Free Republic

So many people in the US are using and abusing laxatives that it’s caused a national shortage. Just like many health-related problems of today's world, the dwindling stockpiles of pooping pills can be explained by a mixture of terrible diets, questionable internet trends, the nation’s aging population, and strains on mental health. The US is currently experiencing a scarcity of polyethylene glycol 3350, the prime compound found in many big brand laxative products like MiraLAX and Glycolax Some pharmaceutical companies have even reportedly started building new factories, in part, to boost the production of the sought-after compound. Polyethylene glycol eases...

Despite the promise of creating 600 permanent jobs, the ethane cracker plant being built about 40 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh by car continues to face scrutiny from environmental groups. Shell Chemical Appalachia decided in 2012 that Beaver County would be the site of a new $6 billion plant to manufacture plastics. Shell chose the Beaver County location because of its proximity to natural gas supplies and because the majority of North American polyethylene — the most common plastic — customers are in a 700-mile radius of Pittsburgh. In a statement published on its website, Shell said it expects to employ...

The Dow Chemical Company, the world’s largest producer of polyethylene, and Crystalsev, one of Brazil’s largest ethanol players, plan to form a joint venture to manufacture polyethylene from sugar cane ethanol. With production expected to start in 2011, the plant will have an annual capacity of 350,000 metric tons. The new facility will use ethanol with Dow’s proprietary technology to manufacture DOWLEXT polyethylene resins—the raw material required to make polyethylene, the world’s most widely-used plastic. At a molecular level, the joint venture’s product will be identical to the DOWLEXT polyethylene resins manufactured at other Dow facilities. The new material is...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing police have detained a gang of thieves who pulled off a high-speed, highway heist straight out of a Hollywood action movie. Police patrolling a Beijing freeway saw several people "surfing" on top of a van as it pulled alongside a truck loaded with cargo, the Beijing News said Friday. "The men leapt from the van onto the truck's trailer and started throwing back bags of a white-colored substance" into the moving van, the paper said. After several kilometres, the men leapt back on to the van and sped away. Police later intercepted the van, the thieves...

A quiet terrorist victory, one which has completely escaped the notice of the mainstream press, is affecting your life. It has significance in both practical and symbolic terms. In the short run there is little we can do about it. But in the long run the factors propelling the terrorists' triumph contain the seeds of their defeat. Do these names mean anything to you? Stephen LaGuardia, 62, and Philip Coplen, 53, Americans; Michael Hardy, 44, and Michael McGillen, 52, Britons; Anthony Mason, 57, Australian. You might have a vague memory of five Western engineers killed last May in Saudi Arabia....