For the countries who signed up in the reduction of green house gas emission, they have to gather up points as measures to the efforts they are making to make this happen, right? And they can actually "buy" these points from other countries through projects of the same nature being undertaken, and applying it in their respective areas. Can anyone explain the mechanics of this, and how it works?
it is call carbon credit. One buys them to make up for their poor carbon reduction effort. Problem is, who is the umpire? Cooler just 'improved' his power plant efficiency and cut 100 ton/year of co2. At 50$/ton, u can buy it for 5000$. You're happy, cooler's happy. Problem is, who is gonna disprove my claim?
Ethanol proves to be the big letdown of 2007 By Joe Carroll and Mario Parker Bloomberg News Article Last Updated: 11/24/2007 01:06:15 PM MST Ethanol, the corn-based fuel meant to help wean Americans off oil, the centerpiece of President Bush's plan to wean the U.S. from oil, is 2007's worst energy investment. The corn-based fuel tumbled 57 percent from last year's record of $4.33 a gallon and drove crop prices to a 10-year high. Production in the U.S. tripled after Morgan Stanley, hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla helped finance a building boom. Even worse for investors and the Bush administration, energy experts contend ethanol isn't reducing oil demand. Scientists at Cornell University say making the fuel uses more energy than it creates, while the National Research Council warns ethanol production threatens scarce water supplies. As oil nears $100 a barrel, ethanol markets are so depressed that distilleries are shutting from Iowa to Germany. An investor who put $10 million into ethanol on Dec. 31 now has $7.5 million, a loss of 25 percent. Florida and Georgia have banned sales during the summer, when the fuel may evaporate and create smog. ''Ethanol companies are near break-even at best,'' says Ron Oster, a principal at Broadpoint Capital Inc. in Albany, N.Y. ''That's not a good recipe when you have $100 oil.'' Corn has risen to $3.795 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade from less than $2.50 in September 2006. Ethanol on the exchange is little changed at $1.865 a gallon, after falling from a peak of $4.33 in June 2006. The Bush energy plan triggered production by mandating increased use of so-called biofuels, such as corn-based ethanol. The administration proposed raising output in the next 10 years to five times the current target amount for 2012. etc etc etc.... ============================================= Basically what it boils down to, even with heavy subsidy, corn ethanol (production) isn't profitable competing against $100/barrel of oil.
coupon scam Experts Warn of Online Coupon Scams By RACHEL KONRAD, AP Technology Writer Wed Dec 5, 5:21 PM ET Online shopping scams could become a major security threat in the weeks leading up to Christmas as consumers eagerly type in credit card numbers, click on discount coupons and participate in online promotions, security experts worry. Instead of moneysaving deals, e-mailed coupons could lead recipients into "phishing" schemes where the consumer is redirected to a copycat site, whose real purpose is to siphon the user's credit card information, passwords and other financial data, IBM Corp. security executive Christopher Rouland warned. "That 50-percent-off, one-use coupon could go to a compromised computer in Kazakhstan," said Rouland, chief technology officer for Internet security systems at Big Blue, which controls more than 1 million "phish trap" e-mail addresses that discovered 867,000 scams in the third quarter. "The quality of malware is very high." IBM is urging online shoppers not to click on links within e-mails that appear to come from an online retailer. Instead, open a new Web browser, go to the retailer's site, navigate to special coupons or promotions and see if it's there. Brian Trombley, a product manager for computer security firm McAfee Inc., said holiday phishing scams are shaping up to be an "extraordinary problem" this season. No single giant retailer has been a particular target of holiday attacks; eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit is still an overwhelming target of scammers. "The scammers are getting more and more sophisticated," Trombley said.
oil touchs 100$ .. The great CEO pay race Updated 7 hours ago It's 10:33 a.m. on the first day of work following New Year's Day. Do you know how much your boss has earned so far this year? If he's a top Canadian CEO and you are an average Canadian worker, about as much as you will make all year. According to a new analysis of escalating CEO compensation compiled by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the average of the 100 highest-paid Canadian chief executives working for a publicly traded company earned $8,528,000 and chump change in 2006, compared with the average salary of $38,998 for people who aren't CEOs. That means it will take just over nine hours for the average boss in most large Canadian firms to earn what an average Canadian earns all year, or more precisely 10:33 a.m. Jan. 2 if it is assumed both were paid for the New Year's statutory holiday and got to work at 9 a.m. Canada's top CEOs now make 218 times as much as the average Canadian full-time worker, compared with 104 times as much in 1998. The disparity may even be greater, argues the paper, if you consider large private companies or public firms who paid large salaries to executives other than their chief executives.
in my opinion, the disparity is sick. at least it's not quite so bad here as in the states, where the salaries of CEOs can reach two thousand times that of the least paid worker...
Class warfair! Here is my argument. In my position, before I start with my current job, this company need a program to calculate some statistics for state filing. However, no on in this company can do it. If the number is not provided, this company will lost about $10mil/yr in revenue. I was able to write a program and provide the number for the filing. May I ask what my pay should be? Same situation for our CEO. If a good CEO can lead a company from lost of $100mil to profit of $250mil a year, doesn't the CEO deserve $2.5m in pay and comps? For worker bee like us, there are always someone else who can replace us. If that is the case, you are only worth what your younger and better looking replacement are welling to get paid. I am just in the right place at the right time with the right price. That is all.
yes, i'm sure this study had excluded ceo perks like expense account, company plane, interest free loan (some don't even pay it back), personal secretary, etc Bad news is, disparity in less free countries like russia, china, india, etc are even worst.
Thanks for reminding me. I need to add personal secretary into my comp for my next job... Hummmmmmmmm. Good one... Up grade??? PS: As long as the Ms. is not picking...
What kind of winter is everyone having? It's quite cold in London but not too bad. Definitely warmer than other January's I can think of. We were suposed to have snow yesterday but it never materialised!
first commercial application of kite assisted powered cargo ship. It will reduce fuel usage by 20%. It's a simple idea but it had taken so long to take hold. I hope to see more and bigger kites to be use on trans-oceanic cargo ships.
yes, it's an old(even ancient), simple, and proven technology. I guess hydrogen power, biofuel, fuel cell seem as more glamorous pursuits.
Sorry to sound insensitive but if you can't tell a poodle from a lamb, you deserve to be scammed. Also, the tell tale sign of the cost being half of what what it should be should set off alarm bells. Just like what we've been advocating about fake rackets–don't touch it if the price is too good to be true.
Wyoming(USA) is burrr cold: State Lows: Yellowstone -33°F / -36°C Greybull -32°F / -36°C Worland -31°F / -35°C Big Piney -26°F / -32°C Pinedale -25°F / -32°C The huskies are in the middle of main street in downtown West Yellowstone enjoying the weather.
The weathercasters. ..are predicting the temp. to drop into the 20s°F, at night this week, up in the local mountains (e.g. Big Bear). With flurries of snow abound..local skiers, snowboarders will be flocking, once again, to the mountains this week/weekend..
The last time I was in Winnipeg many years ago, the temperature was about what you just described. Never felt colder in my life... until I went to Regina
