Fifth lesson; or "Thorium, Panama and presentations"

Okay, everybody, presentation time!

Not yours, not mine, but IB2 had their presentation week. And boy was it fun! There were two topics I listened to, and none left me without a comment. In case you don’t know, these presentations must include a real-life story which illustrates their subject. So let’s just quickly cover them.

PANAMA PAPERS

 Not these, though

These news didn’t receive due attention when they surfaced, for whatever reason. Essentially, a group of famous and powerful people used an offshore company in Panama to evade taxes. Now, you might be in an uproar because of this, but how is it different from traveling abroad to shop or building your house in Monaco or buying from unregistered street vendors? In all those cases you use some… rather morally-gray devices and schemes to avoid paying even a dollar over the minimum price. Simply, it’s in human nature to look for a larger profit, and many did.

CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER

Being scared of nuclear energy in fifties and eighties was normal, for known reasons. But this disaster was thirty years ago, caused by intentional overloading of systems, and it was mishandled.

Nowadays, we have thorium power plants, which are much safer than uranium ones. And even further, fusion plants are being designed to produce power. Essentially, fusion is combining two or more somethings to make a single something (in this case, an atom). It is literally counter-intuitive to expect any waste/residue from this. One literally ends up with less matter than before. Go nuclear (and not in a military way)

So far, that’s it. Next time: Prisons and Empiricists (IB version of Dungeons&Dragons). Don’t forget Doritos, soda and a towel for that ;)