Staff

Budapest “Nabucco Summit” to turn pipedream into reality

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With U.S. and EU participation, a vital meeting in the Hungarian capital next January will seal commitments for the long-contemplated Turkey-Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria (Nabucco) gas pipeline. Opposition from Russia’s mighty Gazprom, uncertainty surrounding relations with Iran, and the roiling world economic turmoil cast doubt on the project’s future.

The China Syndrome bites back

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29 years after the movie “The China Syndrome,” America has triggered a global financial meltdown, from which China thought for a while that it might be immune. Not so. What did not happen in the film, is happening to the real-life economy of China. Factories are closing at astonishing rates, including in the Pearl River Delta – “the factory floor of the world,” and whole areas of business, such as scrap metal, are contracting or collapsing.

Stoking up the woodstove: winter’s first ritual

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Heating effectively with wood requires that one become what I call a woodburning gourmet. To make a really good fire, the wood should be cut and split and allowed to dry for two years in the rick. Dry wood throws at least a third more heat than green wood, and if it burns with a good draft, it does not violate pollution codes and does not block the chimney with creosote.