Clipmarks | willhelm's clips

Speculation and oil prices

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:58:31 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "For every trader who bets on a price rise, there must be another who bets the opposite."

Clip Source: www.knowledgeproblem.com

[A] speculator can buy paper oil only if someone else sells to him. For every trader who bets on a price rise, there must be another who bets the opposite. So an increase in the number of speculative players does not show whether prices will move up or down....

What matters is who those players are: Will they aggressively push the ball up the field, or will they retreat? Sometimes the bulls are more eager than the bears, and prices spiral upward. But this is not some autonomous force that comes out of nowhere. If the bulls have the upper hand, it's generally because supply and demand favor higher prices. The fundamentals of physical oil drive the psychology around paper oil more than vice versa.

During the first seven months of 2007, speculators as a group tripled the amount of paper oil they owned, buying it from commercial players. But since last August, speculators as a group have not added to their positions -- yet this was when oil prices went skyward.

Why take these clowns in Washington seriously?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:43:43 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: cafehayek.typepad.com

Below is a link to an MP3 file that features part of President Jimmy Carter's July 1979 speech on energy policy.

Download National_Energy_Crisis_Address.mp3

I have no doubt that 30 years from now people will revisit the speeches, blog-posts, and writings of the likes of Barack Obama and John McCain and find them to be just as fancifully idiotic as is this speech by Jimmy Carter.

Top 10 on-camera meltdowns - language warning!

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:24:35 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: youtube.com

[Video]

10 great cockpit photos

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:19:21 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

G8 Countries fail abysmally in cutting C02

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:05:24 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: uk.reuters.com

The "G8 Climate Scorecards" compiled by environmental group WWF and Allianz said even Britain, France and Germany at the top of the rankings had all failed abysmally to implement measures to back the goals of cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

"We're not going to be able to fathom what the world may be like in 20 years if we aren't able to reduce emissions," said Regine Guenther, head of climate policy at the WWF in Germany.

"None of the eight leading industrial nations have taken sufficient measures needed to be considered in line with the target to limit a worldwide increase in temperatures to 2 degrees centigrade," said Niklas Hoehne, the author of the study done by ECOFYS research group for WWF and Allianz.

Rapid Warming

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:58:42 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: uk.reuters.com

The northern hemisphere emerged from the last ice age 14,700 years ago with about a 12 degree Celsius (22 Fahrenheit) spike in just 50 years before plunging back into icy conditions, then suddenly warming again 3,000 years later, the researchers said.

"We know abrupt climate change happens," said Jim White, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the United States, who worked on the study.

"We don't know why it happens and we don't know what to look for as a first early warning."

The researchers did not deal with current climate change, which may be rapid for humans but is actually slower than the abrupt changes they were looking into.

They did however say that the findings could give scientists clues to what may trigger sudden severe changes in the future.

Flat screens "accelerating" global warming

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:04:03 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A gas used in the making of flat screen televisions, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), is being blamed for damaging the atmosphere and accelerating global warming.

Almost half of the televisions sold around the globe so far this year have been plasma or LCD TVs.

But this boom could be coming at a huge environmental cost.

Obama's Faith-Based Plan

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:22:45 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: "We should evaluate any policy efforts to maximize civil society and faith-based solutions by whether they move in the direction of reducing the size and scope of government and whether they help individuals escape
dependence and achieve a life of independence."

Clip Source: www.sphere.com

there are two immediate concerns with the proposal:

The announcement emphasizes government funding — not changing the character of government to allow more space for civil society solutions.

But even worse, Obama’s plan says that when a faith-based organization takes federal dollars, it would lose its ability to preserve its faith-based character through maintaining hiring standards consistent with its mission. It could be forced to hire an atheist. In other words, it would strike at the heart of the faith-based initiative.

The Bush administration has rightly highlighted the significance of such faith-based and community groups in addressing social needs and urged that government change in ways that will allow such approaches to flourish. One primary emphasis has been the need to preserve the religious integrity of groups that participate in government programs to tackle social problems — this is essential to their mission and effectiveness.

On North Pole Ice Variance

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:01:13 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: I think Global Warming Alarmists shoot themselves in the foot highlighting the localized potential of ice retreat at North Pole.
It is no more substantial to the theory of Anthropogic Climate Change as the fact that Asia experienced one of it's coldest winters is substantial against the theory of anthropogenic climate change.

Clip Source: www.americanthinker.com

…both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice is certainly subject to variation. But it would be a mistake to assume that a brief period during which the Arctic is in a thinning cycle is anything more than that - a cycle. We know from past history that it has been subject to earlier retreats as suggested by the opening quote from 1817.

Part of the problem lay in the fact that useful data on ice extent and thickness only dates from the 1950s, yet our temperature record from Jan Mayen Island at the edge of the Arctic shows that the Arctic was warmer during the 1930s than it was during the 1990s. Unfortunately there is no comprehensive ice data from the 1930s. Instead such data begins in the late 1950s, at a time when the Arctic was entering into the grip of a known cold spell. As that cold period ended, it is hardly surprising to find thinner ice during the latter warmer period. [....]

North Pole - 1987

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:54:58 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.americanthinker.com

ANWR - Perspective

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:52:20 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: globalwarminghoax.wordpress.com

THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS, LIBERALS AND “GREENS” SHOW YOU WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT ANWR

…and they are right… these ARE photographs of ANWR

ISN’T ANWR BEAUTIFUL? WHY SHOULD WE DRILL HERE (AND DESTROY) THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE?

WELL… THAT’S NOT EXACTLY THE TRUTH

Do you remember the map?
The map showed that the proposed drilling area is in the ANWR Coastal Plain
Do those photographs look like a coastal plain to you?

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE…

THAT IS NOT WHERE THEY ARE WANTING TO DRILL!

THIS IS WHAT THE PROPOSED EXPLORATION AREA ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE WINTER

AND THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE SUMMER

HERE ARE A COUPLE SCREEN SHOTS FROM GOOGLE EARTH

AS YOU CAN SEE, THE AREA WHERE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT DRILLING IS A BARREN WASTELAND.

HERE IS A PHOTO (SHOT DURING THE SUMMER) OF THE
“DEPLETED WILDLIFE” SITUATION CREATED BY
DRILLING AROUND PRUDHOE BAY *…
DON’T YOU THINK THAT THE CARIBOU REALLY HATE THAT DRILLING?

HERE’S THAT SAME SPOT DURING THE WINTER.

Did Patriotism Matter

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:13:47 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

both German and French generals assessed French military forces as more likely to gain victory, and virtually no one expected France to collapse like a house of cards — except Adolf Hitler, who had studied French society instead of French military forces.

Did patriotism matter? It mattered more than superior French tanks and planes.

Most Americans today are unaware of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens of the world instead of American patriots.

Our media are busy verbally transforming American combat troops from heroes into victims, just as the French intelligentsia did — with the added twist of calling this “supporting the troops.”

Will that matter? Time will tell.

Alternative Energy Here to Stay?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:55:02 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: Not if government has anything to say about it.

Clip Source: thedaily.washington.edu

Right now, General Motors is in the middle of developing a car that will run on a battery for 40 miles before gas kicks in. And because 40 miles is an average American commute, owners of the Chevy Volt will go gas-free most days, according to The Atlantic Monthly.

Nationally accredited “futurist” and scientist Dr. Ray Kurzweil believes that with the amount of progress being done in nanoengineering, “it’ll be cost-competitive with fossil fuels in just five years,” according to The New York Times.

The Times also reported on the newly revived promise of solar thermal energy, an old idea that is suddenly experiencing a growing demand.

“It is not the kind that features shiny panels bolted to the roofs of houses,” Matthew Wald said in the Times. “This type involves covering acres of desert with mirrors that focus intense sunlight on a fluid, heating it enough to make steam. The steam turns a turbine and generates electricity.”

Broadcast Industry "Rocked"

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:50:46 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: www.drudgereport.com

While newspapers and traditional broadcast media are experiencing declining revenues, Limbaugh's golden microphone has turned diamond-laced:

Earnings now pace him ahead of the annual salaries for network news anchors: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer — combined!

The deal represents a stunning triumph over the establishment by an outsider who connected with and captured the spirit of the nation's heartland.

The American broadcast industry is rocked, realigned and blasted into a new orbit, yet again, by Rush Limbaugh, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

In what is being described as an unprecedented radio contract, Limbaugh will keep his syndicated show on-the-air and e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e through 2016 with CLEAR CHANNEL and PREMIERE RADIO.

LIMBAUGH SIGNS THROUGH 2016; $400 MILLION DEAL SHATTERS BROADCAST RECORDS

America gets a lesson in tolerance

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:02:47 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: Many tried to stop Marion Anderson from being allowed to sing. Some tried to persuade her not to sing. She refused and sang this...

Clip Source: youtube.com

[Video]