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Netflix started distributing a movie that most of you are going to want to see. The movie is PUMP, by the Fuel Freedom Association, about the restriction on fuel choices in the USA. The movie has a fairly optimistic tone which was like a breath of fresh air after the constant doom drumbeat we have gotten into the habit of around here. Jeremy Rifkin and many others are interviewed in the movie interspersed with facts about how we got where we are, what future demand looks like and so on. Most of it is information members around here are already familiar with but now that this movie has wide distribution we might get a few new members joining our ranks here.

Got it on Netflix right now, seems old hat to me but probably shocking new information for the average American.

pstarr wrote:It seems there is little or nothing new to this movie. Having read the comments on Netflix and reviews at mrqe.com it seems the movie is just another conspiracy-driven anti-establishment anti-science screed.

Well said pstarr. I saw this a few days ago on Netflix, and this was my basic reaction, overall.

It's little wonder how limited the progress societies make, given how shallow or simply biased the overall discussions are about any complex subjects. (How can intelligent policy come from THAT?)

pstarr wrote:

Outcast_Searcher wrote:

pstarr wrote:It seems there is little or nothing new to this movie. Having read the comments on Netflix and reviews at mrqe.com it seems the movie is just another conspiracy-driven anti-establishment anti-science screed.

Well said pstarr. I saw this a few days ago on Netflix, and this was my basic reaction, overall.

It's little wonder how limited the progress societies make, given how shallow or simply biased the overall discussions are about any complex subjects. (How can intelligent policy come from THAT?)

Thanks. It's nice to make contact. I believe you and I have crappy attitudes.

You are correct, you two have a crappy attitude. This movie is intended to clue in the mass majority of Americans about alternatives to straight up gasoline for their fuel of choice. Expecting a deep technical discussion is not only unrealistic, it is counter productive in the extreme because the mass majority DOES NOT CARE about all those technical details.

Modern Americans are not fascinated by why their car/truck can burn Gas/Ethanol/Methanol, they care about two things. 1) Can I use it and 2) Is it cheaper if I use it.

From that point of view I think this movie is an excellent starter to get people at least peripherally aware that gasoline is not the be all end all of fuel for their cars/trucks. After 10 years here I am amazed at the number of people who stick around for more than a week with the constant blast of Doom and hopelessness. If people on here were half as doomy as they play at on the internet they wouldn't be spending time here, they would be off doing things or they would have already checked out of this life. Lots of armchair doom is making this place rather dull. Political doom! Financial doom! Climate Doom! Oil Doom! Food Doom! Water Doom!

It is a one note song that is starting to bore the daylights out of most of us.

Tanada, you forgot Peak Doom!

Tanada wrote:...

Check.

And admin was worried this would turn into a survivalist site, LOL

Pops wrote:

Tanada wrote:...

Check.

And admin was worried this would turn into a survivalist site, LOL

Is that from the "nattering nabobs of negativism" speech Pops?

Very good sub.
Looks like Spiro is nodding right at Tanada does it not?

LOL

I watched this weeks ago and it didn't even strike me as worth a comment.

I hate optimism. I can never understand why so many people can't deal with a little negativity. When bad things are happening, optimism is not healthy.

Tanada wrote:

pstarr wrote:

Outcast_Searcher wrote:

pstarr wrote:It seems there is little or nothing new to this movie. Having read the comments on Netflix and reviews at mrqe.com it seems the movie is just another conspiracy-driven anti-establishment anti-science screed.

Well said pstarr. I saw this a few days ago on Netflix, and this was my basic reaction, overall.

It's little wonder how limited the progress societies make, given how shallow or simply biased the overall discussions are about any complex subjects. (How can intelligent policy come from THAT?)

Thanks. It's nice to make contact. I believe you and I have crappy attitudes.

You are correct, you two have a crappy attitude.

....

After 10 years here I am amazed at the number of people who stick around for more than a week with the constant blast of Doom and hopelessness. If people on here were half as doomy as they play at on the internet they wouldn't be spending time here, they would be off doing things or they would have already checked out of this life. Lots of armchair doom is making this place rather dull. Political doom! Financial doom! Climate Doom! Oil Doom! Food Doom! Water Doom!

It is a one note song that is starting to bore the daylights out of most of us.

Wow. O-tay.

I must confess that IF I WERE A DOOMER, my ears would be burning.

Since I am a moderate who goes after the "all doom all the timers" pretty frequently, um, all I can say is "Sorry for the confusion".

I lean to the right on most financial issues and left on many social issues. So my financial right leaning inclinations agree wholeheartedly with PSTARRs characterization of attacking the oil industry overall as "evil" and money grubbing as a SCREED. Sorry, but science is all about technical details. The public not caring about (or understanding the basics of) science is a problem with our education system, not a problem with my outlook on energy (IMO).

Ignoring science is why the right wing tends to be climate denialists and the left wing greenies tend to foolishly believe we can throw a magic switch and stop using essentially ALL oil "real soon now". I stand by that (and my ears aren't burning).

Now, where I'm confused -- how does that (in any way) make me a "doomer"? Does wanting to stand up to constant political nonsense make one a doomer? If so, I didn't realize that.

Outcast_Searcher wrote:

Tanada wrote:

pstarr wrote:

Outcast_Searcher wrote:Well said pstarr. I saw this a few days ago on Netflix, and this was my basic reaction, overall.

It's little wonder how limited the progress societies make, given how shallow or simply biased the overall discussions are about any complex subjects. (How can intelligent policy come from THAT?)

Thanks. It's nice to make contact. I believe you and I have crappy attitudes.

You are correct, you two have a crappy attitude.

....

After 10 years here I am amazed at the number of people who stick around for more than a week with the constant blast of Doom and hopelessness. If people on here were half as doomy as they play at on the internet they wouldn't be spending time here, they would be off doing things or they would have already checked out of this life. Lots of armchair doom is making this place rather dull. Political doom! Financial doom! Climate Doom! Oil Doom! Food Doom! Water Doom!

It is a one note song that is starting to bore the daylights out of most of us.

Wow. O-tay.

I must confess that IF I WERE A DOOMER, my ears would be burning.

Since I am a moderate who goes after the "all doom all the timers" pretty frequently, um, all I can say is "Sorry for the confusion".

I lean to the right on most financial issues and left on many social issues. So my financial right leaning inclinations agree wholeheartedly with PSTARRs characterization of attacking the oil industry overall as "evil" and money grubbing as a SCREED. Sorry, but science is all about technical details. The public not caring about (or understanding the basics of) science is a problem with our education system, not a problem with my outlook on energy (IMO).

Ignoring science is why the right wing tends to be climate denialists and the left wing greenies tend to foolishly believe we can throw a magic switch and stop using essentially ALL oil "real soon now". I stand by that (and my ears aren't burning).

Now, where I'm confused -- how does that (in any way) make me a "doomer"? Does wanting to stand up to constant political nonsense make one a doomer? If so, I didn't realize that.

Simple reason why you are confused. I said YOU TWO have a crappy attitude. I never said YOU TWO specifically are Doomers, I listed some of the types of doomers we have around here as an example of why we have such a hard time attracting fresh meat to the forum.

Would I like it if America had a good education system and people understood science? Absolutely! Has that or is that going to happen any time soon? Sadly NO!

The greatest journey begins with a single step, including the journey through understanding Peak Oil. Maybe you took a different route to get here, but for me learning about resource competition and then resource depletion was my first step. Some others got here by hating fuel prices, and some by conspiracy theories that struck a chord with their personal world view.

IMO the movie PUMP might, and I emphasize MIGHT cause some of the unaware majority of people in the USA to notice that the world of fuel supplies are much bigger than they think they are. If every attempt to introduce the general public to the facts of life as we see it around here is met with "that is worthless, it doesn't get every fact perfect and is way to general in outlook" then we will never get anywhere. The PERFECT is the enemy of the GOOD ENOUGH.

Hopefully that clears up your impression that I was labeling you as a DOOMER when in reality I was attacking your attitude, not you personally. I try to not label people or engage in personal attacks as I find it to be a huge waste of time.

The movie is back up on Netflix so I watched it again. It is rather dated right now because it was shot and released n early 2014 when fracking was going gangbusters and prices remained stubbornly high for four years despite fracking.

I do find it sad that the flex fuel law has never gotten passed, that is something that should have been done 20 years ago. In China and Brazil every new vehicle with an ICE motor is required to be E-100/M-100 compliant. There is no excuse for America to be so far behind in what is easy cheap technology for spark ignition cars and trucks.

I once lived about 8 miles from a drag racing track where I could buy all the pure Methanol I wanted for $1.20 a gallon when at the same time gasoline was $3.70/gallon. Sure it has less energy per gallon, but the price differential more than made up for it.

Sub - "It is rather dated right now because it was shot and released n early 2014 when fracking was going gangbusters and prices remained stubbornly high for four years despite fracking." Yep, same old problem: the dynamics change so quickly commercial operations can't adjust quick enough. And govt efforts? Hopeless.

ROCKMAN wrote:Sub - "It is rather dated right now because it was shot and released n early 2014 when fracking was going gangbusters and prices remained stubbornly high for four years despite fracking." Yep, same old problem: the dynamics change so quickly commercial operations can't adjust quick enough. And govt efforts? Hopeless.

You have been in the oil biz a long time, do the cycles always flip around so crazy?

Sub - Many of my profs that taught me geology in the late 60's had been laid of from the oil patch in the early 60's. They cautioned us there were few to no jobs available for geologists. Then in 1975 finishing my MS at Texas A&M companies were flying me all round the country for interviews and offering me high paid jobs at lunch. And then in the early 80's I getting up at 2 am to pick up produce at the distribution center for delivery to restaurants...using my own truck. And then in the late 80's when very few were drilling I employed a technique that allowed finding onshore NG reservoirs with a 90% success rate: made highest career income then. And then TSHTF again in the late 90's. And then started commuting half way around the world to work 28 days straight every other month doing well site geology.

And finally about 8 years ago started a new company that spent over $220 million the first 3 1/2 years hunting for NG. And then NG prices turned to sh*t. Then tried to re-invent ourselves by looking for the elusive bbl of oil with some success. And then the price of oil turned to sh*t. Now with the same company with no debt and hundreds of $millions of capex in the bank we're struggling to justify our paychecks because we can't find enough prospects that work for our business plan.

Does that answer your f*cking question? LOL. My career pretty much matches the path of the oil patch for the last 4 decades.