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A storm is abrewin' (and other news)
By dwray in The nature of things
August 26, 2011

Ever heard of the song "Mr. Hurricane"? It's one of those tunes with a beat that gets lodged somewhere in your spine and just kind of makes you groove with it.

I'm listening to it now, and, yeah, I'm doing that super-lame desk jam thing, complete with some shoulder swaying and, yes, even a head bob or two. It's not so much in honor of Hurricane Irene, as the storm headed for the East Coast reminded me of the song.

It's a monster of a storm by all accounts, but hopefully everybody will come through OK.

In the meantime, as we wait for the hurricane to roll on in, here's a couple things going on in the rest of the world:

Geologists have sharply revised their estimates of the amount of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, according to The New York Times. The revision is likely to lead to lots of questions about how geologists make these calculations because 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is a lot less than the 410 trillion cubic feet originally estimated.

Out in Montana, fireman are battling wild fires in the Northern Rockies. Tens of thousands of acres have burned so far.

Back on the energy front, the U.S. should blow right by Brazil in ethanol exports, according to a Reuters report. Brazilians use sugar to make ethanol, while we use corn. Since sugar prices have jumped, and corn is relatively cheap, corn-based ethanol is selling real well.

And bad news again from the Deepwater Horizon well out in the Gulf, as oil has been spotted all slick and shiny floating on the water.