Four column-type wind turbines were added to the roof of the 22-floor structure at Toledo's One Government Center in October 2010. "It is part of going green and looking what we can do to save money," said Michael Sullivan, manager of Government Center. The $224,300 investment will make a small dent in the building's electric bill and will take at least 15 years to pay for itself. http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageID=2836

One Government Center is also known as the DiSalle Center, and was completed in 1983. Approximately 1,500 state, city and county employees work in the building. Construction costs totaled approximately $61 million. It contains 505,272 square feet of office space, 327.5 feet high and has 22 stories. The four vertical wind turbines on roof use fabricated blades capable of catching wind from any direction. Their design allows birds to safely fly around the blades. The building is named in honor of Michael V. DiSalle, who was elected Governor in 1958. http://oba.ohio.gov/newver/disalle.htm

Seafood recommendations--what to buy and why--visit Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch at: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx

Roman ricotta, is a fundamental ingredient in a number of dishes, from pastas to desserts. It was already being produced in the Roman period and mentioned by Cato the Elder. It is not surprising, therefore, that there are many recipes calling for ricotta in various ancient books, including the recipe for this tart, created by Francesco Palma. He refers to it as “pizza di ricotta” on page 75 of Il principe dei cuochi, o la vera cucina napolitana (The Prince of Cooks, or the True Neapolitan Cuisine), 1881. See recipe for the ricotta tart at: http://www.academiabarilla.com/recipes/lazio/ricotta-flan.aspx

A free port (porto franco) or free zone (zona franca), sometimes also called a bonded area (US: Foreign-Trade Zone) is a port, port area or other area with relaxed jurisdiction with respect to the country of location. Free economic zones may also be called free ports. Most commonly a free port is a special customs area with favorable customs regulations (or no customs duties and controls for transshipment). Earlier in history, some free ports like Hong Kong enjoyed political autonomy. Many international airports have free ports, though they tend to be called customs areas, customs zones, or international zones. See list of free ports by countries at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_ports

U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones http://ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage/letters/ftzlist-map.html

The Lake Erie Port of Toledo, Ohio is a multi-modal transportation hub with heavy waterborne, rail and highway activity. The seaport, rail station, two airports and Foreign Trade Zone 8 are managed by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. http://www.toledoseaport.org/

Quotes from The Chairman, a novel by Stephen Frey
Politicians. Idiots, most of them because they never actually had to make money. They lived off others.
I can't help having ideas . . . it's what I do.

Winter radishes Black Spanish or Black Spanish Round occur in both round and elongated forms, and are sometimes simply called the black radish or known by the French name Gros Noir d'Hiver. It dates in Europe to 1548, and was a common garden variety in England and France the early 19th century. It has a rough black skin with hot-flavored white flesh, is round or irregularly pear shaped, and grows to around 10 cm (4 in) in diameter. Daikon refers to a wide variety of winter radishes from Asia. While the Japanese name daikon has been adopted in English, it is also sometimes called the Japanese radish, Chinese radish, Oriental radish or mooli (in India and South Asia). Daikon commonly have elongated white roots, although many varieties of daikon exist. One well known variety is April Cross, with smooth white roots. The New York Times describes Masato Red and Masato Green varieties as extremely long, well suited for fall planting and winter storage. The Sakurajima daikon is a hot-flavored variety which is typically grown to around 10 kg (22 lb), but which can grow to 30 kg (66 lb) when left in the ground. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radish

Contrary to what many in the public seem to think, General Electric did pay taxes in 2010. It reported $2.7 billion in cash tax payments during the year, and on its income statement lists a provision for income taxes of $1.05 billion. Considering GE's pretax income of $14.2 billion, that makes for a tax rate of just 7.4%. The only one of the 20 corporate giants with a lower rate was AT&T, at -6.4% -- but that was only because MaBell won a tax settlement with the IRS that reduced its tax liability by $8.3 billion. So how to make sense of GE's taxes? The outcry seems to focus on the $5 billion in profits GE made in the U.S. Now if GE were to pay the 35% statutory federal corporate tax rate on that, it would come to $1.75 billion. Yet, as the Times trumpeted, GE has recorded a $3.25 billion tax benefit for the year on its U.S. operations. It's important to understand that this "benefit" is not a refund. It just represents an amount GE will balance out against other tax obligations. But why does GE get this benefit? Simple: its finance arm, GE Capital, lost a lot of money during the financial meltdown (roughly $30 billion) and it's still carrying those losses forward and deducting them from current income. As GE spokesman Gary Sheffer wrote in his response to the Times story: "Without these financial crisis losses at GE Capital, GE's tax rate would have been near the average of other multinational corporations." He added, "In short, when you lose money, you don't pay taxes." See taxes paid by the top U.S. corporations at: http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/112560/what-top-companies-pay-taxes-forbes

More books are produced in print each year than in the previous year. One million new titles will appear worldwide in 2011. In one day in Britain—"Super Thursday," last October 1—800 new works were published. The latest figures for the United States cover only 2009, and they do not distinguish between new books and new editions of old books. But the total number, 288,355, suggests a healthy market, and the growth in 2010 and 2011 is likely to be much greater. Moreover, these figures, furnished by Bowker, do not include the explosion in the output of "nontraditional" books—a further 764,448 titles produced by self-publishing authors and "micro-niche" print-on-demand enterprises. And the book business is booming in developing countries like China and Brazil. http://chronicle.com/article/5-Myths-About-the-Information/127105/