Peak oil. When the game gets tough...

In this post we’d like to talk about “peak oil” We’ve all been fed a lot of info about oil, figuratively speaking of course, at least once in our lifetimes by friends and relatives. And it couldn’t be a more actual topic! But the idea that we want you, the reader, to think about is that behind all the clichés, like Americans/war/multinationals/nowevenchina, lies a pretty interesting theory which was developed way back in 1956(so it ain’t exactly cutting edge…) which analyzes how the production of oil varies in respect to new sources(wells), and therefore what it really means is a correlation between demand and physical supply. The theory had some shocking forecasts. Oil is a limited resource and obviously not renewable. “Hubbert’s peak is the moment in which oil extraction reaches its highest value. After it hits the peak, production will start to eventually decline. The theory guessed that the peak would occur in 2007. After that, supply will start to decline, and oil prices will eventually start to climb(where have I heard that one before?). This is an effect of the inability of oil suppliers to satisfy the ever-increasing demand(think China). We foresee a great volatility in oil prices, because of their speculative nature. Both of these things have been happening lately, which gives us another reason for thinking that the peak is at hand.” (ASPO Italia, Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas)

This thing might give us something which will make us think about many aspects of the near and distant future.

Here you find two other links:
Wikipedia: Hubbert Peak Theory
ASPO
Peak oil - News and Message board

Do you trust?

Let’s start with something crucial but not too heavy: trusted computing. This technology’s application could give hardware and software producers the possibility to control any electronic equipment’s behavior. TC has already been installed in a lot of internal components and operating systems.
Some of the companies which belong to the trusted computing group include AMD, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Sun, and so on.


Let’s analyze some of the “interesting possibilities” which this technology can lead to:

• Privacy violation: a unique key, or serial number, can be associated with each computer which carries the technology inside, and can therefore be recognized on the net everywhere you go;


• Digital content censorship: “uncomfortable” or ‘misleading” information could not be accessible by your browser; furthermore, even the author himself could not be able to access his own information ever again.


• Anticompetitive behavior: Some software integration could be favored instead of others(competitors)


• Forced client fidelity: The manufacturer could manipulate the software so as to make it work only by downloading frequent updates from the net


• DRM mechanisms: the user could not access legal digital content the way he is allowed to now: for example, digital content could be accessed only for so many times.

For further info:
againsttcpa.com
Electronic Frontier foundation
TC FAQ

To check out a list of devices which already carry a controller chip inside, see this (so give it a look before buying your next computer!):

First Post

This is our blog’s first post. The idea for this blog is to share with others the kind of news that you normally wouldn’t hear about from mass media. This could obviously mean a lot of things. We’ll try to create an access point containing info, links, comments, and other things regarding “alternative news”. Our goal is to try to make you want to get “informed” and get others to do the same, in order to at least try to grasp the basic facts needed to reflect on the things that are happening all around us!
Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Keep checking back in!