Current Events Watch

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Chinese steelworkers clashed with police in a protest over plans to merge their mill with another company and beat the company’s general manager to death. Several hundred people were injured in the clash in the northeastern city of Tonghua. Workers had gathered to protest the takeover of their company and threatened layoffs. According to police, around 1,000 protesters gathered in the company’s office building to protest the potential takeover.

Employees of Tonghua Iron and Steel Group object to plans for Jianlong Steel to take control of the company. Beijing-based Jianlong controlled the company temporarily last year, and employees blame Jianlong for financial problems suffered during that time. Jianlong took over Tonghua last year but suffered losses after steel prices dropped and jettisoned the company, then revived the takeover plan this year after steel prices rebounded, making the business profitable again.

Angry Tonghua employees attacked Jianlong general manager, Chen Guojun, during the protest and beat him to death. Workers were angry that Chen was paid some 3 million yuan ($438,000) last year while some retirees received as little as 200 yuan ($29) a month.

Beijing is trying to streamline China’s sprawling steel industry, the world’s largest, by orchestrating a series of mergers aimed at creating globally competitive producers. The mergers often are accompanied by layoffs that sometimes spark complaints that workers receive too little severance pay.

Chinese state media confirmed that a steel factory executive was beaten to death after thousands of workers gathered to protest the takeover of their company. Zhang Zhidong, spokesman for the Tonghua Iron and Steel Co, said it would be impossible for the protest, which culminated in the beating death of an executive, to have involved 30,000 people, as was reported by Reuters and AFP, according to China Daily.

“We only have 13,000 on the payroll,” Zhang said.

The shortage of land in many cities has also led to a scarcity of natural vegetation in urban settings. But a new architectural system from Vertical Landscapes (VL) seeks to invite nature back into our cities on a broader scale. Their system transforms buildings into columns of vegetation to help clean the city air and possibly even produce small scale crops, all while retaining the building’s usual use for office or housing space.

Vertical Landscape’s Vertical Ecosystem Structure (VES) is a freestanding structure that takes the form of a critical architectural component, a load-bearing, shear, utility wall. When incorporated into a larger structure it will absorb the building’s loads and create conditions for vegetation to prosper. The VES contains all the irrigation and drainage piping and mechanical systems required, which can be customized to meet the needs of different types of vegetation and allow plants to be micro-managed to provide the optimum growing environment.

Since the VES is a freestanding structure it can be built adjacent to an existing wall. And although an add-on VES could be designed to look like a seamless part of an existing structure, developer Nelson Hyde Chick says that a VES is best implemented as part of a new construction.

Chick also says that opting for a vertical landscape provides a number of advantages over rooftop gardens by:

• allowing the rooftop to remain reserved for solar panels;
• providing a potentially larger area for vegetation – particularly as the height of the building increases;
• reducing the risk of water damage since water in a vertical landscape can be mitigated much more easily and cheaply than if a leak occurred in the membrane between the roof and the vegetation of a rooftop garden;
• allowing for heavier and more diverse types of vegetation, since the additional load of the vegetation is already on the wall, whereas a rooftop garden transfers the weight to the structure’s load-bearing, shear walls;
• enabling the creation of microclimates based on the orientation of the VES to the sun. For example, an architect in Phoenix, Arizona could place the VES structure facing the southeast to receive the mild morning sun, but be shielded from the harsh afternoon rays. Therefore vegetation that would be exposed to the sun all day on a rooftop garden and not usually suited to the Arizona climate would be able to prosper.　

The Vertical Ecosystem Structure from Vertical Landscapes  might give a city a touch of that post-apocalyptic, nature-reclaims-city look, but anything that adds a splash of green to city centers while cleaning the air has to look good. With many cities around the globe striving to go green, here’s a way to do it literally.

Do you love the amazing maneuverability of the Dyson Ball vacuum cleaner? Would that ball design work for a car? Graphic designer Santosh Chawla has incorporated just such a principle into his hydrogen powered Circulus concept car design.

This concept car is all about the 360º spin. With an omni-directional front this car can spin around in a wide variety of terrains. The omnidirectional sphere at the front is controlled by an engine connected to an intelligent system that recognizes and responds to every movement of the driver’s steering.

Chawla describes it: “Versatility combined with the vehicle’s overt cool factor and the ability to use it in different environments is this vehicle’s strong points. Either as an explorer of sandy beaches, snowy backroads, winding mountain passes, or simply commuting in the city, the Circulus occupies an automotive niche like no other. If the driver wants, it can turn 360º on a dime.”

In addition to its incredibly small turning circle, the Concept would be made using recycled materials, its side body panels are made of recycled plastic and polyurethane covers the seats, and it features a high visibility, panoramic windshield to give the occupants all-round visibility. Power would be provided by hydrogen fuel cells, which means it has zero emissions.

Stability and braking are taken care of by the two wheels at the rear which would also provide the drive. I’m not quite clear on how the steering mechanism from the front wheel would operate, but the designs show suspension arms connected to a hood over the top part of the sphere, with small intermediary ball bearings between the spherical tire and the hood.

The design is sporty, eye-catching and looks like it would be fun to drive. Let’s hope the Circulus proceeds to prototype and beyond.

We Oklahomans often wonder why the rest of the country, the entire world really, sees us as backwards, ignorant hicks. It might have something to do with our government representatives saying ignorant things. Like this:  

Via Think Progress, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK):

 When you tell people that the mortality rate in Canada is 25% higher for breast cancer, 18% higher for prostate cancer, you know, they say why in the world would we emulate a system like that? This is life threatening.

Let’s look at a few Canadian and U.S. statistics of our own:

It is irresponsible of Inhofe to throw out completely inaccurate statistics to frighten his constituency into thinking universal health care is evil “socialism”. Who does he think pays for his health insurance?

We do, Senator, and do you know what that’s called? According to you, it’s socialism. So social medicine is ok for you and the rest of your congressional cronies, but not for Joe Citizen? That isn’t just ignorant, it’s evil.

Although Bluetooth headsets have come a long way in the style department, you can still look and feel like a nerd going around town with one attached to your ear. Enter the Orb.

An innovative new Bluetooth headset called the Orb solves the style problem by taking a cue from jewelry. The Orb transforms from a ring with a simple twist to become a Bluetooth headset capable of hands-free calling. This also addresses the problem of what to do with the headset when you aren’t using it. Since they are usually designed to mold to the shape of the ear, headsets can be a little awkward to stuff in a pocket when not in use. By transforming from a wireless earpiece into a ring that can be worn on your finger the Orb headset solves this practical problem while looking good.

Incorporating NXT technology the Orb provides high-quality bone-conduction audio without the discomfort of placing a device inside the ear. A Deluxe edition also features a Flexible Organic Light Emitting Device (FOLED) screen to display caller ID, calendar reminders, and voice-to-text information for communication without taking the ring off the finger.

Developed through a partnership between Hybra Advance Technology Inc. and AbsolutelyNew Inc., the Orb will cater for the petite and stubby fingered alike through the availability of different ring sizes. Those who like their Bluetooth headsets with extra bling will be able to opt for a limited edition designer model featuring decorative gemstones. All units will offer a class 2 Bluetooth range of 30 feet.

Like most ancient civilisations, Mesopotamia flourished on the abundance brought by its two great rivers. The land between the Tigris and Euphrates was a wonder of the Ancient World, a cradle of agriculture where corn and vegetables, dates and fruits nourished the empires that arose on its soil.BAGHDAD - Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq bone dry for a second straight year, wrecking entire swathes of farm land, threatening drinking water supplies and intensifying fierce sandstorms that have coated the country in brown dust. The drought has dealt a harsh blow to hopes that reductions in sectarian violence over the last year would fuel an economic recovery. Instead, the government’s budget suffered a double-hit: Lower than expected oil prices have crimped revenues and the scarcity of water will force Iraq to spend money to import most of their needed crops, especially wheat and rice, to meet domestic demand. 

Anbar province - hotter than the Texas panhandle.

Historically, Iraq has been one of the more fertile nations in the region, thanks to the Tigris and Euphrates, which flow southeasterly through the entire nation. But for a second year, cropland in the north and west is parched and farmers in south and central Iraq are suffering from low water flows in both rivers — a phenomenon caused in part by the construction of dams built in neighboring Turkey and Syria. The common belief among Iraqis is that their country’s neighbors are responsible for their plight. As farmers complain of their ruined crops, the drought can be felt across the nation as gritty sandstorms lash Iraqis with increased frequency this summer.

The-al-asad-dust-bowl-with-the-duster-blowing-in

A decline in acreage where plant roots once knitted the soil has only increased the severity of sandstorms, which are blowing across Iraq with increased frequency. Two people died in the eastern city of Kut, and hundreds of Iraqis complaining of respiratory problems crowded emergency rooms across Iraq. Adding to the farmers’ difficulties, the dwindling water supplies are suffering from high amounts of salt. “The impact of the drought will continue for years to come unless there are huge efforts to bring in modern irrigation systems and abundant water to drain areas affected with high levels of salinity,” said Mahdi al-Qaisi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Desertification, especially in mid- and southern Iraq, has been accelerated by people cutting down trees for firewood, under-investment and the pounding the land has taken from military vehicles and operations. The severity of the drought has resulted in a testy water dispute between Iraq and Turkey, which has built five dams along the Euphrates upstream from where it enters western Iraq. The quarrel recently cooled when Turkey agreed to release more water from its dams. Aoun Thiab Abdullah, director of the Iraqi Water Resources Ministry’s national water resources center, said Iraq needs at least 500 cubic meters of water a second to flow from the Euphrates — nearly twice the current level — so that it can meet its needs in the south, especially in the areas where rice is grown.

This year’s grain harvest was forecast to be among the worst in a decade, virtually unchanged from last year and down about 45 percent from a normal year’s harvest, according to Michael Shean at the U.S. Agriculture Department’s foreign agriculture service. Rice won’t be harvested until October, but water shortages earlier this year prompted Iraq to cut its rice crop in half in central and southern provinces. Alewi al-Shimmari, a father of six in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, used to grow rice on his entire 100-acre farm, but the drought has left all but 12 acres useless for farming. “More than 50 percent of families working as farmers left their villages and went to the city,” al-Shimmari said. “Lands that once were green farms are now turned to desert.” U.S. State Department reconstruction teams in Anbar, an arid province in western Iraq, are helping Iraqis to continue drawing water from depleted lakes and ensure that water treatment plants can adequately treat the supply of drinking water.

They say some lakes in Anbar Province are 9 to 12 yards lower this year compared with last year. The water is so low that water intake pipes are exposed and cannot suck the water up into treatment plants. What water can be drawn is heavy with sediment. That coupled with increased salinity, sewage waste dumped into the Euphrates and agricultural runoff is making it increasingly difficult for water treatment plants to cleanse the supply of drinking water.

1930s dustbowl

The Dust Bowl in Texas

 The situation in Iraq is very much like the situation in Oklahoma in the 1930s. But will the Iraqi farmers also get a new deal? That remains to be seen.　

Source: 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31890377/ns/weather/ 

Dubai conjures up BIG images; big as in flamboyant, lavish and generally larger than life. Amidst the opulence, extravagance and apparently limitless budgets – Dubai is increasingly embracing its green side. The latest building designed for the city has a foot squarely in both camps - the Almeisan Tower combines a delicate, soaring structure with a 600kW solar tower and passive cooling systems claimed to be almost “triple zero”, which means it has zero emissions, zero energy requirements and zero waste.

The 165 meter Almeisan Tower (Almeisan is the Arabic name for one of the brightest stars in the sky, located in the constellation Gemini; its name derives from Al Maisan, or “the shining one”) would generate both its own energy and the energy required to run the rest of Za’abeel Park, by means of a 600kW solar power tower. A staggering 224 large heliostatic  polished mirrors track the sun and reflect a concentrated beam of light into a central collector where a furnace containing liquid sodium is heated to a constant 500 degrees Celsius, and in turn powers a steam turbine.

The building is designed with eight main concrete structural piers which are angled almost to touch at 50 meters above the ground. They are tied together with a tension ring before blooming outward like the bud of a flower and opening up to reveal the inner piers that support the café and structure of the collector tower many meters above.  

The idea of achieving this by growing photovoltaic crystals isn’t new, but making them cheaply, efficiently and with consistent density and dimensions has proved disappointingly difficult.

The Berkeley team overcame this with a two-stage process. First they grew pillars of cadmium sulfide on an aluminum foil template. Then they embedded the nanopillars in clear cadmium telluride, which provides a “window” to catch the light.

In contact with each other, the two materials form a solar cell, with charge-carrying electrons flowing down to the aluminum, and the “holes” (the absence of an electron) conducted to a thin copper-gold electrode on the surface of the window. Initial tests measured an efficiency of 6 percent that – while not quite at the 10 to 18 per cent range of mass-produced commercial cells – is one of the best for a nanostructured material. And, given that the non-transparent electrode on top reduced efficiency by 50 per cent, there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Apart from using very cheap materials, this process also easily lends itself to practical adaptations. The researchers were able to make a flexible version of the same design – by replacing the aluminum with indium and embedding the whole thing in soft plastic – with almost no loss of performance.

A combined effort by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, the work is still at an early stage. But they’ve got the theory now and believe that, in the long term, this process could produce solar cells at a tenth of the cost of crystalline silicon panels.

The answer is a resounding yes, Yes it can.

The 4MC feels as natural to ride as any conventional two-wheeled bike. Blindfolded, you’d swear you were straddling a quite normal big-capacity scooter, so familiar are the handling, the feedback and the controls. And that in itself is perhaps the greatest achievement of this completely new design.

Why bother with the extra wheels?

To discover that, you really need to get into a situation that you never want on a normal bike; a big, unexpected slide of the front or rear end. Because on the 4MC that slide either simply won’t happen, or if it does the bike will mollycoddle you through it, making falling off the 4MC virtually impossible. It’s little short of remarkable – in tests on a oil-covered skid-pan that would see any rider, on any conventional bike, picking themselves off the ground within seconds, the 4MC doesn’t just remain upright, but it can actually cope better with the slippery conditions than most cars – as proved by skid-pan lap-times several seconds faster than most cars can manage on the same circuit. There are no bike times to compare it with; no two-wheeler has been tested that can safely make a single lap on the low-friction surface.

Is it a bike? Is it a quad? Is it a car? As far as most governments are concerned, it’s none of them – despite the mathematical evidence against it, they reckon it’s a trike, and that’s exactly why it’s got the potential to be the most significant thing in motorcycling for years. Under the licensing laws of most countries, a machine like this can be ridden using a normal car driving license. In most developed countries, bike license holders are outnumbered at least 15-1 by car drivers, and often the ratio is far greater. That means the 4MC’s pool of potential buyers is simply enormous.

And thanks to its four-wheeled design and ingenious suspension system, which means it can go to full lean, complete with a rider, without falling over even at a standstill, it’s got the extra element of safety that could tempt drivers who’d never dare venture onto two wheels. It’s no wider than the average bike, so it can still slice through traffic, and it’s bike-derived engine – a Yamaha YP400 scooter motor in the prototype – means its fuel economy is just as good as a two-wheeler’s.

People driving often ignore or just don’t notice cyclists in traffic. That means cyclists have to be extremely vigilant when dealing with city traffic. Just like moms, you need “eyes in the back of your head”. Designer Billy May has come up with a concept design for cycling glasses that extend a rider’s peripheral vision by up to 25 percent on each side.

The Nike Hindsight glasses design uses Fresnel lenses, which were originally developed for lighthouses and provide a wide aperture and short focal length. Although the lenses reduce image quality, the idea is that since they are located only on the sides of the glasses, little clarity is lost in the process as the eye only detects motion in that area. That should be enough to avoid an accident, and isn’t that the point?

May designed the glasses for cyclists, but the design could be handy in a wide range of activities where detecting motion beyond the usual 180 degrees would prove advantageous. Anyone who worries about getting caught off-guard (or passed by a competitor) could benefit from the few extra seconds of warning the glasses afford.

The design is only a concept and May, despite using the Nike name and logo, says the concept isn’t affiliated with Nike in any way, but we think the idea is definitely interesting enough for Nike, or other manufacturers, to take a look at. The design is cooler than other previous efforts I’ve seen at glasses that allow you to see behind you.

Via Bike Radar.

The June employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed what millions of people feel, there’s no end in sight for the employment crisis that is devastating workers and the poor. Another 467,000 people lost their jobs last month, the official unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent, and it’s on course to hit double digits within a few more months–and stay there through 2010.

“I regard all this talk about how the recession is maybe going to end, all the talk about deficits and inflation, to be the equivalent of telling Americans, ‘You are just going to have to tough it out,” Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute told the Washington Post. “But we’re looking at persistent unemployment that is going to be extraordinarily damaging to many communities. There is a ton of pain in the pipeline.”

Plus, the cumulative effects of racism and sexism mean that some groups of workers went into the recession in a much more precarious position–and they feel that “ton of pain” in an even sharper way. Currently, official Black unemployment stands at 14.7 percent. The last time the overall jobless rate hit that level was in the early 1930s, during the Great Depression.

And while women may not have lost as many jobs as men, it remains the case that they get fewer hours, lower wages and fewer benefits (especially health care) in the jobs that they do hold. And one group of women are facing staggering unemployment–a May 2009 Senate report titled “Women in the Recession” stated that 10 percent of female heads-of-household were unemployed in April 2009, and women of color fared even worse.

Today’s homeowner is becoming more aware of their environmental impact and more willing to adapt ways of lessening it. Simple power saving devices for the home are one of the best places to start and encouragingly, they are continuing to appear.

One of the greatest wastes of energy in any household is the standby power drain from devices that are switched “off”. The power button may be off, but the device and attached peripherals still continue to draw power from the outlet.

Here to combat this, is the TrickleSaver. With the ability to sense when a TV or PC is off and shut down any connected peripherals like games consoles or printers, TrickleSaver is looking to make “vampire power” a thing of the past.

The TV TrickleSaver has current sensing circuitry that senses when a TV is off, and cuts power to any connected devices like DVD players and consoles so there is no continuing flow of standby power.

Likewise, the “sister product” PC TrickleSaver connects via USB to monitor a PC’s power usage and when in standby mode or turned off, shuts down the flow of power to any printers, speakers and the like.

It is estimated that leaving a high powered games console on standby when not in use can cost up to $250 a year, and that standby power is responsible for up to 12% of consumers electricity bills, so it is not only one’s green credentials that can benefit from reducing this type of power usage. Your wallet will thank you for your consideration.

The TV TrickleSaver is priced at around USD$35, with the PC TrickleSaver at around USD$25. Head to TrickleStar for a closer look.

 You can’t see it, smell it or taste it but, in high enough concentrations, it can kill you within minutes. It’s carbon monoxide (CO), and it’s America’s leading cause of accidental poisoning, with an estimated 400 deaths and 20,000 emergency ward admissions annually. These people include small airplane pilots, recreational boaters, truck drivers, students, firefighters, miners, scuba divers, homeowners and renters, and even families on vacation. This invisible gas can kill in just minutes, and non-fatal poisonings can leave victims violently ill. Countless more suffer mild symptoms everyday, and possibly long-term health effects, from repeated exposure to low-levels of CO in their jobs or homes. The Pocket CO, the world’s smallest renewable carbon monoxide detector, will not only immediately alert you to dangerous levels of CO, but also calculate your exposure on a daily basis.

Most people have heard stories of carbon monoxide leaking from poorly-vented stoves and fireplaces. But a lot of common household appliances also produce CO, including gas water heaters, furnaces and charcoal grills. Cars are, of course, notorious for CO emissions, but any enclosed combustion engine poses a threat. A portable scientific instrument is the ideal safeguard.

The Pocket CO can detect carbon monoxide even at levels as low at one part per million (ppm). The device will beep hourly at 25ppm, which is the maximum average exposure for an eight-hour work day. At 50ppm, the maximum permissible exposure in the workplace, an alarm sounds every 20 seconds. At 125ppm, it sounds every 10 seconds. And at 400ppm, a level which can cause headaches, nausea and death, it will go off every 5 seconds.

It’s a very simple thing to use, with an easy-to-read display, loud alarm, vibrator and bright red light. Tiny enough to fit on a keychain, and weighing under 1 ounce, Pocket CO is an easy and affordable way to detect and monitor CO at home, away, or on the job.

It also, usefully, accumulates data as a dosimeter to report average exposure, total exposure, maximum exposure and time of maximum. The Pocket Co is designed by KWJ Engineering and can be ordered online for USD$139.

 By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet

It is well known that under the Bush administration oil corporations were basically given a spare set of keys to the White House. Dick Cheney and the Bush family had ties to big oil as deep as an offshore drilling operation. Among those in bed with big oil was Bush’s National Security Adviser / Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In 1993, after Rice helped Chevron negotiate deals in former Soviet republics, the company named a 129,000-ton supertanker after her, the SS Condoleezza Rice. Rice, who had long served as a director on Chevron’s board when Bush took power in 2000, resigned from that position just six days before she was named to Bush’s cabinet. The tanker, however, bore her name for months while she worked in the White House. Only after a ruckus raised by human-rights activists, and others over Chevron’s human-rights abuses, did Rice’s office suggest that the company rename the tanker, which Chevron quietly did.

Among the abuses in which Chevron was implicated at the time was the May 1998 killing of indigenous residents of Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger River delta. In response to a nonviolent protest on one of its oil platforms, Chevron provided company helicopters to the notorious Nigerian Mobile Police, known as the “Kill ‘n Go,” who used the helicopters to conduct a deadly attack on nonviolent protesters. Chevron’s head of security rode along as the the police opened fire on the delta residents, and Chevron paid the soldiers who carried out the attack. (Despite overwhelming evidence of Chevron’s complicity, late last year a jury in San Francisco cleared the company of responsibility. The case is on appeal.)

During the 2008 presidential race, Barack Obama rightly painted John McCain as the candidate of Big Oil, saying he was “in the pocket” of the industry, and the Democrats ran ads portraying Exxon as McCain’s running mate.

But the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics pointed out, “Tallying contributions by employees in the industry and their families … Exxon, Chevron and BP have all contributed more money to Obama than to McCain.” After his election, Obama followed in Bush’s footsteps, appointing another former Chevron director, Gen. James Jones as his national security adviser. In 2008, Chevron paid Jones $290,000 for serving on its board for seven months — from May until December.

Now, the story of this slick oil company’s romance with the government has taken a particularly crude twist: Last month, Chevron was given the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Business Leadership in “recognition of the company’s global public health programs.” (And, no, this is not a story from The Onion.) It was first reported  by Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff.

The award, from the Global Business Coalition, was bestowed upon Chevron at a June 24 ceremony  in honor of its work “to eradicate HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.” In a world where war criminals such as Henry Kissinger receive the Nobel Peace Prize and murderous thugs such as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Colombia President Alvaro Uribe are given the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, perhaps this award should not come as a surprise.

Read the rest of Scahill’s article here.

In “Directions in Hydropower,” a newly issued exposition of the World Bank Group’s views on the value of hydropower, the bank said hydropower now is viewed as an integral factor in addressing energy security, climate change, water security and regional cooperation.

 “There are risks inherent in development and operation of hydropower, many of which were the focus of passionate debate in the 1990s,” the bank said. “These risks cross the range of financial, geological, engineering and market concerns, with particular attention to environmental protection, resettlement, social inclusion and sharing of the benefits of development across all stakeholders.”

As a consequence, the bank said, the definition of acceptable hydropower has shifted to one that recognizes core principles of sustainable development with attention to social and environmental, as well as economic “bottom lines.” It said the shift has been supported by a decade of better understanding and of developing best practices, safeguards and self-assessment measures from players including the World Bank, Equator Banks, International Hydropower Association, International Energy Agency, the World Commission on Dams and the United Nations Environment Program.

“The priority is shifting towards development ‘done right’ and comprehensive environmental management and benefits sharing,” the bank said.

In a stark change from a decade ago, World Bank lending now reflects a Water Resources Sector Strategy approved in 2003 that says significant levels of investment in water infrastructure are required throughout the developing world.

New lending for hydropower increased significantly, from less than US $250 million per year from 2002-2004, to US $500 million per year from 2005-2007. In fiscal year 2008, new lending for hydro exceeded US $1 billion.

“Directions in Hydropower” may be obtained from the World Bank’s Internet site  or by clicking here.