Oh Tommy Delay...

Slate.com has a scorecard of Tom Delay's ethical tip-toeing.

Also, Tommy, in a speech for the NRA (requires watching a 20 sec ad), says he's happy to have his posse of gun-toting crazies backing him while he battles his waves of ethical lapses:

"When a man is in trouble or in a good fight," DeLay said, "you want to have your friends around, preferably armed."

And I have to go to study at the library, but quickly... John Bolton is a douchebag (requires registration)

For a journey through neo-Malthusian theory

check out the following links and the film 'the end of suburbia'

http://www.321energy.com/index.php
-general energy news

http://www.alternative-energy.ws/
-energy blog

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary13.html
-a blog by the michael moore/al franken equivalent for energy news... very abrasive writing style, and somewhat reactionary

http://theoildrum.blogspot.com/
-a blog by a professor and a senior faculty member in energy production... much less abrasive

http://www.grist.org/
-general environmental news

http://www.energybulletin.net/
-more energy news

Peak oil does not mean no more oil, it is simply the point at which production decreases. The point at which it becomes increasingly difficult to extract the oil due to a field's internal pressure.

...the accuracy of peak oil as a theory is up to you the reader. However, the oil output for the North American continent peaked in 1970 as accurately predicted by the theory's creator Dr. M King Hubbert. He initially predicted a world peak for the mid-90s; current theory says that the gas crunch of the 1970s and its economic downturn delayed the world peak until between 2000 and 2010. According to Matthew Simmons of Simmons & Co. International, the world's largest energy investment bank, Saudi Arabia's oil production peak will mean a world production peak. On that note, the Bank of Montreal has put out an alert on Saudi production peaking. Their largest field, Ghawar, is the field of concern. The method the saudi's have used to increase production rates involves filling the field with water as the oil is pumped out:

One factor contributing to the scrutiny the Gharwar field faces is the huge amount of water injection used. Water is pumped into an ageing oilfield in order to maintain high pressure inside.

This allows the oil to be pumped out at the original constant rate. Eventually, however, the water reaches the well-head, and the field effectively dies.

Coxe goes on to ask why new Saudi fields, not just ageing ones, are also water injected.

This method changes the aging of the oil field. In a standard oil field, the production rate follows a bell curve. With water-injection, the decreasing side of the bell curve drops suddenly as the water reaches the well-head. This method is a short-term solution and can create sudden drops in global supply, especially if/when its used in the world's largest oil field. We'll see how it all works out... I would love to have all of this discredited, but I haven't yet found anyone able to do so.

For a more thorough explanation of peak-oil check out the various links and their primers

Gas Prices

AP article on gas prices (registration required)

"It's very possible that unless crude oil prices show another upsurge, then gas prices may have hit their peak already or will soon," she said.

so unless prices go up, the prices won't go up, maybe...

The highest average gas price in the nation for regular unleaded was $2.62 a gallon in Bakersfield [CA]. The lowest price was $2.06 in Newark, N.J.

/ouch
//glad i just bought a moped
///mom, dad, time to get rid of the 'burban/replace it with a hybrid

Money tells truth...

Interesting take on this buyout...

Courtesy Nocturne, and SF Chronicle...

There's been a lot of ink spilled this week about the risk ChevronTexaco's chief exec, David O'Reilly, has taken in paying about $16.4 billion for rival Unocal and its oil resources.

Because Unocal's stock has soared 75 percent over the past year, the thinking goes, ChevronTexaco could find itself with a white elephant on its hands if currently sky-high oil prices end up coming back to earth.

Well, I'm prepared to say this much: O'Reilly isn't stupid. He knows more than most people about world oil markets.

So if the head of San Ramon's ChevronTexaco is prepared to gamble more than 16 billion bucks on oil prices staying at stratospheric levels, I'm ready to give him the benefit of the doubt.

And reading between the lines, that means only one thing.

Peak oil.

We're basically there.

NADD...

why can't i sit down and study? welcome to the 21st century's newest disorder: NADD...

The presence of NADD in your life is directly related to how you've dealt with the media deluge of the new millennium. You've likely gone one of three ways:

1) You've checked out... you don't own a TV and it's unlikely you're even reading this column.

2) You enjoy your media/content in moderation. When I asked you to count how many windows were open on your desktop you either said, "One, my browser for which to read this article" or you made yourself a note to yourself to check this AFTER completing this column. In a previous age, you were the type of person who kept their pencils very sharpened.

3) You enjoy the content fire hose. Give me tabbed browsing, tabbed instant messaging, music all the time, and TIVO TIVO TIVO. Welcome to NADD.

yep, that's definitely it

here's another link

News...

its rarely uplifting. Hence the long periods of absence.

Anyways, some more fun news to speculate upon: Google turns to the darkside.
In light of that article, watch this film.

I'll be back with more soon; till then its study time.

On shitty news...

Story 1: A reporter for Talon News, a right wing PAC-supported news site, was given credentials to attend white house press conference...

Story 2: From US News & World Report:

NBC's Go-To Guy
While Fox News Channel remains the favorite network of Republican lawmakers, NBC's new anchor, Brian Williams, is the one turning GOP heads. Message guru and former MSNBC contributor Frank Luntz says in a confidential memo to Hill leaders that Williams has emerged as the "go-to network anchor" because of his brains and "lack of detectable ideological bias." Luntz credits NBC Executive Producer Steve Capus for "a flawless transition to a new generation of news anchor." Still, Fox and CNN lead the nets when it comes to GOP loyalty.