You could hear the sea from a mile away, roaring.
As I turned left and walked through the wooded sandy path that comes out onto a lip at the top of the beach, the full power of the ocean hit me, like being in the Millenium Stadium when Wales score a try, the noise was deafening and other-worldly.
And the waves were fifty yards away.
I was walking back along the beach, in the dark, as I love to do and what I hope to be doing with the new love of my life some time shortly (hint hint keep it coming ladies ;p)
The beach is fantastic when nature is keen to show you some of its awesome power, Carmarthen Bay was a froth of white water churning.
And then as I was pretending to be in my version of a video that I want to direct for the Niles Barclay track 'Crazy', where I'm doing a funky dance with a skeleton in a women's red wig and mouthing the words, it hit me.
Whatever happened to Salter's Duck?
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Salter's Duck was a wave power machine that generated electricity from the rising and falling waves and tide.
Here's a link:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Salter%27s+Duck&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB
Just copy and paste if you're not feeling too lazy.
My point being, why don't we have loads of these things strung out around the coast of Wales providing for our energy future? Otherwise all that awesome power is going to waste and its free like the wind but prettier and potentially more productive.
Anyway, as ever I shall keep looking for Ms Right or even Ms Not So Right and we can go on great walks on the beach at night and maybe if she's really lucky i'll show here my Niles Barclay Skeleton dance, which is far more entertaining than 'wanking on ice' or whatever other apa is on the TV on a Saturday evening.
Saturday 10 February 2007
Friday 9 February 2007
Peak Oil at the Fish Fryer 2
We use oil for absolutely everything and it has enabled us to develop an immensely complicated society and develop exponentially over the last two hundred years.
Oil is directly responsible for you being able to read this blog right yer, because a lot of powerstations are powered by oil, oil provided the plastics used to make your computer, the petrol to dig up, transport etc the raw components for everything around you that you can touch or see etc etc.
In short Oil is a big story.
So if oil production is running low and the top oil fields are tapping out, then we'll need to find more oil and develop some new technologies to replace it right?
We are finding new supplies of oil by the way, the problem for us is that they are relatively small finds.
A new well of 2 billion barrels sounds massive, but then when we look at the fact that the world uses approximately 85 million barrels per day, then you can see that 2 billion barrels isn't going to last that long, even if we found say ten of those fields in the next five years.
The demand for oil is increasing because the world's economy is getting bigger, there are more people who have moved from subsistance living to being 'consumers', all these people need to be fed, watered and to be able to live in a way that they aspire to.
The world's population is increasing by about 73 million per year at present rates.
This may slow down due to:
More women taking control of their own contraception.
Better healthcare which means that less children die in developing countries, so that eventually people realise that they don't have to produce so many.
And because as people's affluence levels rise, they realise that children cost lots of money and so tend to have less of them.
Then there's the fact that most of these new oil finds are at much deeper depths and in more inhospitable places than hoped for (Sakhalin for example).
First stop Ethanol.
Ethanol is going to make a lot of American grain farmers very rich. America is the world's largest corn producer and the vast majority of ethanol is produced from corn. Large amounts of the world's population rely upon corn as a staple food, but increasingly more and more corn has been used to produce ethanol which is mixed with gasoline to make it go further in terms of fuel consumption.
There are other types of ethanol and these are gradually increasing in uptake, such as cellulosic ethanol which uses the stems, leaves etc of the corn plant and can potentially use most types of organic plant waste. In years to come i'm sure that your lawnmower will have the ability to use the very grass that it cuts, as the fuel to drive it. Exciting huh?
But for the now, most ethanol is:
A) Made from corn cobs therefore taking a direct amount of food out of the supply chain
B) Produces less energy than it uses
C) Uses large amounts of water in its production
All very important points. Less food means more pressure for the food being reduced in the supply chain, paricularly for some of the world's poorest people whose diet is largely reliant upon it.
Producing less energy from it than it takes to make means that the fuel is inefficient and therefore is only a stopgap.
And using lots of water to produce it is extremely wasteful of the world's most precious resource.
So this leads back to how to find a wife. If you're reading this and thinking WTF? Please bear with me.
If our society is going to be effected by Peak Oil then will it be best to live in the city, where you potentially have good transport links etc or in the country where in theory you could grow your food and potentially produce your own power?
Of course in the city I'd find it easier to meet people, which may lead to meeting a fantastic woman and all the great things that come from that (hmm Krispy Kremes and Green Tea...), on the other hand I could meet a strong farm gal and dig for victory.
Tough choices huh?
Oil is directly responsible for you being able to read this blog right yer, because a lot of powerstations are powered by oil, oil provided the plastics used to make your computer, the petrol to dig up, transport etc the raw components for everything around you that you can touch or see etc etc.
In short Oil is a big story.
So if oil production is running low and the top oil fields are tapping out, then we'll need to find more oil and develop some new technologies to replace it right?
We are finding new supplies of oil by the way, the problem for us is that they are relatively small finds.
A new well of 2 billion barrels sounds massive, but then when we look at the fact that the world uses approximately 85 million barrels per day, then you can see that 2 billion barrels isn't going to last that long, even if we found say ten of those fields in the next five years.
The demand for oil is increasing because the world's economy is getting bigger, there are more people who have moved from subsistance living to being 'consumers', all these people need to be fed, watered and to be able to live in a way that they aspire to.
The world's population is increasing by about 73 million per year at present rates.
This may slow down due to:
More women taking control of their own contraception.
Better healthcare which means that less children die in developing countries, so that eventually people realise that they don't have to produce so many.
And because as people's affluence levels rise, they realise that children cost lots of money and so tend to have less of them.
Then there's the fact that most of these new oil finds are at much deeper depths and in more inhospitable places than hoped for (Sakhalin for example).
First stop Ethanol.
Ethanol is going to make a lot of American grain farmers very rich. America is the world's largest corn producer and the vast majority of ethanol is produced from corn. Large amounts of the world's population rely upon corn as a staple food, but increasingly more and more corn has been used to produce ethanol which is mixed with gasoline to make it go further in terms of fuel consumption.
There are other types of ethanol and these are gradually increasing in uptake, such as cellulosic ethanol which uses the stems, leaves etc of the corn plant and can potentially use most types of organic plant waste. In years to come i'm sure that your lawnmower will have the ability to use the very grass that it cuts, as the fuel to drive it. Exciting huh?
But for the now, most ethanol is:
A) Made from corn cobs therefore taking a direct amount of food out of the supply chain
B) Produces less energy than it uses
C) Uses large amounts of water in its production
All very important points. Less food means more pressure for the food being reduced in the supply chain, paricularly for some of the world's poorest people whose diet is largely reliant upon it.
Producing less energy from it than it takes to make means that the fuel is inefficient and therefore is only a stopgap.
And using lots of water to produce it is extremely wasteful of the world's most precious resource.
So this leads back to how to find a wife. If you're reading this and thinking WTF? Please bear with me.
If our society is going to be effected by Peak Oil then will it be best to live in the city, where you potentially have good transport links etc or in the country where in theory you could grow your food and potentially produce your own power?
Of course in the city I'd find it easier to meet people, which may lead to meeting a fantastic woman and all the great things that come from that (hmm Krispy Kremes and Green Tea...), on the other hand I could meet a strong farm gal and dig for victory.
Tough choices huh?
Thursday 8 February 2007
Peak Oil at the Fish Fryer
The Meejah is rife with every hack journo from Arsebags-on-Sea to Pithcairneynockers talking or wittering about 'Global Warming'.
Finally having woken up to what was a really important issue of major significance, five years or more ago the wordists have decided that this is really important.
Sadly the more pressing concern of how to run all this machinery type stuff raises its head now and then and goes relatively unnoticed.
In short, Peak oil. Whassat you say? Peak oil.
My simple exposition:
It is the phenom that we are running low on the black stuff, which our entire civilisation runneth upon and that's like, really bad.
'Ah it's those evil oil corporations' you cry.
Actually, not really, it's the fact that the world uses roughly 84-85 million or so barrels of oil per day in everything from fertiliser, ball point pens, printer ink, food production, medication, heating, power generation and oh transportation.
At most the barrels of oil being pumped out are approx. 85-86 million per day, depending upon the weather, political stability, who's not speaking to whom etc.
With more people in developing nations like India, China, Vietnam etc all wanting to live like us in the 'west', there's more competition for oil to run cars, have more fertiliser, more bal point pens etc.
That's okay says you, we'll run our cars on fish and chip shop oil and cellulosic ethanol:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=cellulosic+ethanol&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Well I wish, unfortunately most of these alternative technologies use more energy to produce than you get from them. Even Cellulosic Ethanol which is one of the best of these, because you use all the non-food parts (waste-stalks, leaves etc) of corn etc.
Oh dear, what are we gonna do? How about Bicycles? Use the car less, live closer to your work, quality public transport (every city over 100, 000 should have a reliable tram system for a start off).
The future means change, change is just different tommorrow than today.
But does this mean that I will have to:
A) meet the wife of my dreams via a chance encounter on public transport?
B) Travel less distance to meet my wife?
C) Import wife from foreign climes and feel guilty about the air miles that the gorgeous pussy-in-boots Svetlana is (at least she's organic)?
Finally having woken up to what was a really important issue of major significance, five years or more ago the wordists have decided that this is really important.
Sadly the more pressing concern of how to run all this machinery type stuff raises its head now and then and goes relatively unnoticed.
In short, Peak oil. Whassat you say? Peak oil.
My simple exposition:
It is the phenom that we are running low on the black stuff, which our entire civilisation runneth upon and that's like, really bad.
'Ah it's those evil oil corporations' you cry.
Actually, not really, it's the fact that the world uses roughly 84-85 million or so barrels of oil per day in everything from fertiliser, ball point pens, printer ink, food production, medication, heating, power generation and oh transportation.
At most the barrels of oil being pumped out are approx. 85-86 million per day, depending upon the weather, political stability, who's not speaking to whom etc.
With more people in developing nations like India, China, Vietnam etc all wanting to live like us in the 'west', there's more competition for oil to run cars, have more fertiliser, more bal point pens etc.
That's okay says you, we'll run our cars on fish and chip shop oil and cellulosic ethanol:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=cellulosic+ethanol&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Well I wish, unfortunately most of these alternative technologies use more energy to produce than you get from them. Even Cellulosic Ethanol which is one of the best of these, because you use all the non-food parts (waste-stalks, leaves etc) of corn etc.
Oh dear, what are we gonna do? How about Bicycles? Use the car less, live closer to your work, quality public transport (every city over 100, 000 should have a reliable tram system for a start off).
The future means change, change is just different tommorrow than today.
But does this mean that I will have to:
A) meet the wife of my dreams via a chance encounter on public transport?
B) Travel less distance to meet my wife?
C) Import wife from foreign climes and feel guilty about the air miles that the gorgeous pussy-in-boots Svetlana is (at least she's organic)?
Monday 5 February 2007
Ah but are you serious?
I've been asked this a few times now, 'Russell, are you serious about this?'.
I don't know whether to be flattered or confuzzled by this question, as yes I am serious.
I am looking for Love in all the right places, even a wife, a life-partner, the butt of my jokes, the joke of my butt.
I guess that a lot of people who know anything about me at all, have a right to ask that question, as up until now, seemingly, I haven't been too bothered about things like marriage.
After all if I'd been serious about it before, they figure, I would have done something about it when I was in a 'serious relationship' a while ago, right?
Well one of life's little ironies is the fact that I didn't feel ready in myself, to make the necessary commitment, but more importantly in terms of how it fitted in with the rest of my life, which has been at times a sort of chaotic mollasses.
Or rather I was approaching readiness and this consists of many things, such as Solvency, Knowing what you want and taking action to get it and getting things sorted so that you don't repeat the same mistakes that you have been making.
And whilst we're on the subject, why do long-term relationships always have to be described as 'serious', like a triple-bypass or very high blood pressure?
As if the sword of Damacles is hanging over your head at every moment going, 'hey don't mess up, else I'll have to cut yah..'
The best things in life are Fun, Pleasure and those Chocolate covered Halva bars that I recently discovered.
So am I serious about this? Only when I have to be.
I don't know whether to be flattered or confuzzled by this question, as yes I am serious.
I am looking for Love in all the right places, even a wife, a life-partner, the butt of my jokes, the joke of my butt.
I guess that a lot of people who know anything about me at all, have a right to ask that question, as up until now, seemingly, I haven't been too bothered about things like marriage.
After all if I'd been serious about it before, they figure, I would have done something about it when I was in a 'serious relationship' a while ago, right?
Well one of life's little ironies is the fact that I didn't feel ready in myself, to make the necessary commitment, but more importantly in terms of how it fitted in with the rest of my life, which has been at times a sort of chaotic mollasses.
Or rather I was approaching readiness and this consists of many things, such as Solvency, Knowing what you want and taking action to get it and getting things sorted so that you don't repeat the same mistakes that you have been making.
And whilst we're on the subject, why do long-term relationships always have to be described as 'serious', like a triple-bypass or very high blood pressure?
As if the sword of Damacles is hanging over your head at every moment going, 'hey don't mess up, else I'll have to cut yah..'
The best things in life are Fun, Pleasure and those Chocolate covered Halva bars that I recently discovered.
So am I serious about this? Only when I have to be.
Friday 2 February 2007
It's apparently official, 'we're all doomed!'.
Well that's what you would be led to believe if you had the misfortune to hear any of the mainstream news reports today. Global Warming is all your fault whitey and make no mistake.
So what can be done? Well you could turn that extra lightbulb off for a start off.
Did you know that the construction industry is one of the most polluting in the world. Having worked as a labourer etc, I can tell you that their attitude to waste is chronic, they simply don't care.
If I can add my own mighty weight to the argument for the minute. I don't feel that we are doomed, but I do feel that we have some major adaptation to do, in terms of Peak oil, in terms of potential Global Warming.
But don't worry the Cheap Oil will run out well before then.
On the wife front, I'm still looking girls and I want to find awife before I am old, grey and mouldy.
Well that's what you would be led to believe if you had the misfortune to hear any of the mainstream news reports today. Global Warming is all your fault whitey and make no mistake.
So what can be done? Well you could turn that extra lightbulb off for a start off.
Did you know that the construction industry is one of the most polluting in the world. Having worked as a labourer etc, I can tell you that their attitude to waste is chronic, they simply don't care.
If I can add my own mighty weight to the argument for the minute. I don't feel that we are doomed, but I do feel that we have some major adaptation to do, in terms of Peak oil, in terms of potential Global Warming.
But don't worry the Cheap Oil will run out well before then.
On the wife front, I'm still looking girls and I want to find awife before I am old, grey and mouldy.
Wednesday 31 January 2007
Ger Postulates
Well the league of international superwives have not put out the word yet and they are not currently beating a path to my door, mores the pity.
Come on wives where are you all? I'm talking about a lifetime of happiness going cheap to the right punter...
I walked home along the beach in the twilight this evening, the sea calmer than it has been of late, but still mighty in its power. A clear view across Carmarthen Bay and out into the ocean.
I feel lucky when I come back along the beach, the lights of the local town down one end and the local headland at the other. There are some gorgeous beaches around here be that over Gower side or Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.
I have to let you into a secret though, Ceridigion kicks all their butty-bachs.
The beach makes me feel that there is hope and progress to be made. It allows me to feel that despite everything, or maybe in spite of it, it is worth making plans (even though god laughs) and is worth idealising your life, in order to achieve and do the things you want, instead of settling for the grey soup of mundanity.
I was coming back home via the local spit and sawdust gym. We are lucky to have such a place in a relatively small community and it is cheap, run by the members and provides a focal point for many aspects of local life (if you ever need a builder...)
I goto the gym because it sorts my head out, it turns off the noise and lets me see things clearly again, it also helps me sleep deep and wake up excellent. I don't do it to bodybuild, as I'm not that interested in the aesthetics of it, more the discipline and effect.
By the way, all you hordes reading this, if anyone needs a copywriter/ writer/ scriptwriter/ marketer etc, come to me, I'm excellent you know.
Come on wives where are you all? I'm talking about a lifetime of happiness going cheap to the right punter...
I walked home along the beach in the twilight this evening, the sea calmer than it has been of late, but still mighty in its power. A clear view across Carmarthen Bay and out into the ocean.
I feel lucky when I come back along the beach, the lights of the local town down one end and the local headland at the other. There are some gorgeous beaches around here be that over Gower side or Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.
I have to let you into a secret though, Ceridigion kicks all their butty-bachs.
The beach makes me feel that there is hope and progress to be made. It allows me to feel that despite everything, or maybe in spite of it, it is worth making plans (even though god laughs) and is worth idealising your life, in order to achieve and do the things you want, instead of settling for the grey soup of mundanity.
I was coming back home via the local spit and sawdust gym. We are lucky to have such a place in a relatively small community and it is cheap, run by the members and provides a focal point for many aspects of local life (if you ever need a builder...)
I goto the gym because it sorts my head out, it turns off the noise and lets me see things clearly again, it also helps me sleep deep and wake up excellent. I don't do it to bodybuild, as I'm not that interested in the aesthetics of it, more the discipline and effect.
By the way, all you hordes reading this, if anyone needs a copywriter/ writer/ scriptwriter/ marketer etc, come to me, I'm excellent you know.
Monday 29 January 2007
I should be so lucky, lucky lucky lucky
As a resting scriptwriter (i'm not resting too much believe me) I was lucky enough to have a very productive day emailing scripts to potential producer partners.
There isn't a day that goes by, when I don't wonder at how much of a boon the internet is. It allows you to communicate with many people at the touch of a button, it allows you to send documents, images, ecards, job applications.
It allows you to access maps, search engines, gaming and those video clips of people doing naughty things with donkeys.
All in all it is a marvellous array of technology. A great leap forward for Min and the children of Min.
Whilst walking around the village I currently living in, I was struck by how in a lot of ways, I am very lucky to live here and that how I know that I won't be staying here that much longer. This both gladdens and saddens me.
As even though each day offers a selection of brilliance and turbulence, the environment, the situation, the citing are all gorgeous, even in the sometimes grey and often cold winter.
The village itself is a really beautiful place and despite the burgeoning amounts of houses bought and kept as holiday homes and second homes here, there is still a real sense of community.
What communities like this need though is the lifeblood of a range of ages, abilities, entrepreneurialism and decent affordable housing for all.
They need to be able to offer something to a broad range of folk, economic viability to their indigenous residents and services contained within their area, in order to cut down upon unneccessary transport and travel.
They also need to be able to retain the local population who are born and bred here, without restricting or denying access to those who are 'outsiders' or 'incomers' be that from other nations (England for example), or from different parts of the same country.
At present they're not managing to do this, the housing market here is beyond the scope of the majority of people born and bred here. And whilst I wouldn't deny the right of those who are not from here, to buy a house here, I can see for myself the effect, firsthand.
Communities like this should not become holiday home ghost towns and yet when out walking I can pass many houses, not all of them large, that have no-one living in them for the vast majority of every year, standing silent, locked up, serving no purpose.
Is the solution free-market capitalism or should small communites take action to ensure that don't become a shell-like replica of what they once were? Is there a bridge between the two, there must be, surely?
What then is the answer? Is there one, or are there many?
There isn't a day that goes by, when I don't wonder at how much of a boon the internet is. It allows you to communicate with many people at the touch of a button, it allows you to send documents, images, ecards, job applications.
It allows you to access maps, search engines, gaming and those video clips of people doing naughty things with donkeys.
All in all it is a marvellous array of technology. A great leap forward for Min and the children of Min.
Whilst walking around the village I currently living in, I was struck by how in a lot of ways, I am very lucky to live here and that how I know that I won't be staying here that much longer. This both gladdens and saddens me.
As even though each day offers a selection of brilliance and turbulence, the environment, the situation, the citing are all gorgeous, even in the sometimes grey and often cold winter.
The village itself is a really beautiful place and despite the burgeoning amounts of houses bought and kept as holiday homes and second homes here, there is still a real sense of community.
What communities like this need though is the lifeblood of a range of ages, abilities, entrepreneurialism and decent affordable housing for all.
They need to be able to offer something to a broad range of folk, economic viability to their indigenous residents and services contained within their area, in order to cut down upon unneccessary transport and travel.
They also need to be able to retain the local population who are born and bred here, without restricting or denying access to those who are 'outsiders' or 'incomers' be that from other nations (England for example), or from different parts of the same country.
At present they're not managing to do this, the housing market here is beyond the scope of the majority of people born and bred here. And whilst I wouldn't deny the right of those who are not from here, to buy a house here, I can see for myself the effect, firsthand.
Communities like this should not become holiday home ghost towns and yet when out walking I can pass many houses, not all of them large, that have no-one living in them for the vast majority of every year, standing silent, locked up, serving no purpose.
Is the solution free-market capitalism or should small communites take action to ensure that don't become a shell-like replica of what they once were? Is there a bridge between the two, there must be, surely?
What then is the answer? Is there one, or are there many?
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