30.7.08

Population contol

In the bizarre chain of historic events,the country, that used to be one of the most conservative in a past ,became quite revolutionary in many issues after WW2.This Dutch kid, named Terrence, singing a heartfelt song on TV “Kids for Kidsprogramm about being adopted by two man and having "2 fathers".It might make you swell with pride. It might bring tears to your eyes. It might make them roll. It might make you want to kill everyone. It might not interest you at all.
The Refrain is catchy, English subs are included too ,and Zeul with his obsession for "The Population contol "and desperate attemt to pressure the humans to stop multiply and adopt the orphans instead, is pleased with the song. READ THIS


Living Beyond the Limits. By Kirill Vladimirovich Pokrovsky, Travis Charbeneau, Helen Foull.
For UNESCO and Club of Rome

Is it THE SELFISH GENE?

PARENTAL INSTINCT? Why do we almost instinctively treat babies as special, protecting them and enabling them to survive?

"Selfish mothers" will make babies anyhow,- during the war, famine and against all adds,even without concern from the male partner,- when real instinct kicks around 20 or later.In undeveloped states
babies provide hope of the future support for the aging parents, although in many countries baby-girls will be put to death or aborted.
Grandparents play a big roll in encouraging the children to make a "living dolls" to brighten own existence in old age."


("Babies are just cute, aren't they?And cute things survive .It is almost as Dr.Kirill's article
"Survival of the cutest",when "cute" victims of war conflict rather raped, them killed and
hunter spears the cubs, but killing mother-bear")

Why Do We Love Babies? Parental Instinct Region Found In The Brain


"Why do we almost instinctively treat babies as special, protecting them and enabling them to survive? Darwin originally pointed out that there is something about infants which prompts adults to respond to and care for them which allows our species to survive. Nobel-Prize-winning zoologist Konrad Lorenz proposed that it is the specific structure of the infant face, including a relatively large head and forehead, large and low lying eyes and bulging cheek region, that serves to elicit these parental responses. But the biological basis for this has remained elusive.

Now, a possible brain basis for this parental instinct has been reported. This research was led by Morten Kringelbach and Alan Stein from the University of Oxford and was funded by the Wellcome Trust and TrygFonden Charitable Foundation. The authors showed that a region of the human brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex is highly specifically active within a seventh of a second in response to (unfamiliar) infant faces but not to adult faces.

This finding has potentially important clinical application in relation to postnatal depression, which is common, occurring in approximately 13% of mothers after birth and often within six weeks. The present findings could eventually provide opportunities for early identification of families at risk.

The research team used a neuroimaging method called magnetoencephalography (MEG) at Aston University, UK. This is an advanced neuroscientific tool which offers both excellent temporal (in milliseconds) and spatial (in millimetres) resolution of whole brain activity. Because the researchers were primarily interested in the highly automatized processing of faces, they used an implicit task that required participants to monitor the colour of a small red cross and to press a button as soon as the colour changed. This was interspersed by adult and infant faces that were shown for 300 ms, but which were not important to solve the task.

The authors found a key difference in the early brain activity of normal adults when they viewed infant faces compared to adult faces. In addition to the well documented brain activity in the visual areas of the brain in response to faces, early activity was found in the medial orbitofrontal cortex to infant faces but not adult faces. This wave of activity starts around a seventh of a second after presentation of an infant face. These responses are almost certainly too fast to be consciously controlled and are therefore perhaps instinctive.

The medial orbitofrontal cortex is located in the front of the brain, just over the eyeballs. It is a key region of the emotional brain and appears to be related to the ongoing monitoring of salient reward-related stimuli in the environment. In the context of the experiment, the medial orbitofrontal cortex may provide the necessary emotional tagging of infant faces that predisposes us to treat infant faces as special and plays a key role in establishing a parental bond.

Also, there is now evidence from deep brain stimulation linking depression to the nearby subgenual cingulate cortex which is strongly connected with the medial orbitofrontal cortex. This lends support to the possibility that changes to activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex secondary to depression may adversely affect parental responsivity."

So it is an instinct .Are we supposed, as Homo Sapiens to suppress our instincts in order to survive ?

Growth in world population

World Population Growth

Year Population
1 200 million
1000 275 million
1500 450 million
1650 500 million
1750 700 million
1804 1 billion
1850 1.2 billion
1900 1.6 billion
1927 2 billion
1950 2.55 billion
1955 2.8 billion
1960 3 billion
1965 3.3 billion
1970 3.7 billion
1975 4 billion
1980 4.5 billion
1985 4.85 billion
1990 5.3 billion
1995 5.7 billion
1999 6 billion
2006 6.5 billion
2010 6.8 billion
2012 7 billion
2020 7.6 billion
2030 8.2 billion
2040 8.8 billion
2050 9.2 billion
and industrial output may so degrade the environment that the global economy could very well collapse by the middle of the next century, warn the authors of Beyond the Limits. On the other hand, they assure us that it is still possible to have a sustainable society,in which everyone on earth could live at a comfortable standard of living while not overtaxing the planet's resources. But we must act quickly if we are to achieve that sustainability.

Beyond the Limits is a sobering but inspiring sequel to The Limits to Growth, the much-discussed 1972 report commissioned by The Club of Rome. Like its predecessor, Beyond the Limits uses the World3 computer model to generate scenarios extending to the year 2100.

In the earlier volume, the authors concluded that, if trends in population growth and resource consumption continued, the limits to that growth would be reached within the next 100 years. Now, "in spite of the world's improved technologies, the greater awareness, the stronger environmental policies, many resource and pollution flows |have already~ grown beyond their sustainable limits," they write.

The authors marshal an impressive array of statistics to show that all of the major renewable resources--agricultural soils, groundwater, forests, marine fisheries--are being destroyed on a global basis by overuse. The rate of species extinction is rising exponentially, and fossil-fuel use has driven atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide far higher than they've been in the past 160,000 years.

"The human world is beyond its limits," the authors declare. "The present way of doing things is unsustainable. The future, to be viable at all, must be one of drawing back, easing down, healing."

But what do "drawing back" and "easing down" actually entail? One approach is to employ technologies that increase the efficiency of resource use, decrease pollution, control soil erosion, and increase land yields, say the authors. The tremendous amount of waste and inefficiency in today's global economy presents an equally large opportunity to conserve resources and cut down on pollution.

Yet, while "green" technologies will be necessary for the transition to a sustainable society, they will not by themselves bring sustainability, the authors assert. The World3 computer model suggests what would happen if these technologies were used to maintain growth in population and consumption: The accumulated costs of the technologies would eventually cut into the investment available for further growth. At this point, the material quality of life would begin to steadily erode.

Also necessary, therefore, are "deliberate social constraints on further population and industrial growth," say the authors. In one World3 scenario, all couples opt to have no more than two children beginning in 1995, and they have access to effective birth control. In addition, people set themselves a consumption limit equivalent to the standard of living in present-day Europe. Furthermore, beginning in 1995, the world begins to seriously implement "green" technologies.

By the mid-twenty-first century, the result is a stable world population of just under 8 billion, all of whom are living in material comfort. Pollution is declining, and natural resources are being depleted much less quickly than today.

Other scenarios indicated that the longer the delay toward sustainability, "the lower the population and material standard that will ultimately be supportable," the authors note. Thus, "there is no time to lose in easing down below the limits ... and there is also no reason to waste time."

The authors acknowledge that achieving sustainability will be psychologically and politically difficult. Today, growth is seen as an almost unqualified good. In the Third World, large families are often regarded as a source of economic security, and economic growth seems the only solution to poverty. But population growth is clearly unsustainable, and current patterns of economic growth aren't even benefiting the poor. During the 1980s, per capita income fell in 40 less-industrialized countries containing nearly one-sixth of the world's population.

Meanwhile, people in the industrialized world try to use material growth to satisfy needs that "are in fact nonmaterial--needs for acceptance, self-importance, community, identity," say the authors. Because material goods cannot fully satisfy these needs, the appetite for more and more goods can never be quenched, resulting in great harm to the planet.

The authors believe that the creation of a sustainable society will require a genuine commitment to the idea of sufficiency: Everyone should have enough, but not necessarily more. Where economic growth is necessary to raise living standards in the less-industrialized world, that growth should specifically serve the needs of the poor. In the developed world, people must try to fulfill their nonmaterial needs in nonmaterial (and therefore less wasteful) ways.

If the world could wean itself from its addiction to growth, if the limits to growth were fully recognized and accepted, the outcome could be a Sustainability Revolution "as profound as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions," say the authors.

Beyond the Limits not only serves as a powerful wake-up call regarding the earth's plight, but also offers the promise of a much better world. This clearly written, insightful volume is itself an important tool toward the sustainable future it champions.

At the close of the first millennium, hermits descended from the hills to warn, "The end is nigh!" As we near the conclusion of the second millennium, we may be forgiven for wondering if the medieval eccentrics were guilty only of hasty judgment. The entire twentieth century seems like a runaway ocomotive bearing down on the year 2000 and freighted with cataclysms--world war, technology run amok, omens of nuclear Armageddon, environmental collapse, economic decline, and global overpopulation. There is certainly something apocalyptic about starting a new thousand-year cycle.

At the same time, the phrase "ushering in the millennium" promises something distinctly utopian. Alternating with humanity's pessimism is the "hope that springs eternal," and we look with excitement and anticipation to life in the next century--just as our predecessors did during the fin de siecle of the 1890s. Back then, the promise that technology would create heaven on earth was still shiny and new. Over the past 100 years, despite having been badly "Frankensteined" several times, we remain enthralled by the promise of a twenty-first century we long ago populated with marvels: robots, helicars, and world peace.

Clearly, our two eternally opposed views of the future--apocalyptic and utopian--will go at one another as never before in the current fin de millenium decade, making for a uniquely paradoxical era that may be called "apocutopia."

Still, what's so magical about the mere turning of a calendar page? Do such anachronistic and superstitious attitudes about time really matter? All of us can remember being asked on various birthdays, "Well, how does it feel to be 14 (or 35 or 77)?" What a dumb question!

Or is it?

Still, what's so magical about the mere turning of a calendar page? Do such anachronistic and superstitious attitudes about time really matter? All of us can remember being asked on various birthdays, "Well, how does it feel to be 14 (or 35 or 77)?" What a dumb question!

Or is it?

How we feel about the twenty-first century matters a great deal. How we feel has mattered ever since the Industrial Revolution enabled us to begin shaping the planet to our own ends. Our power has grown so exponentially in recent years that how we feel about the twenty-first century could determine whether there will even be one.

The most recent change of any strong apocalyptic character is the still-volatile collapse of communism. A utopian idea from the Bible to the Bolsheviks, communism as we know it has been a flop. Yet even as so many gloat over the apocalyptic collapse of communism, the more honest may admit to sharing the same utopian goal as the Biblical and Bolshevik communists of yore: a better life--and better and better and better. If we are even more honest, we'll admit to having already adopted various forms of governmental social engineering that are socialism in all but name. And if we are more honest still, we'll admit that our real challenge has never come from some variation in economic theology. The real challenge of apocutopia consists of pausing long enough in our gloating to seriously redefine things like "better," "progress," and even "utopia," to get away from our hopelessly barbaric, truly anachronistic appetite for "More stuff!"

"More stuff!" failed the communists--and they didn't even produce much of it. "More stuff!" will similarly preclude any sort of sustainable future everywhere that "More stuff!" prevails as the definition of progress--especially in places that have too much stuff already.

The Club of Rome's 1972 Limits to Growth study was not an invitation to dis-invent the Industrial Era, but to join "in understanding and preparing for a period of great transition--the transition from growth to global equilibrium." In the cancer patient, this would be called the transition from metastasis to stasis.

And that might be as good a working definition of "utopia" as we may realistically expect to encounter right now. I personally find it rather appealing.

Whether we are frightened or hopeful, pessimistic or optimistic, conservative or liberal, the apocutopian nineties are a period of thoughtful ferment--a time for ideas that will help us make that "great transition" redefining progress from the brutish and untenable "more stuff" to the civilized and supportable "enough stuff." That would truly "usher in the millennium."

28.7.08

Direct upload."Megalomania" ARIA concert Moscow



By popular demand of my funs, who are tired to struggle with limitations of filesharing hell,I will upload some songs and clips here to Blogger, My space and Youtube.


Direct upload."Megalomania" ARIA concert -Moscow.


Miss Piggy sings "..the pain away".Priceless!!!!

Miss Piggy (click on it tm) sings "..the pain away" from "Peaches"(click on it tm).Priceless!!!
Ignore the Disney logo, I know the genius, who performed this atrocity, but will tell you not:)

Unesco.What we protect in Belgium.

Properties inscribed on the World Heritage List
Cultural.Want to know more -"click on it"TM.

* Cultural site Belfries of Belgium and France (1999)
Cultural site Flemish Béguinages (1998)
* Cultural site Historic Centre of Brugge (2000)
* Cultural site La Grand-Place, Brussels (1998)
* Cultural site Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta (Brussels) (2000)
* Cultural site Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (Mons) (2000)
* Cultural site Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai (2000)
* Cultural site Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex (2005)
* Cultural site The Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre and their Environs, La Louvière and Le Roeulx (Hainault) (1998)

Properties submitted on the Tentative List

* Le noyau historique médiéval ou la 'Cuve' de Gand, et les deux abbayes qui sont à son origine (2002)
* Noyau historique d'Antwerpen -Anvers- de l'Escaut aux anciens remparts de vers 1250 (2002)
* Palais Stoclet (1998)
* Lieux de mémoire et monuments de la Grande Guerre : le Westhoek et Régions voisines (2002)
* Leuven/Louvain, bâtiments universitaires, l'héritage de six siècles au sein du centre historique (2002)
* Maison Guiette, Populierenlaan 32, Antwerpen (2005)
* Les passages de Bruxelles / Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert (2008)
* L’œuvre architecturale d’Henry van de Velde (2008)
* Le Palais de Justice de Bruxelles (2008)
* Le plateau des Hautes-Fagnes (2008)
* Le tronçon Bavay-Tongres de la chaussée romaine Boulogne-Vologne situe sur le territoire de la Région wallonne (2008)
* L’ensemble thermal de Spa : de la cure mondaine à la villégiature de prestige (2008)
* Le palais de Princes Evêques de Liège (2008)
* Le champ de bataille de Waterloo, la fin de l’épopée napoléonienne (2008)
* Les sites miniers majeurs de Wallonie (2008)
* Le Panorama de la Bataille de Waterloo, exemple particulièrement significatif de « Phénomène de Panoramas » (2008)
* Les citadelles mosanes (2008)

New Russia.Economic overvew for UNESCO board on EU.


Vagit Alekperov, Kirill Pokrovsky, Alan Sarkisjan.


Russia: New Sources of Growth.We have it, we don't have to "go to war "for it, and we are Europe(at least till the Ural mountains:)

Russia’s economic and political development, as well as its foreign relations, are a topic for incessant

discussions in the mass media worldwide. Most contribution to these discussions comes from politicians

and public figures while the business world viewpoint receives insufficient coverage.

It is worth noting that the current economic growth is provided

by launching new production facilities, rather than more intensive

operation of the existing ones. In the past years, capital investments

have shown a record-breaking rate of over 20%.

One of the main questions today is whether these trends are stable

enough. Will Russia be able to maintain a high growth rate for its

economy under a changing global environment of declining economic

growth rates and falling oil prices?

Answers to these questions are of paramount importance for Russia’s

relations with the USA and the European Union. Any attempt to

transform the discussions about the future of these relations into

a purely political or ideological issue is a trick aiming to evade the

discussion of real problems.

In the past years, Russia’s government has done a lot to secure a

long-term development of the country. Russia has settled its external

sovereign debt before maturity. The national gold and currency reserves

have come close to 500 bln US dollars, giving Russia a strong place

among the world’s top three countries in this ranking. Such measures as

separation of the budget into the general and the oil-and-gas segments,

establishment of the reserve fund and the national welfare fund have

paved the way for an effective financial policy for decades to come.

These measures enable Russia’s new government to focus on creating

incentives for further economic development, including tax burden

reduction, improving investment climate and fighting corruption.

Russia has already made its first steps towards these goals. A few days

ago Aleksei Kudrin, Russia’s Minister of Finance, disclosed The Main

Trends in Tax Policy until 2011 which envisage a reduced value added

tax and mineral resources tax, tax preferences for companies incurring

significant social expenditures, changes in the depreciation policy to

incentivize rejuvenation of the fixed assets, improved efficiency of

tax administration.

The proposed changes will have a positive impact on the development

of Russia’s oil and gas industry. It is common knowledge that the

industry has been stagnant in the recent years due to the poor condition

of the raw material base in the traditional areas of production. Over the

last three decades, the greater part of Russia’s oil and gas was produced

in Western Siberia. Today, we face the necessity to look elsewhere to

replace this major but depleted raw material base of Russia.

This has happened before its time – a consequence of unreasonably

fast development of Western Siberian fields in the Soviet era. There

have been a number of cases when accelerated production policies were

used even after the privatization of the oil industry. Naturally, this has

brought a slump in oil production growth rates in Russia from 9 – 11%

at the beginning of the current decade to 2% in 2006-2007.

Positive changes will become even more evident as the tax load on

the oil and gas industry decreases. Everyone, including government

officials, understands nowadays that it is essential to create conditions

to attract investments for development of new production areas.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the amount of

investments in exploration required to ensure long-term additions of

hydrocarbon reserves is at least 55 bln US dollars, out of which 52 bln

is to come from the corporate sector.

Whether our country likes it or not, it will have to start competing

for investments in the coming few years. Otherwise it won’t be able to

retain its leading energy superpower status.

The actions of the Russian government indicate that the creation of

a favorable investment climate in the oil and gas industry is one of its

mid-term priorities.

On January 1, 2007, amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian

Federation came into effect establishing a reduced rate of the Mineral

Extraction Tax (MET) for fields with a depletion degree of 80 percent

or more. Additionally, to incentivize the production of ultra-heavy and

Eastern Siberia’s oil, the tax authorities have introduced the zero MET

rate for such fields.

1. Promotion of International Activities. The majority of Russian

companies have only begun their acquisitions overseas. This process

is hindered by several factors, the main ones being shortage of

profitable assets and state protectionism, which not infrequently has

political roots.

I am convinced that this process can be accelerated if cooperation in

the corporate sector is based on international covenants. It does not

necessarily have to be formal agreements. The essential idea is that

partners should be able to trust one another and be sure that their

national interests will not be infringed upon.

In light of this, an extremely positive signal for the Russian business

was the statement made by the then presidential candidate and now

President-elect of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, who spoke

about the necessity to offer state support for international activities

of Russian companies, above all in highly competitive global markets,

such as the energy sector and high-tech engineering.

2. Tight Control over Production Costs. Due to a number of objective

reasons the costs incurred by Russian companies in oil production are

about 50% lower than the respective costs incurred by the international

majors. This is, above all, connected with the specificities of the raw

material base, the bulk of which is comprised by onshore fields situated

in the regions with developed transportation infrastructure.

Depreciation of the US dollar exchange against the Russian ruble,

which in the last 5 years exceeded 100%, has become the basic factor

contributing to the escalation of costs.

In order to retain their competitive advantage in terms of costs Russian

companies should select exploration and production projects with the

utmost care.

The majority of the Russian companies, does

not develop remote reserves. The Company has only recently started

participating in deep sea projects in West Africa, as well as in a project

for bituminous oil production in Venezuela.

The fact that all the fields which are to be commissioned by the

Company in the near future are located either onshore or in shallow

waters has a positive influence on the upstream costs.

3. Gas Business Development. At present, the greatest part of Russian

oil and gas companies’ earnings (with the exception of Gazprom) come

from the oil business segment. Firstly, it is accounted for by the high

level of concentration of assets in the gas sector and, secondly, by the

state regulation of the gas market.

Nevertheless, now is a favorable moment to invest in gas projects.

According to the latest data, the Mineral Extraction Tax will remain

unaltered for gas at least until the year 2011, i.e. the moment when the

domestic gas prices are completely liberalized. It means that gas projects

are going to enter a phase of steady growth in profitability in the next

three years.

Here, Russia will retain its advantage over the competitors as holder

of considerable gas reserves both in Russia and abroad. Uzbekistan is a

key region for the Company in terms of gas production. The maximum

production level for the projects to be implemented in this country will

come to an annual 15 bcm. At that, gas will be sold at market prices.

The contribution of the Uzbek projects in Russians’s overall operating

results can hardly be overestimated: these projects will raise the

Company’s gas production in 2008 by 17%, while the net profit for gas

activities will be doubled.

4. Investments in Oil Refining. In the conditions of increasing

global oil prices the export duty system currently effective in Russia

contributes to a higher profitability of refining. At present, Russian

companies’ profits from refining one ton of oil exceed the oil export

profits by one hundred US dollars.

All these factors contribute to an increase in refining volumes in Russia.

In the past five years, this figure (applicable both to LUKOIL and

Russia in general) has grown by 24%. Within the same period the

share of the refining sector in Russian’s net profit has increased from

10 to 25%.

At present the Russian Government is elaborating amendments to

the tax legislation aimed to promote production of high quality

motor fuels.

The Technical Regulations, requiring Russia’s transition to the

European fuel standards between 2009 and 2013 have come into effect.

It is planned to differentiate the motor fuel excise rates based on quality

and environmental safety.

Russian has a vast experience in manufacturing and marketing of

petroleum products compliant with the European quality standards.

The Company operates in 12 EU-countries, where two of the

Company’s seven refineries and over 1,200 filling stations are located.

Within the next 10 years,

5. Business Diversification. For Russian oil and gas companies,

investments in energy assets will become the main source of business

diversification in the coming years. The favorable conditions have

been created – the spin-off of the heat generating companies formerly

incorporated in the RAO UES of Russia has been completed, their

shares are traded on the Russian stock market.

LUKOIL took an active part in the privatization of energy generating

facilities. The Company purchased a controlling interest in the Eighth

Territorial Generating Company (TGK-8), a major electric power

generating company in South Russia. The acquisition price was about

30% lower than the market price.

Annual gas consumption of TGK-8 comes to about 7 bcm and will

grow along with the implementation of new investment projects.

According to the Company estimates, the synergy effect from gas

supply from North Caspian fields to TGK-8 power stations will reach 2

bln US dollars.

The South Russian energy assets will become the core of LUKOIL’s

new business sector, which will also comprise the power stations located

in the Company’s fields and oil refineries. Development of the new

business line – the electric power segment – will enable the Russia

to simultaneously attain several objectives including enhanced

efficiency of raw materials utilization, providing electric power to own

facilities and business diversification.

It is evident that the above-mentioned list of challenges confronted

by Russian oil and gas companies is not exhaustive. However, it helps

assess development prospects for the coming decade.

It is of utmost importance that these plans meet support of the

Russian Government, whose priorities for the near future comprise

enhancement of Russian economy’s global competitiveness and Russia’s

integration in the international labor division system.

Today, business and the state speak one language in Russia, and

the basic concepts are law abidance, economic feasibility and social

responsibility. And this is the best basis for sustainable economic

and social development irrespective of any changes in external

business environment.

Vagit Alekperov, Kirill Pokrovsky, Alan Sarkisjan.