Monica Kochelee

I was reading on the Reuters.com website that researchers are working on a new material that converts heat into electricity.  The hope is that using this material will help cars get more miles to the gallon.  According to the article, only about 25% of the energy produced by a typical gasoline powered engine is used to move the vehicle, and the rest escapes through the exhaust pipe.  The researchers are hoping that this new material will enable the car to recycle some of that escaped heat into energy that will power the car.  That would be kind of cool!

I was just reading an article on Time.com that France has decided to extend their 35 hour work week. I didn’t know that France had a 35 hour work week! That meant that if they worked more than 35 hours, they got paid overtime! Anyway, France’s government has decided that they will allow businesses to require that their employees work longer hours without paying them. Understandably the businesses are happy about that, the employees not so much.  I know I’d rather have a 35 hour work week!

The local newspaper ran a short story, contributed by some readers about a couple from Maryland who go to the grand openings of Chik-Fil-A restaurants around the country. (For those of you who may not know what Chik-Fil-A is, it is a fast food restaurant that sells chicken products, no beef products. Their advertising campaigns involve cows encouraging people to eat chicken.)   Their chicken sandwiches and nuggets, and their fries are very tasty, and I can understand people wanting to get free food from the restaurant, but this couple has gone to extremes!

They camp out in the parking lot the night before so they can be one of the first 100 customers. Chik-Fil-A gives out “free Chik-Fil-A for a year” coupons to their first 100 customers. This couple has gone to eighteen of these grand openings in the past year, and have decided that they can’t use all the coupons, so now they just go for the fun of it and give the coupons away.

I don’t understand what is so much fun about camping out in a parking lot to be one of the first 100 customers to get free food if you then give away the free food! I’m udderly confused.

I was reading an article on Time.com about how the two satellite radio companies are attempting a merger. The article was talking about how the FCC is leaning towards approving the merger. If the merger is approved then the satellite radio business will become a monopoly. I thought monopolies were not allowed; isn’t that why the Bell System was broken up in the 1980s?

I can’t believe it took twelve years for new DNA evidence to finally clear Jon Benet’s family in her murder!  I heard that it was a “new” type of DNA test that did it, so I guess I’m glad that they developed the new test.  I’m feel badly that they didn’t come up with this evidence before Patsy died.  It’s such a shame that the court of public opinion kept them as suspects all this long time.

I’m glad they have cleared the family; now I hope they find the “real killer.”