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I have actually thought about that conversation while watching Dark City, which in my book is still the best of that wave of reality questioning movies. But never as an irritant, just a disappointment that Matrix made all the money, could be worse though ExistenZ could have been the big financial winner.

I don’t actually know the tune of the Emily Dickenson song, which is fine because I don’t actually know any her poems either.

Did you see Surrogates? I meant to see it but reality got in the way. Seems to be of that avatar theme you like, looked interesting in spite of being roundly panned.

You should save your comments, they were great. The movies didn’t deserve that rousing defense but it was impressive. I know everything I write is tripe and not worth saving.

No I meant that Obama promised to fix EVERYTHING and bring us HOPE and CHANGE, skittles and unicorns....

I many post this to get a general opinion. I personally do not believe in ‘Peak Oil’ and I think there is good scientific evidence that the earth is continually 'cooking' hydrocarbons deep in it's bowels and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Now ask me if I believe in 'PEAK DEBT'. ;-)

My fault for multitasking,but I`m burning time till Sarah's on the tonight show,see ya.

Look,I don`t have the time to debate as I`m currently busy studying for a final tomorrow, but go to this thread, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2360255/posts oh,and according to the estimate,they say about 500 billion barrels are recoverable from the Bakken reserves alone,my bad.

Just the Bakken fields alone have an estimated 3.65 billion barrels, ... and anyone willing to do a little research will find that if the enviro-fascists backed off,we`d be self sufficient, as far as oil and gas are concerned, for some time to come.

My research says that if all the Bakken oil was recoverable AND we extracted all the oil from ANWAR, these would allow us to be self-sufficient in oil for less than two years.

US oil consumption in 2007 was about 20 million barrels a day - 1/4 the world total.

Your typical Obama lover.

Note that thats not OUR oil usage rate,and thats JUST the Bakken deposit.Add all the other reserves we do have, along with possible coal liquefaction and methane,WE could be self sufficient for some time to come.Sure beats the hell out of wind mills.

I wasn’t comparing you to him!

It's cool. I didn't think you were. But the thought occurred to me while I was writing my response to you.

Often we arrive at truths or important questions in the act of creation. I can try to 'game out' a story in my head but it is usually when I am in the act of writing that something profound will come bubbling up. I've written a lot of personal essays over time that started out meaning to be one thing but once the pen got on the paper a different truth was revealed. You know what I mean, yes?

You mention irony. I have a character in a story that doesn't understand irony- just can't get his mind around it. He's always trying though. 'That's irony, right?' he's always asking. He never gets it right though. When he finally does get it right, it's only because he asks the question at the right time, not because he really understands it. He asked out of habit.

Kind of like love. Depends how your relationship history has been but sometimes you can look back and say 'yeah, I've been love before' but it's sort of like that guy with the concept of irony. You don't really know what you got right the one time that you can't seem to get right again... You just feel like you got lucky and got the answer right the one time but it might just continue to elude you from now onwards...

Obviously, I'm the type that likes to ramble on paper...

Doesn’t sound like you’re a grumpy guy, and I wasn’t comparing you to him! LOL

Just sometimes—books are better than people. Another LOL Kinda like your dogs—they always love you and they never talk back!

One of my SIL gave me a birthday card a long time ago. The picture was a comfy rocking chair, a small table beside it held a steaming mug and a face down book. Now that’s my idea of a good time! LOL

Also, for the record. I enjoyed the conversation about the Matrix as well- while it was going on. And I’m not angry about it. But it often comes back to me when I am watching the film- and I do rewatch it fairly often. It’s like there’s always that germ of irritation there from this discussion we had about the film that won’t go away. And since it’s one of my favorite films this is a bit distressing.

Sort of like the way it’s upsetting when someone tells you that every poem Emily Dickenson wrote can be sung to the tune of... (do you know the tune? don’t say it in case others haven’t heard it). But it’s true. And I can never recite one of her poems now without that fact lurking in the back of my mind.

Similarly, I would like to go and see this film with a fresh frame of mind without any preconceived ideas or arguments in my head. I might hate it. I might love it. But I want my impressions to be ‘virgin’, if you will.

I promise, I’ll come back and tell you if I liked it or disliked it- on this thread. That’s the best I can do. And I think that’s civilized.

By the way, I saved the conversation to disk because I wanted to save MY comments in that discussion. A bit of an ego thing, but I considered the back and forth worth while and worth referring to later. It doesn’t reflect anger. You could have taken that as a compliment as well. Think about it. It’s like saving old love letters.

Have you ever seen the Twilight Zone episode

Yes, I have seen that one.

Hmmm... I hope I haven't become that grumpy guy :-| I mean... You know? It isn't what I set out to do when I was a kid...

Costs and security fears weigh on Iraq oil auction

"BAGHDAD – Iraqi officials cheered and clapped as the first oil field up for bid went to a major international consortium at the opening of the country's biggest postwar auction Friday. But from there, the chill set in."

P and CNPC nabbed the 17.8 billion barrel Rumaila field in the south.

The Majnoon field is a 12.58-billion barrel behemoth. The Halfaya field contains an estimated 4.1 billion-barrels.

West Qurna Phase 2 with its 12.88 billion barrels in reserves

17.8 + 12.58 + 4.1 + 12.88 billion barrels = 47 billion barrels = 553 days of oil at 85 million barrels/day (world oil consumption).

That's not a lot of time.

He was also #19 on the Cracked list of top 25 men who look like old lesbians.

Have you ever seen the Twilight Zone episode where this grumpy man who likes to read more than he likes people wishes everyone else would go away? There’s some kind of apocalypse and he ends up the only human left alive, and he’s on the steps of some huge library. He drops his glasses and steps on them, and he can’t read without them.

Talk about irony!

If I lived a hundred lifetimes I don’t think I’d ever get all the books read that I want to!

So many books, so little time! LOL

Roger Ebert penned the column.

Ergo, it is false.

Gee, I haven’t seen a “peak oil” post in months. We must be recovering...

The global warming hoax has been uncovered, so we need a new reason for a One World Government. They haven't come up with one yet, so they're back to the old standby, running out of oil.

What has to be figured into oil extraction is the cost of developing newly discovered deposits - which are deeper, in remote locations, less promising geologically - think in terms of the fraction of a barrel of oil required to get a barrel of oil - that fraction will increase. When it costs a barrel of oil to extract a barrel of oil - we’re done.

3.65 billion barrels is about 43 days at the world oil consumption rate of 85 million barrels per day.

You made my point.

The peak oil debate is pointless so long as the apocalyptic left prevents exploration. If we aren’t drilling it, the peak oil point might never get here.

“...unless there’s a lot of investment in drilling, refining, and delivery, all of which have significant lead time, we may be hitting the limits of growth. That doesn’t mean there isn’t more energy available, but it could mean that you can’t extract much more of it per year without an investment we don’t seem willing to make.”

That’s what’s got to change in 2010. Jobs & less debt to foreign countries. There are new fields in ND for example. The Chinese are going to drill in the Gulf off of Cuba. The Russians are going to drill in the North. Let’s drill our own.

After all the lies we’ve heard from government science & statistics, I’m not sure I believe peak oil.

Did you misunderstand this article to mean economic collapse? I don’t understand your comment.

Roger Ebert has the IQ of a nematode.

Bull Sh*t! Just the Bakken fields alone have an estimated 3.65 billion barrels, http://www.oilshalegas.com/bakkenshale.html and anyone willing to do a little research will find that if the enviro-fascists backed off,we`d be self sufficient, as far as oil and gas are concerned, for some time to come.

Funny as i used that excuse [truthfully] when it comes to punctuation]. I’m okay at spelling but with big lapses and typos.

I was out sick when my grammar school taught punctuation, and I suffer the consequences now.

True.

Peak Oil is bunk.

Agreed ... I thought this "Collapse" thing was going to be something really scary like our money is worthless; the Treasury is just printing up bills with nothing backing it; our Government is spending said fake money to pay for Social Security funds that they looted years ago; and the Feds are about ready to pour more gasoline on the fire by their nationalization of the Health Care industry and some other Cap and Tax scam...

Real scary stuff ... not that 'maybe we're out of oil ... or maybe we're not ... but if we were it would be really bad whine...'
pffft ... we have other real nightmares in progress...I personally think we have copious amounts of oil and coal left -- and if just built some nuclear plants this would be even less of an issue... The big nightmare is that we're crippled by incompetents in the government that are hell-bent on driving us back into caves and the dark ages.

Peak Oil is bunk.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how you look at it. If you are talking about ultimate energy available for extraction, there's probably a lot more to go. However, if you are talking about the rate at which it can be delivered, unless there's a lot of investment in drilling, refining, and delivery, all of which have significant lead time, we may be hitting the limits of growth. That doesn't mean there isn't more energy available, but it could mean that you can't extract much more of it per year without an investment we don't seem willing to make.

Peak Oil might very well be true.

The problem is with the assumption that the peak is nigh.

Of course the peak could be in the 2040.

But it might be in the year 2240.

You can never have too many books!

Agree! One good reason I'd like to live for a few more centuries is just to be able to read all the books I'd like to read. I'll never be able to with current lifespan.

If I had to be on a desert island and I could choose between the human companion of my choice or an unlimited library... I'd take the company if it were only for a few weeks or months. But if I'm stuck there forever, I'd probably go for the books.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would. The books.

I’ve got a pretty good BS detector, and it goes crazy when ever I read an Ebert movie review. He was getting the Crissy tingly leg thing over the new Mandela flick. He never passes an opportunity to bash Bush/ Cheney etc.

“Alternative energies and conservation? The problem is the cost of obtaining and using it. Ethanol requires more energy than it produces. Hybrid and battery cars need engines, tires and batteries. Nuclear power plants need to be built with oil. Electricity from wind power is most useful near its source. It is transmitted by grids built and maintained by oil. Wave power is expensive to collect. Solar power is cheap and limitless, but we need a whole hell of a lot more solar panels and other collecting devices.

Like I say, you do the math. Ruppert has done his math, and he concludes that our goose is cooked. He doesn’t have any answers. We’re passing the point of diminishing returns on the way to our rendezvous with the point of no return. It was nice while it lasted. People lived happily enough in the centuries before oil, electricity and steam, I guess. Of course, there were fewer than 6 billion of us. In this century, Ruppert says, there will be a lot fewer than 6 billion again. It won’t be a pretty sight.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is also an unpretty sight is a lefty who is so caught up in the green apocalypse that he is almost ecstatic in some bizarre millenial sense that it’s already too late and we’re all going to get what we deserve.

Amazing how ol’ Roger is so eager to believe a man whom he seems to describe as a crank.

I’ve said it before; his late partner Gene Siskel managed to keep him on a relatively even keel. In the years since Gene died, Roger’s leftish sensibilities have taken him over completely and his popularity has suffered.

Does he even have a TV show these days? An entertainer can lard his work up with politics and receive nothing but praise and back-pats from all the beautiful people and the tastemakers, etc. but slowly lose his audience because, frankly, being preached at gets boring.

Take commedienne Brett Butler. Her show “Grace under fire” had a long run. Officially, her pill popping was held to blame for it’s deterioration but in fact it was her relentless injection of leftish politics into the script that killed her audience numbers. Now she lives on a farm, according to Wiki.

And the “Ellen show”, once Ellen finally came out, the show became a crashingly boring one-note wonder, gay-this, gay-that and didn’t last another season.

I can only tell you I have a pretty good built-in B.S. detector,

Roger Ebert thinks he has a "a pretty good built-in B.S. detector"?

Technically correct but what the rest of us see as B.S. he sees as a lovely field of flowers to romp in.

If Roger says something is black it is a pretty sure bet that it is actually gleaming white.

Roger Ebert...human eclipse.

I guess, to me, the difference between reading an actual book and reading something on a reader is the difference between having an old friend come to your house, and having a friendly conversation with someone in a grocery checkout line.

And yet, I love reading stuff on my computer. Doesn’t make sense, I know. LOL

**then one day you’re like ‘Ahhhhh! Now I understand!’**

I’ve read and reread LOTR I don’t know how many times, starting in the mid 70’s when they were a Christmas gift from my dad. I’ve prob got more books than the local library, and most I’ve read at least twice and a lot of them more than that.

You can never have too many books!

>Peak Oil is bunk.

Even if it ISN’T the crisis thereof completely neglects the opportunity for innovations which wouldn’t require oil-as-fuel.

Gee, I haven’t seen a “peak oil” post in months. We must be recovering...

fields...

I played hooky when it was time for spelling

Peak Oil is bunk.

all the “Known” oil fieds are declining....

BUT...maybe we will discover more fields....its a big planet...quit panicing

EXXON’s got us covered

... he says we’ve passed the peak of oil resources ... that’s enough.

I enjoyed it, but I'm shallow that way. :-)

Me too, me too!

BUT...But...but the Unicorn Master promised...

What do you think of the kindles and other book “readers” ?

I haven't used one yet. I've only ever read ebooks on my computer. I can say I don't enjoy that method. I like curling up in the bed or on the sofa with a book. I don't think an electronic format is ever going to do the trick for me unless it can replicate the look and feel of a book.

People ask me why I read books over and over—it’s like revisiting an old friend!

Yep. Some books I read again and again. There's one I re-read called Replay by Ken Grimwood. It captured my imagination when I was younger and when I read it again, it's like going back to my younger state of mind all over again- which is pretty cool. I love revisiting my favorite authors after a few years. I find they teach me new things that I couldn't see before because I didn't have the right experiences under my belt the first time around. Life's kind of like that too. Older people will tell you something that doesn't make sense to you at the time and then one day you're like 'Ahhhhh! Now I understand!'

Thanks for your comments. Have a nice day.

I’m really good at multitasking! My teachers finally left me alone about reading in class, after they found out that I could keep up and answer any question they threw at me!!!! LOL

People ask me why I read books over and over—it’s like revisiting an old friend!

Love your story about The Rescue! That’s so romantic! Used books are always so much fun that way. My grandma stuck four leaf clovers and news articles and little tidbits in all her books. It’s fun to go back and look through some of her books that I have. i lost her a long time ago, but it’s like having a nice talk with her, kinda.

I write alot as well. In my spare time, LOL. I manage a greenhouse and I’m the chief cook and bottlewasher and the gopher and the bookkeeper and the cashier and the... at the garden center where I work. People are always amazed that I don’t get bored watering or transplanting. Sure they’re repetitive and tedious, but I can let my mind wander while I do them. Usually I’m working out a plot or a bit of dialogue.... :) I’ve never been accused of having no lack of imagination!

What do you think of the kindles and other book “readers” ? So far I’m not impressed. I’d much rather have an actual book in my hand.

It doesn’t upset me. You on the other hand have gone pretty nuts just at the sight of my screen name. Here’s pretty funny:”I. DON’T. WANT. TO. DISCUSS. IT. WITH. YOU. I’m not angry. “ The guy doing all caps then saying he’s not angry. You are demonstrably angry.

Of course that’s not as funny as this: “You’re the kind that will NEVER let it go...The one argument I had with you- I saved it to disk. That was over 5 years ago.” Really _I_ can’t let things but YOU saved a conversation we had to disk for FIVE YEARS. Mr Pot I’d like you to meet Mr Kettle.

But that does confirm some memory jarring I had going through Best Buy on the way home. You were the guy in the Matrix conversation. You should understand I REALLY enjoyed that conversation, your posts were insightful and interesting, a hell of a lot more interesting than the movies you were defending. I didn’t walk away from that conversation because it was fun, for however long that lasted (and it did last a long time) I looked forward EVERY MORNING to reading your latest post, they were great posts that DESERVED replies, so I replied. We should have written our own script for a film, it would have been better than you think the Matrix movies are. I didn’t think it was a waste of time, I thought it rescued the time I’d spent watching the Matrix movies, it took time wasted on movies I still to this day think are stupid and redeemed it with time spent on a really neat conversation. And yeah we didn’t accomplish anything, but we were talking about movies, movies are entertainment and conversations about movies are entertainment, neither ever really accomplishes anything.

So now that I have context, I sincerely apologize that our Matrix conversation left a bad taste in your mouth.

If that’s what it takes to enjoy ‘Avatar’, I’m out.

Can't really comment then. I don't know. I haven't seen it myself yet. I just know it's being offered both ways here.

There’s no conflict. I just don’t want to talk to you. It’s not just the one conversation I’ve had with you. This is a public forum. I’ve seen you discuss film with others.

I don’t want to discuss film with you.

I don’t care if this upsets you or not, although I’m not trying to upset you. I’m just letting you know- one adult to another- I. DON’T. WANT. TO. DISCUSS. IT. WITH. YOU.

I’m not angry. Don’t dislike you or have anything against you. But I’m not going to talk about it with you. Even more so because I haven’t seen it yet. I am looking forward to seeing it. I am interested in the concept of avatars. I like to escape in films when I can. This looks like something that will interest me- enough so that I’m willing to go and see it. That’s all I’m saying about it and all I CAN really say about until I say it next week.

Get offended if you want. But you could maybe stand back and look at your tactics a bit too. The one argument I had with you- I saved it to disk. That was over 5 years ago. We wrote a combined 14,000 words. And after it was over I had to think to myself ‘what a stupid waste of time that was’. We could have just written our own script (at least a rough draft/story concept) for our own film but instead we just expended a lot of time and effort that accomplished NOTHING.

I don’t want to go down that road with you. Although that’s exactly what I’m doing. Instead of talking film you’re just sucking me into this argument.

And I don’t want to get sucked into it.

So, just... You know? Just...

Review from Lefty Type Guy: Avatar Is Like the Most Left-Wingiest Big Movie Ever Made
Update: Rightie John “Dirty Harry” Nolan Agrees

http://minx.cc/?post=295747