Clipmarks | Oil Clips

Kids brains develop dramatically with intake of omega oil

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:37:41 GMT

clipped by: uberkiwi
clipper's remarks: This backs up studies of child behaviour in Europe and the UK showing dramatic reductions in ADHD, and general mental well being, of kids taking EPA supplements.

Clip Source: www.smh.com.au

Scans on four British children who took an omega oil supplement for three months showed their brains developed dramatically - by the equivalent of three years - over that period.

The four children in the pilot study on the effects of diet on young brains were aged between eight and 13 and were classified as overweight. They took two capsules a day of a supplement called VegEPA, which contains a combination of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, found in fish, flaxseed oil and sunflower oil. They were also encouraged to cut down on fatty snacks and to exercise more.

After three months the children's reading age had advanced by more than a year, their handwriting was neater and they paid more attention in class. The scans showed an increase in nerve fibres in their brain, said the lead researcher

"It means you have more connections and greater density of nerve cells, in the same way a tree grows more branches," said Professor Puri

Tags: children, child, health, kids, diet

It's official: Iraq's oil belongs to US corporations

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:42:07 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: According to commentary from the Asia Times Online, the newly mandated "Federal oil council" of Iraq, which will control the country's energy resources, is going to consist largely of U.S. oil executives.

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

US's Iraq oil grab is a done deal

US President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney might as well declare the Iraq war over and out. As far as they - and the humongous energy interests they defend - are concerned,

only now is the mission really accomplished. More than half a trillion dollars spent and perhaps half a million Iraqis killed have come down to this.

On Monday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet in Baghdad approved the draft of the new Iraqi oil law. The government regards it as "a major national project". The key point of the law is that Iraq's immense oil wealth (115 billion barrels of proven reserves, third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran) will be under the iron rule of a fuzzy "Federal Oil and Gas Council" boasting "a panel of oil experts from inside and outside Iraq". That is, nothing less than predominantly US Big Oil executives.

Tags: oil, energy, iraq, middle_east, war, politics, bushies

Chocolate Cake In 5 Mins! A new take...

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:23:46 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes
clipper's remarks: Clipped for the photos...!

Clip Source: www.dizzy-dee.com

Chocolate Cake In 5 Minutes!

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug

Instructions:

Mix flour, sugar and cocoa:

Spoon in 1 egg

Pour in milk and oil, and mix well

Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000watt)

Wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug

Tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy!

Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:13:10 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: So, while it's good to have the alternative (and to recognize the innovation it represents), bioplastics aren't quite ready to save us from the paper or plastic debate.

Paper bags or plastic bags:
the conclusion
Both paper and plastic bags require lots and lots of resources and energy, and proper recycling requires due diligence from both consumer and municipal waste collector or private recycling company, so there are a lot of variables that can lead to low recycling rates.

Ultimately, neither paper nor plastic bags are the best choice; we think choosing reusable canvas bags instead is the way to go. From an energy standpoint, according to this Australian study, canvas bags are 14 times better than plastic bags and 39 times better than paper bags, assuming that canvas bags get a good workout and are used 500 times during their life cycle. Happy shopping!

Clip Source: www.treehugger.com

Paper or plastic bags: which is better?

It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there's an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag. From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there's a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let's take a look behind the bags.

Where do brown paper bags come from?

Paper comes from trees -- lots and lots of trees.

And that's just to make the paper; don't forget about the energy inputs -- chemical, electrical, and fossil fuel-based -- used to transport the raw material, turn the paper into a bag and then transport the finished paper bag all over the world.

Where do paper shopping bags go when you're done with them?

How are plastic bags produced?

Unlike paper bags, plastic bags are typically made from oil, a non-renewable resource.

Plastics are a by-product of the oil-refining process, accounting for about four percent of oil production around the globe

How does plastic bag recycling work?

What about biodegradable plastic bags?

Tags: recycling

New Survivalists Prepare for End of Oil

Mon, 26 May 2008 09:48:27 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

BUSKIRK, N.Y. (AP) — A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

Tags: survivalism, oil, end

Green Crude

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:52:44 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Sapphire Energy turns algae into 'green crude' for fuel

A San Diego company said Wednesday that it could turn algae into oil, producing a green-colored crude yielding ultra-clean versions of gasoline and diesel without the downsides of biofuel production.

The year-old company, called Sapphire Energy, uses algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide and non-potable water to make "green crude" that it contends is chemically equivalent to the light, sweet crude oil that has been fetching more than $130 a barrel in New York futures trading.

Chief Executive Jason Pyle said that the company's green crude could be processed in existing oil refineries and that the resulting fuels could power existing cars and trucks just as today's more polluting versions of gasoline and diesel do.

"What we're talking about is something that is radically different," Pyle said. "We really look at this as a paradigm change."

Animals that Aid Humans in Unusual Ways

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:22:11 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: webecoist.com

Barn Owls: Deadly Rodent Hunters

Spiders: Snagging Pests

Bats, Cormorants, and Dragonflies

cormorants have been used by fisherman to catch fish

Striped Hyena: Canine Garbage Disposal

Coconut-Picking Monkeys

King Snake: Farmer’s Slithering Helper

this serpent is a natural predator of poisonous snakes. It also consumes rodents and other pests

Civet Cat and Earthworm:

animals can be helpful by simply digesting.

Luwak coffee is considered a delicacy. The beans for this coffee are fermented in the digestive system of the civet cat. The beans are collected from the cat’s waste and sold for high prices.

Falcons and Passenger Pigeon

Bacteria that Eat Garbage

Elephants: Muscle and Meat

Elephants have been trained to do heavy lifting in Southeast and South Asia

Algae: Oil Producer of the Future

Algae cells have been found to produce extremely high amounts of oil.

Why we need high oil prices

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:11:27 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: I know this sounds crazy, but i honestly believe that high oil prices in the short term (1-5 years) is a very good thing if it forces us to find alternatives. I am definitely concerned that if oil prices drop temporarily, the momentum behind alternatives such as wind and solar will die off - leaving us exactly where we are today - way too dependent on oil and way to harmful to our environment.

Clip Source: www.ft.com

If the Democratic party were correct about speculation and gouging, it should be demanding a Nobel Prize for futures traders and oil titans. They have done more for the planet than Al Gore, making the pump price of petrol so unthinkably expensive (almost half as dear as in Europe!) that the country has started to economise. Americans are driving less and buying smaller cars.

If ever there were a case for the maxim, get prices right, this is it. The way to curb carbon emissions is to add the environmental cost of carbon to the price of energy. The current oil price offers a good opportunity: when it falls (as it probably will) a carbon tax could be used to set a floor, making the transition to correctly priced energy much easier.

Tags: alternative energy, oil, politics

Life after oil: time to get ready

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:43:11 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: James Kunstler's trademark pessimism, which, sadly, is probably right on the money. According to the Dept. of Energy, world energy demand now exceeds supply; get ready for a rough ride down the other side of the peak.

Clip Source: www.orionmagazine.org

AS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC CONTINUES sleepwalking into a future of energy scarcity, climate change, and geopolitical turmoil, we have also continued dreaming. Our collective dream is one of those super-vivid ones people have just before awakening. It is a particularly American dream on a particularly American theme: how to keep all the cars running by some other means than gasoline. We'll run them on ethanol! We'll run them on biodiesel, on synthesized coal liquids, on hydrogen, on methane gas, on electricity, on used French-fry oil . . . !

And a harsh reality indeed awaits us as the full scope of the permanent energy crisis unfolds. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, world oil production peaked in December 2005 at just over 85 million barrels a day. Since then, it has trended absolutely flat at around 84 million. Yet world oil consumption rose consistently from 77 million barrels a day in 2001 to above 85 million so far this year. A clear picture emerges: demand now exceeds world supply. Or, put another way, oil production has not increased despite the ardent wish that it would by all involved, and despite the overwhelming incentive of prices having nearly quadrupled since 2001.

There is no question that we are in trouble with oil. The natural gas situation is comparably ominous, with some differences in the technical details—and by the way, I am referring here to methane gas (CH4), the stuff that fuels kitchen stoves and home furnaces, not cars and trucks. Natural gas doesn't deplete slowly like oil, following a predictable bell-curve pattern; it simply stops coming out of the ground when a particular gas well is played out. You also tend to get your gas from the continent you are on. To import natural gas from overseas, it has to be liquefied, loaded in a special kind of expensive-to-build-and-operate tanker, and then offloaded at a specialized marine terminal.

Tags: latoc, oil, energy, environment, bad_news

Smoke a Pack a Day... or move to Cairo

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:26:04 GMT

clipped by: apple white
clipper's remarks: This comes as no surprise to me. The entire time I was in Cairo I coughed, hacked and eye watered my way through each day. I asked my chain smoking friend why he bothered to smoke when he could just breathe the air. Worst pollution I personally have ever had to live through. Luckily enough I was able to escape by heading home, unlike most everyone else stuck there.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Air pollution is so bad in Cairo that living in the sprawling city of 18 million residents is said to be akin to smoking 20 cigarettes a day. According to the World Health Organisation, the average Cairene ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution a day.

A 2002 World Bank report estimates that pollution causes 2.42 billion dollars worth of environmental damage each year, about five percent of Egypt's annual gross domestic product.

Industry is to blame, in part, the worst offenders being factories that burn mazot for power. Mazot is the heavy oil left over after more valuable fuel products have been extracted from crude oil; when burnt, it emits substantial amounts of the greenhouse gases said to cause global warming.

There are, however, signs of hope

An enterprising group of Canadian businessmen and Egyptian mud brick factory owners is quietly overhauling the mud brick industry, one of the biggest users of mazot, through switching from the heavy oil to natural gas.

Tags: pollution, environment, smoking

Most Americans don't know Canada is their biggest oil supplier

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:59:23 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz

Clip Source: www.cbc.ca

A new poll suggests the vast majority of Americans are unaware that Canada is the largest foreign supplier of crude oil to the U.S.

The Canadian American Business Council (CABC) — which represents some of the biggest private sector companies in both countries — said its survey of 1,000 Americans found that only four per cent of respondents thought Canada was the country that provided them with more oil than anyone else.

Canada is the biggest foreign supplier of oil and natural gas to the U.S.

The survey also found that 41 per cent of Americans asked would support replacing oil from unstable areas of the world with oil from Canada "even if doing so resulted in higher prices for U.S. consumers."

"The findings suggest a foundation of American public support for meaningful initiatives to expand Canadian energy supplies to the U.S.," said CABC chairman Randoph Dove in a statement.

Most Americans don't know Canada is their biggest oil supplier

Tags: canada, americans, facts

Algae -A Solution to the End of Oil?

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:32:10 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"All countries must take vigorous, immediate and collective action to curb runaway energy demand. The next ten years will be crucial for all countries... We need to act now to bring about a radical shift in investment in favor of cleaner, more efficient and more secure energy technologies."

~Nobuo Tanaka, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA)

Big oil had better start worrying. Common algae from ponds and waste-water treatment plants has been found to produce vast amounts of burnable oil, say researchers at the University of Minnesota, algae produces an astounding 5,000 gallons of oil per acre. Corn, by comparison, produces a measly 18 gallons. Soybean yields 48 gallons. An acre of palm trees yields 635 gallons.

Algae has a clear advantage in other ways as well. Land crops use up more resources and require more manpower to grow.

Algae, on the other hand, is so hardy that it grows all by itself in conditions that require little to no management

Tags: algae, oil, energy

Don't Let Them Trick Us Into Another War

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:44:09 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: "Before 1979, the US government strongly supported The Iranian nuclear programmes."

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

Don't Let Them Trick Us Into Another War

Yes, Iran does need fuel.

"The Bush administration has alternately said that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program or wants one. Without being able to prove those claims, the White House has made its case by implication, beginning with the point that Iran has ample oil reserves for its energy needs.

Ford's team commended Iran's decision to build a massive nuclear energy industry, noting in a declassified 1975 strategy paper that Tehran needed to "prepare against the time -- about 15 years in the future -- when Iranian oil production is expected to decline sharply."

Estimates of Iran's oil reserves were smaller then than they are now, but energy experts and U.S. intelligence estimates continue to project that Iran will need an alternative energy source in the coming decades. Iran's population has more than doubled since the 1970s, and its energy demands have increased even more."

"Lacking direct evidence, Bush administration officials argue that Iran's nuclear program must be a cover for bomb-making. Vice President Cheney recently said, "They're already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear as well to generate energy."

Yet Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and outgoing Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz held key national security posts when the Ford administration made the opposite argument 30 years ago."

01/05/07 - 2 Minute video:

Tags: iran, war

One hundred and fifty years ago on Aug. 27

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 06:22:38 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: “When the discovery happened, the few people who were there and not involved in the war, went around and bought all the property they could and had outside investors come in,” Black said. “But the real heyday of the development happened from 1864-1870. It’s that 11-year period when the little river valley was the world’s leading supplier of oil.

”The “little river valley” in western Pennsylvania earned the nickname Petrolia.

“I would see this as less of an anniversary to note for celebration and more of an anniversary to note how far we’ve come and the serious moment that we’re at right now,” said Brian Black, an energy historian at Pennsylvania State University and author of the book Petrolia. “Energy transitions happen and I argue that we’re in one right now and that we need to aggressively look to the future to what’s going to happen after petroleum.”

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Happy 150th, Oil! So Long, and Thanks for Modern Civilization

August 27, 2009

One hundred and fifty years ago on Aug. 27, Colonel Edwin L. Drake sunk the very first commercial well that produced flowing petroleum.

The discovery that large amounts of oil could be found underground marked the beginning of a time during which this convenient fossil fuel became America’s dominant energy source.

some Yankee capitalists from Connecticut were convinced that oil could be found in the ground and exploited. They recruited “Colonel” Edwin Drake, who was not a Colonel at all, mostly because he was charming and unemployed. He, in turn, found someone skilled in the art of drilling, or what passed for it in those days.

Drake and his sidekick “Uncle Billy” Smith started looking underground for oil in the spring of ‘59.

On Aug. 27, 1859, at 69 feet of depth, Drake and Smith hit oil. It was a big deal, but the Civil War stalled the immediate development of the rock oil industry.

Sweden, the first oil-free country in the world by 2020

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 18:36:16 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.scandinavica.com

Sweden will be the first oil-free country in the world by 2020
The Swedish government has announced that Sweden is planning to become the world’s first oil-free country by 2020. Will they make it?

In October 2005 the Swedish Minister for Sustainable Development, Ms Mona Sahlin, announced that Sweden aims to become the world’s first oil-free country by 2020.

The Swedish Parliament has called upon a multidisciplinary committee of experts to receive advice on biofuels and other renewable energies such as wind and tidal power. The group of experts, which is mainly composed by academics, industrialists, car manufacturers, and farmers, have been asked to bring solutions to the government’s target: "Sweden’s dependency on oil should be broken by 2020".

At first glance, Sweden’s oil-free bid may look overambitious. However, this Scandinavian nation of 9 million people has long had the world’s most impressive record on environmental protection.

Sweden’s steps towards a clean-energy economy started after a national referendum in 1980 where the Swedish people decided to phase out nuclear power. No new nuclear power stations have been built in Sweden ever since. The remaining nuclear power stations will be shutting down in the future.

Visit the Swedish Ministry of Sustainable Development's website.

Tags: sweden, 2020, future, energy, oil, nuclear power, dependency, alternative energy