The commercial era of space flight has arrived, as SpaceX successfully delivered its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.
International competition in the original Space Race was necessary to get space exploration started, but commercialization is what will really expand it.
Bob Zubrin’s new book about the negative toll of the most radical wing of the environmental movement, Merchants of Despair, is out. I have not read the book and do not endorse it (yet, at least), but I am in general agreement to the belief that many on the extreme fringes of the environmental movement are misanthropes, even if they don’t recognize it in themselves. Also, EGP has long supported Zubrin’s Open Fuel Plan.
Writing today at PJMedia about Merchants of Despair, Zubrin provides a powerful summary of his argument. Read the whole thing.
Late last month, an explosion at the German factory of the world’s largest supplier of the PA-12 resin has created a sudden shortage of a crucial component in the manufacture of brake and fuel lines, as well as several other important auto parts. The resin is so crucial, and the shortage is so severe, that over 200 auto officials from around the world will gather for an emergency meeting in Detroit to deal with the crisis
This article is a bit breathless and over excited, but it is not entirely implausible (and somewhat entertaining).
map from china-usa.net
OK, my big project at my day job is complete. Now, off to Mexico for 10 days of R&R; will be back to a regular posting schedule in the first week of April. Thanks to all my regular readers for your patience.
The makers of the pro-fracking documentary FrackNation are seeking financial support to promote and distribute their film. You can become an “executive producer” of the film for as little as one dollar.
On a side note, posting has been light the last few weeks as I have been quite busy with real work, but I anticipate returning to a daily posting schedule in 3 or 4 weeks.
While other nations take a wait and see approach, the shale gas boom is zooming forward in the US. If we combine the abundance of the resource with the proper policy choices (for example, the Zubrin plan for an open transportation fuel mandate), shale gas can completely change the energy landscape. However, we must be sensitive to the environmental concerns of others and make wise policy choices on the environmental front as well. Some are wondering whether shale is a false boon and really just a disaster waiting to happen – but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can serve both the energy and the environmental constituencies if both are willing to give a little to get a little. This is a time for leadership; unfortunately, in an election year, we are receiving too much demagoguery on both sides.
Profits for energy companies are down across the spectrum, due to the gas glut caused by the fracking revolution.
The rise of female leaders in the Islamist movement strikes many westerners as oxymoronic. In a new paper published in Politics and Religion, Arizona State University professors Jeffry Halverson and Amy Way analyze the contradictions between feminism on the one hand and Islamism on the other. They then use a case study method focusing on two female leaders from the Islamist movement. The study “reveals the existence of ‘Islamist feminism,’ distinguished from broader secular-oriented Islamic feminism, as a logical, albeit unique, extension, and expression of Muslim anti-colonial discourse rooted in the intellectual currents of twentieth century independence movements that still resonate today.”
This fascinating paper raises many questions. Perhaps feminism was never really a Western discourse to begin with – at its core, feminism is thoroughly rooted in anti-colonialism, and the Western brand is a deformed and maladjusted version of true feminism (as one of the case study subjects argues).
Read the whole thing.
off to Sea World with the family . . . please come back for a new post on Monday. Posting will continue to be sparse – no more than 1 per business day – for the rest of the month. I should be back to posting multiple items in January, after the holiday season has passed. Thanks to all visitors for their continued support.
This is a very busy week for me at my day job, so posting has been and will continue to be light. Here are a few things that I have been reading in my spare time:
a recently opened vacancy for an experienced social scientific researcher at the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) may be of interest to EnerGeoPolitics readers
http://www.ecn.nl/wens/ecn/vacancy/E2011070
The US Air Force has had to shut down their drone “Top Gun” school because they need the instructors to fly combat UAV missions. The problem is that the Air Force restricts drone piloting to actual pilots, who see them as a step down from flying fighters. They could relieve their shortage by opening up drone operations to enlisted personnel. The Army already does that with their own drone program.
Yesterday, I posted a link to David Graeber’s book Direct Action, noting that anyone who truly wanted to understand (not necessarily join or agree, but understand) #OWS should read it.
Today, Graeber himself has put up a long post at Naked Capitalism that will serve as a much shorter introduction, for those interested.
Yesterday, I posted an argument on environmental grounds that the Keystone XL pipeline should be built – that, because the route traverses a relatively more built and accessible environment, that it is far preferable to the alternate proposed route through a largely pristine region of biological diversity.
The route of Keystone XL is also a preferred route because of security issues. Last month, a pipeline in Kenya exploded, causing the death of 100 local inhabitants. The explosion was caused when those locals gathered to siphon fuel from the leak. A suspected cigarette ignited the pipeline and disaster ensued. Today, the professional industry newsletter Oil & Gas IQ notes that the Kenyan tragedy is the largest and most recent example of a problematic issue of pipeline security in the developing world. Through poor monitoring and maintenance, leaks on such pipelines go unreported and/or untended, and as a consequence, fires and explosions are common. Additionally, pipelines through regions with unsettled political situations are frequent objects of attack and sabotage. This is not a weakness of pipelines, per se, but rather a weakness of local conditions. Regulation, monitoring, and the availability of trained repair crews render such disasters almost unheard of in developed nations. Building Keystone XL, with the inherent pipeline security that comes with its location, relieves the pressure to build other pipelines through far riskier environments.
After the initial deployment to and buildup in Uganda, the force will be active all across Central Africa, with action anticipated in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Generally speaking, I support the use of US military power across the globe. I only ask that the exercise of force be done with clear geostrategic goals in mind, and that those goals be made explicit to the American public. I supported Iraq because I knew that unlocking the oil stores that were underdeveloped under the Hussein regime was crucial to the world economy. I supported Libya for the same reason. I do not understand this deployment. You can make an argument that the US should be heavily engaged in Central Africa because of the treasure trove of resources in the region that will become increasingly important in decades to come, but this tiny deployment, chasing a bandit across national lines thousands of miles from home with no clear strategic advantage to the US even if successful, is of dubious value.
Massive new shale plays are being publicized on almost a weekly basis. EnerGeoPolitics, of course, believes that there are vast reserves of previously unconventional fossil fuels ready to be brought to market (validating, at least partially, our “technological positivism” post from a few years back). However, that does not mean that every shale play or investing opportunity that comes to light is a good one. There could very well be a “Shale Bubble” at the same time that there is a shale explosion – both can occur simultaneously. I sort through all sorts of news items in the search for my daily post(s), many of them are about new companies getting into shale plays. Lately, it strikes me that an awful lot of these companies are making very large claims about the reserves in their blocks. Some of them strike me as highly optimistic, if not inflated. I doubt that any serious investor comes to EGP looking for investment information, but if anyone is looking for a bit of free advice: make sure you do your due diligence before investing. We have been in a Big Casino investing environment for the last couple of decades, where bubble after bubble gets inflated. I am a bit worried that we could see that happen among shale companies.
Lazy day for me, not going to post anything serious, but will be back with posts tomorrow.
In the meantime, check out this video from Zucotti Park of a local NYC character known as “the Fart Smeller.” Yes, a guy who gets off smelling women’s farts. He has joined the Occupy Wall Street protests as a voice for the rights of “guys like me, who can’t get women.” He claims that the women of OWS should be willingly “helping out” guys like him – they want a perfect world, and in a perfect world every guy gets hot chicks! One woman obliges him – on camera – and he is enraptured. “That’s like the Taliban putting down their weapons! A woman’s power base is her ass, and by letting me put my face in her ass, that’s like the Taliban putting down their weapons.”
Fart Smeller is in no way indicative of the larger populace at OWS – I don’t think any one person could be, the goals of those in attendance are so disparate. Rather, he is just another fiber in the odd human tapestry. The videographer, Normal Bob Smith, documents many other such oddly compelling characters, recently at Zucotti Park but primarily at his normal stamping grounds at Union Square.
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