Giordano Bruno: Wind, Nuclear, Jellyfish, Autism, Planning

Somebody set us up the Olympics.

All your torch are belong to us, for great justice.
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Wind

Globally, wind-power capacity rose 27 in 2007 to 94,100 mW, according to the report from the Washington D.C.-based Worldwatch Insti%tute.
The U.S. led the charge with a record-breaking 5,244-megawatt increase for a total of 16,818 mW—enough to power 4.5 million U.S. homes. ...
Germany currently leads the world in installed capacity—22,247 mW, or about 24% of global capacity—but added just 1,667 mW in 2007.
nationalgeographic
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Killer jellyfish population explosion warning
08/02/2008

A perfect toxin-loaded killing machine, there is no creature on earth that can dispatch a human being so easily or so quickly. The box jellyfish is so packed with venom that the briefest of touches can bring agonising death within 180 seconds.
...populations are exploding and will pose a monumental problem unless they are stopped.
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The warning comes in a film Nature Shock: Jellyfish Invasion .. It focuses on the change in behaviour patterns of jellyfish in the Pacific Ocean off Japan and Australia due to depleted food resources as humans fish the world seas.

November 27 off the Northern Ireland coast when a 10 mile wide, 13 metre deep swarm of jellyfish swam attacked the country's only salmon farm, wiping out over £1million worth of stock.
... tracking devices on the jellyfish in the Pacific proved that they were not drifting on the ocean currents but heading determinedly - and at the speed of an Olympic swimmer - towards the coast.

# Four brains that operate competitively in the search for food.
# A highly complex sensory capacity and the ability to distinguish colour.
# The ability to live in inhospitable waters at a depth of up to 10,900 metres.
# A total of 24 eyes with moveable pupils giving them 360-degree visibility.
# Box jellyfish have 6-8ft long tentacles. Just 5-6ft across the boda href="y is enough to kill a human in 180 seconds.
# Venom is released on contact - even after it is dead - and each creature has 4000,000,000 venomous fibres.
# Humans who have been stung and survived have needed 30-40 milligrams of morphine. A broken leg requires between 5-10 milligrams.
# Despite decades of study scientists have been unable to unravel the mysteries of its complex venom but it is known to contain 20 different proteins.

The swarms of jellyfish are multiplying in the Western extent of the Pacific ocean and threatening 20,000 miles of coastline off Japan, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
...
Advanced oceanic life forms are struggling for survival while primitive life forms -- such as algae, bacteria and jellyfish -- are starting to spread unchecked. This regression of evolution is "the rise of slime," according to Jeremy B.C. Jackson, Scripps
Institution of Oceanography

Over-fishing has started an evolutionary regression that has spun into a vicious circle. There has been a dramatic reduction in the numbers of turtles that prey on jellyfish and an overabundance of the plankton they love to eat, and this has lead some fishermen to become jellyfishermen.
...
The historic fishing industry of California has also taken a dramatic turn. Three of the top five commercial catches are not fish, but squid, crab and sea urchins, and the still-surging numbers of jellyfish may catapult them to Western plates sooner rather than later.

University of British Columbia fisheries Scientist Daniel Pauly fears that one day "My kids will tell their children: Eat your jellyfish."i
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brightcove
this video is more Tin-Tin then Herge
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Fernando Lugo wins in Paraguay. What does this mean to the Bush family who bought a ranch there. Other USAOligarchs have bought bolt-hole ranches there. They must be feeling less secure now.
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com
“I mean, who could possibly think that any sort of tyranny could fall upon a country like this one? Obviously, that is a ridiculous proposition. If we were falling under the yoke of tyranny, there would be warning signs. The state would be building torture chambers, dragging people away without trial, and instituting massive programs of indiscriminate surveillance of citizens. There would be wars of aggression, built upon lies for the purpose of lashing out at the world and seizing territory. Until such things happen, what do we have to fear?”
–
Thoreau
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European Nuke

With a series of 10 units ,,, cost totals 2.6 billions € per unit, ... 1,628 € / kW. ... generating costs would reach 33 € /.MWh, matching those of a gas combined cycle, while being far less sensitive to fuel cost increases.
...

Sep 2007 TVO reported the construction delay as "at least two years" and costs more than 25% over budget.[17] Cost estimates...to € 1.5 B
April 2008 the French nuclear safety agency (ASN) reported that a quarter of the welds inspected in the secondary containment steel liner are not in accordance with norms, and that cracks have been found it the concrete base. ...
...the Finnish reactor, on the island of Olkiluoto in the Gulf of Bothnia, two years behind schedule, three years after construction began. It is also believed to have helped increase its cost by more than 50 per cent

French utility EDF its first 1,650-megawatt new generation reactor in Flamanville. Work .. expected to last for another four and a half years with the E$3.6 billion plant...
... E$2,182 per Kw. E$1=US$1.47= US$3,215 per kW.

* That's US$1,200/Kw higher than NRG's estimate in their COL filing to the NRC last September.

* two new NRG units ... 2,700 MWe. .. will cost $5.5 billion ... $2,000 per kW. The NRG plants will be GE-Hitachi ABWRs.

Earlier this year Westinghouse contracted with the Chinese to build 4 AP-1000 reactors for $5.3 billion.
4,4 GW of powerm for $1,200 per-kW. The French sold the Chinese two rather larger reactors for $11.9. Thus the French reactors cost the Chinese $3,500 per-kW, or 3 times the westing house price.

Areva SA ... 8 billion euro ($11.9 billion) nuclear reactor agreement from China,... includes two reactors, uranium enrichment, and separate work, which is potentially larger than the reactor deal itself, for nuclear fuel reprocessing. ... The reactors will each have capacity of 1,600 MWe.

...to study building a E$15 billion spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in China, Lauvergeon said.

[note Widely varying costs, large overruns, 4+ years to build...
Wind turbines dont require 'enrichment, reprocessing, nor fuel mining, nor radioactive decomissioning of 1.5m blast resistant thick concrete]
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University of Kansas in the US grain belt - has found that GM soya produces about 10% less food than its conventional equivalent,
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abc
Arsenic, strychnine, cocaine and caffeine.
just another morning in the race game for our Pharlap
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gov't admits Vaccine Autism link

At a July 19, 2000 pediatric visit, the pediatrician observed that CHILD “spoke well” and was “alert and active.” ... At the July 19, 2000 examination, CHILD received five vaccinations – DTaP, Hib, MMR, Varivax, and IPV. Id. at 2, 11.
... In sum, DVIC has concluded that the facts of this case meet the statutory criteria for demonstrating that the vaccinations CHILD received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, respondent recommends that compensation be awarded to petitioners in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-11(c)(1)(C)(ii).
ageofautism
....
mitochondrial diseases may be more prevalent in children with autism or ASDs (the highest estimate of which is here),
Five of 11 patients studied were classified with definite mitochondrial respiratory chain disorder, suggesting that this might be one of the most common disorders associated with autism
cambridge

maybe its Al not Hg...
The reason aluminum hydroxide is used in vaccines is because it produces a stronger immune response so that less antigen needs to be used
sciencebasedmedicine
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Hickman crater 260 metres wide 10-15metres acress metero 300kt TNT 10,000 - 100,000 ybp
google earth co-ords:
-23.0371, 119.68311129
sciencealert
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Tasman Glacier retreating
Martin Brook says the 29 kilometre-long glacier,...has retreated rapidly during the past decade, forming a large lake.
... 2 million-year-old glacier lies 730 metres above sea level, and temperatures are too warm to sustain the ice. He says at its current rate, the glacier will soon be retreating by about half a kilometre each year.

1973 there was no lake in front... the lake at its foot is now 7km long, 2km wide and 245m deep.
nzherald
[cf Fox & Franz Josef glaciers below]
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guardian
the price of rice has risen by three-quarters over the past year, that of wheat by 130%. There are food crises in 37 countries. One hundred million people, according to the World Bank, could be pushed into deeper poverty by the high prices.

But I bet that you have missed the most telling statistic. At 2.1bn tonnes, the global grain harvest broke all records last year - it beat the previous year's by almost 5%. The crisis, in other words, has begun before world food supplies are hit by climate change
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Brendan O’Neill
spiked

Somalia: killed by ‘kindness’
The east African state is a case study in how today's humanitarian intervention can be even more lethal than the old White Man's Burden.
brendanoneill
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CPE vs Capital
Centrally Planned Economy has a very bad rap since Mao in the 'great leap forward' said to have decreed that wheat could grow in THE South,Rice could grow in the North.
The ensuing famine is said to have caused a 30M population dip.

Vietnam opened farms to 'market' in 88, became a rice exporter very quickly

Cuba post USSR has 10,000 bullocks, urban gardens, but still imports most of its food?
Is this true?
I like Castro and his beard, but Cuba may need 'markets'

Post USSR: 'collective' farms split into family farms, these are now seen as too small and 'co-operatives' are being encouraged. The farmers are very suspicious. They hated the 'collectives' or have been convinced that they did.

USA: small farms rapidly vanishing to huge agri-business.

Sadly the best solution today appears to be 'central' planning from huge corporations.

Industrial farming 'yields' must factor in Natural Gas/Urea and Tractor/Truck diesel, and all those super-bright Supermarket lights.

Permaculture probably has the best yields. But despite being designed for minimum maintenance, theres still a lot of person-hours required
to squash caterpillars and guard the ducks.

'Rational' planning cannot ignore biology ( see GLF above)

Up to now Urea, Intensive tractor tilled, long distance trucked big corporate farms seem the best producers.

Half the world is now in shanty towns/barrio/favelas, where little land is left for gardens - this is a big problem brewing. Within rioting distance of city centers.
Why? Possibility of cash incomes, access to schools, stimulation (TV, neighbors) , access to clinics, Security: The urban barrio/favelas is surprisingly safer than the isolated hamlet. Lots of eyes on the alley mean that thieves are spotted.
People just prefer city to Village, more to do, less elders telling you what not to do. The barrio with extended family nearby is a fun place, always someone to chat with, look after the kids... But even the few chickens scratching around may go as people aspire to be wage earners. My Barrio has a few ducks and pigs, but very little vegetables. Tilapia are found flapping in the market. Most fowl are cocks, lovingly tended for wagers in fights.

I still believe in planning, but CPE has been just bad systems design... no feedback.

Allende planned to have socialism with feedback - in pre computer days he had Stafford Beer plan a network of teletypes. I heard Beer talk about the system at the OU in 1979. He said the messages back to central would be of 'departures' from the planned targets. Still not the true flexibility of the 'market'
I suppose my ideal is 'Glastnost/Perestroika' - openness and restructuring.. The corporation as a person is a dangerous entity. I reckon 'Business confidentiality' should be largely scrapped. Every input and output should be public & monitored. Including 'waste' gases and liquids.

Case study: 'trainers' ie flash lightweight shoes, famously Nike. These lightweight glue/polymer/rubber shoes are a revolution, enabling easy walking over miles of rough ground.
Could CPE have ever produced a Nike Trainer? Unlikely: Under CPE the commissar of shoes would decree a shoe factory, which would produce boring heavy old leather shoes, and lie about production and pollution to the Centre. No feedback, no delightful shoes.
No way for the Shoe factory ever to close, or even improve, since the Party had decreed it.
Capital takes SportStar/TV Stars basketball shoes and mass markets them, with extensive research and re-design.
The assembly is done by teenage girls in Indonesia. Paid A dollar a day and locked into firetrap dormitories. Trade Union leaders shot and thrown in a Ditch. The product shipped to the West and sold for $185. Obviously some negatives, but the shoes are great. The Indonesian girls feel themselves to be better of than back in the village. In Indonesia you can get excellent knock-off Diesels for $5. Thats the real delight, great shoes for $5. Ideal planning would have fewer yearly design changes, fire-escapes on dorms. But its just unlikely that 'Soviet' trainers would have been as nifty. Now 'Communist' China is the new factory site. So 'Central Planning' has obviously matured. The air around the factory is almost unbreathable. Eco=Sustainable planning evidently required, but that is too sophisticated for Industrial-Capital-Market, Or has been so far (check Factor-4 for green carpets)

Industrial society is in thrall to the energy in fossil fuel... the speed, the warmth, the air con. This thralldom may come to negate the Industrial farm advantage.
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From 1981 to 2000, the area of land devoted to grain fell from 732million hectares to 656million hectares
Green Capitalism, by James Heartfield, 2008
....
(from 2003)on average crop yields in Mt/Ha for different countries:
World Maize 3.41
USA Maize 8.92
Spain Maize 9.11
Iran Maize 8.57
France Maize 7.14

World Wheat 2.75
USA Wheat 2.97
China Wheat 3.91
UK Wheat 7.78
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.macwilm äpril 15, 2008 9:24 AM comment from
In New Zealand, a North Island hill country farm of 1500 acres would produce around 40 tonnes of boned meat/year. ... Farmers in the hill country are not applying phosphate fertiliser at the moment as it is too dear so the meat from these grazing animals could be classed as organic.
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aaa