Category: News

(This is a guest post from an anonymous professional natural gas trader.)

The EIA released an as-expected decline in US production, amounting to an average of -0.40 Bcf per day for the Lower 48 States series for the period Jan 2009 through Jan 2010.  If this was an underwhelming figure, the fact that the report now shows the latest month estimated, February, to be the new peak in US production, at 63.9 bcf/day, must have been frustrating.  The 1 bcf/day increase over January does support the idea presented here that a more responsive supply-estimation method would not manifest bullishly given the record increase in Baker Hughes’ gas rig count.

Yesterday was instructive for those trying to understand production data’s place in the hierarchy of natural-gas fundamental data, for if the 914 revisions were uninspiring, the weekly storage report was
anything but.  The build of 83 Bcf for gas-week ending Apr 23 signals a quickly loosening supply/demand balance and emphasizes the importance of storage data over lagged production data that still do
not fit well with demand assumptions and the separately-assembled storage data.  While the production news was bearish, it took a back seat to the 297 Bcf we’ve built since we began building inventories 6
weeks ago.  This compares to a build of 156 Bcf over the same period last year – a record then.  So, not only have we beaten last year’s record start to the injection season, we’ve doubled it.  There is no
doubt that the weather since mid March has been very mild and greatly contributed to this storage result, but an aberrant spring is not akin to an aberrant winter or summer when talking energy demand.  The
demand sensitivity of gas to temperature swings is not linear and from 50F to 75F is fractions of the sensitivity you see from 25F to 50F and from 75F to 100F.  On a weather-adjusted basis, yesterday’s report was actually bearish against last year’s build of 82 bcf for the same week.  This is significant, because the time period one year ago in gas was thought to be the hallmark of poor supply/demand dynamics.

The supply/demand balance, as understood through storage, appears to be poor and appears to be worsening (this is particularly poor news for those carrying gas through time in UNG, as contango will expand in a loosening environment).  It’s prospects into May do not look bright given that we rolled the May contract this week at $4.27 – 95 cents (30%) above last year’s May expiry and 43 cents above April.  This is a level that will offer pause for many of those executing economic options between coal and natural gas for power generation and encourage any existing price-sensitive marginal production.  Price responsiveness – on both sides of the equation – has become a defining characteristic of gas in the new shale era.  May at $4.27 will likely not help to tighten the balance, but should help to highlight the importance of storage data over production data in assessing the US gas market.

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We haven’t heard any information about this phone in a long time. If you all remember this phone is rumored to be the Google branded Nexus Two. Recently a device from Motorola, the Motorola MB810, passed through the Wi-Fi Alliance. Apparently this device has the codename Shadow which will likely be changed by the time it’s released.

Some rumored specs include, 4.3 inch capacitive touch screen display, full QWERTY keyboard, 8MP autofocus camera, and Android 2.2 and it has Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. there has been a few reports that this device may land on Verizon, my guess is it will be a GSM device sold by Google and will be the second in the Nexus series of superphones. Only time will tell, these next few weeks should be very exciting for Android lovers that need a powerful device with a keyboard.

[via slashphone]

It’s been 48 years since Andy Warhol demonstrated that an ordinary American food brand could be worth thinking about other than when you’re hungry. Now, Eric Robert Parnes is up to much the same thing, albeit with work that’s a bit more provocative than a can of Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup.

  In his paintings, Parnes, a 31-year-old Iranian American artist, portrays brands like McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks open for business in Middle Eastern countries. Each of his canvases features a group of women in chadors, their backs turned, regarding the fast-food outlets with thoughts that are anyone’s guess. Parnes—whose far-ranging work also includes gold-leafed artillery helmets and nudes equipped with gas masks—says his intent was not to be critical of American fast food’s presence in Muslim countries but to "explore … the dynamics involving Western and Eastern cultures." And for better or worse, Western "culture" these days usually means fast food.

  "Aside from the American flag, people identify the United States via our products’ visual logos," Parnes tells BrandFreak. "These brands have become visual representations that elicit an immediate response of recognition. It really doesn’t even matter that Domino’s or Starbucks is spelled out in another language. All we need is a logo to recognize the company."

  So, good news for all you fast-food marketers out there: Your logo works just as well in Riyadh as it does in Rochester.

—Posted by Robert Klara

The U.S. Green Building Council Institute recently announced the newest U.S. facility to earn the prestigious – the Sony Electronics (SEL) headquarters building in San Diego. The LEED certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

“When we began laying out initial plans for our headquarters, we knew we wanted green to play a major role in its construction,” said Ed Cotter, Executive Vice President, Sony Electronics. “As a major consumer electronics company, we take sustainability very seriously and seek out efforts to reduce our environmental footprint wherever possible.”

The building design integrated a number of green elements in accordance with the Green Building Council’s LEED requirements, including 80 bicycle racks, 140 spaces reserved for vehicles opting to carpool, and 76 set aside for fuel-efficient vehicles, to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Climate change remains a big environmental problem throughout the globe,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “But innovative companies like Sony Electronics are helping address the issue through local solutions such as building sustainable facilities.”

SEL maneuvered more than 92 percent of the building construction debris away from local landfills. In addition, open space accounts for 29 percent of the lot, with vegetation making up 52 percent more than double the requirement.

Building materials, local resources

Nearly 15 percent of the buildings materials are local, garnered from within 500 miles of the sites location in the Rancho Bernardo community. A minimum of 75 percent of the wood used in the framing, flooring and furniture is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council a non-profit organization that promotes the responsible management of the world s forests and 47 percent of the building materials have been manufactured using recycled materials.

Water efficiency

The buildings use of low-flow water fixtures ensures rates of water usage up to 47 percent lower than current codes, in conjunction with the use of condensate water from air-conditioning units. The building also captures 90 percent of storm water runoff onsite.

Energy and atmosphere

SEL designed its headquarters to maximize energy performance by 22.6 percent with the installation of lighting sensors throughout the building in addition to variable speed drives for A/C units.

Solar panels are installed on the building’s parking garage to collect energy for the local utility company, a feature that offsets nearly five percent of the total energy cost. The buildings designers also optimized the use of natural lighting in its construction 75 percent of the facilities total square footage receives natural sunlight.

This information is a press release that originally appeared on Sony Electronics News; photos by Costea Photography.

Filed under: Sedan, Safety, Technology, Chevrolet

Over the course of Bob Lutz’ tenure at General Motors, one of his major goals was globalizing the production process. As Lutz tells it, the Pontiac GTO was the first global vehicle born of his labors, with development work being done in both Australia and North America. But the GTO, and its follow-up, the Pontiac G8/Holden Commodore, were niche products sold in limited numbers in limited markets. The real test of global product development comes when it’s applied to high-volume mainstream products.

That’s were the Epsilon II and Delta II architectures come into play. Epsilon is GM’s mid-large platform (D/E segment) while Delta is the compact (C segment) platform. We’ve already seen the Epsilon II here in America, underpinning the Buick LaCrosse, but the Chevrolet Cruze proved to be a tougher nut to crack. One of the most difficult challenges in the global production strategy is the differing safety standards around the world, along with the guidelines imposed by non-governmental bodies like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Creating a platform that can live up to all of these standards without being absurdly heavy is a problem. Find out how GM tackled the problem and found a solution after the jump.

Continue reading 2011 Chevrolet Cruze: A Safety Story [w/video]

2011 Chevrolet Cruze: A Safety Story [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I have to admit, I thought it was pretty amusing to see this headline in the BBC:

Yahoo chief Carol Bartz sees trouble for Google.

What else is she supposed to say? Of course she’s going to slag the company that totally destroyed Yahoo at its own game, but the real question is why would anyone listen? Yahoo isn’t exactly in the position of being able to say what Google should be doing, given that every single move that Yahoo has tried against Google has failed — sometimes miserably. Bartz’s comments get more amusing the further the article goes on:

“Google is going to have a problem because Google is only known for search…”

Well, I guess she should know. While she won’t admit it, people still tend to think of Yahoo as search as well. And Yahoo spent so much time trying to diversify that if they don’t think about Yahoo as search these days… they just think about Yahoo as being a confused jumble of sites that don’t do much. In the meantime, despite her claims, it does appear that Google has expanded well beyond search. AdSense (which is about other content sites) makes them lots of money. Pretty much everyone I know uses Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Maps rather than the Yahoo equivalents. I’m trying to think of what other areas Yahoo has expanded into that have been successful for the company.

But the funniest statement of all:

“Google has to grow a company the size of Yahoo every year to be interesting.”

I don’t think that anyone judges Google based on how “interesting” they are. Is that the metric they use at Yahoo? Does that explain the $47 million she apparently made last year? Because she made Yahoo so interesting? Well, I guess it should be admitted that Yahoo is the company that is trying (and so far, failing) to patent “interestingness,” so perhaps she’s just urging Google to be interesting for the sake of a future patent fight? In the meantime, I would assume that, at Google, they judge the company based on how much money it makes — and on that front, it appears to be cleaning Yahoo’s clock on a pretty regular basis.

As for “growing a company the size of Yahoo every year,” that becomes easier and easier as Yahoo gets smaller and smaller.

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This week we are seeing two starkly different uses of offshore natural resources playing out on a national stage.  In the context of emerging climate and energy legislation, its worth taking another look at the risks and costs of both as Congress and the Obama Administration deliberate on policy incentives for offshore wind and oil that are pursued through legislation or Executive Branch action.

In Louisiana, an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day are leaking from BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico after Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded a few days ago.  Reports are that people in Louisiana can already smell the oil.  BP is working to stop the flow of oil and experts suggest BP will need to drill a “relief well” to halt the leak.  Such a mitigation process can take upwards of 3 months.  BP is reportedly spending $6 million a day in this effort and preparation of two relief wells will cost an estimated $200 million.  (Adding in US Government support costs, Evolution Securities suggests that the “net cost to BP of the cleanup operation so far plus the drilling of two relief wells would be around $845 million.”  This figure does not necessarily address harm some experts anticipate to Louisiana coastal communities and their ecosystem services, and potential punitive damages that could emerge. The punitive damage figure for ExxonMobil as a result of the Valdez spill in Alaska was approximately $507.5 million after the Supreme Court struck down the original figure of $2.5 billion as excessive.) 

Meanwhile, off the coast of Nantucket, the drawn out battle over the reported 420 MW offshore Cape Wind project took a positive step forward when Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced federal approval.  Reports are that the project will cost approximately $900 million to build, a remarkably similar figure to the costs of direct mitigation for BP’s Louisiana debacle noted above.  Cape Wind will also reduce annual US greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 734,000 tons and replace 113 million gallons of foreign oil; both figures on an annual basis.  According to the Massachusetts Energy Facility Siting Board, Cape Wind will help stabilize and lower consumer electricity costs in the region.  A recent report by Charles River Associates indicates that Cape Wind will reduce the wholesale price of power in New England by an annual average of $185 million, resulting in an aggregate savings of $4.6 billion over 25 years.

It is ironic that two key offshore energy projects are in the spotlight at the same time and just as the Senate debate on climate and energy legislation heats up with consensus to pass a bill based on the right balance of incentives for fossil fuels and renewable energy.  A quick comparison of the two projects suggests it might be a better investment and policy direction to develop incentives to blow instead of drill off the coasts of the United States.  But will there be enough votes in the Senate to pass a climate bill if offshore drilling is scaled back?  Stay tuned.

First Solar, the thin-film PV company, first-quarter profit rose 4.7 percent to $172.3 million from $164.6 million. First Solar expects  sales this year will be between  $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion. Because of tightening government subsidies in Europe,  to grow sales First Solar is acquiring project developers in the U.S. This week the company paid $285 million for San Francisco utility-scale solar power developer NextLight Renewable Power [Bloomberg Businessweek].

Danish wind turbine maker Vestas reported a first quarter loss of €83 million ($109.9 million) from a €56 million profit posted in the previous profits.  In a statement the company said “The decline in revenue and earnings reflects the much lower level of activity and Vestas’ decision not to adjust its capacity further because of short-term market developments.” The company says the slowdown is short-term and remains bullish for the long-term.  It says production capacity by the end of the year will stand at 10,000 megawatts. Vestas recently scored a huge contract to supply 1,500 megawatts worth of turbines to Portuguese clean energy company EDP Renovaveis [BusinessGreen.com].

Having a sense of humor is important to survival. It helps you cope with the down times and to appreciate the good times. Just ask those yucksters at Microsoft, who have put together a very helpful guide on how to gauge your level of humor competency.

According to those wild and crazy Softies, someone who is competent at humor, “Has a positive and constructive sense of humor. Can laugh at him/herself and with others. Is appropriately funny and can use humor to ease tension.”

They also provide a helpful guide (see above) where you can determine where your level of humor proficiency on a scale from “Basic” to “Expert.”

If you’re on the lower end of that chart, Microsoft has some questions you can ask yourself to get out of your comedy rut:
• In a seemingly serious situation, what nuggets of humor or irony can I find?
• When faced with a potentially difficult situation, is there a way that humor could help? Could lead to a better outcome?
• Am I funnier than I think I am? Less funny? Who will give me an honest assessment of my sense of humor?
• Could I start my next meeting, presentation, or conversation by telling a funny story?

Or maybe you’re just too “on” all the time… like Robin Williams during his cocaine years. In that case, here are the navel-gazing questions to ask of your inner gut-buster:
• When have I used humor in the last year when I shouldn’t have? When it may have backfired?
• Do I ever encourage a near party atmosphere because of my comfort with using humor?
• Do I avoid discussing or solving the real issue by making a joke?

They even have a list of recommended reading that includes such subversive literature as a Dilbert book and an audio recording by Dave Barry.

We hope that this has all been of assistance in increasing your humor quotient.

Competencies: Humor [Microsoft, via Geekosystem.com]

The browser war is heating up on all fronts, and Skyfire is at the front of the game with Skyfire 2.0 beta for Android.  Offering improvements over Skyfire 1.0, version 2.0 introduces the “SkyBar,” a tool that allows users to play Flash videos (thanks to a video conversion on Skyfire’s side) without trouble.  In the spirit of sharing, the user can upload videos, links, and websites to the social media outlet that they prefer.

With the launch of their Android browser and the potential for a release on iPhone, Skyfire is making the rounds across all of the major platforms.  Hey, we all like choice, and if the screenshots are any indication, Skyfire 2.0 for Android offers some substantial improvements over the stock browser.  To download, head over to bit.ly/skyfireandroid, and be sure to hit the comments section with your feedback!

Images via Engadget

Skyfire Launches the First Flash Video Enabled Mobile Browser for Android
The first ‘mobile browser for the Social Media generation’ eliminates broken links from your Facebook stream, tracks Twitter buzz, and makes sharing easy

Mountain View, CA – April 29, 2010– Skyfire, maker of the award-winning web-browser for mobile devices, today launches Skyfire 2.0 for Android, making the mobile internet experience faster, Flash-enabled and fun, with media recommendations and social features. Skyfire is one of the fastest growing mobile browsers in the world, ranking in the top 10 all-time apps in the Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Marketplace.

Skyfire 2.0 for Android is built upon many of the popular features of Skyfire’s 1.0 browser, and uses cloud computing to give a “booster engine” to mobile phones so they can handle rich media like video.  And now, Skyfire 2.0 for Android takes mobile browsing to a new level with the addition of the SkyBarTM, a new toolbar that lets users enjoy millions of videos previously unviewable on mobile, and also discover the latest buzz on any topic they browse.

What is the SkyBarTM???The SkyBar brings the best of the internet to a mobile user’s fingertips, without any additional searching. By activating the SkyBar with a single touch, users are given access to Flash videos on a web page that otherwise would not play, related content recommendations, and easier sharing with their social networks.

• • Video –The “Video” icon enables users to play millions of Flash videos around the web that otherwise do not play on mobile. This unlocks content trapped behind those error messages with question marks and blue Legos.  Behind the scenes, videos are translated into a format easier for the phone to play, like html5 video. 
  • Related Content – The “Explore” icon brings the most relevant content on the internet to a user’s fingertips based on what they are viewing at the time. The Explore button pulls video, buzz, news, images and other sites from the web based on what is on the current page. 
  • Sharing – The “Share” icon lets users share any article or video easily to their friends on Facebook, Twitter, or by email and SMS messaging, adding a comment, and all with a single click. 
    

The first mobile browser for the social media generation:
“Skyfire 2.0 was built for the way people use social media and the web today. People are now starting their web experience by scanning their Facebook and Twitter news feeds,” explains Jeff Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. “Our new browser allows you to open those links and view the videos that your friends have shared. To make that work, people need a browser that can handle the full internet.”
 
The Power of Cloud Computing: ?
Skyfire on Android uses cloud-computing technology to enable this web video; the benefits for consumers include faster and smoother video playback, and extended battery life by offloading more of the work to cloud servers.  At the same time, since Skyfire 2.0 is built on a webkit core, users get all the functionality they know on the default Android browser, such as pinch to zoom, copy and paste, find text on the page, open up to eight browser tabs, and more.
 
Skyfire is one of the fastest growing downloadable browsers with usage increasing 500% year over year, and currently streaming over 25 million minutes of Flash video every month, more than any other mobile browser worldwide.
Skyfire 2.0 for Android is available for download worldwide free at bit.ly/skyfireandroid
 
About Skyfire?
Skyfire is the creator of the Skyfire mobile browser, and has a mission to enable the “full internet” including rich media on mobile phones. The browser won the Best Mobile Application-People’s Voice at the 2009 Webby Awards and was named a Top App of 2009 by the New York Times’ Gadgetwise. Skyfire is based in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley.  For more information, visit www.skyfire.com, or follow Skyfire on Twitter attwitter.com/skyfire.

The 21-year-old California man who found a prototype iPhone and then sold it to gadget site Gizmodo.com says he now regrets not attempting to return the phone to its rightful owner.

Talking through his lawyer yesterday, he admitted to Wired.com that he was paid by Gizmodo for what he believed was exclusive access to review the iPhone and that the site told him “there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press.”

“He regrets his mistake in not doing more to return the phone,” says Bornstein’s statement. “Even though he did obtain some compensation from Gizmodo, Brian thought that it was so that they could review the phone.”

The finder of the phone has been interviewed by police, but not yet charged. However, the cloud is not gone from over his head just yet.

Writes Wired:

The person who found the phone “is very definitely one of the people who is being looked at as a suspect in theft,” San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told Wired.com Wednesday. “Assuming there’s ultimately a crime here. That’s what we’re still gauging, is this a crime, is it a theft?”

The finder made no direct effort to return the iPhone himself, though reports claim that a friend of his attempted to contact AppleCare to no avail. According to the owners of the bar where it had been found, he never told anyone there that he’d found the phone. If he had, he’d have learned that the Apple engineer who’d lost it had come back to the bar on several occasions to see if it had been found yet.

As reported earlier this week, police searched the home of the Gizmodo editor who wrote the story.

“This thing has gotten completely, completely out of control,” said the iPhone finder’s lawyer. “He made a mistake… He should have just immediately turned that phone in.”

iPhone Finder Regrets His ‘Mistake’ [Wired.com]

Por fuera hemos visto que su motor y capacidad offroad están a la altura de lo esperado. Por fuera no es un coche muy vistoso, sino más bien algo cuadradote que recuerda a los Volvo de los años 80.

Pero como os adelantaba en la parte anterior, lo bonito está en el interior, y no precisamente su motor Bóxer Diesel, que también, sino su habitabilidad interior. Es verdaderamente espacioso y cómodo, agradable, donde llenarlo de maletas y personas y hacer un viaje a la nieve, será la primera tentación que tengamos.

Diseño exterior e interior

Aunque cada vez es menos común hablar de líneas poco redondeadas en los modelos de los coches, bien es cierto que aún siguen existiendo. El caso del Subaru Outback es uno de ellos, en el que la marca prefiere mejorar el interior que el exterior del coche. Eso se puede intuir nada más acceder al interior del coche, pero vayamos por partes.

La parrilla delantera es ciertamente agresiva y ha sufrido una modificación considerable, manteniendo su atrevido logo intacto, aunque muchas personas de la calle poco apasionadas del motor no lo reconozcan. Lo que más sobresale es su altura al suelo y su gran entrada de aire para refrigerar el motor. No es propio del motor, sino que la marca lo lleva introduciendo desde hace tiempo.

De siempre los Subaru han sido algo horteras (que nadie se ofenda). Aún recuerdo aquel Impreza WRX STi de color azul con llantas doradas estilo Clio Williams y alerón… pero eso ha cambiado y lejos de eso, ahora quieren presentarse como marca elegante y si me apuráis premium. Motivos y ganas no les faltan.

La parte trasera no ayuda a la estética, siendo fría y sin personalidad. El tubo de escape con salida inferior tampoco induce a pensar que se trata de un coche potente, aunque sí útil y versátil, con las barras superiores para montar una baca. Sin embargo, se ve que no es un coche antiguo cuando miramos en general a los cuadros ópticos, ya sean delanteros, traseros o intermitentes en los espejos.

Sus 4,76 metros de longitud, 1,82 de anchura y 1,61 de altura son propios de un coche para poder meter casi lo que se quiera. Su peso de 1.646 kilos se nota en el acelerador cuando intentamos moverlo. Monta de serie unos neumáticos de 17 pulgadas (225/60), aptos para carretera y superficies deslizantes; con menos perdería cualidades.

Interiormente cambia todo; la sensación es muy cómoda, apetece sentarse y no levantarse de su tapicería de cuero microperforado (no disponible en el acabado Premium). Además de asiento eléctrico para conductor, los traseros permiten dos posiciones de respaldo, muy cómodo para viajes largos.

Comenzando por el maletero de nada más y nada menos que 526 litros con palancas de fácil acceso para abatir los asientos traseros y cortina para no dificultar el acceso, en general todas las plazas disponen de espacio suficiente para ir cómodos. La postura del conductor por lo tanto, es cómoda tanto en espacio como en altura y distancia a pedales y volante. La visibilidad es mejorable.

El cuero de la tapicería es de buena calidad, igual que los plásticos del salpicadero y elementos que componen las puertas y otros espacios, de una tonalidad beige en la parte inferior y oscura en la superior, con ligeros tonos plateados que le otorgan elegancia al conjunto. El tacto del volante es normal, no destaca, pero tampoco incomoda.

Una de las cosas que más me gusta en los coches es cuando disponen de gran cantidad de guanteras y portaobjetos y en este coche los hay. Las puertas disponen de amplios espacios, las gafas de sol tienen su propio escondite, redes tras asientos delanteros, espacio visible en plazas posteriores tras el reposabrazos central con dos compartimentos para tarjetas u objetos de pequeño volumen y otro inferior para más voluminosos para plazas delanteras y en parte media de consola central, portavasos entre asientos, además de la habitual guantera para la documentación del vehículo y otros objetos. Creo que no se me olvida ninguno, aunque no me extrañaría.

Como véis, el diseño exterior se ve con creces superado con la habitabilidad interior y al fin y al cabo, el propietario disfrutará más del interior que del exterior. Pero aún queda lo mejor, su equipamiento que no es poco. Aunque en materia de seguridad no anda excesivamente sobrado. Mañana el desenlace.

Subaru Outback 2.0 Boxer Diesel Limited 150CV

Fotos | Jorge Rubio

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I thought the last batch of Round One ARRA award announcements might be the last. It looks as if that suspicion has been confirmed. According to Telecompetitor (and to Ann Higgins for passing it on), that was the last batch of Round One awards.

Also according to Telecompetitor…

The nine new grants bring the total value of awards made by the NTIA in Round 1 to $1.2 billion. Considering that the NTIA was charged with awarding a total of $4.7 billion in two funding rounds, that leaves more than half for the second round.

So that’s good news for anyone who’s in the hopper for Round Two funding. First – there’s more money to be spent. Second, fewer folks have submitted applications.

According to my own tally, this is how Minnesota did:

• Total loans: 31,939,636
• Total grants: 87,438,857 ** however that includes 47,778,669 in funds that go to multi-state projects; so 39,660,188 is going more directly to Minnesota

by Jonathan Hiskes

It’s a week to remember—or better yet, forget.  Who could have
imagined such a confluence of terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad events,
rounding up what has to be the most disheartening “Earth Month” ever? 

In what may soon be the worst oil spill in U.S. history, crude is gushing into the Gulf of
Mexico and bleeding into Louisiana
wetlands. The situation is so dire
that our best environmental option is to set
it ablaze. Eleven workers died when
the rig blew up. Economic disaster may
follow ecological and human disaster, with the fishing, shrimping, and tourism industries likely to take a body blow. Remember when President
Obama called for a major
expansion of offshore drilling four weeks ago and said “oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills”? How comforting.

Two coal miners
were crushed to death in Kentucky while working for a company
with
a long history of endangering its workers.
This story should have shocked the nation, but coming in the wake of 29
miner deaths earlier this month and in the shadow of the oil spill, it got
barely of blip of attention.

The Chinese
coal freighter that crashed into the Great Barrier Reef a few
weeks ago remains stuck and Australian authorities say the best option may
be to sink it.

Even the week’s good news—the Obama administration’s
approval of Cape Wind, which would be the nation’s first
offshore wind farm—feels pretty bad.
While offshore oil drilling proceeds merrily along with bipartisan
support, it’s taken nine years of torturous wrangling to get this far with
Cape Wind. Environmentalists continue to
spar over it, and still more litigation and stalling will follow before a
single turbine goes online along a U.S. coastline. “I’m worried about all those
wind turbines blowing up & leaving a wind-slick on the coast of Cape Cod,” quipped one
climate reporter.

That’s just this week. Looking
back at the whole month of April, we had Massey’s Big Branch mine disaster,
another coal miner death in
West Virginia, an oil refinery explosion in Washington state that killed
five workers, an 18,000-gallon oil spill
from a Chevron pipeline into the Louisiana Delta, and, as mentioned above, a big oil spill at the world’s largest continuous coral reef.

The connection running
through every one of these disasters, of course, is dirty energy—oil and
coal. Only a fool would refuse to see the need to end our addiction.

Speaking of which, the U.S. Senate looks
likely to turn its back on the problem for the year. Plans to introduce a climate
and energy bill this week—albeit one that’s disturbingly friendly to the
fossil-fuel industry—are on the skids because
of a spat between Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Leave it to a business
professor to find a “silver lining” in the week’s terrible news:  “I think it may create some temporarily
spikes in employment if the companies hire some local labor to clean up the
spill,” Rajesh Narayanan, professor of finance at Louisiana State University’s business
school, told The New York Times.

The craziest part is
that our leaders continue pledging their tender loving care not to the natural world
but to the GDP. 

“Think of the language
our politicians use,” author and global organizer Bill McKibben said in a
recent conversation. “‘The economy is ailing.’ ‘It’s hit a rough patch.’ Or ‘It’s
healing.’ Or ‘showing signs of healing.’ I mean, we talk about it like you
would your great aunt. But with the planet, it’s ‘natural cycles’ and ‘pay no
attention.’ ‘The Arctic melted: must be a natural cycle someplace.’”

We’re still acting as
if the economy is the thing that’s real, the thing with physical weight and
force. We’re acting as if the natural world is the abstraction, the intellectual
concept that we can adjust to better suit our needs. That confusion will be the
root of more disasters.

Related Links:

Wake up, Obama. The Gulf spill is our big chance

Obama puts offshore drilling on hold as Gulf of Mexico oil slick reaches U.S. coast

The Climate Post: Mighty winds a-blowin’

Gorilla conservationists in Nigeria have a new ally–snails. The critically endangered Cross River gorilla is under constant threat from poachers in this poor nation, as poachers kill the animals for their bushmeat or sell them illegally to traffickers in the exotic pet trade. With just 300 Cross River gorillas left, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) hopes to offer locals an alternate source of both food and revenue so they’ll leave the poor apes alone. Enter the snail. For this conservation project, the WCS picked eight former gorilla poachers and got them to start farming African giant snails, a local delicacy. The WCS helped the poachers construct snail pens and stocked each pen with 230 giant snails, writes Scientific American. As the snails breed quickly, farmers can expect a harvest of 3,000 snails per year. Scientific American adds:
According to WCS, this should end up being a fairly profitable enterprise for local farmers. Annual costs are estimated at just $87 per farmer, with profits around $413 per year. The meat of one gorilla, says the WCS, would net a poacher around $70.
Related Content:
80beats: Bushmeat Debate: How Can We Save Gorillas Without Starving People?
80beats: New Threat to Primates Worldwide: Being “Eaten Into Extinction”
DISCOVER: Extinction–It’s What’s …

Structure, GigaOM’s flagship conference, returns on June 23rd and 24th for two days of deep insight into the cloud computing industry. Taking place at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, it promises to be our best Structure conference yet.

A new feature this year is the Startup LaunchPad. Held at the end of the first day, this is where our selection of the 10 best startups or major product launches take the stage. From the chips that power the compute clouds to the broadband that transports the computation and the software that ties it all together, cloud computing is creating a fundamental shift in how we think about and buy computing services, and if your startup is going to be one of the major disruptors, we want to hear from you.

Here are some reasons why you should submit your startup for the LaunchPad:

• You will get to pitch your product and service — preference is given to those launching at Structure 2010.
• You will be presenting in front of venture capitalists, journalists and your potential future customers.
• Your presentation will be streamed live — we had more than 5,000 unique viewers for Structure 09.
• You will be given three passes to the conference, where you’ll get to rub shoulders with Paul Maritz of VMware, Erich Clementi of IBM, Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com and many, many more — take a look at the full schedule.

So do it — enter your startup for consideration in the Structure 2010 LaunchPad today. Full details and the entry form can be found here.

Not part of a startup? Then you should attend in order to find out what cloud computing has to offer. Click here to get $100 off your ticket. But hurry — this event will sell out!

Structure 2010 also represents a great way to directly address one of the most influential tech audiences anywhere. Call Mike Sly at (415) 235-0358 to find out how your company can exhibit.