Lights Out For Compact Fluorescent Lamps

GOOD RIDDANCE to those dim, curly, toxic miseries that Greenies shoved down the throats of an unwilling populace.  I hate those things.  Anyway, bye bye bye!

I love incandescents, and, thanks to heroic geeks from MIT and Purdue, there is new hope for their renaissance.

Since we're on the topic, let's revisit one of my favorite Remy videos:

U.S. Passes Saudis In Oil Output

I had no idea.  Some of the action is in Texas and North Dakota.  And up through the ground came a-bubblin' crude.  Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea!

Earth Hour? Pffft. FIAT LUX!

The annual idiotic nonsense is upon us again, though I haven't found a response better than this one by a Canadian professor from a few years ago.  Do read the whole thing.  See too what Bjørn Lomborg has to say.  Perhaps celebrate Human Achievement Hour instead?  (Related thoughts.)  Awesome Aussie Tim Blair is treating this Earth Day with his usual panache (see his hilarious writeup from 2012).  As for me, I intend to carry on doing what I had planned to do tonight regardless of silly, sanctimonious publicity stunts.  It's March Madness, people, and my compatriots and I will be in front of the TV!

Questions for the Presidential Debate

What do you think?  What would you like to ask Obama and Romney about domestic policy?

India and the World's Biggest Blackout

The number of people left without electricity is larger than the entire population of the US. 

Debunking the Energy Speech

*Sigh.*  That's a lot of outright whoppers and howlers.  Yeah, I finally got around to reading up on the latest go-round of energy-related nonsense.

Santelli Rants About Government Overreach

6 Ideas for the Ash Heap of History

Here's an interesting list from Foreign Policy. 

Dim Bulbs in the Government

Meanwhile, I'm stocking up on incandescents ... I mean, heatballs!

Let Them Eat Biofuel

*Sigh.*

A Tale of Two Shale States

Read this.  Also this.

What Fresh Hell Is This? Rising Electricity Costs

UGH.  Because that's just what a weakened economy and a financially strapped citizenry need -- still more price increases.  

Energy Debate Rant and the "Addiction to Oil"

Hear, hear.  Part of the salvo:

You know what I can’t stand to hear about anymore? That we Americans are addicted to oil. It’s a smarmy term  that tries to couch an economic and environmental argument in pathological terms. ... It does nobody any good to try and debate economic and logistical necessities while using terminology to imply people who disagree with your view are mentally ill.

But what do I know?  I'm just another bitter stupid racist clinging to my guns and Bible who wants to push granny off a cliff and destroy the earth by emitting carbon with my Internet searches. Or something.  Hey, I'm just 'angin' onto outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an' social differences in our society!

If You Built It, They Will Come

The "Field of Dreams" principle apparently does not apply to British breezes for wind turbines.

Hans Rosling in Praise of the Washing Machine

This is fantastic.  Do watch.  The humble washing machine, I dare say, has singlehandedly improved the lives of countless women around the world, and that is a wonderful thing.  As for the delightful Hans Rosling -- he is always worth your time.  (Other lovely inventions: the stove, the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the vacuum cleaner, the microwave...)

Oops, I Did It Again: Another Manmade Famine

Reading articles like this drives me absolutely crazy.  Some of the most horrific instances of food crises, hunger, famine, and outright starvation in history were caused by man himself, and we're apparently repeating the same deadly mistake.  Remember this and this?

I Got Your Apocalypse Right Here: International Food Crisis Looms

This cannot be good.  Food prices are at an all-time high and rising. I recently posted about this and ranted about the idiocy of ethanol.

Geek News: Futurist Ray Kurzweil on Climate Change

And the notable futurist, who famously predicted the role of information technology in collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of the Internet, and the ability of artificial intelligence to beat humans at chess by 1998, has something to say about fossil fuels, energy problems, and climate change -- "No problem."

Great Moments in Research: the Looming Global Food Crisis

An economist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has this to say.  Allow me to cut to the chase:

In conclusion, increasing food prices is a major problem, especially in poor nations with large urban populations. The increases cause political instability, bad economic decisions and real hardship. The US contributes to this problem with its ethanol program; to a lesser extent, China does, too, with stockpiling.

Well, DUH!  Meanwhile, we continue to pursue the colossally idiotic boondoggle known as ethanol.  I can't resist quoting from the report:

The US ethanol subsidy diverted more than 100 million metric tons of corn into ethanol last year. This did little to reduce global warming, and made basic grains and meat more expensive for most people in the world.

This is an outrage.  What would Norman Borlaug do?

What a Gas: Energy Issues and an Israeli Discovery

Things just got even more interesting in the Middle East and ramifications for foreign policy and geopolitics as Israel announces the biggest deepwater find of natural gas deposits in a decade -- 16 trillion cubic feet, enough to meet Israel's gas needs for a century.  And perhaps turn Israel into an exporter of natural gas.  Well, well, well.  Game-changing action?  Bonus: the name of the gas field is ... wait for it ... Leviathan.  It's worth tens of billions of dollars.

The best humorous response has to come from Ace of Spades, which offers this snarky thought:

No doubt the Obama administration is hard at work trying to figure out how to force Israel into not only a freeze on settlement construction but also an off-shore drilling moratorium.