‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (March 25, 2024): A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, as the death toll climbs in Israel’s war on Gaza, we argue that the country looks deeply vulnerable. Plus, we consider Britain as an unexpected beacon of immigration. And finally, as Elon Musk’s Starship reaches space, we examine SpaceX’s approach to rocket development.
Category Archives: Analysis
The Economist Special Report: ‘The Oil Industry’
For 50 years the story of oil has been one of matching supply with increasing demand
Fly west across the United Arab Emirates from Fujairah, a tanker-filled port on the Gulf of Oman, towards the Persian Gulf and you get a sense of the vulnerability arid lands have to climate change. The farms around Dhaid provide a splash of green, but homegrown food is scarce, homegrown staples next to non-existent. Drinkable water comes mostly from desalination plants. The heat is growing inhumane; outside work is banned during the hottest hours of summer afternoons.
Why oil supply shocks are not like the 1970s any more
The end of oil, then and now
Oil’s endgame will be in the Gulf
Can Big Oil run in reverse?
Sources and acknowledgments
Technology Quarterly: Where The Internet Lives
Where the internet lives
Users of the internet can ignore its physical underpinnings. But for technologies like artificial intelligence and the metaverse to work, others need to pay attention, argues Abby Bertics
- Users of the internet need not think about its physical underpinnings
- Advances in physical storage and retrieval made the cloud possible
- The internet got better and faster by moving data closer to users
- Data centres improved greatly in energy efficiency as they grew massively larger
- The physical borders of the digital world
- Satellites offer an important alternative to the wired internet
- The internet is integrated into virtually every aspect of life
- Sources and acknowledgments
Views: Novelist Margaret Atwood On Democracy – “Is It Fragile Or Resilient?”
This animated monologue is the first of four films examining the state of government, representation, rights and freedom.
Read more at https://www.ft.com/democracy
Defending Taiwan: Guam Is Key To America’s Strategy
Video timeline: 00:00 – Where is Guam? 00:13 – Why is it so important? 01:00 – What makes it vulnerable?
The Economist Special Report: ‘Philanthropy’
The super-rich are trying new approaches to philanthropy
They are hoping to get money to the needy faster, says Avantika Chilkoti
A nudge is not always enough to force change within an industry. Sometimes a series of forceful shoves is required. In the rarified world of Western philanthropy, the shoves began in 2020. The covid-19 pandemic, protests for racial justice across America that summer and the outflow of refugees from Ukraine starting in early 2022 created a new urgency around charitable giving and revealed failings in how it worked. Donors began to consider how they could disburse money faster and with more impact.
No-strings philanthropy is giving charities more decision-making power
Organizations on the ground know best how money should be spent
Give Directly does what it says on the tin
Cash hand-outs can transform communities
Analysis: The Business Of Waste Management (CNBC)
Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:48 How Trash Makes Money In The U.S. (Published July 2021) 15:59 How Amazon, American Airlines And Subaru Burn Waste To Make Energy (Published May 2022) 32:24 How To Clean Up The World’s Most Polluted Rivers (Published August 2022) 46:16 Where Do EV Batteries Go When They Die? (Published March 2023)
Thanks to advancements in modern chemistry and support from municipal governments, landfills have seen astonishing financial success in recent years. Burning waste to make energy is a $10 billion industry in the U.S., and the fastest growing part of the business is waste from big companies like Amazon, Subaru, Quest Diagnostics and American Airlines.
They’re part of a growing corporate movement toward “zero landfill” as pressure mounts to reach sustainability requirements. It’s estimated that every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean through rivers, and as global waste generation increases, the problem is poised to worsen.
But a host of companies from Baltimore, Maryland to Bengaluru, India are working on the issue, developing novel methods to capture trash from rivers before it reaches the ocean. Dozens of electric vehicles are scheduled to debut in the next few years and over 300 million electric vehicles are expected to be on the world’s roads by 2030.
The lifetime for an EV battery is estimated to be 12 to 15 years in moderate climates, but that doesn’t mean the batteries end up in landfills when they die.
Terrorism: Iran’s ‘Axis Of Resistance’ – Hezbollah, Hamas & Houthis Revealed
Video timeline: 0:00 ‘Axis of Resistance’ 0:37 Iran’s allies 1:44 Iran’s history 3:22 U.S. in the Middle East 4:14 Attacks since Oct. 7
WSJ explains what to know about the alliance that includes Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Previews: The Top Five Stories To Watch In 2024
Video timeline: 00:00 – The World Ahead 2024 00:33 – Vital votes 03:34 – Taxis take off 07:10 – AI rules 10:19 – Industry cleans up? 13:48 – BRICS build
Reviews: The Race To Build America’s First High-Speed Railway – L.A. To Las Vegas
The Los Angeles Times (December 2023) – A high-speed rail project between the Inland Empire and Las Vegas landed a $3-billion federal grant that sets it on track to be open by 2028, in time for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, officials said Tuesday.
Brightline, a private company that completed the final phase of the intercity rail line connecting Miami and Orlando, Fla., this year, secured the U.S. Department of Transportation grant as part of the historic infrastructure package, Nevada’s U.S. senators said. The rest of the funds for the $12-billion project are expected to be raised through private capital and bonds.
The trip on the 218-mile electrified line from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas will take just over two hours, with stops in Hesperia or Apple Valley, according to Brightline. The trains can reach speeds of 200 miles per hour. The company already has the federal permits, the labor agreements and the land — a swath in the wide median of Interstate 15 — to build the line. Construction is expected to begin early next year.
Boomers Daily 