Constellation Submits Application For New Nuclear Plant

Constellation Energy Group has filed an environmental review application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a 1,600-megawatt reactor at the current Calvert Cliffs site in Lusby, Maryland. The two reactors currently at the site went into operation in 1975 and 1977 and are located about 50 miles southeast of Washington, DC. Application processing costs can be as high as $100 million. The NRC technical review could last 2 1/2 years, followed by another year for hearings. It then takes at least 7 years to construct a plant. We have to figure out a way to speed up this process and reduce the cost. Estimates of plant construction costs range from $1 -$4 billion.

Unlike other utilities that have submitted Early Site Permit and Combined Operating License (COL) applications that allow utilities to get permission to build without actually making the decision to build, the Constellation application is a direct build application. This is a very bold move. It is probably because of the competition among utilities to qualify for the significant benefits included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. To date, four other companies have asked for early site permits from the NRC, and two have been approved.

Constellation has an agreement with Electricite de France (EdF), which will make an initial investment of $350 million in a joint venture and invest up to $275 million later to develop nuclear plants in the U.S. and Canada. EDF is the largest electricity producer in Europe. It has operated 58 nuclear plants for more than 20 years. AAEA supports this project. (Wash Post)

Constellation Submits Application For New Nuclear Plant

Constellation Energy Group has filed the environmental report portion of a Combined Operating License application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a 1,600-megawatt reactor at a location adjacent to the current Calvert Cliffs site in Lusby, Maryland. This is the equivalent of two large plants. The two reactors currently at the site went into operation in 1975 and 1977 and are located about 50 miles southeast of Washington, DC. Total application development and processing costs for a COL can be as high as $100 million. The NRC technical review could last 36-42 months and includes public hearings. It then takes at least 7 years to construct a plant. We have to figure out a way to speed up this process and reduce the cost. Current estimates of plant construction costs are approximately $4 billion. Again, this is the equivalent of two large plants so the average cost of one plant will hopefully be around $2 billion.

On July 20 Constellation and Electricite de France (EdF) announced their intent to form a joint venture. Upon successful completion of the deal, EdF will make an initial investment of $350 million and will invest up to $275 million later to develop nuclear plants in the U.S. and Canada. EdF is the largest electricity producer in Europe. It has operated 58 nuclear plants for more than 20 years. AAEA supports this project. The Wahington Post got some of its information wrong. We talked to Constellation so get your facts here. (Wash Post)

Blog for Innovation in Community and Environmental Planning

Blog for Innovation in Community and Environmental Planning (BICEP) is a resource for news, research, and discussion on local level community development and environmental issues. The BICEP advocates modern research and implementation of best practices in land use/environmental planning and policy.

BICEP was created by George Jackson, left. Jackson has worked at the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program where he provided managed communication with other partners in the program. He also worked at the Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program where he assisted citizens with the completion of environmental awareness tools and served as a local resource to help citizens find locally specific information necessary to make smart decisions concerning environmental protection. He currently works as a development associate at American Rivers.

F.F. Bruce on the New English Bible

The following article is now available in PDF:

F.F. Bruce, "The New English Bible," Faith and Thought 92.1 (1961): 47-52.

Professor Bruce gives a cautious welcome to the (then) newly published New English Bible New Testament, concluding that the final test would be whether or not the "man in the street" could hear the "Word of God addressing itself to his heart and meeting his need" though it. I think that this would be a good test of any translation.

Chicago Petanque Club on TV

Dan and friends appeared on Chicagoland Television, while playing around the Buckingham fountain at Grant Park.

A very nice 2:49 clip!


Chicago petanque on CLTV
Turn down the speakers because the Verizon commercial is LOUD!

Chicago Petanque Club on TV

Dan and friends appeared on Chicagoland Television, while playing around the Buckingham fountain at Grant Park.

A very nice 2:49 clip!


Chicago petanque on CLTV
Turn down the speakers because the Verizon commercial is LOUD!

AAEA Offers 'Authentic Black' Certificates

Barack Obama's 'blackness' was questioned (again) at the recent CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate. A YouTuber asked if Senator Obama was 'authentically black enough.' While others debate this isse, AAEA has solved the problem. We have developed objective criteria for establishing one's black authenticity. We have sent Senator Obama his certificate. You too can certify your status by answering the simple quetions below. If you qualify, email us for your office certificate today. Frame it and proudly display it to eliminate those pesky questions.

Please answer the questions below with a 'yes' or a 'no' to describe yourself. If you qualify, we will send you a certificate upon your request. You will have to provide your own frame.

1. Articulate
2. Educated
3. Aspire to be middle-class or higher
4. Dress well
5. Pious
6. Polite
7. Neat
8. Organized
9. Generous
10. Kind

If you answered 'yes' to at least 7 of the questions, then you are an Authentic Black. To order your certificate click HERE. Leave you address and the certificate will be mailed to you.

More Fare Free Transit

Merced County, California announces free transit during the pollution season (through October.)

Routes here.

Congressman Wynn Gets Funds For Anacostia River

Congressman Wynn successfully secured funding for the State of Maryland in the FY08 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill passed by the House of Representatives, which provides $500,000 in Federal funding for development of a comprehensive plan to clean up the Anacostia River and its tributaries. Thank you Congressman Wynn.

AAEA has a long history of working to protect the Anacostia River. Our president has worked directly with the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (Anacostia Watershed work) and Seafarer's Yacht Club, where he served on the board of directors for years. We have sponsored numerous boat and pollution tours, creek walks. litter clean ups and other activities. It is a massive job that includes clean up of the tributaries in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties. Poison runoff from these counties and Washington, DC provides a toxic mix for the main part of the river.

President's Corner: Metro - - Stop Killing Innocent Birds

By Norris McDonald. Stop killing the sparrows and starlings at Metro stations. Metro is just being lazy. Admittedly the bird droppings should not be spread all over the Metro transit system but slaughtering the birds during off hours is a brutal practice that should be stopped immediately. Modify that contract killers agreement to include a thorough washing where the birds congregate.

And I have to play the race card: is this practice just in Black areas? It is being reported that the stations were in DC and stations in Prince George's County. We will have to cry fowl (foul) if environmenal injustice is being practiced in addition to senseless bird slaughter. I love sparrows and starlings. My backyard bird feeder welcomes all types of perching birds all day long.

This is just one more instance of government insensitivity when it comes to fowl. They wanted to shoot the Mute Swans in the Chesapeake Bay. They want to shoot the Canadian Geese at Langston Golf Course. Now poisoning at Metro stations. This pattern and practice of human brutality, notwithstanding the great service my frat brother Jim Perdue provides, must stop. Although we have human concerns, unlike PETA's obsession with Michael Vick, we will spend some time defending our defsnseless feathered friends. Stop the madness. Get a water hose. (Wash Post)

Black Community Needs George Bush Led Black Panther Party

The recent weekend shooting of 7 people, including a 3 year old, in our Nation's Capital illustrates that the situation is so grave that extreme measures are needed to solve this problem. The shooting, in a public housing complex, happened on the same weekend the police presence was high as part of the "All Hands on Deck," a summer crime fighting plan that made 3,300 officers available to work two eight hour shifts this weekend. Even the capable Mayor Fenty, who is the best beat cop in the city said, "the initiative wasn't a failure...but there's no way in the world we're going to eliminate all crime, especially when people are this brazen."

Love him or hate him, the USA has not been attacked again since 911. Not a scratch. Not even bad language to us infidels. And though former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld got in trouble for saying it, more people are killed in our inner cities each year than our total losses in Iraq to date. Somebody needs to engage the Iraq-like inner city Jihadists murdering our brethren. We need George Bush and The Black Panther Party patrolling the hood. If Huey were alive that would be even better, but he is not with us. Evidently Bush is the Newton of terrorism. And the Black Community is being terrorized right now. The Panthers policed up a threat to our community in Oakland and many other cities when it was needed. Now there is a new threat and we need a new entity to police it. This threat is among us and it is the environmental equivalent of global warming. It is the most important environmenal issue facing the Black Community today. (Wash Post)

Some of Goya's Ghosts Were ‘Jewish’

Film Review by Ralph Seliger

The following is my preferred version of what was published recently in the New Jersey Jewish News :

Before seeing the new Milos Forman film, “Goya’s Ghosts,” the only Jewish angle I could think of was the star turn by Natalie Portman — everybody's favorite Israeli-born actress. Ms. Portman was chosen by Forman largely because he noticed a close facial resemblance to the subject of an actual Goya painting, A Milkmaid in Bordeaux. It also surely figured in his casting decision that Ms. Portman has won acclaim for a remarkable body of work for one so young (26), including as a Golden Globe winner and a nominee for an Academy Award.

I discovered that what is tragically Jewish is the central plot line: the arrest, torture and imprisonment of Portman's main character, Ines, by the Spanish Inquisition in 1792— before Napoleon abolished it (an episode also depicted in the film) 15 years later. In a less consequential and less believable role, Portman portrays Ines’s teenage daughter at that later time.

Ines’s crime? She is accused of being a "Judaizer" when Inquisition spies see that she refuses to eat pork at a tavern. Ines is seen recoiling from offerings of piglet, served to her rowdy table in an unappetizing way — grilled whole and hacked open, with the head still attached.

Beforehand, the spies are lectured by Brother Lorenzo (Spaniard Javier Bardem acquits himself with icy effectiveness in this complex role), charging them to search for Judaizers and Protestants. A test for the former among males is a circumcised penis. (Where have we heard that before?) This fictional tale reminds us that this sort of paranoid scrutiny was commonplace in the Church-dominated police state that Spain was in the 18th century.
Yet Ines is not a practitioner of secret Jewish rites as accused. She is unaware that her father (a wealthy merchant who is very generous in his contributions to the Church) had a Jewish ancestor nearly 200 years before, a Catholic convert who had immigrated from the Netherlands. Ines responded earnestly but quizzically to her Inquisitor that she simply doesn’t like the taste of pork. What follows is a shockingly abrupt transition into the peculiar brutality and demented thinking that characterized the so-called Holy Office.

Brother Lorenzo is shown early on as both a politically-astute sophisticate and a career-driven fanatic. He explains to his brother Inquisitors why the same Francisco Goya who paints scenes of poverty and unflattering caricatures of Church authorities, which make him suspect in their eyes, is also painting his own portrait: Goya is regarded as Spain’s greatest living artist and as such is patronized by the royal family.

Prior to her arrest, Ines sits as a studio model for Goya; their respective relationships with Goya bind Brother Lorenzo’s fate with that of Ines. It also occasions a life-altering lesson for Lorenzo as a dinner guest of Ines’s father, on how torturing the accused – putting them to “the question” as the euphemism goes – is utterly useless when it comes to the quest for truth.

The absurdities, bestial cruelties and injustices presided over by the Inquisition are then matched, even exceeded in the volume of bloodshed, by the butchery and zealotry of the French and their Spanish collaborators in overthrowing the Old Regime. Although theoretically liberated in the name of the noble ideal of human rights proclaimed by the French Revolution, the Spanish people rise up against the foreign invader and defeat them to restore a vestige of the old order, with the decisive assistance of Wellington's British army.

“Goya’s Ghosts” rivets the viewer in its first half with its narrative power and its vivid visual quality. Unfortunately, it descends to melodrama as Ines is released from prison and innocently (to the point of laughable pathos) pursues her unlikely relationship and totally naive agenda with the ever-sinister Lorenzo. But taken as a whole, it offers a rich cinematic experience.

Goya’s art lends a sensual lushness to the film. Goya is played as a decent but surprisingly bland observer by the Swede Stellan Skarsgard. His works graphically depict the injustice and grinding poverty of the Old Regime; his paintings and etchings even more famously illustrate the barbarities of war.

Another tournament at Pit Stop

Given the success of the first one, Brooklyn Petanque will be holding another tournament on August 4.

Good idea - keep the balls rolling!

Details are on the poster.

Brooklyn Petanque

Another tournament at Pit Stop

Given the success of the first one, Brooklyn Petanque will be holding another tournament on August 4.

Good idea - keep the balls rolling!

Details are on the poster.

Brooklyn Petanque

Help requested tracing the literary executor of the late Professor Roland K. Harrison

In order to obtain permission to reproduce a couple of his articles I am trying to find out who currently holds the rights to R.K. Harrison's works when these are not held by specific publishers. In most cases this would be the author's next of kin as it forms part of the deceased person's estate. Professor Harrison is most famous for his excellent Introduction to the Old Testament. I have tried all my usual avenues of enquiry but have drawn a blank and my e-mail to his last place of work has gone unanswered. Does anyone have any ideas of how I might proceed? Feel free to use Blogger's "comments" feature to respond - I won't allow confidential information to be published on the blog.

CBC Gets $100 million for Black Farmer Discrimination

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) persuaded the House to add $100 million to The Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) to help the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) settle discrimination lawsuits filed by African American farmers. No matter which way we turn, racism stands in the way of full participation in the American dream by all its citizens. This unique sickness leads to inefficiencies wherever it is exercised. The American South is still trying to catch up with the rest of the country because it practiced the sickness more and for a much longer time period than other areas. Kudos CBC.

The House passed the 741 page $286 billion farm bill by a vote of 231 to 191 with 19 Republicans joining 212 Democrats in favor. It increases spending for grassland preservation wildlife habitat and mandates a study of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, $212.5 million over five years for programs to clean up the Bay, and $292 million for which bay states will be eligible. The bill includes new credits and loan guarantees for biofuels produced from grasses and biomass.. It updates the food stamp program by increasing the minimum benefit and indexing benefits to inflation. It includes more money for food stamps ($4 billion increase), more than $30 billion a year, than for farmers. It ends the subsidy payments to farmers earning more than $1 million a year. It includes $840 million for an international food aid program (Wash Post, Florida Herald Tribune, Balt Sun,)

Political Environment: Ethnicity, Race & Gender

Why isn't Bill Richardson getting more support? Governor and the best background of any candidate in the Democratic field. Barack Obama has to avoid being (too) black. Yet on the Republican side it does not appear that they have to avoid being (too) white. We know what too black is but what is too white? Hillary Clinton can't be a woman. And media pundits say the only reason blacks like her is because of her husband. Those innocent child like blacks clearly cannot like her because of who she is (blame Bill for the dnagling 'is.')

Some cross pollination is happening though (but not so much for Richardson). Bob Johnson and Maya Angelou support Clinton. George Clooney and Matt Damon support Obama. This dynamic is good for America. Because Obama can't be black, Hillary is trying to drive a truck through that opening. A good example is her recent sponsorship of a hearing on Environmental Justice before the Senate environment subcommittee she chairs. Obama on the other hand is giving the Clinton machine a run for its money (pun intended) in campaign contributions. He is actually raising more money than her. Congressman Charles Rangel was the top money maker in the Congressional Black Caucus until Obama. Isn't America a great country? And remember, the African American community is as American as apple pie. And if you don't believe that just keep your eyes on the South Carolina primary.

How can you take your Enterprise Search to the next level?

Posted by Cyrus Mistry, Enterprise Product Manager

12,000 employees? 56 offices worldwide? Nearly 100 million documents? Yup - we'd say our enterprise search problem was pretty big... Of course, we were able to get a great discount on a couple powerful Google Search Appliances! :)

In fact, we really exploited the power of the Google Search Appliance in many unique and interesting ways so we thought this blog could be a great place to let you in on some of our Intranet search secrets and best practices...

To start with, we chose to place a checkbox underneath the search box which allows users to pass their search queries to an alternate front end where we can try neat experiments (like different ways to return the results, new and interesting OneBox implementations, etc.). Since only some percentage checks the box, it gives us a great way to test out new ideas and new technologies before releasing them to the main search results page. For instance, you might want to use this alternate front end to test out a different look-and-feel for your XSLT; you might want to filter out certain domains to see if it improves the results; you might want to try out some new OneBox modules; you might want to turn on/off Query Expansion (word stemming, synonyms, etc.); you might want to try source biasing. In future posts we'll talk about the many ways in which we've used this Next search screen.

To add an alternate experimental front end and a checkbox to get to it is not very difficult. Click here to see the simple 3-step process.

The screenshot below shows all the tremendous amount of rich information we provide when users even enter just a simple three letter query.

This is an actual live screenshot (with some data sanitization, of course) showing what users see once they query for 'gfs'. You'll see that, in addition to the highly relevant search results, the user is able to see a variety of useful OneBox implementations such as Googler information and user-created bookmarks, they can segment their search to just tech documents, they can narrow their search even further, or, they can add their own KeyMatch if they didn't find the result they wanted.

In upcoming blog posts, we'll talk about how to implement some of these other features. Some of you may choose to follow along with these posts and try out these methods and we encourage it! If you ever have any questions, please feel free to join or write to our Google Search Appliance group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Search-Appliance.

Stay tuned for much more!

Interview on WYNE-FM, 23 July 2007

This is an interview I did with Gary Null, on New York's local NPR station. Link as follows:

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/86473-83093/Media/600100.null072307.mp3

Friday Fun at Tour de France

Fan gives riders inspiration to keep going.

(From Stage 17 between Pau and Castelsarrasin.)

Ike Leggett Pledges To Fight Global Warming

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and council have adopted the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration that was launched at the National Assocaition of Counties annual converntion. The declaration asks the federal government to adopt legislation requiring an 80 percent emissions reduction by 2050 and raising fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon within a decade.

The Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration calls on participants to: 1) Create an inventory of county government greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 2) implement GHG reductions recommended by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives Cities for Climate Protection program. 3) Develop a regional plan to reduce GHG emissions. 4) Urge Congress to enact legislation to reduce GHG emissions. (District Chronicles)

Google Apps migration tools

Posted by Scott McMullan, Google Enterprise Partner Team

In the spirit of celebrating small successes, I want to give a shout out to Google Enterprise Professional partner LimitNone, who recently passed the 100 customer mark for their gMOVE/gXFER Google Apps migration products.

These tools help Microsoft Outlook and Gmail users migrate their data to Google Apps, and complement some of the other migration tools available today, including our own IMAP migration feature.

Congrats to the team at LimitNone!

From One Peace Process to the Next?

What follows are selections from an article in the summer 2007 issue of ISRAEL HORIZONS by Dr. Thomas Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell is a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has a doctorate in international relations from the University of Southern California.

Lessons Tony Blair may bring from Northern Ireland

Early in May, Protestants and Catholics began a unique power-sharing experiment in Northern Ireland. This follows two previously failed attempts — in 1974 and in 1999-2002; hopefully, the third time is the charm. It may be hard to recall, but there was a time in 1993 when the inhabitants of Ulster, as this province of the United Kingdom is also known, were envious of Israelis and Palestinians for having a peace process when they had none.

The Northern Ireland (NI) peace process began in December 1993 with the British and Irish governments drafting the Downing Street Declaration outlining the parameters of this process. ... Serious negotiations on power sharing began in the late winter of 1998; after about six weeks, an agreement was signed in Belfast on Good Friday 1998. ...

In October 2006, at a summit in St. Andrews, Scotland, the DUP and Sinn Fein reached an agreement on power sharing. ... A sinking peace process had been righted by the ceaseless toil of Tony Blair ... and Bertie Ahern [then the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, respectively].

What are the lessons that can be learned from this peace process for the Middle East? First, the importance of dual mediation — the joint mediation by two powers who have relations with the main parties in the conflict, but are closer to each other than they are to their clients. At critical junctures, the two governments would formulate the parameters of negotiations taking into account the interests of their respective clients.

Second, dual mediation works only as long as both patrons represent equally the interests of their clients. ...

Third, the peace process must begin with the moderate centrist parties. ... It was only because an agreement negotiated between the moderates had been signed early on, that the peace process could later be saved.

Fourth, the peace process takes constant long-term attention from the sponsors in order to be successful. It must also be bipartisan. ...

Fifth, the peace process takes commitment at the head of government level — prime ministerial or presidential. It was Blair and Ahern who drove the process in NI.

Let's now translate all this into Middle Eastern terms. First, the two powers who have a track record of good relations with the two sides and with each other are the United States and the European Union. Second, it should be clear that Washington is unlikely to sacrifice fundamental Israeli interests and should not expect the Europeans to sacrifice basic Palestinian interests.

Third, in the Israeli-Palestinian context, the “centrists” are Meretz and Labor on the Israeli side and Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and the independents on the Palestinian side. Meretz and Labor have seen an erosion of over 50 percent of their combined Knesset strength since 1992; unless this is revived, the chances for reactivating the peace process are low. ...

Jimmy Carter is the only US President who was as consistently focused on peacemaking in the Middle East as were Blair and Ahern in Ulster. ... Clinton showed a similar focus for six months from June to December 2000. ...

George W. Bush pointedly rejected taking up the Israeli-Palestinian agenda with the same energy and commitment. Bush has become too bogged down in Iraq to be involved successfully in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his administration is damaged goods in Arab eyes. Therefore, peace in the Middle East awaits a new American administration.

Based on past history and the present composition of the Republican base, a Democratic administration would probably be preferable for this task. Although progress was also achieved in the Middle East under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Bush, Sr., it seemed to be less a priority with them than it was with Carter and Clinton. ...

Spreading the gospel

This past weekend François had a British family staying at his Chapel Hill B&B .
Three generations of Kingstons had flown in from all over the world to attend a wedding in Raleigh.
Guess what: within hours they discovered the pétanque terrains, François gave them a refresher course, and they got so hooked that before leaving they ordered online from the Obut distributor in England, so the boules would be waiting for them when they got back home!
Here you see George (87), Rupert, Anne, Simon, Peter & Shirley in action.

Spreading the gospel

This past weekend François had a British family staying at his Chapel Hill B&B .
Three generations of Kingstons had flown in from all over the world to attend a wedding in Raleigh.
Guess what: within hours they discovered the pétanque terrains, François gave them a refresher course, and they got so hooked that before leaving they ordered online from the Obut distributor in England, so the boules would be waiting for them when they got back home!
Here you see George (87), Rupert, Anne, Simon, Peter & Shirley in action.

Wer ist Bob?

This is an inside joke, for Bob's German friends.
Let's see if we get some comments in German...

Wer ist Bob?

This is an inside joke, for Bob's German friends.
Let's see if we get some comments in German...

Exxon Proposes Burning Humanity for Fuel

The Yes Men, strike again.

...the "NPC rep" announced that current U.S. and Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive exploitation of Alberta's oil sands, and the development of liquid coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who die into oil.

The Scoop

Customer reactions to the latest Google Earth Enterprise

Posted by David Bercovich, Product Marketing Manager

We launched the latest version of Google Earth Enterprise today, with a number of new features, including the ability to display enterprise search results (from say, the Google Search Appliance) on the globe inside Google Earth. You can read all about it on the Google geo blog.

We're very excited to enable customers to easily publish Google Earth Enterprise datasets in a browser, so that employees across the organization can leverage the power of Google Earth. I thought I'd share a little about what our customers are saying:

• Dell is pleased to take advantage of the new features of Google Earth Enterprise for both marketing and customer support. By visualizing global website traffic at www.dell.com in Google Earth, we are building a stronger sense of community with our internal and external partners through awareness and better visibility around traffic trends and patterns. In addition, our global Enterprise Command Center gains a global view of customer activity at a glance, ensuring optimum responsiveness for customers with Enterprise Silver, Gold and Platinum Plus support. Google Earth gives us the intuitive yet powerful interface to critical business information that we need to manage effectively in today's fast paced business environment.

- Jamie Wills, vice president of sales and marketing systems, Dell

• Norsk Hydro welcomes Google Earth Enterprise as an innovative tool for our global exploration efforts. With Google Earth's intuitive 3D geo-browsing experience, researchers can visualize data more effectively, allowing us to explore areas of interest more efficiently than ever. Deployed in our Research Centre in Bergen, Norway, the Google Earth Enterprise system is used to synthesize large quantities of global data including high resolution imagery and terrain models and dozens of vector layers that are relevant to Hydro's interests. It's an eye opening experience to see years of accumulated geological and geophysical data appear with just a few clicks.

- Ole Martinsen, Head of Exploration Research, Norsk Hydro

• Google Earth Enterprise enhances our ability to identify, track and update critical infrastructure throughout Alabama. Our Virtual Alabama information sharing database is anchored by Google Earth Enterprise. The incorporation of Google Earth Enterprise into the Virtual Alabama model will dramatically improve the speed and accessibility of Virtual Alabama to our user population.

- Jim Walker, Homeland Security Director, State of Alabama

We'd love to hear how Google Earth Enterprise is helping your business benefit from geographic information, so please let us know.

Petanque in Britain

Here's an interesting article about Limpsfield, a town of 4000 people in Surrey, just south of London.

How one determined player got a little club going which has become a meeting place for several retired but active business people.

Limpsfield enjoys a slice of quaint french life - Surrey Mirror- Jul 25 , 2007

Petanque in Britain

Here's an interesting article about Limpsfield, a town of 4000 people in Surrey, just south of London.

How one determined player got a little club going which has become a meeting place for several retired but active business people.

Limpsfield enjoys a slice of quaint french life - Surrey Mirror- Jul 25 , 2007

Hillary Clinton is Not Agnostic On Nuclear Power

Agnostic: Noncommittal. Undogmatic. The New York Senator said she was agnostic on nuclear power at the CNN/YouTube presidential debate. This could not be true because she opposes Yucca Mountain and is pushing for hearings to cancel the project. No Yucca Mountain. No new nuclear power plants. That sounds anti-nuclear to us.

Our fearless leader has been on top of and inside of Yucca Mountain, pictured at left. It is the place to store nuclear waste. It is probably the place to reprocess spent fuel. And how can one be serious about mitigating climate change without promoting emission free nuke power? Beats us. Senator Barack Obama is ahead of Senator Clinton on this issue, unless he starts backpedaling to win the Nevada primary. George Bush supported Yucca and still beat Kerry in Nevada. Hmmmm.

M & M's playing

I love the celebration dance!
If the player doesn't work, go here.

M & M's playing

I love the celebration dance!
If the player doesn't work, go here.

Anyone in St Louis, MO ?

Over the years we have shipped boules to several people in the greater St. Louis area.
George actually lives in Highland, IL but would love to get in touch with other players. You can contact him at g.stallings@smmj.com

Anyone in St Louis, MO ?

Over the years we have shipped boules to several people in the greater St. Louis area.
George actually lives in Highland, IL but would love to get in touch with other players. You can contact him at g.stallings@smmj.com

Clinton Flanking Obama on Environmental Justice?

Senator Hillary Clinton appears to be taking a leadership role on environmental justice (EJ). And it was just two years ago that Clinton and Obama were holding hands on EJ when they introduced the Healthy Communities Act of 2005 together. Now it appears that the gloves are coming off after the CNN/YouTube debate. Senator Obama must walk carefully around 'black' issues so that he will not alienate his white voter base (they don't want him to be 'too' black like Jesse and Al). Hillary does not have that problem, although she is similarly encumbered by the female issue.

Senator Clinton is chairing a hearing entitled, "Oversight of the EPA's Environmental Justice Programs," Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health. hearing entitled, “Oversight of the EPA’s Environmental Justice Programs." EPA, academicians and activists will present testimony. There will also be some coverage of an environmental justice bill introduced by Congressman Hilda Solis. AAEA is shopping a bill with teeth. The Solis bill basically codifies Bill Clinton's Executive Order 12898. (Clinton Press Release)

Okay Barack. You gonna dance or let Hillary have the floor?

World Cup Qualification Tournament

Max, Louis and Ed did not win, but they did have a nice uniform! Thanks guys, for wearing our colors.

We've heard nothing but praise for the organization of the tournament.

Pictures are coming in and you can watch them here:
WCQT - Portland

By the way, any club/group that has photos of any event is now welcome to send them to us - the higher the resolution, the better. We'll host them for others to see and download in a very simple way.

World Cup Qualification Tournament

Max, Louis and Ed did not win, but they did have a nice uniform! Thanks guys, for wearing our colors.

We've heard nothing but praise for the organization of the tournament.

Pictures are coming in and you can watch them here:
WCQT - Portland

By the way, any club/group that has photos of any event is now welcome to send them to us - the higher the resolution, the better. We'll host them for others to see and download in a very simple way.

Cafree in Paris

An ancient city starts down the path toward sustainability.

Inspiring photos of recent developments to "complete the streets" at Streetsblog.

Taking a holiday in Paris?

Here is the webpage for Velib, the new bicycle transit service. (French)

BBC explains the service.

Damn cyclists!

Word.

Don't believe everything you read

Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Product Management Director, Google Enterprise

One thing we've all learned from the Internet is that just because you see something in "print," it doesn't mean that's the whole story, or that it's entirely factual. You always need to check the source and make sure it's trustworthy. I was reminded of that point recently when I received a white paper published by Autonomy, one of our enterprise search competitors.

The topic of the paper was, oddly enough, Google. Let me first note that I was surprised that the Autonomy marketing folks took the time to write a whole paper (nicely formatted and all) on our enterprise search efforts.

That notwithstanding, the more I read, the more concerned I became. The paper would lead a customer or prospect to believe a number of things about Google that are just fundamentally not true. Inaccuracies about our enterprise ranking algorithms, and downright fabrications about our security and access control capabilities. The text is an amalgamation of hearsay and speculation attempting to push customers away from Google and toward their competitive product.

I decided the best course of action was to both set the record straight, and remind everyone of a key lesson. So for the record, let me call out some specific points:

1. Relevancy: The paper states that Google "relies on rich linking technology that was built for the Web to determine relevancy." This is false, and it's misleading. Google's enterprise search algorithms rely on hundreds of factors, only one of which is PageRank, to determine the most relevant content within an enterprise. We leverage the work of the largest engineering team focused on search and information retrieval in the world to solve this complex search problem.

2. Reach / Aggregation: Autonomy states in their paper that "Non secure web servers can be indexed out of the box but, integrating information from databases, file systems and content management applications into Google is considerably more complex -- and in some cases impossible." Google's appliance can natively reach into all content stores in an enterprise, including web servers, file servers, databases, document management systems, and business applications. All of this is offered as out of the box (or, ironically enough in the case of the appliance, "in the box") functionality. You can take a Google Search Appliance or Google Mini from its cardboard box to serving content from file systems and databases in less than 30 minutes. What's the setup time for other enterprise search systems?

3. Languages Support: The paper reports that Google's search is "language dependent technology that currently only supports 28 languages." It is true that we have a feature that supports the auto-detection of 28 languages, and if your query was in one of those 28, we'll offer you results in that language. And of course, offer you all results as well. This is a popular end-user feature on Google.com. However, our indexing and search is by no means restricted to those 28 languages.

4. Stemming: Autonomy states that "Google does not provide advanced language support such as stemming." This one is just wrong. A while back we added a query expansion feature which performs the same function as stemming, but just does it smarter. Anybody can do things like taking "park" and make it "parks" -- but in a lot of cases, we've seen that unintelligent stemming actually will make results worse. Drawing off of the intelligence derived from billions of queries, we know that a good solution will detect context, and expand a query like "city park" to also include "public park" but not "city parking." So, whether you want to call what the appliance does "smart stemming" or "Context Sensitive Query Expansion" (the latter being what our marketing team chose) it's a core feature of our product.

5. Security: In perhaps the most egregious statement in the whole document, the paper states that "Google provides open access to most documents -- a potential hazard for businesses needing to keep proprietary information under wraps." From the beginning, we have provided fast, accurate, and SECURE search within the enterprise. Our document-level security and access control capabilities ensure that users only see the content they are allowed to see, without requiring customers to deploy a new security system or undergo complex integrations. Google's appliances are used in the most secure environments including Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies as well as numerous government agencies.

That's it for setting the record straight. I have by no means covered every point, but I think you get the picture. We have been working for more than 5 years with a team dedicated specifically to solving the enterprise search problem, and hold a market leadership position with over 9,000 enterprise search customers. We leverage the work and innovation of the world's largest search company, and deliver that consumer powered innovation to the enterprise. But you don't have to take my word for it: feel free to talk to any one of our thousands of delighted customers.

And about that lesson: Just because it's printed and looks official, doesn't mean it's accurate.

New ICO guidance on vexatious requests

The ICO has published an updated version of Guidance No 22 on vexatious and repeated requests.

The new version (version 3.0, 23 July 2007) is available here (Pdf).

CNN/YouTube Presidential Debate Addresses Nuclear Power

One YouTube questioner asked about nuclear power and three of the Democratic Party candidates answered the question:

John Edwards answered that he opposes nuclear power.

Hillary Clinton said she was "agnostic" on nuclear.

Barack Obama said he supports nuclear power.

nuclear power

Television Ads on BART? Hell no!

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authorities have decided that their riders don't watch enough television.

So, they are considering plans to place televisions on trains and train platforms.

Tell BART's board of directors to let riders ride in peace, and without TV ads forced on them.

Take Action Here

USA team for Dakar, Senegal

After the petanque parties in NY last weekend, it was serious business Sat & Sun in Portland.
Yet a lot of the same faces.

The results:

1st place
Thuan Nguyen, Los Angeles Petanque Club (LAPC)
Christian Triay (LAPC)
Pascal Corchia, La Boule du Desert (Palm Desert, CA, residing in Dallas, TX)
they will respresent the USA in Dakar, Senegal in Sept 2008

2nd place
Alec Stone Sweet, La Boule New Yorkaise (LBNY)
Xavier Thibaud (LBNY)
Nghia Ngo, National Capitol Club de Petanque (Washington, DC, residing in Lousisiana)
they won last year and are going to the World Cup in Pattaya, Thailand this September.

3rd place
Joe Cortright, Portland Petanque Club (PPC)
Lavant Woolfe, Walla Walla Petanque Club. Walla Walla, Washington
Desmond Grattan, PPC
they were the surprise team in Boca last November, and still going strong!

4th place
Peter Mathis, Valley of the Moon Petanque Club (VOMPC)
Juan Garcia, Boca Petanque 2000
Mamary Coulibaly, LBNY
a truly international ànd nationwide team.

Congrats to all!

More info on the FPUSA blog.

USA team for Dakar, Senegal

After the petanque parties in NY last weekend, it was serious business Sat & Sun in Portland.
Yet a lot of the same faces.

The results:

1st place
Thuan Nguyen, Los Angeles Petanque Club (LAPC)
Christian Triay (LAPC)
Pascal Corchia, La Boule du Desert (Palm Desert, CA, residing in Dallas, TX)
they will respresent the USA in Dakar, Senegal in Sept 2008

2nd place
Alec Stone Sweet, La Boule New Yorkaise (LBNY)
Xavier Thibaud (LBNY)
Nghia Ngo, National Capitol Club de Petanque (Washington, DC, residing in Lousisiana)
they won last year and are going to the World Cup in Pattaya, Thailand this September.

3rd place
Joe Cortright, Portland Petanque Club (PPC)
Lavant Woolfe, Walla Walla Petanque Club. Walla Walla, Washington
Desmond Grattan, PPC
they were the surprise team in Boca last November, and still going strong!

4th place
Peter Mathis, Valley of the Moon Petanque Club (VOMPC)
Juan Garcia, Boca Petanque 2000
Mamary Coulibaly, LBNY
a truly international ànd nationwide team.

Congrats to all!

More info on the FPUSA blog.

Meretz USA News Update – July 20, 2007

Focus on: The West Bank versus Gaza

For months now, we’ve been hearing the Israeli government promise to release prisoners, to remove checkpoints, and to take other measures to reduce strain on the Palestinian population and to build confidence. This talk has gone on for months, with nothing happening… until recently.

The past few weeks have seen positive steps towards negotiations. In the beginning of July, Israel restored financial ties with the Palestinian Authority; on Monday, President Bush called for a regional peace conference; and today, Israel freed 255 Palestinian prisoners, turning them over to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In addition, Israel has offered immunity to 178 members of Fatah’s militant wing, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade – many of whom have taken the offer and put down their guns, willing to give peace a chance.

However, these steps hold one fatal flaw. They are part of a policy toward the Palestinians that resulted from Hamas taking control of Gaza last month.

Following the takeover, Israel and the U.S. decided to work with Fatah and President Abbas, pitting him against Hamas and its leadership. In the U.S., for instance, AIPAC commended the Palestinian government for breaking ties with Hamas. And, in his speech, President Bush painted a black and white situation, in which the Palestinians could choose to either follow the “good” Fatah or the “evil” Hamas. With its measures directed solely at bolstering President Abbas, Israel has been joining the U.S. in this new plan to negotiate with the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank to the outright exclusion of Gaza.

But this strategy is leaving Gaza in increasingly dire straits – last week, the World Bank warned that the Strip is facing “irreversible collapse” – and there is no way that Hamas will watch its territory fail without fighting back. Danny Rubinstein writes about the quarreling between Hamas and Fatah – over days of the weekend, salaries, and other issues. He observes that it is difficult for the Israel government to do anything productive when Fatah is preoccupied with fighting Hamas. Indeed, as Assistant Director of Meretz USA Ron Skolnik, recently argued in an op-ed to the New York Resident, it is dangerous for the United States and Israel to use Abbas to fight Hamas, threatening the organization’s existence and causing it to battle back.

Meanwhile, Zvi Bar’el of Haaretz, asks, “How can Israel and Abbas continue to ignore the only force capable of managing the Gaza Strip?” And in a piece for the New York Times, Steven Erlanger wrote that the American perception of the conflict is “missing shades of grey.” He quoted Daoud Kuttab saying that, rather than fully writing off Hamas, the U.S. and Israel should distinguish between Hamas’ political wing and military wing. There, they may find something they can work with – even if just unofficially.

For any real progress towards negotiations to occur, there must be a change of policy on the part of Israel and the U.S. In response to Bush’s speech, Rami G. Khouri of the Daily Star wrote that one of its biggest problems was the President’s insistence on overtly picking sides and attacking Hamas.

In a statement on the speech, Meretz USA wrote that it welcomed the address, but that “American involvement must go beyond cash infusions for Palestine and a solitary international conference” to a sustainable and committed peace process. No matter what form this process takes, it cannot ignore Gaza.

From the PM to you in under an hour

Posted by Kevin Gough, Sr. Product & Marketing Manager

Nitin Mangtani, Product Manager for Google Custom Search Business Edition, will be a featured guest on our weekly public site search webinar series. Nitin will be available to answer questions about Google Custom Search, our new hosted site search offering, or upcoming cricket Test matches. You can sign up for a session on Jul 25 @ 11am PDT or Aug 1 @ 11am PDT.

Carfree Wilshire Boulevard through Los Angeles?

Great idea.

Here is how it would work.

First, ban all automobiles from the entire 15-mile length of the boulevard. Second, beginning at its Western Avenue station, bring the Metro Rail to street level and run it to and from the sea on two sets of rails in the center of Wilshire, which has four or more lanes down its entire length and is thus wide enough to accommodate the route. Third, create bus lanes running east and west for riders who want to make more frequent stops, leaving express service to the Metro Rail. Fourth, install protected bicycle lanes in each direction at the edges of the boulevard and provide inexpensive, self-service rent-a-bike stations every 300 yards (as in Paris) so riders can pick up a bike anywhere on Wilshire and drop it off where they like.

LA Times

Tribunal ruling on when information is "held"

The following note on a recent Information Tribunal ruling has been submitted by Jim Matthew.

A very interesting decision notice was issued by the Information Tribunal in the case of
Mr M L Johnson v Information Commissioner and Ministry of Justice (DCA as was) on 13 July 2007 .

Although the decision went largely unremarked and found in favour of the Information Commissioner and MoJ/DCA, it does set a very valuable precedent.

In 2005 MoJ came up with the concept of “meta-requests”. Meta-requests related to information which had only been created in dealing with a prior request (and not for any other reason) or information which could only be produced by manipulating existing raw data.

This meant that requests for a wide variety of information potentially would be classed as “meta-requests” and refused, including;

• requests for information relating to an applicant’s previous request (MoJ suggested relying on section 36, but any clearly unreasonable attempts to obtain information about withheld information might also be dealt with as vexatious);

• requests for statistical information, ordered or summarised in any way that was not already regularly produced by the public authority (e.g. ranked lists of consultants or contractors, summary information from the DVLA database (“how many Mark 1 Ford Escorts are still on the road?”) etc).

The Campaign for Freedom of Information were one of the first to suffer from the introduction of the “meta-request” concept, when in late 2005 they requested information relating to internal reviews under the FOI Act from a number of large public authorities. Whilst MoJ were arguing that this was “meta-information” and wasn't held (or at least needed to be manipulated before the request could be answered), many departments claimed that in order to monitor their compliance with the FOI Act, they did hold the information (and could produce it in an up-to-date form at the press of a few buttons). The situation ended up with a three-way split between those who simply ignored MoJ's advice (and provided the requested information), those who blindly followed it (and refused the information) and those who had argued and eventually secured a compromise (answering the request fully (if very late), but pointing out that there was no requirement to have done so under the FOI Act – thus neatly avoiding the fact that trying to argue with the Clearing House took them well over the 20 day response time, without any public interest test argument to support an extension!).

MoJ have yet to be tested on the “information about my previous request” issue, but, the Information Tribunal have now clarified what levels of data-manipulation should be conducted and on what grounds requests requiring such manipulation could be refused.

Mr Johnson asked MoJ for summary information relating to the numbers of cases allocated to each High Court Queen's Bench Master by year since 2001 and the number of cases which each Master had “struck out”. MoJ had genuine difficulty in producing this information, which could only be obtained by manually examining some 17,000 files (see the IT decision for full details), but chose to rely on the “information not held” line to refuse the request. In considering the appeal, the Information Tribunal made several important decisions:

1) The “information not held” line can only be employed if manipulation of the raw data to produce the requested information would require levels of skill and judgement (not relevant in this instance, since all that was required was a member of staff to look through the paper files (and know that there were 3 or 4 possible terms that might be used to replace “Strike Out”, but which meant the same thing)).

2) If skill and judgement are not required, then the “information not held” line can not be employed and another reason would need to be found for refusal. In this case, the Tribunal accepted that collating the requested information would have significantly exceeded the cost ceiling.

The importance of this decision cannot be underestimated. It has knocked over one of MoJ's artificial constructs for refusing to provide requested information, hopefully more (including MOJ’s “working assumptions”) will follow.

Jim Matthew
21/07/07

Happy 14th of July

While I was on the road this cheerful postcard came in from our friend and francophile reader Don in Minneapolis. He didn't specify if the photo was taken before our after his weekly pétanque game. Either way, thanks and belated happy 14th to you too!

Happy 14th of July

While I was on the road this cheerful postcard came in from our friend and francophile reader Don in Minneapolis. He didn't specify if the photo was taken before our after his weekly pétanque game. Either way, thanks and belated happy 14th to you too!

The Bible Translator's Table of Contents

The Bible Translator, the journal of the United Bible Societies has been online for some time in the form of scanned images (one per page). I have just completed a HTML table of contents of the first 10 volumes, which I hope will both make this splendid resource more accessible and easier for search engines to catalogue. It will also make it possible for me to insert the relevant articles into my subject listings. I hope to complete the remaining volumes by the end of the year. Here are some useful articles that appeared during the first 10 years of the journal's publication:

J. Harold Greenlee, "The Genitive Case in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 1.2 (April 1950): 68-70.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Kurios 'Lord'," The Bible Translator 1.3 (June 1950): 106-110.

J. Harold Greenlee, "The Greek Definite Article," The Bible Translator 1.4 (October 1950): 162-165.

Erwin Nestle, "How to Use a Greek New Testament," The Bible Translator 2.2 (April 1951): 49-55.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Psuche in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 2.2 (April 1951): 73-75.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Word Suffixes in the Greek New Testament," The Bible Translator 2.4 (October 1951): 159-161.

J. Harold Greenlee, "The Preposition EIS in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 3.1 (January 1952): 12-14.

J. Harold Greenlee, "Verbs in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 3.2 (April 1952): 71-75.

G. Henry Waterman, "What is Koiné Greek?" The Bible Translator 3.3 (June 1952): 127-131.

F.F. Bruce, "The Old Testament in Greek, Part I," The Bible Translator 4.3 (July 1953): 129-134. [An extract from The Books and the Parchments (1952)]

F.F. Bruce, "The Old Testament in Greek, Part II," The Bible Translator 4.3 (October 1953): 156-162. [An extract from The Books and the Parchments (1952)]

J. Harold Greenlee, "New Testament Participles," The Bible Translator 5.3 (July 1954): 98-101.

Dewey M. Beegle, "The Meaning of the Qumran Scrolls for Translators of the Bible," The Bible Translator 8.1 (January 1957): 1-8.

F.W. Gingrich, "Leads from a Lexicon," The Bible Translator 10.1 (January 1959): 35-37.

Nigel Turner, "The Preposition en in the New Testament," The Bible Translator 10.3 (July 1959): 113-120.