News from December 2004

Nanotube Purfication Breakthrough

Carbon nanotubes are extremely strong and lightweight. Certain types can transport electrons “ballistically” the way that fiber optics can transmit photons. However this technology is far off in the future. New breakthroughs make this a very promising field. This is one of those breakthroughs.

Researchers from the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have added water to the standard method of manufacturing carbon nanotubes to produce tall, dense, vertically-aligned stands of pure nanotubes. The researchers’ demonstrations have yielded stands of single-wall carbon nanotubes as tall as 2.5 millimeters and 99.98 percent pure. Individual nanotubes range from one to three nanometers in diameter.

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Oil, gas grads get hefty salaries

Freshly graduated petroleum engineer majors from the Golden school last year received average salaries of $63,000. This year’s grads will earn about $67,000, Van Kirk estimated. Plus, employers are offering signing bonuses of $10,000 to $30,000, he said. Graduate degrees command higher salaries. Van Kirk said master’s degrees generate starting salaries of $80,000 to $85,000. [...]

Forget OPEC. The next cartel may export drinking water.

consider that less than 2.5 percent of the world’s water is fresh. That vital resource is threatened by pollution, waterborne disease, and shifts in rain patterns caused by global warming, recent studies show. All of which, in some eyes, leaves the world on the verge of a scramble by private companies and countries vying for rights to available water.

Christian Science Monitor

Global oil prices seen easing in 2005

Global oil prices should retreat in 2005, barring big political shocks, after surging 32 percent this year, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist Fatih Birol told Reuters in an interview.

“We think, in general, demand will grow a little less in 2005. We think supply will increase in a positive way. If there is no significant geo-political event, we can say oil prices will find more moderate levels in 2005,” Birol said late on Wednesday.

CNN

Fiat Multijet tops tonne in Economy Run

http://www.galwayindependent.com/motoring/1657.html A Fiat Stilo 1.9 JTD Multiwagon 5 door estate driven by Alan Park won the Diesel Car Class in the recent MG Car Club – Irish Shell Economy Run, achieving an astonishing 90.51 miles per gallon. Even more remarkable was the achievement of Eoin Murray, driving a Fiat Punto 1.2 Multijet, which achieved 107 [...]

Daimler’s Diminutive Daily Driver

In what looks to be a case of the French leading the blind, German automaker DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX – News) has decided that the American consumer is ready once again to drive around in the automotive equivalent of a can of tuna on wheels. Equipped with a motor smaller than you could find on some [...]

Earth’s permafrost starts to squelch

Alaska is not the only region in a slump. The permafrost melt is accelerating throughout the world’s cold regions, scientists reported at the recent Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco.

BBC

Oil Rebounds After Saudi Blasts

Two large blasts were heard in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, near the Interior Ministry, along with gun fire, witnesses said. The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

Reuters

Earthquake: Coincidence or a Corporate Oil Tragedy?

“What is interesting about this is that the same place where the whale beachings have been taking place over the last 30 days is the same general area where the 8.1 Australian earthquake took place, and this is the same area where they are doing these seismic tests. Then 2 days after the Australian tectonic [...]

Current Situation & 2005 Projections

This past year we have seen how volatile the oil market has become as the world approaches peak oil production. But the recent softening of oil prices demonstrates that we have not yet peaked. What we are experiencing right now is a tight oil market. Production can still increase, but not by much and only [...]