Right, I wasn't clear.

I meant the "doomsday" scenario never happened, not that the Gulf rigs weren't damaged severely. Here we are, under $60/barrel again, and all's right with the world. ;]

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Not so popular stories:

  1. Ford to fire 7000 US-more overseas (Volvo/Jaguar).
  2. Natural-gas futures soared 90.4 cents to settle at $13.931 per million British thermal units, after rising as high as $13.95 -- just 38.8 cents off their record settlement of $14.338 reached Oct. 25.
  3. Today's shut-in oil production is 539,074 BOPD. This shut-in oil production is equivalent to 35.94% of the daily oil production in the GOM, which is currently approximately 1.5 million BOPD.

Today's shut-in gas production is 2.943 BCFPD. This shut-in gas production is equivalent to 29.43% of the daily gas production in the GOM, which is currently approximately 10 BCFPD.

The cumulative shut-in oil production for the period 8/26/05-12/02/05 is 96,956,676 bbls, which is equivalent to 17.709% of the yearly production of oil in the GOM (approximately 547.5 million barrels).

The cumulative shut-in gas production 8/26/05-12/02/05 is 501.222 BCF, which is equivalent to 13.732 % of the yearly production of gas in the GOM (approximately 3.65 TCF)

http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2005/press1202.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8E8B8UO0.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

The tragic part of all this is that we have become such a foolish and craven people, so lost in our endless victory laps, incessant self-awards, and failures of attention, that we will deserve everything that reality throws at us. We are past the point of being unworthy of our own history, so maybe we ought to stop pretending to celebrate it.

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary15.html

we have become such a foolish and craven people, so lost in our endless victory laps, incessant self-awards, and failures of attention, that we will deserve everything that reality throws at us. We are past the point of being unworthy of our own history

Easy there. I sense great anger and frustration.

The sheeple do not "deserve" the harsh pains that reality (aka Mother Nature) might throw at them.

"Deserving" is a side companion of "blame" and the "I'm better than they" syndrome. None of that is going to help.

One should forgive the sheeple because, honestly, they really, really "know not what they do".

Would you blame a 5 month old baby for making a doo doo in his/her pants? Of course not. They know not what they do (do) and also, physically they probably can't help it.

It is going to take time, patience, and a great deal of educating to move society from its current state of blissful ignorance to one of knowledge and proactive prevention.

We don't give up on messy babies. We shouldn't throw in the towel on our messy civilization either.

Deep breath and start your day afresh.
Peace.