Tuesday, July 14, 2009

From Jenna Orkin:

Collapse
Climate change 'will cause civilisation to collapse'
The very fabric of society is breaking down; What the hell is there left to believe in?
Peak Oil Latest: Yikes - Times Online
Warning over honeybee decline
Japan Should Diversify Reserves, DJP's Nakagawa Says

Swine Flu
Swine Flu is Unstoppable: WHO
Swine flu: first death of 'heathy' [sic] British patient
Get Ready For More Swine Flu in the Fall
UK swine flu cases to soar, but deaths 'will remain rare'
Swine flu vaccine to be given to entire population (UK)

Intelligence/Torture
Cheney Set Up "Illegal Secret Spy Project"
MoD may face hundreds of new torture claims

US
Not so "U." All happy states are alike but each state falls apart in its own unique way.
California - And by Extension the U.S. - Headed for Permanently Smaller Economy
Food-Stamps Reach 33.8 Million in April, 5th Consecutive Monthly Record
Continuing Claims Soar by 159,000 to New Record; Initial Jobless Claims Skewed By Autos States Use Stimulus Money for Short-Term Needs
Infrastructure: What’s Hot, What’s Not (from Rice Farmer)
Furloughs "A Drop In The Bucket" Towards Balanced State Budgets
Detroit Public School System Ponders Bankruptcy
Texans Asked to Reduce Electricity Use
Power providers warn of mandatory blackouts (from Rice Farmer)
Note: This not some Third World country, it's Louisiana!
Battle Lines Form Over "Son of Stimulus"
Craig Roberts, Former Assistant Treasury Secretary on the Bailout, the Dollar and Goldman Sachs
Military mega-lasers are too hot to handle (from Rice Farmer)
Little Brother: Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears (from Rice Farmer)
Animal Medications More Lucrative than Human
Mint Again Suspends Production of Gold Coins
Four from Sebastian Ronin:
Thieves might have smuggled mint gold in acid, say experts
Forum on secession: http://namericansecession.ning.com/
Site: http://www.novacadia.org/
Blog: http://secessionistmycelium.blogspot.com/

Secrecy News writes:
"Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim Spy" by Abu Yahya al-Libi was translated, rather clumsily, by the DNI Open Source Center. A copy was obtained by Secrecy News.The book cited the use of electronic homing devices to guide air-launched missiles to their targets and images of several such devices were included in the original Arabic version of the book (at page 146). The purported use of the devices was discussed in "CIA Drone Targeting Tech Revealed, Qaeda Claims" by Adam Rawnsley, Wired Danger Room, July 8, 2009. Memri.org also prepared a proprietary translation of the new Al-Libi book, which was reported by Fox News last week.

The National Reconnaissance Office, which develops, launches and operates U.S. intelligence satellites, last week released most of the unclassified portions (pdf) of its Congressional Budget Justification Book for FY2009. While those unclassified portions are only a small fraction of the full budget document, they still provide a fresh glimpse or two of the agency and its four directorates (IMINT, SIGINT, Advanced Systems and Technology, and Communications)."The U.S. is arguably more reliant on overhead collection that ever before," the NRO says, while "intelligence problems are becoming more complex and increasingly require synergistic, multi-INT, multi-source solutions." See "National Reconnaissance Program," FY2009 Congressional Budget Justification, February 2008, released under the Freedom of Information Act July 2009.The NRO has suffered serious acquisition failures in recent years and it has been rumored, unconfirmably, that the agency may be broken up or reorganized. ("Spy Agency May Face Ax" by Colin Clark, DoD Buzz, July 1, 2009).

Meanwhile, President Obama reportedly issued a directive last spring -- Presidential Study Directive 2 -- ordering a review of classified space activities. ("President Orders Sweeping U.S. Space Policy Review" by Amy Klamper, Space News, July 6, 2009).

UK
'Horrific news' on pensions
Retirement could rise above 65
Value of taxpayer's holding in banks plummets
(from Rice Farmer)
Teenage Robberty Crime Wave Sweeping Britain
Brown's secret plan to cut Afghanistan force by 1,500
Brown Guilty of "Ultimate Dereliction of Duty" in Relation to Afghanistan
Britian Halts Some Arms Exports to Israel
Why Whitehall Hates Solar Panels
Newspaper attacks phone hacking claims
The rise and rise of the vegetarian

Unemployment skyrockets throughout Europe (from Rice Farmer)
True unemployment rate already at 20%
(from Rice Farmer)

Russia/Asia
Russia Wants to Open 2nd Military Base in Kyrgyzstan
Altai Protest Violently Dispersed
North Korean leader 'has pancreatic cancer' China bans mourning
Workers protest over job cuts in central China


Energy
€400bn energy plan to harness African sun
Feeling Low on Energy? Have a Bath in a Barrel of Crude Oil
Irish-Belarusian team to make biofuel near Chernobyl

And...
The Exploding World in the Last Moments of a Soap Bubble
A fitting image for our times.

31 comments:

A peon said...

A page with links to stories regarding billions in U.S. bonds seized at Italy/Swiss border:

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/bonds/index

businessman said...

That first article in this thread on the main page on climate change is deepening my suspicions about the legitimacy of climate change itself. I had been suspecting for sometime now that climate change was being utilized as a fear-based explanation and cover by the powers that be for the economic collapse necessitated by Peak Oil.

Look at the Orwellian language utilized in the first paragraph of the article:

"An effort on the scale of the Apollo mission that sent men to the Moon is needed if humanity is to have a fighting chance of surviving the ravages of climate change. The stakes are high, as, without sustainable growth, 'billions of people will be condemned to poverty and much of civilisation will collapse'."

The "without sustainable growth" reference is what we are faced with because of Peak Oil. But they're morphing it into being necessitated by climate change...with no reference to it coming from Peak Oil...and then they tell us how it will lead to mass poverty and the collapse of civilization...what a smooth and convenient segue for them!

They're shielding us from the reality of Peak Oil, and they're convincing us that we're facing dire consequences if we don't embrace climate change. And keep in mind that they're positioning the United Nations to suck close to a trillion dollars annually out of our pockets because of climate change. But how could you accomplish this same taxation if it were all due to Peak Oil instead? How do you tax a civilization at an unbelievable rate because they now have less than they ever had before? You don't. You change the story about what's really going on, and you tax them when they believe the story.

These are the same people who never gave a damn about the environment, and now they're completely for it? When you put close to a trillion dollars annually into their pockets, they'll be behind anything that will get the job done for them.

I have very strong suspicions about climate change. More than 31,000 scientists worldwide have said they've been lied to, duped, and pressured with erroneous information on it, and no one will let them talk in the mainstream media about their opinions on this, either. And when something like this happens in the media, I get really, really suspicious about who's really behind this, and what their agenda really is for all of us:

Click Here for an Article About the 31,000 Scientists

John Kelty said...

Great link A peon!

RanD said...

Businessman; The ruse you suspect underlays the UN's/Al Gore profferred relationship of hydrocarbons consumption to climate change is made even more complex, comprehensive, and intriguing by the source you link us to to support your suspicion(s):

WorldNetDaily (WND) News' senior staff writer is Jerome Corsi. He -- in conjunction with his boss, Joseph Farah - Founder, Editor and CEO of WND -- is an unabashed vocal opponent of Peak Oil and unshakable proponent of hydrocarbon energy technologies, abiotic oil, and nuclear energy. What's more, RanD was introduced to WND propaganda via a January 12, 2006 Coast to Coast AM Radio sponsered debate between Corsi and FTW's own Michael C. Ruppert.

When reading & writing in this ever-expanding ever-brighter FTW light, it is possible to ever-better understand & appreciate just how grand, both devious and yet wonderful, all of what we're going through these days actually is.

IMHO, always, of course.








Businessman; The ruse you suspect underlays the UN's/Al Gore profferred relationship of hydrocarbons consumption to climate change is made even more complex, comprehensive, and intriguing by the source you link us to to support your suspicion(s).

WorldNetDaily (WND) News' senior staff writer is Jerome Corsi, who -- along with his boss, Joseph Farah - Founder, Editor and CEO of WND -- is an unabashed opponent of Peak Oil and unshakable proponent of hydrocarbon energy technologies, abiotic oil, and nuclear energy. What's more, RanD was introduced to WND via a January 12, 2006 Coast to Coast AM Radio sponsered debate between Corsi and FTW's own Michael C. Ruppert. When all is read in this ever-expanding FTW light, it is possible to even better understand & appreciate just how grand, both devious and yet wonderful, all of what we're going through these days actually is.

agape wins said...

Tim, 7,14,09

What are you saying, repeat yourself, what does your post say?

The reason the 9-11 people are divided is not caused by reasonable
researchers, but by those that are willing to express views out of
"Left Field", actually just Radical extremest guesswork, or gross distortions.

There are several Skeptic magazines and Blogs, look one up, see what you find. No one mentions MCR, this Blog, Crossing The Rubicon, OR any legitimate information; why does Crossing continue to sell, why has NO ONE sued Mike over what he says? Why isn't Jenna Questioned?

I am not writing this in a nasty tone, that your post was printed is Agape enough!

It will always come back to Dependency/Amae! It's not something new, look at
a School of fish, Ants, or a hive of bees, They live their Amae!
Primitive Man knew he was different, he became independent of the Breast as soon as possible, killed his father, & rejected the tribe! He was the MASTER of his Fate.
ONLY in the cold dark night his "Dependency" (call it a SOUL) awoke; HE needed Someone/thing after all, after rejecting everyone else what could he trust/what WOULD SAVE him (lower case)? Of course it had to be an all powerful, ever Loving/VENGEFUL;
GOD!! All to avoid admitting to himself (lower case), that Amae had a pleasant, useful, aspect.

AMAE, GOD of mine.

Businessman,

There IS Climate Change, AND it is being used, as is the FLU!
Climate change is OIL and our abuse of it!
There is nothing short of changing our Dependency (there's that word
Again!!), no law, tax, or fancy shuffle will work! Every war has been over some form of ENERGY. It started with the FEMALE
(not Wo-man/your equal), who became your SLAVE.
My Wife also has a differing (Yes I said that) opinion of what should/can be done! Your Wife must Know Your shared Dependency, prove it to her!

Guess what the next War will be about? Could it be the ENERGY
of CLIMATE CHANGE? Am I the first to Vocalize it??

Hundreds of Scientists believe in Creation, &/or God, so?

Why must my posts drag on so?

agape wins said...

7,15,09
I just finished watching Home again, this time with closed captions,
As I have said before I am not picking on, or disagreeing with anyone.
I am just adding my little knowledge, the background music was so loud that I didn't suspect my last posting was just an echo.
Their story is just as simplistic, I will not pick on it's shortcomings,
although what I write is bound to generate flack. this may take 3 sections!

Still needs some work, but here it is.

I am not writing to brag, complain or just tell a story, some of you may think you know where this is going before I finish, don't assume I needa therapist until you hear my thoughts/explanation.

I have always had dreams, some have called me a "Dreamer" or said I live in a dream; whatever.
I stopped having nightmares before I was 10, because I could separate & view the dream as an observer, sort of; I could always see a purpose or positive point.

This could go on & on, but I will relate only 2 dreams to make my case!

When I was in school, about 12 yrs old, I had trouble with tests at
school, when asked what I was going to do I said I was going into the Air Force. Several friends, teachers, & other adults said my grades would keep me out. This possibly triggered a dream I had several times in my early teens!

In my dream I was taking a test in a damaged classroom, or an open
field, I always had my coat on, it was chilly, but not breezy, although
the trees were swaying, which puzzled me. my fingers were always cold.
A short distance away was a strange aircraft standing on it's tail.
There were also people moving around, ignoring the strange craft!

After working for 5 years to support my mother, 2 sisters, & resolving 2 medical issues which made me 4F; I was Drafted into the Army, I took my notice to my Air Force recruiter, was tested and sent to, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas for Training.
The second day was "Mustering In"; paperwork & testing, Oct 22, frost on the ground, we arrived at the administration building; an old WWII hanger, called the "Green Monster" because of it's paint, Green, inside & out; while the sun was raising. We were informed that the electricity was off so the testing would be by sunlight, both ends of the old building were mostly glass; & keep our coats on because the heat was off also. We were handed the test forms as we entered the main hall/hanger, & directed to turn our desks around to face the windows.

Part way through the testing the sun broke through the overcast,
brightening the room; I glanced up and recognized the view out the huge window as being from the dreams.

It was all there; the school desks, without storage; the huge openness, the cold stillness where I was, the strange aircraft with a point where the engine & prop should have been, the holes just forward of the wings, the red extensions at the wingtips (fuel tanks), even the trees moving
with the wind, & the Airmen marching by!

You can take this for whatever you want, fact or so much BS, as for my
take; read on.

Few people think Quantum (Anything), fewer attempt to apply Physics to our everyday life. I am trying to show how the smallest "bits" affect us, & how the Universe effects us.
I am not advocating/denying what you know, or what you think I know, as Seth Lloyd says in "Programming the Universe"on p 39, par. 2, our scientific story is the latest "Creation" Myth, at least consistent with
"known" scientific laws and observations. "A pretty good story"!

There are only two LAWS/commandments, joined at the hip as are energy and Money! As with other laws there are "loopholes" and small
exceptions to be worked out/corrected/amended.


oops continued!

Paul said...

Last night my wife Jane tried to phone one of her pupils to tell him he had passed his piano exam. He could not come to the phone - he was asleep in bed with 'swine' flu. It is rumoured another of her pupils has the flu, as do a couple of parents.

This morning Jane has gone off to school to teach as normal, for the last time before the summer break. Tonight she plans to take our daughter to school for the end of year concert - something they are both looking forward to. If the flu is doing the rounds - there will be plenty of opportunities to come into contact with it.

It is quite a sobering feeling. These events we read about in the news - or on this blog - happen somewhere else; sometime else. They happen in Beijing or Mumbai or Detroit. Twenty years ago or next month or next year. But this is happening here and now! It is knocking on our door!

I can rationalise any fears - this outbreak is no worse than normal seasonal flu. The hype in the media is just that - TPTB trying to foment panic or maybe a distraction from what is otherwise happening.

However my daughter is just four and so is in a higher risk category. I suffer from asthma. IF we catch the thing it is likely we will be offered Tamiflu. I am fairly convinced that this 'pandemic' thing is all about boosting the profits of big-pharma. We have a cupboard full of natural remedies and our intention is to rely on our own resources.

RanD said...

"Who WE Are" & "What Meaning means" - #4

Agape; the answers I gave and continue giving in response to your questions are of course mine. If it is your answers to your questions that you want, you must provide those answers for yourself. Whether for me or you or anybody else, it cannot be any other way.

RanD will continue being RanD, and reveres the fact that all of us will likewise continue being who we are. How can it possibly be any other way? Is it not perfectly evident that what we think, say, and do constitute the "way" we are; and thus, by logical eduction, the "way" we are is the criterion by which each one of us determines & reveals "WHO we are"? Short answers: "yes"; and "yes"; obviously. Such merely exemplifies "new wine in a new bottle"; such merely restates gnosticism's objective: "through learning to know oneself one comes to know the nature of 'God' (which God, btw, again, from RanD's perspective, is literally existence, itself)."

However, merely saying so is not to be "over dogmatic". RanD is merely stating RanD's understanding of herself/himself in relationship to existence. As for whether anyone else sees value in investigating another's perspective, let her/him do so. RanD continuously takes what s/he perceives to be valuable information from others, and tosses away any chaff in which we might sometimes find it imbedded. Is this not the very means by which we all, typically, progressively, and gradually, grow our minds into greater understanding of each other? learn what it is like to experience the fit of, and learn what it is like to walk in, each others' shoes? come to better understand the simultaneous wonders of our differences and our oneness? Is this not what all of our prophets of goodness and truth teach us? Is this not a fundamental means by which we bring ourselves together, as one? E Pluribus Unum?

So it likewise is when examining "ambiguity". Let those who see value in such a thing use it as they will. As from RanD's experiences, though, ambiguousness is found to invarably be but one of the devil's favorite and most productive playgrounds, something to avoid altogether! Yet at any given moment it is also a matter of different strokes for different folks. In the end, whatever rewards one's life, let her/him take of it; whatever harms, throw it away.

As for whether expressing oneself as carefully and accurately and sincerely as possible is an act of one-upmanship: truth always speaks for itself. IMHO.

Thankyou for your questions and your perspective, dear friend.

Brendan Carmody said...

Exxon Sinks $600M Into Algae-Based Biofuels in Major Strategy Shift

www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/07/14/14greenwire-exxon-sinks-600m-into-algae-based-biofuels-in-33562.html

kiki said...

re: 31,000 scientists...............global warming moniker and media hype could be a great cover for HAARP and like projects around the world - weather wars perhaps ?♠

if there is anything to warnings re: 2012 and huge shifts in the earths crust, what we could be seeing is 'provoked' political repositioning under the guise of well, lots of things - with TPTB, around the world, attempting to prepare and position for what's left to govern

energy would be a huge part of rebuilding, (obviously) and global warming, financial crisis, pandemic threat great ways to deflect or keep the ants busy

the above, not a well developed idea but something to toss around when bored and eyes are tired from reading

anyone else noticed the sounds of nature are 'off' ?

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

Watching the horizon, preparing, breathing in, breathing out, running a sharpening stone along the edge, chomping on a fistful of earth:

I have no parents; I make the earth and the sky my parents.

I have no home; in the depths of my soul I make my home.

I have no divine power; I make integrity my power.

I have no means; humility is my means.

I have no magic power; internal force is my magic.

I have neither life nor death; I make the Eternal my life and my death.

I have no body; I make courage my body.

I have no eyes; the flash of light and there are my eyes.

I have no ears; sensitivity serves as my ears.

I have no limbs; instantaneous movement, there are my limbs.

I have no law; I make my own protection my law.

I have no strategy; freedom to kill and freedom to give back life, there is my strategy.

I have no purpose; opportunity is my purpose.

I have no miracle; just law is my miracle.

I have no principle; adaptability to all circumstances, there is my principle.

I have no tactics; I make existence and the void my tactics.

I have no talent; I make a quick mind my talent.

I have no enemy; I make irresponsibility my enemy.

I have no armour; I make benevolence and uprightness my armour.

I have no castle; the immutable Spirit is my castle.

I have no sword; from the state which is above and beyond, from thought, I make my sword.


-Anonymous, 16th Century

Anonymous said...

Businessman - you are partially correct. If you do your research it's easy to find the most credible sources showing data that our average temperature has been fallign for the last ten years straight. Climate change is nothing more than a ruse to justify global control in re-distribution of industry (away from more costly, regulated nations) and to justify another means to take our money in the form of taxes.

I say "partialy" because you say that climate change is a ruse to disguise the impact of peak oil. Peak oil is also a ruse. For example, the following report from the USGS is titled "3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate". And that's only one small geographical region in CONUS. There's much more out there. Peak Oil is only looming because politics and private interests are orchestrating it:
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911


On another subject, if you've been paying attention to the false flags cyber attacks that have been blamed on North Korea, you might be interested to hear that Buford George Peterson, Ptech’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, was arrested today at JFK airport in New York. He was arriving from his current residence in South Korea....
http://boston.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/bs071509.htm

Peter J. Nickitas said...

Jenna and Mike:

What comments do you have on this recurrent story of global currency revaluation?

http://www.gata.org/node/7597

Peter J. of Minneapolis

gamedog said...

Paul: Best of luck to you and yours avoiding the germs. Have a read on flutrackers about vitamin D boost to the immune system, also be aware of the cytokine storm response (which seems to be the killer, and was in 1918) know your anti inflammatory's ;)

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114683

businessman: The convincing aspect of the con for me was seeing how the MSM switched from "Global Warming" to "Climate Change" as a scare headline. The climate changes naturally so obviously cannot be disproved as a theory, "Global Warming" falls flat, in the face of a 10 year cooling trend IMO.

CO2 has never graphed in front of temperatures, temps have historically driven the Co2 level. Water vapour as a greenhouse gas being much more relevant than Co2, something missing from the "data-adjusted-models" as they can't model clouds.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/monckton/what_hockey_stick.html

for a more balanced view on AGW see http://climatedebatedaily.com/

The clincher, telling us AGW is being used as a con? It is obvious when we consider the global taxation called Carbon Credits, who is driving it, and who is gaining all the benefit, and all the $$$. Its our old friends the banksters ;)

Man made Co2 levels may well spike higher as we traverse the energy decent curve, they're bound to burn more coal etc trying to bridge the gap, until the crunch. Once reality strikes however, gaseous plant food levels should start to down trend on at least two fronts... less energy burnt will mean less living things breathing out Co2!

Better candidates for climate change drivers are... Clouds which effect global temps much more directly, cosmic rays effect cloud formation, and our changing magnetic field effects levels of cosmic rays reaching the planet. Planetary wobble is another cause of climate change and this is before we consider the Sun is actually the main driver of climate change.

Just what is the problem with more plant food in the atmosphere anyway (lol)

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

businessman, I share some of your concerns. On the one hand, there is no denying that the earth’s atmosphere constitutes a closed system, a century of smoke stack industrialism, 700 million combustion engines (exclusive of the millions that have gone before), etc., etc. On the other hand, anything that the House of Windsor (the world’s largest landholder) enthusiastically endorses is automatically questionable. Al Gore’s waltz to a Nobel Prize, Oscar, public libraries and school rooms filled with An Inconvenient Truth, all require some serious and connected string-pulling. Counter this with a documentary like A Crude Awakening getting shunted off to a distribution wasteland.

A major, major PR and political watershed was crossed last May with the attendance of Cem Ozdemir, Co-Leader of the German Green Party, at Bilderberg ’09. All Green parties endorse the Global Green Charter, which in turn is locked in to a global structure. All Green party constitutions are riddled with reference to "global." Once committed to being in the game, it helps to perceive who is playing whom. Lee Harvey Oswald. Osama bin Laden. Are Green parties being set up to be patsies on a scale with the latter?

I have been hounding NAmerican Green parties with the above for several weeks now. The response has been silence, broken only with the odd request that names be removed from the mailing list. Doh! Go figure!

I have stated elsewhere in this blog that the Green economy bubble that is being cooked will likely be the last bubble. If Wall Street is salivating, then antennae should automatically pop.

"Green" Global Government Agenda Becoming More Evident

RanD said...

You're so totally cool, Sebastian. It is very good sharing this place with you.

Unknown said...

Max Keiser on French TV: "Goldman are SCUM!!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSwWy4E6I04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQrYa_NKQQ

Peter J. Nickitas said...

Jenna and Mike:

FYI. Another MLHO? (Modified Limited Hang-Out)

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23069.htm

Peter J. of Minneapolis

businessman said...

Sebastian Ronin...I completely agree with you. If Global Warming is for real then we need to do something about it. But the way this agenda is being pushed from behind the scenes by the elite, the media, and the fact that the politicians are completely rolling over for all of it, makes me very suspicious about some ulterior motives being involved here. And when there will be trillions of dollars confiscated from both people and businesses in the process, it looks like the redistribution of money from us to them could really be their ultimate goal. (I mean...look at what the implementation of the Federal Reserve System did for them.)

It's easy for people who want to protect the environment to rally behind the subject of Global Warming, as they've been denied so many times over the years by our society, and finally the masses are completely on board and rallying along with them. But with all of the one-sided reporting by the media on this, and ignoring what the 31,000 scientists have to say on the subject, I'm feeling that the operative phrase these days is, "You're either with us on Global Warming, or you're with the terrorists."

Velobwoy said...

Thinking 'bout buying Gold ETF's? Think again...

Are GLD and SLV Legitimate Investment Vehicles?

Thus, quite incredulously, Douglas has discovered that COMEX allows for paper ETF gold shares to pass as “physical gold” in EFP transactions that are allowed to close out futures positions.

Again, if I understand Douglas’s assertion correctly, this could conceivably allow a firm like JP Morgan to open up massive shorts against gold in the COMEX markets and to close out their own short positions by delivering shares of a gold ETF in an EFP transaction. If this has indeed occurred in the past, then this loophole would easily explain why, in the past, gold ETF inventories have curiously risen or remained virtually steady during periods when the price of gold futures contracts on the COMEX was plummeting. As Douglas stated in his paper, this would indeed be the ultimate alchemy of regulating gold prices by turning physical gold into paper. Instead of purchasing a long futures contract to cancel out a short futures contract, gold ETF shares could be purchased to achieve the same effect.

businessman said...

Shorebreak...My understanding about the oil that's recoverable in the Bakken Formation is that it's considerably more expensive to recover than the crude we've grown accustomed to from other places around the world. Does anyone in here have any additional information on this?

agape wins said...

7,16,09
Dogmatism/meaning; WE need to regroup!!!
I/WE are not writing LAW; my suggestion was about what I write, not carve in stone!
It was directed at every/NO one as a poster,just to those trying to understand the concept of my thoughts hidden in words. That is where MEANING enters.

Best timely example; NPR, this morning did a piece on the records of the first Moon WALK (not the Jackson one), see the link for the story.
They assembled old TV tapes from around the world, they found that no one had used the same footage,
presented the event the same, Or even valued the event the same by the words they used.
How careless are we, each of us with the words we use commonly every day? I admit I am a top offender!

You can even view the restored footage!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106637066&surl=http://www.wyomingpublicradio.net/&f=module-nprnews

Now we are in denial, open your eyes, look around!
There is not enough water, even with GM it will soon be impossible to feed everyone (hell people are dieing in greater numbers every day!), there are no Crop reserves,
not enough Oil reserves, and signs of over population are all around!
WE HAVE 10 to 50 years TO DO WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN doing 30 years ago!!
Go ahead, pick on 1,2, or a thousand SCREAMERS, but
still something has to change. YOU tell me how to prevent
a mass die off, what needs to change?
Nothing? Just keep breeding, producing more & more,
polluting more and more? How about moving to Mars &
Re kill that planet?

I ask this lovingly, we are all interdependent with the earth;
we are a Unit!

You think consuming 50 billion planet years worth of energy
in less than 150 HUMAN years has not caused earth changes?
you are asleep!

I don't want to loose anyone here.

Paul said...

Gamedog: thanks for the good wishes - and the info... very interesting and useful. My wife has already converted me to Vit D, so I take it every day. Getting some naturally from sunlight would be nice :-)

sunrnr said...

Businessman ...

The Bakken formation is composed of oil shale. You can't drill a hole and have it come spurting up like the original wells in Texas.

The original estimates put the resevoir at 500 plus billion barrels. It's now estimated to be between 3 and 5 billion barrels. This is much less than the 10 billion barrel imported to the US a day.

There are "reserves" also under Colorado and Utah, all in shale.

It's extremely resource intensive (water and energy) and very environmentally damaging to recover the "oil" from shale. In fact the result isn't oil at all, it's more a low quality tar like substance that has to be mixed with lighter crude and chemically treated to make it flow enough to push in a pipe.

This claim ranks right up there with "clean coal" technology being touted as "the solution".

The energy rate of return is almost negative.

MCR talks about oil shale and tar sands in his latest book.

Having been discovered back in the 1950's, the formation would have been tapped long ago had the technology and the price point been profitable to the oil companies.

namaste

PeakedOut said...

Exaggerate a crisis or underplay a crisis, it depends on your motives. Is peak oil, climate change, or bird flu real? Does it matter? What the powers that be do is to manipulate perception of events to influence responses to events. Like cowboys driving a herd, you need only influence a few of the cattle to get the whole herd moving in the direction you want.

Look at how Tamiflu has been sold over and over again as a miracle drug. It was stockpiled after 9/11 and over and over again since with no proof that it even helps with the ailments it is prescribed for. The drug itself has a higher mortality rate than the diseases’ it is supposed to prevent or cure. Or look at how government borrowing is pitched as a cure for excessive borrowing. It makes no sense, but with the right degree of control of information, the cattle begin to move.

I think our focus in this blog is partly to keep from moving as the cattle do. We have a fine collection of skeptics here! :-)
I’ve all but given up hope of some grand awakening. People will let fear and prejudice guide them into this dark time. It will be messy. I read these news stories and blog posts to get a sense of where the next challenge will come and how it will impact me and my family. I’ve noticed that what happens in Great Britain financially tends to hit California 6 months later. So now I know my pension is in the crapper 6 months before it is. So I adjust and move forward.

I’m glad to see the discourse broadening again. I enjoy learning about you all through what you share. Agapes latest posts were great reads. Thanks.

Chris Shaw, Australia said...

Back in 1975 I knew a weather scientist who used to fly weather balloons from the local weather station. He was desperate to invent/aquire cheap but accurate CO2 detectors to fly on his balloons, but such things didn't exist back then. The (late) Peter explained the one-way warming effect of CO2 on the planet and expressed alarm that we were creating and dumping ever more of the stuff, without any understanding of the effects it might cause.

Well, that was 34 years ago, and I am now 62. Back then I was mostly interested in women and cars - a perfect example of an arrogant, self-interested male, blinkered by testosterone. Peter's wisdom, so easily forgotten then, has since come back to haunt me.

I was inspired to write the following in his memory:

-------

POND LIFE

There was a species of small terrestrial creatures who mistakenly believed that their planet was a very, very big place indeed. They lived at the bottom of a pond, which was actually a pool of invisible gas. At first, they were as unaware of their pond as a fish seems to be of the water it swims in. Then, when trying to figure out how birds managed to stay so cleverly out of reach, they eventually noticed the invisible stuff and gave it a name - AIR.

It took them much longer to discover how small their pond was.

Not until they themselves were able to traverse the depth of their pond did the creatures finally realise the extent of it. It turned out that a balloon suspended at a height of only 5 kilometres above the sea had the same quantity of air above it as below, so their ancient myth of an almost inexhaustible air supply turned out to be quite illusiory. Along with all other living things, they realized that their survival depended upon an awesomely thin film of gases.

At that stage in it's history, a lesser species might have paused to consider it's options......

RanD said...

agape wins; I have no desire whatsoever to offend you when saying that your 7/16/09 - 1:00 PM "I don't want to loose [sic] anyone here" post has compelled me to accept the fact that your words consistently exemplify the nature typical of an incoherent mentality. You also periodically show that you are perfectly capable of excellent reasoning. It's nonetheless also evident, however, that no one has heretofore been either willing or able to help you recognize, acknowledge, and do what is REQUIRED OF YOU to improve your characteristically self-limiting "amae"-ic disposition.

I suggest you slow down, reduce your volume of informational intake, use your dictionary as if it were the world's only source of useful information, write out exclusively YOUR thoughts TO YOURSELF -- with no thought whatsoever of them being useful to anyone other than yourself -- until you find yourself beginning to live exclusively, confidently, peacefully, happily, and contentedly by your words as if they were the only words that exist.

I close this wishing you nothing but the best when I say, "until you begin showing durable progress in overcoming your confusion, expect no further responses from me to you."

Sincerely, RanD

gamedog said...

I doubt people disbelieve AGW theory just to be controversial, neither must they "be asleep" because they question the MSM blind faith propaganda, regardless of how politically correct the MSM concept of human culpability might be.

The following links can (fittingly) be found on http://junkscience.com/Features.html

Greenhouse Gas Facts and Fantasies
http://junkscience.com/Greenhouse/Kondis-Greenhouse.html

If "global warming" is real, what could be causing it?
http://junkscience.com/Greenhouse/cause.html

Cosmic rays and Earth's climate
http://junkscience.com/Greenhouse/Cosmic_rays_and_climate.html

Is the atmosphere holding more water vapor?
http://junkscience.com/Greenhouse/moisture.html

;¬)


http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_23/b4134051760768.htm

Financial Institutions Hijack The Green Agenda
http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/financial-institutions-hijack-the-green-agenda/

NASA Study Shows Sun Responsible for Planet Warming
http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/06/nasa-study-shows-sun-responsible-for-planet-warming/

"I’m not as gullible as these shysters seem to think I am, and I don’t believe most of the American people are either."

Should we really be spending the last of the planets energy inheritance on sequestering gaseous plant food whilst handing massive trading profits to more banksters?

If Co2 were such a problem, Peak Oil will soon sort it out in a much more efficient manor than any paper chasing trading tax system anyway IMO.

businessman said...

sunrnr...Thanks for the information.

Velobwoy...That's an interesting article about the paper ETF gold shares passing for gold. Assuming this is true, will there come a time when this will no longer be effective at suppressing the price of gold? Or will this kind of trading always be effective at suppressing the price of gold?

tim said...

Sunrnr/businessman;
I think you had a typo, sunrnr. The planet uses about 30 billion barrels of oil a year. America uses about 1/4 of that. 10 billion barrels a year, not day as you said. Businessman: any large discovery you hear about in the media is either tar sands/shale (as sunrnr explained well) or deep-sea that needs very expensive and technically impractical means to extract. Possibly, if you believe in conspiracy theories :), there have been roumors in the industry concerning large American fields that can be exploited, but are not developed. Why? Is not energy independence a major American goal? But, oil being sold internationally in dollars makes possible the endless American debt that is "paid" for by using those dollars to buy treasury notes. shhh......

businessman said...

Thanks, tim.

In follow-up to what you've said, I've wondered if people like Lindsey Williams are legit in their claims about large petroleum reserves being available off of the coast of Alaska, but that it's now been hushed-up for decades.