Tag Archives: health
Xcel Taps Biomass Of Dead Forests
Posted: Friday, May 24, 2013 4:00 am By MATT HILDNER | mhildner@yahoo.com Xcel Energy hopes to put some of the state’s beetle-infested forests to use through the generation of electricity. The company, which provides electricity to much of the Front Range and parts of the San Luis Valley, will seek proposals for a two-megawatt demonstration project that creates power through the gasification of forest biomass. “Xcel Energy would gain valuable experience concerning the potential use of biomass for future electricity generation and we would be able to determine whether this type of technology is a reasonable and promising way to address the the health of our Colorado forests,” said David Eves, CEO of Xcel’s Public Service Co. of Colorado. Gabriel Romero, a spokesman for Xcel, said the facility would likely be located near company infrastructure such as transmission lines and substations. The company has transmission lines running through much of the northern half of the state, which has millions of acres of pine forests that have succumbed to the mountain pine beetle. The eastern San Juan Mountains also have hundreds of thousands of acres of forest infested by the spruce beetle, but Xcel’s transmission system is less widespread in that corner of the state. In filings with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the company said it would only seek a 10-year contract for power from the plant. The company also would require full access to information about the plant’s performance. Xcel hopes to evaluate the technology, including its performance at high altitude and in diverse weather conditions. Continue reading
Saudi climber asks women to challenge themselves
Saudi climber asks women to challenge themselves (AFP) / 28 May 2013 Adventurer Raha Moharrak, the first Saudi woman and youngest Arab to conquer Everest, urged women in the the Gulf to “challenge themselves” as she arrived back in the region. Her group of four, including a Qatari royal, a Palestinian and an Iranian, was greeted with cheers and garlands of flowers on arrival from Nepal at Sharjah International Airport on Sunday night. “It was unbelievable,” an emotional 25-year-old Moharrak, covered from head to toe in a black abaya, told AFP. “I’m the first but I really hope I’m not the last,” she said. “I hope it awakens the intention in (Saudi) women to challenge themselves more.” Moharrak reached the peak of Everest on May 19, in a first for Saudi Arabia. She left her home in the Red Sea port of Jeddah on April 3 after a year-and-a-half of rigorous training. By reaching the highest point in the world, she said she has now achieved her ambition of climbing nine mountains, including in Europe, Tanzania, the South Pole and Argentina. Speaking to AFP by telephone from Jeddah, her father Hassan said: “I’m very proud of her… It’s great what she managed to tell people here and everywhere.” Moharrak, who had worked hard to convince her family to allow her to scale the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain, is also the youngest Arab to reach the peak of Everest. Her parents had “faced disagreements from family members and people in Saudi Arabia in general,” she told AFP. “As a Saudi girl, it’s normal that I get negative feedback, but it was minimal and the good outweighed the bad,” she added. Awaiting her arrival at Sharjah airport was the Saudi embassy’s cultural attache in the UAE, Abdul Mohsen al-Harthi. “This is a message from a woman who wants to say ‘I have reserved a place for myself among you men’,” said al-Harthi. “The message is for men in Saudi saying that ‘I, a daughter of this country, have achieved top positions and am capable of doing whatever men can do’,” he said. “I did nothing against my culture and religion,” said Moharrak, a slim and tall brunette. “You don’t have to go against society to achieve amazing things.” Moharrak, like many other Saudi women, hopes that “we do drive one day,” but if this is difficult to bring about, “there are so many other more important things you can be great at.” Her Palestinian co-climber Raed Zidan said he had left behind a political message on Everest. “We spent a long time on the mountain… We met climbers from all over the world,” he told reporters. “I told them about the Palestinian cause, about our prisoners in the jails of the Israeli occupation.” Zidan is only the second Palestinian to summit Everest after Suzanne al-Houby completed the feat in 2011, becoming the first Arab woman to reach the top. With Moharrak and Zidan was Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani — a young member of Qatar’s ruling family and the emirate’s first to make the climb. Their Iranian companion, Masoud Mohammed, suffered from frostbite in his foot which will take months to heal. All four, graduates of the American University of Sharjah in the UAE, climbed Everest to raise funds to help educate Nepalese children. Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah said they have succeeded in raising “one million dollars”. Continue reading
Go Healthy at Mövenpick Hotel & Apartments Bur Dubai #MovenpickHealthy
Go Healthy + Win with Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts here: http://bitly.com/MovenpickHealthy Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts in the Middle East has launched an exciti… Continue reading
