solar cells, mature forest, Iran, Suvarnabhumi Airport, al-Ishaqi, Pynchon

10 years of popularist-conservative government in Aus.
Some of the effects:
No effective Broadband internet: What offshore company would open an office where there is no broadband?
Solar energy research abandoned - note the UNSW line on the graph below.. it just halts shortly after the 96 red-neck take-over.
Only medical research has survived to some extent. Even rednecks find 'life-saving breakthroughs' appealing.
Oddly, last week the parliament had a 'conscience vote' and voted to allow cloning of embryos for use in research. Ova only, no sperm allowed. This in a land where the RC minister has banned RU486.
the UNSW effort has moved to the PRC where one of Prof Green's students is now a billionaire selling solar cells.

sciam

A tiny chip similar to the solar cells .. Mars Rovers..
..a germanium wafer is spun at high speeds ..between 20 and 30 layers of semiconductor material," .. Spectrolab .. The top layer, captures the energy of blue light while the middle layer absorbs green and the bottom uses red...tuned to work with concentrated light.. 240 suns.
..light-concentrating devices, such as miniature plastic lenses and mirrors. The new solar cell achieved 40.7% efficiency . One cell of just 0.27 square centimeter = 2.6 watts .. similar cells are already widely produced .. electricity 8 to 10 cents per kWh
..giant solar farms in Portugal and China. In the U.S., Xcel Energy plans eight-megawatt solar power plant in Colorado next year
..Of course, its Martian peers have lasted 28 months in that harsh, alien environment.
.."We are also looking at four-, five-, even six-junction solar cells," .... to take the efficiency into the 45% range."..

I suppose the 40% is 40% of 240 'suns'
0.27 cm² = 2.6 Watts .
means 270cm² = 2600Watt 1m² = 96.3kW ca 140 *typical sunlight
so efficiency = 140/240 = 57% ????
or, to get 2600Watt, you need 270 * 240 = 6.5m² which isnt too shabby
but I cant see putting such fierce concentrators on a house-roof.

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Old trees still good? .. nature
n Guangdong Province found that the amount of carbon stored in the soil of a mature forest increased by 68% over about 24 years.

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Since we may all be expected to provide dated proof of our Lefty™ position
[washingtonmonthly]
Let me state mine. Iran is not a threat to any nation. Iran has the same right to nuclear technology as any other nation. USA & Israel have no right to threaten, blockade or bomb Iran. Fortunately, with the appearance of crying GB41 and his henchmen, it seems that the Iran war is off. Gates has said he wont go.
williampfaff
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy.

The striking thing in Athens, on this occasion, was the total lack of concern displayed for Iran’s threat, real or imaginary, by virtually everyone else in the conference room. The general discussion proceeded on formulating an initiative to stop the fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, and on the bleak future of Israeli-Palestinian relations, neither seeming a subject of Israeli or American interest. The warnings about Iran were greeted with audience indifference and trips to get coffee. No one even bothered to argue.

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bangkokairportonline
Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.
Imagine opening a new airport with no rail link to the city.
It seems to get to Sukhumvit, you will take a shuttle bus to the 'transport centre' where you will get on a regular 553 bus???
This is a major step backwards for Bangkok, almost as bad as the 1am closing time. Ah for the good old days.
Compare with KL airport where light rail comes right into the terminal building.
And back in Manila, family & friends still cant enter the airport building, ticket holders only. Very MilDicktat style.
At least Manila is having such a severe depression, for the last 5 years oil consumption in RP has flatlined, last year it turned down. So traffic in Manila is much less choked than five years ago. Now it only takes an hour or 2 to cross town.
It actually seems clearer now than back in 1991 when Mayor Lim closed Ermita. A lot of the bars that got walled up had great sound systems and decor. A bunch of Aus investors dudded, probably departed for Thailand, where visas are easier.

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Dan Nachbar inflatable one-man blimp .. nylon.. hot air from a propane burner .. The motor .. will be electric and virtually silent .. a folding aluminum skeleton that maintains the desired shape. .. 102 feet by 70 feet .. folds and deflates ..

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aljazeera
..victims of a US air raid..the bodies of 17 civilians, including six children and eight women, had been pulled from the debris of two houses in al-Ishaqi.


Somalia
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leighm
Iran murmurings

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Against the day Pynchon
guardian
Pynchon had taken some writing classes at Cornell, and had been taught by Nabokov (whose wife later remembered the student's neat handwriting).
..it will take place between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the aftermath of the first world war, and will move between Colorado, New York, London, Gottingen, Venice, Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia, Mexico, Paris, Hollywood and "one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all". Characters will include "anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses and hired guns", not to mention Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi and Groucho Marx.
wikipedia Against_the_Day


where are more duck&birdie?
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solar cells, mature forest, Iran, Suvarnabhumi Airport, al-Ishaqi, Pynchon