leadership

*update* March 19, 2013 US magazine calls Stephen Harper an ‘exceptional leader’, praising his leadership, his foreign policy and his stewardship of the economy coming out of the 2008 recession. National Review: "Stephen Harper, Canada’s PM, 'Leader of the West', 'a very disciplined politician'"
*update* Marketwire: "Proud to stand up for honest, hard-working Canadians against thieves and criminals". March 11, 2013, Canada announced "Bill C-26, the Citizen's Arrest and Self-defence Act, has come into force", committed to keeping our streets and communities safe", for Canadians to protect themselves against criminal acts and "the justice system is behind them, not against them", said Minister Nicholson. "Those who have been the victim of a crime should not be re-victimized by the criminal justice system." Canada "will continue to stand up for law-abiding Canadians."

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"2012 election meets no challengers, though US is challenged by 16 trillion debt; what'd lead America leaping over fiscal cliff?" - Editor

*update*
Nov. 07 2012 - Canada on alert as U.S. nears fiscal cliff Serious economic problems are threatening to bleed over the border from the United States into Canada in the wake of the presidential election. The Canadian economy is so dependent on the economic performance of the United States...

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Västra Hamnen, also known as the City of Tomorrow, was transformed from a former shipyard in 2001 and is now home to 4,000 people.

Europe’s ‘First Carbon-Neutral Neighborhood’: Western Harbour
With a smart heating and cooling system and renewable energy, the city district of Västra Hamnen (Western Harbor), in Malmö, Sweden has established itself as the first carbon-neutral neighborhood in Europe, says Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu.

Västra Hamnen, also known as the City of Tomorrow, was transformed from a former shipyard in 2001 and is now home to 4,000 people.

The district uses an aquifer thermal energy storage system to store water collected during the summer 70 meters (230 feet) underground and pump it up with wind energy to heat the homes during the winter. The chilled water is then reused to cool buildings in the summer. “There’s no need for air-conditioners in the district,” Reepalu proudly told the audience at the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Forum, held during the World Cities Summit on July 2 in Singapore.  read more »

*update* April 4, 2013 In Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes Melted in 25 Years

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Earth may be near tipping point, scientists warn
A group of international scientists is sounding a global alarm, warning that population growth, climate change and environmental destruction are pushing Earth toward calamitous — and irreversible — biological changes.

In a paper published in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature, 22 researchers from a variety of fields liken the human impact to global events eons ago that caused mass extinctions, permanently altering Earth's biosphere. "Humans are now forcing another such transition, with the potential to transform Earth rapidly and irreversibly into a state unknown in human experience," wrote the authors, who are from the U.S., Europe, Canada and South America.  read more »

Is it "kidnapping" if they are taken away instead of sent back to Australia as AU citizens have requested - "return us to shore in Australia and then remove yourself from our waters"? - Traveling fr one side of globe to the other, armed"Gov. of Japan" ship detains 3 AU citizens while Taiji detains 5 CoveGuardians - Jan. 7, 2012: 14 miles off Australian coast (at the doorstep of their own homeland, of their own country's territory, within the Australian EEZ waters), three Australian citizens from Forest Rescue - Geoffrey Owen Tuxworth (47) of Perth, Simon Peterffy (44) of Bunbury, and Glen Pendlebury (27) of Fremantle - are now detained as prisoners on an armed Japanese ship "Government of Japan" with military personnel in Australian territorial waters. Per Forest Rescue statement - Simon Peterffy said: “We are onboard this ship because our government has failed to uphold its pre-election promise to end whaling in the Southern Ocean”, which sounds quite contrary to what the Chilean government is determined to do (though both Australia and Chile have declared sanctuaries, where whaling is prohibited) -  read more »

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The First Emperor of United China, Qin Shi Huang (18 February 259 BC – 10 September 210 BC) became the King Zheng of Qin when he was 13, then China's first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified seven warring states of China in 221 BC. His public works projects included the unification of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China and a massive new national road system.

Qin Shi Huang and Li Si unified China economically by standardizing the Chinese units of measurements such as weights and measures, currency, and the length of the axles of carts to facilitate transport on the road system.

The emperor also developed an extensive network of roads and canals connecting the provinces to improve trade between them. The currency of the different states were also standardized to the Ban liang coin. Perhaps most importantly, the Chinese script was unified. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin was standardized through removal of variant forms within the Qin script itself. This newly standardized script was then made official throughout all the conquered regions, thus doing away with all the regional scripts to form one language, one communication system for all of China.

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Image courtesy Wikipedia and psu.edu

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5 June 2008
World's biggest solar farm at centre of Portugal's ambitious energy plan in country without oil or gas
From a distance the bizarre structures sprouting from the high Alentejo plain in eastern Portugal resemble a field of mechanical sunflowers. Each of the 2,520 giant solar panels is the size of a house and they are as technically sophisticated as a car. Their reflective heads tilt to the sky at a permanent 45 degrees as they track the sun through 240 degrees every day.

The world's largest solar photovoltaic farm, generating electricity straight from sunlight, is taking shape near Moura, a small town in a thinly populated and impoverished region which boasts the most sunshine per square metre a year in Europe.

When fully commissioned later this year, the £250m farm set on abandoned state-owned land will be twice the size of any other similar project in the world, covering an area nearly twice the size of London's Hyde park. It is expected to supply 45MW of electricity each year, enough to power 30,000 homes.

Portugal, without its own oil, coal or gas and with no expertise in nuclear power, is pitching to lead Europe's clean-tech revolution with some of the most ambitious targets and timetables for renewables. Its intention, the economics minister, Manuel Pinho, said, is to wean itself off oil and within a decade set up a low carbon economy in response to high oil prices and climate change.

"We have to reduce our dependence on oil and gas," said Pinho. "What seemed extravagant in 2004 when we decided to go for renewables now seems to have been a very good decision."  read more »