This chart, released April 10th, 2008 by the American Geological Institute, shows oil by the barrel priced over the last seven years in the US dollar, the Euro dollar, and gold by the ounce. Oil on the commodities market is only ever priced in US dollars, so to get a clearer picture of how the price of oil trends, it is important to include and compare other units such as currencies and even other commodities as is done here. This is because, the dollar pricing itself could be having the most significant impact on the price of oil units. This seems to be the case today.

This data very clearly confirms this idea as it indicates that for about the last 7 years (at least) oil trend has been sideways. In other words, oil valued in gold hasn’t moved in 7 years. Yet, that same oil has become dramatically more expensive when priced in both of the currencies.

There are some reasons why this inflation is abnormal; for instance those same US dollars are backed by gold. As of March of 2008 priced in US dollars, the United States held 261.5 billion in gold. One of the reasons the US has this reserve is to prop up the value of US dollars. Given the value and nature of these gold reserves and the obvious relationship with the US currency, this chart seems to suggest other, very powerful inflationary influences are diminishing the US dollar. Contributing to this may be the 100s of billions of US dollars pumped into the banking system and the consistent downward spiral of the various Fed controlled rates.

But in what seems like a quietus of the dollar, one wonders how speculators will price-in the Fed’s new TAF auctions and new discount window for investment banking entities in the months and years to come.

Say hello to my pet rock: Apophis. This last time we talked about him was February 19th, 2007.

So, what is so exciting about a rock? Especially one thats so far away? I don’t think its that this rock is partly iron. In fact, that may be something that makes it seem less exciting. Its not that this rock is humming through space at the breakneck speed of 1145 MPH. Its not the rock’s mass, some 260,000,000,000 kilograms. No, even though this rock is big and its moving ridiculously fast, theres something much, much more interesting and exciting about Apophis: It just might destroy all or most life on Earth. This isn’t exactly the kind of headline one likes to come across, but especially regarding my old friend, Apophis.

In the article below, a 13 year old German school boy revises NASA estimates on the trajectory of Apophis as it relates to Earth-orbiting satellites. Interestingly, according to various media outlets NASA agreed with the young boy. The original [NASA] estimate concluded Apophis would pass Earth in 2029, giving the giant rock a 45,000 in 1 chance of hitting the Earth on its next pass in 2036. Accounted here, the revised estimate by the German boy suggests that Apophis may have a much better chance of impacting with the Earth. The young boy suggests when Apophis passes in 2029, a pass whereby the asteroid will come closer to the Earth than some man-made satellites, that if Apophis were to come into contact with any of those satellites, it would have the much geater chance of 450 to 1, of hitting and devastating our planet in 2036.

Those satellites travel at 3.07 kilometres a second (1.9 miles), at up to 35,880 kilometres above earth — and the Apophis asteroid will pass by earth at a distance of 32,500 kilometres.

Both NASA and Marquardt agree that if the asteroid does collide with earth, it will create a ball of iron and iridium 320 metres (1049 feet) wide and weighing 200 billion tonnes, which will crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

The shockwaves from that would create huge tsunami waves, destroying both coastlines and inland areas, whilst creating a thick cloud of dust that would darken the skies indefinitely.

Edit: News outlets are now reporting that NASA believes the boy’s sums may have been incorrect.

I was feeling insecure. You might not love me anymore. I was shivering inside. I was shivering inside. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry that I made you cry. Oh no, I didn’t want to hurt you, I’m just a jealous guy.

Something happened when I turned 28 — I changed fundamentally. As the unrecorded lyrics to a song my old friend Mario once wrote explains, “time… changes.” I think this was Mario’s uniquely interesting way of explaining how as people change, that change propagates in the world around them. I’m not quite sure I understand why or even how things came to be so in my case, but maybe trying to describe these two parts of my day (my secret times) will help.

Secret #1: The Beginning

Everyday now, by the time my rather expensive coffee maker has quit its gurgling, I find myself feeling a lightning-like excitement. Before this, the newness of a day did not excite me in the least and instead stared back at me questioningly as if from the gaze of a wondering child.

I would ask while trying to convince myself to get up, “Why do you keep doing this?” In other words, why do you keep on living, as if it were that torturous. I think we can all agree that that is a ridiculously pessimistic outlook and was probably a big part of my problem. When I realized I had stopped asking myself this (which I realized suddenly one morning), my first thought was I had just quit caring altogether and that I had become so cynical that such questions required no answer for someone like me. Fortunately howsoever, for me (and the rest of the good people in my life), this is not, nor was not, the case. No, in fact, because I had been so far from the feeling for so long, it took all this to realize, I’m happy!

I love my family. I love my friends. Above all else, I love information. A close second might be, that I love our troubled world. I love problems, as such I love my job. Certainly I have no love of creating problems, but knowing they’ll be there because not everyone is so interested in solving them as I, is a kind of comfort. This may be partly because I have come to believe in, whole heartedly, the Zen aphorism the obstacle is the path — which really just means among other things, a direction toward solution is only ever clearly defined by the problem invoking its need. But, I’ve come to understand my love of ability more, and my love of freedom to contribute. Though I find odd to reveal, I even love that I get to use tools like Wordpress everyday to continue to practice and hone the art of writing. All this, so that one day, I may take this show on the road, so to speak — and write a book.

Secret #2: The Ending

Everyday, around six or seven o’clock in the evening, I settle myself outside. If its cold or raining, I’ll secure myself away on the porch or even in my parked car with the windows down (as much as nature allows me). I’ll sit out there for hours sometimes. I sit there, outside, and I try and empty my mind of everything swirling inside it. I try to give myself over to nature by listening to the world.

Whether it be birds chirping, clicking crickets, the wind’s whispering voice (as Hendrix thought of her) in my ear, the gentle tapping of raindrops, or the more silent and wispy, stinging snowflakes at my face, I watch and listen to the world. I think of this quiet and relaxing time by myself as a tutor in ethics, but much more. It is nature as this teacher that tempers me, helping me as a man and a technologist, to understand, that in world rarely interested in acclimating itself with the old and left behind, we must seek to understand the oldest technology, nature itself, as time… changes.

Sourced from here on Flickr, the image shows a tank marked with black spray paint reading “Screw You Guys, I’m going home.” Click on the image to zoom-in.