Friday, July 25, 2008

If anyone has been paying attention

I have been posting about T Boone Pickens a lot lately ... the old man with The Plan.

I like the plan, at least it is something out there, an energy solution. You don't hear much about solutions. And yes, Pickens would profit substantially, not only in his wind farm in Texas, but he also owns a natural gas company Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE).

Mr. Pickens is a flaming republican also. I can put aside my political leanings for the energy crisis cause, but there is a chapter in Mr. Pickens' politcial activism that I find difficult to swallow.

Remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, guess who funded them? Yup .... T Boone Pickens. Ug, so now what?

I have no problem with profits, I am a small-business guy myself, but the mud slinging by the Swift Boats is something else. That whole election cycle was a mess, there needs to be free speech in the democratic marketplace, but there is also a need for accurate speech.

I like the Pickens energy plan, but now I am a little doubtful. Is this really a solution? Mr. Pickens has no problem, apparently with playing it fast and loose with the facts of a given situation, makes me wonder me wonder about the accuracy of his statements about his current plan. He says he's out of the politics, and the energy plan is his thing now, "that's absolutely nonpartisan."

I suppose time will tell, The Huffington Post is now gushing over him and Fox News is bashing him, a reversal from Mr. Pickens' Swift Boat days. T Boone would have a little more credibility in my book, if his $1Mil Swift Boat challenge was on the up and up.
"Unfortunately, key aspects of my offer of $1 million have not been accurately reported," Mr. Pickens wrote in a letter to the crewmen. "My offer, reiterated in a letter to Senator Kerry not long after the challenge was made, was to pay $1 million for information that would prove any of the ads – which I helped fund – inaccurate. In reviewing your material, none of the information you provide speaks specifically to the issues contained in the ads."

. . .

"I guess now we know the 'T' in T. Boone doesn't stand for 'truth,' " said Del Sandusky, one of the crewmen [who served with John Kerry in Vietnam]. "I really hoped we could've taken him at his word. ... We won't rest until he admits the truth that he bankrolled a big lie."

Mosk, Matthew. "Once a Swift Boat Ad Funder, Now Giving Millions to Energy Ads." The Trial, Daily Diary of Campaign 2008. 21 July 2008. Washington Post. 25 Jul 2008 <http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/21/once_a_swift_boat_ad_funder_no.html>.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Undiscovered oil could meet world demand for 23 years

Graphic showing the countries disputing the sovereignty of the Arctic waters. Experts estimate the Arctic holds 100 billion barrels of oil.(AFP/Graphic) The article from Reuters is actually Arctic's oil could meet world demand for 3 years. One paragraph in particular caught my eye:
The Arctic accounts for about 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas and 20 percent of the undiscovered natural gas liquids, the agency said in the first publicly available petroleum resource estimate of the entire area north of the Arctic Circle.
Essentially, what I pulled from the article was that in the realm of undiscovered oil, 13% would satisfy the world for 3 years. So, the question I had was how long would whole 100% last.

The public schools catch a lot of flack, but you just have to solve for the variable. Hence, Y x .13 = 3 years. Just divide each side by .13, to isolate Y (or Years of oil left).

The answer, 23.07 years. The next question would be ...

How much known oil is left?


Saturday, July 12, 2008

Patton Oswalt Channels Dr. Phil

Just finished the stylesheet changes, watching a little Deadliest Catch, admiring my handiwork and the inbox chimes -

A commencement speech, words of wisdom from Patton Oswalt, really? He threw in some great local humor:
I know most of you worked very hard to get here today but guess what? The Universe sent you a pasty goblin to welcome you into the world. Were The Greaseman and Arch Campbell not available?
Hobble dee gee, hobble dah gah.

Then I started thinking, Greaseman went on the air to replace Howard Stern, and where is Grease now?

To the grads, your fishing career has officially started, don't f*** it up.

AMF.
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