The plan to block a fusion reactor in every garage

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Sun Jan 20, 2013 4:51 pm

Radically increase oil production so that nobody will care about aneutronic p-11B fusion (Polywell or otherwise).

hanelyp · Post by **hanelyp** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:02 am

I don't see a conspiracy against nuclear energy. I see a weakening US dollar and instability in major oil production regions overseas.

Teahive · Post by **Teahive** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 12:33 am

DeltaV, do you happen to have similarly up-to-date numbers on oil consumption?

What's the cause of those huge spikes? Hurricanes and/or other natural disasters?

palladin9479 · Post by **palladin9479** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:50 am

hanelyp wrote:I don't see a conspiracy against nuclear energy. I see a weakening US dollar and instability in major oil production regions overseas.

Other way around, the USD was incredibly strong after 2008, too strong. I felt this first hand as my income sky rocketed 40% in the span of 1yr. I live in SK where I spend KRW yet get paid USD so the exchange rate deeply effects by disposable income.

Spring 2008 (pre crash): 1 USD = ~900 KRW (KRW was actually stronger then USD)
Winter 2008: 1 USD = ~1400 KRW

January 2012 (recovery in effect): 1 USD = 1050 KRW.

This happened to most of the world with the exceptions being the Japanese Yen and the Euro. Both of those entities excised emergency actions to prevent the dollar from appreciating over their own currencies as a way to protect their economies. This only delayed the effects by a few years and we're now seeing them take place in the EU.

Remember the value of a currency is based on how much of it is in circulation vs the demand for that currency. The demand for the USD went down after the crash, yet the availability of the USD went down further then the demand did which created an under-supplied market and exchange rates rose. Right now the USD is weakening due to the prolonged artificially low interest rates. There simply is too much liquid currency in the market, cash is simply too easy for banks to get. Expect a period of inflated prices relative to the wage rate for the next five to six years until someone turns off the money faucet.

Diogenes · Post by **Diogenes** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:18 pm

palladin9479 wrote:
Diogenes wrote:
Yeah, well Republicans thought the 24th amendment was a good idea too. That decision is what is currently killing us.

I am flattered that you regard my words as such great wisdom that you append them to your every message. It indicates that you are growing up.

For those with any wisdom, the truth in my words is self evident. The ability for non-taxpayers to vote for people who promise them free goodies is bankrupting the nation. Entitlement spending is now over 1 trillion dollars per year. It is the LARGEST expense in the US Budget.

The Nation was founded as a Republic, but over time we have slowly transformed into a Democracy. The Founders knew that Democracies were fundamentally unstable. (Plato had figured this out thousands of years ago.)

What did the founders think of Democracy?

"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, —the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, & the fruits acquired by it.'" --Thomas Jefferson

“The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.”--Thomas Jefferson

And this bit of prescience.

“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
-- Thomas Jefferson

I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.

John Adams, letter to John Taylor (15 April 1814).

“It had been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience had proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.”
Alexander Hamilton June 21, 1788

We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

Alexander Hamilton, 1787-06-26

Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.

James Madison, Federalist No. 10.

A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.
James Madison, Federalist Paper #10.

The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.

Elbridge Gerry, Constitutional Convention, Monday May 31 [FN1], 1787.

And so on.

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Mon Jan 21, 2013 5:00 pm

Teahive wrote:DeltaV, do you happen to have similarly up-to-date numbers on oil consumption?

What's the cause of those huge spikes? Hurricanes and/or other natural disasters?

No, I don't. My guess is the spikes mainly result from pricing skullduggery meant to maximize oil company profits. But that's just a guess. I don't have time to study the data.

Interesting that the upswing correlates with good news from EMC2, before it went to the dark side.

A p-11B power plant in every home or neighborhood must scare the **** out of certain controlling circles. An NBC "(R)evolution"-like blackout scenario becomes much more difficult to implement when cross-country power lines are moot.

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:12 pm

DeltaV wrote:
Teahive wrote:DeltaV, do you happen to have similarly up-to-date numbers on oil consumption?

What's the cause of those huge spikes? Hurricanes and/or other natural disasters?
No, I don't. My guess is the spikes mainly result from pricing skullduggery meant to maximize oil company profits. But that's just a guess. I don't have time to study the data.

Interesting that the upswing correlates with good news from EMC2, before it went to the dark side.

A p-11B power plant in every home or neighborhood must scare the **** out of certain controlling circles. An NBC "(R)evolution"-like blackout scenario becomes much more difficult to implement when cross-country power lines are moot.

Why would oil companies care? Polywell is not going to have much impact on transportation fuels or chemical feed stocks. Not for a long time.

And if they fear Polywell the obvious thing to do is to squeeze as much as they can while the getting is good. This is not being done.

The oil conspiracies have been running hard ever since Ford. I don't place much stock in them.

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:13 pm

D,

Please explain why so much big money backs socialism?

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:30 pm

In fact the oil conspiracies are much like CAGW.

Oil prices up - it is in the interest of Big Oil
Oil prices down - it is in the interest of Big Oil

How do you decide which interest predominates?

So for a few months they wanted to make money and after that they wanted to destroy Polywell, and so they have decided to reduce the value of their previous holdings?

======

Crazy thinking is not the exclusive domain of the left. Or the right.

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:05 pm

I dont know about you guys, but when I go to the pump, I still feel like the oil prices are too high. They certainly are higher than they were just 3 or 4 years ago (and then people were already complaining about them). I predict them to be higher next summer than they were last summer.

JLawson · Post by **JLawson** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:45 pm

Teahive wrote:DeltaV, do you happen to have similarly up-to-date numbers on oil consumption?

What's the cause of those huge spikes? Hurricanes and/or other natural disasters?

2002 - Hurricane Lili - right through the Gulf oil fields.
2004 - Hurricane Ivan, maybe. Went through Gulf, circulated up, around, down the coast, across Florida again, then hit the Alabama oil fields.
2005 - Katrina. Really did a number on the oil areas.
2008 - Could be Gustav, but I don't remember that one being touted as so destructive. I do recall when oil got to $147 a barrel... but that wouldn't have had any effect on production as such...

Hope that helps... sorry I couldn't pin down the last one.

Diogenes · Post by **Diogenes** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:18 pm

MSimon wrote:D,

Please explain why so much big money backs socialism?

I wished I had all the answers and that they were totally correct, but on this I can only surmise that these people presume to be in the leadership role or some other position of power in the administration of such socialist systems.

It is a form of cronyism I think. A Flirtation with Fascism.

That, and the glitterati is at the top of the Social Pecking order, and they influence the extreme wealthy by offering them social status for their cooperation.

According to Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, the French Revolution was agitated and spurred on by the Wealthy families of France... till it got away from them.

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:58 pm

As it was in the soon-to-be United States. And it also got away from them.

palladin9479 · Post by **palladin9479** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 2:45 am

Skipjack wrote:I dont know about you guys, but when I go to the pump, I still feel like the oil prices are too high. They certainly are higher than they were just 3 or 4 years ago (and then people were already complaining about them). I predict them to be higher next summer than they were last summer.

Their still low as sh!t in the USA, you guys haven't seen high prices yet. In South Korea it's north of $7 USD per gallon (approx 1,900 KRW per liter). And that's after the SK government subsidizes some of the cost. The USA gets really good deals on it's oil imports.

As for "Big Oil" conspiracies, I don't believe there ever was one. "Big Oil" are just companies and like every other company their going to look out for themselves first and foremost. This means making investments in their future and not setting themselves up for failure. So don't expect them to do any meaningful investment / research into area's that could lower their bottom line, yet their not going around with super secret invisible hit men killing people off.

Plus energy density of liquid hydrocarbons is simply too high for anything else to be efficient at transportation. Ethanol is so little as to not be a serious contender and Electricity is non-existent with current battery tech.

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:32 am

palladin9479 wrote:
Skipjack wrote:I dont know about you guys, but when I go to the pump, I still feel like the oil prices are too high. They certainly are higher than they were just 3 or 4 years ago (and then people were already complaining about them). I predict them to be higher next summer than they were last summer.
Their still low as sh!t in the USA, you guys haven't seen high prices yet. In South Korea it's north of $7 USD per gallon (approx 1,900 KRW per liter). And that's after the SK government subsidizes some of the cost. The USA gets really good deals on it's oil imports.

As for "Big Oil" conspiracies, I don't believe there ever was one. "Big Oil" are just companies and like every other company their going to look out for themselves first and foremost. This means making investments in their future and not setting themselves up for failure. So don't expect them to do any meaningful investment / research into area's that could lower their bottom line, yet their not going around with super secret invisible hit men killing people off.

Plus energy density of liquid hydrocarbons is simply too high for anything else to be efficient at transportation. Ethanol is so little as to not be a serious contender and Electricity is non-existent with current battery tech.

Dude, you are talking to someone from Austria! I know what high gas prices are. Still, they are RELATIVELY high and they are bound to get RELATIVELY higher again. I have not seen them go down much.