excerpts:
----------------
Anti-Muslim Riot in Nigeria Turns Deadly
By DULUE MBACHU, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 13 minutes ago
Christian mobs rampaged through a southern Nigerian city Tuesday,
burning mosques and killing several people in an outbreak of anti-
Muslim violence that followed deadly protests against caricatures of
the Prophet Muhammad over the weekend.
Residents and witnesses in the southern, predominantly Christian city
of Onitsha said several Muslims with origins in the north were beaten
to death by mobs which also burned two mosques there.
"The mosque at the main market has been burnt and I've counted at
least six dead bodies on the streets," Izzy Uzor, an Onitsha resident
and businessman, told The Associated Press by telephone. "The whole
town is in a frenzy and people are running in all directions."
The violence appeared to be in reprisal for anti-Christian violence
Saturday in the mostly Muslim northern city of Maiduguri in which
thousands of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad
attacked Christians and burned churches, killing at least 18 people.
Police and government officials were not immediately available for
comment.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of more than 130 million
people, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a
mainly Christian south. Thousands of people have died in religious
violence in Nigeria since 2000.
Saturday's protest over the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in Maiduguri
marked the first violent demonstrations over the issue in Nigeria.
Police say at least 18 people, most of them Christians, died, and 30
churches were burned down. The Christian Association of Nigeria said
at least 50 people were killed in the violence.
------------------
My comments:
The elites must be celebrating! If the written word is more powerful
than the sword, and a picture paints a thousand words: then it is now
a proven fact that a cartoon is magnitudes more powerful than the
sword. The perfect dopamine ICBM [Inner Cranial Brain Missile] to setoff an explosion of the worst
impulses in the reptilian human brain.
It is the wolfpack dream come true when the reindeer start cutting
each other's throats. No wasting of energy chasing down the prey,
just sauntering up to a lavish feast. Imagine the exurburant war-
profiteering opportunities as 130 million descend into religious
decimation. Can you hear the elites laughing as any reindeer deaths
means more oil for further elite power consolidation and less for us?
Hubbert was correct in his theory of eventual 'energy depletion', but
this is just the geo-physical outlook. The elites are operating
using the realpolitik theory of 'energy deletion': create wars to
keep as much oil and gas in the ground as possible; a purposeful
energy cliff. The elite can always afford their lavish lifestyles,
the suffering of the proles is simply not their problem, in fact, it
is their intentional program.
Simple periodic tweaking of the 'Porridge Principle of Metered
Decline' works wonders, doesn't it? Detritus supplies are finite,
but the possibilities to eliminate detritovores are infinite! The
optimum curve matching of population to energy is to reduce headcount
to reduce demand for energy.
With the passage of time, we can expect more cartoons and other
propaganda to setoff war supporters vs anti-war protester violence,
racial and ethnic conflicts, religious pograms, workers vs. the
unemployed, car-owners vs bicyclists, landowners vs renters, sewer-
users vs. humanure advocates, even young against old. We can also
expect the wolves to feast upon the reindeer intra-conflict every
step of the way.
Unfortunately, I fear
us reindeer are SUV-headed down the hard asphalt path of 'Nuke their
Ass--I want Gas'. Unfortunately, there are too few who are willing
to cutoff their 'chrome penis' of vehicular vanity, followed by the
self-inflicted cutting off of their electrical 'balls' of light and
heat. The Dieoff is a fact of Nature and we dwell within its
Domain. Genetically, we detritovores are not designed to
energetically mutilate ourselves.
You know, you should really put a bit more feeling into your posts :-)
I think that before you assume that the Mysterious Evil Elders in Purple Robes are behind this one, you should realize that ethnic/religious/tribal rivalry and butchery in Africa is at least as old as ethnic/relgious/tribal rivalry and butchery in Europe. I don't think the problem in Nigeria needed much of a helping hand by Western outside forces: the Nigerians seem to manage quite well in making their own hell, thank you very much.
Which is not to say that we should not be concerned. We are. And the only reason we are is because of the oil. If it weren't for the oil, Nigeria would get about as much US attention as did the genocide in Rawanda, which was zero.
However, I'm sure that some of the more radical elements in our society wouldn't mind seeing Africa decimated to create more 'lebensraum' for Westerners.
Thxs for responding. Not so much 'evil men in purple robes' as the unstoppable economic and political growth paradigm; the Tragedy of the Commons. Longtime readers of my postings on Yahoo:AlasBabylon understand my concept of the detritus-driven 'Humanimal Ecosystem' that overlies the Natural Ecosystem. We could classify all detritovores from keystone predators all the way down to gnats and slugs.
Once the fossil fuel detritus is burned up, us humans will be remelded into intimate contact with the forces of Nature again; just as we were before the discovery of coal, natgas, and oil. How many have thought as they open a longneck of beer that the energy required could have saved a life elsewhere? Very few. Economics, by its inherent design, creates an infinite spectrum of elites. My examples of wolfpack vs reindeer is a vast oversimplification of what is actually a worldwide energy competition to determine dominance.
It is better if one visualizes a entire 'humanimal taxonomy'; lions, wolves, bears, eagles, badgers, elk, deer, antelope, sparrows, trout, pigeons, gnats, etc. Those who have no access to anything detritus-derived; their lifestyle is strictly bio-solar driven could be considered 'Human plants'-- maybe a primitive tribe could be found in New Guinea to fit this humanimal description.
At the other end of the spectrum are the very powerful and rich who essentially are the keystone predators: their natural inclination is to make choices that impact through the entire humanimal foodchain, just as Yellowstone wolves culling elk increases beaver habitat and sapling regrowth along streambanks.
The IMF, WTO, CIA, and other 3-letter orgs is nothing more than the exosomatic extension of humanimal fangs. Wolves can only grasp what their fangs can reach-- Humanimal fangs can extend worldwide due to detritus-derived exosomatic guns, bombs, propaganda, interest financing, and political streamlining of resource flows.
Toto, I find your language colourful and thoughts verging on the bizaar at times, but I do see truth in them.
As the results of these cartoons have played out (I have seen them and it would take a particularly perversely sensitive yet aggressive mind to take such extreme offence) I have wondered if a stream of ever more offensive cartoons might create more fervent riots and deaths amongst the faithful?
Ooops, a mite non-pc maybe, but I'd quite like all fervent monotheists to self-immolate and solve the majority of human problems by doing so. Apologies for my biased and perhaps somewhat (re-) vengeful perspective.
I try to be colorful so that the images stick in people's minds. Hopefully, readers will use my examples to help convince others to start their own Powerdown process. The forum goal of Yahoo:AlasBabylon is to not have boring postings: besides discussing all the bad news we strive to achieve some level of literary endeavor.
Institutional religion is just the actionated creation of the higher brain's functions having to much idle-time. Here is a Google Video link of formerly devout Texas Baptists converting to Islam [best if you have hi-speed connection]:
I fundamentally disagree on your assessment of institutional religion: I perceive it as a predominantly power and control process which has no contact with or purpose towards anything like truth.
To all people who seek truth and faith I would say: why be deluded by others' supposed truth which they clearly use to manipulate you rather than question and seek your own understanding of truth?
I do agree with your comment on brain wiring. We should all strive to understand how we are wired to distort our perception and do our best to correct that so we might begin to see for real.
Unfortunately, there are too few who are willing to cutoff their 'chrome penis' of vehicular vanity, followed by the self-inflicted cutting off of their electrical 'balls' of light and heat.
Thxs for responding. I drive 'old blue', my 1995 4.3 liter v-6 GMC shortbed standard cab pickup with approx. 120,000 miles on it. I have never had sufficient funds to own a new vehicle. I am a 'dead ringer' for Osama Bin Laden: 6'5" and 185 lbs, scraggly beard, and even more ugly-- don't try to kidnap me trying to get the $50 million in reward money, my friends jokingly claim first dibs if they ever find me passed out drunk--LOL! My long legs preclude me from comfortably fitting in many cars, but a pickup allows sufficient room so my knees are not hitting the dash, or my left leg is not pinned between the steering wheel and door.
I did not get my first vehicle until I was nearly 20 years old [nearly 51 now]-- had no problem with my long legs of pedaling over forty miles a day to work and school here in Phx [had a 175 customer paper-route for five years from 11-16]. It would probably kill me now if I had to do that again.
Got my first used pickup [1969 GMC v-6] just in time for the '73 energy crunch a short time later. Remember waiting hours in a gas-line to fillup my tank. That night some bastard took a pipewrench to my locking gascap and siphoned out my tank. No fun driving around a potentially huge Molotov cocktail with a rag stuffed into my gastank fillerneck, a mere couple of feet from my head, until I could get scrape up the cash to get it repaired.
Ever since the 70s energy crunch, I have been a gas-conserving turtledriver--not a rabbit-racer. In fact, I am so good at hitting intersections in the 'green' that my pickup is still on the original brakes!
I first found out about Peakoil and Dieoff in summer of '03, so I consider myself a relative newbie. Changed my Life, as I am sure you will all agree. Fortunately, Phx is an easy place to conserve home energy-- we never turn on the heat, but lightly bundle up. During the summer, we run a swamp cooler, which uses a fraction of the energy of an air-conditioning unit. My neighbors think I am nuts when I bring up Peakoil and Dieoff--they burn all the energy they can afford, porch lights burning all night and that sort of thing.
Spend a lot of time emailing govt orgs and influential others energy saving ideas and appeals for them to study Dieoff.com-- never get a reply-- I think they have a preferential agenda to make sure they survive. Kunstler, among others luminaries, predicts the Southwest to become mostly ghost towns postPeak--I am inclined to agree-- present drought is 120+ days without rain. I often wonder how Oregon and Washington will handle a thirty million people migration influx when Phx, Tucson, LA, San Diego, and hundreds of smaller cities start heading north. My guess is a postPeak civil war. Time will tell. I am the primary caregiver for my ailing mother--cannot leave until she is gone, but I hope she lives forever.
Got a nice 18-speed bicycle set up with baskets all around if a sudden energy crunch hits and I have to pedal-- people call it the Pee-Wee Herman bike, but hopefully it is so funky that no kid will want to steal it postPeak. It is an oversize frame and the seat is really high [I am tall, remember?]-- most kids will bust their balls on the crossframe trying to steal it. Pedaling can be done year round in Phx if you really tank up on water during the summer to prevent dehydration.
You know, Bob, I'm up here in western Colorado, on an old family ranch, and my chief concern is the four million people in the sprawl zones along the Front Range who might decide all of our apple orchards and cattle pastures might be a good place to hang out if the going gets tough.
Four years ago I read about Bush's new house in Crawford -- state-of-the-art energy-independent, year-round water cisterns, solar-powered, the whole bit.
It confused me at the time; but now I understand. He definitely plans to be part of the wolfpack.
Thxs for responding. Good for you, living on a ranch-- you automatically get more eco-support from Nature than 99% of us. This eco-buffer will be crucial in the years ahead, I hope you have a good hand-pumpable waterwell or stream on your property.
Water skirmishes with shootings were common out west a hundred years ago--legislators and lawyers took over the battle, but Peakoil and Overshoot will bring back the old ways with a vengeance. Most people have no idea that most water is PUMPED UPHILL [water follows money] to supply their taps, this will end when the energy is gone. Phx uses an estimated 20% of its total energy for water and sewer systems: CAP water is pumped 1300ft uphill so it will flow in canals to Phx and Tucson. I tell people to carry a five gallon water jug a couple of miles to get an idea of how much energy is required.
Obviously, water is crucial to Life--WTSHTF all Hell will break loose-- it is a key inflection point for violence to break out. Google Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Sudan to get a future taste of what insufficient water means to people and wildlife. Truly Sad.
Phoenix is an extreme example. Very few cities depend so heavily on such distant water cources (although Las Vegas is close). NYC uses water that flows downhill and has water pressure close to sea level by the time it gets there. New Orleans also runs water downhill from the Mississippi River.
Rural areas & small towns will be hit by the problems of transportation in a less than total collapse society. In that case (less than total collapse) New Orleans (and St. Louis, Memphis and other river & rail cities) will do well. We have great rail connections (6 of 7 large North American railroads come to New Orleans), barge connections (Mississippi River & Intracoastal Canal) and a seaport. Compact and low oil use by original design. Nearby seafood and land that could be farmed again. Sugarcane that can grow without fertilizer, and remnant oil & gas production.
OTOH, living 40 miles from the nearest WalMart & General Supply store can be quite a handicap for many ranchers and farmers with high enough fuel costs. Supplying electricity , telephone & fuel to dispersed rural communities will become more expensive. Perhaps technology (over the horizon cell phones with semi-broadband internet bandwidth) can solve the telecommunications problem. Once a month trips to town may become more common.
My impression is that most rural & small town residents live on what my grandfather called "pet farms" and commute long distances to jobs elsewhere.
I agree Phx, Vegas, La, etc are extreme examples. At crunch time, the milgov will resort to programs as evidenced by this recently released US Army military document 210-35 "Civilian Inmate Labor Program" linked here:
It is amazing the level of disconnect within our society: people live in a Disneyland mindset while the elites are moving full-speed ahead for the coming cull. It blows my mind that simple denial keeps Dieoff.com from being the numero uno website in the world.
I often wonder how Oregon and Washington will handle a thirty million people migration influx when Phx, Tucson, LA, San Diego, and hundreds of smaller cities start heading north.
Now that's depressing. I'm already contemplating my move back to Oregon from one of the other nonsustainable monstrosities, i.e. Atlanta.
I am a hardcore Doomer who believes in the fast-crash, but I hope I am wrong, and we can get a slow decline. What worries me most about Peakoil is the effect it will have upon our food and water. People can quickly scale up to pedaling a bicycle twenty or thirty miles a day if they really have go that distance to support their families, but the real future trick will be having sufficient food and water. I don't think there is any solution.
If I was a farmer who knew about Peakoil and I had no mortgage on my land-- I would be drastically changing my methods and crops so that I could be self-sustainable as possible. For example, if I owned 5,000 acres that would be normally a corn crop, I probably would immediately change 2000 acres over to be woodland and natural habitat so that I would have a future source of firewood, nut trees, berry plants, and wildlife to hunt. Probably another 2000 acres so I could pasture just a few oxen, horses, dairy cattle, pigs, sheep, etc, and a large family garden. Then maybe the last 1000 acres to growing commercial corn or soybeans, but shrinking this amount every year, so that I could grow cotton exclusively for myself.
Now if every farmer starts doing this, pretty damn quickly you have major food shortages in the cities and towns. Why would the farmers do this? As oil prices escalate upwards, the farmer won't be able to afford the energy to grow the usual 5,000 acres anyhow, so he might just as well put his efforts into his own survival using his labor and permiculture techniques. Too bad for the rest of us.
I have a feeling that any farmer who tried to go down that route would probably get the Robert Mugabe treatment sooner or later. Even if the government didn't chose that option, how could a farmer defend 5000 acres from desperate people anyway?
Your probably correct in that the farmer would not be able to defend his land-- ERoVI > ERoEI is going to be a huge problem [ERoVI = Energy Returned on Violence Invested]. The old story of rape, pillage, and plunder is a successful short-term strategy, but is disasterous for the long term. No disputing that it reduces headcount though.
That is the main reason why I think we will have a fast crash-- to minimize opportunities for ERoVI. My feeling is at crunch time: most urban and suburban dwellers will be forced to die n place, instead of being allowed to roam the countryside killing the farmers, then looting for whatever food they can find.
Actually, that's about the only good thing I could say about martial law. They'll close the Eisenhower Tunnel to protect the rich in Vail, Eagle and Aspen. (And our little farm, by being in the right place.)
Our ranch is only 120 acres, irrigated. We raise high-value registered Angus, so we can survive on sirloins if we have to.
We're already going permaculture, planting a woodlot, adding PV panels for a kind of parallel future if it comes to it. We've also formed a quiet coalition with other farmers and neighbors who understand what's coming. We have a barter system in place.
We have rich, volcanic soils and gravity-fed water systems. I do worry that the irrigation water might be requisitioned to try to keep the sunbelt sprawl afloat, but we also have springs and creeks here.
I don't know if anyone beside the oligarchs will really get through a die-off, but we're organized and we're going to try.
A local organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in Eugene, OR is trying to learn to plow with a pair of oxen. It's a LOT harder than one might presume. This is one instance in which I can see a real need for an H-1 Visa for Indian Know-How.
That's why having them pull a turnstile around is such a good idea. Just post a local boy with a whip to keep them moving along - no H1 visa necessary! You need a good horse to plough - and twitch logs out of the woods in wintertime.
Additional power generation:
Geothermal power. (Depends on geology like hydro power)
Nuclear power
Genetically engineerd plants (carbon gathering)
Perhaps even solar power satellites
Hand cranked electronics.
Short term energy storage:
Accumulators in plug-in wehicles.
Hot water or melted salts for heating and running hot water.
Cold water for air conditioning.
Long term energy storage:
Stockpiled food.
Sugar.
Dry biomass.
Charcoal
Liquid synthetisized fuels.
Nuclear fuels, probably breeded nuclear fuels.
Hydro can be seperated into different types. Large storage (dams) hydro has been largely built (a MAJOR site in the Congo with ~50 GW, Alaska with 8 or 10 GW, etc. are still available), but most run of river schemes were not economic with cheap coal, oil & natural gas.
Also, small hydro, particularly in the US, was never exploited. Say 10 MW to 1/4 MW, both storage and run of river schemes. It is interesting to see new schemes being developed in New Zealand today. Almost all 10 MW or less.
Tidal hydro has some quite limited expansion possibilities with higher prices for fossil fuels. Peaks on a 25 hour cycle (forgot minutes).
Uncontained propeller hydro (River, Gulf Stream, has a maximum extraction efficiency of ~10%) but some possibilities exist.
Solar can be divided into solar water heating (a no-brainer" in most cases) and solar electric with solar processing still largely unexploited. Mirror based solar electric has an apparent niche in deserts below 35 latitude.
Steam geothermal is being actively exploited where available. The larger "hot rock" geothermal is still in rare experimental projects.
Landfill gas and sewage digester gas are being actively exploited. And even chicken guts to diesel ! :-)
"It is interesting to see new schemes being developed in New Zealand today"
Hi Alan,
Yes, there are still a few hydro possibilities here in NZ. There is a proposal for a relatively small one about half an hour's drive north of me here.
By the way, that "Meridian Energy" company I pointed you to the other day turns out to be a state-owned enterprise (SOE), so I doubt you can buy shares in them. I'm even more interested in switching over to them now. They are not quite the cheapest in my area, but I think it is worth paying slightly more to support the renewables. Another one of the big energy companies ("Contact Energy") here in NZ has just merged with (read bought out by) an Australian company. I hope a lot more NZers switch from Contact to Meridian to stop NZ dollar profits moving over the Tasman Sea into the pockets of Australian shareholders.
New Zealand has a few of these "state-owned enterprises" that have to operate like private companies (and make profits for the government) but do not have to pander to shareholders (apart from their main one, of course). Air New Zealand is another example. They can get a bit stroppy, though. The SOE "Transpower", which maintains a lot of the main electricity 'backbone' around the country, is currently arguing with the government about rate increases (the government doesn't think the increases are necessary).
Two shareholder owned companies, King Country Power and TrustPower are also 100% renewable and have expansion plans. King Country produces about 3/4 of their own power and plan to up that to 7/8 with a scheme in development, all hydro. TrustPower produces less than 40% of their own power but has MAJOR wind energy plans and some smaller hydro schemes under development. Eleven in all I believe. Perhaps 3/4 internal power when finished.
With Maui natural gas declining by 17% each year, and new NG discoveries being quite small, NZ may well end up with a 100% renewables grid. You seem to have enough hydro (and a bit of geothermal) to support wind filling most of the gap left by NG depletion with rest of the expansion coming from hydro & geothermal. (Note: Wind has problems supplying a high % of the grid when the balance is fossil fuel, but not with the balance being hydro).
King Country & TrustPower have also said (in their annual reports) that they intend to stay 100% renewable. Just not willing to sign off forever, under all cirucmstances.
That's the phrase I use now, "get the car out." I got a kick out of the passage in Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island" in which he claims people used to own cars in England, but not actually drive them. It was a big event to drive to the seaside, etc. I'm sure there is some poetic license there, but it's funny.
Anyway, I ended up having a great ride through town to the post office, the bookstore, the market. I even beat a hummer through traffic ;-)
Well, there's the ROOT CELLAR, for a lot of stuff we pack into the Fridge these days. 'Course, I'm up in Maine, and we shouldn't be running the fridges this time of the year anyway.
I'm thinking of running a windmill to lift weights as the storage medium. Don't know about the conversion efficiency, but you wouldn't get the drainage you have with Batteries or Compressed Gasses. Someone said Zinc Cycle, what's that?
But the Bike idea is right on line! We could do SO much with pedal-powered travel, and we'd probably relive an aspect of our childhoods, too. Bikes can be such a joy! I'm also adapting some shop-tools for Pedal and Treadle use. An old Treadle Sewing machine is becoming a Scroll-saw, and an Exercise bike will have a better flywheel attached, and an output that can run sanders, drills, grainmills, small generators, etc. I've been wondering about a Pedal-powered Cart for 2 to 3 people, with Solar Assisted Electric for hills. Did anyone hear about the Village (India or Africa) where they installed a Little Playground Carousel for the local kids which would pump the water from their well?
My Makita is getting adapted to charge all its batts on the windowsill, and I'm looking for 'retired' (9.6v) Makita equipment to MOD into other applications, like Blenders, Flashlights, Cabinet Lights, Cell-Chargers, Clock Radios, etc.
None of them big solutions on their own, but overall stabilising, since they're not all chained to a single, distance source of power.
jokuhl, I heard about Zinc cycle last year and
blogged a few references. Engineer-Poet (Who I think comments here) did some
interesting calculations on it.
Zinc cycle is like hydrogen as a storage medium, except you get a nice solid at room temperature and you can't get raw material from the tap.
There are several companies working on zinc-air batteries (both primary and secondary cells); Power Air is finally touting its refillable OEM cell here (no pics).
On the surface these things would seem to be a natural for a pluggable hybrid. Is there any place one can go to order them, or do you need to be buying in quantity?
Those zinc-air cells are primary cells and have to be emptied of zinc oxide and refilled with metal; they cannot recharge in place and thus can't do regenerative braking (which you need for a hybrid or a plug-in). The efficiency is also rather low compared to most other batteries (around 50%).
The advantage is the high energy density and fast refilling time. If you have the infrastructure to regenerate zinc, you could refill the zinc-air cells about as fast as a fuel tank.
"people used to own cars in England, but not actually drive them."
It was not that rare. Living on the outskirts of London as a boy in the fifties we had a family car that was only used at the weekends if then. I walked a mile to school, my brother took the train to his school, my father took the train to the school he taught at and my mother walked to the local shops or took a bus if it rained. We were by no means unusual in doing so.
Public transport was used by nearly everyone. Business men in the stereotype English Bowler hat, rolled umbrella, briefcase and pinstriped suit sat alongside everyone else. Buses on most routes ran at 5 or 10 minute intervals so there was no need to plan around timetables. A fair number of the busier routes used electric trolley buses with the current collected by pantographs from overhead wires. The vast majority of the rail routes build up during the Victorian rail boom were still in use so there was very extensive network of London suburban above ground trains as well as the vast underground network further in that is still there.
A fair bit of this has fallen away and cars are used every day if practicable but the bulk of the infrastructure is still there and its use is if anything increasing. The London congestion charge of five pounds a day every time you take a car into central London with automatic registration number recognising cameras around the boundary of this area has increased the use of public transport. Tax that takes the price of petrol up £0.97/litre ($6.5/US gallon) and annual car tax from £55 ($96) to £170 ($298) dependant on its CO2 emission rating helps to keep away the general perception that public transport is only for the poor and those that cannot drive. We even have pedal driven cabs of the sort seen in places like Singapore.
We still have a lot to do to reduce reliance on private cars but London is quite an eye opener for visitors from cities where the car is almost a necessity.
Sadly, here is a link to a Yahoo article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/nigeria_sectarian_violence
excerpts:
----------------
Anti-Muslim Riot in Nigeria Turns Deadly
By DULUE MBACHU, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 13 minutes ago
Christian mobs rampaged through a southern Nigerian city Tuesday,
burning mosques and killing several people in an outbreak of anti-
Muslim violence that followed deadly protests against caricatures of
the Prophet Muhammad over the weekend.
Residents and witnesses in the southern, predominantly Christian city
of Onitsha said several Muslims with origins in the north were beaten
to death by mobs which also burned two mosques there.
"The mosque at the main market has been burnt and I've counted at
least six dead bodies on the streets," Izzy Uzor, an Onitsha resident
and businessman, told The Associated Press by telephone. "The whole
town is in a frenzy and people are running in all directions."
The violence appeared to be in reprisal for anti-Christian violence
Saturday in the mostly Muslim northern city of Maiduguri in which
thousands of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad
attacked Christians and burned churches, killing at least 18 people.
Police and government officials were not immediately available for
comment.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of more than 130 million
people, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a
mainly Christian south. Thousands of people have died in religious
violence in Nigeria since 2000.
Saturday's protest over the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in Maiduguri
marked the first violent demonstrations over the issue in Nigeria.
Police say at least 18 people, most of them Christians, died, and 30
churches were burned down. The Christian Association of Nigeria said
at least 50 people were killed in the violence.
------------------
My comments:
The elites must be celebrating! If the written word is more powerful
than the sword, and a picture paints a thousand words: then it is now
a proven fact that a cartoon is magnitudes more powerful than the
sword. The perfect dopamine ICBM [Inner Cranial Brain Missile] to setoff an explosion of the worst
impulses in the reptilian human brain.
It is the wolfpack dream come true when the reindeer start cutting
each other's throats. No wasting of energy chasing down the prey,
just sauntering up to a lavish feast. Imagine the exurburant war-
profiteering opportunities as 130 million descend into religious
decimation. Can you hear the elites laughing as any reindeer deaths
means more oil for further elite power consolidation and less for us?
Hubbert was correct in his theory of eventual 'energy depletion', but
this is just the geo-physical outlook. The elites are operating
using the realpolitik theory of 'energy deletion': create wars to
keep as much oil and gas in the ground as possible; a purposeful
energy cliff. The elite can always afford their lavish lifestyles,
the suffering of the proles is simply not their problem, in fact, it
is their intentional program.
Simple periodic tweaking of the 'Porridge Principle of Metered
Decline' works wonders, doesn't it? Detritus supplies are finite,
but the possibilities to eliminate detritovores are infinite! The
optimum curve matching of population to energy is to reduce headcount
to reduce demand for energy.
With the passage of time, we can expect more cartoons and other
propaganda to setoff war supporters vs anti-war protester violence,
racial and ethnic conflicts, religious pograms, workers vs. the
unemployed, car-owners vs bicyclists, landowners vs renters, sewer-
users vs. humanure advocates, even young against old. We can also
expect the wolves to feast upon the reindeer intra-conflict every
step of the way.
Unfortunately, I fear
us reindeer are SUV-headed down the hard asphalt path of 'Nuke their
Ass--I want Gas'. Unfortunately, there are too few who are willing
to cutoff their 'chrome penis' of vehicular vanity, followed by the
self-inflicted cutting off of their electrical 'balls' of light and
heat. The Dieoff is a fact of Nature and we dwell within its
Domain. Genetically, we detritovores are not designed to
energetically mutilate ourselves.
Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
You know, you should really put a bit more feeling into your posts :-)
I think that before you assume that the Mysterious Evil Elders in Purple Robes are behind this one, you should realize that ethnic/religious/tribal rivalry and butchery in Africa is at least as old as ethnic/relgious/tribal rivalry and butchery in Europe. I don't think the problem in Nigeria needed much of a helping hand by Western outside forces: the Nigerians seem to manage quite well in making their own hell, thank you very much.
Which is not to say that we should not be concerned. We are. And the only reason we are is because of the oil. If it weren't for the oil, Nigeria would get about as much US attention as did the genocide in Rawanda, which was zero.
However, I'm sure that some of the more radical elements in our society wouldn't mind seeing Africa decimated to create more 'lebensraum' for Westerners.
Once the fossil fuel detritus is burned up, us humans will be remelded into intimate contact with the forces of Nature again; just as we were before the discovery of coal, natgas, and oil. How many have thought as they open a longneck of beer that the energy required could have saved a life elsewhere? Very few. Economics, by its inherent design, creates an infinite spectrum of elites. My examples of wolfpack vs reindeer is a vast oversimplification of what is actually a worldwide energy competition to determine dominance.
It is better if one visualizes a entire 'humanimal taxonomy'; lions, wolves, bears, eagles, badgers, elk, deer, antelope, sparrows, trout, pigeons, gnats, etc. Those who have no access to anything detritus-derived; their lifestyle is strictly bio-solar driven could be considered 'Human plants'-- maybe a primitive tribe could be found in New Guinea to fit this humanimal description.
At the other end of the spectrum are the very powerful and rich who essentially are the keystone predators: their natural inclination is to make choices that impact through the entire humanimal foodchain, just as Yellowstone wolves culling elk increases beaver habitat and sapling regrowth along streambanks.
The IMF, WTO, CIA, and other 3-letter orgs is nothing more than the exosomatic extension of humanimal fangs. Wolves can only grasp what their fangs can reach-- Humanimal fangs can extend worldwide due to detritus-derived exosomatic guns, bombs, propaganda, interest financing, and political streamlining of resource flows.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
As the results of these cartoons have played out (I have seen them and it would take a particularly perversely sensitive yet aggressive mind to take such extreme offence) I have wondered if a stream of ever more offensive cartoons might create more fervent riots and deaths amongst the faithful?
Ooops, a mite non-pc maybe, but I'd quite like all fervent monotheists to self-immolate and solve the majority of human problems by doing so. Apologies for my biased and perhaps somewhat (re-) vengeful perspective.
Institutional religion is just the actionated creation of the higher brain's functions having to much idle-time. Here is a Google Video link of formerly devout Texas Baptists converting to Islam [best if you have hi-speed connection]:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9184353144432289069
All people of any faith should be asking themselves: why does my brain make me act this way, and can I mentally rewire it to see my actual reality?
Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
It's good for me.
(After all, Texas was first to go into decline.)
Oh Lordy, Make Me a Muslim.
TotoNeil, thank you for bringing the word of Allah to this infidel's tongue. Praised be his name and pass the peas. Good video !!!!
BTW, can you recommend any decent discount-burkah shops for after when the SHTF?
To all people who seek truth and faith I would say: why be deluded by others' supposed truth which they clearly use to manipulate you rather than question and seek your own understanding of truth?
I do agree with your comment on brain wiring. We should all strive to understand how we are wired to distort our perception and do our best to correct that so we might begin to see for real.
Hi Bob. What kind of chrome penis do you drive?
Do you use a central ground rod or alligator clips?
Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Thxs for responding. I drive 'old blue', my 1995 4.3 liter v-6 GMC shortbed standard cab pickup with approx. 120,000 miles on it. I have never had sufficient funds to own a new vehicle. I am a 'dead ringer' for Osama Bin Laden: 6'5" and 185 lbs, scraggly beard, and even more ugly-- don't try to kidnap me trying to get the $50 million in reward money, my friends jokingly claim first dibs if they ever find me passed out drunk--LOL! My long legs preclude me from comfortably fitting in many cars, but a pickup allows sufficient room so my knees are not hitting the dash, or my left leg is not pinned between the steering wheel and door.
I did not get my first vehicle until I was nearly 20 years old [nearly 51 now]-- had no problem with my long legs of pedaling over forty miles a day to work and school here in Phx [had a 175 customer paper-route for five years from 11-16]. It would probably kill me now if I had to do that again.
Got my first used pickup [1969 GMC v-6] just in time for the '73 energy crunch a short time later. Remember waiting hours in a gas-line to fillup my tank. That night some bastard took a pipewrench to my locking gascap and siphoned out my tank. No fun driving around a potentially huge Molotov cocktail with a rag stuffed into my gastank fillerneck, a mere couple of feet from my head, until I could get scrape up the cash to get it repaired.
Ever since the 70s energy crunch, I have been a gas-conserving turtledriver--not a rabbit-racer. In fact, I am so good at hitting intersections in the 'green' that my pickup is still on the original brakes!
I first found out about Peakoil and Dieoff in summer of '03, so I consider myself a relative newbie. Changed my Life, as I am sure you will all agree. Fortunately, Phx is an easy place to conserve home energy-- we never turn on the heat, but lightly bundle up. During the summer, we run a swamp cooler, which uses a fraction of the energy of an air-conditioning unit. My neighbors think I am nuts when I bring up Peakoil and Dieoff--they burn all the energy they can afford, porch lights burning all night and that sort of thing.
Spend a lot of time emailing govt orgs and influential others energy saving ideas and appeals for them to study Dieoff.com-- never get a reply-- I think they have a preferential agenda to make sure they survive. Kunstler, among others luminaries, predicts the Southwest to become mostly ghost towns postPeak--I am inclined to agree-- present drought is 120+ days without rain. I often wonder how Oregon and Washington will handle a thirty million people migration influx when Phx, Tucson, LA, San Diego, and hundreds of smaller cities start heading north. My guess is a postPeak civil war. Time will tell. I am the primary caregiver for my ailing mother--cannot leave until she is gone, but I hope she lives forever.
Got a nice 18-speed bicycle set up with baskets all around if a sudden energy crunch hits and I have to pedal-- people call it the Pee-Wee Herman bike, but hopefully it is so funky that no kid will want to steal it postPeak. It is an oversize frame and the seat is really high [I am tall, remember?]-- most kids will bust their balls on the crossframe trying to steal it. Pedaling can be done year round in Phx if you really tank up on water during the summer to prevent dehydration.
Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Four years ago I read about Bush's new house in Crawford -- state-of-the-art energy-independent, year-round water cisterns, solar-powered, the whole bit.
It confused me at the time; but now I understand. He definitely plans to be part of the wolfpack.
Thxs for responding. Good for you, living on a ranch-- you automatically get more eco-support from Nature than 99% of us. This eco-buffer will be crucial in the years ahead, I hope you have a good hand-pumpable waterwell or stream on your property.
Water skirmishes with shootings were common out west a hundred years ago--legislators and lawyers took over the battle, but Peakoil and Overshoot will bring back the old ways with a vengeance. Most people have no idea that most water is PUMPED UPHILL [water follows money] to supply their taps, this will end when the energy is gone. Phx uses an estimated 20% of its total energy for water and sewer systems: CAP water is pumped 1300ft uphill so it will flow in canals to Phx and Tucson. I tell people to carry a five gallon water jug a couple of miles to get an idea of how much energy is required.
Obviously, water is crucial to Life--WTSHTF all Hell will break loose-- it is a key inflection point for violence to break out. Google Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Sudan to get a future taste of what insufficient water means to people and wildlife. Truly Sad.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Rural areas & small towns will be hit by the problems of transportation in a less than total collapse society. In that case (less than total collapse) New Orleans (and St. Louis, Memphis and other river & rail cities) will do well. We have great rail connections (6 of 7 large North American railroads come to New Orleans), barge connections (Mississippi River & Intracoastal Canal) and a seaport. Compact and low oil use by original design. Nearby seafood and land that could be farmed again. Sugarcane that can grow without fertilizer, and remnant oil & gas production.
OTOH, living 40 miles from the nearest WalMart & General Supply store can be quite a handicap for many ranchers and farmers with high enough fuel costs. Supplying electricity , telephone & fuel to dispersed rural communities will become more expensive. Perhaps technology (over the horizon cell phones with semi-broadband internet bandwidth) can solve the telecommunications problem. Once a month trips to town may become more common.
My impression is that most rural & small town residents live on what my grandfather called "pet farms" and commute long distances to jobs elsewhere.
http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r210_35.pdf
It is amazing the level of disconnect within our society: people live in a Disneyland mindset while the elites are moving full-speed ahead for the coming cull. It blows my mind that simple denial keeps Dieoff.com from being the numero uno website in the world.
Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Now that's depressing. I'm already contemplating my move back to Oregon from one of the other nonsustainable monstrosities, i.e. Atlanta.
I am a hardcore Doomer who believes in the fast-crash, but I hope I am wrong, and we can get a slow decline. What worries me most about Peakoil is the effect it will have upon our food and water. People can quickly scale up to pedaling a bicycle twenty or thirty miles a day if they really have go that distance to support their families, but the real future trick will be having sufficient food and water. I don't think there is any solution.
If I was a farmer who knew about Peakoil and I had no mortgage on my land-- I would be drastically changing my methods and crops so that I could be self-sustainable as possible. For example, if I owned 5,000 acres that would be normally a corn crop, I probably would immediately change 2000 acres over to be woodland and natural habitat so that I would have a future source of firewood, nut trees, berry plants, and wildlife to hunt. Probably another 2000 acres so I could pasture just a few oxen, horses, dairy cattle, pigs, sheep, etc, and a large family garden. Then maybe the last 1000 acres to growing commercial corn or soybeans, but shrinking this amount every year, so that I could grow cotton exclusively for myself.
Now if every farmer starts doing this, pretty damn quickly you have major food shortages in the cities and towns. Why would the farmers do this? As oil prices escalate upwards, the farmer won't be able to afford the energy to grow the usual 5,000 acres anyhow, so he might just as well put his efforts into his own survival using his labor and permiculture techniques. Too bad for the rest of us.
Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
That is the main reason why I think we will have a fast crash-- to minimize opportunities for ERoVI. My feeling is at crunch time: most urban and suburban dwellers will be forced to die n place, instead of being allowed to roam the countryside killing the farmers, then looting for whatever food they can find.
Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Our ranch is only 120 acres, irrigated. We raise high-value registered Angus, so we can survive on sirloins if we have to.
We're already going permaculture, planting a woodlot, adding PV panels for a kind of parallel future if it comes to it. We've also formed a quiet coalition with other farmers and neighbors who understand what's coming. We have a barter system in place.
We have rich, volcanic soils and gravity-fed water systems. I do worry that the irrigation water might be requisitioned to try to keep the sunbelt sprawl afloat, but we also have springs and creeks here.
I don't know if anyone beside the oligarchs will really get through a die-off, but we're organized and we're going to try.
What volumes of water and what falls (vertical distance) might be harnessed by putting into a pipe to make some hydropower ?
Make $ today, and keep LED lights and some motors going "later".
For Power Generation:
Windmills
Photovoltaics (Silicon and others)
Solar-Stirling
Solar-Steam
Hydro
For Power Storage:
Water lift
Compressed Air
Zinc Cycle
Anyone?
A pair of oxen walking around a turnstile.
For power storage:
Hay loft.
G
Additional power generation:
Geothermal power. (Depends on geology like hydro power)
Nuclear power
Genetically engineerd plants (carbon gathering)
Perhaps even solar power satellites
Hand cranked electronics.
Short term energy storage:
Accumulators in plug-in wehicles.
Hot water or melted salts for heating and running hot water.
Cold water for air conditioning.
Long term energy storage:
Stockpiled food.
Sugar.
Dry biomass.
Charcoal
Liquid synthetisized fuels.
Nuclear fuels, probably breeded nuclear fuels.
Also, small hydro, particularly in the US, was never exploited. Say 10 MW to 1/4 MW, both storage and run of river schemes. It is interesting to see new schemes being developed in New Zealand today. Almost all 10 MW or less.
Tidal hydro has some quite limited expansion possibilities with higher prices for fossil fuels. Peaks on a 25 hour cycle (forgot minutes).
Uncontained propeller hydro (River, Gulf Stream, has a maximum extraction efficiency of ~10%) but some possibilities exist.
Solar can be divided into solar water heating (a no-brainer" in most cases) and solar electric with solar processing still largely unexploited. Mirror based solar electric has an apparent niche in deserts below 35 latitude.
Steam geothermal is being actively exploited where available. The larger "hot rock" geothermal is still in rare experimental projects.
Landfill gas and sewage digester gas are being actively exploited. And even chicken guts to diesel ! :-)
Hi Alan,
Yes, there are still a few hydro possibilities here in NZ. There is a proposal for a relatively small one about half an hour's drive north of me here.
By the way, that "Meridian Energy" company I pointed you to the other day turns out to be a state-owned enterprise (SOE), so I doubt you can buy shares in them. I'm even more interested in switching over to them now. They are not quite the cheapest in my area, but I think it is worth paying slightly more to support the renewables. Another one of the big energy companies ("Contact Energy") here in NZ has just merged with (read bought out by) an Australian company. I hope a lot more NZers switch from Contact to Meridian to stop NZ dollar profits moving over the Tasman Sea into the pockets of Australian shareholders.
New Zealand has a few of these "state-owned enterprises" that have to operate like private companies (and make profits for the government) but do not have to pander to shareholders (apart from their main one, of course). Air New Zealand is another example. They can get a bit stroppy, though. The SOE "Transpower", which maintains a lot of the main electricity 'backbone' around the country, is currently arguing with the government about rate increases (the government doesn't think the increases are necessary).
With Maui natural gas declining by 17% each year, and new NG discoveries being quite small, NZ may well end up with a 100% renewables grid. You seem to have enough hydro (and a bit of geothermal) to support wind filling most of the gap left by NG depletion with rest of the expansion coming from hydro & geothermal. (Note: Wind has problems supplying a high % of the grid when the balance is fossil fuel, but not with the balance being hydro).
King Country & TrustPower have also said (in their annual reports) that they intend to stay 100% renewable. Just not willing to sign off forever, under all cirucmstances.
I thought about getting the car out today ...
That's the phrase I use now, "get the car out." I got a kick out of the passage in Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island" in which he claims people used to own cars in England, but not actually drive them. It was a big event to drive to the seaside, etc. I'm sure there is some poetic license there, but it's funny.
Anyway, I ended up having a great ride through town to the post office, the bookstore, the market. I even beat a hummer through traffic ;-)
I'm glad I didn't get the car out.
I'm thinking of running a windmill to lift weights as the storage medium. Don't know about the conversion efficiency, but you wouldn't get the drainage you have with Batteries or Compressed Gasses. Someone said Zinc Cycle, what's that?
But the Bike idea is right on line! We could do SO much with pedal-powered travel, and we'd probably relive an aspect of our childhoods, too. Bikes can be such a joy! I'm also adapting some shop-tools for Pedal and Treadle use. An old Treadle Sewing machine is becoming a Scroll-saw, and an Exercise bike will have a better flywheel attached, and an output that can run sanders, drills, grainmills, small generators, etc. I've been wondering about a Pedal-powered Cart for 2 to 3 people, with Solar Assisted Electric for hills. Did anyone hear about the Village (India or Africa) where they installed a Little Playground Carousel for the local kids which would pump the water from their well?
My Makita is getting adapted to charge all its batts on the windowsill, and I'm looking for 'retired' (9.6v) Makita equipment to MOD into other applications, like Blenders, Flashlights, Cabinet Lights, Cell-Chargers, Clock Radios, etc.
None of them big solutions on their own, but overall stabilising, since they're not all chained to a single, distance source of power.
jokuhl, I heard about Zinc cycle last year and blogged a few references. Engineer-Poet (Who I think comments here) did some interesting calculations on it.
There are several companies working on zinc-air batteries (both primary and secondary cells); Power Air is finally touting its refillable OEM cell here (no pics).
On the surface these things would seem to be a natural for a pluggable hybrid. Is there any place one can go to order them, or do you need to be buying in quantity?
The advantage is the high energy density and fast refilling time. If you have the infrastructure to regenerate zinc, you could refill the zinc-air cells about as fast as a fuel tank.
It was not that rare. Living on the outskirts of London as a boy in the fifties we had a family car that was only used at the weekends if then. I walked a mile to school, my brother took the train to his school, my father took the train to the school he taught at and my mother walked to the local shops or took a bus if it rained. We were by no means unusual in doing so.
Public transport was used by nearly everyone. Business men in the stereotype English Bowler hat, rolled umbrella, briefcase and pinstriped suit sat alongside everyone else. Buses on most routes ran at 5 or 10 minute intervals so there was no need to plan around timetables. A fair number of the busier routes used electric trolley buses with the current collected by pantographs from overhead wires. The vast majority of the rail routes build up during the Victorian rail boom were still in use so there was very extensive network of London suburban above ground trains as well as the vast underground network further in that is still there.
A fair bit of this has fallen away and cars are used every day if practicable but the bulk of the infrastructure is still there and its use is if anything increasing. The London congestion charge of five pounds a day every time you take a car into central London with automatic registration number recognising cameras around the boundary of this area has increased the use of public transport. Tax that takes the price of petrol up £0.97/litre ($6.5/US gallon) and annual car tax from £55 ($96) to £170 ($298) dependant on its CO2 emission rating helps to keep away the general perception that public transport is only for the poor and those that cannot drive. We even have pedal driven cabs of the sort seen in places like Singapore.
We still have a lot to do to reduce reliance on private cars but London is quite an eye opener for visitors from cities where the car is almost a necessity.