First, kill all the speculators

Gentle reader: I am not seriously suggesting that all speculators be taken out and put down like rabid dogs.

True, they did sink their fangs into millions of home owners and are now bleeding us all white at the pump, but we must respect the law.

So, let us inquire: If they’re willing to do these things, what else are they up to?

Let’s look into that, shall we?

These people have names and faces.

Publish them on the Internet and in the media.

Stick cameras in their faces.

Shame them and shun them.

Put them in prison with the child predators.

Make their lives a living hell, for a change.

O, what fun we shall have!

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Speculators, not OPEC, ‘causing oil price spike’

A former Iraqi oil minister says record high oil prices are more to do with speculators, including central banks, than supply and demand.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is pressuring G8 leaders to push for OPEC to increase oil supply.

Isam Chalabi was Iraq’s oil minister before the first Gulf War and has more than 40 years experience in the industry.

He says Mr Rudd’s strategy will not work.

“The question of prices today is not related to supply and demand fundamentals – everybody knows that,” he told AM.

“Everybody has said so and hence it is not a matter of increasing supplies because whoever is in need of oil has been able to get it, so there is no need of problem of getting the oil.”

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WP

CNN

Telegraph

BusinessWeek

Guardian

Hybrid Drivers

Race for Fuel Efficiency

Evan Hirsche averages 43 mpg with his Prius, while Katie Sebastian, shown with her son, Cole, averages 41 mpg. The drivers have friendly rivalry over their mpg scores, fueled by the Prius hybrid’s real-time mileage readings. (By Kevin Clark — The Washington Post)

By Michael S. Rosenwald

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 26, 2008

Katie Sebastian accuses her friend Evan Hirsche of getting better mileage than she does because he lives in Bethesda and has flatter everyday trips than she encounters in hilly Takoma Park. She suspects the Hirsche family of taking frequent long drives out of town, which also helps them.

“They claim they haven’t been out of town in a while,” she said, “but I know they have.”

Hirsche retorts: “It is well known that Katie is a lead-footer.”

Their friendly rivalry stems from the Prius effect. Both drive a Prius, the Toyota hybrid with an elaborate dashboard monitor that constantly informs drivers how many miles per gallon they are getting and whether the engine is running on battery or gasoline power. That can change driving in startling ways, making drivers conscious of their driving habits, then adjusting them to compete for better mileage. (Sebastian has 41 mpg, Hirsche 43.)

The Prius, and other hybrids with similar displays, has triggered on-the-spot learning that has the potential to change energy-consumption habits. The implications go far beyond the family car, with new devices for the home offering ways to encourage significant change in energy use.

“Once you start making fuel consumption more visible, you have something that comes to the forefront of people’s minds instead of lurking in the background,” said Sarah Darby, a researcher who studies energy feedback technologies at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute. The monitors “show the consequences of your actions,” she says. “This gives you feedback that alters actions, and encourages you to try and improve things.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/25/AR2008052502764.html?wpisrc=newsletter