All Quiet on the Industrial Front

People are probably wondering now, what use could a blog on peak oil be - the oil bubble has finally burst and we are seeing a return to normal prices, let the carbon monoxide flow... As consumer confidence perks it's time to go hoc a new plasma screen TV.

I could go on, I could attempt a rebut of the gloating haha's I hear from the students of professor Pangloss. But, to be honest James Kunster and Tom Whipple do it better than me.

The Twilight of Mechanized Lumpenleisure.
James Howard Kunstler
Among the many wonders and marvels of American life in the twentieth century, especially after World War Two, when our country ruled much of the world economically, was the astounding rise in standards of living among social classes who had hardly known leisure or had a dollar to spare on the accoutrements of it from time immemorial.

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The Peak Oil Crisis: Turning Points
Tom Whipple
From a peak oil perspective, the last couple of weeks seemed pretty quiet. Oil prices continued to drift down into the $50s amid gloats from peak oil skeptics. The Dow Jones climbed to all-time highs, in part, due to optimism the "oil bubble" had finally burst and there would be lower inflation and lower interest rates ahead.

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For those that were interested, the PhD topic, no not to do with Peak Oil. Have a read of Luciano Floridi's Problems in the Philosophy of Information, problem 13 and 14 in particular. Should epistemology be based upon a theory of information? Is science reducible to information modelling. (exciting stuff).

Steve