Biofuels: the future?
The News Review:
- Biofuels: the future?
- Michelle Williams ‘heart broken’ over Heath Ledger
- China to help Japan probe dumpling poisoning
- China special Green dragon
- Will Alsop: High and Mighty | Comment is free | The Guardian
Biofuels: the future?
Telegraph.co.uk – Feb 2, 2008
About half of the raw material arriving at Greenergy’s jetty already comes from abroad. Owens mixes home-grown rape with soya from Brazil and palm oil from Southeast Asia. British farmers are becoming bit-part players in a global market that is growing in volume but getting more and more competitive on price, and that looks like bad news for people like Temple and Green. Just as they get their new biofuel crops into the ground, foreign farmers could undercut them. By the time this year’s harvest is grown, the buyers may have gone elsewhere. Sugar beet farmers are already complaining that the offer price from British Sugar’s new bioethanol plant, at just over £20 a ton, has come down by almost a third, and is less than the cost of growing and transporting the crop… But, for all Temple’s enthusiasm for his crop, wheat may prove more profitable this year since prices have doubled in the past 12 months as global stocks diminish with droughts in Australia and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Drax power station recently replaced some of its elephant grass with a shipment of olive pips from Italy. ‘If we are not careful, we won’t have a home-grown biofuels industry at all; the feedstock will all be imported,’ says David Croxton, a Somerset farmer and the managing director of Biomass Industrial Crops (Bical), a co-operative of farmers that is the country’s biggest trader in elephant grass.
Michelle Williams ‘heart broken’ over Heath Ledger
NEWS.com.au – Feb 2, 2008
" Details about Ledger’s funeral remain shrouded in secrecy, amid rumours his body has been flown to Perth for a private funeral next week. A phalanx of photographers were at Perth airport today following speculation his family were yet to arrive with his body, possibly on a charter flight from Sydney. Ledger’s former school, Guilford Grammar School, has offered to hold a memorial for Perth’s home grown movie star. Williams and Matilda are expected to fly to Perth for the funeral, as are Ledger’s close Hollywood friends, including Brokeback Mountain co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, who is Matilda’s godfather. Share this article.
China to help Japan probe dumpling poisoning
Reuters AlertNet – Feb 2, 2008
Japan’s foreign minister on Friday expressed hope that the effect on ties, always sensitive due to China’s bitter wartime memories and present regional rivalry, could be minimised. China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday that the Chinese government "sincerely cares about the poisoned Japanese and hopes that they recover soon". Former Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso, known for outspoken remarks and sometimes touted as a possible prime minister, said on Saturday that the affair had underscored the value of home-grown products. "I’ve been saying that Japanese agricultural products are expensive but taste good and are clean and safe," Japan’s Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying in a speech in southern Japan. "To be blunt, the agricultural cooperatives should thank China. Great value has been added (to Japanese products)," he added. Japanese media reports said the insecticide found in the suspect dumplings was used widely in China, but not in Japan.
China special Green dragon
Guardian Unlimited – Feb 2, 2008
Photograph: Sophie Carr
One cold evening in Yunnan province, we were sitting around the fire, admiring the star-spangled skies over our heads. An owl was hooting from the deep forest and the farmer’s water buffalo was munching noisily on dry corn stalks. We were snacking on home-grown persimmons and walnuts while supper was being prepared on a bio-gas stove. This cannot be, I was thinking. China is a new coal-fired power station every week, 49 extra petrol stations per day, and one million cars leaving the forecourts every two months. It’s a typhoon of scary statistics swirling us all off to hell, not this rural idyll. I was a guest of the family of Lily Zhang, a dynamic young woman from the Naxi (pronounced Nashi) minority of Yunnan.
Will Alsop: High and Mighty | Comment is free | The Guardian
Guardian Unlimited – Feb 2, 2008
We have to thank the prince for his carbuncle speech of 24 years ago, as it stimulated a debate that has led to a general interest in architecture, which in turn has resulted in a more vibrant city. But there is still an abundance of checks and balances, of architectural advisers and planning bodies, who hamper the efforts of British architects to do their best work here. Many of the best products of our home-grown creators are built elsewhere. I am not sure that the idea of “best practice” is useful as applied in our risk-averse society, though it keeps a lot of non-creatives in employment. But I suppose that the prince is not in need of a job. He is a welcome visitor to a debate, but let’s have it in public and not behind closed doors. · Will Alsop, the architect of the Palestra building on the Southbank, is now working on a 43-storey tower in London.