<DrumBeat: July 25, 2006The Oil DrumDrumBeat: July 26, 2006>

216 comments on Vinod Khosla Debunked: Ethanol is NOT the Answer

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AlphaMaleProphetOfDoom on July 25, 2006 - 10:08pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
RR,

I could never join the "everything is all right club." My personality is too blunt and my mouth far too big and beyond my ability to control for that. Imagine me saying something like "sure everything is all right . . . ahahah. . . but yee ahah . . . if your ass is Halliburton, beyootch!!!"

However, I could be persuaded to join the "Shut the f--k up and go away club." But it would cost several million at the least. That would be enough for me to set my parents, my sister, and me and my two wives* on some prime arable land in the mendocino area with a series of delux off-the-grid yurts plus enough I could stop working and this focus on getting homestead as self-sufficient as possible. Along with setting up a business or two on the land: maybe a bicycle shop and an alt-medicine set up.

I'm sure others would say, "I would never sell out." I call bullshit on that. EVERY MAN has his price. Most simply won't admit it.

*two wives have not yet been found, as of this writing.

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Robert Rapier on July 25, 2006 - 10:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Believe it or not, I have had multiple offers from ethanol ventures of one sort or another. Isn't that ironic? One came right after my testimony against an ethanol mandate last year. I have always said "No", but I often ask myself at what price I would say "Yes". I am not all that motivated by money, but I think you are right about everyone having their price. I just honestly don't know what mine is.

For the humor impaired, Khosla didn't ask my price. He said he will offer me the chance to make my arguments to him and change his mind. But I am afraid he is in far too deep to publicly change his stance, even if I do convince him. I am making a short laundry list of objections to his arguments, I will let him review it, and then we will speak on the phone. I will reiterate my desire to hash this out in an open debate, because it is public opinion that I want to influence. I want to help a few more people become Peak Oil aware.  

Cheers,

RR

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AlphaMaleProphetOfDoom on July 25, 2006 - 10:44pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Big Oil/NSA rep/Friend of Dick Cheney:  "Matt, we think it would be best if you shut LATOC down."

Me: "Well, I'm not really looking to do that . . ."

Big Oil/NSA rep/Friend of Dick Cheney: "What if we paid you $3,000,000?"

Me: "404 message is already up boys!"

A few days later:

Me: "yeah, the site is down folks. . ."

TOD poster: "Matt you sold out you SOB"

Me: "Kiss my ass, me and my three wives* are sitting on 20 acres of corn and squash while you're sweltering in some suburban hellhole sucka!!!"

I'm not motivated by materialsim myself. I have no car, few posssession not related to my business (like my laptop) and the first thing people say upon entering my apartment is "wow, spartan . . ." (seriously people always say it) but I am motivated by my desire to escape suburbia and doing that does require money, at least if you want to do it the right way.

*figured I'd add another one just for the heck of it.

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Nate Hagens on July 26, 2006 - 1:10am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
i am dead tired, yet your humor on this serious crossroads subject just made me really laugh
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Don in Colorado on July 26, 2006 - 2:42am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
We need to find Matt some Amish wives who can can tomatoes and will cheerfully listen to him expounding on the fate of the Mexican oil fields while on their honeymoons.

Should be easy ...

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tstreet on July 27, 2006 - 11:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
He will be able to save face with this.  If people bring up your objections, he will say, well I talked to him, we had a long, spritied, frank discussion, and after giving this some deep thought I found Mr. Rapier's arguments unconvincing.  But we are keeping an open dialogue and I have great respect for Mr. Rapier's earnest if misguided efforts.
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Engineer-Poet on July 28, 2006 - 12:15am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
The first thing to ask Khosla:

What would persuade him to reverse his stance?

And get that in writing, in advance of any further debate.

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Don Sailorman on July 25, 2006 - 10:38pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I do not know of any "prime arable land" in the Mendocino area.

In my lifetime I have done aproximately 31,141 RSTs (Really Stupid Things). One of the Very Dumbest (VD) came in 1957 when I had an opportunity to buy a section (640 acres) of cut-over timberland not far from the Mendocino coast. But I did not like the price of $100 an acre and put in a lower offer--which was rejected. Well, you lose a few, and then you lose a few more . . . .

I think there may still be some steep and dry cut-over timberland in that area that would be great for sheep or goats--but not for prime agricultural land by any stretch of the imagination. Most of the land up in the hills above Mendocino is awfully steep--but suitable for fortifications and polygonous communes for sure.

Think goats.

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AlphaMaleProphetOfDoom on July 25, 2006 - 10:46pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Don,

Let's think a bit here. You don't get to be the "alpha male" by telling people the EXACT spot where you're setting up your apocalyp  . . I mean homestead.

but it would be in the norcal area as that is where all my friends and family are loacted.

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Don Sailorman on July 26, 2006 - 1:54pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
My advice is to follow the water.

BTW, by sheer happenstance, more than fifty years ago I stumbled upon the best tap water in Calif. and possibly the second best in the world.

Dunsmuir, CA.

Old railway/logging town that hardly anybody has ever heard of--unbelievably good water from snow melt onto (I think) granite. No filtration, no aeration, no nothin' but the water is so good that I cannot do it justice in words.

If you want the world's best tap water, go to Buhl, Minnesota, an iron mining ghost town where few live in what used to be a bustling little city. They jug their tap water and send it hundreds or thousands of miles--tastes better than anything the Frogs put in bottles, and by a considerable margin. Also, in blindfolded tests, it tends to beat all other waters, from whatever sources. Comes from ancient and deep Pleistocene deposits, and apparently there is a whole lot the good stuff left.

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WebHubbleTelescope on July 26, 2006 - 8:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Water has no taste.
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Don Sailorman on July 26, 2006 - 11:15pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Then why does Minneapolis tap water make me sick nearly to the point of nausea from its foul taste? And why do people pay a couple of bucks for half a liter of water from France or Fijii or Iceland?

No taste?

Speak for yourself;-)

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Kevembuangga on July 27, 2006 - 1:48am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Speak for yourself;-)

Here I have to support Don, but what does this have to do with Peak Oil???

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WebHubbleTelescope on July 27, 2006 - 7:55pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Exactly. It's darn easy to push this guy's buttons.
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Wharf Rat on July 27, 2006 - 10:50am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
A Toxic Nightmare:
The Dunsmuir Metam Sodium Spill Revisited
July, 1997
This toxic nightmare began Sunday, July 14th. 1991 at 9:50 P.M. when a 97-car Southern Pacific train lurched while rounding the Cantara loop in the upper Sacramento River gorge. Seven tankers suddenly derailed and plunged from the river trestle. One landed in the middle of the Sacramento River in about two feet of water. The conductor first checked to see if the tanker's contents were listed as hazardous. Finding no reason for concern, he and the engineer went to survey the damage but were put off by the poisonous smell. They radioed headquarters that they were "getting the hell out of there!" Uncoupling the engine, they hurried on to Mt. Shasta, the next town up the line. The tanker, left lying on its side, slowly leaked nineteen thousand gallons of the pesticide, metam sodium, into one of the more well known, pristine wild trout streams in California. It wasn't until early the next morning that the full extent of this tragedy started to materialize.
http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/reaction/a_toxic_nightmare.html
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