Tried to shit
Only farted
7500. jexster - 5/22/2008 11:09:16 AM
See AP...there are PLENTY of links including "the Incredible Shrinking Superpower"
From TIME
7501. jexster - 5/22/2008 11:11:16 AM
If I were you I'd start my summer travel now and not bother waiting for the SURGE in oil production that Bush didn't get
He got shat on from extreme height with deadly accuracy
It's been all over the news
On planet earth
7502. thoughtful - 5/22/2008 11:22:31 AM
Hey Jex...didn't know if you saw this video of your buddy gavin talking about making san fran green.
7503. concerned - 5/22/2008 12:53:46 PM
George W. Bush goes to Saudi Arabia to ask for oil production increase, gets what he wants on May 10.
What's the problem with that?
7504. jexster - 5/22/2008 1:37:56 PM
Didn't happen
Not on this planet
Try googling the internets
7505. jexster - 5/22/2008 1:41:54 PM
Got cataracts TD
Have some large type
Worried about the high cost of filling up? President Bush is on the case. Last Friday he arrived in Riyadh to urge King Abdullah, the leader of the world's largest petroleum producer, Saudi Arabia, to put more oil on the market.
At the sun-bleached airport, Bush was greeted with the Gulf's signature mix of garish oil wealth and tinpot amateurism.....
It was there, after much pomp and circumstance, that Bush made his request. And it was there that the King still said no.
What part of NO are you having trouble with
7506. jexster - 5/22/2008 1:48:22 PM
And it was May 15 not May 10 when the King of Saudi Arabia told the so-called POTUS to fuck himself
RIYADH: With the price of oil hitting record highs, President George W. Bush used a private visit to King Abdullah's ranch here Friday to make a second attempt to persuade the Saudi government to increase oil production and was rebuffed yet again.
International Herald Tribune:Saudis rebuff Bush's request for more oil production
How humiliating
7507. jexster - 5/22/2008 1:49:12 PM
And there George sat all broken hearted..
Tried to shit
Only farted
7508. jexster - 5/22/2008 1:49:51 PM
Thanks T'fill ..hadn't seen that...Man's running for Governator real hard and we're REAL green in SF
Mighty white of ya!
7509. jexster - 5/22/2008 1:55:22 PM
Sorry sack of shit couldn't even appease his friends!
7510. concerned - 5/22/2008 2:28:10 PM
The May 10th Saudi increase was thanks to GWB.
George W. Bush da man.
7511. jexster - 5/22/2008 2:40:21 PM
I guess it's fine by you that Bush is humiliating America before the entire planet
That he is a Saudi Butt boy
But that is exactly the point
7512. alistairConnor - 5/22/2008 3:11:08 PM
George W. Bush goes to Saudi Arabia to ask for oil production increase, gets what he wants on May 10. 
Actually, the Saudis told him that they had just increased production by 300kbpd, explicitly saying that it wasn't because he asked them...
Saudi oil production has been declining since the beginning of the year when it topped out at just over 9mbpd. We'll see if there is any increase in May.
7513. concerned - 5/22/2008 3:38:04 PM
Re. 7511 -
Strange you say that, since your boy is whining that he wants to suck the sphincters of the enemies of freedom from the inside.
If you think that's not going to flush respect for the US into the sewer, you're even loonier than I think you are.
7514. thoughtful - 5/22/2008 3:41:07 PM
Re oil, 2 interesting pieces of data.
One is....check the doe energy information site and look at rig counts....it's nowhere near as high as it was in the 80s. How come?
2nd bit of data is there are apparently 9300 approved drilling permits outstanding that haven't been acted upon by the oil cos.
How come?
7515. thoughtful - 5/22/2008 3:43:07 PM
oh yeah...let's not draw any rash conclusions about rig counts and the windfall profits tax...rig counts went up when the profits tax came on...perhaps the oil co's figured out then that they might as well actually put their profits to good use increasing supply since they weren't going to be enjoying the profits anyway with the tax on...
Nah! Can't be.
7516. alistairConnor - 5/22/2008 3:54:46 PM
I don't understand a word of that, Tful. I imagine you're talking about the USA?
All of the rigs in the world are fully employed. Costs have escalated through the roof. All the easy oil is already being exploited. Lots of marginal fields, difficult and expensive to develop, slow to produce.
The world oil industry is running full steam, overheated. World oil production will probably increase, marginally, for another year. Or two.
7517. concerned - 5/22/2008 4:04:21 PM
When you planning to pay up, AC?
7518. jexster - 5/22/2008 5:30:15 PM
He didn't arrive until May 15th!
Let's be thankful he isn't trying to appease our enemies
Look what his dune coon buddies did to him!
Funny how Bin Laden, Bush and McBush all feed from the same trough isn't it
7519. alistairconnor - 5/23/2008 1:51:18 AM
When you planning to pay up, AC?
We'll wait for the BP data.
7520. thoughtful - 5/23/2008 5:59:18 AM
AC, what I'm suggesting is that high oil prices lead to increased exploration and production and so rig counts go up. They ran up like crazy in the 80s. But not this time around. Why?
The oil cos in the US say there's plenty of oil around but they're not allowed to drill it due to environmental concerns. But the data show there are at least in the US 9,300 permits issued for drilling activity that have not been acted upon.
Clearly the oil fields are less productive than in the past...the easy stuff has been found. But the less productive fields become viable as oil prices run up, as they have most recently. So why hasn't the activity???
The other big difference between the 80s and now is there was a windfall profits tax in effect then...not now.
See?
7521. alistairconnor - 5/23/2008 6:15:38 AM
OK I see. It might seem more logical that the lack of a tax would stimulate extra activity this time around, but...
I agree. My analysis is that the oil majors aren't actually very interested in opening up new, difficult, capital-intensive fields. They have an incredibly profitable racket going on : they are sitting on reserves of easy oil that have increased astronomically in value, and so their stock price has followed. It's far easier to hand out dividends than to do all that dirty work developing new fields, that can never be as profitable as their current holdings.
On the bottom end of the industry, there are hundreds of small outfits that are experts at squeezing the last drop out of marginal or abandoned oil fields.
What is lacking, presumably, is a middle tier of companies with enough capital to do the new developments that the big boys aren't very interested in.
Result : the whole thing is a sunset industry. I'd much rather the big boys were taxed on their super-profits to encourage (to force) investment in renewables, on a huge scale. Because that's what's needed. Drilling the parks isn't going to change the game. Leave it in the ground.
7522. thoughtful - 5/23/2008 8:47:11 AM
Well my thinking is the tax last time prevented them from gaining so much from limiting supply as the benefits were taxed away. This time, they gain so much profit from limiting supply, they have no incentive to fix it.
And of course, they have no incentive to develop alternatives...cutting off one's nose to spite one's face...
7523. jexster - 5/24/2008 6:09:44 PM
America the Humiliated
Now the French are laughing at us....
In the beginning of the 1970s, when a barrel of black gold cost less than $2, no one imagined that one day an American president would be reduced to begging the king of Saudi Arabia...
Le Monde: The Power Has Changed Sides
7524. jexster - 5/24/2008 6:17:42 PM
Hugo has us by the balls ....
and all we have is George W. Bush and his designated heir, an old man who is quite possibly even dumber than him
Consumer countries' dependence is linked to the fragility of the multinational companies. Oil states and their national public companies share 85 percent of the world's reserves. The majors no longer hold more than 15 percent and are having trouble reconstituting that percentage to the extent they draw those reserves down. What weight does "giant" ExxonMobil - the biggest listed company in the world - carry compared to Gazprom or Saudi Aramco? The great Western companies' access to oil fields - closed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Mexico, ever more difficult in Russia, Venezuela and Algeria - would involve "returning to the period before the 1970s' nationalizations," believes Nicolas Sarkis, director of the "Arab Oil and Gas Review."
7525. jexster - 5/24/2008 6:19:39 PM
Gazprom...McManchurian Candidate..how does that fit your international Muzzie-Commie Conspiracy Mandrake..errrr ConnedMan?
7526. jexster - 5/29/2008 11:15:04 AM
7527. arkymalarky - 5/29/2008 3:15:20 PM
Anyone here use Dreamweaver?
7528. concerned - 5/29/2008 3:53:03 PM
What a strange demented sand box of a world jexster must occupy.
7529. anomie - 5/29/2008 4:03:21 PM
I don't know what Dreamweaver is Arky, but it reminds me of an old 70s song.
7530. anomie - 5/29/2008 4:05:45 PM
Is Microsoft stupid? The tablet pc was a flop and now they're touting a touch screen system. I'm happy with my hand resting on the mouse. I don't want to be raising it up to a screen every 5 seconds. And imagine the dirt and fingerprints.
7531. jexster - 6/2/2008 6:07:31 PM
Global Warming "Africanizing" Spain
7532. jexster - 6/2/2008 6:25:52 PM
7533. concerned - 6/3/2008 2:26:14 PM
Re. 7531 -
It's due to development, not global warming.
7534. concerned - 6/3/2008 2:27:27 PM
Virtually every mention of 'global warming' in jexster's cite is gratuitous.
7535. concerned - 6/3/2008 4:15:57 PM
Well, there may be some real effects of climate change on page 2, but still, most of it is 'oh, gee' where's the water for our new golf course fairways?
7536. alistairconnor - 6/6/2008 5:24:45 AM
USA : the Can't-Do attitude
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - The United States will tell a July meeting of the Group of Eight rich nations that it cannot meet big cuts in emissions of planet-warming gases by 2020, its chief climate negotiator Harlan Watson said.
"It's frankly not do-able for us," he told Reuters on Tuesday, referring to a goal for rich countries to curb greenhouse gases by 25-40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
Of course you can!
If Obama doesn't do it...
Peak oil, or economic collapse, will.
7537. arkymalarky - 6/6/2008 5:47:55 AM
Heard the other day that driving in the US is already down 11%, the steepest drop ever.
7538. anomie - 6/6/2008 3:32:11 PM
I think car companies have been missing a golden opportunity the last few years by not selling a small, street legal, electric car, for a fair price. I'd have bought one years ago. It's almost impossible to calculate the gas and money that could be saved if we didn't take our full-sized cars down the block for local errands.
7539. robertjayb - 6/10/2008 10:27:12 AM
ANWR drilling worth six-bits a barrel...(McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — If Congress were to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, crude oil prices would probably drop by an average of only 75 cents a barrel, according to Department of Energy projections issued Thursday.
The report, which was requested in December by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, found that oil production in the refuge "is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices."
.................................................
...the report also finds that opening ANWR could have other benefits, particularly in Alaska, where tapping the resources in the Arctic refuge could extend the lifespan of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Sounds a bit like the space program where we need a shuttle to reach the space station and we need the space station to provide a mission for the shuttle.
7540. robertjayb - 6/11/2008 7:53:23 AM
Charlie Rose had an excellent show last night with a panel on the price of oil and an interview with author Misha Glenny.
The panel prescriptions included: clean coal technology, nuclear power, plug-in hybrid autos, removal of subsidies for corn-based ethanol, elimination of tariffs on imported ethanol (read Brazil). So-called major oil companies are inflexible dinosaurs. Independents will lead the way to improved domestic oil production.
Author Glenny's new book is McMafia, about international organized crime which he says accounts for 20-percent of world GDP.
Videos should be available later at The Charlie Rose Show...
7541. alistairConnor - 6/11/2008 2:40:58 PM
Hey hey Misha Glenny would be TMachine's brother, if my memory is correct?? (TMac was on the Fray, I met her in NY in 1998, along with such luminaries as Wabbit, Webfeet and Marjoribanks.) I remember he wrote an authorative book on the Balkans back then... yes that's him!
7542. concerned - 6/12/2008 10:21:46 AM
Re. 7536 -
I understand that Yurrup's use of petroleum products is increasing faster than that of the US. That fine by you, AC?
7543. concerned - 6/12/2008 10:25:36 AM
Re. 7539 -
You using bicycles and public transportation exclusively yet, rjb?
7544. thoughtful - 6/12/2008 11:36:25 AM
good memory, ac...i met tmac as well in her place in nyc...perhaps that was a different year? I don't remember meeting you or am I mistaken...the gray matter withers and dies, y'know.
7545. jexster - 6/16/2008 10:29:01 AM
7546. concerned - 6/19/2008 9:36:56 PM
Only $100,000 or so a pop. The insurance is a killer, too.
7547. alistairconnor - 6/20/2008 3:37:53 AM
I have no patience with this hydrogen refuelling station crap. A tank of compressed hydrogen is simply not an efficient medium to store transportation energy.
Fuel cells, yes. Hydrogen fuel cells, yes. But ammonia as the storage mechanism. Far easier to fabricate, transport, fill up. They just need to get the on-board NH3 to H2 process right, i.e. affordable. And then we'll hear no more of hydrogen filling stations.
7548. concerned - 6/27/2008 3:53:14 PM
CBS News sinks to new low; publishes crackpot global warming story, attributes it to Associated Press, kills it with no retraction
Must be more of that 'fake but accurate' CBS news that's fit to lose.
7549. concerned - 6/27/2008 3:57:45 PM
Here's something that AC can really get behind.
Global Warming: Can Earth EXPLODE ?
Ooooh. That's good. Now it's not just the falling sky that global warming chicken littles have to worry about. Now they need to watch out for an exploding earth.
7550. concerned - 6/27/2008 4:22:57 PM
Hey, AC! LOOK OUT BELOW!!!
7551. concerned - 6/27/2008 4:28:02 PM
Re. 7548 -
I don't think CBS News can do any more sinking. It just moves laterally on the ocean floor.
7552. jexster - 6/30/2008 6:42:10 PM
Tesla Motors Chooses Bay Area to Build Electric Car
and damn I've been seeing more and more Smart Cars about
7553. thoughtful - 7/1/2008 6:43:12 AM
I'm still partial to steam engines, but no one is talking about them...except maybe target="new">BMW as a recapture device.
7554. thoughtful - 7/1/2008 6:44:25 AM
I found this most exciting:
One of the [invention] sessions that [Bill] Gates participated in was on the possibility of resuscitating nuclear energy. “Teller had this idea way back when that you could make a very safe, passive nuclear reactor,” Myhrvold explained. “No moving parts. Proliferation-resistant. Dead simple. Every serious nuclear accident involves operator error, so you want to eliminate the operator altogether. Lowell and Rod and others wrote a paper on it once. So we did several sessions on it.”
The plant, as they conceived it, would produce something like one to three gigawatts of power, which is enough to serve a medium-sized city. The reactor core would be no more than several metres wide and about ten metres long. It would be enclosed in a sealed, armored box. The box would work for thirty years, without need for refuelling. Wood’s idea was that the box would run on thorium, which is a very common, mildly radioactive metal. (The world has roughly a hundred-thousand-year supply, he figures.) Myhrvold’s idea was that it should run on spent fuel from existing power plants. “Waste has negative cost,” Myhrvold said. “This is how we make this idea politically and regulatorily attractive. Lowell and I had a monthlong no-holds-barred nuclear-physics battle. He didn’t believe waste would work. It turns out it does.” Myhrvold grinned. “He concedes it now.”
It was a long-shot idea, easily fifteen years from reality, if it became a reality at all. It was just a tantalizing idea at this point, but who wasn’t interested in seeing where it would lead? “We have thirty guys working on it,” he went on. “I have more people doing cutting-edge nuclear work than General Electric. We’re looking for someone to partner with us, because this is a huge undertaking. We took out an ad in Nuclear News, which is the big trade journal. It looks like something from The Onion: ‘Intellectual Ventures interested in nuclear-core designer and fission specialist.’ And, no, the F.B.I. hasn’t come knocking.” He lowered his voice to a stage whisper. “Lowell is known to them.”
Full article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=1
7555. jexster - 7/2/2008 12:48:56 PM
As I've reported for the past several weeks, I am seeing more and more in my hood (just down the hill from this mash-up)
And to think, just a few short years ago McBush pushed through a 25K tax credit for SUV's
Test drive: The Smart car is revolutionary
A car small enough to alter your relationship with the city
7556. concerned - 7/2/2008 2:31:14 PM
Only 36mpg highway? Not very smart after all.
7557. concerned - 7/2/2008 2:32:06 PM
Looks like it's about to be turned into a pothole patch by one of those SUVs too.
7558. jexster - 7/2/2008 2:56:32 PM
33 city
41 highway
Not sure I'd want to try highway but the guy has a point as anyone who's spent an hour trying to find a parking space around here will attest
7559. jexster - 7/2/2008 5:28:03 PM
Damn. Just walked down to the corner for coffee and there was ANOTHER one of those little Mercedes
Only 14,000..still less MPG than a Prius but more legroom than a MiniCooper - probably the hottest seller, judging from what I see on the streets of San Fran
7560. jexster - 7/2/2008 6:08:38 PM
Oh the IRONY!!!
As GM sinks slowly beneath the waves at Wonkers's Regatta
7561. alistairconnor - 7/3/2008 6:00:14 AM
The "smart" thing has only one useful function : easy to park (often perpendicular to the curb in a too-small space)
Need cars that size, but lighter. And all-electric. Real soon.
7562. robertjayb - 7/3/2008 1:34:37 PM
Should have known the coloreds were up to something...
LUBBOCK -- A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say could keep fireworks going long into the night.
Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body's blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the nation's top producers of the seedless variety.
Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body's enzymes when consumed and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart, and the circulatory and immune systems.
I'm familiar with the vitamin P effect, but not the other.
7563. alistairConnor - 7/3/2008 6:53:59 PM
Hey Con...
Remember our Peak Oil bet? I bet that 2005 or 2006 would see the historic peak of oil production.
These past few months, I was pretty sure I'd lost, that 2007 would beat both. I've been waiting for BP, our agreed reference, to publish their annual survey, so that I could pay out the 66 euros (that's $100 to you).
And guess what...
I haven't lost yet...
Turns out that world oil production was down 0.2% last year.
We'll see about 2008.
Thousand barrels a day
2003 77031
2004 80326
2005 81255
2006 81659
2007 81533
2008...?
7564. alistairConnor - 7/3/2008 7:02:09 PM
And believe it or not... I found a sucker to take the following bet :
I wager that a barrel of oil, in inflation-adjusted terms, will cost less than $140 by July 2013. Just to be clear, that's in U.S. dollars.
As for the Euro, I bet that, by July 2013, one U.S. dollar will buy more than 0.65 of a Euro.
We upped the bet to 500 euros. The sucker's name is Pincher Martin.
7565. jexster - 7/3/2008 7:04:20 PM
By 2013, we'll either all be dead or bowing 5 times a day to Mecca
7566. alistairConnor - 7/3/2008 7:12:15 PM
Well, I'll take dirhams too.
7567. concerned - 7/3/2008 9:53:53 PM
rejexst -
Want to bet on that?
7568. concerned - 7/3/2008 10:00:12 PM
Re. 7563 -
I have seen a projection that oil production is expected to increase until about 2013.
7569. alistairconnor - 7/4/2008 1:52:41 AM
Con :
And who's the projectionist? I'd they predicted an increase from 2006 to 2007 too.
But, on balance, you're probably right. I'll probably lose the bet this time next year.
Unless there are a couple of sizable hurricanes in the gulf of Mexico.
Or unless the rebels in Nigeria take out a couple of offshore platforms.
Or unless a couple of big oil projects fail to come online on schedule.
In which case, the bet will be pushed back another year.
Or, of course, unless little W and his uncle Dick get that Iran war they want so badly. In that case, 2006 is certain to be the all-time peak. And Bush will have a real legacy.
7570. alistairconnor - 7/4/2008 2:18:56 AM
This is as good a prediction as any.
It's done by adding all known "megaprojects" (major oil developments) to existing production, then discounting the total by a global decline rate of 4.5% per year (the production rates of oil wells start declining almost as soon as they are commissioned). It predicts the peak in about 2015.
But this decline rate is now generally considered rather optimistic. Here's what it looks like if the decline rate is assumed to be 8% :
Peak in 2010.
And in both cases, projects are assumed to come on line at the date and production level advertised by their operators. However, reality is different : in particular, the Caspian fields are not performing as advertised, the biggest of them will be several years late.
It's astonishing how quickly the industry "experts" have changed their tune. In only a few months, the forecasters have abandoned their fantasy projections of oil supply expanding to meet demand for decades to come... Now they are practically parroting the positions of the peak oil crowd.
7571. jexster - 7/5/2008 6:23:52 AM
When the King of Saudi Arabia talks about oil, we should listen
7572. wonkers2 - 7/5/2008 10:59:08 AM
Good info, Alistair. Not encouraging.
7573. jexster - 7/5/2008 3:48:18 PM
7574. jexster - 7/6/2008 12:40:02 PM
From time to time I go living in the past with my old friend Laura, now with Chevron.
Invariably, we meet at "we told you so thirty years ago"
And so Jimmy Carter did
There's nothing being debated today that we didn't thrash out 3 decades ago
American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot
7575. thoughtful - 7/7/2008 11:29:36 AM
Who was it who said, the only thing new in this world is the history you don't know...
7576. concerned - 7/7/2008 2:38:45 PM
Re. 7574 -
President Peanut Brain was claiming peak oil before 1990.
He is an idiot.
7577. concerned - 7/7/2008 3:01:04 PM
Re. 7574 -
And what were you 'telling us' about nuclear power 30 years ago?
Oh, yeah. That's a big reason why we're in such an energy bind now.
7578. concerned - 7/7/2008 3:06:02 PM
The Left Wing way: Claim that there's a problem, block the best solutions for as long as possible, then try to put us on a guilt trip about their caving at the last second.
7579. jexster - 7/8/2008 6:41:54 PM
The Pickens Plan
7580. jexster - 7/12/2008 10:35:03 AM
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday he wants to wake up consciences on climate change during his pilgrimage in Australia.
Concerned's immortal soul is in peril
7581. concerned - 7/16/2008 10:08:02 PM
New Research Suggests that First Humans to Settle Americas were Eee-vile White Men From Europe
So, can I have my own casino?
7582. jexster - 7/17/2008 10:11:22 AM
Gore sets energy goal for next president to heed
Gore wants US to produce all power through Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years
7583. jexster - 7/18/2008 8:53:49 AM
California First State with Green Building Standards
7584. jexster - 7/18/2008 2:01:28 PM
The Greening of America
T. Boone Heads to Capitol Hill to Meet with Democrats
7585. robertjayb - 7/18/2008 7:56:22 PM
Yeah! Judge stays wolf slaughter...
BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent.
The region has an estimated 2,000 gray wolves. They were removed from the endangered species list in March, following a decade-long restoration effort.
Environmentalists sued to overturn the decision, arguing wolf numbers would plummet if hunting were allowed. They sought the injunction in the hopes of stopping the hunts and allowing the wolf population to continue expanding.
There were fall hunts scheduled that would call for perhaps as many as 500 wolves to be killed.
7586. wonkers2 - 7/19/2008 7:42:55 AM
Joe Nocera "Costly Toys or New Era for Drivers?" The latest on vehicle fuel efficiency technology.
7587. jexster - 7/22/2008 9:11:49 AM
I never knew this though it isn't surprising. If Calfornia were a country it would be the world's second largest consumer of gasoline.
Guess that says it all about why the State's decided to lead the Greening of America
7588. jexster - 7/22/2008 1:32:39 PM
Peak Oil - LAT
Why the Oil Crunch May Grow Worse
Bush shoulda listened to T. Boone
7589. thoughtful - 7/22/2008 3:05:26 PM
complete article
When it comes to global warming, extreme scare stories abound. Al Gore, for example, famously claimed that a whopping six meters (20 feet) of sea-level rise would flood major cities around the world.
Gore’s scientific advisor, Jim Hansen from NASA, has even topped his protégé. Hansen suggests that there will eventually be sea-level rises of 24 meters (80 feet), with a six-meter rise happening just this century. Little wonder that fellow environmentalist Bill McKibben states that “we are engaging in a reckless drive-by drowning of much of the rest of the planet and much of the rest of creation.”
Given all the warnings, here is a slightly inconvenient truth: over the past two years, the global sea level hasn’t increased. It has slightly decreased . Since 1992, satellites orbiting the planet have measured the global sea level every 10 days with an amazing degree of accuracy – 3-4 millimeters (0.2 inches). For two years, sea levels have declined. (All of the data are available at sealevel.colorado.edu.)...
Consider one of the most significant steps taken to respond to climate change. Adopted because of the climate panic, bio-fuels were supposed to reduce CO2 emissions. Hansen described them as part of a “brighter future for the planet.” But using bio-fuels to combat climate change must rate as one of the poorest global “solutions” to any great challenge in recent times.
Bio-fuels essentially take food from mouths and puts it into cars. The grain required to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol is enough to feed one African for a year. Thirty percent of this year’s corn production in the United States will be burned up on America’s highways. This has been possible only through subsidies that globally will total $15 billion this year alone.
Because increased demand for bio-fuels leads to cutting down carbon-rich forests, a 2008 Science study showed that the net effect of using them is not to cut CO2 emissions, but to double them. The rush towards bio-fuels has also strongly contributed to rising food prices, which have tipped another roughly 30 million people into starvation.
Because of climate panic, our attempts to mitigate climate change have provoked an unmitigated disaster. We will waste hundreds of billions of dollars, worsen global warming, and dramatically increase starvation.
7590. alistairconnor - 7/23/2008 5:57:37 AM
More spin and half-lies from Lomborg.
Biofuels (in Europe and the USA) are an unmitigated disaster. It's only in recent months that this has become obvious to nearly everyone. Hansen has been in favour of biofuels in the past? Not surprising (it would be surprising if he is now!) but anyway it's not his subject : his ideas on biofuels are about as interesting and credible as ... let's see ... Lomborg's on climate science.
In any case, the idea that the fad for biofuels is aimed at fighting climate change is pretty silly. It's driven by the price of oil.
7591. iiibbb - 7/23/2008 11:57:02 AM
Any earth-friendly energy must first and foremost compete economically with oil.
The problem with biofuels right now is that the technology is still developing, and the infrastructure to support it is not in place. Certain biofuels (i.e. the ones that rely on food crops) are obviously flawed. Other biofuels (i.e. cellulosic ethanol) still may work out, but the technology isn't mature.
There's still a chance for fusion via polywells... but that is a fledgling technology. Robert Bussard claims that all of the fundamental physics issues were solved and that only engineering hurdles remain... but he says there is strong political forces preventing it's adoption. I am of the belief that if the solution is really that close, then someone would take it on because there's simply too much money to be made sitting on that kind of breakthrough. I don't care who you are... that aspect of the free-market does work.
7592. arkymalarky - 7/23/2008 1:03:18 PM
What are the pro and con issues with hydrogen? I keep seeing Honda's hydrogen car commercial, and I know there are a few on the road.
I thought about buying a hybrid when I bought my car, but mine gets almost 40mpg and it was several thousand dollars cheaper. I couldn't see the advantage. But I'm figuring by the time I get around to buying another one there's no telling what non-gas options there'll be.
Our house would be a great place for solar energy and for a geothermal system, but the front-end costs are beyond our means. I keep thinking one of these days they will get within our reach, and if they do we'll hardly use any electricity at all. We're hoping to change out our CH/A systems to geothermal when we pay the house off in another seven or eight years.
7593. thoughtful - 7/23/2008 1:29:39 PM
Hydrogen is largely derived from petroleum products.
If you can afford to refinance and can throw in the cost of panels or geothermal into the mortgage, the cash flow can actually be positive. By that I mean that the monthly outlay without solar on your electric bill may be greater than the additional monthly outlay on your mortgage would be with the solar added.
But all of that depends on the solar generating capacity of your location, the state subsidies, etc etc. But it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask the question.
7594. iiibbb - 7/23/2008 2:57:18 PM
Hydrogen is a great energy delivery system, but you still have to generate it using electricity (where do you get the electricity), and there are obvious storage issues (which I think have been resolved to a large degree).
Basically hydrogen is something you compare to batteries in electric cars. Hydrogen has obvious benefits over batteries from a industrial waste standpoint.
The only country that's adopted hydrogen is Iceland, but they have abundant geothermal.
7595. arkymalarky - 7/23/2008 3:42:30 PM
We looked into it when we built, and it was far higher than what we would have saved on our electric bill. As it is, our electric bill is about 150-200 a month. But I haven't looked into anything since then, which was about twelve years ago.
We have a 100X30' metal barn whose roof is totally exposed to sunlight. That's where we'd have panels.
7596. arkymalarky - 7/23/2008 3:44:44 PM
Plus my mortgage is below 5%, and I'd like to see interest rates go back down if I refinanced the house.
7597. thoughtful - 7/24/2008 6:45:40 AM
I suspect the costs of panels have dropped since then. Also, if you can find anyone issuing them you may try a heloc (home equity line of credit). We just got one to help pay for the new house and surprisingly the bank was not only willing to give it to us, but they waived the maintenance fee the first year and gave us a $100 gift certificate to the local grocery store! Who knows, next they might even give away toasters!
The other alternative you might look into is solar thermal panels to heat your hot water. It won't pay for us, but it does make sense for quite a few people.
7598. alistairconnor - 7/24/2008 7:23:02 AM
iii : my opinion is that all the biofuels and similar (e.g. wood to ethanol) are, at best, barking up the wrong tree - they are about substituting petroleum to fuel internal combustion engines. ICEs were only ever a good idea because petroleum was extraordinarily cheap. Fuel cells or batteries are far, far more efficient.
In particular, cellulosic ethanol (for which, despite all sorts of claims from start-ups, there is no proven economic process) comes with the same huge handicap that all ethanol systems have : no matter how clever your enzymes or whatever, you end up with an alcohol/water solution that you need to distill. That is very energy-intensive, and basically kills the whole deal from the point of view of energy returned on energy invested. The best those people can do is to use cheap fossil energy (e.g. gas or coal) to produce transport fuel (alcohol), with little or no net energy gain.
Far better to use the feedstock (wood waste, grass, whatever) for heating : turn it into pellets, and replace your fuel oil burner (like I did).
7599. iiibbb - 7/24/2008 8:06:20 AM
Energy problems will have to be solved using multi-faceted approach. Biofuels are superior environmentally to fossil fuels because at least the carbon was recently sequestered.
Until we can quit getting the majority of our energy from oxidizing carbon biofuels are worth pursuing. Not all biofuels are created equal because the energy needed for production is a consideration. Wood is better because the energy density is higher, and the energy required for production is lower, than agricultural crops. Additionally, trees can be harvested year-round as opposed to perennial crops.
Personally, I think our near-term energy needs are best answered by nuclear. However, perhaps I had misconceptions about solar. I had a friend who was an engineer in energy years ago and he was not too keen on solar. Lately I keep hearing reports that it is feasible in places. A friend of mine built a house that is off the grid and she gets most of her power from solar, but they had to build a custom house and make a lot of sacrifices to make it work for them. They certainly don't have a surplus that they could charge a car with. Incidentally they use biodiesel in their vehicles.
7600. iiibbb - 7/24/2008 8:11:00 AM
The limitation for burning biofuels for energy is usually transportation distances. Biomass just isn't dense. Unless you could make pellets on-site. There are studies out there that have portable power plants... so it may work out.
Basically it's all about infrastructure. Which technology is most easily adopted or adapted. That's why I think nuclear will win for the next 50-100 years... however I only see it as something we use to transition to truly sustainable energy.
7601. thoughtful - 7/24/2008 8:42:42 AM
Solar pays at this point due to the subsidies. Without it, it is still cost prohibitive. Though there are some applications that continue to make sense. A buddy at work owns lots of land in the adirondacks and is nowhere near any grid so solar w/batteries is how he powers his cabin.
Under normal circumstances, though, you shouldn't have to make a lot of sacrifices to get the benefits from solar...unless you want to go totally off grid. Our area allows net metering so when we produce more than we need, our meter will spin backward. Also, if we go to time of day metering, we should make out even better as we'll be producing power during the peak usage time when rates are higher and using power during the off peak hours when rates are lower. Not bad.
Also, our house will have no 'sacrifices'...at least not from our pov. It will be smaller than the average 5000 to 8000 sq ft mcmansions they build in our area, but we don't consider that a sacrifice at all. We want a smaller home...less to heat, less to clean, less to insure, less to tax....
The only sacrifice we are making is the home is expensive to build...geothermal, solar, icynene, low-e windows, tankless hot water heaters all cost more than standard alternatives. And we are adding a lot of custom features to the house that costs $$$. But from the look and feel of the place, other than the solar panels on the roof, the house will look and feel and operate like a normal house. Except it won't have an oil tank and it won't have outside air compressors for central air.
7602. arkymalarky - 7/24/2008 9:22:04 AM
Unfortunately I already have a home equity loan, so that's out until the house is paid for. Which isn't too long, since our utilities aren't very high now. I also want to replace our hot water heaters with tankless ones. That we can do now.
I don't get the appeal of big houses. Ours is 2000sq ft and is way more than enough for two people. If I'm ever alone I want something tiny.
7603. iiibbb - 7/24/2008 10:06:04 AM
We live in an 1800ft home. It's a little cramped from a storage front. If it had a basement it'd be perfect. I also need a shop so I can get out of the garage. That would need climate control, but I probably wouldn't keep it anywhere near what is home-comfortable.
7604. jexster - 7/24/2008 3:13:48 PM
I think Concerned wins the Climate Change argument
Arctic has enough oil to power USA for twelve years
I'm a faggot and I'll be dead by the time that reservoir's depleted and another discovered at the South pole
Why should I give a fuck about AC's grandkids, polar bears and fucking baby seals????
7605. jexster - 7/24/2008 3:14:33 PM
7606. jexster - 7/27/2008 9:46:33 AM
The Indian "Volkswage" $2500 Nano
7607. jexster - 7/27/2008 11:25:49 AM
Your windfall profit dollars at work
Play EnergyVille - an Interactive Game brought to you as a public service by Chevron
7608. concerned - 7/28/2008 9:26:07 AM
Hydrogen is a great energy delivery system, but you still have to generate it using electricity (where do you get the electricity)
The short answer to that is 'nuclear power'.
7609. concerned - 7/28/2008 11:27:32 AM
Number of gas and oil wells in Lake Erie: 480.
Number of gas and oil wells on US side of Lake Erie: 0.
7610. concerned - 7/28/2008 11:34:21 AM
Re. 7590 -
AD -
I know you don't like Lomborg's take on climate science, but is there anything you actually disagree with him about, factually?
7611. thoughtful - 7/28/2008 11:39:09 AM
w or w/out nuclear power, electricity generation is far more efficient than internal combustion engines so even with using current technologies, we're better off with electric cars.
7612. concerned - 7/28/2008 11:51:53 AM
Number of gas and oil wells in Lake Erie: 480.
Number of gas and oil wells on US side of Lake Erie: 0.
This is nothing to feel righteous about.
7613. jexster - 7/28/2008 12:42:27 PM
Tata Nano Sets the Auto Standard
Macaca Mobile Debuts to Rave Reviews
7614. concerned - 7/28/2008 1:35:16 PM
Makes good pothole filler when hit by another vehicle, too.
7615. concerned - 7/28/2008 1:42:19 PM
Acceleration: 0 - 43mph: 14 seconds
Top Speed: 65mph
7616. alistairConnor - 7/28/2008 2:22:48 PM
Sounds fine to me. If they start selling these little suckers in Yurrup, they'll sink four or five auto makers... who have been conspiring to keep the price of an entry-level car up to 8000 euros or so.
7617. jexster - 7/31/2008 11:23:52 AM
7618. jexster - 8/1/2008 7:33:31 AM
Major Discovery at MIT Promises to Unleash Solar Power Revolution
7619. wonkers2 - 8/1/2008 8:38:11 AM
Wow! I hope that one works out. It could save us from self-immolation.
7620. concerned - 8/1/2008 11:01:25 AM
I've already read about this. Interesting that there's no mention that it exceeds the maximum 50% efficiency of electrolysis, which suggests, given the general adulatory tone of this puff piece, that it doesn't. That's a lot of wasted energy.
7621. concerned - 8/1/2008 11:02:22 AM
It could save us from self-immolation.
Care to explain your reasoning?
7622. jexster - 8/1/2008 3:33:03 PM
Under the Bonnet - Continental GT Speed
This puppy will melt some polar ice TD!
6L V12 
The sooner we do Greenland the faster we can get to all that Arctic oil
7623. jexster - 8/1/2008 3:36:32 PM
7620...read the article for yourselves
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that "this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
7624. jexster - 8/1/2008 3:38:57 PM
Unless McExxon's elected and Exxon gets another 1.2 billion in tax cuts to fund their Propaganda for Climate Change Deniers Foundation
7625. concerned - 8/1/2008 8:51:19 PM
According to every realistic projection, nobody has to worry about Greenland for the next 500 years, if ever.
7626. concerned - 8/1/2008 8:52:11 PM
Re. 7606 -
Buy two of them, rejexst. Then you'd have a pair of something. Tatas.
7627. alistairConnor - 8/2/2008 3:03:12 AM
Nobody has successfully modeled the Greenland icecap yet, Con. That's why it was left out of the IPCC models, not because it's not melting, but because nobody has a handle on the rate and mechanisms. Give it five years, and it will be better understood.
7628. thoughtful - 8/3/2008 7:57:59 AM
#7618...Man I hope it isn't cold fusion all over again.
Seems like every time we have a run up in oil prices we have the wackos coming out of the woodwork telling us how we can improve our gas mileage by adding water to the tank, or adding a device to our air cleaner etc etc....and we have someone with scientific blush coming up with the greatest new breakthrough in energy since the discovery of fire.
7629. iiibbb - 8/3/2008 10:19:42 AM
Indeed I hope it works.
The polywell stuff is intriguing as well, but I think that's got some problems.
I'm very hopeful we can eliminate carbon as our main energy source.
7630. alistairConnor - 8/3/2008 12:57:56 PM
The problem is, the carbon (oil and coal) is so very very cheap and easy. Even when it's "expensive". I hope I can have a hydrogen fuel cell one day, to hook up to my PV panels. But it's not just the engineering, it's the cost. Will it ever be cheaper than fossil carbon? Only when fossil carbon becomes really rare, I suspect.
7631. wonkers2 - 8/3/2008 8:03:10 PM
Those "wackos" are M.I.T. professors. Of course that doesn't mean it will work outside the laboratory in the real world.
7632. iiibbb - 8/4/2008 8:15:05 AM
MIT PostDoc...
If it works, I'm sure he'll be a professor soon enough.
7633. thoughtful - 8/4/2008 8:54:35 AM
And stanley pons of cold fusion fame was chair of the Univ of Utah Chemistry dept.
Pedigree does not ensure success.
"Harvard University's Judah Folkman electrified cancer researchers 5 years ago when he and his colleagues reported on a new compound that could shrink tumors in mice virtually to nothing by cutting off the blood supply to tumors, rather than by poisoning patients with toxic drugs. Now, as clinical trials of the widely heralded cancer treatment endostatin are about to be expanded, two groups report that they couldn't get it to work."
7634. iiibbb - 8/4/2008 9:24:33 AM
"There is no such thing as a free lunch"
Something my undergraduate adviser would repeat over and over and over.
But I don't think that Solar's problem is that it's more expensive than Carbon. The problem that it's start-up cost is so high. If I were in a place I thought I'd be living for the rest of my life I'd definitely spring for it. But I just can't afford it as a short term expense.
7635. concerned - 8/4/2008 5:28:38 PM
Re. 7627 -
I have to call 'bullshit' on that, AC.
Of course Greenland has been modeled. And the models say there's a snowball's chance in hell that the mile and a half thick Greenland ice cap will substantially reduce within a millennium regardless of what humans do. Any shorter time frame than a thousand years would require the climate in Greenland to rival that of the tropics. And not even the looniest whackjobs will go that far.
Actually, the last I heard, Greenland is accreting ice.
7636. concerned - 8/4/2008 5:31:35 PM
Try not to lose track of the fact, too, that the continental glaciation in NA took over five thousand years to melt even with temperature forcing greater than what is predicted for Greenland.
7637. concerned - 8/4/2008 8:38:17 PM
Let's compare: Over 5,000 years to melt the Wisconsin glaciation when presented with largely continental temperate conditions, and along come some LWingnuts who say Greenland will be completely melted in a hundredth the time while exposed to an arctic regime?
I have to call bullshit on this because I have a fuckin' brain that works.
Sorry, AC.
About your brain, that is.
7638. jexster - 8/6/2008 6:33:08 PM
Top scientist warns of 4c rise in global temperature
How inconvenient!
7639. concerned - 8/6/2008 7:58:40 PM
That's nothing.
I'm warning of a 10C rise in global temperature...
...sometime in the next 4 billion years.
7641. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/11/2008 1:24:45 PM
This is amazing computer animation . . .
7642. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/11/2008 1:25:45 PM
This is amazing computer animation . . .
7643. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/11/2008 1:26:10 PM
????
7644. jexster - 8/14/2008 6:57:03 PM
Huge New Solar Power Plants Planned for Cahleeefohnia
7645. jexster - 8/14/2008 8:08:22 PM
PG&E Aims for 24% Solar by 2013
7646. arkymalarky - 8/14/2008 10:01:12 PM
I deleted #7640. Something about it was evidently keeping subsequent ones from showing up.
Did you even notice, Jex? What kinda autopilot you got there?
7647. jexster - 8/16/2008 6:46:35 PM
Windpower - Environmental Eyesore?
Worse than oil rigs off Santa Barbara
7648. jexster - 8/16/2008 6:47:45 PM
Yea I noticed that. Nothing I could do about Wizzers viral bomb.
7649. jexster - 8/16/2008 6:48:48 PM
What do you suggest Arky. Maybe I could post a few hidden requests that someone clean it up!
7650. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/17/2008 10:07:12 PM
7651. alistairconnor - 8/18/2008 3:24:46 AM
Jex - that windpower article is a scream.
My favourite bit :
(The companies have changed names and ownership several times and the Maple Ridge Wind project is now jointly owned by PPM Energy of Portland, Ore., which is part of the Spanish company Iberdrola SA, and Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC, which is owned by the Portuguese conglomerate Energias de Portugal.)
7652. thoughtful - 8/20/2008 6:31:29 AM
Once i mention to people about our green house, I find i learn all kinds of things. Yesterday a guy started talking to me about cogeneration for residential use...apparently it's big in Europe...no surprise with their high energy costs...but it's not common here. Might be a good solution for those who can't retrofit to geothermal.
See here or here
I also learned that there is a more efficient geothermal system available where, instead of circulating fluid, they use gas so pumps to move the fluid are not required. Apparently it's a newer technology and good for smaller applications, but not larger ones.
7653. alistairConnor - 8/20/2008 2:31:58 PM
hum yes, but they burn gas.
I finally billed the electricity company the other day for the first time, for my PV generation!
The system has actually been generating for nearly 6 years now, but I didn't like the look of the contract they were proposing in those days : they only offered to buy surplus production (i.e. net metering) not total production, and the kwh price was pretty mediocre, about 15 cents. So for five years, I was giving it away.
But about a year and a half ago, they re-jigged the contracts : this was actually a consequence of EU integration and the end of the national electricity monopolies. I could have sold my green electricity to a German company for a much better price; so of course, EDF upped their offer. I signed on for 20 years at 55 cents a kwh, selling all my production. So giving it away was actually a smart move, because now I can pay back the investment in 4 or 5 years, instead of 12 or 15 if I had signed up for 20 years at the old rate.
When I looked at the meter last week to bill them, I was bitterly disappointed : it only showed 1700 kwh generated since last August, I was expecting nearly double that. It's taken me a week to work out what the problem is... (I feared for a while that the panels were prematurely ageing. They're alleged to lose about 1% a year.)
... in fact, when EDF installed their meter to buy my power, they didn't cut the link that feeds directly from my inverter to my switchboard. i.e. I'm consuming some of my solar electricity directly, instead of sending it into the grid (then buying it back once I've sold it...)
So this weekend I will fix that... and next year's bill should be a much fatter affair.
7654. alistairConnor - 8/20/2008 2:32:51 PM
For the co-generation thing, I'll wait for these revolutionary fuel cells mentioned up thread a bit.
7655. thoughtful - 8/20/2008 2:59:13 PM
AC, call me dense but I don't understand how you're better off selling it all to them rather than using some yourself...do they charge you less to use it than you receive when you generate it?
In our area, net metering is the only way to go as if you overproduce, the utility will only pay you wholesale prices for the amount you give them while charging higher retail prices for the amount you use. Therefore it makes sense to undersize rather than become a net power generator.
7656. anomie - 8/20/2008 8:31:40 PM
I was using Google maps today and noticed they expanded their "street views". My house is clearly photographed from several angles. I looked up some known addresses and found clear photos of those houses. It's all very strange, and I don't really see the point of photographing noncommercial areas.
7657. alistairConnor - 8/21/2008 1:19:04 AM
In Yurrup, my dear, they pay above-market rates for solar, to encourage generation. (The Germans did it first, obliging the others to follow suit.) So, yeah, when I consume during the daytime, I am actually buying back my own power at a cheaper rate. ("Will be"! I have to modify the wiring first!!)
The French method of encouraging solar was, typically, bureaucratic : I actually got more than half my investment back through subsidies. Now I get the German price too. So I'm double dipping. Not bad for what was originally a quixotic gesture.
7658. thoughtful - 8/21/2008 6:26:55 AM
Ahh so. You crazy Europeans!
:)
7659. jexster - 8/28/2008 12:27:07 PM
I just saw what looks like a sensibly green car for the City...parked just around the corner...great for parking space war
The Lotus Elise 
7660. jexster - 8/28/2008 12:29:48 PM
Only 46K! 55 "nicely equipped"
7661. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/29/2008 11:43:03 AM
Liquid graphics technology . . .
7662. jexster - 8/30/2008 5:32:30 PM
Lotus EliseSC - The Green Roadcar
7663. concerned - 9/4/2008 4:45:12 PM
Experts offer scaled-back sea level rise forecast
"If you look at the actual mechanics of how glaciers work, there doesn't seem to be a realistic way that we know about to get more than about 2 meters of sea level rise in the next century," Tad Pfeffer of the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, whose study was published in the journal Science, said in a telephone interview.
Well, isn't this special? In 1980, the nutjobs were saying that the Antarctic ice cap would be totally melted by 2030. Just a couple years ago Al Gore promised 20 feet by 2100AD (Good thing I didn't waste my time or money on his garbage movie). And now....
I predict that I will ultimately be proved right with my 6-9" forecast that I've been making for the last 20 years.
Btw, AC, peak oil is being projected for some time after 2015 AD now. How ya wanna pay up?
7664. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/8/2008 6:34:06 PM
Oil spills are never worth risking the loss of "Underwater Astonishments" . . .
7665. wabbit - 9/8/2008 6:46:18 PM
Gotta love the squids and octopuses. Or are they Octopi? Either way, lots of interesting stuff at the TED conference, for those who might be interested.
7666. jexster - 9/10/2008 8:40:43 AM
What Is Woodward's 'Secret Weapon' in Iraq?
7667. alistairconnor - 9/10/2008 8:54:26 AM
Btw, AC, peak oil is being projected for some time after 2015 AD now. How ya wanna pay up?
Got a link with that?
My guess is that the people who are predicting "some time after 2015" are the same ones who were predicting "in thirty years or so", a year ago.
7668. alistairconnor - 9/10/2008 9:01:18 AM
I want to get my daughter one of these 
an electric Solex.
Most of you have never heard of the original (a motorized bicycle from medieval France). Mago, on the other hand, probably remembers how to have sex on a Solex. In motion.
(Not that I would want her to give my daughter any ideas)
7669. jexster - 9/10/2008 9:35:10 AM
I bet the French teach toddlers about the Joys of Sex
Fucking animals
7670. alistairconnor - 9/10/2008 9:39:41 AM
Experts offer scaled-back sea level rise forecast
What's astonishing is that the media have got this backwards. The IPCC report predicted 18 to 59 centimeters by 2100. These people from the University of Colorado predict between 80 and 200 centimeters, i.e. roughly four times as much.
This study is the highest informed estimate ever published, and sets Con up to lose his bet.
7671. magoseph - 9/10/2008 9:41:27 AM
I remember the Vespa, this one: 
I never did any fooling in France--now here, that's another story.
7672. thoughtful - 9/12/2008 9:49:13 AM
AC we call them mopeds here and my cousin had one...was riding along when the front wheel got stuck in a grate on the side of the road and he went right over the top...suffered brain damage. Be sure she wears a brain bucket (helmet).
7673. goodwinejoe - 10/18/2008 8:13:53 PM
Perhaps she would like one of these instead. No helmet necessary!
Mini
7674. alistairConnor - 10/19/2008 5:49:59 PM
Well I'm sure she would Joe!
She just needs to find herself a rich daddy.
(But not just yet. She's only fifteen.)
7675. anomie - 10/19/2008 6:11:47 PM
Those mopeds and electric bikes are great, but dangerous here. If I were king I'd mandate bike and scooter lanes (protected) be built along along all streets, roads, highways, thoroughfares, and bridges.
In the US you'd need at least a 150cc to keep up with traffic. Otherwise you're roadkill.
7676. thoughtful - 10/20/2008 7:56:26 AM
Thanks Joe, very cute!
7677. concerned - 10/20/2008 12:26:43 PM
Lorne Gunter: Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof
7678. goodwinejoe - 10/21/2008 9:47:58 PM
Click on play upper left to hear Michael Oppenheimer
I think I will go with Michael Oppenheimer, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change and professor at Princeton over Lorne Gunter right wing blogger.
7679. wonkers2 - 10/21/2008 10:15:04 PM
Me, too! Are you by any chance a plumber?
7680. concerned - 10/23/2008 12:17:46 AM
Lorne Gunter: Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof
Ooops!!!!!
There goes the justification for the existence of all the global warming chicken little nazi bastards!
7681. wonkers2 - 10/23/2008 10:45:39 AM
7682. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/23/2008 10:56:06 AM
Good laugh!
7683. jexster - 10/24/2008 9:22:12 PM
In First Policy Speech, Piglin Blasts French Fruit Fly Research
Concerned must be the sorry sack of Moose Shit's science adviser
7684. wabbit - 11/4/2008 8:08:28 PM
While the election rolls on, one decision has been made:
Over the objections of the nation’s television broadcasters and other groups, Federal regulators on Tuesday set aside a disputed slice of radio spectrum for public use, hoping it will lead to low-cost, high-speed Internet access and new wireless devices.
The Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 to approve the public use of the unlicensed frequencies, known as white spaces.
A coalition of powerful groups, including broadcasters, Broadway theater producers and sports franchises, hoped to derail or delay the decision. They have argued that their own transmissions — whether of television signals or from wireless microphones used in live music performances — could face interference from new devices that use the white spaces…
…In a blog post, Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and president of products, said he believed engineers and entrepreneurs would be quick to build devices to take advantage of the white spaces.
“We think that this spectrum will help put better and faster Internet connections in the hands of the public,” he wrote.
7685. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/4/2008 8:17:55 PM
This planet!
7686. wabbit - 11/4/2008 9:04:00 PM
LOL!
7687. jexster - 11/8/2008 8:23:43 PM
CA TGV
Transbay Terminal SF
7688. jexster - 11/14/2008 10:38:35 AM
More proof recently that Concerned is right and AC wrong about global warming. Thanks to fossil fuel related brown clouds the earth is actually cooler than it might otherwise be
So fill er up with some of that 60 bbl oil and enjoy life again
7689. jexster - 11/14/2008 6:21:15 PM
Is this some kind of sick joke?
No ..it is the interior of HonkerMotors Comeback car..the 2010 Camaro
Another 50 billion?
Bargain at twice the price
7690. jexster - 11/21/2008 1:03:59 PM
Plugged Into The Future 
Oakland Mayor Dellums (left), S.F. Mayor Newsom (right) and San Jose Mayor Reed announced a $1 billion plan to create a network of electric-car charging stations in homes, businesses, public buildings and even streetlights by 2012.
7691. alistairconnor - 11/21/2008 5:30:10 PM
oh ah so SF got jewed too?
These Better Place people impress me. It had better work.
7692. jexster - 11/21/2008 6:10:31 PM
mmmm...hadn't thought of that..better percolate on it a bit
7693. jexster - 11/21/2008 6:11:55 PM
OTOH while the rest of the planet is being rung out in a credit squeeze...The Bay Area and the Land Down Under should do just fine merci beaucoup
7694. jexster - 11/21/2008 7:40:08 PM
Newsom: Recharge America With Electric Cars
7695. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/22/2008 1:11:16 PM
7696. magoseph - 12/11/2008 7:51:03 AM
Forty years ago, geeks: stanford.edu
Notable moments in mouse history
1963: Bill English constructs first mouse prototype based on Douglas Engelbart’s sketches. This mouse uses two perpendicular wheels attached to analog potentiometers to track movement. The first mouse has only one button, but more are to come.
1968: Douglas Engelbart gives a 90-minute demonstration on December 9 at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. Among other things, it showcases a refined SRI mouse with three buttons.
THE DEMO
On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. The public presentation was a session of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface.
7697. alistairconnor - 12/11/2008 8:28:28 AM
Mago :
I have a friend in NZ who was (according to her) babysitted in California by "the guy who invented the mouse".
7698. alistairconnor - 12/11/2008 8:35:01 AM
Steven Chu, Obama's excellent choice for Energy Secretary :
(cribbed from a blog, I agree)
Nuclear has to be a necessary part of the portfolio," Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, said during the annual economic summit organized by Stanford University.
"The fear of radiation shouldn't even enter into this, he said. "Coal is very, very bad."
A very good choice
Chu was also involved with biofuels: Researchers such as Caltech's Simon have been analyzing microbes extracted from the termite's digestive system, looking for the enzymes that enable the bugs to turn wood cellulose into sugars.
... Chu is peak oil aware :
3 megabyte powerpoint from 2005
slide 15 and 16 show peak oil. "world production predicted to peak in 10-40 years" from 2004 when the stats referred to in the slide
"energy conservation can lengthen time by a factor of about 2 but the fundamental problem remains"
In 2007, 2008. Helios project replacing oil with solar and advanced biofuels
Steven Chu signed (Aug 2008) a nuclear energy position document along with the other directors of the national labs. The position was : A coherent long term nuclear power strategy is needed and nuclear power is a major and essential part of solving our energy problems.
-maximize current reactors (plant life extensions, uprate)
-deploy advanced light water reactors
-license Yucca mountain and research advanced fuel management
-aggressive R&D on advanced reactors
7699. magoseph - 12/11/2008 9:43:03 AM
Ali,that's exciting about your friend. I spent much time this morning reading about Chu after I read his autobiography here:
From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1997, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1998. This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Excerpt: In 1950, we settled in Garden City, New York, a bedroom community within commuting distance of Brooklyn Polytechnic. There were only two other Chinese families in this town of 25,000, but to our parents, the determining factor was the quality of the public school system. Education in my family was not merely emphasized, it was our raison d'être. Virtually all of our aunts and uncles had Ph.D.'s in science or engineering, and it was taken for granted that the next generation of Chu's were to follow the family tradition. When the dust had settled, my two brothers and four cousins collected three MDs, four Ph.D.s and a law degree. I could manage only a single advanced degree.
In this family of accomplished scholars, I was to become the academic black sheep. I performed adequately at school, but in comparison to my older brother, who set the record for the highest cumulative average for our high school, my performance was decidedly mediocre. I studied, but not in a particularly efficient manner. Occasionally, I would focus on a particular school project and become obsessed with, what seemed to my mother, to be trivial details instead of apportioning the time I spent on school work in a more efficient way.
The paragraphs that follow this excerpt concerning his teachers and professors are particularly interesting to me.
7700. magoseph - 12/11/2008 9:46:38 AM
The first two sentences and the last one are mine, thanks to our expert, Ali, our chief geek.
7701. thoughtful - 12/13/2008 10:40:59 AM
So we met with yet another a/v person last night to discuss the audio video home security situation for our new house and are extremely unhappy.
He started out like the first guy offering us a great system for "only" $40,000 +
He's nuts
So I explained what I'm looking for and got it down to probably in the realm of $15-20k, but that still seems excessive.
I'm thinking of trashing the whole idea...getting just a security system and then having the electrician pull the CATV wires where we want them and leave it at that...individually we can handle the surround sound and go wireless in the house and be done with it.
My extreme frustration is that somehow, with all this electronic wizardry, getting a system that is smart, simple, and easy to install/operate and inexpensive by this the 21st century should be a done deal. Instead it seems it's only gotten more expensive, more complicated, and further from end-user friendliness than ever!
Garrrr!
7702. wonkers2 - 12/13/2008 11:12:56 AM
Our security system consists of secure locks on the doors and motion detector-actuated outside lights. Also we use timers to turn several inside lights on when we aren't home. We live in a low-crime suburb. Total cost under $50.
7703. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/15/2008 10:00:22 PM
Assault on Science: Hall of Fame
7704. wonkers2 - 12/15/2008 11:40:11 PM
Thanks, Wiz. I was surprised to see that Ben Stein won an "assault on science" award. I wasn't aware of that side of him. He doesn't go into intelligent design in his NYT columns.
7705. wabbit - 1/24/2009 12:50:52 PM
The Impossible Project
I don't know if these folks will ever make a profit, or break even for that matter, but I wish them well. It was fun to play with the emulsions.
7706. alistairconnor - 1/26/2009 12:37:34 PM
There is also the world's last VHS tape factory which has just closed down, in southwestern France, if anyone wants to buy that...
Probably doesn't have the same sentimental value.
7707. iiibbb - 2/2/2009 4:26:02 PM
Protein synthesis as interpreted by people on something.
7708. arkymalarky - 2/2/2009 9:14:37 PM
Just saw Thoughtful's post. We have a gun and dogs, but we have a good friend who does video cameras for cheap. Motion lights would be hard out here. All of which reminds me, I hate those Brinks fear-mongering commercials.
7709. iiibbb - 2/2/2009 11:25:50 PM
Not just because of the fear-mongering... I just start thinking "stab stab stab stab stab". How's Brink's gonna stop that?
7710. robertjayb - 2/14/2009 8:45:34 PM
Thought I was feeling a bit warm...(Reuters)
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The climate is heating up far faster than scientists had predicted, spurred by sharp increases in greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries like China and India, a top climate scientist said on Saturday.
"The consequence of that is we are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we've considered seriously," Chris Field, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.
Field said "the actual trajectory of climate change is more serious" than any of the climate predictions in the IPCC's fourth assessment report called "Climate Change 2007."
Come back, Al Gore. All is forgiven...
7711. alistairconnor - 2/17/2009 4:39:14 AM
Well, I was just thinking that a really deep recession, with a precipitous decline in manufacturing in China and India, might give us a bit of a climate reprieve. (you do realize, Robt, that the current "cold snap" is all about La Niña plus sunspots? I'll explain one of these days)
On the other hand, less industrial smoke from Asia might well have the opposite effect : coal smoke in particular creates a "global dimming" effect that literally blocks out the sun and has a marked cooling effect on regional climates.
7712. thoughtful - 2/17/2009 1:31:21 PM
I don't know why you are worried about gcc...after all the world will end in 2012. The Mayan calendar ends in 2012, St. Malachy's list of popes ends with the guy after Pope Benedict, and a very big solar maximum is expected to be reached on 2012 which means our entire electrical grid can be wiped out by one large solar storm, helped by the earth's weaker magnetic field as it enters a phase of reversing magnetic poles.
