Oil: another good article

The picture above makes things pretty clear; click for the article.

Here's an explanation as to why Indonesia's no longer gonna be in OPEC, and why more dominoes will fall....


If there's any single human-alterable cause of oil prices right now, it's fuel subsidies in many countries that want to hide price-signals from their citizens. These subsidies are a political "third rail", even in tyrannies like China and Saudi Arabia.

Without the Hot Air

Regardless of whether you think global warming is true, false, or beneficial, we do know that we have a looming issue of energy availability for the next few generations. To that extent, a fizzlecist in England has put together the draft of a book that explains the options that people have, based on a numerical approach that respects the fact that a Watt is a lot smaller than a MW.

Highly recommended cluefulness that I'd recommend recommending.

Here's the link: http://withouthotair.com/

George Carlin is Dead

Sigh... Mr. Carlin made even Terry Gros's show worth listening to...

"Why is it you can get on radio and say you pricked your finger, but you can't say you fingered your *bleeped* ? They're the same words...."

It was bad enough Bill Hicks is gone; now with Carlin gone I wonder: is era of social comedians over?

Obama: best hope for Republicans?

The Reagan coalition of libertarians, fiscal conservatives and social(Christian) conservatives has been dead since Bush took office; libertarians are seen as a lunatic fringe and the social conservatives tell the fiscal conservatives "where ya gonna go?".

But as I look at Obama's current tax policy recommendations, which would raise the maximum federal marginal rates (all taxes, not just the income tax) to just over 50%, I have to think that the Clinton Democrats are being killed off by Old Labor and other nemeses from the dark past. If Obama's elected, besides the stake it would drive through the pustulent heart of Al Sharpton, it would solidify the demise of centrist democrats, once again putting the kinds of Dems in the white house that Republicans know how to win against: with a Reagan-esque coalition....

Of course, it would come at the cost of social architects on the Supreme Court, and that's not good. The current court's bad enough already--even Scalia's making decisions on policy rather than constitutionality....

Purity Scales

Just saw the XKCD cartoon above, and was thinking about both Russ and Mike's comments regarding teaching. Surely that cartoon is apt for the sciences, but I wonder about "purity scales" for other fields. Could one really argue that tactics are merely applied strategies, for example?

The View from Mars

That's a highly telephoto viewing angle, so add lots of nothingness for the complete picture....