Map of the Day

[Brian Howell]

Today's map is based upon sound statistics. It shows Russia as having a strong long-term globally strategic position, if not necessarily at present.

[jack saunders]

It's a vast space, I'll give them that.  But if I look at the map from a management perspective (just the spatial aspect) I'd far prefer to administer the US holdings.  At some point, economies of scale become diseconomies of scale, and Russia is well into that category.

 

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From: Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com>
To: Ipse Dixit <Ipse-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 6, 2016 8:29 AM
Subject: [Ipse Dixit] Map of the Day

Today's map is based upon sound statistics. It shows Russia as having a strong long-term globally strategic position, if not necessarily at present.

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[Brian Howell]

Fair enough, Jack. 

But the map colors countries whole, while the country's strategic advantage referenced by the map is actually localized within several reasonably manageable regions. 

Indeed, Russia already has well developed exploitive the infrastructure in place.

Sent from my iPad

[Craig Good]

The knee jerk guess is oil. So I’ll go with helium.

> On May 6, 2016, at 10:56 AM, Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Indeed, Russia already has well developed exploitive the infrastructure in place.

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--Craig WWJGD?
clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com
Any landing is a carrier landing if you forget to flare.

[Matt Fish]

Other guesses: 

• something to do with shipping
  
• number of successful olympic bobsled teams
  
• arrogance 
  
• beet use and/or consumption (per capita)
  
• indoor tennis facilities (per capita)
• helium (that was a good guess!)
• performances of the Nutcracker ballet
• vodka consumption (per capita)
• russian salad dressing consumption (per capita)
• positive reviews of the battleship potemkin (per capita)

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[Brian Howell]

Gah! I really shouldn't email and FaceTime at the same time. 

 Indeed, Russia already has a well developed exploitive infrastructure in place.

And good for you, Craig. You were smart to avoid the knee-jerk guess, because oil is not the answer.

> On May 6, 2016, at 10:56 AM, Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Indeed, Russia already has well developed exploitive the infrastructure in place.

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Brian Howell
www.linkedin.com/in/bdhowell

[Brian Howell]

Helium was a good guess. Interestingly, most of it is obtained from oil wells. But, alas, it's wrong. 

Hint: In the wake of geopolitical market changes, Russia is now focused on growing Asian and African markets.

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Brian Howell
www.linkedin.com/in/bdhowell

[Craig Good]

> On May 6, 2016, at 13:11 PM, Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Helium was a good guess. Interestingly, most of it is obtained from oil wells. But, alas, it's wrong.

I thought it was mostly from natural gas wells. But I was still wrong. Back to the drawing board.



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clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com
Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz.

[Jack Saunders]

Methane?

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[Brian Howell]

Damn. I got my wires crossed: You're right, of course, Craig. Helium is extracted from natural gas wells. But the first helium was obtained from an exploratory oil well in the 19th Century: a lightweight gas that would not burn. 

[Brian Howell]

Yes:  http://insightfulinteraction.com/gasmap2013.html

Well, that is if you include ethane and other gaseous hydrocarbons.

With Western Europe turning to other sources for NG, Russia is pursuing China and countries in Africa as customers. Of course, China has some NG reserves—albeit 1/10th of Russia's. And Russia will be competing with Iran, which has the greatest known reserves, and Saudi Arabia for sales. And probably Turkmenistan, to.

The market for NG is soft right now, which isn't helping Moscow, but as the world continues to switch from coal as our primary fossil fuel, demand will rise for NG. Plus it is an essential component in the manufacture of many petrochemicals, including plastics such as polypropylene. And it can be reformed into gasoline—albeit not without an increase in carbon emissions owing to the energy required by the reforming process.

And, should carbon capture and sequestration become economically viable, NG is a great source of hydrogen: you just strip off those pesky carbon atoms and shove them where they won't bother anybody for, oh, a hundred millennia or so.

https://plasticsengineeringblog.com/2013/02/20/how-shale-gas-is-changing-propylene/

[Craig Good]

> On May 6, 2016, at 15:41 PM, Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well, that is if you include ethane and other gaseous hydrocarbons.
>

Just like me to think “natural gas” was too obvious and go for the obscure byproduct.

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--Craig WWJGD?
clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com

"To disarm the people - that was the best and most effective way
to enslave them ...."
- George Mason ( Framer of the Declaration of Rights, Virginia,
1776, which became the basis for the U.S. Bill of Rights )