Back in February, China’s state-owned oil company CNOOC finalized a deal to purchase the Canadian oil sands firm Nexen. At the time, many in Beijing hailed the move as a triumph for China.China has been relentless in its pursuit of foreign sources of oil as it tries to meet its ever-growing energy demand; when CNOOC […]

While North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-Un attended school in Switzerland as a teenager, he took a shine to skiing. But that, of course, has nothing to do with North Korea’s decision to open a multimillion dollar ski resort in Masik. Perish the thought.No, it must instead be the case that the estimated 0.02 percent […]

Obamacare has had a rough first week: technical glitches in the signup system and traffic overloads have prevented thousands of people from signing in to the system.Then again, maybe it’s a good thing that all those people couldn’t even load the web pages. NBC is now reporting that technical glitches in the software’s data collection has […]

A week after the UN resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons passed a Security Council vote, UN inspectors were in Damascus decommissioning their first batch of warheads, bombs and mixing labs. Sensing a PR opportunity, Assad gave an interview to Germany’s Spiegel, where though repeating his denial of ever having used chemical weapons, he struck what could […]

You might thing that underfunding pension plans is the sole purview of unscrupulous local and state governments. Unfortunately, irrational optimism, an inability to accurately plan for the future, and avarice are all very human weaknesses exhibited by people in all walks of life—even faith-based and church-affiliated hospitals and charities.The AP has the story: Pension shortfalls […]

That war we don’t like to mention because we feel saying the name of the enemy only makes him stronger continues to bubble along, with good and bad news coming in. Across Africa, American forces leapt to action yesterday, carrying out lightning raids in Libya and Somalia against Al Qaeda and al Shabaab. FBI and CIA agents […]

The government shutdown was, for obvious reasons, the biggest news this week. The disruption gave the chattering classes plenty to talk about, but had us wondering if the whole thing matters at all. The real concern for Congress will be addressing the debt ceiling.In news out of Asia this week, the big chill between Japan […]

Russia has long relied on its enormous oil and gas reserves to not only heat and power its homes, but also to fund its government. But as blessed by resources as it has been, it has also displayed an impressive ability to stay behind the curve of an energy landscape that is changing now faster […]

BEIJING, CHINA – OCTOBER 02: People crowded to visit the Rubber Duck at the Summer Palace as the National Day Holiday starts on October 2, 2013 in Beijing, China. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)

Wind and solar energy have plenty of obstacles to overcome before they can attain a significant share of the world’s energy mix, but their intermittency may be their biggest limiting factor in the long run. How can we keep the lights on in the middle of a windless night? The most likely solution is some […]