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February 17, 2008
Christians turn to singing
Louis dispatched another envoy to the Mongol court, the Franciscan William of Rubruck, who went to visit the Great Khan Möngke Khan in Mongolia. William entered into a famous competition at the Mongol court, as the Khan encouraged a formal debate between the Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims, to determine which faith was correct, as determined by three judges, one from each faith. The debate drew a large crowd, and as with most Mongol events, a great deal of alcohol was involved. As described by Jack Weatherford in his book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World:
No side seemed to convince the other of anything. Finally, as the effects of the alcohol became stronger, the Christians gave up trying to persuade anyone with logical arguments, and resorted to singing. The Muslims, who did not sing, responded by loudly reciting the Koran in an effort to drown out the Christians, and the Buddhists retreated into silent mediation. At the end of the debate, unable to convert or kill one another, they concluded the way most Mongol celebrations concluded, with everyone simply too drunk to continue.
--Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, p. 173
Louis IX of France - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted by thdyck at February 17, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 9, 2008
Green Car Congress: Mexicos Cantarell Continues Steep Decline in Oil Production in 2007
Oil production from Mexico’s giant Cantarell offshore complex continued its steep decline in 2007, dropping to a combined average 1.458 million barrels per day (mbpd) of production from all the fields, down 18% from an average 1,776.2 mbpd in 2006, according to statistics from the Energy Ministry available on the Sistema de Información Energética (SIE).
Cantarell accounted for 47.3% of all of PEMEX’s crude oil output in 2007, down from 54.6% in 2006. Mexico’s total crude output dropped 5.3% in 2007 compared to the year before, down to 3.082 million barrels per day from 3.256 mpbd in 2006 according to the SIE statistics.
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The rate of decline remans more rapid than PEMEX had anticipated. In testimony before the Energy Committee of the Mexican Senate in November 2006, PEMEX CEO Luis Ramirez Corzo said that production at Cantarell would decline by an average of 14% per year between 2007 and 2015.
Cantarell’s production peaked in 2004 at 2.113 million barrels per day, according to SEI data. In 1997, PEMEX began nitrogen injection to maintain reservoir pressure. The injection regimen supported increasing crude oil production from 1.083 million barrels per day in 1996 to the peak in 2004.
The US imported an average of 1.705 million barrels per day of crude from Mexico in 2006—12.4% of the total imported—making Mexico the number two source of imported crude behind Canada, with 2.353 mpbd in 2006 (17.7%), according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
Green Car Congress: Mexicos Cantarell Continues Steep Decline in Oil Production in 2007
Posted by thdyck at February 9, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Edward Tufte on interface design and the iPhone
The iPhone platform elegantly solves the design problem of small screens by greatly
intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page. Small screens, as on
traditional cell phones, show very little information per screen, which in turn leads
to deep hierarchies of stacked-up thin information--too often leaving users with
"Where am I?" puzzles. Better to have users looking over material adjacent in space
rather than stacked in time.
Ask E.T.: Interface design and the iPhone
Posted by thdyck at February 9, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Bible According To Google Earth
Scenes from the Bible have been imagined by countless artists over the centuries, but never quite like this. God’s Eye View portrays four key Biblical events as if captured by Google Earth. Above, The Crucifixion.
CR Blog » Blog Archive » The Bible According To Google Earth
Posted by thdyck at February 9, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack