Expensive Gas? Compared to what?

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From The Wall Street Journal comes this note about gas prices, buried in an article about the world's longest cab ride:

So far, Turkey has had the highest prices at the pumps, charging upward of $12 a gallon, he adds, while prices in the U.S. are the lowest.

"Americans don't know how good they have it," he says of gas prices here.

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The Rise of the Machines

On the Inevitable Thoughts blog, Colin Vanderbilt argues that the rise of the machines is already here, and maybe we need to take a step back:

“Our society has become awe-inspiring because of the technology we created and used, but there was a cost. We are now dependent on it. Our planet is the Tower of Babylon, and every single support beam is a piece of technology. Our tower will continue to get higher every year as everything gets ‘better’ and ‘progress’ continues, but let’s consider why we are convinced that we must build our technological tower higher?

Technology kills hundreds of thousands of people every year (cars, guns, industrial working conditions), it causes upwards of 50,000 species a year to go extinct, it poisons our drinking water and our bodies every day, it cuts down 13 million hectares of forest every year, and all this without any kind of artificially intelligent robots. Everything that we could possibly fear that robots will do when they rule the planet is already happening.”

Well robots are not really the issue, are they?    The gossamer thin layer we call civilization is much thinner than that, and has been for 150 years.

Within a few hours of losing electricity your house is a cold or overheated rock, your food is spoiled, and you have no way to cook.

Do you have a shovel that can really dig a hole? How about a sharp ax (and a file to keep it sharp)? Probably not, which means that you could not make a decent latrine in the woods or build a dug out house either.

Do you own a bicycle? Well, there's some transportation (so long as the tires last), but you won't be carrying much. All those "refugee carts" we see in the movie trailers have been gone for 70-years now. Still, when the "it" is on, a bicycle or canoe will be the only way out of town.

Have a fishing rod, extra line, lots of hooks, and a decent couple of guns with ammo? How about a few leghold traps (more important that the gun, I assure you)? No? Then you are not going to go the distance, no matter how much rice and oatmeal you sock away in a stack of 5-gallon paint buckets.

Of course, rather than prepare for the apocalypse and reject technology, maybe we should be building forward to a future where everyone is "off the grid" because everything is sustainable. Imagine a world in which you waste is recycled on site into energy, soil and food, and your energy is collected on site in the form of solar and wind and biogas. Imagine that what you need that you do not make is repairable with simple tools and does not break very often either.

Imagine.
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Are the Cat Birds Getting Eaten by the Dog Sharks?

Are the Cat Birds getting eaten by the Dog Sharks? 

Of course they are. As the American Bird Conservancy notes:

Researchers at Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, who have been conducting a two year study focusing on the diets of Tiger Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico, have made a surprising discovery: not only are the sharks feeding on fish and other marine organisms, they are also feeding on land-based birds, such as woodpeckers, tanagers, meadowlarks, catbirds, kingbirds, and swallows.

“We were not expecting to see this. It certainly prompts a series of questions, the most obvious being, how does a land bird end up in the water as food for sharks?

What's to blame? One theory is that lighted offshore oil and gas platforms attract the birds which then get trapped in a cone of light, circling around until they get exhausted and fall out of the sky or crash into the platform. There are about 6,000 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Fracking Explained

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"I just want clean water, damn it."
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Energy Salvation? Moore's Law Meets Solar Cells

Sunflowers and solar power.

Last week a regular reader of this blog watched the video I put up about Jack Nicholson's solar-separated hydrogen-powered car from 23 years ago, and wrote:

Cute, but producing H2 by means of photovoltaic technology is no answer to anything. It is far cheaper to cryo-separate H2 from natural gas than electrolysis by PV's. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion has potential, but building a plant off shore, to exploit the heat differential between surface and deep (2000m or deeper) water, on a large enough scale to be economical, is daunting.

My response:

Technology is a fluid thing, and while we do not yet have a Moore's Law for photovoltaics, wind, and batteries we are pretty close.

See this article where they note:

The cost of electricity from photovoltaic (PV) systems has dropped 15- to 20-fold; and grid-connected PV systems currently sell for about $5-$10 per peak Watt (20 to 50¢/kWh), including support structures, power conditioning, and land. They are highly reliable and last 20 years or longer.

Natural gas still leaves us with fraking, piping and a depleting natural resource, but solar and nukes do not. When combined with more efficient engines, better insulation and geo-sink cooling and heating systems, I think we (the U.S) may be able to move "off the grid" entirely in 20 years. Once we hit the tipping point for self-contained home electricity systems, things will move very fast dues to tax credits. But we shall see.

Earlier today I got an email from someone who wanted to explore a possible fraud case dealing with subsidies extended to wind power enterprises. I am always willing to listen, but as I noted, subsidies do not necessarily mean fraud; they may be a logical and smart national investment:

The question of whether wind power, solar power, or tidal and river turbines will be cost effective and will make a dent in the national energy supply is not a fixed equation.

We are entering a period, right now, where the theoretical efficiencies in these systems are doubling every six months, and the reason we are making so much progress is that subsidies are creating a market.

Is wind power an intelligent market right now? Probably not, but it may be in the future, and we are subsidizing a future that does not include oil, coal, or natural gas. See >> Wind Turbines Today Produce 300X the Power as Those Made 15 Years Ago

Tonight, an article in the Scientific American blog addressed the issue of whether solar cells had indeed met up with Moore's Law.

It turns out I was a pessimist!  The author notes that the cost per Kwh and the efficiency of solar cells are moving on log curves.  The result:

The cost of solar, in the average location in the U.S., will cross the current average retail electricity price of 12 cents per kilowatt hour in around 2020, or 9 years from now. In fact, given that retail electricity prices are currently rising by a few percent per year, prices will probably cross earlier, around 2018 for the country as a whole, and as early as 2015 for the sunniest parts of America.

10 years later, in 2030, solar electricity is likely to cost half what coal electricity does today. Solar capacity is being built out at an exponential pace already. When the prices become so much more favorable than those of alternate energy sources, that pace will only accelerate.

So I may be wrong -- things appear to be moving faster than I imagined, and not only in the solar arena, but also in the wind turbine arena as well.

I have been wrong before when it comes to energy, and last time it cost me $200 going in the other direction (I bet the price per Kwh would continue to go down). That bet also left me bested by Ted Danson who won the first Long Bet. Ah well, the money goes to charity, and I believe I may yet win the next one! We shall see.
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Jack Nicholson Had a Hydrogen Car 33 Years Ago

Jack Nicholson was pushing a solar-separated, hydrogen-fueled car 33 years ago.

Yeah, he really was that far ahead (or we really are that far behind).
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Less Food and Less Energy for a Better America

Over at Foreign Policy, Vaclav Smil has penned a piece entitled A Hummer in Every Driveway in which he notes:

The problems that ail the U.S. economy and American society are one and the same: Both consume too much and refuse to make badly needed changes... Even after throwing away some 40 percent of its abundant food supply, the United States still has the industrialized world’s most overweight population. America similarly produces more energy per capita than any other major rich economy — so much so that if the United States were to consume that energy at a rate comparable to Germany or France, it would be a massive energy exporter. Instead, America imports more than 25 percent of its energy, paying more than $2 trillion for the privilege over the past decade — and still ends up with little to show for it. The United States now faces the choice of curbing its energy appetite with deliberation, commitment, and foresight, or waiting for the unraveling economy to put it on a painful crash diet.

Read the whole thing here.

• Related Link:
  **  You Dog Eats Shit for the Same Reason You Do
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Dog Poop Power?

In March of 1922 Modern Mechanix magazine wrote:

SEWAGE that costs large cities tremendous sums each year can be turned into a source of power equivalent to thousands of tons of coal! The waste now dumped into rivers or shipped to sea may be used to run factories or to light buildings!

In 2006, San Francisco waste management company Norcal Waste planned a pilot program to turn the 6,500 tons of doggie doo generated annually into methane gas which could be used to power anything that also ran on natural gas. Sadly, however, "doggy do" never lived up to it's methane potential.

Never one to let a silly idea drop, folks in Massachusetts and Phoenix have invested incredible amounts of time and energy into generating enough dog poop methane to run single park lights.





Now, the latest "poop power" idea comes from Toto (yes, like the Wizard of Oz terrier), Japan's foremost toilet manufacturer, which has made a motorized tricycle that runs on human crap.

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Robots That are Powered by Consuming Flesh

This is how it starts.

Now the question is does it end with Soylent Green Energy or Skynet sending Terminator-like robots after us?
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The Cynosphere

A Dog Powered Victorian Vehicle

The "Cynosphere" was built in France in 1875, and was underpowered by two dogs.

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Oil is Good for Oysters Says Petroleum Industry

This is from 1960 and is a "public service announcement" produced by the American Petroleum Institute. API apparently, believed in "climate change" back then. Who knew?
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Big Mike Breaks Down the BP Mess

Sylvia Baca runs the Minerals Management Service. You could not make this up.
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Live from the Ocean Floor - "Drill Baby Drill"

Click here for link to add this widget.

Here's what you need to know:

1. This catastrophe is due to just ONE blow out on one rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
   
   
2. There are nearly 4,000 active oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of of Mexico.

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If It Was "Iranian Petroleum," We Would Nuke 'Em

If it Was "Iranian Petroleum," we would Nuke 'Em, but it's British Petroleum so we merely talk firmly, as seen below.



Just so people have a handle on the numbers.... the company originally downplayed the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day, but later accepted a government estimate that it was at least 5,000 barrels a day.

It was only after Obama Administration rained fire down on their heads that underwater video was released. The video makes clear that the leak is gushing about 70,000 barrels per day (2.94 million gallons) into the Gulf of Mexico, which means this spill has already far surpassed the Exxon Valdez oil spill in size.

Meanwhile BP's CEO, a half-wit twit by the name of Tony Hayward, has given an interview in which he says the oil spill is "relatively tiny" compared to the "very big ocean."

Let me be the first to demand his extradition to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.

How long do you think this fellow will last in an American prison?


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Playing to Lose

Obama is going to get his ass kicked on this one.

Which is exactly the idea.

Sometimes you play to win, and sometimes you play to lose.

By losing on the supposed "policy," Obama will win the political gambit, which is the real game being played here. After all, does anyone seriously think any tree-hugger is ever going to vote for the party of Dick Cheney, George Bush, Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney? Not going to happen. Ever.

And so there is nothing to lose, but perhaps some "moderates" to gain.

By launching his own incompleted play to "drill, baby drill," Obama hopes to remove a GOP talking point from the table and gain some ground from the center.

Will that work?

No, but it's a play with very little downside for him since NEPA and and EIS requirements associated with coastal drilling, and the court challenges that these will spawn, will likely take longer to process than his administration will actually be in office.

Just in case, however, the Obama Administration is exempting California from drilling. Memories of the Santa Barbara Oilspill, more than 40 years ago, still stain the collective memory of too many voters in that state, and there are simply too many electoral college votes there to take the risk. A good political player always hedges his bets a little....
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Bill Gates on Energy for Everyone ... Forever

Bill Gates talks about the need to transition to the Next Energy Economy, and he explains why we need it to lower Co2 to prevent global warming, to maintain our own way of life, and to improve the lives of less fortunate people in the developing world.

Here's the good news: It's doable.

As Gates notes, "a molecule of uranium has a million times more energy than a molecule of coal" and we know (in theory) how to power reactors using uranium-235 found in natural uranium.

By building "Terrapower" nuclear reactors, and fueling them with the nuclear waste (depleted uranium) that is in storage right now, we could take care of our energy needs for the next millennium or more.

Depleted waste uranium now housed in steel cylinders at the Paducah Kentucky Gaseous Diffusion Plant could supply America's current energy needs for 200 years -- and that's just one nuclear waste dump!

In other news, the Obama Administration has announced $8 billion in new federal loan guarantees to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia -- the first new nuclear reactors built in this country in more than 30 years. Right now, about 20 percent of all U.S. electrical needs are supplied by nuclear power. The Obama Administration's budget would triple – to $54.5 billion – loan guarantees available for new nuclear construction.
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The Copenhagen Wheel Is What's Next

The genius here is that you do not have to buy a new bike -- just one wheel.

Inside the bike's back wheel hub is a motor, a 3-speed internal hub gear, batteries, a torque sensor, a GPS, and a smart phone connection. There is no external wiring or battery packs.

The Copenhagen Wheel isn't intended to power the rider through the entire ride, just to provide a boost when that is needed, such as going up a big hill.

By pairing itself with smart phone technology, the Copenhagen Wheel enables such innovation as "green credits," traffic monitoring, and the computer-assisted suggestion of alternative routes.

Bottom line: Brilliant.

I am actually quite glad to be alive in this "age of crisis" just to see what marvels we develop to get ourselves out of it.

Want to read more? Check out this site from the smarties at MIT.

As for price and availability this is what the press release says: "It is expected that the wheel will go into production next year, with a tag price competitive with that of a standard electric bike."

I think that means we will all be able to afford the new, improved, and affordable Chinese knockoffs of this idea in about three years time.
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My Car Runs on Starbucks

Over at Treehugger, they dare look into the future. And what do they see?

Why free power for all our vehicles!

Eh? How does that work?

Simple: In the future one of the way businesses may compete with each other for customers is by providing free electricity for their patrons in their parking lots.

WalMart or Target?

Whichever has the free charging station for our electric cars!

Safeway, Giant, or Fresh Fields?

Whoever has a place where I can plug in my electric scooter or Chevy Volt for free!

Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, or McDonald's?

I don't know ... Who has the free juice?

As crazy as this sounds, it makes total sense. Two coffees at Starbucks is a 20-minute journey that can easily set me back $8. For a mere dime or two, however, Starbucks could make their stores a "daily destination" where I recharged my batteries with coffee, even as my car recharged its batteries with a 220-volt connection.

Remember when gas stations gave us free drinking glasses with every fill up? In the future we may get a free fill-up with every run to to the mall or dinner out.

Brilliant!


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Exclude Corrupt Companies from Federal Money

The black-helicopter crowd is banging the gong to make sure ACORN, a community organizing group for the poor, never gets any Federal money for anything ever again, and never mind that ACORN has not been found guilty, and is a small-potatoes recipient of Federal money.

The right-wingers want to exclude ACORN?

Fine with me. But sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

If you are going to start excluding companies for improprieties, you might want to start with companies that have actually PLEAD GUILTY to lying, stealing and cheating.

But heads up: It's not just defense contractors like Haliburton, Kellog Brown & Root, and Boeing that fall into that folder.

And it's not just oil companies like Shell, Chevron, and Exxon.

It's also heath care companies like these 10, each of which has plead guilty to criminal, as well as civil, fraud charges in recent years:

1. Pfizer paid $2.3 billion, of which $1.3 billion was a criminal fine for kickbacks and off-label marketing of various drugs.



2. Lilly Pharmaceuticals paid $1.4 billion to resolve Federal, state and criminal charges related to the off-label marketing of Zyprexa



3. Columbia HCA paid $840 million in criminal fines, civil penalties and damages for billing for lab tests that were not medically necessary, "upcoding" medical problems in order to get higher reimbursements, billing the government for advertising, and billing the government for non-reimbursable costs.



4. Serono paid $704 million to settle a fraud involving kickbacks paid to doctors and specialist pharmacies for prescribing Serostim, a human growth hormone.



5. Taketa-Abbott Pharmaceuticals paid $875 million to resolve criminal and civil liabilities in connection with fraudulent drug pricing and marketing of Lupron, a drug to treat prostate cancer.



6. Schering Plough paid $435 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liabilities in related to the sales and marketing programs of three drugs (Temodar, Claritin, and K-Dur).



7. Abbott Labs paid $400 million and pleaded guilty to obstructing a criminal investigation and defrauding the Medicare and Medicaid programs.



8. Cephalon agreed to pay $375 million to setttle a case involving the off-label marketing of two drugs.
   
   
9. Gambro Healthcare agreed to pay $310.5 million to resolve charges alleging kickbacks paid to physicians, unnecessary tests and services, and payments made to a sham durable medical equipment company.



10. Bayer Corporation paid $257 million to settle Medicaid fraud charges involving a scheme in which Bayer sold re-labeled products to an HMO at deeply discounted prices, and then concealed this price discount in order to avoid paying additional rebates to the government.
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Stimulus Package

My new boiler was installed yesterday. Total cost $6,680 including old unit out, new unit in, and same-as-cash 12-month financing.

This unit was made in Germany and installed by two recent immigrants and one made-in-American.

I think that little story tells you everything you need to know about the current economy.

This is a fine boiler, I am sure, and seemed to be expertly installed by folks who were competent and extremely nice, but I am not sure what part of this purchase helped the American economy.

I am told this country is down to one maker of cast iron furnaces and that they did not make a size that fits my capacity needs (yes the company that did the installation did sell those made-in-America furnaces as well).

Bottom line: Even when you want to buy made-in-America by Americans, it's nearly impossible!
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