let me know when we hit bottom

Slate summarizes:

...unexpectedly grim unemployment numbers released yesterday. While the rate increased only slightly to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, from 9.4 percent, the raw numbers led many to warn that economic recovery isn't on the horizon. The U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs in June, marking the first time the monthly losses increased after they had been steadily shrinking from the January peak of 741,000.

...

In addition to the basic unemployment rate, everyone points to worrying signs from the so-called underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who can't find full-time work and those who have given up looking, that has increased to 16.5 percent.

Let's not hold our breath for a market rally to the good ol' overinflated days, shall we?

solar cells tuned to their location

The new Quantasol gallium arsenide solar cells are more efficient than the common silicon solar cells but do so at specific light frequencies. The cells have been engineered to allow them to be tuned to the light conditions at their location. From the New Scientist article:

That may only be one-tenth of a percentage point higher than the previous world-record holder, but it's the first advance in 21 years. Commercial silicon solar cells are much cheaper than GaAs, but have an efficiency of just 10 to 12 per cent and are also bulkier. The Quantasol device can cope with much brighter light without becoming overloaded, making it possible to use a very small solar cell to absorb light collected by a system of cheap lenses and mirrors.

Gallium is a by-product of aluminum or zinc refinement, and arsenic from copper or gold refinement. I wish I knew more about the energy debt incurred in making a solar cell, and more about the pollution, etc. involved with making these versus silicon chips.

the resilience of hydrocarbon culture

From a recent Globe and Mail interview, Another perspective on peak oil, by Karl Moore of Adam Waterous, global head of investment banking for Scotia Capital and president of Scotia Waterous, a leading firm in mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas business.

Waterous comments on the growing presence of alternative energy in the global energy supply with some conclusions I find very concerning:

If you make some assumptions that alternative energy, wind, solar, grows at a compound annual rate of 15 per cent a year, which is a fantastically successful business – if you have a 15-per-cent compound annual growth rate, that would be stunningly fantastic – I think the number is, by 2030, so, 21 years from now, alternative energy is still less than 5 per cent of total energy consumed in the world [emphasis mine]. Meaning you'd have to have fantastic, fantastic growth rates in alternative energy to ever replace, in any meaningful way, other major sources – primarily hydrocarbons, coal, oil and gas.

Ignoring for a moment the ecological ramifications of that, the sovereingty and security issues with this scenario alone would seem to me to overwhelmingly recommend a more aggressive push to alternatives.