I'm a data security expert and online marketer.
Bagging green beans at Northwest Harvest. Green beans. Not my favorite.
Robbin Block from Blockbeta Marketing (http://www.blockbeta.com) gave a great presentation at the Seattle Small Business Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/smallbiz-278) last night.
Thorium One ton of thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of uranium and 3.5 million tons of coal, according to the former director of CERN. via TelegraphAn abundant metal with vast energy potential could quickly wean the world off oil, if only Western political leaders would muster the will to do it, a UK newspaper says today. The Telegraph makes the case for thorium reactors as the key to a fossil-fuel-free world within five years, and puts the ball firmly in President Barack Obama's court.
Thorium, named for the Norse god of thunder, is much more abundant than uranium and has 200 times that metal's energy potential. Thorium is also a more efficient fuel source -- unlike natural uranium, which must be highly refined before it can be used in nuclear reactors, all thorium is potentially usable as fuel.
The Telegraph says thorium could be used as an energy amplifier in next-generation nuclear power plants, an idea conceived by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia, former director of CERN.
Known as an accelerator-driven system, it would use a particle accelerator to produce a proton beam and aim it at lump of heavy metal, producing excess neutrons. Thorium is a good choice because it has a high neutron yield per neutron absorbed.Related Articles
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Science, Rebecca Boyle, nuclear power plants, nuclear reactor, power plants, radioactive isotope, thorium, uraniumThorium nuclei would absorb the excess neutrons, resulting in uranium-233, a fissile isotope that is not found in nature. Moderated neutrons would produce fissioned U-233, which releases enough energy to power the particle accelerator, plus an excess that can drive a power plant. Rubbia says a fistful of thorium could light up London for a week.
The idea needs refining, but is so promising that at least one private firm is getting involved. The Norwegian firm Aker Solutions bought Rubbia's patent for this thorium fuel cycle, and is working on his design for a proton accelerator.
The Telegraph says this $1.8 billion (£1.2 billion) project could lead to a network of tiny underground nuclear reactors, producing about 600 MW each. Their wee size would negate the enormous security apparatus required of full-size nuclear power plants.
After a three-decade lull, nuclear power is enjoying a slow renaissance in the U.S. The 2005 energy bill included $2 billion for six new nuclear power plants, and this past February, Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear plants.
But nuclear plants need fuel, which means building controversial uranium mines. Thorium, on the other hand, is so abundant that it's almost an annoyance. It's considered a waste product when mining for rare-earth metals.
Thorium also solves the non-proliferation problem. Nuclear non-proliferation treaties (NPT) prohibit processes that can yield atomic bomb ingredients, making it difficult to refine highly radioactive isotopes. But thorium-based accelerator-driven plants only produce a small amount of plutonium, which could allow the U.S. and other nations to skirt NPT.
The Telegraph says Obama needs a Roosevelt moment, recalling the famous breakfast meeting when Albert Einstein convinced the president to start the Manhattan Project. A thorium stimulus could be just what the lagging economy needs.
Wow, just learned about Thorium, an abundant metal with 200 times the energy potential of uranium. There is enough thorium in the United States alone to power the country at its current energy level for over 1,000 years. India is leading the world with the first Thorium reactor scheduled to go online next year. India expects to meet 30% of its electricity demand through thorium-based reactors by 2050. I wonder if our country will follow their lead or if our politicians will keep us married to oil...
Good advice about personal branding without getting in trouble at work.
I had to laugh when the dog started hopping. This dog is dancing for REAL. :) Thanks to Marlene for sharing.
Hmmm... maybe now it's time to invest in gold...
CIO — In 2009, personal branding became the buzzword of choice for job seekers and career coaches alike, and for good reason. When done right, personal branding—the act of identifying and communicating your unique value to people who can help advance your career—promised to be the job seeker's silver bullet, his surefire way to stand out in a crowded job market.
[ 8 Personal Branding Tips That Will Help You Stand Out ]
The social media and social networking technologies that took 2009 by storm sure made personal branding easy. Too easy, perhaps, since many job seekers made careless mistakes in their haste to brand their way to a new job.
Similar to this ArticlePersonal branding experts say some of these mistakes can undermine professionals' job searches and career management plans. For example, too much self-promotion can alienate the audience you're trying to reach, says Catherine Kaputa, an advertising executive turned personal branding strategist.
[ Personal Branding Really Is the Key to Finding a New Job ]
Kaputa and two other prominent personal branding strategists list the six most common and most damaging personal branding mistakes people make, so that as you recharge your job search for the new year, you can ensure your personal branding efforts put your best face forward.
[Find out how one IT infrastructure director is putting the promises of personal branding to the test in her job search: Developing a Personal Brand for Your Job Search ]
1. Putting the cart before the horse. The biggest and most common mistake people make is using the tools for personal branding, such as blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter, without first taking the time to define a strong, authentic brand for themselves.
"One of the most prevalent myths about personal branding is that it has to do with just creating a lot of visibility," says personal branding strategist and Career Distinctionco-author Kirsten Dixson.
Consequently, people lay "a lot of digital footprints," she says, before considering who they are, what they want to become known for long-term, and how they can differentiate themselves from people with similar goals and backgrounds.
Kaputa advises clients to think strategically when they're defining their personal brand. She recommends they go through many of the same exercises marketers use when releasing a new product. These include such tactics as: SWOT analyses, setting goals for themselves, considering the visual and verbal identity for their personal brand, and establishing a marketing plan for themselves.
Dixson says honing in on your personal brand is hard and takes time, but it's worth the effort as it guides all of your future personal branding efforts. What's more, many of the other personal branding mistakes people make stem from not having a clearly articulated brand. Therefore, taking the time to define your brand sets you up for success and function as a preventative measure.
2. Having an unfocused brand. Many job seekers purport to practice personal branding. But instead of identifying and demonstrating their unique value through their communications, they continue to brand themselves as, say, an IT project management expert and a business process improvement expert and a virtualization expert.
"People have 'slash' identities, and it's a problem," says Kaputa, author of You Are a Brand! "In the world of branding, being a generalist, jack-of-all-trades gets you nowhere."