Thursday, January 31, 2008


Coordinates: 28.617146° N 77.208001° E
The Parliament of India (or Sansad) is the federal and supreme legislative body of India.
It consists of two houses – the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. It is located in New Delhi at Sansad Marg.
Any bill can become an act only after it is passed by both the houses of the Parliament and assented by the President.
The Central Hall of the Parliament is used for combined sittings of the lower and upper houses and is of historical significance.

Parliament of India Rajya Sabha
The Parliament House (Sansad Bhavan) is a circular building designed by the British architect Herbert Baker in 1912–13.
The roof of the outer circle of the structure is supported by 257 granite pillars. The Houses are located on Janpath, a stone's throw away from the presidential palace (Rashtrapati Bhavan).

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Patrick Geddes
Sir Patrick Geddes (1854 - 1932) was a Scottish biologist and botanist, known also as an innovative thinker in the fields of urban planning and education. He was responsible for introducing the concept of "region" to architecture and planning and is also known to have coined the term conurbation .
He was born in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on October 2, 1854 and died in Montpellier, France on April 17, 1932. He was knighted in 1932 shortly before his death.
Geddes shared the belief with John Ruskin that social processes and spatial form are related. Therefore, by changing the spatial form it was possible to change the social structure as well. This was particularly important in the late 19th and early 20th century when industrialization was dramatically altering the conditions of life.
Geddes demonstrated this theory through his work in Edinburgh's "Old Town". Here, in this most dilapidated area, he used associations with prominent thinkers who lived there in the 18th and 19th century (like Adam Smith), to establish residential halls. Here he situated his famous Outlook Tower, a museum of local, regional, Scottish, and world history.
He collaborated with his son-in-law, prominent architect, Sir Frank Mears on projects in the Middle East where in 1919 Geddes provided consultation on urban development of Jerusalem and authored 1925's master plan for Tel Aviv. He was the founder of the College Des Ecossais, an international teaching establishment located in Montpellier, France.
Geddes strongly influenced the thinking of the American urban theorist Lewis Mumford, as well as many other 20th century thinkers.
As an introduction to his work, Rutgers University Press has published the text of Geddes's first significant 1904 work, City Development, A Report to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008


Fen Line The Fen Line (sometimes Fenline without the space) runs from Cambridge in Cambridgeshire to King's Lynn in Norfolk, in East Anglia, England. It is so called because it runs through The Fens.
The towns and villages served by the route are listed below.
Train services on the line are operated by several train operating companies. First Capital Connect operate through services to London King's Cross via Cambridge and Stevenage. These services operate non-stop between London and Cambridge for most of the day, as part of the half-hourly "Cambridge Cruiser" service. One train an hour is extended beyond Cambridge to serve all stations to King's Lynn.
These services usually use Class 365 electrical multiple units, although Class 317 units are used occasionally. Three Class 365 EMU's have received names associated with the line. The Fenman (365 518) was previously a "named train" that used to operate on this line, consisting of a locomotive-hauled Inter-City service. FLUA 21 (365 527) was named on 10th March 2006 after the 21st Anniversary of the Fen Line Users Association. Nelson's County (365 531) had a special livery applied to the outside which shows various scenes of West Norfolk.
'one' operate some direct services from London Liverpool Street to King's Lynn via the West Anglia Main Line and Fen Line. These services operate only during the morning and evening peaks, and use Class 317/6 units (the refurbished ones with fewer, higher seats). The section between Cambridge and Ely is also used non-stop by Central Trains services to Stansted Airport, and by 'One' services between Cambridge and Norwich via the Breckland Line.
The route was electrified at 25 kV AC overhead in 1992. Electric services started to King's Lynn from 28th August 1992.
The line has an active Users Association..

Cambridge
Waterbeach
Ely
Littleport
Downham Market
Watlington
King's Lynn

Monday, January 28, 2008

Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica, and almost the only part of that continent that extends outside the Antarctic Circle. It lies in the Western Hemisphere, facing South America. It extends from a line between Cape Adams (Weddell Sea) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands, to Prime Head (63º13'S).
The first sighting of Antarctic Peninsula is contested but it apparently occurred in the 1820s. Agreement on this name by the US-ACAN and UK-APC in 1964 resolved a long-standing difference over the use of the American name "Palmer Peninsula" or the British name "Graham Land" for this feature. Graham Land is now that part of the Antarctic Peninsula northward of a line between Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz, whilst Palmer Land is the part southward of that line. In Chile, it is officially referred as O'Higgins Land, after the Chilean patriot and Antarctic visionary. The other Spanish countries call it "Península Antártica", among them is Argentina (though also calls it "Tierra de San Martín"), which has more bases and personnel there than any other nation.
The peninsula is highly mountainous, its highest peaks rising to approximately 2,800 metres (9,186 feet). These mountains are considered to be a continuation of the Andes of South America, with a submarine spine connecting the two. That is an argument used by Chile and Argentina for their territorial claims. The peninsula has a sharp elevation gradient, with glaciers flowing into the Larsen Ice Shelf, which experienced significant breakup in 2002.
Since the peninsula has the mildest climate in Antarctica, the highest concentration of research stations on the continent can be found there, or on the many nearby islands.
Hope Bay, at 63°23′S, 057°00′W, is near to the northernmost extremity of the peninsula, which is Prime Head, at 63º13'S.

Saturday, January 26, 2008


University of Leicester
The University of Leicester is a major research led university based in Leicester, England, with approximately eighteen thousand registered students - about ten thousand of them full-time students, and six thousand of them distance-learning students. The main campus is about a mile from the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College.

History
The University is organised into five faculties.

Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences
Faculty of Arts
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Science
Faculty of Social Sciences (expanded in 2004 to include the Faculty of Education) Leicester University Organisation

Academic achievements
The University of Leicester is one of the 1994-Group research universities. The University has scientific research groups in the areas of astrophysics, biochemistry and genetics. The techniques used in Genetic fingerprinting were invented and developed at Leicester in 1985 by Sir Alec Jeffreys. It also houses Europe's biggest academic centre for space research, in which space probes have been built, most notably the Mars Lander Beagle 2, which was built in collaboration with the Open University. A Leicester built instrument has been operating in space every year since 1967. Leicester Physicists (led by Professor Ken Pounds) were critical in proving a fundamental law of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity - that black holes exist and are common in the universe. It is a founding partner of the £52 million National Space Centre. In total Leicester has the highest research income of any non Russell Group institution in the UK. The University of Leicester is one of a small number of Universities to have won the prestigious Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education on more than one occasion: in 1994 for physics & astronomy and again in 2002 for genetics. The Guardian's 2008 University Guide, published in 2007, ranked Leicester 2nd in the UK for Physics and 8th for Mathematics.

Science
Aside from its scientific achievement, the university also has a rich history in the arts. and Malcolm Bradbury one of the Department's most famous alumni: he graduated with a First in English in 1953.

Arts, humanities and social sciences
Within the university structure, the Faculty of Law is the smallest Faculty, however, it has one of the biggest departments as the Department of Law. The Law School has strong formal relationships with top law schools in many other countries such as South Africa, Singapore and Australia. It also has a number of leading academics who provide consultation to a number of legal and governmental bodies such as Professor Erika Szyszczak, Professor Chris Clarkson and Professor Malcolm Shaw QC.
In July 2007, two undergraduate law students, namely Steven Meltzer and Michael Weinstein won the International Negotiation Competition in Singapore, which is only the second occasion that a team from England and Wales has won the competition. As a result of this win, the law school will be the hosts for the 2008 National Negotiation Competition, which is sponsored by the College of Lw and CEDR.
The Faculty maintains links with many top law firms, including the Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who offer a one year scholarship to a Leicester student studying for the dual Law and French degree. The Law School is very proud of its flourishing Student Law Society which plays a central role in the life of the student body. Many law graduates at the university go on to follow careers in the City as commercial solicitors or barristers and so law at the university remains a popular choice and is always over-subscribed.

Law
The University is also held in high regard for the quality of its teaching. 19 subject areas have been graded as "Excellent" by the Quality Assurance Agency — including 14 successive scores of 22 points or above stretching back to 1998, six of which were maximum scores. Leicester was ranked joint first amongst full-time mainstream English universities in the 2005 and 2006 National Student Survey for teaching quality and overall satisfaction. Leicester is home to two prestigious national Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (in Genetics and Geographical Information Science) and plays an important role in a third (Physics). Over two thirds of subjects feature in the national top 10.

Teaching

Main article: Leicester Medical School Centre for Labour Market Studies
Leicester is ranked 21st in the UK by The Guardian University Guide 2007 and 18th in The Times Good University Guide for 2007. The Guardian's league tables are compiled mainly on the basis of teaching data (staff/student ratio, job prospects, inclusiveness), and the Times's also include data on research ratings and the percentage of students who complete a degree. It is also ranked in the top 200 in Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world rankings.

League tables
The skyline of Leicester University is punctuated by three distinctive, towering, buildings from the 1960s: the Department of Engineering, the Attenborough tower and the Charles Wilson building.
The University's Engineering Building was the first major building by important British architect James Stirling. It comprises workshops and laboratories at ground level, and a tower containing offices and lecture theatres. It was completed in 1963 and is notable for the way in which its external form reflects its internal functions. The very compact campus contains a wide range of twentieth century architecture, though the oldest building, the Fielding Johnson building, dates from 1837. The Attenborough Tower houses the tallest working paternoster in the UK and is undergoing extensive renovation.
Leicester's halls of residence are also worthy of mention in their own right: many of the halls (nearly all in prosperous, leafy, Oadby) date from the early 1900's and were the homes of Leicester's wealthy industrialists. The magnificent Edwardian houses, set in landscaped grounds, have been extended to include modern refectories and bedroom blocks.

Notable architecture
The university is currently undergoing a £300+ million redevelopment. A new biomedical research building (the Henry Wellcome Building) has already been constructed.
The University Library is currently undergoing a substantial extension, which will double its size. The first phase of the expansion was completed in early 2007. It is scheduled for completion during 2007.
Student accommodation includes 16 new pavilions varying in size in the new John Foster Hall. On 1 October 2006, the university opened its new halls of residence located on Manor Road in Oadby. The new hall, now named "John Foster Hall" (in honour of the retiring Chair of University Council) was built on the former site of Villiers Hall. It houses over 700 students in flats housing 4-5 students, each en suite with fully fitted kitchens. The new pavilions are named after villages and towns around Leicestershire.
John Foster Hall also houses a laundrette, facilities building with bar/JCR, dining hall, kitchen, reception, two sets of toilets, four conference rooms and disabled access.
The 30-year plan is the largest in the university's history, expanding building space by 30% and student numbers from 19,000 to 25,000.
In recent times the University has had to sell land to balance the books. This has meant the loss of some of its more reasonably priced self catering accommodation.

The future of the University
Christine and Paul Hatton were able to view examples from the rare books from the Hatton Topographical Library that their grandfather had donated to the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland College in 1920. This generous gift formed the nucleus of the University Library's exceptional English local history collections.
The library also holds a number of collections containing items written by several famous writers, these include:

Local history collections (for the Centre for English Local History), including:

  • Thomas Hatton (1876 – 1943)'s collection. Born in Manchester, he began work as a junior clerk in a corset factory in Market Harborough and later moved to Leicester to set up his own boot manufacturing business. He also had interests in crossword promotion, greyhound racing and boxing (and on one trip to America was photographed with Laurel and Hardy, with all three of them wearing the trademark bowler hat), but his forté however was book collecting. A discriminating collector who applied his professional knowledge as a boot manufacturer to his book collecting by pioneering the use of glazed goat skin as a binding material, over a period of ten years he gathered one of the finest private collections of topographical and local history books. When his interests moved from topographical to Dickensian material, he agreed to donate his nearly 2,000 local history books to what was then Leicester College.
    Joe Orton Collection. Joe Orton (1933-1967) was a Leicester-born playwright, the collection contains his manuscripts and correspondence.
    Laura Riding Letters. The collected correspondence of the American poet and critic Laura Riding (1901-1991).
    Sue Townsend Collection. The personal papers of Sue Townsend (born 1946). The collection contains Townsend's literary correspondence and notebooks detailing her works.
    Archives of the Institute for the Study of Terrorism (see Jillian Becker). Library special collections
    From the 2004-2005 annual report:

    Facts and figures


    • 28.3% Faculty of Social Science (includes former Faculty of Education)





    • 25.8% Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences

    • 18.6% Faculty of Arts

    • 17.1% Faculty of Science

    • 10.3% Faculty of Law




    18,005 Registered students
    9,491 Undergraduate students
    8,514 Postgraduate students (7,096 taught, 1,321 research)
    5,962 Distance learning students
    9,911 Full-time students (8,350 UK and EU, 1,561 other)
    28.3% Faculty of Social Science (includes former Faculty of Education)
    25.8% Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences
    18.6% Faculty of Arts
    17.1% Faculty of Science
    10.3% Faculty of Law Students

    709 Full-time academic staff
    43 Part-time academic staff
    415 Full-time research staff
    68 Part-time research staff
    336 Full-time academic-related staff
    87 Part-time academic-related staff
    860 Full-time support staff
    920 Part-time support staff Staff

    People
    To date, each of the former chancellors has had a University building named after him.

    The Lord Adrian (1957–1971)
    Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (1971–1984)
    Sir George Porter (1984–1995)
    Sir Michael Atiyah (1995–2005)
    Sir Peter Williams (2005– ) Chancellors

    Khurshid Ahmad, Islamic Scholar
    Isobel Armstrong, Scholar of Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Women's Writing
    Graeme Barker, Disney Professor of Archaeology, University of Cambridge
    Richard Bonney, Historian
    Alan Bryman, Social Scientist
    Chris Clarkson, prominent Criminal lawyer, specialising in Corporate Liability. Recently consulted the Government on reform proposals for corporate liability.
    Philip Collins, Dickensian Scholar
    Philip Cottrell, Economic and financial Historian
    Heather Couper, Astronomer and Television Presenter
    Nicholas J. Cull, US Historian
    Ann Marie D'Arcy, Medievalist and expert on The Holy Grail
    Gabriel Dover, Geneticist
    Eric Dunning, Sports Sociologist
    Christopher Dyer, Medieval Historian
    Norbert Elias, German Sociologist
    Brian J. Ford, Scientist, Visiting Professor
    G. S. Fraser, Scottish Poet
    Anthony Giddens, prominent sociologist, taught social psychology at Leicester
    Reuben Goodstein, Mathematician, proponent of Goodstein's theorem
    Cosmo Graham, Public law and Competition law specialist. Member of the Competition Commission
    Jan Grodecki OBE, Emeritus Professor and founder of the Law school, 1965-1983. Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn
    Jeffrey A. Hoffman, NASA astronaut and physicist
    Richard Hoggart, Sociologist
    W. G. Hoskins, (1931-1952) (1965-1968), local historian, author of The Making of the English Landscape
    Norman Housley, Crusading historian
    Leonard Huxley, Physicist
    Sir Alec Jeffreys, geneticist, inventor of genetic fingerprinting
    Hans Kornberg, Biochemist
    Philip Larkin, Librarian and Poet
    David Mattingly, Roman archaeologist
    John McManners, Former Head of History dept, Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford until retirement
    Ken Pounds, Emeritus Professor of Physics, discovered black holes were common in the universe
    Charles Rees, Organic Chemist
    Lord Rees of Ludlow, The Astronomer Royal, is a visiting professor at Leicester
    Clive Ruggles, Professor of Archaeoastronomy, believed to be the only such post in the world
    J.B. Schneewind, Philosophy professor, Johns Hopkins University
    Malcolm Shaw QC, The Sir Robert Jennings Professor of International Law, prominent International Lawyer & Jurist. Author of best selling book on International Law
    Brian Simon, Professor of Education 1966-1980
    Erika Szyszczak, Professor of European Competition and Labour Law, Jean Monnet Professor of Law ad personam, Barrister at Littleton Chambers, London. She is also the Director of the Centre of European Law and Integration.
    Sami Zubaida, Political Scientist Leicester University Notable alumni
    Two names commonly associated with the University of Leicester are Richard and David Attenborough. Their father Frederick Attenborough was Principal of the University College from 1932 until 1951. The brothers grew up on the campus (with their younger brother John), in a house which is currently home to the careers service (and is now near to the Attenborough tower, the tallest building on the campus and home to many of the arts and humanities departments). They were educated at the adjacent grammar school before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the University of Cambridge respectively. Both have maintained links with the university - David Attenborough was made an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1970 and opened the Attenborough Arboretum in Knighton in 1997. In the same year, the Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales. Both brothers were made Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University at the 13 July 2006 afternoon degree ceremony.

Friday, January 25, 2008


Diego Garcia (7°19′S, 72°25′E) is an atoll located in the heart of the Indian Ocean, some 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south off India's southern coast. Diego Garcia is the largest atoll by land area of the Chagos Archipelago. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a British overseas territory.
Since the enforced depopulation of Diego Garcia in the years leading up to 1973, it has been used as a military base by the United States. Diego Garcia hosts one of three ground antennas (others are on Kwajalein and Ascension Island) that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system. The island's shape (similar to that of a human footprint) has led the US Navy to refer to Diego Garcia as "The Footprint of Freedom."
The atoll is now covered in luxuriant tropical vegetation, with little sign left of the copra and coconut plantations that once covered it. The island is 37 miles (60 km) long, with a maximum elevation of 22 feet (7 m), and nearly encloses a lagoon some 12 miles long (19 km) and up to 5 miles (8 km) wide. Depths in the lagoon extend to 98 feet (30 m), while numerous coral heads extend toward the surface and form hazards to navigation. Shallow reefs surround the island on the ocean side as well as within the lagoon. The channel and anchorage area are dredged, while the old turning basin can also be used if its depth is sufficient for the ship.

Climate
Portuguese explorers discovered Diego Garcia in the early 16th century. The island's name is believed to have come from either the ship's captain or the navigator on that early voyage of discovery.
The islands remained uninhabited until the 18th century when the French established copra plantations with the help of unfree labour. Diego Garcia became a possession of the United Kingdom after the Napoleonic wars, and from 1814 to 1965, it was a dependency of Mauritius.
In 1965, the Chagos Islands, which include Diego Garcia, were detached from Mauritius to form part of the British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT). In 1966, the crown bought the islands and plantations, which had been under private ownership and which had not been profitable with the introduction of new oils and lubricants. In 1971, the plantations were closed because of the agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States to make Diego Garcia available to the U.S. as a military base. No payment was made as part of this arrangement, although it has been claimed that the United Kingdom received a US$14 million discount on the acquisition of Polaris missiles from the United States.

Diego Garcia History
In 2000, the High Court granted the islanders the right to return to the Archipelago and granted them UK citizenship. In 2002, the islanders and their descendants, now numbering 4,500, returned to court claiming compensation, after what they said were two years of delays by the British Foreign Office. However, on June 10, 2004, the British government made two Orders-in-Council banning the islanders from returning home,

Strategic importance

Ascension Island
Depopulation of Diego Garcia
RAF Gan
Stealing a Nation

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Bulb
A bulb is an underground vertical shoot that has modified leaves (or thickened leaf bases) that are used as food storage organs by a dormant plant.
A bulb's leaf bases generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions. The leaf bases may overlap and surround the center of the bulb as with the onion. A modified stem forms the base of the bulb, and plant growth occurs from this basal plate. Roots emerge from the underside of the base, and new stems and leaves from the upper side.
Other types of storage organs (such as corms, rhizomes, and tubers) are sometimes erroneously referred to as bulbs. The correct term for plants that form underground storage organs, including bulbs as well as tubers and corms, is geophyte. Some epiphytic orchids (family Orchidaceae) form above-ground storage organs called pseudobulbs, that superficially resemble bulbs.
Plants that form true bulbs are all monocotyledons, and include:

Onion, garlic, and other alliums, family Alliaceae.
Lily, tulip, and many other members of the lily family Liliaceae.
Amaryllis, Hippeastrum, Narcissus, and several other members of the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae.
Two groups of Iris species, family Iridaceae: subgenus Xiphium (the "Dutch" irises) and subgenus Hermodactyloides (the miniature "rock garden" irises).

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Jon Huntsman
There are two notable individuals, a father and son, named Jon Huntsman:
Jon Huntsman, Sr. (1937- ) is a corporate executive and billionaire philanthropist.
Jon Huntsman, Jr. (1960- ) is the governor of Utah.
Peter Huntsman is the President and CEO of Huntsman Corporation

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Using electronvolts to measure mass
For comparison:

3.2×10 joule or 210 MeV - total energy released in fission of one Pu-239 atom (also on average)
Molecular bond energies are on the order of an electronvolt per molecule.
The typical atmospheric molecule has a kinetic energy of about 1/40 eV. This corresponds to room temperature. GeVGeV Electronvolts and energy
The energy E, frequency f, and wavelength λ of a photon are related by
E=hf=frac{hc}{lambda}=frac{1240~rm{nm~eV}}{lambda}
where h is Planck's constant and c is the speed of light. For example, the spectrum of visible light consists of wavelengths ranging from 400 nm to 700 nm. Photons of visible light therefore have energies ranging from
E_{min} = frac{1240~rm{nm~eV}}{700~rm{nm}} = 1.77~rm{eV}
to
E_{max} = frac{1240~rm{nm~eV}}{400~rm{nm}} = 3.10~rm{eV}.
An electronvolt is also the energy of an infrared photon with a wavelength of approximately 1240nm. 10eV would correspond to ultraviolet of 124nm, etc.

Electronvolts and photon properties
In particle physics, distances and times are sometimes expressed in inverse electronvolts via the conversion factors eV s
hbar c = 197.326 960 2(77) eV nm Electronvolts and temperature

Monday, January 21, 2008

Temporary Internet Files
Temporary Internet Files is a directory on Microsoft Windows computer systems. The directory is used by Internet Explorer to cache pages on websites visited by the user. This allows such websites to load quicker the next time they are visited.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Welham Green railway station
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z  
Welham Green railway station serves the village of Welham Green in Hertfordshire, England. It is on the East Coast Main Line.
The station was opened on 29th September 1986. It has two platforms. It was built with funding from Welwyn District Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Hatfield Parish Council and British Rail.
Welham Green was just south of the scene of the Hatfield rail crash in 2000. As the last station passed by the train involved, some news media initially gave Welham Green as the location of the incident.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Greater Cumania
Nagykunság (English: Greater Cumania; 1,196 km²) is a historical and geographical region in Hungary situated in the current Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county between Szolnok and Debrecen. Like other historical European regions called Cumania, it is named for the Cumans, a nomadic tribe of pagan Kipchaks that settled the area.
Main article: Kunság

Friday, January 18, 2008

Subaltern (rank)
for the use of the term in philosophy, see Subaltern (postcolonialism)
A subaltern is a military term for a junior officer. Literally meaning "subordinate", subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant. In the British Army the senior subaltern rank was captain-lieutenant, obsolete since the 18th century.
Prior to the Cardwell reforms of the British Army in 1871, the ranks of cornet and ensign were the junior subaltern ranks in the cavalry and infantry respectively.
A subaltern takes temporary command of proceedings during Trooping the Colour.

Thursday, January 17, 2008


Oil reserves refer to portions of oil in place that are claimed to be recoverable under economic constraints.
Oil in the ground is not a "reserve" unless it is claimed to be economically recoverable, since as the oil is extracted, the cost of recovery increases incrementally as the amount of oil remaining is reduced. The recovery factor (RF) is the percentage of oil in place which is expected to be economically recoverable under a given set of conditions.
Oil reserve estimates are ideally a measure of geological and economic risk — of the probability of oil existing and being producible under current economic conditions using current technology. The international authority for reserves definitions is generally the Society of Petroleum Engineers. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission demands that oil companies with exchange listed stock adopt reserves accounting standards that are consistent with common industry practice. However these standards are based on historical production practices and are not always meaningful in dealing with deep-water and non-conventional oil fields that are becoming the source of more and more of the world's oil production. In addition, many of the world's largest oil-producing countries do not follow normal industry standards in estimating their oil reserves and do not publish any data which would allow their estimates to be verified.
Proven, probable and possible reserves are the three most common categories of reserves used in the oil industry. They represent the probability that a reserve exists based on the geologic and engineering data and interpretation for a given location.
Proven Reserves - defined as oil and gas "Reasonably Certain" to be producible using current technology at current prices, with current commercial terms and government consent, also known in the industry as 1P. Some industry specialists refer to this as P90, i.e., ideally having a 90% certainty of being produced. Proven reserves are further subdivided into "Proven Developed" (PD) and "Proven Undeveloped" (PUD). PD reserves are reserves that can be produced with existing wells and perforations, or from additional reservoirs where minimal additional investment (operating expense) is required. PUD reserves require additional capital investment (drilling new wells, installing gas compression, etc.) to bring the oil and gas to the surface.
Probable Reserves - defined as oil and gas "Reasonably Probable" of being produced using current or likely technology at current prices, with current commercial terms and government consent. Some Industry specialists refer to this as P50, i.e., ideally having a 50% certainty of being produced. This is also known in the industry as 2P or Proven plus probable.
Possible Reserves - i.e., "having a chance of being developed under favourable circumstances". Some Industry specialists refer to this as P10, i.e., ideally having a 10% certainty of being produced in the foreseeable future. This is also known in the industry as 3P or Proven plus probable plus possible.

Proven reserves in order
With one-fourth of the world's proven oil reserves and some of its lowest production costs, Saudi Arabia produces over 4 gigabarrels of oil per year and is likely to remain the world's largest oil exporter for the foreseeable future. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, Saudi oil production declined about 8% during 2006 to 8.75 million barrels per day in December.[4]

Saudi Arabia
Alberta's estimated oil reserves was raised from around 5 gigabarrels (billion barrels) to the much larger figure of around 180 gigabarrels by the inclusion of the Athabasca Oil Sands deposit by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB),

Canada
Iran has the world's second largest reserves of conventional crude oil at 133 gigabarrels, according to the CIA World Factbook, although it should be noted that both Canada and Venezuela have larger reserves if Non-conventional oil is included. Iran is the second largest oil holder globally with approximately 10% of the world's oil.
Iran averages about 1.5 gigabarrels per year, which is a significant decline from the 6 gigabarrels per year it produced when the Shah of Iran was in power. The United States prohibits imports of oil from Iran, which limits its exposure to an Iranian oil cutoff, but does not reduce the likelihood that an interruption of Iranian oil would cause a spike in world oil prices. American pressure on Iran to renounce Iran's nuclear program makes the possibility of military confrontation quite high, and the political risks of Iranian oil far outweigh any geological ones.

Oil resources Iran
Iraq has the third largest reserves of conventional oil in the world at 112 gigabarrels. Despite its vast oil reserves and low costs, production has not recovered since the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Constant looting, insurgent attacks, and sabotage in the oil fields has limited production to around 0.5 gigabarrels per year at best. Political risk is thus the main constraint on Iraqi oil production and likely to remain so in the near future.

Iraq
The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are nearly tied for the fourth largest conventional oil reserves in the world at 98 and 97 gigabarrels, respectively. Both countries produce approximately 0.8 gigabarrels per year, leaving around 100 years of reserves in each. Abu Dhabi has 94 percent of the UAE's oil reserves while most of Kuwait's oil reserves are in the Burgan Field, the world's second largest oil field after Saudi Arabia's Ghawar. Kuwait hopes to step up oil production to reach capacity of 4 million bbl/d by 2020, but since Burgan was found in 1938 and is getting very mature, this will be a challenge. Furthermore, according to data leaked from the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), Kuwait's remaining proven and non-proven oil reserves are only about half the official figure - 48 gigabarrels.

Oil resources United Arab Emirates and Kuwait
According to the Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Venezuela has 77.2 billion barrels of proven conventional oil reserves, the largest of any country in the Western Hemisphere. In addition it has non-conventional oil deposits similar in size to Canada's - at 1,200 billion barrels approximately equal to the world's reserves of conventional oil. About 267 billion barrels of this may be producible at current prices using current technology. [5] Venezuela's Orinoco tar sands are less viscous than Canada's Athabasca oil sands – meaning they can be produced by more conventional means, but are buried deeper – meaning they cannot be extracted by surface mining. In an attempt to have these extra heavy oil reserves recognized by the international community, Venezuela has moved to add them to its conventional reserves to give nearly 350 billion barrels of total oil reserves. This would give it the largest oil reserves in the world, even ahead of Saudi Arabia.
Venezuela's development of its non-conventional oil reserves is mainly limited by political unrest. In late 2002 and early 2003 a strike at the state oil company PDVSA resulted in a dramatic drop in Venezuelan oil production and the firing of most of the oil company's workers. This has significantly limited its ability to develop and produce oil. [6] Estimates of Venezuelan oil production vary. Venezuela claims its oil production is over 3 million barrels per day, but oil industry analysts and the U.S. Energy Information Administration believe it to be much lower. In addition to other reporting irregularities, much of its production is extra-heavy oil, which may or may not be included with conventional oil in the various production estimates. The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimated Venezuela's oil production in December 2006 was only 2.5 million barrels per day, a 24% decline from its peak of 3.3 million in 1997.[7] Notwithstanding that, Venezuela continues to be the second or third largest supplier of oil to the United States, sending about 1.5 million barrels per day to the U.S. Venezuela is also a major oil refiner and the owner of the Citgo gasoline chain.

Venezuela
United States proven oil reserves declined to a little more than 21 gigabarrels by the end of 2004 according to the Energy Information Administration, a 46% decline from the 39 gigabarrels it had in 1970 when the huge Alaska North Slope ('ANS') reserves were booked. Since there have been millions of oil wells drilled in the US and there is nowhere left for an elephant the size of ANS to remain hidden, it appears that US oil reserves are on a permanent downward slide. As oil fields get closer to the end of production, estimates of what is left become more accurate. Consequently, US oil reserve numbers are very accurate compared to those of other countries.
United States crude oil production peaked in late 1970 at over 4 gigabarrels per year, but declined to 1.8 gigabarrels per year by early 2006. In fact, production in the fall of 2005 fell to only 1.5 gigabarrels per year as a result of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico — a level not seen since shortly after World War II. At the same time, US consumption of petroleum products increased to over 7.3 gigabarrels per year. The difference was mostly made up by imports, with the largest supplier being Canada, which increased its exports of crude oil and refined products to the US to 0.8 gigabarrels per year at the end of 2005. Imports of oil and products now account for nearly half of the US trade deficit. In early 2007, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy projected that in 2007 oil consumption would rise to 20.9 million barrels per day, while oil production would fall to 5.1 million barrels per day, meaning that oil consumption would be nearly four times as high as oil production.
The United States has the largest known concentration of oil shale in the world, according to the Bureau of Land Management and holds an estimated 800 gigabarrels of recoverable oil, enough to meet U.S. demand for oil at current levels for 110 years. Unfortunately, oil shale is much more difficult and expensive to extract and refine than conventional oil and oil sands. Oil shale must be produced by mining rather than drilling, and the shale contains a waxy oil precursor known as kerogen rather than liquid petroleum. Despite that, oil shale could be developed given high enough oil prices, and the technology for converting oil shale to oil has been known since the Middle Ages, although the scale of the mining and processing operations would be vastly greater than anything done in history.
The main constraint on oil shale development is probably going to be that Canadian and Venezuelan oil sands are only about half as expensive to produce, and the US has full access to Canadian oil sands production under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In addition, there are environmental concerns about oil shale development. The oil shale areas are semi-arid, in which mine scars last for centuries, and are at the headwaters of several important rivers, notably the Powder River in a region in which water rights are very important. These rivers are the source of irrigation water for vast areas of farmland and are the source of drinking water for many major cities. As a result, the oil shales are probably not going to be developed until global oil shortages become very severe.
In December, 2006, the Bureau of Land Management of the US Department of the Interior issued research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) leases for five oil shale projects in Colorado's Piceance basin.

United States
While the government of Mexico claims it has over 100 gigabarrels of oil, as of January, 2006, the prestigious Oil and Gas Journal estimated its proven reserves at only 12.9 gigabarrels. The reason for the discrepancy is that, while the oil may exist in theory, in practice, politics prevents it from being developed. The constitution of Mexico gives the state oil company, PEMEX, a monopoly over oil production, and the Mexican government treats Pemex as a major source of revenue, taking 60% of its revenues in taxes, according to Business Week on 13 December 2004. As a result, Pemex has insufficient capital to develop the resources on its own, and cannot take on foreign partners to supply money and technology it lacks.
Since 1979, Mexico has produced most of its oil from the supergiant Cantarell Field, which is the second-biggest field in the world by production. In 1997, PEMEX started a massive nitrogen injection project to maintain oil flow, which now consumes half the nitrogen produced in the world. Unfortunately, non-miscible injection schemes such as nitrogen injection simply increase production rates rather than increasing the amount of oil that can be recovered, and result in the same amount of oil being produced over a shorter period of time. As a result of nitrogen injection, production at Cantarell rose from 1.1 million barrels/day in 1996 to a peak of 2.1 million barrels per day in 2004. However, during 2006 Cantarell's output fell 25% from 2.0 million barrels/day in January to 1.5 million barrels/day in December, and the decline continued at a higher than expected rate in 2007.
As for its other fields, 40% of Mexico's remaining reserves are in the Chicontepec Field, which was found in 1926, but which has remained undeveloped because the oil is trapped in impermeable rock. The remainder of Mexico's fields are much smaller, much more expensive to develop, and contain heavy oil that trade at a significant discount to light-oil which is cheaper to refine. As a result of concentrating on its one good oil field and ignoring everything else, Mexico's proven reserves have fallen every year for more than a decade, and it has less than 10 years worth of oil reserves at current production levels. As a result of the decline in the Cantarell field, during 2006 Mexico's total petroleum production dropped 12% from 3.4 million barrels/day in January to 3.0 million barrels/day in December.
In 2002 PEMEX began developing an oil field called "Proyecto Ku-Maloob-Zaap", located 105 kilometers from Ciudad del Carmen. It is estimated that by 2011 the field will produce nearly 800,000 barrels/day [8]. However, this level of production will be achieved by using a nitrogen injection scheme similar to that of Cantarell, and production at Ku-Maloob-Zaap is expected to decline after 2011.
In June, 2007 former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that declining oil production in Mexico could cause a major fiscal crisis there, and that Mexico needed to increase investment in its energy sector to prevent it. [9]

Mexico
See also: Oil exploration
Arctic basins tend to be richer in natural gas than in oil. The abundance of gas in the Arctic so far from main markets will require moving gas long distances. Problems of ensuring that oil and gas keep flowing freely in arctic subsea pipelines are virtually identical to those experienced at a depth of 8,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico, where temperatures are at or close to the freezing point (at that pressure) along the seafloor where hydrates can form. Technology for moving oil from the seafloor to the shore is similar to that employed in Norway, and may someday have application in Alaska.
Some large oil companies believe Arctic waters, including those of northern Alaska, hold great potential as an oil and natural gas frontier. Most of these basins are unexplored and undeveloped. The social, environmental, and economic aspects of development will be challenging.
Extensive drilling in the Canadian Arctic by such companies as Petro Canada and Dome Petroleum discovered significant oil reserves, but unfortunately not enough to justify an oil pipeline to southern Canada or the United States. All the oil wells which were drilled have since been abandoned. Currently, the Arctic ice pack makes the shipping season too short to justify shipping oil out by tanker, but it is possible future global warming could melt the Arctic ice pack and make tanker shipment feasible. In 2007 the Canadian Navy announced its intention to build eight new Arctic patrol vessels to assert sovereignty over its Arctic waters in anticipation of such an eventuality.

Arctic reserves
There are varying estimates of how much oil is left in Middle Eastern reserves. Several oil companies and the U.S. Department of Energy state that the Middle East has two-thirds of all the world's oil reserves. Other oil experts, however, argue that the Middle East has two-thirds of only all proven oil reserves, and that the percentage of all oil reserves it has could be much lower than two-thirds [10]. The U.S. Geological Survey says that the Middle East has only between half and a third of the recoverable oil reserves in the world.

Middle Eastern reserves
The OPEC countries decided in 1985 to link their production quotas to their reserves. What then seemed wise provoked important increases of the estimates; in order to increase their production rights. This also permits the ability to obtain bigger loans at lesser interest rates. This is a suspected reason for the reserves rise of Iraq in 1983, then at war with Iran.
In fact, Dr. Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, a former senior executive of the National Iranian Oil Company, has stated unequivocally that OPEC's oil reserves (notably Iran's) are grossly overstated. In a recent interview [11] he stated that world oil production is now at its peak and predicted that it will fall 32% by 2020.
The total declared reserves are 701 billion barrels, from which 317.54 are suspicious (the year 2004 was added later).
The table suggests that, firstly, the OPEC countries declare that the discovery of new fields, year after year, replaces exactly or near exactly the quantities produced, because the declared reserves do not vary a lot from one year to the other. For example, Saudi Arabia extracts 3 billion barrels a year, which will diminish by this amount. However, Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, declares exactly 92.3 billion barrels since 1988, but in 16 years, 14 billion barrels were extracted.
Also, there is much competition between states. For example, Kuwait gave to themselves 90 billion barrels of reserves in 1985, the year of the reserves link. Abu Dhabi and Iran responded with slightly higher numbers, to guarantee similar production quotas. Saddam Hussein, fearing to be left behind by nations he disliked, replied with around 100. Apparently, with all this amount of inflation, Saudi Arabia was forced to reply, two years later, with its own revision.
Other examples suggest the inaccuracy of official reserve estimates:
Note however that the definition of proven reserves varies from country to country. In the USA, the conservative rule is to classify as proven only the reserves that are being produced. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia classifies as proven reserves known fields not yet in production. Venezuela includes non-conventional oil (bitumens) of the Orinoco in its reserve base.

January 2006, the magazine Petroleum Intelligence Weekly declared that reserves of Kuwait were in fact only 48 billion barrels, of which only 24 billion were "completely proven", backing this statement on "leaks" of official confidential Kuwaiti documents. The value is half of the official estimate.[12]
Shell company announced 9 January 2004 that 20% of its reserves had to pass from proven to possible (uncertain). This announcement led to a loss in the value of the stock; a lawsuit challenged that the value of the company was fraudulently overvalued. Shell later revised its reserves estimates three times, reducing them by 10,133 million barrels (against 14,500 million). Shell's president, Phil Watts, resigned.
As can be seen on the table the reserves declared by Kuwait before and after the Gulf War 1990-1991 are the same, 94 billion barrels, despite the fact that immense oil-well fires ignited by the Iraqi forces had burned off approximately 6 billion barrels.
In 1970, Algeria increased its "proven reserves" estimate (until then 7-8 billion barrels) to 30 billion. Two years later, the estimate was increased to 45 billion. After 1974, the country's estimate was less than 10 billion barrels (as reported by Jean Laherrère).
Pemex (state company of Mexico) in September 2002 decreased its reserve estimate by 53%, from 26.8 to 12.6 billion barrels. Later the estimate was increased to 15.7 billion.
Other examples exist of reserves being underestimated. In 1993, the reserves of Equatorial Guinea were limited to some insignificant fields; the Oil And Gas Journal estimated them at 12 million barrels. Two giant fields and several smaller ones were discovered, but the numbers announced stayed unchanged until 2003. In 2002, the country still had 12 million barrels of reserves according to the journal, while it was producing 85 million barrels in the same year. The reserves of Angola were at 5.421 billion barrels, (four significant numbers, it gives the impression of great precision) from 1994 to 2003, despite the discovery of 38 new fields of more than 100 million barrels each. Suspicious official estimates of oil reserves from OPEC countries
The US EIA (Energy Information Administration) reduced their forecast for Saudi oil production to 15.4 mb/day in 2020 and Middle East OPEC countries increasing to 35.2 mb/day by 2020 from 20.7 mb/day in 2002 [Internation Energy Outlook 2005 table E1 [13]. These estimates were further reduced in the 2006 Annual Energy Outlook, in which Middle East OPEC production was projected to be 29.4/27.0/18.5 mb/day in 2020 assuming $34/$51/$85 oil prices respectively [14].

2020 Vision
Many countries maintain government-controlled oil reserves for both economic and national security reasons. Although there are global strategic petroleum reserves, the following highlights the strategic reserves of the top three oil consumers.
The United States maintains a Strategic Petroleum Reserve at four sites in the Gulf of Mexico, with a total capacity of 0.727 gigabarrels of crude oil. The sites are enormous salt caverns that have been converted to store crude oil. The US SPR has never been filled to capacity; the largest amount reached thus far was 0.7 gigabarrels on August 17, 2005, whereafter reserves were drawn down to meet demand in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This reserve was created in 1975 following the 1973-1974 oil embargo, and as of 2005 it is the largest emergency petroleum supply in the world. At current US consumption rates (over 7 gigabarrels per year), the SPR would supply all normal US demand for approximately 37 days.
In 2004 China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) began development on a 101.9 million barrel strategic reserve. These reserves are particularly important for Japan since they have practically no domestic petroleum production and import 99.7% of their oil.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

History
The Heineken company was founded in 1864 when the 22-year-old Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought a brewery known as De Hooiberg (the haystack) in Amsterdam. In 1874 the brewery's name changed to Heineken's Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij, and opened a second brewery in Rotterdam in 1874. In 1886 Dr. H. Elion, a pupil of the French chemist Louis Pasteur, developed the "Heineken A-yeast" in the Heineken laboratory. This yeast is still the key ingredient of Heineken beer. In 1887 Heineken switched to the use of bottom-fermenting yeast.
The founder's son, Henry Pierre Heineken, managed the company from 1917 to 1940, and continued involvement with the company until 1951. During his tenure, Heineken developed techniques to maintain consistent beer quality during large-scale production. Henry Pierre's son, Alfred Henry "Freddy" Heineken, started working at the company in 1940, and 1971 was appointed Chairman of the Executive Board. He was a powerful force behind Heineken's continued global expansion, and while he retired from the Executive Board in 1989, he maintained involvement with the company until his death in 2002.
After World War I, the company aimed more and more on export. Three days after Prohibition ended in the United States, the first Heineken shipment landed as the first legal shipment of beer. From that day on, Heineken has remained one of the most successful imported beer brands in the United States.

Heineken brewery
During this period, Heineken tried to increase its stock price by purchasing competing breweries and closing them down. After World War II, many small breweries were bought or closed, damaging the diverse beer culture of the Netherlands. In 1968 Heineken merged with its biggest competitor, Amstel, and in 1975 opened a new brewery in Zoeterwoude. The Amstel brewery was closed in 1980, and its production moved to Zoeterwoude and Den Bosch.

Heineken Portfolio of beer brands

Heineken sponsors the Heineken Cup, the annual rugby union knock-out competition involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the Six Nations: England, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Italy. Heineken has been the sponsor since the cups' inaugural tournament in 1996.
Heineken is the main sponsor for the Open'er Festival contemporary music festival held in Gdynia, Poland that covers Hip hop music, Rock music and electronic music.
Heineken has sponsored the Oxegen music festival in Ireland since 2004 when they took over from Witnness which was sponsored by Guinness.
Since this year, Heineken sponsors UEFA Champions' League with its main brand, while until last year the competition was sponsored by Amstel brand, that now is a brand of Heineken group.
Heineken Open (tennis)