From Jenna Orkin:
US/Global
IMF Head: Legitimate to Discuss Reserve Currencies
A World Currency Moves Nearer After Tim Geithner's Slip
European Leader Assails American Stimulus Plan
That leader has gotten ousted in his own country.
Bankers Warned About G20 Riots
US Jobless Claims Rise to Record 5.56 Million
IBM To Cut 5000 US Jobs
Roubini Says Geithner Plan Won't Prevent Bank Nationalizations
Central Banks are Buying Gold for Their Reserves Now
Kurds Holding Back Oil from Iraq Network
Scientists in Possible Cold Fusion Breakthrough
Europe
UK Fossil Fuel Dependence is Growing, Not Shrinking
Fanning the Anti-Pakistan Flames in the UK
Farmers Finding it Harder to Get Credit - Ireland
What Kunstler warned of.
Fear of Unrest in Eastern Europe Grow as Czech Government Collapses
German Confidence Slumps to New Low
Polish Bank Cuts Interest Rate to Record Low
Lithuania Rapped by European Central Bank Over C. Bank Payout to State
Pro-Russia Protest Against US Frigate in Sevastopol
Russia's Medvedev Decorates Ambassador to Ukraine
Unrest Fears Mount in Georgia Ahead of Opposition Protests
Asia
Unrest Looms in Asia-Pacific
US Thinktank Cautions India of Another Mumbai-type Terror Attack
Switzerland Nod for Arms Exports to India; Rejects Pakistan Plea
Israel Replaces Russia as India's Top Military Supplier
India's Emerging Power Makes Chinese Army Worried: Pentagon
Pakistan Captures 115 Indian Fishermen
Obama Plan Promises Pakistan the Moon
India is Stealing Water of Life, Says Pakistan
India: JMM In Hurry To Douse Unrest Fire
Afghan Strikes By Taliban Get Pakistan Help, US Aides Say
Afghanistan Keen To Provide Alternative Route to India
$2000 Car Hits Market in India
Province Supplying Beijing Water Drying Up
China Arrests Tibetan Monks for Attacking Police
Africa
Riots in Somalia Over Khat Restriction
Something from CBC:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2009/03/26/stpierre-france-canada.html
This is an editorial, I know, but I wonder if it is indeed an indicator of how the economic scenario will shake out, as the U.S. views the EU and the Euro as inimical to its interests. And, the evangelical Christians, a lot of whom are pretty rich, have long viewed European unity as an avatar of Armageddon, the Rapture, and all that other (dangerous) claptrap of their belief system.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/26/europe-g20-financial-crisis
in the comments section at http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=after-20-years-new-life-for-cold-fu-2009-03-23 'lewisglarsen' claims to have an explanation for what happens in the 'cold fusion' experiments and gives links to several papers and a slideshow at http://www.slideshare.net/lewisglarsen/lattice-energy-llchigh-level-historical-and-technical-overview-of-lenrsfeb-14-2009
ReplyDeletedon't know if it's true, it is quite technical stuff
More overt signs of population control
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7964826.stm
(UK) Green energy plans in disarray as wind farm giant slashes investment
ReplyDeletequote:
Iberdrola Renewables’ decision to cut its investment in Britain by more than 40 per cent, or £300 million — enough to build a wind farm powering 200,000 homes — is the latest obstacle to Gordon Brown’s target of generating 35 per cent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Shell and BP have shelved or pulled out of renewable energy projects, including a £3 billion project for 341 turbines in the Thames Estuary, and questions have been raised over the future of npower’s £2.2 billion Gwint y Mor farm off the Welsh coast.
However...
A recently approved gas-fired station in Pembroke will be the largest in Britain, producing 2,000 megawatts, two thirds of the total produced by all of the country’s wind turbines.
end quote
Also....
The new Milford Haven gas terminal makes Britain's long-term energy supplies more secure
quote
Britain should be happy that dwindling gas supplies from the North Sea will now be supplemented by clean, reliable and regular supplies independent of the vagaries of Gazprom.
unquote
Energy security trumps green/climate change it appears, and here in the UK it looks like we are dumping renewables fast in favour of gas-fired electricity generation.
Financier sees oil shock from credit crunch
ReplyDeleteSimmons:
"We are three, six, maybe nine months away from a price shock. We are not talking about three to five years away -- it will be much sooner," Simmons told Reuters in London.
The cold fusion item has turned up everywhere, and already people are salivating at the prospect of "free unlimited energy." Er... where have we heard that before? Oh yea, it was nuclear power. Remember? It was going to be "too cheap to meter"!
ReplyDeletePeople need to cool their jets and think about this carefully. There is no such thing as a free lunch; Mother Nature exacts a price for everything. What are the costs? At this point it is hard to imagine (this assumes that cold fusion actually works).
And I am not the first to point out that what looks good at bench scale doesn't always look so good at production scale. Or might not even work. Problems that appear insignificant at bench scale balloon to massive proportions at production scale. Or what is benign and controllable at small scale becomes a monster at large scale.
Even if it works, there are still other problems. The grid is in disrepair. Money for large-scale projects (like power plants and smart grids) is disappearing fast. And ultimately, we are still dependent on fossil fuels. A sobering reality check is desperately needed before this gets out of hand.
Population reduction???
ReplyDeleteI heard this on NPR this morning and was irritated for a multitude of reasons. Is this some sort of right wing plan to bring back the master race?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102005062
We have a world food crisis. Do we need exponentially more mouths to feed? Many of these families frequent food pantries and welfare programs. Who is teaching that any religion not your own is the enemy? What kind of Christian values are those? The tone of the audio version smacked of proslytizing. I had to fight the urge to pull over to the side of the road and phone in my retort.
Secessionist Update:
ReplyDeleteClifford Wirth, a respected Peak Oil blogger, to-day put up a guest post for "Post-Peak Oil and NAmerican Regional Secession." Cliff's "Surviving Peak Oil" blog can be found at:
http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/
The notion of secession, in particular the direct link of secession to a Post-Peak Oil reality, is gaining much-appreciated traction with the Peak Oil demographic. Coupled with the growing States' Rights movement and an anticipated outreach to hardcore bioregionalists and pissed off Greens, the NAmerican secessionist movement stands to make a major organizational and public relations leap this year. Thanks to all.
Please stay tuned for an upcoming announcement on the tentative, inaugural meeting this coming October in Columbus, OH of The North American Secessionist Congress.
Excerpt from the financial adviser auto email dept>
ReplyDelete"The U.K. Treasury held a bond auction on Wednesday morning. On the offer were 1.75 billion pounds ($2.55 billion ) worth of 40-year "Gilts" — the U.K. equivalent of U.S. Treasuries. There was just one problem ...
Buyers went on strike! They offered to purchase just 1.63 billion pounds ($2.37 billion) of debt.
That was the first "failed" auction of traditional debt in the U.K going all the way back to 1995. And the market's reaction was both swift and severe: Gilt prices plunged and interest rates surged"
Is the US next?
Whoa there, OrwellianUK. Since when does allowing the advertisement of condoms constitute an overt sign of population control?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print
ReplyDeleteif that then
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12793