Catspiracy Purrsday: Fox news shows me my estimate of Minions was way off.

Ever since Tigger sent her evil minions to watch my house I’ve kept a close eye on them.

a mob of dozens of cats (Fox News Estimates)

I used what I thought was good a method of finding out how many of them there are. I counted them. By that method I estimated that there were 10 evil minions who watch me from my backyard.

100's of Cat Spies outside my window

But when I saw Fox’s handling of the recent Tea Party in Washington I found out this is not how to get a number for crowds.

Minion as far as the eye can see

Using a counting method similar to what I used DC Police said that roughly 4,000 people showed up.

Thousands of Minions

Fox reported that as 20,000 and showed footage of a rally that happened two months ago to back that up. Michelle Bachman (R-Crazytown) told them it was more like 40,000 and they began using that number.

So If I use this method of estimating the evil minions I have roughly 200 evil minions watching my house. (Number at the moment plus the Number two months ago X 10).

Nearly 200 Minions on my porch (M. Bachman estimate)

How will I survive with a crowd of 200 Evil Minions in my backyard?


Just a personal note: My first book “Invasive Thoughts” has been accepted so I will need to be spending some time with the copy editor and doing final revisions, at the same time my third book “The Setting Earth” is at the 49,000 word mark so I’m spending more time writing the final act, while I’m doing that I’ve got a bunch of ideas for my next book “The Pizza Diaries” that I’m talking to a director about. So I will probably not be blogging as much.
I’ll still do Shut-up Sunday since that is my most viewed, and Fantastic Future Friday as most of that research goes into my fiction, and of course I’ll keep everyone up to date on the Catspiracy, just maybe not 3 times a week.

What We Know Wednesday: Abiotic Oil, Myths and Facts.

After my post Peak Oil a friend of mine Grant Lawrence asked me to comment on Abiotic Oil, or Oil from non-organic origins.

In every field there are certain terms that raise Red Flags among people experienced in the field. In the oil industry the term “Abiotic Oil” is the biggest one. Whenever I would hear an Investor say they were planning on investing in Abiotic Oil Exploration I knew that someone was trying to rip them off and they would never see their money again.

However just because scam artists are drawn to a concept doesn’t mean it is necessarily wrong, in fact for a good scam to work there has to be a kernel of truth in it.

The idea for Abiotic Oil came from Russia in the 19th century when little was known about how oil was formed, and research was hampered by the fact that 600ft was about the maximum depth that could be drilled.

Since then it has been elaborated on to take in new findings, but here is the basic argument.

When the Earth first formed it had a Abiotic Methane atmosphere, as the crust cooled some of this methane worked its way in to the porous rocks, later these porous rocks were pushed down to the top of the mantle where they were trapped at a layer between the mantle and the crust (technically in the Lithosphere), where the temperature and pressure is just below the point where methane will break into Hydrogen and Carbon.

This part is semi-verifiable through a number of processes, although they can all be picked apart individually, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say Abiotic Natural Gas or Methane is real and present in the Lithosphere.

The next part is where it gets tricky. This Methane in the Lithosphere is just below the temperature where it breaks down into Hydrogen and Carbon, if the parts of the Lithosphere folds down the heat and pressure become to much and the Carbon turns to Diamonds, if it folds up the Methane is exposed to the bottom of the crust which is moving over it at a rate of 6 inches a year.

This allows the natural gas to bond with elements in the Earths crust forming more complex hydrocarbons. The rocks containing these more complex hydrocarbons either move up or down. If they move up the cooler temperatures make these hydrocarbons stable, if they move down they break down and the cycle starts all over again.

Once the hydrocarbons are in a stable area the pressure below them pushes them higher, as they get higher, the rocks get cooler allow even more complex hydrocarbons to form until they get within a mile of the surface where they can turn into oil.

The hypothesis is much more detailed but that is the general argument for Abiotic Oil.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell Abiotic Oil from biotic oil so without actually drilling down to the bottom of the crust it is still just a hypothesis (it’s not a Theory until we are able to drill that deep to test it.)

When I was in the oil business I had read a few articles that claimed to have found natural Abiotic Oil in trace amounts, looking back now I can’t seem to find those. However, I do remember that they said it was only trace amounts.

Even if Abiotic Oil is real the question remains does the Earth produce enough of it to be meaningful?

The two examples of large Abiotic Oil fields that I have reviewed from investors prospectuses were both run by the Soviet Union’s KGB. That is a good reason to be suspicious.

The first (and I don’t have those prospectuses on hand so this is from memory) was a test well that the Soviet Union claimed to drill 10 miles down and recover trace amounts of Abiotic Oil before the well collapsed in on itself.

Since in the 20 years since the Soviet Union collapsed the deepest well drilled is roughly 7 miles deep and the KGB destroyed the site and the records I tend to discount this evidence.

The second example I came across that was being pitched to investors was Vietnam’s White Tiger Field. During the mid 70s there was a boycott on Soviet Oil, but not on Vietnam’s oil. The KGB ran a test program to recover Abiotic Oil in the White Tiger Field. The oil was processed by the KGB and Vietnam sold it. (After oil is processed it is impossible to determine the source.)

After the fall of the Soviet Union the KGB destroyed their oil wells in the field and their processing equipment. The White Tiger Field continues to produce oil but it has been shown to be formed from biotic processes.

The timing of the Soviet Experiments and lack of repeatability makes me doubt that they really discovered abiotic oil.

As far as Abiotic Oil being the savior of the Peak Oil Crisis, my experience makes me really doubt it. The evidence is just not there that there are meaningful reserves of Abiotic Oil.

But there is a scientific phrase: Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence. It could be there are large quantities of hydrocarbons between the 7-mile deep mark and the bottom of the crust (not crude oil the temperatures are too high) that could be used to fuel our economy.

If there is it will take tremendous resources to get them and those resources can be better spent on renewable energy resources that do less harm to the planet.

Temper Tantrum Tuesday: A Letter to my Congressman

Dear (Insert Name From Below)

I am writing you to express my apologies, it is with sincere regrets that I must apologize for thinking you were a halfway decent human being. That was my fault and I apologize.

When I voted for you I had no illusions that you were a great reformer or that you were above making deals with the devil to get legislation passed. But I didn’t think you would condemn 44,000 people to death every year because they don’t have health insurance, so that you could take hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, I mean campaign contributions from the Insurance Companies.

That was my mistake for thinking you might actually think several thousand peoples lives might be more valuable than a campaign contribution and I apologize for thinking that.

When I placed your campaign sticker on my car I didn’t think that you had all the answers to solve the worlds complex problems. But I thought you might give some consideration to the people of your district that are facing a 10% increase in their health insurance bills pushing them up to be the largest monthly expense that they face.

Again, my mistake for thinking you might be concerned about the problems facing your constituents and I apologize for that.

When I talked to my friends about voting for you I didn’t exaggerate what I thought you could do, but I did tell them that I thought you were a halfway decent human being. After your voting to let the insurance companies drive 1.5 million people a year out of their homes so that you can continue to receive their support I see I was wrong.

I would like to apologize for spreading the rumor that you were a halfway decent human being.

When I walked into the voting booth I didn’t think that you were above taking bribes (I mean campaign contributions from large donors) or playing politics as usual, but I did think you might have some sympathy for the hundreds of small business owners in your district that are being crushed by the ever increasing cost of healthcare for their employees. These small businesses that you are forcing to close are the backbone of the local economy and by crushing them you are insuring that your district will become poorer pushing people from your district out of the bribing business.

I feel I need to apologize for thinking you would put the campaign contributions from your own district above those of the large out of state corporations.

Finally I would like to apologize for looking at your website and seeing the American Flag behind your picture and thinking you might care about this country. Providing Health Insurance to State and Federal Employees is becoming the biggest cost that the government faces it squeezes out the monies that could go to other projects that could strengthen our nation. The healthcare bill that you voted against would reduce the federal deficit by $129 billion and ease the pressure on the State Government’s budgets. This is money that we cannot afford to waste. Without the relief to the Government’s budgets that this bill provides, we simply will not be able to fix our neglected infrastructure, send our children to college and the million other things Government does to strengthen our nation.

So I apologize for thinking you might care about our nation.

There is more that I would like to apologize for but I have to go take your bumper sticker off my car.


This is a letter I wrote to my Congressman who voted against the healthcare reform bill. If your congressman is on the list below you might consider sending the same letter to them. Cut and Paste it I don’t care.

John Adler (Insurance Industry shill-NJ)
Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)
Brian Baird (WA)
John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)
John Boccieri (OH)
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL)
Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)
Ben Chandler (Blue Dog-KY)
Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)
Artur Davis (AL)
Lincoln Davis (Blue Dog-TN)
Chet Edwards (TX)
Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN)
Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Blue Dog-SD)
Tim Holden (Blue Dog-PA)
Larry Kissell (NC)
Suzanne Kosmas (Insurance Industry shill-FL)
Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Betsy Markey (CO)
Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA)
Eric Massa (D-NY)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
Mike McMahon (NY)
Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA)
Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)
Scott Murphy (Insurance Industry shill-NY)
Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)
Ike Skelton (MO)
John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN)
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)
Harry Teague (NM)

In the unlikely event that I get a response I will post it on this site.