Rancho Police Officer and Spokesperson John Francis said Monday the county's animal control division discovered 334 hopping bunnies in one woman's backyard.

  Nancy Haseman has been cited for violating a city ordinance that allows five pets per household, and for failing to restrain her animals.

• ABQNews: Some Bad Apples Have Impact on N.M. Film Industry – Film crews are jerks, and small towns are saying, "Enough already, go back to L.A. – we don't want you here anymore."First, it was a moratorium on filming in the village of Los Ranchos that's been going on for a year. Then later this week, the Las Vegas, N.M. City Council passed new restrictions on filming that could seriously impact movies there.
• The Official Site of Rio Rancho, NM – Stimulus Funding for Rio Rancho – Via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the city of Rio Rancho has received confirmation that it will receive the following either directly from the federal government or other government agencies that have received stimulus funding.
• News : Scorpions still looking for owner – Rio Rancho Observer – Will the New Mexico Scorpions play at Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho next season? That question still hasn’t been answered. The hockey club is still searching for a new owner, after claiming a $1 million loss in its first three seasons of playing in Rio Rancho. The Central Hockey League gave the New Mexico Scorpions until Friday to find a new owner, but as of press time the team hadn’t been sold.

The future is here. Sales tax increases started today and Virgin Galactic has signed a lease with Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.

Under the terms, Virgin Galactic will pay $1 million per year for the first five years for use of the terminal facilities, and, for the next 15 years, will pay a fee based on an amortization of the remaining total cost of its facilities.
In addition, it sets a tiered fee scale — with a minimum charge of $50,000 per month — that hinges upon the number of flights launched by the company each year. A third fee charges the company $30,000 each year to rent ground space for the facilities.

Creative Commons photo from generated

The Pentagon has contracted Northrup Grumman to develop a travel booking system, (like Orbitz). If congress doesn’t kill it, it will end up costing nearly $474 million dollars. thats MILLION DOLLARS. Even if it cost $1 Million I would say it was excessive.

“It will take 200 years to ever pay back the cost of this contract in terms of that savings,” Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told ABC News, “especially when you consider they’re not getting the best price.” Four years ago, the Pentagon’s inspector general recommended killing the defense travel system altogether, but it survived. Investigators say 70 percent of Pentagon travelers refuse to use DTS because of faulty software or because they believe they can get a better price elsewhere.

I love the way Northrup Grumman tries to make it sound all good and rosy. My first question at reading this article is why the hell did they contract Northrup Grumman? If they really needed their own booking system, which I’m not convinced they do, why didn’t they contract a company that does this sort of thing. Like Expedia or Orbitz. My company uses American Express. Hell even IBM could have done it.

Good news for New Mexico’s space port. Virgin Atlantic has agreed to set up shop there being known as Virgin Galactic.

The first customer has been secured for the planned $225 million spaceport in southern New Mexico and state officials plan to announce Wednesday that construction of the facility will now move forward.

State officials, including Gov. Bill Richardson, also will announce tomorrow that London-based Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of Britain’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., will be the facility’s first lease holder and plans to pay $1 million a year for the first five years of its 20-year lease.

I’m getting excited about this. I’ve always wanted to be a astronaut but I never had the “right stuff” (namely not being a Air Force pilot). This may provide me an opportunity to participate in the space race.