Random Thursday

More bloggy randomness while asking the eternal question, “what did you think was going to happen when you gave people money to trade in their pickups?”

• If you’re in the oil business (aka the “awl bidness”) and you’re not a regular reader of The Oil Drum, then you’re missing out on one of more valuable online resources for intelligent analysis and discussion of energy-related issues. The contributors to this blog are objective and they know their stuff. Plus, for data junkies, there’s enough graphs, charts, tables, and statistics (and intelligent interpretation thereof) to make life worth living. I’ll recommend two recent sample posts: Arthur Berman leaves World Oil after raising natural gas questions (providing an excellent analysis of the relationship of natural gas prices to crude oil prices…and a lot more) and EROWI – energy return of water invested (an analysis of how much water is required to generate energy from various sources; this is not an idle question, by the way).

  The discussion in the comments section of The Oil Drum is one of the few places online where the debate is civil and intelligent, and occasionally even more enlightening than the actual articles.

• ABC has published an article listing nine “Top Twitter Faux Pas.” I’m not sure why they picked only nine; perhaps they didn’t want to be compared to Letterman’s Top 10 list, seeing that it’s on a competing network. Anyway, the list contains nothing really surprising. For example, you have to be clueless to tweet that you’re leaving town on vacation; if your houses gets burglarized after doing so, you deserve to be a cautionary tale. And when are employees (current or prospective) going to understand that employers and co-workers also know how to use social media? So, it strikes me that Twitter, Facebook, et al are simply modern means for refining the social gene pool. Darwin would be proud.

  By the way, if you want to look for my own Twitter faux pas, of which there are many, you can find them here.

• Couple of personally significant dates on the horizon. Saturday will mark the seventh anniversary of this here blog-like thing. I’m a little embarrassed at how this site was neglected this year; perhaps 2010 will bring more inspiration. But I remain grateful for those who continue to be patient and drop by from time-to-time. Sunday, the 8th, brings a less happy anniversary, as it marks one year since we made the decision to have Abbye euthanized to end her suffering. I really didn’t think I’d be as sensitive to this date as I am. I’d like to write a specific post about this but I don’t know if I’m up to it. Anyway, just wanted to share that with those of you who remember and loved Abbye.