Other good blogs/sites I've been reading:

This is the blog of Paul Krugman on economic policy:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

I find him quite interesting, and often quite correct (and if not - at least quite honest). He is also quite critical of the analysis of our media stars, whether it be Greenspan on economics, or Guliani on whatever Guliani thinks is the way forward (it's not - whatever it is).

I read most of these:
http://kernelplanet.org - blogs buy Linux kernel developers, especially Robert Love - although I don't always agree (John McCain for pres?) he is still interesting to read. Most of the people on that planet are (others like planet.freedesktop.org not so much - not that it's bad).

Others like Glenn Greenwald have some of the best insight in our Beltway/Establishment media . Although I haven't been quite into his blog as I recently was (possibly from outrage fatigue) his recent posts on Joe Klein are very interesting indeed. Joe apparently can't read the very obvious language of the bill, and does a poor "correction" in response.

The blog I've been reading every post of lately is theoildrum.com. It's a very thorough blog on the issue of fossil fuels and hitting the peak (when supply will not increase). Peak Oil as it's called is getting more and more well known with $100 oil looming. Most of the talk is in other countries unfortunately, especially Ireland (smaller nations do usually lead the pack, often vulnerable ones).

The price of oil has been going up steadily over the last 8 years, and will continue to climb. Shortages are already occuring in China, Nepal, and even North Dakota (diesel shortages). I suggest reading more on the subject. While there is a lot of information and it is complex (with many unknowns in production/capacity) even is pointing that we are currently already in a supply plateau, while demand increases.

The UK is already importing oil (it was an exporter for some 20 years or so prior) while Mexico's production decreases -it will probably be importing oil within a few years, top that with the fact that 60 of 98 oil producing countries (Non-OPEC iirc) are in declining producton- and many exports decrease in oil exporting nations because of increased local consumption (the Export Land model) - resulting in less gas and other oil products for us. An ecomonic downturn (say, from sub-prime mortgages) will only delay the inevitable.

You can guess which issue I find more problematic (Peak Oil is right up there with Global Climate Change). The only good thing is that Peak Oil may make Global Climate change a moot point - a lot of models predict continual increase in oil production. Right now total liquids production is about 85 million barrels per day (including ethanol, natural gas, et al), even the head CEO of Total said it will never go above 100 million. That is how much we would require in less than five years.

Needless to say I expect more issues in smaller countries from now on (like Nepal and Indonesia) to keep hitting the airways (did I mention Indonesia's airline being grounded for lack of fuel). It just keeps getting better.

Enjoy!

Oh and btw, hydrogen fuel cells are totally gay. About as gay as ethanol. Electric and Biodiesal are much less so.

-Bryan

More on the OLPC laptop front:

"Thanks to your early action, your XO laptop is scheduled to be delivered between December 14 and December 24. Our "first day" donors are our highest priority and we are making every effort to deliver your XO laptop(s) as soon as possible. We will send you an update upon shipment."

I received this email about the XO laptops earlier today. Hopefully it comes closer to the 14th than the 24th. I've been getting worried because of the lack of feedback, besides a paypal reply email I haven't had any feedback until this email today.

In other news I finally posted Black Shades Elite on happypenguin.org, and I've already gotten a decent amount of feedback - a patch, another link site, a Gentoo ebuild and a few others that appear to have followed the previous incarnation of this game (Black Shades).

The OLPC laptop also comes with a 1 year T-Mobile Hotspot subscription - anyone want to buy it? I'm never going to use it - even when I do travel.

OLPC Laptops are up for grabs, I was ordering one the minute you could :).

http://www.laptopgiving.org/

A couple nice links:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home

http://www.olpcnews.com/

Apparently the laptops are going fast (while they said until the 25th, it appears as though there are only X number to be sold at well - so they'll probably go a bit quicker.

I think getting a rugged low power laptop for even this price is quite good. So giving a laptop to some Uruguayan is icing on the cake (I doubt I'll even use the year of T-Mobile hotspot wireless).

Publish me!