If you think oil’s going to hit $300 a barrel, there’s apparently money to be made. And someone thinks that is a real possibility:
Nymex statistics show that investors for the first time placed a small bet this week that West Texas Intermediate oil futures would hit $300 a barrel – more than double yesterday’s price of about $142.50 a barrel – by December.
The folks at the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre have a paper in the June 17 EOS (sorry, couldn’t find it on line) about their use of web traffic spikes to quickly locate and learn about earthquakes. Swarms of web users quickly turn to the web after a quake, they write, and the location information gleaned from their IP addresses can help give seismologists a rough idea of an earthquake’s location more quickly than their seismic instruments.
Also, importantly, maps of places in the area of the quake from which they aren’t receiving hits is important, suggesting places that have lost Internet connectivity.
The Economist questions organic farming:
But as global food prices soar, hurting the poor in particular, environmentalists may find organic farming trickier to promote. Organic farming produces far less than conventional intensive methods, and so more land must be farmed for the same yield.
This hardly seems sustainable (“tankers” in this case contain water):
Every day for the next six months two tankers will leave the port of Elefsina near Athens, bound for Cyprus.
After four years with no substantial winter rainfall, Cypriot water reserves are at their lowest since 1908.
h/t Adam in the comments
The decline in the price of diesel has continued for the fifth consecutive week, according to EIA.
“Reality is a sandwich I did not order.”
Nate Silver, a statistcis guy better known for his baseball work, has turned his skills to the world of politics.
(h/t Dan McKay, who is also the one who turned me on to Silver’s baseball stuff)
New Mexico politics quote of the week:
I can honestly say I think I would recall being cited for urinating in a bush. And I don’t think I would urinate in a bush at a police station.
So you’re in a product marketing meeting for a major toy company that’s developing an Indiana Jones Special Edition Mr. Potato Head. And you are pure inspiration: “Why not call it `Taters of the Lost Ark’?”
A product cycle later, you walk into your local K-Mart, and there it is. How cool would that be, to be the guy who came up with “Taters of the Lost Ark“? I know I would die a happy man.
Everyone seems to agree that renewing the current federal renewable energy tax credits is a good idea. So why isn’t it happening? My colleague Mike Coleman in this morning’s Journal:
Virtually every member of Congress claims to support extending tax credits to the fledgling wind and solar industries. But despite a half-dozen chances and a 90 percent level of support for renewable energy development, our elected officials in Washington just can’t seem to get the bill passed.