Category: Policies

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Michel Bauwens: Renewables Changing Energy Market in 5 Years

05 Energy, Commercial Intelligence, Extraterrestial Intelligence
Michel Bauwens

How renewables will change electricity markets in the next five years

Ruggero Schleicher-Tappeser

Science Direct, 3 June 2012

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) cells, onshore wind turbines, internet technologies, and storage technologies have the potential to fundamentally change electricity markets in the years ahead. Photovoltaic cells are the most disruptive energy technology as they allow consumers of all sizes to produce power by themselves—new actors in the power market can begin operating with a new bottom-up control logic. Unsubsidised PV markets may start to take off in 2013, fuelling substantial growth where PV power is getting cheaper than grid or diesel backup electricity for commercial consumers.

Click on Image to Enlarge

Managing loads and achieving a good match between power consumption and weather-dependent power production will likely become a key issue. This consumption—production balance may trigger massive innovation and investment in energy management technologies involving different kinds of storage and controls. Increasing autonomy and flexibility of consumers challenges the top-down control logic of traditional power supply and pushes for a more decentralised and multi-layered system. How rapidly and smoothly this transformation occurs depends to a large extent on the adaptation speed of the regulatory framework and on the ability of market players to develop appropriate business models. The paper discusses conflicts of interest; hurdles and drivers; opportunities; and traps for this perspective.

See Also:

05 Energy (148)

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Chuck Spinney: Drones — Of Idiots, By Idiots, For Idiots + Meta-RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
Chuck Spinney

Attached is a really first rate assessment of the real benefits and costs of the American infatuation with drone warfare.  The writer, Patrick Cockburn, is one of the very best reporters now covering the wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Chuck Spinney
Cap Ferat, France

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America is deluded by its drone-warfare propaganda

World View: The use of unmanned aircraft to assassinate its enemies is guaranteed to backfire on Washington

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, Sunday, 10 June 2012

As the US and its allies ponder what to do about Syria, one suggestion advanced by the protagonists of armed intervention is to use unmanned drones to attack Syrian government targets. The proposal is a measure of the extraordinary success of the White House, CIA and Defense Department in selling the drone as a wonder weapon despite all the evidence to the contrary.

The attraction of the drone for President Obama and his administration five months before the presidential election is self-evident.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Drones — Of Idiots, By Idiots, For Idiots + Meta-RECAP”

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Owl: A New Civilization Emergent? Twilight of the Psycopathic OverWorld

07 Other Atrocities, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call, Policies
Who? Who?

“A Civilization of, by and for the Normal Human Being”

While many articles on psychopaths have appeared in the last few years, few have anything interesting to say about psychopaths in politics and the military, except clichés and overly broad generalizations. This article, published in an obscure source in Idaho of all places, is one of the best I have ever seen on psychopaths, and it focuses on psychopaths in power and the military. The most profound segment in the article has compelled me to change my views on what constitutes the most fundamental human conflict, which before I thought was between rich and poor, and represented in great power struggles and conspiracies of the former against the latter, with the latter usually losing. This segment from the article makes me think the dichotomy is more fundamental:

“So-called conspiracy theorists, some of whom deserve the pejorative connotation of that much-abused term, often imagine that secret societies of Jews, Jesuits, bankers, communists, Bilderbergers, Muslim extremists, papists, and so on, are secretly controlling history, doing dastardly deeds, and/or threatening to take over the world. As a leading “conspiracy theorist” according to Wikipedia, I feel eminently qualified to offer an alternative conspiracy theory which, like the alternative conspiracy theory of 9/11, is both simpler and more accurate than the prevailing wisdom: The only conspiracy that matters is the conspiracy of the psychopaths against the rest of us.”

The author mentions a useful concept, what he calls the “criminal overworld” expressed in political/military psychopaths and their cliques:

Continue reading “Owl: A New Civilization Emergent? Twilight of the Psycopathic OverWorld”

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John Steiner: Coalition requests UN intervention to stabilize Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 at Fukushima

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Ethics, IO Deeds of Peace, Non-Governmental, United Nations & NGOs
John Steiner

Below now circulating within US green community.

Coalition requests UN intervention to stabilize Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 at Fukushima — Endorsed by nuclear expert

Title: Urgent Request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
Source: Green Action Japan
Date: May 1, 2012

EXTRACT:

Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies at the Fukushima Daiichi plant sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl.

Read full posting. 

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Event: 30 June London Gathering of the Commons

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

School of Commoning

Invitation to the gathering of the commons, 30th June, 1-5 pm

Something new is moving, coming alive in London and it’s powerful. Similar to any big change in nature, it started in a way noticeable only to relatively few but have no doubt, it will grow fast and wide.

Whether you attended one in 12-day/12-seminar series on The Emergence of a Commons-based Economy or join us at the next gathering, you will not only learn about how you can reclaim the commons in your life and work, but also, contribute to the tide that will raise the boat of all commoners.

You are warmly invited to bring your dreams, questions, enthusiasm to co-creating a Commons-based society, one commons at a time.

Continue reading “Event: 30 June London Gathering of the Commons”

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Penguin: DEAR AMERICA You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS]

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government
Who, Me?

DEAR AMERICA: You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS]

In November, Americans will have a chance to speak their minds.

And there's one thing everyone should agree on:

America just isn't working right now.

It's not just Americans who aren't working. It's America itself, a country whose economy once worked for almost everyone, not just the rich.

In the old America, if you worked hard, you had a good chance of moving up.

In the old America, the fruits of people's labors accrued to the whole country, not just the top.

In the old America, there was a strong middle class, and their immense collective purchasing power drove the economy for decades.

Click on Image to Enlarge

No longer.

Over the past couple of decades, the disparity between “the 1%” and everyone else has hit a level not seen since the 1920s. And there is a widespread and growing sense that life here is not fair or right.

If America cannot figure out a way to fix these problems, the country will likely become increasingly polarized and de-stabilized. And if that happens, the recent “Occupy” protests will likely be only the beginning.

The problem in a nutshell is this:

In the never-ending tug-of-war between “labor” and “capital,” there has rarely—if ever—been a time when “capital” was so clearly winning.

And that's not just unfair.

It's un-American.

In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in “income equality.” China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

Phi Beta Iota:  The actual unemployment rate in the USA is 22.4%.  Anyone that does not know this is part of the problem.  Anyone that knows this and conceals it from the public is part of the corruption that has created the problem.

See Also:

Shadow Statistic Website

Josh Kilbourn: US Disability & Food Stamp Welfare Skyrocketing

Mini-Me: Economists Scoff at Obama, Romney Job-Creation Myths

Paul Craig Roberts: December Net Jobs a 12,000 LOSS – Actual Unemployment 2.6 Times Official Rate or 22.4%

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Josh Kilbourn: US Labor Market Is In A Full-Blown Depression

03 Economy, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government
Josh Kilbourn

US Labor Market Is In A Full-Blown Depression

Tyler Durden

ZeroHedge, 6 June 2012

Now that stocks are back to reflecting nothing more than expectations of how many times the Chairsatan dilutes the existing monetary base in a carbon copy replica of not only 2011 but also 2010… and 2009 (because contrary to what purists may believe, the only way to inflate away unsustainable debt in a growth-free economy is by destroying the currency), and manic pattern chasers have crawled out of their holes proclaiming the death of the bear market after a two day bounce, what is happening in the actual economy, no longer reflected by the market, has once again been pulled back to the backburner.

Fastest Growing Job in USA

Which is sad, because while ever fewer people reap the benefits of artificial, centrally-planned S&P rallies, the rest of the population suffers, and what is worse: hope for a quiet, middle-class life is now an endangered species. Nowhere is this more evident than in the following list from David Rosenberg which summarizes how, quietly, the US labor force slipped back into a full-blown depression.

From David Rosenberg:

One Sick Labor Market

There were so many disturbing elements to the May jobs data that we're not sure we can do justice to the litany of disappointments (with some help from our friends at the Investor's Business Daily):

  • The share of long-term unemployment is at its highest level since the Great Depression (42%).
  • Fully 54% of college degree graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed.
  • 45 million Americans are on food stamps — one in seven residents.
  • 47% of Americans are on some form of government assistance.
  • The employment-to-population ratio for 25-54 year olds is now 75.7%, lower than it was when the recession supposedly ended in June 2009.
  • The number of people not in the labour force has swelled eight million since the recession ended; absent that effect, the unemployment rate would be 12% right now (about the same as President Obama's election chances would be).
  • The number of people confident enough to leave their jobs fell 11% in May
    for the second month in a row to 891k, the lowest since November 2010.
  • The ranks of the unemployed who have been looking fruitlessly for work for at least 27 weeks jumped 310k in May, the sharpest increase since May 2011.
  • The unemployment rate for males aged 16-19 is 27% and for males between 20 and 24 it is 13%. Draw your own conclusions from a social (in)stability standpoint.
  • One in seven Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.
  • Only one in six of the youth are working full-time and three-in-five are living with their folks or another relative (as per the NYT).
  • A mere 16% of the 2009-2011 graduating class has found full-time work, while 22% are working part-time. Even those hired from 2006-08, just 23% are working full-time.
  • According to a poll cited in the NYT, just 14% of high-school grads today believe they will have a more successful financial future than their parents Line of the day, as depressing as it is, comes from an 18-year old: “Thank God I had a buddy at Burger King who could help me out”. Fast-food has emerged as the fast-growing industry in a country once led by technology. Even tech now is fuelled more by companies that produce nifty consumer gadgets and feed our narcissistic needs than those who focus on improving the nation's capital stock which is the ultimate trailblazer for productivity growth and durable gains in our standard-of-living.