Terry Etam

Engaging Articles of the Week Interesting and a bit sad data points: For a given quality, a barrel of oil is a barrel of oil. Regardless of where it pops out of the ground, it originates from way down below, in pools accumulated millions of years ago, in reservoirs that tend to be disinterested in national borders. And yet, as the mighty BOE Report reported recently, barrels of oil that are still in their underground home in Texas are worth, on the open market more than twice as much as [Read more]

What is quantum computing, you may ask, because you've heard the phrase a thousand times last week, and what is Majorana...the world must be saved or something, right? No, and calm down please. Here's the story including the parts worth keeping in mind. Microsoft recently announced development of a ‘quantum computer’, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and yet capable of solving insanely complicated problems rapidly, a chip that involves creation of “a new state of matter” that is not [Read more]

Some wise guy that goes by the name of Redpill Drifter on Twitter/X stood on a street in Encinitas, California, and asked people at random whether they would take a $20 bill, or a 1-ounce gold coin. He had both in his hand and offered them unconditionally. A remarkable number of people opted for the cash. Of course, he may have edited out people that took the gold (and who knows if he would have honored that offer with the gold coin 100 times more valuable), but regardless, a large number of [Read more]

There’s an interesting word that is helpful to keep in mind in these troubled times: zeitgeist.  It’s no being hauled out in sympathy or support of the German people, who probably need it after Vice President Vance last week gave them (and the EU) a verbal pummelling, to their face, in a startlingly frank manner. But hey maybe any admiration of a Germanic word - no easy feat when everyday words sound like death threats - will be balm to the Teutonic wound. The word zeitgeist means “the [Read more]

In 2014, representatives of the International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling committee jetted to southern Alberta from 14 countries including South Africa, China and Denmark to tour the world’s first solar community. Of course they did. Fifty-two homes tapped 800 solar panels at a cost of $7 million to achieve “90 percent solar energy” and GHG emissions reductions of, brace yourself, 5 tonnes of CO2e per home per year, or 260 tonnes per year for the complex. At today’s carbon price of [Read more]