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These breathtaking images capture the hidden depths of the world’s biggest cave passage – so large the end is yet to be found. Hidden in the depths of the Vietnamese jungle lies The Hang Son Doong, part of a network of over 150 caves.

Surrounded by jungle and used in the Vietnam war as a hideout from American bombardments, the cave passage is so large that it could hold a block of 40-storey skyscrapers. Its entrance was only rediscovered by British cavers in 2009.

Wow!

General Electric plans to select a location in about three months for a U.S. solar-panel plant that may be the country’s largest.

With the new facility, the total investment in the solar business will exceed $600 million, Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE said today in a statement. The plant will employ about 400 people and power 80,000 homes annually.

The tipping point in expansion was boosting the efficiency of cadmium telluride-based thin film panels to a record 12.8 percent, said Victor Abate, who runs solar, wind and renewable energy units at GE, the world’s biggest provider of power- generation equipment. The increase is also a key factor in bringing down costs, he said.

“Before you scale, you have to be a technology leader,” Abate said in a telephone interview. “By reaching this milestone with the most efficient technology, we believe we’re ready to scale…”

GE became the world’s second biggest maker of wind turbines within a decade of its purchase of Enron Corp.’s operations following its 2002 bankruptcy. Abate said he thinks the company can build the solar business in a similar way…

GE expects to increase the efficiency of the panels, Abate said. “We’ve moved the efficiency from where we started investing with the team at PrimeStar at about four times the rate of the industry, and we expect to continue to do that…”

Solar photovoltaic system installations will almost double to 32.6 gigawatts by 2013 from 18.6 gigawatts last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates. Manufacturing capacity worldwide has almost quadrupled since 2008 to 27.5 gigawatts, and 12 gigawatts of production will be added this year…

The decision on where to locate plant will be based on criteria including proximity to GE’s research centers, available factory space, and incentives from state and local governments. GE expects to make a decision before the end of the year, at the latest, Abate said.

I’m not surprised – and anyone who follows the scale of the industry shouldn’t be surprised either.

If Governor Bill was still in charge of New Mexico, we’d probably stand a chance at getting that factory. With our new Republican Susana running the state, we stand a better chance at manufacturing buggy whips and boot laces.

ScottishPower Renewables’ £40 million tidal array will harness the power of the Sound of Islay and generate enough electricity for more than 5,000 homes, more than double the number of homes on Islay.

The 10 megawatt facility will further develop emerging tidal energy technology, and provide economic and community benefits to Islay and Jura.

The Scottish Government said it will cement Scotland’s position as a global leader in marine energy.

Cabinet Secretary…John Swinney…’With around a quarter of Europe’s potential tidal energy resource and a tenth of the wave capacity, Scotland’s seas have unrivalled potential to generate green energy, create new, low carbon jobs, and bring billions of pounds of investment to Scotland.

”This development – the largest tidal array in the world – does just that and will be a milestone in the global development of tidal energy…”

”I am pleased that ScottishPower Renewables will work with the Islay Energy Trust to maximise social and economic opportunities, for instance using local marine contractors during installation or creating new local jobs in the onshore construction phase.

”And the wider Scottish supply chain is set to benefit, with Scottish businesses set to benefit from four million pounds worth of contracts in making the turbines to be used in the development, including manufacture of a test prototype at BiFab in Arnish.

There are any number of satisfactory locations along the United States coastline for similar installations. The problems to overcome aren’t technical but political.

The NIMBY cult is particularly strong in America. “Not-in-my-backyard” is accepted as holy writ by most state and local politicians. The Eleventh Commandment is “Thou shalt not string powerlines over our sainted coastline nor above valuable land dedicated to overpriced subdivisions.

China is planning to create the world’s biggest mega city by merging nine cities to create a metropolis twice the size of Wales with a population of 42 million.

City planners in south China have laid out an ambitious plan to merge together the nine cities that lie around the Pearl River Delta. The “Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One” scheme will create a 16,000 sq mile urban area that is 26 times larger geographically than Greater London, or twice the size of Wales.

The new mega-city will cover a large part of China’s manufacturing heartland, stretching from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and including Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. Together, they account for nearly a tenth of the Chinese economy.

Over the next six years, around 150 major infrastructure projects will mesh the transport, energy, water and telecommunications networks of the nine cities together, at a cost of some $300 billion. An express rail line will also connect the hub with nearby Hong Kong…

Ma Xiangming, the chief planner, said no name had been chosen for the area. “It will not be like Greater London or Greater Tokyo because there is no one city at the heart of this megalopolis,” he said. “We cannot just name it after one of the existing cities…”

Twenty-nine rail lines, totalling 3,100 miles, will be added, cutting rail journeys around the urban area to a maximum of one hour between different city centres…

“Residents will be able to choose where to get their services and will use the internet to find out which hospital, for example, is less busy,” said Mr Ma.

Pollution, a key problem in the Pearl River Delta because of its industrialisation, will also be addressed with a united policy, and the price of petrol and electricity could also be unified.

I’ve never been a fan of big cities – with few exceptions: New York City back in the 1950′s. Music and food made it worth it. London and Geneva in the 1960′s. No doubt there were more. I’ve inevitably chosen to domicile in suburban or preferably rural areas. Access to urban accoutrements are useful; not necessary.

Now, I wonder if they’ll have a naming contest? I’d be first in line to enter.

Police in Madrid seized what they called the “largest and most sophisticated cocaine laboratory” in Europe known to date, and arrested 25 people, Spain’s.

Anti-drug agents confiscated 300 kilograms of cocaine ready for distribution, 2 million euros in cash, 470 mobile phones, weapons and luxury cars.

The suspected laboratory was located in a farm on the outskirts of Madrid and police took it over “just before it was to begin operations,” the statement said.

The investigation started two years ago and police also seized 50 million euros in goods and financial assets linked to the laboratory, the statement said.

The suspects include Spaniards and Colombians. Some of the them ran a law firm to give the operation an appearance of legality but it is suspected of money laundering, a police spokeswoman said.

I’m not certain that running a law firm guarantees the appearance of legality. But, it’s always pleasant to learn of a criminal gang being busted.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The Justice Department on Wednesday sued BP and eight other companies in the Gulf oil spill disaster in an effort to recover billions of dollars from the largest offshore spill in U.S. history.

The Obama administration’s lawsuit asks that the companies be held liable without limitation under the Oil Pollution Act for all removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill, including damages to natural resources. The lawsuit also seeks civil penalties under the Clean Water Act…

The federal lawsuit says inadequate cementing of the well contributed to the disaster. Similar charges were made by BP in its internal investigation, and by the independent presidential oil spill commission. But Halliburton Co., the contractor in charge of mixing and pumping the cement, is not named in the suit…

An explosion that killed 11 workers at BP’s Macondo well last April led to oil spewing from the company’s undersea well — more than 200 million gallons in all by the government’s estimate. BP disputes the figure…

The lawsuit alleges that safety and operating regulations were violated in the period leading up to April 20.

It says that the defendants failed to keep the Macondo well under control during that period and failed to use the best available and safest drilling technology to monitor the well’s conditions. They also failed to maintain continuous surveillance and failed to maintain equipment and material that were available and necessary to ensure the safety and protection of personnel, equipment, natural resources and the environment, the suit charges.

Democratic Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., a member of the House energy panel that is investigating the spill, acknowledged the government will have a tough fight on its hands since BP has already taken an aggressive stance regarding its liability.

“It may have taken these companies months to cap their well, but they will spend years trying to cap their financial obligations to the people of the Gulf,” Markey said. “That is why it is vital for the Obama administration to swiftly advance this legal action.”

And so it begins. I wonder if the suit will be resolved in my lifetime. Between judicial processes, laws written for lawyers, decisions promulgated to protect corporate wealth, it will be years if not decades for anything approaching justice. It’s the American way.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Named Oasis of the Seas, the 20-storey, 1,180ft monster is due to enter British waters in order to drop off hundreds of workers who have been making the finishing touches to its on-board luxuries.

It is en route from its shipyard in Finland – passing over the weekend under a bridge which its funnels cleared by just 2ft – before crossing the Atlantic for its official unveiling in Florida.

And nautical enthusiasts are likely to flock to the cliffs of Hampshire in the hope of catching a glimpse of the £800million behemoth, which is three times the size of the QE2 – and five times as big as the Titanic.

The Oasis of the Seas can accommodate a staggering 6,360 passengers and 2,160 crew in recession-defying luxury, with cabins including ‘multi-level urban-style loft suites’ boasting floor-to-ceiling windows.

Phew! I am not a fan of any ship too big to allow easy trolling for the catch of the day.

Thanks, Jägermeister

The economy might still be in a fragile condition but it seems consumers can’t get enough of flat-panel televisions. Sharp plans to increase production of LCD panels by tens of thousands of screens per month after seeing increased demand from TV makers.

Sharp will raise production at its Kameyama No. 2 factory in western Japan from 90,000 glass substrates per month to 100,000 substrates after August. Each substrate measures 2.16 meters by 2.46 meters and can be used to produce up to eight 40-inch class or six 50-inch class LCD panels. While the number of substrates will rise by 10,000 per month, the number of additional screens produced will be several times that.

The company is one of the world’s largest makers of LCD panels. It began full-scale manufacturing at the Kameyama plant in April this year and at the time said it would bring forward the start of production at its new factory in Sakai, also in western Japan, to October. Demand has continued to rise since then leading Sharp to expand the Kameyama production.

Sharp’s new $4.1 billion Sakai plant is more advanced than the Kameyama factory and will handle even larger sheets of glass. The factory will work on substrates of 2.88 meters by 3.13 meters on which large LCD panels can be made even more efficiently.

Sharp is manufacturing not only for their own needs; but, meeting requirements from other producers of TV sets and computers around the world. It’s what happens when you’re the biggest producer in the world of something as basic as LCD glass systems.

Poor silly-ass conservative gits. Someone please explain what a leading indicator is to them!