Oil jumps above $100 on refinery outage

[Aliantha]

So what you're saying is, we should all use less oil (great idea) to make the supplies last longer (another great idea) till we can come up with a better means of creating energy (yet another great idea).

Shit tw, that sounds a lot like what I just said.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Shit tw, that sounds a lot like what I just said.

You forgot the perspective and therefore came to a different conclusion. Your alternative energy concepts are not viable without first addressing the bigger problem - doing more work with less energy.

George Jr said last year that he was increasing funding for all this R&D stuff. A world wide effort to create alternative energy was ITER. What did George Jr do last Dec? He entirely canceled money for that research. That black day was 15 Dec 2007 (if I remember correctly). We must secure our oil (not our future). So any idea of alternative energy from that research (by Americans) is destroyed by those who advocate more consumption. Destroyed by people who cannot value energy when oil is priced so low - when we don't try to do more with less energy - when it is more profitable to increase the weigh of automobiles which was also proposed in Washington early last year.

What makes the energy content of solar cells practical? First we must learn to move BrianR's truck with maybe 1/5th the energy. Of course it is remotely possible. Some fundamental theories even exist to approach that goal. But nothing is in research. Price of energy is too low. If the machine needs so much energy, then trivial energy from alternative fuels get unbudgeted as impractical (ie ITER).

Meanwhile, most every alternative energy source is really only an energy medium - uses existing energy technologies. Most every alternative energy source is not.

How much energy in sunlight? Near zero especially when our machines demand massively more energy. The only 'alternative fuels' that can provide that energy are really nothing more than conventional energy rehyped as 'alternative fuels'.

Until we learn how to do more with less, then alternatives only supply a drop in the bucket. We need machines that no longer need buckets and barrels. We need machines that can work with raindrops - not buckets of energy. Only then do alternatives have practical value. Only then are raindrops from so called 'alternatives' are viable. The solutions to excessive petroleum consumption in the short term only then makes alternative fuels viable in the long term.

Quantum physics research also necessary to accomplish these goals? Guess who has reduced R&D funding, again, in advanced physics research? Spending on things such as financial markets and military budgets is increasing. We must enrich the right people. We must save the world from Saddam Hussein and the evil Iranians. Even John Howard said so; so it must be true.

The real 'alternative fuels' have little value in a world where a machine consumes so much energy. In America, that is more than twice the energy compared to any other industrial nation. No wonder other nations are more interested in alternative fuels. Their machines consume less energy. Their machines do more work for the same energy. Therefore more alternative energy sources are explored. A completely different conclusion once we apply perspective - once we replace sweeping generalizations with perspective.

The irony: alternative fuels - the few that actually are alternative fuels - become practical only after our machines start doing more work with less energy.