posted by Jim VAT @ 7:21 PM
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Industrialized nations' emissions of greenhouse gases edged up to the highest level in more than a decade in 2004 despite curbs meant to fight global warming, data compiled by Reuters showed on Thursday. The figures, based on national submissions to the U.N. Climate Secretariat in Bonn, indicate many countries will have to do more to meet 2012 goals set by the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for cutting emissions of gases from fossil fuels.So if the nations who did ratify Kyoto cannot curb the their own emissions, how can they expect the rest of the world to suffer their condescension on the issue?Emissions from 40 industrial nations climbed 1.6 percent overall to 17.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide -- mainly from power plants, factories and cars -- in 2004 from in 2003 even though oil prices were surging.
"We're not on track to solve climate change by any stretch of the imagination," said Alex Haxeltine, an expert at the University of East Anglia in England. Governments were doing little to plan for cuts in emissions beyond Kyoto, he added.
posted by Jim VAT @ 2:20 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 6:26 PM
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California would become the first state to impose a limit on all greenhouse gas emissions, including those from industrial plants, under a landmark deal reached Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats.As I wrote here, I am skeptical of pollution credit markets. The government and traders are the only ones who benefit from such a program. Also, California will just export their emissions outside their borders not really reduce the emissions.
The agreement marks a clear break with the Bush administration and puts California on a path to reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020.
The bill still needs lawmakers' approval, but that appears likely, given that Democrats control the Legislature.
The deal gives Schwarzenegger a key environmental victory as he seeks re-election this fall.
"We can now move forward with developing a market-based system that makes California a world leader in the effort to reduce carbon emissions," the governor said in a statement.
The bill would require the state's major industries - such as utility plants, oil and gas refineries, and cement kilns - to reduce their emissions of the pollutants widely believed to contribute to global warming.
The key mechanism driving the reductions would be a market program allowing businesses to buy, sell and trade emission credits with other companies.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:51 PM
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Federal investigators are reportedly looking into whether BP manipulated gasoline and crude oil markets between 2002 and 2004.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has subpoenaed BP and other energy trading firms in the oil investigation, focusing on possible manipulation of over-the-counter markets for these commodities in 2003 and 2004.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:25 AM
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Priscilla Slade, the former Texas Southern University president fired for spending school money on personal expenses, is teaching accounting courses on campus this semester.Weeks ago, I said that America faces an ethics crisis. People like Slade have no shame when it comes to these issues. Her colleagues should be drumming her out of the profession for these ethical lapses. Instead, she is welcomed back into the fold like nothing happened. It is shameful what America has become.Her return to the classroom comes four weeks after a Harris Country grand jury indicted Slade and three aides for allegedly paying for household furnishings and landscaping, among other things, for her benefit.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:19 AM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 5:44 PM
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"It was a real strong smell of burning plastic," she said.
John Hughes, secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said first responders reported that the leak was a result of a defective valve on a railroad tanker car carrying 20,000 pounds of styrene. Officials believed the cause was a buildup of pressure in the tanker, he said.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:26 PM
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His name is Eric Pianka, and students enrolled in his Ecology, Evolution and Society course will hear a sad synopsis of Earth's vanishing species and habitats  coupled with an apocalyptic warning about humans racing obliviously toward the edge of a high cliff.
posted by Jim VAT @ 8:00 AM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 8:21 PM
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Eight out of 10 Americans believe home builders should offer solar power as an option in new home construction, according to a Roper survey conducted earlier this year. Half of those surveyed said they would pay up to 10% more for a solar-equipped house. In the past, home buyers were reluctant to opt for solar since the equipment needed to halve energy consumption cost $15,000 to $18,000. But the real cost of solar power is falling, thanks to cash rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives from the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
"Both home builders and consumers can receive up to a $2,000 tax credit, thanks to this legislation," said Emily English, manager of the National Association of Home Builders' Green Building Program. "In New Jersey, state rebates can reduce the cost of solar equipment by 70%."
posted by Jim VAT @ 1:15 PM
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Ford Motor Co. said Friday it would temporarily halt production at 10 assembly plants between now and the end of the year, blaming high gas prices for pushing many consumers away from its pickups and SUVs and toward higher-mileage models.I wonder what was their first clue. Could it be history repeating itself from 30 years ago? If I was a Ford employee or stockholder, I would fire each and every manager above front level supervisor and bring in a couple of consultants like, say, Eli Goldratt and Bill Creech (who unfortunately passed away in 2003), partner with Toyota or Honda and turn Ford into a lean, mean, manufacturing machine dedicated to high mileage, hybrid manufacturing. Sink cash into manufacturing technology like Toyota does, and return American manufacturing back into the post-WWII powerhouse it once was.
posted by Jim VAT @ 9:20 AM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 8:21 PM
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A MICROSCOPIC organism being studied by scientists in Scotland is threatening to turn current thinking about the production of greenhouse gases on its head.
Until now the scientific community has believed that only one form of micro-organism, bacteria, has been responsible for converting decomposing plants and animal waste into nitrate - a key part of the nitrogen cycle, which sustains all living things on earth.
posted by Jim VAT @ 8:10 PM
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Gore receives no royalties from the mine, which shut down in 2003. (USA Today actually printed a correction about this, way down on page 10A.) Gore owns no stock in Occidental, and never has (his father did; it was all sold over six years ago). Gore does in fact take advantage of the green power options his utility offers, and was in the process of adding photovoltaic solar cells to his house when the article came out. He pays for his own personal carbon offsets, in addition to the institutional offsets purchased by Paramount (movie distributor) and Rodale (book publisher), which make both the book and the movie completely carbon neutral.Regardless, claiming the moral high ground may require riding coach and not taking SUV caravans. I'm just sayin'.
posted by Jim VAT @ 8:06 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 7:50 PM
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The 800 Wal-Mart Stores employees gathered in the home office for an all-day meeting were used to this kind of rah-rah talk. Top executives from Fortune 500 companies regularly trek to Bentonville, Ark., to pay homage to one of the to one of the world's most powerful companies and to shout out Wal-Mart cheer. This time, though, the cheerleading was coming from an unlikely source: Al Gore.
Wal-Mart had invited America's most famous environmentalist to show his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." "Having the former Democratic Vice President was a shock"
posted by Jim VAT @ 7:47 PM
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Something weird is happening in the once marginal world of environmentalism. The green cause is no longer the preserve of woolly-minded liberals and fringe activists. Its tenets are being actively pursued by business leaders, stockholders and investment managers
posted by Jim VAT @ 7:41 PM
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I'm a half ass supporter & a total hypocrite myself which is why I have done little. You see, I'm obsessed with cars - I want more & with bigger engines. If I had the money, I would own at least five cars right now. Changing my light bulbs, recycling, riding my bitchen scooter to the grocery & using less water has been the minimum (the least I can do). I'm ashamed of what I know, the lack of effort & compromise I make & the languid disposition I have in regard to social change at present. I don't want to be this way, but until I talk less & do more, I'm a joke. I'm not down with our image obsessed society therefore Al Gore or anyone else who purports grave concern, but does little to nothing. If drastic affects are upon us & happening now to our sweet mother, then why don't we make drastic changes in our individual lives to counteract it? If enough people believed THEIR choices mattered, I think the world would be a better place. This is not just an environmental statement - it applies to everything.
posted by Jim VAT @ 7:31 PM
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Al Gore's recent docu-film, "An Inconvenient Truth," made a splash at theaters and tried to present the phenomenon of a warming Earth in an easy-to-digest fashion.Exactly. It is not about Gore, but Gore has made it that way and the conservative "right" has jumped all over him. The liberal left has too.
But quickly the armchair assessments began.
Gore is an alarmist trumpeting fiction as fact. He's using this issue as a jumping-off point for a 2008 presidential bid. He's still Gore the Bore.
[Gore] brings attention to an issue that sorely needs it, but his political history threatens to obscure it.
That's a shame, because this discussion isn't about Gore.
It's about evaluating the impact 6 billion of us have on the planet. That population is projected to reach a breathtaking 9 billion by 2050.
There are others, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen, who find "no substantive basis for the warming scenarios being popularly described."Once again. Exactly correct. Do your own research, be willing to be swayed, make your own decision. Skeptics are not only good for the debate, but essential in a free, secular and scientific society that is interested in truth over convenience (or inconvenience for that matter).
What's the average person to do?
No doubt some of the problem stems from news articles and columns like the one you're reading. Non-scientists, like yours truly, seek to understand and explain something that is anything but black-and-white.
In other words, we try to put things into the aforementioned "nutshell."
Rather than listen to me, or CNN or FOX News or any other media outlet, do your own research. Be willing to be swayed. And then make your decision.
Skeptics are good for debate. They serve to slow the train and force us to closely examine what we believe to be true. But when the train grinds to a halt, healthy discourse ceases.
posted by Jim VAT @ 8:47 PM
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However, we are slightly behind on finishing our financials because, as many of you know, the accounting procedures have become immensely more complex over the last two years due to the Sarbanes Oxley Act.
posted by Jim VAT @ 7:08 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 6:36 PM
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"The biggest advantage is something called carbon neutrality," Rubens said. "It is releasing carbon dioxide but not anything additional to what's in the atmosphere."While they are certainly promoting more wise use of reasources and renewable energy, the trip is not carbon neutral - that is unless they are buying offsets like Big Al.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:14 PM
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"It would save more energy, do more for the environment and create better world security than all the drilling we could do in Alaska."After saying the above, he then drives home in a GMC Envoy. I wonder if he is carbon neutral?
posted by Jim VAT @ 9:04 PM
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It's a nice idea, as far as it goes — a little consciousness-raising can be a good thing, and it certainly doesn't hurt to get more windmills spinning on the grid. But as some environmentalists have noted, this kind of do-gooder consumerism doesn't necessarily achieve an overall net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (which is, after all, the ultimate goal).I'm not so keen on the "regulatory oversight and global coordination". "A dose of real sacrifice" is right on target. Especially those that ride in Lear Jets and take limos.
That will take regulatory oversight and global coordination. Not to mention a dose of real sacrifice from all of us — including those of us who live in 15,000-square-foot estates in Beverly Hills and travel in private jets.
posted by Jim VAT @ 8:16 PM
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To overcome money envy, we need to figure out our purpose, identify what we love and value most, and make our money obey our values by setting specific financial goals. Because if we achieve the things we value most, we'll be less riveted by what the neighbors are doing.
This isn't a one-time exercise, but a lifelong struggle. The Joneses, the media, and American culture will forever seduce us to betray what is genuinely meaningful for what is comfortable, beautiful, and enviable.
posted by Jim VAT @ 9:03 AM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 8:58 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 7:13 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 7:06 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 7:02 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 6:50 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 6:45 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 6:40 PM
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As with most right wing smear efforts, the article entirely misses the point. Al Gore is championing action against global warming, not recycling, not sustainable mining, and not the green character of the democratic party. What he is doing is advocating explicit action to curb and control carbon emissions, and he is living his life 100% consistently with this aim by going carbon neutral.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:29 PM
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Oil prices fell as much as $1.75 a barrel Monday as a cease-fire began in Lebanon and investors responded to news that BP expects to maintain half of its production at a large oil field in Alaska despite a pipeline leak.Click on image for a clearer picture.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:09 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 4:38 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 4:24 PM
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In January, a trinity of announcements sealed the mood. First, British scientist James Lovelock, who invented the instrument that allowed us to detect our eroding ozone layer, published an essay predicting that we'd already added too much CO2 to the atmosphere and that runaway global warming was inevitable. He predicted that billions will die this century. A few days later came a less dramatic but equally alarming announcement. The steady and long-serving NASA climatologist James Hansen defied federal attempts to gag him and told reporters that new calculations about, among other things, the instability of Greenland's ice shelf showed "we can't let it go on another ten years like this." If we did? Over time, the buildup of CO2 emissions would "imply changes that constitute practically a different planet." Less than ten years to reverse course. Not our kids' lifetimes, or our grandkids'. Ours.What would it take to save the planet?
All that would helpbut not enough to meet Hansen's ten-year prognostication, not enough to reduce worldwide carbon emissions by the 70 percent required to stabilize the climate at its current degree of disruption.That will be an entirely different culture than the one we have now. Can we do it?
It has to be about a new kind of culture, not a new kind of filter; it has to pay as much attention to preachers and sociologists as it does to scientists; it has to care as much about the carrot in the farmers market as it does about the caribou on the Arctic tundra. That's what the printouts on atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide tell us, and it's a message echoed by the researchers studying happiness and satisfaction. We don't need a slightly rejiggered version of the world we now inhabit; we need to start working on changes on the scale of the problems we face.
Fear of what will happen unless we shift, desire for what might happen if we dotogether they're creating new openings for a more thorough shake-up than any American thinker since Thoreau has envisioned. But ten years is not a lot of time; we'd best get started.
posted by Jim VAT @ 11:02 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 6:00 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 5:24 PM
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(1) Ethical Prescriptives: These are instructions on how a child should behave, and are of an ethical nature. They deal with matters of morality, virtue, ethics, honor, integrity, kindness, and so on.My comment is this: I am wondering if the ethical and non-ethical prescriptives are essentially overlaps of the same concept. Acting ethically and morally lead to a more effective life in all phases. The opposite is also demostratively true. In fact, I submit that it is life effectiveness which is the standard by which ethics is measured. In this sense, ethics really are natural laws that must be followed to lead an effective life. The extent to which you are aligned with natural, ethical laws is the extent to which you are strategically effective in life.
(2) Non-Ethical Prescriptives: These are instructions on how the child should act, behave, or carry out life, but they are not ethical. This means they may simply be meant as good advice, or strategic manners of living.
(3) Hopes for good fortune: These are simply lines which express hopes for good fortune for the child, usually in the form of access to opportunity, health, good relationships, or material wellbeing.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:12 PM
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I steadfastly and unconditionally oppose any efforts to treat commerce transacted across political boundaries as different from commerce transacted within political boundaries.Read Cafe Hayek every day, for it is good.
posted by Jim VAT @ 7:16 AM
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Microbiological corrosionAll indications are that the corrosion that caused the hole in the transit line was biological in origin, caused by sulfate reducing bacteria inside the pipeline, Johnson said.
"The evidence has mounted that that is true, she said.Weve scanned what the (corrosion) pits look like in the bottom of the pipe.
Also the way in which the corrosion in the pipeline accelerated over time is characteristic of the way in which microbiological corrosion develops, as the bacteria grow and multiply.
The bacteria form in water, so that problems associated with microbiological corrosion tend to be associated with water carrying pipelines, such as the lines that are used for waterflood operations.
In fact, BP treats its water injection lines at Prudhoe Bay with anticorrosion chemicals and runs maintenance pigs down the lines at frequencies ranging from weekly to monthly (a maintenance pig is a device that passes through the inside of a pipeline, scraping and cleaning the inside walls of the pipeline). The company pigged its Prudhoe Bay pipelines more than 350 times in 2005, Johnson said.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:37 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 5:28 PM
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I've been hearing about carbon neutrality for a while, but haven't paid much attention to it, usually because I heard it mentioned in conjunction with Al Gore, who, frankly, could get me to look for a new favorite cigar just by endorsing my present favorite. (Wish I was getting paid by the comma!) Intellectual honesty eventually prompted me to look it up, and it turns out I've been working toward carbon neutrality for years, especially if motive isn't considered.Confused about Global Warming's effect on the world? These two stories won't help:
According to a new study by a US-based research group team led by Chinese scientist Chen Jianli, Greenland is currently losing 240 cubic kilometers of ice each year since 2004, and the rate of melt is accelerating. The researchers estimated the loss after assessing ice mass changes over Greenland between 2002 and 2005. The study is published in the current issue of the journal Science.But, "Doubt Cast"
Recent predictions have contained a hopeful note: increased snowfall over the heart of Antarctica in coming decades -- an odd but expected consequence of the warming atmosphere there -- should partially offset the alarmingly fast melting under way at the ice sheet's edges.Me, I will stick with the journal Science over The Plain Dealer.
[I]f Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
As I have told friends of mine, if you are going to make Global Warming a moral issue, you better have your own house in order. In my view, Gore could use a little lifestyle reduction therapy as well as riding coach from time to time.
A technological breakthrough developed by the Wenatchee, Washington-based startup group Cownetics United Development, Inc. (Nasdaq: CUD) promises to significantly ameliorate the nation's ongoing energy crisis with virtually no negative environmental consequences. The patent-pending Cownetic Turbine converts kinetic energy generated through the natural movements of large animals such as cows, steers and dogs into copious quantities of "totally green" electrical current, potentially serving the power-generating needs of up to 60 million American households, according to a Cownetics spokesman.Second, who said terrorists don't care about the environment?
Osama Bin Laden today announced that the loose international web of extremist Islamic terror groups had achieved its carbon reduction programme for 2006, an impressive five months ahead of schedule.That is it from this week's Carnival of Carbon Neutrality.
Using the grainy, hand-held and amateurish camera work that has become the hallmark of ITN, Mr bin Laden made the dramatic announcement from his top secret HQ at the bottom of the garden of number 5 Hollytree Avenue, High Wycombe.
"Friends, Muslims, and soon-to-be-punished infidels. Today I bring you a message of hope from the heart of the Islamic Revolutionary Potting Shed. In January a formal meeting of the international Extremist Islamic terror council, including representatives from al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Jemaah Islamiah, promised to achieve carbon neutrality throughout our actions by the turn of the year. And despite protracted use of 'Allah's Fire' rockets in the South of Lebanon in recent weeks, today we have achieved that target."
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:06 PM
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Y'all: if I understand this correctly, go fill up your gas tank right away -- your lastOf course, oil spiked up $2.27 on the news. Oil then declined $0.77 over the next two days.
time under $ 3.00 / gallon? ever?
LONDON - British police said Thursday they thwarted a terrorist plot, possibly just days away, to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners over the Atlantic and kill thousands. Chilling accounts leaked by investigators described a plan on the scale of Sept. 11 that would use liquid explosives concealed as everyday carry-on items and common electronic devices to bring down 10 planes in a nearly simultaneous strike.This resulted in oil prices falling after the thwarted attacks
Crude oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel Thursday as thwarted airplane attacks led many carriers to cancel flights, which could mean dampened jet fuel demand and weaker consumer confidence.So, a spike of $1.5 on the BP news is then trumped by a $2.28 dip as a result of thwarted terrorism.
posted by Jim VAT @ 11:58 AM
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I recently received the following email: "I find it distressing and bothersome to see how often people assume that we need to find a single silver bullet for our looming oil and/or natural gas challenges, as opposed to relying on a collection of smaller solutions--what I've been calling the "silver BB's" approach . I'm convinced that we do indeed face a set of harrowing challenges on the energy and environmental fronts, and that they will require all the ingenuity, flexibility, and collective effort (from public policy to large commercial companies to the emergent properties of mainstream consumers embracing conservation) we can muster." I agree.
posted by Jim VAT @ 7:09 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 6:45 PM
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I run both a Mac and a Windows machine at home. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. One thing about Windows is their incessant need to make sure you have a licensed copy. They even go so far as to ask you to install software so the con monitor the license status of your copy of XP. I live the language:
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:00 PM
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With locations in California and Germany, Club Sportiva's carbon-neutral fleet includes classic and hard-to-find Ferrari, Corvette, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Bentley, Lotus, Morgan, BMW, Alfa Romeo and Jaguar automobiles.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:04 PM
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But what can you do with what will amount to tens of billions of tons of the gas [generated by burning coal]?
Pumping carbon dioxide into the earth or deep into the sea have been suggested. But some escape is possible in both cases.
Now a team of researchers propose what they say is a limitless, low-risk repository for carbon dioxide: seafloor sediments at depths and temperatures that would guarantee it would stay denser than the water above, and thus be permanently locked away.
I would suggest as LeftBehinds does that such a scheme would destroy all the economics of burning fossil fuels.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:57 PM
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With the economy losing momentum, the Federal Reserve halted the longest unbroken stretch of interest rate increases in recent history Tuesday -- a reprieve for millions of borrowers after more than two years of rate pain.This non-move was trumpeted all week long especially yesterday and today. This leads me to believe the Fed was floating trial balloons to business writers and economists to keep the market stable. Further in the Yahoo article is something I disagree with:
On Wall Street, stocks dropped on worries that the Fed was just taking a temporary break and that more rate increases might be in store.I say, "no way". The stock market is dropping because the economy is slowing. Had the Fed continued to raise rates, some believe (and I could be persuaded) that the stock market would have dropped even more as the specter of inflation and a slowing economy would be indicated by this move.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:40 PM
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Even if we [in Europe] succeed in making big cuts in carbon emissions, these would not include the pollution created by imports. This is the accounting flaw at the heart of the Kyoto treaty. Globalization means energy-intensive manufacturing is moving out of Europe and into China. An imported MP3 player almost certainly requires more CO2 emissions for its Asian production run than it would have in Europe. Yet Europeans will be able to make the phony claim that they reduced emissions, when all they have done is export -- and increase -- them.This is a very good point. The same thing is done in the US with power plants just over the Mexican border and the importation of gasoline from foreign refineries. The government has made building economical power plants and refineries so difficult so we export the environmental issues to foreign lands.
posted by Jim VAT @ 9:14 PM
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As to the food supply, I don't necessarily agree with the projections. There will be adjustments as to where food can be grown should the climate change. Just because the location changes does not mean it will be more expensive. The lesson of the 20th century is the exact opposite.Scientists studying the 70-mile-long zone of oxygen-depleted water, along the Continental Shelf between Florence and Lincoln City, conclude that it is being caused by explosive blooms of tiny plants known as phytoplankton, which die and sink to the bottom, then are eaten by bacteria which use up the oxygen in the water.
The recurring phytoplankton blooms are triggered by northerly wind, which generates a process known as upwelling in which nutrient-rich water is brought to the surface from lower depths.
Suppose the dinner on your table last night had cost 20 times what it did? Or 50 times as much?Scientists say global warming very likely has something like that in store in the coming decades.
The agricultural abundance Americans have long taken for granted and the low food prices that go with it, they say, now face a withering enemy  and the recent blows to California agriculture are a taste of things to come.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:05 PM
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BP said Monday it discovered corrosion so severe that it will have to replace 16 miles of pipeline at the huge Prudhoe Bay oil field -- work that could shut down the nation's single biggest source of domestic crude for months and drive gasoline prices even higher.Oil prices went up $2 a barrel on the news. Not a big surprise here as oil traders are sophisticated to figure out the shift in price point. After the busy hurricane season of 2005 when a lot of the Gulf petroleum and gas was knocked out (and is still not back in operation), I fully expected a much higher increase in prices. However, that did not happen. I will be very interested to see what the mix of a slowing economy with a supply disruption.
The oil company said it was surprised to find such severe corrosion, and had gone 14 years without using a device called a "pig" to clean out its lines because it did not believe it was necessary.I am gonna have to call "bullshit" on that assertion. No responsible pipeline operator goes 14 years without corrosion testing their pipelines. In fact, unless they can prove a good track record of non-corrosion, I would say they were fooling themselves or were downright neglectful of the pipeline. When I say "neglectful", I mean "cheap and irresponsible". I am sure someone in the pipeline industry will contradict me and say 14 years is not too long. At the same time, news stories have been circulating with patches and clamps on the condemned portion of the pipeline. Those just don't happen by themselves. The problem was systemic.
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:03 PM
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Global warming may threaten the world with environmental disaster, but it could be a boon for German wine-makers, claim economists at Princeton University in the US.Who knew that Global Warming would be good for alcoholics?
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:49 PM
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Scientists say global warming is actually making the world's mountains taller. Glaciers are causing the Earth's crust to flex inward and when the glaciers disappear, the crust springs back out and the mountains are pushed further skyward.It has never been more in vogue to blame global warming for just about anything.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:43 PM
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THE sale of indulgences by the Catholic church in the early 16th century, whereby people could, in effect, purchase forgiveness of past sins by handing over enough money, was condemned by Martin Luther and other reformers. Today, some environmentalists are denouncing the Âoffsetting of carbon emissions in similar terms.
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:42 PM
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We're only halfway through 2006, but the winner of this year's prize for the dumbest political idea can already be announced. Its originator is the British environment minister, David Miliband, who in a recent speech to the British Audit Commission suggested introducing state-enforced limits on individual carbon emission. "Imagine a country," he said, "where carbon becomes a new currency. We carry bank cards that store both pounds and carbon points. When we buy electricity, gas and fuel, we use our carbon points, as well as pounds. To help reduce carbon emissions, the government would set limits on the amount of carbon that could be used."Glassman points out difficulties with such schemes that I have previously recognized: government determination of the correct emission levels and the nightmare to enforce them. Of course the carbon credit traders and the big government proponents like such programs. They increase government's power and the traders get their commissions.
There's only one problem with this idea: it wouldn't work. Worse than that, it would result in an administrative disaster the likes of which we haven't seen since the catastrophic experiments with wage and price controls in the early 1970s.
Like the old price control policies, Miliband's carbon emission idea is based on two important fallacies. The first is the idea that government is somehow best placed to determine the required individual carbon emission levels.
The second fallacy is the idea that government would be able to enforce the scheme. People will look for ways around the scheme, and the experience from the 1970s suggests that they will find them.
posted by Jim VAT @ 10:49 PM
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Floyd Landis' doping samples contained synthetic testosterone, indicating the Tour de France champion's elevated levels were not produced naturally, the head of France's anti-doping commission said Saturday.Sorry Landis. I'll have to take back my "hero" label and give you a big fat ZERO. I would rather have you finish out of the top 20 than win by cheating. That is not the way Americans do things.
A report this week in the New York Times cited an unidentified source from the UCI as saying an analysis of Landis' first sample by carbon isotope ratio testing had detected synthetic testosterone, which indicated it had been ingested.
posted by Jim VAT @ 10:15 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 10:15 PM
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...a century of psychological research has ... established: much of the chess master's advantage over the novice derives from the first few seconds of thought. This rapid, knowledge-guided perception, sometimes called apperception, can be seen in experts in other fields as well.Ah hell. The article just does not make sense without reading it all. Take the time, it is worth it.
posted by Jim VAT @ 10:08 PM
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The Naked Economist has a modest policy proposal for Presidential hopefuls, Democrat or Republican: Tax carbon, not income. Wheelan proposes a revenue neutral tax policy: Increase taxes on carbon-based energy, like gas and coal, reduce income and payroll taxes, and engineer the changes in such a way that government tax revenues remain the same. Americans might balk at paying even higher prices at the pump, but under Wheelan's proposal they'd write smaller checks to the IRS.Wheeland wrote the following article on Yahoo Finance:
So here's the idea: Create a carbon tax -- basically a tax on energy calculated based on its carbon content -- and use the new revenue to provide offsetting cuts in the income tax, the payroll tax (the tax on wages used to fund Social Security), or both.Of course, this is a side issue, but with any new tax, they are never revenue neutral. Once the government gets a new source of income, they never stop taxed the current sources. Regardless, Wheeland continues:The whole package should be revenue neutral, meaning that it will not increase or decrease the total amount of revenue the government collects. The money will simply come from different sources.
Yes, I'm arguing that we should increase your taxes and cut your taxes at the same time. To understand why that makes sense, you must appreciate an often-overlooked feature of taxation: Taxing something does not merely raise revenue; it also changes behavior.This is all well and good. It will come down to two things:
A carbon tax raises the price of using carbon-based energy, everything from coal to gasoline. As a society, we're better off if we curtail our use of fossil fuels. We can start to make progress on global warming; we will improve air quality; we will be less dependent on places like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela; and we could even improve traffic congestion, the bane of just about every metropolitan area in the U.S., by making it more expensive to commute long distances alone by car.Obviously, gas prices are already painfully high and nobody wants to pay more. But before you hit "Send" on a vitriolic email response to this column, remember that you're also getting the tax cut on the income side. On average, one cancels out the other.
Will that be true for everyone? No, but that's the point. The tax burden will go up for those who use more than the average amount of carbon-based energy and down for those who use less.
In the grand scheme of global injustice (e.g., being born in a malarial village in rural Africa), that just does not strike me as terribly unfair. If you contribute more than your fair share to global warming, traffic congestion, air pollution, and propping up a repressive regime in Saudi Arabia, then you should pay more.
posted by Jim VAT @ 3:33 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 7:00 AM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 8:38 PM
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posted by Jim VAT @ 8:13 PM
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a 39 percent jump in profit in its fiscal first quarter, with strong vehicle sales around the world keeping the company on a pace to possibly overtake General Motors as the world's No. 1 automaker in coming years.Contrast that with the world's number one auto maker:
General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, reported a second-quarter loss because of a $3.7 billion charge to eliminate 34,400 jobs. GM's profit from operations exceeded analysts' estimates, sending shares to a 10- month high.To me, it is only a matter of time before GM is bankrupt and Toyota becomes number one. In my view, Toyota is the number one manufacturer in the world, bar none. They are the best-run production company in the world. And here is why:
While no one questions whether or not Toyota Motor Company will have any problem achieving the second, the automaker is already a tightly run ship. Nevertheless, about 300 of its most creative engineers have figured out how to cut build costs of its popular 3.5-liter engine, by a significant margin.Toyota cut the manufacturing cost of the Camry engine in HALF. That is 50% folks. GM and Ford can only dream of a 5% decrease. They don't even fantasize about a 50% decrease and yet Toyota did it. This is why GM and Ford do not stand a chance. Toyota knows it, but GM and Ford don't. Toyota pretty much told Honda and the other Japanese car manufacturers, "don't lower your prices and destroy GM."
...small increments of efficiency gains wouldn't be good enough for Toyotas Executive Vice President Kosuke Shiramizu, mind you, who announced a new goal of reducing production costs by 50 percent to foundry workers at the Bodine Aluminum Troy, Missouri engine facility back in 2003.
A new technology was being developed for pouring molten aluminum into molds for engine components, resulting in new equipment that made up Toyotas new cost-cutting program dubbed Simple Slim. Basically, Simple Slim lets Toyota use smaller, cheaper molds to produce engine parts, and the system was easily implemented into its U.S. foundries as well as those in Japan and China. Another reason the new engine is cheaper to produce is that it uses less aluminum, an expensive metal, than the current version. The new aluminum block weighs 55 pounds less than the 3.3-liter engine, a 27 percent reduction in overall mass. Another improvement to the new 3.5 includes a redesigned cylinder head that needs fewer honeycomb-like fuel and air passageways.
Japan's car makers should consider giving their US rivals a breathing space to avoid the risk of a political backlash, the boss of Toyota has said.When your competitor says this, you are done. It is over. In Lance Armstrong talk, you have cracked and he is going to kick your butt up and down the mountain. They only reason Toyota does not crush GM is the specter of protectionist tactics by the US government. That is why there is talk of an alliance. Toyota does not needed it except to avoid protectionism. That is the only reason to pursue such a strategy.
Japanese car makers have taken nearly one third of the US market. Last week, General Motors posted a quarterly loss of $1.1bn, and Ford's profits fell.By contrast, Nissan had record profits, and Honda's net profit rose 27%.
"We need to give time for some American companies to take a breath," said Toyota Motor chairman Hiroshi Okuda.
Ironically, Toyota got its first foothold in the US through a joint venture known as "NUMMI" with GM to build Toyota products in California. The joint venture began in 1984 when the US created an import tariff on foreign pickup trucks. The joint venture with GM allowed Toyota to avoid the tariff and build up a base in the U.S. NUMMI is still an active venture that currently produces the Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Corolla and the Pontiac Vibe lines of vehicles.The PBS does not even tell a fraction of the NUMMI story. GM's California plant was the worst of any GM plant in the world. They had the highest costs, most defects and most labor strife. Toyota took over the plant and implemented the "Toyota Way". This totally turned around the plant and made it into the most efficient of all GM plants. In fact, it is still in operation today. GM never learned the lessons of NUMMI nor used any of the techniques at all their other plants. And for that, they doomed GM to mediocrity at best and bankruptcy eventually.
posted by Jim VAT @ 8:10 PM
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Well, the Newtonian law about conservation of energy says if everywhere else is getting warmer, someplace has to get colder. So Darth Roves Climate-Change Machine is soaking up all the cold on earth and dumping it in South Africa.Sorry,
Makes perfect sense to me.
posted by Jim VAT @ 7:10 PM
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First of all, I must say that I don't believe global warming exists no matter how much evidence scientists come up with to support it. I think it's just a lot of fear-mongering from ice berg-hugging scientists who are trying to distract us from the War on Terror.All the rest are ones I found and commented on:
Robertson who as recently as 2005 called hurricanes God's wrath upon the wicked people now realizes global warming is likely caused by burning fossil fuels."We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels, "Robertson said on his "Â700 Club"Â broadcast. "ÂIt is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air."Â
Next is come commentary on the culture of global warming and how the press handles the topic.
I really don't have a problem with media outlets talking about global warming. What I don't like is excessive hype and exaggeration in attempts to push the issue. Present the facts, make your case and let us make up our own minds. Along the way, support solutions and suggestions that will truly make an impact.Cool Global Warming gadgets:
One thing that concerns me from time-to-time is being in a situation where power is not available.Green Architecture can Be Cool and Cool!
This is Global Warming, Carbon Neutral architecture that I can support!
posted by Jim VAT @ 5:50 PM
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"We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels, "Robertson said on his "700 Club" broadcast. "It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air."After thanking Robertson for his support in reducing foreign energy dependence and pledging to live a carbon neutral lifestyle, Whitey unfortunately failed to realize his microphone was still live. Whitey was captured in a candid moment as saying "It is about time that dumb shit Robertson came in out of the sun and realize he and his followers are killing us polar bears." Asked for comment regarding that unscripted moment, Whitey said,"I stand by my comments. Pat Robertson is an idiot who finally used all his money generated from oil profits to buy himself a clue on Global Warming. We are dying up here while Robertson is spouting non-stop nonsense in an air-conditioned studio."
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:36 PM
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Into the "alarmist" camp the authors put articles published in newspapers such as the Independent, Financial Times and Sunday Times, as well as statements from environmental groups, academics including James Lovelock and Lord May, and some government programmes."It is appropriate to call [what some of these groups publish] 'climate porn', because on some level it is like a disaster movie," Mr Retallack told the BBC News website. "The public become disempowered because it's too big for them; and when it sounds like science fiction, there is an element of the unreal there."
Mr Retallack, however, believes some newspapers take an alarmist line on climate change through commercial motives rather than ideology.
"Every newspaper is a commercial organisation," he said, "and when you have a terrifying image on the front of the paper, you are likely to sell more copies than when you write about solutions."
posted by Jim VAT @ 6:20 PM
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Contained here are the thoughts, views and analysis on subjects ranging from economics, politics, sports and anything else I feel like talking about.
