Ippoippo

Last week, there was a fair bit of reporting about Sharon Stone when she said…

I thought, is that karma – when you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?

… referencing the earthquake in China being about karma in retribution for Chinese actions in Tibet.
Whilst, to me anyway, being a bit of a “mehh, not really that interested”, I did catch some comments on the BBC’s Have Your Say comments on their News website.

I particulary liked this one on the matter…

People are always entitled to their opinion, but opinions, particularly religious ones that have no evidence to back them up, are often dangerous or offensive to people. It’s no more provable than if I claimed it rained yesterday because the Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster was angry with me because I didn’t finish all of my pasta-based dinner.
Ryan Hawthorne, Brighton

A response to Gordon’s views

This is what David Strahan (author of ‘The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man’) had to say about Gordon Browns announcements about the oil price.

Even by the low standards of his Government, Gordon Brown’s recent pronouncements on oil have been surprising. Writing in a national newspaper on Wednesday, he argued that the price of a barrel had soared to $135 because of barriers to production that are “technical, financial and political”.
There are problems here, sure enough, but the word he left out was “geological”, and the omission is crucial. It means he really doesn’t understand the profundity of the current crisis, and explains why panicky initiatives are bound to fail.

F@*%ing idiot economists

There were two stories reported here and here.

Something caught my attention in the second one…

Others assume the reverse: that the price is bound to keep rising indefinitely, since supplies of oil are running short. The majority of the world’s crude, according to believers in “peak oil”, has been discovered and is already being exploited. At any rate, the size of new fields is diminishing. So production will soon reach a pinnacle, if it has not done so already, and then quickly decline, no matter what governments do.

As different as these theories are, they share a conviction that something has gone badly wrong with the market for oil. High prices are seen as proof of some sort of breakdown. Yet the evidence suggests that, to the contrary, the rising price is beginning to curb demand and increase supply, just as the textbooks say it should.

Woooaaaa, what happened to basic common sense in a closed system and a finite resource.
How can decreased demand result in more of a finite source becoming magically available??

For the last few days, there’s been a series of reports from various oil companies.

First up was Shell.
What caught the attention of most people on the street was

The Anglo-Dutch oil firm Royal Dutch Shell has reported annual profits of $27.56bn (£13.9bn), a record for a UK-listed company.

This caused much shouting because it is felt that the oil companies are profiteering from the high price of oil.

However, there was something else reported that caught my attention (and that of a lot of peak-niks).

But there is concern among analysts that Shell has delayed publishing figures showing its oil reserves.

Why did they delay?? Bad news, or genuine reporting issues which they wanted to rectify before issuing a report?

Later on Friday, Exxon joined in the fun.

The world’s largest publically listed company, the oil giant Exxon Mobil, has reported $40.6bn (£20.4bn) net profits during 2007, a record for a US company.

However, once again, there are potential future production issues.

But some analysts said looking ahead the issue of production could pose a problem.
Chris MacDonald at WHG Funds said: “If they are spending $21bn a year on capital expenditure and they can’t grow production….It does not bode well for the industry in general.”

So, today, it was BP’s turn.
Ahh, not so ‘good’.

The oil giant BP has reported “very disappointing” profits as refining margins were squeezed and costs rose.
Replacement cost profits for the fourth quarter fell to $2.9bn (£1.4bn) from $3.8bn, sending annual profits to $17.29bn - marking a 22% fall on 2006.

But once, again, I’m interested in future production.

Looking ahead, BP forecast a reserve replacement ratio of more than 100% for the fourteenth year in a row.

The replacement ratio is a key figure for oil companies, showing how much oil they have discovered compared with the amount they have extracted.

I’m intrigued by that one actually. Something I will have to investigate further.

With all these reports, there was a response from Jeremy Leggett in the Guardian today too.

Economists tend not to see the problem. As the oil price goes up, they assume more cash will be available for exploration, the oil majors will duly explore, and they will find more oil. But if so, why have the big five oil companies cut exploration spending in real terms? ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips used more than half their increased operating cashflow between 1998 and 2006 not on exploration but on share buybacks and dividends. Do they know something the economists don’t?

Less doom and gloom

The island of Eigg provides us with something to be cheerful about.

A combined hydro-electric, wind and solar powered system will supply continuous power to the light bulbs, computers and washing machines of the island’s 71 properties via a six-mile network of cables.

Yep. Osaka Police lived up to their reputation of being the worst in Japan, when they decided that they needed 460 Patrol Cars (and a helicopter) to chase down a lone car (so that’s 2240 officers versus one person).
To make things more embarrassing for them, they didn’t even catch the guy… who had to crash off before the police got their hands on him.

There’s some footage over at Japan Probe.

In other Japan news…

Nessie

Now, I have to admit that this looks quite cool.

Kobe Beef… don’t let Hugh F-W see this

In recent weeks, there has been a fair bit on British TV about animal welfare when it comes to the production of food. This has included Chickens on Channel 4, and young animals (Calfs for Veal, Suckling Piglets and Kids etc) on BBC3.

Well, this is quite an interesting article on Kobe beef, which is rather well known.
Link here.

In fact, this is not even a new story, as this was covered back a few years ago.

I guess Westerners just want to remember the old stereotype image of pampered cows, getting pissed on beer, being massaged and having a very nice life…. rather than the reality.

You know when there is a recession… (or one brewing up)…

When the Japanese ‘Entertainment Industry’ goes through a downturn.

“Naturally the rise in oil prices will impact on the sex business,” remarks analyst Takashi Kadokura, who for over a decade has specialized in researching Japan’s underground economy. “At ’soaplands’ and fashion health massage shops, increases in fixed costs like electricity and gas will have to be passed on to customers.”

Take the price of the Type-A heavy oil used to fire the water boilers at soaplands, which Kadokura notes has leaped upwards from 66 yen a liter at the start of 2007 to around 80 yen a liter by November. As a result, many soaplands have boosted their admittance fees.

The true effect of peak oil!