We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
There is going to be a lot of pain as we transition into whatever the new economy is going to look like.
Just like it hurt to shift from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy, there will be hurt in the shift from industrial to whatever-we-name-the-new-thing economy.
Ron Fourner and Sophe Quinton describe that pain in How Americans Lost Trust in Our Greatest Institutions.
Continue reading “Here’s what the pain of transition to the new economy looks like”
Short answer:
Then: Commodore C-64 plus 10K hard drive
Now: Mid-range desktop computer plus color laser printer with enough left over to buy a 16GB iPad and iPhone 4S.
Previously discussed the first two computers I owned here. I realize that dates me, but it gives me perspective to deeply appreciate how far tech has developed.
Long answer:
Let’s talk round numbers. Half a million barrels of oil a day from each of two new fields, Bakken and Eagle Ford. Minimal production just a few years ago. I’m making a totally wild guess that production will double in the next year or less.
There’s an old game of If such-and-such was its own country, it would be the Xth largest in the world. For example, if California were its own country, only six European countries would be larger in population.
Let’s play that game with just the Bakken and Eagle Ford fields.
Continue reading “Putting the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale fields into perspective”
The oil boom in Williston is of high interest to me since our son is living there and participating in the boom times.
So the discussion on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday was mostly old news to me:
Employment in the manufacturing sector may be down, but the dollar output is high.
Consider two questions:
Would this be your response?
Guess again.
Correct answer: Continue reading “Is the manufacturing sector in the U.S. dead? Not exactly. Actually, not even close to it.”
There’s an astounding increase in oil and gas production from the Eagle Ford region in Texas in the last 15 months. That field starts north of Laredo and runs to the northeast.
Key tidbits from this post by Energy Information Administration – Eagle Ford oil and natural gas well starts rose sharply in first quarter 2012: Continue reading “Eagle Ford – Another amazing oil field to watch”
An organization called Planetary Resources had their big press conference yesterday announcing their plans to mine asteroids for raw materials that will facilitate private space travel. I mentioned this here and here.
I’ve barely started reading their website, but that’s enough for me to ‘get it’. With other work commitments I will have to get back to this later, but wanted to highlight it now.
An article in The New York Times provides more background – In Pursuit of Riches, and Travelers’ Supplies, in the Asteroid Belt
Here’s the concept in one paragraph from Planetary Resources’ web site – mind-boggling amounts of natural resources have yet to be discovered:
Since I am even less trendy than John Bredehoft, I wasn’t aware of this funny line that is making the rounds until he called attention to it in his post, 430 BC and 2012 AD – remarkable parallels, or coincidence?
Greece is collapsing,
Iranians are getting aggressive
& Rome is in disarray.
Welcome back to 430 BC!
Continue reading “The more things change, the more they stay the same as 2,442 years ago”
Previous post discussed mining asteroids to get raw materials for space exploration.
Ponder the idea of private space travel and tie that to mining asteroids for some really wild possibilities for change in the future.
This video from Reason.TV is a bit smart alack, but makes a number of points about the future of private space travel:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXkW8W0-Noc&feature=player_embedded#t=5s]
It’s a short video talking about the final shuttle being retired and moved to DC where it will reside at the Air and Space Museum. Check it out. Here are some of my favorite lines:
Continue reading “Private space travel – connecting some dots”
Here’s a brain stretcher for you.
People with money to back their ideas are thinking about mining asteroids for natural resources.
After you finish chuckling, consider the materials needed for extended space travel and the cost of lifting them from earth into space. How about pulling those resources off an asteroid, since its already in space?
Like I said, it’s a stretch.
And yet…
An outfit called Planetary Resources is planning to research the idea and figure out how to pull it off.
In my previous post, I mentioned the ability to have world-wide reach from my musing. I wasn’t being particularly serious.
And then I noticed the report for locations of visitors.
For the last 30 days on my other blog, Attestation Update (the one talking about U.S. accounting issues) here’s the stats for page views: Continue reading “I have an international reach? Really? Cool!”
David Albrecht provides some background on what the first generation of computers looked like in his expression of gratitude to the innovations of Commodore International’s founder. See his post, Jack Tramiel 1928-2012.
The VIC-20 had 5K of RAM. Yes, 5K, not 6 megs, Not 1 meg. Not even 512K. Try .005 meg of ram. (That Dell machine I linked to has 1,229 times more RAM than a VIC-20.)
You could buy a cartridge to add 3K or even 8K. But there was only one slot.
The Commodore 64 was so named because the breakthrough was it had that much memory. Yes, a whopping 64K RAM. Yes, that’s .06 megs.
I’m taking a meandering trip to look at the cost to cross the Atlantic in 1912 versus 2012.
Previous post looked at the ticket prices for various classes of accommodations on the Titanic and salaries for a variety of positions at the time.
I converted some of those weekly salary numbers into annual amounts and then lined up the positions in terms of which class of accommodations people would likely take. This shows the number of weeks salary it would take to buy a ticket on Titanic.
Continue reading “Cost of crossing Atlantic on Titanic expressed in wages of the time”
While taking some vacation time in San Diego this past weekend, my wife and I went to the Titanic exhibit hosted by the San Diego Natural History Museum. It was fantastic! By the way, the exhibit runs through September 9, 2012 if you are interested.
I plan to use the Titanic as a reference point for change in transportation costs. That idea struck me very strongly on this short vacation in San Diego.
The best starting point for the exhibit is a blog post at Well Heeled Blog. A quick read of the blog and related Facebook page shows the author wishes to remain anonymous.
Continue reading “Titanic exhibit in San Diego – dollars and time to cross the Atlantic”
Found a source for lots of data on oil production in North Dakota. Mentioned this in an earlier post.
Other cool stats: Continue reading “More North Dakota oil production stats”