http://www.elperiodico.cat/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAT&idnoticia_PK=475811& ;idseccio_PK=1008

14 alledged al_Qaeda member arrested in barcelona.

this time they got them with detonators so we guess is not a false alarm like last time. The question is if they were close to produce any type of explosives, it seems they had bought stuff but not sure they ahd the know-how.

The spanish intelligence had alerted other Euroepan police

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/CNI/alerto/paises/europeos/grupos/paquistanies/tenian/planeado /atentados/inminentes/elpepuesp/20080119elpepunac_1/Tes

Well it is all over here.. with ministers speaking, and the president..a dn all that stuff.

I guess it willr each the itnernational arena if Al-Qaeda membership is confirmed..

But as always more than Al-Qaeda is Al-Qaeda inspired... a loose network...

By the way, they got them in a street which is less than 500 m from my granpas flat in the old-town quartet.

But I will cautious about a full ready-to-blast node.. it looks like a 2let's see if we can make a bomb" stuff, though the information is still not clear.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

 pretty good summary of the economic policies that brought america to the current mess it's in.

keep to the Fen Causeway

So I wandered around to look at the estate agents and I was genuinely surprised to see that there is little sign of a decline in market prices just now. Obviously I don't know if these prices were aimed at Brits and would be different if you went out there but the prices seemed to me to be more or less the same, if not actually higher than they were last year.

This is in comparison to the UK where prices are beginning to dip. There's no real panic just yet because this is the wrong time of year to be judging what's happening, volumes are too small. But everybody knows prices are falling and so, unless they really absolutely have to move, they're just waiting till they can see cheaper prices emerging.

That said, I think this is beginning to happen. People who want to sell are talking about underbidding the market to tempt people into buying, working on the basis that it's better to sell now at a slight loss than hang around for months.

But crikey there's some beautiful houses on sale out there. If only I had  a couple of hundred thou.

keep to the Fen Causeway

feel free to send me stuff to read that I might blog.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

The upcoming elections in Hessen state (27 January) was part of my recent joint diary with nanne. In a comment, nanne even quoted an article comparing the race to the French elections, with utter asshole PM Roland Koch as Sarko and local SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti as Ségo.

Now former federal economy minister Wolfgang Clement, SPD/coal lobby, wrote an op-ed attacking Ypsilanti's energy policy (one involving no new coal and nuclear, only renewables) as a recipe for the destruction of Hessen's industry...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Can anyone point me to the Randy Newman song for Friends in Europe about the end of the amurkan empire that was here during the week?

Ohh wait.  Should i just go and look on zoutube?

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

This new project (still in Beta really) at http://www.pacificvoices.com that uses group software (soapblox) and I would like to open the site to the Hawaii and Pacific community as another resource for interaction and communication. But, in reality I can't make it happen without help so I need help and would like to talk to other folks interested in sharing the responsibilities with me. I'm on Kauai, but would like to speak with folks from the other islands or around the world that might be interested in helping/sharing/managing this project.

My political profile and presentation although I feel reasonable, is especially progressive and far lefty and pretty brutal sometimes. I've often thought it might be interesting to get an opposite but reasonable viewpoint ala point-counter point.

Much of the hits and page views I get are generated by my postings on Daily Kos and the European Tribune and elsewhere. Incidentally, the Hawaii Daily Kos rss thread http://www.dailykos.com/tag/hawaii is under utilized and a powerful voice for our local community.

If anyone is interested in talking to me about this project, please email me at keonemichaels@gmail.com and we can exchange phone numbers, or if you are on Kauai, perhaps have acupa (coffee or tea) .

One last thing. Link exchanges and if you want me to list your blog on my Hawaii blogs page or want to correct an out of date link, please email also or leave your email here and I'll get in touch.

Aloha
Edit/Delete Message

alohapolitics.com

The Raincoats - Fairytale in the Supermarket

Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business

LiLiPUT - Eisiger Wind (silly tribute vid, but, hey, there you have some more names -- and what a song!)

So I've been listening to it repeatedly afternoon and it's pretty remarkable. most of all for the fact that I can play it on repeat. I hate to ape a Blur album title, but most Modern Music is rubbish (fact). If I like two or three tracks on any album I consider that a good ratio. So, repeated plays can be a trial. Yet, for this there is no problem, in fact rather than the tracks disappearing into a mush of sound (a common problem of my inattention) I am constantly alerted to ideas and uniqueness that make each track distinctive.

Additionally, this is the most coherent album since OK computer, the narrative that sustains each song's  path across the soundscape that makes a pleasing view when looking back (songs that are predictable going forward are boring). There is little of the tricksiness that has distracted the band at times in the past, they have finally enslaved their invention to songcraft and are all the better for it.

My two favourite tracks are
i) Faust ARP, which is a deliberate kraut rock reference except, of course, that the drum riff is stolen from Can's vitamin C rather than from Faust. But develops in a pleasing, if trad manner.

ii)House of Cards is the best track by some distance. A deceptive track with a simple guitar refrain where Yorke (the vocalist) refrains from any of his trademeark emotionalism to keep things flat and stark, allowing the keyboard washes to define the tone by careful modal changes to follow the song's emotional track. A sophistication simply and masterfully applied.

A genuine and highly deserved 9/10

keep to the Fen Causeway

But now that Sarkozy is president, it's worth saying.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Red Herring of base loads Nuclear Power

During inevitable low wind periods, the National Grid would do what it did this Christmas when half the nuclear power stations in this country were out of action - they would simply start up existing coal or gas stations (already built and paid for or their replacements), which are held in readiness for this very purpose to back up nuclear.

Other techniques, all used already to a greater or lesser extent in this country and around the world, routinely deal with the sudden loss of power stations, or with TV programme load surges. The lights do not go out. Standard every day methods include automatic shedding of non urgent loads, energy storage, use of tariffs and smart meters to influence consumer consumption patterns, inter-country connection of power grids, and surprisingly little known perhaps, in France, USA and UK the calling up of vast numbers of small diesel generators, already owned for private local emergency use and these can be readily extended to deal with the increased uncertainty due to a large amount of wind generation.

In fact the largest potential cause of sudden power loss in Great Britain is Sizewell B nuclear power station, and it is the size of that station, 1.3 GW, that sets the fast reserve generation margin. Nuclear simply is not base load - these nuclear power stations must stop both in an emergency and for regularly planned reasons and therefore themselves need back up.

In the theoretical but possible case that fossil fuel fired reserve supply and other energy management techniques were used to back up an otherwise close to 100% wind power regime, carbon and other emissions would be cut to a fraction of present levels, whereas the new nuclear build can bring a mere 18% reduction from the generation sector and 4% of all UK emissions.

A recent Irish study (2008 All Island Grid Study. Study Overview, Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment) has shown that close to 50% wind energy is possible.

But here's what happens. And this is a good example of where the news media hasn't done a good job. I have tons of news clips that say, oh, this new shopping mall is coming or a new Wal-Mart or a new Cabela's store, and thanks to tax increment financing, this store is going to be built. Well, what is tax increment financing? I'll tell you what it is. You go to the store with your goods, you pay for it at Wal-Mart, and there's a very good chance that that store has made a deal with the government that the sales taxes you are required to pay, that government requires you to pay, never go to the government. Instead, those sales taxes are kept by Wal-Mart and used to pay the cost of the store. And typically in those deals, the store is tax exempt, just like a church.

Hopefully we are not at Peak P.

"When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins

This is extremely welcome, especially when compared to last month, when we only got a grand total of 20 minutes of sunlight.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.