A blog and website by Peter Bengtsson
29 November 2006 0 comments Politics
"Scientists say the global energy crisis can be solved by using the desert sun"
I've been wondering for a long time why the open deserts in north Africa isn't used for solar energy. There's 3 times as much sun there as there is in Europe. Unlike wind power plants in Europe, there's plenty of space for solar energy mirrors on the vast stretches of the north African desert.
This Guardian article is really interesting for me. Here are some interesting facts:
"[the two German scientists] calculate that covering just 0.5% of the world's hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power (CSP) would provide the world's entire electricity needs"
"Together the region could provide all its electricity needs by 2050 with barely any fossil fuels and no nuclear power. This would allow a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production over the period."
The article also sheds some light on the comparison of fusion reactors compared to solar power.
"The outlook is not promising. More than 30 countries last week agreed to spend £7bn on an experimental fusion reactor in France which critics say will not produce any electricity for 50 years, if at all."
23 November 2006 0 comments Politics
As some of my friends on this website have might have noticed, I was threatened by Carphone Ware because of supposed defamatory comments made on this page
Here's an interesting article on BBC News about a case (in USA I should add) where a blogger could not be sued for the comments other people placed on her blog.
"Overturning a decision by the San Francisco appeal court, the court ruled that people claiming they were defamed online could now only seek damages from the original author of the comments - and not the website which re-posted it."
I need to think a bit more about it before I resurrect the currently removed comments from the page about Carphone Warehouse.
14 September 2006 2 comments Politics
Unless you're a die-hard US republican you probably don't watch Fox News and the Bill O'Reilly show. You might, like me, remember him from a part of Fahrenheit 9/11 when he tells Jeremy Glick to shut up (or was that another film?)
Bill O'Reilly is a nut. A unsympathetic right-wing nut. It's people like him that causes us europeans to disrespect and, dare I, hate the USA. I like and have an open mind about the USA but it's people like Bill O'Reilly being shown on a large national network that just makes me feel sick.
Here's a great videoclip on youtube.com
where Phil Donahue has a right go at him. This is the best thing I've seen since George Galloway (my MP by the way) shredded this Sky News reporter to pieces
Dear american friends, if you want my respect back, do something to get these repulicans off the set. It's making me sick!
10 July 2006 0 comments Politics
Today's Dilbert comic is brilliant.
For the uninitiated, Elbonia in the Dilbert comic is a returning made up country. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Elbonia:
"It is an extremely poor, fourth-world Eastern European country that has recently abandoned Communism. Most of the nation is covered with waist-deep mud, which the residents use to build houses. Much of the economy is also mud-based."
What's funny about this strip is that it's so true in our world today.
16 February 2006 1 comment Politics
This article is probably one of the best articles (it's a column rather) written on about Arabs that I've seen in a long time.
"In school in Gaza, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness."
There's been a lot of talk recently about the Danish cartoons and my take on it is that you shouldn't make fun of the prophet but burning flags threatening people and raiding embassies is NOT equally bad; it's worse. Calm down arabs! You're just putting weight behind the cartoons and giving right-wing extremists more concrete examples of bad-doing to point at. After having read this article I understand much more:
"As a young woman, I visited a Christian friend in Cairo during Friday prayers, and we both heard the verbal attacks on Christians and Jews from the loudspeakers outside the mosque. They said: "May God destroy the infidels and the Jews, the enemies of God. We are not to befriend them or make treaties with them." We heard worshippers respond "Amen"."
Her statements are bold, strong and right to the point
"It's time for Arabs and Muslims to stand up for their families. We must stop allowing our leaders to use the West and Israel as an excuse to distract from their own failed leadership and their citizens' lack of freedoms. It's time to stop allowing Arab leaders to complain about cartoons while turning a blind eye to people who defame Islam by holding Korans in one hand while murdering innocent people with the other."
A really good article really worth reading.
30 November 2005 0 comments Politics
When I can't remember the URL site I just search for it quickly in Firefox which is quicker than trying to remember the address. Today I needed to go to "Google Groups"n:http://groups.google.com/ but couldn't remember the address, so I searched for it on Google
Guess which site came up first?! Not Google, but their main competitor Yahoo! I guess this just gives Google more kudos because their indexes aren't tainted in their favour.
