Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Propane For 150 Billion BBQs?



"We now have in our hands—really, in our libraries—the technology to feed, clothe, and supply energy to an ever-growing population for the next seven billion years." -- Julian L. Simon, economist, 1995

"The industry will never run out of oil, not in 10,000 years. Some day, it may run out of customers. Every mineral industry is a perpetual tug-of-war, between diminishing returns and increasing knowledge." -- Morris A. Adelman, economist, 1997

Science Daily: Saturn's Moon Titan Could Power 150 Billion Labor Day Barbecues

"Titan's atmosphere is extremely rich in an assortment of hydrocarbon chemicals, including propane, which we use to fill our barbecue tanks," said Cassini scientist Conor Nixon of the University of Maryland, College Park. "Titan's atmospheric inventory would fuel about 150 billion barbecue cookouts, enough for several thousand years of Labor Days."

4 comments:

Anaconda said...

A skull that rewrites the history of man -- The Independent

Wednesday, 9 September 2009

"It has long been agreed that Africa was the sole cradle of human evolution. Then these bones were found in Georgia..."

"The conventional view of human evolution and how early man colonised the world has been thrown into doubt by a series of stunning palaeontological discoveries suggesting that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that suggest a Eurasian chapter in the long evolutionary story of man."

OilIsMastery, it would seem this story if it pans out as related in the article, backs up a lot of what you have been arguing in your series of posts on the history of Man.

Conventional wisdom in Science which Jeffery Keown has consistently pushed here on this website (yes, Jeffery is part of the irrational herd, much to his chagrin) could turn out to be completely wrong.

How many other "conventional wisdoms" in Science are wrong?

I suspect more than a few "conventional wisdoms" are wrong, so-called "fossil" fuel origin of oil being just one of the "conventional wisdoms".

And, OilIsMastery, yes, that's a lot BBQs.

Abiotic hydrocarbons -- you bet your T-bone steak!

Fungus the Photo! said...

Anaconda
Thanks for that! I really fail to understand how the herd can opine so forcefully that Africa was the cradle. Is it a form of an intelligence test? It involves ignoring the evidence of our daily lives. How bizarre that such a theory could ever be raised so high? Going on IQ, the Ashkenazim are luikliest closest to where the "modern" man first arose. But you are right, there may have been many variations in populations of human beings as populations had been cut off from mixing by sea, by catastrophes and the like. Evolution? Possibly but unproven.

Fungus the Photo! said...

OIM
Your point is that a similar amount is likely locked away in the earth?
Probably more as we are larger than most satellites, but that could be just caused by expansion since leaving Saturn ...... !

Anaconda said...

@ Fungus FitzJuggler III:

"OIM

Your point is that a similar amount is likely locked up in the earth?

Probably more as we are larger than most satellites..."

Whether, there is more hydrocarbons, now, is debatable, of course, but the geological record suggests that, indeed, tremendous amounts of hydrocarbons have been expelled from the Earth's interior to the surface.

The residue of this massive expulsion of hydrocarbons is all too evident if one will put aside the impossible "fossil" theory.

For a taste of the evidence of massive expulsions of hydrocarbons onto the Earth's surface in past geological ages, see Thomas J. Brown's The End of Fossil Fuels.

"The Athabascan sands, which date from the Cretaceous, overlie extensive Devonian bitumen deposits bearing a chemical affinity thus indicating a common origin!"

"The Carboniferous period--comprising the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian-- is named after the vast amounts of coal and other hydrocarbons found at this horizon level of the geological column. The coal deposits are certainly not limited to the Paleozoic, appearing in progressively younger strata into the Tertiary, but the Pennsylvanian beds are vast and persistent, both in thickness and areal extent."

"What about an 800 foot thick coal seam in Australia? How many miles thick must the plant matter have been to form such massive pure carbon deposits?"

"Cyclothems are rhythmic sediments, repeated layerings of alternating strata, such as coal, limestone, shale, etc. They are not to be confused with annual, or "varve", deposits, which indicate seasonal variations. No, the cyclothems are boggling curiosities. The Pennsylvanian cyclothems, which in this case include coal measures in the sequence, cover over 50,000 square miles in areal extent in North America, and further persist in outcrops around the globe. Some of the associated layers are very thin shales less than half an inch thick bedded in layers with pure coal of varying thicknesses, all perfectly dead level and flat, with known continuous segments of over 15,000 square miles! How can these finely layered strata be explained? Certainly not by sedimentation, especially when the fossils are considered. And when we consider that these same coal seam sequences are found in Europe, then their amazing persistence truly boggles the mind. Methinks more than giant hurricanes at work here."

Highlight:

"...all perfectly dead level and flat, with known continuous segments of over 15,000 square miles!"

The evidence is there for all to see, the Earth has a geological history of tremendous and massive outpourings of hydrocarbons.