made in Tokyo / made in Palermo

Scoperto un bunker a Palermo nel quartier Zen

http://www.repubblica.it/2008/09/sezioni/cronaca/mafia-5/bunker-palermo/bunker-palermo.html

PALERMO - Aria condizionata, lettore dvd, un comodo divano: era arredato di tutto punto il bunker, rigorosamente abusivo, ricavato da Antonino Grimaldi, pregiudicato di 29 anni arrestato dalla polizia a Palermo, in uno dei padiglioni del quartiere Zen 2, feudo dei capimafia Salvatore e Sandro Lo Piccolo, ora detenuti. All'interno del bunker sotterraneo era stato realizzato un poligono di tiro. Nella stanza, ampia circa 20 metri quadrati, sono state trovate, oltre alle munizioni, 100 dosi di cocaina confezionata per la vendita per un valore di 10mila euro e 7000 euro in contanti. Secondo gli inquirenti, il locale avrebbe ospitato latitanti di mafia che potrebbero essere riusciti a sfuggire alla cattura. Il poligono di tiro, ricavato a 10 metri di profondità, lungo una decina di metri, veniva utilizzato secondo gli investigatori per testare le armi. Sulle pareti c'erano buchi di proiettili e a terra bossoli esplosi da pistole di diverso calibro, dalla 22 alla 9x21. Il locale, a cui si accedeva attraverso una rete di cunicoli collegati al bunker, era completamente insonorizzato. Al rifugio gli agenti del commissariato San Lorenzo sono giunti seguendo le tracce di Grimaldi, pregiudicato con precedenti per detenzione e spaccio di sostanze stupefacenti e per reati contro il patrimonio. Gli agenti hanno atteso il weekend, momento in cui gli spacciatori si riforniscono di stupefacenti, e hanno organizzato un blitz nella sua abitazione. Durante la perquisizione è stato scoperto il passaggio segreto che portava al locale, cui si accedeva attraverso gli scantinati di uno dei tanti palazzoni del rione popolare palermitano. Nell'appartamento è stata trovata anche la chiave: l'ingresso al rifugio era impossibile per gli estranei che dovevano superare prima un cancello azionabile solo attraverso un telecomando e poi una porta blindata.

made in Tokyo

stazione dei taxi, uffici della compagnia dei taxi, centro allenamento golf,

Made in Palermo

bunker, rifugio, poligono di tiro, laboratorio stupefacenti, cantina,...

evolutionary myths

Economics of Industrial Ecology: Materials, Structural Change, and Spatial Scales

http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Industrial-Ecology-Materials-Structural/dp/0262220717/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227130817&sr=8-2

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http://books.google.com/books?id=VGzfMtfhIZMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=economics+of+industrial+ecology&hl=it

Product Details
Hardcover: 396 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (January 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262220717
ISBN-13: 978-0262220712

Editorial Reviews
Review"As the first text focused on this subject, Economics of Industrial Ecology fills a big hole in the literature of the field. It moves the interdisciplinary claim of industrial ecology a long way forward."—John R. Ehrenfeld, Executive Director, International Society for Industrial Ecology"

There have long been calls for the integration of economics and industrial ecology. This book assembles a number of important works—especially on integrated modeling of physical and economic systems—that form an important contribution to the industrial ecology literature."—Reid Lifset, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, editor, Journal of Industrial Ecology"

This is one of the first books that focuses primarily on the economics of industrial ecology, without ignoring the scientific and analytical treatment of its problems."—Arpad Horvath, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

The use of economic modeling techniques in industrial ecology research provides distinct advantages over the customary approach, which focuses on the physical description of material flows. The thirteen chapters of Economics of Industrial Ecology integrate the natural science and technological dimensions of industrial ecology with a rigorous economic approach and by doing so contribute to the advancement of this emerging field. Using a variety of modeling techniques (including econometric, partial and general equilibrium, and input-output models) and applying them to a wide range of materials, economic sectors, and countries, these studies analyze the driving forces behind material flows and structural changes in order to offer guidance for economically and socially feasible policy solutions.After a survey of concepts and relevant research that provides a useful background for the chapters that follow, the book presents historical analyses of structural change from statistical and decomposition approaches; a range of models that predict structural change on the national and regional scale under different policy scenarios; two models that can be used to analyze waste management and recycling operations; and, adopting the perspective of local scale, an analysis of the dynamics of eco-industrial parks in Denmark and the Netherlands. The book concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of an economic approach to industrial ecology.

Europeana porta online tutto il sapere del Vecchio Continente

http://www.corriere.it/cultura/08_novembre_19/europeana_di_pasqua_0714ed20-b63c-11dd-909d-00144f02aabc.shtml

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http://www.europeana.eu/portal/index.html

MILANO – «Facciamo questo per non abbandonare del tutto l'Europa nelle mani dei motori di ricerca americani»: nelle parole di Jean Noel Jeanneney, presidente della Bibliothèque nationale de France, c'è lo spirito di Europeana, troppo facile da paragonare a Google Books eppure diversa e, forse, persino migliore. L'Europa risponde dunque con un minimo scarto temporale alla provocazione di Google che, con la sua nuova icona Google Preview, permette di accedere a tutti i volumi indicizzati dal suo servizio di ricerca libri all'interno di pagine web esterne. E se Mountain View, con il suo instancabile fermento, regala una versione embedded dei volumi (con possibilità di consultazione online nel caso di diritti d'autore scaduti), il Vecchio Continente sfida il colosso americano con un progetto altrettanto ambizioso, anche considerata la tradizione culturale europea.
EUROPEANA – Opere letterarie, foto, film, libri, dipinti, mappe, giornali: in Europeana (o meglio nel suo prototipo) in sostanza sarà accessibile un patrimonio culturale finora conservato gelosamente (e già digitalizzato) dalle biblioteche e dai musei europei, tra cui la Divina Commedia di Dante, i manoscritti e le registrazioni di Beethoven, Mozart e Chopin, i quadri di Vermeer, la Magna Carta britannica e le immagini della caduta del muro di Berlino. E per il 2010, quando il sito sarà molto di più di un prototipo, la mole di materiali dovrebbe sfiorare i sei milioni di documenti e minacciare seriamente il rischio di una privatizzazione della conoscenza.
TUTTO HA AVUTO INIZIO QUANDO.... – Del resto l'Europa aveva deciso di mettere online il suo sapere già da tempo e il primo passo dell'iniziativa è stato scandito dalla decisione del Parlamento Europeo di dare sostegno al progetto, accordando i finanziamenti necessari all'interno dell'eContentplus Programme (finalizzato a migliorare l'accessibilità e l'uso dei documenti digitali europei). La precedenza alla messa online verrà data mano a mano ai documenti di ciascuna cultura considerati più espressivi e prioritari. E intanto a battezzare la neonata Europeana sarà l'inossidabile Viviane Reding, commissario Ue alla Società dell'informazione, che ha spiegato l'iniziativa con un esempio semplice e illuminante: «Uno studente d'arte irlandese potrà ammirare la Gioconda senza andare a Parigi».

Emanuela Di Pasqua19 novembre 2008

Prishtina European Grand Prix 2009

workshop Ecologies of Identities [UBT Prishtina, Politecnico di Milano]- Novembre 2008

prima presentazione video

in collaborazione con Alberto Clerici

ringraziamo Autosalloni Prishtina, Lanti, Virusi, Rrebeli, Plusi, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, 50 cent, Euronews, Sokolekrajes, Skillz, Mergim e Selim

POST - Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking

http://www.postcoml.org/

http://explore.noaa.gov/abstract-and-bio-pacific-ocean-shelf-tracking-project-dr-david-welch

Dr. David Welch reviews the technical operation of the Pacific Ocean Tracking Project (POST) and reviews its performance in addressing key policy questions.
Abstract
Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) array, currently operates as the world’s largest telemetry system for studying the movements and survival of marine fish. It will provide the exemplar for the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), the subject of the May 18th talk by Ron O’Dor. OTN shall form “an array of POST arrays," sitting on the continental shelves of all the continents on the planet. As such, it provides a prime example of what the evolving Ocean Observation System (OOS) system might look like.One of the Census of Marine Life’s (CoML's) original field projects, POST made a natural fit given the CoML’s focus on distribution, diversity, and abundance of marine life. However, POST has begun to prove itself in addressing key US policy questions for fisheries, and thereby demonstrating the fundamental linkage between these biological questions and vexing high-level policy issues. POST thus forms an interesting example of how the development of a highly quantitative tool looking at basic biological processes can inform and reinvigorate the science of fisheries management—and ocean research.The operational considerations involved in developing POST include the need for:
Developing large-scale and high volume methods for conducting surgery on thousands of test animals while ensuring the highest ethical standards of fish handling and surgical procedures are met.
Developing technical methods for deploying and maintaining a very large scale permanent tracking array on the seabed.
Ensuring that the data are recovered in very high yield to validate the array concept and provide meaningful scientific results to justify the support for building (and expanding) the array.
Dr. Welch reviews the technical operation of POST from the twin perspectives of ethical animal use and technical operation of a large-scale engineering system. In the final section of the talk, he reviews the performance of the array in addressing key policy questions concerning the management of Columbia & Fraser R salmon populations.
Biography
David Welch received a B.Sc. in Biology and Economics from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia) in 1985.
He started and led the Canadian government’s High Seas Salmon Program at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in 1990, after a quarter century of governmental hiatus in ocean research on salmon. During the next decade he studied the ocean biology of Pacific salmon, and provided some of the first compelling evidence for a potentially profound impact of global warming on Pacific salmon in the ocean.
Dr. Welch serves as the chief architect of the Census of Marine Life’s project POST and President of Kintama Research. Welch started Kintama in 1990 to develop the pioneering technology platform necessary for delivering data from a permanent ocean array capable of directly measuring survival of migrating fish in the ocean.
We can measure the success of POST from three perspectives:
It is the largest and most complex marine tracking array under single management anywhere in the globe, with a current geographic span of almost 2,500 km;
The Canadian Government committed $45M Cdn starting in 2007 to champion the globalization of the POST array as the Ocean Tracking Network;
The array is now capable of measuring the movements and survival of fish as small as 12.5 cm year-round, and may be capable of tracking fish as small as 10 cm by 2008.
As a result, the marine science community stands on the brink of having the ability to conduct direct quantitative experimental studies in the ocean on fish of the kind that transformed chemistry and physics one and two centuries ago.
Dr Welch has previously acted as scientific spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund on the issue of global warming, and received an invitation to testify on the results of his research on the ocean biology of Pacific salmon in the U.S. Senate. Dr Welch speaks fluent Japanese and lives on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

In Texas, Weighing Life With a Border Fence

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/us/13border.html

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: January 13, 2008
GRANJENO, Tex. — Rafael Garza, a former mayor of this small border city, stood steps from the back door of his simple brick house and chopped the air with a hand. “This is where the actual fence would be,” he said.And the federal property line, he said, would be at his shower.
Mr. Garza, 36, a Hidalgo County sheriff’s sergeant who traces his family here to 1767, was imagining what life would be like in the shadow of the Proposed Tactical Infrastructure — the wall, to many outraged South Texans — that the Department of Homeland Security has committed to build by the end of the year.
Although federal officials say its location and design are still in flux, official maps of the Texas third of the 370-mile intermittent pedestrian barrier from Brownsville to California have provoked widespread alarm among property owners fearful of being cut off from parts of their own land or access to the Rio Grande for livestock and crops.
In the Rio Grande Valley last week, yards were plastered with signs demanding “No border wall,” raising the prospect of a protracted legal, if not physical, standoff, although Congress has recently taken steps to review the original plan. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is under fire from some fellow Republicans for amendments to a financing bill last month that they say scale back the fence.
At the same time, local concern was heightened by letters in December from the United States Army Corps of Engineers to property owners in the Southwest — 71 of them in Texas — who had refused access to their land for up to a year of survey work and were given 30 days to comply or face a federal lawsuit.
One was Dr. Eloisa G. Tamez, a nursing director at the University of Texas, Brownsville, at Texas Southmost College, who owns three acres in El Calaboz, the remnant of a 12,000-acre land grant to her ancestors in 1747 by the King of Spain. The barrier would rise within feet of her backyard, as well.
“It’s all I have,” said Dr. Tamez, 72, a widow who served for years as a chief nurse in medical centers of the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Who do they think we are down here? Somebody sitting under a cactus with a sombrero taking a nap?”
Her deadline expired last Monday with no legal action.
But Laura Keehner, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Friday, “We will begin that process as early as next week.”
Ms. Keehner said that of 135 letters sent seeking access for surveys, 30 local landowners had so far agreed. “They recognize that a fence will help fight drug trafficking and human trafficking,” she said.
The government would have to pay for any private land acquired or condemned for the fence, at a price set by federal evaluators. But landowners would not be compensated for allowing surveys, except for cases of damage.
Not all residents vowed resistance. Juan Hernandez, 43, a poultry farmer in Los Indios, sounded resigned. “I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but they’re going to do it,” said Mr. Hernandez, who complained about rampant drug trafficking.
He said, “if it helps my kids” he could go along with a fence. “I’m probably having to move,” he said, “but if they pay for it, O.K. ”
Valley officials and residents who denounced the fence said they were not soft on illegal immigration or blind to the dangers of drug smuggling and terrorism. “Who doesn’t want security?” said Mayor Richard Cortez of McAllen. “Our fight with the government is not over their goals, it’s how they go about them.”
“You can go over, under and around a fence,” he said, “and it can’t make an apprehension.”
Instead, he said, the government should deepen the river, clear the land for better surveillance and create a legal Mexican worker program.
Up and down the border, his fellow mayors agree, banding together in the Texas Border Coalition with rare unanimity to oppose the fence, calling instead for increased electronic measures like sensors and more Border Patrol agents.
Stirring particular concern was the plan to run the fence north of the levees built decades ago to hold back the Rio Grande, now flowing in many places a mile or more to the south. So the fence would in effect cut off swaths of American soil — including range and farmlands — between the barrier and the international boundary of the river.
To build the fence as originally conceived, in two parallel rows with a road for the Border Patrol between them, some local officials were told, the government would need to acquire a strip of land at least 150 feet from the levee. That would take it into the backyards of Mr. Garza in Granjeno, Dr. Tamez in El Calaboz and other property owners.
But Ms. Keehner of the Homeland Security Department said the agency was reviewing its options. “That’s why we need the surveys,” she said.
Local officials have been told that there would be some kind of gates through the fence, but what kind and where have yet to be specified.

The last maps also show wide gaps between segments of fence, setting the barrier in more developed areas where the risk was greater that illegal immigrants could more easily melt into the population, and leaving open desolate tracts that could be more easily monitored.

But that raised other concerns for residents like Aida Leach of River Bend Resort, a golf community outside Brownsville that the maps show getting partly fenced.
“The wall stops at part of the houses and starts again,” leaving her house exposed, Ms. Leach told a meeting of concerned property owners that was convened Wednesday night at the San Ignacio de Loyola Roman Catholic Church in El Ranchito by lawyers from Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. “So I guess they’ll be coming to our house.”
“Good question,” said Corinne Spenser-Scheurich, one of the lawyers. Ms. Spenser-Scheurich said landowners should not feel intimidated by the government’s requests to survey. “To sign or not is a personal choice,” she said.
Another landowner, H. R. Jaime, attending with his 90-year-old mother, Frances Wagner Quiñones, whose forebears settled nearby Landrum, asked, “What happens to water rights, if we can’t get to the water and pump it out?”
Emily Rickers, another of the lawyers, said the government might have to compensate him for that as well.
At the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge to Reynosa, Mexico, George Ramon, the bridge director for McAllen, questioned the value of a border fence considering how brazenly the fences at the heavily patrolled crossing were regularly breached, aided by “spotters” who hang around the bridge communicating with cellphones and hand signals like baseball coaches.
“They form a human pyramid and leap the fence,” Mr. Ramon said. “I’ve seen them pay a guy who helps them over.” Others, known as “port runners” just make a dash for it past the toll takers and agents and melt into the crowd. “It’s a constant, daily occurrence” he said.
He kept five police cars lined alongside the fence as a deterrent, but they proved worthless, he said, “as soon as they figured out no one was in them.”
He stopped at a hole in a chain-link fence, where cars were lining up to enter the United States. “Well,” he said, “it’s cut again.”