Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/cleaning-oil-spill1.htm
Another week passes by, and another tens of thousands of barrels of oil gush out into the Gulf of Mexico, adding to what is possibly the U.S.’ worst environmental disaster. With the failure of one attempt to stop the leak after another, pundits are now starting to look at more drastic (and perhaps insane) alternatives, such as the following:
Source: http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2007Jly-11.html
In other news, this is just freaky.
Here is your weekend reading:
Little House@WiseBread looks at how we can be our own (financial) saboteurs, Jonathan M. Finegold Catalan has posted an introductory primer on Austrian Economics, and Money Crush asks if you hire help around the house.
Fickle Finance takes a look at how slavery didn’t die, it just evolved, Beating Broke featured me in his latest Yakezie Carnival (thanks!), Free from Broke takes a look at value investing and buying when stocks are low, DIY Investor looks at how investors can be overly affected by the news and how allocating assets into bonds can bring opportunity when stock prices fall, and The Passive Income Earner talks about high housing prices in Vancouver and how it can skew your asset portfolio (since the house takes up so much of your total net worth).
The Wise Buck has ten money routines and tips to improve your finances, My Own Advisor agrees with Mark Carney’s recent decision to raise the overnight interest rate, Andrew Hallam talks about beating the market, Early Retirement Extreme looks at freedom and (wage) slavery, and The Amateur Financier shows that although a million dollars isn’t what it used to be, being a millionaire is still a pretty rare feat in this world.
My Financial Objectives looks at being an entrepreneur, Eliminate The Muda! looks at why feedback doesn’t work (really?) and the latest findings on brain science (I find this stuff really interesting), My Retirement Blog featured me in his recent retirement article roundup (thanks!), Frugal Confessions shows off her new library (nice!), and Let A Thousand Nations Bloom looks at choosing your own government service provider, and one potential application of the idea to the Middle East.
Mother Jones shows us the dark side of home owner’s associations (HOAs), such as this one which foreclosed on a soldier’s $300,000 home and sold it for $3,500, over a $800 debt. Singularity Hub reviews Martin Ford’s “The Lights In The Tunnel”, which is about the growing replacement of workers by machines and the impacts of increasing automation. You can download the eBook for free. The Market Ticker looks at arbitrage between paper gold and physical gold, Naked Capitalism looks at the EU and the limits of the austerity hairshirt, and finally, Walter Block defends the miser.
Finally, here is an interesting video about procrastination:
See you all next week.
I’ve been wondering if there was some way we could get a sub in there and blast the spout shut.
Thanks for the mention!
No doubt the BP oil leak is the U.S.’ worst environmental disaster (ever). The sad part is, the impacts are just starting to be felt….
Thanks for the mention, keep up your good work Kevin! I’ll try and stop by often.
Mark (Financial Cents)
It just tears at thye heart strings to see wildlife covered in oil. Thanks for the mention.
And to think, we’re only seeing what’s on the surface…
Thank you for the mention.
Thanks for the mention. I saw the Sinkhole thing as well and showed it to some coworkers around me at the time. SO WEIRD!
Again, thanks for the mention!
@Craig/FFB
I was wondering that, too, but I think the reason they haven’t done that is that they’re afraid they’ll blow open the well. If that happens, there’s pretty much no chance they could seal it up again.
@Financial Cents
This is going to increase the push for renewable energy and simultaneously change people’s ideas about just exploiting oil anywhere without regard for the environmental consequences. In the long run, these are good pushes. Sure, oil is still relatively cheap now, compared to renewable resources, but the true promise is in tapping the power of the sun directly. There are billions of people modernizing their lifestyles, and if we don’t want the world to be covered in ash like it already is starting to become in China (though here the problem is coal, not oil), we will need to make clean energy affordable.
@DIY Investor
It is sad… I’ve heard it said that this gulf disaster is going to be the US version of Chernobyl. Don’t know for sure, but certainly I think support is going to be moving away from oil as a result of this. Now, there are natural oil seepages that are not the fault of humans, but I don’t think any have ever been on this scale.
@Chris @ FeF
Yep, it is quite a large spill.
@MyFinancialObjectives
The sinkhole thing is definitely freaky. Imagine having something like that just open under you… it’s almost like out of a movie. The link was a bit obscure, so here it is for everyone else in case you missed it: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/photogalleries/100601-sinkhole-in-guatemala-2010-pictures-world
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Thanks for stopping by, guys!
If there was ever a disaster (sadly, but this is how most change happens…reactive) to push towards greener energy sources, this is it. I wonder if the White House sees this wake-up call!?