Comments on: Big Oil vs. Russian Scientists

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 02:53:19 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqaprhUJlo&NR

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 12:43:27 +0000

Captain
When I read about these Russian Scientists I was suprised as anyone that good science could come out of Russia. I had a girlfriend who was a refugee from Cambodia and her parents were Doctors. They were killed by Pol Pot because he slaughtered all the educated people.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:40:10 +0000

Solar cells are getting better and better and there’s a big increase in demand. Do you think solar ever close the gap with cheap power or will always be a niche item?

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:36:05 +0000

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/partner/story?id=46779

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:44:39 +0000

I think there’s different qualities of silicon and everyone wants the best now. Then again maybe the silicon producers are colluding and there’s a bottleneck in production.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:16:49 +0000

Here’s another issue that results from arbitrary control of natural resources, related to energy production and distribution. Silicon is now considered rare, so rare that photovoltaic solar cell companies are closing up shop because of the allegedly tight supply of silicon, the second most abundant element on the planet behind oxygen.

By: captain_menace

captain_menace — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 03:32:49 +0000

The first problem Bill is defining “us”.

I think I benefit from whatever shady deals go on between financiers and third world nations. I get low cost foreign goods (mahogany wood for example, gems, marble, oil, fresh produce). And I get these goods at a fairly low price considering the product’s associated costs from extraction to consumption. Whatever barrel these impoverished nations are bent over… I personally gain from it. I don’t know about us, but I know that I’m doing alright all things considered.

At the end of the day “our guys” get what they want. And if they don’t… we’ve got the biggest guns…

And for the reconstruction costs… only requires a little creative bookkeeping.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 03:11:55 +0000

How would we know if there’s a net benefit to us or not? These folks are out there free wheeling it. And you’re always hearing about missing money with things like reconstruction. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.

By: captain_menace

captain_menace — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:59:51 +0000

It’s an almost perfect system. You get these free market economists advising third world countries to take out these enormous development loans. The money then goes to western contractors to build out infrastructure. The advice from the economists turns out to be crap, and the country ends up straddled with debt, and no easy way to pay. They also end up with high-tech infrastructure which they then have to maintain.

That’s where the negotiations begin… “you let company x develop your resources and we’ll talk about re-negotiating the terms of your debt.”

Actually quite a clever way to extract whatever resource you may need. At the end of the day I guess it’s good that I’m a citizen of a nation that benefits from this lopsided arrangement.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:45:31 +0000

captain menace
I read the front flap. Some of these multinational corporations are like dictatorships without borders.