An employee walking along a thermal pipe at the Kamojang geothermal
power plant near Garut, West Java, on March 18. State utility provider
 Perusahaan Listrik Negara is targeting an additional 135 megawatts of
electricity from three new geothermal plants. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)
 

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,.. etc.)
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“.. Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time. …”

Friday, September 19, 2014

How lead paint is poisoning Asia's children

While the global use of lead has decreased, paint sold across Asia still contains excessive levels of the toxic substance. Meanwhile, awareness of the risks and health consequences from lead exposure remains inadequate.

Deutsche Welle, 18 Sep 2014


With the almost complete phase-out of leaded petrol worldwide, attention has turned to other sources of lead exposure and its deadly effect on humans. Statistics from a 2013 New York University report on the cost of lead exposure to the economies of developing countries reveal that consumption of the damaging element has increased since 1970, despite the fact that lead petrol has been almost entirely phased out.

One way that people who, despite having no connection to industries where they might be directly exposed to lead are still consuming huge amounts of it, is through paint.

Lead is used in paint because it makes it less susceptible to cracking and increases its opacity. It is also used to intensify colors, meaning the brighter the color of the paint the higher concentrations of lead it is likely to have. Lead is also used to speed up drying times and to stop rust.

But the danger doesn't start until years after the paint has dried and begins to wear. Dust from paint flakes or the sanding of painted surfaces creates lead-filled particles that can be inhaled, and collect in people's systems.

Dr Sara Brosché from IPEN, a global organization working to eliminate toxic substances around the world, says the reasons why lead is still being used in Asia are a lack of knowledge of the dangers and a reluctance to change, "because that is how they have always done it."

An expanding middle class means more
 people will be able to afford to paint their
homes
While globally the paint industry has contracted, the opposite has occurred in Asia which is now the biggest paint market in the world. Brosché says that while low income earners typically do not live in painted homes, "with rising incomes and an emerging middle class, the number of people who can afford painted interiors and exteriors in their homes and schools has been increasing dramatically."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), just 30 countries have completely phased out the use of lead in paints, and most other places have some sort of guidelines around the substance. The "Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint" run by the WHO and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) aims to raise that figure to 70 by next year.

Meanwhile figures from the European Union and IPEN's 2014 Asia Regional Paint Report show that while countries such as the Philippines have introduced regulations, overwhelmingly paints sold in Asia still contain excessive lead levels.

Worse still, Brosché says none of the paints found to contain lead in the research had any warnings on their labels.

Despite industry making up the majority of users of high lead products in Asia, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that industrial and residential living areas are growing geographically closer together. This has been highlighted in China, with a series of cases in recent years of mass lead poisonings, with the victims living nearby to factories.

Even cookware has been shown to contain lead. Published in August of this year a study by Ashland University in the United States revealed the excessive amounts of lead that can leach out of metal used for cooking when it is heated up. Across Africa and Asia cookware and utensils made of scrap metal are commonplace, and can include parts from cars and materials used in construction.

The report's authors refer to the high numbers of people exposed to lead as a "global lead poisoning epidemic," and stress that cookware is just one of a number of factors contributing to lead exposure.

Lead's burden

Even limited contact with lead, at levels earlier regarded safe by the WHO and without any external symptoms, can cause irreversible health consequences. These can include kidney damage, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Pregnant women with a build up of lead in their systems can pass on toxic side effects to their unborn children.

However, it is young children who are most at risk. A report from the New York-based environmental research organization the Blacksmith Institute showed that many children who were exposed to lead during their childhoods grew up to have lower IQs, and that this and other damage to the brain "is permanent and irreversible and that there is no current form of medical treatment that can reverse the brain injury caused by lead once this injury has occurred."

High levels of lead exposure can cause comas, convulsions and even death, with children who survive these conditions likely left with permanent physical and mental injury.

The WHO attributes around 600,000 new cases of intellectual disabilities in children to lead exposure every year.

In a study published in 2013 by New York University, the total cost to Asia's economy was calculated at around 700 billion USD, compared to 134.7 billion USD in Africa and 142.3 billion USD in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report's authors say East and Southeast Asia make up the bulk of this shortfall, and the "burden of lead-associated disability and economic cost is now borne by developing countries."

The cheapest public health intervention

While regulations around lead were introduced in most parts of the world in the 1970s and 80s, a 2012 UNEP and IPEN survey showed large parts of Asia continued to ignore or under-regulate the issue.

The 2014 report on the Asia lead paint elimination project states that "a few countries in Asia do regulate the allowed lead content in decorative paints," including Singapore and Sri Lanka. Other places have voluntary standards, such as Thailand whose regulation calls for paints to include less than 100 parts per million (ppm) of lead. But tests conducted by the Ecology Alert and Recovery Thailand Foundation showed that despite the alleged checks, most paints still contained levels higher than this.

Other experts say the problem is the developing world is always playing catch-up, and the infrastructure needed to test and properly regulate the use of lead across the country just doesn't exist.

Many developing countries don't have
 the infrastructure to test and regulate
the use of lead
Low public awareness is another factor stopping manufacturers from switching from lead to less dangerous additives. Johnson Ongking, vice-president of one of Indonesia's largest paint companies, Boysen Paints, agrees with this, admitting they simply didn't realize the danger. "Honestly, we just weren't that aware of the hazards of lead in paint." Since 2007 the company has phased out lead completely from its range.

Jack Weinberg, Senior Policy Advisor with IPEN is more blunt. He says there is one reason the issue hasn't yet been solved: laziness.
He dismisses the argument that using lead saves money on production costs for manufacturers, saying the savings are marginal at best.

Research from IPEN's Regional Paint Report supports this view, calling the costs involved in reformulating paints to avoid adding lead "minimal." Their research showed the majority of suppliers that had eliminated the deadly element hadn't raised the price of their paints.

Weinberg says intervention now will save costs in the long run. "Eliminating lead paint is about the cheapest public health intervention with the greatest public health benefit imaginable."

Dr Leonardo Trasande has a similiar view. The expert says that in order to avoid future complications arising from childhood lead exposure - such as continuing medical care - action must be taken now. "The only way to avoid the large economic costs related to lead exposure is primary prevention," he says.

According to IPEN the best way to get rid of lead in paint once and for all is through binding legal requirements, company-mandated action and national certification schemes in each country. Brosché is also confident. "It is absolutely possible to eliminate dangerous levels of lead in paint," she says.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Structural tests ordered after fatal Lagos building collapse

Yahoo – AFP, Chris Stein, 17 Sep 2014

A caterpillar tries to excavate rubble of the collapsed building in search of missing
 persons at the Ikotun headquarters of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos
on September 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei)

Lagos (AFP) - Engineers in Nigeria's financial capital, Lagos, on Wednesday ordered urgent structural tests to be carried out at a popular preacher's church after 70 people were killed in a building collapse.

The Lagos State Building Control Agency daubed red X-marks on buildings in the sprawling compound of televangelist TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in the city's Ikotun area.

Rescue workers clear the debris of a 
collapsed guesthouse of the Synagogue 
Church of All Nations at Ikotun in Lagos 
on September 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pius
Utomi Ekpei)
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday said 67 of his compatriots were killed when a guesthouse for Joshua's foreign followers collapsed at the site last Friday.

But rescuers said the death toll had since risen, as a hunt for survivors neared a close.

"We have to ask for the tests because of what has happened," LASBCA general manager Abimbola Animashaun told AFP at the scene, pointing to one building which had an extra three storeys added.

"This one has been overloaded," she said. "If a disaster can happen here, we don't want it to happen elsewhere."

The structural integrity inspections should take 10 days to complete before a report is submitted, she added.

According to Joshua's website, scoan.org, three of the church's previous buildings were destroyed before the new church -- described as an "architectural masterpiece" -- was built.

"There was only one architect involved in the planning -- the Holy Spirit," he said.

The preacher, known to his followers as "The Prophet" because of his purported visions and miracles, has not publicly commented on the deaths.

Instead he has tried to shift suspicion on to Boko Haram militants and a low-flying plane seen over the building before the collapse.

Since Friday, he has only posted a series of Bible verses on his Facebook page and Twitter account. On Tuesday night he tweeted: "Hard times may test me, they cannot destroy me."

Nigerian red cross workers gather at the scene of the collapsed church guesthouse
 of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in the Ikotun neighborhood in Lagos
on September 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei)

The investigation will look at Joshua's claim of low-flying aircraft, Lagos state commissioner for town planning and urban development Toyin Ayinde told Nigeria's Channels television.

Initial indications were that the building came down because extra floors were being added without strengthening the foundations and samples would be taken from the site, he added.

Rescue effort

Rescue workers were meanwhile picking through what remained of the guesthouse using excavators and even their bare hands in the hope of finding more survivors.

The southwest coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Ibrahim Farinloye, said the rescue operation was likely to end later on Wednesday.

"We have 70 dead, 131 rescued alive," he said. "Early this morning, we got two (bodies). Since day break we got three. Yesterday night we had two, making seven."

A woman was pulled alive from the building on Monday and escaped with minor injuries, fuelling hopes that others may yet be found alive.

"The challenges are coming much more, so we have to slow down our recovery," said Farinloye. "If we say we should rush or give time limits, definitely it would affect somebody or survivors."

Headquarters of the Synagogue Church of
 All Nations in the Ikotun neighborhood in 
Lagos on September 17, 2014 (AFP Photo/
Pius Utomi Ekpei)
There was a large police presence at the church and onlookers were moved away. A team from a Chinese engineering firm were seen on site helping rescuers.

The Lagos state government, NEMA and the South African authorities have all complained that Joshua, whose followers include top-level politicians and presidents, was not co-operating.

Rescuers were prevented from fully accessing the site until Sunday, raising fears that some of the victims could have been saved earlier.

Nigerians took to social media to voice their anger at the incident, arguing that Joshua should not be above the law.

Zuma said five South African church tour groups totalling about 300 people were thought to have been at the Pentecostal church at the time of the tragedy.

One South African travel agent, who asked not to be named, said some of the survivors flew back from Lagos on Sunday but were too distraught to recount their ordeal.

"It's a sensitive issue. They don't want to talk to anyone about what they saw. They are in shock, they are traumatised," he said.

Urine: a new renewable energy source?

The search for renewable energy has made use of the sun, the sea - and now potentially our wee. Researchers in England have been using urine to create small electrical charges, which could be scaled up to a fuel source.

Deutsche Welle, 17 Sep 2014


At the "wet lab" in the Bristol Robotics laboratory in southwest England, there's a not-so-pleasant smell. It's "similar to the smell of a toilet, of the gents," explained scientist Ioannis Ieropoulos.

Scientists have known for some time that microbes can generate electricity. When microbes break down organic material such as food waste or grass clippings, electrons and protons are freed, which can work to push electronic current around a circuit like a battery.

Ieropoulos had been studying this process for more than a decade to see if it could be used to power robots - but it was only recently that he realized the power of urine.

For eight or nine years, Ieropoulos said, the researchers at the Bristol lab "tried grass clippings - we tried prawn shells, we tried dead insects, we tried rotten fruit, we tried waste water."

The "eureka moment," Ieropoulos said, was when they tried urine. "We'd never before reached that level of power output."

Small system already developed

In fuel cells, chemicals are converted to
electricity - the one pictured here uses
hydrogen and oxygen
Ieropoulos found that by adding fresh urine to his microbes, he could increase the power output three fold.

The doctor created a simple system: a urinal that is linked up via a microbial fuel cell to a USB port, which generates enough electricity to charge small electronic devices like mobile phones.

The invention impressed the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation so much that it gave the lab a grant to improve the technology and get it working in the real world.

Ieropoulos said that they're aiming for large-scale implementation. But he added that their larger goal is to do "something for society."

Systems could be implemented, for example, to help tackle health and sanitation issues, and "deliver useful electricity to remote communities that are not connected to the grid," Ieropoulos said.

Improving sanitation, helping the environment

The Gates Foundation grant enabled Ioannis to travel to Delhi to showcase his invention, which he's named "Urinetricity."

Sarina Prabasi, CEO of Water Aid America, said that Urinetricity could play a vital role in improving sanitation in developing areas. Prabasi thinks that it could provide the incentive communities need to deal with their waste, which is often lacking.

"If there's something where people can turn this in to a business, then the incentive will be there," Prabasi said.

It's hoped that large-scale application
of "Urinetricity" can help grow crops
Combining the fuel cells with water purification technology could also make a difference provide environmental benefits. John Greenman, a professor at the University of the West of England in Bristol, is working with microbes that produce clean water and fertilizer, which can help grow crops.

This could, for example, be combined with Ioannis' system to create a "super toilet."

Unprocessed urine cannot be applied directly to cropland. But microbes separate the organic material out of the waste, Greenman explained. "The fluid that comes off at the other end is a lot cleaner, and can be put out into nature," he said.

"And the electricity generated could be used to run water treatment plants - so you get benefits in both ways," Greenman stated. In a green factory, for example, such a system could break down waste while producing electricity.

Overcoming the taboo

Ieropoulos acknowledged that one of the hurdles for his project is the discomfort some people might have around the source of the new electricity.

"There are taboos, cultural and religious issues that prevent people from talking about the topic of human waste and how that can be exploited or utilized," Ieropoulos said.

Although many people might struggle to keep a straight face about the topic, the benefits to for people and the environment will hopefully outweigh squeamishness around using urine for electricity.

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