Archive for the 'Energy' Category
Google’s Offshore Data Barges
September 15th, 2008HAR! Via: Times: Google may take its battle for global domination to the high seas with the launch of its own “computer navy”. The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore. The “water-based data centres” would use wave energy to […]
Implications of a Ten Day Refinery Outage
September 14th, 2008Via: The Oil Drum: Where is our gasoline and diesel supply headed? Even before Ike hit, quite a few areas of the US were starting to see gasoline shortages. The impact of Ike can only make shortages worse. Most likely, it will take refineries at least a week or two to get production back to […]
Hookers and Bribes for U.S. Department of the Interior Officials; Thanks Oil Companies
September 11th, 2008Peak Corruption. Via: McClatchy: Interior Department officials, while handling billions of dollars in oil and gas royalty payments, engaged in illicit sex with industry employees and accepted meals, drinks, ski junkets and golf outings from major oil companies, internal investigators reported Wednesday. Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney’s release of three reports, which stem from […]
Study Links Oil Prices to Investor Speculation
September 11th, 2008The dollar rally took off as well. Look at an oil price chart and overlay the U.S. Dollar Index. I’ve been over this so many times, I’m tired of it. Moving on. Via: AP: Speculation by large investors — and not supply and demand for oil — were a primary reason for the surge in […]
The 65 MPG Ford the U.S. Can’t Have
September 7th, 2008Via: Business Week: If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor, known widely for lumbering gas hogs. Ford’s […]
And Now: The Clean, Green Ziggurat with Room for One Million People
September 6th, 2008Via: Ecogeek: When it comes to sustainability, there may be lessons to be learned from ancient Mesopotamania. An environmental design company called Timelinks (based in the surprisingly environmentally innovative Dubai) has come up with an idea for a city complex that rivals the pyramids. The ancient ziggurats were towers of receding stories with a temple […]
The Sahara Forest Project
September 3rd, 2008This is the second macro scale techno utopia story in as many days. Remember Japan’s “Eco-Rigs” from yesterday. Via: Guardian: Vast greenhouses that use sea water for crop cultivation could be combined with solar power plants to provide food, fresh water and clean energy in deserts, under an ambitious proposal from a team of architects […]
Massive Floating Generators, or ‘Eco-Rigs’, to Provide Power and Food to Japan
September 2nd, 2008Uh… I checked to make sure that I wasn’t reading The Onion. I checked twice. Via: Telegraph: Battered by soaring energy costs and aghast at dwindling fish stocks, Japanese scientists think they have found the answer: filling the seas with giant “eco-rigs” as powerful as nuclear power stations. The project, which could result in village-sized […]
China Has Head Start Over West for Iraq Oil
August 31st, 2008China financed the war, so… Via: Reuters: China crossed the line first in the race for big oil contracts in post-Saddam Iraq and has gained a head start over Western oil majors in the competition for future energy deals. China’s biggest oil company, state-run CNPC, agreed a $3 billion service contract with Iraq on Wednesday. […]
GUSTAV MAY HIT GULF PLATFORMS HARDER THAN KATRINA
August 31st, 2008Via: Bloomberg: Hurricane Gustav threatens to hurt U.S. oil and natural-gas production and refining more severely than hurricanes Katrina and Rita did three years ago. Gustav, downgraded to a Category 3 storm by the National Hurricane Center in Miami this morning, may strengthen to Category 4 later today and will make landfall as a “major” […]
