What is a waste of electricity/energy?

Public Service Announcement: Bitcoin mining uses electricity to mine Bitcoin which also keeps the network secure. This is as useful to people using Bitcoin as is the "security" of using the Visa payment network, which is also pretty power hungry. Many crypto miners use alternative energy sources and direct mining heat to their homes or swimming pools. But there are many things that can be perceived to waste energy in this world, right? Here are a few:

video gaming

amusement parks

recreational boating

recreational vehicles

JetSki's

wars

aircraft carriers

cruise ships

manufacture of happy meal toys

comic books

most television shows

most news networks

most romance novels

most YouTube videos

car washing

rap music

subwoofers and 1000 watt amplifiers in cars

car mods for looks or performance

toilet seat warmers

bidets

heated steering wheels

heated car seats

exotic automobiles

adult toys

greeting cards

candy

fish aquariums

marijuana production

bongs

social media networks like Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

the comments sections on YouTube 

Leave the Oil in the Ground?

It is the dream of many liberals, and environmental activists, including President Obama, to leave petroleum in the ground. It is a pipe dream, however, and any effort to implement such an agenda before we are ready with other comparable energy sources will choke the United States' economy and standard of living and that of the rest of the world. Solar and wind energy do not have the advantages that oil has such as portability and energy density and may never be the equal of oil in that regard. Fusion energy seems to always be out of reach, but if that source of clean energy ever became viable it would go a long way towards keeping some oil in the ground.

Oil is not used just for burning in our automobiles, trucks, ships, trains, planes, homes and businesses. It is also used in various types of plastics which are in almost every product we use (computers, water bottles, smart phones, toothbrushes, refrigerators, cars, hospital beds, airplanes, toys, shoes and millions more products). Oil is also used in constructing pharmaceutical drugs which save lives and relieve suffering. It is also used in asphalt for roads.

We couldn't leave the oil in the ground at this point in civilization's development unless we wanted to give back 200 years of civilizational development. We will always have some need for petroleum, at least until we can create the molecules we want directly from atoms.

Why is there oil in the ground?

Oil has got to be the most unexpected and greatest treasure to civilization that has ever been found in the ground on planet Earth. Humans had got along without oil for most of their history but it has been the fuel of industry and progress for the last 150 years. Without petroleum we'd still be using horses to get around, firewood or coal for heat and candles for light. It is unexpected because when you look at a planet you don't imagine that there could be oceans worth of fuel buried beneath its surface and over the millennia that we have lived on this Earth no scientists imagined such a thing. Oil has been known of in small quantities and by few people over thousands of years but its potential for use and the extent of its existence was unguessed at. And oil is the greatest treasure because of its unexpected extent, its truly mindboggling quantity (perhaps 50 trillion gallons used so far). The very fact that billions of people for the last 150 years have used oil directly or indirectly and it has not run out, in fact may not even be halfway gone, is a miracle or a coincidence of magnificent proportions. The fact that a burgeoning civilization found a plentiful fuel source just when it needed it (when the internal combustion engine was invented) and that it would last as long as it has is indeed a miracle.

Why is there oil in the ground and why is there so much of it there? 

Oil is produced deep underground where extreme pressure on dead carboniferous microbiological life forms results in a sludge which happens to be flammable. There is a smaller school of thought which says that petroleum is produced by purely geologic and chemical actions without biologic input (abiogenic petroleum origin theory). Whichever method produces the oil, clearly there is a great source of material. The production of oil continues as we use it because those same sources for the creation of oil whether biologic or not still exist in large amounts. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the pace of production is probably much slower than the usage of it, so at some point we may run out. If you subscribe to the mainstream theory that petroleum is derived from biological sources then clearly there is a lot of source material for making oil. Bacteria is supposed by scientists to make up most of the life on Earth by weight by far. Add to this zooplankton, plankton, algae and other life from the sea and you have a huge possible source of carbon for petroleum production. Over time this and other dead carbon-based life forms migrate down through the soil and become compressed under evermore pressure and heat in sedimentary rock. Molecular changes occur. That's the theory.

So we are left with the fact that we have oil under our feet - a lot of it. Do we use it or do we not? I look at it this way. Nature produces apples to be eaten so we and many other animals eat them. You could say that they are a gift of God or the bounty of Mother Nature. The same can be said of oil. Nature creates oil to be used or God creates oil as a gift to meet our energy needs. Everything has a purpose, an apple is a sweet and healthy food as well as a method of transporting seeds away from an apple tree. On our Earth, water's purpose is to support life. Oil's purpose is not to hide in caves 1000 feet below the surface but to bubble up to the surface and be used as the gift that it is for energy production and manufacturing of certain products. 

Yes, burning oil produces pollution and carbon dioxide, but cars, trucks and planes are using it more efficiently than ever, and the exhausts from newer vehicles are much cleaner now than they have ever been. Carbon infusion into the atmosphere is down over the last few years. This gives us more time to find fuels or energy sources like fusion and improved batteries that can replace the dirtier fossil fuels. We'll get there. Let's be patient and wait for the scientists and engineers to do their thing before we throw away a potent source of energy that was clearly placed inside the Earth by Mother Nature (or as I believe, God) for us to use in our progression as a civilization. If we don't wait, if we truncate our reliance on  petroleum without something of equal potency to replace it we will sabotage our economies, progress and increase human suffering.

Technology is advancing in spectacular ways in the first 15 years of the new millennium. If we're patient and persistent in our technological progress, I am certain that the energy developments that we need to replace fossil fuels will come. But throwing away a resource before it is actually obsoleted is like flattening your tire on the last pit stop of the race and expecting to win.

Is using blinds and shades to keep the heat of the sun outside your home effective or a myth?

Window blinds

I have been a consistent adjuster of blinds, curtains and shades in my homes for many years. I let in the sun's heat in the winter and in the summer I close the blinds in an effort to keep the heat out. Who doesn't want to save energy if energy equals money?

Adjusting the blinds is a constant admonition from energy companies, blinds manufacturers, air conditioner manufacturers, bloggers, news outlets, and parents.

The following is something we can agree on right off the bat. It is indisputable that if you leave the blinds open in the winter time, the sunlight can come in and will warm up the house. Not every wavelength of sunlight that comes into the house has the effect of warming it up though. It is the light at the red end of the light spectrum that warms us and our homes, specifically the infrared (beyond red) light waves. This basically leads to a greenhouse effect in your home where infrared light gets into your house becomes convective heat and that heat stays inside the house (greenhouse) because the glass, walls and ceiling keep it there. This is a great thing on a cold winter day.

Electromagnetic Spectrum - Britannica.com

In the summer the same sunlight enters your house for many more (potential) hours per day through your windows and will warm up the house using that same greenhouse effect. Since we know that our house becomes warmer in the winter because we let the sunlight in, it makes a certain amount of sense to suggest that if we close the blinds we will keep the sunlight-generated heat out of the house in the summer. Right?

But if we think about it a little we'll discover that it isn't true.

Experience tells me that no matter what I do with the blinds, my home becomes hot in the afternoon. Why?

Let's start with a pretty solid fact. If the blinds were outside your windows (like shutters on houses used to be) and were reflective, they would keep most of the heat from the sun's light from entering your home. Some heat is always going to be transferred from the outside walls from the sun to the interior of your home depending on the materials the wall is made of and the amount (if any) of insulation in the walls.

If instead of "outdoor blinds" or shutters you used aluminum foil on the glass as a way to intercept sunlight's heat you would be pretty successful at keeping the heat from the sun's light out of your home but that would be a visual hazard and an annoyance to your neighbors. A reflective film placed on the glass should be good enough and there are companies that sell that product for windows. Think the window darkening that's used on your car's windows.

Stopping the sun outside your home keeps the heat from the sun's light outside your home. This is a fairly safe statement, generally.

Unfortunately, the situation that most of us are stuck with is using blinds that are hung inside our home 0.5 to 4 inches away from the glass. The problem is that once the sunlight goes through the glass, the wavelengths that cause heat in your house cannot easily get back out. Visible light is reflected back out, so your white blinds may do a fine job of reflecting light back outside, but it is not the right kind of light. As shown in the graphic below the short-wavelength infrared light stays in your house and becomes convective heat between your blinds and the window. The blinds are warmed up and radiate the heat in all directions.

Greenhouse effect - Comsol.com

Remember also that glass is an insulator and if it is double-paned or triple-paned glass it is an even better insulator than a greenhouse! Heat has a difficult time getting through it. Once the infrared light strikes a surface in the home (ie., the blinds) it becomes convective heat. That heat will rise behind the blinds to the ceiling and circulate with the air in the room. Very little of the heat that enters through the window can escape back through the window and since it is probably hotter outside (which is why you are worried about keeping the heat out) heat is not likely to travel that direction anyway, even if it could get through the double-paned window. Heat travels to cool areas not to hot areas so it is not natural to make the assumption (which we do) that the heat will be reflected back outside to a hotter environment when thermal entropy suggests that heat always seeks cooler areas. The conductive heat from outside near your window is heating up your window because it is seeking a cooler place (ie., your air conditioned or cooler home). Heat is already fighting to get in your house, how likely is it to get out?

So as we can see, there are a number of things which argue against closing blinds to keep the heat from the sun's light out of our homes.

• Infrared energy will not easily go back out the way it came in
• Visible light is reflected back out but that kind of light does not heat up the house anyway
• Glass windows do a very good job at insulating
• A dark house is a gloomy house

Yes the sun is making your home warmer in the winter and in the summer but there is nothing you can do short of stopping the sun's light outside your windows.

So don't live in a dark cave for nothing, let the sun shine.

Gas Cheap Now, But Not for Long

Filling up at the pump is less painful than in the recent past.

I saw gasoline for $1.69 per gallon for Regular (cash) yesterday on Route 1 in New Jersey. It has been a long time since we have seen gasoline that low and the relief to the consumer's wallet is a welcome one indeed. It is tantamount to a tax cut on the citizens or even a pay raise. The bottom line is that it gives people more money to spend on other important things and can even increase household savings rates and encourage on-the-road travel vacationing. The low price of oil and the resultant low price on gasoline and diesel fuel are boons to the economy in many ways.

So why are prices as low as they are? It's because of the extra oil on the market from U.S. oil production which has seen a boom in recent years, due in part to hydraulic fracturing and increased oil drilling on private lands.

But my point with this post is not to talk about why there is so much oil, or the benefits of fracking. There are many articles and blog posts addressing these issues. The point of this particular post is to throw a wet blanket on this low-price enthusiasm.

The price won't be low for long. And the past would be the indicator of future performance.

In 2009, the price of gasoline dropped below $2.00 a gallon for a brief time and then continuously rose back up to $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon for Regular in New Jersey. The chart below shows the price per barrel which the price per gallon of gasoline follows in its movements.

From Infomine.com

The message? Get it while it's hot, because very soon it's going to shoot back up to $3.50 per gallon and probably higher.

What are the causes of oil price movement? Supply, demand, political unrest and government regulation. Right now supply is greater than demand, so the price is lower. But there are so many political hotspots in the world today that any one of these tipping points that tips could cause oil futures to shoot back up to $120 per barrel.

As examples, Russia's designs on Ukraine and its trouble-making around the world have the potential for causing oil prices to rise, and this is a country that wants oil prices to rise back up because so much of their economy and budgetary income is based on the sale of oil and natural gas. So for Russia, instability on the world stage which causes higher fuel prices is exactly what they want and need.

Daesh or ISIS, is militant Islam rampaging through the Middle East and threatening terror everywhere else. They are currently in control of half of Syria and much of Iraq. It won't take much for that particular march of evil to cause an oil price spike. If they were to succeed in taking over Syria or Iraq, or cause mayhem in Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Israel, these are just some scenarios that would be catalysts for crisis leading to an oil price rise.

Al Qaeda, the original Islamic terrorist group is still a very real threat and actively trying to bring terror killings to the next horrific level. There is no restraint as to the kind of murder and destruction that they would like to perform and if they had a weapon of mass destruction they would have no hesitation in using it, as we have seen on 9/11 and in other events. Hamas and Hezbollah are the more localized but just as dangerous militant Islamists of the Middle East. Any of these groups could and would bring economic chaos that could result in sky-high oil prices.

Iran is a country that wants to see Israel and America (the great Satan) destroyed. It is progressing in its efforts to become a nuclear power with Russia's and North Korea's help. It could very soon succeed in its efforts to make a nuclear weapon. If that happens Israel may bomb Iran's nuclear facilities causing a regional war. This would spike oil prices.

The Taliban is still killing people in Afghanistan and Pakistan and seems intent on continuing to cause death and destabilization, also through the spread of terror.

The Communist-led, police-state of China always takes the side of the bad actors on the world stage as shown by its support of Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and Russia. And it is intent on destabilizing Taiwan, threatening the U.S. and Japan, and throwing its weight around the region and the world. And China never seems to lend its growing military might to world security threats that other civilized countries fight against. Their belligerent actions could be the cause of any number of scenarios that could cause an oil price spike.

Even if it isn't a national political action that causes the problem, it could be a crucial break in the supply chain, perhaps a few oil refineries going down, a natural disaster or a massive oil spill like the one in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago. The anti-hydraulic fracturing movement could also put a political chokehold on oil derived from this process especially if countries regulate against the process as many individual states in the U.S. have done.

So, sorry to be a stick-in-the-mud, but enjoy the lower cost of gas for your car and fill up your fuel oil tank now because inevitably the low price we see now will soon disappear to be replaced again by the signs we are so used to.

Ban Offshore Drilling = Ban Economic Recovery

Ending offshore drilling is not the solution to ending future oil spills. That's like using a gun to get rid of a cancerous mole. Sure, the mole is gone, but the health of the patient is decidedly worse.

The Gulf of Mexico is the source of 25 percent of the United States' domestic oil used and 15 percent of the natural gas. If we were to stop oil drilling and “focus” on clean energy we would be buying that 25% more ($4.00 + per gallon) oil from foreign sources who will be more than happy to drill offshore in the Gulf of Mexico where there is plenty of international water not controlled by the United States of America.

The U.S. and other countries have been getting oil from the Gulf of Mexico for decades, pretty much without incident. Obama said as much himself in his press conference Thursday. There are 720 oil rigs out there now, which have provided billions of gallons of oil over the years, all while NOT causing disastrous oil spills. But accidents DO happen in almost every endeavor of human life. We take chances to get the things we need. We take chances to do the things we need to do.

Of course, contingency plans need to be in place in case disastors like this happen. British Petroleum is culpable here, but the federal government is responsible too for ensuring that such plans exist and are ready to be acted upon, whether by the federal government or the oil company. There is plenty of blame to go around, and the Obama administration's underwhelming response to this disaster is as criminal an act as BP's lack of ability to stop it. They have let the situation get out of control and endanger the livelihoods of thousands of people, and the ecosystems along thousands of miles of shoreline.

What we DO need to do is not force oil companies to have to drill in mile deep water if it is easier to get in shallower water.

But because environmental extremists have the ear of liberal democrats throughout the country we can't expect clear thinking to prevail on oil drilling at least until Republicans retake one of the houses of Congress.

Until then, oil prices will rise, the amount of money we give to third world regimes will increase, and our economy will be hobbled by higher energy costs.

How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

There is an easy way for the concerned eco-citizens of our much-beleaguered world to reduce their carbon footprints.

What's a carbon footprint you ask? For those of you who may not know it, a carbon footprint is how much carbon you unwittingly spew back into Mother Earth's bosom by virtue of your everyday existence. It is measured for individuals, industries, and countries in tons of carbon emitted to the atmosphere each year. Natural sources are of course not considered.

As you may know, the European Union has a carbon trading program for industry and now the Democrats in the United States congress and the Democrat President want the same for the United States.

Carbon trading, Cap and Trade, or Cap and Tax, is a scheme where if a business produces less carbon dioxide emissions than it is allowed, it can sell what remains to some company that knows it is going to produce too much carbon dioxide. These carbon credits will be traded on Wall Street, which will give them hundreds of billions of dollars worth of new business, so they are literally salivating at the prospect that The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 will pass. It has in fact passed the House of Representatives but is idle in the Senate.

Beyond the higher prices everyone will pay for energy as a result of the Carbon Tax, we the little people need to get in on carbon trading too. And I know how to do it, without a broker, without fees, without license, and for free too. Yes, you too can acquire carbon credits and thereby control the size and impact of your odious carbon footprint.

The process is a little involved and requires some work, but you're doing this for Mother Earth so a little work ain't gonna slow you down from doing right, is it? This Personal Carbon Footprint Reduction Plan (PCFRiP as I call it) is also built on fairness, honor, and respect.

The plan goes like this. Choose a newspaper, a local one in your area would be best for this. If there aren't any newspapers left in your area then choose on online newspaper, but whichever paper you choose it should have an obituary section. Open said newspaper or website and go to the obituary section and look for a recently deceased person with the same last name that you have. If you have a common name like Smith or Patel you may find many. If you have a less common name like Frankenstein you may have a harder time. It may take days or weeks of hard work but you are doing this for all the right reasons people (to prop up failing newspapers and reduce that carbon thingy).

Once you find someone whose last name matches your last name (and assuming it is not you!), clip the obit, save it somewhere and acquire that person's Carbon Credit History. Unless you know the person, how much you actually receive can be based upon national averages (19 metric tons per year in the U.S.). Once you have acquired this person's Carbon Credit History, you can add it to your Carbon Credit History and add 38 tons of carbon to the Earth's atmosphere without increasing the net total carbon load on the Earth's atmosphere by a single extra pound.

Brilliant right? There's no downside. I have acquired the Carbon Credit History of seven decedents with my last name and now have the ability to add 152 tons of carbon to the atmosphere guilt-free, without increasing the total atmospheric load by one net pound.

I haven't been able to take advantage of all this extra emissions capability yet, but it's there when I need it and if anyone has an unusual last name or is in a hurry to offset their carbon usage, they are free to contact me to purchase some of my excess Carbon Credit History. So now the average guy or gal won't be left out of the Carbon Trading boon that is now upon us. We can all be green and expend a little energy too.

(P.S. A look at neogreen British Petroleum's [BP] carbon calculator website shows that even one of the world's LARGEST providers of carbon products can repeat the oft-repeated liberal complaint that "the U.S. despite having just 5 percent of the world's population uses 26 percent of the world's energy." Really! I would think liberals would just get tired of saying the same things over and over. But for British Petroleum to have anything to do with the phrase is laughably hypocritical.

And to address the point ever so briefly, would you expect the world's largest and most productive economy to use less energy than say, Indonesia and remain a strong and productive country? I think perhaps a personal boycott of BP is the order of the day. We can use 26 percent of ExxonMobil's energy just as well.)

Next week find out how to acquire property on the moon without paying a radio shill!