Smoking guns and being late to the party

As long-time readers of this blog probably know well, I like to do my own analysis of things.  This is partially because I think things should be checked and re-checked to make sure the original work is correct (one of the standard methods of science), but also because I don't spend huge amounts of time digging into what other people have done before I go and crunch numbers myself.

Yes, I know.  A couple of months in the laboratory can save you a few hours in the library, etc. etc. ad nauseam.  But the math and lab time has the virtue of being a learning experience.

Given this difference in emphasis, I suppose it's not too surprising that everything I wrote about the murder of the IFR was actually quite old news to readers of Steve Kirsch and a fellow named Tom Blees wrote a whole book about it.  I only found this out after I did a search for something which brought up Kirsch's blog, and what a trove it is!

One of the more remarkable finds is proof that the IFR's demise was murder for the exact reason I speculated.

Q. How about the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)?

Dave Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project, UCS has been in the nuclear industry for nearly 30 years. He wrote:

Overall, I am not persuaded by the arguments that the IFR will play or should play a key role in our or the world's energy future. The IFR looks good on paper. So good, in fact, that we should leave it on paper.

We had method and opportunity.  This states the motive in clear terms.  The crime of murder is proven.

  ¶ 12/28/2010 06:45:00 PM 1 comments

 

Coal-to-liquids: claims vs.reality

It's quite common to see claims that coal-to-liquids is capable of replacing the USA's imports of oil.

Reality check:

1. Net US imports for 2009 ran about 9.7 million bbl/day.
2. At 6.1 GJ/bbl this is 21.6 EJ (20.5 quads) per year.
3. If refineries convert crude to product at 90% and CTL operates at 45% efficiency, it would take 43.2 EJ (41.0 quads) per year of coal to replace oil imports.
4. The USA only produced 19.8 quads of coal in 2009.

Using CTL to replace oil imports would require more than tripling coal production.  This is Not.  Gonna.  Happen.  PEVs can happen, and we should make them happen just as fast as we humanly can.
  ¶ 12/22/2010 01:06:00 PM 9 comments

 

Scamwatch: social networking edition

Social networking sites have to pay their hosting bills somehow.  It's entirely legit to sell ads.  Yet that doesn't excuse taking ad revenue from scammers.

I've recently been more annoyed than usual by a "free electricity" scam being pushed at me via ads.  The ads no longer tout "magnetic generators", but that is probably to stay under the radar.  The link for this scam goes through doubleclick.net (a site I have blocked in my hosts file because I find them scummy), and that's as far as I'm going to follow it.

I've reported the scam to the administration.  We'll see where it goes.

  ¶ 12/05/2010 11:02:00 PM 0 comments