Categories
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Recent Posts
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
- Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath
- Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
- Book review of “Prime Movers of Globalization: the History & Impact of Diesel Engines & Gas Turbines”
- Mental Health. Coping with the future: notes from Jackson & Jensen’s “An Inconvenient Apocalypse”
- Tesla Semi trucks hauling corn chips
- What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months?
- Where to be? Links to Superfund, hazardous waste and other toxic sites in U.S.
- Why methanol cannot replace petroleum in shipping
- Why is everyone afraid of AI taking over? It makes stuff up!
- Do you want to eat, drink, or fly?
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Will we go out with a whimper instead of a bang? Cyberwar more likely than nuclear war
Preface. This is a book review of Clarke & Knake’s “Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About IT”. The ransom cyber attack on the colonial pipeline forced the shutdown of a vital pipeline delivering … Continue reading
Posted in Cyber, Cyber Attack Books, CyberAttacks, War
Tagged china, cyber attack, cyber war, cyberwar, infrastructure, Russia, scenario
2 Comments
Just 16,000 catenary trucks (out of 5.6 million) would use 1% of California’s electricity generation
Preface. We must electrify trucks since fuel from oil, coal, and natural gas is finite, and biomass doesn’t scale up. Without transportation, electricity contraptions like wind turbines, solar facilities, and nuclear power plants can’t be built. A wind turbine, for … Continue reading
Posted in Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Trucks: Electric
Tagged battery, BEV, catenary, CNG, drayage, electric truck, electricity, transportation, trucks
2 Comments
Pedro Prieto – what life used to be like decades ago in small Spanish villages
[I’m reading James Howard Kunstler’s excellent trilogy “A World Made By Hand” now to get an idea of what life might be like post-peak when the worst of the crisis is over. Prieto’s vivid descriptions are wonderful, I wish he’d … Continue reading
Posted in Pedro Prieto
Tagged agriculture
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Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union
[ A great post by Dmitry Orlov about what collapse may be like, the best strategies to survive, and why the Russian way of life and culture prepared them far better for hard times than will be the case in … Continue reading
Posted in Expert Advice, Oil shock collapse, Where to Be or Not to Be
Tagged America, collapse, orlov, Russia, survival, what to do, where to be
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When will the Alaska pipeline turn into an 800-mile-long Popsicle?
[Below are excerpts on the Alaskan pipeline from Rust: The Longest War by Jonathan Waldman. This is a great book, yet leaves so many possible rust stories uncovered, that I hope Waldman writes Rust II (or any other topic — … Continue reading
Utility, large-scale battery energy storage
Hodson, H. July 25, 2015. Power to the people. NewScientist. Demand for electricity varies every second, minute, hour, day, and season. Production is easy to provide from always-ready natural gas and coal. But as we move towards a 100% renewable … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Storage
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Robert McNally on energy at U.S. Congressional Hearings
[I think it is interesting to know what Congress hears about energy from experts, and what the official U.S. energy policies are. It is frustrating that Energy Return on Invested (EROI) is never discussed, even by intelligent analysts like McNally. … Continue reading
Posted in Congressional Record U.S., Other Experts
Tagged congress, energy security, house of representatives, national security, oil, Rapidan Group, Robert McNally
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