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Recent Posts
- Thorium nuclear bombs and reactors have too many challenges
- Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?
- President Carter’s energy solutions 1977
- Peak Menhaden
- Hemp for paper, textiles, the war on drugs, and more
- Why towns have a hard time adding EV, solar, heat pumps
- Building a national super grid in America
- The Mayflower from the book The Barbarous Years
- Deep Sea Oil
- Book review of “Livewired. The inside story of the ever-changing brain”
- The conveyor belt may be slowing down — Yikes!
- Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial
- New war and energy alliances over next resource wars
- Book review of “Siege: Trump Under fire”
- Why do people vote for Trump?
Category Archives: 1) Decline
Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a really bad idea
Preface. Diesel-electric locomotives are ALREADY electric, and more energy efficient than electric freight trains. Diesel-electric freight is very efficient and moves 4 times more tons per mile than trucks because they hardly ever accelerate, stop, start, or travel over 40 … Continue reading
Posted in Electric Grid, Electrification, Railroads
Tagged electrification, electrify, electrify rail, rail, train, train electrification
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Review of “The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World” by Steve LeVine
Preface. This is a book review of Steve Levine’s 2015 “The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World”. If you ever wondered why batteries are still not even close to powerful enough to replace fossil fuels, … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Batteries, Energy Books
Tagged battery, electric car
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Book review of “Spiral: Trapped in the forever war”
[ I understand why anyone who might be believed about the energy crisis keeps their mouth shut about peak oil, it would be like shouting “fire” in a crowded theater and could bring down stock markets world-wide. Why? Because there … Continue reading
Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Social Disorder, Terrorism, War Books
Tagged mark danner, oil, torture, war
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U.S. House looks at how to improve the nation’s highway freight network
[ Like all books and articles I read on transportation for my book, this session assumes endless growth and worries about future congestion, which will not be a problem on the other side of peak oil, which is coming soon. … Continue reading
Posted in Trucks, U.S. Congress Transportation
Tagged freight, transportation, trucks
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Water as a geopolitical threat. U.S. House of Representatives
Preface. Water scarcity is causing unrest and could led to war in Asia and the Middle East. There’s a website that keeps track of conflicts over water going back for 3,000 years here — 655 of them. The prevalence of … Continue reading
Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Congressional Record U.S., Peak Water, Water
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Corruption and economic instability in the news
[ I can’t keep up with the flood of news about corruption, fraud and economic instability, which is just a symptom of the real problem: the end of growth. In a credit/debit system, lenders won’t lend if they think the … Continue reading
Posted in ! About Corruption, Economic Decline, Other Experts
Tagged bubble, corruption, debt, financial crash, index
2 Comments
Millions of Americans have tropical diseases they’re unaware of
MacKenzie, D. December 14, 2013. America’s hidden epidemic. NewScientist. Increasing climate change and poverty are likely to increase the numbers of people with these diseases. An estimated 330,000 US citizens, and possibly as many as a million, carry the parasite … Continue reading
Posted in Disease, Poverty
Tagged climate change, disease, poverty
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Why is passenger rail so damned inefficient?
[ This is about passenger rail, not freight rail, which is incredibly efficient. Freight rail is efficient because to reduce aerodynamic drag and diesel fuel use (USDOT 2008), they travel on average only 23 miles per hour (to reduce aerodynamic … Continue reading
Posted in Mass Transit, Railroads, Transportation
Tagged auto, bus, mass transit, passenger, rail
4 Comments
Effects of biodiesel on diesel engines: John Deere
[ Since petroleum is finite, the most important focus of U.S. energy research ought to be keeping trucks operating, since civilization ends when trucks stop running. Ideally this would be done with a “drop-in” fuel that can be burned in … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Trucks
Tagged biodiesel, diesel engine, John Deere
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Natural gas is a stupid transportation fuel
[ My comment: The only reason natural gas has come up as a transportation fuel at all is the false belief that there is 100 years of natural gas (even this article does, but natural gas may last far less … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Natural Gas Vehicles, Transportation
Tagged cars, natural gas, transportation
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