"Worst of all, we're now stuck with winter storm Linus, which TWC says comes from Greek mythology, meaning "a son of Apollo known as a great musician," but everyone knows is a meek character from Peanuts."Enough snark. Follow over the jump for the forecast from the National Weather Service.
More than 100,000 people attended the final day of the auto show.Also, more than 800,000 people attended the entire event, the most in at least a dozen years. I'm glad it was a success, even if this year's show highlighted a lot more gas guzzlers and and fewer energy efficient cars. My students managed to have a fun and educational time anyway.
When I drove through my old neighborhood, those three stations were still selling regular for $1.75, although the corner station had charged into No Man's Land for the second time since my previous report to $1.99. The previous advance ended with an ignominious retreat to $1.75, but I'm not so sure this one will. GasBuddy shows an actual price spike in the Detroit market, with the average price rising from $1.83 on Wednesday to $1.90 on Friday--this after hitting a low of $1.81 on the 15th, followed by a week of stability at $1.83. A price of $1.79 to $1.85 would be much more in line with the local price environment than $1.75, so I expect prices will start rising. It's about time; the gas price roller coaster usually begins its ascent in late December.Sure enough, when I drove through my old neighborhood yesterday,* the corner station was holding its position at $1.99. No ignominious retreat there. Meanwhile the three stations down the street were all selling regular for $1.89. That's actually higher than I expected. In fact, when I checked GasBuddy yesterday, the Detroit average was $1.94, where it stands today. It's actually a few cents too high; the $1.85 I predicted would have been more in line with the local price environment. Just the same, I don't expect those three stations to lower their price, although the old corner station will probably match them by the end of the week.
The Strati, a fully functional 3D printed car, is being printed, built, and driven by this Saturday.The demonstration was a success, as GeoBeats by way of Gadgetsbuzz reported in World's First 3D Printed Car.
Local Motors recently created a 3D printed car called Strati. The vehicle was made during the six-day long International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago.That was what happened in Chicago last September. For what happened last week in Detroit that got my students so excited, I refer my readers to The Verge: Local Motors just 3D-printed a car live at an auto show.
Local Motors is building the Strati right on the floor of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit with printing and routing equipment that it brought in just for the occasion. The machines, encapsulated in glass for safety's sake, don't take much more room than a very small apartment (or a very big closet, depending on how you look at it).The car could be ready for sale to customers as early as later this year. We live in Science-Fiction Times, or as my friend Nebris puts it, SciFi is Now.
A half-kilometer-long asteroid will fly past earth on Monday (January 26), approaching as close as 1.2 million km from the planet, about three times the distance from earth to the moon.The clip actually mentions the approach of Apophis, although not by that name, in 2027 as the next scheduled close fly-by. However, I'm sure there will be lots of asteroids that will come closer and not be seen until a few days before the encounter between now and then. May none of them result in an example of in Russia, space explore you.
A surprising guest is coming to Season 6 of THE WALKING DEAD… find out who, plus more Season 5 details in this EXCLUSIVE scoop on Nerdist News with Jessica Chobot.From what I've read of "Fear the Walking Dead"/"Cobalt," the viewers might just find out what caused the zombie plague, something that I understand won't be revealed in the main show. That could be either satisfying or disappointing. Either way, my wife and I will be watching, especially if the spinoff alternates with the main show.
Don't forget to tune in to the return of The Walking Dead, Sun., Feb. 8th at 9/8c.My wife and I will be sure to DVR the episode, so we'll be watching.
The next chapter in the oil story is more likely to be scarcity rather than just a boomerang back to higher prices. The tipping point for that will come with the inevitable destabilizing of Saudi Arabia, which I believe will happen this year when King Abdullah ibn Abdilaziz, 91, son of Ibn Saud, departs his intensive care throne for the glorious Jannah of virgins and feasts.I don't think Kunstler was actually predicting that His Majesty would die this week, but it certainly made his essay even more timely. It also set the stage for what he'll write the day after tomorrow. I'm sure the royal death will figure prominently in the Monday blog post.
The death of Saudi King Abdullah yesterday will be a non-event for oil prices. There was a quick spike in oil when Abdullah’s death was confirmed, but that quickly faded, and U.S. crude is flat to slightly lower this morning at $46 a barrel. Brent crude is up a pinch to $49.That's pretty much where the market stood at the close on Friday, with Oil-Price.net showing WTI down 72 cents for the day at $45.59 and Brent up 27 cents at $48.79. Brent seems to have found a bottom with the King's death, while WTI is still searching for one.
Officials from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have announced that they have downgraded the world’s prospects by two minutes, placing it three minutes to the apocalyptic midnight, due to worsening global climates and the failure to reduce nuclear weapons.As the report mentioned, this is the closest to midnight the clock has been since 1984. We lived through that, but it was scary. From 1984-1988, I gave thanks at the UCLA-USC football game that I got to see another year. I was that worried about nuclear war ending civilization. May we be as concerned and as lucky this time.
...And we are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we've been in almost 30 years.As for how I feel about what the President said, I'll be a good environmentalist and recycle.
...At this moment, with a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy production, we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth. It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next fifteen years, and for decades to come.
...We believed we could reduce our dependence on foreign oil and protect our planet. And today, America is number one in oil and gas. America is number one in wind power. Every three weeks, we bring online as much solar power as we did in all of 2008.
21st century businesses need 21st century infrastructure...So let's set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline; let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year and make this country stronger for decades to come.
...And no challenge, no challenge, poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.
2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record.
Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does: 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.
I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists, that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist either. But you know what? I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA and at NOAA and at our major universities, and the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we don’t act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.
As I've mentioned multiple times, but most appropriately last year at this time in Obama loved science in the State of the Union, "President Obama really likes the idea of sustainable development packaged as making America competitive, and his State of the Union address reinforced that meme." He did it again this year and I'm glad he did.
I’m delighted to announce a new contest here on The Archdruid Report, the Great Squirrel Case Challenge of 2015. The goal is to come up with the most absurd new energy technology you can think of, and write either the giddily dishonest corporate press release or the absurdly sycophantic media article announcing it to the world. If you or a friend can Photoshop an image or two of your proposed nonsolution to the world’s energy needs, that’s all the better. Post your press release or media article on your blog if you have one; if you don’t, you can get one for free from Blogspot or Wordpress. Post a link to your piece in the comments section of this blog.It took me until the next day to come up with an idea, which I mentioned to my students in the context of recovering waste energy--power from poop. What I told them involved two methods to retrieve energy from sewers. First, recover all the waste heat from hot water flushed down the drain into sewers as well as the heat produced by decomposition. Second, recover the methane from sewage decomposition and use it to supplement natural gas. Those ideas grossed out my students, which told me I was on the right path. My concerns are that these are not original ideas and they might actually be too practical to qualify for the contest. Even so, they sound ridiculous to most people, and therefore might sneak on by.
Entries must be posted here by February 28, 2012.
Last year, my number one snub was "Blackfish.". This year, It's probably the paucity of nominations for "Selma." I'll have more to say about that tomorrow for MLK Day.That's today. "Selma" earned four nominations at the Golden Globes, Best Movie (Drama), Best Director for Ava Duvernay, Best Actor for David Oyelowo, and Best Original Song for "Glory." Of those, it won only one award, Best Original Song.
The "Selma" (near) shutout. OK, so it got original song and did squeeze out a best picture nomination. But Ava DuVernay didn’t get nominated for director, and David Oyelowo, regarded by many as giving the best performance of the year for his turn as Martin Luther King Jr., was nowhere to be found amid a strong actor list. Considering the civil rights drama is one of the most well-reviewed films of the year, its absence in many of the major categories easily represents one of the year’s biggest snubs.That's the bad news. The good news is that Glory was the only song among the Golden Globe nominees to also be nominated for an Academy Award. To celebrate both the day and the possibility that it could follow in the footsteps of "Skyfall" by winning Best Song at both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, I present it again.
The results of the 2015 Academy Award nominations are in, we're less than thrilled, Dick Poop drops in to convey his disappointment at the announcement error, and your Best Worst Comment of the Week on Nerdist News WTFridays with Jessica Chobot.Last year, my number one snub was "Blackfish.". This year, It's probably the paucity of nominations for "Selma." I'll have more to say about that tomorrow for MLK Day.
[S]ometime during the first week of classes in January 1990, I got my first email account at the University of Michigan. In lieu of a longer post, I have two things to say. First, time flies. Second, can any of you top that?That week is now 25 years in the past, so I've spent the past quarter-century, which is most of my adult life, on the Internet. At the time, I was one of about 1% of the U.S. population using the Internet, as the follow graph shows.
"If you are a person that is affected by these laws that discriminate against same-sex couples and their families -- if you are April and Jayne and their children -- this cannot possibly come soon enough," said Nessel, who believes the same-sex marriage issue "be decided once and for all, and that it apply to all 50 states of the union.Good luck, and skillful arguing before the bench.
Wearables continue to be a big trend in the technology industry.This report reminded me that I had six months of news about wearable tech in my archives. Follow over the jump to read and watch it.
Technology you can throw on your wrist, foot, ear, head to track x, y or z--you name it and it appears to be cooking at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
Gas might have just a little way down to go before heading up again. Gas Buddy suggests that's possible, too, as the Detroit average is $1.85. I suppose the stations in my old neighborhood could drop down to $1.75, but lower than that would be pushing it.I drove past all the stations in my old neighborhood late yesterday and all three stations down the street had lowered their price for regular to $1.75. Go me. The corner station was still at $1.79, but I expect them to join the rest shortly.
When I returned to the old house yesterday, the corner station had jacked up its price to $1.99. I didn't expect that much of a price increase!I ended up being right about that. The corner station lowered its price when I returned on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, I was wrong about how far it would go and what effect its price would have on the other stations in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the three stations down the street actually lowered their price for regular to $1.83. Based on the Detroit average of $1.92 from Gas Buddy, that's a reasonable level. It should pull the corner station down by the end of the week.
As for what that price will be, I'd be surprised if it were lower than $1.83. Prices all across the metro area are increasing, with Monday's average hitting a bottom of $1.90 before rising more than two cents Tuesday. I wouldn't be surprised if the neighborhood stations stabilize between $1.85 and $1.89 by Saturday.Instead of the corner station pulling the other stations' prices up, the other stations pulled the corner station's price down. This weekend, all four outlets were selling regular for $1.79. That's the lowest I've seen the three stations down the street and only a penny higher than the low for the corner station. I suppose I should have paid more attention to the price movements at the wholesale level than to the local retail environment.
Tuesday's close for WTI was $47.93, $2.11 lower than the $50 WOOD-TV reported for Monday, which had been the price floor for the past couple of weeks. Brent also fell through its previous support level of $55, closing at $51.10. RBOB gasoline followed suit, closing at $1.35, a dime lower than it for the first report of the year.Oil ended up in Wednesday's trading, as Reuters reported Oil snaps four-day losing streak after U.S. crude stockpiles drop.
Oil closed up on Wednesday for the first time in five days as traders took stock of the market's rout after crude prices lost nearly 10 percent over two days and benchmark Brent fell to below $50 a barrel.Those turned out to be dead cat bounces, as Oil-Price.Net lists Friday's closes for WTI and Brent as $48.36 and $50.11, respectively. In addition, RBOB is down to $1.32. Gas might have just a little way down to go before heading up again.
...
Brent's front-month contract LCOc1 settled at $51.15 a barrel, up 5 cents from Tuesday's close. It hit a session low of $49.66 in European trade, after euro zone consumer prices in December fell by more than expected.
U.S. crude CLc1 settled up 72 cents at $48.65, after rallying earlier to $49.31.
I linked to the law is an ass with music by Leonard Cohen in my comment. That got a lot of responses two weeks later, a reaction that deserves a blog entry of its own.Here's the relevant portion of my comment, which refers back to A picture of hope and innocence from 40 years ago.
After Zimmerman was acquitted, I said I would post "the law is an ass with music by Leonard Cohen." I found something else to post instead. This time, I followed through. Cohen's "Everybody Knows" as performed by Concrete Blonde seemed like a good response to the grand jury decision, as well as to the general situation.The readers remembered my posting the link to the song and mentioned that in the comments to Crash-O-Matic Finance, beginning with dannyboy.
"Everybody knows.DannyBoy invited me to take a bow, so I did.
Hat tip to whomever it was that linked the Leonard Cohen song of the same title.
To whomever it may concern: Please take a bow for that link a couple of weeks ago. It kinda changed my perspective."
Thank you. That was me. I linked to it in The law is an ass with music by Leonard Cohen in the comments to Ferguson. I'm glad you and ozone enjoyed and appreciated it.That wasn't the only commenter at Kunstler's blog who enjoyed the song. Follow over the jump for the rest.
Militarized police is one of a litany of issues and the one from these scandals that should be of concern for everyone. The country is going to become more repressive in order to control the people in order to stave off collapse. That's not a good thing. As a friend of mine says, we have been 80% Huxley and 20% Orwell for decades, but the proportion of Orwell has been increasing lately. Speaking of which, the only person indicted in the Garner case was the person who recorded the arrest. Let that sink in.A reader named Petro also left a comment on the same topic.
And look at how easily the citizenry acquiesced in the Boston area a couple years ago. Tanks rolled down the streets and officers dressed like they were in battle in Afghanistan yelled at people to get off their porches and into their houses, as this "army" searched for two young suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. This was over a huge area-whole towns.Follow over the jump for my response.
We're joined by the Michigan Humane Society to talk about cold weather pet care.My dogs have reached the stage of walking outside, doing their business, and immediately coming inside. That's wise of them.
If it feels too cold outside for you today, it's also too cold for your pet.
Watch Nikki make this drink, The Elsa Cocktail - based on the movie Frozen!!Stay warm, everyone, even if you're making the "Frozen" drink!
I found a recording of the Glassmen playing "Javelin" to both open and close a performance: Glassmen 2002 - Toledo Show Encore, June 15.One of Torke's most frequently performed orchestral pieces is Javelin (1994), a "sonic olympiad" commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympics in celebration of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary season. In the spring of 1996, two different recordings of Javelin were simultaneously released a rare occurrence for a contemporary composition. The first recording, featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Yoel Levi, was the fourth all-Torke CD to be released by Decca's Argo label. The second recording is on Sony Classical's Summon the Heroes, the official centenary Olympics album featuring the Boston Pops conducted by John Williams, which reached the Number One position on Billboard's Classical Crossover chart.From the biography of the composer, Michael Torke.
I chose this piece because three drum corps, Glassmen, Carolina Crown, and Troopers, played arrangements of this music in 2002. After listening to this inspiring music all summer, I associated it with an act of musical defiance in the face of terror. After the events of yesterday, I listened to it again in the same spirit and found it heartening. I hope you do, too.
On Saturday, I walked past the corner station and the price was $1.78. Later, I drove past the three stations down the street and all of them were selling regular for $1.85. These are not only the lowest prices I've seen for them since I moved here, but also the first time I recall prices continuing to drop after the new year.On my way to the new house Monday morning, the corner station was still selling regular at $1.78, so I did exactly what I said I would do; I filled up Ruby's tank.* It was a good thing I did. When I returned to the old house yesterday, the corner station had jacked up its price to $1.99. I didn't expect that much of a price increase!
As for which of the prices, $1.78 or $1.85 is more reasonable, it's the latter, as the Detroit average is $1.94 and holding steady for two days. $1.85 is right on target, while $1.78 is well below what the market suggests it should be. I would buy gas at the corner the next chance I get before the price rises.
In 2014, NASA took significant steps on the agency’s journey to Mars -- testing cutting-edge technologies and making scientific discoveries while studying our changing Earth and the infinite universe as the agency made progress on the next generation of air travel. Here’s a look at some of the top NASA stories of the year!That's the long version. Here's the short version: NASA 2014.
As 2014 comes to a close we look back on a few of the events that took place this year at NASA.As one can see, NASA accentuated the positive, highlighting the Orion test flight. That mission contrasts with the two disasters one after another described in a bad week for private space. Those were not highlights of the year in space, although they were big stories.
From original sci-fi dramas to Marvel’s blockbuster superhero movies, join Jessica Chobot as we count down the Top 5 Nerd Movies of 2014 on Nerdist News.I saw two of these movies, "Snowpiercer" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." "Snowpiercer" was better as art, "Guardians of the Galaxy" was better as entertainment. Both were excellent in their own way and I recommend both. In addition, my wife loves the songs used in the sound track.
Last Friday, the news was $1.99 gas arrives in my neighborhood. Today, the price at all four stations is $1.95. Yesterday, the three stations down the street lowered regular to that price while the corner station was at $1.99. Today, the corner station matched them. I expect that's where the local price of gas will end the year.That's exactly what happened. The corner station remained at $1.95 through New Year's Day.
Gas Buddy supports my expectation, as the national average rose slightly from $2.27 yesterday to $2.28 today, a move mirrored by the Detroit average, which also rose slightly from $2.02 to $2.03 today. I suppose the price could drop to $1.93 tomorrow, but that would be both counter to the trend and unexpected heading into a holiday. Maybe Friday or Saturday, should the metro mean remain steady.The price did drop on Friday and probably Saturday, too. When I looked at the corner station on Friday, I could tell that its price for regular had gone down to a number ending in eight. It looked like $1.88, but my wife was driving so I didn't get close enough to be sure. On Saturday, I walked past the corner station and the price was $1.78. Later, I drove past the three stations down the street and all of them were selling regular for $1.85. These are not only the lowest prices I've seen for them since I moved here, but also the first time I recall prices continuing to drop after the new year.
Oil-Price.Net suggests that one or two price drops are possible, as both crude oil indexes (indices?) have broken through support. WTI dropped below $55 while Brent fell through $60. However, both may have hit bottom as both rose today, WTI $0.51 to $54.12 and Brent $0.02 to $57.90.Those price rises ended up being dead cat bounces, as WTI closed on Friday at $52.69 and Brent ended trading for the week at $56.42. Support for WTI is now $50 and the floor for Brent appears to be $55. I really expect prices will not fall any lower than those prices. Then again, I've been wrong before. Stay tuned.
There were a bunch of animal discoveries in the past year, but these 6 have to be our favorites!The frog wasn't particularly weird, but I do understand why DNews would find it interesting.
This was a banner year for the bizarre, with a snake virgin birth, an extremely rare black sea devil, and a real-life unicorn making headlines in Weird & Wild.Now, those are weird, even if they aren't new species.
Luckily for our fans, we've rounded up our editors' picks of the ten best weird stories of 2014.
Every New Year, people make resolutions to change their life. What is the secret to keeping them?There, a few, realistic, concrete resolutions. I can live with that. As for posting my goals here, as long as they're related to sustainability, such as "keep my driving down," I've been doing that for years. I feel it's been successful in getting me to watch how much I use my car.
Follow over the jump for the relevant text from Form Some New Habits With January's NaBloPoMo.January's NaBloPoMo Theme: HABIT!
It's that time of year when you look at your habits: which ones you want to break, which ones you want to keep, and which ones you need to start.
It can be overwhelming if you go about trying to build or break a habit alone, but NaBloPoMo gives you a built-in set of cheerleaders. By setting the habit of blogging daily, you also end up picking up new readers as well as new blogs to read. NaBloPoMo is so much more than a writing challenge; it's also a supportive community.
So let's cheer each other on as we work on our habits this month. We'll be delving deep with blog posts, looking at what we do well and what we need to start doing. And hopefully, by the end of January, the resolutions you've made will be firmly in place, ready to kick off a wonderful 2015.
You can read more about the new NaBloPoMo theme on our opening post.
We would like to thank all of you for watching NASA Television in 2014 and wish you a very happy New Year.NASA Television is not alone. The NASA astronauts on the ISS wish all of us on Earth Happy New Year from the International Space Station.
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA wish the world a happy New Year during downlink messages from the orbital complex on Dec. 17. Wilmore has been aboard the research lab since late September and will remain in orbit until mid-March 2015. Virts arrived at the station in late November and will stay until mid-May 2015.They get to ring in the New Year 16 times in 24 hours! I might only do that twice more today.
