Afghanistan, Vietnam, Madagascar, Measles

Afghanistan why?

if we take the logic of the “no safe haven” doctrine to its ultimate conclusion, then we must be willing to occupy the entire world – anywhere al-Qaeda could possibly find a “safe haven.” Something tells me such a strategy isn’t going to be all that workable – although I’m glad no one suggested it to the Bush administration, because they would probably have jumped at the chance to implement it.

antiwar

Is it moral or practical or safe to invade countries that used-to-be, may-be a haven for a tall guy who's probably dead?
who didnt plan or finance London Tube, Kuta Beach or those other irritants... where the actors motives seem to have been the invasions themselves?
Is Terrorism a big problem? 11Sep01 equaled a couple of months of USA road deaths. Folks accept road deaths because 100kph cars are such fun. Swimming at hyper-resort Kuta is fun for some folks.
I am peeved when fundamuslims attack commuter rail... easy target guys, please stick to finance, military and red-neck resorts...

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Coal future for Vietnam?
...Vinacomin..’ Vietnam will need to import coal to supply domestic power plants beginning in 2013.

Forecasts: million tonnes
2010, .. produce 45
domestic coal demand is 25.. .

2015 Demand 94 ..
Coal-fired power plants ..67 . ..
production, 60..
???
demand 184
consumption of coal by power plants .150
..domestic .. production 70..

2025
demand 308
Power plants 268
[note the giant increase. in forecast demand 10x today..... can everyone enjoy such a 10 fold increase?

Question: How to model scarcty - price - export- peak - economic collapse - emmisions
on top of AGChange... Based on 2008, It looks likely that speculators will cause the premature collapse of OIndustriaL society
How bad will this be? As bad as Russia -male lifespan dropped from 72 to 56?
Will economic collapse mean no funds for Photovoltaic ? Wind? Society at large?
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................Nuclear war? - nb Uranium fissions in Iraq are such that the 2nd nuclear war for oil is underway (Japan being the 1st)
Food uprisings ... see Madagascar below

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coal 4E7 J/kg??? 500MW for 300 days = 500E6W * 3E7J = 1500E13 = 1.5E16J 50% efficient = 3E16
kg of coal = 7E8 = 7E5Ton ie one coal generator uses ca 0.7Mt
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OR
". A typical (500 megawatt) coal plant burns 1.4 million tons of coal each year. ..."
so my maths is out by a factor of 2 coal is less than 4E7J/kg and efficiency is <>
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it will be difficult to secure adequate supplies, even if Vietnam is prepared to pay three or four times more the price Vietnam’s coal is now fetching in foreign markets.
..Thai and Chinese businesses jumped and grabbed our contracts,” said an official. “It seems that the Thai and Chinese are ready to purchase coal at any price”.
....In the face of the prospect that demand for coal will be very big, activities to push up coal exports continue. Vinacomin says that in the first seven months of 2009, ..exported 13.6,,... 7% increase over.2007.
...Vinacomin is still infatuated with the notion of coal exports

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Madagascar
Wish you weren't here: The devastating effects of the new colonialists

earlier this year, when the government of Marc Ravalomanana was overthrown in the former French colony.

The urban poor were angry at the price of food,... But what whipped them into action was news of a deal the government had recently signed with a giant Korean multinational, Daewoo, leasing 1.3 million hectares of farmland – ...about half of all arable land on the island – to the foreign company for 99 years. Daewoo had announced plans to grow maize and palm oil there – and send all the harvests back to South Korea.
... the firm had paid nothing for the lease
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Earlier this year, angry Filipinos successfully blocked a deal by the Philippines government with China which involved an astounding 1,240,000 hectares.

independent


Best plan: let the NImps develop the land then kick them out

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House size
USA median square footage of newly built homes fell to 192m² ..... 7% fall, 1st in 15 years

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Landlords?
Ngai Tahu Runanga Chair Mark Solomon’s argument in this week’s Sunday Star-Times that the National Government should be considering Iwi for public-private partnerships because they will never leave New Zealand has been undermined by the actions of the Maori-controlled Sealord company.
wordpress

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">therealnews.
new silk road Pepe Escobar

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Big Telescopes
2,400 meters) above sea level on the Roque de los Muchachos, the highest point on the tiny island of La Palma, the northwesternmost member of the Canary Islands (

Boasting a segmented mirror 10.4 meters wide, the GTC is the largest telescope of its kind in the world--for now. Three larger telescopes are slated for completion in 2018: The Thirty Meter Telescope, with its (30-meter) mirror, is planned for the top of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, while the (24.5-meter) Giant Magellan Telescope will be built in the mountains of Las Campanas, Chile.
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The European Extremely Large Telescope, which currently doesn't have a site selected, will boast an unprecedented (42-meter) primary mirror.
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Miley
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Great Depression


Coby notes that from October 29, 1929 until November 13, 1929, the stock market collapsed 49% (2008's was 52%). Ron points out that the market then staged a 155-day rally of 50%. Today’s rally (starting in March ’09) has lasted 150 days and the market is up an average of 50% (average of Nasdaq, DJIA, and S&P 500).

Unfortunately for the bulls today, the 1929 market then rolled over and collapsed another 70%.
seekingalpha
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The average train in 1980 used four liters of fuel to move one ton of freight 380 kilometers, and by 2007 the average increased to 700 kilometers, or three times the fuel efficiency of a truck

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scienceblogs
big crater on Mars

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The measles outbreak which first began in Christchurch in early July has now spread to Auckland
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I remember measles... the fever induced hallucinations were rather impressive. A sensation of my body being 'resized' - rather like the homunculus ...


Reading some anti-vaccination rants, it seems to me that there are widely differing kinds of vaccine. I have no argument with smallpox vaccination, which was just a scratch, but left a rather impressively long lasting scar. Those of us who have the scar are an aging cohort. I guess the Salk live polio drink was worthwhile, a 1 in 3 million chance of polio was a good bet in those days. As for the injections loaded with irritants including mercury, I kind of understand the Robert Kennedy anti-brigade. He reported on a medical conference which voted pro, where the chairman was interviewed saying that anti-vaccination had no evidence, but when asked he admitted he wouldnt do it to his own kids.
Seems that the measles shot is <90% effective....


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OTOH I got Autism without MeaslesMumpsWhooping cough vaccinations.
My father. a GP, didnt want his children to fear him, so he got the 'district nurse' to come around and give us 'shots'
Ironically he was a dab hand with the needle, so fast as to be painless.
I'm fairly sure I was already an Aspie before those shots, which must have been when I was 6 years old at least?
Hard to be sure... being 'poorly socialised' in a large family went largely unnoticed. I was sarcastic as soon as I could talk. I was taken to a couple of child psychotherapists (Ann Todd?) but I must have smart-talked my way out, because I never had a second visit.

I had a heroin period in the 70s. Never got addicted, but did get into stupid injectings. I recall one time attempting to hit up cough syrup, not a good plan. On the whole, I think it was a social thing. The junkie community was wild, dangerous and exciting. Combination of trust and criminality and all night waiting on the man. a great mix of classes, induced urgency, conviviality on the edge of death. Some nights the pharmacy burglars would turn up with bottles of Morphine, Cocaine and Pethidine. They used the Pethidine, the cocaine and morphine were free for all. I never got the point of cocaine, it was only useful to keep one awake so one could appreciate the Morphine.
Once the LSD craze had passed, once we realised that the experience of understanding the absolute wasnt about to translate into a new society, the drift into opiates was sadly inevitable. I can recommend shooting up LSD tho... the instant powerful trip is worth experiencing, in the unlikely event you come upon good acid.
I was tripping already as I found the vein in my girlfriends arm... her arm turned into a torso, the needle into a steel phallus..

I used to raid my fathers surgery, mainly to get sterile #26 outfits, which gave me entre into junkie society. I got into the old mans safe and stole half his stash of diamorph hype tabs (tiny soluble medical heroin pellets) I left half because I knew he was keeping them for possible cancer in his old age. In the event, he got a painless brain tumour, so didnt need them. I shot up most of them in the toilet of the 'express' train to Auckland.
Mother was a pethidine fan. Father kept a large bottle of pethidine tablets in his desk, which I scored..., straightaway took them around to the beautiful Helen in Grey Lynn. Many years later I heard conflicting stories about how Helen died... violence? junk? She was immortalised by a carved saying on the window frame of 35 Wood St in Freemans bay... "Helen is a great Fuck" - carved by Piers Ardley? who OD'd on chloral hydrate, not junk.
How great was 35. Shaitan, the idiotic Irish wolf hound blocking the hall, Garth cooking up Greek food, in preparation for his P Rd restaurant "The Bronze goat" , strolling round to Bruni's house in Renall St, on to Roy's Pink House... Then parties at Mandrax Mansion... Shelly , Brigid &, Morgan the three graces of Acid Auckland.
Auckland Motorcycles on Ponsonby road, Friday nights at the Kiwi... Woozle

I stole a pethidine hit from mother in 91 on the day after father's funereal, found it rather boring. Mother showed me the remaining diamorph hyp tabs, I left them for her, hope she took them.

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My Comment to NASA
re nasa

This interesting picture of California drought is rendered useless for me and at least 8% of males because of my red-green color blindness.
Indeed the choice of green vs brown for opposites cannot be the clearest for typical color-competent viewers.
This begs the question: should climate data be shown in an "aproximation" of actuality ie dryer = brown wetter = green?

I suggest that bold colors could be used instead.
I believe the popular success of projects such as the Hubble telescope, are in part due to the bold choice of "false" colors. Obviously UV and IR light require a choice, so lets see a bold choice.

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Comet In Moominland (again)
...Sergeant, guitarist of Echo & The Bunnymen, self-released Themes For GRIND in 1982....

theselector
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