Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Morning After

From Jenna Orkin:

Americas
US Public Health Community Begins Discussing Peak Oil
Coal Supply May Be Vastly Overestimated
Edison's 230 Mile "Extension Cord" Fuels Fight
The Man From Plains With Lessons from the 70's
Congress calls on the man to whom Mike's "Presidential Energy Policy" is dedicated. (Actually, one of the two men. The other, M. King Hubbert, was unavailable.)
Recession Drains Social Security and Medicare
US Deficit Now at Four Times Last Year's Record
GM Shares Plummet to Lowest Level Since Great Depression
GM Sinks to Fresh Low as Chapter 11 Looms
Chrysler's Sorry State Revealed
Car Dealers Fight Rapid Closures; 180,000 Workers Could Lose Jobs
One Out of Every Four Homeowners Under Water
Foreclosure Filings Surge 32%
Records Show Billions Withdrawn Before Madoff Arrest
Goldman Pays to End State Enquiry Into Loan
Humanure: The End of Sewage As We Know It?
Crude Oil Rises as US Reports Unexpected Inventory Decline
Unexpected by the same people who unexpected the financial crisis.
Guatemalan President Under Pressure After Video Reveals He Ordered Murders
UK Defies Argentina By Claiming Atlantic Seabed Rich in Oil and Minerals


UK Press/Europe
BoE Recovery "Longer and Harder"
UK: Even the Bank Has No Idea What Will Happen
Record Prices for Wholesale Cocaine
Brown's Boom Was a Mirage but Bust Is Only Too Real
Armageddon Averted (For Now)
Progress is Doomed If Obama Is Just a Cleverer Version of Bush
An article that focusses on Israel but the sentiment expressed in the title is elastic.
Fears of Rat Plague in UK Grow
The rats have grown resistant to pesticides. How come they can't get cancer like everyone else?
EU Plans Stress Tests for Banks in Europe
Ghent Goes Veggie to Lose Weight and Save Planet

China
China Urges New Money Supply to Replace Dollar! (sic: Exclamation Point, theirs)
China's Exports Plummet
Bailout Plan for Pig Farmers as Prices Plummet

Russia
Energy Conflicts Could Bring Military Clashes, Russian Security Strategy Warns
"Kremlin names Arctic as potential flashpoint• Moscow fears widening weapons gap with US"
Medvedev Hints of New Georgia War
Ruble Reserve Currency May Not Be So Crazy (Moscow Times)
Putin Signals Return as President

Global Energy
Qatari Gas Reduces Russian Dominance (LNG Comes of Age)
Libya: Fabricator of Iraq-Qaeda Link Dies, Newspaper Says
Oil Prices: Norwegian Supply Falls; Is 100$ Oil Far Behind?
Gas Deal Between Turkey and European Union Breaks Russian Stranglehold

Climate Change
Climate Change Displacement Has Begun But Hardly Anyone Has Noticed
Climate Change is Biggest Threat to Health, Doctors Say

25 comments:

Diaspora said...

Looks like things are about to get very interesting. While Bloomberg reports that “Oil Falls for a Second Day After IEA Cuts 2009 Demand Forecast” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=alwHmyl9rDiE

The London Times is running this story: “Russia warns of war within a decade over Arctic oil and gas riches”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6283130.ece (Jenna posted a related story on this in the Russia column)

I think we realize that nothing these days can be taken at face value. What do they have planned for us next?

Peter J. Nickitas said...

Jenna and Mike:

Here's a story following up on the FOIA requests on the bailout meetings:

http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/may/judicial-watch-forces-release-bank-bailout-documents

It appears JudicialWatch hit paydirt before Bloomberg.

Peter J. of Minneapolis

businessman said...

As an update on both the availability and the shipping of Mike's book, I ordered it from Amazon on Thursday of last week and it arrived on Wednesday of this week. So my experience with Amazon around buying his book has been fine.

Bigelow said...

So re the book pre-sales, did you ship any yet? Waiting for a copy.

Jenna Orkin said...

a peon and los doggies, thx, we're aware of your comments.

tony said...

I'd like to know Mike's opinion (or others') about the Transition Movement (Rob Hopkins/Richard Heinberg).
To me they seem a bit too optimistic/naive, but on the other hand they actually do something positive...

Pandabonium said...

PM Putin visited Japan's PM Aso earlier this week and the two signed an agreement to cooperate on nuclear energy development. Putin promised to work on settling the post WWII dispute over four small islands held by Russia and claimed by Japan. Japan is participating in the Sakhalin II project and is already receiving LNG shipments.

IMO, this is part of the realignment of nations along regional lines as globalization unravels - something which Mike has predicted for some time.

Regarding comments about book orders.... NW Digital was very helpful to me with my book order (which initially had a problem processing a Japan credit card). I checked on the shipping too with them and received a prompt answer. The simple fact is that they got more orders than anticipated (yay!) which delayed things a bit.

All of the gift copies I ordered from Amazon have been delivered - even in Japan. (The recipients have been giving me nothing but positive feedback on the book).

So I would advise anyone with an issue/question about their order to use the contact link on the website rather than posting comments about it here. The customer service is excellent.

Pandabonium said...

Interactive map of US stimulus dollars for transportation infrastructure projects by county.

Douglas R. Page said...

Jenna: Please explain or comment on the May 14 NPR story that there was currently an overproduction of oil due to diminishing demand, and that it was likely to continue for some time.
Is this simply CW mainstream propaganda?

Michael Anderson said...

An interesting link from the Oil and Gas Journal on oil and derivatives regulation:
http://www.ogj.com/articles/print_screen.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=362259

OregonSurvivor said...

What has happened to Rubiconworks.com? It disappeared yesterday, and has been replaced by an automatic links page...

Enjoying the book, which I received promptly with no problem from Amazon...

Jenna Orkin said...

oregonsurvivor and others:

received an update last night. things are getting under control and actually going very well. stay tuned.

los doggies said...

You're aware of me comments? Then why didn't ya just say so?
How about the question marks after me comments? Will those be answered?

trevbus said...

Scientist says swine flu may have been created in a laboratory:

http://kentuckylaketimes.com/global09/swine_flu_laboratory_escape0513061001.phpScientist "debunked" by WHO and mainstream media:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/16/2572325.htm

zeusij said...

How about some updates on the book sales? I've been buying extra copies and giving them to ppl who I think will read and gain something from them. =)

John Kelty said...

I completely understand the reasons for filtering out certain posts discussing conspiracy theories and such... that being said, I hope that you post this article by the New York Times that discusses a possible solution to the world's climate and energy problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/05/14/14greenwire-a-climate-solution-thats-out-of-this-world-19116.html

John Kelty said...

Report: U.S., Allies Put October Deadline on Progress from Iran

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131367

John Kelty said...

Freedom of Information Act Disclosure Busts Paulson, Geithner, Bair

http://seekingalpha.com/article/137609-freedom-of-information-act-disclosure-busts-paulson-geithner-bair?source=email

agape wins said...

What happened to the image/link to "A Presidential Energy Policy" on the Blog; here yesterday, & gone today?!!?

rubiconworks.com is down, & E mail to
media@rubiconworks.com is returned;

media@rubiconworks.com: host smtp.secureserver.net[208.109.80.149] said: 550
sorry, mail to that recipient is not accepted (#5.7.1) (in reply to RCPT TO command)

I hope to see this posted, & a
resolution of the problem SOON!

Rice Farmer said...

Oh no! Not alien technology again! And where, pray tell, is my Orbo free-energy machine? Still in the mail?

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: If the US government had "UFO technology," it would long ago have been put to work achieving "full-spectrum dominance."

zeusij said...

I have noticed that the book webserver has been having technical difficulties with the godaddy suppplier for awhile now. I have had them and was not satisfied. My current web server provider is very reliable and allows me to have multipul domains and what I believe to be a lot of web traffic at one set price. If you need a temp web server to host the presidential energy book site, would gladly use my webserver. I have plenty of room to spare.

John Kelty said...

Who's to say the US hasn't achieved full-spectrum dominance already? The objective of war isn't always to win. I would also argue that once any new technology becomes widely used it's only a matter of time before other people replicate it.

LeoBro said...

I'll answer Tony's question about the Transition Movement. I'm very active in it, and I'm a proud member of a transition initiative in Seattle.

Yes, Transition is optimistic. But it's not naïve. Hopkins is a Permaculture designer and teacher, and Transition is an extension of Permaculture principles, designed to help communities become more resilient in the face of energy descent, climate instability and economic collapse.

The premise is that if we try to address these issues only as individuals, our efforts won't be enough. If we wait for the government or science to save us, it will be too late. But if we act collectively on a very local scale, it might just be enough to get us through.

Hopkins' admits in his "cheerful disclaimer": "We truly don't know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale."

The Post-Carbon Institute is currently supporting Transition US, and Richard Heinberg sits on its Board of Directors.

A peon said...

Navajos largely unscathed by recession

tim said...

Rice Farmer;
What makes you think you would get a zero-point energy device in the first place? Your understanding of what our government/military has done to achieve "full-spectrum dominance" is extremely limited. For your Electrical Engineering Disertation, please explain in detail transistor size in the 1950's (the size of your fist)to millions that are microscopic in today's microprocessors.