October 5, 2012
I am amazed.
I would not have thought it possible that for whatever the ends a government agency could justify such means.
JunkScience carries a report today:
EPA admits to Court: Human subjects ‘may die’ from air pollution experiments
EPA has admitted to a federal court that it asks human guinea pigs to sacrifice their lives for regulatory purposes — and $12 per hour.
EPA has responded to our emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against its ongoing human experiment (called “CAPTAIN”) involving the air pollutant known as PM2.5.
In the declaration of Martin W. Case, the EPA clinical research studies coordinator for CAPTAIN, Case claims he verbally warns study subjects before the experiment as follows:
… My first approach after being introduced to the subject by the medical station staff is to ask the subject if they have read the consent form. The subjects for CAPTAIN have been given the informed study consent form on a previous visit, and, they are also given the same consent to read again if they have not read the consent the day of the training…
I provide participants with information about fine particles (PM2.s). I say that PM2.s are particles so small that they are able past through your airways and go deep into your lungs, these particles are so small that your usual lining and cilia of your airways are not able to prevent these particles from passing into your lungs, Therefore, if you are a person that for example lives in a large city like Los Angeles or New York, and it’s been a very hot day, and you can see the haze in the air, and you happen to be someone that works outside, and if you have an underlying unknown health condition, or, you may be older in age; the chances are that you could end up in the emergency room later on that night, wondering what’s wrong, possibly having cardiac changes that could lead to a heart attack; there is the possibility you may die from this…
………..
Tags: Air pollution, CAPTAIN, EPA, human guniea pigs, Human subject research, Particulates, United States Environmental Protection Agency
Posted in Behaviour, Environment, Ethics, scientific misconduct, US | 1 Comment »
October 3, 2012
Large public contracts in India are often plagued by claims of favouritism, rigged specifications to suit a particular bidder, rigged evaluations, bid cancellations, vicious publicity campaigns by the protagonists and innumerable rebids. It is not uncommon for high profile complaints by a bidder after losing a bid to lead to a reversal of an award decision. The more high profile the complaint is and the closer in time a complaint is to an election, the more likely it is that a reversal of a decision can be achieved. The sales process in India does not end when a contract is awarded and any self-respecting sales manager does not stop until he has tried all available avenues to reverse an award decision which has gone against his bid. The primary avenues available are through approaches to politicians and the bureaucrats involved in the evaluation and award (and these approaches are not always without the appropriate lubricating flows of money). For politicians, the bureaucrats are both the potential scapegoats and the potential justification for reversals of decisions. For good and bad, the Indian Civil Service is modeled on the British Civil Service and the interactions between politicians and bureaucrats in India today have their roots in the methods of the British Raj. Bidding flaws and reversals of contract awards are usually a good indicator for the presence of corruption.
Phases of approval reversals
This story in the UK where high profile complaints from Richard Branson and Virgin Rail has led to the reversal of a decision to award a contract to a competitor could be a story lifted directly from an Indian newspaper. I note that in this case the politicians who have reversed their decision are using bureaucrats as their scapegoat. Who else? And when they make a new award they will surely justify their new decision on the pronouncements of other, more senior bureaucrats. It would seem that the methods of UK politicians and bureaucrats even today are not so different from those of their Indian counterparts. In India though, the opportunities afforded to bureaucrats and politicians by the bidding process have been raised to a much higher level.
The Telegraph:
Government cancels West Coast Mainline contract due to ‘flaws’ in bidding process
FirstGroup’s contract to run the West Coast Mainline has been cancelled by the Government due to “significant technical flaws” in the bidding process, which will be re-run. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that the flaws “stem from the way the level of risk in the bids was evaluated”.
Tags: bidding process, Civil service, contract reversal, FirstGroup, India, Richard Branson, UK, Virgin Trains, West Coast Main Line
Posted in Business, Corruption, India, Politics, UK | Comments Off on UK cancellation of rail contract is in the style of Indian contracts
October 1, 2012
The advent of shale gas is not only a game-changer regarding power generation but also a game-changer in the area of energy and geopolitics. The Russian dominance in the European gas markets is being threatened and they are now joining forces with various environmental groups in an unholy alliance to restrain the development of shale gas production in Europe.
But in the long-term I expect Russia will join the shale-gas movement. They have larger resources of oil and gas bearing shales than most others.
Wall Street Journal (Associated Press):
The Kremlin is watching, European nations are rebelling, and some suspect Moscow is secretly bankrolling a campaign to derail the West’s strategic plans. It’s not some Cold War movie; it’s about the U.S. boom in natural gas drilling, and the political implications are enormous. Like falling dominoes, the drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is shaking up world energy markets from Washington to Moscow to Beijing. Some predict what was once unthinkable: that the U.S. won’t need to import natural gas in the near future, and that Russia could be the big loser.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Gazprom, Hydraulic fracturing, Natural gas, Russia, Shale gas
Posted in Energy, Gas, Global economy, Russia | Comments Off on Russia losing the shale gas wars
September 30, 2012
As the financial crisis continues, countries – one after another – are finding that the cost of pandering to environmental correctness is unacceptable. Renewable energy is proving to be unsustainable.
- Poland: The government moves to overhaul its system of support for green energy by effectively cutting funding for onshore wind.
- Greece: Greece has slashed the guaranteed feed-in prices it pays to some solar operators and is no longer approving permits for their installation.
- Switzerland: Switzerland plans for using more gas until 2050 and “energy needs can be completely covered by renewable energy”.
- Spain: Government has introduced a new tax on electricity production revenues to try and curb Spain’s current energy sector deficit caused mainly by the government’s renewable subsidy program.
- UK: UK cuts feed-in tariffs for Solar panels.
- Germany: Germany to press on with energy changes to the renewable subsidy system and with the easing of environmental over-regulation to rein-in renewable energy costs.
- Australia: Victoria cuts solar subsidies as the amount paid to new solar customers for power sold to the grid will be reduced from 25 cents to eight cents per kilowatt-hour.
- US: Tax breaks for wind energy to be curbed. Hopes that wind power could be competitive without any subsidy have been dashed by the plunge in North American natural gas prices.
Subsidies for what are essentially inferior products for electricity generation are ineffective. Subsidies for what are misguided objectives are just not sustainable.
Tags: Energy, Feed-in tariff, Renewable energy, Subsidy
Posted in Alarmism, Energy, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Hard times forces a measure of realism into the mirage that is renewable energy
September 30, 2012
The official 4-month monsoon season in India ends today and the IMD has issued its last press release for this season.
Rainfall was lower than normal in the first two months (-22% at the end of July) and surged somewhat in the final two. The monsoon takes the shape of a skewed “U” and advances N-W and withdraws to the S-E. The withdrawal of the South-West monsoon is underway but it is slightly delayed and this late withdrawal also helps in bringing additional rainfall especially at the ends of the “U” in the North-West and the North-East (with flooding recently in Pakistan and Assam).
Withdrawal of 2012 monsoon: IMD
Until September 26th, total rainfall was running about 7% less than the long-term average and within “normal” limits.
2012 Monsoon – Cumulative rainfall till 26th September : IMD
Though total rainfall will be almost “normal”, agricultural production will be slightly disturbed because of the uneven rainfall during the 4 months.
Related: https://ktwop.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/with-3-weeks-to-go-the-indian-monsoon-rains-have-recovered-somewhat/
Tags: India, India Meteorological Department, Monsoon, South-West Monsoon
Posted in India, Weather | Comments Off on Late surge gives some flooding but overall a “normal” 2012 Indian monsoon
September 29, 2012
I have the most wonderful memories of my time as a post-doc at University College Cardiff in the mid-70’s. This was where I was educated into the intricacies of the rules of rugby and the tribal rituals surrounding the game. Pubs and real ale and rugby grounds and rugby songs and – of course – Max Boyce.
So I was a little sad to read about the strange goings-on at the laboratory of the Dean of Medicine at what is now Cardiff University. Lots and lots and lots of papers published by the Dean, Professor B P Morgan, (172 papers and 35 review articles or chapters since 1998 – giving 207 publications in about 180 months!) and now a retraction and a formal investigation into apparent image manipulation and duplication. A case of
“There were all those doctor’s papers and they all said just the same”
(with apologies to Max Boyce and his great lyrics to “We all had Doctor’s papers”)
THES:
Cardiff University has confirmed that it is to launch a formal investigation into alleged research misconduct in the laboratory of its dean of medicine.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Cardiff Dean of Medicine, Cardiff University, Max Boyce, Prof B P Morgan, Rugby songs, Scientific misconduct, University College Cardiff, We all had doctors papers
Posted in Academic misconduct, Medicine, scientific misconduct | 1 Comment »
September 27, 2012
I have used Ryanair from time to time – but only when I have had no other reasonable options. They are not customer friendly at all and not my airline of choice. Siemens has decided to boycott Ryanair. Clearly Ryanair is not pleased but I think Siemens are perfectly within their rights, are quite justified in their actions and even ought to be commended. Cutting costs while adventuring safety must – even for Ryanair – be unacceptable.
It occurs to me that since Ryanair seems to thrive on negative publicity perhaps they secretly welcome this?
Strangely this story is not widely reported in the MSM.
(UPDATE! Airliners.net had something on this story but the page seems to have been deleted. Perhaps legal action is being threatened.
UPDATE 2! Airliners.net has a new forum page where Ryanair is considered in a rather favourable light by commenters. The original page remains deleted. In my suspicious mind I suspect there has been some pressure from Ryanair on the website.)
The Swedish Svenska Dagbladet reports:
The German industrial group Siemens, with 400,000 employees worldwide, has decided for a global boycott of Ryanair. But Ryanair has threatened legal action.
Siemens Group Management took the decision after Ryanair suffered a number of accidents and incidents in recent times and is a signal to the entire aviation industry.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: airline safety, Ryanair, Ryanair boycott, Siemens
Posted in Aviation, Behaviour, Business | Comments Off on Siemens boycotts Ryanair
September 27, 2012
The orthodoxy of the Temple of Climate Science have been busy this summer trying to link every “unusual” weather event to global warming. But every time I see a headline that some weather event has been the worst for 30 or 40 or 100 years, it only serves to illustrate that the same weather events also occurred 30 or 40 or 100 years ago. And when weather events today are similar to events before 1950 then they can only be further indicators that they are not linked to carbon dioxide emissions.
Even the IPCC realises that weather is not climate.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: climate change, environment, extreme weather events, forest fires, global warming, IPCC, Tornado, weather, Wildfire
Posted in Alarmism, Climate, Weather | Comments Off on Tornadoes and forest fires drastically down – It must be global warming
September 26, 2012
Not that there is anything wrong with using coal when it makes commercial sense. The demonisation of carbon dioxide is a religion built on a hypothesis which in turn is based on “it must be the cause of global warming” and not on any evidence whatever. In consequence the world-wide drive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is an unnecessary, expensive and ultimately pointless exercise.
The religious and thoughtless opposition of the “greens” to any use of fossil fuels has led them – especially in Europe – to trying to block exploration, production and exploitation of shale gas. But as with so many “environmentally correct” decisions it turns out to be counter-productive to their own misguided objectives. In Europe this together with the availability of cheap US coals has only served to promote the greater use of coal and an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. The blind pursuit of renewable energy in Europe has already given the highest electricity prices in the world. While the increased emissions of carbon dioxide through greater coal use does not itself matter, the consumer will have to pay even higher electricity prices than would prevail if shale gas were exploited.
Reuters reports:
BRUSSELS/LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Shale gas has jolted traditional roles in the planet’s climate drama, giving cleaner fuel to the United States, whose displaced coal has headed to Europe to pollute the old continent.
It is an ironic twist for the European Union, whose energy policy is largely based on promoting renewables and a target to cut emissions b y 20 percent by 2020. The U.S. did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol to combat global emissions and its national goals are far less ambitious than Europe’s.
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Tags: European Union, Kyoto Protocol, Shale gas, United States
Posted in Alarmism, Energy, Europe, US | Comments Off on Opposition to shale gas and cheap US coal only leads to greater use of coal in Europe
September 25, 2012
Facebook shares took a beating yesterday after Barron’s report valued them at $15 per share (compared to the current $20.8 and the IPO valuation of $38 in May). But I suspect that even this valuation is too high. Any share today which trades at more than 20 times earnings is not sustainable. Unless there is a very clear and well grounded prospect of improved earnings, even a 20 times valuation only creates a bubble – which will burst. I use 20 times as my “rule-of-thumb” for the long-term prospects of any technology company and the point at which I can always find a better investment.
The problem with future projections of Facebook earnings is that they have yet to establish a model for mobile earnings and their current pc base for earnings is declining. Not that I have much to invest, but without a clear way of improving earnings I do not think any price of more than $8 dollars per share is worth investing in. An added worry would be the Facebook propensity to hand out large amounts of restricted stock to its employees which only dilutes the value (itself doubtful) for other shareholders.
A personal opinion I have is that as ads get more intrusive they destroy the user-experience and will become counter-productive. Already there are sites that I avoid as a reaction to the ads which are so large, take up so much band-width and slow-down my access. And when a revenue model is dependent on increasing the irritation level with users, the model is flawed. I think the never-ending increase of ad revenues by increasing the number of users while increasing the intrusiveness of the ads can not happen. In fact I suspect that some advertisers are now losing sales because their ads – which may be brilliant in themselves – are now driving visitors away from the sites they are carried on.
So Barron’s valuation of $15 which would be 35 times earnings is certainly no level for me to enter – especially when the future earnings are still so much in doubt. At half that value at around $8 per share (around 18 times earnings) I could be persuaded to enter the Facebook market – though still with the risk that they may not succeed in finding the right earnings model.
Barron’s article ends with :
Stay away from the stock. It could be heading to the mid-teens.
To that I would add “and I won’t buy until it gets well into single figures”
Barron’s Magazine:
Facebook‘s 40% plunge from its initial-public-offering price of $38 in May has millions of investors asking a single question: Is the stock a buy? The short answer is “No.” After a recent rally, to $23 from a low of $17.55, the stock trades at high multiples of both sales and earnings, even as uncertainty about the outlook for its business grows.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Barron's Magazine, Facebook, Facebook shares, Mark Zuckerberg, Restricted stock
Posted in Business, Media | Comments Off on Why Barron’s Facebook valuation of $15 per share may be too high
The k2p blog 