US vs. EU

It was interesting to see the economy report on the news tonight. When France elected a Socialist leader, it caused 401Ks to drop drastically. This made the news show the difference in what the US government did to help the economy afloat in 2008 vs. what the EU governments did.

While the US had the bailout and increased government spending, England, France, and Germany chose to cut what they could only. Today, the US is as much out of trouble as it really could be while the big three are facing double dip recessions and/or high unemployment.

Looks like 10 points to the Democrats.

Big Oil

This is important. I know that you've all seen the comercials recently about how Obama is against Big Oil because he won't let them drill off shore or up in Alaska or whereever they want to put their tankers, and how this is hurting the economy because gas prices are just increasing, yadda, yadda, yadda. Well, here's what you really need to understand.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, nor do I claim to be. This is more a matter of common sense in action.

What Big Oil wants is the rights to own said tracts of land and sea. Currently, all the land they want belongs to the government (and therefore technically everyone) for them to do with as they see fit. Yes, there may or may not be oil, coal, natural gas, the Holy Grail, located under the ground, but that is beside the point. What Big Oil/Natural Gas/Coal/Catholic Church want government to do is to let them be the sole owner of those lands so that they can do what they want to, when they want. This includes, but isn't limited to, keeping their competators from owning the land and removing the resources.

What you need to look out for is what exactly the plans are of the companies that want to use the land. The key phrase is whether they are actively planning to drill or if it's just "exploration". I have no qualms about drilling when the drilling is going to happen within the next 5 years because that's how long it takes to build a platform. But VA's Governor is trying desperately to "open Virginia's coast to off-shore drilling"--which since there's a pretty hefty wait before any oil will come up, I can't help but wonder how this drilling will help TODAY to bring down gas prices. Unless it's bringing down gas prices because some company knows that when they need it, they'll have that much supply waiting for them.

I challenge you to find out something. I want you to know how much land and sea area BP, Shell, and Exxon currently own but are not drilling. Separately, how many acres do they have that have the pumps currently in place, but aren't pumping even though they haven't been exhausted. Do these companies REALLY need access to more acreage or are they out to get something that will hurt their competators and therefore our economy.

Wondering Aloud.

It's 1982 and Ellen Goodman from the Washington Post Writers Group was tasked with writing a review to put on the back of my book Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel. She wrote, "In this new season of migration, when the economy acts like a centrifuge, it is equally challenging to keep a family together..."

As I wasn't alive in 1982, I can't really say what the economy was like. Nor can I say much about the "new season of migration". But I can say something about a centrifuge. I've used one probably 2 dozen times during the 7 weeks of bio-lab I've had so far and will probably use it more in the coming weeks. A centrifuge literally spins around in circles causing everything inside your tube to get squished into the tip, creating a little pellet. I'm not sure how this can describe an economy. Unless, of course, she means that all the wealth got spun around in circles until it all ended up in the hands of a very few people (making up that pellet). Ah well. If you could provide some insight, that would be much appreciated.

On a similar, but probably not related note, there was a funny moment in my lecture course today. The professor that was speaking had a total brain fart when describing initial thoughts about coral reefs. Apparently early scientists of the species thought that the corals were..."umm....what's the name for, uhh, vegetarians?" "Herbivores" (said someone from the audience).  "Thank-you" (from the professor). It was a great lecture. He told us about 2 research projects he worked on measuring the affects of stresses on coral reefs (increased amount of nutrients, increased water temperatures, increased sediment runoff, etc). One was in Israel where they worked out of a military tent while the military vessels sailed past checking on their work. The other was off the coast of Key Largo, FL where they lived 80m under the ocean surface for 10 days with a broken toilet where they had to venture out of the habitat to a separate bubble and "release more nutrients into the ocean column" and then told us of the certain fish that liked to hang around and bit the legs of those using the bathroom. Good times. Oh, and they couldn't have an open flame because they were under pressure, so they had to eat freeze dried astronaut meals for those 10 days.