<p>-Oil spill report: Initial analysis<br>-Disregard for safety led to Deepwater Horizon spill<br>-Panel Faults Oil Firms, Calls for Better Oversight<br>-National Oil Spill Commission Finds Right Problems, Issues Wrong Solutions<br>-Missed Opportunity: Spill Commission Rejected by Drillers</p>

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/200px-Wikileaks_logo.svg.thumbnail.png" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="43" height="100" /></span> Despite blanket media coverage of Wikileaks and Julian Assange, there has been little discussion of the fact that Assange is merely one leader within a large and complicated social

<p>-If Shale Gas Is a Game-Changer, Why Are All the Major Producers Looking for Oil?<br />
-Natural Gas: Continually Running Into New Obstacles<br />
-Pennsylvania’s Drilling Wastewater Released to Streams, Some Unaccounted For<br />
-Fracking the life out of Arkansas and beyond</p>
<p><a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-01-11/shale-gas-jan-11">read more</a></p>

<p>One of the main enablers of a demographic shift away from a rural-agrarian population to an urban-industrial one is the combine. The combine removes most labor from agriculture for the most critical crops: edible grains, legumes and oil seeds. Seeds are a highly portable, storable and versatile class of food, allowing civilizations to trade and buffer against shortages.

<p>I have recommitted to local organizing that aims mainly to strengthen institutions and networks on the ground where I live, rooted in a belief that those local connections will be more important than ever in coming decades.

- Swedish documentary on WikiLeaks: "WikiRebels" (now online)
- Stephen Colbert's International Manhunt for Julian Assange
- Wikileaks defectors to launch Openleaks alternative
- WikiLeaks may make the powerful howl, but we are learning the truth
- Harvard law professor: Seven Thoughts on Wikilea
- The US Government's Pursuit of WikiLeaks Could Be Its Undoing-

- A Case Study in Web Survivability
- Live with the WikiLeakable world or shut down the net
- Massive Release of Raw WikiLeaks Files Threatened if Assange Harmed
- WikiLeaks avoids shutdown as supporters worldwide go on the offensive
- WikiLeaks, the web and the power of the people
- WikiLeaks a blueprint for things to come
- How to Think About Wikileaks

The massive release of government and corporate secrets by WikiLeaks was prefigured by "Shockwave Rider", a 1975 novel by English science fiction writer John Brunner. (excerpts)

-Secrecy of Fracking Chemicals Takes Beltway Spotlight
-Hydraulic Fracturing in the Spotlight
-US natural gas drilling boom linked to pollution and social strife - with video

The Obama administration announced this week that it has reversed its decision to open up new leases in areas of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast.

- Paolo Bacigalupi's SHIP BREAKER: YA adventure story in a post-peak-oil world
- New issue of Transition Voice: Holiday of crumbling cash
- Thank You for Seven Years of Worldchanging (a farewell)
- Transitions Towns and the Post-Carbon Future of Albury-Wodonga (podcast)
- Code Green Communities - radio interview

In The Maltese Falcon a character tells detective Sam Spade, "By Gad, sir, you're a character, that you are!

- "The Ultimate Roller Coaster Ride: A Brief History of Fossil Fuels" (Post Carbon Institute)
- "The Story of Electronics" (Annie Leonard)
- "Permaculture: The Growing Edge" (Starhawk and Donna Read)
- "The Economics of Happiness" (Helena Norberg-Hodge)
- "Collapsus" - what energy collapse might look like (interactive video)

We are developing the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) – an advanced industrial economy-in-a-box that can be replicated inexpensively anywhere in the world. The GVCS is like a Lego set of modular building blocks which that work together for creating sustainable, regenerative, resilient communities.

Last week, I participated (as an invited speaker) in the 7th Advances in Energy Studies Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Other invited speakers were Charlie Hall, Joe Tainter, Marcel Collel, and Seth Blumsack. Other Oil Drum staff members at the conference were Ugo Bardi and Dave Murphy--Ugo as one of the speakers, and Dave as the second author on Charlie Hall's presentation.