Gibraltar...

... a rock!




Carpe diem!

the road gets longer and longer...

...with every disaster.






I just felt it.


Carpe diem!

I can see clearly now...

... the oil has come!

you owe him and his to go here

... can see all
... obstacles in my way!

Carpe diem!

USA's AIG's AIA, part III...

... the end!

The deal is history! Pru's shareholders "went on strike"!

Now, as before, AIG could take AIA public; funny enough this would only make $12bn to $15bn the experts say - hopefully, that is.

So... what did I not get here: why did honorable Tidjane Thiam, Pru's boss, want to pay far more than twice as much? A payment of honor... to whom? How much?

See part I and part II, or the Telegraph and the Independent.

Carpe diem.

give us our daily sun...

part II: a park, not a farm

One PV-mover might be lonesome; but a number of those make a PV-park:



Carpe diem!

feed conversion ratio: 15:1

or: dreaming of sustainable proteins!

Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish

If you are patient enough you will find out - one day - why this blog again and again mixes so many different subjects like construction technology, efficiency, fish, renewables, sun, and much more.

For now: they are all very directly related.

Carpe diem!

learn from automobile industry?!

why not, construction industry!?!

While we are working on our "more than a nursery" project we would like to share some thoughts with you on MMC, Modern Methods of Construction. Sometimes it helps to look beyond one's plate, so we like to compare the construction industry with the automobile industry which in this case takes your feet back onto the ground of what is so "modern" about something that is just new to a specific industry.

In 1908 Henry Ford installed the first assembly line...

Since then, 100 years later, the automobiles come in all colours, not just black, and any shape but the basic advantages of a factory installed assembly line still make good sense: it considerably cuts assembly time while material and quality control dictate the building progress from start to finish. The result are products built to the required standards and highest quality requirements.

So the time of horse and buggy levels of technology are long gone; however, there is (at least) one more important parallel: Henry Ford started those assembly lines in 1908 and 19 years later had built 15,5 million Model Ts during what we know were very tough times of economic difficulty and transition - not unlike the times we are just entering into.

So.., why wait?

Carpe diem!

no blue, no green

... Sylvia Earle on the importance of our oceans!





Carpe diem!

more than a nursery...

rockenergy's project in Glasgow

We will detail the nursery's key components and technology details in the coming weeks and explain why the construction is "A" rated (EPC)*; here is what our client Milnbank Housing Association and the Energy Saving Trust have to say:

Carpe diem


* EPC (Energy performance Certificate) rated; not rated by any of the rating agencies dominating financial headlines, the rats.

you don't know how lucky you are, boy...

... no, not back in the USSR!

This "lucky" refers to the exposure of the UK to Greece, Spain and Portugal...

Analysts at Credit Suisse calculated that UK banks had £25bn of exposure to Greece and Portugal but £75bn to Spain, where the collapse in the property market has already forced banks such as Barclays to admit to bad debt problems and left Royal Bank of Scotland facing questions about its exposure.

"Lloyds' exposure to the three regions is likely to be negligible, we estimate that Barclays has £40bn exposure (predominantly loans in Spain and Portugal, excluding daily positions in Barclays Capital), and RBS has around £30bn–£35bn (again predominantly Spain, although we estimate £3bn to £4bn in Portugal and Greece as well)," the Credit Suisse analysts said.
Guardian

At the same time, here is which EUROland (UK is POUNDland!) bails out Greece with how much - for now:

Financial Times

And this is the same over time:

Financial Times

So one could read this as last respite for ES and IT, Spain and Italy; but the draws might be split 8:3 between the countries and the IMF. Anyway, will this help such candidates like ES and IT? They are down with a bad cold and this will give them the final cough?!

I am sure, there will be more to share and split for the UK in the near future!

Carpe diem!