Short Takes  

Dave Cohen of ASPO USA says that "The Saudis are blowing smoke again" about oil prices. Tom Whipple's latest column is called "The peak oil crisis: the last spiral?" - more finance doomerism than peak oil news. Mobjectivist has attempted to make understanding his oil shock model a little clearer in "A Street Lamp Understanding of the Shock Model. TreeHugger has an aerial photo of the Alberta Tar Sands ("a scar on the planet"), noting it is impossible to hide anything nowadays unless you are Dick Cheney.

WorldChanging has an interview with B.J. Stanbery of CIGS thin film solar company HelioVolt. EcoTrekker has a raft of tips for getting better mileage from your car - "The Ultimate Guide to Hypermiling: 100 Driving and Car Tips and Resources". Triple Pundit reports the Beluga has completed the first SkySails powered round trip, arriving back in Norway - "Kite-Driven Beluga Skysail Completes 12,000 Mile Journey and Proves Concept". WalMart has undone years of Joel Makower's marketing work by declaring "We are not green". Cleantech.com has a post on a process being pioneered by GE Research for printing low cost OLEDs (more at Clean Break and Inhabitat).



WorldChanging has the second part of the "Common Sense on Biofuels" series, "Growing Sustainable Biofuels". EU Commissioner Andirs Piebalgs has a blog post on "Biofuels good or evil?" explaining EU biofuels policy. Grist notes the EU says it will be mindful of sustainability in boosting biofuels and would "miss that target than to meet it by harming the poor or the land" - just like US ethanol policies (just kidding). Grist also notes the EU is cutting subsidies for farmers. After Gutenberg cautions readers to beware of "Coal Zombies and Corn Zombies". The Energy Blog has a post on a New Enzyme That Promises to Reduce Cellulosic Ethanol Costs. The ArchDruid is pontificating on why one-size-does-not-fit-all for practitioners of organic agriculture in "Pieces of the puzzle". The Oil Drum has a post from Jason Bradfor on "Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Ecological Economics and Intensive Vegetable Cultivation".

TreeHugger has a post on Tesla Motor's process for recycling their car batteries. The city of Denver is trying to teach drivers to drive in a way that lowers fuel consumption in order to reduce emissions. TreeHugger also has a post on "Britain’s Burgeoning Bicycling Boom" and another on some radical personal mobility enhancement - "Powerisers: More Powerbocking than Powerwalking".



Jamais Cascio has a video interview about on just what it means to try to change the world. He has also has a (text) interview at Wired - "Futurist Jamais Cascio Sees GOP Filters, Alt Energy. Regine at WorldChanging has a post on Exposing the APIs of Invisible Things.



While I'm not usually into alarmism, these alarmists might be worth joining in with once a month.

Dave Roberts has some thoughts on the demise of political demise of Client 9 (the man previously known as Eliot Spitzer) in "The audacity of ho". His personal life aside, I quite liked the guy - and he seems to have fallen on his sword for a indiscretion that the average Republican would just shrug off before heading off to the nearest toilet cubicle for some footsie. There are already calls for him to return to politics.

The Age reports that the Vatican has updated the list of mortal sins, adding taking or dealing in drugs, polluting the environment, and engaging in "manipulative" genetic science. Also new to the list are paedophilia (why wasn't this on the list before !), abortion, and social injustices that cause poverty or "the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few". The Age also reports that there is a "US link to the fate of former Italy PM", discussing a new book called "We Killed Aldo Moro" from an ex State Department functionary which may not contain the whole truth, by the sounds of it.

Wonkette has wished the war in Iraq a Happy 5th Birthday. The BBC reports that there is evidence linking chronic health problems suffered by (first) Gulf War veterans to exposure to pesticides and nerve agents. More health problems are being experienced by US troops in the current conflict courtesy of KBR supplied water.

The Huffington Post has an article on the (career) demise of Admiral Fallon, who has been warning against an attack on Iran for some time (thus prompting renewed theorising on that front) - more at Bloomberg, Cryptogon and Intel Daily. George Bush is saying he wishes he was serving on the front lines in Afghanistan - "if only he were younger". Strangely enough, when he was younger, he dodged serving in Vietnam. Hmmm.

Someone who literally met their demise last week was the UK police chief who lead the investigation into secret CIA rendition flights, found dead at the bottom of a mountain. Reminds me a little of Robin Cook's untimely end in the Scottish highlands.

Cryptogon also reports on the "[US] House [of Representatives] Agreeing to a Rare Secret Session on Spy Bill, quoting from Milton Mayer's book "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45", which mentioned another regime's habit of secretly debating laws. William Lind has some thoughts about reforming US military spending in an era of financial decline. Wired has an article on a plaintiff in the NSA wiretapping case in the US - "Hoover-Era Spying on Father Motivated Anti-Wiretapping Plaintiff". Alternative Reel has a list of the "Top 10 Most Depressing Quotes from Orwell's 1984" (with a great set of old covers of the book). Tibet has seen the largest outbreak of unrest in decades, with protests in Lhasa against the Chinese occupation turning into riots.