Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ENI, exemptions, Iran, Iran sanctions, Italy
Via Reuters…
Let’s see.. That’s S. Korea, India and Italy so far.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bond yields, economic meltdown, EU, Euro breakup, eurozone, Italian bonds
Via Econbrowser via Bloomberg.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Armenia, Caucasus, Chechnya, Georgia, kurdistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caucasus-ethnic_en.svg
click to enlarge
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle theft, bicycles, bike theft, fixed gear, fixies, hipsters
Bicycle thefts surging – SGVTribune.com.
Operative word was. For sixteen weeks in 1992.
This is an interesting take on bike theft. Now they want fixed gear bikes as well as the old road frames for conversions. Used to be thieves were completely uninterested in both types.
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: energy, New Zealand, oil spill, petroleum, Rena, tanker, transport
“The wreck of the Greek-owned Rena was described as New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental disaster even before the rear section of the ship, lashed by pounding seas, broke away yesterday. The ship has already spilled heavy fuel oil that fouled pristine North Island beaches and killed up to 20,000 seabirds, and despite salvage efforts nearly 400 tonnes of oil remain onboard.”
via New Zealand braces for oil spill as Rena splits on reef | The Australian
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bike lanes, infrastructure, Israel, Shai Agassi, Tel Aviv
Municipal Director General Menahem Leibe stresses that the city’s investment in bike paths is part of a clearly defined policy of putting bicyclists and pedestrians first. “It can come at the expense of private cars. There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Leibe said, although he adds that the ultimate goal is striking the right balance among pedestrians, bicycles and cars.
On Bloch Street, one end of which faces the municipality, dozens of parking spaces are being sacrificed for bike lanes, to the outrage of people who live or work in the area. “It’s insignificant,” Leibe said, promising to build more parking lots. He said it’s all part of the worldview of the municipality and the man who heads it.
“Our idea is for vehicles to park underground and for pedestrians and bicyclists to be on the ground. It’s the right thing, especially in a city as densely populated as Tel Aviv,” Leibe said.
via Coming to Tel Aviv? Better bring your bicycle – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.
Two years ago everybody was talking about Shai Agassi’s idea for electric car charging stations and battery exchange in Israel. Haven’t heard much about that lately.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, Chindia, India, Iran, Iran sanctions, who buys Iran's oil, workaround
India is exploring all options to find a way out to make oil payments to Iran as there are chances that Turkey, through which it is making payment, may come under pressure after a fresh round of U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran.
India currently pays Iran about $1 billion every month through Turkey for the 370,000 barrels a day of crude oil it buys from the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.
According to sources, India is holding talks with Russia for routing payments to Iran. Discussions with United States are also going on for a possible relaxation or waiver in the sanctions.
via India exploring ways of making oil payments to Iran | Calcutta News.Net
Iran sanctions lead U.S. allies in Asia to seek special arrangements in order to continue, perhaps increase, imports from Iran. This is an interesting way for the US to increase leverage against any country that imports a lot of oil from Iran, including China. Anything about these workarounds in the US press?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, CPSC, helmet, helmet recall, Triple Eight
These cheap helmets distributed by Triple Eight are recalled for failing CPSC requirements. Which is the first time I’ve ever heard of that happening. Not saying it doesn’t. I’ve just never heard that one before.
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/50268/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AeroScout, COTEMAR, fascism, OMFG, Pemex, RFID, RTLS, surveillance, tagging humans
In their living quarters, mind you. Next step — tags implanted under the skin. As a condition of employment. You want a job don’t you? What – you got something to hide??
COTEMAR, which services oil and gas platforms operated by Mexico’s largest petroleum company, has deployed AeroScout’s Real-Time Location System (RTLS) on four of its offshore housing vessels that support PEMEX’s oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
via RIGZONE – COTEMAR Tracks Offshore Workers with RFID Tags.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Azerbaijan, demand, demand destruction, depletion, OECD, OPEC, peak oil, supply
He said, “Any disappointments on the demand side have on average been outweighed by disappointments on the supply side, and in particular the spectacular deceleration in non-OPEC supply after the first quarter started off on a strong note with non-OPEC supply in January increasing by almost 1 million b/d, continuing the momentum seen across the fourth quarter of 2010.” Despite strong growth in production of unconventional liquids, non-OPEC supply growth virtually ground to a halt. Horsnell blamed underperformance in the North Sea, technical issues in Brazil and Azerbaijan, decline rates in China, fires in Canada, strikes in Kazakhstan, and geopolitical disruptions in Sudan, Yemen, and Syria.
“The only bright spot has been the US where the momentum in oil shales has continued to tick higher, helping offset some of the weakness from the rest of the world,” he said.
via 2011: 'Odd year' for oil – Oil & Gas Journal.
Could be what Peak Oil looks like.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Keystone pipeline, Keystone XL, keystone xl pipeline, Mike Klink, oil sands, tar sands, TransCanada
Appeared in Journal Star on December 31, 2011. Klink says TransCanada does shoddy work with shoddy materials, spills a lot of oil out of their pipelines, and calls it success.
Mike Klink: Keystone XL pipeline not safe.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: commodities inflation, food price index, food prices, inflation, UN
Appears to have doubled in ten years.
From the UN Report on the World Food Situation.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: civil war, Iraq, Sadr City, Shia, Shiite, Sunnis
The bombers choice of Sadr City as a target appeared designed to cause as much rage among Iraq’s Shia majority as possible.
The district, home to more than 3m Shias, is one of the most sensitive in the country, providing many of the recruits that have served in radical militias like the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand Shia cleric.
via Wave of bombings across Iraq leaves more than 70 dead – Telegraph.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: energy, nuclear power, Plant Scherer, smart but not wises, tsnumi-catching nuke plants, tsunami danger, USGS
…Plant Scherer, Georgia.
From Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2005, USGS (pdf).
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: crude oil, depletion, IEA, oil predictions, peak oil, petroleum, production, Rech
Q: What do you foresee? Let’s begin with the non-OPEC producers (which represent 58% of production and 23% of global reserves).
Rech: Outside OPEC, things are clear: of 40 million barrels per day (mb/d) of conventional petroleum extracted from existing fields, we face an annual decline on the order of 1 to 2 mb/d.
via Oil will decline shortly after 2015, says former oil expert of International Energy Agency | Oil Man.
Roughly 5% annual decline in conventional supply ongoing.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bob Beamon, Iran, Iranian Revolution, North Sea, oil supply, supply disruption
“If Hormuz was to be disrupted, we’re talking the biggest disruption the oil market has ever seen,” said Blanch.
“We’ve never seen anything like it, and that’s why we think it’s very unlikely,” he said.
via Bottom Line – Iran oil standoff could mean higher gas prices.
The disruption associated with the Iranian Revolution in ’79 holds the current record. Even Bob Beamon’s record got taken out. (Didn’t it?)
After that disruption, the global supply problem was temporarily fixed in large part due to huge reservoirs that were discovered many years prior to the Iranian Revolution, in Alaska and the N. Sea, coming on line.
This time, we have cooked sand.
Filed under: Uncategorized
South Korean refiners purchased 190,000 bpd (barrels per day) from Iran last year, according to the Reuters news agency. The country, which rates as the fifth-largest oil importer in the world, will meet with the U.S. to request an exemption from sanctions signed into law by President Barack Obama on Saturday. The sanctions could block refiners from paying for Iranian oil.
via South Korea Increases Oil Deal with Iran – Global Agenda – News – Israel National News.
You see how this works now.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bakken Shale, Barnett Shale, drilling rigs, dry gas, Eagle Ford, energy, gas drilling, LNG, Marcellus, methane, Natural gas, production, rig counts, shale gas, shale plays, tight gas
From a detailed article at Rigzone. http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=113890&hmpn=1
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: consumption, energy, light vehicle sales, SAAR, transportation
13.5 something or other. Slight decrease from November. From Calculated Risk…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, bike, bike repair, fixstation, Fixtation, repair stand, Vending machine
Yeah. That’s totally normal.
From an article in Vending Times.
I wonder how many sizes of spokes they have in that thing.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 
