Jobe, I didn't take my alarm clicker since I learned from last years problem with my truck alarm, how to fix this problem. Had no troubles with it this year, and also pulled the fuse on my interior truck lights to save the battery power because in the course of the 7 days of Burning Man I open the doors of my truck many times. Of course I was just joking you about the TV remote. Regarding the " new source " of oil suggested as being discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, its projected reserves have been tentatively compared to the projected reserves in Prudoe Bay. The oil quantities discussed are really very small compared to the depletion realities for all the world's major oil fields. The benifits derived from them will do very little to forestall the coming realities of peak oil. I think the news of this " new source " is more about creating the illusion that new offshore drilling, whether in the Gulf of Mexico, or on the US Pacific Coast is an endeavor that will somehow alleviate, or fix our coming US fuels crisis. Of course there are oil industry people who are making enormous profits from ventures such as these, and I think thier ultimate goal is just to make the Big Bucks while the supplies last, and they are not shy about making things seem better than they really are. The general American public just has no accurate notion of how small these quantities really are, compared to what realistically would be needed to meet voracious rising world demand, and thus are easily fooled into thinking that these small finds will change the big picture, and bring back " the good ol days " of cheap energy prices. The facts of the geology of oil and natural gas supplies worldwide are very clear, we won't drill our way out of the coming energy crisis. The various graphs of worldwide oil production projected into the future show us reaching a leveling off period right about now, then starting a gradual downturn for about six years, then the graph line drops precipitously around 2012. If these predictions do show themselves to be true, you can just imagine how this would begin to drag down all the big economies of the world. As an interesting side note to this, my brother tells me that the ancient Mayan calender shows a cataclismic event for humanity at the year, 2012. Interesting coincidence if nothing else. Practically speaking, I intend on watching the developments for energy supplies through internet sources, because if we are a Peak Oil presently, the numbers will confirm this in a couple of years or so. Higher energy prices will also create " demand destruction " or less usage, which will also affect the timing and the speed of ultimate energy depletion. I think its a wise course for all of us to prepare for a world with ever more expensive and scarce energy.
