Ruthless River Reframe - Season 2, Episode 11

 

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How to Change the Way You Look at Things (in Plain English): https://amzn.to/3gdiQ33 
Antivirus For Your Mind: https://amzn.to/36nq9ka 
Principles For Personal Growth: https://amzn.to/3bRidbR 
Cultivating Fire: https://amzn.to/2WTiiYs 
Direct Your Mind: https://amzn.to/3gePh16 
Self-Help Stuff That Works: https://amzn.to/3bUwMvB 
Slotralogy: https://amzn.to/2zj8DBm 
Fill Your Tank With Freedom: https://amzn.to/2LPtnU7 
Self-Reliance, Translated: https://amzn.to/2TqW25V 
What Difference Does It Make: https://amzn.to/2LPWPt8 

Follow Adam Li Khan here: https://www.adamlikhan.com/

Alnuaim Threatens to Burst America's Shale Oil Bubble

In an article in the Saudi Gazette, Dr. Sami Alnuaim discusses OPEC. Alnuaim is a Saudi expert on the Saudi oil business. On its surface, it is merely an article about OPEC's oil strategy. Barely veiled by its superficial appearance is a threat. On behalf of Saudi Arabia, Alnuaim is threatening the United States with the collapse of its oil boom. He says the Saudis could drop the world price of oil to $70 a barrel. Many experts in America have pointed out that a significant percentage of American shale oil production begins to be unsustainable below $90 a barrel.

In other words, whenever they think the time is right, Saudi Arabia could drop the world price of oil and burst the shale oil bubble in America, just as they did to the ethanol industry in the 1980s.

Are they waiting for a better time to bring down the shale oil industry? Are they waiting until much more money is invested before they pull the rug out from under it? Are they waiting until Americans feel overconfident and begin gloating over our new "energy independence?"

Saudi Arabia has the cheapest-to-produce oil in the world. That's the leverage they have over the other members of OPEC and why Saudi Arabia can dictate to them what the world oil price will be. Member nations of OPEC must agree to do what Saudi Arabia says or the Saudis can retaliate by lowering the price so much (by increasing their oil production) that the rest of the OPEC nations go into debt or even collapse.

They have the same power over America's oil industry, and for the same reason. But their power over our energy security and economic vitality only exists because we haven't yet bothered to create true fuel competition in America, even though it would be easy and inexpensive to do. Part of the reason is that some of the immense profit from the oil industry has been used for over a hundred years to prevent competition.

This is ridiculous. If we were already using methanol made from natural gas, Saudi Arabia couldn't touch us. Their ability to influence our economy or our national security would drop to almost nothing. They would have nothing to threaten us with. And as a side-effect of our new fuel competition, our economy would be thriving.

We must — urgently — diversify our fuel portfolio. We must introduce competition.

If our cars were able to burn methanol, the price per barrel of oil would drop below $70 a barrel, completely changing the balance of power in transportation fuel. But it would also hurt the shale oil boom in America because that price is too low for much of that oil to be worth recovering. However, there would be a simultaneous profusion and expansion of other American fuel-producing businesses, and American drivers would save big money at the pump, which means we would have more money to spend on other things, which leads to job creation.

Saudi Arabia would no longer have the ability to threaten the United States. In fact, their repressive regime may well collapse without their massive oil revenue to pay off their subjects. And when fuel prices drop in America, the economy soars. It would greatly increase our national security, it would reduce the amount of money the oil industry has to influence our government, it would help solve our garbage and landfill problem, help people in developing nations rise out of poverty, help prevent mental illness, put fewer military personnel in harm's way, and reduce the amount of pollution and greenhouse gases that are sent into the atmosphere, into the ocean, and into the ground.

It would be such a technically simple thing to do, but the consequences would be world changing. Get involved and let's make this happen. Use whatever resources you can muster to support this goal. Support and promote the Open Fuel Standard and robust fuel competition. Overkill would not be out of line for a goal this significant.

Adam Khan is the co-author with Klassy Evans of Fill Your Tank With Freedom and the author of Slotralogy and Self-Reliance, Translated. Follow his podcast, The Adam Bomb.

What Will it Take to Break Oil's Monopoly?

Many people want to introduce competition into the fuel market and break the oil monopoly. But we are completely outgunned. The oil industry is vastly outspending the fuel freedom fighters. The oil industry has so much more money in their war chest that this is like an elephant being challenged to a duel by an ant.

The only way we'll win is by talking to our fellow citizens and increasing our numbers. The more people involved in this cause, the more clout we'll have in the marketplace and with Congress. Swarming ants can, in fact, defeat entire herds of elephants.

That means the most important thing that needs to be done is recruiting. Increasing our numbers. In other words, those of us who already understand what's at stake need to take it upon ourselves to talk to people and get them motivated to talk to others about it.

We are not outnumbered. Far more people would benefit from an open fuel market than are now profiting from oil's monopoly. It wouldn't take a majority of us to make this happen, but it will take more than we have now. So let's get on it. What can you do today that will recruit more people to this cause? 

Adam Khan is the co-author with Klassy Evans of Fill Your Tank With Freedom and the author of Slotralogy and Self-Reliance, Translated. Follow his podcast, The Adam Bomb.

New Podcast Episode: How to Create a Reframe - Season 3, Episode 8

Click on a link below to listen on your favorite podcast platform:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7MZumBdru2gbm2HiGRgtHe
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxSH7k2tyfK7wSmkg91pE2PZ7iLwl2wV9
Apple Podcasts: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-podcasts/id525463029
Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lNWVhZTMwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz
Radio Public: https://radiopublic.com/the-adam-bomb-WdAE05
Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/r6cddvxh
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/the-adam-bomb
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/the-adam-bomb
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1481990586/the-adam-bomb

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-adam-bomb/support

Adam is the author of the following books: 

How to Change the Way You Look at Things (in Plain English): https://amzn.to/3gdiQ33 
Antivirus For Your Mind: https://amzn.to/36nq9ka 
Principles For Personal Growth: https://amzn.to/3bRidbR 
Cultivating Fire: https://amzn.to/2WTiiYs 
Direct Your Mind: https://amzn.to/3gePh16 
Self-Help Stuff That Works: https://amzn.to/3bUwMvB 
Slotralogy: https://amzn.to/2zj8DBm 
Fill Your Tank With Freedom: https://amzn.to/2LPtnU7 
Self-Reliance, Translated: https://amzn.to/2TqW25V 
What Difference Does It Make: https://amzn.to/2LPWPt8 

A Negative Bias In Our Perception

Steven Jay Gould, a famous zoologist, says the general public tends to believe humans are a violent species. But we are remarkably friendly and kind to each other. He says that when an ethologist (a person who studies wild animals living in their natural environment) sees individual animals only have one or two aggressive encounters for tens of hours, they would rate it as a peaceful species. "But think," he says, "of how many millions of hours we can log for most people on most days without noting anything more threatening than a raised third finger once a week or so."

The problem is, of course, that an act of aggression or violence is supremely noticeable, and normal courteous interactions are not nearly as noticeable. When the lady at the checkout counter is polite, what is there to notice? Does it make your day? Do you remember it later? Do you tell anyone about it?

But what would happen if she insulted you or slapped you? Would you remember it later? You bet you would! Tell anyone about it? Are you kidding?!

There is a natural bias in our perception and memory of reality. It is heavily biased toward the negative. Not for all experiences — obviously, we do remember good events. But for a certain class of experiences, the bias is negative (experiences where the expected event isn't very noticeable and the negative event is very noticeable). This is one very important way pessimism worms its way into your mind.

For example, Gilovich says that at big schools, professors "learn early on that unless they are careful, it is easy to be exposed mainly to the alibis and complaints of the most difficult students and rarely see the more successful and more pleasant students who make teaching so gratifying."

And of course that would be the case. The good students listen in class so they have fewer dumb questions, and fewer problems with the work, and they do their homework so they don't show up in the professor's office asking for an extension on a due-date or whatever. They are not nearly as noticeable as the slacker students. Just by the nature of reality and perception, the professor's experience will be biased toward a negative opinion about students in general unless she compensates for it by deliberately trying to notice the good students.

This glitch in reality is a major source of the development of cynical beliefs. Think about how many things function well in government, for example. Thousands upon thousands of things go right every day. But when a senator does something wrong, we hear about it for days or weeks — in the news, in the late night comedian's jokes, in conversations with your co-workers. It is noticeable. It is easily remembered.

When senators do their normal work, what is there to notice? What is reported? Would you ever hear on the news, "A senator today did his job well?" No. It's not newsworthy. You're not going to go around telling all your friends about it. And why not? Because most senators on most days do what they are supposed to be doing and that just isn't news because it's so normal. And yet the end result of the media magnifying reality's negative bias is that many people have formed a cynical view of the world and of politics and big business and you name it — a view that isn't really justified by the facts, but a view that seems completely justified by the facts because the only facts about those things that makes it to the normal person are negative events, which are newsworthy because they are unusual.

Adam Khan is the author of Principles For Personal Growth, Slotralogy, Antivirus For Your Mind, and co-author with Klassy Evans of How to Change the Way You Look at Things (in Plain English). Follow his podcast, The Adam Bomb.

Automakers Disable Flex Fuel Capability

Robert Zubrin, an accomplished engineer, did an experiment on his car, a 2007 Chevy Cobalt (a non-flex-fuel vehicle) and in the process discovered some interesting things. He wanted to run his car on methanol, which is legal to burn for fuel, but illegal to sell in America (at over a 5.4% concentration). To make his regular, non-flex-fuel car capable of burning methanol, he had to replace one part — a fuel pump seal. The seal that came with the car was made of Viton, which methanol would dissolve. The new seal he installed was made out of a material called “Buna-N.” The new part cost him 41 cents.

Other than that, the only thing he had to do to his car was adjust the Engine Control Unit software. The computer onboard his car was the same computer used in flex fuel cars, although his car was not flex fuel. But the software that would allow the car to be a flex fuel car was disabled. Zubrin wrote, “Currently, all new gasoline-powered cars sold in the U.S. are flex-fuel cars, but only about 5 percent are being sold as such. The rest are being marketed with their flex-fuel capability disabled by their manufacturers.”

- Excerpted from the book, Fill Your Tank With Freedom.

What Competition Can Do

The Superbowl is a demonstration of what competition can produce. Each player competes with others to get on the team. The teams compete with each other to get into the Superbowl. Even advertising companies compete with each other to make the best ads.

Each competitor's innovation or extra effort forces the other competitors to bring their level of excellence up another notch.

While you're watching the Superbowl, amazed by feats of athletic execution, think about this: Shouldn't we see what transportation fuel — the most important strategic commodity on earth — could do with the same kind of vigorous competition?

The Open Fuel Standard would make that happen.

Adam Khan is the co-author with Klassy Evans of Fill Your Tank With Freedom and the author of Slotralogy and Self-Reliance, Translated. Follow his podcast, The Adam Bomb.