HeyBub wrote
Rod Speed wrote:
HeyBub wrote

There has never been a famine in a democracy.

Wrong.

"Mr. Sen is famous for his assertion that famines do not occur in
democracies. "No famine has ever taken place in the history of the
world in a functioning democracy," he wrote in 'Democracy as Freedom'."

He's just plain wrong.

For this sort of thinking, Amartya Kumar Sen was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Nope, not for that steaming turd he wasnt.

If you have an alternative to the assertion, please share it with us.

Just did.

Until then, we'll assume you don't know what you're talking about.

Just how many of you are there between those ears ?

Nobody bothered to check with knowledgeable scientists as to the
state of ethanol fuel technology . Not that it would have deterred
the cynical profiteers if they *had* run the science.
(Incidentally, there are so many crops that would be far better,
with less downside, for fuel technology, leading off with
marijuana's little cousin, hemp. It grows on any soil, reseeds
itself, costs virtually nothing to produce. Even Brazil, that was
using sugar cane waste, is reconsidering the technology.)

Many do not check with reputable scientists.

Current technology does not favor "grass" type crops, including
hemp, 'switch-grass' and others. The problem is the enormous cost of transporting the raw materials to the
processing plant.

Have fun explaining how come sugar cane works fine.

Sugar cane is not a "grass" type crop

Corse it is.

- Duh!

Your sig is supposed to be at the bottom with a line with -- on it by itself in front of it.

The sugar cane conversion in Brazil works because the cane stalks are waste from the sugar extraction;

Wrong. The ethanol comes from the sugar, not the waste.

My mistake. You are correct in this one instance.

In all of them, actually.

They could probably do as well with beets.

Those dont grow that well in Brazil and are harder to harvest too.

The basic problem is not ethanol, the problem is enviornmentalism.
Consider: most of our electric power and all of our transportation
energy derives from oil and gas.

Only in countrys that dont use nukes.

There's a new measure of energy: the CMO (Cubic Mile of Oil). Right now, the earth uses about 3 CMOs worth of energy
per year. This is distributed as follows:

Oil - 1.06 CMOs
Coal - 0.81 CMO
Gas - 0.61 CMO
Biomass (burning wood, ethanol, etc.) - 0.19 CMO
Hydroelectric - 0.17 CMO
Nuclear - 0.15 CMO

Irrelevant to the countrys that choose to use nukes
for the bulk of their electric power generation.

As you can see, hydrocarbons account for 2.48 CMOs,

But oil and gas doesnt dominate electric power generation. You are wrong.

Nuclear for a tiny fraction, probably even less than the use of charcoal.

Not in some countrys like France and Japan.

You'd have to build one 900MW reactor per week for 50 years to generate the energy contained in one CMO.
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-992...tag=ne.fd.mnbc

Go tell the frogs. Dont be too surprised when they laugh in your face.

Yet the air is cleaner today than it's ever been - even cleaner than
before electricity (when people burned wood for heating). But we've got this aversion to oil exploration,
production, and refining.

Nope, thats been done so extensively for so long now that the
easiest to find oil has been found and quite a bit of it consumed.

Heh! Ronald Reagan said that those who say there are no simple solutions have just not tried hard enough.

And he ended up with Alzhiemers. You're well along that line.

Do you realize that over 40% of our offshore potential can't even be explored or tested?

That aint the easiest to find, stupid.

Go figure.

Not possible when you mangle the basics so comprehensively.

Please enlighten us.

Just how many of you are there between those ears ?

I spent a number of years working in geophysical exploration and production*

And you completely mangled that claim about oil and gas and electricity generation.

and, while my knowledge is admittedly not
up to date, it is based on some experience.

Pity about what has happened between your ears since.

No surprise that they gave you the bums rush.

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* Lab years involving the origin and migration of petroleum at the largest laboratory for the world's largest oil
company. Then a number of years for the nation's largest exploration company.

And then they came to their senses and gave you the bums rush, right out the door.