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2011-01-01 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

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Posted by Fred 2011-01-01 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Actually, there already are techniques to turn natural gas into oil -- hydrogenating it or something, like Crisco. This could get very interesting.

It is called "gas to liquid", it is quite an industry, and is one of the things that keeps a lid (such as it is) on oil prices.

About the oil power status change don't worry--
they're a democracy. They will screw it up somehow.

I often wonder how much funding to the various green movements comes from the magic kingdom?

Posted by nGuard 2011-01-01 09:02|| 2011-01-01 09:02|| Front Page Top

#2 "I often wonder how much funding to the various green movements comes from the magic kingdom?"

Most of it that doesn't come from George Soros. >:-(

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2011-01-01 11:02|| 2011-01-01 11:02|| Front Page Top

#3 It is called "gas to liquid", it is quite an industry,

Thank you, nGuard. It's so helpful when somebody can clarify what I'm trying to talk about, covering for my vast ignorance. And, I get to learn something, always worth doing. :-)

Posted by trailing wife 2011-01-01 11:06|| 2011-01-01 11:06|| Front Page Top

#4 TW, I always look forward to your insightful and often pithy commentary.

Posted by Steven 2011-01-01 11:13|| 2011-01-01 11:13|| Front Page Top

#5 Fred, check out the "thon the lamr" substitution for "that larger" above. Very cool.

Posted by rammer 2011-01-01 11:40|| 2011-01-01 11:40|| Front Page Top

#6 Dear Steven, you flatter me inordinately. Ralph's son Johnnie, in response to your comments yesterday on my little rant: so much of what I know I learnt here at Rantburg from you-all, including you. If I write something that works, it's because of the generosity, wisdom, and knowledge of Rantburg's teachers.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-01-01 11:56|| 2011-01-01 11:56|| Front Page Top

#7 IIRC this discovery extends over into Lebanese waters - things could get interesting.

Posted by Glenmore 2011-01-01 12:02|| 2011-01-01 12:02|| Front Page Top

#8 >European consumption is going down, new suppliers are coming on.

So supply is up, demand is down, and yet the price is higher than ever...

On a totally unrelated topic I wonder is all that money printing having any effects?

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2011-01-01 14:03|| 2011-01-01 14:03|| Front Page Top

#9 TW, I wasn't being facetious with my comments yesterday - I never had heard of the Cairo/Cordoba schism putting the Islamists in irons (its not in any Bernard Lewis history) - I thought the main schism was always between the Sunnis and their hatred for the Shiites.

I would add to your comments about the rough road ahead for the Islamists, that free commentary on the Internet is largely responsible for this.

Posted by Ralphs son Johnnie 2011-01-01 15:07|| 2011-01-01 15:07|| Front Page Top

#10 Johnnie, that perspective came from the book I'm reading that triggered the post yesterday. The author was talking about how, from an open and confident world-view during the tenures of Mohammed and the first four khalifs, within a generation Islam became closed and defensive, despite continuing expansion by conquest along the borders. Partly, he said, it was due to continuous raiding by the Turks, as Christendom was being bedeviled by the Vikings -- which somehow threw into question the proof through conquest thingy (not a problem for Christianity, which was proved through the visions of Christ experienced by the apostle Paul and others, as I understand it) -- and partly, he said, because of the establishment of three caliphates with more or less legitimate claims to the mantle of khalifa:

o the Cairo bunch had a Shiite descendant of Ali (the last of the "Rightly Guided" khalifs, who'd been companions of Mohammed) and Fatima, daughter of Mohammed, so a double claim,

o the Cordoba bunch had the last scion of the Ummayids (the two middle of the RG khalifs, who had moved operations from Mecca to Baghdad),

o and the Baghdad bunch, which controlled the capitol of Islam, where the first of the Abbasids murdered Ali and all the Ummayids except that one who escaped to Spain.

The thing was, Sunni/Shia was a split over who should be in charge -- a spiritual or physical descendant of Mohammed -- but there had still only been one person in charge, and Ali had accepted the rule of the Ummayids, per et fil after accepting Abu Bakr. But now there were three men claiming the mantle of Mohammed, so to speak, all three risen to power through warring against fellow Muslims. But neither Mohammed nor Allah intervened to reunite the world of Islam into a single community, even though Abu Bakr had gone to war after Mohammed's death to prevent so much as a single Muslim village from opting out, using the argument that there might be no compulsion to enter Islam, but leaving the community of God was not a possibility.

So I can't claim originality in the thought or my own cleverness in the analysis, I'm afraid.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-01-01 17:34|| 2011-01-01 17:34|| Front Page Top

#11 LNG, Liquefied Natural Gas is great stuff. Here is a tanker ship transporting some.

Liquefied natural gas takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state. It is odorless, colorless, non-toxic and non-corrosive.

The reduction in volume makes it much more cost efficient to transport over long distances where pipelines do not exist. Where moving natural gas by pipelines is not possible or economical, it can be transported by specially designed cryogenic sea vessels (LNG carriers) or cryogenic road tankers.

The energy density of LNG is 60% of that of diesel fuel.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-01-01 18:06|| 2011-01-01 18:06|| Front Page Top

#12 "Here is a tanker ship transporting some."

Considerate of them to paint a bull's eye on the side like that, 'moose. I'm sure Al-Q will eventually thank them.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2011-01-01 19:33|| 2011-01-01 19:33|| Front Page Top

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