Archive for December, 2014
House of Cards and Rare Earth Elements
Posted by gordonmcdowell in Environment, thorium on 2014-12-12
Netflix’s “House of Cards” has characters fighting over a rare earth refinery in China. This is a welcome pop-culture introduction to the challenge facing North American high-tech manufacturing: no domestic supply of HEAVY Rare-Earth Elements.
If you’re a fan of House of Cards, I think it is interesting to hear a congressional staffer observe it is “the most popular show among congressional staffers”, and lament that such a popular plot point has not resulted in the same staffers understanding the rare earth problem.
If you think this video is useful, please consider providing me with captured footage (as was done here!), or funding the man-hours required to edit.
Ontario done with coal
Posted by gordonmcdowell in Canada, Environment on 2014-12-12
Ontario has burned their last ton of coal. Ontario’s carbon footprint is miniscule. This was pointed out to me by an Australian.
I worked with Ben Heard to create the above video, but I’ve never met him. He was about to deliver this talk at Brisbane City Hall (in Australia, as part of “Brisbane Global Café”), but we’d discussed in advance the importance of capturing technical presentations. So he set up his own video camera on a tripod and recorded himself. He wore 2 $20 microphones on his jacket that I’d shipped him from Canada.
Ben’s presentation is excellent. I’m pro-nuclear, and it was still incredibly informative to me. I think it offers just as much insight to Canadians about Canada as it does to Australians about Australia.
For example, Ben was standing in Brisbane City Hall, and showing the audience real-time monitoring of Ontario’s electricity generation. I’d encourage any Canadian to take a look yourself.
If you think this video is useful, please consider providing me with captured footage, or funding the man-hours required to edit.