Can We Influence Government?

Thursday, August 6, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Thanks to the Citizens United decision, you certainly can influence government, provided that you are a billionaire. Our Zoom-In group examined the need for campaign finance reform in a previous meeting. The featured video was a TED Talk by Lawrence Lessig, which explained how money corrupts our faith in government. He laments that we cannot addressed the problems that we care about unless we first fix campaign. For group members who missed that meeting, I suggest you watch it before coming to the meeting.

In our next meeting, we will view Lessig's follow-up talk where he promotes the grassroots movement that he is leading to force Congress to fix the problem. You might be surprised to learn that Columbia's Congressman John Sarbanes has introduced a bill, H.R. 20, to do just that. Sarbanes explains his bill HERE. So far H.R. 20 has 151 cosponsors, including the entire Maryland Democrat delegation. Unfortunately, there is only one Republican cosponsor. Nancy Pelosi is urging us to show support.

But what can you do? THIS TED Talk has a suggestion.

Respecting the Rights of Women

Thursday, July 30, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

After the tragedy in Charleston, we had a series of discussions of race and prejudice. While successful, our discussions left out the largest persecuted group, which makes up over half the population in this country and just under half the population in the world, (you can look it up on the web).

In THIS TED Talk, Jimmy Carter gives a comprehensive summary of what he considers the greatest injustice in the world. He also explains why men are reluctant to talk about it.

Persecuted groups in our country have gained respect after sacrifice in military service. Only a short time ago, it was unthinkable that our country would send our young women to die in combat. In THIS TED Talk, we see that this is no longer the case. One our Zoom-In members, Skye, had some personal contact with these women warriors in Afghanistan. She has graciously agreed to lead the discussion for this part if our meeting.

Nuclear Reactors Go Abroad

Thursday, July 23, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the last meeting, we learned that molten salt, not thorium was the key to nuclear safety, fuel efficiency, and waste management. We discussed two molten salt reactor designs in the United States that had potential to solve the energy crisis, but were blocked by federal regulation. The future of advanced reactors appears to be outside the US. In our next meeting, we will examine two foreign molten salt reactors, the FHR in China and the IMSR in Canada. These reactors, while still in early development, are considered to have a realistic chance of getting into production.

The Chinese government nuclear program is awesome and the FHR is just one of many advanced reactors in development in China. What makes the FHR unique is that it is being jointly development by China and the United States, even though China is putting up most of the money. Some see this as a giveaway of US expertise and expressed outrage as in THIS talk.

The Canadian reactor is a private enterprise and needs to find investors, even though regulation is not expected to be an obstacle. HERE is an investor meeting where the IMSR is being pitched as a uniquely Canadian product. Ironically, the expected primary investor is the tar sands industry. 

Please note that both video are rather long, so only a portion of each video will be shown to allow more time for discussion.

----------------------------- Updated 7/24/15 ---------------------------------

Here are the links to the other videos from which clips were shown at the meeting;

1. Kirk Sorensen again.
2. Paul McIntosh talks about Terrestrial Energy at TEAC6.
3. David LeBlanc talks about Canadian tar sands at TEAC4.
4. One of the 4th generation reactors.

Can Thorium Save the World from Climate Change?

Thursday, July 16, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Before I get to Thorium, I want to thank Sherman for leading the discussion on race and to Vince for giving us a historical perspective. Historically, the day of our meeting, July 16, is the 70th anniversary of the Trinity atomic bomb test, which ushered in the nuclear age. Had Nazi Germany been more tolerant to Jewish scientists, they may have gotten the bomb first. Groups which discriminate do so at their own peril. 

In a TED Talk we already saw, Bill Gates said that to solve the climate change, developing nations need zero carbon energy as reliable and available as coal but cheaper and safer. Gates proposed to develop an advance nuclear reactor based on the traditional uranium fuel cycle, but recently a nuclear reactor based on thorium has gotten the attention of the Internet community, as shown HERE. Similar reactors have also gotten attention as THIS one which burns nuclear waste.

For our next meeting we will look at the potential of these new reactors and why developers are leaving this county to pursue their designs.

--------------------- Updated 7/17/15 -------------------------------

Here are the link to the videos from which the supplemental clips were taken, what out some of these are really long:

1. Kirk Sorensen's long explanation of thorium to the hackers.
2. Leslie Dewan's pitch to investors.
3. US Congress hearings on nuclear energy.
4. Russ Wilcox, investor in Dewan's company

Continuation

Thursday, July 9, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

People surely had much to say on the subject of race in the last meeting and we ran out of time. Sherman has agreed to continue the discussion in first hour the upcoming meeting. Vince, who was originally scheduled, will still get his time at the last 30 minutes of the meeting. I am looking forward to both talks; see you there.