Last week, buried in the flow of weird crap that fills the mailbox these days, was a small treat - the Lee Valley catalogue. It is a booklet of wonder, even if delivery apparently might take a year…not sure how I’m going to survive without the $80 “Discover Whittling Set” or the $135 Camera Lucida. Beyond those staples a German tool caught my eye - the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher (wow did spell checker ever get mad at that). It is pretty much what it sounds like; a metal egg cup [Read more]
Column: Concentric circles of power – Canada’s resource-rich regions’ uphill battle to be heard is not hopeless
The following is a brief roadmap that is of cultural significance to no one but me, but bear with me for a minute. There is a point. I grew up near a small Saskatchewan farming town of about 25 people (ok, village) (ok, hamlet) (ok, shut up), the name of which apparently means ‘dead horse’ in Cree, to give you some idea of its ranking in the pecking order, right on the rugged line where farmland ends and the endless northern wilderness begins. I bussed 20 miles to school in a town of about [Read more]
Column: Oh Canada…not content with 50 mph, Trudeau looks to hit the wall at 100
I couldn’t help myself, had to peek at the news. A headline said that Trudeau had installed Steven Guilbeault in charge of the climate portfolio, so I rubber-necked on over to see the car wreck. Of more interest, frankly, was where the man he was replacing, Jonathan Wilkinson, was going. Wilkinson, a two-decade green-tech exec, had shown zero interest in the world’s primary and utterly dominant energy system while in the Environment/Climate Change seat, and had brought the trademark Trudeau [Read more]
Column: Do you rip off your shingles before finding out if new ones are available? It’s painful to watch those that do
So, the energy crisis has finally arrived. I am mulling this over from my underground bunker, my ‘home office’ on one side and flats of dried pasta/canned goods/instant coffee/baked beans on the other (speaking of the beans, hmm, there’s no proper ventilation - I did not think this through very well). While, like most serious students of energy, I’d expected its arrival sometime, but scrolling through the energy news flow, I must admit I had no idea it would unfold quite like this. To anyone [Read more]
Column: As the world’s energy and supply systems teeter, Thanksgiving season is particularly relevant this year
Some might argue that it’s hard to whoop it up too much this Thanksgiving season. It’s true, much is not going well. Covid is proving to be the most robust of China’s exports. Supply chain problems are so bad that that power sander in the garage you bought 20 years ago and used once to try to remove your fingerprints is probably appreciating in value, because inflation is here, it’s feisty, and it is just getting settled in. Of course, the idea that things are all that difficult is a bit [Read more]
Column: European cargo cults? Standing on the shore, waiting for ‘energy cargo’…a full circle of colonial irony
I’m not sure what is politically incorrect, what isn’t these days, but screw it - some aspects of history are just too absurd to not be amused by. It becomes even funnier when, subjected to certain lenses of political correctness, the mirth is multiplied into top-notch black humour. In today's sermon, colonialism provides just such a wonderful tipping-of-the-table. Consider a cultural oddity of last century - ‘cargo cults’ that appeared in some undeveloped countries like Papua New Guinea. [Read more]
Column: Looming European energy crisis: A lesson in averages that won’t soon be forgotten
I’m not sure about you, but the last thing I want to talk about is elections. When I think of how much of my precious time has been wasted hearing about politics in the last year, I want to puke. No more from pollsters, talking heads, or statisticians. Well, maybe I’d like to talk about statisticians, as in the old joke about the one that drowned because he forded a river that was only three feet deep, on average. See, isn’t that better than politics already? However, as funny as a drowned [Read more]
Column: For the record…
I probably owe social media platforms some sort of apology, for cursing and mocking them for their relentless flow of stupidity and/or paid muckraking, the combination of which is paralyzing public discourse on any topic of substance. While that is no doubt happening, to rave against social media is, at the end of the day, like howling at the moon. For all the destructive power of these platforms, they also provide a service that humanity clearly values highly. Those platforms aren’t going [Read more]
Column: The global energy chasm, in stark terms
“A blind horse should be slow." "Driving at 600 mph is certainly never the fastest way to get somewhere.” Mixing some metaphors from Principia Politica by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Avoiding the news is good for one’s mental health, and sadly this fact has even engulfed energy news. What used to be a decent, business-like and relevant flow of energy happenings, developments, and price conjecture has turned into a muddled cacophony of emotion. It has been this way for a while, but we are [Read more]
Column: Which is code red again – the ‘death knell of fossil fuels’ or Biden’s demand for more of them?
"We can’t wait to tackle the climate crisis. The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable. And the cost of inaction keeps mounting.” President Biden on Twitter “President Biden has made clear that he wants Americans to have access to affordable and reliable energy, including at the pump.” White House statement, two days later, pleading with OPEC to produce more oil to reduce gasoline prices Confused? Bad news; it gets worse. That's what happens when you have a minimum wage job and [Read more]
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