Monday, October 8, 2007

Odds and Ends - 9 Oct 2007

Sorry about not posting for a while, but I've been a bit busy recently. Here are some internet finds:

Matt Taibbi pens the eulogy for McCain's campaign. Excellent, if a bit sad. I always had a soft spot for McCain. Oh yeah, and if you haven't read Taibbi's obit for Yeltsin, look through his archives and read it. It's the funniest obituary ever.

Louisiana: the #1 most corrupt state. We're #1! We're #1! In a few more years, we'll have an insurmountable lead, thanks to Jim Letten and all the Katrina money.

Scandal brewing at Oral Roberts. Corruption in higher education. This story has some juicy details! The female university president was Sugar Momma to a lot of college boys...

Buckets of money being poured into deepwater oil exploration. This is good news for Louisiana, because these will be the blocks whose royalties pay for coastal restoration in a little under 10 years.

War Without End, Amen. All about the geopolitical nightmare unfolding between Saudi Arabia and Iran. One scenario is a nuclear arms race between the Saudis and the Persians. And that's the GOOD scenario... Also, Spot On seems to be a decent rag (along the lines of Alter-NET.

Photovoltaics: from waste to viability. PV panels are slowly, but steadily becoming more than a marginal power source for out of the way areas. I'm impressed. This should be one area where technology comes through in the clutch.

China Evacuates 1 Million Ahead of Storm. Wonder what would happen if the Chinese Government let 1 million people drown in a tropical cyclone? The pitchforks and torches would get some use...

When it comes to energy efficiency, Britain is EVEN WORSE than the US.

Is it just me or does the elephant have a wide stance? - ZING!!! Also, that star makes the elephant look like he has X's for eyes...

Women used to earn 68 cents for every dollar a man earned. Well, now Giuliani is only making 40 cents for every Hillary dollar.

US experiencing engineer shortage. According to the article, the US oil industry will experience a net shrinkage of 1-4% per year of its talent base.

Very long, detailed article about Saudi Arabia's future as an oil producing nation. A bit technical at times, but I like technical.

I get a bunch of industry magazines at work and the last issue of Oil and Gas Engineer caught my eye. It's cover story is 'the search for the next trillion barrels of oil.' In order to meet growing demand, the oil industry will have to find another billion barrels of oil. For perspective, that's another 3 Saudi Arabia's and some change. If this article is to be believed, petroleum geologists believe we'll only find 25% of what we need. What does that mean? The price will go up and we'll have to make do with less. A 70's-style energy shortage within the next 5-10 years is highly probable, even if the Middle East stays relatively stable (and that's a big if).

And, last, but not least: Ron Paul: the Howard Dean of '08? Hopefully, this will be a "narrative" that allows the media to finally give Dr. Paul the coverage he's proven he deserves. As an aside, this country needs 2 functioning political parties. That's been the problem during the W years. Here's the way I see things shaking down: Ron Paul gathers a dedicated base, he surprises everyone in the primaries. Someone else wins the nomination (and then is slaughtered by Hillary), but Ron Paul gets into a leadership position and rejuvenates the Republican Party the way Howard Dean did for the Dems. Remember, Dean's 50 State strategy was CRUCIAL to the Dems taking over both houses of Congress in '06. Lots of people thought Dean was nuts and he was ridiculed for his strategy. One of the jokes was the Dems were sending people to Mississippi (or insert another staunch Red State here) to pick their nose for a year. Without Dean making a strong, but not too strong, appearance in '03/'04, you don't have the victories in '06.

2 comments:

Jason Brad Berry said...

i think you're as fascinated with Paul as I am. I just keep hoping against hope that he breaks the MSM stranglehold and revives the Republican party. God knows they need it.

Clay said...

I definitely am getting more and more intrigued by the possibilities he opens up. I'd love to see him pull a big upset and all the big media boys stutter and stammer as they announce it.