Why wind needs feed-in tariffs (and why it is not the enemy of nuclear) by Jerome a Paris
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/2/114943/7075/512/467302

First class article on the challenges of financing wind power.

The Kirkuk Status Referendum ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkuk_status_referendum,_2008

... has been delayed several times and is currently scheduled for June 2008. A Kurdish win seems likely, but is opposed by many regional groups both inside and outside Iraq. It could be a trigger for an escalation of the civil war.

Will it be rescheduled again? Will it take place, but the result accepted with equanimity, or at least resignation? Will it cause enough violence that people will vote for McCain? Will it cause so much violence that people won't vote for McCain? Anybody see

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/fl/florida_republican_primary-260.html

So blatant, so good for the Democrats :)

Interesting that Romney's new "Washington is broken" message is working. I seem to have heard that somewhere before.

I thought Juan Cole expressed a valid concern on Monday, but I haven't seen much discussion on his post.

Edwards and Obama have taken their names off the Michigan and Florida ballots to mollify Iowa and New Hampshire. Hillary's name is still on the ballots. In theory, it doesn't matter because Michigan and Florida votes won't be counted, but in practice what really matters is the January headline "Hillary sweeps keys states of Michigan and Florida, can she be stopped!?" And if the nomination is close, will the Democratic Convention relent and let Michigan and Florida vote anyway (probably for Hillary)? Will that fatally flaw party confidence in the nomination process and, in turn, possibly put the 2008 election at risk?

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/09/democrats_outpacing_republican.html

DCCC - cash on hand $22m - debt $3m - raising $3.5m / month
NRCC - cash on hand $2m - debt $4m - raising $2.5m / month

No wonder their candidates are retiring.

In which the previous aggregation is continued. The purpose being to gauge a likelihood of an attack on Iran.

The story so far ...

Bush takes a thumping and fires his dear friend Rumsfeld replacing him with Gates who is seen as a realist - just as likely to ask Iran to help out in Iran as attack. Olmert, the Israeli PM, flys to DC to talk with Bush about Iran. Ex-PM Netanyahu tells the United Jewish Communities General Assembly that Iran is "preparing another Holocaust for the Jewish state." He succeeds in scaring people.

Israel rattles saber ...

( VOA ) Senior Israeli Official Warns of Possible Pre-emptive Strike against Iran

Iran responds on cue ...

( AFP via khaleejtimes.com ) Iran in UN protest over Israel “military threats”

I can't see a US strike post-election, but a strike on Iran is right at the edge of Israel's capabilities, and consequently risky, so I can't see the US just stand by and watch it happen.

( UPI via physorg.com )   A joint Office of Naval Research/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency vehicle achieved a world first on Dec. 10 at an altitude of 63,000 feet -- becoming the first air-breathing, liquid hydrocarbon fuel-powered scramjet engine to fly, the Office of Naval Research reported.

( Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge )  The U.S. military has entered into an implementation phase of President George W. Bush's new nuclear doctrine, including preemptive nuclear strikes against "rogue states" that possess weapons of mass destruction such as North Korea and Iran, governmental sources and nuclear specialists told Kyodo News recently.

( Reuters )  Japan is sending troops to train with U.S. forces and is developing new torpedos to boost the defence of remote islands, including some disputed isles in case China tries to take them over, a local daily said on Saturday.

( UPI ) The Bush administration is preparing NATO allies for a possible military strike against suspected nuclear sites in Iran, German media reported.

( aljazeera.net )  ... Chinese energy experts have previously said that disagreements over the sea boundary between their country and North Korea is holding up development of oilfields in the Yellow Sea. ...

Chinese geologists estimated in 2002 that offshore fields in the West Bay basin area off North Korea may contain 3 billion tonnes (21.9 billion barrels) of oil and gas. ...

U.S. Teen Runs Off to Iraq by Himself

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051229/ap_on_re_mi_ea/journey_to_iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food stand after using an Arabic phrase book to order. Or the moment a Kuwaiti cab driver almost punched him in the face when he balked at the $100 fare.

But at some point, Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida, realized that traveling to Iraq by himself was not the safest thing he could have done with his Christmas vacation.

And he didn't even tell his parents.

The Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) analysis rejects the current fear that a near-term "peak" in world oil production and a coming exhaustion of supply are near.  The report indicates that the "inflexion" point will come in the third or fourth decade of this century.  Moreover, rather than a "peak," it will be an "undulating plateau" that will continue for several decades.

In brief: is optimistic w.r.t. recovery and unconventional technologies as well as Saudi "underexplored."  Notable that even this optimistic report is now forecasting something like a peak.

AP via yahoo.com - Three Jewish extremists planned to fire a missile into Islam's third-holiest shrine in hopes of unleashing mayhem across the Middle East and halting Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank this summer, police said Monday.

ft.com - Alan Johnson, the new trade and industry secretary, raised the prospect of an early a commitment to build a new generation of nuclear power stations as he set a shorter than expected deadline for the government to complete a review of energy policy. ...

www.newsday.com - Court approval of UAL Corp.'s decision to terminate its employee pension plans has put the spotlight on these traditional retirement programs. Here are questions and answers about these defined benefit plans.

...

Q: Is my pension secure?

...

previous delivery date was Fall 2005

reuters.co.uk

Russia plans to start shipments of enriched uranium fuel to Iran late this year or early next to start up a Russian-built nuclear power plant there, a top Russian nuclear official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

...

bloomberg.com

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the world's largest shipbuilders, will share Iranian contracts worth almost $1 billion to build oil tankers, an Iranian official said.

...

elevated from the diaries
Garrison Keillor on the state of radio

(and maybe blogging ...)

The Nation - I don't worry about the right-wingers on AM radio. They are talking to an audience that is stuck in rush-hour traffic, in whom road rage is mounting, and the talk shows divert their rage from the road to the liberal conspiracy against America. Instead of ramming your rear bumper, they get mad at Harry Reid.

This is a wonderful piece of writing and thinking. Very thoughtful and Front Page worthy. spk

Jane's | John Hill

The "common consensus between China and Iran in regional and international affairs is increasing", Chinese President Hu Jintao noted during a visit to Beijing by the Iranian Vice-President Mohammed Setarifar.

news.pacificnews.org

Listeners to Jay Stone Shih's nightly call-in television talk show have been burning his phone lines, lashing out at the Japanese government for "whitewashing" its atrocities in China during the Second World War.

Shih, known as "The Larry King" of San Francisco Bay Area Chinese American television, has had to return to the same topic 4 times in the past 3 weeks.

www.thestandard.com.hk

 Japanese fighter jets scrambled 13 times last year in response to Chinese military aircraft approaching their airspace, up from only twice in 2003, amid growing tension between the two Asian neighbors over territorial disputes and other issues.

www.irna.ir

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a meeting with European Union leaders in Luxembourg Monday voiced his opposition to the lifting of the arms embargo on China.

"Methane Farming" of retired oil fields with microbes that eat oil and generate methane.

pesn.com

"Oil within the Monument Butte field has a waxy composition that may facilitate the strong real-time methane generation we see at this site," commented Mr. Pfeiffer. "If so, then areas with large accumulations of waxy oil -- for example, the Daqing Field in Northeast China -- could prove to be important sites for the bioconversion of residual oil to methane and the restoration of these 'spent' sites to economic energy production."