[pup55]

Link I just heard of this from one of the young adults in my house. This was also attempted in 2004 and 2006, with minimal apparent effect

[emersonbiggins]

This is as good a place as any to put this... I've started a new group on Facebook. It's name (of course) is peakoil.com. Feel free to join up and put your user name on the wall so we can get to know each other a little better. You know, if you're into that sort of thing.

This is not an official PeakOil.com group, but since one didn't exist, I just made one up.

[Valdemar]

Given the average intelligence of most MySpace and Facebook, or any other social networking site's members, I think you'll find this rather like pissing in the wind.

Nice sentiment, but a tad misguided. It's hard enough going to semi-serious bulletin boards and debating this issue with adults, without going to a large group of kids and telling them their era of PS3s, parties and driving is going to end.

[MonteQuest]

If all myspace members did not go to the pump on the 15th it would take approximately (by daily average consumption) $2,163,302,190 out of the oil companys pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and let's try to put a dent in the oil industry for at least one day, and prove again that the united will of the people cannot be denied.

Since 95% of all gas stations are not owned by the oil companies, the loss of revenue will be the station owners.

[Valdemar]

I also don't see what this accomplishes. So they're going to annoy some mom and pop petrol stations for a day by not buying gas, then what? Things go back to normal. Do they want to keep this up? Good luck with that, I hear the US economy kind've needs fuel to operate.

As with the fuel protests in the UK in late 2000, any such venture like this will burn itself out when the gov't steps in or people finally see the error of their ways when they can no longer buy fresh bread anymore.

I'd be amazed if any major fuel protest could ever occur in the US in the first place.

[128shot]

Given the average intelligence of most MySpace and Facebook, or any other social networking site's members, I think you'll find this rather like pissing in the wind.

Nice sentiment, but a tad misguided. It's hard enough going to semi-serious bulletin boards and debating this issue with adults, without going to a large group of kids and telling them their era of PS3s, parties and driving is going to end.

yet here I am, witnessing how your generation screwed up the world for mine...

[Valdemar]

yet here I am, witnessing how your generation screwed up the world for mine...

I doubt that, since my generation is in their early twenties. We've not even been in power yet, so if anything, it's my parents' generation that are to blame, the so-called baby boomers.

Myself and others of my age group won't get a world like our parents did. We will inherit warfare, low energy and global economic collapse. Did I mention climate change?

Yeah, I think it's safe to say I'm a wee bit pissed off at the post-war generation and their myopic thinking.

[emersonbiggins]

wee bit pissed off at the post-war generation and their myopic thinking.

It's wishful thinking to think our generation would have acted any differently. To disagree is to ignore human nature.

[Gazzatrone]

The thoughts from the 1st and 2nd reply sum the futility of boycotting gas stations that sell petrol at SHOCK HORROR $3.00 a Gallon.

$3.00 A FUCKING GALLON!.

He thinks @ that price petrol is worth boycotting? God help him if he lived in the UK, he'd be shitting his pants with rage.

excuse the language ut some people really need to get their priorities straight. When did boycotting ever have an effect? This does not include South Africa.

As Nigel said "Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim." People have a more important need to live their deluded existences, not worry about boycotting petrol. Besides which, how many myspacers drive?

[emersonbiggins]

$3.00 A FUCKING GALLON!.

He's basing the boycott off a supposedly "successful" one that dropped the price by 30 cents in April 1997.

How much was gas in April 1997? 89 cents a gallon? A buck?

It shows just how much we value our cheap gas birthright.

[Rabbit]

I think a boycott could work if they could get a large number of people to stop using gas all together for a longer period of time, say like all summer long. That just might put a small, and temporary dent in the price of fuel. Even better is it will give them a SMALL taste of how life will be without oil.

[eastbay]

It would do far more to reduce gas consumption if on May 15th people across the country would quit buying those idiotic large freeway cruising pick-up's and SUV's and get a fuel efficient car instead.

That would really nail the gas station owners and large gas companies. Plus it would reduce demand for gas thereby the price and as a result increase SUV and large pick-up truck sales.

I might just mark the calendar and fill up on that date just in case.

[strider3700]

The sad part is if this doesn't work it's because everyone didn't get involved. If it does work it's because everyone got involved lowering demand and bringing price down to compensate. This has nothing to do with corporate profits or illegal price fixing. It's all about supply and demand. I'm in awe that it's taking people this long to figure that out.

[Gazzatrone]

Even better is it will give them a SMALL taste of how life will be without oil.

See New Orleans 2005. We've already had a small taste at what lfe will be like with no law enforcement etc etc.

It's all about supply and demand. I'm in awe that it's taking people this long to figure that out.

Professor Bartlett's analogy of the germs living in a pint glass is a brilliant demonstration of Mans mental inertia.

Would also like to thank you Stryder for affecting my attitudes and opinions towards PO. From what I started out thinking here and thanks to you what I now believe, here.

[Twilight]

Given the average intelligence of most MySpace and Facebook, or any other social networking site's members, I think you'll find this rather like pissing in the wind.

How about, given the average age? I bet most of them can't drive.

And any fuel they don't buy that day, they will buy tomorrow.

[Gazzatrone]

How about, given the average age? I bet most of them can't drive.

And any fuel they don't buy that day, they will buy tomorrow.

If they are not of driving age you have to ask yourself will the oil be around for them to buy tomorrow?

[Twilight]

If they are not of driving age you have to ask yourself will the oil be around for them to buy tomorrow?

Do they have the attention span to queue?

[Gazzatrone]

If they are not of driving age you have to ask yourself will the oil be around for them to buy tomorrow?

Do they have the attention span to queue?

No, its taken up by Myspace

[kabu]

Here's an interesting article from a neat, little paper printed in Vancouver.

Is Facebook the face of Total Information Awareness?
An expose finds intriguing similarities between US government aims and the popular online social network site (edited and reprinted without the knowledge of the original author, who we couldn’t find)
By Josh Smith

Facebook is an online social networking site that allows 20 million users to upload pictures of themselves and can include information about their favorite music, books, movies, their address, phone number, e-mail, clubs, jobs, educational history, and even political affiliations. Facebook is extremely popular, attracting on average 80 percent of a university’s undergraduate population. However, there are some questions raised regarding privacy concerns on the site, and when some digging is done to find out who is really behind the site's management, there are more questions than answers.

The first venture capital money to come into Facebook, $500,000 worth, came from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, founder and former CEO of Paypal. A Stanford graduate and former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Thiel is author of the book "The Diversity Myth," an anti-multicultural argument which received praise from notable neo-conservatives such as William Kristol. Thiel is on the board of the radical conservative group VanguardPAC.

Further funding came in the form of $12.7 million from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Accel's manager James Breyer was former chair of the National Venture Capital Association (NVAC). Breyer served on NVAC's board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. This firm works in various aspects of information technology and intelligence, including most notably "nurturing data mining technologies."

Breyer has also served on the board of BBN Technologies, a research and development firm known for spearheading the ARPANET, or what we know today as the Internet. In October of 2004, Dr Anita Jones climbed on board, becoming a part of a firm packed with leaders from other areas of Silicon Valley's venture capital community, including none other than Gilman Louie. But what is most interesting is Dr Jones' experience prior to joining BBN.

Jones herself served on the Board of Directors for In-Q-Tel and was previously the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the US Department of Defense. Her responsibilities included serving as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense and overseeing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

While the nearly $13 million that came from Accel to fund Facebook certainly looks suspicious and unfortunately disturbing after reviewing all of this information, the only problem on the surface seems to be the appearance of some incestuous relationships between the Pentagon, the CIA, and these venture capital firms.

But the questions go further than just these initial appearances. DARPA shot to national fame in 2002 when John Markoff of the New York Times announced the existence of the "Information Awareness Office.” According to Wikipedia, "the IAO has the stated mission to gather as much information as possible about everyone, in a centralized location, for easy perusal by the United States government, including (though not limited to) Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data." Protests came from civil libertarians on both the right and the left who saw the IAO as a new Orwellian arm of the United States government. After Congress investigated DARPA's project, funding was cut off and IAO was essentially dead in the water. The Information Awareness Office might have survived some of its original purposes in a mutated form, found in today's Facebook. In fact, one of IAO's original example technologies included "human network analysis and behavior model building engines," a surprising echo of the social networking mapping that Facebook does using SVG visualizations. Add that to the information that Facebook collects and compare it to the startlingly similar goal of the IAO. It appears at first glance that DoD, along with the CIA, has managed to circumvent its previous Congressionally-established limitations to find corporate sponsorship for its programs under the thin veil of a useful social network for unwitting college students.

The "Privacy Policy" of Facebook includes a statement saying that they "may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship." It goes on to say that, "We may be required to disclose customer information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law or to protect our interests or property. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies."

Some of the aspects of the privacy policy are downright creepy and confusing. This particular gem is especially disturbing: “Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience. By using Facebook, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to, and processed in, the United States.”

[I_Like_Plants]

Everything you do on the net is traced, collected, etc whether it's legal or not. And if you're not a subject of the Evil Empire here, no matter, likely you're being traced, documented etc too.

But Facebook being part of TIA ... let's see, it's lame so... Yeah.