.date
December 30, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 30 Dec 2005 08:34:56 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/30/08:34:56:00
.p
.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051230.jpg
.alt
Miko
.ie
.p
The Last Friday Cat Blogging of 2005: Miko
.p
As you can guess from the recent blockage of bloggage, I've been busy with family and work of late. Sorry.
.p
I've been thinking of making some changes at the website for 2006:
.p
Cat Blogging will continue, but because this year pretty much burned through my back catalog of cat pictures, so I'll publish the really good new ones as I take them. (Not that I don't have hundreds of unpublished cat photos, I take 3-5 for each one I publish, but as they are indoor cats the number of poses is somewhat limited.)
.p
That's going to leave room for a more eclectic mix of photos, and since
many of the photos I'd like to share just don't look right when shunk to 384x288, I'll be re-designing the hompage and feed for bigger photos. 
.p
I'll be refreshing the layout to support the larger graphics, and maybe replace the banner from time to time. (Once again, following
.url
http://www.scripting.com
.ls
Dave Winer's
.le
lead)
.p
I'm also thinking of splitting the RSS feed into two: one related to the Hompage and general podcasts, and one for Anime and fanfiction podcasts.




.date
December 28, 2005
.item
Matthew Simmons' Address To ASPO

.pubdate
Wed, 28 Dec 2005 08:29:42 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/28/08:29:42:00
.pqn

Peaking is actually a fact. It is not a concept", he stated. "All finite resources, unfortunately, have their limits to growth, and the faster a resources is used, the sooner its use peaks. Peaking, categorically doesn't mean running out. Peaking means further growth is over. The difference between peak oil and running out is as profound as me saying, I am getting a tiny bit hungry and I am about to starve to death. Or I sneezed, I might have cold or I am in the last stages of a terminal disease.
.pqn
.url
http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=944
.ls
EV World
.le

.p
EV World was also granted permission to record audio at the conference, and
they have a
.url
http://www.evworld.com/evworld_audio/aspo_usa05_msimmons.mp3
.ls
45 minute podcast
.le
of Mr Simmons' presentation to the
.url
http://www.aspo-usa.org/
.ls
APSO USA Conference.
.le




.date
December 23, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 23 Dec 2005 17:40:26 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/23/17:40:26:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051223.jpg
.alt
Tory
.ie
.p
Tory James, sink.
.p
BTW, 
.url
http://catsinsinks.com/
.ls
Cats In Sinks
.le
has loads of pictures of cats in sinks.




.date
December 21, 2005
.item
Happy Solstice!
.pubdate
Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:14:49 PST

.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/21/08:14:49:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/Solstice_Sunrise.jpg
.alt
Sunrise
.ie
Here's the view out my window of this morning's sunrise. 
 




.date
December 20, 2005
.item
Drip. Drip. Drip.
.pubdate
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:49:59 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/20/08:49:59:00
.pqn
The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall, before the 2004 presidential election.

.pqn
But the newspaper held the story for more than a year and only revealed the secret wiretaps last Friday, when it became apparent a book by one of its reporters was about to break the news, according to journalists familiar with the paper's internal discussions.
.pqn
.url
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-media20dec20,0,7619720.story?coll=la-home-headlines
.ls
LA Times
.le
.p
Grrr.







.date
December 19, 2005
.item
Oil Shale
.pubdate
Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:58:31 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/19/15:58:31:00
.pqn
Searching for appropriate analogies, we enter the realm of Weight Watchers. Oil shale is said to be "rich" when a ton yields 30 gallons of oil. An equal weight of granola contains three times more energy. America's "vast," "immense" deposits of shale have the energy density of a baked potato. Oil shale has one-third the energy density of Cap'n Crunch, but no one is counting on the Quaker Oats Company to become a major energy producer soon.

.pqn
.url
http://www.denverpost.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3313756
.ls
Denver Post
.le
.p
This from a state with good wind resources an plenty of mountain locations for pumped-water energy storage systems.




.end



.date
December 16, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 19:16:59 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/16/19:16:59:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051216.jpg
.alt
Tory James
.ie

.p
Cat. Sun. Sleep. Tory James





.item
Hack. The. Election.

.pubdate
Fri, 16 Dec 2005 11:59:08 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/16/11:59:08:00
.pqn

"The expert that we used simply programmed it on his laptop in his hotel room," Sancho said.
.pqn
Sancho began investigating the problem after watching the votes come in during the infamous 2000 presidential election. In Volusia County precinct 216, a memory card added more than 200 votes to George W. Bush's total and subtracted 16,000 votes from Al Gore. The mistake was later corrected during a hand count.
.pqn
After watching his computer expert change vote totals this week, Sancho said that he <b>now believes someone on the inside did the same think in Volusia County in 2000.</b>
.pqn
.url
http://www.wesh.com/news/5542983/detail.html
.ls
WESH Channel 2
.le

.p
Funny &#8212; the things that get reported once the teflon is off the administration.
.p
As always, 
.url
http://www.bradblog.com/
.ls
BradBlog
.le
is the tip of the spear on eVoting Fraud. 







.date
December 9, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 09 Dec 2005 08:40:47 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/09/08:40:47:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051209.jpg
.alt
3Cats
.ie
.p
This time of year, the boys find the duvet irresistable.



.date
December 8, 2005
.item
Peak Oil Hearing


.pubdate
Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:36:20 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/08/22:36:20:00

.p
Transcripts and .mp3 and .rm audio of the December 7 congressional hearing on peak oil are now online at 
.url
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/events/585
.ls
Global Public Media
.le
.p
You need to hear this. 


.date
December 6, 2005
.item
Beanball Economics
.pubdate
Tue, 06 Dec 2005 11:37:08 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/06/11:37:08:00
.p

First, this headline and story from US News:
.pqn
.url
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/buzz/archive/buzz051206.htm
.ls
Workers continue to step up to the plate
.le
.pqn
A new government report released this morning shows that the productivity of U.S. workers surged by 4.7 percent in the third quarter, not 4.1 percent as was previously thought.

.p
To get hit with:
.pqn
Hourly compensation grew 3.7 percent in the third quarter of 2005, following the 0.9-percent rise in the second quarter (as revised). When the rise in consumer prices is taken into account, <b>real hourly compensation declined 1.4 percent in the third quarter of 2005 and 3.1 percent one quarter earlier.</b>
.pqn
.url
http://hr.blr.com/display.cfm/id/17140
.ls
Business and Legal Reports
.le
.p
Say&#8212;who is this <i>great economy</i> great for, anyway?










.item
A Jon Stewart Moment...
.pubdate
Tue, 06 Dec 2005 08:25:11 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/06/08:25:11:00
.p
This Yahoo headline caught my eye...


.pqn
.url
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051206/ts_nm/europe_rice_germany_dc
.ls
<b>US may make mistakes in 'war on terror': Rice </b>
.le
.p
<i>May</i> make mistakes? &#8212; <i>MAY?</i> Like someone give this administration
<i>permission</i> to continue to screw up?
.p
Oh yeah &#8212; 2004. Nevermind. Carry on. Nothing to see here.





.item
Word Of The Year...

.pubdate
Tue, 06 Dec 2005 07:57:20 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/06/07:57:20:00
.p

.url
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051205/nym208.html?.v=26
.ls
Podcast
.le

.item
Aw, Whata Ham
.pubdate
Tue, 06 Dec 2005 07:54:00 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/06/07:54:00:00
.p
Via Cunningham-Lee, a few photos from those

.url
http://cunningham-lee.com/tiki-index.php?page_ref_id=338
.ls
Be Demos in Tokyo
.le
.p
Ueda-san (Of the Shibuya office of Metrowerks Japan) was doing the translating, he was a little hesitant in the first demo, but as the week went on he was really getting into the spririt of the demo!
.p
Thanks for the Photos, Gary!



.date
December 5, 2005
.item
Peak Oil Hearing and Webcast from Washington DC

.pubdate
Mon, 05 Dec 2005 17:56:40 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/05/17:56:40:00
.pqn

<b>Understanding the Peak Oil Theory</b>

.pqn
Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality<br />
December 7, 2005<br />
2322 Rayburn House Office Building<br />
09:30 AM<br />

.pqn
.url
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/12072005hearing1733/hearing.htm
.ls
The Committee on Energy and Commerce
.le
Joe Barton, Chairman
.p
Webcast details TBD, at the URL above.








.date
December 4, 2005
.item
Welcome, OS News

.pubdate
Sun, 04 Dec 2005 21:36:56 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/04/21:36:56:00

.p
Woah. Nice flurry of hits from OS news, welcome guys!
.p
While you're here,  check out:
.pqn
.url
http://www.josephpalmer.com/BeBox/BeBox.shtml
.ls
The BeBox Gallery
.le
which has some very nice pictures of the BeBox I was given when I left Be.
.pqn
.url
http://www.josephpalmer.com/gallery/Be/Page_i.html
.ls
The Be, Inc. Gallery
.le
which has some cool historical photos (But alas, no photo of the Launch Pad Chicken!&trade;)
.p
And make sure not to miss the most popular part of my site:
.pqn
.url
http://www.josephpalmer.com/planes/Airplane.shtml
.ls
Paper Airplanes
.le
Loads of fun, or double your money back!









.item
Let Them Burn Cake

.pubdate
Sun, 04 Dec 2005 21:17:40 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/04/21:17:40:00
.p

A while back a friend (one who belives that the free market
will prevent Peak Oil from being a major, world changing economic event)
sent me a link to an
.url
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2005/1031/122.html
.ls
article By Peter Huber
.le
in Forbes. 
.p
I tried my best to respond to the article, but I was not really able to devote enough time to it to really deconstruct Mr Huber's arguments. 

.p
This being the age of the internet it just took a couple of weeks before somone with the time and knowledge to take Mr Huber to task:
.pqn
What is Huber stating in his article? Essentially, the same basic message: that (in Huber's scenario above) energy will become so expensive that, after investing ten units of cheap energy to produce one unit of the "final form", consumable energy, that consumable energy will still sell at a handsome profit (why else otherwise would Wall Street care to fund such a business from here to Alberta, as Huber puts it?) In short, selling very expensive energy will be a very profitable business, but no cheaper forms of energy in a consumable form will be available. Obviously, energy production in a society thus described by Huber will be at the very center of the economy, and will remain among the few profitable activities, as many other formerly profitable businesses and entire industries will be killed off by the skyrocketing energy prices. In other words, an economic shrinkage of societal scale in the scenario formulated by Huber is unavoidable.

.pqn
.url
http://www.countercurrents.org/po-Podborits051205.htm
.ls
On The Prospects Of Using AAA Type Batteries As Peak Oil
Mitigation Devices
.le
By Dmitry Podborits 

.p





.date
December 3, 2005
.item
Worst. President. Ever.


.pubdate
Sat, 03 Dec 2005 11:27:15 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/03/11:27:15:00

.p
From The History News Network at George Mason University:

.pqn
&#149; He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;

.pqn
&#149; He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;

.pqn
&#149; He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;

.pqn
&#149; He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign;

.pqn
&#149; He has proved to be incompetent in affairs domestic (New Orleans) and foreign (
Iraq and the battle against al-Qaida);

.pqn
&#149; He has sacrificed American employment (including the toleration of pension and benefit elimination) to increase overall productivity;

.pqn
&#149; He is ignorantly hostile to science and technological progress;

.pqn
&#149; He has tolerated or ignored one of the republic's oldest problems, corporate cheating in supplying the military in wartime.
.pqn
.url
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucrr/20051203/cm_ucrr/isgeorgebushtheworstpresidentever
.ls
Yahoo
.le




.item
Girls, With Rockets.
.pubdate
Sat, 03 Dec 2005 09:34:38 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/03/09:34:38:00
.p
.url

http://www.adorablerockets.com/
.ls
Adorable Rockets
.le
is a new blog dedicated to anime reviews.
No muscle-bound super-heros here, think school girls,
some magical, some with rockets, and some even have fangs.
.p
It's just getting started, but I like the clean layout and 
screenshots.
.p
Hey Rocket &#8212; have you seen 
.url
http://www.windy-tales.com/
.ls
Windy Tales
.le
or
.url
http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Animation/kamichu/
.ls
Kamichu
.le
yet?







.item
BeBox Interview

.pubdate
Sat, 03 Dec 2005 09:20:03 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/03/09:20:03:00
.p

A couple of months back I was asked to answer some questions about the 
Quad 604 BeBox, in the form of an online interview.
You can read the interview at
.url
http://www.bebox.nu/news.php?lookat=65
.ls
BeBox News
.le




.date
December 2, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 02 Dec 2005 20:36:50 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/02/20:36:50:00
.p

.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051202.jpg
.alt
Miko
.ie
.p
Miko


.item
Checking Predictions

.pubdate
Fri, 02 Dec 2005 07:53:45 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/12/02/07:53:45:00
.p

The Energy Information Administration, an "independent statistical and
analytical agency within the Department of Energy" occasionaly predicts
the future.
.p
Ron Patterson
.url
http://www.energybulletin.net/11370.html
.ls
took a look at
.le
some 2001 predictions, and compared them to actual performance.

.pn
<b>EIA:</b> North Sea will peak in 2006 at 6.6 million barrels/day.<br />
<b>FACT:</b> The North Sea peaked in 1999 at 5.947 mb/d

.pn
<b>EIA:</b> Mexico: 4 million barrels/day by 2010, and little decline to 2020.<br />
<b>FACT:</b> Mexico peaked in December 2003 at 3.455 million barrels/day.
Pemex is predicting a 14% per year decline rates.

.date
November 30, 2005
.item
A Barrel A Year Is All We Ask

.pubdate
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 21:34:29 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/30/21:34:29:00

.pqn
The 20 gallons of gasoline made from one barrel of oil contains about 180 useful kilowatt-hours. If we divide that by say, 1/8 of a kilowatt &#8212; a generous continuous output for a fit person &#8212; we get 1440 hours of hard human work. Let's assume that a person can put out this 1/8 of a kilowatt for 6 hours per day. That is, half of the output of a top Tour de France cyclist for a continuous 6 hours (not counting breaks) per day. This means that you would need 240 days to get 180 kilowatt-hours (or more, if you are a dimmer bulb), which is minimally equivalent to one year of 5-days-a-week very hard labor by a fit human. This boils down conveniently to: ONE BARREL of oil = ONE YEAR of hard human labor.
.pqn
.url
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/11/30/233433/82#more
.ls
The Oil Drum
.le






.item
A Sea Of Suits
.pubdate
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 08:43:38 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/30/08:43:38:00
.p

This morning, Bush gave another one of his "speeches in front of people likely to clap harder at the right time", this time In Anapolis. It was a bit creepy, 
since the house lights were down, and any time you saw a wide shot of the auditorium, you saw a sea of identical dark suits, each sitting ram-rod straight in their seats. I've seen that movie, and it didn't end well. It's really time this president faced the great unwashed. It's really time we insist he stand 
before a real cross section of America. We don't like where we've been, we don't like where we are, and we don't like where he wants to take us.
.p
It occured to me this morning that there was a point where the the Iraq war train was off the tracks:
.pqn
"We've tried diplomacy," Mr. Bush said when asked about the issue today. "We're trying it one more time. I believe the free world, if we make up our mind to, can disarm this man peacefully."
.pqn
At the same time he said, "The stated policy of our government, the previous administration and this administration, is regime change? because we don't believe he is going to change."
.pqn
 ...
.pqn
"However, if he were to meet all the conditions of the United Nations, the conditions that I've described very clearly in terms that everybody can understand, that in itself will signal the regime has changed."
.pqn
October 21, 2002
.url
http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/000055.php\
.ls
Back to Iraq
.le
.p
This was 6 months before <i>shock and awe</i>, and just one month later, (2002.11.18) UN weapons inspectors were permitted back into Iraq.
.p
So it seems that on October 21, 2002 there was a moment when this war was not inevitable. It had to be Colin Powell's doing, we now know he was the only one in the white house that was pushing for moderation and caution, and for one brief moment it appears that he'd swayed Bush to his position. I wonder if we'll ever find out who put that train back on the tracks.

.p
John Kerry and Jack Reed are giving the Democratic response to the Bush speech, and taking unscripted questions from the press. I've been miffed at Kerry for
losing 2004, listening to him speak now reminds my why I supported him. 
His calm depth and command of the issues was a poor match for the campaign   trail, but he sure sounds good now, and the world would certainly be a better place were he in office today. You can know that he wouldn't have been on vacation
when Katrina hit, and Brownie wouldn't have been in charge. Grrr.


.item
Four New Saudi Arabias

.pubdate
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 08:43:38 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/30/08:43:38:01
.pqn
 Instead, oil production will reflect past years of production-such as the amount produced in 1997, for example-but demand will, of course, still be solidly grounded in the present. Everyone agrees that this will happen, although most politicians shy away from acknowledging this fact.
.pqn
A pamphlet called 
.url
http://billtotten.blogspot.com/2005/02/oil-depletion-and-fate-of-world.html
.ls
Oil Depletion and the Fate of the World
.le
sums up this situation nicely: "Even Exxon-Mobil recently stated that, due to depletion, it will be necessary to replace 80% of current production with new fields by 2015.
.pqn
In other words, we need to find four new Saudi Arabias in the next 11 years just in order to keep oil production flat." 
.pqn
SARAH GRILLO - 
.url
http://media.www.vermontcynic.com/media/paper308/news/2005/11/29/Opinion/Peak-Oil.Is.Happening.Now-1115729.shtml?sourcedomain=www.vermontcynic.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com
.ls
Vermont Cynic
.le
.p
Hard to believe, isn't it. With today's price for Gasoline returning to near $2.20 a gallon, it's
hard to believe that things won't just keep going on like this forever, and that buying a hulking
huge pickup with a half acre of chrome bumper isn't a good idea, but it's not. We'd be hearing
more about peak oil if it were a real problem, right?
.p
We are hearing about it. Not from this administration, of course. We're hearing about it from the  
energy companies. Instead of spending thier recent record profits on exploration, they're buying 
airtime and
.url
http://www.willyoujoinus.com/
.ls
opening websites
.le
in an effort to try to soak one simple fact - oil can not be the energy of the future - into the public.
Go ahead, visit the
.url
http://www.bp.com/
.ls
British Pertolium
.le
website. The headline, in in eco-freindly green is "Alternative Energy".
.p
Watch for the ads. Replay them on your Tivos.
They ask us to turn down our thermostats.
They urge us to drive 55.
They ask us about where the energy of the future will come from.
.p
Ask yourselves why they are running the ads.

.date
November 28, 2005
.item
In The News
.pubdate
Mon, 28 Nov 2005 07:43:55 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/28/07:43:55:00
.pn
WASHINGTON: A part of the marble facade of the Supreme Court building has collapsed to the entry stairs below. 

.pn
Structual engineers on the scene say the damage appears to have been caused by the accumulated stress upon the court of Bush v Gore decision, the cracking of the original foundation by use of torture in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, the erosion of the separation of powers, and structural stress caused by years of pressure to move the court to the right.


.date
November 27, 2005
.item
Shouting Movie In A Crowded Firehouse.

.pubdate
Sun, 27 Nov 2005 20:59:53 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/27/20:59:53:00
.p

It's been a rare two movie weekend:

.pn
<i>Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire</i>: 
Even though and a lot of the source material was left out of the screenplay, the first half of the movie feels rushed. The pacing settles down in the second half, and the scenes play true to the images I'd seen in my head while reading the book.  It is perhaps ironic that this darkest of the Potter films was the most magical, and also a has the most laughs. I wish this movie were two hours longer. (Extended DVD version, guys? Pretty Please?) 

.pn
<i>RENT:</i> is not so much an adaptation, as it is a cinema presentation of the original Broadway production, but shot on location. The music was stirring, and the cinematography and set design were inspired. Bring Kleenex.  


 


.date
November 25, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 25 Nov 2005 22:54:58 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/25/22:54:58:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051125.jpg
.alt
T-chan
.ie
.p
T-chan soaking up some sun.
 


.date
November 24, 2005
.item
Best. Turkey. Ever.
.pubdate
Thu, 24 Nov 2005 23:29:49 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/24/23:29:49:00
.p
I'm not sure what happened &#8212; A turkey that should have taken 4 hours (16lb 8oz) took a full 5 hours before it was done (165 degrees internal temp). I was frantic that with all that time in the oven, it would be as dry as toast&#8212;but it wasn't. It was perfect. Better than any I've <i>ever</i> had. Ever. What did I do I right?  



.item
Half Full

.pubdate
Thu, 24 Nov 2005 10:19:01 PST
.guid

http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/24/10:19:01:00
.p

.img  
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/20051124peak.jpg
.alt
Peak Oil
.ie
.pn
Source: 
.url
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/11/23/34751/090#comments
.ls
Happy Peak Oil Day?
.le
 - The Oil Drum

.pq
Now, for the world - and we&#8217;re getting to the core of the story here - after 1983, the world production settles down to a pretty good straight line, and there is one more black dot - because I had to release this to the publisher before the 2004 numbers came out - so the 2004 numbers - another black dot jammed between there and the plus mark. The plus mark is when half of the oil is being produced, and that third equation, a couple of slides back, had as one of its consequences that the peak of production occurs at the symmetry point when half of the oil has been produced.

.pq
And so I got an enlarged version of this and counted forward. And that is where I got to Thanksgiving Day this year, saying that that is my estimate of the peak. Now, I did that to make the economists nervous. It really is uncertain by about three weeks on either side. (Laughter.) Now, this came across

.pqn
Kenneth Deffeyes at the 
.url
http://www.bartlett.house.gov/SupportingFiles/documents/Bartlett_9-26-2005_Conference.pdf
.ls
Bartlett Energy Conference
.le
[PDF]
.p
Today is a day to relax, and eat well, and be with your families.
Tomorrow is the day to roll up our sleves and get serious about energy.




.date
November 19, 2005
.item
Did I Hear You Say "Peak"?
.pubdate
Sat, 19 Nov 2005 16:37:43 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/19/16:37:43:00
.pqn
"Quite remarkably, in the first half of 2005 the top five, the top ten and the top 22 publicly quoted oil companies all produced less crude and NGLs [Natural Gas Liquids] than they did in 2004," according to a

.url
http://www.odac-info.org/bulletin/documents/PetReviewOct2005.pdf
.ls
report
.le
published in the October issue of Petroleum Review.  Compared with 2003, ten companies produced less in the first half of this year.  Nine companies produced less than in 2002.  "Clearly, it is no exaggeration to say that the world's largest oil companies are now really struggling to hold production levels," the report says.  Meanwhile, a recent
.url
http://www.woodmacresearch.com/cgi-bin/wmprod/portal/energy/highlightsDetail.jsp?BV_SessionID=%40%40%40%400415377366.1129642034%40%40%40%40&BV_EngineID=ccceaddfmimmkglcflgcegjdffjdgig.0&oid=703617
.ls
study
.le
by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie shows that only a quarter of the 28 leading oil companies active in international exploration have fully replaced their production through new field discoveries.  The group of companies studied represents more than 30 percent of total world oil supply.  "Not only is exploration more expensive now, but it has become more difficult to achieve success, as the more accessible fields have been discovered," the study author Andrew Latham said, noting that the industry has not discovered any new "world-class" fields since 2000.

.pqn
.url
http://www.odac-info.org/bulletin/bulletin.htm#Struggling
.ls
The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre
.le

.p
This is a little confusing at first, since the chart shows BP first, and they were up in both the first and second quarters. What the author is doing is grouping together the top 5, which as a group lost ground, then the top ten, which as a group lost ground, then the top 22, which as a group lost ground.
.p
It's interesting to note that BP (The largest of this group) pumped 69 times as much oil as the number 22 entry: EOG Resources. If there's any gain to be had it's way out in that long tail of small producers. 









.date
November 18, 2005
.item

Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 18 Nov 2005 07:32:57 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/18/07:32:57:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051118.jpg
.alt
Tory
.ie
.p
Tory James





.date
November 14, 2005
.item
Something Rotten In The State Of Ohio
.pubdate
Mon, 14 Nov 2005 23:32:40 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/14/23:32:40:00
.pqn
I'll try to summarize here briefly. There were five initiatives on the ballot last week. Issue 1 was a controversial proposition for $2 billion in new state spending. The Christian Right was opposed (because some of the new funds might go to stem cell research), but otherwise, the Republican Governor Taft's Administration (he recently plead guilty to several counts of corruption) was pushing it hard alongside progressives in the state.

.pqn
The <i>Columbus Dispatch's</i> pre-election polling, which Fritrakis and Wasserman describe as "uncannily accurate for decades", called the race correctly within 1% of the final result. The margin of error for the poll was +/- 2.5% with a 95% confidence interval. On Issue 1, the Dispatch poll was right on the money. They predicted 53% in favor, the final result was 54% in favor.
.pqn
 ...
.pqn
But then came Issues 2 through 5 put forward by
.url
http://ReformOhioNow.org
.ls
ReformOhioNow.org
.le
 &#8212; a bi-partisan coalition pushing these four initiatives for Electoral Reform in the Buckeye State largely in response to their shameful '04 Election performance led by the extremely partisan Secretary of State (and Bush/Cheney '04 Co-Chair) J. Kenneth Blackwell.
.pqn
On those four issues, which Blackwell and the Christian Right were against, the final results were impossibly different &#8212; and we mean impossibly! 
.pqn
.url
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/the-staggeringly-impossib_b_10589.html
.ls
Huffington Post
.le



.p
This is chilling. This is the stick-shaker stall-warning in the cockpit of Democracy. We must get to the bottom of this before we run out of airspeed, altitude and ideas.

.item
On Getting Things Done
.pubdate
Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:39:54 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/14/22:39:54:00

.p
.url

http://www.ceejbot.com/blog/space/start/
.ls
Ceej 
.le
blogged an interesting artical on
.url
http://www.ceejbot.com/blog/space/start/2005-11-11/3#How_to_be_more_productive
.ls
how to be more productive.
.le
.p
I agree 100% with the big / dual monitor concept. More pixels is better. I've recently stepped up to two LCDs at work, and It really does help.
.p
This bit caught my eye:
.pqn
But their suggestions were surprisingly low-tech. None of them used complex technology to manage their to-do lists: no Palm Pilots, no day-planner software. Instead, they all preferred to find one extremely simple application and shove their entire lives into it. Some of O'Brien's correspondents said they opened up a single document in a word-processing program and used it as an extra brain, dumping in everything they needed to remember - addresses, to-do lists, birthdays - and then just searched through that file when they needed a piece of information.
.p
I've used the 'plain text file' for years. In the old days (Back when monitors were 800x600) I used to keep my trusty Psion running in a text editor nect to my keyboard. As I thought of things I'd just jot them in as check box items:
.pqn
<tt>[ ] Add test point to U1.4</tt>
.p
When I'd finished the task, I'd check the box:
.pqn
<tt>[*] Add test point to U1.4</tt>
.p
This rather crude scheme was highly effective on my PDA of the era, a Psion 3a, but became far more cumbersome and unmanagable on the Series 5 &#8212; they'd "upgraded" the text editor into a miniature word processor, which wanted to "help" you format items, and the fonts changed, and they were either too big or too small, and for some reason it was really hard to stay in monospace.

.p
I use
.url
http://www.notetab.com/
.ls
NoteTab Pro
.le
as my text editor these days. It's simple, and unlike <i>Word</i> it is happy
to record your keystrokes exactly as you type them.
It's happy to let you indent a line without trying to "help" you by making a bullet item list. It won't paste in the formatting when you've copied a bit of text off a webpage &#8212; like you <i>really</i> wanted that part number in 24 point, dark blue, bold helvetica in the middle of that 12 point courier paragraph. Ah, jeez.
.p
You can see where this is going, right? When a program does something that I didn't ask for, (which <i>Word</i> seems to do every other line) I loose productivity. It's not just the time to go undo the "help" I've just been "given"&#8212;it's exactly like an outside interruption. My task, which was to move ideas from my head onto the screen was disrupted, because what I got was not what I expected, and not what I wanted, and now I'm in a full context switch to try to undo somthing I didn't want, and it wasn't even my fault. Of course, the task of removing unwated formatting can be as daunting as getting an unwilling cat into a carrier for a trip to the vet. How is it an animal that can squeeze through a baseball-sized gap behind the recliner, and climb up into the springs, so that when you tip it over you have to be carefull not to activate the mechanism so as not to harm the cat, can then re-configure itself so that it cannot be pushed though the opening in the carrier which is big enough to take a regulation soccerball? And why are they black and white, anyway? The soccer balls, not the cats, who are Seal points, and one Blue point, which is more grey than blue, anyway. 
.p
Where was I? Oh. Distractions. Interruptions. Tools that interrupt you.

.p
I spent much of last weekend using a top-name CAD package. 
It must have crashed 50 times. By the end of the weekend I had trained myself
to save every 20 seconds or so, which was unpleasant because the program seemed to want to take 5 seconds to save a file. 15 seconds of work, 5 seconds of waiting. By the end of the session, I was in a state of clenched-fist, arm-waving frustration, drained of any interest in examining the end product of my toils.

.p
So, back to productivity. Big monitors good. Plain text editors, Good.
Programs that are written to cause distraction, bad. Programs that crash often: Very Very Bad&trade;. 










 








 

.date
November 12, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging (Late Edition)
.pubdate
Sat, 12 Nov 2005 08:33:59 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/12/08:33:59:00
.p
.img 

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051111.jpg
.alt
Miko
.ie
.p
Miko on the monitor. Poor baby, that desk anchor will soon be replaced by a 
cat-hostile LCD display.




.date
November 10, 2005
.item
Sanity? In Washington?

.pubdate
Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:46:39 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/10/08:46:39:00
.pqn

Twenty-five Republicans, led by Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire, signed a letter asking GOP leaders to strike the Alaskan drilling provision from the broader $54 billion budget cut bill.
.pqn
"Rather then reversing decades of protection for this publicly held land, focusing greater attention on renewable energy sources, alternate fuels, and more efficient systems and appliances would yield more net energy savings than could come from ANWR and would have a higher benefit on the nation&#8217;s long-term economic leadership and security," they said.
.pqn
.url
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9984545/
.ls
msnbc
.le
.p
More Good News&trade;


.date
November 9, 2005
.item
54.64 Miles x 54.64 Miles is all we ask

.pubdate
Wed, 09 Nov 2005 08:50:51 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/09/08:50:51:00
.pqn

The annual electricity-consumption of the United States is about 3,479 billion kWhr.  PYRON solar power plants can produce this amount on 7,731 km2 (87.92 km x 87.92 km or 54.64 mi x 54.64 mi) at a yearly solar radiation of 2790 kWhr/m2.  To deliver the United States annual consumption of 11,835 kW-hr for each person of the US-population of 290 million,  only 26.3 m2  or 31.51 sq.yd per capita of desert would be needed.  Regarding household electricity consumption of 3,547 kW-hr/yr, a miniscule 7.88m2 (9.42 sq.yd) of desert would suffice.  In comparison, supplying one person&#8217;s food needs 2,820m2 of valuable agricultural land (and a lot of petroleum too).  His electricity consumption produced by PYRON-SOLAR-generators requires about 350-times less land than farming.

.pqn
.url
http://www.pyronsolar.com/US/aims.htm
.ls
Pyron Solar
.le

.p
This Pyron system is really clever, it uses plastic injection-molded lenses to concentrate the sunlight on a solar cell designed for use at 400x the brightness of the sun. To keep the cell from melting, the whole thing floats in a shallow pool of water, and cells are mounted in heat sinks which transfer the heat from the cell to the water. 
.p
Since it's floating, the entire array can be rotated with a tiny (1 watt) motor to track the sun. The only downside is that it must be mounted flat, but it looks like a 12 foot diameter array (12.56 Sq Yards) would be plenty for the average home. I can easily imagine designing homes with a re-enforced flat-roof ready for just such an array.











.item
Ahnald Strikes Out

.pubdate
Wed, 09 Nov 2005 07:18:59 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/09/07:18:59:00
.p

All eight of the ballot inititives on the ballot here in California have
.url
http://vote2005.ss.ca.gov/Returns/prop/00.htm
.ls
gone down to defeat,
.le
including all four of the initiatives that Schwarzenegger placed on the ballot. 

.date
November 8, 2005
.item
Well, There Is One Thing He's Really Reaaly Good At.
.pubdate
Tue, 08 Nov 2005 21:19:24 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/08/21:19:24:00
.pqn
President Bush and the current administration have borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 presidents combined, a group of conservative to moderate Democrats said Friday.

.pqn
.url
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200511/NAT20051104b.html
.ls
CBS News
.le



.date
November 7, 2005
.item
Matthew Simmons Interview
.pubdate
Mon, 07 Nov 2005 08:04:10 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/07/08:04:10:00
.pqn
I believe we are either at or very close to peak oil. If I'm right, then we have to assume that five or 10 years from now we'll be producing less oil than we are today. And yet we have a society that is expecting, under the most conservative assumptions, that oil usage will grow by at least 30 to 50 percent over the next 25 years. In other words, we would end up with only 70 percent of the oil we have today when we would need to have 150 percent. It's a problem of staggering economic proportions &#8212; far greater than the temporary setback of a terrorist attack on energy infrastructure &#8212; that could end up leading to more geopolitical fistfights than you can ever imagine. The fistfights turn into weapon fights and give way to a very ugly society.

.pqn
.url
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/11/03/simmons/index.html
.ls
Grist Magazine
.le
.p
I think Mr. Simmons is spot on his predictions, but I disagree
with him on drilling ANWAR. Not yet. Not while you can still buy
a Hummer. (And get a HUGE tax break if you claim it's for business.)
.p
I watched the 'live debate' episode of <i>The West Wing</i> last night.
I was sorely dissapointed in the discussion on energy, the Republican
position was written as "the free market will save us" and the Democratic
position was "Renewables - blah - blah - blah". We're in a Very Bad
Place&trade; when we can't even fictionalize politicians really facing
the cold hard facts on energy.



.date
November 4, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 04 Nov 2005 08:35:33 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/04/08:35:33:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051104.jpg
.alt
Tory
.ie
.p
Tory James


.date
November 3, 2005
.item
Oily Calculations
.pubdate
Thu, 03 Nov 2005 07:53:05 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/03/07:53:05:00
.pqn
The International Energy Agency, the oil sector monitoring body, on Wednesday said that oil prices by 2030 would be 50 per cent higher than today if Saudi Arabia did not muster the political will to invest billions of dollars in new production.

.pqn
Fatih Birol, the group's chief economist, said in an interview with the Financial Times that Saudi Arabia, the most important oil producer, might not make the investment needed to ensure production met the strong demand growth in China and India.
.pqn
"It is not a problem of availability of reserves or capital. We need to be sure that the increase in production will be high enough and a sustained production capacity increase policy is in place. That will need sustained political will," he said. Saudi Arabia has plans to invest $14bn to raise output capacity from 11m barrels a day to 12.5m b/d by 2009, according to a report by Samba Financial Group, a Riyadh-based bank.
.pqn
.url
http://financialtimes.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=FT.com+%2F+International+economy+%2F+Oil+for+food+-+IEA+warns+of+50%25+oil+price+rise+by+2030&expire=&urlID=16113299&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2Fa4997c22-4bec-11da-997b-0000779e2340%2Cft_acl%3D%2Cs01%3D1.html&partnerID=1744
.ls
Financial Times
.le
.p
Hmm. 

.pn
11m barrels per day at $60 a barrel = $660 million dollars per day.
.p
Invest $14bn (About 21 days of sales) to keep the price stable...
.pn
12.5m barrels per day at $60 a barrel = $750 million dollars per day.
.p
Or - Keep the 14bn, and let the price rise 50%..
.pn
11m barrels per day at $90 a barrel = $990 million dollars per day.
.p
Which of these two business plans do you think the Saudis will follow?  
.p
If course, of you've read
.url
http://www.twilightinthedesert.com/
.ls
"Twilight in the Desert"
.le
you'd know that
it may be geologically difficult for Saudi Arabia to raise production
at all, and that $14bn (and more) may be needed to just stay even.  
  

.date
November 2, 2005
.item
Joe needs...
.pubdate
Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:26:07 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/02/21:26:07:00
.p
From M at

.url
http://www.neko.com/LangGeek.php
.ls
Language Geek
.le
.pqn
OK, so this is the latest blog meme... You type "[your name] needs" into Google and see what it comes up with.

.p
Okay, M, I'll bite:

.pqn
Joe needs his Tampa tamer.
.hr
.pqn
Joe needs two cracking matches to avoid going down
to reserve and he is capable of doing it if everything is right.
.hr
.pqn
[Trader] Joe's needs sign and mural artists.
.hr
.pqn
[Smokin'] Joe Needs You.
.hr
.pqn
Joe needs an editor.
.hr
.pqn
Joe Needs Your Help!
.hr
.pqn
[The Average] Joe Needs your Help.
.hr
.pqn
Joe Needs Food Badly. 
.hr
.pqn
[Army} Joe needs another History of the Game
.hr
.pqn
Joe Needs Good Commentaries
.hr
.pqn
Joe needs to try a number of different things..
.hr
.pqn
[Every] Joe Needs His Jane.
.hr
.pqn
[The last thing] Joe needs is more bad luck.
.hr
.pqn
Joe needs to come back to Australia sometime.
.hr
.pqn
Joe needs the American people to listen to what he has to say.









 




.date
November 2, 2005
.item
100% Of Your Daily Requirement Of Bummer
.pubdate
Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:45:25 PST
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/11/02/08:45:25:00
.pqn
I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I think it's a subtext to our society. I think that a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even in some cases unnoticed, a sense that the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon. That our pollsters are preoccupied with "right track" and "wrong track" but missing the number of people who think the answer to "How are things going in America?" is "Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination."

.pqn
.url
http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110007460
.ls
PEGGY NOONAN
.le
in the Wall Street Journal 

.p
Peggy jumps to the conclusion that it's all to big for a president to
deal with. No, Peggy. It's just too big for <i>this</i> president to deal with,
and his hard right social, and hit neocon economic politics, are exactly the wrong prescription for what ails this country. 
.p
May I remind Ms. Noonan, in this administration,
.url
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/DiIulio.txt
.ls
politics trumps policy.
.le





 





.date
October 28, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 28 Oct 2005 07:53:28 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/28/07:53:28:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051028.jpg
.alt
Tory James
.ie
.p
Tory James, in repose. He's in repose <i>often</i>.



.date
October 25, 2005
.item
NOC knocked...
.pubdate
Tue, 25 Oct 2005 08:29:26 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/25/08:29:26:00
.p
Sorry about the outage, but Hurricane Wilma apparently took down NTT/Verio's 

server farm in Boca Raton yesterday morning. This is the first time
I've ever noted an outage, and it took a catagory 3 hurricane to do
it. My guess is that there are meetings happening today to figure out how
to prevent it from happening again. 
.p
In any case, it looks like the Network Operations Center ops team was up all night to get things back on line. Thanks for your work, guys. I have to think you'd have prefered spending the last 24 hours dealing with the effects of the hurriane on your homes and families. 


.date
October 22, 2005
.item
A Liberal By Any Other Name - or - You Know That Word You Keepa Usin'? I Don' Think It 'A Means What You Think It 'A Means.

.pubdate
Sat, 22 Oct 2005 07:02:37 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/22/07:02:37:00
.pqn

Here is the liberals' problem in a nutshell: More than 30 percent of Americans happily answer to the appellation "conservative," while 18 percent call themselves "liberal." And yet when questioned by pollsters, a super-majority of more than 60 percent take positions liberal in everything but name. Indeed, on many if not most issues, Americans hold views well to the left of those espoused by almost any national Democratic politician.
.pqn
In a May survey published by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 65 percent of respondents said they favor providing health insurance to all Americans, even if it means raising taxes, and 86 percent said they favor raising the minimum wage. Seventy-seven percent said they believe the country "should do whatever it takes to protect the environment.'' A September Gallup Poll finds that 59 percent consider the Iraq War a mistake and 63 percent agree that US forces should be partially or completely withdrawn. 
.pqn
Eric Alterman in
.url
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051107/alterman
.ls
The Nation
.le










.date
October 21, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 21 Oct 2005 07:46:16 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/21/07:46:16:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051021.jpg
.alt
Tchan and Miki
.ie
.p
T-chan. Miko. Red Office Chair.



.date
October 17, 2005
.item
More Mirrors
.pubdate
Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:10:36 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/17/23:10:36:00
.pqn
With 354 MW of solar electric generating systems (SEGS) parabolic trough power plants connected to the grid in Southern California since the mid-1980s, parabolic troughs represent the most mature CSP technology. To date, there are more than 100 plant-years of experience from the nine operating plants, which range in size from 14 MW to 80 MW.

.pqn
.url
http://www.solarpaces.org/publications/sp99_tec.htm
.ls
Solar Paces
.le

.p
A deeper analysis can be found in their report:
.url
http://www.solarpaces.org/solar_trough.pdf
.ls
Solar Parabolic Trough
.le
[pdf]

.date
October 15, 2005

.item
A Mighty Wind
.pubdate
Sat, 15 Oct 2005 13:17:43 PDT

.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/15/13:17:43:00

.pqn
 ...one of
.url
http://www.vestas.com/uk/Home/index.asp
.ls
the company's
.le
V90,
.url
http://www.vestas.com/uk/Products/v90/v90_UK.htm
.ls
3.0 MW offshore wind turbines
.le
has to generate electricity for approximately 6.8 months before it produces as much energy as is used during the manufacturing lifetime. This, they say, means the turbine model earns its own worth more than 35 times during its energy production lifetime.
.pqn
Furthermore, compared to the V80-2.0 MW offshore wind turbine, the 6.8 months constitutes an improvement of approximately 2.2 months over the lower capacity model.
.pqn
If installed on a good site, the V90-3.0 MW wind turbine will generate approximately 280,000 MWh in 20 years - thus sparing the environment the impact of a net volume of approximately 230,000 tons of CO2, as compared to the figures for energy generated by a coal-fired power station.
.pqn
.url
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=25113
.ls
Renewable Energy Access
.le

.p
I keep wondering how it would look if you design for an 80+ year life for the tower, and replace/refurbish the generator on
a 20 year schedule. After all, the Golden Gate Bridge is
.url
http://goldengatebridge.org/research/ConstructionTimeline.php
.ls
over 80 years old...
.le



.date
October 14, 2005
.item
What's That Buzzing Noise?
.pubdate
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 10:12:56 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/14/10:12:56:00
.pqn
Flaying away with a stick at a hornets' nest while loudly proclaiming "I will stay the course" is an exercise in catastrophic leadership.

.pqn
Zbigniew Brzezinski in the
.url
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/13/opinion/edzbig.php
.ls
International Herald Tribune
.le
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 09:53:01 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/14/09:53:01:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20051014.jpg
.alt
T-Chan
.ie
.p
T-chan


.item
The Silence Before The Storm
.pubdate
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 08:42:40 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/14/08:42:40:00
.pqn
Some Iraqi troops went a step further, saying they were only awaiting word from the marja'iya before turning on American forces. Although many Shiites are grateful for the overthrow of Saddam, they also are suspicious of U.S. motives. Those suspicions partly stem from the failure of the first Bush administration to support a U.S.-encouraged Shiite uprising against Saddam in 1991. Saddam suppressed it and slaughtered thousands.

.pqn
"In Amariyah last week, a car bomb hit a U.S. Humvee and their soldiers began to shoot randomly. They killed a lot of innocent civilians. I was there; I saw it," said Sgt. Fadhal Yahan. "This happens all the time. If they keep doing this, the people will attack them. And we are part of the people."
.pqn
Sgt. Jawad Majid chimed in: "We have our marja'iya and we are waiting for them to decide when the time to fight (the Americans) is, when it is no longer time to be silent." 
.pqn
TOM LASSETER
.url
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12885151.htm
.ls
Knight Ridder Newspapers
.le

.p
Read this.




.date
October 13, 2005
.item
New Job!
.pubdate
Thu, 13 Oct 2005 10:11:55 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/13/10:11:55:00
.p
The really great news:

.pqn
I've got a new job.
.p
The (somewhat) bad news:
.pqn
I don't get to talk about it here.

.p
My new gig is at a start-up in deep-stealth mode, so I won't even 
publish the name of the place (yet).
.p
If you look back though my blog, you'll find realating to my job I've
always been careful to link to third party press releases and articles,
or I've waited until the product is in the customer's hands before
publishing my own photos. You can expect more of the same. I'll talk about it when I can, but in the meantime: &lt;stealth-mode&gt;. 
.p
I hadn't really been looking for a start-up. I had applied at a couple of big companies, And I thought the interviews went well, but in one case I was
told that what they really wanted was a manager, and in another case the interviewer said 'from your resume, it looks like you're one of the first
3 people I'd want at a start-up'. I took that as a compliment, but my 
peculiar mix of skills wasn't a good fit.
.p
I really clicked with the people at the new gig, and after a very few minutes 
I was thinking "I could do this", and after a few more minutes, it was "I 
really want to do this."
.p
So &#8212; here I am, back in a start-up. I start Monday.
.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/biggrin.gif
.alt
Big Grin
.ie


.date
October 11, 2005
.item
Left vs Right

.pubdate
Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:07:43 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/11/11:07:43:00
.p

.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/LvsR20051011.gif
.alt
Plot of data L vs R
.ie
.p
Kevin Drum over at
.url
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_10/007304.php
.ls
Washington Monthly
.le
has been looking into the Left vs Right split, and he's linked to a remarkable
table from the 
.url
http://www.umich.edu/~nes/nesguide/toptable/tab3_3.htm
.ls
National Election Studies
.le
website which tracks the Conservatism Index from 1964-2002.
.p
I've plotted that data (averaging '76 and '80 for the '78 value) to come up with this chart. Red is more conservative, Blue is more liberal.
.p
I'm not sure why their data shows a consistant offset to the conservative side,
but it's pretty clear that from Johnston to Nixon to Ford to Carter to Reagan to Bush to Clinton to BushII the country hasn't really moved much one way or the other. We're a pretty purple bunch, after all.




.date
October 10, 2005

.item
Pencil And Paper
.pubdate
Mon, 10 Oct 2005 16:55:30 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/10/16:55:30:00
.p

.url
http://pencilrevolution.com/
.ls
Pencil Revolution
.le
is an engaging blog about pencils.
Yes, Pencils. Real ones, made from incense cedar wood with a graphite core.
There really is something comforting about the feel of a real pencil, and sharpening them with a 
hand-cranked sharpener has the feel of ritual.
.p
Since reading the blog I've begun keeping a couple classic #2 pencils in my bag, next to
my mechanicals: a Pentel Forte black .5mm, Red and Blue at .7mm, and my favorite - a 2mm yellow
lead in a draftsman's mechanical lead holder (With a yellow cap!).
The 2mm yellow lead has become very hard to find, a couple years back I ended up having to order
two packs from a shop in Canada. They are perfect for highlighting while checking schematics, the line is narrow and clear, it won't cause ink to bleed, and unlike marker pens, yellow lead doesn't stain my fingers.
.p
I don't know what it is about Pencil and Pen companies, both the
.url
http://www.pentel.com
.ls
Pentel
.le
and
.url
http://www.staedtler.com/
.ls
Staedtler
.le
have high gloss, but user-hostile websites. 

.p
You'll need some paper to go with your pens, and the best notebooks are made in Italy by
.url
http://www.moleskine.it/eng/default.htm
.ls
Moleskine
.le
Matias turned me on to these legendary notebooks a couple years back, and since then I've become a big fan. 
The cover is solid, but they lay comfortable flat. The paper is sturdy, takes erasures well,
and has a yellowish tint that is comfortable to read in full sunlight. Notebooks come with an
elastic band to keep them closed, and a built-in ribbon bookmark.
.p
As an engineer, I prefer the style with squared rulings &#8212; they're great for lists of parts
and sketching out schematics. 
You can find them in fine art stores, and at
.url
http://www.moleskineus.com/
.ls
Moleskine US
.le
.item
Door Number Two
.pubdate
Mon, 10 Oct 2005 11:11:28 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/10/11:11:28:00
.p
You know, this whole Harriet Miers nomination has me flashing back to 

the game show <i>Let's Make A Deal.</i> Harriet is like the gift wrapped box - we don't really know for sure what is inside, but we know for sure it's not a goat (a long-running gag on the show was to open a door or curtain to reveal a
farm animal.) So &#8212; the Democrats are standing there, in thier Raggedy Ann costumes, biting thier nails, staring at the box, and the Right Wing of the Republican party (I repeat myself) is demanding Monty Hall to give them a look behind Door Number two.





.date
October 9, 2005
.item
Back Of The Envelope Calculations

.pubdate
Sun, 09 Oct 2005 13:47:02 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/09/13:47:02:00
.p
I saw an ad during one of this morning's news shows that got me thinking.

.p
I didn't catch who the ad was from, but the message was clear: 20,000 windmills
would be required to supply electricity to the city the size of Paris, then there
was an image of the Eiffel tower with three gaint blades.
I guess the idea was to make 20,000 sound like an impossibly huge number, and 
that for that fact alone, we should look elsewhere for energy.
.p
Not specified in the ad was what the meaning of "Paris" &#8212; is it the 2 million in
the core city, or is it the 10 million in the greater metro area? Anyway,
I thought I'd pull out my HP calculatator and take a whack at the USA.
.p
The 
.url
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickelectric.htm
.ls
Energy Information Administration
.le

provides a few starting points.
.pqn
2003 U.S. Production (Net Generation) = 3,883,185 Million Kilowatthours
.pqn
That's 3,883,185,000 Megawatt hours in a year.
.pqn
That's 10,638,863 Megawatt hours per day
.pqn
That's 443,285 Megawatts (average)
.p
Modern windmills are in the megawatt range, and they cost about $1/watt,
so to replace all of the electrical power used in the USA, we'd need
443,285 windmills, at a cost of 443.2 billion dollars. That sounds like
a lot, until you think that to date we've spent nearly half of that on
the war in Iraq. It's less than the ammount that will be added to the national
debt &#8212; this year alone.
.p
Now realistically speaking, we'd never get 100% generation for each
windmill site, and there are transmission loses, so a derating factor
would have to be applied, just as a swag we'll call it somewhat less 
han 50% so we need an even 1,000,000 windmills. That's a trillion dollars,
or about what we'll be adding to the national debt in just 19 months.
.p
A million is a whole lot of windmills, but on the other hand, the technology
it no more complicated than a modern automobile, and GM alone sold nine million
cars and trucks globaly in 2004. Now I have to think that if we set out to build
a million windmills, we might be able to find some economies of scale.

.p
If 20,000 windmills for Paris sounds like a lot, remember that over twice
that number of new cars are sold each day, in the USA alone.

.date
October 7, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:27:58 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/07/10:27:58:00
.p
.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050407.jpg
.alt 
T-chan and Miko
.ie
.p
Another in the series of Palmer cats on red office chairs...

.item
Thoughtlets: On The BeBox
.pubdate
Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:10:30 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/07/10:10:30:00
.p
.imgl

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/BePocketProtector.jpg
.alt
Pocket Protector
.ie


.p
Andrew's put together a nice
.url
http://www.sgi.nu/diary/2005/10/06/10-years-of-the-bebox/
.ls
story about the BeBox release
.le
with loads of links to Be resources. Domo, Domo!

.p
BTW, that's a first generation "We Be Geeks" pocket protector. I really
can't remember who came up with the idea, for these but they were quite
popular at trade shows. 

And you know, these things are really useful. I wonder why they went out of style...

.p
.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/WeBeGeeks.jpg
.alt
We Be Geeks Tattoo
.ie
.p
I saw an add for temporary tattoos in one of those magazines that the
airlines put in thier seat pockets and thought we should get some.
That was one of the really great things about being at Be, if any of us
had ideas for viral marketing JLG would jump onboard.
.p
At one point, a group at Apple had rented a movie theater for a mid-morning
show, and someone there invited the Be engineers along. We asked JLG if 
we could give out t-shirts, and he gave us a dozen which we left on random
seats before the show. I don't know if we snagged any new employees from that, but it did help build goodwill.

.p
I think it was that showing that gave me the idea to put slides up in the theater
promoting Be. It was around the time of the Star Trek movie featuring the Borg.
When I got back to the office I brought the suggestion to JLG, and within minutes
we'd rented a slot in two major markets in Silicon Valley, (It was not very expensive
back then) and artwork was being sent to a place that could make the slides.
The slides said:
.pq
<b>Resistance Is Not Futile.</b>
.pq
www.be.com
.p
They ran for a month or so in a couple dozen theaters (the ones most likely to contain 
future Be employees and customers.) I never did get to see it on the big screen. (Sniffle) 



 

.date
October 3, 2005
.item
BeBox Still In The News (But Not Good News)
.pubdate
Mon, 03 Oct 2005 16:35:05 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/03/16:35:05:00
.pqn
<b>12:25-1:26 am</b> Three uniformed police officers search my flat and interview my girlfriend. They take away several mobile phones, an old IBM laptop, a BeBox tower computer (an obsolete kind of PC from the mid-1990s), a handheld GPS receiver (positioning device with maps, very useful when walking), a frequency counter (picked it up at a radio amateur junk fair because it looked interesting), a radio scanner (receives short wave radio stations), a blue RS232C breakout box (a tool I used to use when reviewing modems for computer magazines), some cables, a computer security conference leaflet, envelopes with addresses, maps of Prague and London Heathrow, some business cards, and some photographs I took for the 50 years of the Association of Computing Machinery conference. This list is from my girlfriend's memory, or what we have noticed is missing since.

.pqn
.url
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1575411,00.html
.ls
Guardian UK
.le
.p
You know, those guys would need a Very Big Truck&trade; to take away all of that
sort of stuff from my garage.



.item
Happy 10th Birthday, BeBox!
.pubdate
Mon, 03 Oct 2005 10:53:26 PDT
.guid

http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/10/03/10:53:26:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/BeBoxGuidebook.jpg
.alt
Bebox Guidebook
.ie
.p
It was 10 years ago today that the BeBox was first shown to the public
at the Agenda Conference. I've found a handful of photos from
that show to put in the new
.url
http://www.josephpalmer.com/gallery/Be/Page_i.html
.ls
Be, Inc Gallery.
.le
I also dropped in a few photos of the first run of BeBoxen,
which were assembled in the Be offices in Menlo Park, and
a bunch of pictures from Macworld Japan, 1997. 

.p
Photos of my BeBox (Signed by all the employees on my last day) are
.url
http://www.josephpalmer.com/BeBox/BeBox.shtml
.ls
here. 
.le
.p









.date
September 30, 2005
.item
About Okonomiyaki
.pubdate
Fri, 30 Sep 2005 17:49:43 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/30/17:49:43:00
.p
The LA weekly

.url
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/45/counter-gold.php
.ls
reviews
.le
an Okonomiyaki shop in LA.
.p
I make okonomiyaki myself at home, using
.url
http://markun.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp/hobby/okonomi/index-e.html
.ls
this receipe,
.le
which also contains the charming and immortal bit of HTML formated prose...

.pqn
And it will taste well with
.pqn
<b>beer.</b>

.p
Somehow that just cracks me up. The formatting makes it look like we're
in for a whole list of food an beverage pairings, but the list contains
just one item. <b>beer.</b> 
.p
He's right on that, by the way.
.p
Oh yeah, the Chinese yam is called <i>nagaimo</i>. I always leave a ring of the skin on it, if you peel the whole thing with a potato peeler it gets too slippery to hold. In fact, the first time you work with nagaimo you will be 
freeked out at how slithy it is. (But it really tastes great!)
.p
It's a lot of work to make them, so anytime I make them I make a few extra to
freeze for lunch. They're pretty good re-heated in the microwave.








.item
Podcast - The Seasons Stories 2: Spring - a Ranma 1/2 Audio Fanfiction
.pubdate
Fri, 30 Sep 2005 15:06:40 PDT
.guid

http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/30/15:06:40:00
.p
This is a Ranma 1/2 audio Fanfiction. No, it's not a new story, it was first published over 10 years ago. 


Spring is the second in an arc of four stories which have come to be called
"The Seasons Stories" in the Ranma 1/2 fanfiction world.

.p
Enjoy, and please let me know if you like what you hear. 
.p
P.S. I'm much happier with the recording quality of his one.


.aud
Spring.mp3
.aud_len
5289766
.aud_end 


.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 30 Sep 2005 08:48:39 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/30/08:48:39:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050930.jpg
.alt
T-chan, Tory and Miko
.ie
.p
T-chan, Tory and Miko. I used the flash to fill, but you can still make out the patch of sun that attracted them.


.date
September 29, 2005
.item
New York City and Colorado Photo Album
.pubdate
Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:31:54 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/29/12:31:54:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/FaceOfLibery.jpg
.alt 
The Face Of Liberty
.ie
.p
I've added a 
.url
http://www.josephpalmer.com/gallery/NY-CO/NY-CO_i.html
.ls
new photo gallery
.le
of images taken on my recent vacation to New York City and Colorado.
Enjoy!


.item
The $3 Threshold
.pubdate
Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:07:24 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/29/09:07:24:00
.pqn
has dropped 10% below last year's, starting in August. It's "a huge change" that he previously thought would take years.

.pqn
Factoring out the few days of panic buying after Katrina, demand for gasoline has "been down 6% to 15%, depending on the store," says Jay Ricker, president of Rickers, a chain of 33 convenience-store stations in Indiana. "When we crossed the $3 threshold, that was a defining moment, getting people to think more about their driving."
.pqn
If so, it's a much-discussed moment. Automakers had been saying it would take an extended period of $3 gasoline, and some shortages, to get Americans to drive less or switch to fuel-efficient models. 
.pqn
.url
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2005-09-28-gas-prices-usat_x.htm
.ls
USA Today
.le
.p
To think, when I bought my Prius last year, people told me I'd never make up the added price of the hybryd system in gas savings. I wonder if they would say the same thing today.

.item
Rita May Have Caused More Damage Than Katrina
.pubdate
Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:07:24 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/29/09:07:24:01
.pqn
"The impact on the rigs is something that&#8217;s never been seen by this country before," said Daniel Naatz, director of federal resources for the Independent Petroleum Association of America. ODS-Petrodata, which provides data and information to the industry, reported 13 rigs already seriously damaged or destroyed by Rita. Platform damage still is being assessed, said Tom Marsh, ODS analyst
.pqn
.url
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9520571/
.ls
MSNBC
.le
.p
The Oil Drum has a 
.url
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/9/28/115151/818#more
.ls
list of rigs
.le
that are Beached, Sunk, Missing, Aground, and Upside Down.
.p
Oil is one thing, many of us can make cut-backs in our driving
to save 5 or 10%, we could probably deal with the loss of
1.5 million BL/Day in the Gulf.

What I'm worried about is Natural Gas. If it's a cold winter,
things could get Very Bad&trade;.




.date
September 28, 2005
.item
Got Arctic Ice Sheet?
.pubdate
Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:07:26 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/28/16:07:26:00
.pqn
One of these positive feedbacks centers on increasingly warm temperatures. Serreze explained that as sea ice declines because of warmer temperatures, the loss of ice is likely to lead to still-further ice losses. Sea ice reflects much of the sun's radiation back into space, whereas dark ice-free ocean absorbs more of the sun's energy. As sea ice melts, Earth's overall albedo, the fraction of energy reflected away from the planet, decreases. The increased absorption of energy further warms the planet.

.pqn
"Feedbacks in the system are starting to take hold," argues NSIDC Lead Scientist Ted Scambos. Moreover, these feedbacks could change our estimate of the rate of decline of sea ice. "Right now, our projections for the future use a steady linear decline, but when feedbacks are involved the decline is not necessarily steady&#8212;it could pick up speed."
.pqn
.url
http://nsidc.org/news/press/20050928_trendscontinue.html#fig2
.ls
The National Snow and Ice Data Center
.le
.p
You know those levees in NOLA? You need to rebuild them stronger. And Higher. A  lot higher.


.item
Whas That A Shoe I Heard Falling - And Why Did It Splash?
.pubdate
Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:46:35 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/28/15:46:35:00
.pqn
Surging energy prices, low personal savings and the higher cost of borrowing have combined to produce a record level of overdue credit card bills.
.pqn
The American Bankers Association reported Wednesday that the percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due climbed to an all-time high of 4.81 percent in the April-to-June period. It could grow in the months ahead, experts said.

.pqn
.url
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1167311
.ls
ABC News / AP
.le
.p
I just tracked down a receipt from June 16.  Gas was $2.48 / Gallon on that date.  It's now $2.92 at the station arround the corner. It's up $0.44 or nearly 18% higher today.




.item
Brother Can You Spare A Subcompact?
.pubdate
Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:46:35 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/28/15:46:35:01
.pqn
"We are seeing people who are driving $40,000 Suburbans trading them in on $15,000 Corollas," said Mathews, who manages a dealership in a state where big trucks and sport-utility vehicles rule the roads. "The last 30 days have been unlike anything I've ever seen in the automotive industry."
.pqn
.url
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/27/AR2005092701812.html
.ls
Washington Post
.le
.p
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.




.item
Rep. Bartlett's 2005 Energy Conference
.pubdate
Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:23:52 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/28/12:23:52:00
.p

Representstive
.url
http://www.bartlett.house.gov/
.ls
Roscoe Bartlett
.le
(R-MD)
held an energy conference on September 26th, Unfortunately C-Span
has not sheduled a re-run, but you can read the transcripts at his
website in
.url
http://www.bartlett.house.gov/SupportingFiles/documents/Bartlett_9-26-2005_Conference.pdf
.ls
[pdf]
.le
or in lovely HTML at Energy Bulletin:
.url
http://www.energybulletin.net/9242.html
.ls
[1]
.le
.url
http://www.energybulletin.net/9245.html
.ls
[2]
.le
.url
http://www.energybulletin.net/9248.html
.ls
[3]
.le

.p
He was also on the
.url
rtsp://video.c-span.org/15days/wj092805_bartlett.rm
.ls
Washington Journal 
.le
call-in show this morning (Warning: Link decay in 15 days)
.p
I really hope a torrent of this conference becomes available,
the bits I caught were outstanding. 

.p
P.S. Rep Bartlet spoke about
.url
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
.ls
this article
.le
by Matt Savinar.



.item
Wired Rave Award
.pubdate
Wed, 28 Sep 2005 10:32:02 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/28/10:32:02:00
.p
.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/Rave20050928.jpg

.alt
Wired Rave Award
.ie
.p
Sometimes good things happen at bad times.  On September 1st, as the images of people crying for help in NOLA were on the television, something very good, and very long awaited happened to me&#8212;I got something very nice in the mail. 

.p
I&#8217;d like to publicly thank Christine and the rest of the Rave Awards team at Wired for making this possible. There aren&#8217;t many opportunities for an engineer like myself to get this sort or recognition for the work that we do, and it means a very great deal to me that I now have such a substantial memento.



.date
September 26, 2005
.item
Hou Have GOT To Be Kidding me.
.pubdate
Mon, 26 Sep 2005 16:55:03 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/26/16:55:03:00
.pqn
(CBS) &#8212; CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate it's response following Hurricane Katrina. 

.pqn
.url
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/22/national/main878583.shtml?CMP=ILC-SearchStories
.ls
CBS
.le



.item
NYC
.pubdate
Mon, 26 Sep 2005 12:24:00 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/26/12:24:00:00
.p
.imgl

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/StatueOfLiberty.jpg
.alt 
Lady Liberty
.ie
.p
Wife and I spent four days in NYC last week, seeing many of the 
classic tourist sites. It was my first trip, so my image of the 
city was mostly based on what I'd seen in movies and on television,
which gave me a very distorted view. Manhattan is a friendlier,
less gritty and safer place than I'd been lead to expect. (Why is it
that so many dramas based on crime and violence are filmed there?)
.p
The subways are great for getting around, we picked up Metro Cards
first thing and were able to sort out the train-route uptown-downtown
scheme within a few minutes, and only once ended up going in the wrong direction.
.p
I've yet to go through all of the photos, but if I come across any that
are really good, I'll sprinkle a few here.
.p


.url
http://www.mesagrill.com/
.ls
Mesa Grill?
.le
Go for the smoked shrimp cake, it was outstanding! The Grilled Tuna Steak was a bit uninspired, however.
I recommend the Sea Scallops and Roasted Sirloin of Beef at the 
.url
http://www.gramercytavern.com/
.ls
Gramercy Tavern
.le



 




.item
"We Have Lost Control" - Greenspan

.pubdate
Mon, 26 Sep 2005 08:46:00 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/26/08:46:00:00
.pqn

Bitter disagreements over global economic policy broke out into the open yesterday as the French Finance Minister claimed that Alan Greenspan had admitted America had "lost control" of its budget while China warned the US to drop demands for radical economic policy changes.

.pqn
In an extraordinary revelation after a meeting between Thierry Breton and Mr Greenspan, M. Breton told reporters: "'We have lost control,' that was his [Mr Greenspan's] expression.

.pqn
"The US has lost control of their budget at a time when racking up deficits has been authorised without any control [from Congress]," M. Breton said.

.pqn
"We were both disappointed that the management of debt is not a political priority today. The situation that is creating tension today on the currency market ... is clearly the American deficit."
.pqn
.url
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article315144.ece
.ls
The Independent [UK]
.le
.p
Bush stayed on vacation when Katrina hit New Orleans, when he should have been in the Whitehouse. Now with Rita, he's flitting about the country as the acting FEMA director. Mr. Bush, you have to understand that you can save a lot of jet fuel by staying at home. You have a situation room, you know. That's where you belong when we have a situation. 
.p
Besides, the bigest problem you face is not in the Gulf States, it's in <i>your</i> budget. You can't fix that from Colorado Springs.


.date
September 23, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 23 Sep 2005 07:29:21 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/23/07:29:21:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050923.jpg
.alt
Cats
.ie
.p
Miko getting his ears cleaned by T-chan. (Awww.)


.date
September 19, 2005
.item
Humor
.pubdate
Mon, 19 Sep 2005 08:08:49 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/19/08:08:49:00
.p
I ate at the Mensa Grill last night, it took an hour to figure out the menu.

.date
September 16, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 16 Sep 2005 19:37:18 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/16/19:37:18:00
.p
.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050916.jpg
.alt
The eye of Miko
.ie
.p
Miko

.item
Potemkin Power - or - JUMP!
.pubdate
Fri, 16 Sep 2005 09:30:47 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/16/09:30:47:00
.pqn
I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

.pqn
.url
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8045532
.ls
msnbc
.le
.p
Go ahead and jump. 


.end


.date
September 12, 2005
.item
SPECIAL REPORT:'Unacceptable': The Federal Response to Katrina

.pubdate
Mon, 12 Sep 2005 09:25:11 PDT

.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/12/09:25:11:00
.pqn

FEMA ordered the Red Cross and Salvation Army not to go into the New Orleans disaster zone, although the National Response Plan directs FEMA to work with all agencies, public or private, that wish to assist and are qualified. The Florida Airboat Association had 300 boats fully equipped, their pilots trained, but FEMA never authorized their help. FEMA rejected three tankers filled with drinking water donated by Wal-Mart, forbid Jefferson Parrish to accept 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel provided by the Coast Guard, and cut emergency communication lines, according to Aaron Broussard, Jefferson Parish president. Under his direction, the Sheriff reconnected the lines and posted armed guards.
.pqn
The U.S. Forest Service offered water-tanker aircraft to fight the fires; Amtrak offered trains to evacuate the city. FEMA "has yet to accept the aid" of the Forest Service, and "dragged its feet" on Amtrak's offer, said Sen. Landrieu almost a week after Katrina came ashore. James May, president of the Air Transport Association, told the Associated Press that Homeland Security didn't even contact his association for assistance in evacuation until three days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
.pqn
The Navy offered the assistance of the crew of the U.S.S. Bataan, an amphibious assault ship in the area when the hurricane hit, but FEMA underused the services the first few days. Capt. Nora Tyson, the Bataan's commanding officer, told the Chicago Tribune she had 1,200 sailors who "could be on the beach plucking through garbage or distributing water and food," that the ship could have opened its operating rooms, and provided medical personnel and 600 beds to the relief effort, that its helicopters could have been flying rescue missions, that it could have made as much as 100,000 gallons of drinkable water a day, that the police could have used the ship's electrical system to charge their radios&#8212; "but I can't force myself on people." Tyson did send a landing craft loaded with food and water up the Mississippi to New Orleans, and ordered her helicopters into the air to assist in rescue operations, but FEMA was slow to request assistance. Donald Rumsfeld was reluctant to order military assistance, deferring to FEMA to provide the leadership, although the Department of Defense had legal authority to act during a state of emergency to protect life and property. 
.pqn
.url
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/brash-katrina-investigation.html
.ls
SPECIAL REPORT: 'Unacceptable': The federal response to Katrina
.le

.pqn
By Walter M. Brasch
.pqn
<i>
EDITOR'S NOTE: We recommend that our readers print out this incisive special report and read it in print. The author is an award-winning syndicated columnist, professor of journalism, and a former emergency management official. This article is an in-depth look at the Bush policies that created the atmosphere not only for an ineffective FEMA response during the Katrina catastrophe, but which may have contributed to additional property destruction and deaths than should have occurred.</i> &#8212; Smirking Chimp





.date
September 11, 2005
.item
Disgrace
.pubdate
Sun, 11 Sep 2005 19:31:28 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/11/19:31:28:00
.pqn
How this could be&#8212;how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century&#8212;is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.

.pqn
.url
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/
.ls
MSNBC
.le
.p
This too is Real News&trade;. 

.date
September 9, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 09 Sep 2005 13:43:16 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/09/13:43:16:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050909.jpg
.alt
Pete Time Travels
.ie
.p
Cousin Pete experiments with time travel.
.p
Photo: B. Palmer




.item
Lessons Unlearned
.pubdate
Fri, 09 Sep 2005 09:39:38 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/09/09:39:38:00
.pqn
The lesson of Katrina, after all, is not that the White House is bad at handling hurricanes. The lesson is that the Bush White House doesn't care much about whether things actually work. This is why they screwed up Iraq: they had an idea of what they wanted to accomplish, but figured that good results would take care of themselves as long as they applied energy and conservative principles. It's why the Medicare prescription bill turned out to be such a Frankenstein's monster: they knew they wanted to give seniors their pills, but they didn't really care much about actually implementing a sound policy. And it's why Republicans are conducting a war on science these days: to them, science is just something that gets in the way of what they want to do. The fact that eventually you're going to run aground if science is against you doesn't seem to register with them.

.pqn
.url
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007079.php
.ls
Washington Monthly
.le




.date
September 7, 2005
.item
Two Strikes And We're Out
.pubdate
Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:36:44 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/07/20:36:44:00
.pqn
"We certainly can't stand another storm," said Tom Bentz, vice president and senior energy analyst for BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. "That's why people are watching the storms out there now."

.pqn
Two hurricanes and a tropical storm were churning in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday. None of the current storms are forecast to enter the Gulf.
.pqn
.url
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050907/ts_nm/energy_gulf_storms_dc;_ylt=ApQRbrwXKf6zAOP0C6cZEJ1Z.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
.ls
Yahoo News
.le
.pn
Katrina made landfall in Florida on the 13th Anniversary Of Hurricane Andrew. 
.pn
Andrew was the 1st named storm of 6 in 1992.
.pn
Katrina was the 11th named storm in 2005.




.date
September 6, 2005
.item

Hurricane Katrina-Our Experiences

.pubdate
Tue, 06 Sep 2005 22:01:26 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/06/22:01:26:00
.pqn

This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your kids or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people began to look out for each other, working together and constructing a community.
.pqn
<b>If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness would not have set in.</b>
.pqn
Flush with the necessities, we offered food and water to passing families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join us. Our encampment grew to 80 or 90 people.
.pqn
From a woman with a battery powered radio we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their way into the City. Officials were being asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it.
.pqn
Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the f***ing freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.
.pqn
.url
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/6/132725/8931
.ls
Daily Kos
.le
.p
Funny thing, isn't it &#8212; the natural inclination of people in need to gather together to form governments in their common interests. 
 




.item
I Just Got Back From A FEMA Detainment Camp
.pubdate
Tue, 06 Sep 2005 21:29:49 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/06/21:29:49:00
.pqn
He then precedes to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months.

.pqn
.url
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread167902/pg1
.ls
Above Top Secret
.le
.p
Just read it. It's Real News&trade;.


.item
Shouting Movie! In A Crowded Fire House
.pubdate
Tue, 06 Sep 2005 21:29:49 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/06/21:29:49:01
.pqn
The firefighters, several of whom are from Utah, were told to bring backpacks, sleeping bags, first-aid kits and Meals Ready to Eat. They were told to prepare for "austere conditions." Many of them came with awkward fire gear and expected to wade in floodwaters, sift through rubble and save lives.
.pqn
"They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet." 
.pqn
 ...
.pqn
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas. 
.pqn
.url
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197
.ls
Salt Lake Tribune
.le




.date
September 4, 2005
.item
Pendulum. Stops. Here.
.pubdate
Sun, 04 Sep 2005 10:16:42 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/04/10:16:42:00
.p
On second thought Mr. President, resign. 

.p
It's nothing personal, sir, it's just that your administration's 
handling of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina has at long last 
exposed that the most closely held doctrines of the neoconservative
movement are diametrically opposed with the principals of good governance.
.p
To borrow your own words, what <i>you need to understand</i>
is that you, personally, have failed this nation, and your strict
adherence to neocon policies have caused damage to this nation
that will take generations to repair. You need to go, and you need
to take your neocon buddies with you.
.p
It is now abundantly clear the bumbling cascade of 'intelligence'
mistakes that led to the war in Iraq, and the inept execution of
the post-war reconstruction cannot be chalked up to malice or
incompetence. Occam suggests that the efforts in Iraq have been
guided, chapter and verse, by the neocon rulebook. We see the
tragic results every day.
.p
It is now abundantly clear that the unconscionable budget deficits
are a direct result of your callus disregard of simple mathematics.
Your tax cuts provided temporary solace to your strongest supporters,
corporate profits are up, but in every other measure the economy
has performed worse for the vast majority of Americans under your
guidance and polices. Look today, Mr. President. The Dow Jones,
NASDAQ, S&amp;P 500 are all lower due to your policies.
Your trickle-down policy has trickled out

.p
It is now abundantly clear that every action you have taken in the
past demonstrates that you are the wrong man to lead this nation forward.
Your priorities are not our priorities. Your goals are not our goals. 
Your vision for America is not our vision for America.
.p
Mr. President, this summer Cindy Sheehan stepped forward put a face to this nation's doubts about the Iraq war. She asked a question you couldn't answer, about a war that shouldn't have happened. There is no doubt to her moral standing to ask that question.
.p
Mr. President, there are many more questions we'd like answered &#8212; questions that don't have such a face behind them.
Questions about global warming,
the environment,
the economy,
tax policy,
oil,
renewable energy,
the rising costs of health care,
drug policy,
education,
stem cells research,
evolution,
and intelligent design.
We have questions about the separation of church and state, civil rights, privacy rights, reproductive rights.
.p
Some of these are trick questions, we already know your answers, and
on issues of fact, you disagree with the facts,
and on issues of opinion, your opinions are in opposition to the majority.
.p
Mr. President, the ropes are beginning to slip through the hands of your supporters. The pendulum, held overlong in place by corporate interests and their wholly owned media subsidiaries, has today begun its overdue swing back the middle. Like the city of New Orleans, you stand today at the high-water mark of neo-conservatism. Like the city of New Orleans, the clean-up will be an effort that will take generations.
.p
Mr. President, at long last, for the good of our nation, for the good of the world, it is time for you to go.

.date
September 3, 2005
.item
Long-term Ambitions

.pubdate
Sat, 03 Sep 2005 23:57:03 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/03/23:57:03:00
.pqn

Faced with one of the worst political crises of his administration, President Bush abruptly overhauled his September schedule on Saturday as the White House scrambled to gain control of a situation that Republicans said threatened to undermine Mr. Bush's second-term agenda and the party's long-term ambitions.
.pqn
.url
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/national/nationalspecial/04bush.html?ei=5090&en=92e1db22850b28f9&ex=1283486400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1125813858-IRTs4LElMac28mrpA29QXQ
.ls
New York Times
.le

.p
Yeah, Bush, that's what you really needed to spend this Saturday doing. I guess there wasn't anything more important to do today.  

.hr

.pqn
"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." &#8212; Grover Norquist
.p
Mission accomplished, Grover. All it took was a bigger bathtub. A much bigger bathtub. A New Orleans sized bathtub. Is this what you had in mind? Your
conservatives have been in power for four and a half years, remaking the
Federal Government in your conservative mold. Are you happy with the results?
Did you spend the last 5 days standing in your attic up to you neck in poisonous  waters, waiting for your model conservative government to come knocking?
.p
Nearly four years after 9-11, and the first time the Department Of Homeland Security is called upon to serve its charter the first thing they do is 
wastes lives and time in a
.url
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_08_28.php#006406
.ls
truf battle
.le
with the Governor of Louisiana. Was it because she is a Democrat, Grover? 
.p
This threat was moving slowly so slowly it took days to arrive, and was so big it could have been clearly seen by the naked eye from the surface of the moon. If the DHS couldn't deal with that, how well will they do against a terroist threat? Four years, and untold billions of debt later, and this is what your conservative model of Government comes up with? 
.p
Back in 2000, FEMA (Now run by a man who was pushed out of his last job - policing horse shows) placed three threats at the top of the list. 1) A terrorist attack in NYC. 2) A Hurricane-caused flood in New Orleans and 3) A major earthquake in San Francisco. Two out of the three have happened on Bush's watch, and nearly four years after 9-11 the conservative government response to the Flood in New Orleans less organized, and less effective, less timely.
.p
For those of you who live near Earthquake faults, (yes, those of you near New Madrid too.) stock up. Two weeks of food and water per person, and you're going to need a shovel to dig a latrine. We now know that you must be prepared to fend for yourself if Bush finds himself in a position to reprise his famous line: "lucky me &#8212; I hit the trifecta".









.item
Indifference Is A Weapon Of Mass Destruction.
.pubdate
Sat, 03 Sep 2005 10:34:42 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/03/10:34:42:00
.pqn
Floor Statement of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich:<br />

The Supplemental for Hurricane Katrina  
.pqn
WASHINGTON - September 2 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) gave the following speech today on the House floor during a special session to provide relief money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina:
.pqn
"This amount of money is only a fraction of what is needed and everyone here knows it. Let it go forward quickly with heart-felt thanks to those who are helping to save lives with necessary food, water, shelter, medical care and security. Congress must also demand accountability with the appropriations. Because until there are basic changes in the direction of this government, this tragedy will multiply to apocalyptic proportions.
.pqn
"The Administration yesterday said that no one anticipated the breach of the levees. Did the Administration not see or care about the 2001 FEMA warning about the risk of a devastating hurricane hitting the people of New Orleans? Did it not know or care that civil and army engineers were warning for years about the consequences of failure to strengthen the flood control system? Was it aware or did it care that the very same Administration which decries the plight of the people today, cut from the budget tens of millions needed for Gulf-area flood control projects?
.pqn
"Countless lives have been lost throughout the South with a cost of hundreds of billions in ruined homes, businesses, and the destruction of an entire physical and social infrastructure.
.pqn
"The President said an hour ago that the Gulf Coast looks like it has been obliterated by a weapon. It has. Indifference is a weapon of mass destruction.
.pqn
"Our indifferent government is in a crisis of legitimacy. If it continues to ignore its basic responsibility for the health and welfare of the American people, will there ever be enough money to clean up after their indifference?
.pqn
"As our government continues to squander human and monetary resources of this country on the war, people are beginning to ask, "Isn't it time we began to take care of our own people here at home? Isn't it time we rescued our own citizens? Isn't it time we fed our own people? Isn't it time we sheltered our own people? Isn't it time we provided physical and economic security for our own people?" And isn't it time we stopped the oil companies from profiting from this tragedy?
.pqn
"We have plenty of work to do here at home. It is time for America to come home and take care of its own people who are drowning in the streets, suffocating in attics, dying from exposure to the elements, oppressed by poverty and illness, wracked with despair and hunger and thirst.
.pqn
"The time is NOW to bring back to the United States the 78,000 National Guard troops currently deployed overseas into the Gulf Coast region.
.pqn
"The time is NOW to bring back to the US the equipment which will be needed for search and rescue, for clean up and reclamation.
.pqn
"The time is NOW for federal resources, including closed Army bases, to be used for temporary shelter for those who have been displaced by the hurricane.
.pqn
"The time is NOW to plan massive public works, with jobs going to the people of the Gulf Coast states, to build new levees, new roads, bridges, libraries, schools, colleges and universities and to rebuild all public institutions, including hospitals. Medicare ought to be extended to everyone, so every person can get the physical and mental health care they might need as a result of the disaster.
.pqn
"The time is NOW for the federal government to take seriously the research of scientists who have warned for years about the dangers of changes in the global climate, and to prepare other regions of the country for other possible weather disasters until we change our disastrous energy policies.
.pqn
"The time is NOW for changes in our energy policy, to end the domination of oil and fossil fuel and to invest heavily in alternative energy, including wind and solar, geothermal and biofuels.
.pqn
"As bad as this catastrophe will prove to be, it is in fact only a warning. Our government must change its direction, it must become involved in making America a better place to live, a place where all may survive and thrive. It must get off the path of war and seek the path of peace, peace with the natural environment, peace with other nations, peace with a just economic system." 







.date
September 2, 2005
.item
Anguish
.pubdate
Fri, 02 Sep 2005 15:11:18 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/02/15:11:18:00
.p
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gave a heart-wrenching an 

.url
http://static2.podcatch.com/blogs/gems/snedit/WWLAMInterviewNagin.mp3
.ls
interview 
.le
(.mp3 file) to WWL-AM. (Via
.url
http://www.scripting.com
.ls
Scripting News)
.le

.p
CNN's
.url
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/index.html
.ls

transcript
.le
does not come close to expressing the anguish, desperation and anger in the voice of the mayor. 
.p
Real News is that information you need to keep your freedoms.
This is Real News.
It is critical to your understanding of what is happening in New Orleans to listen to this. 

.hr

.p
Katrina opened a tear in the fabric of society, and tens of thousands of Americans have fallen through. 
The first to fall were the elderly and poor, those with no cars to drive themselves out of town.
The first to fall were those with no money left at the end of the month for a bus ticket.
The first to fall were those who simply had nowhere to go, and no way to get there.
.p
But there were may be some 350,000 houses lost to the floods, these houses were home to perhaps 1,000,000 people.
Those with jobs, and cars, and money for gas, were able to get out of Katrina's path, but now, their homes and jobs are underwater.
They got out, but they have no where to go back to. Soon their credit cards will max out, and what then can they do?
Where will they go? There may be 100,000 souls on the streets on New Orleans today, what will the rest of us do when the next 100,000
are forced from their motels, and then the next 100,000, and then the next 100,000, and the next 100,000...






.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 02 Sep 2005 13:54:23 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/9/02/13:54:23:00
.p
.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050902.jpg

.alt 
Tory
.ie
.p
Tory James 

.p
I didn't really feel like cat blogging today. I've been glued to
CNN, CNBC, and the web all week, and the news from New Orleans
just keeps getting worse. Yes, I've given to the Red Cross (Thanks,
Amazon, the Red Cross Website was too busy to get in) but it
doesn't seem like enough. We're not doing enough.
.p
My chair is comfortable, there's phones, television, internet,
electrical power, water, clean clothes, a bathroom and a shower.
If I'm thirsty I walk downstairs to my well-stocked refrigerator.
If I'm hungry I pull something from the freezer and pass it through the
microwave. If that runs out I can walk on clean, dry sidwalks the
two minutes to the closest store. Civilization, such as it is.
.p
Then I turn on that TV. The people in New Orleans have none of that,
not even the dry land. They're waiting for help on rooftop islands,
or chasing false rumors of help, chest-deep in foetid water. One day.
Two days. Three days. Four days. Five days.
Civilization makes way for survival.
.p
The president was on TV "I don't think anyone anticipated the
breach of the levees." If I'd have been interviewing him I'd
have read him the riot act, right then, right there on national
TV. This was one of the most predicted disasters in human history.
It was in the top 3 of FEMA's worst-case catastrophies. 
Mr. President, in fact, EVERYONE ANTICIPATED THE BREECH OF THE LEVEES.
.p
Everyone but you, Mr. President.

.date
August 30, 2005
.item
NOLA images
.pubdate
Tue, 30 Aug 2005 10:59:58 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/30/10:59:58:00
.p

.img
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/NOLA1.jpg
.alt
NOLA
.ie
.p
From
.url 
http://www.hunt101.com/img/319526.JPG
.ls
Hunt101
.le
via
.url
http://www.kathryncramer.com/
.ls
Kathryn Cramer,
.le
An image of the break in the levee.
.p
The red roof is clearly visible on 
.url
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.019091,-90.122491&spn=0.005683,0.009255&t=k&hl=en
.ls
Google Maps
.le


.item
Katrina, 24 Hours Later

.pubdate
Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:28:42 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/30/09:28:42:00
.p

As the sky clears, the true extent of the damage is slowly being seen. New Orleans was spared the direct hit, but the damage
is extensive, and flooding continues. The news on TV seemed to be on top of it, I saw plenty of reporters standing in the
wind and rain, but these were pinpoint views, from safe locations scouted out before the storm.
.p
As the day went on, it bacame clear that Katrina missing the heart of New Orleans only meant that the worst of the damage was moved to
Mississippi and Alabama, where the reporters were fewer, and further between.

.pqn
A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new .hurricane proof. Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina's fiercest winds were well north. The breach sent a churning sea of water from Lake Pontchartrain coursing across Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and neighborhoods farther south and east.
.pqn
.url
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/t-p/katrina.ssf?/hurricane/katrina/stories/083005catastrophic.html
.ls
Times-Pikayune
.le

.p
I think they are talking bout
.url
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Old+Hammond+Highway,++New+Orleans+LA&ll=30.019537,-90.121644&spn=0.011402,0.018509&t=h&num=10&start=0&hl=en
.ls
this bridge,
.le
but I'm not positive &#8212; the local coverage uses neighborhood names not found on google maps. It looks like the flooding is to the east of this bridge.

.p
There are also reports of devistating flooding in the Ninth Ward, which is to the east of the canal in the center of
.url
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.009652,-90.010300&spn=0.096027,0.155869&z=4&hl=en
.ls
this map.
.le
.p
My heart aches.



.date
August 29, 2005
.item
Katrina - After Landfall
.pubdate
Mon, 29 Aug 2005 09:14:36 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/29/09:14:36:00






.p
It's nowhere close to over, but it now looks like NOLA was spared the worst. 

Time to exhale &#8212; just a little. Hang tight, and my thoughts are with you. &#8212; J


.date
August 28, 2005
.item
Katrina - Before Landfall
.pubdate
Sun, 28 Aug 2005 21:20:12 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/28/21:20:12:00
.p
For those in the path of Katrina, please stay safe. Take care of your families, take care of yourselves. My heart and thoughts are with you. &#8212; J




.date
August 26, 2005
.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 26 Aug 2005 08:19:37 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/26/08:19:37:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050826.jpg
.alt
Miko
.ie
.p
Miko



.date
August 25, 2005
.item
Systray Icons Missing
.pubdate
Thu, 25 Aug 2005 22:16:38 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/25/22:16:38:00
.pqn
Some Windows XP installations show a peculiar defect in that some systray (system tray, nowadays also called notification area) icons disappear or, rather, do not appear, when the system is booted and the user logs on. The problem is even more prevalent on systems with autologon. The most frequently affected icons seem to be the speaker icon (sound volume) and the power/energy icon.

.pqn
 ...
.pqn
Francesco Saverio Ostuni wrote: "... I found a solution for me that works perfectly. I simply went to My network Places and on the left pane I chose to Hide UPnP devices. 


.pqn
.url
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSystray.htm
.ls
Micina
.le
.p
This has been driving me nuts. Sometimes, if I waited a really long time before logging in, I'd get the icons, but most of the time I'd be missing the battery
notification. The Ostuni Workaround solved my problem &#8212; thank you, Francesco.



.item
Stop. Don't Do This.

.pubdate
Thu, 25 Aug 2005 08:44:39 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/25/08:44:39:00
.pqn

In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration who brought you Iraq are preparing to do the same for Iran. The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney&#8217;s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.
.pqn
.url
http://www.amconmag.com/2005_08_01/article3.html
.ls
The American Conservative
.le
.p
Hat Tip to
.url
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/08/pat_buchanans_m.html
.ls
Direland.
.le


.date
August 22, 2005
.item
Someone Send a Copy Of This To Crawford
.pubdate
Mon, 22 Aug 2005 22:44:04 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/22/22:44:04:00
.pqn
Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.

.pqn
"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.
.pqn
Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. and foreign officials. Recently, the group, whose existence had not been previously reported, definitively matched samples of the highly enriched uranium &#8212; a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon &#8212; with centrifuge equipment turned over by the government of Pakistan.
.pqn
.url
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/22/AR2005082201447_pf.html
.ls
Washington Post
.le
.p
Burn this in your ROM. There is NO evidence that Iran has enriched Uranium to 
weapons grade. Someone please tell Bush. 






.item
A Flood of Peak Oil
.pubdate
Mon, 22 Aug 2005 22:14:08 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/22/22:14:08:00
.pn
The last couple of days have seen a lot of talk about Peak Oil, Starting with an article

in the New York Times Magazine: <i>(Yes Danny, I'd seen it first, but please don't stop sending the links!)</i>
.pqn
The Breaking Point
.url
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/magazine/21OIL.html
.ls
in the New York Times Magazine
.le
.pn
Which lead to a spirited response:
.pqn
"Peak Oil:" Welcome to the media's new version of shark attacks
.url
http://www.freakonomics.com/2005/08/peak-oil-welcome-to-medias-new-version.html
.ls
in Freakonomics
.le
.pn
Which lead to one observation:
.pqn
I guess this is discourse...?
.url
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/8/21/13643/8236#comments
.ls
The Oil Drum
.le
.pn
And another observation
.pqn
Delusion and the Media
.url
http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2005/08/delusion_and_th.html
.ls
Cluster**** Nation by Jim Kunstler
.le
.pn
And another comment from one of my favorite economics blogs
.pqn
CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
.url
http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/001540.html
.ls
MaxSpeak
.le

.pn
Phew! If that wasn't enough, Peter Maass (Who seems to have lit this candle) was on WHYY's <i>Fresh Air</i>:
.pqn
Peter Maass on 'The Breaking Point' for Gas Demand
.url
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4809996
.ls
Fresh Air (Audio)

.le
.pn
On top of all that, Kenneth Deffeyes Was on Book TV:
.pqn
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak
.pqn
Geologist, author, and Princeton University professor Kenneth Deffeyes writes that world oil production is no longer increasing in his new book, "Beyond Oil: The View From Hubbert's Peak." The title of the book comes from petroleum geologist M. King Hubbert, who formulated that the world's oil production would reach its peak in 2000 and begin to decline rapidly until the global fossil fuel supplies went dry. Mr. Deffeyes believes that the world's oil production would peak at the close of 2005 and that the eventual absence of fossil fuels would have a devastating and potentially catastrophic effect on world economies. The book also lists the potential replacement fossil fuel energy sources and the ways in which they can be utilized effectively.
.p
Sorry, Book TV does not have a video archive. No linksies.
.pn
.url
http://www.bigeddieradio.com/
.ls
Big Ed Schultz
.le
did a big section of his show today on biodiesel. Big Ed has discussed Peak Oil several times on his show, If you've never heard him, think of Rush's <i>un</i>evil twin. 

.pn
Last, but not least, a close look at the souring of the crude:

.pqn
Sweet and sour crude: 
.url
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/08/sweet_and_sour.html#more
.ls
Econbrowser
.le


.item
If The Election Were Held Today
.pubdate
Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:07:09 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/22/09:07:09:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/2005RBmap.gif
.alt
Red vs Blue vs Purple
.ie
.p
Here's what happens when you apply the August 2005
.url
http://www.surveyusa.com/50StatePOTUS0805.htm
.ls
state-by-state approval ratings
.le

to to 2004 Red/Blue election map.








.item
Robert Moog, Age 71
.pubdate
Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:26:54 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/22/00:26:54:00
.pqn
ASHEVILLE, N.C. &#8212; August 21, 2005 &#8212; Bob died this afternoon at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71. Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme or GBM) in late April 2005. He had received both radiation treatment and chemotherapy to help combat the disease. He is survived by his wife, Ileana, his five children, Laura Moog Lanier, Matthew Moog, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog, and Miranda Richmond; and the mother of his children, Shirleigh Moog. 

.pqn
.url
http://www.moogmusic.com/
.ls
Moog Music
.le
.p
I met Bob back at the
.url
http://www.woz.org/US/
.ls
US Festival
.le
(either '82 or '83). He gave a presentation, and afterwards a couple of 
folks sat and talked with him for a bit. He was thoughtfull, and funny, 
and very interesting. Thank you Bob, my record collection wouldn't be
the same without you.




.date
August 21, 2005
.item
Crude and Cruder
.pubdate
Sun, 21 Aug 2005 15:59:25 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/21/15:59:25:00
.pqn
The key point is that non-OPEC light sweet crude went from 41% of 66 mb/d to 34% of 70 mb/d from 2000 to 2004, a drop of 3.26 mb/d. OPEC added 1 mb/d of light sweet crude over the same period resulting in a global reduction of light sweet crude of over 2mb/d showing that global light sweet crude has peaked and is now in decline.

.pqn
.url
http://www.energybulletin.net/8102.html
.ls
Energy Bulletin
.le






.date
August 20, 2005
.item
At Long Last Sir, Have You No Sense Of Perspective?
.pubdate
Sat, 20 Aug 2005 10:15:01 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/20/10:15:01:00
.pqn
Veteran sports broadcaster Bob Costas declined to fill in as a guest host on CNN's "Larry King Live" Thursday night because of the program's focus on the missing Alabama teenager and Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer.

.pqn
Costas bowed out of the Thursday show after he was unsuccessful at persuading producers to change the program's lineup. 
.p
Thank you, Mr. Costas. How ironic, that it took a <i>sports</i> broadcaster to bring perspective to obsesive news coverage.





.date
August 19, 2005
.item
Friday Big Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:26:57 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/19/13:26:57:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050819.jpg
.alt
Cat at Zoo
.ie
.p
Unidentified Lion at San Franscisco Zoo. 


.date
August 17, 2005
.item
Autodesk Inventor
.pubdate
Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:03:55 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/17/09:03:55:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/Inventor.jpg
.alt
Interlocking parts
.ie
.p
I'm learning a little 3D today...



.date
August 16, 2005
.item
If Kittens Ran The Economy

.pubdate
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:51:14 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/16/13:51:14:00
.p

For those who think the economy is
.url
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/economy/index.html
.ls
strong...
.le
Here's a little reality check...
.ct
<pre>
                    Jan 19, 2001   Aug 16, 2005
   DOW JONES           10,587.59      10,518.54
   NASDAQ COMPOSITE     2,770.38       2,137.93
   S&amp;P 500 INDEX        1,342.54       1,220.11
   Light, Sweet Crude     $25.43         $66.08
   National Debt         T$ 5.72        T$ 7.91
</pre>
.p
Saturday January 20, 2001 was Bush's first day in
office. The numbers abover were for the close of
markets the day before. 
.p
Not looking so hot so far, so how is that National Debt doing?
.ct
<pre>
   Jan 19, 2001           $5,727,776,738,304.64   
   Aug 16, 2005           $7,911,005,564,473.77
   Added Debt             $2,183,228,826,169.13 

   Your share - today's Debt:        $26,644.72 
   Your share - added under Bush      $7,353.24 
</pre>
.p
For fans of percentages, I make that...
.ct
<pre>
   DOW JONES              -0.65%
   NASDAQ COMPOSITE      -22.83%
   S&amp;P 500 INDEX         - 9.12%
   Light, Sweet Crude   +159.85%
   National Debt         +38.12%
</pre>

.p
Doesn't that just make you want to privatize Social Security?

.p
Reference Materials:<br />
[
.url
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
.ls
National Debt Clock
.le
]<br />
[
.url
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html
.ls
Population Clock
.le
]<br />[
.url
http://finance.yahoo.com/
.ls
Finance.yahoo.com
.le
]<br />[
.url
http://www.nymex.com/
.ls
nymex
.le
]
.p
P.S. I was unable to calculate the national debt numbers on my pocket calculator. Too many digits. 
.p
P.P.S. Sorry, this had very little to do with 
.url
http://images.google.com/images?q=kittens&hl=en&hs=zqm&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest
.ls
kittens.
.le

.item
Kitty Likes SUVs
.pubdate
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:00:31 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/16/10:00:31:00
.pqn
So let's see if I have this straight. Our fuel economy standards now separate vehicles into two classes, sorted by weight, and require that the fuel efficiency of a manufacturer's vehicles within each class average to a given amount. The good news: that provides an incentive to build smaller vehicles within each class. The bad news: it doesn't cover the hugest gas-guzzlers of them all. We now propose to change to a system that separates vehicles into about six classes, not two. That does away with the good news: auto makers will have no incentive to build small as opposed to non-monstrously-large SUVs. But we do not take the opportunity to do away with the bad news by covering gas-guzzling monsters that no one needs anyway. 

.pqn
.url
http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2005/08/its_the_energy_.html
.ls
Obsidian Wings
.le
comments on the new energy bill.
.p
As an engineer following the oil market, and smug Prius driver (but I repeat myself ^_^)
the fact the (Pork.) Energy (Pork.) Bill (Pork.) did nothing to raise CAFE standards in the face of oil shortages
make me too angry to comment.  (Pork-Pork-Pork.)
.p
And for the kitty part? Obsidian Wings also offers a 
.url
http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2005/08/i_still_know_al.html
.ls
selection
.le
of left wing kittens. (Warning, images sure to wrap the needle around the end stop on your cute meter.) 

.item
Kitty Like PEZ?
.pubdate
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 07:56:44 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/16/07:56:44:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/SmartPez.jpg
.alt
Smart Car Dispensor
.ie
.pqn
Photo: B. Palmer Regensburg, Germany 2000 - Thanks Cuz!
.p
I'd seen one of these Smart Car dealers in another town in Germany,
and thought that maybe the cars would have a better chance in the US
Market if they didn't come in a giant PEZ dispensor.

.p
The Smart is pretty common in Europe, I even saw a few on the autoban,
and they can even be used as
.url
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050816/od_afp/afplifestylebritainanimalscarsoffbeat
.ls
cat toys.
.le






.date
August 15, 2005
.item
Steampunk And Granola

.pubdate
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 17:58:42 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/15/17:58:42:00
.p

News.com has a
.url
http://news.com.com/2100-7337_3-5830235.html
.ls
Different Take
.le
on the use of Stirling Engines to produce power from the sun. Make sure to take a ganer
at the photos: [
.url
http://news.com.com/2300-7337_3-5830301-1.html?tag=nl
.ls
1
.le
][
.url
http://news.com.com/2300-7337_3-5830301-2.html?tag=nl
.ls
2
.le
][
.url
http://news.com.com/2300-7337_3-5830301-3.html?tag=nl
.ls
3
.le
]
.p
They quote a critic, Harry Braun, CEO of 
.url
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Sustainable%20Partners%20International%22
.ls
Sustainable Partners International,
.le
(Google Search)

who is apparently also
.url
http://www.braunforpresident.us/main_menu/about_hb.htm
.ls
running for president.
.le


.date
August 13, 2005
.item
Stirling Resources 




.pubdate
Sat, 13 Aug 2005 10:55:04 PDT

.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/13/10:55:04:00
.p
.imgl
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/BerkelyStirling.jpg
.alt 
Are you sure that's not a flux capacitor?
.ie


.p
.url
http://wind.eecs.berkeley.edu/
.ls
Berkely Power Electronics Group
.le

.p
.url
http://www-power.eecs.berkeley.edu/publications/derminassians_Aschenbach_Sanders_04.pdf
.ls
Low-Cost distributed solar-thermal-electric power generation
.le

.p
.url
http://www.sesusa.org/index.html
.ls
Stirling Engine Society - USA 
.le

.p
.url
http://snapburner.home.comcast.net/index.html
.ls
Stirling Numeretical Analysis Program
.le

.p
.url
http://snapburner.home.comcast.net/index.html
.ls
Stirling Engine Links
.le

.p
.url
http://www.stirlingengine.com/
.ls
American Stirling Company
.le
(Models and Kits)

.p
.url
http://www.sunpower.com/enthusiast/index.html
.ls
Stirling Books
.le

.p

.url
http://images.google.com/images?q=%20Stirling%20Engine&hl=en&hs=55y&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=wi
.ls
Stirling Engine Images
.le
(Google)

.p
.url
http://www.stanford.edu/~weston/ExergyTheory.htm
.ls
Exergy Theory
.le







.date
August 12, 2005
.item
Here's Why Gas Is So Expensive
.pubdate
Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:33:39 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/12/14:33:39:00
.p
.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/Bartlet_peakoil.jpg
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Peak Oil
.ie
.p
This chart says it all. It's from  Congressman Roscoe Bartlett's
Special Order Speech 
.url
http://www.bartlett.house.gov/SupportingFiles/documents/energyspeech.pdf
.ls
OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL
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given in the House of Representatives, April 20, 2005.
.p
Supply is still rising (Green) but demand is rising too, (Yellow) faster than supply.
.p
This is why Crude Oil for September delivery closed at $66.86. Novermber and December were
over $68 in today's intraday trading.
.p
This is why you will soon be waiting in line to pay $3.00+ for regular unleaded.


.item
Friday Cat Blogging
.pubdate
Fri, 12 Aug 2005 13:41:33 PDT
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http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/12/13:41:33:00
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.img

http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/cats20050812.jpg
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Miko
.ie
.p
Miko, 10 minutes ago. "Leave me alone, dad. Sleeping, dad."


.item
It's All Done With Mirrors


.pubdate
Fri, 12 Aug 2005 13:08:01 PDT
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http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/12/13:08:01:00

.pqn
PHOENIX, Arizona, Aug. 10, 2005 &#8212; Stirling Energy
Systems, Inc. (SES) today announced an agreement with
Edison International (NYSE:EIX) subsidiary Southern
California Edison (SCE), the nation&#8217;s leading purchaser of
renewable energy, that will result in construction of a
massive, 4,500-acre solar generating station in Southern
California. When completed, this power station will be the
world&#8217;s largest solar facility, capable of producing more
electricity than all other U.S. solar projects combined.
.pqn
.url
http://www.stirlingenergy.com/news/SES%20Press%20Release%20-%20FINAL%20Aug%2011%202005.pdf
.ls
Stirling Energy
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Press Release

.p
.imgl
http://www.josephpalmer.com/etc-local/graphics/stirlingdish.jpg
.alt 
dish
.ie

.p
Give a visit to the
.url
http://www.stirlingenergy.com/
.ls
Stirling Energy website
.le
to see what these things look like. 
The idea is simple - Build a 38 foot parabolic dish of 82 small, inexpensive mirrors. Mount
a stirling (heat) engine and generator at the focal point. Add the mechanicals to follow the sun.
Most of this stuff is well known technology from the sattelite dish world, and the stirling engine, while
different that an internal combustion engine, uses the same manufacturing processes and tools. No
magic required.
.p
It looks like each dish is good for 25,000 watts in full sunlight. That's about 237 watts per square
meter, (or about 22 Watts per square foot), which is about twice what you get from PV.
.p
Okay, It's not the sort of thing you'd want on your roof, but if you flatten out the mirrors, and give
them each x-y articulation, you could probably do this in a way that would work in the suburban 
environment, probably for a cost not much higher than a Suburban. The cool thing (umm... make that the hot thing)
is that you could dual-purpose the collector, and use it for both to generate electricity and collect heat.
If you add a heat storage tank, you could keep your house warm, and run a stirling generator overnight.
.p
With articulated mirrors you could put arrays on lots of surfaces. For example, here in San Jose the
freeways are lined with sound-walls. If you covered the top 8 feet or so of the southern exposed walls
with mirrors, you'd get about 175 watts per linear foot of highway, or about 924,000 watts per mile.
.p
I think we have a keeper. If we re-tooled a few old auto factories, we could turn these things
out by the millions.

 


 


.date
August 11, 2005
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Messing With The HTML
.pubdate
Thu, 11 Aug 2005 21:53:32 PDT
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http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/11/21:53:32:00
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I'm changing the homepage to use the &lt;blockquote&gt; element for my pullquotes.

If everything works as planned you will not see a visual difference, but the
HTML will clearly declare when something is a quote. For some reason that matters to me.


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The Tipping Point
.pubdate
Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:39:26 PDT
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http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/11/16:39:26:00
.pqn
Siberia feels the heat.  It's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas and, for the first time since the ice age, it is melting.

.pqn
.url
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1546824,00.html
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Guardian UK
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.item
Demand Destruction
.pubdate
Thu, 11 Aug 2005 13:04:08 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/11/13:04:08:00
.p

The argument over oil and the marketplace has been re-ignited over at
.url
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/08/limitations_of.html#more
.ls
Econbrowser
.le
.p
Once again, the argument seems to depend on what the meaning of <i>demand</i> is.

.p
Imagine a line of 100 cars at a gas station.
All 100 drivers are in line to fill their tanks, but there's only enough supply for 75 cars to fill up.
Economic theory says the that the price at the pump should rise to the point where demand equals supply,
at which point 25 cars would no longer <i>demand</i> gas, and would volunteer to leave the gas line.
The other 75 cars would all fill up, each paying the price that caused the 76th car to leave.

.p
The problem appears to be that if you were to interview each of those 25 drivers as the pulled into line, they would
surely agree to call their reason for being there was "demand".
If you were to interview each them as they left the line, you wouldn't be able to print the resonses.

.date
August 10, 2005
.item
A Passion And A Vengeance
.pubdate
Wed, 10 Aug 2005 13:38:24 PDT
.guid
http://www.josephpalmer.com/cgi-local/View_Permalink.cgi?entry=2005/8/10/13:38:24:00
.pqn
JIM:   Why is it, do you think, there&#8217;s only been 2 groups that have been concerned with this: you have the oil company executives, because they are obviously looking around the globe and they&#8217;re not finding major elephants on a yearly basis; and then we&#8217;ve had environmentalists who have also been concerned about this. Those have been the main 2 groups, but aside from that, you have a third group, the economists, who basically just say, &#8220;as the prices of oil goes up the production goes up to meet it.&#8221;

.pqn
MATT:   Yes, and they say it with a passion and a vengeance. What I&#8217;ve also found so interesting is that the concept of peak oil which is finally getting some serious traction as a discussion item gets scorned by economists - energy economists. What they hear is the world is running out of oil, they don&#8217;t understand the concept of peak oil. And I continue to remind people that the difference between oil supply peaking and running out of oil is as profound as someone saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m getting a little bit hungry,&#8221; and someone saying, &#8220;I have about 2 more minutes to live before I starve to death.&#8221; And we will never run out of oil, in our lifetime, our children&#8217;s lifetime, our grandchildren&#8217;s lifetime. But by 2030 we could easily have a world