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News Briefs 11-07-2008

“You see things and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say: ‘Why not?’”

Big thanks to Big Papa Greg!

Quote of the Day:

“Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: It can be delightful…”

George Bernard Shaw

  1. Farming the oceans for food and fuel
    [quote]The plan is to cut an ocean canal into the desert to nourish commercial ponds of shrimp and fish. Instead of dumping the effluent back into the ocean, the company would channel it further inland to fertilize fields of salicornia for biofuel. The seawater’s next stop would be man-made wetlands. These mangrove forests could be “sold” to polluters to meet emissions cuts mandated by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change[/quote]

    This hasn’t been mentioned by any mexican newspaper that I’m aware of. Which is a GOOD thing; why? because this could be used for the advantage of some politicians to cry about the attempt of foreign invaders to capitalize with energy production on mexican soil.

    According to the Constitution, all manners of energy resources belong to the nation… including renewable ones. So if I were to invent a new form of revolutionary solar panel that would allow me to sell clean electric energy to my neighbours, I would be arrested.

    We are THAT stupid. So hopefully Mr. Hodges will be able to continue his research without any interference from outraged politicians.

    —–
    It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
    It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

    Red Pill Junkie

    1. re: Farming the oceans for food and fuel
      [quote]According to the Constitution, all manners of energy resources belong to the nation… including renewable ones. So if I were to invent a new form of revolutionary solar panel that would allow me to sell clean electric energy to my neighbours, I would be arrested.[/quote]

      You’re joking, right? You’d still be allowed to produce your own? Not 100% sure about where I live, but if I had enough electricity to feed 2 properties, I can’t imagine seeing some goons showing up to arrest me, unless I’m threatening the power utilities monopoly, in which case I’d probably “commit suicide”, get a convenient heart attack or car crash 🙂

      1. Well…
        The law would permit me to generate energy for my own personal consumption. It’s when you sell it to others that you start to break the law.

        So ideas like having people install solar panels on their roof tops so in sunny days the excess juice you don’t use could be distributed back to the grid (i.e. sell it to the electric company) could not be implemented because they are anti-constitutional.

        The energy laws in Mexico are severely out of date and obsolete, and yet they can’t be reformed or improved because people perceive them as the basis of our nationality. One of the most respected presidents in our history is Lázaro Cárdenas, the man who nationalized the oil indusry in 1938. I wonder what he would think of the rich oil union leaders who go around buying Rolex watches and yachts while keeping bank accounts on the Cayman islands. Mexico is about to become an oil-importer country and then what are we going to do? Depend entirely on tourism?

        —–
        It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
        It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

        Red Pill Junkie

        1. many places
          There are similar laws in many places. You can make electricity for private consumption, but you are not allowed to feed it into the grid.

          Another funny thing along these lines is Israel. At first it was forbidden to have solar collectors on the roof of your house. This is just for hot water as far as I remember. Then some years later it was allowed. A little later (around 1990 or so), it was required that you have those things.

          Perhaps someone knows this: I read that solar panels over the lifetime of these things, actually have a negative energy balance. The idea is that they generate less energy than it takes to make them, over the lifetime of the system. I do not know if this is true.

          What I do know is there is serious confusion about the factor of oil in energy in the USA, and in Canada, and in most of Europe.

          The media tells us to cut down on our use of electricity, to save global oil consumption. This is nonsense. Almost all of the electricity produced is from coal, hydro, nuclear and some from natural gas. A little bit from wind. Practically nothing from oil.

          —-
          The large print giveth,
          The small print taketh away.

          1. If anything…
            People should try to use their car less.

            I read in the news that Americans are crossing the border to fill their tanks on Mexican pump stations, where the gallon is still cheap because of the federal subsidy on gasoline.

            The problem is that the Mexican government buys the gasoline from the USA. That’s right: we export the oil, and we import gasoline; so now Americans who fill their tanks on our side of the border, get benefitted wih the help of Mexicans’ taxes.

            We are THAT stupid.

            —–
            It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
            It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

            Red Pill Junkie

          2. usage
            Here is a nice chart of
            how enery sources are used. The numbers are from 2002, so it might be somewhat different now, but not a lot. Also that chart is about the USA, and I am sure other countries are not the same. France for example gets more than 80% of their electric power from nuclear plants

            In any case, the majority of energy is lost. And that does not even include driving around for no good reason, or playing pointless games , or listening to bad music on iPods while getting run over by trains (yes people do that).

            I have said this before – one thing that bothers me about nuclear is that we are only using it to boil water. It seems silly to waste all that gamma radiation, all the neutrons that we have trouble dealing with later.

            Oh well.

            —-
            The large print giveth,
            The small print taketh away.

  2. There’s a problem here
    “People should try to use their car less” (RPJ)

    I agree – IF they live in a city where there is public transport.

    Australia is an enormous country, and big cities with public transport are few and far between.

    In the town where I live (fairly rural), there is one round-trip bus per day that could take me into the CBD. It wouldn’t help if, say, I wanted to take my cat to the Vet as it doesn’t go anywhere near there (and they wouldn’t let me take my cat in the bus anyway). The bus goes nowhere near where my best friend lives. It is 2 km from my house to the nearest small shop and mail-box and 3.5 km into the CBD (it’s a rather spread-out town).

    Our nearest town to the south is 80 km away. Our nearest town to the north is 90 km away. Our nearest cities are 200 km away either north or south. And that’s on the coastal strip which is more highly populated than the inland where a rural property (cattle station) might be 200 km (yes, two hundred km) from the nearest town of any description.

    We have no option but to own and drive a car. This is a problem of distance that we cannot overcome.

    Regards, Kathrinn.

    1. We don’t need oil.
      We do not need oil for cars.

      Electrolysis technology is available, has been for a century. One litre of water (puddle water, green tea, doesn’t matter) will run the car for an hour. Japanese company Genepax recently released it’s waterpowered car — but was only allowed to sell 200, bullied by government and big business. More info here.

      Norway has the Think electric car (and despite the disinfo, it does NOT put more pressure on the power grid, that is disinfo fearmongering). But why aren’t we driving them? Who killed the electric car? It wasn’t just big business and governments, it was us.

      ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! Damn right I’m angry. The solution is right there, within reach…

      1. drivers
        A big part of the problem are drivers in the big cities. They cause traffic jams for no reason – the fuel consumption of little cars in a traffic jam is awful, much worse than big fast cars going long distances. Traffic jams happen because most drivers are basically stupid, not because there are too many cars.

        We have the technology to let the cars drive themselves in cities and at major intersections. This would save fuel. Any kind of fuel. It would save time, reduce pollution, increase productivity – the commuters would have less stress, for a shorter time. And we can let the rural people drive whatever cars or trucks they want, they are not the problem.

        —-
        The large print giveth,
        The small print taketh away.

    2. I understand
      I understand your situation Kathrinn. Mexico city is a REALLY big city. My daily commute is more than 20 km long, and the public transport is awful—and personally uncomfortable, because I’m 6′-4″, and the buses were designed thinking of people at least 1 foot shorter than me!

      What I meant is that sometimes you use your car when there’s no need. Yesterday I went to retrieve some DVDs I rented at Blockbuster, and decided to walk instead of using my car like I always do. Took me 20 minutes to go there and back but it was fine, and it was good exercise too.

      Likewise when I go to the barber shop; fom now on I’ll go walking, even if it takes me 20 just to get there; after all, on weekends what’s the rush?

      Since last week a new restriction program has been enabled here in Mexico city. It’s been like 10+ years since the cars get a special decal that permits them to either circulate around the streets everyday, or restrict them one day of the week—depending of the car’s year and its level of emmissions—but that program was not implemented on weekends. Now the program will be on effect also on saturdays, and it’s still not enough to placate the huge traffic jams that we suffer.

      —–
      It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
      It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

      Red Pill Junkie

      1. my point
        This kind of thing is my point. 20 kilometers is not a very long commute in many big cities. There are many people who have 50 or even 100 km commutes.

        And again, the problem is not the distance. The problem is the intersections. There everyone slows down for no reason. Cars using any kind of fuel are terribly inefficient when then go zero kilometers per hour. You can’t fix that with battery power. A car operated on any kind of battery or fuel (which is a battery), standing still, is wasting energy.

        So I propose that to save energy we should make things run more smoothly. No sense burning fuel while standing still.

        —-
        The large print giveth,
        The small print taketh away.

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