The Flying Spaghetti Monster is my favorite theory of "intelligent design".
The Hirsch Report (on Peak Oil)
Grounded: Millionaire John Gilmore stays close to home while making a point about privacy: Oh, nice, now we have secret laws.
In a recent BBC article on Iran & nuclear energy, Richard Boucher of the US state department is quoted as saying: "They [the Iranians] flare off way more gas every year than they could get energy from nuclear power plants of the kind that they're talking about.". This lead me to look into the reason why you sometimes see flares on oil wells. Apparently that's methane gas of widely varying quality which is not easily used. However a German company has begun selling portable gensets which can run on that gas. Interesting to note on their page is that the genset has to comply with emissions regulations; I wonder if those emission requirements are the same for flares...
Just as you wouldn't necessarily hire your best friend as your lawyer (assuming he's not a lawyer), would you want an "Average Joe" to represent your interests to the world? I don't particularly care if I like my lawyer on a personal level, or if he's "just like me", but I do care if he can do his job and has no conflicts of interest. Same thing should go for our leader; I mess up sentences and words myself, but I want someone who doesn't and is much better than myself at representing my interests as my elected leader; someone who can understand how the world situation will impact one little person, and how one little person can impact the world; how small things add up, and how simple inputs to complex systems will likely not yield a simple output.
Without a Doubt: NY Times article on, what I regard as, the president's dangerous confidence versus apparent ignorance about the world. Or, as Bertrand Russell put it: "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
America as a One-Party State: This is a very informative read concerning the mechanics of our legislative bodies as of late.
This should give you some perspective regarding our (U.S.) government's interest in the Darfur genocide (Sudan) or North Korea's WMD program, versus interest in invading Iraq:
| country | proved barrels of oil (1) | percent vs. Iraq |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 261,700,000,000 | 230% |
| Kuwait | 97,680,000,000 | 86% |
| Iran | 94,390,000,000 | 83% |
| Syria | 2,400,000,000 | 2.1% |
| Turkey | 288,400,000 | 0.25% |
| Jordan | 445,000 | 0.0004% |
| total | 456,458,845,000 | 401% |
| country | proved barrels of oil (1) | percent vs. Iraq |
|---|---|---|
| Lybia | 29,750,000,000 | 26% |
| Egypt | 3,308,000,000 | 86% |
| Chad | NA* | NA* |
| Central African Republic | NA* | NA* |
| Congo | 1,538,000,000 | 0.25% |
| Uganda | NA* | NA* |
| Ethiopia | 214,000 | 0.0002% |
| Eritrea | NA* | NA* |
| total | 34,596,214,000 | 30% |
| country | proved barrels of oil (1) | percent vs. Iraq |
|---|---|---|
| China | 26,750,000,000 | 24% |
| South Korea | NA* | NA* |
| total | 26,750,000,000 | 24% |
| country | proved barrels of oil (1) | percent of middle east |
|---|---|---|
| Iraq & border countries | 570,258,845,000 | 100% |
| Sudan & border countries | 35,227,714,000 | 6.2% |
| North Korea & border countries | 26,750,000,000 | 4.7% |
NA* Proved reserves data not available; production was 0 bbl/day, so assumed to have insignificant proved reserves.
I have just watched some of the OutFoxed documentary... my opinion on the matter is that the Fox "News" Network's brazen support of the radical right wing may be the largest political contribution in U.S. history. The corporate assets (branding, infrastructure, resources, owned stations) being used to push a specific political agenda are enormous; the amount of airtime given to the republican talking points has huge monetary value.
It is also becoming more apparent that what passes as journalism these days is unquestioning reporting of who-said/did-what. Questioning and in-depth research is being killed off by profit margins. To create bias: just spout b.s. further to the right. An actual well-thought-out centrist viewpoint will then be presented as the left view when the right wing wackos get their "equal" time.
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