cars, shoes, and oil production

yeah, I know, it's a weird title, but it will make sense by the end. I didn't have any one thing that I felt deserved an entire post, so I decided to post a few different things that have been on my mind.

The first is a left over from the recent vacation we had here. During the holiday I rented a car for two days so that I could take a couple friends to a couple places here in Jordan. At first I was somewhat hesitant because driving in Jordan is VERY different than in Alaska, probably as far opposite as it could be. However, I decided to go for it anyway since the car came with insurance. As it turns out it was easier than I anticipated, and I happen to be a very good Jordanian driver (though for those of you who already doubt my driving, it is probably best you never come driving with me in the middle east). I actually had alot of fun just driving around. I didn't realize how much I miss driving. I was like an adventure just being in the car. (that is for you Brian). The car was a Puegot 206. It is a nice car.

Thought number two, President Bush's shoe dodging ability. Who knew that the aged president was so quick and nimble at avoiding projectile footwear! You can imagine that this video has been on every single computer and TV screen in the arab world. People have been asking me for the last three days "hey did you see what happened to Bush?? what do you think?" I tell them I am very proud of my president, he displayed remarkable agility, and a sense of good humor to boot... By the way, for those who don't know, taking off and throwing your shoe at someone is the biggest insult you could perform in arab culture, and being called a dog is one of the most insulting things you could say. The fact that this guy is still alive says something about freedom of speech by American standards and that which existed under Saddam.

Thought number three; I recently read that OPEC is cutting oil production by 2.2 million barrels/day, which sparked my interest to see just how much oil is produced per day around the world. The number varied a bit depending on the source, but a rough estimate is about 80 million barrels per day. To give you an idea of how much oil that is, Lake Erie (the world's tenth largest lake) is about 4137 million barrels. That means that in around 50 days the world produces "one Lake Erie" of oil. Or for those in the Mid East, it is 'one Dead Sea' in 16 days. Now, in case that doesn't shock you, this is oil PRODUCTION, not oil extraction. In general, oil production is not a very efficient process, and thus a large portion of the oil extracted is either unusable, wasted, or reinserted into the ground.
I guess this is just food for thought next time you fill up your car, buy an imported product (shipping is the largest use of crude oil in the world), or use a plastic product...

The Dead Sea