Reading a very good book recently I was once again reminded of the irrepressible nature of the American economy. The book is Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller. It tells the story of that technological miracle that created the modern world—the silicon chip.
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Views from the Beltline: Japan—role model for a sustainable future?
There was a time, specifically the late 80s and early 90s, when the land of the rising sun was being touted as the new economic superpower. Since the end of WWII, the country’s industries had become increasingly competitive against the West. Some of its corporations—Sony, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, etc.—had become
Continue readingThings Are Good: Tokyo Demonstrates the True Cost of Cars
Japan’s well respected car industry sells cars the world over, but at home it’s a different story. Car ownership is low in Japan for obvious reasons like having a good public transit system and high speed trains for intercity travel. In the capital city of Tokyo car ownership is amongst
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Affordable electricity Decarbonization in OECD countries? Part I
After eight extensive posts about the Ontario electricity sector, I am expanding my geographic coverage to look at the electricity sectors in selected OECD countries. My focus will be on the historical and relative performance of each country’s sector with respect to decarbonization and prices. As in the case of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Be Mundane this Halloween
こども専用写真スタジオのカメラアシスタント #地味ハロウィン #DPZ pic.twitter.com/AI1WoPOYiq — デイリーポータルZ (@dailyportalz) October 27, 2019 Today is halloween and, if you’re like many others, you still need to create a costume. Thankfully there’s a Japanese costume trend that is a perfect solution to let you create a fun and entertaining last minute costume. The trend
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Right Now, It’s a Spectator Sport. Before Long It Could Become a Blood Sport.
Trump has people in Canada, Mexico, Japan and Europe a bit worried about how we’ll fare in a trade war with the United States. We’re told we could be heading toward a recession, a drop in GDP of perhaps 2 per cent. Trump’s abuse of America’s traditional allies is small
Continue readingScripturient: Shin Godzilla: the reboot
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that, of all the Godzilla films I’ve watched, I can recall the exact details of few. I cannot remember, just by looking at the title, which monsters were battling which. I need to look at the slipcase cover to see a picture to remind me
Continue readingScripturient: Gojira, the original kaiju
At the end of most Godzilla films, the audience is led to believe the giant reptile has finally been killed off. Blown up, defeated by another monster, killed by technology, sunk to the bottom of the ocean or suffered some similar fate. And yet there he*** is, hale and hearty
Continue readingThings Are Good: Birds Provide Japanese Train Design
Yesterday a Japanese train company apologized for running 20 seconds ahead of schedule. How did Japanese trains get so fast? The answer for how their famous bullet trains move so quickly is thanks in part to biomimicry, the study of using animals as a source for design. The front of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Visualizing Bold Climate Action
There’s so much talk about taking action around climate change that it can be hard to remember what real action looks like. Climate action can take on many different forms and around the world how places react to climate change is different; meaning that we can see so many ways
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Empathy Classes in School. The World Needs More of This
We start our lives as the whole of the universe. Reality is completely comprised of our perceptions and any “outside” object that is blocked from our senses puffs out of existence. Eventually, we learn object permanence, and we recognized that things outside us actually do exist on their own, but
Continue readingLeft Over: No Non-Polluting Victories on Victoria Day…
Stephen Hume: Province’s secrecy puts people’s health at risk STEPHEN HUME More from Stephen Hume Published on: May 20, 2016 | Last Updated: May 20, 2016 3:25 PM Finally, the Mayor of Vancouver, BC, Gregor Robertson is earning … Continue reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney sails close to the wind on Anti-Terrorism Act at picnic visit
PHOTOS: Liberal candidate Adam Vaughan’s photo of the Kurdish Peace and Cultural Festival in Toronto Saturday, with an image of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan visible in the background. (Grabbed from Twitter.) Below: Defence Minister Jason Kenney, who bragged about being at the event, and Mr. Vaughan. Jason Kenney, who notwithstanding
Continue readingThe Tory Pirate - Politics & Policy: Education Reform In New Brunswick: What Japan Can Teach Us (Part 1)
As a graduate of New Brunswick’s education system I sometimes reflect onthe quality of the schooling I received. I also have a longstanding interest inJapanese culture. It is natural then that I would eventually get to looking at howJapan does education. What I found was a school system that better instills thevalues of leadership, sense of
Continue readingThings Are Good: In Japan, Abandoned Gold Courses Become Solar Farms
Golf courses have a well deserved reputation of being absolutely horrible for the environment. Golf courses are responsible for deforestation and damaging local ecological systems all while consuming an absurd amount of water. In Japan, where many golf courses have gone out of business, they are converting the massive chunks
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: A Hooker is Just a Hooker – Provided, Of Course, She’s Korean
This time they’re using Japanese academics to dispute the reality of “comfort women” – women, mainly Korean, coerced into prostitution by the Japanese army during WWII. A less genteel term would be “sex slaves.” A group of Japanese historians is urging McGraw-Hill, the American publisher, to “correct” a college textbook
Continue readingOh my God! The Japanese make better whisky than the Scots!
A year of firsts for whiskey. For instance, it’s the first time in the 12-year history of the World Whisky Bible’s rankings that a Scottish malt has failed to make the top five. Depressing news for the Scots. And it gets worse. Much, much worse—it is also the first time
Continue readingEclectic Lip: A mini blog re: Mega Fauna
Productivity gurus occasionally say that to make time for the most important things (e.g. promoting your next book) you need to cut back the time you spend on less-critical stuff (such as, writing it yourself) by making priority calls (translation: hire a ghostwriter). Sadly, I haven’t met any ghostwriters comfortable
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Capitalism – “Breaking” Cultural Norms (Ochobo) by Reinforcing Them.
From Sociological Images Micheal Lozano – […] Japanese fast-food has found a way to bypass the cultural stigmas that impede their profits. One food chain noticed many women would not buy their biggest-sized burgers. The culprit was ochobo, a Japanese custom that prevents women from opening their mouth widely
Continue readingThings Are Good: LED Farms Could be the Growing Fields of the Future
As humans flock to cities and the surround them with suburban sprawl we have covered some of the most arable lands in concrete. This has caused problems of food security, access, and sustainability. Urban farming is nothing new and will continue to spread, but what about industrial-scale farming in cities?
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