Larry Brilliant Heads Google.org

When Google announced last week that Larry Brilliant would be heading Google.org, I thought it was the company kidding around, with perhaps Larry Page being the real Larry Brilliant. But I was wrong.. there really is a Larry Brilliant and he really has taken the position.
Dr. Lawrence Brilliant is actually an epidemiologist, medical doctor, technologist, activist, and author. He is now Executive Director of Google's corporate philanthropy arm of the Mountain View corporation.
Sergey Brin (Google cofounder) said that "we hope that the contributions of Google.org may someday exceed those of Google itself in terms of overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems".
So Larry Brilliant will have to live up to his name, as he has a lot of work ahead of him according to the hopes of Sergey Brin & Larry Page.
"I'm deeply honored to have been selected to direct Google.org. I have great admiration for Google's technical contributions to society and believe that it can make an equally great impression through philanthropy." Larry Brilliant
>> Google News, Corporate Philanthropy

Archer Daniels Midland Ethanol Optimism

America's largest producer of ethanol fuel, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is optimistic about future demands for the alternative fuel industry.
At the moment it looks like America is leaning towards ridding itself of an oil addiction by turning to ethanol! Ethanol is getting a lot of attention from people in power, but it is still early days yet.
Archer Daniels Midland is betting on Ethanol heavily, with new investments in their company going towards increasing ethanol production from its current 1.2 billion gallons to 1.7 billion gallons in 2009.
ADM Pumps Up Ethanol
"In the near term, there is little doubt that ADM will be a major beneficiary from ethanol enthusiasm, but its aggressive plans for ethanol should be viewed with some caution. The political winds are definitely blowing in ethanol's favor right now. The federal government subsidizes production and provides tax breaks. What's more, six states have passed laws requiring ethanol-blended gasoline, and nine states are considering similar legislation, according to the Associated Press." Motley Fool
>> Investing in Ethanol

McDonalds Sued Over Fries

There was once a time when the big yellow arches happily served us whatever they chose. As long as it was quick and tasted something like food, customers didn't mind too much what was in the food.
But consumers are now demanding more and making large corporations accountable for their products and services. Sites like McSpotlight and films like Super Size Me certainly make McDonalds think about their way of doing business.
McDonalds may have introduced a range of salads, but they're still not being completely up front about their products. The company is currently being sued for false information, over the milk and wheat that they have been putting in their fries.
So vegans have been eating the fries, thinking that there was just potatoes in them, not knowing of the McDonalds extras.
Fury At Milk And Wheat In McDonalds' French Fries
"It has been revealed that McDonald's fries do contain an animal product - Milk. They also contain wheat. There are thousands and thousands of people around the world who are allergic to wheat (mainly because of the gluten in wheat). Surely, out of respect for people who get ill when consuming wheat, the company could have let us know that wheat and milk were being added to its French Fries." Medical News Today
>> Business Ethics, Major Companies

Encouraging Hybrid Car Makers

Joel Makower has an interesting post on hybrid cars and clean vehicles at Two Steps Forward. He talks about how the makers of clean cars are coming under attack for not being perfect. I think the fact that car manufacturers can see that there is a market for green cars is enough for the industry to keep working on a solution/product. People that once went looking for a truck sized SUV with a growling, fuel munching V8 are now looking for soft purring small cars that don't chew through $100+ each week in fuel.
Hybrids and Cleaner Vehicles: No Good Car Goes Unpunished
"car companies also need encouragement and support, even when their efforts fall short by some measures. To simply dismiss all good-faith efforts as inadequate is a classic case of making perfection the enemy of the good." JM
>> Hybrid Vehicle News

Investing in Ethanol

Bill Gates has invested in ethanol, but how does the average investor go about investing in ethanol fuels?. Fortune magazine has likened the experience to investing in technology companies in the early nineties. Which is probably a kind way of putting it as the whole industry is still finding its feet. Noone can deny that the world is eager for an alternative source of energy that is sustainable, but there are still several competing technologies that could steal center stage.
Fortune has suggested to lessen the risk of investing in ethanol by choosing companies that don't deal in ethanol exclusively, but rather have interests in the industry, like Bunge, Monsanto, or Royal Dutch Shell.
Wanna make a bet on biofuels?
"The only real pure-play ethanol stock is Pacific Ethanol , a California startup that made headlines last November when it received an $84 million investment from Bill Gates. Pacific has plans to build five West Coast ethanol refineries by mid-2008. Paul Resnik, an analyst with Dutton Associates who rates Pacific a "speculative buy," believes the company will be profitable in 2007. The location of its plants, he says, will give it a cost advantage over Midwest ethanol producers selling to California, since corn is cheaper to transport than ethanol." Fortune
There's also an interesting interview with the director for global project finance at Credit Suisse First Boston, Paul Ho on ethanol investing and the alternative fuel industry in general here. Ho says "This industry doesn't have much of a track record to extrapolate from, and the supply and demand curves are highly unpredictable. Therefore you don't know what the price points will be. Bottom line? From an investor's standpoint, ethanol is interesting but risky."
>> Alternative Energy