Phenolics or Polyphenols are the structural ‘backbone’ for most of the antioxidants found in plants. Plants construct complex phenolic compounds that serve a variety of functions as defense mechanisms and through interactions with other organisms. They may function to protect the plant from insects, diseases, and environmental stress. Phenolics also determine certain desirable plant properties such as flavor and palatability. Some phenols are germicidal and are used in formulating disinfectants. Others possess estrogenic or endocrine disrupting activity.

The phenol-formaldehyde resins, developed commercially between 1905 and 1910, were the first truly synthetic polymers and have found wide usage. They are characterized by low cost, dimensional stability, high strength, and resistance to aging. Various thermosetting resins, obtained by the reaction of phenols with simple aldehyde additives, are used to make molded products, coatings and adhesives.

Items can be cast from syrupy intermediates or molded from solid resins. Laminated products can be produced by impregnating fiber, cloth, wood, and other materials with the resin. An important type of phenolic resin product is rigid foam. Cured phenolic plastics are rigid, hard, and resistant to chemicals (except strong alkali) and to heat. Phenolic resins can be used for making precisely molded articles, such as machine parts. They are useful for manufacturing strong and durable laminated boards, or for impregnating fabrics, wood, and paper. Phenolic resins are also widely used as adhesives, as the binder for grinding wheels, as thermal insulation panels, as ion-exchange resins, and in paints and varnishes.

Natural phenol is a colorless to pink solid or thick liquid with a characteristic sweet tar like odor. It is highly soluble in water, alcohol, chloroform, ether, glycerol, carbon disulphide, petrolatum, volatile and fixed oils, and aqueous alkali hydroxides. It is almost insoluble in petroleum ether. It has a boiling point of 181.8(°C), a melting point of 40.9 (°C), and a flash point of 78.9(°C).

Phenol has proven useful as a general disinfectant, as a reagent in chemical analysis and for the manufacture of artificial resins, medical and industrial organic compounds and dyes. It is also used in the manufacture of fertilizers, explosives, paints and paint removers, drugs, pharmaceuticals, textiles and coke. It is produced in large volume, mostly as an intermediate in the production of other chemicals.

The largest single use of phenol is as an intermediate in the production of phenolic resins, which are low-cost, versatile, thermoset resins used in the plywood adhesive, construction, automotive, and appliance industries. It is also used as an intermediate in the production of caprolactam, which is used to make nylon and other synthetic fibres, and bisphenol A, which is used to make epoxy and other resins.

Phenol is found naturally in animal wastes and decomposing organic material. Phenol is a common component of oil refinery wastes. It is also produced in the conversion of coal into gaseous or liquid fuels and in the production of metallurgical coke from coal. It may enter the environment from oil refinery discharges, coal conversion plants, municipal waste treatment plant discharges, or spills.

Consumer products which may contain Phenol include agricultural chemicals, disinfectants, general antibacterials and antiseptics, household hard surface cleaners (liquid), lubricating oils, automotive chemicals, paint and varnish removers, pharmaceutical preparations, synthetic resin and rubber adhesives, wood office work surfaces (modular systems).

Acrylic is a clear plastic that resembles glass. It also has properties that make it superior to glass in some applications. Common brands of high-grade acrylic include Polycast, Lucite and Plexiglass.
There are two basic types of acrylic: extruded and cell cast. Extruded or “continuous cast” acrylic is softer, more easily scratched and the cheaper castings often contain impurities. Cell cast acrylic is the higher quality variation. This process yields greater consistency and can produce a sheet that is ten times stronger than glass at half the weight!
Acrylic is the material of choice for shower doors, bath enclosures, windows and skylights. It is many times stronger than glass, making it far more impact resistant. It also insulates better than glass. Acrylic can also be sawed, whereas glass must be scored.
Thick glass will have a green tint, while acrylic remains clear with a transparency rate of 93%. Acrylic is easily shaped as with bow-front aquariums. Chemical welding at the molecular level “melts” any seams into one piece of solid material. Seams that are welded and polished become invisible.
Though previous generations of plastic will yellow, turn brittle and crack over time, acrylics remain clear and durable. There is ample evidence of this claim including evaluations of WWII fighter planes that featured acrylic bubble-tops. Modern airplane windows are also acrylic. With reasonable care, acrylic will remain new looking regardless of age or exposure to sun. Although acrylic scratches more easily, unlike glass, scratches are easily buffed out.
Acrylic that is exposed to a direct flame will melt. Its performance under various conditions is predictable for any given formula. Extensive testing has been conducted on the question of flame resistance and, though acrylic will eventually burn, there are formulations that are actually used as flame retardant coatings.
Acrylic just over one inch thick (32mm) is bullet resistant. Many window enclosures feature bullet-resistant acrylic. Examples include the the Presidential motorcade, the booth-vehicle known as the Pope Mobile, bank teller stations and drive-throughs.

A Bustling Hate-Crime Industry
Political entrepreneurship involves devising benefits to excite or mollify niche constituencies. Hence HR 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, which has passed the House, trailing clouds of sanctimony — lots of members announced their hatred of hate.
Hate-crime laws — 45 states already have them; Congress does not mind being duplicative — mandate enhanced punishments for crimes committed because of thoughts that government especially disapproves of. That is, crimes committed because of, not merely accompanied by, those thoughts. Mind-reading juries are required to distinguish causation from correlation.
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Senators throw support behind internet radio
Legislation has been introduced in the Senate that would overturn a decision putting Internet radio on a death watch. The “Internet Radio Equality Act” would vacate the recent ruling by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) that hiked payment rates for performances 300 to 1200 percent, and would reinstate the current standard of paying 7.5 percent of the broadcaster’s revenue. The Senate bill joins companion legislation in the House. The bill would also vacate the CRB decision and return to the previous payment standard. The CRB had originally scheduled the new rates to take effect on May 15, retroactive to the beginning of 2006, but agreed to extend the rate hike date to July 15, giving opposition efforts more time to lobby Congress and to raise awareness of the issue.

Leaving the Pack!
EMI Music announced in April that it is making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on a global basis.
EMI’s retailers have been offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI’s new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.
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Thoughts on Music by Steve Jobs
Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.
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Earlier this month, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sent a fourth wave of 402 pre-litigation settlement letters to 13 universities. Each pre-litigation settlement letter informs the school of a forthcoming copyright infringement suit against one of its students or personnel and requests that university administrators forward that letter to the appropriate network user.
RIAA sent letters in the following quantities to 13 schools, including: Brandeis University (15), Duke University (35), Iowa State University (15), Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT (23), Northern Illinois University (50), Syracuse University (20), Tufts University (15), University of Georgia (19), University of Iowa (25), University of Southern California (50), University of South Florida (50), University of Tennessee (50), and the University of Texas – Austin (35).
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Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus was a scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, England. He was born around 735 close to York — perhaps in the city itself. In 804, Alcuin of York died, leaving his mark. As an educator he made beauty, goodness and truth the hallmarks of Charlemagne’s Frankish empire. His great hunger for learning revived the Augustinian tradition of Christian classical education and helped to lay the foundations of Europe’s Christian civilization.
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N.Y. judge strikes down anti-bootleg law
A federal judge struck down a 1994 law banning the sale of bootleg recordings of live music, ruling the law unfairly grants “seemingly perpetual protection” to the original performances.
U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. found the bootleg law was written by Congress in the spirit of federal copyright law, which protects writing for a fixed period of time — typically for the life of the author and 70 years after the author’s death. The judge said the bootleg law, which was passed “primarily to cloak artists with copyright protection,” could not stand because it places no time limit on the ban. Baer also noted that copyright law protects “fixed” works — such as books or recorded music releases — while bootlegs, by definition, are of live performances.
The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group that fights piracy and bootlegging, also disagreed with the ruling.
The law did not apply to piracy, which is the unauthorized copying or sale of recorded music, such as albums.
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Bootleg Recording
A bootleg recording (or simply bootleg or boot) is an audio and/or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist, or under other legal authority.
Bootlegs can consist of recordings of live performances, or material created in private or professional recording sessions. Changing technologies have had a great impact on the recording, distribution, and varying profitability of the underground industry.
Although distinct from unauthorized copying (“piracy”) and counterfeiting, as it involves material which has never been offered for commercial release, bootlegging is considered infringement in many jurisdictions. The copyrights for the song and the right to authorize recordings often reside with the artist, according to several international copyright treaties. The recording, trading and sale of bootlegs continues to thrive, however, even as artists and record companies attempt to provide “authorized” alternatives to satisfy the demand.
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