Solar Power from Deserts

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

One per cent of the surface area of the world’s deserts would be enough to meet our current electricity needs.

This concept has long been promoted by Desertec, a European network of scientists and engineers, which argues that just 1 per cent of the surface area of the world’s deserts could generate as much electricity as the world is now using.Plans to use concentrating solar power plants in the Sahara to generate and export electricity  is talked about for years.But no good progress have been made.

This concept has long been promoted by Desertec, a European network of scientists and engineers, which argues that just 1 per cent of the surface area of the world’s deserts could generate as much electricity as the world is now using.

Now, it looks as though political will might help move things forward

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ENN

ECOLOGIST

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Israel Slaps Six-month Travel Ban On Palestinian Map Expert

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

Khalil Tafakji - Image; Al Jazeera

Citing “security reasons” — the ubiquitous and unanswerable catch-all phrase against which it is almost impossible to mount any defense — Israel’s Ministry of the Interior has just issued a six-month travel ban on map expert Khalil Tafakji. He heads the Arab Studies Society’s Mapping and GIS Department, which has relocated to Dahiet al-Bariid, just beside Israel’s wall, but with full access to Jerusalem.

Tafakji, like almost all other Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, is a “permanent resident,” but not a citizen of Israel. He was surprised at the development and said, “They [Israeli authorities] called me and said come to Moskobiyya [the Russian Compound security complex in West Jerusalem] — Room 4. They said ‘This is an order, sign it, you have 14 days to make an objection. It is forbidden for you to travel from today for six months.”

He called it “one of the ongoing Israeli violations against Palestinians in Jerusalem.”

He said  he often lectures in foreign countries about Israeli confiscation of lands the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Israel’s Shin Bet internal intelligence agency recommended the ban because Mr. Tufakji’s departure from Israel might harm state security.

The ban is in effect until August 2.

sources:

GIS  Development

International Middle East Media Centre

The Hindu

UN-Truth

Posted in map making | 1 Comment

Cassini images Saturn’s Moon Mimas

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

NASA’s Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft this month made its closest pass yet of the odd, eyeball-shaped moon Mimas, which bears the scar of a massive, violent impact from its past.

Scientists aren’t sure why the giant impact that caused the crater didn’t cause the moon to break apart. Scientists may have more answers soon. On Saturday, Cassini passed within 5,900 miles of Mimas, taking pictures, temperature readings and measurements to learn more about what’s on its surface.

source

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Dark Stars Spawn Supermassive Black Holes

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

Approximately 200 million years after the Big Bang, the universe was a very different place.

There was no starlight as there were no stars. This period was known descriptively as the “Dark Ages.” As there were no stars, only clouds of the most basic elements persisted, fogging up the cosmos.

Although it’s believed the first stars (known as “Population III stars”) were sparked when hydrogen and helium gases cooled enough to clump together, collapsing under gravity and initiating nuclear fusion in the star cores (thus generating heavier elements), there’s another possibility.

Around the time of early star formation it is thought there was an abundance of dark matter. Although it’s not entirely clear what dark matter actually is, we know from various observations that it’s out there in vast quantities. Dark matter makes up the majority of the mass of our universe and during these early days, dark matter may have fueled the earliest stars.

This may sound a little strange, but it gets even stranger than that.According to new research headed by Katherine Freese of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, dark matter not only had a role to play in fueling early stars, it may have created “dark stars” so massive that they went on to spawn supermassive black holes.

full story

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