Just what a mother shopping with her 13-month-old baby needed.

“I wish there had been one of these when I was at the Mall of America,” said Rendon of Maplewood, Minn., recalling a recent excursion with daughters Makayla, 5, and Daisy, 13 months. On that day, Rendon had forgotten Daisy’s bottle.

The vending machine, called Diaper Bag Basics, is the brainchild of two Twin Cities mothers and debuted at Maplewood Mall about three weeks ago. It’s one of the many twists in the evolution of vending machines as companies embrace the potential of “v-commerce.”

“There’s a significant trend, especially for an already established retailer,” said George Van Horn, senior industry analyst with market research firm IBISWorld. “They have a brick-and-mortar, they have mail order, they have a website, so the vending machine itself is just one more extension of the brand.”

Using vending machines, retailers can track sales and inventory online, avoiding excessive trips to restock inventory and helping determine hot sellers. More machines have touch-screen shopping, and some companies are testing wireless technology to allow consumers to make a vending machine purchase with a mobile phone.

The timing couldn’t be better for the $11.3 billion vending machine industry. More than 90 percent of vending revenue comes from snacks, candies and beverages, but those sales have been declining in recent years. Sales at machines that sell nonfood products (excluding cigarettes) have been growing, according to IBISWorld.

Already, vending machines are used to sell everything from $2 shaving kits to $400 electronics, building familiarity with consumers. It’s not difficult to imagine more shoppers embracing the utility of making a purchase through a vending machine, especially when so many are comfortable shopping online with a computer.

Robbie Blinkoff, a consumer anthropologist and managing director of Context Based Research Group in Baltimore, understands the draw. “Anything that’s moving toward vending makes sense for consumerism,” he said. “It’s quick and it’s done.”

For entrepreneurs, vending machines offer a chance to try out a new concept without a lot of upfront costs. Depending on options and technology, the machines can range from $6,000 to $15,000 and beyond.

Best Buy first launched its Express vending machines at a handful of airports in August 2008 and has continued to expand what it terms “automated retail” into hospitals and businesses, said spokeswoman Carolyn Aberman. The Richfield, Minn.-based company installed an Express machine in the IDS Crystal Court in September to test whether workers also would be interested in buying digital cameras, cell phones, MP3 players and accessories.

Wal-Mart put up some machines earlier this year to sell small electronics, and J.C. Penney sells Sephora cosmetics inside its stores. Macy’s was early to market in May 2008 when it put e-Spot machines in 400 stores to sell such items as iPods, GPS units and headphones.

Innovative Vending partnered with MainGate to open the nation’s first licensed NFL vending machine last fall at the Mall of America, which is intended to complement the Vikings Locker Room store and kiosk already in the mall.

Vending machines have downsides. They’re labor-intensive, often with low profit margins that can’t be passed on, especially to the post-recession, value-conscious consumer.

For some, it takes a lot of nerve to stick a credit card into a machine to buy a cell phone or digital camera that costs hundreds of dollars. And if things go wrong, there’s no one to complain to.

And Blinkoff, the anthropologist, said his research shows that the recession has made people “hungry for connecting, and building up a sense of the social.” Vending machines don’t do that.

“It’s the ultimate transactional relationship,” he said. “It shows the commoditization of our lives.”

But so long as there’s a captive audience with ready cash seeking a convenient purchase, vending machines will have a place.

As for Diaper Bag Basics, the owners say early sales at Maplewood Mall are strong. Baby bottles were a surprisingly strong seller, Hughes said.

The goal is to open three more in the coming year. Their sights are set on the airport, a zoo or museum, and, Rendon may be pleased to know, the Mall of America. By Jackie Crosby, The State

A South African firm, Sasol, announced Monday that it would spend just over 1 billion Canadian dollars to buy a half-interest in a Canadian shale gas field, so it can explore turning natural gas into diesel and other liquids. Sasol’s proprietary conversion technology was developed decades ago to help the apartheid government of South Africa survive an international oil embargo, and it is a refinement of the ones used by the Germans to make fuel for the Wehrmacht during World War II.

The technology takes “a lot of money and a lot of effort,” said Michael E. Webber, associate director of the Center for International Energy Environmental Policy at the University of Texas, Austin. “You wouldn’t do this if you could find easy oil,” he said.

But with the huge spread between oil and gas prices, and predictions of oil topping $100 a barrel next year, the conversion technology could be a “a money-maker for whoever is a first mover in that space.”

Several other companies have intermittently tried to make liquid fuels from natural gas or coal. For example, the energy company Baard has been planning a coal-to-liquids plant in Ohio but has not been able to pull the pieces together, and Peabody Coal has discussed a similar plant.

Sasol figures that the natural gas needed for a gallon of diesel, plus operating costs, comes to about $1.50 a gallon. In comparison, a gallon of diesel made from crude oil now costs more than $2, even before refining, and many forecasts are for the price of oil to go higher.

But there is a hefty cost of building the chemical plant to do the conversion, which might run over $1.5 billion for a new Canadian plant that would handle 40,000 barrels a day.

The calculations also exclude another cost: greenhouse gas emissions, which may be higher for a conversion plant than a typical refinery, depending on how the work is done.

“Everything ugly is in vogue again,” said Josh Mogerman, an energy specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has been fighting a proposed coal-to-liquids plant in Ohio.

From a financial perspective, the technology is far from ugly. A barrel of oil has historically cost one to two times as much as the equivalent amount of energy from natural gas. But right now, vast supplies of natural gas from shale formations in North America have driven prices down, so oil is triple the price of the gas equivalent.

The new ratio creates “a very attractive economic option,” said Lean Strauss, senior group executive at Sasol.

While the operating costs favor conversion, the cost to build the chemical plant is another matter; gas-to-liquids plants are far more capital-intensive than traditional refineries that make the same products from crude oil.

A plant opened by Sasol in Qatar in 2006, in partnership with the national oil company, Qatar Petroleum, cost $37,000 per barrel of daily capacity, but costs in Canada would be higher, Mr. Strauss said. Sasol produces 160,000 barrels a day of its liquids — diesel, naphtha and propane — in South Africa. It also turns out jet fuel, which is routinely blended into fuel for airliners departing from Johannesburg. In August, Sasol supplied 100 percent of the fuel for a Boeing 737 flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

In the deal announced Monday, Sasol acquired a 50 percent stake in Farrell Creek shale gas assets, in British Columbia. With the other owner, Talisman Energy, it will begin a feasibility study early next year on building a gas-to-liquids plant, and Talisman will have the option to own 50 percent of that.

Sasol is building a similar plant in Nigeria with Chevron, and last month, it completed a feasibility study in Uzbekistan. It also recently submitted a proposal to Shenhau, the Chinese coal company, for a similar plant.

The Sasol process cooks a hydrocarbon, either coal or natural gas, into a fuel gas made of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Using a patented process that involves cobalt catalysts, it converts that gas into a mix of liquids: 80 percent diesel fuel, 15 percent naphtha and 5 percent liquid propane.

But the process is not 100 percent efficient. In fact, the finished product has only about 62 percent as much energy as the raw material did.

In addition to losing energy, the process creates excess carbon dioxide, compared to burning the natural gas or coal directly for energy. But starting with natural gas, said Mr. Strauss, the amount of carbon dioxide released per finished gallon of liquid fuel was comparable to the carbon footprint of a gallon from a traditional refinery.

Environmentalists are not so sure. “It’s unclear right now,” said Simon Mui, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “There hasn’t been a large global experience in natural gas to liquids.”

But, he added, “it’s definitely not a greenhouse gas reduction strategy.” And recovery of gas from shale can itself be energy intensive and environmentally challenging, he said.

The Sasol move comes as Canada is increasing its production of oil from oil sands, which is clearly carbon-intensive. Environmentalists in the United States are trying to stop large-scale imports of oil from oil sands.

Mr. Mogerman, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that given the historical market prices for oil and natural gas, only countries with no other choice had pursued the conversion process. “The only ones who’ve done it are people with their backs against the wall, and who had no financial considerations,” he said.

But if oil prices stay high and gas prices remain low because of shale gas, that view could be history. By Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times

The company was set up by the famous brothers and sold to The Walt Disney Company in 1993 after they left to establish The Weinstein Company.

Miramax Films fell into financial difficulty and closed its offices in January and the Weinsteins, who were responsible for hit films such as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and The English Patient, tried to buy the company back.

Their negotiations fell though and officials at Disney have now announced the firm has been sold off to a private investment group.

Hollywood actor Rob Lowe was also be said to have been involved in the Miramax bidding war after reportedly joining a massive multimedia investment venture, but he is not thought to be involved with the Filmyard Holding investment group which confirmed its purchase of Miramax on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

The Miramax library of films boasts a string of Oscar-winners including 1994′s Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting from 1997. Ornage News

This follows an agreement inked between the two for a long-term strategic co-operation. The investment will be $7.5 million.

V. Sumantran, Executive Vice-Chairman, Hinduja Automotive Group and member of Ashok Leyland board, told a press conference here on Thursday that the stake buy in Optare was being facilitated through a fresh offer at a “competitive market rate”.

The move to buy a stake in the U.K. bus company was a logical extension of a well thought-out strategy of Ashok Leyland to insulate itself against the cyclical nature of the commercial vehicle business and get into unexplored adjacent sectors and also spread to new geographical locations, he reasoned.

Mr. Sumantran listed three significant benefits for Ashok Leyland from the deal. First, it would help the company gain access to the design and wide product offerings of Optare. Second, it would help it participate in the innovation exercise of Optare. And finally, it would help Ashok Leyland to get an opportunity to co-develop future range of buses.

Under the agreement, Ashok Leyland would nominate two of its representatives on the board of Optare. The tie-up would also benefit Optare, he said.

Optare could improve its competitiveness in the U.K. and its export markets through access to Ashok Leyland’s lower-cost supply chain, co-operation in new product development and improved management of working capital. The Hindu

A presentation in this regard was made before Tourism Minister G. Janardhan Reddy on Thursday after the inauguration of the new office of Jungle Lodges and Resorts.

The proposal “Connectivity enabled integrated development for Mangalore city”, aligned with the Mangalore City Vision 2025 plan was made by Ravindra Kumar, co-founder of Strada Architects and Consultants, on behalf of a consortium, who are yet to be named.

The proposal entails creating tram or ropeway facility between the tourist destinations in Mangalore, which would facilitate faster movement of traffic and will have 10 major stations. Besides, it seeks to develop Mangalore Marine Bay, that includes a convention centre, aquamarine park, water-based park, entertainment / theme parks, laser show, sound and light show among others.

Submission

“This PPP model will be implemented at a cost of about Rs. 4,500 crore. We have asked them to submit a proposal to the Government,” Mr. Reddy told presspersons. He asked the company officials to submit the proposal to the Government under the Swiss Challenge method.

Mr. Rehan Khan, a member of the delegation that met the Minister, however, told presspersons that the details of the company/ consortium that would be involved in the project was yet to be worked out. “We have not decided which company or consortium would submit the proposal,” he said. The Hindu