xburb just posted this message in today's DrumBeat:

Leanan, as promised a while back.

Matt Simmons on UCTV 56 minutes

And an interesting Bloomberg 8 min. bit from the Land of Oz

80 dollar oil in June, Fat Prophets, and the China find

Warships, Warships Everywhere, and Many a Bomb to Drop

And so, knowing that his "diplomatic" efforts are almost certain to fail, Bush may simply be waiting for the day when he can announce to the American people that he has "tried everything"; that "his patience has run out"; and that he can "no longer risk the security of the American people" by "indulging in further fruitless negotiations," thereby allowing the Iranians "to proceed farther down the path of nuclear bomb-making," and so has taken the perilous but necessary step of ordering American forces to conduct air and missile strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. At that point, the 80 planes aboard the Nimitz – and those on the Eisenhower and the Stennis as well – will be on their way to targets in Iran, along with hundreds of TLAMs and a host of other weapons now being assembled in the Gulf.

This isn't PO related, but for those of you who have never seen it, someone has posted the famous 50 min 1981 BBC Horizon interview with Richard Feynman on Google Video (bit of flicker for the first few seconds, but then okay).

The pleasure of finding things out

In today's short-attention span, fast-editing world such a documentary would never be made, but personally I could listen to the man speaking for hours on end.

A truly remarkable individual.

The entire film "Crude Impact" is available on YouTube broken into 9 10-minute segments.

The Car Culture-
”The road goes on forever and the party never ends...”
Robert Earle Keene

(Since this string hasn’t exactly caught fire, given the number of diggs and replies, I thought I would fill folks in on my recent “accidental” exporsure to some media of the automotive sort, when I recently re-encountered “Road&Track Magazine’s April edition, while waiting in a doctors office. Below are observations from memory that gave me reason to think a bit about where the “car culture” is today, at street level....)

When I first became interested in cars, by which I mean more than interested in just muscle cars and drag racing, in the early 1970’s, I sought out publications that wrote about and photographed more than just heavy American metal. I wanted to learn about the exotic stuff, European cars, road racing as opposed to drag racing, and technical breakthroghs such as fuel injection and all wheel disc brakes. These were pretty rarified tastes for a high school age teen in the South circa 1975. It took a while to find a source for information.

But find one I did, and I became a longtime fan of Road&Track Magazine. They had great photos and articles showing cars I had never or barely heard of, sophisticated smart writers such as Peter Egan, great technical writing on interesting subjects by engineering writer Dennis Simanaitis, and a truly artistic sensibility concerning the history of the automoble in their beautifully photographed “Salon” segment showing great automobiles of the past.
For a fan of the automobile and automotive publishing, it was an intellectual feast.

But, as time went on, life and career led me away from my fascination with exotic cars, automotive history, and great automotive technology. I have never been able to shake my love of these things, but I did not actively pursue information in the way I had in my youth. I had a life to live, and cars became just a simple necessity to move me about, hopefully as cheaply and efficiently as possible. I was, however, no longer a connoisseur of the automobile.

But a couple of days ago, while sitting for too long in a doctor's waiting room, I re-acquinted myself with the car culture, and with “Road&Track”. There for me to read, for free, and with plenty of time on my hands (as is always true when waiting for a doctor), was the April 2007 issue of Road&Track.

What was really going on in the modern world of cars, what were the “auto enthusiast” press, as we used to call it, up to? What had changed? Had the concern about fuel supply and possible Peak Oil, or worries about “global warming” and greenhouse gas release changed anything in the world of automobiles? What did the car, and what Kunstler calls “the car culture” view as important, as news? What did the “car enthusiast” think of the automobile's future, and what were the car companies building to separate said enthusiast from his or her money? What had become of Road&Track since the oil crisis days of the 1970’s, the decade of the birth of “Earth Day”, when environmental concerns changed the car and our perception of it?

Back To The Future, Schizophrenia, Part II

April 2007, Road&Track
The era of limits (?)
The be all car of the magazine was the new Audi sports coupe, the R8
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=4784

To say the car recieved rave reviews is an understatement. The article opens,
“This is the first car I've desperately wanted since I started working at Road & Track.”, and closes, “The craftsmanship, performance, exoticism and near perfection of this street car, combined with the history of the R8 race car, are going to make this newest Audi a winner, just like the Le Mans-winning race cars with which it shares its name.”

The sentence at the end of the first paragraph says it all... “Of course, with a starting price of just over $100,000, the R8 certainly isn't “affordable.” But is it worth it? Absolutely!”

And why not? 0 to 30 milles per hour in 4.3 seconds, 0 to 100 in 10.5, and almost 1 gravity of cornering power, it will run through a slalom course of cones at 70 plus miles per hour, and tops out at a modest 187 miles per hour. And, 16 miles per gallon in mixed driving. Certainly the car for a fuel concerned, carbon release concerned age. If this is the era of limits, we can only love it.

But, we should admit, this is the rarified world of German exotic cars. Surely this type of automobile will only be available to the well off, and only available from the exotic name labels in the car world? Not so fast,
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=15&article_id=5165

Yes, Hyundai: “The Korean company is taking a dead shot at Lexus and Infiniti, and if it can mix it up with BMW and Audi, all the better.” Such is introduced the Hyundai Genesis, “Concept Genesis is powered by a newly developed dohc 32-valve 4.6-liter V-8”. Yes, Hyundai, just as Honda , Nissan andToyota did in the 1970’s, is now ready to move up market...bigger, faster, more expensive. They know where the money is.

And such seems to be the case in the whole automotive world: Bigger, faster, more expensive. If there is a limit, the parade of high speed, high priced exotics in April Road&Track did not seem to notice it. The only limit seems to be the lust for more on the part of the customer, worldwide. Surely there must be some example of limits! And indeed....

In a brief one page overview is desribed the ONLY Diesel model passenger car sold new in the United States in 2007. You heard that right. Despite all the hoopla about the “return of the Diesel” and the “coming Diesel age” there is only ONE Diesel car (as opposed to light trucks) in the U.S. market, the Mercedes Benz E320 Bluetec sedan.

There is no link to the test of the car on Road&Track’s website, but you can get a sample here from the Washington Post, and their results mirrored R&T’s
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR200611...

The Mercedes Diesel was met with rave reviews, performing as well as most V-8 gasoline cars, with 36 miles per gallon being returned from a large luxury sedan, and an astonishing 700 mile range on one tank of fuel. Smooth fast and luxurious, the car was entered into the U.S. market with great difficulty, and is still legal for sale in only 45 states, using a complicated “urea” injection catalyst system to make the emissions guidelines. A complex but beautifu piece of work, the car may well be the high point of Diesel engineering in the U.S. market. Europe has a steller arrey of Diesels, including an upcoming triple turbocharged Diesel that gets 35 miles per gallon, and with acceleration matching the Audi supercar at the start of this post, which achieves only 16 miles per gallon.

What does all this say about modern engineering and priorities. Next, much to my happy surprise, I noted that Peter Egan still writes for Road&Track, and his latest column is fascinating: “A Pound Of Feathers”
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=26&article_id=4856

In this coumn, Egan notes that despite apearances, cars have gotten fatter and fatter with each passing year. He demonstrates this in an ironic way by looking at several vintage cars, and then comparing the weight of the original with the “retro” remake of the same car.
For example, an original VW Beetle, at 1790 pounds, the new retro Beetle at 3020 pounds, the original Mini Cooper at 1480 pounds, the new retro Mini at 2730 pounds, etc.

However, as Egan points out, the newer fatter cars all perform much better, and get better fuel mileage, pointing out the theory that what we have gained in technology (much) we have given up in weight (much). The obesity problem does not apply just to humans.

So, what else? Well, this is the April issue of R&T, and of course, the infamous April Fool roadtest had to be there! These are well known to old fans of the magazine, involving tests of odd and interesting vehicles (in the past, vehicles such as the Mars lander, the M1 Army tank, and the tractor used to carry the space shuttle have been tested) and this year was no exception, but in it was hidden a glimse of the future and a bit of a surprise:

This years April Fool’s test involved three package delivery trucks compared: The UPS “brown van”, a bright yellow DHL delivery van, and a FedEx Hybrid delivery truck.

You heard that right. FedEx already has the first generation of it’s new hybrid delivery trucks on the road. These are Diesel electric hybrids, using lithium ion batteries (GM, check with these guys for batteries for the Volt), and FedEx claims a 40% improvement over the standard delivery truck using Diesel with conventional drive. The system is designed by Eaton Corp. (who is also developing hydraulic hybrid drives with Ford and UPS)

So, when the price of Diesel goes up, it now gives FedEx a competitive advantage.
The future is coming, but it is coming in that quiet revolutionary way it often does, through efficiencies and technologies developed by business to save money and increase return on investment. The public plays. The companies WORK. The difference is huge.

So the schizophrenic world of the car culture marches on. It looks very much like the 1970’s, with much hoopla and howling but not as much change as one would expect, except in the world of business transportation for profit. The major difference between 1975 and today:
Cars are faster, more efficient, more expensive, and much FATTER.
And no one seems to mind one bit.

Oh, and one more thing: After looking at the shiny new world of fantasy the automotive world is able to provide, and being older and tiny bit wiser than in my youthful days, I am more inclined than ever to attempt to restore and keep my old Mercedes Diesel 240D.
We are from the same generation, me and clattery old 240D, getting slower and a bit noiser in places with each passing year. Somehow, it seems to fit me better than the flashy new world of road rockets. In a world of limits, time is a greater limit than fuel.

But I may renew my subscription to Road&Track. Even for an old man, it's fun to dream.

Roger Conner Jr.
Remember, we are only one cubic mile from freedom

I have been reading this board for a while and I find it quite educational.

What I find odd is how Jim Kunstler is so revered on this sight. I don't get it.

Here's one example. Many people on this board are big supporters of light rail. I am, too. Then we have this article about Kunstler: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070427.re-boddy-042...

He says in the very near future there will not be enough electricity to even run elevators in tall buildings. How can you have enough electricity to run light rail all over a city when you can't even power an elevator? Either the light-rail proponents like Alan are wrong or Kunstler is.