Illinois

Ron Cowen in Science News:

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

For years, film student Bill Parker had a nagging idea for a short movie: He'd show those letters from the "Star Wars" opening scroll raining down on Earth and exploding.

But the visual effects necessary to make his short film weren't available or affordable to him. Until now.

Using a couple of computer programs, including one that packages computerized explosions, the 20-year-old from Warrenville, Ill., produced his fan movie in December. The video went viral, getting 460,000 hits on YouTube.

States looking to unload surplus property used to do little more than take out an advertisement in the local newspaper, hang an "Open" sign at a warehouse and set up a cash register.

Not anymore. This spring, Vermont will begin selling its surplus goods on eBay, the online auction site. The goal is to attract more bidders and bring in more revenue to state coffers, says Mark Casey, the state's Surplus Property Programs assistant.

"We can move a lot more stuff," Casey says from his office at the warehouse in the central Vermont town of Waterbury.

Struggling technology company Motorola Inc. said Thursday it plans to split in two in early 2011 -- with one half containing its consumer-focused mobile phone and television set-top box products, and the other holding divisions that target business customers.

The split will give current shareholders a share in each new company, which will be roughly the same size in terms of annual revenue at $11 billion. Both halves will be publicly traded.

The Windy City area is capitalizing on its most famous attribute with a new wind-powered electric vehicle charging station.  Located in Highland Park, 30 miles outside of the city, the charging station uses electricity generated by Illinois wind farms for law firm Emalfarb Swan & Bain.
The charging station is the second in the country and the first in the continental U.S. to be powered by wind.  The other station is located in Maui, Hawaii.

A district court judge in Illinois has ordered the owner of a Web-based company to stop selling term papers unless he can prove he has permission from the papers' authors.

The order was based on an earlier ruling in which the provider was found liable of copyright infringement after co-authors of an undergraduate research paper saw their work posted on three of the company's Web sites and sued in 2006.

From Science:

Sometimes, even Paul Craig Roberts has a point.