IEN Resource

The Monday Blog Alert from IEN Connects features direct links to items of interest or concern to the greater manufacturing and industrial community, written by IEN's editors. The Blog Alert is designed to raise issues, introduce technological advancements, invite reader comment, establish community dialogue and, at times, even generate a few laughs! New this week...

Packagers Eye Cost Efficiency as Pack Expo Opens
By Jennifer Hooker and Mike Botta, IEN Staff
Packagers are looking to efficiency and cost-effectiveness in products and operations as they begin their weeklong walk around the floors of McCormick Place at Pack Expo 2008, which got under way Sunday. An opening day report...

Goodbye Service Economy, Hello Manufacturing
By Mike Botta, IEN Staff
Maybe it took a Wall Street meltdown, a universal slap in the wallet and an election of historic proportions to shift the nation’s focus back to the importance of nuts and bolts manufacturing...

Google vs. Dolly Parton
By Jennifer Hooker, IEN Staff
While these two things don’t seemingly belong in the same sentence, the country crooner and the Internet giant have been duking it out over “white spaces”...

Photovoltaics Get Extreme Makeover
By Debbie Maskin, IEN Staff
Resembling oversized Mylar party balloons, these metallized plastic air bags are expected to reduce the cost of concentrated photovoltaic power from $8 to $1 per watt...

How to Change the World
By Mary O'Hara Smith, IEN Staff
The historic election of 2008 is over, and all the problems we faced on Nov. 3 are still with us today. Yet dedicated people and the spirit of innovation can still be found amidst the wreckage of our economy...

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