1) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : About the price of oil (Message 19929) Posted 8 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: been poking around at the web on this subject some more. found a pretty interesting report from the EIA (energy information administration) about the price of gasoline. http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp Seems as though one of the real problems is refining.... US demand is so high, that European and other global refiners are now supplying either finished gasoline or blend stocks to the US at ever increasing levels. How can you have nation to nation contacts when the oil is being refined globally? Refiners buy and ship to their refineries to process into various products, and that depends on the bottom line and the availability of refineries. The excess in crude is probably also due to the decrease in import demand from China. Either the 'boom' years in China are coming to a close, or they've been able to increase their own capabilities enough to wean themselves from the global market somewhat. I remember recently (about a month ago) a bill proposed in congress to streamline the permitting process for the construction of new refineries. Key items on the bill were: decrease the amount of time and money involved in the 'permiting process' from the current average of 10 years and 10's of millions to something like 18 months and single digit millions, and also decrease the amount of court time from NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitudes toward building more refineries by allowing the purchase or lease of land from the federal government (the proposal mostly pertainted to closed military bases and other federal lands that were being closed down or the functions drastically reduced. This bill included not only traditional oil refineries, but also alternative fuel refineries such as ethanol. The bill was shot down. It was proposed by mostly republicans, and opposed by mostly democrats. Once you got past all the partisan politics, it was mostly due to concerns over the environmental impact and worries about allowing big business to 'cut corners'. Its all a pretty big game to me. All this technology and we don't know how much oil we have left? We have to "estimate"? And furthermore divide it into 'quantifiable qualities' and then guess on that too? Reserves don't mean reserves... they mean 'profit' for speculators.. of which we all are in one way or anther. I'd complain to my representatives, but they're as corrupt as big oil. Some of them ARE big oil! Anything that makes sense for the people would have laws made to prevent it.. And that's from both sides, and those who call themselves independents too. Maybe oil is how the democrats are funding their election run in '08?

2) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19926) Posted 8 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: Orthodoxy

3) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19858) Posted 6 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: absorb

4) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19847) Posted 6 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: (The)sandman! Excellent word!

5) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19718) Posted 2 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: horsehockey (bubba!) How long does it take to turn a "pie" into a "chip"?

6) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19713) Posted 2 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: Bull

7) Message boards : Number crunching : Report Problems with Rosetta Version 5.25 (Message 19709) Posted 2 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: This task crashed about 1 minute 30 seconds in - - 7/2/2006 3:54:56 PM|rosetta@home|Starting task FRA_t329_CASP7_hom001_6_t329_6_2ah5A_IGNORE_THE_REST_1479_858_4_0 using rosetta version 525 7/2/2006 3:55:28 PM|rosetta@home|Computation for task FRA_t329_CASP7_hom001_6_t329_6_2ah5A_IGNORE_THE_REST_1479_858_4_0 finished 7/2/2006 3:55:29 PM|rosetta@home|Unrecoverable error for result FRA_t329_CASP7_hom001_6_t329_6_2ah5A_IGNORE_THE_REST_1479_858_4_0 (<file_xfer_error> <file_name>FRA_t329_CASP7_hom001_6_t329_6_2ah5A_IGNORE_THE_REST_1479_858_4_0_0</file_name> <error_code>-161</error_code></file_xfer_error>) This task started after the above task crashed. So far, it is still running. 7/2/2006 3:55:28 PM|rosetta@home|Starting task FRA_t338_CASP7_hom001_6_IGNORE_THE_REST_t338_6_1vin___1605.pdb_862_7_0 using rosetta version 525

8) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19700) Posted 2 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: jerky

9) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19696) Posted 2 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: React

10) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19655) Posted 1 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: speech the true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

11) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19644) Posted 1 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: communicate

12) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19635) Posted 1 Jul 2006 by Studer SL Post: Canadians (nothing to do with kites.... but they make good beer!!)

13) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : About the price of oil (Message 19580) Posted 30 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: To me building more storage is rather illogical. .... why pump something out of storage, so you can store it again, unless maybe you're going to refine it on the way? (on very large floating platforms no less, as if making and buying SUV's wasn't the epitomy of the supposed concensus on environmental issues) But then again, you can just 'drive' the refinery out of the path of a hurricane, eh? About the 'orange' people. I've been reading a book called "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. A little scary from an average, or below-average joe point of view. If Mexico can't compete with the Chinese, and we can't compete with the Indians, what do you think is going to happen to the standard of living in the US and other 'developed' countries? So, pick something that everyone is going to need and put your money in it, because a job is something you may not have next week, next month, or next year. Oil, oranges, and to some degree, brains. My vision of globalization and 'triple convergence' had a little something different in mind, but I guess it has to start somewhere. What I'd like to see a litle more of is 'stewardship, spiritual wisdom, and leadership'. Pretty boring stuff, especially if it doesn't make money or better MY standard of living in some manner? It's why I like Rosetta.... My only wish (prayer) is that we were creating answers instead of possibilities. Why try to save lives in a life eat life world? Maybe that's why it doesn't fly in the face of some people's reality. About increasing taxes to pay for new development. Governments increase taxes to support themselves. New technology development comes when those governments have some crisis on their hands and start losing points in the polls, then they hire private industry to 'fix it' for them. Creative people find creative ways to defeat those mechanisms too.

14) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19561) Posted 30 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: Elation (as in the spine tingling kind)

15) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : About the price of oil (Message 19380) Posted 27 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: What can be done? There's tons of explanations of why the price is so high and won't come down. Listening to the radio, or reading the paper, I gather that the 'glut' of storage oil on the market has now affected OPEC so badly that they're storing oil in old tankers (and running out of them!). They're looking (begging) for people on the open (spot) market to buy oil. Inflation, inflation everywhere! Pretty soon, the producers are going to have to start ramping back, correct? And when that happens, the price IS gonna be pretty much set in stone, correct? Most of the charts and articles you've referenced here reflect the month of April, and they mostly talk about the Western world (specifically the US). What's going on in China? And to a lesser extent, India? Things haven't changed much in three months. It's such a fast changing world, too. Interesting conclusion about the price of 'storable' commoditites. In fact, things like copper, gold, and silver are smelted. That is done in electric furnaces (they get their power off the grid). Most power plants are coal fired, or nuclear, or to a lesser degree natural gas, and although there has been a recent spate of accidents reflecting the recent 'renewal' of coal mining (the old plants will be getting older yet), and the nuke boys have been warming up their throats in congress (they still can't figure out what to do with the radioactive waste they generated from the first plant they built), I just don't see the correlation. All commodities have to be shipped from the point of origin to the point of sale, some may have more stops along the way, but food will always be more valuable than gold when push comes to shove. I'm not an economist, but I would say those "orange" people have something to do with whats going on, too! Maybe these 'speculators' ain't so happy that the world is going flat without them? This is my perception, (remember, I'm not an economist, but it doesn't take one to manipulate a market, just a bunch of willing/gullible people). If the price of gas is 1.50 a gallon US, is there enough incentive to invest/produce hydrogen fueled cars that require not only a major combustion engine modification but also a brandy new distribution system? Ethanol requires refining, and you can't do it in conventional refineries (and you're messin' with people's food supply too). Sunshine is expensive to convert into motive force (it has been said that a solar panel at todays efficiency never really ever pays for itself). Oil is an already existing commodity, controlled by a bunch of people we don't/won't trust. Maybe we do, or maybe we don't need new technology in those areas, but it has to be able to pay for itself. Another interesting thing is that the European price for fuel has always been a lot higher than the US. I remember paying something like 4.50 a liter in Italy 10 years ago. Is that right? What really bugs the heck out me is that I can buy gas at one station for 1.67 and across the street it's 1.73, or drive 20 miles to another town and pay 1.83 a gallon at the same brand name station that sells it for 1.67 in my town! Needless to say, the cars are always lined up at my gas station, I haven't seen any out-of-staters yet, but they are probably on the way! So, my question is what mechanism could you use to artificially inflate the price of light sweet crude and sustain it, in order to develop new technology that will in the end, defeat it? And to further aggravate the question, who would be developing the new technology? Hate to be an outsider holding on to a bunch of light sweet crude when that happens, but either way, someone is always living behind a dumpster at a 7-Eleven. I don't mean to minimize anything you've said or done here, like I said, I'm not an economist/investor and you are from the sounds of it. I do have these perceptions, and I've not heard a lot of talk about it except for the marketers trying to sell E85 cars, or hybrid cars, or fuel additives...... So please don't be offended if I sound radical, or way out in left field (I am an under-educated kook who can read). You've turned on a spotlight to the situation, I'd like to understand the mechanisms that can make it happen.

16) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19292) Posted 25 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: bunch

17) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19290) Posted 25 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: movements

18) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19281) Posted 25 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: Bard

19) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19275) Posted 25 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: tumbler

20) Message boards : Cafe Rosetta : Word link 2 (Message 19220) Posted 24 Jun 2006 by Studer SL Post: Taking Studer's reply as Invader..... Occupation Calling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_nullius

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