All Things News

Straight from Slashdot: “Today, the Cambridge Energy Research Associates released a report dismissing the Peak Oil theory, suggesting that world oil production will continue to increase for the next 24 years, and then only level into a plateau. The report, which suggests that world reserves are enough to last 122 years at our current rate of consumption, also blasts Peak Oil theorists for repeatedly making unscientific predictions and then shifting them whenever their predictions fail to materialize.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Alain Levy, the chairman of EMI Music, made a speech at the London Business School declaring ‘the end of the music CD as it is.’ He went on to say that most CDs are simply used for ripping onto digital audio players. Levy adds that by the beginning of 2007, all EMI CDs will come with additional material to make them more attractive to the consumer. Revenue from CDs still outranks revenue from downloads by better than 6 to 1. Would it take ‘additional material’ to get you to keep buying CDs? What material would you like to see?”

Straight from Engadget: “It looks like a certain little Taiwanese manufacturer is going to get a stern talking to pretty soon from our pal Stevie J.. Just last month, Han Hai (aka Foxconn) spilled the beans in regards to a 15-inch MacBook, and while of course nothing has been confirmed by the suits at Apple, that rumor has been reiterated by this juicy new iPhone story. Apparently Hon Hai has now secured a contract with Apple to manufacture 12 million mobile handsets with music player functionality, sez the Commercial Times. The phone (which sounds like an iPhone if we ever heard of one) is purportedly set to launch in the first half of next year, giving rise to hopes that Apple will announce the handset at Macworld Expo in January. As for the MacBook,contrary to the May 2007 ship date we heard for the 15-inch MacBooks earlier, Hon Hai could be delivering these things as early as next month.”

Straight from Fox News: “KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A Chinese submarine came close to the USS Kitty Hawk carrier group in the Pacific Ocean last month, a top U.S. naval commander confirmed Tuesday, adding the encounter could have triggered an “unforeseen” incident.A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, however, said she had not heard of such an incident.

The aircraft carrier and its supporting ships were conducting exercises in an unidentified location when the encounter occurred, Adm. William Fallon, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters.

The carrier group was not engaged in anti-submarine exercises, but if it had, “and if this Chinese sub came in the middle of this, then it could have escalated into something that could have been very unforeseen,” he said.”

Straight from Fox News: “WASHINGTON — The U.S. government believes Fidel Castro’s health is deteriorating and that the Cuban leader is unlikely to live through 2007, U.S. officials said.

That dire view was reinforced last week when Cuba’s foreign minister backed away from his prediction the ailing Castro would return to power by early December. “It’s a subject on which I don’t want to speculate,” Felipe Perez Roque told The Associated Press in Havana.

U.S. government officials say there is still some mystery about Castro’s diagnosis, his treatment and how he is responding. But these officials believe the 80-year-old leader has cancer of the stomach, colon or pancreas.”

Straight from Fox News: “CAIRO, Egypt — Al Qaeda in Iraq’s purported leader vowed on Friday that his fighters would never rest until they have reached Jerusalem and destroy the White House.In the audio tape made available on a militant web site, a man introduced as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir said Al Qaeda has 12,000 fighters at the ready in Iraq.

“We will not rest from our Jihad until we are under the olive trees of Rumieh and we have destroyed the dirty black house — which is called the White House,” al-Muhajir said.

The “olive trees of Rumieh” appeared to be a reference to the Mount of Olive in Jerusalem, or Christendom in general as a continuation of the Roman empire.

Also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Muhajir became the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by the U.S. military in June.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Earlier this month we ran an article linking Christopher Monckton’s attempt to discredit global warming. The submitter asked plaintively, “Can anyone out there go through this piece and tell me why it might be wrong?” George Monbiot has now done so.

From the article: “This is a dazzling debunking of climate change science. It is also wildly wrong… In keeping with most of the articles about climate change in [the Sunday Telegraph], it is a mixture of cherry-picking, downright misrepresentation, and pseudo-scientific gibberish. But it has the virtue of being incomprehensible to anyone who is not an atmospheric physicist… As for James Hansen, he did not tell the US Congress that temperatures would rise by 0.3C by the end of the past century. He presented three possible scenarios to the US Senate — high, medium, and low. Both the high and low scenarios, he explained, were unlikely to materialise. The middle one was ‘the most plausible.’ As it happens, the middle scenario was almost exactly right. He did not claim, under any scenario, that sea levels would rise by several feet by 2000.”

And on the political front, the only major ally for Pres. Bush’s stand on global warming, Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard, is now willing to look at carbon trading.”