Everybody has probably already heard about the first exercises of the CSTO rapid reaction force in Kazakhstan today, where President Dmitry Medvedev wanted to make sure he was the most well dressed autocrat to show up to the party.  I do often wonder if the Kremlin hired the same people George W. Bush used to use to stage manage these kinds of Hollywood-esque media performances.  From Reuters:Dressed in combat fatigues, the leaders of Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan looked on as the force carried out a mock attack to destroy "insurgents" who had taken control of a chemical plant. Smoke rose from a dew-drenched firing range in the Kazakh steppe, revealing paratroopers landing from helicopters and storming a building ...

Three-quarters of the world consists of water, but growing populations, higher living standards, and global climate change have more than a few analysts worried that there still may not be enough to go around.

In fact, water shortages are erupting around the world, from San Diego to Riyadh.

Hundreds of farm workers and locals from all parts of California took to the streets last Thursday as part of a four-day march to protest federal cutbacks in water supplies.

“This is ground zero,” Mario Santoyo, an adviser to the California Latino Water Coalition, told the New York Times. “There’s a human tragedy going on here, and we need water.”

The state of California projected in March that, because of a drought in the state’s Central Valley, as many as 23,700 full-time workers would lose their jobs, and farmers would lose up to $477 million in revenue, The Times

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Hoku Materials Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of clean energy technology company, Hoku Scientific Inc. (Nasdaq: HOKU), today announced a silicon metal supply agreement that will supply Hoku with guaranteed amounts of metallurgical grade silicon for three years beginning in 2009.

Hoku’s agreement with leading alloy producer Polymet Alloys Inc. and its allied partner Rima Industrial S.A., will allow Hoku to use the grade silicon to manufacture trichlorosilane, an integral material in solar grade polysilicon production.

“Hoku is pleased to have established this partnership with Polymet Alloys Inc. and Rima Industrial S.A., leaders in the silicon metal industry,” Dustin Shindo, chairman and CEO of Hoku Scientific stated in the press release. “Silicon metal is a key raw material for Siemens-based production of polysilicon, and another important way for Hoku to manage our production costs. The fixed rates negotiated under this agreement are fair and fit well within our projected financial

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