COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Accusation
ReplyDeleteIn 2005 agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a unit within the United States Department of Homeland Security, established a front company, Mercury Global Enterprises (MGE). A business acquaintance of Tappin contacted the company initially to buy surveillance equipment. They later enquired about exporting other military hardware without the proper licenses. Shortly before the man was arrested for trying to buy zinc/silver oxide batteries to power MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles for a customer in Tehran, Tappin was named as an exporter.[4]
US federal authorities allege Tappin tried to buy 50 Eagle-Picher P/N GAP 4328 zinc/silver oxide batteries (National Stock Number: 1420-00-484-8556)[5][6][7] between December 2005 and January 2007. The batteries, which were to be exported from the United States to Iran via the Netherlands, are part of the electronics of the Hawk surface-to-air missile. In November 1985, 18 Hawk missiles were shipped to Iran during the Reagan Administration. Tappin maintains as the exporter he thought he was buying car batteries.[8] The US maintains that the batteries were to be exported to Tehran without the necessary US government approval.
[edit] Arrest and extradition to USA
A federal arrest warrant for Tappin was first issued by a grand jury in Texas in 2007. In January 2012 Tappin lost his final appeal against extradition to the USA under the Extradition Act 2003.[9] On denying Tappin's appeal against extradition to the United States, Mr Justice Cranston, a British High Court judge, considered whether the case was the result of entrapment by US agents, concluding:
Gibson, [Tappin]’s co-conspirator, approached MGE officers, not the other way around, and said that he had already conducted illegal export activities with [Tappin]. After Gibson dropped out, [Tappin] pursued the order and made clear that ultimately he wanted 35 batteries. [Tappin] devised the cover that the batteries were for electroplating by a Dutch chemical company. MGE’s agents gave [Tappin] an opportunity to withdraw from the transaction on 19 October [2006], after he had stopped payment, but [Tappin] persisted.[4]
Tappin's alleged co-conspirators were Robert Frederick Gibson (a British citizen) who pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sentenced to 24 months in prison, and Robert Thomas Caldwell (an American citizen) who was convicted at trial in 2007 and sentenced to 20 months in prison.[10]
Farage is full of shit on this one. His buddy, Helder, is full of shit on "Energy."
Just another nest of asshole politicians that happen to be right on one very important issue.
In the run up to Sunday's first round presidential vote, it was hard to find many people in France publicly admitting they intended to vote for Marine Le Pen. Nevertheless between 18% and 20% appear to have done so – a stunning result for the far right.
ReplyDeleteIt was a record for France's Front National, beating the previous best in 2002 when Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie, won his way into the second-round run-off with 17% of votes.
The surprise score reflected not only how Marine, a 43-year-old lawyer, made inroads into the French political landscape during a campaign in which she relentlessly challenged the "established" candidates, but also a deep disillusion with the main parties. She has now become the third force in the presidential campaign and a possible kingmaker in the second-round run-off in two weeks's time.
I like the guy. Since I can't get the video to play I went to the wiki article.
ReplyDeleteLike him a lot, especially the part about uniculturalism.
For this, Rufus will call me a racist.
Check This Out
No mo.
Spencer is one of my heroes, I am surprised he hasn't been assassinated by now.
Whether his thesis holds much water I don't know but it certainly is interesting.
For various reasons I'm sure Jesus existed though there have been those who claimed not. That idea has been examined a lot and fails.
Here however the argument is different in that it's claimed that an already existing group needed a better totum so to speak, if I understand what he is saying. I don't know if this is a new idea or not, about no mo.
UKIP states that Britain and Britishness have been "betrayed by misguided politically correct ideology, extremist Islam and errant nationalism from within", that "Britain is a proud nation state, which does not wish its identity to be diluted or trivialised... and feel it is time to assert our independence, identity and traditions."[51]
DeleteUKIP asserts that it believes in civic nationalism. UKIP "opposes multiculturalism and political correctness but rejects "blood and soil" ethnic nationalism. UKIP promotes uni-culturalism, a single British culture embracing all races, religions and colours".[51] It states that Britishness can be defined in terms of belief in democracy, fair play and freedom.[51]
UKIP would replace the May Day bank holiday in England with a St George's Day bank holiday. It would introduce an English Parliament and end the Barnett formula.[52]
UKIP has stated that it will "enthusiastically support teaching Gaelic languages and histories in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, and support local and area heritage across the UK."[51]
UKIP opposes the takeover of major British companies, such as the takeover of Cadbury's by Kraft Foods in 2010, and would create a new parliamentary committee that would be given powers to block the sale or merger of companies and to attach conditions, including requiring a UK Government “Golden Share”.[51]
All media, businesses, schools and colleges would be required to use imperial measurements alongside metric measurements.[51]
F@@K Yes
DeleteHooker scandal spreads to President's hotel.
Obie used to smoke cocaine. There's lots of cocaine in Columbia.
Just dreamin'....
Senator Lieberman is now joining some of his Senate colleagues like Republican Chuck Grassley who are also calling for a broader investigation into whether White House staffers could have been involved.
Delete:):)
Libertarians are often immensely entertaining, but it's not long into the Q&A that the wheels start to fall off.
ReplyDeleteIt never seems to occur to them that if their "Feudalism in our Time" form of government was implemented it might be Them in the mud hut, and someone else in the Manor on the Hill.
:) heh
DeleteIf you will click on The U.K
ReplyDeleteyou will see that they are a Major "Net" Importer of Coal, and Nat Gas, and even a Net Importer of Oil.
And, Wind is much cheaper than Nuclear (and the gap is growing.)
When you get down to the actual Political Realities of it, a Libertarian is just an ultra-conservative with his "party clothes" on. Ready for "cocktail hour."
ReplyDelete:) heh
DeleteI don't care for Farage's speaking style.
ReplyDeleteBTW they got Christopher Tappin earlier this year.
Shades of Kim Philby.
Kim Philby?….Maxi, you were using your hyperbole font weren’t you?
Delete:)
DeleteMore an esthetic observation than anything else. I googled his image. Perfect presentation of the upstanding English person of certain means.
Although one could make the argument that weapons traffic has replaced ideology as the motivation of choice, particularly if one accepts LeCarre's moral ambiguity between east and west.
I have to run.
Also born in April 1964, Niall Ferguson, British historian:
ReplyDeleteAs many of his critics have noted, Ferguson's emergence as an advocate of empire coincided with the rise of neoconservatism in the US and the drive to displace Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. (In the run-up to the war, Ferguson was a vocal supporter of invasion.) Although he became critical of US policy once the occupation took place, and now distances himself from the neocons, he remains unrepentant about his pro-war stance, arguing that the real problem was that the invasion was "botched" because of the Bush administration's failure to commit sufficient manpower and resources to it. ("The problem I constantly wrote about then was that if you invade and overthrow the bad guy, hold elections and then piss off, it doesn't work.") Nor does he rule out supporting similar campaigns in future. "It's all very well for us to sit here in the west with our high incomes and cushy lives, and say it's immoral to violate the sovereignty of another state. But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and political freedom, to raise their standard of living, to increase their life expectancy, then don't rule it out."
...
6. Work ethic: As Max Weber noted a century ago, Protestantism was a form of Christianity that encouraged hard work (and just as importantly, Ferguson adds, reading and saving). It isn't a coincidence, he says, that the decline of religion in Europe has led to Europeans becoming the "idlers of the world" (while the more religious US has remained hard-working). Interestingly, Ferguson also argues that China's embrace of hard work is partly because of the spread there of Protestantism.
Link
A nation of 75 million, committed to the destruction of a nation of several million..
ReplyDeleteA nation 100 times larger than another, committed to the destruction of a nation just a mere fraction of it's size.
Is this fair?
Is this just?
Should this tiny nation not use whatever weapons including nukes to defend it'sself?
Abu Dhabi I am speaking of, of course
I distinctly recall Trish saying war would be more, not less, likely with Obama at the helm.
Deletewar is more likely among others with Obama at the helm.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteYet, he said, Draper’s book properly captures the freshman class’s “frustration with the capitulation” that GOP leaders often settled for with Obama. “I continue to bang my head against the wall,” Farenthold said, “because maybe we could have gotten four or five yards, not three.
Not having read the book, I can only comment on the article which doesn't mention the compromises Obama offered and which the GOP eventually refused, thus cutting off their nose to spite their face in the name of principle.
The Tea Party
Congressional races will be important this year as will be what happens in the lame duck session. Most things being equal, I can foresee a scenario where an Obama victory might offer a better chance for an extension of the Bush tax cuts than a Romney victory.
The pundits argue that an Obama victory will free him to come out of the closet on his agenda and thus he would be more likely to let the tax cuts expire. However, while the economy is moving slowly forward, it isn't all that much improved from last fall and Obama, so far, has shown himself supportive of initiatives that help business and wealthy doners as exemplified by his support of the tax cut extension last December.
Were he to win the re-election, as the pundits say, he would be free to expand his agenda. However, that may only mean that he is in a stronger bargaining position. Will he be willing to give the GOP the tax cuts in exchange for other favors. Will the GOP be willing to (or can they given the intransigence of the Tea Party) compromise.
The other side of the coin is a Romney victory. Under that scenario, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Dems allow the tax cuts to expire. The question then becomes what is the make-up of the new Congress and will the GOP have the votes to reinstate the tax cuts.
It should be interesting.
.
Torture usually is.
ReplyDeleteI see part of the campaign strategy is to court the social conservatives who are considered the swing votes in the five - count 'em - five in-play states.
Which means ... this election could yet pivot on social rather than economic issues. If the Romney campaign follows that strategy, I predict a Republican loss, by rather large margins.
One of several recurring themes among conservatives is restricting the franchise. The usual criterion is property ownership.
They are not going to waste time and money courting those who have no place else to go.
DeleteIt's 'Romney the fixer'.
He ought to make up an ad with Joe the Plumber both with their sleeves up fixing a leaking pipe.
Here is the Walter Russell Mead link to the essay where he blames the collapse of the western world on Democrats:
ReplyDeleteA Crisis of Civilization
Nigel ain't got nothin' on this guy.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteChecking Your Data in Google
.
.
ReplyDeleteThe markets are down and the
French and Dutch political situations seem to play as big a part as EU economics.
Germany led a chorus of concerns the result.
"This high score is alarming but I expect it will be ironed out in the second round," said a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, adding that she continued to support French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the election.
At her press conference on Sunday night. Le Pen burst into a rendition of La Marseillaise in front of delirious supporters waving the national flag.
“Whatever happens over the next two weeks, the battle for France has only just begun,” she said.
“We have exploded the monopoly of the two [main] parties of banks, finance, of multinationals, of resignation and abandonment, and carried higher than ever before the hopes of national ideas...
Update on the French Elections
.
When you get down to the actual Political Realities of it, a Libertarian is just an ultra-conservative with his "party clothes" on. Ready for "cocktail hour."
ReplyDeleteA Democrat is just a.........
A Republican is just a.......
regarding Libertarian Nationalism, check out: www.albionawake.tk
One of several recurring themes among conservatives is restricting the franchise. The usual criterion is property ownership.
ReplyDeleteNon sense and fat chance. I'd go for just making sure the wetbacks can't vote.
Rather than property ownership, an intelligence test though might make some sense. Fat chance.
.
Delete...an intelligence test though might make some sense.
Be careful what you ask for, Bob.
:)
.
I was hoping to cull your noble self from the rolls.
DeleteRegardless, the concept is regularly raised in the context of reconstituting government after the "revolutionary reset" which is, in itself, moderately interesting to speculate on.
ReplyDeleteThe "accountants" allege, much like Ron Paul, that it is simply impossible to repay the current debt - not just in this country but globally. The total derivatives debt is something like $700 trillion. So a financial "reset" is likely to inevitable, with or without growth/inflation. Whether or not it is accompanied by a shooting revolution is another matter. But there is no doubt in my mind that certain parties slather at the prospect of "starting over." Under that scenario, a limited franchise is a given.
I would imagine that Google might lose all its accounts.
The debt never need be "paid off". You just need to be able to roll it over and pay the interest. The problems occur when you can't roll it over and/or the interest portion of the debt is too large to carry.
DeleteNo.
DeleteThus for every security in the world such as a mortgage backed security (MBS), there can be infinate derivatives sold to investors around the world, hedging on the potential default of that security. Taking into consideration that MBS's are composed of home mortgages, and the value of those properties are still falling four years after the end of the housing bubble, the chances of many derivatives being executed and demanding payment to holders is growing in probability and scope each day.
Most people see only the topical debt liabilities such as the $15 trillion owed by the US government, or the $30 trillion in liabilities held throughout the Eurozone. Yet, these debts pale in comparison to the nearly three quarters of a quadrillion in open and outstanding derivatives that are tied to many of these Eurozone and global debts.
The debt crisis of 2008 brought the concept of derivatives to the forefront of the public eye, and afterwards, the American people called for, and demanded regulations to keep them from creating another disaster in the economic system. However, it appears now that not only have the prior derivatives failed to unwind over the past three years, but instead have increased by more than $100 trillion in the last six months alone, creating a scenario that will utterly destroy the entire global economy should even a small percentage of these 'bets' are triggered.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Global debt and derivatives skyrocket contrary to central bank efforts - National Finance Examiner | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/article/global-debt-and-derivatives-skyrocket-contrary-to-central-bank-efforts#ixzz1su4VqdNq
ZeroHedge has also covered the subject extensively.
The Money Masters Are Living in Fear (Link)
DeleteRemember earlier in this article I stated that one of the purposes of the ISDA is to determine if a “credit event” is actually a default? If a “credit event” is declared to be a default, then Credit Default Swap (CDS) contracts come into play. Think about this, the very same banks that would have to pay the claims by those who bought these contracts, are in the position of determining if a “credit event” is really a default. All the banks have to do is to NOT declare any default and they do not have to pay! If they did have to pay, and then the house of cards would collapse. The big banks would immediately be insolvent and the money masters live in fear of this.
This lack of a declared default by the ISDA is exactly what brought down MF Global which was speculating heavily on European bonds. What ultimately happened was that an agreement was reached in Europe that that investors would have to take a write-down of 50% on Greek Bond debt. Now MF Global was leveraged anywhere from 40 to 1, to 80 to 1 depending on whose figures you believe. Let’s assume that MF Global was leveraged 40 to 1, this means that they could not even absorb a small 3% loss, so when the “haircut” of 50% was agreed to, MF Global was finished. It tried to stem its losses by criminally dipping into segregated client accounts, and we all know how that ended with clients losing their money.
...
Now with the talk in Europe being that investors may have to take a write down of 70% on some European debt, will that be declared a default? I doubt it, again because that would drive the 5 biggest banks in the United States into insolvency. The problem becomes, at what point does the ISDA declare a default? At 70%, at 80% , or at 100% if Greece or another country just walk away from their debt? Once a default is declared by the ISDA, the banks are done, and the money masters know this! The conflict of interest in this situation is clear. These banks got to write the insurance , get paid the premiums and yet they have total control over whether they will have to pay.
While I don't wish to minimize the problem derivatives pose they are very different than debt - that is debt owed by the US government in the form of bonds and treasury bills. When one says "pay off the debt" traditionally one is speaking of debt in the traditional sense. Derivatives aren't debt per se but rather 'side-bets' based on all kinds of things with debt being just one of them.
DeleteDerivatives "obligations*
DeleteBut not obligations of the US government and, by extension, the US taxpayer.
DeleteThe obligations itemised in the 2011 BIS report are held by the largest banks on Wall St. (I forget the exact number but they hold something around 40-50% of the total OTC derivatives "obligation".) Should they fail ...
DeleteBack in 2002, the top 10 U.S. banks controlled 55 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Today, the top 10 U.S. banks control 77 percent of all U.S. banking assets.
These banks have gotten so big and so powerful that if they collapsed our entire financial system would implode.
The US forgives billions of dollars a year in debts. We should just "forgive" ourselves.
ReplyDeleteummm, riiiight, just not pay out to the holders of US bonds. brilliant idea!
DeleteRon Paul's idea - forgive the $1.6 T (approx) of the $15 T debt that we (Treasury) owe the Fed.
Deletehttp://ineteconomics.org/blog/money-view/ron-pauls-modest-proposal
I LIKE my idea of a Joe the Plumber/Romney ad.
ReplyDeleteScene opens: Frantic housewife on cellphone, water spewing from washer/dryer wall, kids playing in the water.
"Joe?"
"Joe here"
"It's Martha, can you come quick? John finally found a job in Mexico and I don't know what to do."
Unemployment numbers of USA and Mexico flash on screen. (I read their numbers are lower than ours, no matter, make something up)
"No problem, Martha, be right there. Can you pay cash today?"
"Joe, I'm stretched, Johnny hasn't sent the check from Mexico City yet this month."
"No problem, I'll carry you."
Scene shifts to Joe's truck pulling up, and Joe and Romney getting out, sleeves rolled up, ready to work, heading for door with tool boxes...you get the picture
It's sure as good as anything I've seen from the SoulsRUs ad department, bob.
DeleteI like it too.
Frank
As good as?
DeleteHoly Smoke Frank, it's ten times better.
Susan
Bob, can we hire you?
DeleteDemocratic National Committee Ad Department
Thanks
DNCAD
DeleteI'm not poltroon.
I'd suggest SoulsRUs ad department.
Besides I'll be on the Greasy Grass and Madison all fall.
bob
The 'revolution' Begins To Eat Its Own
DeleteI'll supply the paper bag.
DeleteGot to run....
If I have one more down home blue collar "real" American thrown in my face this election cycle, I might puke.
ReplyDeleteKeep it. You'll need something when the out-of-body swooning begins.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteDetroit: Ancient Ruins In The Making
Nice things about Detroit.
Some bankers are choosing to leave, perhaps as they anticipate a push or see colleagues departing. Goldman Sachs has seen several high-profile departures in recent months, including Yoel Zaoui, a co-head of global M&A, George Mattson, a senior banker in the global industrials group, and Milton Berlinski, a top private-equity banker.
ReplyDelete...
For some, boutique investment firms have become popular vehicles to relaunch their careers. Four former Morgan Stanley bankers who were managing directors started their own firm, Dean Bradley Osborne Partners LLC, in February.
It wasn't difficult to convince the team to branch out, said partner Gordon Dean, who was vice chairman of investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Many bankers, he said, are feeling "frustrated and underappreciated."
These two abilities—making money and displaying intellect—ought to be qualities worthy of universal praise, as ways in which Americans distinguish themselves and show their excellence. Of course, both qualities can be pursued in an unjustifiable way, as in the case of the moneymaker who proceeds dishonestly or by destructive means (although economic advance frequently involves creative destruction), or the thinker who parrots trendy ideas and mocks orthodoxies (although good ideas often challenge traditional beliefs).
ReplyDeleteThe regrettable fact today is that neither the intellectual nor the businessman much respects the other, and each seems to prefer discrediting his rival to joining in common recognition of the virtues of both. More important, there are votes to be had today in stirring up animosities.
If it comes down to this, we can only hope the American people will have the good sense to be more repelled by the class-warfare rhetoric of the intellectuals than the enviable remuneration of the businessmen.
The Eurostat figures also showed that national debts are rising despite the austerity measures in member states. Though the 17 states reduced their collective deficits from 6.2 per cent of gross domestic product in 2010 to 4.1 per cent in 2011, total indebtedness for the zone still rose 1.9 percentage points to 87.2 per cent of GDP.
ReplyDeleteThere was a strong message of further austerity to come from the British Government, too, yesterday. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, used a speech to the Institute of Fiscal Studies to instruct Whitehall departments to identify £16bn more in savings in order to build up a contingency fund for unexpected new spending demands.
The UK will discover tomorrow whether the British economy has returned to recession, when the Office for National Statistics releases its preliminary estimate of GDP growth over the first quarter of 2012.
None of this is to say that all federal or state funding for higher education should be ended tomorrow. Some of the research money is surely better spent in institutions where federal and state money is combined with private tuition dollars and alumni donations than it would be in federal labs that are entirely government run.
ReplyDeletePlenty of important and valuable learning happens on these campuses, and interactions on them can spawn companies like Google. But in an America where the private sector is downsizing, economizing, outsourcing, and using technology to run more efficiently, President Obama’s tour of three state-run college campuses may just backfire.
The students and professors may be cheering on campus, but there are plenty of people in the private sector who are getting tired of paying for them.
On this day in 2005, the first video was uploaded to YouTube by the site's co-founder Jawed Karim. The 19-second video is a shot of Mr. Karim at the San Diego Zoo.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen It's Not Your Turn To Die
ReplyDeleteAmazing Sam. There's a video out there of an Israeli jet landing with almost no wings. I couldn't believe it.
ReplyDeleteThere was a guy at Nez Perce who ran the flight service there, then in the winters would fly out of Visalia, California. He was dusting under these massive power lines when the latch broke on the dump the load doors. He said he didn't even have time to react before he shot right up into the power lines. The plane was a tourist attraction there for a while. Those crop dusters are really well protected around the pilot. He came out with hardly a scratch. He showed me the photos.
I guess This Is It
DeleteGood one, Bob. Thanks.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteFor the Ladies and Possibly Bob if he Hasn't Gone on that Diet
.
Yeah right I'm trying to gain weight after the starvation diet at the rest home.
DeleteYou ought to give the rest home a three week trial run, Quirk.
I went ought there yesterday and gave Catherine the Divine Philippino the poems of Roethke for taking care of me, and welcoming her to USofA.
Sheriff Joe To Dump More Obama Bad Stuff
ReplyDelete'They' are now ought to take out Sheriff Joe.
Unemployment rates in Mexico and the United States compared
ReplyDeleteHERE
and
HERE
But to the Obama administration, which needed to decide Wang Lijun's fate in early February due to his role in a widening political scandal inside China, the decision was murkier.
ReplyDeleteU.S. officials have risked confrontation with Beijing before over how to handle Chinese citizens. During the 1989 Tiananmen political uprising, Chinese dissident and democracy advocate Fang Lizhi was granted sanctuary in the American embassy in Beijing for more than a year.
...
Jim Tom Haynes, a Washington-based immigration lawyer, said Mr. Wang's attempt to get asylum or refugee status struck him as "far-fetched," particularly because the case appears to center around domestic Chinese matters. U.S. diplomats, for their part, "probably don't want to encourage this sort of thing either, because it would get very messy diplomatically.
And, Wind is much cheaper than Nuclear (and the gap is growing.)
ReplyDeleteI had to look that up. Didn't believe it. From Aug 2011:
NOTE: Some major wind projects like the proposed TWE Carbon Valley project in Wyoming are already pricing in significantly lower than coal power -- $80 per MWh for wind versus $90 per MWh for coal -- and that is without government subsidies using today's wind turbine technology.
The International Clean Energy Analysis (ICEA) gateway estimates that the U.S. possesses 2.2 million km2 of high wind potential (Class 3-7 winds) — about 850,000 square miles of land that could yield high levels of wind energy. This makes the U.S. something of a Saudi Arabia for wind energy, ranked third in the world for total wind energy potential.
...
Now what if a breakthrough came along that potentially tripled the energy output of those turbines? You see where I'm going. We could in theory supply the TOTAL annual energy needs of the U.S. simply by exploiting 20 percent of our available wind resources.
Well, such a breakthrough has been made, and it's called the "wind lens."
Link
Link
ReplyDeleteI don't understand these wind turbine designs. Why only three blades? Bird friendly?
ReplyDeleteAnd why not design the turbine lens sort of like an oil funnel? Instead of fooling around like that Japanese design?
Anyways my engineer said one day we have a lot of potential wind energy but a lot of it is far from the cities.
Might work out better in Japan.
This is where I hope Linearthinker comes in and tells us how much is lost in transmission, etc.
Or are there six blades there?
DeleteI thought at first three were struts, and three were blades.
Transmission loss is a technical question but it's the same regardless of whether the electric comes from coal or renewables or somethings else.
ReplyDeleteThe blade design is more interesting. Have no clue.
I have read that the only economic wind option was offshore, which I guess may no longer be true.
At any rate, for the world to "go electric" two additional technologies need to mature - storage (fuel cells) and smart grids.
My further understanding is that the weak link is storage. Fuel cells and batteries are problematic.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. For now. Or until Rufus wakes up.
Transmission is cheaper than storage - up to a point but we may never reach that point (unlike water where there is almost always an economic optimum between conveyance and storage.)
ReplyDeleteFor quick synopsis of industry status, investors have good research. They tend to be more bottom line oriented.
Example Link
well ok then posts getting lost. will try this last one.
ReplyDeleteLast week's explosion at a French nuclear plant (fortunately no leaks occurred though one person was killed) underscored the decision by both Germany and Switzerland to ban nuclear energy, and many more countries may be expected to follow suit.
So it's not too surprising that leading European nuclear manufacturer Siemens announced today that it will be closing down its nuclear division. As CEO Peter Loscher said, "The (nuclear) chapter for us is closed."
Link
Is nuclear dead? I don't think so. Siemens will continue making parts that can be used in both conventional and nuclear power plants, and as I've discussed before, exciting research developments are happening in the field of new nuclear power. But even the experts believe these innovations (like fusion and waste downcycling) are decades off, and may not come to maturity until the 22nd century. In the meantime, companies like Siemens are probably very happy that they diversified early and are now in the leadership position to help promote (and profit from) the implementation a renewable energy revolution.
I suppose it would be undiplomatic to ask the Iranians why they're not building out a solar industry?
ReplyDeleteOne more from Karl Burkart:
ReplyDeleteTop 6 nuclear energy myths exposed (Link)
Myth 5. Nuclear energy is affordable.
It’s an astounding feat that the Nuclear industry was somehow been able to pass the burden of waste storage onto taxpayers, considering those costs are so enormous. But even if you do factor out these waste costs, the economics of nuclear still do not add up. A typical plant is usually estimated at $4 billion per plant, or $30 per mWh (roughly equivalent to Coal). Many point to Europe for examples of cost-effective nuclear implementation, but if you look at actual numbers a plant (like Finland’s new EPR) can cost up to $6.5 billion to safely bring online. And then there are the annual desalting procedures, in which the plant continues to operate at great costs without producing energy. It’s thus not surprising that the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) stated that US loan guarantees of nuclear power have a 50% chance of defaulting. Banking institutions (including Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs) have told the DOE that private capital would not be available for nuclear investment unless US taxpayers backed 100% of debt incurred. Clearly, not a sound business proposition (via Greenpeace).
Strange - all the wind lens videos have been removed, even from the Clean Technica site.
ReplyDeleteUh oh
ReplyDeleteO well via Greenpeace. Have them explain why France runs almost entirely on nuclear, exports to Germany, and has for decades. They ship their waste to Japan, which has gotten most of its power from nuclear, and has for decades, it gets reprocessed there somehow, shipped back and somehow reused(?) the end result is almost no waste material at all.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been listening to Dr Bill at KGO for months but I'm sure he would disagree about most of the waste problem.
Alas, Japan hadn't built those plants quite sound enough to take what nature could throw at her.
If we listen to Greenpeace we will be back to tepees.
Am I wrong or do I remember that the guy that founded Greenpeace disavowed the whole organization some time ago?
What pisses me off about the windmills is they put some along the Tuccanon Ridge Line.
what was
Best of all he loved the fall
the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods
leaves floating on the trout streams
and above the hills
the high blue windless skies
… Now he will be part of them forever”
is now a bunch of goddamned windmills
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