NightBlogger

The Oil Drum
The majority of Peak Oil writing and discussion centers around the upcoming date of an all liquids peak and how steep the subsequent decline rate might be. There’s also active debate on how to best replace the coming shortfall in fossil energy with renewable flows. Fewer discussions are about relocalizing a global economy dependent on cheap transportation fuels, and how best to structure a world with lower density energy. Yet fewer still delve into who we are, how we got here, and what and why we use energy, and seemingly want more of it every year. Essentially, most of our energy conversations, at conferences, schools, institutions, and the blogosphere, focus on the means, and not the ends. The ends have generally remained unquestioned. There seems to be an implicit assumption that worldwide energy demand will continue to grow something akin to a natural law, and that solutions should focus on ways to increase supply and/or efficiency of energy. But in an economic system based on self-interest on a finite planet, the true drivers of demand will need to be better understood beyond the microeconomic mantra “price will change behavior”. More

Photo courtesy of unusualimage

Brain scan studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with social status, according to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. They found that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order - or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors. An impending social shift produced similar changes to winning money in the brain’s “value centre”. A fall in status activated circuitry known to process emotional pain and frustration. Read more