The world’s first large-scale wave farm will be given planning approval today. Wave Hub, a £28m project off the Cornish coast, is expected to be in place and producing renewable energy by 2009. Funding for the scheme – described as a giant electrical socket on the seabed – has already been approved by the South West of England Regional Development Agency (RDA). The wave farm, which has been on the cards for four years, will boost the industry worldwide and become a centre of research. Generators attached to Wave Hub’s infrastructure by other developers will produce enough electricity for 7,500 homes, directly saving 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 25 years. This will support the South-west’s target of generating 15 per cent of its power from renewable sources by 2010. Wave Hub could create 1,800 jobs and contribute £560m to the British economy over 25 years, according to an independent economic impact assessment, commissioned by the RDA. It will include an onshore substation connected to electrical equipment on the seabed 10 miles off Hayle via an under-sea cable. Companies developing wave energy technology will be able to plug into Wave Hub to test […]
WASHINGTON - If you’re feeling fat these days, blame Congress. That’s just what the nation’s doctors are doing, saying that federal lawmakers are responsible for the fact that a salad costs so much more than a Big Mac. Hoping to produce thinner waistlines, many doctors - including the American Medical Association - want Congress to stop subsidizing the production of foods that are high in fat and cholesterol and spend more to promote fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains that are not. Farm Belt lawmakers are on the defensive. ‘I agree that obesity and health are serious issues in America today,’ said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. ‘However, blaming the cause on the crops that we grow in Kansas and/or the U.S. farm program is overlooking the personal responsibility we all have in our daily lives and diets.’ The debate is intensifying as the Senate prepares to vote on a new farm bill. On Thursday, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved a bill that would give a record $2 billion for specialty crops, which include fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and nursery crops. That’s at least four times as […]
Water, the precious drop is the lifeline of human lives. Human civilization gets sustenance from it. We plan our cities near water. Economies are built on water resources. Our lives would have been impossible without the presence of water that surrounds us. Water is essential for life. Yet millions of people around the world suffer from a daily struggle to secure safe water for their basic needs. Children continue to die every year from preventable water-borne diseases. Women and girls are the worst victims of water shortage and lack of access to basic sanitation. The WHO estimates that each year more than 1 billion people have little choice but to resort to harmful sources of water. This perpetuates a silent humanitarian crisis that locks billions of people in a cycle of poverty and disease. Agriculture is the main source of the world’s food supply and the prime source of livelihood for billions of people in rural areas. Irrigation for agriculture consumes large quantity of freshwater leading in many areas to water scarcity. By 2025, the global loss in food production due to water shortage is expected to be in the tune of 350 million metric […]
Speed, strength and endurance - the qualities of every athletic competition - could develop on a new front that is virtually undetectable and involves no use of performance-enhancing drugs. Several experts in genetic engineering told congressional staff members that information on the connections between genes and performance is accumulating so quickly that it will inevitably lead to a day when illegal use of steroids and other strategies are replaced by genetic engineering. Schemes to install genes that stimulate greater production of red blood cells or greater muscle growth already are being promoted, said University of California, San Diego geneticist Theodore Friedmann. ‘They’re clearly hyped, they’re clearly overblown, they’re clearly wrong, in my opinion,’ he said, ‘but this science is inevitable, and it’s not too early to think about public policy in this area.’
SAN FRANCISCO — Shai Agassi, a Silicon Valley technologist who was in competition to become chief executive of SAP, one of the world’s largest software companies, has re-emerged with a grand plan to reinvent the world’s automobile industry around battery-powered all-electric cars. Others are developing green cars, like the Tesla and Chevrolet Volt. However, Mr. Agassi is not planning to make cars, but instead wants to deploy an infrastructure of battery-charging stations in the United States, Europe and the developing world. The new system will sell electric fuel on a subscription basis and will subsidize vehicle costs through leases and credits. ‘We’re basically saying this is just like the cellular phone model,’ he said. ‘If you think of Tesla as the iPhone, we’re AT&T.’ On Monday, he plans to announce in New York City that he has raised $200 million from private venture partners, including the Israel Corporation, a large Israeli transportation and technology holding company, Vantage Point Venture Partners, as well as a group of private investors including Edgar Bronfman Sr., the liquor magnate, and James D. Wolfensohn, former head of the World Bank. Israel Corporation’s $100 million investment was announced earlier this year. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
