Shale Oil leading to real jobs and real investment in the US

July 1, 2013

“Artificial” jobs created by subsidies and government inspired market distortions are never sustainable. As is being evidenced by the boom and bust of solar energy and wind turbines riding the wave of subsidies. But the advent of shale oil (and shale gas) is a game changer in many many ways. Fossil fuels are now no longer all “bad” (though some of this sentiment is leading to another inane “War on Coal”), and the fundamental truth that true sustainability – of necessity – requires being commercially sound and not just subsidised is taking hold again.

The US is at least 3 years ahead of Europe in exploiting shale gas and shale oil – even though the deposits in Europe are quite considerable. But Europe is still stuck in the self-righteous and self-delusional “green” policy regimes which have raised energy prices unnecessarily, helped to sustain economic stagnation and have prevented some 15 million jobs from being created. Without a paradigm shift in energy policies and a whole-hearted pursuit of shale gas and nuclear power, Europe’s return to sustainable growth is difficult to define.

Reuters: 

Thanks to the U.S. shale energy boom, the once-quiet niche of U.S.-flagged oil tankers is in unprecedented flux.

A half-dozen vessels that typically carried gasoline to Florida are now rushing crude oil along the Texas coast. Major investment at the port of Corpus Christi, which now exports more than half of all Eagle Ford shale oil, suggests more to come even as new pipeline projects promise further market shifts.

The shale oil revolution, now in its third year, has already scrambled the inland U.S. crude market, forcing pipelines to reverse direction and fuelling a revival in railway oil trade. ….. 

Read the rest of this entry »

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Croatia joins the EU: “Muslim nations need not apply”

July 1, 2013

Croatia joined the EU today as the 28th member state.

(But I can’t help concluding that both Croatia and the EU are consequently disadvantaged. At least Croatia is not joining the Euro which it can ill afford to do).

After Slovenia it is the second of the former Yugoslavia countries to enter. In the meantime the “negotiations” for Turkey’s membership are proceeding at a glacial pace. Any possible excuse is used to slow down progress whenever possible. The opposition to Turkey’s membership is not restricted to Germany, Austria and France where it is particularly obvious.

Considering the other states deriving from Yugoslavia, Bosnia applied for membership in 2003 but has not yet been officially accepted as a candidate nation. Macedonia applied in 2005 and is accepted as a candidate country. Serbia applied for EU membership in 2009 and is accepted as a candidate nation. Negotiations with Montenegro started in 2012. Kosovo has not yet been allowed to apply.

While EU membership is ostensibly judged on economic and civil rights criteria there is an unspoken undercurrent which is undoubtedly connected to religion and perceptions of religious groups. Read the rest of this entry »

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“Climate alarmism was a child born of good times”

June 30, 2013

Pointman has an interesting essay here:

….  Climate alarmism was, and could only have been, a child born of good times. In the midst of an extraordinarily long fifteen year economic boom when most people had jobs, money, houses and not many real concerns, it was something that a number of people actually needed to invent. The politicians needed a danger they could save us from and as it happened, a few scientists raised some genuine concerns over the slight temperature uptick that occurred in the closing decades of the previous century. The political activists of the well left of centre group, still reeling from the double whammy of the death of the liberal dream in the eighties and the collapse of Soviet communism in the nineties, needed it even more desperately. …. 

A few compliant third-rate scientists were catapulted blinking mole-like out of obscurity and up into that media firmament of stardom. Basking in their new-found adulation, they became masters of the climate universe. The media hung on every word they uttered, the politicians engaged them as climate advisers, big business paid them handsomely for the cachet of their time as consultants, little men suddenly became important little men and gradually, the details of the science not only became unquestioned but also unquestionable. …

A good read.

 

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Without the prefix (or should that be “with the pre”?)

June 30, 2013

New Yorker article from 1994, by Jack Winter about man who describes meeting his wife at a party.

 

The New Yorker

In his description, he drops many prefixes.

 

How I met my wife

 It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way. I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I’d have to make bones about it, since I was travelling cognito. Beknownst to me, the hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so it would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened. And even though I had only swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn’t be peccable. Only toward and heard-of behavior would do. Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance might cause was evitable. There were two ways about it, but the chances that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to become persona grata or sung hero were slim. I was, after all, something to sneeze at, someone you could easily hold a candle to, someone who usually aroused bridled passion. So I decided not to rush it. But then, all at once, for some apparent reason, she looked in my direction and smiled in a way that I could make heads or tails of. So, after a terminable delay, I acted with mitigated gall and made my way through the ruly crowd with strong givings. Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had no time to prepare a promptu speech, I was petuous. She responded well, and I was mayed that she considered me a savory char- acter who was up to some good. She told me who she was. “What a perfect nomer,” I said, advertently. The conversation became more and more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail. But I was defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour. I asked if she wanted to come with me. To my delight, she was committal. We left the party together and have been together ever since. I have given her my love, and she has requited it. ..

Full text is here (subscription): Jack Winter, Shouts & Murmurs, “How I Met My Wife,” The New Yorker, July 25, 1994, p. 82

 

Found via Fossil words of yore in the offing

 

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Tapes expose Irish Bankers warts and .. warts!

June 30, 2013

That Banks and Bankers all over Europe have made a killing over all the “bailouts” is no great secret. Just how they have done it – and very often in collusion with friends within Governments – is slowly coming to light.

This week it has been the turn of the bankers at the Anglo Irish Bank. The Bank was finally nationalised costing Irish taxpayers some €30 billion. That is over €6,000 per head of population! No doubt the bankers made sure of their severance packages before they bowed out.

ABC News: In the age of austerity, senior bankers laughing about public-funded bail-outs is not a good look, but that is exactly what has happened in Ireland. There is outrage after a national newspaper published details of a taped phone conversation between bank executives mocking regulators and boasting they fooled them. The bank ended up collapsing, costing tax payers around 30 billion euros.

David Drumm ” We need the moolah”: CEO Anglo Irish

Irish Independent29th June:

Anglo Tapes: Anatomy of the bank that broke Ireland

Irish Independent 30th June: Fresh revelations in the Anglo-tapes scandal about Brian Cowen’s administration shows his party was willing to save the failing bank at any cost, his political opponents claimed. ……. 

……….. Fine Gael Dail finance committee member Dara Murphy alleged it was further proof of the cosy relationship that existed between Fianna Fail, developers and Anglo Irish. “While there is no doubt that the entire country has been sickened to its very core at what the Anglo tapes have revealed this week, the reality is that tens of thousands of families are living with a daily reminder of the greed, avarice and utter contempt that was shown to the Irish people in respect of the dealings at Anglo,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

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Global warming “hockey stick” is turning into a baseball bat

June 29, 2013

(A fun comment at CA is particularly apposite!

Posted Jun 28, 2013 at 5:18 PM 

@Steve McIntyre

From Fig. 4 above:

it’s quite obvious that in 2009 and again in 2011, you shamelessly plagiarised Briffa 2013

Easily the worst sin in the academic book, run a close second only by disrupting the space-time continuum in order to perform the plagiarism)

======================================================

Steve McIntyre’s objections to the Yamal tree (“the most important tree in the world”) in the global warming hockey stick are being vindicated as the new version of the data series resembles a baseball bat much more than a hockey stick.

Full story at Climate Audit and at WUWT

yamal_chronology_compare-to-b13

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Closure for Stapel perhaps but social psychology remains “on probation”

June 28, 2013

Another Chapter in the Diedrik Stapel saga comes to an end as he reaches a deal with prosecutors but the exposure of his behaviour has revealed much that is not so uncommon in the field of social psychology. Social psychologists now need to be on their best behaviour to dispell the notion that “fraud” and confirmation bias are their stock-in-trade. Social  Psychology remains on probation and must avoid any hint of misconduct if it is not to lose further ground as an academic discipline ( but it will be quite some time before this discipline becomes a science).

Associated Press (via The Republic): 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A disgraced Dutch social psychologist who admitted faking or manipulating data in dozens of publications has agreed to do 120 hours of community service work and forfeit welfare benefits equivalent to 18 months’ salary in exchange for not being prosecuted for fraud.

Prosecutors announced the deal Friday, calling it “a fitting conclusion” to a case of scientific fraud that sent shockwaves through Dutch academia.

Diederik Stapel who formerly worked at universities in the cities of Groningen and Tilburg, acknowledged the fraud in 2011 and issued a public apology last November, saying he had “failed as a scientist.”

He once claimed to have shown that the very act of thinking about eating meat makes people behave more selfishly.

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Snowden and religious teachings

June 28, 2013

Security agencies must dread the fanatics and even those just religiously inclined.

I heard this quote from the Bible on radio today!

  1. Beware you of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 
  2. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. 
  3. Therefore whatever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which you have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

Luke 12: 1-3

For “Pharisees” read “the US Government and the UK Government”.

How very apt and it could be the anthem of the whistle-blowers. But it is probably of little comfort to them as they are universally and invariably denounced by the keepers of secrets.

Not that I think that Snowden is particularly religious.

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Global cooling is killing off the birds and the bees

June 28, 2013

Humans have always looked to the birds and the bees for figuring out how to do it. But now we are doomed!

Whole populations of plants, bees, insects and even birds are already dying of cold. 

Those who deny that global cooling has set in and have their heads buried in the sand are still lost in the fantasy world of trying to “stop global warming” by cutting carbon dioxide emissions.  That horse has bolted and to make it worse they are trying to close the wrong stable door! In the meantime, the sun and the earth and the climate have moved on. Global warming is no longer fashionable. Global cooling is here – at least for the next 2 or 3 decades.

BBC: Winged insects including bees, moths and butterflies are suffering this year following the UK’s late, cold spring, a National Trust report has revealed.

The charity warns the drop in numbers of winged insects could lead to food shortages for birds and bats. The six-month review assessed the state of plants and animals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and came up with a “winners and losers” list. 

Snowdrops, bluebells and daffodils are all on the winners’ list

Among the “losers”, butterflies have been “very scarce” this year, due to a combination of an unsettled spring and the last year’s extremely wet summer. Likewise, moth numbers have been driven down by cool, wet or windy nights over the past few months. Mason bees and mining bees also struggled to survive in poor weather in May, which may have a knock-on effect for plant pollination. “Insect populations have been really very low. Then when they have got going, they’ve been hit by a spell of cool, windy weather… so our environment is just not bouncing with butterflies or anything else,” said Mathew Oates, a naturalist at the National Trust, who worked on the report. …  

Birds on the “losers” list include martins, swifts, swallows and warblers, all of which rely on airborne insects to feed and may struggle to survive in the coming months.

Some seabird populations have been hard hit too. In March, windy weather along the coast of Scotland and northern England led to the apparent starvation of thousands of puffins along with guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and shags.

However, a number of animals and plants have enjoyed a more fruitful year, earning a place on the list of “winners” of the first half of 2013. Snowdrops and daffodils had “amazingly long flowering seasons”, according to the charity, with daffodils flowering well into May and snowdrops appearing from January through to mid-April. ….

But the UK Government has been moved to urgent action. They have decided that the bee decline is not due to pesticides – which leaves only global cooling which can be blamed. The government has called an urgent  “bee summit to “carry out an “urgent and comprehensive” review of the decline of bees. The majority of the participants will not have any experience of keeping bees!

The bees themselves are not invited:

BBC again: The government is to announce it will carry out an “urgent and comprehensive” review of the decline of bees.

Minister Lord de Mauley will tell a bee summit, organised by Friends of the Earth, that the review will lead to a “national pollinator strategy”.

There is great concern across Europe about the collapse of bee populations and the European Commission wants to ban pesticides linked to bee deaths.

But the UK has opposed the move, saying that the science is inconclusive.

 

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Herrings galore in l’affaire Snowden

June 27, 2013

Some level of state surveillance is no doubt necessary though it has probably gone too far in the US. To have blanket eavesdropping and entrapment and agents provocateur is not so unlike the Stasi or the KGB. I am not too concerned if the NSA has been reading my emails – much good it may do them! I have no strong opinions as to whether Snowden is a hero or a villain but I would be more than a little surprised if he has been sitting quietly in the transit lounge of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for the last 3 days.

I am pretty sure that all the reports coming out about his possible movements or non-movements are largely disinformation. I am very suspicious when Foreign Ministers and Heads of State make statements about his whereabouts or where he is not. I suspect that technically none of them have lied outright – but I am fairly certain that  they know much more than they are letting on. The lone individual bravely evading the far-flung resources of the most powerful nation in the world is the stuff of Baroness Orczy and of urban legends to come.

So my guesses as to where he might be are:

  1. He is being debriefed by Russia. It would be child’s play for the Russians to have whisked him into a private and  “safe part” of the transit area and to return him to the public area after a suitable period. I see no reason for the official Russian line to have been jeopardised since he would not technically have gone through immigration control. When Ecuador says they need time to consider his asylum request, I wonder if it is the Russians who need time to debrief him – willingly or unwillingly.
  2. He is in the transit area of another Russian airport and to get to St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport – for example – would have been easy for the Russians to arrange.
  3. The trip to Havana was just for disinformation and he actually flew to Hanoi and is now hidden within the entourage surrounding Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino.
  4. He has already reached and is holed up in Havana (and the Cubans therefore are not saying anything), or
  5. He is in the transit area of a country friendly to Russia (Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan….)

With the heavy US presence in Reykjavik, it is unlikely that Iceland was ever a serious destination.

Given the resources that the US and the world’s media must be bringing to bear to find him, it can only be a matter of time …

We seek him here, we seek him there,
Those Yankies seek him everywhere.

But the US establishment has some egg on its face. John Kerry’s blustering against China and Russia and now threats of a trade war against Ecuador come across as heavy-handed and hypocritical. It is only Snowden who gains and Obama and Kerry who lose in the PR stakes for every day that he continues to remain undiscovered.

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