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A couple of people sent me a link to a ''Freakonomics'' article ''debunking'' peak oil. Matt Savinar has written a better defense of reality than I could...
It's hard to comment on this without using F-Bombs: Treaty gives CIA powers over Irish citizens. Basically, it extends aspects of the Patriot Act to Ireland. Our minister for ''justice'', a member of a tiny hard-right party (they won about 4 or 5% of the vote last year), has abrogated Irish Liberty to the nutjobs in Washington. Nice one McDowell.
Saddam's Trap Closes on George W.. It would me more accurate to say that the Iranians are winning, but it's close enough. Stay the course. What do you make of all the patriots who supported the war, but are now opposed to it? They were so easily roused to butcher innocent Iraqis by the THOUSANDS...I didn't see an upsurge of outrage when the Lancet report announced 100,000 Iraqi fataties after the Invasion. I suspect many of these newfound ''peaceniks'' would have no problem with the war, were it not for the fact that it's going so badly for their side. (Warning: violent imagery)
They remind me of Rudyard Kipling, the Victorian/Edwardian Jingo hack who spent a lifetime writing awful poems glorifying Queen Victoria's "Little Wars". When his own son was killed in WW1, Kipling became (surprise, surprise) a cynical opponent of war. Nice eh? It's one thing when some working class kid or brown skinned foreigner gets pulverised, but when it's your own child...
Another super report from Iraq by Dahr Jamail.
A good article from Knight Ridder:
| "I don't think of this in terms of winning," said Col. Stephen Davis, who commands a task force of about 5,000 Marines in an area of some 24,000 square miles in the western portion of Anbar. Instead, he said, his Marines are fighting a war of attrition. "The frustrating part for the (American) audience, if you will, is they want finality. They want a fight for the town and in the end the guy with the white hat wins." |
Republicans are starting to sweat over high oil prices. Not a mention of peak oil.
2005 August 25, Thursday
I did a short interview (via my friends at pathtofreedom.com) with The Associated Press. It was on the subject of growing food in an urban environment. I'm in the last two paragraphs. That's my third wire service interview in as many years! It's amusing to see my name mentioned on Forbes Magazine's website. Funny old world.
Wow - what a deal! Why Americans are in debt...
TV ''experts'' = Powerless Nonexperts
Amazing to see Peak Oil given such prominence in the NY TIMES (even if the piece glosses over the truly APOCALYPTIC implications): The Breaking Point. The scariest part is the interview with the retired Saudi geologist, Sadad al-Husseini.
Back to the Future: Lessons from our ancestors...
Business tip of the day: Avoid the Iraqi real estate market.
2005 August 21, Sunday
Some mind-boggling info from the BBC:
2005 August 18, Thursday
I've been dealing with a LOT of stuff over the last couple of weeks, but I'm still alive. You should check out this audio/video interview with Jules Dervaes - a person I've had the privelege of meeting. Jules and his family have turned their Pasadena home into an urban farm. It's difficult to describe, but it's a great inspiration. His site is Path To Freedom. Check it out...as well as the family journal.
Global Public Media has a great collection of audio interviews in mp3 and realplayer format about peak oil/sustainability topics. Well worth a listen, especially if you're in need of listening material).
Excellent column by Juan Cole on US dependence on Saudi Arabia.
Richard Heinberg on the threat of Peak Oil to the global food supply.
The consequences of nuking Iran. Guess what? They're not good. I'm talking to YOU, George. CHENEY! QUIT SLOUCHING BACK THERE. 100 lines: "I will not threaten to nuke middle eastern countries."
The twilight era of petroleum".
Great. Yet another tipping point that might kill us all.
Let's have a minute's silence for all the Iraqis killed due to US/Western incompetence.
2005 August 5, Friday
Brilliant!
2005 August 5, Friday
Brilliant!
2005 August 2, Tuesday
Gnrgh! Just when I thought we had 10 planets, now we may only have 7.
| Dr Brian Marsden, director of the International Astronomy Union's minor planet centre, believes the simplest way to resolve the confusion is to reject Pluto's claim to being a planet on the grounds that "size does matter". Instead he says people should accept that "we have eight planets and only an object bigger than Mars could be considered to be a planet in the future". |
So let's see if this makes sense - Mars' diameter is 6790 kilometers. If we find an object that's 6789 kilometers in diameter it's not a planet, but if we find one that's 6791 kilometers in diameter it is a planet?
Brilliant Marsden, brilliant - you planet smashing jerk. Incidentally, I lost 35 lbs this year. If I lose 35 more (getting my waist diameter under 30 inches), will I still be a human being? If I stand in a crowd of other people (who also have waists under 30 inches), will we still be human beings?
''Scientists'' like Marsden make the baby Jesus cry.
Clay Bennett, genius:
A Peak Oil study - by the US Government.
| Here, then, is a significant report produced by an independent research company for the US Department of Energy, warning of a global problem of “unprecedented” proportions with economic, social, and political impacts that are likely to be extremely severe. The authors forecast “protracted economic hardship” for the United States and the rest of the world. It is a problem that deserves “immediate, serious attention.” Yet, half a year after release, discussion of the Hirsch report is conspicuously absent from the press and the halls of Congress... |
| A few days ago Roger Pielke Jr. pointed to a paper by Tim Dyson of the London School of Economics called "On development, demography and climate change: The end of the world as we know it?" Pielke called it "refreshingly clear thinking on climate change." That's true, if by "refreshingly clear" he means "weep-silently-aplogize-to-your-children-and-throw- yourself-out-a-window depressing." |
| A study by Cornell ecologist David Pimentel and UC Berkeley engineer Tad Patzek found that when all the inputs to farming and ethanol production are accounted for, ethanol uses 29 percent more fossil fuel energy to produce than it yields in your gas tank. |
| the United States Senate voted 85-12 to send an energy bill to conference that would allow China to own local US public utilities, without a murmur from the administration, lawmakers or the media. Perhaps this is an example of the government and the press being unable to address something that is not literally exploding under their noses at the moment. |
| Some observers (of both Republican and Democratic affiliation) raise concerns about American policy sovereignty. They fear that China's ownership of a significant part of the federal debt will give it a say in the making of U.S. policy. |
| Consider this: In 2004 “one-fourth of all home-buyers -- including 42% of first-time buyers -- made no down payment.”...No down payment?! Sorry, but if a buyer can’t come up with at least $5,000 dollars for a down payment, he shouldn’t qualify for a home loan. Equally troubling is the fact that “nearly one third of all new mortgages this year call for interest-only payments (in California, it's almost half)” (NY Times) This tells us that a large number of new buyers can barely make their payments, but are gambling that their property value will go up enough to justify their investment. This is “equity roulette,” a shell game that anticipates that salaries will go up while interest rates stay low |
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