They say the US has boosted its Nat Gas reserves by 50% by new methods of measuring reserves. Yet my gas bill just went up 30% in September. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-07-29-natural-gas_N.htm Something wrong with that equation? A 50% rise in reserves yet my gas bill goes up 30%?? Can you imagine once all the cars and trucks start using CNG. NG prices will really skyrocket and large amounts of people will freeze to death. We heat with NG and keep the thermostat set at 64 at night and keep the heat OFF during the day. If it is in the teens outside the house gets down into the low 50's in daytime. I usually turn on the heat around 9 PM and shut it down at 8 or 9 am. To heat this 'part time' way cost us $325 a month for a modern, highly insulated 2400 sq ft house. (including garage as it has some water pipes in its ceiling). Let's get real about renewable energy...a survivalists view I marvel at some of the cornucopian's outlooks for our future. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornucopian Recently the cornucopians are putting their hopes in keeping the jets flying on algae oil? Well, who knows?? I am not like the atheists that claim they know everything under the sun...I am just a lowly agnostic that in the end does not know. But the cornucopians still have a way to go with algae powered jets. When the cornucopians can pave roads and make roofing shingles out of corn instead of asphalt and make tires out of sewage sludge instead of crude - maybe their time will have arrived. Whether one is an intellectual, cornucopian or survivalist, they all have to live in the future to some extent with their thoughts. The difference between a survivalist and the other two is this. The intellectuals can keep their mind fixated on the future and fantasy as long as they want. They have no reckoning in the present. Their currency of trade is in 'thought' and not in practical application. The survivalist on the other hand must come back to the present to prepare for and implement via 'practical application' what his future needs will be. As futurists we try to anticipate future events and the direction the world is headed in and as survivalists we try to prepare for those circumstances. So I'd suggest to Al Gore or any politician that takes up the renewable energy challenge to open up your eyes to truth of 'what is,' develop a survivalists mentality and not get lost in the fantasy of 'wishful thinking' with how you hope things to be. But being truthful is lofty goal in and of itself for politicians, irrespective of changing our entire world when it comes to powering it. The mantra of the ego based, power hungry politician is; "Give me power for a day and I hope the roof waits to falls in on the next guy and the music wont stop on my presidency." Everything they do while in office is aimed not at truth and what is best for our country, but at spin, lies and making themselves look good in the eye of the voters. All you political knuckleheads that go to these rallies to kiss the asses of your political deities - pin them down on 'Peak Oil' and see what they say. What you will get is NOTHING from them. They could not utter the words Peak Oil if their life depended on it. So it goes with truth and politicians - they do not mix. Al Gores proposed a challenge to both political candidates to switch all electric generation in the US from fossil fuels to renewables within 10 years. Mr. Gore is way off mark with what we will need for future energy generation in the US. He has not addressed a realistic view of the problem. He needs to increase his goal to a minimum of 300% to 400% of our current electric generation capacity. Then he may be approaching what America will really need. And I am conservative in my outlook. The actual number may be closer to 500% to 600% of our current capacity when we factor in the IF'S, AND'S & BUT'S. In the US, 93.2% of our electric comes from nonrenewable, fossil burning or greenhouse gas producing methods. If we are looking to hydroelectric and renewable sources, 4.46% of our electric comes from hydroelectric and 2.34% comes from renewable energy production. Out of this 2.34% of renewable sources, an undisclosed portion still contributes to global warming despite its prestige of being a 'renewable energy source' as it involves the burning of wood, black liquor, wood waste, municipal solid waste, landfill gas, sludge waste, tires, agriculture byproducts and biomass. Only a fraction of the 2.34% of renewable electric energy that is produced comes from geothermal, solar thermal, photovoltaic energy, and wind. These are the areas that Gore wishes to expand. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epates.html Electricity is where mankind will turn to for power requirements when all fossil fuels as well as uranium dry up in the near future. We can see that humans love affair with fossil fuels will look like a blip on the screen of humans historical record on earth. from:LATOC If you don't know what peak oil has to say about our world and don't want to read the rest of my post, then at least check out: http://www.energybulletin.net/primer 1) When everyone switches to electric cars and plug into the grid, the demand for electricity will go up tremendously. 2) Homes that use natural gas, propane, heating oil will switch to electricity as the fossil fuels will dry up. The highest demand areas such as heating our homes, heating water and cooking are areas that can't be done on practical basis with solar in many parts of the country Sure if you life in CA or AZ you got some hope with the solar hot water. Maybe the NE can also get some hot water in the hot humid summers. But the goal of this massive energy change is to make it as seamless as possible. Proper planning is the difference between part time and full time power. Proper planning is the difference between less deaths versus massive deaths. http://dieoff.org/ 3) All trucks, trains and airplanes will have to find new power sources. Trains can switch to steam, electric or electromagnet. Truck may have to be smaller and run on electric or bio fuels. Farm equipment can be powered by bio fuels. But all these bio fuels take away from our food production. We can see that adding 5% of corn ethanol does to the food picture - and we still use 95% gasoline. What will happen to food when we are 0% gas and 0% diesel and 100% bio fuels and ethanol? Airlines? My prediction is they will eventually shut down. Although one commentator on CNBC puts her hopes in running planes on algae oil. Again time will tell. But as a survivalist I must go with 'what is' and not fantasy of the cornucopians. In any case, trains, especially electric trains will be a big area of transport in our future both for products, food and people when airlines cease operate. 4) Population increase. More people = more demands for electric. When people feel bad they look for diversions from pain. If they can't get drugged up with alcohol or drugs, they also like some genital situation to escape a hellish life. More sex = more people. I don't see the pop trend changing any time soon unless people can't get food and starve or freeze from lack of heat. 5) Global warming - hotter people demand more electric for A/C. 6) Solar and wind are good supplemental power sources but crappy uninterrupted power sources. One person said that on average a wind farm that is spread out will yield power about 33% of the time, as the wind is blowing on average in some part of a large geographic area. So, to make up for when the wind does not blow, we will need much larger scales of wind generation than we anticipate now. We get brownouts even with full capacity and fip the switch, fossil fueled convenience. Exporting the power is another problem. We can make electricity in high wind areas, but will lose much of it if we have to export the wind generated electric long distances to the big cities. Solar only works for a few hours a day in ideal circumstances...and does not work much at all if the sun is not out. Our countries power needs are 24 hours. The sorry thing about electricity is it cannot be easily stored. (We can store the 'energy' of electricity by pumping water via electric pumps uphill and having the water drain back downhill to power a turbine at a later time.) 7) The US will go back to being a manufacturing nation and have to cut it's addiction to cheap Chinese and other foreign goods. All these cargo tankers run on diesel. So, as we cut back on shipping, local manufacturing will return more so out of design than by desire. More industrial manufacturing = more need for electricity. 8) Without energy our country is open for takeover ... no jets...no tanks...no transport on the ground or in the air. Luckily we will still have nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers as long as the uranium holds out. But the jets on the flattop all use jet fuel. All the supplies for those subs and carriers petroleum dependent. Will our military be as successful as it is today when it is all electric? I don't know, but I do know an all electric military will drain the grids capacity even further. As a survivalist I cannot afford to live in dream land as the mind manacled intellectuals and cornucopians do, I don't pretend to have a crystal ball and be able to predict the future. I can only prepare for 'possibilities' of what are to come. Intellectuals and cornucopians put all their faith in predicting an unknown future that is based on lofty hopes, dreams and wishful thinking. Whereas the successful survivalist puts their hopes and dreams in preparing for an uncertain future and knows that 'wishful thinking' does not go far in life or death situations. In Richard Heinberg's book 'Power-Down' he contrasts the survivalist mentality with that of the preservationist. The wiki on this topic: "A survivalist is a person who anticipates and prepares for a future disruption in local, regional or worldwide social or political order." "Preservationism...as a term distinguishing between survivalist groups who wish merely to survive a collapse of civilization, and communities who wish to preserve as much of human culture as is possible in the event of collapse." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preservationist Mr. Heinberg talked about a gene bank founded by Nikolai Vavilov in Russia and the dedicated preservationists that guarded the seed and gene pool. He went on to say how 9 of the scientists and workers starved to death because they refused to eat the seeds and tubers in the gene bank. Now, I don't know if a few seeds or tubers would have made much difference in their surviving. But I can say a survivalist would have eaten the first one to die. While their efforts were most admirable, we can say their life was not an enviable one for us to emulate. And in the end they failed miserably at self preservation and survival. But Mr. Heinberg brings up a good point - balancing the two areas of survival with preservation. For we may well survive, but if we do not preserve a semblance of a somewhat livable world to survive in, we may not wish to survive in what remains. In summation: Renewables are our future. Renewable are not a seamless and fungible replicant for fossil fuels. Renewables do not replace the petrochemical uses of crude oil. Renewables do not replace the specialized uses of natural gas in industry or food production. Renewables will be our future by design and not by desire. But they are the default choice for our furture power needs as ALL fossil fuels and nuclear energy source will be depleted in the near future. The more realistic we are with our evaluation of the conversion to renewable energy, the less deaths will occur from fantasizing about the improbable future that the intellectuals, cornucopians and political spin doctors have dreamed up.. Book and DVD list. All available from your local library. Beyond Oil: the view from Hubbert's Peak by Deffeyes, Kenneth S. http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/ The Coming Economic Collapse - how you can thrive when oil costs $200 a barrel by Leeb, Stephen A Crude Awakening - the oil crash Lava Productions AG, Switzerland DVD http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/ The End of Suburbia - oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream by Greene, Gregory DVD http://www.endofsuburbia.com/ Fed Up http://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Angelo-Sacerdote/dp/B000CNGC6G High Noon for Natural Gas: the new energy crisis by Darley, Julian http://www.highnoon.ws/ The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century by Kunstler, James Howard Oil Apocalypse History channel DVD Peak Oil Survival: preparation for life after gridcrash by McBay, Aric Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world by Heinberg, Richard Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict by Klare, Michael T http://www.amazon.com/Resource-Wars-Landscape-Conflict-Introduction/dp/0805055762 A Thousand Barrels a Second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world by Tertzakian, Peter Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy by Simmons, Matthew R. Well written book examining 12 of the key Saudi oil fields. Who Killed the Electric Car? Sony Pictures Classics release http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/ Zoom:the global race to fuel the car of the future by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran.

Yes, follow your intuituion. Check the wallet, the phone bill, maybe. Totally surveilling another human being - no way. What this guy did is sick, I don't care if his wife was swinging from the chandelier with someone else. There are no more divorce by adultry statutes left in any state in the US. There is no reason to copy 700 emails. He knew by the 100th one that she was up to no good. OP took spying to a whole new level. Actually, I think he got off on it. Now he wants retribution by getting her fired. What about the children of the marriage? It sounds as if at least one is grown from a previous post regarding the wife dying her hair for an upcoming wedding of the daughter. Even grown childen are affected by this kind of stuff. This person gives me the creeps. Also, I have already heard too much from the "marriagebygrace" folks. I don't care what anyone's religious thoughts are, they're private and shouldn't be forced on others. If you read the instructions to this forum, religion is not to be discussed or posted. I'll now fold up my soap box as I am done with this particular thread.

I saw the doctor this morning and these are my choices. Take birth control pills to regulate my periods or preferably Prevera to regulate them. The provera has made me gain weight in the past and the doctor says that is because it gives you more of an appetite. A cyst was found on one of my ovaries on the ultrasound. The doctor says I must have another ultrasound in 8 weeks to see if it gets smaller or goes away. If not, he recommends a hysterectomy OR he says I can schedule a hysterectomy for his first opening in April in which he will also remove my ovaries. I am almost 51 and the doctor says I am not in menopause although I could get it soon. The ultrasound confirmed multiple fibroids and that it is like I am 15 weeks pregnant. My first inclination is to wait for the next ultrasound to see if a hysterectomy is warranted anyways while not taking any pills for the next 2 months. Should the cyst problem go away on its own, should I go on Provera or birth control pills and ride this out until I reach menopause. The chances are minute that the fibroids are cancerous. Of course, he would want to keep a close eye on the fibroids if I don't have the surgery. My periods are still extremely painful, heavier than before, 7-8 days now instead of the 3-4 days before and I have lots of clotting. Also, the spotting I am constantly getting between periods is old blood, according to the doctor. The surgery doesn't scare me. I love the thought of no more periods but am I exchanging one problem for another by going thru with the surgery? The doctor also explained that he would take the ovaries (even without the cyst problem) because women over 45 have more of a chance for cancer if they kept their ovaries. Besides, I had my tubes tied years ago and don't want any more children. Any suggestions out there for me? What would you do in my place?

Alisande and others, I realize that if someone doesn't share your opinion they're supposed to not open threads or not express their opinions. That's not how it works, nor is it a philosophy I follow. Perhaps you should follow your own advice. The fact is this bear, because of the abuse by the "Bear Center" and other names it hides behind in its fundraising efforts, promotes bears having young early in their lives. I've explained this before but some conveniently forget about it, but when bears breed too soon, they're not good mothers. This one abandoned it's cub and that's not unusual. I'm not going to go into it more because I'm not sure if some will be able to comprehend over the brainwashing of paranoia about hunting and how "cute" they are. I don't see any posts about the poor deer that are hit by cars. They disappear too. Shouldn't they be headlines in the news and have websites devoted to them to raise money for scammers? But those deer don't have ribbons on them do they so they're not of such interest I guess. I've never gotten into big game hunting. I used to hunt pheasants, grouse and partridge but not deer or bear. Hunting is a legitimate sport but as said, there are abusers in most anything. And yes, most *do* eat the meat and bear, I'm told by trusted sources, is excellent fare. And yes, many people, especially in the northland do feed their families from wild game. Some because of economics. Some because they prefer the taste. Some because they don't like the additives in processed food or any other number of reasons. To condemn those people is wrong. Jump on me for having an opinion if you like but why don't you jump on people who condemn like that? (Don't bother.) Now I guess perhaps I shouldn't have said the not "politically correct" enough term "garbage", even though that's how I see it. Even though it's a perfectly innocent and innocuous term used in my area and culture and I'm supposed to be accepting to offensive phrases if it comes from other areas though they're not expected to be so accepting, and I'm not to use those terms, phrases etc that come from my locale. I should also have known there's a few (who shall remain nameless) who get up in the morning and put on cockleburr knickers and search for a chance to be offended by the slightest thing and anything said that doesn't comply with the position du jour of those who want to set the topics and positions of the forum or is something to which they can feign offense must just make their day. And of course there's always the cheerleaders who suggest it's some "shot" (pun intended) toward a poster when it's merely a commentary of opinion, intended for adults who can discuss things and share opinions. Yes, here we go, that dreaded opinion that hasn't gained pre-approval from the self-annointed powers-that-be. Sorry to disappoint you but I won't even facetiously suggest I'll request approval before stating an opinion, even though it might not always be popular, or politically correct. Maybe I should post a disclaimer from now on. But I know someone will be offended by that too! That said, I feel constrained to point out when people use hysterical propaganda from fundraising sites as support for their positions to misrepresent facts and mislead people. It wasn't pointed out, and should be, that the "Wildlife Research Institute" used as "documentation" is nothing more than an offshoot of the Bear Center and another attempt at fundraising for these people. To me, to hear this as a story on the purported "news" was an affront to rational people. As I was listening to it, hoping it'd end sooner I could only think that although I'm not a big-game hunter, after hearing this purshed ad-naseum over an abused bear, abused by someone searching for money, no different than any other internet scammer, spammer or otherwise, and the topic wasn't that the bears were abused, but suggesting something else was wrong and I did get a chuckle thinking a bearskin rug with ribbons on it would look kind of nice on my living room floor.