"Israelis turn Holy Land into economic miracle"

(EOZ) Here's a great article from the Times (South Africa) a week ago that slipped under the radar:

JUST 20% of Israel is arable. Yet, since its independence in May 1948, the country's agricultural output has increased 16-fold, many times the rate of population growth. This is down to a lot of perspiration and, more importantly, a large dollop of innovation and cooperation.
This is nothing new. Close to the Desert Plant Research Station in Be'er Sheva is a farm cultivated by the Nabateans, the earliest desert farmers. Using sophisticated terracing, every drop of runoff water was collected and diverted to the fields and orchards.
Fast-forward 2000 years, and today Israel produces over two-thirds of its food requirements. Agriculture exports are worth more than $2-billion, more than half of which is fresh produce.
No one needs reminding that Israel's external image is dominated by pictures of conflict and perceptions of injustice. Lost in this portrayal is how smart Israel has been in developing its economy.
In agriculture, for example, it has used technology to reduce water usage and increase output, and higher-yield crops to increase both volumes and financial sales values. Drip and direct-feed computerised irrigation systems are the norm.
It's a far cry from 1948, when no one gave the newly independent Jewish state much of a chance.
Despite rapid population growth (now over 7.5 million), Israelis enjoy a per-capita income today of $29600, putting them in the top 30 world-wide, between Spain and Italy.
Although it depends on imports for nearly all of its raw materials, from oil to diamonds, Israel has become a global industrial hub. It is a world leader in diamond polishing and cutting, processed foods, electronic and medical equipment, and, more recently, software, semi-conductors and telecommunications. After the US, it has more companies listed on the Nasdaq than any other country.
There is no single explanation for Israel's success, although high on the list is surely its commitment to research and development. Its detractors, however, routinely cite US assistance as the main reason for its success. Much of the $3-billion it receives annually from Washington is spent on military kit, rather than development.
That said, there can be no doubt that the military dimension has proved vital in Israel's overall development picture, especially in so far as the mindset it engendered of robust accountability across society, long-term thinking and a problem-solving ethos.
To translate ideas into business ventures, Israel has fostered a system that encourages and caters for entrepreneurship. It has established a "cluster" of universities in close proximity to large and small companies, creating a virtuous space for suppliers, talent and capital. The government provides $450-million in annual grants to 1200 worthy projects from 2000 applications.
Like everything else in the Holy Land, assessing why Israel has done so well in economic terms - and certainly by comparison to its neighbours - is shaped by one's view of the region's politics, ancient and contemporary.
Many have incentives to play down Israel's achievements and use it as both a scapegoat and a whipping boy for the failings of others. And with nearly half the West Bank's and 80% of Gaza's population under the poverty line, the conditions don't only exist for deprivation, unemployment and radicalisation, but grist for Israel's opponents.
Israel still faces serious economic challenges, not least the over-concentration of wealth in the hands of a few "tycoons", the 15 or so families that control conglomerates dominating the economy.
Nevertheless, Israel's example of "performance through adversity" contains numerous lessons for developing countries that shouldn't be ignored. Contrary to the highly politicised caricatures of Israel as a US protectorate milking the Holocaust for all it is worth, nearly all its achievements stem from the firm conviction that their fate is not someone else's responsibility.
Developing countries would do well to emulate, rather than bash, Israel.

The full paper is here (h/t Brad)

Gaddafi Dead: Will the Great Man Made River Follow?

(Green Prophet) Gaddafi’s grand ecological projects, including The Great Man Made River and the mid-Sahara pivot irrigation farming projects. ...The artificial river project was already bringing millions of gallons of fresh water from a large prehistoric underground reservoir, formed in a previous Ice Age, and located in an area where it was once green and various species of African plains animals roamed freely – as well as the peoples who hunted them. Began in the early 1980s, and built at a cost of more than $33 billion USD, the GMMR project involved pumping “fossilized” water from depths of more than 500 meters, purifying it, and then sending the water to the country’s major population areas. Along the way, some of the water has been diverted to the pivot irrigation projects which have been growing a number of crops, including grains, fruits and vegetables, and animal fodder.

How does anyone benefit from Muammar Gaddafi's demise?

Solyndra Executives Wrongly Claim Fifth Amendment at House Hearing

(CSPAN) Executives from the solar power company Solyndra were on Capitol Hill today to testify in front of a House Energy Committee. CEO Brian Higgins and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover invoked their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent anddid not answer any questions asked by the members of the committee. Solyndra got more than $535 million in loan guarantees from the federal government, and President Obama visited the company's factory in Fremont, California, to express support for their efforts to create "green" jobs. Solyndra filed for bankruptcy and laid off over 1,000 workers at the end of August. The FBI later raided their headquarters. A criminal investigation is currently underway into whether Solyndra misled the government about its financial situation in order to receive a refinancing loan earlier this year.

Misusing the Fifth Amendment at the Solyndra Hearing:

(National Review) Waxman’s assertion that it was inappropriate for members to continue asking questions is... legally incorrect. The Solyndra executives sought to use the Fifth Amendment as a broad shield to refuse answering any questions. However, the Fifth doesn’t work that way.

You can use the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions designed to criminalize, but not political questions in a political forum. Subcommittee members MUST establish whether they were properly invoking the privilege or misusing it as an over broad shield to avoid answering non-incriminating, but politically embarrassing questions.

(National Review) Rep. Diana DeGette (D., Colo.) unwittingly confirmed this misuse when she accused the Republicans on the Subcommittee of  “a cheap gimmick to lob out political questions designed for press and not to actually get to the bottom of an investigation.”

FDA Bans OTC Inhalers Because CFCs Hurt the Ozone

The Food and Drug Administration has decided that all those wheezing asthma sufferers can afford to shell out a little more for their inhalers and have banned all over the counter puffers. They’ll have to pay more for “prescription-only alternatives” because the OTC brands contain cloro-florocarbons, which damage the ozone:

The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and other nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a region in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.
But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20, whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from $30 to $60.
The FDA finalized plans to phase out the products in 2008 and currently only Armstrong Pharmaceutical’s Primatene mist is available in the U.S. Other manufacturers have switched to an environmentally-friendly propellant called hydrofluoroalkane. Both types of inhalers offer quick-relief to symptoms like shortness of breath and chest tightness, but the environmentally-friendly inhalers are only available via prescription.

There are only 1-2 million people using Primatene. I can’t imagine that would be that big of an impact on the ozone layer. Nonetheless, if you suffer from asthma, your medical bill is about to increase, possibly double or triple.

Wheeeeeeez Wheeeeeeez Wheeeeeeez ....but at least I'm not hurting the environment

Solar Panel Windows

Israel saving the world, again:
The dream of constructing a net zero-energy building has yet to become a reality, but now an Israeli company has come up with an idea that could make it possible.The innovative product from Pythagoras Solar can be described as a solar window that combines energy efficiency, power generation and transparency. - EOZ

One of the problems with solar panels is they are expensive and the only way you can get a grant from the government is by cutting down all the trees on your property to increase the light. With this design it makes it so the individual would want to spend their own money and not depend on the government. FRIGG'N BRILLIANT!

Defunct Dutch Sewage Plant Converted into Fresh Green Apartments

I would not want to live there, but I could see it being a school or an institutional community building. Not a place I would want to inhabit. also it is questionable why we would want less places to put our shit.

Light Bulb Ban Repeal

Defenders of the light bulb ban have failed to provide a single rationale why the government should meddle with consumer light bulbs.  Do they present a safety hazard?  No, unlike the most prevalent replacement, the CFL laden with mercury the Incandescent Light Bulb is safe. Elaboration at American Thinker

While change is a fact of life, we agree that for many household applications the warm light of the incandescent bulb still has no substitute. Incandescent Light Bulb via Kozai Modern and CFL image via iNergy Solutions

Ethanol is Anti-Greenhouse

Egypt want to eat CORN? Arabs Starving?

Drop Arab Prices on Petroleum then.

Otherwise... NO CORN FOR YOU

More Biofuels, More Greenhouse Gases? 

I don't think so.  

If we are starving other countries then 

they can lower their petroleum prices!

A new study from the University of Illinois estimates that the world has more than 702 million hectares of marginal land suitable for growing biofuels. The researchers assessed land around the world based on its soil quality, slope, and regional climate. They added degraded or low-quality cropland but ruled out any good cropland, pasture, or forests; they also assumed no irrigation. They came up with the surprising total 2.7 million sq. miles of marginal land that could be available for switchgrass or other biofuel crops.

But the Illinois team didn't, apparently, factor in a 2010 Stanford University study that found plowing new cropland anywhere in the world would sharply increase the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Plowing would release massive amounts of soil carbon -mostly as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times as powerful as CO2. The Stanford conclusion was that the 6.6 million square miles of lands not plowed because of the higher yields from the Green Revolution prevented the release of greenhouse gases equal to one-third of all the industrial gases emitted worldwide since 1850!
This makes modern farming-with its nitrogen fertilizer, pesticides, no-till herbicides and high yield seeds-the most fabulous anti-greenhouse-warming project ever implemented by mankind. It is, in fact, the only human project that has ever forestalled a major increase in human-emitted greenhouse gases. Europe, for example has not reduced its greenhouse emissions at all since 1997 despite the Kyoto Treaty.
If we consider both studies valid, we have a big problem, All this untouched biofuel land would have to be plowed. The Stanford soil carbon figures tell us this would be the worst aggravation of greenhouse gases ever. Stanford says in effect we should plow only as much cropland as we urgently need for human food, and leave the rest to wildlife.
The Illinois paper did note a class of low-impact, high-diversity perennial grasses that could be over seeded on the existing grasses without plowing (not included in the 702 M hectare estimate). Unfortunately, the perennial-grasses ethanol yields are dismal. Plus, harvesting costs would be very high. Factoring in the cost of road-building and the highway fuels needed for transporting the harvest, it is hard to see that there would be a net gain in fuel, and there would certainly be a net loss to wildlife.
Why all of this focus on biofuels? Current U.S. and EU ethanol mandates have already produced two huge food-price spikes in the past three years, causing political unrest around the world. Japan says it has spent $78 billion on biomass projects in the past six years-with no effective impact on its global warming emissions.
Let's remember that the world's temperatures have officially increased by a net of only 0.2 degrees over the past 70 years. Even that warming assumes we believe the "adjusted" temperatures in the "official" records kept by James Hansen's NASA and the discredited University of East Anglia.
Let's burn our newly-abundant natural gas instead of the biofuels, put nuclear higher on the wish list, and let the marginal lands be wild.
[Source, Ximing Cai, "Land Availability for Biofuel Production" Published on Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois. http://cee.illinois.edu]

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DENNIS T. AVERY, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, is an environmental economist. He was formerly a senior analyst for the Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years, Readers may write him at PO Box 202, Churchville, VA 24421 or email to cgfi@hughes.net

©2011 Dennis Avery. All rights reserved.

via pipelinenews.org

the crops are engineered to create conversion to oxygen

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Tikkun Olam תיקון עולם‎ and Technion : JEWS IN SPACE

The Technion grad is making strides to advance Canada's greater adoption of "Mild Hybrid", "Hybrid", and "Electric Cars", that might soon utilize his "IEP" (Integrated Electric Pump), as well as the work being done by the company Better Place in Israel. Technion alumnus Shai Agassi is the founder and chief executive of Better Place, the leading electric vehicle services provider. Agassi and his company have been focused on one of this century's biggest challenges: moving the world from oil-based to sustainable transportation. The result of the work completed by Better Place so far is an infrastructure and intelligent network, delivering a range of services to drivers, enabling widespread adoption of electric vehicles, and optimizing energy use.

A glimpse into their accomplishments can be seen in the video.

In an interactive discussion, titled Batteries Not Included 2, keynote speaker will be Dr. Victor Chernov. A graduate from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Technion, his work has focused on the rheology of gel fuels. Dr. Chernov, presently a Lyon Sachs post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, investigates the creation and behaviour of soot in hydrocarbon-air flames.

With the human race continuing to push the boundaries on how far we can travel through space, rocket and jet propulsion is a fascinating and complex field that is based on simple, intuitive principles.

Dr. Chernov will discuss the basic physics and the principles (we promise - no equations!) behind modern, state-of-the-art aviation and space propulsion. Additionally, it will be shown how these principles are taken to the edge at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in several ground-breaking works of water ram-jets, the aforementioned gel fuels for rocket propulsion and more.

via canadianjewishnews.blogspot.com and via canadianjewishnews.blogspot.com

Palestine Against Trees?

Palestine on an institutional level is more interested in burning people and the land of Israel down then actually saving it:

More than a year ago, I reported that the Fatah was upset over a donation of 3,000 trees by the Jewish National Fund to the new 'Palestinian' city of Rawabi (you know - the one that is boycotting 'settlement' products and labor). 

Fatah wasn't upset about taking the donation - only that it had been publicized. I wrote that I was upset that the Jewish National Fund was donating trees to the 'Palestinians' at all.  Uri Davis, a Jew who is a member of the 'Palestine National Council' (we have all types here), has now criticized the 'Palestinian Authority' for accepting the trees. He's now calling Rawabi a 'Zionist project.'  

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

If building homes for Jews is an atrocity like Obama and his ass hat's in Washington think,imagine what a tree is perceived to do for a Jew: 
Salaam, Came across something interesting. Was talking to someone and they said that the Jews are planting a certain type of tree all over Israel.  It reminded me of this Hadith:  "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews  

(killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The 

stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, 

come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (a certain kind of  

tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the 

Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim).  

via ummah.com

Makes one wonder how Abu Mazen could have made the argument for global warming at the U.N. and the rest of us did not call him out on his bullshit.  I notice Al Gore was quiet on this issue

Iran to help Bolivia’s lithium industry

Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian says Iran will help Bolivia industrialize its lithium mines and produce lithium batteries.

Mehrabian said that the cooperation will be based on agreements signed between the two countries during the recent visit of Bolivian President Evo Morales to Tehran.

Iran will render technical and engineering assistance for the projects and will also cooperate with Bolivia in producing other lithium products, IRNA quoted Mehrabian as saying on Sunday.

During the Bolivian president’s visit, Tehran and La Paz inked five memoranda of understating following talks in the Iranian capital.

Last year, Iran signed a deal with Bolivia to help the Andean nation conduct research on the exploitation of lithium in the Salar de Uyuni desert.

Iranian experts, Brazil’s Ministry of Science, and researchers from companies such as France’s Eramet SA and Bollore SA conducted a joint study on Bolivia’s lithium reserves.

Bolivia possesses about 70 percent of the world’s lithium and should thus be able to supply the international market for the next 500 years and reduce the world’s reliance on dwindling fossil fuels, experts say.

Lithium has wide applications in the production of rechargeable batteries in cell phones, laptops, and electric cars. Lithium can also be compounded with aluminum for use in the production of light bodies for airplanes and cars.

The Bolivian government plans to eventually produce 30,000 tons of lithium per annum.

Iran is one of Bolivia’s main partners in the area of lithium production and has inked a number of agreements on the exploitation of the country’s lithium mines.

(Source: Press TV)

via tehrantimes.com

So now that we know that Green Tech is also dependent on terrorists... now what?

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China Said to Widen Its Embargo of Minerals to the United States

Doesn't seem like Obama has impressed the Chinese at all when he bowed to the Japanese Emperor to show he doesn't only bow to the Saudis.  Another sign of the worst foreign policy in history.  Show weakness... and China does this to you.   China is going to have us by the balls with this if we leave Afghanistan like we did in Iraq. these minerals just showed up in our war zone a few months ago... so what appeared to be just about of goat lovers and rocks is the future of green tech if we let Afghanistan go the way of Bolivia...

The signals of a tougher Chinese trade stance come after American trade officials announced on Friday that they would investigate whether China was violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing its clean energy exports and limiting clean energy imports. The inquiry includes whether China’s steady reductions in rare earth export quotas since 2005, along with steep export taxes on rare earths, are illegal attempts to force multinational companies to produce more of their high-technology goods in China.

via nytimes.com

REE, used in fiber-optic telecom cables, military gear, computers and other technologies, aren’t actually as uncommon as the name implies. Some of them are about as abundant as industrial metals like nickel, copper, zinc and lead. For comparison, the two least abundant REE (thulium and lutetium) are almost 200 times more common than gold. But the problem is it’s rare for these metals to become concentrated in deposits that are easy to tap, and as a result, most of the world’s supply comes from just a few sites.

via gigaom.com

China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.

via nytimes.com

Rare Earth Elements: The World Is Rapidly Running Out And China Has Most Of The Remaining Supply

Most people have no idea what rare earth elements are, but a wide array of the technologies that we use every single day are dependent on them. Without rare earth elements, we would have no hybrid car batteries, flat screen televisions, cell phones or iPods. Without rare earth elements, the entire "green economy" would not be able to function, because almost all emerging green technologies use them. Not only that, but rare earth elements are used by the U.S. military in radar systems, missile-guidance systems, satellites and aircraft electronics. Without rare earth elements, the U.S. military (and militaries all over the globe) would not be able to function. There are 17 key rare earth elements that we rely on every day. But there is a huge problem. China owns more than 85 percent of the known global reserves of rare earth elements. Right now, the rest of the world is absolutely dependent on China's exports of these metals. Without these Chinese exports, the western world would quickly run out of these precious resources. But in just a few years, the rapidly expanding Chinese economy will gobble up the entire domestic production of Chinese rare earth elements. So what will the rest of the world do at that point?
This is a major problem that you aren't hearing a lot about in the mainstream news.
But analysts are now predicting that by 2012 this could be a tremendous crisis.
So exactly what are rare earth elements?
Well, rare earth elements are a group of 17 relatively rare chemical elements that you can find on the periodic table. These rare metals have names you may not be familiar with such as lanthanum, cerium, tantalum, neodymium and europium. As mentioned above, they are used in products that we use every day such as laptop computers, iPhones, magnets, catalytic converters, night vision goggles and wind turbines. These metals are not well known, but they are absolutely crucial to our way of life.
So what is going to happen when we start running out of them?
According to The Independent, the move towards "green technology" will cause a dramatic increase in demand for rare earth metals in the years ahead. In fact, it is being projected that the world will need 200,000 tons of rare earth elements by the year 2014.
But analysts fear that China may drop exports of rare earth elements to exactly zero tons by 2012.
Can anyone else see a problem forming?
Last summer, one leaked report indicated that Chinese authorities were already considering a complete export ban of the most critical of the rare earth elements.
But while we may speculate when the complete ban is coming, the truth is that China has already moved to dramatically cut back exports of the metals.
China recently announced that they have cut export quotas for rare earth elements by 72 percent for the second half of 2010. The U.S. government reacted quite angrily to this news and warned that this could potentially cause a trade war.
TechNewsDaily recently quoted W. David Menzie, chief of the international minerals section at the U.S. Geological Survey, regarding the coming shortage of rare earth elements....
"Countries and companies that have or plan to develop industries that need rare earth minerals to make products are concerned about China's growing consumption, which they fear will eliminate China's exports of rare earths."
So what needs to be done?
Well, nations and corporations that use rare earth elements need to start weaning themselves off the supply coming from China.
But there is a huge problem.
That cannot be done overnight.
According to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, building an independent U.S. supply chain for rare earth elements could take up to 15 years.
So what in the world will we do until then?
That is a very good question.
The truth is that those running the U.S. government are just not very good at thinking strategically.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office report mentioned above lists Mountain Pass, California as perhaps the largest non-Chinese rare earth deposit in the world.
But it almost fell into Chinese hands unnoticed.
You see, the mine in Mountain Pass is owned by Unocal, and in 2005 a Chinese bid for Unocal almost succeeded.
Yes, the Chinese were trying to strengthen their monopoly on rare earth elements and it almost worked.
Not that they don't have the rest of the world in a very difficult situation already.
The truth is that if China cut off the export of all rare earth elements to the rest of the world tomorrow, it would throw the global economy into absolute chaos.
That is a lot of power for China to have.
Let's just hope they don't use it any time soon.

via intermexfreemarket.blogspot.com

uh oh... one of those uh huh moments. we need to look at all these green technologies and ask ourselves how sustainable are they really?

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