[cold winter] what really happened with the gas

Sometimes you just have to cut and paste, unabridged. this is the best piece yet on what actually happened with Russia and the Ukraine:

On October 2 last year, the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers signed a memorandum envisaging the two countries' intention to switch to market prices in the business between their gas companies - Gazprom and Nafotgaz - with the Russian side allowed to sell directly to end users in Ukraine.

The follow-up negotiations were in an advanced stage by end-November when Kiev inexplicably began stalling on the repayment of pending debts for gas supplied to it earlier (an amount of US2.4 billion), which was a precondition for a new gas deal for 2009.

The transfer to market prices is important for Russia as it has been heavily subsidizing the supplies for Ukraine at an average cost of $179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters, whereas it buys and delivers from the Central Asian producers at $375 per 1,000 cubic meters. Russia sought a reduction of the subsidies with a gradual increase in gas price to $250 per cubic meters for the 2009 contract, but Ukraine declined and broke off negotiations. (Gazprom also pays a transit fee to Ukraine for getting the gas across to the European market at $1.6 per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers.)

With no contract to supply gas for 2009 in place, Moscow cut off the gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1. Ukraine retaliated by refusing to allow the transit of Russian gas to Europe. A related problem is that Ukraine had been illegally siphoning off gas destined for the European market and creating a gas reserve of its own at no cost.

Gazprom sold to Ukraine roughly 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) gas at $179 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2008 as compared to 155 bcm at roughly $480 per 1,000 cubic meters to the European market. That is to say, Gazprom earned in excess of six times as much revenue from European countries for only thrice the volume it sold to Ukraine. Based on 2008 sales, Gazprom lost $12 billion by selling gas at a subsidized price to Ukraine. The company is in the red and has asked for a financial bailout from the Russian government.

[vale] voyage round rumpole

Well, we can't very well let him go unmentioned. This is a good one from Melvyn Bragg:

"Life was encircled around that place in Turville and he was the monarch of that," Lord Bragg said. "We went to pay court to him and, to be honest, you went just to laugh and to hear the latest gossip and the latest book he'd read and 'what do you think of this and what do you think of that?' "There was a whiff of erudition and scandal always around John and it was completely seductive and he'll be badly, badly missed."

You can't replace people like that. He was unique.Tangentially, how certain actors have become their fictional characters. Could you imagine anyone except Leo McKern in the role of Rumpole? How about Joan Hickson as Miss Marple or David Suchet as Poirot, Basil Rathbone as Holmes or Fry and Laurie as Jeeves and Wooster?

Could you add some others?

[size matters] when you're flying

The Age Travel asks a fair question about obesity and flying - should those passengers have to purchase two economy tickets?

It's an issue airlines are having to face as more and more passengers get bigger and bigger - the practical consequences of an obesity epidemic. The options right now? Obese travellers can choose not to fly, fly if they can fit but be uncomfortable, or pay more to get more space.

"Should a customer require extra space on a flight, we will seat them next to an empty seat where possible," says a Qantas spokeswoman. "However, the only way for a customer to guarantee extra space is to either purchase two economy seats or fly business or first."

My first novel recounts the story, at one point, of a Mexican on the Greyhound bus from LA to Vancouver. I'd found a seat but there was no one next to me. Three people got on the bus - an ordinary guy, a slip of a young lady and a heavily obese Mexican. Mine was the last available place beside me and the girl won.

At the next town, damn it if she didn't get off the bus and immediately the Mexican, who'd been hovering near the back of the bus, swooped and I was jammed against the window with his stench in the nostrils for over half that journey. Not only that but he wouldn't sit still.

Nothing against Mexico but that was not a pleasant experience. I'm well aware obese people are very, very sensitive about the matter and hey, who doesn't carry fat? I can assure you that I have a winter layer but there does come a point when the obese person needs to recognize the limitations.

You'll call it cruel to mention this but on that same Greyhound ride further on, a woman tried to get on the bus and it took four of the men to lift her up and cram her onto the front row of the bus, go and buy her takeout and so on. The same happened in reverse at the other end.

The closest I've come to that was a great heavy boat I once had. Called a 505, it was a fast craft new but this one was ten years old and it took six people to haul it up the beach. Naturally, whenever we came back to the club, yachties on the beach would melt away into the foliage or to their cars.

In the end, I had to take drastic measures.

[only for guitarists] musicians' musicians

Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Betts - they had the well-earned reputations but there were others, less sung, who were highly respected. Above is one of them, Roy Buchanan and below - Ry Cooder:



Finally, try Harvey Mandel:



Did I say finally? Well, all right, let it be Dickey Betts then:

[space] how to get the head around its vastness

When did you last sit back and contemplate space?

Thought so.

An interesting post by Bag concerned how one little error b---ered up a whole space journey - how would you feel? You've managed to get that far and then comes the one error. Blip. Gone.

Have you considered just how far that spaceship might have travelled by that stage and how vast space actually is? This was just a set of numbers in the head until a cool comparative scale model came to hand:

First, collect the objects you need. They are:

Sun-any ball, diameter 8.00 inches
Mercury-a pinhead, diameter 0.03 inch
Venus-a peppercorn, diameter 0.08 inch
Earth-a second peppercorn
Mars-a second pinhead
Jupiter-a chestnut or a pecan, diameter 0.90 inch
Saturn-a hazelnut or an acorn, diameter 0.70 inch
Uranus-a peanut or coffeebean, diameter 0.30 inch
Neptune-a second peanut or coffeebean
Pluto- a third pinhead (or smaller, since Pluto is the smallest planet)

Put the Sun ball down, and march 10 paces.
Put down Mercury and march 9 paces further.
Put down Venus and march 7 paces.
Put down Earth and march 14 paces.
Put down Mars and march 95 paces.
Put down Jupiter and march 112 paces.
Put down Saturn and march 249 paces.
Put down Uranus and march 281 paces.
Put down Neptune and march 242 paces.
Put down Pluto and take a rest because the next part is going to tire you out.

You have marched more than half a mile! Now, leaving aside the fact that the orbits aren’t two dimensional, it’s time for the next little jaunt 4000 miles [on our model] to find Proxima Centauri.

Light travels 186,283 miles (or 299,793 kilometers) per second. It could travel, for instance, 7 1/2 times around the Earth in one second.

Moon to Earth 1.28 light-seconds [2.4 inches]
Sun to Earth 8.3 light-minutes [26 yards]
Sun to Jupiter 43.27 light-minutes [132 yards]
Sun to Pluto 5 1/2 light-hours [1019 yards]
Sun to Proxima Centauri 4.22 light-years [4000 miles]

So there we are. Your homework - on this model, how far across is the universe?

H/T Bag

[freedom] twilight's last blogging

These are not my words but they could be:

Imperfect, divided, mutually quarrelsome as often as not; we still see the threats approaching and try, as best we can, to rearm the shrinking world of freedom and the culture it springs from. Even when things look as black as they do today for freedom’s cause, we need to fight and fight again, and plan and persuade and rage and swear and sneer and joke wherever and whenever we can.

Because the bad guys aren’t going to stop. So let’s hear it for Themistocles: the dirty, sneaky, pig-headed father of the West’s survival.

Please read the whole thing at North Northwester.