Free Republic

Eastman Kodak issued a concerning message to investors Monday, indicating that the 133-year-old camera company's future may be in trouble. In its second quarter earnings report, released Monday, Kodak indicated it is losing profits, adding that it doesn't have the “committed financing or available liquidity” to pay its $500 million debt obligations. Kodak added that right now, the plan to fund its debt consists of using excess funds from the termination of a retirement pension plan to "reduce the amount of term debt and to amend, extend or refinance its remaining debt and preferred stock obligations."

My work is done. Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. My work is done. For all intents and purposes, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the...

Toxic Tugs - Public Poisons by J.B. Stone - 04/17/02 What do Maryland, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Johnston Atoll, and the Marshall Islands have in common? BioChemical warfare tests were conducted in all of them behind a blinding haze of Cold War secrecy. And hardly a word of warning was ever issued, before during, or afterward the test conductors, subjects, or citizens living in surrounding areas. Marine jets and Army artillery sprayed "harmless simulants" and live biological and chemical agents on unsuspecting citizens for 15 years on land and sea during Operation Deseret. The randomly selected human test rats onboard ships...