On the 30 th of April, maybe not all of you know it, I did not, there’s
a huge Party in Amsterdam, celebrating the Queen’s birthday.
One of the best things that happen during this festival is the free markets that spontaneously animate che city. And even better is the after in which all that has not been sold, just gets kept on the street for anyone to pick it up freely!
I got some nice books from the ground and one that intrigued me was “A History of Modern Japan” by R. Storry. A good book.
The chapter that mostly captured my attention dealed with the political swift of power from civil to military political members occured during the ’20′s.
Undoubtely I found it also more intriguing because in the same years a similar political drift was happening in Italy!
The most evident and noticeable factor of this shifting in japanese politics was murder!!
The first common man prime minister of Japan Hara Takashi was stabbed to death at Tokyo station on the 4 of November 1921 by a nationalist fanatic.
I was astonished by the fact that when going in to depth in why had a so strong fascist regime developed in such countries as Italy or Japan or…Germany, what I’ve understood is that by killing your enemy and by doing so phisically eliminating him was the most common practice!

…..
News for Today:
- China will announce a surprise increase of about 18% in retail gasoline and diesel prices effective from Today (21/6), the first increase in eight months, sending the oil price down $3
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- India’s cost of living hits a 13-year high on higher fuel prices, speculation grows that the central bank may be forced to act earlier on further monetary tighteing
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and believe it or not this is what’s happening too…
By Sheila McNulty in Houston
The US is set to overtake Germany as the world’s biggest wind market in 2009 on the back of an investment boom which saw wind power generating capacity jump 45 per cent last year.
“Now is a pivotal moment for renewable energy in the United States,” says Peter Duprey, chief executive of Acciona Energy North America, a subsidiary of the Spanish infrastructure group Acciona. “This is a real opportunity here for companies to stake a major claim in the market because there has been a pent-up demand.”
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So it’s still a sad and beautiful world we are living in
as usual I’ll post a song too a very classic of the early ’80′s
and don’t Overkill yourself buddys
ciao
d

Yes it’s been months since I’ve wrote anything on this blog… but as all of you know there is a moment to write and a moment to experience, and ’cause the days over here in the Netherlands lately have been heel veel mooi..(very very nice and long!!) it was sincerely difficult for me to stop and write something that had some sense… this is what a dutch newspaper wrote about May’s heat wave – “Mei 2008 zal de boeken ingaan als warmste meimaand ooit. De gemiddelde temperatuur kwam uit op 15,7 graden: drie graden warmer dan normaal…..” translation is useless..!
So let see what’s happened on this small planet lately!
Earthquakes…and as a geologist I should now something about them, but what’s funny to see, is this weird attitude of journalist and reporters to relate natural earth movement’s to human issues (don’t be fooled and remember THERE IS NO RELATION). I would advise you to check a web site for further details: usgs.gov, certainly one of the best available for this kind of issues.
The other world topic lately has been the fuel price surge!! Lucky enough I live in the Netherlands where I can easily go around using a fiets (bicycle) but it’s not getting easy for a lot of folks ’round our planet, expecially for the related rising food prices.
But we got some good bias too, just think of the sinking SUV market!
Quote taken from the Financial times : “Sales of sports cars fell by nearly 15 per cent year on year in May 2008, and sales of 4×4 fell by more than 18 per cent, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The latter category includes not just Range Rovers and the other large sport utility vehicles lambasted by environmentalists but also briskly selling compact SUVs like Toyota’s RAV4.” …definitely not a bad news for our lungs!!
But it’s still a long and difficult path to recovery, from IEA (International Energy Agency) I quote: “The world needs to spend $45,000 bn on green technologies in the next 40 years, or 1.1 per cent of annual economic output, to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to accelerate development of new technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells and carbon storage.”..that’s not a big amount of money generaly speaking…just let’s do it!!!
From the Financial Times I got another original comment, Willem Buiter wrote some days ago: “If London wants to remain the world’s financial capital, there is only one choice for the UK: adopt the euro now and wonder why it did not do so in 1999.” …wow! is England seriously thinking of joining Euroland??
Ok so as you can see I’ve been mainly searching for News.
I want to end this short Post with an article chosen from La Repubblica, an Italian daily paper, regarding kites (and on this blog you can find a lot of info on this topic):”Il progetto Italiano è guidato da Mario Milanese, docente al Politecnico di Torino. A 80 metri di altitudine (l’altezza normale di una turbina) il vento spira, in media 4,6 m al sec, poco più di 16 km/h, ma sotto i 4 m al sec le turbine, normalmente vengono spente, poiché antieconomiche. In Texas l’Enel ha appena varato una centrale eolica con 21 turbine – è un’area pregiatissima, perché il vento soffia in media a 7-8 m al sec (un po’ meno di 30 km/h), considerata una velocità ottimale. A 800 metri di altitudine, il vento soffia, in media, a 7,2 m al sec. E un parametro cruciale, perché, spiegano i manuali di fisica, l’energia che si può ottenere dal vento aumenta in modo esponenziale con la sua velocità. “A mille metri di altezza l’energia che si può ottenere è otto volte quella disponibile a livello del suolo. All’idea del vento dagli aquiloni lavorano altri due gruppi, in Olanda e in California. “
So there are some good news around the world, but remember we are lacking of time, we should not waste it anymore!!
As usual I want to place some good music at the end of the post.
Enjoy this great classic frm the ’90′s!
tot ziens
ciao
d

..just reflect a moment on those boring evenings passed in lenghtless car jams on some motorway regardless of were it was..
I’m pretty shure you could just vision a

 CITY OF TINY LIGHTS..

Uncle Frank at his best (1981)
enjoy
d

enjoy it and try to sing it..
ciao

I see you now
As I never have before
Take it futher honey
Open all the doors
When you found me
Washed up on the shore
You stopped the bleeding
Now I love you more

Yeah my baby s coming soon
Yeah my babys number one
He loves the moon and loves the sea
She loves life and loves her son

Every time I look in to your eyes
I have become spiritualized
Every day she grows
I have become spiritualized

Fix your feet to the ground
Karma always comes around
Paint the walls with ultrasound
Paint the walls and fix the plugs
Gonna fill this place
With persian rugs

Stop the drinking
And stop the drugs
Love

Singing songs
Whilst cutting deals
Looking for a buggy
With three wheels

I see you now as I never have before
Taking it further honey opening all the doors
If I find you washed up on the shore
Ill stop the bleeding,
Now I love you more
And I have become spiritualized
As I have become spiritualized
I have become spiritualized
I become spiritualized….

Spring is arriving are you gettin’ ready?

here’s the lyrics..take a chance to sing it..

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right
Little darlin’ it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darlin’ it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right
Little darlin’ the smiles returning to their faces
Little darlin’ it seems like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Little darlin’ I feel the ice is slowly meltin’
Little darlin’ it seems like years since it’s been clear
Here come the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right
Here come the sun, here comes the sun
It’s all right, it’s all right

enjoy

d

- Rome. San Lorenzo fuori le Mura.

Today I had the pleasure to take part to a really great lecture given by Prof. Savenije to the students of the Master course in Sustainable energy at TU Delft .The Professor is the Head of Water management and is strongly involved in the SSI research project.

Roma. Aurelian Walls.

One of the topics on which I was mostly driven is the bio-diesel producer plant Jatropha.
In my holy ignorance I had bever heard about it.
The yield of Oil contained in the seeds accounts up to a max of 48,5% and furthermore it runs in any Diesel engine without modifications with a much less polluting impact on the environment. (e.g. absence of Particulate and Heavy metals).

Roma. SS Giovanni e Paolo.

It’s a fast growing plant that survives with minimal water need in marginal lands.
Seeds are ripe after 2/3 years. The plant grows to a height of 1,5/ 2 m and it’s a drought resisting perennial living up to 50 years! Wow!
One hectar of wasteland can produce up to 2500 plants. India covers roughly 1/10 of the total amount of Oil need with Jatropha seeds bio diesel.

Something to remember..

Have a great week end
d

enjoy
D

ZAPPA vs VAI

although Vai was still quite a youngster, incredible one, but experience pays..doesn’t it Frank!!!

I’m writing a Post..but still hasn’t got a form ..!!

enjoy

d