Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 173
MeFi post:
Eat it
I say that once oil is back down to 50 per barrel
The only way that will ever happen is if oil gets supplanted as a transportation fuel, and I don't think biofuels are going to do that.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 1:24 PM on July 5, 2008
MeFi post:
Tar-ism
In 2007, the tar sands produced 1.157mbpd. In 2004, Canada consumed 2.294mbpd. I can only imagine the latter number has gone up in the last three years, and production growth of the sands is slowing. They claim it can reach 2.8mbpd by 2015, but really I'll believe that when it happens. Growth from 2006 to 2007 was 2.2%. If that rate remained constant, production wouldn't even hit 1.4mbpd by 2015.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 2:13 PM on July 3, 2008
MeFi post:
Buy Now, It'll Only Go Higher
I think the issue isn't so much skyrocketing demand as it is the decline of spare capacity. The system is tight and getting tighter, whatever Saudi Arabia says they can do (and since they're so opaque it's hard to evaluate their claims). Also, I think Peak Oil is getting much more publicity, and this can only exert an upward pressure on prices as long as demand stays strong.
2011 futures are selling for nearly the same as today's spot price. If speculation were... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 9:52 AM on June 27, 2008
Keep in mind also that it's not really a question of how much oil is out there. For the record, I'm on the side of "not much". It doesn't much matter, though, because the question has never been about reserves, it's about production capacity. So the question isn't "is there enough oil," it's, "can we find and pump it quickly enough to satisfy the rising demand". I'm going to go with no. With all respect to Mutant, I think it is different this time. If we come up... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 1:41 PM on June 27, 2008
I can't say for sure, saulgoodman, but it could be the lack of spare capacity. Previously, there was slack in the system. Saudi Arabia was widely considered a "swing" producer who could bring production online when necessary to make up for shortfalls elsewhere. That doesn't happen anymore.
I am also curious as to the exact mechanism for speculation driving price. How would that work?
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 3:11 PM on June 27, 2008
MeFi post:
Mogadishu Madness
Ryvar, I think he was using the more widely accepted (though erroneous) definition of assault rifle as understood in most of the U.S. rather than the technical definition of a select fire rifle or carbine.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 9:16 AM on June 26, 2008
MeFi post:
The Beginning of the End of Suburbia?
Mutant, I love ya, man, but let's talk about this for a minute. If the current oil price is a bubble (presumably driven by speculation?), then what price do you think it should be at?
Also, I'm curious. I've been looking at the Nymex futures chains the past couple of days, and the curve is flat. There's been hardly a dollar's wiggle room between the Aug 08 price and the Dec 16 price. Does the market seriously think that the price of oil won't change at all in 8 years? Is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 11:22 PM on June 25, 2008
Thanks, Mutant. Regarding that 12.5mbd of promised KSA production, it's being reported uncritically in the media as 12.5mbd of crude oil, but it appears to include a significant amount of Natural Gas Liquids as well. That TOD piece goes into it in some depth.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 6:43 AM on June 26, 2008
MeFi post:
World's Biggest and Most Expensive Ship
If this is bigger than an aircraft carrier, how can it not run on nuclear fuel?
Not all carriers are nuclear, and I'm pretty sure the ones the ones that are aren't because they need it to be able to move. I think being able to make extended voyages and be on station without fuel tenders motivated that one. Are there any marine nukes in civilian hands anyway?
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 2:13 PM on June 24, 2008
MeFi post:
Next up, the Perpetual Motion Machine
Robert Rapier has an interesting post on this.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 2:05 PM on June 24, 2008
His point being, I should say, that it's not necessarily an out-and-out scam, but that it still won't make any sense to use regardless of what the mechanism turns out to be. Of course, it could always turn out to be an out-and-out scam.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 2:07 PM on June 24, 2008
MeFi post:
Boring men?
I prefer the moniker Mozambique to 2+1. It just has a certain flavor.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 8:31 AM on June 19, 2008
Not better or worse, just indirect.
You know, I'm going to cast my vote for worse.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 10:55 AM on June 19, 2008
MeFi post:
Alright folks, let’s get this show on the road. I want to make it to Country Buffet by four.
Yeah, the mushroom cloud scene was pretty awesome. I love Indy, I enjoyed this movie on a basic, pulp level, and I laughed my ass off at this abridged script.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 7:11 AM on June 19, 2008
It's funny that I found the fridge thing the most unbelievable part of the movie. Alien skulls that magnetically attract gold? Sure, why not. They really kind of waffled around that, but I let it pass. But he would have been pulped inside that fridge, amirite?
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 8:12 AM on June 19, 2008
MeFi post:
The Barnett Shale Or How I Learned to Love the Gas
tachikaze: I'm not sure what you're suggesting, that we somehow attempt to replace oil imports with this gas?
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 2:36 PM on June 18, 2008
1adam12: By the time we could build infrastructure for this (and where is that money going to come from), the supply would be gone. With the North American NG situation what it is, it would be an utter crime to waste it on transportation when it could go to electricity generation.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 3:06 PM on June 18, 2008
Kadin2048: It's better to use it for electricity than transportation because the generating infrastructure is already there and new NG-fired plants vastly outnumber new coal-fired plants, while the infrastructure has yet to be built for large-scale NG transportation, the reserves for a large-scale switch just aren't there, and by the time we got everything humming, we'd run out of the stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 9:15 PM on June 18, 2008
MeFi post:
Amazing map exhibition
I saw this exhibit when it was in Chicago. My favorite by far was the model of Bouillon, Belgium (thanks to which model I instantly recognized that picture of the castle) and its surrounding territory, apparently used by the armies of Louis the XIV to plan a siege/assault during the Nine Years' War.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 7:48 AM on June 5, 2008
MeFi post:
Keeping it simple, voluntarily
In only 10 short years we'll be hearing about how Greed is Good Again.
Powered by cheap, cheap biodiesel and/or the completely revamped electrical grid?
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 12:25 PM on May 19, 2008
MeFi post:
The System loves you for your money, not your soul.
Naberius: Eve still has the most interesting model of any MMO I've played or heard of. A friend of mine described it best when he said--to paraphrase--it was like an exploded RTS in slow motion. You've got your resource harvesters (peons; that was you and me), your producers pumping out units for the front line (barracks et al; the corps producing ships and mods in highsec), and then the fighting units doing battle (knights, etc.; corps like BoB and GoonSwarm out in lowsec). I eventually found... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 7:28 AM on May 7, 2008
MeFi post:
Emotional twitter ticker
Meatspace is one of those words that I hate.
God damn, I sure have a long list of those.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 12:17 PM on May 5, 2008
I guess I would give Twitter a try if I had more friends, or if, alternatively, my friends weren't the kind who would probably use Rusty's Grumpr instead, if anything.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 12:20 PM on May 5, 2008
Woo, twitterati, a new word for the list.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 1:07 PM on May 5, 2008
MeFi post:
And I Refuse To Forget
The expiration date on this thread has come and gone, but while Silent City was undoubtedly cool, Demon (found via Ruairi Robinson's website) gets my vote for its sheer short film creepiness.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 4:25 PM on May 4, 2008
MeFi post:
wrong, wrong, and terribly wrong.
Seriously, where are all the ultraviolence chicks?
While I also find that calling it ultraviolence is overselling it, being more realistic and "it could happen here" makes it a bit more chilling than it would have been were it more over the top.
Even if it does play like I would imagine the opening credits to Banlieue 13-2 would.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 7:23 AM on May 4, 2008
MeFi post:
n-Suit Playing Card Decks
I bought a Fat Pack for playing Cripple Mr. Onion. It's a cool deck of cards.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 6:31 PM on May 3, 2008
Woo, just purchased a Six Handed 500 deck. Thanks for the heads up, zamboni, I'd never heard of it. I do loves me some cards.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 7:07 AM on May 4, 2008
MeFi post:
Men of Honour
StickyCarpet: What was the name of this knight and where did you read about this? Sounds interesting.
posted to MetaFilter by adamdschneider
at 7:23 AM on May 2, 2008
