Bull, the Bear, Art, War, Sex and Trouble

BAD POLITICS breeds good reactionary art. Throw in some pornography, profanity, and hard-headed art-activists, and - as the director of the Central Art House in Crimean Region learned last weekend - there'll be a public shit storm. The lesson: next time, don't invite the Moscow art-group War to participate unless you're down with conceptual art orgies... or willing to call the cops.

U.S. Foresees a Thinner Cushion of Coal

Every year, federal employee George Warholic calculates America's vast coal reserves the same way his predecessors have for decades: He looks up the prior year's coal-reserve estimate, subtracts the year's nationwide production and arrives at a new official tally.

Coal provides nearly one-quarter of the total energy consumed in the U.S., and by Mr. Warholic's estimate, the country has enough in the ground to last about 240 years. A belief in this nearly boundless supply has led officials to dub the U.S. the "Saudi Arabia of Coal."

But the estimate, recent findings show, may be wildly overconfident.

(...)

The agency began with the Powder River's rich Gillette coal field, an 80-mile-long strip in northeastern Wyoming that contains the nation's 10 top-producing mines. About one-third of all coal in the country is produced there. Some 1.2 million short tons leave the field daily, a river of coal filling more than 75 trains of 125 to 150 cars each.

For the Gillette study, USGS engineers, geologists and economists spent three years analyzing data from 10,200 drill holes, the most comprehensive study ever attempted of the region. The team concluded there are 201 billion short tons of coal in the Gillette field. Environmental rules and physical challenges put much of that out of reach, leaving what they figured were 77 billion short tons of recoverable coal.

Little is presently worth mining. Analyzing coal beds that contained 82% of the Gillette deposits, the team determined that with coal selling for $10.50 a ton, the prevailing price two years ago, less than 6% of the coal could be extracted profitably enough to leave mining companies an 8% rate of return.

If Powder River prices were to hit $60 a ton in current dollars, as much as 47% could be extracted. But at that price, coal would have a tough time competing with other fuels and technologies.

In forecasts published on Tuesday, the CPB said its pessimistic outlook is a result of shrinking world trade and because consumers are spending less and saving more. The CPB is the main economical data supplier to the government.

The Dutch economic contraction for 2009 is estimated at 4.75 percent and next year's unemployment is predicted at 9.5 percent of the labour force - 730,000 are expected to be out of work in 2010. In March, the policy bureau predicted a contraction of 3.5 percent this year and unemployment of almost 9 percent in 2010.

The budget deficit estimate is the highest since the CPB started collecting data in 1970. Director Coen Teulings said on Tuesday that the bigger shortfall is no reason for the government to change its anti-crisis measures. "The important thing is that in the long run, beyond 2011, government finances improve again," Teulings said.

Finance minister Wouter Bos, in a reaction on Tuesday, called the numbers "alarming" but also said the government does not intend to change its policies every time new figures are released.

The national debt will grow to 66 percent of GDP next year. Both that and the deficit will exceed the limits set by the eurozone countries.

British Airways is asking thousands of staff to work for nothing, for up to one month, to help the airline survive.

The appeal, sent by e-mail to more than 30,000 workers in the UK, asks them to volunteer for between one week and one month's unpaid leave, or unpaid work.

BA's chief executive Willie Walsh has already agreed to work unpaid in July, forgoing his month's salary of £61,000.

When asked if there would be profit sharing in good times, he chuckled condescendingly.

Meanwhile plans for a third runway at Heathrow continue.

Well, in truth there is a new, minor challenge here - many Turks speak zero English, and this is the first non-English speaking country I've been to on this trip in which I can conceivably pass for a local. In practice, on the first day, this has meant giving people wide eyed, frightened looks, followed by them writing numbers down on a piece of paper, after which observing I hand them money.

you are the media you consume.

It got a whole lot better when the school contacted the parents and discovered reports of his/her near demise had been exaggerated. S/he'll be back at school in a couple of days.  :)