Con-CERN & LHC

All doomsday cults should mark 10th day of the 9th month of the 8th year of the 2nd millennium on their calendars. That's when when CERN physicists throw the switch on the Large Hadron Collider buried in a circular tunnel beneath the French/Swiss border. Physcists are in the hunt for evidence of "dark matter" and "dark energy" and are hoping to glimpse particles never seen before oblivion.
CERN says there is no conceivable danger of a cataclysmic event.
Tweaking of controls will be pretty well complete by August 10th with the big test coming on September 10th. CERN will webcast this event.
While the boys are experimenting with their accelerator,
perhaps they will discover how to output more
electricity than they input.
Don't get it? Then tune in Large Hydron Rap.

Neither Fission Nor Fusion -just Reduce Spin

The fuel is water and the catalytic process to release heat and generate electricity has been demonstrated in a 2 megawatt prototype at Blacklight Power's research complex in New Jersey. A 50 megawatt plant is being built and there are plans to manufacture the new concept generators in 2009. The rub is that it flies in the face of current theory of quantum physics.
Device.com site provides some simple description and a diagram to illustrate the process.
A June 26, 2008 item on NewEnergyandFuel site sums it up with the comment:
"What is encouraging is that some highly competent people are on a path to validate within a couple of years. If it is shown to be viable the energy and fuel economy will shift in a big way..."

Ontario might stall its Darlington nuclear plans and stick with coal until the New Jersey verdict is in. Meanwhile, London Hydro can best avoid brown-outs and insulate itself from provincial energy antics by budgeting for a "new-concept" (grid-independent) generator.

Cold Fusion -Three New Approaches

It will be recalled that the Fusion-in-a-Jar claims made in 1989 by Professors Pons & Fleishman could not be reproduced. See Wired Mag Aug 2007 article for background. Two two decades after the failed University of Utah attempt, scientists at Osaka University and at UCLA appear to have made separate breakthroughs.
1) A couple Japanese Profs dared demonstrate their process at Osaka University on May 22, 2008. Whither replication and utility?
2) UCLA scientists used a pyroelectric crystal experiment to produce a small amount of electricity. Their approach may lead to small fusion-powered scanning machines.
3) Emc2Fusion of Santa Fe, with a $1.8 million infusion by the US Navy is following through with plasma experiments of the late physicist Robert Bussard.
Stay tuned as the international fusion drama unfolds:
Positive review of Osaka Demo by PhysOrg publication -May 27, 2008
International Conf on Cold Fusion -Washington DC -Aug 10 to 15, 2008

So much for links. If you want expert opinion, follow posts on the AtomicMotor blog of nuclear physicist, Johnathan Chan.
The quotes alone warrant a bookmark; a favourite by R.P. Feyneman: "Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on."
At the 2008 ISA EXPO, keynote speaker, David Nagel, Ph.D said, an infusion of just $10,000 annually for five years, could move Low Energy Nuclear Research (LENR) from experimentation to "products."

SWEA -a Truly Regional Entity -or just Freeway One

The Clinton News Record reports on Provincial infusion of $300,000 to rev up efforts of the South Western Economic Alliance (SWEA) to enhance economic prosperity in a broad region sweeping east of Lake Huron over to Guelph, Brantford and Simcoe. Aside from Stratford, all six listed partners are astride the 401/402 corridor: Chatham-Kent, London, Sarnia, Windsor and Woodstock. Conspicuous by its absence from the list is St Thomas.
Since jobs in communities north of the two freeways are mostly in agriculture and tourism, improved highway access to southern markets and northern tourist destinations is crucial. And, if school closings and more ghost towns are to be avoided there has to be investment in highways before manufacturers can be attracted -and before the exodus of more food processing plants can be arrested. Paul Steckle, MP for Huron/Bruce acknowledged the situation is desperate, but didn't identify neglect of highway network as a major problem in new era of high transportation fuel costs.
The city of Owen Sound and towns such as Exeter, Goderich and St. Marys will have to step up as partners, else; by default, SWEA remains a promotional tool of southern freeway cities. The "freeway partners" can best engage their northern neighbours in promoting regional economic development by pushing for better connections to the 401 and 402.
The Ivey School of Business was commissioned to study the area's trade and the need for expansion of road, rail and airport infrastructure. Academics might review the case made for enhanced highway connections via earlier posts --here and here.