Month June 2009

Phantom condos and phony accounting

Jim The Realtor shows a brand new expensive looking condo development in San Diego County that has no gas meters hooked up. That means they never sold any. Just more empty condos, and they are not counted on new home…

Peak coal?

Even the WSJ hints peak coal could be happening. It’s not so much that we’re running out of coal – there’s plenty left – but most of the easy coal has already been mined, making existing deposits more difficult and…

Bricks made from cow dung

EcoFaeBricks in Indonesia makes bricks from 75% cow dung, no smell, same price as clay bricks, yet 20% stronger. This is a win in multiple ways. Less land is excavated for clay, dung is recycled instead of piling up, and…

Tidal and wave power is expensive

Tidal and wave power remains a pricey way of creating power. The ocean is a rough place to site energy generation, and then there’s the question of getting the power to shore reliably. Salt, corrosion, and water turbulence takes a…