BREVITAS

EMENDATION

Here's the correct link to the story on Maine libraries setting up cafes.

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY

John Judge - I got a call confirming that former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and three other U.S. citizens were transferred from the Israeli prison at Ramale to Ben Gurion airport in Israel, the standard site for deportations. This information came originally from Mairead Maguire, the Irish Nobel laureate and was confirmed by the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, which is sending representatives to the airport.

Meanwhile nothing from the White House or the Black Caucus on the arrest of McKinney. Pretty selective outrage.

ECO CLIPS

Tree Hugger - During a speech in Munich, Dr. Martin Winterkorn, the Chairman of Volkswagen, said that VW would introduce its first electric car in 2013 . . . He didn't talk too much about the technical specifications of that VW electric car, but rather warned people against the evils of "electroc-hype", estimating that electric vehicles would have a "global market share of 1 to 1.5% in 2020." . . . We are witnessing an electro-hype. Experts, consultants and politicians tumble over one another with forecasts. And the auto industry doesn't hold back on announcements. The result is massively false expectations by the customer. . . More than eight percent of drivers in Germany are rock solid convinced that the electric car is already here. . .
According to Dr. Winterkorn According to Dr. Winterkorn, to become mainstream electric cars need: batteries with better energy density and faster recharging times (leading to a longer range), lower price premiums (he says "a price increase of a maximum US$2,800 more than today"), and infrastructure "including nationwide recharging stations, intelligent network, and uniform standards.". . .

Tree Hugger - According to an Oxfam study detailed by Bloomberg, "Temperatures that surpass 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 degrees Fahrenheit, stress manual laborers, affect productivity and ultimately their income." The impact will be especially powerful if temperatures rise more than 10 degrees Celsius--and temperatures are rising fastest in tropical regions.
Which is why outdoor workers around Delhi may become 30% less productive over the coming years, as the study projects. This will have a devastating effect on the region's fragile, developing economy, and on social conditions there. So global warming's not really going to make anyone lazier per se; it's going to make it unnaturally difficult to get any work done outside. . . "Mortality rates in Delhi rise by as much as 4 percent, and 6 percent in Bangkok, with every 1 degree boost in temperature, according to Oxfam, a U.K.-based anti-poverty group. The 2003 summer heat wave in Europe resulted in 35,000 deaths, many of them in France, after temperatures rose 5 degrees above normal."

WAR DEPARTMENT

Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space - Killer drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) [are] now being flown over Afghanistan-Pakistan war zones from pilots sitting in New Mexico. . . The drone market is exploding and there is an effort underway to turn Brunswick Naval Air Station [Maine] into a UAV testing center after the base closes next year. Informed sources tell us that the plans for Maine include drones from BNAS flying up and down the Maine coast peering at boats and people for "homeland security" reasons. . . This drone killing machine is the Pentagon's answer to escalating war costs and difficulty with recruiting.

CYBER NOTES

Slashdot - The City of Venice, Italy, started to offer free Wi-Fi to residents on July 3. Tourists and other visitors will pay 5 Euros a day for the service starting September. The hot spots are connected to a ten thousand kilometer fiber optic LAN the City started deploying in the '90s.