Eideard

Berlin geothermal field, El Salvador, producing 104 MW

Dotted with active volcanoes, Central America is seeking to tap its unique geography to produce green energy and cut dependence on oil imports as demand for electricity outstrips supply. Sitting above shifting tectonic plates in the Pacific basin known to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the region has huge potential for geothermal power generated by heat stored deep in the earth.

Geothermal power plants, while expensive to build, can provide a long-term, reliable source of electricity and are considered more environmentally friendly than large hydroelectric dams that can alter a country’s topography…

Guatemala, Central America’s biggest country, aims to produces 60 percent of its energy from geothermal and hydroelectric power by 2022.

The government is offering tax breaks on equipment to set up geothermal plants and electricity regulators are requiring distributors buy greater proportions of clean energy.

Some 1,640 feet below the summit of Guatemala’s active Pacaya volcano, which exploded in May, pipes carrying steam and water at 347 degrees Fahrenheit snake across the mountainside to one of two geothermal plants currently operating in the country.

Run by Israeli-owned Ormat Technologies Inc, the plant harnesses energy from water heated by chambers filled with molten rock deep beneath the ground. The company has been operating two plants in Guatemala for three years and wants to expand but is weighing the risks of drilling more costly exploratory wells…

More than a fifth of El Salvador’s energy needs come from two geothermal plants with installed capacity of 160 MW and investigations are being carried out to build a third.

Costa Rica, which has 152 megawatts of capacity in four geothermal plants, is due to bring a fifth plant online in January 2011 and is looking into building two more.

Nicaragua generates 66 MW from geothermal energy and in the next five years plans an increase to 166 MW.

Bravo!

The coneheads up at Los Alamos have participated in geothermal experiments, off and on, over the years. But, generally, the powers-that-be would rather keep the focus on death and destruction. Which is too bad. There’s enough intellectual horsepower there to lead to breakthroughs – no doubt.

Preparing for elections,eh?

An Ivory Coast man arrested while allegedly trying to buy weapons in New York last week was on official business, a spokesman for his government says.

Former Ivory Coast Defense Minister Bertin Kadet told Radio France Internationale that the man arrested by the FBI was an army colonel named Yao N’Guessan.

Kadet said N’Guessan was sent to New York to purchase crowd control armaments in advance of the Ivory Coast’s October elections.

The FBI said N’Guessan allegedly was engaged in a deal worth more than $3.8 million for 4,000 handguns, 200,000 rounds of ammunition and 50,000 tear gas grenades when he was apprehended.

The funds to purchase the armaments had already been transferred to the United States.

Opponents of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbago say the arms purchase was intended to keep his party in power.

The United Nations imposed an embargo on arms to the Ivory Coast in 2004.

That’s what happens when you send an amateur out on a shopping trip like this one.

He should have worked through traditional channels, discovered which members of Congress would grease the wheels of international arms sales for him, which lobbyists needed to be engaged to avoid anything like law or principle getting in the way.

Traditional anonymous political activist

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies would certainly seem to the casual observer to be a political organization: Karl Rove, a political adviser to President George W. Bush, helped raise money for it; the group is run by a cadre of experienced political hands; it has spent millions of dollars on television commercials attacking Democrats in key Senate races across the country.

Yet the Republican operatives who created the group earlier this year set it up as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, so its primary purpose, by law, is not supposed to be political.

The rule of thumb, in fact, is that more than 50 percent of a 501(c)(4)’s activities cannot be political. But that has not stopped Crossroads and a raft of other nonprofit advocacy groups like it — mostly on the Republican side, so far — from becoming some of the biggest players in this year’s midterm elections, in part because of the anonymity they afford donors, prompting outcries from campaign finance watchdogs…

Neither the Internal Revenue Service, which has jurisdiction over nonprofits, nor the Federal Election Commission, which regulates the financing of federal races, appears likely to examine them closely…

This is arguably more important than ever after the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case earlier this year that eased restrictions on corporate spending on campaigns…

“I can tell you from personal experience, the money’s flowing,” said Michael E. Toner, a former Republican F.E.C. commissioner, now in private practice at the firm Bryan Cave…

“The Supreme Court has completely lifted restrictions on corporate spending on elections,” said Taylor Lincoln, research director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, a watchdog group. “And 501(c) serves as a haven for these front groups to run electioneering ads and keep their donors completely secret…”

In fact, the I.R.S. is unlikely to know that some of these groups exist until well after the election because they are not required to seek the agency’s approval until they file their first tax forms — more than a year after they begin activity.

“These groups are popping up like mushrooms after a rain right now, and many of them will be out of business by late November,” Marcus Owens said. “Technically, they would have until January 2012 at the earliest to file anything with the I.R.S. It’s a farce.”

RTFA for more sleazy details. The Republicans have the current market cornered – partly because they’re on the outside, partly because the Obama side depends on lots of small donors who enter the hunt for votes more or less on the honesty side of the spectrum. Serious corporate money no longer has to worry about oversight, anyway.

The Republican Supreme Court has engineered that aspect of buying and selling political favors/votes to favor the wealthiest individuals and corporations for the foreseeable future.

A diary entry belonging to a senior member of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) has revealed that during the First World War it was discovered that the bodily fluid could act as an effective invisible ink.

In June 1915, Walter Kirke, deputy head of military intelligence at GHQ France, wrote in his diary that Mansfield Cumming, the first chief (or C) of the SIS was “making enquiries for invisible inks at the London University”.

In October he noted that he “heard from C that the best invisible ink is semen”, which did not react to the main methods of detection. Furthermore it had the advantage of being readily available…

However, the discovery also led to some further problems, with the agent who had identified the novel use having to be moved from his department after becoming the butt of jokes.

In addition, at least one agent had to be reminded to use only fresh supplies of the ‘ink’ when correspondents began noticing an unusual smell.

The revelations are included in ‘MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949′ by Professor Keith Jeffery.

The CIA will buy hundreds of copies – no doubt. Masturbation being one of their essential job skills.

A rare burrowing owl has been rescued from the world’s largest cruise ship, where it had apparently tried to set up home on a miniature golf course.

The “birdie” was spotted on board the Oasis of the Seas just hours before it set sail for the Caribbean from Port Everglades in Florida.

Wildlife protection officers caught the owl and released it into the wild…

A member of the cruise ship’s crew saw the owl near the synthetic grass of the golf course on an upper deck, and called in officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The 360 meter ship has a living park, complete with plants and trees, but the FWC said the owl would not have coped well with the environment.

“Burrowing owls need to be in open, treeless areas where they can dig their burrow,” said FWC biologist Ricardo Zambrano.

“The artificial turf on the ship’s golf course resembles the fields they use for nesting in urban areas; however, it was obviously not suitable habitat for this owl…”

I love burrowing owls. They are a rare sight around my neck of the prairie only because of their nocturnal habits. But, we have beaucoup raptors and the several owl species here are all favorites.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is under investigation as part of a money-laundering inquiry, police sources say.

Prosecutors also seized 23 million euros from the bank’s accounts with another smaller institution.

The inquiry was launched after two suspicious transactions were reported to tax police in Rome.

The Vatican said it was “perplexed and astonished“, and expressed full confidence in Mr Tedeschi.

The Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), was created during World War II to administer accounts held by religious orders, cardinals, bishops and priests…

The BBC’s David Willey in Rome says the Bank of Italy’s financial intelligence unit tipped off Italy’s tax police last week, after two suspicious transactions were reported between the Vatican Bank and two different Italian banks.

The tax police seized 23m euros that the Vatican Bank had tried to transfer from a small Italian bank called Credito Artigianato.

Some 20m euros was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to another Italian bank, Banca del Fucino…

Mr. Tedeschi had better plan on staying off bridges without his bodyguard. Given what happened to a previous “God’s banker“.

A coalition of leading climate scientists have filed a 48-page document to the US Congress refuting an attack on climate science made earlier this year by the Ukip deputy leader, Lord Christopher Monckton.

The detailed rebuttal addresses nine key scientific claims made by Monckton, a prominent climate sceptic, to a house select committee hearing in May. It includes the responses of 21 climate scientists who variously conclude that Monckton’s assertions are “very misleading”, “profoundly wrong”, “simply false”, “chemical nonsense”, and “cannot be supported by climate physics”.

Monckton, a former journalist and policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher, who has been the deputy leader of the UK Independence party (Ukip) since June, was invited by the Republican party to give evidence to the house select committee on energy independence and global warming…

If you know anything about American politics, you are aware that this fop had to guarantee devotion to politics and class versus science – to get the invite.

“For those without some familiarity with climate science, [Monckton's] testimony may appear to have scientific validity,” said yesterday’s response to Monckton’s claims . “We have therefore undertaken the task of soliciting responses from highly qualified climate scientists in each of the areas touched upon in Monckton’s testimony … In all cases, Monckton’s assertions are shown to be without merit – they are based on a thorough misunderstanding of the science of climate change.”

Too polite.

The alliance between one or another group of political, social reactionaries is consistent with politics both sides of the pond. Resentment of science and reason is a common thread.

I read a lot of science news. Science has been a preoccupation of mine since I picked up my first copy of Thrilling Wonder Stories at our neighborhood drugstore on the way home from school at the age of 8.

Anyway, I don’t keep up with posting them all and usually delete the majority from storage. Silly. Why not offer a roundup, once in a while – and let you choose what to read and what to skip:

A newly discovered skeleton of an ancient seabird from northern Chile provides evidence that giant birds were soaring the skies there 5-10 million years ago. The wing bones of the animal exceed those of all other birds in length; its wingspan would have been at least 5.2 m (17 ft.).

Read the rest of this entry »

The health-reform law is changing the health-insurance marketplace in big ways. The first changes—those that happen right away—take effect Sept. 23, 2010, six months after the health-reform bill was signed.,, Consumer Reports offers a free health-insurance guide [.pdf] to how the new law affects you.

Preserves job-based coverage

If you get health insurance through work, your coverage will likely remain pretty much the same, but with some new consumer protections. Lifetime caps on coverage are banned, for example, and insurers will have to adopt new procedures allowing workers to appeal coverage denials.

Offers new protections for consumers

According to the new Patient’s Bill of Rights insurers can no longer do the following: Cancel your coverage if you get sick; set lifetime limits on coverage; put annual dollar limits on coverage (this is phased in over three years); deny coverage to children under age 19 who have pre-existing conditions; and impose barriers to or refuse to pay for emergency care even if it’s at a hospital outside the insurer’s network.

Read the rest of this entry »

17th naturalization ceremony in Iraq for those serving in the U.S. Armed Forces

The US Congress is poised to vote this week on a bill that offers more than 2 million young illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, a move that will re-open the toxic debate on the issue ahead of the November mid-term elections…

The bill is being introduced by the Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, and is facing widespread opposition from Republicans.

The Democratic party sees it as a no-lose situation. If the Republicans vote against, the Democrats hope this will cement their position as the party of the Latinos… NSS.

The bill would allow young illegal immigrants to become citizens if they have completed a university or college education or served two years in the military.

Barack Obama promised during this presidential run that he would introduce legislation to provide the estimated 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants, most of them Latinos, with a route to citizenship but has so far failed to deliver. This measure, even if the chances of passage appear at this stage to be slim, would go part way towards achieving that…

The Pentagon, struggling to maintain levels of recruitment in the face of troop demands in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, is among the backers of the bill.

In a tactical device by the Democrats, the bill has been tacked on to legislation approving defence spending for next year, making it harder for the Republicans to obstruct it. If the defence spending approval is held up the Pentagon will have to seek emergency funding elsewhere…

The proposed measure leaves the Republicans in a bind. If Republicans vote against the measure it will help the Democrats portray them as anti-immigration in the run-up to the elections in November in which a host of Senate and House seats and governorships will be at stake.

Some smart politics by the Dems. For a change. They could have been pushing the Republicans like this for months.

Fits perfectly with the bigotry of the teabaggers, too. As the assorted Tea Party factions continue to gain strength within the Republican Party, their nativist bigotry forces the opportunist Old Guard to move further to the right.