Replies to post #247917 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[osprey]

One can hope. Believe me, I would like to see that as much as anyone. Since the 70's it was obvious that the fossil fuels were being rapidly depleted and the world Hubbert peak was circa 2010. That may have been the optimistic scenario, some are saying it might be as soon as 2005. As an involuntary passenger in the wagon, still have a vested interest in the wheels staying on.

Also our dependency on foreign oil is costing us a lot and could cost us a lot more as it gets scarcer and scarcer. At some point it stops being blood for oil and starts being a matter of survival for life as we know it.

I've thought for a while that instead of just reacting to the crisis de jour we should be planning a few decades out for known events. In this context it means new sources of energy whatever they are, wherever they are. Fusion whether it is tokamak, laser, magnetic pinch, or something not yet dreamed of has always seemed the ultimate solution. Small might be beautiful but some of us want to live large.

[TJ Parker]

hmmm. cold fusion. this predates me, but the story seems interesting, although it looks like it has no fervent believers anymore. why do i recall james randi talking about this thing?

Scientific American (two experts, one slightly negative and one hostile)
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=0007CC4D-394F-1C71-84A9809EC588EF21&pageNu...

[urmygold1]

is their an energy thread? [vbg} i thought this was a stocks thread???

[AKvetch]

OT. Book-To-Bill. Reuters

N. American April chip equipment orders up 16 pct
Thursday May 20, 6:06 pm ET

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - North American semiconductor capital equipment makers saw orders rise 16 percent in April from March, as stronger sales of electronics boosted the spending plans of chip makers, the industry's trade group said on Thursday.

Orders for equipment reached $1.59 billion from $1.38 billion in March, and were up 111 percent from April 2003 orders, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. Shipments rose 10 percent to $1.40 billion from March's $1.27 billion level.

The ratio of orders to shipments, known as the book-to-bill ratio, was 1.14 in April, signifying that for every $100 of products shipped, $114 in new orders were received. The book-to-bill ratio for March was revised to 1.09 from 1.10.

Following are details on North American chip equipment bookings, billings, and the book-to-bill ratio. Figures for bookings and billings are three-month moving averages, and are shown in millions of U.S. Dollars.

Billings Bookings Book-to-Bill

(3-month avg.) (3-month avg.) November 2003 876.4 923.3 1.05 December 2003 962.9 1,181.1 1.23 January 2004 1,033.7 1,226.1 1.19 February 2004 1,144.0 1,316.4 1.15 March 2004 (final)

1,268.1 1,378.8 1.09 April 2004 1,401.2 1,594.1 1.14 (prelim.)

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/040520/tech_chipequipment_orders_1.html

[Bruce A Thompson]

And now for something completely different

How about an extremely low tech answer. Pipe sea water from the Gulfs of Mexico and Cortez and the Pacific into the SW US desert.

In the desert you have vast arrays of solar panels powering a system for removing the pure H2 from the water via electrolysis. The byproducts would be pure oxygen and salt. Large settling ponds would be needed to recover the salt from the resulting concentrated brine.

Electrical power needs for homes, vehicles, and business would be provided, not from large central power grids and hydrocarbons, but from individual fuel cells on site. The H2 for the fuel cells would be the pure H2 from the SW desert operation resulting in a much more effecient reaction with little degredation in the membranes of the fuel cell. The byproduct of the reaction would be water.

People living in coastal or waterfront areas could have closed systems complete from the solar panel to the fuel cells providing enough H2 to also power their automobiles.

BWTFDIK

BT