Saturday
carbon sequester in or under the clay?
At an impasse whether a pore water wood chip matrix is better sequestered inside a clay layer or under a clay layer. Many pro-glacial (ice age meltwater) lake geo-formations are alternating thin layers of silt and clay. They aren't to deep and tens of metres thick. The risks is the pore water would squeeze out of the formation or that it isn't thick enough to store much. It is shallow and easy to drill too, and plentiful. There are other clay layers too, often from older pro-glacial lakes. There are a few really thick layers of clay in some places just about granite. Aren't as many as per the proglacial formations. And there is a risk they would be exposed to air; ruining the sequester (air de-actives the pore-water enzymes). Deep to drill to; but much more stable formation.
TKG portfolios are now potash plays
Potash Corp has b een taking a beating ever since the Russia OPEC-like tri-cartel split up. There are more Urea exports from China too, bolstering ammonia usage, a potash competitor. But TKG likes India's demographics, easy to learn/build IT sector, recession resilience...the only wild-card against Potash is cheap fake meat (would be a great development for the world though).
So TKG will make a massive play in Potash Corporation now.
Buying 20000 shares for TKG Institutional Investor portfolio of TSE:POT @ 31.41 a share.
And buying 200 shares of TSE:POT @ 31.41 a share for TKG minimum wage labourer portfolio. Really bad climate change that could harm China and India won't happen over this portfolio's time horizon. Now TKG portfolios are over 60% Potash Corp.
Tuesday
Replacing liquefied clay with wood chip and pore water slurry.
I wasn't too clear about just when clays are at risk to liquify. It turns out probably many of the pro-glacial lake clays in Canada/northern-mainland-USA, are. If you accidentally drill to them, they might turn to mush and bubble out, and you are left with a sinkhole and a lack of structural integrity. But this could be useful if you could drill to some clay, and just pump out the newly liquefied clay slurry. I deally you could replace it with the wood chip and pore water slurry. Probably it would be economical to pipe the sphagnum fuscum pore water 100s of km. All the thick proglacial clay may then be suitable for a long-term carbon sequester.
100 best rock or alternative songs of all-time as of 2013
Alice in Chains: Hollow. Would?.
APC: Judith (Lohner remix).
Avenge Sevenfold: So Far Away.
Blink 182: I Miss You. Stay Together For the Kids.
Burton Cummings: Glamour Boy.
Bush: Little Things.
Jerry Cantrell: Dickeye. My Song.
Chevelle: Vitamin R.
Copyright: Rock Machine.
Creed: Are You Ready?.
The Cure: Just Like Heaven.
Deftones: God Hands. Rosemary.
Dishwalla: Counting Blue Cars.
Dredg: Bug Eyes.
Filter: Hey man, Nice Shot. Where do we go from Here?
Finger Eleven: Above.
Flobots: Handlebars.
Foo Fighters: Call to Arms. Long Road to Ruin. Stacked Actors.
Future Leaders of the World: Let Me Out.
Godsmack: Whatever.
Green Day: Welcome to Paradise.
Hole: Doll Parts.
Hole: Doll Parts.
IME: Not Quite Sonic. Raspberry. So Gently We Go. Subterranean Wonderland. We got the Love.
Incubus: Anna Molly.
Korn: I Will Protect You. Twisted Transistor
Kula Shakur: Tattva.
Linkin Park: The Catalyst.
Marcy Playground: Gin and Money.
Megadeth: Washington is Next.
Metallica: Hero of the Day. St Anger.
Ministry: Lay Lady Lay.
Mobile: See Right Though Me.
Modest Mouse: Ocean Breathes Salty.
Moist: Leave it Alone.
Monster Magnet: Powertrip.
The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin (no poem).
Muse: Butterflies and Hurricanes
My Chemical Romance: Ghost of You.
My Chemical Romance: Ghost of You.
Nickleback: Breathe.
NIN: We're in this Together.
Nirvana: If You Must. Old Age. Verse Chorus Verse.
Offspring: All I Want. Gone Away.
OLP: In Repair (no intro). Naveed. Teardrop Carnival.
Pearl Jam: Who You Are.
Puddle of Mudd: Blurry.
Pulp: Common People.
Puscifer: Rocket Man.
Radiohead: Fade Out. Let Down. Optimistic.
The Red Hot Chilis: Brian's Death Song. Monarchy of Roses. My Friends.
Smashing Punkies: Cherub Rock. Rocket (rehearsal). Starla. TEITBITE. 33. Tonite, tonite. Oceania. Pinwheels.
Sound Garden: By Crooked Steps. The Day I Tried to Live.
Staind: How About You?.
The Stills: Still in Love.
STP: Army Ants.
Strata: New National Anthem.
The Strokes: Last Night. Under Cover of Darkness.
The Tea Party: Sister Awake.
30 Seconds to Mars: Up in the Air.
Tool: Lateralus. Parabola. Right in Two. Rosetta Stoned. Stinkfist.
The Tragically Hip: Nautical Disaster.
U2: New Year's Day. Running to a Standstill. Staring at the Sun.
The Watchmen: All Uncovered.
Wide Mouth Mason: My Own Self.
Definitely metal sounds better live. Makes me wonder what else I'm missing...You get tired of songs for a while. So ideally the list would have a few dozen core songs and then 60 pairs that can be switched. Maybe next yr. A few more listens and Synthetica might kick out Hole.
Saturday
carbon sequester specific R+D
I've got a few R+D proposals to initiated.
A resercher in Iran bottled 3 types of wood for just over two weeks to measure the diffusion of distilled water into the wood. Merely weighing the wood was enough to get the moisutre weight vs the dry weight.
I can do this for different wood sizes and different types, a spruce, a pine, tamarack. Perhaps different times from harvest. Probably over months or a year I can record this info. I can also use peat pore water as a solvent in addition to distilled water. I need a way of measuring the concentration of phenolics in the water not soaked up by the wood, to see if it is different from the pre-soaked peat pore water.
This one I can do on my own, but measuring the phenolic pore water intensity/concentration of peat from which I've removed pore water; I want to harvest pore water without drying out the peat left behind. Waiting for rains might be best, but still, if I remove the good juice it will leave pore wtaer at a reduced concentration at least temporarily. I don't want the peat bog left behind to emit CO2 or methane. I'm confident peat porewater is a harvestable economic asset as isostatic rebound will eventually dry out some peat now far away from the Hudson's Bay shore which was once the shoreline. And there should be increased rainfall in throughout the Canadian Shield in a globally warmed world; less drying out.
A resercher in Iran bottled 3 types of wood for just over two weeks to measure the diffusion of distilled water into the wood. Merely weighing the wood was enough to get the moisutre weight vs the dry weight.
I can do this for different wood sizes and different types, a spruce, a pine, tamarack. Perhaps different times from harvest. Probably over months or a year I can record this info. I can also use peat pore water as a solvent in addition to distilled water. I need a way of measuring the concentration of phenolics in the water not soaked up by the wood, to see if it is different from the pre-soaked peat pore water.
This one I can do on my own, but measuring the phenolic pore water intensity/concentration of peat from which I've removed pore water; I want to harvest pore water without drying out the peat left behind. Waiting for rains might be best, but still, if I remove the good juice it will leave pore wtaer at a reduced concentration at least temporarily. I don't want the peat bog left behind to emit CO2 or methane. I'm confident peat porewater is a harvestable economic asset as isostatic rebound will eventually dry out some peat now far away from the Hudson's Bay shore which was once the shoreline. And there should be increased rainfall in throughout the Canadian Shield in a globally warmed world; less drying out.
Monday
various peat porewater and wood chip sequester types
I'm considering two carbon sequester strategies that should be cheaper than digging a hole in thick clay.
1) Using pingos by hollowing them out with hot water or steam and replacing with wood/chips and peat pore water. The disadvantage is this might dry out upon thawing or drainage as AGW happens.
2) Hydraulic fracturing of a formation at or just above the locally lowest elevation bedrock layer in an area. The fracture substrate would be pore water, wood chips, and some sort of clay slurry that should prevent drying out of the "matrix" even if bordering an aerated vadose zone layer. This strategy would scale but might be as or more expensive than digging clay; injecting clay might be no better than digging in it.
1) Using pingos by hollowing them out with hot water or steam and replacing with wood/chips and peat pore water. The disadvantage is this might dry out upon thawing or drainage as AGW happens.
2) Hydraulic fracturing of a formation at or just above the locally lowest elevation bedrock layer in an area. The fracture substrate would be pore water, wood chips, and some sort of clay slurry that should prevent drying out of the "matrix" even if bordering an aerated vadose zone layer. This strategy would scale but might be as or more expensive than digging clay; injecting clay might be no better than digging in it.
Tuesday
copper is stable. Nickel?
I'm continuing with this portfolio experiment. People say copper is in the midst of a mining glut until 2017, so I'm in no rush to enter. Nickel seems contingent on whether there will be a Nickel vehicle battery or better. This is tricky for my portfolio, how to play nickel. As an ethical fund manager in another life I would've endeavoured to bring about faster Nickel production where is being recycled economically (like a battery would be).
A subfracture slurry injection strategy.
I'm leaning towards subfracture drilling as a carbon sequester strategy.
Using an electric vibratory hammer, you can penetrate dozens of metres of clay, such as the deposit under the St. Clair river that is over sandstone which is in turn over impermiable shale.
This is different strategy than excavating clay and filling with trees and sphagnum fuscum pore water.
Ideally it will be possible to shear the layer between the shale and sandstone without cracking the way above clay or underlying shale. Ideally oxygen and microorganisms will not be a major factor.
A key here is residence time, and the depth of bedrock. Deeper is better; more likely to housing existing ice age era water.
If not, going with the clay excavation plan (likely more expensive a carbon price).
Using an electric vibratory hammer, you can penetrate dozens of metres of clay, such as the deposit under the St. Clair river that is over sandstone which is in turn over impermiable shale.
This is different strategy than excavating clay and filling with trees and sphagnum fuscum pore water.
Ideally it will be possible to shear the layer between the shale and sandstone without cracking the way above clay or underlying shale. Ideally oxygen and microorganisms will not be a major factor.
A key here is residence time, and the depth of bedrock. Deeper is better; more likely to housing existing ice age era water.
If not, going with the clay excavation plan (likely more expensive a carbon price).
Wednesday
3 Sphagnum fuscum GMO trait targets.
C.Freeman is embarking on GMO Sphagnum fuscum research that he believes will be finished in 10 yrs.
He believes developing a higher level of sequestration, a higher carbon content, is the priority. Two alternate GMO targets for better fuscum are fuscum that has better water capture properties and fuscum that seeds faster or grows transplantable clippings faster. The latter traits would be useful for turning Sphagnum fuscum into an artifically harvestable crop analogous to agriculture. The former would modify fuscum's complicated water behaviour. It is easy to make it worse but the goal would be to enable a thinner layer of fuscum to maintain the hydration level of a thicker layer. In general, a 500 yr old chunk of peat moss can survive drought more than 5x better, than a 100 yr old chunk of peat moss can.
He believes developing a higher level of sequestration, a higher carbon content, is the priority. Two alternate GMO targets for better fuscum are fuscum that has better water capture properties and fuscum that seeds faster or grows transplantable clippings faster. The latter traits would be useful for turning Sphagnum fuscum into an artifically harvestable crop analogous to agriculture. The former would modify fuscum's complicated water behaviour. It is easy to make it worse but the goal would be to enable a thinner layer of fuscum to maintain the hydration level of a thicker layer. In general, a 500 yr old chunk of peat moss can survive drought more than 5x better, than a 100 yr old chunk of peat moss can.
Thursday
Looking into the chemistry of why some fossil wood specimans are very well preserved over as long as tens of millions of years. Looking into the sidewall chemistry of how wood is peatified in bogs. Hoping these intersect as wood buried in the Hudon's Bay Lowlands's past tide pools would be more valuable is preserved millions of years. A Calluna heath paper mentions in one sentence that one of two cell wall layers of fossil wood may be well preserved because of a coating of phenolics from the water. Two other nearly identical layers were further away from exterior.
Also need to learn of logistics of digging into deep peat. Would probably want to wait for drier weather but the peat microsite would be more vulnerable to damage if dug into during a drought...burying the logs in too wet ground adjacent to optimal peat would be good but it may be the hardest to dig into. Drill in winter?
If you can get one tonne of carbon in each square metre as an upper limit, there are 3 million km^2 of deep wet peat (assuming that Russian bog stays wet) or so, if 2/3 of the carbon stays sequestered, that is 2000GT of carbon or 250x existing annual footprint. The wood farming and deposition process will have a footprint. Long-term rainfall models will need to be better, not flip-flopping every IPCC Issue. Below a foot or two, I'm optimistic wood will remain sequestered within deep wet peat.
Also need to learn of logistics of digging into deep peat. Would probably want to wait for drier weather but the peat microsite would be more vulnerable to damage if dug into during a drought...burying the logs in too wet ground adjacent to optimal peat would be good but it may be the hardest to dig into. Drill in winter?
If you can get one tonne of carbon in each square metre as an upper limit, there are 3 million km^2 of deep wet peat (assuming that Russian bog stays wet) or so, if 2/3 of the carbon stays sequestered, that is 2000GT of carbon or 250x existing annual footprint. The wood farming and deposition process will have a footprint. Long-term rainfall models will need to be better, not flip-flopping every IPCC Issue. Below a foot or two, I'm optimistic wood will remain sequestered within deep wet peat.
Wednesday
reasoning behind investment benchmark selections
TKG is manging two portfolios, competing against some rock investments over a 9 year biz cycle.
#1, Lundin, owns massive copper reserves. There have been debt servicing problems around 2007-08. There is political risk with a Congo mine, but whoever is in power in Congo in a decade will likely want to help Africa procure water pipes, wind turbine alternators, and copper plate hospital equipment.
#2, is a long term USA bond fund. The USD was a flight to safety even in a USA mortgage-unleashed recession.
#3, is a Wilshire 5000 fund. It is the USA market. In CAD it has some Chindia (commodity) exposure as a hedge against USD depreciating.
#4, TAVIX is an international fund managed by a value investor student of W.Buffett. Hoping for some early-Buffett years, returns. Easier to find bargains and not indebted (depreciating) nations, abroad.
#5 is GE. I thought about a pure medical instruments play like Boston Scientific. Like the aging boomer play. But USA insurance industry prescribes too many useless tests that place USA physicians at a conflict of interest. Given USA deficit/debt I can't see this pork continue. GE has a few segments. Some TKG doesn't like. But gets a conglomerate penalty on the bright side. Tough to find a USA conglomerate without petro exposure.
#6 BRK.b. Probably the best case study of how to choose wise managers to invest in. Everyone knows Berkshire Hathaway.
#1, Lundin, owns massive copper reserves. There have been debt servicing problems around 2007-08. There is political risk with a Congo mine, but whoever is in power in Congo in a decade will likely want to help Africa procure water pipes, wind turbine alternators, and copper plate hospital equipment.
#2, is a long term USA bond fund. The USD was a flight to safety even in a USA mortgage-unleashed recession.
#3, is a Wilshire 5000 fund. It is the USA market. In CAD it has some Chindia (commodity) exposure as a hedge against USD depreciating.
#4, TAVIX is an international fund managed by a value investor student of W.Buffett. Hoping for some early-Buffett years, returns. Easier to find bargains and not indebted (depreciating) nations, abroad.
#5 is GE. I thought about a pure medical instruments play like Boston Scientific. Like the aging boomer play. But USA insurance industry prescribes too many useless tests that place USA physicians at a conflict of interest. Given USA deficit/debt I can't see this pork continue. GE has a few segments. Some TKG doesn't like. But gets a conglomerate penalty on the bright side. Tough to find a USA conglomerate without petro exposure.
#6 BRK.b. Probably the best case study of how to choose wise managers to invest in. Everyone knows Berkshire Hathaway.
combating future arctic forest fires with moss
Reading a paper about using roots to measure forest fire carbon releases:
www.lter.uaf.edu/pdf/1476_Boby_Schuur_2010.pdf
The paper mentions forest fires that burn under a tree burn 6.4% less deep into soil organic layer than where there is no tree. There is more carbon in deeper layers. Still, at 10kg of carbon/m^2, only including stores in the first foot or so, this suggests a few cms of moss or litter is enough to keep sequestered maybe 300g/m^2 of carbon in a forest fire. Under the trees is less litter and where there are no trees is 3cm of litter. If the paper is right, a few cms of litter or moss that contain only dozens of grams of carbon/m^2 would preserve perhaps 10x as much carbon in the soil beneath, during a forest fire. The paper only mentions a fraction of 3cm difference sequestering 6.4% of soil carbon depth, but even more litter/moss ougth to yield even greater soil carbon sequestration if/when a forest fire happens.
Sphagnum fuscum will take 3-30 years to become 3cm of "brown moss", depedning on BM definition. A faster growing plant would yield the protective behaviour quickly. Brachythecium (a moss) grows 6 vertical inches/yr. Cat-tails spread up to 17 horizontal inches/yr. If either of these when decomposed to peat and survivors removed as weeds, form a useful peat substrate for Sphagnum fuscum, such labour intensive land management would be cost-effective in a carbon-priced world over a large area.
www.lter.uaf.edu/pdf/1476_Boby_Schuur_2010.pdf
The paper mentions forest fires that burn under a tree burn 6.4% less deep into soil organic layer than where there is no tree. There is more carbon in deeper layers. Still, at 10kg of carbon/m^2, only including stores in the first foot or so, this suggests a few cms of moss or litter is enough to keep sequestered maybe 300g/m^2 of carbon in a forest fire. Under the trees is less litter and where there are no trees is 3cm of litter. If the paper is right, a few cms of litter or moss that contain only dozens of grams of carbon/m^2 would preserve perhaps 10x as much carbon in the soil beneath, during a forest fire. The paper only mentions a fraction of 3cm difference sequestering 6.4% of soil carbon depth, but even more litter/moss ougth to yield even greater soil carbon sequestration if/when a forest fire happens.
Sphagnum fuscum will take 3-30 years to become 3cm of "brown moss", depedning on BM definition. A faster growing plant would yield the protective behaviour quickly. Brachythecium (a moss) grows 6 vertical inches/yr. Cat-tails spread up to 17 horizontal inches/yr. If either of these when decomposed to peat and survivors removed as weeds, form a useful peat substrate for Sphagnum fuscum, such labour intensive land management would be cost-effective in a carbon-priced world over a large area.
Friday
investing in copper
TKG likes copper as an investment. Copper and Cu alloys are antimicrobial. Cu is used for water pipes in the developing world and wind turbine components. Wind is one of the best epidemic electricity sources. Geothermal is best. The coal supply line will be impossible to maintain; nuclear power plants will be hard to police.
 |
| Cu or Cu-plated door handle |
http://www.lundinmining.com/s/Reserves.asp
TKG's first instinct in choosing between Lundin or Hudbay was to look at who has the most bills to pay in the next 9 years. But Lundin has massive copper reserves. TKG would rather take these potentially risky assets and buy something counter-cyclical and take less copper with Hudbay. Lundin will be a baseline portfolio asset to measure up against as well as an initial part of TKG's portfolio.
Incidentally, the EPA measures the antimicrobial efficacy of new copper coatings.
http://www.lundinmining.com/s/Reserves.asp
TKG's first instinct in choosing between Lundin or Hudbay was to look at who has the most bills to pay in the next 9 years. But Lundin has massive copper reserves. TKG would rather take these potentially risky assets and buy something counter-cyclical and take less copper with Hudbay. Lundin will be a baseline portfolio asset to measure up against as well as an initial part of TKG's portfolio.
Incidentally, the EPA measures the antimicrobial efficacy of new copper coatings.
TKG portfolio summer rev up
Over the holidays I'll finalize competitor conservative benchmarks and pick the initial TKG portfolios. Stocks tend to lull in the summer as finance industry goes on vacation. TKG will park in some safe bonds or currencies for the most part. Bargain hunt some copper and health stocks. The two TKG portfolios will be very similiar. Some smaller cap stocks for the minimum wage worker portfolio will be swapped with more liquid larger caps, for institutional investors. Muncipalities with good civil defense preparations will garner SRI brownie pts.
Tuesday
100 best rock and alternative songs of all-time.
Alice in Chains: I Stay Away. Would?.
APC: Judith (Lohner remix).
Avenge Sevenfold: So Far Away.
Blink 182: I Miss You. Stay Together For the Kids.
Burton Cummings: Glamour Boy.
Bush: Little Things. The Sound of Winter.
Jerry Cantrell: My Song.
Chevelle: Vitamin R.
Copyright: Rock Machine.
Kurt Cobain: You Know You're Right (solo).
Creed: Are You Ready?.
The Cure: Just Like Heaven.
Deftones: God Hands. Hole in the Earth.
Dishwalla: Counting Blue Cars.
Dredg: Bug Eyes.
Filter: Hey man, Nice Shot.
Finger Eleven: Above.
Flobots: Handlebars.
Foo Fighters: Long Road to Ruin. Stacked Actors.
Future Leaders of the World: Let Me Out.
Godsmack: Whatever.
Green Day: Welcome to Paradise.
Hole: Doll Parts.
Hole: Doll Parts.
IME: Not Quite Sonic. Raspberry. So Gently We Go. Subterranean Wonderland.
Incubus: Anna Molly. Drive (acoustic).
The Killers: Mr Brightside.
Korn: I Will Protect You.
Kula Shakur: Tattva.
Linkin Park: The Catalyst.
Marcy Playground: Gin and Money.
Megadeth: Washington is Next.
Metallica: Hero of the Day. St Anger.
Ministry: Lay Lady Lay. Paint it Black (cover).
Mobile: See Right Though Me.
Modest Mouse: Ocean Breathes Salty.
Moist: Leave it Alone.
Monster Magnet: Powertrip.
The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin (no poem).
My Chemical Romance: Ghost of You. Sing.
Nickleback: Breathe.
NIN: Right Where it Belongs. We're in this Together.
Nirvana: If You Must. Old Age. Verse Chorus Verse.
Offspring: All I Want. Hammerhead. I Choose.
OLP: In Repair (no intro). Naveed. Teardrop Carnival.
Pearl Jam: Not For You (SNL). Who You Are.
Puddle of Mudd: Blurry.
Pulp: Common People.
Radiohead: Let Down. Optimistic.
The Red Hot Chilis: Monarchy of Roses.
Smashing Punkies: Cherub Rock. Muzzle. Rocket. Starla. TEITBITE. 33. Tonight, tonight. United States.
Sound Garden: The Day I Tried to Live.
Staind: How About You?.
The Stills: Still in Love.
STP: Army Ants.
Strata: New National Anthem.
The Strokes: Under Cover of Darkness.
Sum 41: Screaming Bloody Murder.
The Tea Party: Sister Awake.
30 Seconds to Mars: Attack.
Thom Yorke and B.Greenwood: Fake Plastic Trees (acoustic with girls screaming at start).
Tool: Parabola. Right in Two. Rosetta Stoned. Stinkfist. Wings for Marie part I..
The Tragically Hip: Nautical Disaster.
U2: Breathe. Running to a Standstill. Staring at the Sun.
The Watchmen: All Uncovered. Any Day Now.
Wide Mouth Mason: My Own Self.
Two unknown songs would've made this list; be uploaded yet as not commercial now. One features a ukulele and the lyric: "A Ferrari, this is your requiem!", might be acoustic Tool. The other sounds like soft Deftones with the lyric: "Do you feel low? Break!". MCR's "Sing" steals a sample from it. List is a bit sexist. "Serotonin" would've garnered considering but is about taking a train of guys.
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