The Seneca Effect: why decline is faster than growth
"It would be some consolation for the feebleness of our selves and our works if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid."
Lucius Anneaus Seneca, Letters ...
The Seneca Effect: Why Decline Is Faster Than Growth
"It would be some consolation for the feebleness of our selves and our works if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid."
Lucius Anneaus Seneca, Letters ...
The E-Cat loses steam
The "Energy Catalyser" (E-Cat) is a device that has been reported by two Italian scientists to be able to solve the world's energy problems by means of a nuclear fusion reaction. Unfortunately, there are serious doubts about these claims. In th...
Entropy, peak oil, and Stoic philosophy
I had plenty of time for my talk at the conference “Peak Oil: fact or fiction?” held in Barbastro (Spain) on May 4-7 2011. So, I could ramble a little on various subjects, from the entropy of complex systems to the stoic philosophy of E...
No peak oil yet? The limits of the Hubbert model
The Hubbert model says that, within a reasonably large region, oil production should follow a bell shaped curve. When the model is applied to worldwide oil production, the maximum level of production is called "peak oil." Fat cows and lean cows are commonly seen as the consequence of being on one or the...Good news from Italy: the Kitegen is in motion
Massimo Ippolito, president of KiteGen Research (KGR) s.r.l., poses in front of parts of the prototype being built near Torino, in Italy. The Kitegen is an ambitious and innovative research project that promises high efficiency in energy producti...
Rewarding results: how should we support the development of renewables?
In 1913, Lord Northcliffe, who owned the Daily Mail, offered £10,000 to the first men to fly the Atlantic from North America to Ireland or England in less than 72 hours. The prize was won by John Alcock and Arthur Brown, who flew non stop fr...
Lebanon: RAMSES runs!
The nice life in Lebanon. I don't smoke, but in Lebanon I gave a try to this thing called, I think, Hookah or Shisha, or simply water pipe. You can see me with the pipe in hand and also a glass of Ouzo (*). The hookah implies a lot of puffing and ...
Peak Capital – Our Ultimate Limit?
This post was published in June 2009 under the name The Fifth Problem: Peak Capital.
The five main elements of the world model developed in "The Limits to Growth" study according to Magne Myrtveit .
The world's global positioning system (GPS)...
The church, the peak, and my old watch
The old pocket watch that I used as a prop for my talk on peak oil to a group of elderly people in a countryside church. It was made in 1946 - the date and the name of the owner are still engraved on the back.
When I arrive, the friend who h...
Renewables out of the bottle
There is an old zen koan that says that a baby goose was placed inside a glass bottle and raised inside it. When it was fully grown it could no longer pass through the neck of the bottle. How can we get the goose out of the...
The dark side of coal – some historical insights on energy and the economy
Detail of Telemaco Signorini's masterpiece "The Riverbank" ("L'alzaia"), painted in 1864. It shows the hard work of five men pulling a heavy barge against the current along the Arno river, near Florence, in Italy. Most likely the barge was loaded with coal. In this post, I start from this image...
