Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Jacobsonian 100% Wind Water and Sunlight gallop at UCLA

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Blair

Tuesday evening I spent a couple hours online listening to a moderated debate hosted by the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. The debate was titled POWERING EARTH 2050: Is California’s 100% Renewable Strategy Globally Viable? The reason for … Continue reading →

Posted in Fossil Fuel Free Future, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Cap and Trade: a well-intentioned system that can hurt the virtuous

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Blair

This week a very interesting study came out about Canadian’s views on climate change. I will blog a bit more on that topic later as I am still drilling through the data supplied by the authors but one feature of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

On raising respectful and aware kids in the modern era

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Blair

I’m going to change up the pace a bit. Over the last year I have written about topics such as renewable energy and climate change but today I am going to address a topic even closer to my heart: how … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Debunking some myths about private sector scientists

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Blair

I had a discouraging interaction this week with an academic, who in another lifetime I might have described as a colleague. The academic and I disagree on the importance of pipelines in our modern society. That is not unexpected; we … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

On the empty platitudes of the anti-pipeline advocates

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Blair

This week was a busy one in the Energy East pipeline debate with Denis Coderre and his merry band of municipal politicians stepping out of their jurisdictional depth to come out against the pipeline and our Prime Minister saying he … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Energy East, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Debunking more Myths and Fables about the Energy East Pipeline

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Blair

Well my last post summarizing why I support the Energy East pipeline has been out for only a couple days and the response has been quite positive. I can usually tell when a post is doing well: when my social … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Energy East, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

A Chemist in Langley’s take on Energy East

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Blair

I have written a lot about pipelines at this blog and last night while watching Denis Coderre attempt to hijack the Energy East pipeline discussion I said to myself: enough is enough I want to write a blog post to … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Energy East, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Uncategorized | 15 Comments

On poor science communication in the media: a case study on the flu vaccine

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Blair

This morning I was directed to a blog post by Bill Tieleman in The Tyee. The post dealt with the flu vaccine and was titled Time to End Expensive, Ineffective Forced Flu Shots. This is the latest of his, now … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Chemistry and Toxicology, Risk, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

On the glaring intellectual inconsistencies in 100% Wind Water and Sunlight

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Blair

Ralph Waldo Emerson is his famous essay Self-Reliance coined the phrase “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. As readers of my blog know I have spent a lot of time researching and commenting on the 100% Wind, … Continue reading →

Posted in Fossil Fuel Free Future, Renewable Energy, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

On the curious anachronism that is the academic journal business model

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Blair

While discussing my post on the benefits and limitations of peer review in the reporting of interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary science I came to recognize that I was taking a lot of things for granted. The biggest is that a lot … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments