Time Lapse Across America
Counting out a well known 3D science fiction movie, though it’s 9 minutes in length, Time Lapse Across America is the most interesting film I’ve seen in the just ended first half of 2010: it’s a coast to coast trip made with pictures taken every 15 seconds. It might recall your last trip in the [...]
Caring about what?
I spent most of the last two days helping my mother after her cataract surgery so only yesterday evening I noticed the statement of our friend Carl-Henric Svanberg: as everyboby knows, he said that “We (BP) care about the small people”. Was it just a weak sentence of a non mother-tongue speaker? Perhaps, but even [...]
Local maximus of Oil extraction
Passing peak oil, skeptical people would say: Sooner or later, we’ll reach again the past peak… it’s just a question of time. Strictly speaking, it’s not possible to negate this statement but, thinking about it, I’ve started to wonder about another question: What is the longest period in history between a local peak and its [...]
They call it “sea”
How many times did you hear these words: Oil? There’s plenty of it. There are countries floating over oil! Of course it’s just a metaphor but decades hearing the same old metaphor have lead people to think that it’s mostly true. So my naive question is: what is the total volume of crude oil on [...]
Let’s fall together
Marco (extending the game to a common “business as usual” friend) has restricted an old meme of mine to a single point… the old one was about our worst predictions: that’s a good choice because trying to guess when Crude Oil would be exchanged at around 150 USD/barrel is both sad and hard. It’s sad [...]
Electricityless
A few days ago I was wondering what life would be like without electricity: no hot water in the morning (using a traditionally controlled boiler, of course) and no light after sunset either. I know that it’s not so rational but one of my concerns at first blush was that I would never be able [...]
Peak Oil Survival
Yesterday we reached the so long awaited price of 100 USD per barrel for front month crude oil… could you imagine a better opportunity to publish the first, pessimistic, post/review of this snowy new year? :) Peak Oil Survival is one of the saddest books I ever read: don’t read it until you are acquainted [...]
100 USD each
In a few years, some survivors, roaming through the ruins of our cities, could find the front page of an old daily newspaper, printed during November 2007, the day that the price of crude oil reached 100 USD/barrel… The price of the row material that keeps this civilization going has increased by more than 50 [...]
Diodato Ughi
Yesterday I tried to attend a performance of Uto Ughi, the world class violinist and conductor: it was not his fault but, I suppose that it was one of the worstly promoted and organized events of his career… what a way to think back to the catastrophe that, under our feet, is waiting for us!
