Open Knowledge

Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. Gosh, I wish I could've been there...

"...In the early 1960s, Norma Stingley, a chemical engineer, accidentally created a plastic product that bounced uncontrollably. He offered the product to Melin and Knerr and the SUPERBALL® was created, followed by the Super Gold Ball, Super Baseball and Super Dice. In one celebrated incident, a giant SUPERBALL, produced as a promotional item, was accidentally dropped out of a 23rd floor hotel window in Australia. It shot back up 15 floors, then down again into a parked convertible car. The car was totaled but the ball survived the "test" in perfect condition..."

Sickening...first steel subsidies, and farm support, now this. Bush's economic policies are terrible...

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/01/business/yourmoney/01EXIM.html?todaysheadlines=&pagewanted=print&position=top

The New York Times
September 1, 2002
A Guardian of Jobs or a 'Reverse Robin Hood'?
By LESLIE WAYNE

WASHINGTON -- It is hard to imagine why Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire
who is Thailand's prime minister, would need a helping hand from the United
States government for his family business, an Asian telecommunications
giant called the Shin Corporation.

The Shin business empire, which Mr. Shinawatra founded and is still
majority owned by his family, spreads from India to Indochina. It is
Thailand's largest telecommunications company. But last May, to the
consternation of competitors, Shin Satellite, a subsidiary, won a $160
million loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States to
buy a new telecommunications satellite and strengthen its grip in Southeast
Asia.

For the bank, a Depression-era agency founded to promote exports, the
rationale was simple. Loral Space and Communications, an American
manufacturer run by Bernard L. Schwartz, a longtime Democratic Party donor,
was Shin's supplier, and commercial banks, according to the bank, would not
finance the deal without the loan guarantee.

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William Shatner has the answer. (Plus lot's of other people)