OIL (God Help Us)
The BBC has a pretty scary article about the status of the world's oil supply. They say it is going to run out sooner rather than later. This article says most companies are lying about their reserves. That isn't the worse thing. Their article says it doesn't matter how much oil is in the ground, if you can't pump it out fast enough. As soon as supply can't keep up with demand the cost of oil will sky-rocket. The article continues saying the cost of oil is severely under priced right now. If left to it's own devices, oil would be at $182 a barrel instead of the $40 it's floating at now. There are other factors affecting the cost of oil. I think it is getting to that time where we as a species need to find a renewable means of generating energy. Between vegetable oils, geothermal, wind, waves, bicycles, solar, nuclear generators, and all the rest, we should figure something out. There is no silver bullet. We need to use the best device for each situation. People in the desert can't use wind, but they can probably use solar. People in Alaska might need some help from other states, or even Canada for heat in the winter. The trouble is, it is going to take changing the way we have done things for a long time.
I've read some unreliable speculation that by 2008 there will be a pivot in the energy world and the proverbial shit will hit the fan. Some people we might call crackpots today say, by then it won't matter if your car gets 100 miles to the gallon because you still won't be able to afford to drive to work. (I'm not going to link to the site)

Night Vision Monocular
I got a battery. I couldn't get it online, yet, so I stopped at Wallgreens on the way home. They had the CR2 batteries right up front, by the cameras. The monocular is cool, but it has to be dark for it to work. Go figure. I looked around my apartment complex last night and there are too many lights to get real use from the device. There is a little light on the front of the monocular that shines in infrared. You can just make out a faint glow looking into it, but it is almost too bright when looking through the monocular. The model I picked out has almost too much power (fixed zoom) for walking around in the dark. You will still trip over stuff. The street out front of my apartments is too well lit. You can see all the way down the street based on the street lights. In the monocular, you just get a bunch of glare. The alarm clock lights up my whole room. My buddy has a bayou behind his house. I want to try it out there in the rough. There is so much ambient light in Houston that the monocular should have no trouble looking even in the wooded aria. I'll try snapping a photo through it when I find a classic night vision shot of a creepy wood

Iran is next
I know I said Syria is next on the list, but here is a story that says the U. S. should have invaded Iran instead of Iraq. Iran really does have a nuclear program that is aimed toward WMD according to this article. I'm worried about Saudi Arabia. My day job has offices over there. This place works with Saudi Aramco and others in the region.

More on Phones
Some one was just saying the future of phones is to have a mobile of some kind you carry with you, one built in to the car, and another in the house. The difference is, they are all the same number. The car phone would work for whomever is driving/riding along. The one phone would ring for all occupants and allow multiple independent conversations based on what room you were standing in at the time. When you sit down at work, the phone next to you would ring with calls for you. The phones would need a answerer ID in addition to a caller ID to make sure the correct person answered the phone. They mentioned a bicycle helmet with a built in phone (that is already on the market in Japan).