Author: nomarandlee

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8476395.stm

Venezuela oil ‘may double Saudi Arabia’

Saturday, 23 January 2010

A new US assessment of Venezuela’s oil reserves could give the country double the supplies of Saudi Arabia.

Scientists working for the US Geological Survey say Venezuela’s Orinoco belt region holds twice as much petroleum as previously thought.

The geologists estimate the area could yield more than 500bn barrels of crude oil.

This assessment is far more optimistic than even the best case scenario put forward by President Hugo Chavez.

The USGS team gave a mean estimate of 513bn barrels of "technically recoverable" oil in the Orinoco belt.

Chris Schenk of the USGS said the estimate was based on oil recovery rates of 40% to 45%.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state oil company, has not commented on the news.

However, Venezuelan oil geologist and former PDVSA board member Gustavo Coronel was sceptical.

"I doubt the recovery factor could go much higher than 25% and much of that oil would not be economic to produce", he told Associated Press news agency.

Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has proven reserves of 260bn barrels.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100121/…s_arctic_cable

Global warming opens up Arctic for undersea cable

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer Dan Joling, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jan 21, 4:19 pm ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Global warming has melted so much Arctic ice that a telecommunication group is moving forward with a project that was unthinkable just a few years ago: laying underwater fiber optic cable between Tokyo and London by way of the Northwest Passage.

The proposed system would nearly cut in half the time it takes to send messages from the United Kingdom to Asia, said Walt Ebell, CEO of Kodiak-Kenai Cable Co. The route is the shortest underwater path between Tokyo and London.

The quicker transmission time is important in the financial world where milliseconds can count in executing profitable trades and transactions. "Speed is the crux," Ebell said. "You’re cutting the delay from 140 milliseconds to 88 milliseconds."
The project, while still facing many significant obstacles, also serves as an example of how warming has altered the Arctic landscape in profound ways.

The loss of summer sea ice prompted the U.S. to list polar bears as a threatened species in May 2008. Walrus in two of the last three years gathered by the thousands on Alaska’s northwest shore rather than ride pack ice to unproductive waters beyond the outer continental shelf.

Summer sea ice melted to its lowest recorded level ever in late 2007, and most climate modelers predict a continued downward spiral. The result is a path through the Northwest Passage, the Arctic route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific that has fascinated explorers for centuries.

"That opens up the construction window to actually do something like this without the need of heavy icebreakers," Ebell said. "On the other side, you’ve got the market part of it and the increasing demand we’re seeing for lower and lower latencies, or transmission times."

But the project, called ArcticLink, is not without hurdles — namely the estimated construction price of $1.2 billion, said Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography Research, a Washington, D.C.-based telecommunications market research company.

"That’s not a cheap project," he said by phone from the Slovak Republic.

By comparison, a line beginning service next month between Japan and the U.S. West Coast was built for $300 million, he said.

The leaders of the project will need to persuade telecommunications companies to buy a piece of the capacity created by the cable. Telecom companies will make that decision largely based on demand from financial companies.

"What we’ve seen is just because you have a diverse path does not mean that you can necessarily sell that capacity for much more than the current market price," Mauldin said.

Ebell uses the analogy of building a shopping mall to describe the financing process: Secure some initial investments and then lure an anchor tenant to really drive the project forward.

The cable will cut a 10,000-mile path across half the world: It would be laid in deep water from Japan to the Aleutian Islands, then traverse north through the relatively shallow waters of the Bering Sea.

The line would need a regeneration station — essentially a booster of the signal to compensate for the long distance — on the northern coast of Alaska, probably at Prudhoe Bay. From there, it will wend its way through the Northwest Passage, then dip around the southern tip of Greenland and across the North Atlantic to the United Kingdom.

Branches off the line would provide access to the East Coast of the U.S., ensuring quicker transmission times between Tokyo and New York, Ebell said.

"It will provide the domestic market an alternative route not only to Europe — there’s lots of cable across the Atlantic — but it will provide the East Coast with an alternative, faster route to Asia as well," he said.

The cable would pass mostly through U.S., Canadian international waters and avoid possible trouble spots along the way.

"You’re not susceptible to ‘events,’ I should say, that you might run into with a cable that runs across Russia or the cables that run down around Asia and go up through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea. You’re getting away from those choke points."

Ebell’s Anchorage-based company is partnering with KhaNNet, part of Khanjee Holdings, Inc., on the project, and the partners are pursuing financing.

The company also hopes to link rural Alaska communities to the cable. It has applied for $350 million in federal stimulus money, nearly 5 percent of that total for broadband grant and loan program, for lines to eight hub communities in western and northern Alaska. The Asia-Europe line does not depend on stimulus money, Ebell said.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com…-cup-host.html

Chicago bypassed as potential World Cup host
January 12, 2010 3:10 PM | 1 Comment
Staff report

First the Olympics snub, and now this: Chicago is not on the list of 18 cities that U.S. Soccer’s bid committee will submit to FIFA in its efforts to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

After an eight-month host city selection process, the committee Tuesday announced the list of cities that will be included in its official bid book to FIFA on May 14. The cities chosen were Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

Rejected along with Chicago were Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville, Oakland, Orlando, St. Louis and San Francisco. Four of those cities (Chicago, Detroit, Orlando and San Francisco) were chosen when the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994.

"The United States is equipped and ready to offer FIFA the opportunity to host a passionate and successful World Cup where fans, teams, partners and media can experience the beautiful game at its highest level while allowing the world soccer family to focus on the utmost mission of the game that benefits the world as a whole," said Sunil Gulati, the chairman of the USA Bid Committee and president of U.S. Soccer.

FIFA’s will select the host nation for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on Dec. 2.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100111/…pt_antiquities

Egypt: New find shows slaves didn’t build pyramids

By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer Katarina Kratovac, Associated Press Writer – 35 mins ago

CAIRO – Egypt displayed on Monday newly discovered tombs more than 4,000 years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great Pyramids of Giza, presenting the discovery as more evidence that slaves did not build the ancient monuments.

The series of modest nine-foot-deep shafts held a dozen skeletons of pyramid builders, perfectly preserved by dry desert sand along with jars that once contained beer and bread meant for the workers’ afterlife.

The mud-brick tombs were uncovered last week in the backyard of the Giza pyramids, stretching beyond a burial site first discovered in the 1990s and dating to the 4th Dynasty (2575 B.C. to 2467 B.C.), when the great pyramids were built on the fringes of present-day Cairo.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus once described the pyramid builders as slaves, creating what Egyptologists say is a myth later propagated by Hollywood films.

Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in the area in 1990 when a tourist on horseback stumbled over a wall that later proved to be a tomb. Egypt’s archaeology chief Zahi Hawass said that discovery and the latest finds last week show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination.

Hawass told reporters at the site that the find, first announced on Sunday, sheds more light on the lifestyle and origins of the pyramid builders. Most importantly, he said the workers were not recruited from slaves commonly found across Egypt during pharaonic times.

One popular myth that Egyptologists say was perpetrated in part by Hollywood movies held that ancient Israelite slaves — ancestors of the Jewish people — built the pyramids.

Amihai Mazar, professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says that myth stemmed from an erroneous claim by former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, on a visit to Egypt in 1977, that Jews built the pyramids.

"No Jews built the pyramids because Jews didn’t exist at the period when the pyramids were built," Mazar said.

Dorothy Resig, an editor of Biblical Archaeology Review in Washington D.C., said the idea probably arose from the Old Testament Book of Exodus, which says: "So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with backbreaking labor" and the Pharaoh put them to work to build buildings.

"If the Hebrews built anything, then it was the city of Ramses as mentioned in Exodus," said Mazar.

Dieter Wildung, a former director of Berlin’s Egyptian Museum, said it is "common knowledge in serious Egyptology" that the pyramid builders were not slaves and that the construction of the pyramids and the story of the Israelites in Egypt were separated by hundreds of years.

"The myth of the slaves building pyramids is only the stuff of tabloids and Hollywood," Wildung told The Associated Press by telephone. "The world simply could not believe the pyramids were build without oppression and forced labor, but out of loyalty to the pharaohs."

Hawass said the builders came from poor Egyptian families from the north and the south, and were respected for their work — so much so that those who died during construction were bestowed the honor of being buried in the tombs near the sacred pyramids of their pharaohs.

Their proximity to the pyramids and the manner of burial in preparation for the afterlife backs this theory, Hawass said.

"No way would they have been buried so honorably if they were slaves," he said.

The tombs contained no gold or valuables, which safeguarded them from tomb-raiders throughout antiquity, and the bodies were not mummified. The skeletons were found buried in a fetal position — the head pointing to the West and the feet to the East according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, surrounded by the jars once filled with supplies for afterlife.

The men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly and worked in three months shifts, said Hawass. It took 10,000 workers more than 30 years to build a single pyramid, Hawass said — a tenth of the work force of 100,000 that Herodotus wrote of after visiting Egypt around 450 B.C.

Hawass said evidence from the site indicates that the approximately 10,000 laborers working on the pyramids ate 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms.

Though they were not slaves, the pyramid builders led a life of hard labor, said Adel Okasha, supervisor of the excavation. Their skeletons have signs of arthritis, and their lower vertebrae point to a life passed in difficulty, he said.

"Their bones tell us the story of how hard they worked," Okasha said.

Wildung said the find reinforces the notion that the pyramid builders were free men, ordinary citizens

"But let’s not exaggerate here, they lived a short life and tomography skeletal studies show they suffered from bad health, very much likely because of how hard their work was."

____

Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

http://www.miamiherald.com/101/story/1414408.html

Dolphins unveil designs for stadium makeover
With a square roof and an open center, a new Miami Dolphins stadium could help lure more Super Bowls to South Florida. Should the public pay for the construction effort? The team would like an answer

BY DOUGLAS HANKS
[email protected]

The Miami Dolphins proposed an extensive retrofit of the team’s stadium on Thursday — including a partial roof — and invited a debate on whether the public should pay for the renovation.

Without the new 621,000-square-foot roof and other modifications, the Super Bowl may not return to South Florida after its played at the stadium Feb. 7, Dolphins CEO Mike Dee said at a press event. He declined to estimate how much the retrofit would cost or commit the team to paying for any of it. Two local Super Bowl organizers earlier put the price at between $200 million and $250 million.

The presentation set the stage for the stadium to pursue public dollars as local and state leaders grapple with grim budget shortfalls. But even after Thursday’s presentation, it was unknown what exactly the Dolphins wanted in terms of public financing.

Dee said the Dolphins do not need the stadium improvements for regular season games, and that it was up to local Super Bowl organizers to decide if the renovations are worth pursuing. Rodney Barreto, chairman of South Florida’s Super Bowl Host Committee, declined to say which public funds he might pursue.

Dee and Barreto tied the renovation with the economic windfalls that come with Super Bowls and other large stadium events, including Orange Bowl and World Cup soccer.

“This is Corporate America at its best. They’re going to be here wining and dining,” Barreto said of Super Bowl’s deep-pocketed visitors. “The worst thing we can do as a community is to say — and I hear this often — `Don’t worry. It’s coming again.”’

Dee said the team has not calculated how much the construction would cost. He also said he had no suggestion for where to find public dollars for the renovation, saying the team “would leave no rock unturned” in searching for a way to get the work done.

Asked if the Dolphins would invest in the effort, Dee said it was too early to say. But he noted previous owner Wayne Huizenga had spent about $250 million in recent years on renovations to the privately owned stadium — work that current owner Stephen Ross paid for in buying the team.

“We’re talking about Phase Two” of the renovation Huizenga began, Dee said.

Tourism officials oppose using hotel taxes to fund stadium improvements at the expense of local convention centers. Miami-Dade commissioners last year pledged hotel taxes to more than $300 million in debt for a new Florida Marlins baseball stadium.

The plans Dee unveiled would bring the biggest change to the Dolphins home field since it opened as Joe Robbie Stadium in 1987. Four spar-like pylons would jut from the stadium corners to support the square roof, resembling bridge spans from the highway as spectators approached Dolphin Stadium.

The roof itself would allow natural light and rain in through the open center, but would cover all 75,000 seats. That would prevent the sort debacle that still makes organizers wince: the 2007 deluge that soaked spectators at the 2007 Super Bowl championship at the stadium.

Along with new stadium lights, the Dolphins would add about 3,000 seats in the lower bowl — filling up the space by the sidelines needed to accommodate a baseball field when the Marlins moved in 17 years ago.

..

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big…urn=mlb,212323

Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:48 pm EST

World Series champs against Japanese champs? It could happen
By ‘Duk

We were just talking about what moves Bud Selig might make to bolster his legacy before he steps down as baseball’s commissioner in 2012, so it probably comes as no surprise that he’s thinking big.

Like, globally big.

According to the AP, Selig and Japanese commissioner Ryozo Kato are meeting in Milwaukee and have discussed the possibility of a Global World Series that would pit the World Series champions against the champions from the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan.

From the Associated Press:

"In meetings with Japanese commissioner Ryozo Kato in Milwaukee, MLB commissioner Bud Selig proposed that the Japanese and U.S. champions play each other, the Nikkansports newspaper reported Thursday.

"’I was surprised, Mr. Selig said he wants to realize the plan before his tenure ends,’ Kato told Nikkansports.

"Selig is set to retire in 2012. When he took office in 2008, Kato, a former Japanese ambassador to the United States, said one of his goals was an international series between the world’s two biggest baseball nations."

There isn’t much to this Nikkansports report past those few paragraphs, so we’ll have to wait and see just how serious Selig and Kato are about this proposal. Considering that Selig has a serious jonesin’ for expanding the game internationally (see the Classic, World Baseball) and that Japan lives, breathes and sleeps baseball, it’s not outside the realm of possibilities.

But it’s also hard to imagine that the same challenges that face the WBC — scheduling, increased risk of injury to pitchers and apathetic American players — won’t also hamper the Global World Series. The player’s union would certainly put up a big fight during an attempted adoption as this goes past the usual All-Star goodwill trips to Japan (pictured) that we’ve seen in the past.

Personally, I’d enjoy seeing how the whole thing would work and the quality of play that we’d be able to see. (This season we would have seen the Yankees vs. the Yomiuri Giants)

But I also think the novelty would wear off pretty quickly and I’m not sure you could pay the players enough money to extend a season that keeps getting longer and longer.

What do you think?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu…v=ap&type=lgns

Japan, MLB discuss global series

TOKYO (AP)—The champions of U.S. Major League Baseball could face the champions of Japanese professional baseball in a regular Global World Series under a plan being discussed by the two countries.

In meetings with Japanese commissioner Ryozo Kato in Milwaukee, MLB commissioner Bud Selig proposed that the Japanese and U.S. champions play each other, the Nikkansports newspaper reported Thursday.

“I was surprised, Mr. Selig said he wants to realize the plan before his tenure ends,” Kato told the Nikkansports.

Selig is set to retire in 2012.

When he took office in 2008, Kato, a former Japanese ambassador to the United States, said one of his goals was an international series between the world’s two biggest baseball nations.

Japan is the two-time defending champion of the World Baseball Classic, a national-teams tournament which involves professional players from leagues around the world.