DrumBeat: August 7, 2006
Posted by threadbot on August 7, 2006 - 9:10am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Rising oil price has wider impact
(CNN) -- Higher oil prices are starting to cause havoc far beyond the petrol bowser. Slowly but surely, the rise in the price of oil is pushing up inflation and interest rates and affecting people's spending habits and share markets.
How power-hungry cities drive projects like NYRI. Goal: Move excess energy to coasts.
Energy-efficient homes the wave of the future
Oil's twilight: The Chicago Tribune reflects on the meaning of Paul Salopek's special report on peak oil.
PTT Exploration Finds `Significant' Energy Reserves in Myanmar
U.K.: British high street targets energy-conscious consumers
Eco-friendly Britons seeking relief from soaring domestic energy bills can now pop down the high street and pick up solar panels for their homes.Electrical goods group Currys became the first major retailer in Britain to sell the power panels after Britain experienced its hottest month on record in July.
Japan checking disputed oil production
TOKYO: Japan is checking whether China has started production at a disputed gas field in the East China Sea that Tokyo says may extend into its territory, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.The stated-owned parent of China's CNOOC Ltd. said on its Web site on Friday that the firm had begun production at the Chunxiao field in the East China Sea.
Dubai to take control of offshore oil resources
In planning energy future, think local, small and clean
OVERSHADOWED by the expanding debate over global warming, another environmental issue is heating up: the grim prospects that Appalachia and the other coal-rich areas of America face as energy companies plan a series of some 150 major new coal-burning plants.[Update by Yankee on 08/07/06 at 1:22 PM EDT]Already, reports Joe Lovett of the Lewisburg, W.Va.-based Appalachian Center, the brutal mountaintop removal that operators currently favor as the fastest way to extract Appalachian coal has buried more than 1,200 miles of previously free-flowing streams and caused the loss of more than 1 million acres of the world's most productive hardwood forests.
William Saletan reflects on why air conditioning is destroying the world
That's the problem in Washington today. Policymakers aren't facing global warming, because they aren't feeling it. They gave themselves air conditioning in the 1920s and '30s, long before the public got it. White House meetings and congressional hearings on climate change are doomed hours beforehand, when the thermostats are set. One minute, you're watching video of people sweltering in New Orleans. The next minute, you're watching senators dispute the significance of greenhouse gases. Don't ask whether these people are living on the same planet. In effect, they aren't.
Isolated Americans trying to connect
Among the causes: ever longer commutes, and the Internet, which gives people the illusion of intimacy. You may have 1,000 "friends" on Facebook, but if you're arrested for DWI at 3am, will any of them go to the ATM for $200 and come bail you out?
I was particularly surprised to learn that many college students are spending all their time in their rooms, chatting online with their high school friends rather than meeting people in person. I really enjoyed the campus social life when I was in college. I'm an introvert, but in college, it was easy to make friends. Hundreds of kids torn away from their old connections, eager to make new ones. Not any more, I guess.
Our local radio host went to lunch two weeks ago at Big Sky Cafe and a dad and son sat down next to him. The son was listening to tunes on his ipod, all plugged in so to speak, and the two did not have a conversation with each other through the entire lunch.
A. The sound of her cellphone hitting the floor.
But then, back then there was no TV, internet, or stereo systems.
http://home.discovery.com/tuneins/flipthathouse/flipthathouse.htmlFlipping real estate by John T. Reed
My how things have changed since then in the housing market.
And that's the problem. The suburbs are about like a lunar colony where the homes serve as habitats and the cars as the spacecraft. You can't walk anywhere in the suburbs any more than you can walk on the moon without a spacesuit. That's becuse everything in the asphalt desert is too bloody far away. I lived briefly in the suburbs before what seemed to be a mass extinction of bars. Now, it would be some lonely stuff out there.
Why the mass extinction of bars? The automobile is a good suspect. With DUI being dangerous, and fiercer crackdowns to get these morons off the road, people gave up on going to the local bar. So, they close up.
It's little wonder the coffee shop cropped up. But people are too busy to socialise there thanks to laptops. Also, if you're already an insomniac, a coffee shop is a poor choice anyways even without laptop proliferation.
I wish I could find this..... in the 70s they had a 2nd version of The Mickey Mouse Club show on TV, with some neat re-runs of some of the funkiest Disney cartoons, one was about cars, and was from a sort of "space alien visiting Earth" perspective, it was eerie, the space alien's conclusion was that cars were the dominent life form and humans seemed to be a sort of parasite on the cars.....
However, there is a reason for it. The garage is put between the house and the street in order to shelter the living space from street noise.
The actual human-occupied portion appears increasingly secondary, little more than an add on in the back. An architectural nightmare.
The importance of the automobile in US culture cannot be overstated.
Personally, I'm fond of the "breezeway." A little screened or windowed porch that connects the garage to the house. You can sit out there in summer, and put the beer there to keep cold in winter. :)
My parents' garage is in back of the house, connected to the kitchen. But I think that's partly because of the association rules of the subdivision they live in. You cannot leave your garage door open if it can be seen from the street. So people turn the garage sideways and put it in the backyard.
Chris Alexander in "A Pattern Language" makes a strong case about doorways, transitions and entrances. No, the garage is there first and foremost because that is how people come into their home. It IS the front door. It's not there to block noise from the street. I'm one of those Mainers with a garage too useful to park a car in - in other words it's full of trash and treasure. My ex lives in one of those developments where cars have to sleep in the garage. That's her front door, an oil-stained concrete slab. I have to walk outside past the roses, peony and herbs. Sometimes in the rain.
My bike, OTOH, lives in the house, in the front entryway. Hers is hanging up with flat tires in the garage.
cfm
Its quite common that a door closer to the kitchen is the most used door even if it isent the front door.
Cultural difference?
And I prefer insomnia before alcoholism any day even if both are realy bad for your driving.
Most important thing. Even for hermits like myself.
It is one of the few US cities (are there others ?) where being a "good guy" is randomly but consistently rewarded. Free Jazz Fest tickets last two years, people recognize me and compliment me and ask if there is anything they can do to help.
The volunteers from outside (God Bless Them) are consistently amazed at how easy it is to talk to strangers (my guess, 10% to 15% move here, mentioning that you are a volunteer gets all sorts of extras in our disaster zone).
Have been also making my old 5500 generator run, stocking up on water, fuel and non-perishables. drive an '83 BMW that get 31 mpg. Am also attending a local zoning hearing tomorrow and urging for more infill/density (less Suburbia) Just little things but trying to be ready.
I'm not a cornucopioan or a doomer, just an average person looking at a harsh reality and wanting to make the best of it.
Connecting with other people may be the hardest but most rewarding aspect of this process. I have noticed the more I try to say hello or strike up conversations the easier and more frequent it becomes. People do seem ready to re-connect.
We are undoubtedly facing some tough times ahead, but it will have some benefits. I am urging my daughters to study/work toward energy related fields.
Good luck all!
I now live in a new city, working at a new company for the last year. In that time, I have been invited by only one individual to a social function.
Further, as a single, middle-aged, divorced man with no children, I find that there is no social network in which I fit. Too old for the younger single crowd; too different for the middle-aged family crowd: too young for the geriatric crowd. Translation: social outcast.
Additionally, in the 12 years since my divorce, I have yet to meet a suitable woman to date. When I lived in Dallas, all the woman commented that I did not meet their standards because of low job status or low income. In other words, I did not rate.
As a consequence of the above, I spend my free time ambling around my apartment and reading theoildrum instead of engaging with people. It seems that people can't be bothered anymore.
Many a young girl are taught to hold out until their prince in a shining castle shows up. Some grow up and figure out it was another lie-of-the-elites.
If you give up and mope in your apartment, then the outcome is guaranteed. If you go out to some PO or other conferences you might meet somebody of like mind. Don't give up. All you got to do is meet one, even if there are a lot of toad princesses along the journey. Good luck mate ... and God speed.
Also, take community education classes--great way to meet people and learn new skills.
Religion is great at this, and one of the biggest things we have lost in realising its evil side. But times are a changing. Some are very accepting of atheists. Assuming you don't already have a faith, try a Buddhist group (particularly Zen) or the Society of Friends. If you look at it from an evolutionarily point of view, we evolved religion to bring us together, to unite us. You don't have to abandon your beliefs to utilise the parts of our wet-ware that were made for this purpose.
Alternatively get involved in some kind of sustainable group building straw bale houses or such like. That will get you involved in just the right kind of people.
Fitness things are great as well. you don't even need to be supper fit, just making some effort.
But the sort of social isolation described in this thread that I can also relate to is much less rampant. Places like Peru and Colombia are also dating nirvanas for a decent single north-american or european guy who speaks a little Spanish. Nothing I know of compares to the friendliness and passion of a true (unamericanized) latina woman!