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Just cruising the news I saw this article today on the English language edition of Pravda (from Russia).

Originally published in the Russian edition of Pravda March 24th, 2008 :

Aliens downed Tunguska meteorite to save Earth.

Did they want to ’save the Earth’ or simply protect their quartz supply? Despite all the water and air, aliens call this planet Planet Quartz?

It would seem that quartz can have quite amazing properties. The article is about alien technology but the stones they found seem to be real stones found here on Earth. It will be interesting to see if the folks at New Scientist will get a look at the rocks that were found. I just did a search on their site and got lots for ‘Tunguska’ but zero results for ‘Tunguska Labvin’.

Independent of how you feel about aliens and such, it is an interesting article that scientists may find inspiring. Just for fun : Was it the map or the fuel for the motor? Are the ’strange markings’ simply the marks of the brackets that held the quartz?

There is a photo of the Tunguska area from 1908 on this page from the Telsa Memorial Society of New York. This is an interesting page to look at for anybody interested in the history of science.

The obvious question : why would Pravda publish the story before the existence of the stones could be verified by an independent body of some sort? One thing is certain : they had something in mind when they published the story. Perhaps the story is meant to look for some specific piece of information more than it is designed to share information? Or maybe it’s just that good old Russian humor of sense?

Need a good business opportunity in Canada? All efforts to improve productivity require good data from a wide range of sources. Here are two sources of information that I can suggest as both sources of data and examples of an excellent inter-play between government, community level foundations, think tanks, professional organizations and labor unions.

The Centre for the Study of Living Standards is a clearing house for information about productivity and living standards in Canada. They provide good data and a place to discuss the most difficult questions about productivity. One example is the problem of capitalizing the productivity benefits of Research and Development. Another example is the problem of capitalizing non-tangible benefits resulting from investment that improves the productivity of business organization and business processes.

Vital Signs is a very interesting approach to the problem of living standards. The data is provided by community level foundations close to the actual problems.

Any serious study of improving productivity in a Canadian business or organization could benefit from looking at the work of these fine organizations.

These organizations also provide data that would be very useful to marketing and sales organizations.

You can buy the coffee and make it at home but you can’t get the same taste? Here’s how to make the coffee so that you can save time, save money and help the environment.

At home or at work, people make coffee. The secret is simple : use distilled water to make the coffee.

Tim Horton’s and Starbucks get the same taste all over North America. There are two ingredients to coffee : the coffee and the water. The water is different everywhere. Some water has a lot of dissolved mineral salts, some doesn’t. Some water has a lot of chlorine, some doesn’t.

Obviously, they are filtering the water before they make the coffee.

Using distilled water to make coffee at home (or for your office staff) has several benefits:

• better productivity - no standing in line or leaving the office for a coffee
• good for the environment - less waste of paper cups, less driving
• easier on your teeth - prevents scum from forming on the surface of the coffee
• easier on your porcelain cups - much less staining of your expensive cups
  
• disease prevention - no worry about bad water, anywhere in the world

Where can you get distilled water? Just ask at your local grocery store. Tell them you want distilled water for drinking. It’s cheap and it has a lot of benefits.