Eideard

China has legitimate economic interests in the Arctic, Denmark’s ambassador said on Friday, welcoming partnership with Beijing in the rapidly thawing polar region but adding that a possible resource rush would come with obligations.

With climate change linked to melting ice caps in the Arctic, the prospect of untapped hydrocarbons, fishing grounds and new summer shipping lanes has whetted China’s appetite for polar research and exploration capabilities.

China doesn’t have any Arctic coastline, like Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States, but it will be keen to cooperate with those countries and have access to the process of designing any new rules at the pole.

China has “natural and legitimate economic and scientific interests in the Arctic“, Ambassador Friis Arne Petersen told a group of journalists, adding that Denmark and other nations welcome China as a permanent observer in the Arctic Council…

China has applied to become a permanent observer in the forum — a role that would not give it voting rights like the eight member states — but the application is still pending…

The Arctic is thought to hold more than 10 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves, 30 percent of its undiscovered gas reserves, and large mineral deposits. Most known resources there lie within countries’ exclusive economic zones, an area 200 nautical miles within their coastlines…

Resources aside, access to shortened shipping passages could be critical for China, the world’s top exporter…

China is planning three Arctic research expeditions from 2011 to 2015, Chinese state media have said. It also plans to build a new 8,000-tonne icebreaker for launch by 2013, a companion to its current Ukrainian-built vessel, Xuelong or Snow Dragon.

Solid basic science came from China’s previous and existing Antarctic expeditions, research stations. Frankly, I think the most sense would be made from an alliance between Canada and China. The former has the 2nd longest Arctic coastline coupled with a comparatively small budget potential for development of natural resources.

Forming partnerships with China would aid in development under the watchful eye of Canada’s own administration. For whatever that be worth – depending on who’s in office I realize. For now, Canadian conservative ideologues are crapping their pants.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Denmark’s center-left “Red bloc” took power on Thursday after defeating Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s government in a tight election driven by voter anger over the state of the economy.

Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt will become Denmark’s next prime minister, the first woman to hold the post, after Rasmussen conceded defeat…

The center-right “Blue bloc” has been in power for 10 years, during which Denmark, like other countries, suffered the worst economic downturn since World War Two. “Tomorrow I will hand in the government’s resignation to the Queen,” Rasmussen said on TV2 News. “There is no longer a basis for remaining in government.”

Thorning-Schmidt’s Red bloc will have a majority of up to five seats in the 179-seat parliament, its final size depending on the results from far-flung Greenland.

Her Social Democratic party actually lost a seat and will only be the second largest in parliament after Rasmussen’s Liberals, who gained one.

But two Red coalition parties on the far left and in the center made up the difference to put the Red bloc ahead, allowing it to claim victory and forcing Rasmussen out.

The state of the economy has been the overriding issue of the campaign, with the governing coalition parties under fire for failing to spur growth. Thorning-Schmidt attacked Rasmussen for taking the country deep into deficit…

If the count holds up, Denmark would become the latest in a series of European countries to see incumbents voted out at least in part because of struggling economies…

Denmark has been spared much of the trauma suffered by other west European countries because it remains outside the euro zone. This means it is not involved in bailing out debt-laden countries like Greece, an issue that has stirred popular anger in neighboring Germany.

But the economic crisis has turned Denmark’s healthy surpluses into deficits, forecast to climb to 4.6 percent of GDP next year. Danish banks have also been struggling, with small bank Fjordbank Mors falling into the hands of administrators in June, the 9th Danish bank to be taken over by the state since the start of the crisis in 2008.

Bravo. Ms. Thorning-Schmidt seems ready and willing to try progressive – and also unusual – solutions to what Denmark inherited from the global economic crisis. After a decade of economic charlatans and ideologues as backwards as any ever produced by the Republican Party – it’s about time Denmark gets as shot at revival.

Proposed for the Aalborg Waterfront in Denmark, a new housing development would feature 60 apartments, from 4 to 12 stories high, all supplied with a 100 percent renewable energy source…

C.F. Møller’s architectural design features a south-facing roof-plane, fitted with 1,200 sq.m. of photovoltaic and solar thermal panels. The solar paneling is reportedly capable of producing 104,000 KWh of electricity annually, which is estimated to be enough to cover the yearly electricity demand of every apartment. In addition, four vertical axis low-noise wind turbines take advantage of strong western winds, creating an additional power supply to recharge electric cars. A rainwater collection system is used to irrigate the surrounding gardens, whilst the lush landscaping helps maintain a clean air environment. Tall window openings allow for natural light to filter through to the apartments’ living zones, an example of the passive-housing standards that are incorporated to ensure reduced energy consumption all round.

This slide-like shape of the building creates a distinctive silhouette, which is positioned between Aalborg’s main bridges. The roof-plane appears as if it is stretching into the water’s edge, where an underpass shelters a public gazebo and café. The extension of the roof is a visual display of the building’s power plant, and whilst it may take precedence over optimum, waterfront views, it’s essential to the building’s sustainable design.

Delightful. I can picture this design in a few comparable locales where I had clients back in the day. Most certainly in the vibrant waterfront of Portland, Maine.

Just keep their backwards governor from sticking his nose in. He’d probably insist on replacing the solar panels with coal-burning potbelly stoves.

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing
. . . after they’ve tried everything else.” – Winston Churchill

Denmark earns the biggest share of its national revenue from producing windmills and other clean technologies, the United States is rapidly expanding its clean-tech sector, but no country can match China’s pace of growth, according to a new report obtained by The Associated Press.

China’s production of green technologies has grown by a remarkable 77 per cent a year, according to the report, which was commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature…

Denmark, a longtime leader in wind energy, derives 3.1 percent of its gross domestic product from renewable energy technology and energy efficiency, or about $9.4 billion, the report said.

China is the largest producer in money terms, earning more than $64 billion, or 1.4 percent of its gross domestic product.

The U.S. ranks 17 in the production of clean technologies with 0.3 percent of GDP, or $45 billion, but those industries have been expanding at a rate of 28 percent per year since 2008.

“The U.S. is growing substantially, so it seems the policy of (President Barack) Obama is working,” Pols said. But the U.S. cannot compare with China, he said.

“When you speak to the Chinese, climate change is not an ideological issue. It’s just a fact of life. While we debate climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy, the debate is passed in China,” Pols said. “For them it’s implementation. It’s a growth sector, and they want to capture this sector…”

Following Denmark and China, other countries in the top five clean-tech producers, in terms of percentage of GDP, are Germany, Brazil and Lithuania, the report said.

The understanding derived from science and the role of science in commerce and economics plays a leading role in most of the nations achieving success in advancing Green sectors in their economy. Hackneyed Cold War rationales for a lagging American economy remain nothing more than that – excuses for politics that haven’t made it to the Age of Reason much less the 21st Century.

I’d be surprised if even two terms of a White House committed to several venues of modernizing American commerce achieves much – with Congress, our schools and a national culture that relies as much upon the “common sense” of prayer books over scientific study. The culture of the fast buck in oil and other imports doesn’t lend much impetus to creativity in the marketplace.

Diagnoses of a crisis of democracy are as old as democracy itself; they are a common theme in the political discourse of the Western world. However, until now there was no instrument that allowed a systematic measurement of the quality and stability of democracy in highly developed industrialized countries across national borders and over long periods of time. A democracy barometer that has analyzed the development of the most important aspects of the world’s thirty foremost democracies since 1990 has now been presented at the University of Zurich.

The barometer uses 100 empirical indicators to measure how well a country complies with the three democratic principles of freedom, equality and control as well as the nine basic functions of democracy. The comparison of thirty established democracies between 1995 and 2005 has revealed that Denmark is leading the way, followed by Finland and Belgium. “In the comparison, the lowest quality is exhibited by the democracies in Poland, South Africa and Costa Rica,” says Marc Bühlmann from the University of Zurich. While Italy, as might be expected, finds itself towards the bottom end of the scale, it is surprising that Great Britain (26th) and France (27th) are also so far down the ranking. Equally surprising is the fact that Switzerland (14th) is only mediocre and lags behind 11th- placed Germany. USA ranks 10th, behind Canada at 7th place.

The democracy barometer can also be used to measure the quality of democratic systems over time. “There was, however, no evidence of an overall crisis or a decline in the quality of democracy,” according to Bühlmann. Quite the contrary: if the quality of democracy in all thirty countries is seen as a whole, an increase in the quality of democracy from 1995 to 2000 can be observed and, despite a slight dip again between 2000 and 2005, it is still at a higher level in 2005 than in 1995. Consideration of the individual countries reveals that nine democracies exhibit a lower quality than in 1995 (ITA, CZE, POR, USA, CRC, FRA, IRL, AUS and GER), whereas the quality of democracy has risen in the remaining twenty-one countries…

Positive developments are apparent in younger democracies such as South Africa and Cyprus, which are making up a lot of ground in terms of developing and protecting personal liberties, whilst a decline was evident in George W. Bush’s America and Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy.

“Democracy is still a work in progress,” say the two project leaders Marc Bühlmann (Zurich) and Prof. Wolfgang Merkel (Berlin). Sustainable democratization is needed, even in established democracies.” Our democracy barometer shows the strengths and weaknesses of the democracies in the individual countries. But it also reveals where progress and success have been achieved and where it is worth studying the best practices of successful democracies more closely,” say Merkel und Bühlmann.

Interesting read, especially the processes measured to calibrate the “barometer“. The authors didn’t try to oversimplfy. YMMV.

For the first time since the dioxin scandal broke out in Germany, the toxin has been found in pigs. EU officials have confirmed that the animal feed was also exported to France and Denmark.

German authorities have detected high levels of the toxic chemical dioxin in pork from a farm banned from selling since last week’s scare, the Consumer Protection Ministry in the state of Lower Saxony said Tuesday.

“A test on the meat has shown high levels of dioxin content,” a ministry spokesman told the news agency AFP.

One animal had been slaughtered for testing purposes and found to be over the limit. Hundreds of pigs on the farm were then culled…

The northern German farm was one of those supplied with animal feed containing ingredients made by a firm suspected of knowingly selling some 3,000 tons of fatty acids meant only for industrial use. Samples of the fat contained more than 70 times the approved amount of dioxin.

The scandal broke last week when German investigators found excessive levels of dioxin in eggs and then some chickens. Authorities then froze sales of poultry, pork and eggs from thousands of farms…

The government has said so far that there is no immediate risk to public health. German officials say the dioxin levels pose no risk to humans if they only eat small amounts of the tainted food, but add that the contamination must be stamped out to avert serious long-term risks…

“The damage that has been caused is immense, not only financially but also when it comes to consumer trust … This is a scandal, as consumers who expect safe food were duped,” German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said on Monday.

Minister Aigner said, “This incident must and will have consequences” – and I certainly hope so. Traditions of food purity are older and most would think more deeply ingrained in the commerce and culture of Europe than in much of the rest of the world.

Maybe much less so than we assumed.

Would you buy a used car from either of these clowns?

Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand formed a three-way tie as the least corrupt countries in the 2010 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, while Somalia was rated the most corrupt and the U.S score declined.

Those three countries were the leaders last year as well, though in 2009 New Zealand was first, with Denmark and Singapore closely behind. The index, developed for at least the last 15 years by the Berlin-based international anti-corruption group, is widely used by business, civil society groups and others when determining corruption risk across the globe.

This year, the index found that three-quarters of the 178 countries scored below 5 on a Zero-to-10 scale, indicating serious corruption problems. A country’s perceived corruption decreases as its score increases. Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand each scored a 9.3, whereas Somalia scored a 1.1 and the U.S. saw its score drop to 7.1 in 2010 from 7.5 a year ago…

“We need to see more enforcement of existing rules and laws. There should be nowhere to hide for the corrupt or their money,” said Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International, in the statement.

Of the hundreds of sources covering the release of this report, I chose the Wall Street Journal – just to peep the conservative moneyboys perception of corruption. The result was predictable – scant mention that the United States continues in decline. BTW, the USA was 14th before George W’s election. Now, we’re 22nd.

Wow. What a wonderful world of choice. Here in New Mexico we have one reasonably courageous senator and one matching congressman [not in my district - so, I don't get to vote for him]. The rest are the same old, lame old story – running against a stereotypical slate of Republicans whose only claim to fame is that they’re presently unemployed in government.

A substance found in breast milk can kill cancer cells, reveal studies carried out by researchers at Lund University and the University of Gothenburg.

Although the special substance, known as HAMLET (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumour cells), was discovered in breast milk several years ago, it is only now that it has been possible to test it on humans. Patients with cancer of the bladder who were treated with the substance excreted dead cancer cells in their urine after each treatment, which has given rise to hopes that it can be developed into medication for cancer care in the future.

HAMLET was discovered by chance when researchers were studying the antibacterial properties of breast milk. Further studies showed that HAMLET comprises a protein and a fatty acid that are both found naturally in breast milk. So far, however, it has not been proven that the HAMLET complex is spontaneously formed in the milk. It is speculated, however, that HAMLET can form in the acidic environment of the babies´ stomachs.

Laboratory experiments have shown that HAMLET kills 40 different types of cancer, and the researchers are now going on to study its effect on skin cancer, tumours in the mucous membranes and brain tumours. Importantly, HAMLET kills only cancer cells and does not affect healthy cells.

Still have to get past a couple of researchers in Scandanavia who manage to come up with an acronym that spells HAMLET.

On the reality side of the page, this offers terrific potential in the battle against cancer.

Danish special naval forces have freed all 25 crew members of a Slovenian cargo ship captured by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, an EU naval spokesman has said.

A distress signal from the Ariella was picked up by an Indian warship on Friday that relayed it to a French aircraft which then spotted the pirates and alerted a Danish naval ship that was nearby.

The Danes approached the Ariella in dinghies and scaled the side of the ship to free the crew who had locked themselves in a secure room, Cmdr. John Harbour, the EU naval spokesman, said…

Warships typically do not intervene in hijackings because of the danger that crews may be hit by crossfire.

Forces were able to intervene in this case because the ship had registered with naval authorities, was travelling along a recommended transit corridor and was part of a group transit, ensuring the ships had a helicopter within 30 minutes’ reaction time, Harbour said.

“There’s been many instances where there’s been excellent co-operation and three, four or even five nations have helped deter a pirate attack, he said.

“But this is the first where a warship has been able to send forces to stop a hijacking while it was in progress.”

Bravo!

Jens Danstrup, a 77-year-old retired architect, used to bike all around town. But years of smoking have weakened his lungs, and these days he finds it difficult to walk down his front steps and hail a taxi for a doctor’s appointment.

Now, however, he can go to the doctor without leaving home, using some simple medical devices and a notebook computer with a Web camera. He takes his own weekly medical readings, which are sent to his doctor via a Bluetooth connection and automatically logged into an electronic record.

“You see how easy it is for me?” Mr. Danstrup said, sitting at his desk while video chatting with his nurse at Frederiksberg University Hospital, a mile away. “Instead of wasting the day at the hospital?…”

All of this is possible because Mr. Danstrup lives in Denmark, a country that began embracing electronic health records and other health care information technology a decade ago. Today, virtually all primary care physicians and nearly half of the hospitals use electronic records, and officials are trying to encourage more “telemedicine” projects like the one started at Frederiksberg by Dr. Klaus Phanareth, a physician there.

Several studies, including one to be published later this month by the Commonwealth Fund, conclude that the Danish information system is the most efficient in the world, saving doctors an average of 50 minutes a day in administrative work. And a 2008 report from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society estimated that electronic record keeping saved Denmark’s health system as much as $120 million a year…

Denmark’s success has much to do with the its small size, its homogeneous population and its regulated health care system — on all counts, very different from the United States. As in much of Europe, health care in Denmark is financed by taxes, and most services are free.

“It was a natural progression for us,” said Otto Larsen, director of the agency that regulates the system. “We believe in taking care of our people, and we had believed this was the right way to go.”

He and others acknowledged that the system is hardly perfect. It faces budget constraints , and the country is still refining common standards for electronic health records.

RTFA. You’ll hear about it as Republicans and other 19th Century whiners try to keep modernization from interfering with the profit structure of American healthcare.