An Oily Mess
Sky-high fuel costs are having an obvious impact on consumers and businesses alike, leading to air travelers being charged for checked bags as well as to many employers revisiting flexible summer work schedules, for instance.

The effects continue on and on. Some less-obvious ones may not even cross your mind, though.

Take, for example, The Wall Street Journal's recent top-50 roundup of things that are happening due to rising oil costs. Among them:

• Robot aircraft look even more attractive to the military. (Department of Defense/American Forces Press Service)

• Pizza delivery charges are rising. (Pacific Business News)

• Sending a bouquet of flowers costs more. (Press-Enterprise, California)

• The price of road salt for next winter's storms is rising. (Peoria Journal Star)

• NASCAR teams are spending more — and fretting about whether crowds will avoid traveling to races. (Sacramento Bee)

• Golf-cart regulation becomes a subject of debate in Indiana. (UPI)

• Squid fishermen are angry. (AFP)

Who's responsible for $150 oil? According to Nelson Schwartz at The New York Times, the villains are: American consumers; U.S. transportation systems; global growth without oil conservation; the weakened dollar; the U.S. Congress and administrations of 1985-2007; Ford, General Motors and Chrylser; and American oil companies.

Note the absence of speculators and OPEC.

Paris Not Hip to Cool Packaging
France may surrender its title of world's largest winemaker to Spain. The Associated Press reports that "outmoded traditions" and not targeting younger wine drinkers will force France to lose its crown.

Says AP:

Screw tops, boxed wines, colorful easy-to-understand labels and sophisticated marketing — innovations pioneered by countries like Australia and South Africa — have helped global competitors elbow in on France's market share.

Because Spain has adapted to the new trends and France has not, the latter "now looks set to fall behind," according to a Vignerons Independants winemakers association study done by Credoc research group.

According to current projections, France will trail Spain in 2015 as its wine production drops to 1.16 billion gallons from the 2000-04 annual average of 1.39 billion, the study said. France is also failing to adapt to American and British taste buds, AP reports the study as having said.

Tequila Can also Make Diamond Film
Diamond film is tougher than silicon, but is also more expensive and difficult to make. "They are produced by vaporising organic material, and then controlling how the carbon atoms crystallize onto a surface," New Scientist magazine reported last month. "The process works best if the material contains carbon and oxygen in roughly equal parts, as well as some hydrogen."

The potent Mexican spirit Tequila, when heated under pressure, produces diamond structures that are able to conduct electricity, according to researchers' recent findings. The crystals, used to make diamond film, have previously been made from a number of different chemicals.

The experiment highlighted by New Scientist is believed to be the first time that scientists have proved that any type of alcohol can produce synthetic diamond.

Vinyl-Wrapping World's Largest Beer Can
Converting Magazine recently pointed out Dave Leach, a Chicago-based collector of "world's largest" items, apparently was not content with collecting them, so he recently commissioned one: an enormous Old Style® beer can.

Leach hired Road Rage Designs, a wide format graphics provider, which in turn went with Avery Graphics for the wrap.

According to the press release (via UKsignboards.com):

The Avery Graphics MPI 1007 EZ RS was printed with 1970's Old Style Beer® graphics. Leach chose the Old Style Beer Graphics as a tribute to his father, whose favorite beer is the vintage brew originally manufactured by The G. Heileman Brewing Company, now owned by the Pabst Brewing Company.

"We chose Avery Graphics MPI 1007 EZ RS vinyl for this unique opportunity because it is easy to work with and the overlaminate really made the colors in the graphics pop on such a large scale application," said Kris Harris, vice president of Road Rage Designs.

Cheers.