Wind Becomes Spain's Biggest Energy Source
Wind power energy was the main source of electricity in March.Madrid, Spain -- Spain saw wind power become its main source of electricity generation last month, underscoring the country's progress in becoming one of Europe's greenest nations.
Power network operator Red Electrica (REE) said Iberian wind farms generated 4,738 GWh of electricity in March to meet 21% of demand, 5% above the year-ago monthly rate, fueled by heavier winds than usual.
“As parks spun their blades, the country saved €250m by lowering its oil-import bill. It also saved 1.7m tonnes of CO2," according to Spain's Wind Industry Association AEE.
Altogether, clean energy met 42.2% of electricity demand though this was down from 48.5 percent against March 2010.
Hydropower accounted for 17.3%, solar energy for 2.6%, nuclear for 19% and coal-powered for 12.9%.
"This historic milestone reached by wind energy shows that this energy source, as well as being indigenous, clean and increasingly competitive, is also capable of supplying power to three million Spanish households," AEE president Jose Donoso said in a statement.
The production was enough to cover Portugal's monthly electricity consumption, AEE noted.
Spain is the world's fourth-largest wind-power market.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Wind Becomes Spain's Biggest Energy Source | Renewable Energy News Article
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Saturday, April 2, 2011
Fury over $35million paid to top bosses of bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac | Mail Online
Fury over $35million paid to top bosses of bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
By Daniel Bates
Last updated at 6:07 PM on 1st April 2011
The top bosses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were paid $35.4million after the mortgage giant was given huge bailouts by the taxpayer.
Six executives were given the enormous salaries over the two years the organisations received $153billion to stop them from collapsing - although total losses may reach $363billion.
Fannie Mae’s chief executive Michael Williams was paid $9.3million between 2009 and 2010 whilst Freddie Mac’s boss Charles Haldeman received $7.8million over the same period.
BIG BUCKS: Freddie Mac’s boss Charles Haldeman, left, made $7.8million and Fannie Made chief Michael Williams made $9.3million between 2009 and 2010. Each started in 2009 and were hired to sort out the troubled mortgage giants
A highly critical report said there was a lack of oversight on the part of both agencies and regulators and that the bosses could have been overpaid without them realising.
It also revealed that regulators had not even set up a mechanism to review executive pay at either of the lenders.
The figures are likely to spark fury amongst the millions of homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments to avoid foreclosure on their homes.
They will be hugely embarrassing for the White House and will add fuel to Republican efforts to close down both agencies and cut them out of the mortgage market.
The report by the inspector general of the government Federal Housing Finance Agency, which was tasked with monitoring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, criticised its own ‘lack of standardized evaluation criteria, documentation of management procedures and internal controls’ which could have lead to overpayments.
FHFA rules may have even made it easier for the directors to hit their performance targets to earn more money, it found.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives also received far more than their counterparts at similar agencies.
The top boss at Ginnie Mae, another government mortgage agency, was paid an annual salary of just $200,000, the report said.
The U.S. Treasury has invested close to $154 billion to stabilise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Steve Linick, the newly appointed inspector general of the FHFA said in a statement: ‘FHFA has a responsibility to Congress and taxpayers to efficiently, consistently, and reliably ensure that the compensation paid to Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s senior executives is reasonable.
‘This is especially true when you realize that the U.S. Treasury has invested close to $154 billion to stabilise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’ when they are ‘spending tens of millions of dollars for executive compensation’.
Fannie Mae, based in Washington, and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac have been kept afloat by Treasury funds since they were seized in September 2008.
They have a combined loan portfolio valued at $1.5 trillion, and own or guarantee more than half of U.S. mortgages.
The disclosure came as Republicans renewed their efforts to wind down both agencies.
A bill they have before the House would eliminate their role in the mortgage market after being guilty of what senior G.O.P. members called ‘gambling away billions of dollars’.
In a statement officials at the FHFA said that the huge pay packets were necessary to attract the best people for the job.
They added that the remuneration is still 40% less than before the bailout.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined to comment.
Agenda 21 In One Easy Lesson
Agenda 21 In One Easy Lesson
By Tom DeWeese
Awareness of Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development is racing across the nation as citizens in community after community are learning what their city planners are actually up to. As awareness grows, I am receiving more and more calls for tools to help activists fight back. Many complain that elected officials just won't read detailed reports or watch long videos. "Can you give us something that is quick, and easy to read that we can hand out," I'm asked.So here it is. A one page, quick description of Agenda 21 that fits on one page. I've also included for the back side of your hand out a list of quotes for the perpetrators of Agenda 21 that should back up my brief descriptions.
A word of caution, use this as a started kit, but do not allow it to be your only knowledge of this very complex subject. To kill it you have to know the facts. Research, know your details; discover the NGO players in your community; identify who is victimized by the policies and recruit them to your fight; and then kill Agenda 21. That's how it must be done. The information below is only your first step. Happy hunting.
What is Sustainable Development?
According to its authors, the objective of sustainable development is to integrate economic, social and environmental policies in order to achieve reduced consumption, social equity, and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity. Sustainablists insist that every societal decision be based on environmental impact, focusing on three components; global land use, global education, and global population control and reduction.
Social Equity (Social Justice)
Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people “to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment.” Redistribution of wealth. Private property is a social injustice since not everyone can build wealth from it. National sovereignty is a social injustice. Universal health care is a social justice. All part of Agenda 21 policy.
Economic Prosperity
Public Private Partnerships (PPP). Special dealings between government and certain, chosen corporations which get tax breaks, grants and the government’s power of
Eminent Domain to implement sustainable policy. Government-sanctioned monopolies.Local Sustainable Development policies
Smart Growth, Wildlands Project, Resilient Cities, Regional Visioning Projects, STAR Sustainable Communities, Green jobs, Green Building Codes, “Going Green,” Alternative Energy, Local Visioning, facilitators, regional planning, historic preservation, conservation easements, development rights, sustainable farming, comprehensive planning, growth management, consensus.
Who is behind it?
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (formally, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives). Communities pay ICLEI dues to provide “local” community plans, software, training, etc. Addition groups include American Planning Council, The Renaissance Planning Group, International City/ County Management Group, aided by US Mayors Conference, National Governors Association, National League of Cities, National Association of County Administrators and many more private organizations and official government agencies. Foundation and government grants drive the process.
Where did it originate?
The term Sustainable Development was first introduced to the world in the pages a 1987 report (Our Common Future) produced by the United Nations World Commission on Environmental and Development, authored by Gro Harlem Brundtland, VP of the World Socialist Party. The term was first offered as official UN policy in 1992, in a document called UN Sustainable Development Agenda 21, issued at the UN’s Earth Summit, today referred to simply as Agenda 21.
What gives Agenda 21 Ruling Authority?
More than 178 nations adopted Agenda 21 as official policy during a signing ceremony at the Earth Summit. US president George H.W. Bush signed the document for the US. In signing, each nation pledge to adopt the goals of Agenda 21. In 1995, President Bill Clinton, in compliance with Agenda 21, signed Executive Order #12858 to create the President’s Council on Sustainable Development in order to “harmonize” US environmental policy with UN directives as outlined in Agenda 21. The EO directed all agencies of the Federal Government to work with state and local community governments in a joint effort “reinvent” government using the guidelines outlined in Agenda 21. As a result, with the assistance of groups like ICLEI, Sustainable Development is now emerging as government policy in every town, county and state in the nation.
Revealing Quotes From the Planners
“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced… ” Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993). Emphases – DR
Urgent to implement – but we don’t know what it is!
“The realities of life on our planet dictate that continued economic development as we know it cannot be sustained…Sustainable development, therefore is a program of action for local and global economic reform – a program that has yet to be fully defined.” The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, published by ICLEI, 1996.
“No one fully understands how or even, if, sustainable development can be achieved; however, there is growing consensus that it must be accomplished at the local level if it is ever to be achieved on a global basis.” The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, published by ICLEI, 1996.
Agenda 21 and Private Property
“Land…cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principle instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore contributes to social justice.” From the report from the 1976 UN’s Habitat I Conference.
“Private land use decisions are often driven by strong economic incentives that result in several ecological and aesthetic consequences…The key to overcoming it is through public policy…” Report from the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, page 112.
“Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work air conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable.” Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the UN’s Earth Summit, 1992.
Reinvention of Government
“We need a new collaborative decision process that leads to better decisions, more rapid change, and more sensible use of human, natural and financial resources in achieving our goals.” Report from the President’s Council on Sustainable Development
“Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.” Harvey Ruvin, Vice Chairman, ICLEI. The Wildlands Project
“We must make this place an insecure and inhospitable place for Capitalists and their projects – we must reclaim the roads and plowed lands, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of tens of millions of acres or presently settled land.” Dave Foreman, Earth First.
What is not sustainable?
Ski runs, grazing of livestock, plowing of soil, building fences, industry, single family homes, paves and tarred roads, logging activities, dams and reservoirs, power line construction, and economic systems that fail to set proper value on the environment.” UN’s Biodiversity Assessment Report.
Hide Agenda 21’s UN roots from the people
“Participating in a UN advocated planning process would very likely bring out many of the conspiracy- fixated groups and individuals in our society… This segment of our society who fear ‘one-world government’ and a UN invasion of the United States through which our individual freedom would be stripped away would actively work to defeat any elected official who joined ‘the conspiracy’ by undertaking LA21. So we call our process something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth.” J. Gary Lawrence, advisor to President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development.
The new eugenics: Life in our vast chemical vats « The PPJ Gazette
The new eugenics: Life in our vast chemical vats
March 31, 2011 by ppjg
Marti Oakley (c) copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved
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“Utilizing scientific technique in biology, only millionaires would be served real meat; everyone else would eat synthetic beefsteaks. In the main, food would be manufactured in “vast chemical factories”. [pp.167-169] Bertrand Russell The Scientific Outlook (1931 ”
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As far back as the late 1800’s, maybe even earlier, has been a concerted effort by collections of individuals who somehow view themselves as superior to the general population to institute eugenics; a system of controlled breeding of those they viewed as inferior. The American Eugenics Society formed the blueprint for what was later used in Nazi Germany to systematically purge Europe of those they found undesirable based on race, intellectual capacity, infirmities, social rejections, physical traits and even age. We’ve come a long way, baby.
Eugenics has been transformed, re-created, re-packaged and has a shiny new image signified by the systematic poisoning of the world’s populations through the use of chemicals, vaccines, lethal medications, chemtrails and efforts to genetically alter food to achieve a soft kill. In order to make this selective genetic machine operate efficiently, global efforts are being implemented to collect the DNA of every human being on earth. It is our DNA that must be altered, rendered inefficient and damaged, allowing the manipulation and exploitation coveted by the scientific industrialists.
“Utilizing scientific technique in biology, only millionaires would be served real meat; everyone else would eat synthetic beefsteaks. In the main, food would be manufactured in “vast chemical factories”. [pp.167-169] Bertrand Russell The Scientific Outlook (1931
Is this not where we are now? The food in our stores is irradiated, contaminated with gmo’s, loaded with chemicals, preservatives, dyes, residual pesticides, herbicides, residual vaccines, hormones, antibiotics and foods created from combining the genes of unrelated species and from cloning. Our food supply, so infected with toxins of all kinds produced for no other reason than to manipulate ownership of the food supply for profit by bio-pirates, now presents a threat to the health of human beings and poses immediate danger to the environment.
We don’t know what we are eating and most likely if we saw the contents and processes used to create these frankenfoods, we would be horrified. Processed foods, and I use the term “food” lightly, lining the shelves of our grocery stores have little actual food in them. A reading of a simple label on a box will leave you dazed and confused. Chemicals, dyes, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavorings, preservatives and that little add-on….”other spices”. Other spices is one, or a combination of, chemical(s), all intended to make the chemically and genetically altered mush that will eventually be reshaped by machine to resemble some food you might recognize, taste like it might really be “food”.
In 1952, Bertrand Russell penned his book The Impact of Science on Society where he speculated about the very probable goal of eugenics as performed by government when science was elevated to a level where it could engineer society.
“Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them they are so.” [pp 66]
One need only look at the growing list of mandated vaccines foisted on infants and toddlers, and the growing efforts to con the adult population into taking vaccines of one kind or another, many of which have never been proven safe or even effective to know that whatever is in these toxic concoctions is not necessarily good for you. The efforts by pharmaceutical companies along with the CDC to marginalize or minimally report adverse reactions is in direct correlation to the rising number of individuals suffering from adverse reactions, sometimes even death from the vaccines.
Autism now strikes 1 in every 110 children. Neurological disorders, learning disabilities, physical impairments and death can result from the use of forced vaccinations of infants and toddlers whose immune systems are not able to counter the massive injection of toxins contained in the chemical stews loaded into needles. The general concept delivered to the public is, if a “few” children have to die or live permanently injured as a result of a vaccine, this is simply collateral damage; for the greater good, national security or some other jingoistic nonsense. A very cavalier response as long as it isn’t their child who was injured or who died. And who determines what number a “few” might be? In comparison to what?
Outbreaks of measles and other childhood diseases are treated as if the black plague had resurfaced. Announcements of 50, or 100 children in an wide area with cases of measles seems to put the CDC and World Health (Homicide) Organization into a tailspin. It is catastrophic! Terrible! Frightening! Yet both these organizations work in tandem to hide, or marginalize the hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries from vaccines, and never issue world-wide alerts about how dangerous a vaccine may be.
Neither organization speaks one word about the fact that any infant, toddler or school-age child who has received a vaccine based on an attenuated (weakened) virus, will be shedding the virus for the next 21 days and spreading the virus everywhere they go.
Education or ignorance?
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) an education program titled to imply that all children would receive an education, is instead a systematic dumbing down of school children who are now being actively educated in globalism (the hive mentality) and who leave high school, if they make it that far, with what amounts to a fourth or fifth grade education comprised mostly of government approved information, most of which is quite useless. As the movement to home schooling grows, so does the concern that these children, not exposed to the methodical nonsense in public schools, might pose a problem. Generally far more advanced educationally than those in public schools, an effort had to be made to reframe the argument against home schooling. Now we are hearing these children referred to as “strange, weird and creepy”. It is apparent that these children, capable of critical and analytical thinking, who possess an education far beyond their public school counterparts, are to be viewed as ‘different”. Not like us. We need to be suspicious of them.
Eugenics has taken many major steps forward. No longer do the eugenicists have to expose their distaste for those they view as inferior nor do they need to engage in denigrating and eradicating races other than their own. Gone are the days of forced sterilization and the ending of entire family lines based on some criteria that includes possibly any one who isn’t them. They just have to vaccinate us. They just have to wait for us to sit down and eat. And with each generation of overly vaccinated, chemically toxic children, as a result of their diets and the vaccines who are then intentionally uneducated, we watch the slow decline of the population.
Russell was almost prophetic in his assessment of the future of mankind at the hands of industrialized science. For some reason the movie “Soylent Green” no longer seems quite so fictional or impossible.
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CDC Reports Autism Prevalence Rate of 1 In 110 American Children, 1 In 70 Boys http://www.autismspeaks.org/donate/we_need_answers.php
Deaths and Vaccinations http://www.whale.to/vaccines/deaths.html
Bertrand Russell/Scientific Outlook….Free download http://www.archive.org/details/scientificoutloo030217mbp
Bertrand Russell/Impact of Science on Society …free e-book http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/details.php?ebook=3015
American Eugenics Society http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Eugenics_Society
Are we killing our children?http://wellnessbycohen.com/documents/children.pdf
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DailyTech - NASA Study Acknowledges Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming
Blog: Science NASA Study Acknowledges Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming
Michael Andrews - June 4, 2009 9:37 AM
148 comment(s) - last by pvandyke.. on Jun 16 at 5:52 PM
Report indicates solar cycle has been impacting Earth since the Industrial RevolutionPast studies have shown that sunspot numbers correspond to warming or cooling trends. The twentieth century has featured heightened activity, indicating a warming trend. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) Solar activity has shown a major spike in the twentieth century, corresponding to global warming. This cyclic variation was acknowledged by a recent NASA study, which reviewed a great deal of past climate data. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Some researchers believe that the solar cycle influences global climate changes. They attribute recent warming trends to cyclic variation. Skeptics, though, argue that there's little hard evidence of a solar hand in recent climate changes.
Now, a new research report from a surprising source may help to lay this skepticism to rest. A study from
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland looking at climate data over the past century has concluded that solar variation has made a significant impact on the Earth's climate. The report concludes that evidence for climate changes based on solar radiation can be traced back as far as the Industrial Revolution.Past research has shown that the sun goes through eleven year cycles. At the cycle's peak, solar activity occurring near sunspots is particularly intense, basking the Earth in solar heat. According to Robert Cahalan, a climatologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, "Right now, we are in between major ice ages, in a period that has been called the Holocene."
Thomas Woods, solar scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder concludes, "The fluctuations in the solar cycle impacts Earth's global temperature by about 0.1 degree Celsius, slightly hotter during solar maximum and cooler during solar minimum. The sun is currently at its minimum, and the next solar maximum is expected in 2012."
According to the study, during periods of solar quiet, 1,361 watts per square meter of solar energy reaches Earth's outermost atmosphere. Periods of more intense activity brought 1.4 watts per square meter (0.1 percent) more energy.
While the NASA study acknowledged the sun's influence on warming and cooling patterns, it then went badly off the tracks. Ignoring its own evidence, it returned to an argument that man had replaced the sun as the cause current warming patterns. Like many studies, this conclusion was based less on hard data and more on questionable correlations and inaccurate modeling techniques.
The inconvertible fact, here is that even NASA's own study acknowledges that solar variation has caused climate change in the past. And even the study's members, mostly ardent supports of AGW theory, acknowledge that the sun may play a significant role in future climate changes.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Compressed Air Car
Compressed Air Car
April 2011
Hello:
I first told you about this cool compressed air car in my August 2008 newsletter on the cars of tomorrow. Well... tomorrow is now today and I was just checking up on them to see if anything had come of it. I see so many "inventions" or claims of free energy and 99% of them turn out to be duds or outright scams and they never come to market.
The Tesla Roadster company has since gone public and their stock is pretty much going sideways although a quick look today showed they were up 16% today. Not too bad! The Chevy Volt is in production and is currently the most fuel efficient production vehicle in the USA. I think they stole that on board battery charging idea from me though as that's the same exact power system I have been promoting since 2004 in my book Electricity - Make it, Don't Buy it.
The advantages I see for this technology include...
- Low cost for the car and to run it
- About 117 MPG
- Low Emissions (or zero emissions)
- No need for batteries - that's the biggest problem with electric vehicles
Here's a CNN video on the Compressed Air Car...
Here's a Youtube Video of the Compressed Air Car too...
Look for a compressed air car in your town in the near future! For more information, visit MDI Enterprises website!
Sincerely,
Bill Anderson
Jon Christian Ryter's Conservative World
Friday, April 01, 2011
Clash of the titans: Microsoft v. Google
as Google stifles Internet competition.
Antitrust suit filed by Microsoft.
As computer giant Microsoft, which launched its Bing search engine in June, 2009, filed an unfair trade complaint (i.e., antitrust action) against rival Google with the European Commission, its lawyers threw the weight and economic muscle of Microsoft behind an existing probe of whether or not Google is unfairly thwarting its global competitors in the online search market. In a press conference in Brussels on March 31, Microsoft General Council Brad Smith confirmed that Microsoft had filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google citing what he termed a growing concern at Microsoft over "...a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative..." to Google. Smith said that Google, which owns YouTube, restricts competing search engines—including Bing—from properly accessing its video portal.Microsoft has its fingers crossed that the European Union will not only sanction their antitrust argument but that they will convince FCC regulators in the United States to do the same. Microsoft's primary complaint against the search giant is centered on what Microsoft calls "Google's most egregious offense"—their indexing policies that prohibits competitors from indexing data from properties that Google controls. While Google touts is global mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Smith noted that while "...this is a laudable goal...it appears Google's practice is to prevent others from doing the same thing."
Al Verney, a Brussels-based spokesman for Google told the Associated Press that Google was not surprised that Microsoft was preparing a lawsuit since one of its subsidiaries was one of the original entities that filed the initial complaint being investigated by the European Commission. Verney said that Google was only too happy to explain to anyone how Google works and what they can, and won't, do. Smith, on the other hand noted that Microsoft has provided the Commission with several specific examples of what they term to be "anti-competitive practices by Google," involving some of Google's "pet projects."
A spokesman for the European Union's Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said the European Commission had taken note of Microsoft's complaint against Google and would give Google the opportunity to response and tell its side of the story.
The European Union launched its investigation of Google in November, 2010 after it received several complaints from small Web companies that Google has a long history of burying certain websites in the search process as well as engaging in other forms of anti-competitive practices. Two of the companies which filed the initial complaint with the European Commission was an online shopping site, Ciao, which is owned by Microsoft's search engine, Bing, and United Kingdom-based Foundem which is a participant in a Microsoft-sponsored technology trade organization.
Microsoft's latest complaint is that Google blocked Microsoft's Windows Phones from "...operating properly with YouTube..." while offering better service to owners of its own Android phones and to iPhone (because Apple does not own a search engine).
Although Bing has partnered with third rival, Yahoo, neither Bing nor Yahoo have figured out how to close the search engine gap with Google, which controls 90% of the search market. It is unclear if Microsoft's EU antitrust action will find its way into the U.S. federal court anytime soon even though Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is currently conducting an antitrust investigation of Google and several other States are "discussing" the same type of action.