Brummet's Conscious Blog

-- Quote of the Day -- A lot of folks are forever in a hurry even if they don’t know where they are headed. When we lose something, but gain wisdom from the event, we have really won by our loss. ~ Unknown -- Factories Going Underground? -- Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Corp., a group company of Yamazaki Mazak Corp., a major Japanese manufacturer of machine tools, has received the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Tourism Award--the highest award in the 2008 Effective Land Utilization Grand Prix--for its efforts to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, utilize land effectively, and minimize landscape impact by building an underground factory. The factory, called the Phoenix Laboratory, began operations in February 2008 to assemble laser processing machines. Located in Minokamo City, Gifu Prefecture, the Laboratory is built 17 meters (36 feet) below the surface. It maintains temperatures within a range of 4 degrees Celsius year-round by utilizing a geothermal air conditionin...