Category Archives: CounterCurrent

On the road

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Th’ Gaussling is off-site for a few days of happy motoring in the mysterious Black Hills of South Dakota, or Paha Sapa in Lakota. 

The discovery of Black Hills gold in 1874 by an expedition led by General Custer and the 7th Cavalry ultimately triggered another bout of  hostilities with the Lakota as the land deeded to them by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 was pushed aside by miners and settler. Government agents were not able to prevent mining and settlment of the Black hills area. 

The blowback to Custer’s discovery of mineral wealth in the Black Hills was in the form of his defeat by Sitting Bull at the Little Bighorn River in Montana in late June of 1876.

The locals now mine tourists rather than gold.  The homestake mine has workings at 8000 ft below the surface! Over 1 billion dollars worth of gold was extracted between 1877 and 2004. Presently in the process of being set up for underground labs, the Homestake Mine in Lead, SD, will reopen in the coming years as a center of particle physics and dark matter research as the Sanford Underground Laboratory. Part of a program known as DUSEL, the new labs will exploit the great depth of the Homestake mine for the inherent radiation shielding at the lower levels of the site.  

Link-n

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Here is a link to a great review of Anthony Bourdains latest book, Medium Raw. If you have the chance, read Kitchen Confidential.

The University of California system is pushing back on price increases by publishers of periodicals. Let’s hope they have some success. Why do researchers just hand over copyright of their work, anyway? The public finances the work and then the public has to pay to read the results.

Think the internet is giving you a short attention span? Steven Pinker doesn’t think so.

Why are the British so rude? Are they naughty by nature? I have my own views on that, thank you.

Looking to upgrade your collection of Soviet Posters?

Snow

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June 15th, 2010. Colorado Front Range.  After a week of rain the clouds have parted to reveal severely clear azure skies and a fresh layer of snow above ~ 11,000′.  The grass is growing so fast you can hear it if you listen carefully. The lagomorphs are frolicking in the dewy turf and the adjacent prairie dog colony is overflowing with barking rodentia. The landscaper’s lawnmower releases a refreshing bouquet of terpenes into the air from freshly severed plant tissues. 

As I wave my card in front of the security card reader, the electromagnetic door release mechanism clicks and I leave behind the flora and fauna of the great outdoors and enter the world of mass selective detectors, nmr, and exotic molecules.  It is a transition from the macro to the micro, from the kilo to the nano. The world on the other side of the wall is immediately concerned with turf management and burrows. In this tiny space we’re concerned with nuclephiles and kinetics, exotherms and yields.  Interesting, yes. But in the end, where is it taking us?

Lithium Dreams

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A well written article on the supply situation of lithium can be found at the Daily Kos. There is no point in my adding to it except to say that I second the motion. The USA needs to get serious about forging relationships fostering stable lithium supplies.

Update:  Journalists have only now “uncovered” a 2007 USGS report on the mineral resources of Afganistan.  Prospecting for minerals in Afganistan- there is a plum job for a westerner. Imagine doing anything there? Not least of which, poking around in the countryside attracting IED’s and snipers. Even better, imagine trying to work a deal with the authorities (whatever that means) to obtain mineral rights?  I’ll bet the South Africans are working a deal this very moment. 

When is comes to minerals, China has been building relationships in Africa for a while now. I get the sense that China is centrally focused on manufacturing oriented activity rather than just running finance games of chance. China hasn’t forgotten that infrastructure is built upon access to natural resources and is quietly stitching itself into the supply side of the market. America, with its great hordes of MBA’s and strutting bankers, seems to have an unhealthy fetish for financial gymnastics and celebrity.

American CEO’s of public corporations will tell you that they have a fiduciary responsibilty to maximize shareholder value. Based on the way the rules are written, they are right. The corporate masters of the western world will be replaced if they lose sight of this fact. After all, Rome could have been built in a quarter if they had the right consultants and financing, couldn’t it?

This structural shortsightedness predisposes them to focus on financial instrumentalities that operate on the same short time interval as they do.  You can’t build a factory, grow the business, and earn profit over one or a few quarters. But you can put monies into accounts which promise a return on a quarterly basis beginning the day of the transfer. What if that fiduciary argument could be put to rest? What if a CEO didn’t have to emulate Jack Welch?

The USA needs new thinking on how to operate manufacturing businesses profitably within its borders in a manner that they are not so easily subject to obsolescence by competing foreign operations with a lower tax base and lower labor overhead. Existing theories of city planning, zoning, and suburbia must be reconsidered. 

In a previous posting I recalled the experience of walking through the back streets of Bangkok, Thailand. There I saw endless streets lined with shops that served both a mercantile and residential function. The shopkeepers lived in their shops. They could consolidate their assets and labor to serve the need for shelter and for making their living.

American workers have little opportunity to consolidate their assets in this manner. Their wages must cover rent or a mortgage to provide shelter which cannot be put to work. This severely limits entrepreneurial options, rendering the worker subject to the vagaries of  employment by others. If a US worker loses his/her job, they have little in the way of self-help options for survival because of municipal zoning. If one wanted to sell custom furniture or repair cars, they would have to find a properly zoned space. But this takes resources up front along with licenses, tax ID #’s, insurance, etc., and most US workers are poorly prepared for this eventuality.

Lower pay might be tolerable in the USA if employees could have a lower cost of living. One way to do that is to offer company owned housing for employees. Interest payments on a mortgage or residential rents are a large part of an employees lifetime expenses. If an employee had the option of living in housing provided by his/her employer at a reduced interest rate, part of the savings in living costs would be captured by the company in a correspondingly reduced payroll or a rent arrangement. I get the feeling that large groups of hourly workers out there would give this a try if it were available.

This is not part of the current standard model of US business or of US lifestyle. “Company store” models have been used in the past with less than happy results. But it strikes me that if you want to build a viable textile mill or zinc smelter in the US, for example, a factory with a company dormatory will be needed to make the thing fly.

The reindustrialization of the USA will need this kind of change in lifestyle to bring back low and medium skill industrial jobs. High labor overhead is not stable in a world of low labor and tax rates abroad. The metrics of the American Dream have to be recalibrated to account for competition and the loss of the frontier with its endless resources and space.  

What is most worrisome about the current political and economic epoch is the fragmentation of the middle class. Societies become unstable when large swaths of the the middle class become unemployed and begin to adopt ultra-nationalist sentiments. The Tea Party movement is the result of elements of fascist thinking entering into the dialog. Chomsky has pointed out some parallels found earlier in the 20th century. The current extent and intensity of the certitude of patriotic ideals has been seen before in recent history and with terrible effect. Fascist thinking requires pushback from the center of the bell curve or the xenophobic dread that it spreads may become uncontrollable.

Entrenched maladaptive behaviors displayed by US businesses and government are a real barrier to stability over the long term. We in the USA assert superiority in many areas of activity, but show very little ability to actually adapt to the dynamics of global politics. Mindless adherence to threadbare nationalistic doctrine and tired notions of “greatness'” will not get us out of economic trouble. But an imaginative and adaptive marketplace can help.

Dog the Bounty Hunter Sighting

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We arrived at a Perkins restaurant to rustle up some grub this evening and had an encounter with reality television.  The characters from the cable television show “Dog the Bounty Hunter” were filming inside the restaurant. Dog is actually named Duane Lee Chapman and has quite a colorful history. He was born in Denver, CO, in 1953. According to Wikipedia he did 18 months of prison in Huntsville, TX.  He belonged to the Devils Diciples at one point and worked as a bail bondsman. Between all of the wives, he has ca 12 kids.

Dog the Bounty Hunter filming at a local Perkins dining establishment. Photo by Th' Gaussling, (C) 2010.

The film crew included two hand-held camera operators, a director chick in tight blue jeans and a western blouse, Dog’s 5th wife, Beth, two subjects to be interviewed by Dog, and a half-dozen other on and off camera crew.

Dog & the Mrs Leaving Perkins. Photo by Th' Gaussling, (C) 2010.

The universe provides surreal experiences on occasion and this was one of those times. This was my second “dog” experience in this restaurant. The first involved a psychotic roughneck called Mad Dog a long time ago. But that is another story.

A bit of sympathy for BP

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I can’t help but have some sympathy for the folks at BP just now. They are not the evil empire and despite their poor safety history, say, the recent Texas City refinery explosion, they do in fact rack up a good many safe operating hours doing very hazardous work. They handle and process flammable materials on the gigantic scale.  And, they respond to market pull for petroleum products.

I have been to meetings in their facilities in the UK and discussed new technology platforms that they wanted to bring on stream. I have listen to a few of their scientists describe their technology and marveled at the new things they have found for molecules to do. They are smart, competent, and well meaning people and we should not lose sight of this.

BP helps to provide the petroleum that we use to conduct out busy modern lives.  We gladly consume every bit of their output. In fact, their contribution to the supply picture helps to keep hydrocarbon prices low. The same is true of all the producers.

The now famous spill in the gulf is clearly a bad thing and it happened to them for several reasons.  But consumers have not responded to this in what you might call a philosophical manner. Nobody seems to be jolted into wakefulness by the depth that producers have to drill to find oil or the fact that these guys are resorting to drilling way out on the continental shelf.  We just plug along expecting demanding that they keep producing at the same price.

If the critics of BP can drill better or operate distillation towers or cat crackers better than BP, then they should get off their duffs and do it. Put up or shut up. The chronic condition we are all subject to is the truism that we can do better.  If you think you can be a better driller, then try it. It’s harder than it looks and it doesn’t look easy.

BP oil spill. What are the merits of using dispersants?

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BP Oil Spill Image, May 4, 2010 (NASA Earth Observatory)

Oil Spill near Mississippi delta. Vegetation, red; Oil, silver. MA 24, 2010. (NASA Earth Observatory photo)

Eventually, BP will find a way to block the discharge of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico.  And, eventually, the effectiveness of how the relevant parties responded to the incident will be analyzed and findings posted.

I hope that some effort will be put into an analysis of the merits of using dispersants in general and Corexit in particular. What sparks my comment is the finding that considerable subsurface petroleum has been found. This material is evidently close to neutral buoyancy and is drifting with the currents.

Question 1: Is there a connection between the dispersant use and the presence of this subsurface body of petroleum?  

Question 2: What is the desired outcome of dispersant use?  Where did the planners think the petroleum would go?

Question 3: Is there any advantage in encouraging petroleum to remain below the surface, if that is even possible?

At some point, a decision was made to use dispersants on this massive discharge. Is there a scientifically supported rationale for this, or was it palliative treatment intended to mask the surface effects of the release?

Whither Diethyl Ether?

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Diethyl ether seems to be in short supply in North America these days. Suppliers have customers under allocation constraints.  Yes Virginia, people still use Et2O in certain kinds of chemical processing. Sometimes Et2O is prized for its solvent effects and sometimes for its volatility. Sometimes the only way to solubilize some  inorganic compounds is as the metal etherate.  Solvent residues in fine chemicals are often a problem and volatile process solvents can be a big help in ameliorating that issue.  You can purchase 5,000 gallon tanker loads of Et2O if the supplier has qualified you. Another reason not to swerve in front of trucks on the highway. 

Part of the problem with Et2O availability is the considerable reduced demand for it these days.  Many companies have banned the use of Et2O on their site for any purpose. It is easy to understand why. The insane vapor pressure and low autodecomposition temperature are problematic for plant safety. The low boiling point of Et2O means that plant utilities can heat a vessel of ethereal soln rapidly and blow a rupture disk at reasonably low pot temps.  Naturally, the safetly department gets surly about this kind of thing.

Tetrahydrofuran is not always a suitable process stand-in for Et2O. Reactivity behaviors may be quite different from Et2O solns.  THF’s sensitivity to butyllithium, for instance, forces one to keep the processing conditions at low temp with a chiller. Lower pot temperatures increase the thermal margin of safety, but may have a deleterious effect on activation of a transformation once BuLi has done its job. 

I have studied the decomposition of methyl tetrahydrofuran with BuLi and have determined that it decomposes in the low 30’s °C range, somewhat higher than THF. MeTHF is not an exact stand-in for THF or Et2O either.  But it is definitely worth having in the stockroom for development work. It will surprise you in regard to how different it can be from THF.

While MeTHF is touted for its ability to phase separate with water, it will hold appreciable amounts of water.

Does Corexit really correct it?

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According to news sources, BP is allegedly using a dispersant called Corexit EC9527A.  According to the EPA this formulation contains water, propylene glycol, and 2-butoxyethanol, as well as an unspecified confidential additive.

I guess the question is, what purpose does this treatment serve? By dispersing the petroleum, I assume that the effect is to spread a given mass of petroleum into a larger volume of sea water by virtue of producing dispersed globules of oil-phase material. Does the increased surface area result in off-gassing of volatiles and subsequent submergence of the now denser oil phase? Or, will the dispersed petroleum simply drift into larger patches of oily water? If it enables an increased dispersion so that the currents can chaotically distribute the petroleum to a greater range of shorelines, is this treatment of any real benefit? Perhaps it is better in the long run to have a heavier coating on fewer beaches? Less acreage to scrape.

EPA is making noise about BP’s choice of Corexit. Seems to me that butyl cellosolve has been in the market for quite some time. There should be some information on its fate in the watershed. Judging from the map, the oil spill is near the dead zone around the mouth of the Mississippi River. So, until somebody gets some survey data, it’ll be hard to estimate the magnitude of the environmental insult of this event to the open ocean.

I do not understand what government officials were trying to do by saying that they might take over control of this spill. What is the government going to do to a petroleum discharge a mile below the surface? Call the Navy? Or Boots & Coots? As good as these guys may be, they’re land lubbers. 

Let the folks at BP finish the job.

NASA Earth Observatory Photo, May 24, 2010.

Rand, Ron, and Ludwig

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Disclaimer: I’m neither an expert on or an enthusiast of orthodox libertarianism. I think it is yet one more narrow utopian social philosophy that a band of economic puritans want to impose on society. To their credit, it is a scholarly economic theory. But it seeks to validate and legitimize the most selfish and materialistic impulses of our primate sensibilities.

I have a comment on the recent public flare up on comments by candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Randal Paul, son of Ron Paul, seems to be very much influenced in his thinking by his father and by Ludwig von Mises. I would characterize father and son as ultra-orthodox libertarians (if only by virtue of their scholarship) along the lines of the Austrian school but lacking the John Birch Society fascist and theocratic elements. I sincerely acknowledge their understanding of economics and history. However, I must differ in regard to their understanding of the non-mathematical aspects of civilization. 

Rand Paul’s recent expression of his views on the civil rights act comes straight from the Austrian view on statism. It is right out of the textbook. The man is not a racist. He just does not approve of the intervention of the state into the affairs of a property owner. I think he would prefer to see market forces solve the problem in the domain of private property.

The problem is that market forces have a substantial element of greed. And greed is what greed does. Social justice is orthogonal to greed forces. American slavery did not end because the market found a way out of it. The slave states were deeply dependent on the economic advantages in labor overhead that slavery provided. The nonmarket forces- government- that are inevitable in civilization intervened and put an end to it.

The impulse to accumulate power is expressed in the market and in government. Power is the ability to allocate resources. The domains of both government and business need to be watched closely because both are subject to the corruption of greed. Both socialism and libertarianism are utopian in their conception. Both tend to fail because adherents must rely on the adoption of their tenets by diverse groups. Both require a kind of homogeneity in thinking that is inherently unstable over large populations. Neither seems willing to accomodate a bell curve of views and behaviors. 

Just read history. You can’t even get large populations to agree on how to enable or even what is meant by the meaning of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I fail to understand how people who do not trust big government can somehow trust a business system which can fund methods to override the checks and balances of a natural market. The notion that consumers actually have power through the allocation of their dispersed resources is perhaps partially valid in a village market. It fails in contemporary society because businesses are focused and populations tend to be defocused. 

Advertising works. Consumers are subject to suggestion by advertising influence. Consumers are not perfect, rational economic units. In some ways, we are fish in a barrel.  Businesses can obtain patents or assemble local monopoly and dominate a market in a way that consumers are powerless to respond. Look at how big box stores can move into a local market and dominate. They do provide lower prices, but they also offer a channel for foreign suppliers to cross the border and invade a market for the profit of corporate owners who live elsewhere. They apply instant globalization to local markets that are ill equipped to compete. Economic purists would say that local businesses are unfit in this circumstance.

The proclivity to trend into big-brother influence seems just as certain with business as with government. The purpose of civilization is to buffer the Darwinian forces of nature and make life less brutal and short. Government provides a way to accumulate resources and focus effort on large scale infrastructure and allow access to all. Access to infrastructure facilitates innovation and economic growth and diversity. If you don’t like infrastructure, move to Haiti or Somalia where you’ll be blissfully free of it.

Government can grow to the detriment of all. And, arguably, it is in such a position now. But to abandon this important element of our culture in favor of a more Darwinian approach to everything is a utopian dream that will not come to pass. Libertarians need to develop some pragmatism.