Items of Interest, 9 April 2012

More on John Derbyshire: A Purge too Far
Derbyshire and National Review: A Conflict of Visions
Thomas Fleming
Paul Gottfried

Peter Hitchens, Quiz Show: ‘We thought we were going to get TV … but TV has got us instead’

Why Obama's Jobs Act Couldn't Suck Worse
Political correctness beats cosmopolitan Libertarianism: because sacrificial religion beats hedonic individualism

Paul Gottfried, What the Hell is the West?
The Uniforms Came in One Color by Adnan Sarwar

DAVE LINDORFF, Kurt Vonnegut and the American Police State
FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, The Afghan Disaster (link at Fabius Maximus)

The 14th Amendment and the Bill of Rights
When are Federal Laws Supreme?
Health Care On Federal Enclaves, And Really Silly Journalists.
Who Was the Real Thomas Jefferson? A review of Liberty, State, Union

That Old Romanov Feeling
America loses even if it wins a war with China.

Economics:

(via Mish)

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Trailer)

Media Education Foundation



Energy:
Beehive Design Collective: “The True Cost of Coal” Slide Show
Education in a Post-Carbon World by Steve Bull

Catholic:
The Pope's Homily for the East Vigil Mass
The Legion Must Disappear

Orthodox:
Orthodox believers celebrate Palm Sunday
The Byzantine communion chant for Easter in 14th-century manuscripts
Orthodox Christians Celebrate Palm Sunday

Education:
Grounding the Life of the Mind

Diet and Health:
The Paleo Solution – Episode 112, guest Dr. Loren Cordain (mp3)
7-Year Blogiversary Giveaway Contest Prize Package Post #2
Guest Post: The Difference Between Eating Paleo and “Being Paleo”
The Trouble With Pork, Part 2
Women cannot rewind the biological clock

Architecture:
SCA – Notre Dame

American History:
Rare color photos from 1930s-40s
Inside the Army's Secret Cold War Ice Base

Items of Interest, 30 September 2011

Should America halt the use of unmanned 'killer' drones? Yes

Winslow T. Wheeler, The Elites and the Pentagon Budget

Kevin Carson discusses an emerging low-overhead industrial revolution (mp3)

Peak Oil:
5% health: The risk of catabolic collapse and peak fat in modern health systems
by John Thackara (EB)

Not all leftists accept peak oil: Alexander Cockburn,  Goodbye “Peak Oil” Hello Glut. He writes:

I’ve never had much time for “peak oil” (the notion held with religious conviction by many on the left here, that world oil production either has or is about to top out – and will soon slide, plunging the world’s energy economies into disarray and traumatic change.) In fact there’s plenty of oil, as witness the vast new North Dakota oil shale fields, with the constraints as always being the costs of recovery. Oil “shortages” are contrivances by the oil companies and allied brokers and middlemen to run up the price.

Except that taken too far, would this not result in even greater demand destruction, which would result in less extraction of oil from expensive sources? I don't know if anyone will be responding to Mr. Cockburn.

The Coming Decline and Fall of Big Coal

The Oz Conservative links to commentary on the decision by the Australian government to open combat positions to women: Sheridan's surprise.

Music:
Hitfix: Listen: Susan Boyle sings sparse version of Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy the Silence'

Feist: A Pop Star With A Punk-Rock Past

TV:
Want Good TV? Try These Three Shows by David Bianculli (Dexter and Homeland and Ken Burns's latest)

PCI: The End of Cheap Coal by Richard Heinberg and David Fridley (EB)

Hrm, wasn't this posted when the article was originally published. It may have been another version of the article by Richard Heinberg.

Peak coal this year? by Dave Cohen (EB)

The Oil Drum: The Coal Question, Revisited

"This is a guest post by Professor Dave Rutledge (DaveR), of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

In the summer of 2007, Professor Kyle Saunders (Professor Goose) invited me to do a guest post for The Oil Drum. This post was "The Coal Question and Climate Change." In the post, Hubbert linearization was applied to make a regional analysis of world coal production. The estimate for long-term production, including both cumulative production and all future production, amounted to 724Gt. Many people, including Dave Summers (Heading Out) and Euan Mearns, made helpful critical comments on the post, particularly concerning British coal production. Overall, I was encouraged by the response. The Oil Drum is a great place to try out new ideas."

Jeff Rubin: Oil and the End of Civilization

Jeff Rubin: Oil and the End of Civilization

Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization




From last year: The Oil Drum | Jeff Rubin Talks about Oil and the Economy

Energy Bulletin:
Distance costs money

Lindsay Curren, Transition Voice

Economist Jeff Rubin, author of Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization says that high oil prices caused every US recession since the 1970s. Now we complain that credit scams are a bubble that will cause deflation. But is oil still lurking in there?

Peak coal is moving closer too

Tom Whipple, Falls Church News-Press

If what we are witnessing is the actual peaking of China's domestic coal production - which is half the world's production -- then this event could turn out to be as serious as the peaking of oil.

Deep Down to be shown on PBS this week

Page

Watch the full episode. See more Independent Lens.

EB: Fridley, Heinberg discuss 'peak coal' in NATURE journal

Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute

The idea that coal is cheap and plentiful drives much thinking about future world energy consumption. It can explain the resistance of the United States and China to carbon-cutting policies — both countries have lots of coal, and they don’t plan to stop using it anytime soon. But is it a reasonable assumption? Richard Heinberg and David Fridley argue in this week’s Nature that coal prices are likely to start rising much sooner than everyone thinks — perhaps by the end of this decade.

China's coal bubble...and how it will deflate U.S. efforts to develop "clean coal"

Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute

(original)

The dark side of coal - some historical insights on energy and the economy

Ugo Bardi, The Oil Drum: Europe

The descendants of those men who pulled coal-loaded barges upstream in 19th century now drive shiny cars powered by oil and work in front of computer screens. But the problem of oil is the same as it was for coal: it is not infinite and there is not enough of it for everyone.

(original)

Counterpunch roundup for the week

Alexander Cockburn, The Cover-Ups That Exploded
Michael Hudson, The Looming European Debt Wars
Mike Whitney, Give Greenspan an Oscar
Saul Landau, The Most Dangerous Man in the World
Alan Farago, Why They Call It King Coal
Andrew Cockburn, Financial Reform Bids Collapse Into Farce
Gareth Porter, Killings and Cover-Ups in Afghanistan
Dean Baker, The Myth of Market Fundamentalism
Mike Whitney, China's Flawed Economic Model
Ralph Nader, Becky McClain's Crusade Against Pfizer
Dave Lindorff, Welcome to Obama's War

Facing Down the Machine By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR and JOSHUA FRANK
Mike Roselle Draws a Line

Read it about the effects of Appalachian mountaintop removal on the surrounding area.

Related links:
Lowbagger.org -- Environmental News, Opinon, and Art
Mike Roselle Interview: Radical Environmental Change - TIME
Mike Roselle: See the Mountains of West Virginia
Mike Roselle: Drowning in a Toxic River

Mountaintop-removal mining is devastating Appalachia, but residents are fighting back
Leveling Appalachia: The Legacyof Mountaintop Removal Mining

Underground Fires

via EB

Coalmine fire put out after half a century
Jane Macartney, Times (UK)

The article is from last year, but go to the comments part and see how many other fires are taking place underground, especially in coal mines. Incredible...

Mine fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Centralia Mine Fire
Mine Fire, Centralia, Pennsylvania
Field Trips / 417-Coal Mine Fire Field Trip

5 reports agree there is probably less coal than we think

COAL - The Roundup
Chris Vernon, The Oil Drum: Europe
Below the fold there is a roundup of the five reports published in the first half of 2007 on the global coal situation. They are all broadly in agreement saying that there is likely to be less coal available than traditionally thought.

via EB

2 on peak coal

via EB

Science Panel Finds Fault With Estimates of Coal Supply
Matthew L. Wald, NY Times
The United States may not have nearly as much coal as is popularly believed, and mining the remaining resources may be more dangerous for workers and the environment than current operations, the National Academy of Sciences said in a report Wednesday.


Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil, Peak Coal and Beyond (Audio and Video)
Peak Moment, Global Public Media
Hot topics from Richard Heinberg: record-high U.S. fuel prices; the ethanol big-business boondoggle; coal projected to peak about a hundred years early (around 2020); what the climate change discussion is missing; and enjoying ourselves as we "go local." Episode 63.Janaia Donaldson hosts Peak Moment, a television series emphasizing positive responses to energy decline and climate change through local community action. How can we thrive, build stronger communities, and help one another in the transition from a fossil fuel-based lifestyle?(9 June 2007)

Heinberg, Peak coal: sooner than you think

Published on 21 May 2007 by Energy Bulletin / Online Opinion. Archived on 21 May 2007.
Peak coal: sooner than you think
by Richard Heinberg

Peak coal by 2025 say researchers

Via EB

Published on 28 Mar 2007 by Energy Watch Group. Archived on 5 Apr 2007.
Peak coal by 2025 say researchers
by Dr. Werner Zittel and Jörg Schindler

The report by the Energy Watch Group, Coal: Resources and Future Production