Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alberta tar sands, Canada, energy, ezra levant, foreign control of tar sands, oil sands, peak oil, tar sands, unconventional oil, Yergin
http://www.desmogblog.com/tar-sands-oil-companies-71-percent-foreign-owned-cue-ezra-levant-s-outrage
In a recent Bloomberg interview, Dan Yergin suggested we consider Canada as “not a foreign country,” thus oil from Canada is just like oil produced within the United States. Voila! Turns out oil from Canada is not even like oil from Canada.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ASPO, crude oil production, EIA, energy, Jeffrey Brown, oil production propaganda, peak oil, production numbers, Railroad Commission of Texas, RRC, Texas, Texas crude oil production, transportation
According to the Railroad Commission of Texas.
http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/data/production/oilwellcounts.php
Some individuals recently noting the difference between RRC and EIA production numbers. From a comment by Jeffrey Brown:
Total US Crude Oil Production (EIA, mbpd):
2002: 5.746
2003: 5.681
2004: 5.419
2005: 5.178
2006: 5.102
2007: 5.064
2008: 4.950
2009: 5.361
2010: 5.476
2011: 5.662Total US Crude Oil Production, using RRC data for Texas, instead of EIA (Gap Between the two data sets):
2002: 5.615 (+131,000 bpd)
2003: 5.548 (+133,000)
2004: 5.303 (+116,000)
2005: 5.059 (+119,000)
2006: 4.948 (+154,000)
2007: 4.898 (+166,000)
2008: 4.813 (+137,000)
2009: 5.199 (+162,000)
2010: 5.285 (+194,000)
2011: 5.324 (+338,000)
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/9191#comment-893345
Filed under: Bike of the Day | Tags: Bridgestone, Bridgestone MB-1, commuter bike, MB-1, shimano deore, The Art of Mountain Biking, transportation, vintage beauty, vintage bicycles
12 hours left on E-Bay.
Keith is in the intro to my new book The Art of Mountain Biking: Singletrack Skills for All Riders. He bought this MB-1 new from Criterium bike shop in 1988, and has been treating it with the utmost respect ever since. Amazingly, this trail-ready vintage beauty could be yours…
Description by Keith:
“Wow” your mountain biking friends by showing up for the next group ride on this vintage, highly coveted classic. This is widely considered the quintessential mountain bike of its day. Revolutionary frame angles, build quality, and components made this perhaps the most advanced racing mountain bike at the time, which is why today this steel bike is coveted by collectors. See Sheldon Brown’s web page on this bike, along with the PDF file of the catalog featuring it.
I am original owner, having bought this from my local Colorado Springs bike shop specified with a Shimano Deore XT group (see parts list below). Selling this is going to break my heart.
Has age-appropriate paint wear and scratches (see photos). Some superficial rust. No dents. Frame, forks, and wheels are straight. Imprecise shifting can be finessed now, but chain, cogs, chainrings, and possibly cables and housing need replacing for smooth, precisely indexed shifting. Everything else works well. One shifter clamp was re-threaded in the early ’90s and has held tight since. One shifter missing the “Shimano Deore XT” face plate (see photo).
1988-1992: used recreationally as a mountain bike in Colorado and California. 1993, 2000-2011: used as a commuter bike in California, Texas, Maryland, and North Carolina almost entirely on pavement. 1994-1999, 2012: stored unused.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: active commuting, active transportation, bicycle, bicycle commuting, bicycling, bike, bike commuting, biking, cycling, gas taxes, transportation
And, it kills your back and hips. Which causes more stress.
The bit below about American cities not being built for active commuters. Not exactly true. Somewhat true. A lot of American cities are currently set up quite nicely to accept vast numbers of additional bike commuters should these autonomous individuals choose to take that step.
A 2011 study of 21,000 Swedish workers found those who commuted by car or public transit reported more stress, exhaustion and missed work days than those who walked or bicycled to work. But few American cities are built for active commuters.
“We’ve engineered physical activity out of our lives,” said Hoehner. “We need to change our communities and make improvements to the infrastructure to make the healthy choice the easy choice.”
via Commuting Drives Up Weight, Blood Pressure – ABC News.
There is a lot more to making a bike-friendly environment than “engineering” the built environment. Like what:
–The cost of driving in Europe is much higher than it is in the US, due to famously high fuel taxes and fees. We complain about 4$ gas. No Euro country has gas anywhere near that cheap, due to govt. fuel taxes.
–Laws and court proceedings in bike-friendly countries favor bicyclists and pedestrians.
–Culture is overall more bike-friendly.
It’s already an easy choice for many in the US. Let’s stop making excuses. There will always be room for improvement. The built environment will never be perfect here, and it isn’t in Europe.
I guess what I’m saying is this. We all wish for improvements in the cycling environment. If you complain about and push for better bike infrastructure, great! That helps. But I sure hope you’re doing it as a bike commuter, not as an excuse-making car commuter.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycles, cycling, faired bikes, fast bikes, Graeme Obree, speed record, Whittingham
Flying Scotsman thinks he may have figured a few things out about building a world-record recumbent. Seriously looks like he may be on to something, again! This looks like the position he always wanted — not Superman but Human Missile.
“You just roll it and go up through the gears. If you get into the top gear you are already doing 80mph,” he said.
The wheels are home-made but are the same size as those used on BMX bicycles, and the gears are from a conventional bike.
While he is confident that “the engine remains in decent nick”, the bid will be as much a test of engineering as physical strength.
His riding position, which will have him lying horizontally on his front, pedalling head first just a few inches from the road, is completely unlike the design used by Whittingham to set the existing record. The Canadian, like other speed cyclists, rides in a reclining position, with his head at the back of the bike, and his legs turning pedals at the front.
To maximise aerodynamics, Obree will also be surrounded by what he calls “the skin”, a carbon shell that is reinforced with bullet-proof Kevlar so that it does not disintegrate if he crashes. “It’s basically a torpedo – a land based missile,” he said.
via The 100mph bike – designed in the bath and made from an old saucepan – Telegraph.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: active transportation, child cycling, Jockeying and Smacking, kids on bikes, Licking and Trekking, National Alliance for Biking and Walking, Stalking and Hacking, Walking and Biking
Today, “active transportation” means rocking the mini video game while getting driven to school.
Kids are lazy, parents are afraid, and everybody’s fat.
This chart says a lot. It’s not good.
From the National Alliance for Biking and Walking.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: After Austerity, austerity, euro, Europe, eurozone, fiscal prudence, fraud, fraudtastic, fraudtastic financial crisis, government, Greece, Ireland, joe stiglitz, migration area, Nobel Prize, optimal currency area, politics, Spain, Stiglitz, the austerity fairy, the confidence fairy
Pretty good little essay here from Joe Stiglitz.
[…]
Europe’s single-minded focus on austerity is a result of a misdiagnosis of its problems. Greece overspent, but Spain and Ireland had fiscal surpluses and low debt-to-GDP ratios before the crisis. Giving lectures about fiscal prudence is beside the point. Taking the lectures seriously – even adopting tight budget frameworks – can be counterproductive. Regardless of whether Europe’s problems are temporary or fundamental – the eurozone, for example, is far from an “optimal” currency area, and tax competition in a free-trade and free-migration area can erode a viable state – austerity will make matters worse.
[…]
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/after-austerity
Just listening to the news you’d think Spain and Ireland were deeply in debt prior to the fraudtastic financial crisis, but no.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Banerjee, Clinton, corporatism, fascism, fascist USA, India, India oil imports, Iran, Iran oil exports, Iran sanctions, Iranian oil, Iranian oil exports, Secretary of Fascism, Secretary of State Clinton, USA, Wal-Mart, who buys Iran's oil, who buys Iranian oil
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged energy-starved India on Monday to reduce its Iranian oil imports to keep up pressure on the Islamic republic to come clean about its nuclear program.
In meetings in the capital, New Delhi, Ms. Clinton was expected to push for India to find alternative sources of oil on the international market.
uhh…
Earlier Monday, she told a town hall meeting in the eastern city of Kolkata that there’s an adequate supply in the market for India to find other suppliers. Ms. Clinton noted India has taken some steps to reduce its imports from Iran but she says the U.S. wants to see more.
“If there weren’t an adequate supply … we would understand, but we believe that there is adequate supply,” she said.
Do they really believe that? Because that is impressively delusional, even for these Champions of Delusion.
Or… Is there really something else going on here? Ah yes — Wal-Mart wants to open in India, and the US is using the threat of sanctions to shoehorn ’em in.
When asked whether India could get a waiver from the Iran sanctions, Ms. Clinton said it was too early to discuss that possibility.
Ms. Clinton also met Monday with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a key partner of India’s ruling coalition who has stymied government efforts to lift restrictions on foreign-owned investments in the country.
Ms. Clinton had a long conversation with Ms. Banerjee about allowing multi-brand retailers, such as Wal-Mart, enter the market, U.S. officials said after the meeting.
Last year, India’s Cabinet had to rescind a decision to open up its market to major foreign retailers after Ms. Banerjee balked at the move, saying it would crush small domestic retailers.
Ah ha. You see how this works.
via Clinton presses India to cut oil imports from Iran – The Globe and Mail.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: economic growth, economics, endless growth, GDP, Herman Daly, neoclassical economics, Steady State Economics
The Church of Economic Growth sings louder as the brushfire of reality encircles the building.
…even though the benefits of further growth are now less than the costs, our decision-making elites have figured out how to keep the dwindling extra benefits for themselves, while “sharing” the exploding extra costs with the poor, the future, and other species.
via What Is the Limiting Factor? « Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle trek, cars, Chief Ward, Florham Park, florham park nj, National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, Police Unity Tour, Ridgewood, ridgewood nj, transportation, unity tour
When cops ride bikes for any reason, it’s good for bicyclists.
On May 9, the police chief leaves behind the bulletproof vest and paperwork to embark on a 300-mile bicycle trek from Florham Park, NJ to Washington D.C. for the 16th annual Police Unity Tour.
Over 1,400 officers rode last year, raising $1.5 million to maintain the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and museum to honor those who gave their lives while on the clock. Over 19,000 names are on the wall. Nine alone have died in the last month.
For Ward, on his third Unity trip, it’s personal.
“I’ve lost a few friends over the years in the line of duty,” he says.
via Police Chief Riding to Remember the Fallen – Ridgewood, NJ Patch.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bike rental, bike share, Bixi, Bloomberg, Citi, Citigroup, fascism lite, TBTF, too big to fail, Vikram Pandit
The Citi Bike program…He heh… Life is funny.
Citigroup Inc. (C) agreed to pay $41 million to sponsor New York City’s bicycle-rental program, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg said will be the largest such system in the U.S. when it begins in July.
The “Citi Bike” program, presented by the mayor and Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit at City Hall today, will offer 10,000 bikes branded with the New York-based bank’s logo at 600 docking stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
via Citigroup Pays $41 Million to Sponsor NYC Bike-Sharing Program – Bloomberg.
(Folks will pay about $100 for a year’s worth. That’s not “sharing,” is it?)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: energy, Fukushima, Fukushima Daiichi, Hiroaki Koide, nuclear accident, nuclear power, radiation, radioactivity, Tepco
Why should little kids have to eat it? An interesting moral dilemma.
クリーンな食べ物はない。
There is no clean food.
残念ながら福島の事故は起きてしまい、全地球に汚染を広げてしまっている。そのため、クリーンとか安全という食べ物というものはありません。
Sadly, the Fukushima accident happened, and has spread contamination throughout the world. So there is no food that is clean or safe.
ただし、猛烈に汚れている食べ物から比較的安全な食べ物まで、連続的に分布している。それをどのように受け入れるかが問題。
But there is a continuous variety of food from extremely contaminated food to relatively safe food. The issue is how to accept [allocate] such food.
猛烈な汚染食品は原子力を進めていた方々に食べてもらう。東電幹部、原子力を進めてきた政治家や、学者に食べてもらう。そういう仕組みを作りたい。
Extremely contaminated food should be eaten by people who have promoted nuclear power. TEPCO top management, and politicians and scholars who have promoted nuclear power. I would like to build such a system.
後は、原子力をここまで許してきてしまった大人たちに、汚染された食べ物を食べてもらって、子どもたちに汚染されていないものを食べさせてあげる。
The rest of the contaminated food should be eaten by adults, who have allowed nuclear power to this extent, so that the non-contaminated food goes to children.
via EX-SKF:
Filed under: Uncategorized
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Assad, fascists, Homs, Idlib, kill, regime, Syria, troops
From March…
Syrian forces are executing scores of suspected opposition sympathisers in the northern city of Idlib, often burning their bodies in piles or torching them in their homes then sending family members to find them, witnesses say.
Idlib residents who spoke to an Amnesty International official last month painted a dire portrait of a city at the mercy of regime troops and irregular loyalists who routinely sweep homes seeking dissenters to kill.
via The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/04/syrian-forces-executing-burning-idlib
And don’t forget Homs.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, Chinese oil imports, fuel oil, IHS, Iran, Iran oil exports, Iran oil trade, PetroChina, Poten, Tianbao, Zhuhai Zhenrong
But…but…
Zhuhai Zhenrong Co., the Chinese company censured by the U.S. in January for trading with Iran, provisionally hired an oil tanker to carry fuel oil from the Persian Gulf nation, shipping data showed.
Tianbao, a unit of state-owned Zhuhai Zhenrong, chartered the Khorfakkan to load 80,000 metric tons on May 15 from the Iranian port of Bandar Mahshahr, according to three shipbrokers including Poten & Partners Inc. in New York. The Liberia-flagged vessel is under way in the Persian Gulf, transmissions captured by IHS Inc. (IHS) on Bloomberg show.
Fuel oil is a residual product of refining used for power generation and as shipping fuel. […]
via Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-04/china-s-zhuhai-zhenrong-books-may-fuel-oil-shipment-from-iran.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cornucopianism, doom porn, energy, Kunstler, peak oil, technology
Kunstler is always a fun read. Well-informed too. But he is a glass-half-empty kind of guy.
He’s got a new one coming out, apparently calling us out for our magical thinking about ‘technology,’ which is a good idea.
And there’s an interview on DisinfoCast here: http://www.disinfo.com/2012/04/too-much-magic-with-james-howard-kunstler-the-disinfocast-with-matt-staggs-episode-07/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: flotsam, Fukushima Daiichi, Japanese bachelor Harley, Miyagi Prefecture, radioactive debris, tsunami, tsunami debris
…of tsunami debris, headed toward Canada.
Among the first arrivals is one ill-advised purchase by unnamed Japanese bachelor from Miyagi Prefecture.
“The door was ripped off it and I could see a motorcycle tire sticking out,” he said. “So I went closer and looked inside and saw a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.”
The bike was rusty, particularly on the wheels and handlebars, but the logo on the fuel tank was unmistakable.
“First I thought, this has got to be the craziest thing anyone has ever found,” he said.
“Then I looked a little closer and the licence had Japanese writing on it. The wall of the trailer had Japanese print on the tags. And the first thing that popped into my head was this is likely from the Tsunami in Japan.”
via http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/04/29/bc-tsunami-debris-harley.html CBC News.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Afghan War, Afghanistan, diesel generators, fuel convoys, Khyber Pass, Lao Tzu, NATO convoys, Pakistan, Patten says eat your belt, supply lines
What is that, like 4 – 0?
It’s easy to stop a war if you control the supply lines. Just put a ‘kink in the hose.’ Without stuff — fuel and equipment — there’s no war.
Pakistan has virtually shut down US supply lines to Afghanistan after US-Pak relations soured to the latest low. They can still bring in some stuff, but not nearly enough fuel and supplies to prosecute a war.
Interesting — no mention of fuel supply in the piece at all. Fuel supply is the immediate issue. It takes an endless convoy of tanker trucks to make big war in Afghanistan. You live by the power, you die by the power. Lao Tzu. Look it up. Khyber Pass wins again.
WASHINGTON — Thousands of tons of military equipment intended for the Afghan army and police is stranded in Pakistan, which for months has refused to reopen ground supply routes for NATO convoys despite high-level U.S. pressure, a new Pentagon report says.
via Equipment for Afghan army is stranded in Pakistan, Pentagon says – latimes.com.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 