(Quality Digest: Chico, California) -- Nikon Corp. has announced an offer to purchase Belgium-based metrology company, Metris N.V., for €5.50 per share. This represents an 107-percent premium to Metris's closing price on NYSE Euronext Brussels as of May 26, 2009, according to Metris.

(Sensor Products: Madison, New Jersey) -- Sensor Products Inc. announces Pressurex Extreme Low, the newest addition to its tactile pressure-indicating sensor films. Pressurex Extreme Low characterizes contact surface pressure down to an extremely low 7.2 PSI (0.5 kg/cm²).

Recently a strategy consultant was overheard saying she writes romantic novels. Look into many organizations and, although said in jest, it has more than a modicum of truth to it.

(ACSI: Ann Arbor, Michigan) -- The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) continues to climb, registering a second straight quarterly improvement after a period of decline preceding the recession.

(Hexagon Metrology: North Kingstown, Rhode Island) -- Wilcox Associates, a Hexagon Metrology company, announces the immediate availability of PC-DMIS Reshaper software as a standlone application.

These days blogs and newspapers seem to make a daily reference to climate change, resource scarcity and security, the environment and the economy.

(WCBF: Chicago) -- The Global Six Sigma and Business Improvement Awards are given to the most outstanding organizational achievements through the deployment of business improvement programs. The final deadline for entry is near.

(Minitab: State College, Pennsylvania) -- Statistics can be complicated and daunting, but the statistical analysis of data is at the heart of proven business improvement methods such as lean and Six Sigma.

(NIST: Gaithersburg, Maryland) -- By combining the best of two different distance measurement approaches with a super-accurate technology called an optical frequency comb, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a laser-ranging system that can pinpoint

Editors note: The author submitted this just days before he lost his job. What is ironic about this "rant," as Bruman puts it, is that it was written seven years ago. Do we never learn?