Archive - Sep 2005

ForeignPolicy.com has a good story looking at peak oil. It is a brief interview with Matthew Simmons, who believes we are nearing peak oil - the time when global oil production will begin to decline. I don't buy it, but he does have some valid points. Registration is required for that article, but I think you can do a free registration.

Which countries are best positioned to deal with a decline in oil production?

MS: Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, that’s an honest answer. The countries that haven’t yet built a society that needs an exponential amount of oil are in the best shape. Around 30 years ago, around half the world didn’t really use oil. And now look, cities like Hanoi have millions of motorcycles they didn’t have five years ago. We’ve built the global economy based on the false assumptions that oil is just another commodity, that the Middle East has basically unlimited amounts of oil, technology will improve, and that the price of oil would get progressively cheaper.

In econ today, we talked about food stamps. Using econo language, we explored the use of food stamps. Looking at a hypothetical person who spends $400 a month and receives $100 in food stamps, we are to believe (after using a graph or two) that as long as that person traditionally spends more than $100 a month on food previously, then the food stamps are no different than a simply giving that person cash.

I don't believe it. One of our international students (from Bulgaria) discussed a segment of the population there (formerly called Gypsies but now that is apparently inappropriate) which enjoys to party. The government had previously given them cash to supplement their meager earnings and they tended to spend it immediately. Now they give them coupons for food and heat (in the winter) and supposedly their living standard has improved.

The question is if we can believe this. I don't. It strikes me that food stamps are a much better alternative to cash donations for a number of reasons - but is this a classist response due to my mistrust of those who require them?

Played basketball tonight ... it was good to throw the rock around - which is largely what my shots ended up being - around the rim but not really especially close to it.

We read The Population Bomb by Ehrlich in one of my classes and discussed it today. Written in '68, revised in '71, it predicted a catastrophic end to society as known then due to massive starvation from overpopulation. In case you are wondering, he turned out to be wrong.

The question is, what do you think of when you think of overpopulation? My first thought is India. For most others it is either India, China, or Africa and the children therein. The odd thing is that the problem is not really the population. The problem is scarcity of resources resulting from too many people. If we accept this, then the issue is not so much how many people there are, but how many resources they use.

Given consumption patterns with that frame of thought, it is the suburban (now exurban) lifestyle which is causing overpopulation problems. Afterall, why should we get pissed at people elsewhere who even with their larger birth rates, will never come to close to consuming the scarce resources that our culture will?

I was working on a good long post and I lost it. Firefox actually crashed on me, which is a rarity. This is the downside of my beloved tabs. I'm not going to be able to recreate it but here were some of the themes.

Russ and Lisa are in Tanzania.

Patriot Act II is dum. Allows the gov to revoke your citizenship and then deny you due process.

Eagles: yeah. Steelers: doh. Chargers: ROXXOR!

University of MN women finally won a home game. After a tie and a loss at home, they put in a corner in overtime against Indiana to give the fans some cheering material. They looked much better in the second half than I have seen thus far. A young team, they will just keep improving. I'll be putting some of my photos of them up soon.

Senator Obama on Katrina:

It is not politics to insist that we have an independent commission to examine these issues. Indeed, one of the heartening things about this crisis has been the degree to which the outrage has come from across the political spectrum; across races; across incomes. The degree to which the American people sense that we can and must do better, and a recognition that if we cannot cope with a crisis that has been predicted for decades - a crisis in which we're given four or five days notice - how can we ever hope to respond to a serious terrorist attack in a major American city in which there is no notice, and in which the death toll and panic and disruptions may be far greater?

Which brings me to my final point. There's been much attention in the press about the fact that those who were left behind in New Orleans were disproportionately poor and African American. I've said publicly that I do not subscribe to the notion that the painfully slow response of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security was racially-based. The ineptitude was colorblind.

But what must be said is that whoever was in charge of planning and preparing for the worst case scenario appeared to assume that every American has the capacity to load up their family in an SUV, fill it up with $100 worth of gasoline, stick some bottled water in the trunk, and use a credit card to check in to a hotel on safe ground. I see no evidence of active malice, but I see a continuation of passive indifference on the part of our government towards the least of these.

For those of you who do not know, I am a Scrubs fanatic - the NBC sitcom slays me. I don't watch much TV but I do watch Scrubs. I have been waiting for news of the fifth season - which I was worried may not make it to air. Though we do not know when, it seems that Scrubs will have a fifth season. Phew.

Regarding this blog, after 15 months of blogging and over 400 posts, I am losing steam from a crazy schedule. I am determined not to give up however and plan on find time to post meaningfully again. But right now, I have to finish a paper and photograph the U's soccer game this afternoon.

I have posted my first fall football photos - Macalester V Grinnell. Mac did end up losing the game. I also shot a Mac volleyball game tonight - not sure how that will turn out. Will hopefully get them online within a week.

Got two women's U games this weekend.

Slashdot reports the names reserved for hurricanes / tropical storms in the Atlantic basin are almost used up this year. There is also a link to a good article looking at the possible role of global warming in hurricane trends.

Talking Points Memo has a Katrina timeline. Good resource.

I realize my blog is rapidly becoming a sucky twice a week deal. Sorry about that.

The CSC leagues ended today. We won our third place game in the competitive league and lost not only the championship game in the other league, but Kim also. In a bizarre collision, she got booted in the elbow and back and had to spend the rest of the game watching. She'll recover quickly though.

I also had a game with my new Humphrey School classmates in the U's intramural league. 7v7 on a field layed out in the worst possible way. A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but whoever came up with it has some serious issues. It is way long, way narrow, and basically more of a track meet than soccer match.

I also got some photos of the Mac Football game and first half of the men's soccer game against Luther today (1-nil) Mac. They won't be up tonight though - I'm going to bed to let my body destress. Heh - kinda like the opposite of distress.

Russ and Lisa leave imminently for Africa. Bon Voyage!

Macalester played perennial rivals Wheaton on Friday - both the men and women. For the first time in Mac history, we swept them. 2-1 both games. It was a fantastic night of soccer for both the men and the women. I think these photos will demonstrate my increasing skill with the camera and lens.

Sadly, they also reveal that my 6 month old Nikon D2h has a dead or "hot" pixel. See if you can find it - it is in every single photo and I can't do a damn thing about it until I can retire the camera long enough to send it in for repairs for several weeks. So it goes.

I had been joking that Castro would offer to send aid to the U.S. in the wake of Katrina. They have (also, MSNBC story here). Cuba, known for its incredible health care in a ravaged economy, has offered to send 1600 medical folks to help the situation. They were ready immediately after the disaster. Looks like Bush didn't even respond.