Has anyone ever had a useful outcome from being on LinkedIn?
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Anti-SOPA Solidarity
In solidarity with yesterdays protest against internet censorship, my porch light remained dark last night. What is normally a shining beacon of hope in the neighborhood was last night a mute and dark void. This pocket of frigid darkness sat in silent protest to those who would presume to stunt the billion webbed neurons of this nearly-sentient being we refer to as The Internets. So it was and so it shall be.
Thus spake Th’ Gaussling.
Vannoccio Biringuccio. Sixteenth Century Chronicler of Metallurgy.
By the early 16th century in Europe, metallurgy had become an established cottage industry in numerous locales. Artisans were sourcing copper, tin, zinc, antimony and iron ores for reduction, refinement and alloy production for cannon and bells among other products. While there was no systematic science of chemistry in a form recognizable today, the necessity of constant proportions was understood and exploited to maximize the efficient use of scarce materials. Metallurgists of the 16th century would no doubt share the enthusiasm of developing technology with the same fervor as the technologists of today.
Unfortunately for these 16th century technologists, the contribution of centuries of alchemy produced a confusing array of occult-based practices. These alchemical practices were based on Aristotelian notions of material “qualities” rather than a system of quantitative relationships of and between substances. It is thought that alchemy began with Grecian metalworker’s practical knowledge of metal preparation. Inevitably, this practical art was overprinted with a thick layer of theological mysticsm by the end of the first millenium. By the end of the alchemical age, any systematic theories of matter were blended into a Mulligan stew of early Roman Catholic mysticism, incomprehensible nomenclature, and the false choices set forth by Aristotle in his theory of matter.
Fortunately for 16th century practitioners of the metallurgical arts, several encyclopedic works were published detailing the practical art of smelting and casting of metals and what we now know to be alloys. A prominent early work published in 1540 was the Pirotechnia by Vannoccio Biringuccio (1480-1539). Born in Siena, Italy, over the course of his life Biringuccio traveled extensvely throughout Italy and Germany. His Pirotechnia is a series of books and chapters detailing foundry techniques that he witnessed first hand throughout his travels. He made every attempt to describe methods and techniques in enough detail to accurately capture the technique in question. Above all, he completely drops all the alchemical mysticism and bases his comments on process oriented details such as measured proportions and processing conditions.
Up to this point, what was missing from this very early form of chemistry was a systematic collection of facts and measurements and an accurate chemical model in which to give the facts meaning and predictive value. Biringuccio, and later Agricola, would begin the disengagement of alchemical mysticism and provide a basis of metallurgical technology upon what might be called science. In a real sense, this helps to set into motion the western industrial revolution. Metallic goods would be produced by very pragmatic artisans who would continue to improve their art through the application of rudimentary measurement. While it would be four centuries before atomic theory would be developed to make sense of the manner in which definite proportions operated, systematic methods of assay would begin to appear well before atomic theory. The ability to identify value in ores and quantitate it allowed the mass industrialzation of metals.
Load-in day
Being part-owner of a theatre company, I also get to be a roadie and stagehand for our play that opens in a week. Today is load-in day at the theatre. We have to move the set and props onto the stage and wings. Costumes have to go to the dressing rooms and make-up room supplies have to be put in place. After many weeks of reheasal and production work, the thing is really going to happen. For Kitchen Witches, we have a cast of 4- 3w and 1m.
This time we put a bit more effort into promotional work. We have a talented graphic artist who does posters and other kinds of copy for us. Posters are up in every shop that’ll let us do it. Post cards are out to our direct mailing list of recpients. We have not advertised on radio owing to the high cost. Newspaper advertising is a puzzlement to us. Who reads papers anymore? When you have a small advertising budget, getting bang for the buck is risky.
In community theatre, your audience is substantially the 55 + crowd. And among that group, it is heavily skewed to the 65 + demographic of blue hairs and Q-tips. Retired people go to plays. The age 21 to 50 group are commonly very scarce in the audience. I think it has always been that way. We are a theatre group without a bricks and mortar theatre. Given the thin demographic, if we had to keep a buildng in operation we’d be broke already.
We have local “celebrities” each doing a cameo during one particular scene in each performance: Two mayors, the school superintendant, an elementary school principal, and a few business leaders.
Our set guy came up with some clever stuff. We can’t wait to see the set in use.
Th’ Gaussling was in our November production of Dearly Departed, but the current production had no role for a cranky middle aged guy, so I’m sitting it out. We have one actor who just finished a run of Rocky Horror as well as an assistant director who was in the same production. Their production of Rocky Horror was quite well done, even if they did not allow us to throw toast. First timers like myself got called on stage for a public spanking by one of the transvestite characters. That was hilarious. \;-)
Devon Energy Sells Stakes to SINOPEC in Shale Gas Plays
Devon Energy has raised $900 million in cash from Sinopec Group for a stake in Devon shale gas plays. These gas projects include the Utica, Niobrara, and Tuscaloosa formations.
What is interesting is not so much that China has bought its way into the extraction of a resource that the USA has in some abundance. What is more troubling is that China has bought its way up the learning curve in horizontal drilling and fracturing.
According to the article in Bloomburg Businessweek-
China National Petroleum Corp., Sinopec Group and Cnooc Ltd. are seeking to gain technology through partnerships in order to develop China’s shale reserves, estimated to be larger than those in the U.S.
“In these joint ventures, the partner does typically get some education on drilling,” Scott Hanold, a Minneapolis-based analyst for RBC Capital Markets, said today in an interview.
So, the business wizards at Devon in OKC have arranged to sell their drilling magic to the Sinopec for a short term gain on drilling activity. Way to go folks. Gas in the ground is money in the bank. These geniuses have arranged to suck non-renewable energy out of the ground as fast as possible. Once again US technology (IP, which is national treasure) is piped across the Pacific to people who will eventually use it to beat us in the market. Score another triumph for our business leaders!!
The market is like a stomach. It has no brain. It only knows that it wants MORE. Th’ Gaussling.
It’s a banner day for American Business.
Locust Capitalism- The Frass Machine.
Here is a great catch phrase- Locust Capitalism. The article by David Waldman, describing the past business practices of one of our corporate persons, Bain Capital, uses this catchy phrase to characterize said corporate person. Of course, the irony of it all is plastered on the face of biological person Willard “Mitt” Romney who makes a show of being a job creator.
There is something that locusts do create- it is called frass.
I do not doubt Romney’s sincerity when he speaks. Like other candidates, he seems to live in the “eternal now” much like a dog. He wags his tail at the public hoping to curry favor for the treat of being president. If wagging his tail doesn’t work, he rolls over and puts up a paw hoping to win over the public. It is in the nature of these creatures to do this and while we cannot hold them blameless for their transgressions, we can at least understand them.
People who are able to think about business in an abstract way, that is, unencumbered by sloppy sentimentality for the fate of individuals, are well suited to become the captains and oligarchs of business. Romney seems to have been a captain. If the practices described by Waldman did in fact happen, then the locust analogy is very suitable and it says a lot about the character of the persons involved.
Waldman writes that Romney and cohorts bought companies holding ample commercial credit, charged them substantial management fees, and tapped out the credit lines while pocketing operating cash, driving the company into bankruptcy. They walk away from the remaining husk of what was a functioning organization with their neatly stacked pile of lucre.
If a real person did this, he/she might be described as a kind of sociopath. But somehow in the context of business there is no descriptor for such antisocial behavior.
Since we are now in the habit of referring to corporate personhood, perhaps we need to be a bit more analytical about it and characterize pathological behavior such as this.
Thorium and Rare Earths. A Possible Market Synergy.
If one studies the economic geology of Rare Earth Elements (REE), it becomes clear that REE’s are frequently (usually?) found in deposits rich in other elements. Deposits of zirconium, tantalum and niobium, for instance, are frequently co-located with REE’s.
The REE’s are found in ore bodies that are naturally enriched in either heavies (yttric or HREE’s) or lights, (ceric or LREE’s). The LREE’s seem to be the most common spread of the REE’s. Molycorp’s Mountain Pass bastnasite deposit is a good example of this.
What is not so widely known is that thorium and/or uranium are nearly always found in these deposits. This might be regarded as a good thing except that companies in the REE business seem to be less interested in actinides than lanthanides. The actinide business is fraught with complications related to the natural radioactivity of Th and U. If one is interested in rare metal production, the matter of radioactivity is unwelcome.
However, there is opportunity here if certain institutional thinking is allowed to expand. I refer to the global preference for uranium and plutonium in the nuclear fuel cycle. Nearly the entire world’s nuclear materials infrastructure was directed to the production of yellowcake and separation of U235 from U238 post WWII. While there has been some experimentation with thorium 232 in the US, and there are some limited initiatives in motion, it has been largely neglected in reactor design and the fuel cycle in favor of uranium and plutonium.
Rare earth element mining and processing naturally produces thorium and uranium. At present, those practicing REE extractive metallurgy have every incentive to avoid concentrating the actinide components owing to the radioactivity. However, if there were a coherent program for the development of an efficient thorium fuel program, this natural resource could be efficiently taken from the REE product streams now or in the future.
Our reliance on energy will trend substantially towards electricity. The greater absolute abundance of Th over U, as well as the ability to use 100 % of the predominant isotope makes thorium a good candidate for energy exploitation. The recent boom in REE exploration has uncovered new sources of thorium. The nuclear genie was let out of the bottle nearly 70 years ago. By now we should be a little smarter about how we use it.
After the Blockade
So here is a short timeline of events that will unfold after the Iranians block the Strait of Hormuz. Beginning 48 hours after the blockade starts, at around 3:00 AM, RF jamming will begin and a US Navy man-of-war somewhere over the horizon will launch a barrage of cruise missiles at Iranian surface ships in the Straits. From an undisclosed location, a US nuclear submarine will launch more cruise missiles and a hunter-killer sub will close in on any Iranian subs that may be in the vicinity.
USAF strike force assets will be overhead and will provide electronic counter-measures, signal intelligence, and aerial reconn.
Thirty seconds before the cruise missiles arrive at their targets, the muffled slapping sound of 2000 sphincters slamming shut will be heard as Iranian seamen realize what is about to happen when the angry, armor piercing, high explosive warheads arrive. The reality of a torrent of supersonic incandescent pressurized gas, slurried with molten metal, penetrating the hull into inhabited space is too awful to contemplate.
The president will be given the choice of bombarding Iranian naval bases, but he will wisely decline.
By 9 AM, the remaining Iranian naval combatant will be disabled and listing. Many men are in the oily water, more than a few of them corpses floating in the flooded interior spaces of their sunken vessels.
Anderson Cooper’s plane is wheels-up by noon Iran time, but the thing is over. US men-of-war steam toward the kill zone looking for survivors. The descendents of Xerxes and Rumi have been in the streets of Tehran since 7 am slapping their foreheads and shaking their fists. But who are they really mad at? The US or their government?
In reality, I don’t think this scenario will unfold. The US will gather a show of force and intimidate the Iranians to stand down. Individual Iranian ships making aggressive moves will be delt with swiftly, though.
Re-thinking start-up opportunities
It is interesting how ones perception of opportunities in the world depend on your context. I have academic colleagues who are in nanotechnology, for instance. When I have spoken of the apparent dearth of entrepreneurialism in chemistry, the sincere feedback I get is that there are nanotech-related startups out there. You know, I don’t doubt this.
What I was unable to articulate to my friends was that we need people willing to start companies for the manufacture of starting materials and intermediates for less cutting edge applications. I’m afraid that the word “start-up” has come to mean “bleeding edge technology”.
Have you ever tried to source specialty silanes or halogenated hydrocarbons for instance? The choices of manufacturers in North America are very slim. There are companies in the USA and Canada who manufacture pharma related materials. But believe it or not, not everyone needs costly cGMP manufactured feedstocks. You can find suppliers of thousands of varieties of boronic acids, esters, and difluorides. But what if you want an alkyl chloride? In my experience there has been a mass extinction of North American halogenators in the last 10 years.
In the previous 5 decades US taxpayers have heavily subsidized US industry by the establishment of a university research complex residing at many dozens of public and private universities. Several generations of faculty at these institutions have written and been awarded a large number of grants over the decades that have produced the scientific talent. Some of the graduates have been the children of those whose combined support via taxed income paid for the complex. Others, in the form of foreign undergraduates, graduate students, and post-docs have been invited to come to the US and take advantage of this rich resource.
I, for one, am in support of sharing the scientific knowledge that has been so expensive in time and money. But what we find is that over the decades, the unstoppable advance of civilization has come to apply the inventions of technology to increase industrial efficiency by reducing the need for labor. Thus, as technology has advanced, the man-hours needed for any given item of commerce has generally declined.
When you combine this natural consequence of invention with a cultural inclination to export industrial production, what you get is a post-industrial civilization that becomes unable to support its previous level of comfort.
The US has been exporting its industrial magic faster than it can adapt to deindustrialization. Whereas in previous times whole cities have grown around manufacturing plants, today we have whole cities substantially abandoned and blighted (like parts of Detroit). Public corporation shareholders who have taken full advantage of the rich infrastructure of the USA have pulled up stakes and moved to Mexico or Asia. This article in Forbes is telling.
The combination of automation plus outsourcing overseas with the absentee landlord management of public corporations has triggered a basic instability in our culture. No one really knows how this will play out.
This is what leads me to urge my colleagues out there to consider starting out on your own. It will be hellishly difficult and will consume 5-15 years of your life. I have been a part of several failed startups myself. It is really hard to do. But let me say this: Avoid starting with a one-act pony, and find a way to have something to sell right away. Not all start-ups have to bring single item, new technology on stream. Find a niche selling high value added, low volume products. Don’t be intimidated by environmental complications and zoning. You have to put your head down and plow through it. Showing up and some hard-headed persistance counts for a lot.
Euphemisms and similes to avoid in 2012
I propose a 20 year ban on the following overused and often mangled euphemisms and similes-
Rocket scientist– “it doesn’t take rocket scientist to …”. This one is really tiresome. I propose that it be banned indefinitely and that repeat offenders be tatooed with some humiliating symbol on their noses.
Holy Grail– “… It’s like the Holy Grail of …”. This was overused centuries ago and abusers should be called down on the carpet forcefully and publically. A good swatting with a rolled newspaper may be called for.
American taxpayers– “… The American taxpayers are tired of …”. You mean, American citizens. To play to the taxpayer’s emotional conflicts over taxes is a ham fisted rhetorical manipulation that bypasses the greater good of citizenship and responsible stewardship over our civilization. I am a citizen who pays taxes and I insist on being addressed as a citizen.
Perhaps the dear readers have even better examples of rhetorical ditties that should be retired.
Lamentations on Chemistry 