♦ Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac shares plummet again

Freddie Mac over 6 months. WASHINGTON (AP) — Shares of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) continued their plunge Wednesday as investors are increasingly convinced that the stocks will drop to zero if the government bails out the troubled companies. Fannie Mae's chief executive tried to reassure investors that no bailout is imminent.	1 vote

♦ Research and Markets: 'Characterisation of Polymers, Volume 2 Report' Is Supported By Approximately

Research and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 Logo: http://www.researchandmarkets.com Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ 74f580/characterisation_o) has announced the addition of the "Characterisation of Polymers...	1 vote

♦ Areva to Hold Internal Enquiry into Socatri Incident

French nuclear power group Areva has said that it will perform an internal enquiry in the wake of the incident that occurred on July 7, 2008, at the Socatri plant on the Tricastin nuclear power plant site in France.	1 vote

♦ Context Is Everything: New Research Uncovers Key To Consumer Preferences

ScienceDaily (July 17, 2008) When consumers shop for televisions or cereal, what makes them prefer one option to another? Which brand will they purchase again and tell their friends about? New research in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that a products attractiveness can shift depending on the other choices that are available at the time.	1 vote

♦ Good News For Veggies: Personal Values Deceive Taste Buds

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2008) Many heavy meat eaters believe they eat a lot of meat because of the taste. But according to groundbreaking new research the reason that a beef burger tastes better than a veggie burger to some people has more to do with values than actual taste. Authors Michael W. Allen (University of Sydney), Richa Gupta (University of Nashville)...	1 vote

♦ Water Meter Costs Called Recoverable

By Kathy Kellogg Within five years, the City of Olean could recover the estimated $2.3 million cost for new meter installation for all of its 6,500 water customers, Public Works Director Tom Windus told members of the Common Council's City Operations Committee on Tuesday night.	1 vote

♦ British company launches floating wind turbines off Italy

Blue H, a firm registered in the UK but based in Holland, aims to anchor its prototype device 12 miles off the coast of southern Italy later this month. The company is one of several racing to build commercial-scale floating wind turbines that sit in deep water far from land. These turbines benefit from more powerful winds and avoid many of the issues that afflict existing wind farms.	1 vote

♦ Dual payload launched by Ariane

Europe's heavy-lift rocket, the Ariane-5 ECA, has put another two commercial telecommunications satellites in orbit. The ProtoStar I spacecraft will deliver high-definition TV and broadband services across Asia. The BADR-6 satellite has been put up to provide telecoms, multimedia and internet services to the Middle East and Africa.	1 vote

♦ 'Suicide is Painless' fraudster turns himself in

Samuel Israel III, the former CEO of Bayou Group, arrives at Manhattan federal court for his sentencing in April. NEW YORK — A hedge fund swindler who set off a national manhunt when he faked his suicide to avoid reporting to prison surrendered Wednesday to small-town police in Massachusetts. U.S. Marshals said his own mother helped broker the surrender.	1 vote

♦ Scientists identify key roadblock to gene expression

A team of scientists has provided, for the first time, a detailed map of how the building blocks of chromosomes, the cellular structures that contain genes, are organized in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The work identifies a critical stop sign for transcription, the first step in gene expression, and has implications for understanding how the AIDS virus regulates its genes.	1 vote