Inhalt:

Current nuclear plants consume around 67,000 tonnes of high-grade uranium per year. With present uranium deposits in the planet having been estimated at 4-5 million tones, this means the present resources would last 42 years.

But if there is going to be a stepping up of nuclear energy plants, as seems to be the case, then the likelihood is that that the time span is going to be considerably reduced. Dr Goswami who is the inventor of the a new thermodynamic cycle for solar thermal power now called the Goswami Thermodynamic cycle, says, “by 2050, all proven and undiscovered reserves of uranium will be over.”

The "pollination deficit" could see a dramatic reduction in the yield from crops.
[...]
"Bee numbers may have declined at our research site, but we suspect that a climate-driven mismatch between the times when flowers open and when bees emerge from hibernation is a more important factor."

According to a previous study, England's bees are vanishing faster than anywhere else in Europe, with more than half of hives dying out over the last 20 years.

Butterflies and other insects are also in decline due to habitat loss and climate change.

It is estimated bees are responsible for one in three mouthfuls of our food, and that insect pollinators contribute £440 million to the British economy through their role in fertilising crops.

Steaming east along Russia's desolate northern coast, the ship departed on Saturday as the first non-Russian commercial vessel to attempt a non-stop crossing of a route that skirts the receding Arctic ice cap.

"We're pretty much going over the top," said John Sanderson, the Australian CEO of the Norwegian mine where the iron ore comes from.

By using the northern route from Europe to Asia, the Nordic Barents could save eight days and 5,000 nautical miles of travel thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the owners of its cargo.

The work is significant because the rate of global warming from 2000-2009 is lower than the 0.16C per decade trend seen since the late 1970s, a fact climate scientists have been keen to explain. Including the new sea surface temperatures, which push up global temperatures by 0.03C, the warming rate for the past 10 years is estimated at 0.08-0.16C. The new analysis of sea surface temperatures adjusts underestimates which arose from the change from predominantly ship-based temperature measurements before 2000 to moThe global average temperature for 2010 could be the highest since records began in the 1850s, Pope said. Of the three major independent records of global temperature, one puts 2010 on track to exceed the previous peaks in 1998 and 2005, while the other two appear set to run those records very close. The records, from the Met Office, NOAA and Nasa, have small differences due to how they deal with gaps in data from remote parts of the world, in particular the Arctic where warming is faster than at lower latitudes.stly buoy-based measurements afterwards.

The 24.78-carat emerald-cut stone was graded “Fancy Intense Pink” by the Gemological Institute of America. It was sold by a private collector and hadn’t been seen on the open market since being bought from Harry Winston about 60 years ago, the New York-based auction house said.
/blockquote]
Frage: Woran könnte es liegen, daß bewegliche Formen von Reichtum gefragt sind?

Hamburg - In der EU mehren sich die Stimmen, die eine Aufstockung des Hilfsprogramms befürworten. Einer der wichtigsten Beamten der EU-Kommission hat nach SPIEGEL-Informationen dafür plädiert, die Mittel des europäischen Rettungsschirms zu verdoppeln. Marco Buti, Generaldirektor von Währungskommissar Olli Rehn, habe diese Maßnahme kürzlich vor Spitzenbeamten aus den Finanzministerien der Euro-Länder vorgeschlagen.

1. Greece will be forced to default and restructure its debt, and the restructuring will come with a significant amount of debt forgiveness. The idea that it can grow its way out of the current debt burden is a fantasy. Remember that when countries are in conditions of financial distress, they face systematic disinvestment and capital flight, and as a consequence are never able to grow at anywhere close to the necessary rates – especially since any growth they do manage to achieve generally comes from additional fiscal spending, which simply runs up debt further.
   
2. Greece will not be the only defaulter. Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and much of Eastern Europe will also face severe financial distress and possible default.[...]
   
3. Political radicalism in these countries will rise inexorably as a consequence of rising class conflict. As Keynes pointed out as far back as 1922, the process of adjusting the currency and debt will primarily be one of assigning the costs to different economic groups, and this is never an easy or conflict-free exercise. Of course the less stable a government becomes as a consequence of this adjustment, the more likely it is to prefer very short-term solutions.[...]
   
4. So why not bite the bullet and just get it over with? Because the European banking system would not survive even the best-case restructuring scenario. As a consequence we are fated to witness several years of difficult economic adjustment while everyone pretends that these countries, under the right policies, can work their way through their debt burdens. What will really be happening is that European banks will aggressively rebuild their capital bases, with the unwilling help of the poor household sector, until they are sufficiently well capitalized to begin taking the write-offs. Only then will we recognize that some countries cannot repay their debts.
   
5. As an aside the European junk-bond market might take off. With banks crippled in their lending activities, Europe’s financial markets will probably go through a process much like that which the US experienced in the 1980s.[...]
   
6. Several countries, most notably Spain, will be forced to choose between giving up sovereignty to Germany, suffering extremely high rates of unemployment for several years, or giving up the euro. They will almost certainly choose the third option. There are still a lot of people who say giving up the euro is “unimaginable”, but that just shows a weak imagination.[...]
   

The wider ramifications of all this are utterly underestimated by Europe’s political leadership. I leave you to draw the conclusions.

Saarbrücken. Der Vorsitzende des Rechtausschusses des Bundestages, Siegfried Kauder (CDU), sagte der Saarbrücker Zeitung: „Wenn die Presse darüber berichtet, welche Orte besonders gefährdet sind, dann kann das unter Umständen ein Anreiz für Terroristen sein.“

Khaled Allam, a resident of another village in Gharbiya, said residents will file 12 reports with the attorney general to complain about the policies of the electricity company. Allam added that the two-week blackout has ruined electric equipment and spoiled stored food.

The Afghans thought they were dealing with Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour, a top Taliban commander.
[...]
He was paid "a lot of money", then he disappeared, say diplomatic sources. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has denied reports he met the impersonator.

Gazprom and the State Oil and Gas Company of Azerbaijan signed an agreement to boost Azerbaijan's gas supplies to Russia to 2 million cubic meters next year, Gazprom said in a statement. The Azeri company also committed to sell over 2 million cubic meters of gas in 2012, Gazprom said. This will be four times as much as the amount Russia contracted in the first big gas deal with Azerbaijan in June last year.

Moscow, meanwhile, has been lobbying for a pipeline via Russia named South Stream, which would tunnel under the Black Sea to reach southern Europe.

Friday's deal casts fresh doubts over Nabucco's ability to get enough gas to make it worthwile.

* require Federal Treasurer approval for the acquisition of an interest in farms of more than 5 hectares;
* require the Treasurer to consult a statutory checklist of "national interest" issues before approving such an acquisition;
* require the Treasurer to publish details of all agricultural land applications.

But in recent years the vegetation around his home, the Tibetan plateau, has been destroyed by rising temperatures, excess livestock and plagues of insects and rodents.

Partly because of this the Tibetan mountains have warmed two to three times faster than the global average; the permafrost and glaciers of the "Third Pole" are melting.

In only their fourth session since being elected in March, members of Iraq's parliament on Sunday demanded to know what happened to the estimated $1 billion allocated for welfare funding by the Finance Ministry for 2010.

"We should ask the government where these allocations for widows' aid have gone," demanded Sadrist lawmaker Maha Adouri of Baghdad, one of the women who make up a quarter of the legislature's 325 members. "There are thousands of widows who did not receive financial aid for months."

Another legislator said farmers have not been paid for wheat and other crops they supplied the government for at least five months.

At least 550,000-600,000 tonnes, two full VLCC loads, are being held at sea at any one time, traders said.

So far, two cargoes have been sold and delivered into Singapore on board Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), a shift from its normal practice of using 80,000-tonne aframaxes.

Die Bank und die Regierung in Dublin weisen diese Zahl zwar zurück, sie gehen derzeit von 25 Mrd. Euro aus.
[...]
Seit Monaten sind die Geldhäuser des Landes zudem von den Anleihemärkten praktisch ausgeschlossen.
[...]
Das schiere Ausmaß der Rettung von Anglo Irish sticht dabei heraus. Knapp 22 Mrd. Euro hat die Regierung bisher in das im Januar 2009 verstaatlichte Geldhaus gepumpt. Selbst wenn es bei einer Gesamtsumme von 25 Mrd. Euro bleiben sollte, würde das mehr als elf Prozent des irischen Bruttoinlandprodukts (BIP) ausmachen. Zum Vergleich: Die Rekapitalisierung der Royal Bank of Scotland macht gerade einmal etwas mehr als drei Prozent des britischen BIP aus, die der UBS rund ein Prozent der Schweizer Wirtschaftsleistung.

Step back for a minute and think about that. These debts were incurred, not to pay for public programs, but by private wheeler-dealers seeking nothing but their own profit. Yet ordinary Irish citizens are now bearing the burden of those debts.

Or to be more accurate, they’re bearing a burden much larger than the debt — because those spending cuts have caused a severe recession so that in addition to taking on the banks’ debts, the Irish are suffering from plunging incomes and high unemployment.

But there is no alternative, say the serious people: all of this is necessary to restore confidence.

Strange to say, however, confidence is not improving. On the contrary: investors have noticed that all those austerity measures are depressing the Irish economy — and are fleeing Irish debt because of that economic weakness.

Now what? Last weekend Ireland and its neighbors put together what has been widely described as a “bailout.” But what really happened was that the Irish government promised to impose even more pain, in return for a credit line — a credit line that would presumably give Ireland more time to, um, restore confidence. Markets, understandably, were not impressed: interest rates on Irish bonds have risen even further.

Ireland is now in its third year of austerity, and confidence just keeps draining away. And you have to wonder what it will take for serious people to realize that punishing the populace for the bankers’ sins is worse than a crime; it’s a mistake.

The effect of the measures - required as the precondition for an EU-IMF bailout - will mean the average Irish household will have to pay up £3,000 in extra taxes.

Manche von ihnen irren frei umher in der Landschaft, ausgesetzt von ihren Besitzern. Mitunter sind selbst Vollblüter darunter, die noch vor kurzem für die Galoppbahn ausgebildet wurden. Viele Tiere sind bei Leuten gelandet, denen es an Kompetenz, Platz und Geld fehlt. Andere stehen auf Weiden und sind viel zu mager für die Jahreszeit. Im kommenden Winter, so fürchten Tierschützer, droht eine Rekordzahl von ihnen zu verhungern.

Flowing from this conclusion comes the view that a portion of that debt must be defaulted on. The most obvious and frequently mentioned portion of that debt that advocates of default point to are monies lent to Irish banks, including senior bonds.

There are very powerful arguments to support the default view, and the strongest argument against it, from Ireland’s perspective, evaporated last week – that argument was that any default on bank bonds would cause lenders to stop giving money to the Government to fund its deficit. That has now happened anyway.

Data released Wednesday by the Calgary Real Estate Board show single-family home sales fell by just over 32 per cent in August compared with a year ago while condominium transactions plunged by more than 42 per cent.

Last month, there were just over 2,200 sales of residential property, while there were a record-setting 3,441 sales for the same month in 2009. The August housing figures were also down 2.4 percent from July.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said July sales in the city plunged 27.1 per cent from the previous month.

Residential sales in August were down from the previous month at 1,195 as were listings at 2,700. The sales-to-listing ratio was 44% and the inventory increased to 8,822 units at the end of the month. The average days-on-market was up six at 57 days.

The City of Vancouver is owed $170 million for the land on which the Olympic Village sits.

The city holds a $750-million loan for the village and is currenty paying interest on the loan.

The city’s affordable-housing component of the project cost $110 million, $45 million over budget.

Total: $1.03 billion

NUMBER OF UNITS

254 condos sold so far.
483 condos remaining to be sold.
61 units being rented (as of June).
Another 58 units available for rent.
252 affordable-housing units available.
Total: 1,108 units

“There is some concern we’re going into another [economic] dip,” Robertson said last week. “[But] I have full confidence in the developer and the marketing taking place.

“I hope the market kicks in and they get sold. I’d like to see it fill up sooner rather than later.”

“I have no doubt that, down the road, this will be seen as a successful project ­— but we’re in strange economic times.”

The kidnappings, plus the reported disappearance of at least 30 other employees of subcontractors in the same region, have terrorized a community where jobs on the oil rigs and at the gas wells are handed down, father to son, for generations.

"We are not going to enter any area where security is at risk," he added, calling for increased army and navy protection for oil and gas installations.

The commission, known by its Spanish acronym CNH, cited wide differences between what Pemex said it could recover from the area and studies by independent reserves auditors.

Pemex estimated in March that the possible and probable reserves in the northern region, mainly at the controversial Chicontepec project, were more than 17 billion barrels of oil equivalent, more than 40 percent of the country's total.
[...]
Industry sources told Reuters in April that Pemex's auditors urged the company to reduce its estimate of probable and possible reserves at Chicontepec by nearly half, which would chop the country's total reserves by 17 percent.

Gross domestic product slipped 1.6% sequentially in the third quarter, following a 0.2% drop in the prior quarter, Statistics Norway reported Tuesday. Economists were expecting the economy to recover this quarter, by expanding 0.5%.

Planned maintenance on several oil fields reduced oil and gas extraction in the third quarter. Data showed that petroleum activities and ocean transport plunged 10.2%, following a 2.4% drop in the second quarter.

On the other hand, Mainland Norway expanded at a faster pace of 0.9% compared to an increase of 0.5% in the two previous quarters. The growth rate matched economists' expectations. The latest 0.9% expansion was led by increased final consumption expenditure by households and general government as well as increased exports excluding crude oil and natural gas.

The resignation of Jorge Silva Carvalho, director of the Defence Strategic Intelligence Service (Sied), was accepted, Portuguese media report.

Budget cuts planned for 2011 would mean the closure of seven of the service's 11 foreign offices.

Most flights in and out of Portugal were cancelled, ferries across the River Tagus remained at their berths, metro stations were closed and only a handful of trams ran as Lisbonites sought other ways to get to work. Angry British tourists were among those left stranded at airports.

"It is like a Sunday here," said newspaper salesman Francisco Amaral outside Lisbon's Cais do Sodré transport interchange, where the metro and ferry stations were closed and only a handful of overland trains ran.

Trade unions claimed 80% of workers stayed at home, while the government put the figure at around 20%. "This may not change the budget plans, but they know now how the workers feel about taking the biggest part of the cuts," said local Lisbon union organiser Libério Domingues.

* Eskom has said South Africa's power supply is expected to
be tight until 2015, and especially between 2011-12.

"I don't think any of us want us to go the direction of the social welfare states around the world," Cantor said.

Nearly 40% of retired Americans said they've accumulated credit-card debt in their twilight years — and aren't worried about paying it off in their lifetime, according to a survey released by CESI Debt Solutions.

"At the end of the day, some people of a certain age say, 'It's too late in the game for me to do anything about it. I can't win. So I'm just going to stop playing the game,'" said Neil Ellington, executive vice president at CESI.

Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a final decision Wednesday to designate 187,000 square miles of “on-shore barrier islands, denning areas and offshore sea-ice,” for the bears, which were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2008 in response to a lawsuit by environmental groups.

Then he quoted Matthew 24:31.

“And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.”

“The Earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood,” Shimkus asserted. “I do believe that God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.”

The 14.7 percent of households without food security at some time in 2009 was up from 14.6 percent in 2008 and 11.1 in 2007, and was the highest since data-keeping on the subject began in 1995, according to the ERS report. (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/)

The banks, including Bank of America Corp. and U.S. Bancorp, has set a public auction for the 56-building complex for Oct. 4, according to a foreclosure notice viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The House approved a bill last year to set limits on carbon dioxide linked to global warming and create a market in pollution allowances. The bill, supported by President Barack Obama, stalled in the Senate. Without new cap-and-trade legislation, Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency plans to use existing laws to regulate some sources of carbon pollution.

But guess what? You no longer need to travel to distant and dangerous countries to observe such rapacious inequality. We now have it right here at home — and in the aftermath of Tuesday’s election, it may get worse.

The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. As Timothy Noah of Slate noted in an excellent series on inequality, the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.