Split (1)

train · 2.59M rows

text stringlengths 9 93k
The study comes as the government is scrambling to find solutions to the Eskom crisis. The power utility, which supplies virtually all of SA’s energy, has struggled with maintenance issues and design flaws at its new coal power stations, Medupi and Kusile. It had to resort to stage-four load-shedding in March as it could not meet demand.
Recent statistics compiled by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) energy centre show that without renewables SA would have experienced higher stages of load-shedding more frequently in 2018.
The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), the thegovernment’s long-term energy plan which is yet to come into force, envisages an overall reduction in coal-generated energy by 2030.
The UCT’s ERC Energy Research Centre study found there is no single or quick-fix solution to SA’s electricity woes, but rather that a vibrant energy mix should be adopted to not only save money for consumers, industry and the economy broadly, but also to meet the country’s carbon emissions target. Such a mix would include methods to store excess power on grid through utility-scale storage and off-grid, for example by generating hydrogen, ammonia and methane, and charging electric vehicles.
Furthermore, according to the study, a large-scale procurement programme for battery technology to provide storage capabilities for variable renewable energy should be pursued in SA.
“The ERC study is an alternative technical assessment of SA’s outh Africa’s future electricity system to inform debate on the draft IRP, Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2019) which was recently presented by the department of energy to the National Economic Development and Labour Council,” the study authors of the study said. say.
Meanwhile, aAnother report by the London-based Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) released last week states that SA could lose as much as $124bn between now 2019 and 2035 if it delays the energy transition.
According to the authors of the report, a global low-carbon transition could reduce the demand and price for assets including carbon-intensive fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Infrastructure that supports higher carbon activities — including rail, power plants or ports built around fossil fuel industries — may have to be replaced or retired early.
“Companies, investors and workers could be hurt by lower prices and reduced demand for certain products. Governments may face reduced revenues, for example from lower tax receipts, while their expenditure increases for financial assistance to industries and workers in transition,” the authors of the report said.say.
Reducing vulnerability to cyber attacks is a high priority for the Department of Defence and work needs to be done to improve its networks according to a new white paper released today.
The Defence White Paper (PDF) said that the potential impact of malicious cyber activity has grown with Defence’s increasing reliance on networked operations.
“In a future conflict or escalation to conflict, an adversary could use a cyber attack against Australia to deter, delay or prevent Australia’s response or the Australian Defence Force’s deployment of forces,” read the report.
The white paper notes that in 2011, Australia and US acknowledged that the ANZUS mutual defence treaty would apply to cyber attacks.
Australia’s security position will depend on integrating cyber power into its national defence strategy.
The paper also acknowledged that it is important to protect information in peacetime as any compromise of Australian government information could allow an adversary to gain economic, diplomatic or political advantage over the country.
Defence admits that there is a “significant” body of work to be done to ensure the security of defence systems against cyber attacks.
“Network and system management, along with personnel and physical security need to be strengthened as part of our response,” the white paper states.
In January, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the establishment of the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
It will bring together security capabilities from the Defence Signals Directorate, Defence Intelligence Organisation, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Attorney-General’s Department’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Australia, Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).
The new centre will “facilitate faster and more effective responses to serious cyber incidents and provide a comprehensive understanding of the threat to Australian government networks and systems of national interest. Defence will play the principal role in the operation of the Centre and will continue to dedicate significant expertise to this important national capability,” the white paper states.
The white paper also called for the investigation of unmanned air, maritime and land platforms- also known as drones.
According to Defence, the platforms, particularly unmanned aircraft, are proliferating not only among national defence forces but also companies and non-state actors.
According to Defence, semi-autonomous unmanned systems able to engage in self-protection and offensive operations are under development overseas and may be deployed by defence forces in the mid-2020s.
“Domestic, international legal and policy considerations will be important factors associated with their employment. We will need to understand the increasing opportunities and risks arising from the use of greater autonomy in electronic attack, including in the early stages of strike operations,” read the report.
In September 2012, Opposition leader Tony Abbott said that a Coalition government would purchase Global Hawke drones to upgrade Australia's surveillance capability.
“Global Hawke unmanned aerial vehicles, which in a day can undertake detailed surveillance of 40,000 square nautical miles, could help to protect the oil and gas projects on the North West Shelf as well as allow much earlier detection of illegal boat arrivals,” he said at the time.
The 113th meeting between Framingham and Natick will have a different venue this year, as they were chosen to be one of four high school football games to be played at Fenway Park during Thanksgiving Week.
The annual Thanksgiving football game between Framingham and Natick will have a different venue this year.
It was announced on twitter via @FHSFlyersSports twitter account on Thursday that the Flyers and Redhawks will be playing at Fenway Park for their annual rivalry game.
The game will be played the night before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 7:30, following the St. John’s Prep-Xaverian game that will be played at 5 p.m. Ticket information has not yet been released.
It will be the 113th meeting between Framingham and Natick. The Redhawks hold a 75-32-5 edge in the all-time series and have won 11 of the last 14 meetings, including the last six games. Natick defeated the Flyers 35-6 last year.
This is the third time that Fenway Park has hosted high school football games during Thanksgiving week.
High School football was first played at Fenway in 2015 following Boston College's game against Notre Dame as part of the Irish's "Shamrock Series" game. Wellesley was among the first four games to play at "America’s Most Beloved Ballpark." The Raiders lost to Needham 12-7 that year.
There were no high school football games at Fenway in 2016, but they returned in 2017 with three games.
There are two other high school games that will also be played at Fenway Park this year. Burke will play West Roxbury and Foxborough will play Mansfield on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
The four high school games follow the 135th edition of "The Game" between Harvard and Yale that will be played a few days earlier on Saturday Nov. 17.
For nearly two years, legislators had talked privately about the erratic performance and behavior of Sen. Bill Greene, one of the most mercurial and bellicose lawmakers in the state Capitol.
He frequently was hours late arriving for floor and committee sessions and colleagues noted that he was given to slurred and bombastic speeches, volcanic eruptions of temper and to seemingly going out of his way to pick arguments.
Now, in a rare admission for an elected official, the Los Angeles Democrat acknowledges that he is an alcoholic and says he is taking steps to conquer his disease.
"I didn't realize how far I was going because I wasn't myself. You never see yourself like other people see you," Greene said.
He acknowledged that he attended committee hearings with a "full tank of liquor in me," and that he made angry, rambling, verbal assaults on witnesses testifying before those committees.
Prodded by Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and others, the 57-year-old legislator from South-Central Los Angeles recently checked briefly into an alcoholism recovery facility and has joined Alcoholics Anonymous.
Greene's stay in the Northern California treatment center was paid, at least in part, by a politically active Los Angeles-based insurance company, public documents show. The firm, Surety Co. of the Pacific, paid $1,000 to Mountain Vista Farms of Glen Ellen for Greene's room and board, the company reported in its quarterly disclosure of lobbying expenses filed with the secretary of state's office.
Surety Co., of Northridge, is a frequent contributor to legislative and statewide political campaigns, usually on the side of Republicans. William Erwin, owner of the company, said the payment was made because of "a request made by one of our associates in Sacramento." He declined to elaborate.
Recruited by legislative leaders to help guide Greene along the road to recovery were a pair of longtime political friends: Assemblyman John Burton (D-San Francisco), who for several years successfully has been battling his own addiction to drugs, and former Assemblyman John P. Quimby (D-Rialto), a one-time heavy drinker who now is a lobbyist and a member of AA.
But the topic is so sensitive that those who agreed to talk about Greene's alcoholism and his behavior in the Senate would do so only if they not be identified. Burton and Quimby refused to discuss Greene at all. Roberti is vacationing in Italy and unavailable for comment. Greene, who estimated he has had a drinking problem for about 18 months, is believed to be the first incumbent California state legislator to publicly admit to alcoholism and seek help for it.
"I thought I was covering it (alcoholism) to a degree and I wasn't covering it at all," Greene said in an interview in his cluttered Capitol office.
The imposing 6-2, 200-pound former labor union activist always has been known for his hard-edge legislative style. But in the last few years he has acquired what some associates describe as an increasingly mean streak.
In angry tirades delivered in a gravelly bass voice, he can devastate witnesses who dare to disagree with him. In the next breath, he can express genuine compassion for those to whom he says he has dedicated his 23-year legislative career--the poor, minorities and the working men and women of California.
Greene acknowledged that he harassed witnesses and legislative employees. He rationalizes this as his way of venting his anger over budget cuts in social programs of great importance to him.
"I felt the only way I could sit up there and take it is just either be so numb (with drink) that I didn't react in a normal way or to blast them. What I did in far too many cases was I just blasted people," he said in the interview.
"I drink when I am angry and when I want to get angry," said Greene, a self-described Scotch and cognac man, who stressed he had not had a drink in about a month. "When I would drink, I would drink way too much."
Greene said his disease "has affected my mood and personality" but insisted that "it hasn't affected my vote."
But so far this year, Greene has missed 42% of floor and committee votes, the second highest rate in the Senate, according to Legi-Tech, a private data reporting service.
Greene dismissed the report card, claiming that "those are bills I just don't care to vote for."
The Los Angeles senator is not without his defenders. "He was real unpredictable," acknowledged a former legislative staff member. But she said he could be "real complimentary" and ask good questions that "were not all off the wall."
Al Lee, chief deputy director of the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, whose department's budget goes through a committee chaired by Greene, calls the senator "a good member for us. . . . I have no complaints."
But others complained that Greene's unpredictability affected his performance.
Some committee witnesses said they deliberately withheld testimony from Greene for fear that his temper would explode. "Sometimes people don't want to bring up an issue he is interested in because it can set him off," one said. "Once he gets going, there is nothing you can do."
One longtime legislative employee said witnesses from state government agencies who would testify before committees Greene served on fervently hoped for hearings early in the day because "you could deal with him in the morning. In the afternoons, he was impossible."
One social services lobbyist said Greene "got so agitated" at hearings of his budget subcommittee that she would get almost physically ill. She said she quit attending the meetings and instead remained in her office and listened to the sessions on a remote audio speaker.
At one hearing in December, 1987, on enforcement of asbestos safety laws, Greene blew up at a Deukmejian Administration official. Greene told the man he wanted to scoop up a handful of asbestos dust and rub it in the official's face.
In May, 1988, Greene was arrested at Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley and charged with drunk driving. He was fined $500 and served two days in jail. A police report said Greene was urinating on the road, an assertion Greene denies.
In the clubroom atmosphere of the tightly knit Senate, leaders of both parties let the matter of Greene's behavior stew beneath the surface without confronting him. The reasons are unclear but seem to include a reluctance to intrude into what members considered a sticky "personal problem."
But the issue was brought to a head this spring after Greene delivered a blistering harangue against an employee of the legislative budget analyst at a committee hearing.
"He really ripped into her," said one witness. "He berated her and took her down."
Word of the incident reached Roberti and prompted secret discussions among a handful of senior Senate members who tried to analyze Greene's problem and propose a solution.
"They had no idea what to do," said a source, adding that the senators had never been faced with such a dilemma.
Admittedly lacking expertise, the senators turned for help to alcohol abuse counselors and to Burton and Quimby, both of whom had traveled the recovery route from substance abuse. They agreed to try to help.
At a face-to-face meeting with Roberti, Greene was told by the Senate leader that several complaints about his behavior had been received from state agencies, legislative employees and hearing witnesses, Greene recalled.
He said that Roberti told him: " 'You don't appear to be yourself. Are you drinking or anything?' "
"I said that 'I will have to admit that I have been drinking what I even consider far, far beyond my normal level,' " Greene recounted, noting that Roberti said his illness could be treated.
A couple of days later, Greene said he agreed to seek help and about a week after that--on July 6--he was admitted to the Sonoma County recovery facility. He checked out three days later, saying that the 28-day program conflicted with his legislative duties. Greene said he is now a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and recently returned to the Sonoma facility for a weekend. He said he intends further visits for intermittent treatment when his schedule permits.
"I'm a damn fool if I don't straighten up," Greene told a reporter, pulling from his pocket an AA meditation guide and reciting a passage.
In response to a question, Greene said his substance abuse problem was limited to alcohol and that he did not use illegal drugs. "That's not anything I am involved with," he said of drugs. "I am just not that kind of person."
Greene is proud that as a young man in 1963 he was the first black to serve as a clerk on the Assembly podium. He was elected to the Assembly in 1966 and won election to the Senate in 1975. He has never been seriously challenged for reelection, coasting to victory last year with more than 87% of the vote. He represents South-Central Los Angeles and Compton.
As chairman of the Senate Industrial Relations Committee, Greene is considered an expert on labor issues, ranging from worker safety to the minimum wage. He was one of the Senate architects of the workfare program for welfare mothers.
Greene said he does not intend to initiate discussions of his illness with his constituents. "It's a personal problem and one I am immediately solving. I doubt very seriously if any of my constituents will even ask me about it," he said.
Times staff writer Clay Evans contributed to this story.
Lovely days and frigid mornings will continue to be the norm, probably forever.
The mixture of sunny days in the low 70s, with clear nights and lows in the 30s is expected to remain the norm through Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Along with the frigid mornings, the weather service is predicting the ever popular “patchy frost” will be around until 10 a.m. daily throughout the period.
Albuquerque, New Mexico has been referred to as the “late-term abortion capital” of America. But, next Tuesday it has the potential to become the first city in the nation to pass a municipal ban on abortion after 20 weeks.
The citizens of Albuquerque are set to vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance – a law forbidding abortions past 20 weeks gestation. The fact that the law is being considered in Albuquerque is even more significant because of the fact the city is home to the largest late-term abortion clinic in the country.
To encourage citizens to check YES next to the ordinance on the ballot, pro-life organizations such as the Susan B. Anthony List and Live Action have been on the ground and on citizens’ TV screens informing them that a vote for this bill is just common sense. The former has even launched a week-long TV campaign to make sure voters know a baby at 20 weeks can feel pain.
SBA List released this ad today featuring Dr. Anthony Levantino, a former abortionist turned pro-life champion who even took his message to the floor of Congress in May to defend the same legislation now being considered in New Mexico.
According to one Gallup poll, 68 percent oppose second trimester abortions and 84 percent oppose third trimester abortions. These numbers would likely be even higher if more people looked at the science behind the legislation banning abortion at 20 weeks. Dr. Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, is one of many doctors who recognizes that unborn babies have a heightened sensitivity at this stage.
Review: The stylish production earns straight A's for dissecting global beauty standards.
The Iowa Attorney General's Office is suing to shut down what it describes as a national puppy-laundering ring that sells dogs from illegal breeding operations at inflated prices while pretending the animals are rescues.
New association is focused on networking.
The Lynhall serves up a discussion on how best to represent food culture.
The award highlights individuals working in "the important and complex realms of sustainability, food justice and public health."
What's a Carolina wren doing in Minnesota?
When an unexpected visitor arrives, it generates excitement in the birding community.
Spring is around the corner, and so are new restaurants, pop-ups and franchises that wisely waited for the thaw before opening their doors.
Apple has unveiled a new iPad that's thinner and slightly larger than its current entry-level tablet.
Music fests are noted for eclectic settings, fun extracurricular programming and highly curated lineups.
FICTION: If you crush on blue-blooded British detectives, the Charles Lenox series is for you.
Belkin doesn't make this Belkin-branded iPhone case, but it should do. It's a concept design from Yoori Koo, and is the functional equivalent of wrapping a couple of rubber bands around your phone, only it doesn't obscure the display.
Koo's Elasty case is much like any other bumper-with-a-back style case, encasing the iPhone's squared-off body in a silicone shroud. The difference comes in a set of four thin strips formed by slits in the rubber. These pull away and let you tuck in cash, cables, cards and even pens. Anything that can be squeezed behind a loop can be carried.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.