Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Hans Blix: Nuclear must use thorium fuel to reduce weapons risk | SmartPlanet

  "GENEVA - Hans Blix, the disarmament specialist best known for finding no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a decade ago, has called on the nuclear industry to start powering reactors with thorium instead of uranium, a move that he said would reduce the chance of fashioning weapons from nuclear waste. "

  tags: nuclear weapons energy power un

• Mexico gears up for energy reform - FT.com

  "After an education package that prompted mass street protests and tax changes that sparked a Senate walkout by the main opposition party, Mexico is gearing up for the main event of the 11-month administration’s ambitious agenda: energy reform. "

  tags: mexico energyreform energypolicy education northamerica

• Ukraine to Sign Shale Gas Deal With Chevron - Minister - WSJ.com

  "Ukraine will sign a deal with Chevron Corp. (CVX) on Nov. 5 to develop shale gas in western Ukraine, a government minister said Wednesday, as the country attempts to cut its reliance on Russian gas. "The government has approved the draft agreement that will be signed at an investment forum on Nov. 5," Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Oleg Proskuriakov told reporters."

  tags: ukraine chevron shale energy easterneurope russia

• Burning Bitumen - QuickTake

  "It’s thick and sticky like peanut butter and there’s lots of it. Please don’t call it “dirty oil” (crude is never clean), but fuels derived from Canada’s tar sands do produce more greenhouse gas than conventional forms of gasoline and heating oil. Called “oil sands” by petroleum executives and “bitumen” by geologists, it’s the stuff that would flow through the Keystone XL pipeline on its way from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries. An angry debate over its environmental impact has played a big role in the dispute over whether President Barack Obama should approve the Keystone project. "

  tags: oil gas oilsands bitumen canada unitedstates keystone

• Friends Don’t Let Friends Bug Phones - Bloomberg

  "Outrage over U.S. wiretapping of Angela Merkel’s mobile phone has inspired two proposals worth considering. One is that the U.S. should quit spying on allied leaders. The second, floated by the German chancellor herself, is to add her country to the no-mutual-spying, intelligence sharing pact that the U.S. has had with its closest Anglophone allies since 1946. "

  tags: spying nsa unitedstates germany uk

• Starbucks hits out at growth expectations - FT.com

  "Starbucks’ chief executive expressed exasperation with analysts as the coffee chain forecast that its sales growth would slow next year and urged Wall Street not to harbour unreasonable expectations. "

  tags: coffee starbucks stockmarket f&b

• Qatar fund quietly builds $1bn Bank of America stake - FT.com

  "Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has quietly built a stake worth about $1bn in Bank of America, the country’s second-biggest bank, as it seeks exposure to the US economic recovery, people familiar with the plans said. "

  tags: qatar swf gcc investment money bofa banks

• The changing global gas market | Nick Butler

  "It is impossible to understand the outlook for energy prices – internationally or at the domestic level – without looking carefully at what is happening in the gas market. The simplistic assumption is that because demand is rising, prices must also increase inexorably. This assumption underpins a lot of official forecasts and the business plans of some optimistic producers. The reality is much more complicated. The emergence of a spot market suggests that there is a strong chance of prices falling over the next decade. "

  tags: gas oil spotmarket commodities energy europe unitedstates global

• Russia and shale can solve Europe’s energy problem - FT.com

  "he aim of European energy policy should be to combine economic growth with environmental sustainability. However, we have ended up with energy costs that hamper growth – yet greenhouse gas emissions have not fallen despite the decline in energy consumption. The problem is that we have, so far, failed to grasp the implications of the US shale revolution for Europe. Thanks to the rapid increase in efficient non-conventional gas production, US companies pay about $3.50 per million British thermal units (mBtu) for their natural gas. That is about a third of what Europeans pay."

  tags: shale energy energypolicy europe russia gas alternativeenergy politics

• Statoil chief casts doubt on Arctic oil production potential - FT.com

  "Statoil’s chief executive played up the Norwegian oil company’s positions in what he called “the workable Arctic”, in Norway and eastern Canada, while casting doubt over imminent success in other parts of the polar region. Arctic oil exploration has been hit by a series of bad headlines after Royal Dutch Shell and Cairn Energy spent billions of dollars with disappointing results in Alaska and Greenland respectively."

  tags: statoil energy gas norway canada arctic

• US Airways, American consider merger settlement: sources | Reuters

  "US Airways Group (LCC.N) and American Airlines are considering giving up takeoff and landing slots at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport to win regulator approval of their $11 billion merger, two people familiar with the matter said."

  tags: transportation airlines m&a usairways american unitedstates washingtondc

• NSA smiley face: MUSCULAR spying on Google, Yahoo speaks volumes about agency's attitude.

  "he Washington Post reports today that at the same time the NSA was requisitioning data from Google and Yahoo via PRISM, it was secretly intercepting far greater quantities of data behind their backs. In that project, known as MUSCULAR, the NSA allegedly somehow tapped into the fiber-optic links that connect Google and Yahoo’s data centers around the world. That allowed it to suck up absolutely massive amounts of information on foreigners and citizens alike, which it could then analyze at its leisure."

  tags: shady nsa spying policestate google yahoo

• WikiLeaks sends package with secret camera to jailed Bahraini activist - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.com

  "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has sent an "experimental" protest package fitted with a GPS tracker and secret spy camera to jailed Bahraini rights activist Nabeel Rajab, the organisation has said in a statement on its website. "

  tags: wikileaks assange bahrain humanrights publicity

• NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say - The Washington Post

  "The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, according to documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials. By tapping those links, the agency has positioned itself to collect at will from hundreds of millions of user accounts, many of them belonging to Americans. The NSA does not keep everything it collects, but it keeps a lo"

  tags: nsa spying google yahoo unitedstates policestate disaster snowden

• GCC mulls regional police force - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.com

  "The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is considering establishing a Gulf-wide police force similar to Europol, the bloc's secretary-general has reportedly revealed. The unified police force would tackle regional issues such as terrorism and serious organised crime, secretary-general Abdullatif Al Zayani was quoted as saying."

  tags: gcc police military middleeast ksa saudi bahrain oman uae qatar kuwait

• Egypt arrests Muslim Brotherhood leader: ministry source | Reuters

  "Erian, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, was taken into custody from a residence in New Cairo where he had been in hiding. "Yes, he's been arrested and details will soon be released," the source told Reuters. The state news agency MENA said Erian was arrested in New Cairo but gave no further details."

  tags: egypt muslimbrotherhood erian military dictatorship democracy revolution arabspring

• The beloved Sriracha brand has a dark side | SmartPlanet

  "There’s no doubt that Sriracha is a fascinating company. The hot sauce brand does $60 million in sales every year without spending any money on advertising and with a website that could have been built in an introductory website design class. But while the company has been able to achieve double digits in sales growth every year it has been in business, the popular hot sauce isn’t loved by everyone"

  tags: unitedstates hotsauce food f&b

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