A new US Geological Survey Report estimates the Arctic could hold “approximately 90 billion barrels of oil, 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.” Key point in the report however, “approximately 84% of oil and gas reserves occur offshore.”  Long time before it comes to market.

Source: USGS

In the future window glass will be used as a solar concentrator to funnel the suns light to high voltage solar cells at the edge of the glass and produce electricity. A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology “has found a way to coat panes of glass or plastic with a mixture of several dyes that essentially replace the mirrors that are typically used as solar concentrators.

Source: BBC Technology News

Curtains

Architect Sheila Kennedy demonstrates how thin film could be used on textiles, in this case curtains, to capture solar radiation and turn it into energy. At present these are cost prohibitive, but the point is that alternative solar energy ideas are advancing beyond big silicon based solar panels.

Solar Paint

The Swansea Solar Paint project aims to develop a solar coating that can be painted on to building products.

Source: Inhabitat

The book Plan B 3.0 goes into great detail to emphasize the coming decline of oil:

“discoveries of conventional oil total roughly 2 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion barrels have been extracted so far”

“The whole world has now been seismically searched and picked over,’ says independent geologist Colin Campbell ‘Geological knowledge has improved enormously in the past 30 years and it is almost inconceivable now that major fields remain to be found.”

But this is just a myth according to Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The oil companies have just not disclosed how much is really available.

“the published estimates of proven global reserves are less than half the true amount”

Slate.com revisits the 1993 Micheal Crighton prediction of Mass Media extinction. Though it did not come true as speculated Crighton does not back off the belief that most of mass media is useless opinion and speculation, produced on the cheap and relying on source-less hearsay instead of hard earned facts.

“I want a news service that tells me what no one knows but is true nonetheless.”

He laments the fact that no media visionary has come forward to build the high-quality information service consumers need, or more importantly to convince them of the need.

Source: Slate.com