tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post4870400378083896791..comments2024-03-28T21:41:52.558-04:00Comments on The Elephant Bar: Telegraph’s correspondents on the ground in Kiev - Roland Oliphant and David Blair - report 21 bodies laid out on a pavement, a number of which displayed single bullet wounds to the head.Deuce ☂http://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-84119324964031104832014-02-22T03:35:35.593-05:002014-02-22T03:35:35.593-05:00With his children!
Also an Asshole.
Richard Bra...With his children!<br /><br />Also an Asshole.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/21/richard-branson-first-virgin-galactic-space-flight" rel="nofollow"><br />Richard Branson insists he will be aboard first Virgin Galactic space flight.</a><br />Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-2891467882346076652014-02-22T03:32:12.504-05:002014-02-22T03:32:12.504-05:00Burt Rutan is a Genius.
Richard Branson is a Madm...Burt Rutan is a Genius.<br /><br />Richard Branson is a Madman.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-62831413198102079862014-02-22T03:30:58.381-05:002014-02-22T03:30:58.381-05:00Richard Branson has reiterated his plan to fly wit...Richard Branson has reiterated his plan to fly with his children on the inaugural flight of his long-planned commercial space operation, Virgin Galactic, despite the relatively untested nature of the technology and a departure date which has slipped repeatedly.<br /><br />"Everybody who signs up knows this is the birth of a new space programme and understands the risks that go with that," Branson said in an interview for Weekend magazine at Virgin Galactic's base in the Mojave desert north of Los Angeles. "But every person wants to go on the first flight."<br /><br />While insisting his plan is credible and the first flight, reaching 62 miles above the Earth, will take place later this year – he has previously promised it for this autumn – Branson admits how difficult it has been to overcome the exacting safety expectations of a commercial space operation.<br /><br />He said: "The biggest worry I had was re-entry. Nasa has lost about 3% of everyone who's gone into space, and re-entry has been their biggest problem.<br /><br />"For a government-owned company, you can just about get away with losing 3% of your clients. For a private company you can't really lose anybody. Nobody we met had anything but the conventional risky re-entry mechanism that Nasa had. We were waiting for someone to come up with one that was foolproof."<br /><br />Branson's planned spaceship is a scaled-up version of SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan, a maverick and now-retired aerospace engineer who, with funding from the Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, won the $10m X prize for the first private flight into space with a reusable spaceship.<br /><br />"Burt Rutan's idea was to turn a spaceship into a giant shuttlecock," Branson said. "And so the pilot could be sound asleep on re-entry and it didn't matter what angle it hit coming back into the Earth's atmosphere."<br /><br />Almost 700 people, including Tom Hanks and Angelina Jolie, have paid between £125,000 and £155,000 to book a two-hour journey on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, which would include a planned five minutes of weightlessness.<br /><br />However, despite Branson's regular insistence that the first six-passenger flight is imminent – he has confidently announced it for more or less every year from 2007 – the service has completed only three test flights with a peak altitude of little more than 13 miles. To achieve the necessary US Federal Aviation Administration licence, the craft will need several tests at its full speed and 62-mile height.<br /><br />The journalist and author Tom Bower, who has just published a biography of Branson, says he believes SpaceShipTwo's engine will need to be redesigned before it can achieve Branson's stated aims, making a full-blown space flight by autumn extremely unlikely.<br /><br />"The rocket still hasn't flown at the required speed and to the required height," Bower said. "The point about his rocket is it's very primitive. He's burning rubber with nitrous oxide, and it's never been done before for that size of rocket.<br /><br />"For the last 10 years he'd been trying to make it work for the extended rocket and it just isn't working. Where's the evidence he can make it work in the next six months?"<br /><br />Branson's boasts about Virgin Galactic had won his businesses huge amounts of publicity in the US, Bower added, but made him a hostage to its success: "That's the problem with Branson. He's always boasted and got away with saying things which don't happen. He said Virgin Cola would beat Coca-Cola. He said Virgin Atlantic would beat BA, Virgin America would beat Delta and United. His boasts are unhealthy."Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-56590236156842628342014-02-21T23:47:34.404-05:002014-02-21T23:47:34.404-05:00Not that there are any other living things in, and...Not that there are any other living things in, and supported by, those thousands of square miles of forests.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-54295027434738828152014-02-21T23:45:00.386-05:002014-02-21T23:45:00.386-05:00STOP BIG TAR!
...seriously.
Sadly, not gonna hap...STOP BIG TAR!<br /><br />...seriously.<br /><br />Sadly, not gonna happen.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-60412398430939724782014-02-21T23:44:03.578-05:002014-02-21T23:44:03.578-05:00"Twenty four hours a day the oil sands eats i..."Twenty four hours a day the oil sands eats into the most carbon rich forest ecosystem on the planet. <br /><br /><b>Storing almost twice as much carbon per hectare as tropical rainforests, the boreal forest is the planet's greatest terrestrial carbon storehouse.</b><br /><br />To the industry, these diverse and ecologically significant forests and wetlands are referred to as<b>overburden, the forest to be stripped and the wetlands dredged and replaced by mines and tailings ponds so vast they can be seen from outer space.</b>"Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-80922095542429912262014-02-21T23:40:43.097-05:002014-02-21T23:40:43.097-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-34574343265170428402014-02-21T23:33:34.714-05:002014-02-21T23:33:34.714-05:00Man, that must be about the most environmentally c...Man, that must be about the most environmentally costly source of energy in the World.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-63920209791797732732014-02-21T23:32:12.859-05:002014-02-21T23:32:12.859-05:00.
Oil companies are putting in the infrastructure....<br /><br />Oil companies are putting in the infrastructure, facilities and pipelines so that they will be able to try to support the growing worldwide demand for natural gas. Unfortunately for them (fortunately for us at least in terms of price) putting in that infrastructure takes time.<br /><br />Gas supply and prices in the US are affected by many factors but the price has been so low for so long the key factor is supply and demand. 96% of US production is used in the US. Logistics is another key factor. See the story below.<br /><br />http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/29/us-bakken-flaring-idUSBRE96S05320130729<br /><br />Flaring $100 a million per month just at Bakken isn't peanuts.<br /><br />Some are suing to stop the waste.<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/business/energy-environment/oil-companies-are-sued-over-natural-gas-flaring-in-north-dakota.html?_r=0<br /><br />.Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-61243251827057487532014-02-21T23:16:53.650-05:002014-02-21T23:16:53.650-05:00"You should THANK your lucky Non-God..."..."You should THANK your lucky Non-God..."Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-91532042519006300832014-02-21T23:15:50.277-05:002014-02-21T23:15:50.277-05:00You should than your lucky Non-God you have a prem...You should than your lucky Non-God you have a premier who can think rather than an Obamacare style nutjob like MacGregor.<br /><br />---<br /><br />"Premier Alison Redford made clear earlier this year that she intends to let market forces dictate future bitumen upgrading projects, calling the deal the province struck with North West Upgrading “a commitment made by the previous government.”<br /><br />---<br /><br />But NWU’s MacGregor has a different outlook.<br /><br />Though he concedes that his project would be difficult without government involvement, he says the $700 million in equity NWU and CNR have spent so far is a testament to the fact that investors believe in the economics of the venture.<br /><br />“We believe we can make a lot of money doing this, and lots of other people do too, because they have supported us all along,” he said.<br /><br />When it comes to further expansions to Alberta’s refining industry, he tends to dismiss naysayers, maintaining that just as oil sands producers will find safer, greener ways to extract bitumen, others will figure out how to process it locally.<br /><br />“<b>Everybody is going to say all the reasons why you can’t do something, but Canadians don’t have a history of paying any attention to that stuff,” he said. “Our history is we go and do stuff.</b>”<br /><br />Duh, we do stuff! Come Hell, High-water, or bankruptcy!Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-9459035492440070262014-02-21T23:08:39.543-05:002014-02-21T23:08:39.543-05:00.
I have no doubt the Huffpo piece casts more bla....<br /><br /><i>I have no doubt the Huffpo piece casts more blame on BIG OIL than they deserve</i><br /><br />Right.<br /><br />If you have no doubt, why read it.<br /><br />You are a peach.<br /><br />.Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-14893566145640913842014-02-21T22:52:46.338-05:002014-02-21T22:52:46.338-05:00...all the result of prices being too low for too ......all the result of prices being too low for too long.<br /><br />Damned Big Oil!Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-27921925639900719562014-02-21T22:51:23.802-05:002014-02-21T22:51:23.802-05:00The Amount of Refineries, Transportation, and infr...The Amount of Refineries, Transportation, and infrastructure in general in place on the Gulf will never be replicated anywhere on the Continent, much less in Canada, nor is there any good economic or logistical reason to do so.<br /><br />Transporting Crude is a piece of cake compared to many refined products. Gasoline, for instance, is corrosive to pipelines, in addition to being explosive. Only a fairly small fraction of refined product will be consumed in Canada.<br /><br />I have no doubt the Huffpo piece casts more blame on BIG OIL than they deserve.Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-75188332964471158932014-02-21T22:17:02.446-05:002014-02-21T22:17:02.446-05:00Thanks for the article quirk! From that article:
...Thanks for the article quirk! From that article:<br /><br />"But to others, whether or not it’s worth building refineries in Canada is a matter of perspective. In interviews with The Huffington Post, several observers noted that these upgrades and expansions have tended to occur at refineries owned by the same U.S. companies that are developing Canada’s oil patch.<br />"“Most of our oil industry is American-owned, and they decide to build our refining capacity elsewhere, rather than in Canada,” said Fred Wilson, assistant to the president at the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).<br /><br />“When they talk about what’s cost-effective and so on, they’re speaking from the perspective of their company, and not Canada or Canadians or Albertans," he said."Ashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16688752302081088907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-91118411736614562512014-02-21T22:15:35.514-05:002014-02-21T22:15:35.514-05:00Storage Chart<a href="http://ir.eia.gov/ngs/ngs.html" rel="nofollow">Storage Chart</a>Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-47712842835406150472014-02-21T22:14:49.878-05:002014-02-21T22:14:49.878-05:0099.99% of Americans think that we're in a lot ...99.99% of Americans think that we're in a lot better shape, oil-wise, than we are; but, oil might end up being "tomorrow's problem" in a couple of weeks. <br /><br />We're almost surely going to drop below a trillion cuft of nat gas in storage in just a couple of weeks (probably 3,) and it's feasible that we could fall below the MOL (minimum operating level at some point.)<br /><br />It probably won't happen, but, oh, mama, it would be a holy mess if it did.Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-77757496704537113782014-02-21T22:06:28.019-05:002014-02-21T22:06:28.019-05:00.
Here is an article I saw a while back that expl....<br /><br />Here is an article I saw a while back that explains some of the problems.<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/23/canada-oil-refineries_n_1539701.html<br /><br />The US is better set up to handle it but we still suffer some of the logistics problems and such and we have been closing refineries on the East Coast because of costs.<br /><br />.Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-8877706138718675042014-02-21T21:48:10.269-05:002014-02-21T21:48:10.269-05:00They've been developing the tar sands for more...They've been developing the tar sands for more than 20 years. Most of the money has been supplied by 'big oil' while governments have mostly provided a 'favorable' environment. Why ship all that sticky bitumen all those miles for refining when it could be refined right there and shipped as a high value product?Ashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16688752302081088907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-33739780953416928472014-02-21T21:33:53.378-05:002014-02-21T21:33:53.378-05:00.
They should simply build refineries near the ta....<br /><br /><i>They should simply build refineries near the tar sands. Why does big oil resist that option?</i><br /><br />It's not 'just' big oil, its money, logistics, politics, and some have argued that Canada is too late, should have started doing it 20 years ago.<br /><br />.<br /><br /><br />Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-13445687151843341002014-02-21T21:31:45.373-05:002014-02-21T21:31:45.373-05:00Don't worry, that stuff will all get dug up - ...Don't worry, that stuff will all get dug up - every last yard of it. And, most of it will end up at the refineries that are the best in the world at processing it (Houston, Port Arthur, etc.)<br /><br />And, it will get there by pipeline. Rufus IIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297231055991566183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-80820533077317825622014-02-21T21:21:24.346-05:002014-02-21T21:21:24.346-05:00Man, if I could figure out a formula that could pr...Man, if I could figure out a formula that could produce the elation that song evokes I'd be a...<br /><br />....a<br /><br /><br />....rich....<br /><br /><br />naw....<br /><br />a....<br /><br /><br />a happy man!Ashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16688752302081088907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-33545028648679615102014-02-21T21:07:53.892-05:002014-02-21T21:07:53.892-05:00.
Happy
..<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM" rel="nofollow">Happy</a><br /><br />.Quirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00272168240606512672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-57341224523900063572014-02-21T21:07:02.190-05:002014-02-21T21:07:02.190-05:00They should simply build refineries near the tar s...They should simply build refineries near the tar sands. Why does big oil resist that option?Ashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16688752302081088907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-71101797717653411722014-02-21T20:41:24.985-05:002014-02-21T20:41:24.985-05:00Pipeline, most energy efficient, ships, less so, r...Pipeline, most energy efficient, ships, less so, rail, even less, trucks, and so on.<br /><br />Carrying it on our backs would probably heat up and poison the Earth the most, since we exhale that most deadly of gases: <b>CO2</b>Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16770268554450465514noreply@blogger.com