Presidential Race - Tough Competition

This will be a bit of political humor. If you ever question the motives of some of the candidates that run for the presidential office, regardless of the country, you will like this. Here is a quote from Nurlan Motuev one of the presidential candidates in the recent presidential election in Kyrgyzstan. He was among the few candidates that were trying to compete with the incumbent President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

"Our programs are largely similar [when commenting on Bakiyev's program], and we don't have anything to argue about. We are like allies who have no disagreements between them. Moreover, I wouldn't want to distract him from his duties."

How nice of him. Bakiyev ultimately won, but it just makes you wonder why that other guy run in the firs place, why wasted his money, time and who knows what else.

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

Nuclear Club

All over the world people have mixed feelings about the use of atomic energy for both civilian and military purposes. It is very likely though that weather we like it or not, nuclear energy will gradually replace coal and gas as the main sources of energy. There simply isn't enough traditional natural energy resources to fuel the growing world economy. Unless we can figure out how to conquer the renewable resources more effectively and economically, nuclear power plants are the future. Military use is a whole different story and I hope that the world will be able to stop the spread of such weapons. Here is a brief look at some of the statistics:

• 436 - number of operational nuclear power plants in the world
• 31 - number of counties with nuclear power plants
• 104 - number of power plants in the United States
• 59 - number of power plants in France
• 53 - number of power plants in Japan
• China, India, Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Taiwan - developing countries with nuclear power plants
• 15% of global energy production comes from nuclear power plants
• Westinhouse/Toshiba (US/Japan), Areva (France), Atomenergoprom (Russia) - three companies dominating the market when it comes to supplying civilian energy technology
• URENCO (Great Britain/Germany/The Netherlands), EURODIF (France), the US Enrichment Corporation and TENEX (Russia) - share about 95% of the world supply market for enriched uranium
• 5 - the number of countries that have nuclear powered submarines in their navy (United States, Russia, France, United Kingdom, China and India)

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

Keeping an Eye on Burma

If you think that trading raw uranium for weapons seems like a recipe for disaster, watch closely what has been happening in Burma. The United States has been pretty silent about the tragedies that have been happening there. This Asian country, formerly knows as Myanmar, is famous for using child soldiers, hunting down ethnic minorities, sex and narcotics trafficking and its paranoid leader. Recently it became even more famous for its tightening relationship with North Korea. It is that country that Burma is accused of exporting raw uranium to. And that's just the stuff that N. Korean badly wants and can't get easily on the open market. So the relationship is growing stronger and with both countries having open access to the ocean, it gives them a relatively easy way to trade.

category: Internatioanl | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0

Bolivia's Rich Future

Is Bolivia going to become the next Saudi Arabia? Think cars! Now, think energy efficient cars, cars running on electrical power, batteries. What are most modern battery technologies based on? Lithium.
40% of world's knows resources of lithium are found in the mountains of Bolivia. With smart approach, this poorest country of South America, has the potential of becoming a prosperous place. Poverty rate is very high and big parts of the country are largely undeveloped. The biggest challenge for the government there will be to process the resource into the final product using high skilled labor and technology, rather than export raw material and let others profit on the added value. Will our future cars be running on batteries that were Made in Bolivia?

source: YouTube

category: International | posted by: Norbert | comments: 0