By Christopher Moore
The new forum is up and completely functional. For those who are itching to get started or have urgent physics questions then you can check out the forums here. The link in the menu above will be added tonight.
Before the crash, we had almost 600 users and over 2,000 posts on some wonderful topics. To build up the forum quickly I will be running a special promotion to be announced officially by this weekend — the first 10 people to make 20 relevant posts will recieve a free ilovephysics.com T-shirt and bumpersticker.
If you get started today by logging in at ilovephysics.com/forum, then you will be ahead of the competition.
By Christopher Moore
The forum is coming along nicely. I should be able to unveil the new forum to the public within the next few days. I’ve decided to go with a small PHP based discussion board for a couple of reasons: (1) a small, simple script means less bandwidth used, less bugs, and an easier to maintain and customize site; (2) I’m better with PHP than I am with Perl.
The blog is running fine, as you can see. The community site where we will offer free websites is next on my list. After I get all the major functionality of the site done, I will begin upgrading the graphics and smoothing the rough edges.
Keep checking in, because we are almost back full swing.
By Christopher Moore
While you wait for ilovephysics.com to be revived from the ashes, visit my Science Blog at SciencePundit.com.
By Christopher Moore
Here is what I plan to accomplish over the next week:
ilovephysics.com will be divided into three main categories
(1) Blog
(2) Forum
(3) Community
The blog (you are reading the beginning) will have semi-daily posts about topics in physics. I will contribute as will anyone else who wishes. The forum will be like before — a place to ask questions and discuss physics. Since I am moving to a new platform, I will be able to implement LaTeX support (math mark-up language) into the forums to make writing equations possible. Also, search engines will be able to crawl the forums (they couldn’t before). The community section will be where everyone who wants an ilovephysics.com homepage will have one. Just like before, your homepage on the web can be www.ilovephysics.com/yourname.
By next Monday, the first 2 should be done (with some tweaking needed). By the beginning of next week, the forums will be active. Check back, and get excited!
By Christopher Moore
There appears to be problems with my content management system. I will update later.
By Christopher Moore
There are changes being made at ilovephysics.com. Since our recent crash, we have been feverishly working on bringing ilovephysics.com back up. Please check back frequently. I will be posting to this blog as progress is made, some of which you will see real time. Also, feel free to leave any comments you have about the site and its future. I will entertain any suggestions.
By Christopher Moore
George W. Bush and John Kerry both have plans to decrease our reliance on foreign oil supplies. But will energy independance follow shortly after either man’s inaugaration?
Ronald Bailey in this report makes clear that we shouldn’t hold our breath.
In his last state-of-the-union address, Bush said one of his energy goals was “to promote energy independence for our country.”
John Kerry, in this campaing ad, states that “it’s time to make energy independence a national priority and to put in place a plan that frees our nation from the grip of Mideast oil in the next ten years.”
These aren’t the first utterances about energy independance from a president or candidates. Since the 1973 oil embargo politicians have proposed various plans to decrease our dependance on foreign oil. In 1974 Nixon imposed oil price controls and declared the following: “Let this be our national goal: At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving.”
It only took a few years for President Ford to move that date back just a little, to 1985.
In 1979 Jimmy Carter chimed in with this: “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977, never.”
George H.W. Bush, at the beginning of the first Iraq war, declared his energy strategy to include “reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”
And Bill Clinton — well he proposed too many different energy policies to name. And if you couldn’t guess, he was ready to end our dependance on foreign oil as well.
So George W. Bush and John Kerry seem like they have vastly different views concerning energy policy. But “both believe that at the end of the policy rainbow is energy independence, and they are willing to move heaven and earth to get there. Both are convinced we need government intervention in energy markets,” states Jerry Taylor, the Cato Institute’s director of natural resource studies. “The difference is emphasis, not policy.”
So if you are hoping for energy independance from whoever you are rooting for, history shows that you better not hold your breath. Why? Because oil is cheap. Cheaper than the alternatives. And until that simple fact changes, Americans will demand oil and we just don’t have enough here at home.
Until hydrogen, solar, and wind become economically feasible (i.e. cheap), then oil is the best, if not only game in town.
