Commodity Trends

Africa

Will Africa Finally Shed its “Dark Continent” Image?

Leave a Comment / Housing, Overseas Investing, Real Estate / By

For centuries now, Africa has been a wild and unknown place full of impenetrable jungles and steeped in mystery earning it the name the “Dark Continent”. Several countries in Africa including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, and Rwanda  are embarking on ambitious projects to provide centers of upscale housing and high tech jobs in an effort to join the 21st century. Are these just “pipe dreams” or are they the wave of the future?

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Oil drilling platform

Mideast Oil Loses Some of its Power

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On his way back from the Yalta conference in February 1945 where US President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Great Britain’s Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union’s Stalin, the American president made an unscheduled stop in Egypt where he met with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdel Aziz ibn Saud aboard the USS Quincy, in the Suez Canal’s Great Bitter Lake. The basis of the meeting was to ensure that Americans would have an uninterrupted supply of oil.

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Hand-held taser

No More “Blood in the Streets”

1 Comment / Technology / By

he rise of humans from fearful creatures huddled around cave fires to the dominant species on the planet largely parallels the evolution of weaponry. Different subgroups rose and fell, spreading their culture or declining in influence as they either came up with the new best thing with which to slaughter their neighbors or fell behind in the innovation game. Club, axe, spear, atlatl, sword, longbow, crossbow, catapult, gun, bomb, artillery, really big bomb—all have had their day.

We even delineate historical epochs by naming them after the dominant weapon technology of the time: Stone, Bronze, Iron, and the modern era, which might accurately be termed the Gunpowder Age. Over time, the one constant has been to invent a technology that conferred an advantage on the user in battle—or else served as protection against what the other guy had. And the reason for wielding any given weapon has always been to maim or, preferably, kill one’s adversary. Before one got one’s own self killed, of course.

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Wind power may replace many coal power plants

A Look At the US Government’s New Pollution Policies

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Soon after President Obama was elected, he made a commitment to place the USA on a path to reducing carbon pollution. On June 25th, 2013, he took his most ambitious step yet towards fulfilling this commitment, by unveiling his new climate change action plan, containing proposals to reduce carbon emissions at the domestic level, as well as leading global efforts to combat climate change. These proposals have clear implications for business and industry, as well as for the domestic consumer.

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Baltiyskiy Zavod launched the ice breaker "Saint-Petersburg"

Russia Building Floating Nuclear Power Plants

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The nuclear power debate has surrounded the use of a sustained nuclear chain reaction to generate electricity since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986 and recently Fukushima has reignited the debate. From 1952 to 2011 there have been at least 25 nuclear power plant accidents that had either multiple fatalities or more than US$100 million in property damage. Worldwide there have been a total of  99 accidents at nuclear power plants that either resulted in the loss of human life or more than US$50,000 of property damage.

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New technological innovations in the production of natural gas are making it more economical.

New Technologies in Natural Gas

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During the last 10 years, the natural gas and oil industry has developed into one of America’s most technologically sophisticated industries. New advancements have caused the industry to become a technological pioneer. In the nineties, increased numbers of power generators started to utilize natural gas for electricity production, which caused demand to rise significantly. This industry has managed to keep up with rising demand and generate larger quantities of gas, thanks to technological advances. These advances have allowed gas to be produced from shale, along with other less conventional formations, which are located in plentiful supply throughout the US. However, natural gas is still produced from traditional onshore and offshore formations as well.

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