When I stare up at the sky at night, through the smog and light pollution I see part of the vast cosmos laid out before me.

The insignificance of our lives becomes apparent when placed alongside the birth and death of stars and galaxies.

I discovered something last week, something I’d never seen advertised. Google Earth 4.2 introduced a Sky watching section that gives users a freedom to explore the cosmos with extraordinary detail. The majority of images probably come from ground telescopes, stitched together in a patchwork of very detailed imagery. There are many images from the Hubble telescope placed on top of these at the right distance and position that let you zoom right in to the spectacular views of the various nebulae captured by Hubble.

This tool provides a great tool for anyone interested in space to get access to the night sky without the need of an expensive telescope, and warm in the comfort of our houses.

I’m glad to see that some of the money earned by google is going to things that are for the good of the public.

The vastness, the sheer number of galaxies and the number of stars that must be in each one, and the possible planets circling those suns.

Are we a freak occurrence in a blink of the universal eye or is life not as rare as we imagine? How did the building blocks of life, the enzymes that form DNA come together in such a way as to mark the difference between that which is alive and that which is inanimate?

We might never find out.

Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is the descent.

As the world comes to the realisation that the global supply of oil is on a downward trend, the population will have to adapt to a changing context in which to live their lives. If the current rate of increase in the price of oil isn’t dramatically slowed, there might not be enough time to adapt.

I stress the word “might” because of recent advances in alternative fuels; things like new fast charge and release high capacity Lithium Ion batteries for electric cars, or Bio-Oil produced by genetically modified photosynthesising algae.

Increasing demand for oil in developing countries such as India and China are arguably the main cause of the spike in price, rather than market speculation as some suggest. This demand in a climate of stagnating supply is the key determining factor of price rises.

Therefore whatever solutions come about to shake our dependency on at least the finite fossil crude we pump out of the ground will have to meet these demands in order to maintain peace.

Many of the world’s cities, and many countries like Australia and the United States are built on the assumption that we will always have energy to run our trucks, cars, planes and ships. They are sprawling and lack the infrastructure to move people around, let alone cargo and produce without a cheap fuel source.

We face some great challenges in the coming decades. Our current existence, our comforts and norms are made fragile by our globalised world. The decisions made by those in power and everyone else will determine what the world will look like after we descend from peak oil, at the bottom of Mount Crude.

As the sun dives gracefully below the the horizon, an army of smartly dressed insects swarm out of their looming block hives. It’s five o’clock, time to go, catch that train, gotta get home.

Here’s a picture I took while waiting for the train the other day at Roma Street Station.

The quality is horrible, I know. I hope I’ve made it small enough in the blog so that it’s not so noticeable. Nokia did a pretty bad job with the camera on the 2160. Advantage though.. I don’t look like a tourist (as I do if I carry my other camera around) .. that’s about the only advantage.

As you can see, the cold metallic poles and live wires put an ugly face on a beautiful scene. It makes me think of trains in the broader sense. Wherever the train line goes, it drops the value of the properties right next to the line, and the screech of the wheels against the tracks will carry far on a still night.

A consistent and comprehensive bus system, coupled with bus rapid transit systems will make the train obsolete. Once the buses are electric, or even hydrogen powered (assuming a cheap way of producing hydrogen is discovered) the environmental impacts will be negligible. A friend of mine works at Queensland Rail. Apparently per person on average, running the train system uses more power than a car.

This I found interesting. And I wonder how much it has to do with the constant improving upon fuel efficiency as new cars get designed and built. There’s a new Citroen coming out that can drive 1000km on one tank of petrol, almost 4L per 100km (60 mpg) of Diesel fuel.

That’s the one, Citroen C1. I don’t know if I’d want to drive it.

That’s it for me! Take care.