TurkmenPost

Spain’s government said yesterday it had ordered an investigation into how the country was soaking up a quarter of one of the world’s largest denomination bank notes, the €500 (£345) bill.

With tax officials and the Bank of Spain unable to explain where all the notes were going to, the country’s ample black market and many money-launderers became the chief suspects.

The €500 notes are popularly known in Spain as "Bin Ladens" because like the al-Qaida leader, everybody knows they are around but hardly anyone has seen them.

The Bank of Spain said the notes were increasingly being drawn from high street banks and then disappearing. Last month 100m more notes were issued to high street banks than were handed in by them. That accounted for 26% of the total issued in all 12 eurozone countries, according to El País newspaper.

The deputy mayor of the southern town of Marbella, Isabel García, was found to have €378,000 in €500 notes in her safe when police arrested her in a corruption investigation earlier this month.

Spaniards have a tradition of squirreling savings away in cash hoards. "We had the same thing with 10,000 peseta notes," a central bank source said. "For some it is a way of laundering money. For others it is just a way of keeping their savings."

via guardian.

The beer can is in for a technology makeover that will shake-up the beverage industry, and it’s being brought to you by a company called Tempra Technology, which has ambitious plans for their cold can technology.
The specially modified cans use proprietary engineering to create a temperature drop that will reduce the I.C. Can contents by a minimum of 30° Fahrenheit in just three minutes. When activated, the all natural desiccant contained within a vacuum draws the heat from the beverage through the evaporator into an insulated heat-sink container. It is this patented vacuum-power which lowers the temperature so dramatically and quickly, leaving the beverage inside cold.
The I.C. Technology is 100% safe non-toxic and environmentally benign, because the whole process is the driven by the simple physics of water evaporation.
The average American drinks 22 Gallons of beer annually, and even though this product would demand a large price premium over a traditional can, the convenience factor and bragging rights would make this a must have item. Camping and fishing will drive the initial sales, and as volumes increase more and more uses will be found. Expect the first cans to show up on store shelves in mid-2007.

via newtechspy.

Hewlett-Packard is recalling almost 16,000 notebook batteries worldwide after reports of the devices overheating and burning, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

This battery recall comes six months after HP and the safety commission announced one involving 135,000 battery units worldwide. HP, however, is hardly alone in facing battery recalls–computer makers such as Dell and Apple Computer have announced similar problems.

In HP’s most recent case, batteries beginning with the bar code L3 are affected and may be found in HP and Compaq notebooks. HP Pavilion family notebooks with model numbers dv1xxx, ze2xxx, as well as HP Compaq family notebooks with model number nx48xx, may be affected. Compaq Presario models V2xxx and M2xxx may also be affected, according to the U.S. Consumer Product report.

HP is voluntarily recalling the lithium ion rechargeable batteries, which were sold at national and regional computer and electronics stores, as well as online, last year.

Back in 2001, Compaq recalled 1.4 million power adapters for its notebook computers. That case involved notebooks manufactured between 1988 and 2001 and resulted in five reports of the computers catching on fire.

Consumers who find their battery units are affected will receive a free replacement battery. HP has also launched an HP Battery Replacement Program Web Site.

via C|NET.