IEN Radio

On July 12, 2021 at about 3:23 a.m., the Jalma Topic, a bulk carrier with 20 people aboard was moving up the Lower Mississippi River, headed to a grain terminal near New Orleans. The vessel suddenly lost the ability to steer and crashed into a stationary barge that was being used for office space. No injuries were reported in the accident, but it caused more than $6 million in damages.  The Jalma...

Riding in the car can be extremely conducive to sleep for people, sometimes even when they’re driving. Falling asleep while driving though is not recommended. However, in Volkswagen’s new autonomous, self-driving prototype, there’s no driving necessary and the vehicle is actually designed to help you nod off. The company’s recently unveiled prototype, GEN.TRAVEL, is less like a car you drive and m...

Ford Motor Company, like the rest of the global auto industry, has been dealing with problems in the automotive supply chain for more than two years now. First, it was computer chips, when electronics companies decided it would be better to allocate chips for work-from-home technologies than for cars during COVID lockdowns. The problems subsequently expanded to other parts — so much so that Ford r...

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not hyperbole. It’s not just some small island composed of plastic bottles. It’s more than 220 million pounds of trash and it’s three times the size of France. It’s a pretty big mess but a non-profit organization is continuing to advance plans to clean it up. The Ocean Cleanup, the benevolent minds behind the Trashfence, just released a new video detailing the la...

In the cutthroat quest for talent, companies worldwide have been upping pay and dispensing with cash bonuses and other incentives, to entice new workers and motivate existing ones to stay. But Honda Motor Company appears to have hit a snag with its latest attempts at variable pay. According to Fortune.com , workers at Honda’s Marysville factory in Ohio were awarded bonuses earlier this month only...

The COVID-19 pandemic almost instantly threw a multi-year wrench into global supply chains — and highlighted the advantages of more compact logistics operations. For many U.S. companies, that has meant reshoring manufacturing operations from lower-wage nations back to the States. But for manufacturers in China who want to keep a foothold in the North American market, it means finding a way to get...

Plenty of watercraft like boats and jet skis are attainable on even fairly modest incomes. But a personal submarine still exceeds most people’s budgets. Until now! The U-Boat Worx NEMO submersible series includes an upcoming pair of single- and two-passenger submarines that start at just 545,000 Euros, or about the same in U.S. dollars. That’s still a lot, more than many houses or exotic sports ca...

Automakers around the world are pouring billions of dollars into developing and building vehicles that don't emit greenhouse gases while on the road. But what if your car could do one better: actually removing carbon from the atmosphere as it drives? That’s the goal of the team of researchers from the Netherlands behind the ZEM, which stands for zero-emission mobility. The developers of the s...

DARPA has a new program, Ancillary, and they hope it will develop and demonstrate new technologies that promise to leap VTOLs, vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, forward.  Ancillary, which stands for AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY X-Plane program (it's a loose acronym) wants to build a plane that can launch from any environment or ship flight deck, in any weathe...

I think it’s fair to say that the lifestyle of a farmer is equal parts challenge and reward. Along with the independence of running your own business and embracing the role as society’s kitchen, are the difficulties of dealing with rising fuel, feed and pesticide costs, as well as volatile weather pattens and crop prices. All of these factors have led to a number of technological enhancements mean...

More than one year after Microsoft and the U.S. Army shifted their Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program from prototype to production phase, the military will finally get the new augmented reality goggles for soldiers. The devices, which are based on Microsoft HoloLens and use the company’s Azure cloud computing platform, will allow soldiers to see through smoke and around corners,...

Tesla's Full Self-Driving might be facing trouble when it comes to a specific western state. The misleading term is being challenged by California lawmakers, who recently passed a bill in the Senate that could ban the software's name. According to the LA Times , the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ rules don’t allow the advertisement of cars as “self-driving” if they do not have...

There’s now officially a new standard for the world’s longest flight by a drone after a more-than-two month voyage came to an abrupt end late last week. The Zephyr, a solar-powered drone developed by Airbus and undergoing testing by the U.S. military, took off on its latest journey in mid-June and broke its own record for longest drone flight nearly 26 days later.

A second Hyundai Motor supplier has been accused of violating child labor laws. On Monday, the Department of Labor accused SL Alabama of employing underage workers at a factory in Alexander City, Alabama. The company, a subsidiary of SL Corp, a South Korean company, makes headlights, rear lights and other parts for Hyundai and Kia, a Hyundai Motor Group-controlled company. According to Reuters , w...

Last July Stellantis announced a plan to invest over $35 billion in the development of electric vehicles through 2025. And while the announcement blended in with similar declarations throughout the automotive sector, it had to stand out for those still attached to iconic gasoline-powered brands … like, maybe Dodge. Well, if the writing was on the wall last summer, it’s now on screens and desks thr...

Vehicle subscription service Autonomy just placed a massive order for about 23,000 electric vehicles, valued at approximately $1.2 billion. The company said the order represents about 1.2% of the U.S. total EV production through the end of next year. In all, 17 automakers are represented in the order and it’s a good chance for all of them to put sales numbers on the board. But not all of them made...

Auto prices are borderline out of control, but there are lots of variables that need to fall into place before we see any widespread relief. And outside of parts and worker shortages, there’s another issue that’s been impacting consumers in need of a new ride – markups.  While some dealers are adding in a layer of fat on top of the manufacturer’s recommended price, they’re not the only ones: appar...

It’s been a difficult couple of months for Rivian. After years of vehicle development and production ramp-ups, the electric vehicle maker is finally delivering its high-end electric SUVs and pickups to customers, but it has also had to deal with supply chain headaches, layoffs , and speculation about its long-term prospects. Now, the company says legislation moving through Congress is poised to de...

Plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat, has had a tough go of it lately. Sales dropped late last year and revenue fell along with restaurant demand earlier this year. As a result, the company slashed prices and sold 12% more product in Q1, but revenue still fell 10%. Now, as the company prepares to share its second quarter results today, analysts predict the company to continue to falter.  Part of...

When a commercial pilot posted a picture of eerie, glowing red lights over the Pacific Ocean, it got the internet buzzing. Guesses included the apocalypse, UFOs and the Upside Down from “Stranger Things,” but the reality was much fishier. Neil Jacobs, a weather modeling expert, confirmed to CNN that the red glow, which can actually be seen from outer space, was from massive LED light rigs on comme...

Last week, Kentucky landed yet another electric-vehicle investment. LOTTE Aluminum Materials USA will build a $238.7 million aluminum foil manufacturing operation in Elizabethtown that will create 122 new jobs. According to Governor Andy Beshear, who made the announcement, the deal is the latest in a string of EV suppliers drawn to the region by the EV ecosystem Beshear hopes will "last for g...

As the business world roils in response to geopolitical tensions and supply chain challenges, Stellantis is making some changes related to its global footprint. According to Bloomberg , the automaker has concerns about its operations in China, with Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares revealing recently that the company plans to transition to a strategy he referred to as “asset light.” With this, the com...

In 2017, Lost Valley Farm opened the second-largest dairy in Boardman, Oregon with big ambitions. It was supposed to have 30,000 cows, but instead it was a disaster with more than 200 wastewater violations and bankruptcy in less than a year.  Then in February 2019, Cody Easterday bought the farm for $66.7 million. Easterday is a fourth generation farmer who heads Easterday Farms, an operation out...

The sad truth is that conflict has a long history of breeding innovation. It’s safe to say that many of the advancements in aerospace, electronics, medical treatments and transportation are in fact the byproducts of war. Entering this time-honored and dubious collective is an uncrewed ground vehicle, or UGV, from Ukraine-based Termerland. Dubbed the GNOM, the two-square-foot, all-terrain, remote-c...

Trash is everywhere. It’s on land, where it sometimes piles so high it becomes a smoldering mountain . It’s in space, where it breaks down differently while moving at blistering speeds and being pummeled by solar radiation . And it’s in our water, where it sometimes forms huge garbage waves. The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organization, has identified one river where the t...