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LimeWire to shut down on court order

Posted by technology on October 27, 2010 at 7:48am
limewire_injunction.top.jpg
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A New York judge ordered LimeWire to stop distributing its file-sharing software, agreeing with the plaintiffs that LimeWire's service is used "overwhelmingly for infringement."
Judge Wood of U.S. District Court in Manhattan said that LimeWire "intentionally encouraged direct infringement" by users of its site, and also "marketed itself to Napster users, who were known copyright infringers "The LimeWire site shut down its service Wednesday, displaying only a legal notice announcing that that company "is under a court-ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software."
Nonetheless, the company insisted that it has not been permanently put out of business...
"While this is not our ideal path, we hope to work with the music industry in moving forward," LimeWire said in a prepared statement. "We look forward to embracing necessary changes and collaborating with the entire music industry in the future."
LimeWire CEO George Searle went further in a message posted on LimeWire's corporate site.
"The injunction applies only to the LimeWire product. Our company remains open for business," he wrote. "Our team of technologists and music enthusiasts is creating a completely new music service that puts you back at the center of your digital music experience. We'll be sharing more details about our new service and look forward to bringing it to you in the future."
LimeWire has been skirmishing for years with the music industry over its laissez faire approach to policing the copyright violations its peer-to-peer software enabled. More than a dozen plaintiffs pursued the case against LimeWire, which began four years ago. Sony (SNE) Music Entertainment, Virgin Records America, Inc., Arista Records, Capitol Records and Warner Brothers Records Inc. (Warner Brothers Records and CNNMoney.com are both part of Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500).)

While the court order has halted further distribution of LimeWire's software, the networks that software tapped into -- Gnutella and BitTorrent -- remain active, and can be reached through other software applications.

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Blackout looms as Shell prepares to shut gas plants on Saturday

Posted by 9jabook.com on February 18, 2010 at 7:30pm
Blackout looms as Shell prepares to shut gas plants on Saturday

Obinna Ezeobi, Abuja


Nigeria may be plunged into total darkness as from Saturday, as Shell Petroleum Development Company gives a notice of its plan to shut down three critical gas plants that supply dry gas to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.


The company made this known in a letter dated February 10, 2010 and addressed to the Minister of Power, Dr. Lanre Babalola and his petroleum counterpart, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman.

SPDC notified the Federal Government that it might be compelled to shut down the Oben, Sapele and Utorogu gas plants on Saturday unless the stock of condensate, a by-product of gas blocking its pipelines, was evacuated.

This came just as the total power generation dipped to 2,400 megawatts on Tuesday, compounding the woes in the nation's electricity sector.

Shell is the biggest supplier of gas to the Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which in turn transmits the gas to PHCN and other gas customers....

The thermal power plants, which run on gas, contribute 70 per cent of the nation's electricity; hence shutting the three gas plants would result in near total darkness in the country.

Because the Trans-Forcados gas network, which is the bedrock for Oben, Sapele, and Ughelli Utorogu gas plants has been repeatedly compromised by militants, a decision was taken to divert the condensate to Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company, which would use some and sell the rest to Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company.

But with the refineries having not worked for a while owing to the vandalisation of the Channomi creek pipeline which supplies them with crude oil, the condensate was not used up, hence the need to find a new buyer who would move to the Warri refinery and lift the condensate.

SPDC explained in the letter that there were 437,000 barrels of condensate at the Warri refinery, which must be evacuated before it could continue producing and supplying dry gas, adding that it might be forced to shut down the plants as it would have nowhere else to evacuate the by-products to.

Oben and Sapele gas plants produce 3,000 barrels of condensate daily which must be evacuated daily and regularly for gas production to continue.

Our correspondent learnt that the matter had been brought to the attention of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, who was said to have been brainstorming with officials of the power and oil sectors on how to avert the impending blackout.

On why power supply had deteriorated in the past weeks, the Special Adviser (Media) to the Minister of Power, Mr. Yakubu Lawal, told our correspondent that gas supply to thermal plants had dipped considerably, with five thermal plants heavily affected.

He said Egbin had the capacity to generate 1,000MW, but could only do 600MW currently due to gas constraints.

Other thermal plants, which were negatively affected included AES located within the Egbin precinct, Omotosho, Olorunsogo and Geregu.

He explained that Chevron Escravos 1 was supposed to supply 185million standard cubic feet of gas per day but was not making gas available at the moment just like the Chevron Escravos 2, which was expected to supply 300 million scfd.

Lawal said, "500 million scfd was supposed to come from Sapele but nothing at all is coming. Ughelli is also expected to supply 90 million scfd but is only bringing 30 million scfd.

He, however, explained that Ughelli was meant to be a dedicated line to Sapele power plant, which was undergoing some rehabilitation and could only utilise 30 million scfd.

He said that the 90 million scfd obtained from Oben was now under threat if the condensate produced by the plant was not evacuated

"Utorogu is expected to bring 360 million scfd, but we only get 300 million scfd," he added.

When the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Mohammed Barkindo, undertook a facility tour of the gas and power stations run by the SPDC last year, he had said that the Utorogu gas plant would increase production to 350 million scfd ahead of December 2009.

He said NNPC had initiated discussions with SPDC on the expansion programme of the plant, so as to ramp it up to 510 million scfd this year.

He said, "I have got firm reassurance on the recovery of the Trans-Forcados pipeline, which is the heart of the domestic supply system, accounting for nearly 900 million scfd of gas.

"The Trans-Forcados network is the bedrock for Oben, Sapele, Ughelli Utorogu and once that network is compromised, then we have significant challenges."



Natural gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. It condenses out of the raw gas if the temperature is reduced to below the hydrocarbon dew point temperature of the raw gas. The natural gas condensate is also referred to as simply condensate, or gas condensate, or sometimes natural gasoline because it contains hydrocarbons within the gasoline boiling range. Raw natural gas may come from any one of three types of gas wells:[1][2] Crude oil wells – Raw natural gas that comes from crude oil wells is called associated gas. This gas can exist separate from the crude oil in the underground formation, or dissolved in the crude oil. Dry gas wells – These wells typically produce only raw natural gas that does not contain any hydrocarbon liquids. Such gas is called non-associated gas. Condensate wells – These wells produce raw natural gas along with natural gas liquid. Such gas is also non-associated gas and often referred to as wet gas.
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Over 100 factories shut down for lack of electricity is it so hard ? Design a portable solar Generator !

Posted by 9jabook.com on May 8, 2009 at 3:00am
Learn to use Solar Power and even design your own .We will help you in importing Solar power devices from china ! email solar@systemini.net for more details . FACTS have begun to emerged how the poor electricity supply in the country has led and contributed to factory closures and declining manufacturing sector in Nigeria, leading millions of job loses. In fact, in the Textile/garment as well as Chemical/Leather sectors of the economy, constant power failure in the country has either led to and was a major factor to closure of not less than one hundred factories scattered across the country. According to vanguard investigations, while twelve manufactory companies in both Textile/Garment and Chemical/Leather sectors, three had their workers reduced from five thousand (5000) to seven hundred (700). Confirming this unfortunate development and the steady de-industrialisatio n in the country, General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) and a Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu, declared that among the factories that closed down as a result of electricity failure included “Tarneries, Hufawa, Intertan, Multitan, Nakudu, Kano Textile Limited, Afrimpex and Harmatan (all based in Kano state) as well as most of leather industries in the state . In lagos, are Dunlop Industries, Leanard Shoes and Batta Shoes and Michelin Nigeria Limited, in Port-Harcourt, Rivers state. Also poor power supply was attributed to have contributed majorly to the closure of the under-listed factories included Enpee, Nelco, NSF, Weaving and Processing, Swantex, Textile Specialities, ASSAN Industries, Jaybee, K-Issardas, Bhojaraj, Teev-Gold Star, Amarito-Umbrella, AD Gulas (all textile factories based in Ilupeju, in Lagos). Others are Five star, Afprint, Daltex, Varaman, Royal Spinners, GDM, Aswani, Arcee, Rekha, King Carpet, Emar, President, Elite, Moon Diamond, Pacific, Eurosport, Barclays Clothing, ITI, Wabterry, Nigeria Fishing Net, Shiram, Monarch, Aflon (all based in Isolo), Texlon, Diamond Spinners, United Spinners, Top star, Tarpaulin, Steep, Coats West Africa, Panache, Pyramid, Central Bag Subaco, Globe Spinning (based in Amuwo Odofin). Abel Abu, First Spinners, Century and Platinum (based in Ikorodu), Kay Industries, NTM, Specomill, Reliance, Oriental, Madhu and Encee (based in Ikeka.) Vanguard investigation confirmed because of unstable and failing power supply, Gombe based Ashaka Cement shed its work force from 2000 to 200, Lafarge, Ewekoro, ogun state, 1500 to 250 and its plant in Shagamu, 1500 to 250. Investigation has also revealed that companies like Cadbury, Nestle foods have for the past 15 years not used public supply to power their plants because of the sensitivity of their equipment that must not be exposed to even a minute power failure. At the kick-starting of a national mass protest in Lagos against steady de-industrialisatio n of Nigeria as a result of increasing factory closures and the urgent need to re-industrialise Nigeria, Private Sector Union (PSU), shouted it loudly that lack of steady power supply had remained the greatest threat to the manufacturing sector in Nigeria and called on government to urgently address the issue. Speaking to Vanguard, General Secretary of the National Union of Textile and Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Comrade Issa Aremu, lamented that in spite of huge money allegedly expended on the power sector, Nigeria is still walloping in darkness. He argued no country has even industrialised without stable power supply and advised government to wake up to its responsibility and guarantee the citizens stable power supply to kick-start economy to meet the challenges of the day. Again, in a pre-May Day Statement jointly issued by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), the two labour centres echoed the need for efficient power supply. The labour leaders used the opportunity to once again kicked against government full deregulation of the downstream oil sector of the economy in the midst of the global economic recession which serious economies in the world are bailing out companies and intervening in their economies to fight the recession. Addressing journalists on behalf of the two labour centres, Deputy President of NLC, Comrade Peters Adeymi, said: “We also note with grave concerns the decision of government to move for the removal of subsidies on petroleum and full deregulation of the down stream sector of the oil industry as part of the neo-liberal orthodoxies of the World Bank. This decision is contrary to approaches adopted by developed economies that champion the capitalism and the 'market logic'. These countries like the U.S, Britain, Germany, France, Spam and others have been using state funds in billion of dollars lo bail out industries in virtually all sectors as ways to preserve jobs, income and welfare of their people and their national economies. The point is that they recognize that the people and their citizens come first and so government must be responsive and responsible to the people. For our government, its strategy of solving the problem is high on promises and low on implementation.” “A quick example is Government planned disbursement of N70 Billion textile industry bailout that is yet to see the light of the day 3 years after such promise, but it took the Obama administration well under 90 days to get over $700 billion released and pumped into the I'.S economy. We in the labour movement call on Government to show similar commitment and patriotism exhibited by the Nigerian people through demonstration of concrete political will in tackling these economic crises. We are quick to reiterate that we reject government renewed bid to remove subsidy and the implementation of full deregulation of the down stream sector of the oil industry. The multiplier effects will exacerbate hardship and poverty amongst our people, just as the timing is wrong, the logic of the policy is also skewed in favour of the few elites in society and anti-people.” http://www.freesunpower.com/ http://www.clean-energy-ideas.com/articles/build_your_own_solar_panel.html http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Portable-solar/p/sm/1010757986.htm http://www.solar-power-answers.co.uk/index.php
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