Rescuers at the Lucky Friday mine near Mullan, Idaho, have started assembling the robot digger. They had to bring the drone front end loader into the mine in pieces, now they’re putting it together.
On Friday a 75 feet section of mine collapsed on two brothers working in the mine. One got out, the other did not. Rescuers hope to get the digger working later today.
The missile system is actually based on the old U.S. designed Hawk missile system. The Iranians call their updated version ‘Shahin’ (not to be confused with ‘Shaheen’ which is a different missile system).
Most of the upgrades are related to search and track capabilities. They say it’s a mid-altitude missile, one source saying its range is 15 miles (maybe they meant 15 kilometers?). I can’t be sure of the performance claims, simply because the Iranian media gives wildly different data. One source said the missile could reach 150 kilometers (93 miles), that’s the Thermosphere, man!
“The LX model is outfitted with an EF7 gasoline engine and a CNG-based engine. The ELX version is equipped with a turbo-charged EF7 engine.”-Nima Mosleh, IKCO deputy CEO for New Product Development
The Iran Khodro Company says it hopes exports of their new car, Dena, will hit 15,000 for the new year.
The car called Dena (not to be confused with a U.S. kit car), is a sedan and IKCO’s fourth domestically produced car. Iran has been enjoying a growing car market through out the Middle East, and Central Asia.
Last year Iran Khodro exported 40,000 cars.
For those of us, in Idaho, that like the idea of renewable, clean, energy sources, like wind and solar, it seems efforts to bring wind power to our state is blowing against the wind.
Just a few years ago the Idaho media was full of positive stories about wind energy bringing needed jobs, and power, to the state.
Now efforts to stop wind power expansion in the state, in the past couple of years, have made it all the way to the state capitol. In April the legislature refused, by a slim margin, to extend tax credits for wind farms.
A lobbyist for one company said they would not be able to build any new wind projects without it. It’s also true that many big (and evil) companies have gotten their hands in the Idaho wind power cookie jar, like General Electric (Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster) and British Petroleum (Gulf of Mexico oil disaster), so those particular corporations certainly don’t need tax breaks.
The point is that for the past couple of years there has been an all out effort to stop wind power development in the state of Idaho.
Here on the eastern side of the state, one city who originally welcomed the wind, is now saying they made a mistake.
Idaho Falls, in Bonneville County, is energy independent, providing their own power from hydroelectric dams on the Snake River. But as their city grew, their electric power couldn’t keep up. Idaho Falls looked to wind power to maintain their energy independence. Now you can see wind turbines east of the city. To independent minded tech junkies it looks cool, but, apparently to home buyers it’s a blight.
Idaho Falls real-estate agents claim they lost sales because of the wind farms: “There is nothing more tempting to the buyer than the smell of freshly baked cookies,” but when they saw the “…monstrous turbines, they marched right out of the house.”-Connie Clawson, Idaho Falls real-estate agent
Property near the turbines have seen their values go down. Cities and counties don’t like that ’cause that’s where they get most of their tax revenues from. As a result Idaho Falls halted any more wind turbine development.
In Bingham County, Idaho, officials denied the second phase of a proposed wind farm, after approving the first phase. Officially it was blamed on a vague 1984 county code. But one county commissioner admitted that property values was a factor: “My biggest concern was probably property values that would be affected.”-Ladd Carter, Bingham County Commissioner
Here’s a point I’d like to make about property values. Think of who really benefits from high property values: Real estate agents, counties and cities and school districts that rely on the property tax, and property speculators (remember, those people who created the housing market bubble). High property values don’t really benefit the people who plan on living in their homes for a long, long time.
Several years ago, people in Pocatello wondered what was to become of the abandoned FMC/Astaris phosphorus refining plant. The city announced a plan to turn it into a coal fired power plant. Residents were shocked, mainly because the FMC site was the cause of a Federal Superfund cleanup, and the nearby Native American reservation had successfully sued over pollution issues.
FMC site
People thought; we have plenty of wind here, why not a wind farm? The elected officials (supposedly representing the “people”) of Pocatello, and the county of Bannock, played a delaying game with the public. They held several public hearings, in which it became clear they did not want to hear from people arguing for the wind farm. Finally the officials declared that there would be no more public hearings on the issue, and nothing has been heard since about using the old FMC/Astaris site for a wind farm. (Apparently the company involved in the coal fired plant plan, decided to abandon the FMC/Astaris site, and look into a site nearer to American Falls)
Pocatello did have a wind turbine manufacturer in operation, but right before December 25, 2010, they announced they were leaving town. Nordic Windpower moved to Kanasas City, Missouri, after less than two years of operations in Pocatello.
There is some hope for wind power. Pocatello voters elected new officials, and recently the city revised building codes for small wind mills. “If we really want to promote wind power in the city, which I believe we do, we need to make it easier for wind turbines to go in and delineate where they would be welcome and where they maybe would be inappropriate.”-Marjanna Hulet, Pocatello Planning and Zoning Commission
The Pocatello Community Charter School became the first site for small wind mill (so small you have to look for it). It wasn’t cheap, even though it was part of the ‘Wind for Schools’ program, they still had to raise funds from sponsors.
Charter school windmill in Pocatello.
There is a new project in Downey (same county that Pocatello is in; Bannock), Idaho, that will use “accelerated wind turbines”. The company, Pavilion (PVRE), claims the turbines will maximize wind, so even areas with low wind speeds can use wind power. That company is also looking at using the former Nordic Windpower facilities (in the old Pocatello naval gun plant) as a factory for its accelerated wind turbines.
Then there is the Federal BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land in south east Idaho, that’s scheduled for use as a wind farm. Unfortunately most of the power is destined for Nevada. And despite the company’s name, RES America, it’s run by a foreign company. RES is based in the United Kingdom (Britain).
Also, Ridgeline Energy (another foreign owned company, Veolia of France), is building a 79.2 megawatt wind farm in Rockland, near American Falls (also in eastern Idaho).
Photos by: Alex Hutchins (click on the pics to make them bigger)
In a confusing report, Iranian media says the Iranian navy has just upgraded their missiles with laser guidance.
The reports call the missiles “hawk” or “cruse missiles” which is incorrect. Iran does still use the old U.S. designed Hawk anti-aircraft missile, with upgraded tracking systems, but it is not a cruse missile (they actually make their own Hawks).
Also, what the video shows looks more like a anti-ship missile. Actually I’ve seen videos of two sizes of missiles, which would explain the Iranian media giving two range limits for supposedly one missile. One has a range of 45 km (28 miles), the other 300 km (186 miles).
It looks to me that they are talking about a new anti-aircraft missile, for their naval ships, and a new ship launched anti-ship missile. The missiles aren’t actually new, but the adaption of laser guidance is.
Having laser guidance means that you can get more accurate hits, and not have to worry about radar jamming.
The German government announced that they will end the use of nuclear power plants as soon as possible.
Germany is prepared to spend the money necessary to make renewable clean energy sources their main power supply by 2020. Germany will keep its coal and natural gas fire electrical plants in operation.
“Just pointing a measuring device at your food before dinner is pretty much meaningless.”-Katayama Atsushi, Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry.
The Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says you should use scintillation counters to detect iodine-131 in milk and vegetables. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers should be used to trace uranium. Nitric acid and dehydrated samples are turned to ash over a 24-hour period in temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Celsius, in order to detect strontium.
“Just to know what the radiation levels are in your home, it’s relatively straightforward, but when you get to measuring it in food, milk and soil it gets much more complicated.”-Joseph Rotunda, Thermo Fisher Scientific
You could spend $400.00 on a Geiger counter just to measure radiation in and around your home, but lots of things can affect the reading. Things like concrete walls and driveways, granite counter tops and even cell phones.
To save some money, if you don’t think it’s safe to eat, don’t eat it.
Just as Japan’s rice production takes a hit from radiation, Sanyo makes a hit with its rice bread maker.
Sanyo is resuming production of its bread make that uses rice, called “Gopan”, because they are getting swamped with orders.
Sanyo didn’t stop production because of the March 11 disasters, they stopped because their factory just couldn’t keep up with demand. In just the first three weeks on introducing their Gopan, orders hit 10,000 per month. They’re now ready to meet those orders.
“Our scientists took action to supply fuel for the Tehran research reactor and this fuel which is the fruit of the efforts made by our country’s scientists will be loaded into the Tehran Research Reactor this year.”-Ali Baqeri, Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Undersecretary
Iran decided to provide its own nuclear fuel, after several deals to get fuel from Western countries fell through, due to complaints from the U.S. and France.
In April 2010, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the domestic production of nuclear fuel. They claim to have produced uranium fuel at 20% purity.
Nissan is investigating why its electric car, the Leaf, won’t start. Several customers, in Japan and United States, are complaining that their Leafs won’t start.
Nissan thinks it is related to the air conditioner sensor: “…it will illuminate a warning light on the instrument panel and may cause the vehicle to not restart once it has been turned off.”-Katherine Zachary, Nissan’s North American unit
