I’m not sure how much I’ll be around today to post, so let me toss out a few quick items.
I’ve juggled the WordPress settings again–you can now post without registering, but you must have a previously approved (by me) comment.
On to said tidbits:
A pretty good roundup of lighting options. Notice that the article lumps halogens in with incandescents, which is exactly where they belong. For some reason a lot of people think halogens are highly energy efficient, when they’re just another variant of incandescents. Anyone who uses them knows how hot they get–which is the big tip off. Any artificial lighting source that produces a lot of heat will be inefficient, as that’s all wasted energy.
While I generally agree with the author on the oil situation and our inexcusable failure to respond to it for decades, I think he takes a bit too cut-and-dried view of this mess. E.g. I don’t think you can assume that we’ll pay “a whole lot more” for gasoline “next year and the year after that.” It could well turn out that way, even without a hurricane or war adding to the situation, but it’s by no means as certain as the author claims.
Here we go again–yet another genuine advance regarding hydrogen that has the potential to untangle only part of that immense knot.
If you have high blood pressure, you might want to skip this article. There’s a hell of a lot we can criticize car companies for, but this is so awful, and so far beyond the boundaries of sanity, that it gets not only a Bronx cheer and a one-finger salute, but a big fat 100 on the Inhofe Scale for Willful Reality Detachment.
And just when you thought your outrage could begin to subside, this gem comes along. Hey Stoner–you got room for two more citizens up there in Toronto? My wife and I aren’t fans of beer or hockey, but we love lacrosse and we promise to drink lots and lots of locally produced wine.
Scary stuff. Makes me happy I fly a keyboard for a (non-)living.
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May 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
RE Incandescents
Actually, there are appropriate uses for incandescents. I don’t recall the source of the first, but basically, each CF will have so many usable cycles, and for use in closets and other areas where lights are not left on for long periods, incandescents are a viable option, and save $’s due to the installation versus the operating costs. And probably energy, since that is necessary to produce, package and ship the CF’s more carefully. The other use doesn’t apply to everybody, but for raising chicks, like our guineas raised for tick control out here in the country, which we have problems getting the babies (Keets) before the hens abandon them and have to add 6 or so each year, incandescents are useful in that they do give off a small amount of heat that is difficult to control otherwise. And, switching from 75 to 60 to 40, etc. watt bulbs as the keets get older make for an efficient heat source. So don’t toss the good bulbs, give them to your local chicken farmer. (Chickens control ticks, too, but don’t free range as well, in our experience.)
May 28th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
excellent post, great observations, it shaping up to be an interesting summer for oil and gas, hopefully those who are more aware of our glabal situation have prepared themselves (and their investments) we need a breakthru in the energy alternatives, unfortunately right now its feeling like it’s too little too late, maybe the situation will become more urgent as we go—-Patick Kerr Oil and Gas Futures