There is a liberally minded, ignorant sadam apologist at my work who has been trying to convince everyone lately that we only "went to war with Iraq" (not liberated their people) in order to get our hands on all of their oil. He couldnt be convinced that this was bullshit by the fact that oil prices have risen in the past couple of years, he couldnt be convinced by the fact that we are spending far more on the war in the cost of US taxpayer dollars and the cost of our guys lives. He still couldnt believe that we are taking less oil than the UN has been stealing over the years.

He still swears that we only went to war with iraq in order to get all of our hands on their oil and he cant provide any evidence at all to support his claim (because I dont think there IS any evidence).

Can anyone here thats more informed, give me some statistical data to disprove this guy, hes convincing all the other young impressionable people at work that hes right.




Oh, and while im asking questions... What causes brainfreeze and how does an LED light operate...

Thank you, that is all!

When you see him at work tell him his car is leaking blinker fluid.

1: oil - so what if we did
2: brainfreeze is caused my the sudden contraction in blood vessels in the roof of your mouth.  Drinking room temperature water makes it go away
3: magic

We have the world's largest Oklahoma Credit Card, baby.

Not enough.

We should take enough to offset every penny we have spent.

Quoted: There is a liberally minded, ignorant sadam apologist at my work who has been trying to convince everyone lately that we only "went to war with Iraq" (not liberated their people) in order to get our hands on all of their oil. He couldnt be convinced that this was bullshit by the fact that oil prices have risen in the past couple of years, he couldnt be convinced by the fact that we are spending far more on the war in the cost of US taxpayer dollars and the cost of our guys lives. He still couldnt believe that we are taking less oil than the UN has been stealing over the years. He still swears that we only went to war with iraq in order to get all of our hands on their oil and he cant provide any evidence at all to support his claim (because I dont think there IS any evidence). Can anyone here thats more informed, give me some statistical data to disprove this guy, hes convincing all the other young impressionable people at work that hes right. . . Thank you, that is all!

Well, I can't help with the light, but here are the US Petroleum import statistics for 2006 as of February 16, 2007:

Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries

Of all the oil imported into the United States, less than 5% of it comes from Iraq.  If we really wanted to get our hands on someone's oil, we would go after far easier targets. . .

Such as Canada, which provides almost 20% of the petroleum imported into the US.  Others ahead of Iraq are military powerhouses such as Mexico (~15%), Saudi Arabia (~13%), Venezuela (12%), Nigeria (~10%), and (Algeria ~6%).  Don't forget Angola, which is just on Iraq's tail at 4.6% of US Imports.

Also, the US was not prevented from purchasing Iraqi oil while Saddam was in power - as the "Oil for Palaces"-program and a number of UN dinner parties and hooker bills will attest to.  If we wanted Iraq's oil, all we had to do was call for the abolition, or ignore altogether, sanctions placed upon Saddam's regime.  Afterall, Saddam was more than willing to sell it - below market prices, at that.

Quoted: We should take enough to offset every penny we have spent.

+1

I wish we were stealing the damned oil

I like that 'Steal' how about Reparations of a Interaction for Toppling the Dictator and BTW wheres the oil?

Quoted: Oh, and while im asking questions... What causes brainfreeze (or Spheno Palatine Gangleoneuralgia) and how does an LED light operate... Thank you, that is all!

The reaction can be sometimes triggered within a few seconds after a very cold substance consumed comes into contact with the roof of the mouth. The body's response to cold environments is to vasoconstrict the peripheral vasculature (to reduce the diameter of blood vessels). This vasoconstriction is in place to reduce blood flow to the area, and thus minimize heat loss to keep warmth at the body's core. After vasoconstriction, the return to normal status and artery size results in massive dilation (vasodilation) of the arteries that supply the palate (descending palatine arteries). The nerves in the region of the palate (greater and lesser palatine nerves) sense this pain and transmit the sensation of this pain back to the trigeminal ganglia. This results in pain that is referred to the forehead and below the orbit, other regions from which the trigeminal nerve receives sensation.

the oil question, i dunno how much we got from there, but it wasnt stolen, we pay for it, it comes from opec, and we get screwed on teh price.  as for the brain freeze, while i feel like i should know what causes it, i dunno, but i do know u can cure it by pushing your tongue up into the roof of ur mouth.

I wish we were stealing the oil, maybe it would help offset the cost of the war.

Not enough.  The price has gone up a dime in my area.  

The short answer… not one fu*king drop.

He made the claim it is up to him to show proof not you… you could never show proof we didn’t steel oil anyway as you cannot prove a negative and he would just say we did it secretly if you could.

Quoted: Not enough.

+1

big oil signed a 30 year contract to extract their oil a few weeks ago

news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece

i'm not saying we went their for oil, but we are taking it.

  We shouldn't be stealing it. Just slow the reconstruction process down even more if we did. Because of Territorial and political disputes most work to increase the flow of oil has come to a stand still. Major investors have pulled their people out because of the security problems and lack of progress. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait rely on foreign workers to run their oil production entirely. Probably just like Iraq they are incapable of doing it themselves
  In Saudi Arabia they protect these foreign workers pretty much with a small private Army. I know guys who worked for these security companies. Saudi Arabia pays the bill. Talk about having the latest and greatest gear. When my friend worked there he said they would go to the top schools in the states. Top of the line facilities. They would fly in trainers from the states all the time. Pretty much had an unlimited budget.
   If they were to pull out their oil program would collapse and they know this. Those arrest and assaults on terrorist in Saudi Arabia are not because they are our allies in the GWOT. Its because they want the foreigners to stay. Terrorist know if you fuck with the foreign oil workers in Saudi Arabia they will come down hard on you .
 Right now Iraq doesn't look like the best place to invest millions of dollars into for these companies. The Democrats with their promise of retreat are just adding to this problem. Since spewing their promise of retreat and defeat companies willing to invest in Iraq's infrastructure has dropped considerably. Only way most companies will invest in Iraq now is for the U.S to foot the bill for their investment witch we are actively doing now. We are basically promising these companies that any lose that might accrue will be covered by the Govt. This has got fraud and abuse written all over it.
 I can see the CEO'S now. Hey lets send all our outdated equipment and technology over there. The employees who have no value to us. We call it a lose and Uncle same will pay for it all. If things do work out all the better.

Quoted: big oil signed a 30 year contract to extract their oil a few weeks ago news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece i'm not saying we went their for oil, but we are taking it.

SO WHAT

Are they giving the oil away.

Right now, we arent getting hardly anything from Iraq.

Quoted: Quoted: big oil signed a 30 year contract to extract their oil a few weeks ago news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece i'm not saying we went their for oil, but we are taking it. SO WHAT Are they giving the oil away.

the op asked for the information, i provided some.  calm down.

Quoted: There is a liberally minded, ignorant sadam apologist at my work who has been trying to convince everyone lately that we only "went to war with Iraq" (not liberated their people) in order to get our hands on all of their oil. He couldnt be convinced that this was bullshit by the fact that oil prices have risen in the past couple of years, he couldnt be convinced by the fact that we are spending far more on the war in the cost of US taxpayer dollars and the cost of our guys lives. He still couldnt believe that we are taking less oil than the UN has been stealing over the years. He still swears that we only went to war with iraq in order to get all of our hands on their oil and he cant provide any evidence at all to support his claim (because I dont think there IS any evidence). Can anyone here thats more informed, give me some statistical data to disprove this guy, hes convincing all the other young impressionable people at work that hes right. Oh, and while im asking questions... What causes brainfreeze and how does an LED light operate... Thank you, that is all!

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece

No, it looks like he is right.  How do you like them Apples?

Well, I patrolled Iraqi waters for 6 months, specifically around their oil terminals. Never once did I see a US flagged tanker pull up to terminals to take on oil.

Actually, the only US flagged ship I saw, besides the warships, was a container ship from Maersk.

The Iraqi National Oil company is SELLING oil on the open market, and at current market prices.

There isn't any stealing or taking of the oil.

The amount they can sell is limited because of the state of the oil producing equipment. 30 years of neglect by Saddam means the equipment is in lousy shape. Add in some sabotage and things are very difficult. A big part of the reconstruction effort has been to get the oil pumping stations etc working again.

We only invaded Iraq so we could slant drill into Iran and Syria.

Shhhhhhhhhh.

What?!?!?! We're paying for the oil?!?! We aren't taking our oil from their land as payment? Hmmm, now I'm a bit hot under the collar!

Quoted: We only invaded Iraq so we could slant drill into Iran and Syria. Shhhhhhhhhh.

Oh man, I wish that were true! It'd be worth it just to see the Syrian and Iranian Information Ministers respond to it on TV.

What causes brainfreeze and how does an LED light operate...

Thank you, that is all!

What is a Diode?
A diode is the simplest sort of semiconductor device. Broadly speaking, a semiconductor is a material with a varying ability to conduct electrical current. Most semiconductors are made of a poor conductor that has had impurities (atoms of another material) added to it. The process of adding impurities is called doping.
In the case of LEDs, the conductor material is typically aluminum-gallium-arsenide (AlGaAs). In pure aluminum-gallium-arsenide, all of the atoms bond perfectly to their neighbors, leaving no free electrons (negatively-charged particles) to conduct electric current. In doped material, additional atoms change the balance, either adding free electrons or creating holes where electrons can go. Either of these additions make the material more conductive.

A semiconductor with extra electrons is called N-type material, since it has extra negatively-charged particles. In N-type material, free electrons move from a negatively-charged area to a positively charged area.

A semiconductor with extra holes is called P-type material, since it effectively has extra positively-charged particles. Electrons can jump from hole to hole, moving from a negatively-charged area to a positively-charged area. As a result, the holes themselves appear to move from a positively-charged area to a negatively-charged area.

A diode comprises a section of N-type material bonded to a section of P-type material, with electrodes on each end. This arrangement conducts electricity in only one direction. When no voltage is applied to the diode, electrons from the N-type material fill holes from the P-type material along the junction between the layers, forming a depletion zone. In a depletion zone, the semiconductor material is returned to its original insulating state -- all of the holes are filled, so there are no free electrons or empty spaces for electrons, and charge can't flow.


At the junction, free electrons from the N-type material fill holes from the P-type material. This creates an insulating layer in the middle of the diode called the depletion zone.



To get rid of the depletion zone, you have to get electrons moving from the N-type area to the P-type area and holes moving in the reverse direction. To do this, you connect the N-type side of the diode to the negative end of a circuit and the P-type side to the positive end. The free electrons in the N-type material are repelled by the negative electrode and drawn to the positive electrode. The holes in the P-type material move the other way. When the voltage difference between the electrodes is high enough, the electrons in the depletion zone are boosted out of their holes and begin moving freely again. The depletion zone disappears, and charge moves across the diode.


When the negative end of the circuit is hooked up to the N-type layer and the positive end is hooked up to P-type layer, electrons and holes start moving and the depletion zone disappears.



If you try to run current the other way, with the P-type side connected to the negative end of the circuit and the N-type side connected to the positive end, current will not flow. The negative electrons in the N-type material are attracted to the positive electrode. The positive holes in the P-type material are attracted to the negative electrode. No current flows across the junction because the holes and the electrons are each moving in the wrong direction. The depletion zone increases. (See How Semiconductors Work for more information on the entire process.)


When the positive end of the circuit is hooked up to the N-type layer and the negative end is hooked up to the P-type layer, free electrons collect on one end of the diode and holes collect on the other. The depletion zone gets bigger.



The interaction between electrons and holes in this setup has an interesting side effect -- it generates light! In the next section, we'll find out exactly why this is.



How Can a Diode Produce Light?
Light is a form of energy that can be released by an atom. It is made up of many small particle-like packets that have energy and momentum but no mass. These particles, called photons, are the most basic units of light.
Photons are released as a result of moving electrons. In an atom, electrons move in orbitals around the nucleus. Electrons in different orbitals have different amounts of energy. Generally speaking, electrons with greater energy move in orbitals farther away from the nucleus.

For an electron to jump from a lower orbital to a higher orbital, something has to boost its energy level. Conversely, an electron releases energy when it drops from a higher orbital to a lower one. This energy is released in the form of a photon. A greater energy drop releases a higher-energy photon, which is characterized by a higher frequency. (Check out How Light Works for a full explanation.)

As we saw in the last section, free electrons moving across a diode can fall into empty holes from the P-type layer. This involves a drop from the conduction band to a lower orbital, so the electrons release energy in the form of photons. This happens in any diode, but you can only see the photons when the diode is composed of certain material. The atoms in a standard silicon diode, for example, are arranged in such a way that the electron drops a relatively short distance. As a result, the photon's frequency is so low that it is invisible to the human eye -- it is in the infrared portion of the light spectrum. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course: Infrared LEDs are ideal for remote controls, among other things.



Visible light-emitting diodes (VLEDs), such as the ones that light up numbers in a digital clock, are made of materials characterized by a wider gap between the conduction band and the lower orbitals. The size of the gap determines the frequency of the photon -- in other words, it determines the color of the light.

While all diodes release light, most don't do it very effectively. In an ordinary diode, the semiconductor material itself ends up absorbing a lot of the light energy. LEDs are specially constructed to release a large number of photons outward. Additionally, they are housed in a plastic bulb that concentrates the light in a particular direction. As you can see in the diagram, most of the light from the diode bounces off the sides of the bulb, traveling on through the rounded end.





LEDs have several advantages over conventional incandescent lamps. For one thing, they don't have a filament that will burn out, so they last much longer. Additionally, their small plastic bulb makes them a lot more durable. They also fit more easily into modern electronic circuits.

But the main advantage is efficiency. In conventional incandescent bulbs, the light-production process involves generating a lot of heat (the filament must be warmed). This is completely wasted energy, unless you're using the lamp as a heater, because a huge portion of the available electricity isn't going toward producing visible light. LEDs generate very little heat, relatively speaking. A much higher percentage of the electrical power is going directly to generating light, which cuts down on the electricity demands considerably.

Up until recently, LEDs were too expensive to use for most lighting applications because they're built around advanced semiconductor material. The price of semiconductor devices has plummeted over the past decade, however, making LEDs a more cost-effective lighting option for a wide range of situations. While they may be more expensive than incandescent lights up front, their lower cost in the long run can make them a better buy. In the future, they will play an even bigger role in the world of technology.

Quoted: big oil signed a 30 year contract to extract their oil a few weeks ago news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece i'm not saying we went their for oil, but we are taking it.

This article, dated the 25th, states that the contracts are to be up for auction in the future.  No 'deal' has been struck as yet.  Reading is fundamental.