Tiny humans vs. the boardroom

Igor Vamos may be one of corporate America's worst nightmares.

Vamos, who also goes by the name Mike Bonanno, is a member of The Yes Men. The performance group practices guerrilla art, masquerading corporate officials at events where it seeks to point out companies' failures to practice ethical behavior.

For instance, a few years ago, one member pretending to be a Dow Chemical spokesman was interviewed live by the BBC. Dow had recently purchased the infamous Union Carbide, and the Yes Men member told the world Dow was planning to sell the company and use the $12 billion to help the victims of the Bhopal gas leak in India. In response, the company had to deny the story, putting it in an awkward position.

Dow's stock briefly fell 3 percent.

Vamos, an assistant professor in multimedia at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, gave a presentation last week at the Center for Independent Media in Troy, showing clips from a future Yes Men movie.

Audience members wanted to know how the group manages not to get sued or arrested.

Vamos said corporations tend to not go after the group despite its antics.

"Any power they use to attack us is power they give us," he said, "because they're a huge corporation and we're pathetic, tiny humans."

Gaining momentum

Mayor Anthony Sylvester has been trying to convince Momentive Performance Materials of Wilton, Conn., to move its corporate headquarters to his city when the company's Connecticut lease expires in August.

Momentive is the former GE Advanced Materials, which General Electric Co. sold to a New York City private equity firm in 2006 for $3.8 billion. It has a factory in Waterford that employs 1,000 people.

You might think Sylvester has an inside track on gaining Momentive's ear because he has worked at the Waterford factory, formerly known as the GE Silicones plant, for 18 years.

"I don't know if that's good or bad," Sylvester joked.

Waters along the Mohawk

S.A. is exploring a number of sites throughout the Mohawk as it seeks a source for its bottled spring waters.

The latest drilling is taking place in Johnstown, but the company is also looking in Canajoharie and other places for spring water that has the quality and is available in the quantity that Nestle would need, a spokeswoman said.

"Testing can take one to two years," Jane Lazgin said. "A viable spring is one that can be managed to be sustainable. Some of these brands are more than 100 years old."

And Nestle insists it will handle its own treatment of the water source, instead of relying on a municipal authority.

Farther east in Latham, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. relies on the Latham Water District to supply it with the water it needs for its beverages. At one point in the 1990s, the district was facing shortages as Pepsi expanded production at the plant.

Latham ended up building a new water storage tank to meet the demand.

Some legal karma

Call it just dues perhaps.