No show stoppers for concentrating solar power

ScienceDaily (July 4, 2012) ? A recently published study confirms that solar thermal power is largely unrestricted by materials availability. There are, however, some issues that the industry needs to look into soon, like replacing silver in mirrors.

In the wake of Chinese export restrictions on rare earth metals, the dependence of some renewable technologies on scarce materials has gained attention. Several players in the wind and PV industry are struggling to get away from excessive use of restricted elements, such as indium or rare earth metals. Meanwhile, there has been a shared notion amongst solar scientists and industry that Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) should "probably" be less restricted, being built mainly on commonplace commodities like steel and glass.

A recently published study from Chalmers University of Technology has gone into the details on material issues for CSP. The main conclusion is that CSP does indeed seem to be largely unrestricted, viewing the material requirements compared to the global reserves. In theory, enough solar plants could be built to cover -- at the very least -- five times the current global electricity demand.

However, the report also highlights some issues that are likely to pose challenges to the industry. The main point of concern is that silver, today extensively used for reflecting surfaces, will most likely be in short supply in the coming decades even without demand from a booming CSP industry. CSP mirror manufacturers might have to look at other reflective surface materials, such as aluminium, to secure cost competitiveness.

"The prospects for strong growth for CSP over the next few decades seem good, but would cause a stir on the global commodity markets," says Dr Erik Pihl, lead author of the scientific article.

Following a Greenpeace/IEA SolarPACES/ESTELA growth scenario where CSP reaches 8000 TWh/year in 2050, the solar plants would consume up to 50-120% of today's yearly nitrate salt production, and 5-15% of several common materials such as glass, nickel, magnesium and molybdenum.

The report has used data directly from plant manufacturers Cobra and eSolar for trough and tower plants. These plants have somewhat different characteristics when it comes to material use.

"Parabolic trough plants tend to use a lot of concrete and iron, while the concept of small heliostat tower plants has a higher use of aluminium and stainless steel," says Erik Pihl. "The common design of a parabolic trough plant also requires more molten salt per MW than a salt-receiver tower plant, even when the former has fewer storage hours. That means that trough plants appear slightly more sensitive than tower plants to possible salt production bottlenecks, unless other storage techniques can be employed."

Erik Pihl believes that we can expect to see material demands for plants decreasing as we go for higher steam temperatures and increased plant efficiency.

"We see that clearly when comparing a mature design to a novel concept. That does not automatically mean that all material restriction problems will be solved. We might trade a large use of common materials for small quantities of scarce elements. It comes down to what alloys we use in pipes, receivers and turbines."

Higher temperatures means more use of high quality steels, but alloy materials such as molybdenum and niobium have restrictions in both stock and production.

"There might be enough for CSP alone, but there are many other uses," says Erik Pihl. "That could be a problem in the more distant future. In the short term, substituting silver and increasing nitrate salt production should be the first priority."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Chalmers University of Technology, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Erik Pihl, Duncan Kushnir, Bj?rn Sand?n, Filip Johnsson. Material constraints for concentrating solar thermal power. Energy, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2012.04.057

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120704124053.htm

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Spain police recover priceless 12th-century Codex

File - In this photo taken in 2004 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, one of the pages of the original 12th century religious Calixtinus Codex manuscript in seen in the cathedral. Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested four people on Wednesday July 4, 2012 in connection with the theft of the priceless collection of 12th-century religious manuscripts which police say they have now found in a garage. The missing, richly-decorated tome, considered the first guide for people making the ancient Christian pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago, the Spanish name for the Way of St. James was stolen a year ago. (AP Photo/Str, File)

File - In this photo taken in 2004 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, one of the pages of the original 12th century religious Calixtinus Codex manuscript in seen in the cathedral. Spain's Interior Ministry says police have arrested four people on Wednesday July 4, 2012 in connection with the theft of the priceless collection of 12th-century religious manuscripts which police say they have now found in a garage. The missing, richly-decorated tome, considered the first guide for people making the ancient Christian pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago, the Spanish name for the Way of St. James was stolen a year ago. (AP Photo/Str, File)

MADRID (AP) ? Spanish police recovered on Wednesday a priceless 12th-century religious manuscript known as the Codex Calixtinus, which was stolen from a cathedral last year. The find came a day after four suspects were arrested in connection with the theft, the Interior Ministry said.

The richly-decorated Codex was found in a garage close to the cathedral from where it was taken in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela. The tome is considered the first guide for people making the ancient Christian pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago, the Spanish name for the Way of St. James.

The find came after police arrested an electrician who previously worked at the cathedral, his wife and son, and another woman on Tuesday. The ministry said police found some ?1.2 million ($1.5 million) as well as other valuable religious works at houses belonging to the detainees.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-07-04-Spain-Stolen%20Codex/id-4a624f1240e04802a5b34928701e067a

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French arrest Tunisian suspected of financing and recruiting for al-Qaida, other terror groups

PARIS - French authorities filed preliminary terrorism charges Tuesday against a Tunisian administrator of an extremist French website who is suspected of playing a key role in financing and recruiting for al-Qaida and other violent groups.

The announcement of the suspect's arrest was unusually dramatic and public for French authorities, but it did not spell out what evidence has been culled or how much money may have been involved, or provide the man's name. It is the first publicly announced suspected terrorist arrest since President Francois Hollande took office in May.

The suspect - whom prosecutors described as a "formidable financier of the bloodiest terrorist groups" - was questioned Tuesday by anti-terrorism Judge Marc Trevidic in Paris.

Preliminary charges were filed against him for suspected plotting of terrorist acts and financing a terrorist enterprise, the prosecutor's office said. Under French law, preliminary charges mean investigating magistrates have strong reason to believe a crime was committed, and allow further time for investigation before a decision is made on whether to send the case to trial.

The suspect will remain in custody pending further investigation.

Prosecutors say he is suspected of acting as a financier and recruiter for an unusually broad range of terrorist groups stretching from South Asia across the Middle East to North Africa: al-Qaida, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Lebanon-based Fatah al-Islam, the Islamic State of Iraq, Tawhid al-Jihad, and Palestinian extremist group Jaish al-Islam.

The man, born in Tunisia in 1977, was based in the southern French city of Toulon. He was arrested Friday after a yearlong investigation, the prosecutor's statement said.

Masked agents took part in the raid to arrest him in Toulon, then he was transferred to national anti-terrorist authorities in Paris, said a judicial official in Toulon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about ongoing investigations.

The Paris prosecutor cited "serious and concordant evidence" that the suspect sent material from his computer to terrorist groups. It says he played a "central role" in collecting funds for terrorist groups to buy weapons, but did not elaborate on how much money was involved.

Investigators studied thousands of email messages and analyzed a "considerable mass" of data, prosecutors said. They called it an exceptionally advanced example of "the use of the Internet for terrorist ends in the domain of radical Islam."

A former senior French counterterrorism official, Louis Caprioli, said the suspected terrorism financing was likely in the thousands of euros, to purchase weapons, and not something on a larger scale.

But he said it is "unusual" to find enough evidence to charge someone with alleged terrorism financing and said this suspect "has a dangerous profile, a profile superior to other suspects."

France's Europe-1 radio reported that the suspect's website was in French but hosted outside France, and that it included an encrypted private messaging function that allowed the suspect to communicate with foreign terrorist groups.

In a separate terrorism probe, three suspected members of the Islamist extremist group Forsane Alizza were arrested Tuesday in suburbs of Paris, an official said. Anti-terrorist investigators searched their homes before making the arrests, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named.

European authorities in countries ranging from Italy to Germany and Spain have made periodic arrests over the last year of suspects accused of al-Qaida-inspired financing or recruiting. But the arrest in France stood out because of officials' description of the man's financing capabilities and his alleged work for so many al-Qaida offshoots.

Such detentions are unusual in Europe, said Magnus Ranstorp, a terror expert at the Swedish National Defence College. "Usually it's one-offs, pretty small fish," he said. "It is very rare that you will have facilitators who work with so many multiple franchises."

Ranstorp also said the volume of electronic information seized indicates the suspect didn't take adequate security precautions. "If what they say is true, a lot of people (who were in contact with the suspect) will now spend more time on their own security than they will on plotting and planning," Ranstorp said.

French authorities are sometimes criticized for being too zealous in rounding up terrorist suspects, and arrests do not always result in convictions. They also are sometimes criticized for not acting fast enough.

That was the case with Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman killed in a standoff with police in March after allegedly killing three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi, and three paratroopers in a rampage in southern France. Those were the country's worst terrorist attacks since the 1990s.

Authorities later acknowledged that Merah, who espoused radical Islam and had trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, had been questioned by French intelligence well before the attacks.

Also earlier this year, a French court sentenced an Algerian-born nuclear physicist to five years in prison for his role in plotting terrorism with al-Qaida's north African wing via online contacts. Adlene Hicheur, a former researcher at Switzerland's CERN physics laboratory, was convicted of "criminal association with a view to plotting terrorist attacks."

His defenders say Hicheur was a victim of France's over-zealous anti-terrorism laws and that he explored ideas on jihadist websites but never took any concrete step toward terrorism.

___

Alan Clendenning in Madrid, Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Paris and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-arrest-tunisian-suspected-financing-recruiting-al-qaida-213128869.html

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July 4th: Musings on the meaning of true patriotism

When arguing against paying their fair share of taxes, some people claim ?it?s my money.? Robert Reich says such people forget it?s their nation, too. True patriotism means paying for America, it means coming together for the common good.

By Robert Reich,?Guest blogger / July 3, 2012

In this February 2012 file photo anti-tax activist Grover Norquist addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Norquist's no-tax pledge has been touted as a patriotic duty by some conservatives. But Robert Reich argues that true patriotism means paying for the rights and privileges afforded by the Constitution, even if that means higher taxes.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Enlarge

In the last two weeks, the Supreme Court has allowed police in Arizona to demand proof of citizenship from people they stop on other grounds (while throwing out the rest of Arizona?s immigration law), and has allowed the federal government to require everyone buy health insurance ? even younger and healthier people ? or pay a penalty.?

Skip to next paragraph Robert Reich

Robert is chancellor?s professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Clinton. Time Magazine?named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written 13 books, including ?The Work of Nations,? his latest best-seller ?Aftershock: The Next Economy and America?s Future," and a new?e-book, ?Beyond Outrage.??He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

Recent posts

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What do these decisions ? and the national conversations they?ve engendered ? have to do with patriotism? A great deal. Because underlying them are two different versions of American patriotism.?

The Arizona law is aimed at securing the nation from outsiders. The purpose of the heatlhcare law is to join together to provide affordable health care for all.?

The first version of patriotism is protecting America from people beyond our borders who might otherwise overrun us ? whether immigrants coming here illegally or foreign powers threatening us with aggression.?

The second version of patriotism is joining together for the common good. That might mean contributing to a bake sale to raise money for a local school or volunteering in a homeless shelter. It also means paying our fair share of taxes so our community or nation has enough resources to meet all our needs, and preserving and protecting our system of government.?

This second meaning of patriotism recognizes our responsibilities to one another as citizens of the same society. It requires collaboration, teamwork, tolerance, and selflessness.?

The Affordable Care Act isn?t perfect, but in requiring younger and healthier people to buy insurance that will help pay for the healthcare needs of older and sicker people, it summons the second version of patriotism.?

Too often these days we don?t recognize and don?t practice this second version. We?re shouting at each other rather than coming together ? conservative versus liberal, Democrat versus Republican, native-born versus foreign born, non-unionized versus unionized, religious versus secular.?

Our politics has grown nastier and meaner. Negative advertising is filling the airwaves this election year. We?re learning more about why we shouldn?t vote for someone than why we should.

As I?ve said before, some elected officials have substituted partisanship for patriotism, placing party loyalty above loyalty to America.?Just after the 2010 election, the Senate minority leader was asked about his party?s highest?priority for the next two years. You might have expected him to say it was to get the economy going and reduce unemployment, or control the budge?deficit, or achieve peace and stability in the Middle East. But he said?the highest priority would be to make sure the President did not get a second term of office.

Our system of government is America?s most precious and fragile possession, the means we have of joining together as a nation for the common good. It requires not only our loyalty but ongoing vigilance to keep it working well. Yet some of our elected representatives act as if they don?t care what happens to it as long as they achieve their partisan aims.?

The filibuster used to be rarely used. But over the last decade the threat of a filibuster has become standard operating procedure, virtually shutting down the Senate for periods of time.?

Meanwhile, some members of the House have been willing to shut down the entire government in order to get their way. Last summer they were even willing to risk the full faith and credit of the United States in order to achieve their goals.?

In 2010 the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited money from billionaires and corporations overwhelming our democracy, on the bizarre theory that corporations are people under the First Amendment. Congress won?t even pass legislation requiring their names be disclosed.?

Some members of Congress have signed a pledge ? not of allegiance to the United States but of allegiance to a man named Grover Norquist, who has never been elected by anyone. Norquist?s ?no-tax? pledge is interpreted only by Norquist, who says closing a tax loophole is tantamount to raising taxes and therefore violates the pledge.?

True patriots don?t hate the government of the United States. They?re proud of it. Generations of Americans have risked their lives to preserve and protect it. They may not like everything it does, and they justifiably worry then special interests gain too much power over it. But true patriots work to improve the U.S. government, not destroy it.?

But these days some Americans loathe the government, and are doing everything they can to paralyze it, starve it, and make the public so cynical about it that it?s no longer capable of doing much of anything. Norquist says he wants to shrink it down to a size it can be ?drowned in a bathtub.?

When arguing against paying their fair share of taxes, some wealthy Americans claim ?it?s my money.? They forget it?s their nation, too. And unless they pay their fair share of taxes, American can?t meet the basic needs of our people. True patriotism means paying for America.?

So when you hear people talk about patriotism, be warned. They may mean securing the nation?s borders, not securing our society. Within those borders, each of us is on our own. These people don?t want a government that actively works for all our citizens.?

Yet true patriotism isn?t mainly about excluding outsiders seen as our common adversaries. It?s about coming together for the common good.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. This post originally ran on www.robertreich.org.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Y5CE56_XD1k/July-4th-Musings-on-the-meaning-of-true-patriotism

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Chuck E. Cheese being replaced with hipper image

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chuck-e-cheese-being-replaced-hipper-image-165852270--finance.html

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Teeny Fly Likely Cuts Off Tiny Heads

60-Second Science | More Science

A newly discovered phorid fly is less than half-a-millimeter long and, if its like its relatives, parasitizes and decapitates tiny ants. Sophie Bushwick reports.

July 3, 2012

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Fruit flies are pretty small. But they laugh at a species of fly recently discovered in Thailand. Dubbed Euryplatea nanaknihali, this member of the phorid fly family is less than half a millimeter long?a fifth the size of a fruit fly.

But before you ooh and aah over the ?cute widdle bug,? bear in mind that it probably makes its living cutting off the heads of tiny ants. The fly is described in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America. [Brian V. Brown, Small Size No Protection for Acrobat Ants: World's Smallest Fly Is a Parasitic Phorid (Diptera: Phoridae)]

Many phorid species lay their eggs in living ants. The newly hatched larvae move to the ants? heads, feed on them and eventually decapitate them.

But some ants were considered immune to the parasitic threat because they were too small for any known fly species to fit into their heads. With the discovery of the littlest phorid fly, however, that size advantage?or rather, lack-of-size advantage?vanishes.?

It?s not definite yet, but the new little fly probably is an ant eater: its pointy abdomen is well adapted to pierce an ant?s body for egg-laying purposes. How adorable is that?

?Sophie Bushwick

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=65718d0dca0ca4f93032f40d274c1008

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Kanye performs, wins best group with Jay-Z

Host Samuel L. Jackson, left, and LaTanya Richardson arrive at the BET Awards on Sunday, July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Host Samuel L. Jackson, left, and LaTanya Richardson arrive at the BET Awards on Sunday, July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

La La Anthony arrives at the BET Awards on Sunday, July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

LeToya Luckett arrives at the BET Awards on Sunday, July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Tamar Braxton arrives at the BET Awards on Sunday, July 1, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

FILE - In this May 23, 2012 file photo, singer Kanye West, left, and television personality Kim Kardashian arrive for the screening of "Cruel Summer" at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France. Now that Beyonce and Jay-Z have confirmed that they're attending the BET Awards, on Sunday, July 1, 2012, the next question is: Will West be the third wheel, or will his girlfriend Kardashian be on his arm? (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

The BET Awards didn't begin with a bang but an extended bleep, as the censor police worked overtime during a performance by Kanye West's G.O.O.D Music group and Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee's parody of Jay-Z and West's hit song "... In Paris."

There were extended moments of muted silence as West, Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz performed "Mercy" (though not all the offending words were bleeped out. Moments later, Jackson, the show's host, was joined by Lee as they did their rendition of the West-Jay-Z hit, to laughs.

"Two distinguished Morehouse men," Lee joked after the performance, referencing the alma mater of the two.

West and Jay-Z won the ceremony's first award; At first, West arrived on stage alone, and alluded to his many awards-show mishaps.

"I wish Jay-Z was here to say something politically correct for me," he said, before his mentor came to the stage.

Other early winners included Kevin Hart for best actor and Big Sean for best new artist.

West, who was up for seven awards, was the top nominee. Beyonce had six and her husband five. Beyonce was nominated twice for show's top award, video of the year, with "Love On Top" and "Countdown." Two collaborative songs by West and Jay-Z, "Otis" and "... in Paris," were also up for the prize. The fifth nominee is Usher's "Climax."

Nicki Minaj, Usher, Rick Ross and Chris Brown were set to perform.

The awards were to be Brown's first televised appearance since the New York City nightclub brawl between his entourage and Drake's. Brown, his girlfriend, his bodyguard and NBA star Tony Parker were among those injured in the June 14 encounter, where bottles were thrown.

Drake, however, isn't expected be at the event. Both singer-rappers are nominated for awards.

Common won the first honor of the night, picking up the Centric award, beating out Robin Thicke, Estelle and others. The award is given to a soulful act on behalf of BET's sister channel, Centric.

The rapper accepted his trophy during the award's pre-show ceremony on the network; it also included Rick Ross, Kevin Hart, Trey Songz and Will Smith's daughter Willow, who premiered her new video.

The most-buzzed about performance, though, may be a tribute planned for Whitney Houston. It will include the late singer's mother, Cissy Houston, and other female singers, though BET didn't release those names.

The show scored its best ratings in 2009 when it paid tribute to Michael Jackson, who had died three days earlier. The event had 10.2 million viewers.

The 2012 BET Awards will air live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

___

Online:

http://www.bet.com/shows/bet-awards/2012.html

___

Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/musicmesfin

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-07-01-BET%20Awards/id-1da4115b99a248debca577066c5b532f

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