Simple in theory, difficult in execution. Tuning Source for the Xbox means that certain changes have to be made that would likely break mods developed for the PC HL2.
I was fooling around learning about elements not too long ago when I learned something interesting about an element called Palladium. It has a strange ability to, at room temperature, absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen. It is not known if it really is a true chemical compound as PdH(2)or not. An interesting ability, but could it be used for storeage of hydrogen? When heated enough, the hydrogen diffused out of the palladium, so perhaps it could be used as a storeage medium. But I'm not a chemist; does anyone know how much palladium would be necessary to create a viable storage medium out of it? What kind of heat is needed to get the hydrogen? Palladium is a kind of expensive element, are there others with a similar property?
Nonsense! My INternal Electrical Readjustment and Tuner In Attitude (INERTIA) is a far better solution that that blue pest! Just step into the tube and I'll get it started...
Granted, it's an amazing feat, but when can we start manipulating particles like electrons? I want to force a neutron into hydrogen and get deuterium without all that concentrating. When we get that kind of science down to a manufacturing technology, that's when the real fun begins!
Before I go any further, let me just say I am in no way upholding Libya as a shining example to the rest of the world. I don't want to sound as if the government there is perfect in everyway or that they have only the concerns of their citizens at heart.
I disagree with the statement that Libya is the most oppressive state next to North Korea. True, they rank 152 out of 157 in Economic Freedom as well as 162 out of 167 in Press Freedom. But Iran and Burma are below Libya in both. That may just be arguing over technical details, but there is some difference in Libya. Libya is making real attempts to reintegrate itself with the international community.
That article also paints a very opinionated picture of Libya. Check out some of the Human Development Reports on Libya. They ranked 58 out of 177. Life expectancy at birth 2000-2005? 73.4 years. Combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools, 2002/03: 96.1% Furthermore, it's oppressive nature is changing aswell, checkout some of the human rights they've accepted. You can check the link above to see individual rankings in enforcement, but they hover around 58 out of 177 on these issues as well:
International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
Libya is making improvements, and that's the difference I sought to point out. the CIA also had this to say:
"Libyan officials in the past four years have made progress on economic reforms as part of a broader campaign to reintegrate the country into the international fold. This effort picked up steam after UN sanctions were lifted in September 2003 and as Libya announced that it would abandon programs to build weapons of mass destruction in December 2003. Almost all US unilateral sanctions against Libya were removed in April 2004, helping Libya attract more foreign direct investment, mostly in the energy sector. Libya faces a long road ahead in liberalizing the socialist-oriented economy, but initial steps - including applying for WTO membership, reducing some subsidies, and announcing plans for privatization - are laying the groundwork for a transition to a more market-based economy."
Then again, I'm getting off my main point which simply was that these cheap, robust laptops were a good choice for the Libyan government. It follows along side their steps to improve their country, their economy, and ultimatly their people's lives rather than relying on "hand-outs" of advanced medicine for their oil.
Huh, well that's odd. I'd always been taught that "second world" was analogous to a developing nation. In that a third world country had a high birth/death rate, and low industry. Second world countries had a high birth rate/(comparitvly lower) death rate with developing industries. Finally, I was taught First world countries had stablized populations, lower death rate, and highly developed/high-tech industry.
If we have eliminated second world countries as a category, then I guess my thoughts don't really apply. But I would still call it a developing nation. If my categorization of nations doesn't apply, it makes it much more vague and difficult to determine when you go from third world to first world...
A personal computer can be a great way to improve education! You don't think they're going to be playing video games or cranking out word documents with that (printerless) thing, do you? Libya is not some super-poor country, either. They have an 82.6% literacy rate so we know they're getting some education. CIA rates their average risk of getting Major infectious diseases as "intermediate" so they do have some competent level of medical care. Considering all that and their 2.3% rate of population growth, I'd say Libya is a second world, or developing, nation. Not a third world.
And if their Jamahiriya government style wanted to 'rape their own country and KEEP those poor kids poor" why would they be buying the laptops or trying to create a more open Libya?
Technically, it's thirty days after the listing ends rather than 30 days until the product is out so any listing that ends before the 19th (or later depending on how long it takes for the seller to get and deliver the PS3) would be considered restricted.
I would guess some of them edge over the fine lines between what ebay allows and doesn't. Possible candidate violations include:
Contracts (Pre-orders may be non-transferable and thus restricted, but the service of purchasing a PS3 on the day of launch with a "guarentee" through the seller's indicated pre-order, might not.)
pre-sale item (This is probably the big one, must indicate item will be obtained and shipped no more than 30 days after the listing's end and clearly indicate so.)
There's something that has to be said at the start of every discussion about "The end of Oil."
"We lived for thousands of years before Oil, and we'll live for thousands of years after oil; just not quite the same."
Yes, without being in transition to a full replacement for oil when we run out (of economically priced oil) we'll have a tough time. Probably be riots, war, social collapses. But as a species, we'll survive. And today, international cooperation has given me hope that alot more of us and our countries will survive. Sure, we're not sitting 'round the fire at the UN singing Kumbaya, but we haven't had a "real" world war in quite a while! We may not be in the best of situations, but it won't be the end of all civilization.
I must point out the following flaws in your post:
1. He said "potential;" He did not indicate alternatives to this potential
2. PS3 is shipping 80/20 $600 units to $500 units
3. Since Sony is planning on shipping 400K units to North America, only 80,000 $500 units will be available.
4. Therefore, the vast majority of Gamestop customers will "potentially" face a $600 purchase.
While I'd be fine transporting the quantum state, ect. for my new super computer laptop, you'd never get me into one of those things. I'd rather keep (the vast majority at any one time) of my atoms and subatomic particles with me.
But could you imagine if they could utilize a version of this teleportation to transfer the information to multiple places at once? Wow! That'd be a huge boon to subatomic construction technology!
Diplomacy is an interesting versus AI mode. The best design idea they had in that mode is not letting allies see your subs without sonar. I wanted to tryout a little cold war style senario today, 2 territories: America and Europe for me; Russia and South Asia for the AI. I intended to make every possible decision towards ultimatly wiping out the AI in a massive first strike, just to kind of see what the whole Cold war scare was. Bombers in Alaska; Navy's surrounding them; subs where their navys were not; I had everything set up. You could really feel the tension; I watched as the AI subtly set all it's silos to launch mode as my navys stopped moving.
And then I broke the Alliance.
Everything seemed like it was in slow motion (mainly because I needed real-time to be able to coordinate a launce of all my weapons at once.) In the end, I won. Or atleast I thought I had. Until I turned on the people overlay...I nearly cried.
Sometimes...sometimes... if you zoom-in reeeally close... you can hear them screaming...
The DARPA funded BLEEX was prototyped to allow soldiers to carry 70 pound packs across flat and sloped terrain with hopes of 150 pound capacity in the next 6 monthes.
Both are wonderful applications for exoskeleton technology; between the nature of asymetrical warfare and the retirement of the baby boomers, I think we're going to see alot more veterans and grandpa's go robo. Now if we could only improve that 30 minute battery...
Say what you will about the 18-mile-long International Linear Collider, but it is shiny; and I like shiny!
I certainly expect many/.ers here to grumble and groan about the ILC idea, but I like it. Even if it is a colossal expensive project in a time of world-striding debt, I think it is ultimatly in the nations best interest to build the ILC. First, it'll go a ways towards convincing the rest of the international that it need to be built here in the United States.
The US is the world leader in physics research, one of the few fields we still can claim that in. We have 8 of the world's Fusion power research facilities (and 4 more have been decomissioned for a total over time of 12,) more than the other nation in the world combined (if you exclude the ITER which we have rejoined.) But by letting the ILC go to Europe or Japan, we'd be deflating our physics potential. The ILC will be unparralleled in its power; attracting the brightest minds in physics today with real opportunity. If the ILC is in America, we'd be very attractive to those bright minds and with them opportunities to put their minds to work for our country. The LHC (slated to be the largest particle accelerator completed in 2007) would be the only comparable facility.
I think we lost out on a real opportunity by not building the superconducting supercollider. Whether or not you believe it was just being funded to show up the Soviets or not, I can't help but place it's closing as the begining of a distinct lack of focus on science in the US that is only getting worse today. Funding the ILC would at least be a demonstration that America still has interest in its scientific future, and at best would help us get the facility here and mark a hopeful turn in trends.
But showboating our physics prowess and bringing in a few eggheads isn't the only real benefit. The projects like the ILC and other big time projects like the ISS can invigorate the mind of our young children, prompting them to take an early interest in science and physics; the key factor in our nation's future. How many children do you know who want to be an astronaught because they hear about NASA and it's contributions to the ISS? It doesn't matter if it's international, as long as we participate in a meaningful way it gets talked about and can influence our kids.
So I think we should fund the ILC. Lets do it for the children.
"Additionally, ESRB's in-house game experts randomly play the final games to verify that all the information provided during the rating process was accurate and complete."
So they already test the games, just not all of them. Kind of like taxes; does the IRS audit all US tax returns? No, they have to let the majority go by with a skin deep look and use random fine-tooth comb audits to try and keep everyone honest. Could they audit all the tax returns? Yes, but it would be very time consuming and costly. If the ESRB had to take an in-depth approach, they'd have to find some way to cover these costs. Whether they get that from the game developers or the government, it'll cost gamers in the end.
I think it's ok to trust the game developers to be honest. Past instances where the rating has failed have been delt with appropriatly and I think this bill is unnecessary buracracy.
btw, here's where you signup for employment. Its only 1-4 times a month.
Well, it's not like he was the one who set the gun to the other person's head or even to hold it their. All he had control of was whether that trigger was pulled. And it wasn't. That's why he really did save the world.
"The estimated transportation fuel and home heating oil used in the United States is about 230 billion US gallons (0.87 km) (Briggs, 2004). Waste vegetable oil and animal fats would not be enough to meet this demand. In the United States, estimated production of vegetable oil for all uses is about 24 billion pounds (11 million tons) or 3 billion US gallons (0.011 km), and estimated production of animal fat is 12 billion pounds (5.3 million tons). (Van Gerpen, 2004)
Biodiesel feedstock plants utilize photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy. The stored chemical energy is released when it is burned, therefore plants can offer a sustainable oil source for biodiesel production. Most of the carbon dioxide emitted when burning biodiesel is simply recycling that which was absorbed during plant growth, so the net production of greenhouse gasses is small and CO2 zero.
Feedstock yield efficiency per acre affects the feasibility of ramping up production to the huge industrial levels required to power a signifcant percentage of national or world vehicles."
But it also points out:
"The highest yield feedstock for biodiesel is algae, which can produce 250 times the amount per acre as soybeans."
Well, I heard somewhere recently that the experts speculate we have already passed the worldwide peak oil production. Of course, its all speculation, even The Hubbert peak theory is elastic. Although I've never heard as high as 140+ years... It's not just about getting off the middle east's oil, Saudia Arabia is only our #3 source, after Canada and Mexico, its also about self sufficiency.
Then there's the question of when oil will no longer be economical. Simply by nature of economics we'll search out the more economic options as oil becomes uneconomical. Problem is, it takes time to switch like that, we'd need to be in transition when it becomes uneconomic or we'll suffer huge setbacks in economics terms.
Of course, no arguement for getting off oil would be complete without mentioning the environment and some shrill cries to "Think of the children, won't someone please think of the children." Its sad to hear someone say "It won't happen in my life time, so why should I care if their's change?" I prefer to think that an economical, self sufficient, clean(er) life style for my (or atleast other's) children is a goal worth working for. After all, isn't that, a better life for myself and my children, the American Dream?
True, Biodiesel can use current infrastructure, but it's still petroleum based. I strongly support biodiesel but only as a stop-gap measure, one to aid in the transition away from petroleum. Ofcourse, I doubt anyone thinks Oil powers will just roll over and let the biggest petroleum consumer in the world switch off. that's where Biodiesel would be handy, we can produce biodiesel to stave off the big effects of a big petroleum embargo, hopefully long enough to compete upgrades to a more perminent system.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the site was refering to Palladium's volume. But Its possible I just copied the information wrong.
Simple in theory, difficult in execution. Tuning Source for the Xbox means that certain changes have to be made that would likely break mods developed for the PC HL2.
I was fooling around learning about elements not too long ago when I learned something interesting about an element called Palladium. It has a strange ability to, at room temperature, absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen. It is not known if it really is a true chemical compound as PdH(2)or not. An interesting ability, but could it be used for storeage of hydrogen? When heated enough, the hydrogen diffused out of the palladium, so perhaps it could be used as a storeage medium. But I'm not a chemist; does anyone know how much palladium would be necessary to create a viable storage medium out of it? What kind of heat is needed to get the hydrogen? Palladium is a kind of expensive element, are there others with a similar property?
Nonsense! My INternal Electrical Readjustment and Tuner In Attitude (INERTIA) is a far better solution that that blue pest! Just step into the tube and I'll get it started...
You mean we can write "IBM" even smaller now?
Granted, it's an amazing feat, but when can we start manipulating particles like electrons? I want to force a neutron into hydrogen and get deuterium without all that concentrating. When we get that kind of science down to a manufacturing technology, that's when the real fun begins!
Before I go any further, let me just say I am in no way upholding Libya as a shining example to the rest of the world. I don't want to sound as if the government there is perfect in everyway or that they have only the concerns of their citizens at heart.
I disagree with the statement that Libya is the most oppressive state next to North Korea. True, they rank 152 out of 157 in Economic Freedom as well as 162 out of 167 in Press Freedom. But Iran and Burma are below Libya in both. That may just be arguing over technical details, but there is some difference in Libya. Libya is making real attempts to reintegrate itself with the international community.
That article also paints a very opinionated picture of Libya. Check out some of the Human Development Reports on Libya. They ranked 58 out of 177. Life expectancy at birth 2000-2005? 73.4 years. Combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools, 2002/03: 96.1% Furthermore, it's oppressive nature is changing aswell, checkout some of the human rights they've accepted. You can check the link above to see individual rankings in enforcement, but they hover around 58 out of 177 on these issues as well:
International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
Libya is making improvements, and that's the difference I sought to point out. the CIA also had this to say:
"Libyan officials in the past four years have made progress on economic reforms as part of a broader campaign to reintegrate the country into the international fold. This effort picked up steam after UN sanctions were lifted in September 2003 and as Libya announced that it would abandon programs to build weapons of mass destruction in December 2003. Almost all US unilateral sanctions against Libya were removed in April 2004, helping Libya attract more foreign direct investment, mostly in the energy sector. Libya faces a long road ahead in liberalizing the socialist-oriented economy, but initial steps - including applying for WTO membership, reducing some subsidies, and announcing plans for privatization - are laying the groundwork for a transition to a more market-based economy."
Then again, I'm getting off my main point which simply was that these cheap, robust laptops were a good choice for the Libyan government. It follows along side their steps to improve their country, their economy, and ultimatly their people's lives rather than relying on "hand-outs" of advanced medicine for their oil.
Huh, well that's odd. I'd always been taught that "second world" was analogous to a developing nation. In that a third world country had a high birth/death rate, and low industry. Second world countries had a high birth rate/(comparitvly lower) death rate with developing industries. Finally, I was taught First world countries had stablized populations, lower death rate, and highly developed/high-tech industry.
If we have eliminated second world countries as a category, then I guess my thoughts don't really apply. But I would still call it a developing nation. If my categorization of nations doesn't apply, it makes it much more vague and difficult to determine when you go from third world to first world...
A personal computer can be a great way to improve education! You don't think they're going to be playing video games or cranking out word documents with that (printerless) thing, do you? Libya is not some super-poor country, either. They have an 82.6% literacy rate so we know they're getting some education. CIA rates their average risk of getting Major infectious diseases as "intermediate" so they do have some competent level of medical care. Considering all that and their 2.3% rate of population growth, I'd say Libya is a second world, or developing, nation. Not a third world.
And if their Jamahiriya government style wanted to 'rape their own country and KEEP those poor kids poor" why would they be buying the laptops or trying to create a more open Libya?
Technically, it's thirty days after the listing ends rather than 30 days until the product is out so any listing that ends before the 19th (or later depending on how long it takes for the seller to get and deliver the PS3) would be considered restricted.
I would guess some of them edge over the fine lines between what ebay allows and doesn't. Possible candidate violations include:
Contracts (Pre-orders may be non-transferable and thus restricted, but the service of purchasing a PS3 on the day of launch with a "guarentee" through the seller's indicated pre-order, might not.)
Misleading titles (PS3!!1!11 versus PS3 order)
pre-sale item (This is probably the big one, must indicate item will be obtained and shipped no more than 30 days after the listing's end and clearly indicate so.)
Electronic Surveillance Equipment *insert Sony rootkit joke*
There's something that has to be said at the start of every discussion about "The end of Oil."
"We lived for thousands of years before Oil, and we'll live for thousands of years after oil; just not quite the same."
Yes, without being in transition to a full replacement for oil when we run out (of economically priced oil) we'll have a tough time. Probably be riots, war, social collapses. But as a species, we'll survive. And today, international cooperation has given me hope that alot more of us and our countries will survive. Sure, we're not sitting 'round the fire at the UN singing Kumbaya, but we haven't had a "real" world war in quite a while! We may not be in the best of situations, but it won't be the end of all civilization.
Nah, it's just a fancy place to bring visitors to. They probably bought it off a 50's sci-fi movie set, spinning reels and all.
I must point out the following flaws in your post:
1. He said "potential;" He did not indicate alternatives to this potential
2. PS3 is shipping 80/20 $600 units to $500 units
3. Since Sony is planning on shipping 400K units to North America, only 80,000 $500 units will be available.
4. Therefore, the vast majority of Gamestop customers will "potentially" face a $600 purchase.
I think I have to agree with the grandfather post; I just "watched" War of the Worlds again.
By "watched" I mean I flipped through to the tripod scenes, muted the little girl, and watched some special features.
I swear, the special features had a more interesting and involving story. Better players, too.
I couldn't find anything on a robot controlling a cockroach, but...
In Soviet Union, cockroach controls robot!
While I'd be fine transporting the quantum state, ect. for my new super computer laptop, you'd never get me into one of those things. I'd rather keep (the vast majority at any one time) of my atoms and subatomic particles with me.
But could you imagine if they could utilize a version of this teleportation to transfer the information to multiple places at once? Wow! That'd be a huge boon to subatomic construction technology!
That mascot is just... freaky.
Diplomacy is an interesting versus AI mode. The best design idea they had in that mode is not letting allies see your subs without sonar. I wanted to tryout a little cold war style senario today, 2 territories: America and Europe for me; Russia and South Asia for the AI. I intended to make every possible decision towards ultimatly wiping out the AI in a massive first strike, just to kind of see what the whole Cold war scare was. Bombers in Alaska; Navy's surrounding them; subs where their navys were not; I had everything set up. You could really feel the tension; I watched as the AI subtly set all it's silos to launch mode as my navys stopped moving.
And then I broke the Alliance.
Everything seemed like it was in slow motion (mainly because I needed real-time to be able to coordinate a launce of all my weapons at once.) In the end, I won. Or atleast I thought I had. Until I turned on the people overlay...I nearly cried.
Sometimes...sometimes... if you zoom-in reeeally close... you can hear them screaming...
The DARPA funded BLEEX was prototyped to allow soldiers to carry 70 pound packs across flat and sloped terrain with hopes of 150 pound capacity in the next 6 monthes.
Both are wonderful applications for exoskeleton technology; between the nature of asymetrical warfare and the retirement of the baby boomers, I think we're going to see alot more veterans and grandpa's go robo. Now if we could only improve that 30 minute battery...
Say what you will about the 18-mile-long International Linear Collider, but it is shiny; and I like shiny!
/.ers here to grumble and groan about the ILC idea, but I like it. Even if it is a colossal expensive project in a time of world-striding debt, I think it is ultimatly in the nations best interest to build the ILC. First, it'll go a ways towards convincing the rest of the international that it need to be built here in the United States.
I certainly expect many
The US is the world leader in physics research, one of the few fields we still can claim that in. We have 8 of the world's Fusion power research facilities (and 4 more have been decomissioned for a total over time of 12,) more than the other nation in the world combined (if you exclude the ITER which we have rejoined.) But by letting the ILC go to Europe or Japan, we'd be deflating our physics potential. The ILC will be unparralleled in its power; attracting the brightest minds in physics today with real opportunity. If the ILC is in America, we'd be very attractive to those bright minds and with them opportunities to put their minds to work for our country. The LHC (slated to be the largest particle accelerator completed in 2007) would be the only comparable facility.
I think we lost out on a real opportunity by not building the superconducting supercollider. Whether or not you believe it was just being funded to show up the Soviets or not, I can't help but place it's closing as the begining of a distinct lack of focus on science in the US that is only getting worse today. Funding the ILC would at least be a demonstration that America still has interest in its scientific future, and at best would help us get the facility here and mark a hopeful turn in trends.
But showboating our physics prowess and bringing in a few eggheads isn't the only real benefit. The projects like the ILC and other big time projects like the ISS can invigorate the mind of our young children, prompting them to take an early interest in science and physics; the key factor in our nation's future. How many children do you know who want to be an astronaught because they hear about NASA and it's contributions to the ISS? It doesn't matter if it's international, as long as we participate in a meaningful way it gets talked about and can influence our kids.
So I think we should fund the ILC. Lets do it for the children.
All I see here is voter bait. From the ESRB site:
"Additionally, ESRB's in-house game experts randomly play the final games to verify that all the information provided during the rating process was accurate and complete."
So they already test the games, just not all of them. Kind of like taxes; does the IRS audit all US tax returns? No, they have to let the majority go by with a skin deep look and use random fine-tooth comb audits to try and keep everyone honest. Could they audit all the tax returns? Yes, but it would be very time consuming and costly. If the ESRB had to take an in-depth approach, they'd have to find some way to cover these costs. Whether they get that from the game developers or the government, it'll cost gamers in the end.
I think it's ok to trust the game developers to be honest. Past instances where the rating has failed have been delt with appropriatly and I think this bill is unnecessary buracracy.
btw, here's where you signup for employment. Its only 1-4 times a month.
Well, it's not like he was the one who set the gun to the other person's head or even to hold it their. All he had control of was whether that trigger was pulled. And it wasn't. That's why he really did save the world.
According to Wikipedia:
"The estimated transportation fuel and home heating oil used in the United States is about 230 billion US gallons (0.87 km) (Briggs, 2004). Waste vegetable oil and animal fats would not be enough to meet this demand. In the United States, estimated production of vegetable oil for all uses is about 24 billion pounds (11 million tons) or 3 billion US gallons (0.011 km), and estimated production of animal fat is 12 billion pounds (5.3 million tons). (Van Gerpen, 2004)
Biodiesel feedstock plants utilize photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy. The stored chemical energy is released when it is burned, therefore plants can offer a sustainable oil source for biodiesel production. Most of the carbon dioxide emitted when burning biodiesel is simply recycling that which was absorbed during plant growth, so the net production of greenhouse gasses is small and CO2 zero.
Feedstock yield efficiency per acre affects the feasibility of ramping up production to the huge industrial levels required to power a signifcant percentage of national or world vehicles."
But it also points out: "The highest yield feedstock for biodiesel is algae, which can produce 250 times the amount per acre as soybeans."
Well, I heard somewhere recently that the experts speculate we have already passed the worldwide peak oil production. Of course, its all speculation, even The Hubbert peak theory is elastic. Although I've never heard as high as 140+ years... It's not just about getting off the middle east's oil, Saudia Arabia is only our #3 source, after Canada and Mexico, its also about self sufficiency.
Then there's the question of when oil will no longer be economical. Simply by nature of economics we'll search out the more economic options as oil becomes uneconomical. Problem is, it takes time to switch like that, we'd need to be in transition when it becomes uneconomic or we'll suffer huge setbacks in economics terms.
Of course, no arguement for getting off oil would be complete without mentioning the environment and some shrill cries to "Think of the children, won't someone please think of the children." Its sad to hear someone say "It won't happen in my life time, so why should I care if their's change?" I prefer to think that an economical, self sufficient, clean(er) life style for my (or atleast other's) children is a goal worth working for. After all, isn't that, a better life for myself and my children, the American Dream?
True, Biodiesel can use current infrastructure, but it's still petroleum based. I strongly support biodiesel but only as a stop-gap measure, one to aid in the transition away from petroleum. Ofcourse, I doubt anyone thinks Oil powers will just roll over and let the biggest petroleum consumer in the world switch off. that's where Biodiesel would be handy, we can produce biodiesel to stave off the big effects of a big petroleum embargo, hopefully long enough to compete upgrades to a more perminent system.