Japan, unmanned aircraft builded..[ 1858 ]

Researchers build unmanned aircraft to scan Japan's most forbidding locales

The unmanned aircraft is pictured flying over the mountains taking aerial photographs in Kita-Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture. (Photo courtesy of Shinji Suzuki)

 

(Mainichi Japan) Oct 10,2010

Researchers from the University of Tokyo and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. have developed an unmanned aircraft to provide detailed aerial images of wetlands, mountains and other natural areas that are difficult for humans to reach.

The new unmanned aircraft will help researchers observe slight changes in nature with the camera attached to its body, which can take up to 400 color images during a single flight, capturing objects on the ground as small as 2 square centimeters in size. The research team plans to use their invention to monitor ecosystems across the country.

The aircraft -- about 1.7 meters wide and weighing around 2 kilograms -- can be folded and carried in the trunk of an automobile. Flight routes can be programmed into the global positioning system (GPS) of the craft, which flies at an altitude of 80 to 150 meters for up to 30 minutes on a single charge.

To date, researchers have often been forced to give up on aerial photography from helicopters and airplanes due to bad weather. Moreover, they have been unable to obtain detailed photographs because they had to avoid flying at low altitudes for safety reasons.

During the test flight last month, the unmanned aircraft successfully took photographs of small pale pink polygonum flowers in the Yawata wetlands in Hiroshima Prefecture, where a number of aquatic plants have been lost over the past few years. The area has been turned into grasslands after the prefectural government started a water channel development project in the wetlands in fiscal 2007.

"The daily operating cost of unmanned aircraft is 1 million yen, about 10 percent of the expense of flying conventional airplanes. We can see the effectiveness of the project, and it will be helpful (for the government) to improve policy efficiency by adjusting measures if needed," said developer and University of Tokyo professor Shinji Suzuki.

Click here for the original Japanese story

(Mainichi Japan) October 10, 2010

"Royal Navy", occupying Falkland Islands by force,,,[ 1858 ]

Royal Navy are pirates, says Argentina's president

The president of Argentina has described the Royal Navy as pirates and accused the British government of behaving like an imperial power with regard to the Falkland Islands.

Telegraph co.uk.,By Jon Swaine in New York
Published: 2:30PM BST 10 Oct 2010

Argentina's president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, attacked the Navy over Twitter Photo: EPA

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner used Twitter, the micro-blogging website, to sharply criticise plans by the Ministry of Defence to carry out military tests in the region. In a series of frank postings on her official Twitter account, she announced that Argentina had complained to the United Nations about Britain's "militarisation of the South Atlantic".

"Serious, very serious," Mrs Kirchner wrote. "Royal Navy, occupying colonial force in Falkland Islands, reports military exercise with missiles on the coast of East Falkland.

"Typical nineteenth century colonialism. Anachronistic use of force in violation of international law. They do not care. A clear example of double standards."
Mrs Kirchner then promised to summon the British ambassador, Shan Morgan, and said: "Conclusion ... pirates for ever?"
Her postings were erased, but not before they had been re-posted by hundreds of other Twitter users, many of them Argentines who enthusiastically endorsed the remarks.

The Twitter posts threaten to increase tension between the two countries at a time when British companies are beginning to explore for oil and gas in the region. Last week, in what is thought to have been the first incident of its kind in four years, an Argentine military ship confronted a trawler from the Falklands and accused it of fishing illegally. The Argentine crew contacted the fishermen, who were several miles inside Falklands waters, and demanded their details. The boat, from Port Stanley, eventually moved away.
Britain informed Argentina last week that it planned to carry out missile tests, in what officials have insisted was standard procedure. An embassy spokesman told local reporters: "We are a little taken aback, because these exercises are routine and are carried out every six months.
They've been happening for 28 years."
Mrs Kirchner has previously pledged an "eternal fight" to claim the Falklands Islands, which are known to Argentines as Las Malvinas. However she later ruled out the use of force to take the islands, which were briefly under the control of the then-ruling Argentine military junta in 1982. Britain sent a naval force and thousands of troops to reclaim the islands and there is a permanent British military presence on the islands, with 1,076 troops and four ships stationed in the region.
Recent tests indicated that there could be about 700 million barrels worth of crude oil under the ocean around the Falklands, which could be worth about £3 billion.
An official statement later released by Mrs Kirchner's office said: "The Argentine Government reiterates that the Malvinas, Georgias and South Sandwich Islands, part of the Argentine Republic and unlawfully occupied by the United Kingdom, are in dispute, which is recognised by the United Nations and other international organisations."

Monitoring pollution in Russia..[ 1857 ]

Russian "scallop garden" will monitor pollution

4:44pm GMT+0300

A general view shows an oil terminal at Russia's Far-East port of Kozmino October 4, 2010. R

Credit: Reuters/Jessica Bachman

By Jessica Bachman

KOZMINO, Russia | Fri Oct 8, 2010 8:50am EDT

 

KOZMINO, Russia (Reuters) - Some prefer them grilled or steamed, but Russian scientists will now use sea scallops to monitor pollution levels at a Pacific oil terminal.

An enormous sea scallop garden will be set up at the end of this month in Russia's Far East Kozmino Bay, eight time zones east of Moscow. It will be the first Russian port to use mollusks as a water-monitoring instrument.

"Scallops are a very good measure of water pollution because they are very sensitive to contaminants. They absorb and retain impurities" said Natalia Vykhodtseva, the organic chemist at the helm of Kozmino's ecological safety department.

She added that while sea scallops -- which prefer to live at depths of 20-22 meters (64-70 feet) -- are known for their ability to filter contaminants such as oil or heavy metals, the main purpose of the garden at present is to monitor the bay.

"If the monitoring is successful, we have an idea to create large permanent colonies for scallops, mussels and seaweed at the bottom of the bay and use them to filter the water and keep it clean," said Vykhodtseva.

The Kozmino port, launched at the beginning of this year by Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, sits at the bottom of a forested hill range in a bay on the Sea of Japan.

The only export terminal for crude tapped from new East Siberian deposits, it will ship out 200 million barrels next year, meaning the number of tankers calling into port will double, raising greater concern over pollution.

"If oil happens to leak into the water, the scallops will imbibe it, filtering back out the clean water," Vykhodtseva said.

In the same bay, a short distance from the oil terminal, rusting Soviet-era ships, pipelines and old navy infrastructure jut out from the water.

The port's General Director Boris Melnikov said the water-monitoring project begins later this month when marine biologists will lower 80 long tubular nets filled with 10,000 of the meaty sea scallops into the frigid Pacific Ocean waters.

Melnikov added that the scientists are contracted from the Pacific Ocean Institute of Bio-Organic Chemistry in Vladivostok, and that divers will study the bay and plot the scallop garden this week.

SANITARY SEA CREATURES

Since the mid 1990s, scientists at the Far East branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Bio-Organic Chemistry have studied scallops' chemical and medicinal properties, and their environmental and sanitary capabilities.

Once a month, they will draw up several hanging scallop gardens to analyze and document the mollusks' chemical composition, contamination levels, weight and mortality rates.

Organic sea bacteria helped break down the oil that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico following the rupture of BP's Macondo well, but experts say they do not have the same pollution-cleaning potential in Russia's cold waters.

"The colder the water, the less quickly and efficiently bacteria can work to break down the hydrocarbon. So in Russia, their use is very limited," said Vladimir Chuprov, head of Greenpeace's energy department in Russia.

(Reporting by Jessica Bachman; editing by Amie Ferris-Rotman and Steve Addison)

George W. Bush and the... Elites ..[ 1856 ]

Bush: Elites “Didn’t Think I Could Read a Book, Much Less Write One”

FoxNews,.. by Autria Thuman | October 08, 2010

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In a photo provided by the University of Mobile, former President George W. Bush addresses the 6th-annual University of Mobile Leadership Banquet at the Arthur Outlaw Convention Center Thursday, Oct.7, 2010 in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/University of Mobile)

In a rare public appearance, former President George W. Bush talked about life out of the limelight and took a jab at what the "elites" might be thinking of his upcoming book.

"I have written a book. This will come as a shock to some of the elites. They didn't think I could read a book, much less write one," Bush quipped.

Speaking at the University of Mobile in Alabama Thursday night, Bush talked about his memoir "Decision Points," set to be released next month.

"It's about the decisions I made as president, and it's very anecdotal. Here are the stories, and you can decide what you would have done," he was quoted as saying in the the Press-Register of Mobile.  The 64-year-old said the tome gives some understanding to the decisions he made on tough issues like the handling of 9/11 and the Iraq war. The president, who has become a target of both Democrats and President Obama since he left office, refused to comment on the current state of political affairs. "You're not going to see me out opining or offering my critique. Frankly, I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor," Bush said.

President Obama has repeatedly blamed the "Bush-era policies" for today's lethargic economic condition.

"I loved being your president. But frankly, I'm having the time of my life not being your president," Bush said. "I do not miss the limelight. I have zero desire to be in the press. I have zero desire to be on your TV screens. Eight years is enough of that."

But the former president will likely be back in the spotlight once his book hits bookshelves. The book, published by Crown Publishers, will be released November 9th with an initial run of 1.5 million copies. That's the same number of copies given to Former President Bill Clinton for his autobiography, "My Life." A statement from Crown Publishers claims the book will not be a conventional narrative, but rather a reflection of important decisions and moments in Bush's life.

As he reflected on his days at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Bush said there are certain things he definitely misses. "The dessert chef was awesome," he joked.

Red Roma for the “Sino-Italian friendship.” ..[ 1855 ]

Berlusconi paints the town red for China’s leader

Eric Reguly.,Rome— Globe and Mail,., Friday, October 8, 2010 9:25AM EDT

The grimy facade of the Colosseum was bathed in a pleasing red light on Thursday night. Big white characters, obviously Chinese, were beamed onto the stadium’s upper reaches. They read: “Sino-Italian friendship.” 

The usual throng of tourists at the Colosseum must have wondered what was g oing on. Had the Chinese government bought ad rights to Europe’s most famous building? In fact it was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s way of welcoming Wen Jiabao, his Chinese counterpart, to Rome. The red was meant to be a communist red in his honour. 
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Mr. Wen wasn’t exactly a tourist, though it’s assumed Mr. Berlusconi took him for a spin around the Colosseum. The real agenda was investment and trade and possibly -- though this was not stated -- turning Italy into China’s European beachhead. We do know that the duo vowed to double bilateral trade to $200-billion (U.S.) by 2015, including investment flows.

Mr. Berlusconi has been derided in the international press as a party boy, womanizer and hopelessly conflicted businessman-politician -- he controls Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster as well as the state broadcaster. He has been hounded by corruption allegations throughout his political career. He tries to change the law to shield himself from court cases and his government is on the verge of falling apart.
But the one thing he has done well, it appears, is court foreign investors -- and never mind if a few of them are not the kind of guys you’d want to see dating your daughter. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is among his best friends and girl-crazed Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi is a regular visitor to Rome. Both Russia and oil-rich Libya are boosting their investments in Italy which, after more than 2,000 years of wear and tear, desperately needs some buffing up. Certainly the debt-soaked Italian state is ill-equipped to do much more than keep the odd street clean.

The Chinese have signalled they are serious about Italy in the long run by spending heavily on infrastructure, notably ports. Hutchison Whampoa is investing €500-million in developing the port in Taranto, in the extreme south. A state-owned company is expanding the port of Naples, one of the Mediterranean’s most important container centres. Another Chinese company is negotiating to build a multi-billion-euro terminal just north of Rome. These ports and terminals, of course, will be important links in the supply chain that starts in Northern Europe and ends somewhere in China.

What will Italy get in return? Presumably equal access to the vast Chinese market. Fiat, led by Italian-Canadian CEO Sergio Marchionne, is keen to expand sales and manufacturing in China. Italian oil and green-energy companies would love greater access to China, as would Italy’s surprisingly large banks and insurers.
Italy, of course, would like something else from China -- a steady buyer of its bonds. Italy is one of the world’s most heavily indebted countries and rolling over its bonds couldn’t be done without healthy buying interest from foreign investors.

Mr. Wen earlier this week said China will continue to buy Greek bonds, signalling support for euro-zone debt. If the Chinese will buy junked-out Greek debt, you can assume they would be happy to load up on higher-rated Italian debt.