Google India Private Ltd., resists Indian High Court demand to identify blogger

This excellent blog service ,"Blogger" is provided free by Google Inc. There is some sort of contract which we have never read but nevertheless agreed to. We know that if people like Peter Carter Fuck and Associates put pressure on Google Inc. they will take pages down. See Sunday, February 24, 2008 Grouchy Nadhmi Auchi and the problems of the blogiste re problems our friend Kate of the excellent viperish Kate a Blog had when she posted a picture of Mr Sadam Hussein and incorrectly labelled it Nadhmi Auchi.

It appears that Google were very friendly about it and had no desire or intention of closing the blog down.The 2 pages came down however and Kate kept her blog. See her blog entry November 29th 2006 "Received an email today from Harjinder Obhi, London based attorney for Google ......Mr. Obhi politely tells me if Auchi files suit, Google will be forced to produce information about me, emails, IP addresses, ISP information, etc. etc. etc. and that once my identity is known I will be formally added to the lawsuit.etc., etc.,

A case has now arisen in India which raises concerns.

Mumbai based and highly respectable Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects Ltd., last September bought a 75% interest in 11 coal mining licenses in Mozambique. Since then a "Blogger" using the name "Toxic Writer" has attacked the company which Gremach calls a "hate campaign".

The post reportedly describes an investor whose investments were tied up in Germach's rapidly falling stock, as the manufacturer allegedly diverted funds to a company called Austral Coke. Germach's stock price has dropped in value from Rs 500 ($11.90) to Rs 86 ($2.00) per share as of closing bell yesterday. (August 15, 2008, Beta News)

The Economic Times of India quoted a source in Gremach and said the company “suspects corporate rivalry behind the hate campaign” and sought help from the Mumbai Police’s cyber crime cell. However, the investigations by the local police hit a dead end after Google’s India office refused to co-operate.

On February 26th the High Court of India ordered Google India Private Ltd., to take the blog down and also to identify the blogger within 4 weeks.

The blog has been removed as instructed but the name or other details have not been revealed to the court.

Google won't comment as the case is sub judice but apparently under Indian law Web site hosts are responsible for content on their sites. If Google loses the case it may have to disclose the blogger's identity, a move that could set a precedent for court challenges to the anonymity of its users.

At the time of the Mumbai commuter train bombings in 2006 which killed 207 people the Indian authorities out a great deal of pressure on site owners and India's Department of Telecommunications ordered whole sites including Blogger to restrict access to a handful of sites that could have been inciting community tension.

It's only going one way folks.

PS : There was a period of a couple of years when people accessing Lord Patel's raving by proxy could be identified as originating in the Indian sub Continent. Proxy readers and other mumbo-jumbo merchants have however got smarter in covering their spoors.... and no doubt spoortrekkers got better at snffing them out.

Vestas now into profit with generous plans for global growth in wind power

When windmill supplier Vestas takes half page colour ads in the Wall Street Journal inviting readers to go and look at their Q2 08/09 results at vestas.com - you know it's good news.

It is .. but good news has been a long time coming .. see Thursday, March 30, 2006 Vestas, Big sales more losses in the wind farm business Vestas, the world's largest producer of wind turbines, lost nearly DKK 1.2bn (EUR 116m) on sales of DKK 26.7bn (EUR 3.58bn)last year (04/05) up 52% on the previous year. The company's board called the loss 'disappointing' and 'totally unacceptable'. see also Friday, November 25, 2005 Wind Energy - more problems / losses stack up for Vesta.

Investors, like Lord Patel who have hung in there have seen some modest gains as they have finally solved a lot of the problems of manufacture and reliability in use.

June 27th Order for 36 wind turbines with a combined output of 66 MW on 4 sites of 28 units of V90-1.8 MW wind turbine , eight units of its V80-2.0 MW wind turbines, installation and 5 year contract from Spain's Enel Union Fenosa Renovables (EUFER).

June 27th Order for 50 wind turbines for China 50 turbines in two projects totalling 100MW in China with a subsidiary of China Datang Group, a leading wind power producer in China, Delivery of the turbines is scheduled to begin at the end of the year and be completed in the first half of 2009.

June18th Order for 36 wind turbines for a 66MW Trapani Salemi project in Sicily from Suez' unit WINDCO Spa. due to come on stream October 2009.



The Statement says that the continuing improvement in profitability is attributable to the higher prices which Vestas initiated in 2005 and improved operational efficiency...."The overall demand pressure on the industry persists, and there are still long lead times for a number of key components; up to 15 months." ... Cash flows have improved and large inventories have helped to stabilise production capacity and Vestas’ ability to supply in the second half of 2008.... and explain the short lead times on the new projects listed above.

They also stated that order backlog on June 30 of 7.2 billion euros (US$10.73 billion). This compared with 4.8 billion at the end of the first quarter and was 67 % up on the figure at end-June last year. Note turnover year on year for Q2 is only up 3% 1067 to 1094 DKK.

These guys have vision

.."Vestas expects that modern energy (what BERR calls sustainable) will account for at least 10 % of global power production in 2020. To achieve this, more than 900,000 MW of modern energy must be installed over the next 12 years, which translates into annual growth in installed capacity of 20-25 %. The market will thus rise to an average of at least 80,000 MW per year over the next 12 years, against 20,000 MW in 2007 (ie 4 fold increase)."

By 2010 Vestas aims, together with its sub-suppliers,(and 17,370 staff worldwide) ) to be able to manufacture, ship and install 10,000 MW. In 2007, Vestas shipped a total of 4,974 MW.

On 2 June 2008, The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner and 5 wind turbine manufacturers, (GE Energy, Siemens Power Generation, Vestas Wind Systems, Clipper Turbine Works, Suzlon Energy, and Gamesa Corporation) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a view to jointly seeking to increase the proportion of wind power relative to overall US power production from the current level of 1% to 20 % by 2030. See DOE Report 20% Wind Energy by 2030- May 2008
this addresses the 20% Wind Scenario:The 20% Wind Scenario presented here would require U.S. wind power capacity to grow from the current 11.5 GW to more than 300 GW over the next 23 years. (If interested in wind energy and how a modern industrial nation with an established manufacturing base should act in planning for, it this is a must read). BERR please Note , orders backlog, staff recruitment (see below) a5 month delay on component supplies Ditto on nuclear power.

Vestas has a blade factory in Windsor, Colorado,with an annual capacity of 1,800 blades, a second plant near Brighton, Colorado, will double capacity by 2010.

China’s most recent statement regarding wind power is to have an installed capacity of 100,000 MW by 2020, which is largely the same as the global capacity at the end of 2007.

On 26th June 2008, the UK government announced its fairytale plans for achieving 20 % renewable energy by 2020. The Vestas Isle of Wight factory will cease making the blades for its V82 turbine (which now mainly go to US) and change in 2010 to 44-metre blades for the V90 turbines which is predicated on the UK expansion using the V90-2.0 MW and 3.0 MW turbines are particularly well suited for this market, onshore as well as offshore. IOW will also become an R&D centre. The Cambeltown factory will shut.

Vestas expects to employ up to 1,500 people in the UK in 2010, against 1,114 employees today.

It is of interest that Vestas launched a global employee bonus programme, from Jan1 2008 in which eligible employees may achieve a bonus of up to 8 per cent of their base salary. The way this has been introduced suggest that recruitment of qualified engineers and their retention is a problem.

Looking for Press comment on Vestas results - we found this from Reuters "Shares in Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa rise to the top of Madrid's leaderboard, up 4.2 % to 30.01 euros after Danish rival Vestas reports its order backlog has ballooned on soaring oil prices.

For those interested in investing in wind power, especially in the US you might look here at the report that The Goldman Sachs Group 21st March 2005 announced it will acquire Houston, Texas-based Zilkha Renewable Energy.

Goldman Sachs was then invested in 30 power-producing entities. “Goldman Sachs doesn’t invest in sectors that they think are stagnant or declining,” said Chris Taylor of Zilkha. This by the way was Zilkha of Selim Zilkha the son of the Banker of Baghdad who set up Mothercare in the UK, sold out. Setup an oil facilities company using the (then) new computer technology to exploit Gulf oil wells declining rserves and sold out for US$1 Bn to El Paso Gas ...then set up Zilkha energy investing in wind whcih he sold out to Sacks of Gold.

Zilkha Energy was an early investor in UK wind energy with the $80Mn. 10 sq Km site with 30 Vestas V80 2MW units at th North Hoyle field off Rhyl (Total Installed capacity 60 Mw. annual Load Factor 35.8% - UK Average 27.1%) which is the longest running offshore development(commenced Nov.2003) in the UK and now owned from 2005 by Beaufort Wind Limited.***

A BERR report on North Hoyle provides useful information - total overall final project cost totalled £81m (prior to grant) which equates to £1.35m/MW. The BERR (DTI as was) grant for the project of £10m reduced the total cost to £1.18m/MW. Total metered output 2007 was 117,000 MWh Annual operating costs in 2007 ( 3rd year of operation) amounted to £2.8m (equivalent to £47/MW or 1.51p/kWh - compare this with British Energy nuclear power realised sale price £45.7/MWh ).

As a bribe to operators The Energy White Paper 2007 declared the government’s intent that from 1st April 2009 wind ROCs will be banded:– Offshore wind farms to receive 1.5 ROCs per MWh. – Onshore wind to continue receiving 1 ROCs per MWh.

TO really understand the UK Renewables business got to Renewable Energy Foundation The REF is charity , supported by private donation and has no political affiliation or corporate membership. In pursuit of its principal goals REF highlights the need for an overall energy policy that is balanced, ecologically sensitive, and effective.

REF is part of a growing national consensus that the United Kingdom's energy policy is unbalanced, and that the drive for renewable energy generation has been inadequately planned.

*** Beaufort Wind Energy was owned 100% by Zephyr Investments .Three partners: RWE Innogy, Englefield Capital LLP4, and the Bahrein based First Islamic Investment Bank E.C. (F.I.I.B) (called Arcapita from April 2005) through its investment vehicles arranged by its subsidiary, Crescent Capital Investments (Europe) Limited, took one third (Jan 2004)each of the share capital of the investment fund, Zephyr Investments Ltd, established in April 2003.

RWE Innogy's retail subsidiary, npower, continue to purchase power and Renewable Obligation Certificates from Beaufort Wind Ltd under long term purchase contracts as part of its strategy to meet the UK Government's Renewable Obligation targets.

In August 2007 , Englefield Capital, sold their 1/3 rd stake and Arcapita Bank sold their 1/3rd stake in Zephyr which owned 17 wind farms = 20% of UK wind farm capacity for £145 Mn each (they said their cost was £55Mn each) to Infracapital, a European infrastructure fund managed by Prudential M&G, and a subsidiary of an investment entity advised by JPMorgan Asset Management, will each buy half of Arcapita's stake.

The value of Renewable Obligation Certificates dropped during 2007 from about £48 to £32 as more renewable energy came on stream.

If you have got this far, the North Hoyle farm generates electricity at say £47/MW it sells that for roughly that price and receives £33 for each ROC (it was £48 in 2007) which is effectively the gross profit. That is why they need a bribe from April 1st in 2009 to receive 1.5 ROC's for each MW generated.

Vaccination of schoolgirls for HPV using Cervarix ® should be stopped. NOW

The fevered and prurient interest by educators in the sex lives of school girls takes a curious turn when they return to school next month.

With little or no discussion it has been decided to commence mass vaccination of all 12 and 13-year-old girls at all schools in the UK. This will start with the first of 3 doses of a vaccine that will reduce the chances of harbouring a sexually transmitted human papilloma virus which is now known to be proven agent of causing cervical cancer.

70% (ish) of all HPV viruses so transmitted can cause cervical cancers - a lethal (if undiscovered by regular smear examinations) and terrifying illness. This claims about 100 lives in Scotland every year - the average age at death being about 60.

In Scotland the Catholic Church originally raised objections to the vaccination programme - "jab" in tabloid speak) because it may encourage promiscuity. Church elders in SCotland have now performed a screeching U turn after twistin gthe arms of reaching an agreement with health and education staff.

Now girls, when vaccinated will receive no accompanying advice on the need to use condoms to protect themselves from other sexually transmitted diseases. More than half of the 5,000 female chlamydia patients in Scotland last year were under the age of 20.

The programme is due to start next month and schools are set to send out consent forms for the scheme from the beginning of September.

One wonders if the girls (and possibly even their parents) will be advised that another vacccine ,Gardasil (but sold by an American drug company) also provides protection from genital warts - it is marginally more expensive than the British Cervarix® product marketed by GSK.

One also wonders if the Roman Catholic elders have approved further advice for girls and their parents that HPV is transmissable during oral sex (however configured) , between women, by the use of sex toys and anal sex.

This wholesale experiment using a new vaccine (see Friday, March 14, 2008 GSK's claim cervarix HPV vaccine affords long-term protection against fourmain HPV types ) which has not tested (unlike Gardasil see Tuesday, July 08, 2008 Gardasil® gets 7,802 adverse reports to CDC by VAERS system ) on large populations is being forced onto girls (boys who contract the viruses and pass it on are not to be vaccinated) and their parents with litle informed discussion. Monday, July 21, 2008 NHS decide on vaccine from UK based GSK - Cervarix® for teenage girls for cervical cancer causing HPV virus - genital warts ignored - none for boys

Cervical smear testing will continue. Because of medical ethics, if testing discovers the presence of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's) this information will not be recorded, or passed on by the laboratory to the doctor or the patient.

This experiment (it is nothing else) is costly, unnecessary, it is for an illness that affects a diminishing number of women - due to the success of the decades of pap smear testing. Like any vaccination programme it will have side effects, some of them devastating and even fatal.

This insane programme should be stopped. NOW.

Lord Patel has been following this pharmaceutical bononaza for some time - Friday, June 09, 2006 Merck's Gardasil cleared - now you can inject your 9 year old girl against an STD For previous posts about HPV vaccines go here.

If you have children (or grandchildren) who will be affected by this policy you should consult your GP immediately.

UPDATE Sunday 7th September 2008 - Apparently pupils will NOT need parental signed consent. They are deemed old enough to make informed consent alone.

Uncle Sam's Glove puppets come - and Uncle Sam's Glove puppets go

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (محمد ضياء الحق) - whose brother was Lord Patel's GP for many years - died 20 years ago today in a suspicious (and still unexplained ) crash of a Lockheed C-130 , accompanied by several high ranking officers and , surprisingly the then United States Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel. Many theories abound about the causes of the C-130's crash - General Hameed Gul, head of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency at the time, has recently suggested that the United States was responsible for murdering their Cold War ally.

Zia had overthrown Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a military coup d'état on July 5, 1977 who was eventually judicially killed. His daughter was extra judicially killed.

Starting out as a martial leader he became President of Pakistan in September 1978. A year later Russia invaded Afghanistan and the US invaded the upper reaches of the Pakistan Government - ending up unde President Reagan pouring billions of dollars into supporting the mujahadeen and a a rich and rum Arab playboy fight their proxy war for the US against the Russian Bear.

Which sounds familiar this weekend as 2 more US Glove puppets fighting proxy wars for their paymasters are due to meet their Nemesis.

Pervez Musharrif another General who seized power, like it and stayed on too long, is expected to quietly slink away before Pakistan's Parliament impeach him. Intense jockeying and negotiations are going on today to guarantee his safe passage and cast iron immunity from prosecution.

Mikhail Sakashvalli's fall from grace started only 6 years ago. In May 2002, Gazprom signed a deal to manage natural-gas routes in Georgia without disclosing many contract terms. American diplomats were so alarmed that US President George W. Bush’s top Caspian adviser hastily flew to Tbilisi to warn that the deal could harm American-backed efforts to develop natural gas resources in Azerbaijan. "These negotiations between Gazprom and the Georgian Ministry of Fuel and Energy are not, in my opinion, sufficiently transparent," said Steven Mann, Bush’s Caspian-energy envoy, told Rustavi-2 television. He also cautioned that the Gazprom agreement could "significantly weaken Georgia’s position along East-West energy transportation routes."

Mann’s visit a few days after Richard Miles the US Ambassador’s expression of "concern" that Gazprom’s plans for piping gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to Erzurum, at the Georgian-Turkish border. would hamper the development of the Shah Deniz BP/Statoil pipeline. On October 18th , Russian wunderkind Anatoly Chubais - head of RAO (Unified Energy Systems) which controls more than 70% of the CIS electric power capacities, and output of more than 70% of electricity in the country.was in Yerevan signing up a deal with Armenia.

These diplomatic developments highlight the geopolitical motives behind energy-sector deals in the Caucasus. Gazprom was closely allied with the Kremlin. Russian leaders had long sought to increase their economic leverage in former CIS states, including Georgia, in the belief that stronger commercial ties enhance Moscow’s political influence. Conversely, the United States has long sought to reduce Russia’s economic dominance of countries on the Caspian Basin.

After his meeting with Shevardnadze, Mann stressed that the Gazprom deal is "not yet final."

However, elsewhere things were moving. After the collapse of Enron, AES who had bought into the Georgian electricity industry saw their shares plummet from US$73 to a little over a dollar. On May 1st 2003 AES announced Richard Darman as new Non Executive Chairman. A busy man. Ex-manager of the Office of the Budget, famous for saying that George Bush as Presidential candidate did not say "No more Taxes", it was "just something he read in a speech". MD of the shade loving Carlyle group whom he joined in 1993, Darman (who died aged 64 of lukaemia on Lord Patel's birthday this year) was also on the hugely influential and secretive Council of Foreign Relations, as was Philip Odeen, ex-chairman of huge DoD contractor TRW who joined AES at the same time (also one time aide of Henry Kissinger).

On May 8th 2003, PA Government Services Inc. (PA), part of the PA Consulting Group, (We are proud that our clients say 'PA makes it happen') announced in a little noticed Press release, an interim management contract with the Republic of Georgia, to manage the United Distribution Company for a period of approximately 18 months, with funding to be provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The United Distribution Company (UDC), they said, was formed in 2002, as an amalgamation of several regional electricity companies. It is estimated to have approximately 660,000 customers, close to 5,000 employees and a service area covering 70% of the country, much of it being rural. It was also a company in very serious difficulty, characterized by dismal financial performance, huge payables, inadequate business systems, all of which combined to make the UDC unable to provide reliable electricity supplies to its customers.

Then, unexpectedly on August 6 2003 (surprisingly Anatoly Chubais was in Tblisi that day) RAO/UES announced the purchase of a 75 percent stake in Georgia’s AES-Telasi joint venture from AES Silk Road, a subsidiary of the US-Arlington based AES Corp. for an undisclosed purchase price (AES paid US$35Mn in 1999 and claim to have spent a further US$250 since). "The Georgian government will take all the steps necessary to convince AES to stay," Georgian Energy Minister David Mirtskhulava Business Week quoted as saying. "AES's presence is important for the future investment climate. This gave Russian UES a virtual lock on Georgia’s domestic electricity market.

On July 31, 2003 the US Embassy made a public statement, "The US is sorry that AES Corporation of Arlington, Virginia, has decided to sell its assets in Georgia". A brilliant film by Paul Devlin "Powertrip" shown at the Berlin Film Festival Feb 2003 detailed the problems AES had, including machine gunning of their Georgian executives.

On August 18th there was a complete power blackout throughout Georgia – unremarked in the West and whose causes are still subject to wild speculation. Fuel and Energy Minister Mamuka Nikolaishvili, enjoying his first day in office said "We know only that an emergency shutdown occurred. Power was off from 7.00 am to 10.00pm." Prior to this there had been some surprising and influential visitors to President’s Shevardnadze's office. US frustration with Georgia has been mounting, as second largest per capita recipient of US aid after Israel, the US has given US$778 Mn roughly 5 times that of neighbouring Azerbaijan.

So in early July, interrupting his Independence Day weekend celebrations, in flew former US Secretary of State, James Baker, acting as a special Bush Administration envoy, to discuss the problems of the president's cronies ponying up the proceeds of the sale amongst themselves and to seek assurances about the conduct of the forthcoming elections.

On September 24, a US State Department official responsible for aid-related issues in the former Soviet Union, Thomas Adams, announced that Washington’s assistance to Tbilisi would decline in 2004 from the roughly $100 million that Georgia was currently receiving . This is known diplomatically as removing the carrot.

This was followed by another high powered US delegation -- including John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the US military’s joint chiefs of staff, along with Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state during the Clinton administration and head of the Brookings Policy Research Institute to monitor developments after Baker’s plan and attempt to defuse the confrontational mood then enveloping domestic politics. Even Republican Arizonan Senator John McCain turned up to put the heat on the most famous Georgian after Stalin – but with no success.

A letter from the US President on October 31st when his fellow countrymen were celebrating Hallowe’en failed to win Shevardnadze to control the excesses expected in the election 2 days away.

It’s evident that after the shambles of the election with missing ballots, dead voters and all the other paraphernalia of fraudulent elections (something the US President is intimately acquainted with), that Russia and the United States, rivals for control over the Caspian Sea's enormous oil wealth, set up a pragmatic deal to protect their joint interests and ensure a smooth transfer of power.

Half Georgian Igor Ivanov, Putin’s representative flew in and saw Shevardnadze and eventually spoke to Colin Powell after Shevardnadze had twice refused to take calls from Jim Baker. In a move which could exaggerate tensions over the former Soviet state between the US and Georgia's neighbour, Russia, US national security adviser Condoleeza Rice rang her Georgian counterpart and previously Georgia's ambassador to Washington Tedo Japaridze (who had six aides paid for by USAID) after the election confirming that the US was "ready to help Georgia, and support it in transition". Senior western diplomats confirmed separately that the US and EU were" keen to assist."

Evidently Moscow and Washington saw their own interests were best met by engineering a peaceful exit for long-time and mortally weakened President Eduard Shevardnadze.

Russia didn't need more problems on its sensitive southern border to allow militants to step up attacks on Russian forces in rebel Chechnya.

The US, whose main interests were then elsewhere didn't want local political unrest to disrupt construction of oil and gas pipelines that cross Georgia to bring Azerbaijan's huge energy reserves to Western markets via Turkey.

So fast forward. The "velvet" revolution (nice sound bite PR bullshit line from the Czech revolution ) ripped a few doors off the parliament building, Shevardnadze has gone home, (spurning fleeing to Germany where Gerhardt Schroeder had invited him to spend his retirement at his $11Mn villa) Nino Burdzhanadze , smart, tough and classy lady who was the last elected speaker of the country's parliament (and still is) , was made temporary President until elections early in January 2003 and the opposition was then led by ambitious and well connected Harvard educated lawyer and ex-Justice Minister Mikhail Saakashvili. "We feel like a plane taken over by hijackers," he said at the time.

The White House did not express a preference for the incoming President, but said it would support "free and fair elections."

The rest, is, as they say. History.

Fullerenes or BuckyBalls - a new and improved method of production discovered

Fullerenes are a family of carbon allotropes, discovered in 1985 which form 3 D molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, tube, or plane . Fullerenes are extraordinarily stable and heat-resistant, joining diamonds and graphite as the third form of pure carbon, yet are the only form of carbon that is soluble, leading to easy processing and a variety of chemical modifications for usable nanotechnology materials.

By far the most common fullerene is C60, also known as "buckyballs," which look like soccer balls - are spherical , hollow molecular cages of carbon atoms about a billionth of an inch in diameter. Other relatively common fullerenes are C70, C76, and C84. The architectural structure of fullerene molecules resembles the geodesic domes (like the Eden Project) created by architect and philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller.

The existence of a sperical C60 was predicted in 1970 by Eiji Osawa of Toyohashi University of Technology but not discovered until 2 teams at Sussex University in the UK and Rice University in Florida demonstrated their existence - for which Kroto, Curl, and Smalley were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. "The discovery of carbon atoms bound in the form of a ball is rewarded" said the Press elease. Their discovery has opened up an amazing new new field of chemistry.

Curl, Kroto and Smalley performed the experiments together with graduate students J.R. Heath and S.C. OBrien during a period of eleven days in 1985 to produce the first synthesised fullerenes, discovering that modest changes in conditions could affect the size of molecules produced.see pic.

For chemists the proposed structure was uniquely beautiful and satisfying. It corresponds to an aromatic, three-dimensional system in which single and double bonds alternated, and was thus of great theoretical significance. Unsurprisingly 2 books published about the discovery reflect that excitement Jim Baggott, Perfect Symmetry: The Accidental Discovery of Buckminsterfullerene, Oxford University Press, 1994 and Hugh Aldersey-Williams, The Most Beautiful Molecule: An Adventure in Chemistry, Aurum Press, London, 1995,

Subsequently fullerenes have been discovered in such a mundane thing as candle soot and as a result of lightning discharges. Recently they have been found in naturally occuring minerals.

The commercial exploitation of these curious and fascinating 3 dimensional molecules is however still stalled as it has been difficult to produce large quantities for experimental , never mind commercial use. Nearly 2,000 patents already exist for a broad range of pharmaceutical, electronic and other commercial applications, including anticancer and anti-HIV therapies, drugs for neurodegenerative diseases, drug delivery systems, and cosmetic preparations that retard the aging of skin.

The common method of production so far has been by vapourizing graphite. This is a relatively primitive and uncontrolled method., which cannot be used for the more exotic fullerene derivatives or unusual fullerene compounds.

Current techniques are complicated and may require as many as 11 sequential steps, - with final results producing low yields of C60 molecules. This hasn't prevented some commercial exploitation Frontier Carbon Corporation (FCC), which is a joint venture between Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation, which started production an sales of fullerene in May 2002 with a capacity of 400 kg/year. In May 2003, FCC increased the capacity by 100-fold, to 40 ton/year, to supply fullerene and its derivatives with reasonable prices for commercial use. Fullerene-based products started to emerge in 2003 first in sports industry such as bowling balls and golf-club heads in Japan, both of which are of high performance and have become popular products.

In December 2004 FCC (operating under the brand name nanom) decided to begin production of fullerene materials in the U.S. starting in March 2005 in co-operation with TDA Research, Inc.( a U.S. corporation licensed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology to use combustion-based technology for the production of fullerenic products) for serving present and potential customers.

They supply Nanom Mix (mixed fullerenes, including C60 and C70); Nanom Purple (pure C60); Nanom Spectra (tailor-made, chemically functionalized fullerenes); and mixtures of fullerenic materials with unique properties.

A group from Spain led by José Martin-Gago of the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid have now published a better controlled and higher yielding method of production method using surface-catalyzed cyclodehydrogenation. The process produces the C60 molecules with roughly 100% yield.

Indeed, the researchers have used the process to synthesize a heterofullerene C57N3 for the first time.

The method involves depositing the final aromatic precursors (such as C57H33N3) onto a catalytic platinum surface and then heating it to 750 K. This transforms all of the precursors into fullerenes.

Martin-Gago talks of a form of molecular origami in which numerous planar molecules can form into complex structures as envisaged in the graphic shown above.

"The secret is ," he says, "to use the catalytic properties of a surface for inducing dehydrogenation of the precursor molecule."

The method might be used to functionalize standard fullerenes by using different precursor molecules, says the team. And it could be exploited to encapsulate atoms or small molecules to form endohedral fullerenes if the process is carried out in an atmosphere containing guest species.

"We will now use this methodology to encapsulate some magnetic clusters in these molecules and use them as biomarkers," revealed Martin-Gago.

Russia uses Cluster Bombs on civilian targets in Georgia

Human Rights Watch have reported that Russian aircraft dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions;

1. On the town of Ruisi in the Kareli district of Georgia on August 12, 2008. Three civilians were killed and five wounded in the attack.

2. On the same day, a cluster strike in the center of the town of Gori killed at least eight civilians and injured dozens, Human Rights Watch said. Dutch journalist Stan Storimans was killed. Israeli journalist Zadok Yehezkeli was seriously wounded and evacuated to Israel for treatment after surgery in Tbilisi. An armored vehicle from the Reuters news agency was perforated with shrapnel from the attack.

HRW interviewed victims, doctors, and military personnel in Georgia. They examined photos of craters and video footage of the August 12 attack on Gori.

HRW has also seen a photo of the submunition carrier assembly and nose cone of an RBK-250 bomb in Gori. A video of an attack on Gori showed more than two dozen simultaneous explosions during the attack, which is characteristic of cluster bombs. Two persons wounded in Gori described multiple simultaneous explosions at the time of the attack. Craters in Gori were also consistent with a cluster strike.

Asked about reports of the use of cluster bombs, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, told a news conference "We never use cluster bombs. There is no need to do so." Another report from RIA Novosti says he said,""We did not use cluster bombs, and what's more there was absolutely no necessity to do so."

Then he accused Georgian troops of planting mines in Tskhinvali as they retreated from the South Ossetian capital .

Georgia has already filed a 33 page complaint at the International Court of Justice who have issued a Press release

Georgia claims :

These efforts, culminated on 8 August as Russian ground forces, warships and airplanes launched a fullscale invasion of Georgia in support of ethnic separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

At the Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions in May, diplomats agreed on a draft treaty banning the use, manufacture, and stockpiling of cluster munitions .

No representatives were sent to the conference from the US, China, Russia, Israel, India, or Pakistan, whose governments collectively make up the world's largest producers and users of cluster bombs. Unexpectedly on the morning of May 28 the British government announced it was willing to give up cluster munitions that it had used in recent years in Iraq. See BBC film of Cluster bombs in use.

"We have decided we will take all our types of cluster bombs out of service," Mr Brown told reporters in London. Which is a very carefully worded statement as the stockpiles will remain - because they are not "in service".

American officials did not attending the treaty talks . However they spent a great deal of high powered effort in world capitals to undermine the treaty. Diplomats in Dublin reported part time pionao player US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice and even President George W. Bush had been telephoning their counterparts around the world to promote the US opposition to the treaty.

Expert analysts of the treaty say it will require the United States to remove its stockpiles of cluster munitions at several military bases around the world, a measure that Washington had firmly opposed.

A loophole allows continued military and other cooperation between parties and non-parties to the treaty, which must still be ratified by individual signatory nations before entering into full effect.

In May 2008, 107 nations agreed to a total ban on cluster munitions, the Russians neither particpated nor signed but in a statement on the matter in June (Anatoly Antonov, Director, Department for Security Affairs and Disarmament, Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, June 6 2008) - aimed at Western allies they condemned other nations’ use of cluster bombs acknowledging the harm they cause to civilians:

“Of course, we welcome the intention of a whole array of nations to renounce the use of cluster munitions as a means of warfare. We understand the motives behind this decision. During the recent armed conflicts in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon the indiscriminate use of individual types of weapon, primarily western-made CMs, led to serious civilian casualties and injuries. This has turned the problem into a key issue facing the international community….

…we are convinced that the main causes of CM-related humanitarian problems lie, first and foremost, on the plane of their improper use and of departure from the principles and norms of IHL, especially when they were used in places where large numbers of civilians congregate

It is worth remembering - " In March and April (2003). U.S. and British forces used almost 13,000 cluster munitions, containing nearly 2 million submunitions, that killed or wounded more than 1,000 civilians" ("The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq," Human Rights Watch, Dec. 12, 2003).

What is happening now in Georgia .. Ossetian gangsters attack celebrated journalist Margarita Akhvlediani

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia has issued a continuous stream of statements about the position in Georgia these can be read here.

Alternatively they have been provided as a single document here up to 14th August here.

The notes of the Press Conference on August 14th with Dr Rice the part time piano player and friend of Dubya whose holidays have been interrupted are well worth reading. They bring back memories of Ms Golspie having a chat with that nice Mr Saddam Hussein so many years ago - Lord Patel has a feeling in his gut that this quote will last for a long time as a reflection of the way the US dministration were caught on the hop.

"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it. Things have changed."

QUESTION: You just said that this is not 1968, where Russia can do this and get away with it, and you’ve talked of consequences, but we have yet to really see any. When – at what point – how far – how much further can Russia continue to go before we actually see the United States do something?

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, you say that – again, that this is not 1968, but you’ve been – for several months, have been noticing Russia’s actions towards Georgia. Officials in the building (State department)have been very concerned not just about South Ossetia, but also about intentions towards – towards Georgia. And in – and since these attacks, officials have said that it seems to be premeditated, pre-planned, and that the swiftness with which Russian forces moved into Georgia show that it wasn’t necessarily only about South Ossetia, but something larger.

How did the U.S. miss the signals that this was some kind of large-scale invasion of Georgia? And are you concerned that the Russians feel that it is 1968 and they’re trying to invade other – are you concerned that they might invade other countries, such as Ukraine or other areas, where they have so-called citizens that they’re concerned –

QUESTION: Yes. You’ve mentioned several times that Russia could have done what it said it wanted to do and stopped and that they’ve overreached. As, among other things, an analyst of Russians and, before that, the Soviets, what do you think this is about? In that case, since they’ve still continued, what do you think it’s about? And how long do you think it will take for them to reach what they’re trying to reach?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, they told the French President that their military operations had ended.

There are 4 statements issued by the MFA up to date for August 15th ;

15-08-2008 22:30 - Timeline by 15th of August 22:00
15-08-2008 19:00 - Timeline by 15th of August 19:00
15-08-2008 16:30 - Timeline by 15th of August 16:30
15-08-2008 10:00 - Timeline by 15th of August by 10:00

Timeline by 15th of August 22:00 - an example

15 August

21:50 Russian troops continued movement from Khashuri and are in Surami close to Khashuri on central highway.

21:00 Russian troops entered Khashuri about 100kms west from Tbilisi and opened checkpoint. About 10 Tanks are in the city. Eyewitnesses report that they behave very cynically and terrorize civilians pointing guns to them or Tank guns to their cars and houses.

20:00 Russian troops began preparing tranches for armored vehicles and soldiers near the entrance of Senaki.

18:30 9 armored vehicles of Russian Army accompanied by 3 Mi-24 helicopters moved towards Tbilisi. They stopped and opened check point near village Igoeti 20 kms from Tbilisi, Kaspi district

10:30 Near village Sagolasheni, Gori district, vehicle of freelance journalist Margarita Akhvlediani *** was stopped by South Ossetian separatists. Vehicle was shot. Journalist was robbed of her car, camera and other belongings. (Read her Despatch from Georgia in the The Nation - timeline 11th August here.) see also Times report today.

Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs (banned by 107 nations) in populated areas in Georgia during the air attacks from 6th of August, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens, Human Rights Watch said today.

Russian Navy continues controlling Georgian Territorial Waters.
***Margarita Akhvlediani was born in Bishkek, Kyrgystan, but has lived most of her life in the Republic of Georgia and earned her bachelor's degree in journalism at the State University of Georgia. She worked as a reporter, editor and producer at Georgian newspapers, radio and TV stations throughout the civil war and social breakdown of the country in the early 1990s. She helped found the pioneering news agency Black Sea Press and was Georgian correspondent for the legendary Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy. She joined the London based Institute for War and Peace Reporting in 2002, editing the Caucasus Reporting Service and training journalists throughout the Caucasus. In 2006, she won a Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalism and spent a year at Stanford University. In summer 2007, she won a Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship in Journalism and Trauma.

She manages 150 journalists from the Caucasus regions, editing articles for the world weekly bulletin of IWPR Caucasus Reporting Service (http://www.iwpr.net/). She also conducts trainings for local journalists in the post-Soviet Republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and the North Caucasian regions of Russia including Chechnya to teach them international standards of journalism.

The latest report on iwpr is this ;

Gori: Russian Allies Triumphant as City Burns
An IWPR journalist, allowed into Gori on a Russian tank, witnesses exultant pro-Moscow fighters rampaging through the blazing city.
By Idrak Abbasov in Gori (CRS No. 454, 14-Aug-08)“The Georgians have to understand that we’re not afraid of [United States President] Bush….threatening us with his marines and paratroopers,” insisted the Russian soldier who called himself a commander, tank captain and a member of what he says are Russia’s peacekeeping troops. His tank was standing outside the Georgian town of Gori.

Can planes fly as fast through skyscrapers as they can through air ?

It seems unlikely... Thanks to Killtown for this.

Sir Paul McCartney plays in Kiev and Tony Blair takes a bow in Yalta - Ukraine billionaires provide the circuses

Elena Franchuk is the second wife of Jewish / Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Mykhaylovych Pinchuk ( Віктор Михáйлович Пінчýк) - he owns 4 TV channels (including the major channel ICTV (International Commercial Television)) and Ukraine's most popular tabloid, Fakty i Kommentarii and who owns amongst many other things EastOne, "in talent we trust" an investment company based at 2/3 Duke Street, St. James’s, SW1Y 6BN London.

Mr. Pinchuk dreams of closer ties between Ukraine and the EU. In furtherance of this aim , he created the Yalta European Strategy (YES). This is an international independent organization that promotes the project for Ukraine joining the European Union.

YES organise a junket in Yalta as a forum for high-level Ukraine-EU debate. This years conference on July 11th-12th was opened by Rt Hon Stephen Byers, MP, Chairman of the Board of YES and the Keynote speaker was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF. On the Saturday Karl Rove the Texas Turd Blossom held forth, followed oddly enough by Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia. ... and later on by Tony Blair who was apparently UK Prime Minister (1997 – 2007)

Last Saturday an estimated 200,000 (350,000 according to New Musical Express) people crowded Kiev's Independence Square,in the teeming rain , to hear a free concert by ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. The gig was simultaneously broadcast on giant screens in six other Ukrainian cities and on television, with an estimated 10 million people watching.

The singer greeted the audience, which included former Ukrainian and actual Georgian presidents Leonid Kuchma and Mikheil Saakashvili, by the words in Ukrainian "Pryvit, druzi!" (Hello, friends!). "Thank you for coming out in the rain tonight".

Victor Pinchuk organised and paid the bills for this "Independence Concert", which was organised to promote the idea of unity between the pro-Western central and west region with the pro-Russian south-eastern regions... and sell papers and advertising on his TV channels.

It is after all a step up from South Ossetia using Boney M to promote Russia last summer - see post Saturday, October 13, 2007 Bullets and Boney M used in attacks on Abkhazian and Ossetian separatists

Remember "Rasputin" ?

There lived a certain man in Russia long ago
He was big and strong,
in his eyes a flaming glow
Most people looked at him with terror and with fear
But to moscow chicks he was such a lovely dear

He could preach the Bible like a preacher
Full of ecstacy and fire
But he also was the kind of teacher
Women would desire

Sir Paul is back in the UK and tells Lord patel he has a new love in his life.

Georgia - the dress rehearsal for Ukraine ..already suffering from once ina century floods and a very nasty gas bill shock due at New Year....

Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that “The situation on the ground (in Georgia) is deteriorating, sparking a significant movement of population”. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that more than 2,000 people have died in the first week of fighting and nearly 100,000 have been uprooted from their homes.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has been operating for the last 8 years in South Ossetia region, implementing health projects from its local office in Tskhinvali.

They report that according to UN estimates there approximately 56,000 displaced persons inside Georgia, of which more than 40,000 are from Gori. An additional 12,000 residents of South Ossetia have been left homeless inside Georgia, while 30,000 others have crossed into Russia’s North Ossetia region.

The UN also reports that 1,000 ethnic Georgians from the upper Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia, a region by the Black Sea that borders Russia, have become displaced following violence there.

Because many areas under conflict remain inaccessible, the number of (Internally Displaced Persons) IDPs is expected to rise. Food, water, shelter, and medical supplies are becoming difficult to find, intensifying an already difficult situation for local residents.

In Tbilisi, there has been a rapid influx of displaced persons fleeing the fighting , which has strained the city’s food supply, medical, and shelter capacities, ADRA plans to provide medical assistance to those affected.

A major disaster - the worst floods for a century in Ukraine

All the while this is going on in Georgia there has been virtally no reporting of the flooding and subsequent destruction in prospective NATO ally Ukraine, when between July 23 to July 26, massive storms hit western Ukraine, forcing thousands from their homes, and submerging hundreds of towns and villages. Nearly 40 people have been listed as either dead or missing since the onset of the storms, which government officials say are the worst storm to hit Ukraine in a century.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency, more than 422 miles (679 km) of highway and motor roads and more than 900 bridges were destroyed in the storms. This has left more than 300 towns and villages without electricity, downing communication lines, and blocking food access routes throughout five regions of western Ukraine.

The floods , mainly from the Prut, Dniestr (15 metres above its normal level) and Seret rivers have submerged 40,600 homes and over 84,000 acres, (34,000 hectares) of farmland in western areas - some reports claim over 100,000 acres.

The regions of Ukraine most affected are Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Transkarpatsky, Ternopil and L’viv. In Ivano-Frankivsk alone, 50,000 are suffering from the impact of the floodwaters. Heavy floods have also hit neighbouring riparian areas of the Dniester River in Romania and Moldova. In the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, three people were found dead after being swept away by floodwaters, an Interior Ministry official said. Two drowned when they became trapped under cars while trying to cross a flooded road. Another was found under a bridge.

The authorities in Romania said that four people had died and more than 11,000 been evacuated.

The flooding has hit the Ukraine local farming economy and (OCHA) report that flooding in the Ivano-Frankivsk region has destroyed as much as 75 % of planted crops causing an estimated US$80 Mn. loss according to Deputy Agriculture Minister Serhiy Melnyk.

President Viktor Yushchenko on July 30th declared a 3 month state of emergency in western Ukraine.

The Ukraine Government are watching events in Georgia very closely and at a ceremony today granting 72 housing orders to the military in the Novohrad-Volynskyi garrison ,Defense Minister Yurii Yekhanurov said,"149,000 servicemen are enough to guarantee sovereignty and security of our country." Hmmm.

On the 31st July , the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) - which is a NATO body, received an urgent request for assistance in coping with flooding from Ukraine.

Their latest SitRep is dated August 7th and they confirm 36 people, including 8 children died, 2 are missing and about 500 people have been injured. They list the EAPC (EU basically) countries who have contributed to an appeal for equipment - Austria, Czeck republic, Greece,Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Belgium, Estonia, Spain and Switzerland - something been overlooked here by Messrs, Brown, Benn and Milliband ?

If the UK Government want to help they can contact The Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre can be reached in the following ways:
Telephone: +32-2-707.2670
Fax : +32-2-707.2677
Mobile Phone: +32-475-829.071
e-mail: Eadrcc@hq.nato.int
or they could have a look at them on the Internet website thingy here - http://www.nato.int/eadrcc/home.htm or perhaps have quick look at the manual "NATO’s Role in Disaster Assistance"

" ....the capabilities to protect our populations against the effects of war could also be used to protect them against the effects of disasters. As early as 1953, following disastrous North Sea floods, NATO had an agreed disaster assistance scheme. By 1958, the North Atlantic Council had established procedures for NATO coordination of assistance between member countries in case of disasters."

Given the circumstances in Georgia you might have thought that even those not on holiday in Whitehall might lend a hand to Ukraine if only in solidarity to NATO. If only to get some practice in when the Russian Bear decides to cut up rough in East Ukraine.

Just a thought.

PS : See Friday, August 15, 2008 Could Ukraine Become Russia's Next Target? @ Kiev Ukraine News Blog. "Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko prohibited ships from the Russian Black Sea Fleet that are engaged off the Georgian coast from returning to port on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula without Kiev's official permission.....Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which leases naval facilities in Sevastopol in Crimea, will likely steam back to port in defiance of a Ukrainian presidential order that it must first ask for Ukrainian permission."If Russia openly challenges Ukrainian sovereignty, I think that Ukraine will then turn to the West and say, 'you know guys, they're challenging our sovereignty with their fleet."

And this will happen without any kind of use of arms, or anything made in anger.

PPS : January 2009 Ukraine is committed to begin paying Russia’s Gazprom in the range of US$400 per 1,000 cubic meters for natural gas or US$22 billion per year. Presently the country pays US$179 per 1,000 cubic meters, or US $9.9 billion per year.

Viktor Yanukovych, is the leader of the opposition pro-Russian Party of the Regions - who have kept quiet about the price increase - Gazprom and the Kremlin might be tempted to play the “gas card” in order to see Yanukovych elected and to gain control—if not direct ownership—of the Ukrainian trunk gas pipeline, a long-time objective of Russian policy meant to give Gazprom the ultimate say over the largest supply route of Russian gas to Europe.

With a possible debt of over US$10 billion by late 2009, the new Ukrainian government could be forced to sell the pipeline to Gazprom by writing off most of the accumulated debt — as well as a substantial part of its industrial base, maintain the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and renounce its intention to join NATO.

... if it is cold in December ...

I you see Sid (or Gordon or Hilary of the Boy David )..tell 'em.



PPS - want to know more about Pridnestrovyaian Moldova Republic and their contacts with South Ossetia ? See Volunteers from Pridnestrovya leave for South Ossetia 8th August 2008 2008

7/7 Bombers stunning new London Transport bus CCTV pictures : amazing new evidence : Amazing pictures

Zhen Xing Yang, 25, and his girl friend Xi Zhou, 25, (CiCi to the tabloids) were discovered murdered in their ground floor flat in Newcastle last Saturday.

This remarkable frame from a motion sequence of CCTV on a Newcastle bus , which has no evidential value whatsoever of pretty Xi Zhou catching a bus, will appear in the Daily Mail tomorrow 6 days after the murder to slake the public's thirst for grisly voyeurism.... and boy does this story tick the boxes, pretty girl, Premier football, match fixing, beating the bookies, torture, ritually murdered cats (what sort of beast are we dealing with ?) , Chinese.

Yet of 8,000 hours of CCTV seized by the Met (and seen by no-one else - and for all we know has been trashed) after the 7/7 bombings 3 years ago we have only a smattering of still images.

We will of course get to see those fascinating CCTV pics and motion fillum when the 7/7 inquests are held (with 47 anonymous Plods, SAS, MI5/6/7//8 )..er..eventually. Of course we will. Won't we ?

Greenpeace and the Magic Documents - How they are mongering scares and totally missing the point about nuclear power - it's too expensive chuck

Readers will know we here at Forth Coming UK Energy deficit (FCUKED) have been following the construction of the new nuclear Reactor Olkiluoto 3 by Areva for a very long time . See official progress update here.

Now Greenpeace in a fine piece of mongering nuclear scares has published an article "Safety procedures in disarray at Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuclear construction site" under the banner

They say rather excitedly in the manner of a tabloid

..."Documents (what, where, who the authors are, source etc., unstated) seen by Greenpeace show that French company Areva is failing to implement vital safety procedures in the troubled construction of its prototype European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in Olkiluoto, Finland. As well as being 2-3 years behind schedule, 70 per cent over budget, and experiencing 1,500 construction defects along with a damaging fire, the reactor’s safety cannot be guaranteed."

These magic documents they claim show that "Bouygues, an Areva sub-contractor, has had no qualified welding supervisors at the site for over a year and still does not have any. Staff are given a mere two weeks’ training instead of having the international standard university degree. The company also listed people who had not worked in the role as welding supervisors."

Then in the finest tabloid why oh why fashion they fashion questions based on these magic and unseen and inacessible to the reader documents.

"It is clear that there can be little public confidence in the construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor. How and why are we to believe assurances on matters of safety from the likes of Areva now and in the future? "

Then the MOnbiot calculus is brought into play ..."Think of a number ... er.. make it bigger"

" ..... why should we tolerate or allow such attitudes, incompetence and deception in the construction of a nuclear facility which, in the event of an accident, could cause massive, unquantifiable damage to our health and the environment? "

The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) rejected Greenpeace's claims about serious security related flaws in welding work done at the Olkiluoto nuclear reactor construction site.

Petteri Tiippana, section head at STUK, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) yesterday that the STUK has closely monitored essential welding jobs. Some deficiencies were detected last summer in less important assembly welding, but they have been ordered to be fixed already, Mr Tiippana said.

According to Mr Tiippana the claims made Tuesday evening by a Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) television programme that the French Bouygues construction company would have forbidden its employees to report problems at the Olkiluoto construction site were far more serious.

"Such a working culture is not suited for a sensitive field like this under any circumstance," Mr Tiippana said.

A request for clarification has been submitted to Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), which has overall responsibility for the construction site.

The Finnish nation has taken immense care in developing Olkiluoto 3 and the public was allowed a referendum on the decision. Never before or since has there been so much public consultation and transparency.

STUK is a highly rational, competent regulatory authority.

Lord Patel has submitted a request for clarification of the Documents that greenpeace have seen.
Future problems with nuclear power

Safety is a continuing concern (not a problem) , good design practice, competent monitoring and regulation should ensure that problems in use do not occur.

The problem with nuclear power is one of cost of the electricity produced. see Thursday, May 29, 2008 Hutton , Brown call for "a significant expansion of nuclear power " ... well up to a point Lord Copper

In April this year two major (and well informed) Utility figures spoke about the concerns that a nuclear revival could be slowed or even halted if the current supply chain crunch ends up pricing nuclear out of the market.

Gerd Jaeger, is an engineer and Executive Vice President of RWE Power AG, he has warned vendors must "de-bottleneck the bottlenecks" at the front end of the nuclear power plant supply chain. Because of a shortage of manufacturing capacity for large forgings, vendors are asking potential customers to commit far in advance of concrete reactor projects.

Sandor Liive, CEO of Eesti Energia, the Estonian state-owned utility, said his company is considering several options for nuclear power because "nuclear is an option that any energy company that wants to be competitive in the future has to consider."

Among the options are construction, with Latvia, Lithuania and (perhaps) Poland, of a new plant at Ignalina, participation in a new reactor in Finland, and construction of a domestic nuclear plant.

Liive said Eesti Energia was "thinking about nuclear" only because the cost of domestic power production from oil shale was rising above the projected cost of nuclear power from new plants, at around €45/MWh.

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT POINT

At that level, which implied a capital cost of €2 million a megawatt, new nuclear was attractive, he said. "But if it were €3 million per MW and €65-70/MWh, there's no point" in investing in a new nuclear plant, "at least from Eesti Energia's viewpoint." (If the 1,600-MW Olkiluoto comes in at €5 million plus we are looking at well over €3 million per MW )

THAT WAS THE IMPORTANT POINT - GEDDIT ?

Material cost pressures affect all energy generating projects -- CCGTs, coal, wind, hydro, wave , not just nuclear.

RWE's Jaeger has revealed that nuclear power plant vendors are asking utilities to put down "hundreds of millions of euros" to reserve large forgings needed for the nuclear steam supply systems of modern reactors. It was "prohibitive for an investor" to commit such sums "at a very early stage of a project," when they did not know if the project would proceed.

Jaeger said that even in countries where new nuclear plants were on the agenda, "it's rather difficult to convince all the decision-makers" who need to act before a plant can be ordered and construction started.

He cited the need for public debate, time needed for regulatory approvals, and "the political environment" as uncertainties in a nuclear plant project schedule. Jaeger said "innovative approaches" were needed to finance new nuclear projects, in which risk is shared equitably among all parties.

It is evident that Gormless Gordon and his merry crew haven't a clue of the problems in even placing initial contracts for the first plants, the costs involved, the problems of manpower, especially skilled engineers. He is of busy balancing global supply and demand of the 300US$Trillion global oil market by easing the Petroleum Development Tax on 30 minor fields in the North Sea which were opened prior to 1993.

Oh Yes! He has also issued some more onshore licenses for oil which currently yields less than 1% of UK production and less than 1/2% of demand. every little helps - or the Treasury candle ends philosophy.

PS Tata of India is considering (15th August 2008) investing in new nuclear plant and they quote that General Electric of the US has developed an economical simplified boiling water reactor with a capacity of 1,500 MW per unit. Two such units will cost anywhere between US$2.75 and 3.25 billion. This represents a cost today of €4.5 to €5 billion for 2.2 MW or €2. 5 per MW.

Westinghouse of the US also has its advanced pressurised water reactor technology of 1,100 MW per unit capacity, costing US$3.5-4 billion for two units = less than €2. 0 per MW.

So Tata say " the minimum investment for us will be at least US$3 billion. We will go in for at least two units having a total capacity of 2,200-3,400 MW."

Presumably these are bang up to date costs - India has lower constructions costs, lower land costs, no planning problems etc.,

Tata made this announcement after the proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States ( agrred with Dubya when he visited) cleared another hurdle, after the International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously approved the deal last week. Before coming into effect, the deal must still be approved by the Nuclear Suppliers Group and ratified by the American congress.

The controversial U.S.-India agreement would provide India with access to global nuclear fuel and technology in exchange for regulatory access to its civilian nuclear facilities. Its critics continue to attack India’s refusal to sign a nuclear nonproliferation agreement.

UPDATE : URANIUM COST

See graph above and also - "Uranium futures continue to paint a bright picture. August contracts are worth US$66, September futures are worth US$67, October US$69, November US$70, and December US$72. Looking further ahead, we find June 2009 futures worth US$74, and September 2009, December 2009, and March 2010 futures all worth US$78."

NYPD in Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism , Ring of Steel , Manhattan lockdown in Operation Sentinel exciting surge initiative

The NYPD is apparently working on a plan to transform Manhattan , into a copy of highly secure London's financial centre . The UK capital's "ring of steel" uses automatic number plate recognition at 16 entry and 12 exit points where the roads have been narrowed and marked with iron posts to force drivers to slow down. Now NYPD are starting with a somewhat belated effort to guard against a terrorist attack by copying the limeys.

Operation Sentinel, will operate at all tunnels, and bridges ,it will also using sensors to detect the presence of radioactivity.

Paul Browne, deputy police commissioner for public information says the data collected would be stored for at least a month and then eliminated if it were not linked to a law enforcement investigation. In the UK nobody knows how long theykeep the data.

Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism in Washington, told the NYT: “The bottom line is they can’t frisk everybody coming into Manhattan. They can’t wand everyone as they do at airports.” We have news for you Steve - we are already doing this with random checks on railway stations.

"This is a tool" he says, "to identify if someone , is on a terrorist watch list or driving erratically, or if a pattern develops that raises suspicions, it gives them an opportunity to investigate further and if need be, track down the drivers or the passengers.”

On top of this the entire 16-acre World Trade Center site will form a tight security zone, in which only specially screened taxis, limousines or cars would be allowed to enter past barriers staffed by NYPD.

All service and delivery trucks for the site would be directed to an underground bomb screening center near ground zero.

New York began installing 1,000 closed-circuit cameras with 3,000 sensors in the city’s subway system in 2004. Let's hope that they manage to capture the events when some inoccent gets murdered by the state as they irritatingly do in the UK.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said in May 2007 that Osama bin Laden (if he is still alive , on the FBI wanted list, retired on a CIA pension etc.,) and his terrorist group desperately want to obtain nuclear devices and explode them in American cities, especially New York and Washington, D.C., in an effort to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

He said ominously: “We are going to be hit at some point. It’s just a question of when and to what extent.”

Mueller said the nuclear threat is so real that he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night worrying about that possibility.

In the Washington Times (owned by Sun Myung Moon) on June 11th last year he is quoted "it was only a matter of time and economics before terrorists will be able to purchase nuclear weapons and that the world's law-enforcement community must unite to prevent it.

"Our greatest weapon is unity," Mr. Mueller said at the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism law-enforcement conference in Miami.He also noted that, " Osama bin Laden sought to buy uranium in Sudan in 1993." That recent Bob ? Hey , he must have a whole warehouse full by now.

DEfRA act to seek and destroy unwanted immigrants - bio warfare terror pest alert !!!

The BBC "Today" programme brought attention to a curious bug "Mysterious insect baffles experts" . Apparently an unidentifiable tiny red and black bug (the use of the word bug in this context has a precise taxonomic purpose - distinct from it's use by advertsing copyriters and others to identify any apparently unpleasant animal/ insect specimen) which first appeared in the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Garden in March 2007 and the rice grain sized bug "baffled" scientists.

Eventually they decided it most resembled a rare species of the Hemiptera or bugs Arocatus roeselii Fam Lygaeidae , that is usually found in central Europe.

A fascinating and beautifully illustrated on line guide to the British Bugs by Joe Botting and Tristan Bantock is available here.

The Natural History Museum sought help to identify the bug from the public and invited listeners to e-mail the propgramme. Impolitely they failed to answer e-mails from Lord Patel who suggested that it's sudden appearane maysuggest a common source of wood boring beetles who's origins may be found in Chinese packing cases which were the source (it appears) of a very unwelcome imigrant in the US called Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB), which is well established near New York City and Chicago and eradication efforts have cost US389 Mn.

A closely related species - The Citrus Longhorn Beetle (Anoplophora chinensis) was discovered at a nursery in Athens, GA in late April 1999 on crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia) bonsai imported from China.

It was therefore of great interest that DEfRA have announced today that The Citrus Longhorn Beetle (Anoplophora chinensis) and about 12 mm long , has been brought into the UK on Acer plants (Acer palmatum or 'Japanese Maple') They have recently been found in the UK following the distribution by mail order of at least 90,000 potentially infested plants imported from China via the Netherlands before distribution from Guernsey. (see below)

This pest is not established in Great Britain but there have been recent findings in Gloucestershire and Lancashire.

If you find one you should obtain samples if possible and immediately contact your local Plant Health and Seeds Inspector (PHSI) details of whom can be found on the Defra website - http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/senior.htm or telephone 01904 455174.

Defra have more information on their website with an extremely informative and well illustrated leaflet about the Citrus Longhorn Beetle here (pdf)

It is evident that this is matter of serious concern. Citrus longhorn beetles have been intercepted in the UK at nurseries, bonsai importers and in private gardens on imported trees and bonsais from China, Japan and South Korea.

The most common hosts have been maples especially Acer palmatum (Japanese maple) and A. buergerianum (Trident maple), also imported Malus spp. bonsais (dwarf apple trees).

There is an ongoing outbreak of the beetle in Lombardia, Italy. Currently, the only totally effective way of controlling larvae and pupae is to fell and chip or burn infested trees. Foliar insecticide sprays can be effective against adults, but are not effective against larvae and pupae. Eradication measures have included the destruction of hundreds of mature trees.

Citrus Longhorn Beetle in the USA

In August 2001, three specimens of A. chinensis, were discovered in a Tukwila, Washington (USA) nursery on Japanese Maple bonsai plants (Acer spp.) imported from Korea.This was the first identification but it has spread since and is now a notifiable pest. Good identification pics here

This is of serious concern in the US because host plants of this a polyphagous pest can include many important agricultural crops -including Citrus aurantiifolia (lime), C. aurantium (sour orange), C. limonia (mandarin lime), C. maxima (pummelo), C. nobilis (tangerine), and C. sinensis (navel orange). Other hosts include Psidium guajava (guava), Carya illinoinensis (pecan).

The damage associated with CLHB is caused by the larval stages which feeds and tunnel on the woody portion of the host plant trunk.

Biological control in the US has been provided by predation by the weaver/red ants, Oecophylla smaragdina (Fab.) and the pathogenic fungi Beauveria brongniartii (Sacc.) is known to cause high adult mortality.

Otherwise systemic insecticides (useless on adults) such as imidacloprid can be injected in trees.

Thompson & Morgan Group Ltd.,

Thompson & Morgan (Group) Ltd operate from Poplar Lane, Ipswich and have a famous, successful and massive brand for selling seeds and plants by mail order in the UK . Group sales in the year to June 30, 2007 were £39.4 million.

However if you go to their website http://www.thompson-morgan.com/ and purchase anything ,you are actually dealing with Thompson & Morgan (Young Plants) Ltd, Longue Hougue Depot , Longue Hougue Lane , St. Sampson , Guernsey ,GY2 4JN

Guernsey is one of the Channel Island Bailiwicks and is a Crown dependency with an independently administrated jurisdictions, not forming part of the United Kingdom or of the European Union - but is treated as part of the United Kingdom for British nationality law purposes.

Due to this quirk of history , geography and UK VAT tax law , if you buy anything from a Guernsey company you do not pay VAT at 17.5%. In October last year T & M bought Rainbow Flowers Ltd another Guernsey-based supplier of fresh and silk flowers, gifts and chocolates.

The purchaser is blissfully unaware of this as VAT paid is not required to be stated on any sales invoice, but it does provide the seller with a serious competitive advantage in selling against a UK resident company.

However the writ of the The Advertsing Standards Authority does cover their UK activities and they upheld a complaint in May about T & M's "Highlights for 2008 catalogue ". A number of different Fuchsias were pictured with explanatory text below. Beneath two of the pictures, text stated "NEW! 'Mood Indigo'" and "NEW! 'Tom West'".

The complainant challenged the description of the Tom West and Mood Indigo varieties of fuchsia as "new", because he understood that they were old varieties. This complaint was upheld and T & M were told to make clear in future catalogues whether the varieties of Fuchsia were new to their catalogue or newly introduced varieties of Fuchsia.

Anyway if you go online and select from the quick index "Bonsai Japanese Maple" you will find this picture and enticing half price offer (plus postage)

There is no warning and no suggestion that stock is unavailable.

Guernsey & Latvia - a historical aside

Another curious feature of Guernsey is that before Latvia was a member of the EU they used to have a special approved "agricultural student" scheme so that girls could obtain work experience packing bulbs and plants in boxes in cold unheated warehouses for 6 months at a time. A constant problem for the ever vigilant authorities in Guernsey was the leakage of such girls into the hotel and restaurant trade so critical to the holiday island - and even across on a ferry to the UK.

Entry into the EU now provides the charming and very beautiful girls of Latvia rights of entry into the golden layered pavements of the UK.

So the holidaymaker or tired financial analyst, instead of having their bed turned down by a beaming Latvian lady, is now more likely to finf it done by a smiling Sri Lankan or Filipino.