Frack Site Near Pennsylvania Nuclear Plant
October 23rd, 2012Via: Shale Reporter:
The new permit granted to Chesapeake is located 1.06 miles from FirstEnergy Corp. nuclear facility in Shippingport. According to DEP records, the permit for an unconventional well was issued to Chesapeake on Oct. 3. Drilling has not yet started.
DEP spokesperson John Poister said there are no required setbacks specifically relating to a required distance between unconventional wells and nuclear facilities, just a blanket regulation requiring a 500-foot setback from any building to an unconventional well.
With more than a mile setback distance, the newly permitted well would be well within the state’s regulations. But Poister did say he is not aware of any other nuclear power station located in an area where shale drilling is occurring.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
‘IMF’s Epic Plan to Conjure Away Debt and Dethrone Bankers’
October 23rd, 2012If nothing else, it makes for an entertaining read.
Via: Telegraph:
So there is a magic wand after all. A revolutionary paper by the International Monetary Fund claims that one could eliminate the net public debt of the US at a stroke, and by implication do the same for Britain, Germany, Italy, or Japan.
One could slash private debt by 100pc of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices, and dethrone bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and painlessly, by legislative command, far more quickly than anybody imagined.
The conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank-created money — roughly 97pc of the money supply — with state-created money. We return to the historical norm, before Charles II placed control of the money supply in private hands with the English Free Coinage Act of 1666.
Specifically, it means an assault on “fractional reserve banking”. If lenders are forced to put up 100pc reserve backing for deposits, they lose the exorbitant privilege of creating money out of thin air.
The nation regains sovereign control over the money supply. There are no more banks runs, and fewer boom-bust credit cycles. Accounting legerdemain will do the rest. That at least is the argument.
…
Arguably, it would smother freedom and enthrone a Leviathan state. It might be even more irksome in the long run than rule by bankers.
Research Credit: HongPong
Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative: ‘Owned by Those it Serves’
October 23rd, 2012Via: northjersey.com:
When we buy stuff-gas, groceries, clothes, cars, you name it-we almost always buy from businesses whose primary goal is to make a profit for their owners or shareholders. Profit-based private enterprise has served America well, but in some instances another approach has worked, too: the cooperative method. One of New Jersey’s stellar examples of this approach is right here in Sussex County, and celebrates 75 years of operation this year: the Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative (SREC).
I am on the Board of Directors of SREC. This article speaks only for me as a private citizen, however. If you want a dispassionate analysis, look elsewhere. This is a tribute to what I-and many others-regard as a great operation.
The idea behind cooperatives (co-ops for short) is simple: voluntary mutual associations owned and operated by the people they serve, where any excess capital (“profit” in the business world) is returned to the members. That’s our motto: “Owned by Those it Serves.”
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Woman Charged With Publishing Picture of Undercover Officer Found On His Facebook Page
October 23rd, 2012Via: Jonathan Turley:
There is an interesting case out of Mesquite, Texas this week. Melissa Walthall, 30, has been arrested for allegedly posting a picture of an undercover officer in a narcotic case — a picture available on the officer’s Facebook page. Walthall was upset with the officer who testified against a friend in the case and found the picture on the Internet. She has been charged with “retaliation” even though she is not a party to the case and saw the officer in a public hearing.
Japanese Justice Minister Resigns After Revealing Organized Crime Links
October 23rd, 2012Via: AFP:
Japan’s justice minister, who has admitted past links with organised crime, resigned Tuesday just three weeks into the job, citing “health problems”, the government said.
Keishu Tanaka was brought into the cabinet at the start of the month as part of a reshuffle aimed at shoring up Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s shaky administration.
But a little over a week later he was forced to admit a yakuza connection after a tabloid magazine revealed he had once acted as matchmaker for a senior mobster.
Tanaka, whose ministry oversees the work of the courts, apologised but repeatedly insisted he would not be stepping down.
However, Noda on Tuesday “accepted his letter of resignation, although it was disappointing”, said top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura at a news conference.
He added: “We cannot do anything about him (Tanaka) resigning due to health problems.”
Japan: Realtime Translation App for NTT Docomo Users
October 22nd, 2012Via: BBC:
An app offering real-time translations is to allow people in Japan to speak to foreigners over the phone with both parties using their native tongue.
NTT Docomo – the country’s biggest mobile network – will initially convert Japanese to English, Mandarin and Korean, with other languages to follow.
It is the latest in a series of telephone conversation translators to launch in recent months.
Lexifone and Vocre have developed other products.
Alacatel-Lucent and Microsoft are among those working on other solutions.
The products have the potential to let companies avoid having to use specially trained multilingual staff, helping them cut costs. They could also aid tourism.
Satire: Nation Tunes In To See Which Sociopath More Likable This Time
October 22nd, 2012Via: The Onion:
According to reports, millions of viewers across the country are expected to tune in to tonight’s town-hall-style presidential debate at Hofstra University in order to determine which complete and utter sociopath they find more likable this time around.
“I’m very curious to see which one of these two clinically sociopathic individuals will present the most convincing and authentic approximation of an actual human conscience tonight,” said Cincinnati-area voter Miranda Harrick, 40, adding that both candidates, like all successful politicians, were undeniably skilled at such calculated artifice. “I think whoever is able to best manipulate me into thinking they experience normative emotional states such as empathy and regret will probably have my vote come November, so I’m excited to see what happens.”
With Windows 8, Microsoft Throws Regular Users ‘Under the Bus’
October 22nd, 2012Via: ComputerWorld:
Plenty of people have complained about Windows 8’s interface, which is targeted more at tablets than traditional PCs. And now well-known interface guru Jakob Nielsen has charged that users of traditional PCs are “essentially being thrown under the bus” by Microsoft with the new design.
WikiHouse
October 22nd, 2012Via: WikiHouse:
WikiHouse is an open source construction set. It’s aim is to allow anyone to design, download, and ‘print’ CNC-milled houses and components, which can be assembled with minimal formal skill or training.
Related: WikiHouse Blog
Research Credit: F
Less Boneheaded Farming
October 22nd, 2012Via: New York Times:
The study was done on land owned by Iowa State University called the Marsden Farm. On 22 acres of it, beginning in 2003, researchers set up three plots: one replicated the typical Midwestern cycle of planting corn one year and then soybeans the next, along with its routine mix of chemicals. On another, they planted a three-year cycle that included oats; the third plot added a four-year cycle and alfalfa. The longer rotations also integrated the raising of livestock, whose manure was used as fertilizer.
The results were stunning: The longer rotations produced better yields of both corn and soy, reduced the need for nitrogen fertilizer and herbicides by up to 88 percent, reduced the amounts of toxins in groundwater 200-fold and didn’t reduce profits by a single cent.
In short, there was only upside — and no downside at all — associated with the longer rotations. There was an increase in labor costs, but remember that profits were stable. So this is a matter of paying people for their knowledge and smart work instead of paying chemical companies for poisons. And it’s a high-stakes game; according to the Environmental Protection Agency, about five billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the United States.
Research Credit: luky
