The other day, against my better judgement, I cut up a butternut squash to go into some recipe. You might be familiar; a smelly, obnoxious thing like an angry potato that turns into a truly hideous mushy texture when cooked. And then it stinks even more. The experience left me with a little pang of sorrow, because I couldn’t help but think of how hungry someone must have been at some point in history to think “Hey, I’m going to eat one of those.” Surely they had to have been standing there, [Read more]
NDP ‘anti-fossil fuel advertising’ draft legislation – worthy of both the 1956 Soviet RSFSR Criminal Code or the other end of the political spectrum
Comedian Yakov Smirnov reminisced in 2014: “As a comedian in the Soviet Union, I was censored by the "Department of Jokes." Well, actually it was called the Humor Department of the Censorship Apparatus of Soviet Ministry of Culture. I think they were hoping that by the time you finished saying their name, you'd be too exhausted to tell more jokes.” The CIA, bless their hearts, translated the 1956 Soviet RSFSR Criminal Code, which you may know as Ugolovnyy Kodeks RSFSR if you run in such [Read more]
Achtung! We must learn from Germany’s self-inflicted energy shambles, quickly
In 1880, a great author, Mark Twain, whom you may never hear spoken of again because he had the audacity to write in the vernacular of the day, wrote an extremely funny essay called The Awful German Language. “Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp…There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome…Now let the candidate for the asylum try to memorize those variations, and see how soon he will be elected…In [Read more]
Automobiles, human nature, and the challenge of building cars that people actually want
Some people out there have an inner itch to do things different. Maybe it’s art, or music, or some other glorious pastime that we as the rest of humanity benefit from, far, far more than we pay. What sort of car these types drive is fascinating; usually something quirky or wonderfully weird; Neil Young spent years before he made it big driving an old hearse, various narcotics taped under the dash. Others think completely differently, bone-dry aesthetically-speaking; thinkers who just want to [Read more]
No calling in sick or waiting for a nice day – the grid has to perform on the worst of them
Saturday night, the middle of the cold snap, was something to be endured. Things break at -36 degrees. A quick run to the grocery store was rerouted by a fleet of city vehicles tearing up the street in a considerable manner, most likely chasing a broken water main or some such. Imagine being without water on a night like that. Half an hour later it got worse - the provincial grid operator issued an alert for people to “immediately limit their electrical use to essential needs only.” Keep in [Read more]
Putting the “Fore!” in 2024: The new year’s complexity will stress-test us all
Flying in the face of past lamentations, I’m eating my words more and more about social media these days. The initial rise of Facebook, Twitter, etc., seemed to muffle good voices and amplify the bad, the people or bots that, either as an occupation or as a deranged character trait, seemed to rejoice in ruining people’s day with insults and negativity. It’s not that hard, if one is sufficiently abysmal; anyone’s day can be ruined with the right choice of words. Maybe most depressing is the [Read more]
From The Economist to Mr. Yang the manhole cover salesman, a salute to the benefits of Spam
Congrat!! Ref No: BEH/XGM/012/0023. Your email address was chosen at random during an internet search to receive USD 805,000.00 from me, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. If you are interested respond promptly via this e-mail:{grantsprogram@ cpn.it} to learn more about the donation and how to claim it. Regards, Warren Edward Buffett (I’ve disabled the email address so you don’t get there before I do. Probably not necessary; I’m sure Mr. Buffett wouldn’t give the funds to someone [Read more]
Bitumen beyond combustion: how to triple oil sands value, reduce emissions, and create an advanced material industry for 2% of a battery plant’s subsidies
What if some phenomenally large energy/materials breakthroughs were right here in front of us, vastly more accessible than experimental aspirations, but held back by an image problem? To help ponder that question, it is necessary to share with you one of the best (meaning funniest), most explosive miscalculations in modern science; the reason for bringing it up is that it's simply too good not to. But before that, some context. It seems there are a number of energy paths ahead of us. One, [Read more]
Convicts, cars, rats and the best program you’ve never heard of – lessons for energy
I may not know much about Parisian culture, but I know a good documentary when I see one. In the gripping 2007 culinary adventure Ratatouille, a guy inherits a small restaurant and becomes a sensation cooking with a rat on his head when it turns out the rat is a way better chef than he is. Oh it’s not real? Pardon me. Because I follow the energy scene closely, my ability to sort fact from fiction is severely diminished. One can only say to oneself “This can’t be happening” so many times before [Read more]
Low North American natural gas prices: a global oddity that brings a massive but impermanent competitive advantage
Is there any critical industrial material as bizarre as natural gas? The stuff holds almost zero interest for the general public, for the same reason no one is interested in the sound of a washing machine. Both boring. Both ubiquitous. Natural gas isn't even sold on Amazon. But forty-six percent of American homes use natural gas for heat, and surely more in Canada. But consider the storm below the surface. Traders love it, because it is one of the most volatile commodities in existence, and [Read more]
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