Nucor Looking to Step Up Foreign Steel Expansion in Automotive

Nucor is one of those American Stories that deserves telling.  I always refer people to the great book American Steel: Hot Metal Men and the Resurrection of the Rust Belt by Richard Preston. Preston does a great job describing the roots of company.  He also details the company's efforts to implement the latest German technology of a continuous rolling mill.  I was so impressed I bought stock in the company.  (I don't own any at the present).

So, it doesn't surprise me to find out that Nucor is expanding outside our borders.

Nucor Corp. is looking to supply more metal products to carmakers outside the U.S. as the country’s biggest steelmaker anticipates a cooling domestic auto market.

“There’s no rule at Nucor that says we have to keep making what we’re making and we have to keep making it where we’re making it,” CEO John Ferriola said in an interview this week in New York.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker recycles scrap in relatively small electric furnaces nicknamed mini mills. Until recently, that process has not been able to create the blemish-free flexible steel used by automakers for external car parts.

But Nucor has replaced some scrap with a type of iron refined with natural gas and removed contaminants from steel made from scrap, enabling it to compete in the market that’s been dominated by integrated steelmakers like U.S. Steel Corp. that start with iron ore and coke made from coal.

Last week, Nucor unveiled a $270 million joint venture with Japan’s JFE Holdings Inc. to produce steel for carmakers at a plant in Mexico.

Personally, I'd like to see Nucor stay and take advantage of our cheap natural gas.

Looting and unrest continue roiling Venezuela as shortages persist and protesters demand food

I've back off with a lot of what is going on in Venezuela. It gets to the point, the situation is so bad, so dire the situation becomes exploitive.  And it grieves my heart to see what is occurring.

Venezuela, where anger over food shortages is still mounting, continued to be roiled this week by angry protests and break-ins of grocery stores and businesses that have left five dead, at least 30 injured and 200 arrested, according to various news reports.

The latest fatality came from the southwest city of Merida, where 17-year-old Jean Paul Omana died Wednesday after being shot Tuesday during a disturbance amid looting.

Widespread violence has been reported there, as well as an attack by protesters on the headquarters of President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV.

As consumers grow increasingly frustrated with ongoing food scarcities and lengthening lines outside stores, protests are turning more violent. A Social media reported protests on Wednesday in the Los Teques, Los Altos Mirandinos and Santa Teresa del Tuy suburbs of Caracas, the capital.

Here is a youtube video showing some of the recent problems getting food in Venezuela:

Uranium Prices Set To Double By 2018

This means the Leftist idiots finally believe that nuclear fission is their Savior.  OK.  I don't care.  The result is the same,  More nuclear power.

With prices set to double by 2018, we’ve seen the bottom of the uranium market, and the negative sentiment that has followed this resource around despite strong fundamentals, is starting to change.

Billionaire investors sense it, and they’re always the first to anticipate change and take advantage of the rally before it becomes a reality. The turning point is where all the money is made, and there are plenty of indications that the uranium recovery is already underway.

It’s been a very tough few years for uranium. But it now looks like we’ve reached the bottom, and the future demand equation says there’s nowhere to go but up—significantly up.

Uranium analyst David Talbot of Dundee Capital Markets is forecasting 6 percent compound annual demand growth through 2020, which is enough, he says, to “kick-start” uranium prices up to and beyond 2007 levels. Morningstar analyst David Wang predicts prices will double within the next two years.

Inside Silicon Valley’s Robot Pizzeria

I think this is sheer idiocy. I can see using robots for store bought pizzas.  But Pizza Hut style pizzas?

In the back kitchen of Mountain View's newest pizzeria, Marta works tirelessly, spreading marinara sauce on uncooked pies. She doesn’t complain, takes no breaks, and has never needed a sick day. She works for free.

Marta is one of two robots working at Zume Pizza, a secretive food delivery startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through machines. It's also created special delivery trucks that will finish cooking pizzas during the journey to hungry customers if approved by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. Right now Zume is only feeding people in Mountain View, California, but it has ambitions to dominate the $9.7 billion pizza delivery industry.

Pushed over the edge: How a Ban on Tea Kettles Could Drive Britain to a Brexit

This article was obviously posted pre-Brexit.  But it shows you how uttterly stupid things got with the EU Bureaucracy.  SAVE PLANET!! STOP USING YOUR WATER COOKER!!!  IN FACT, WE WILL MAKE YOU STOP USING YOUR WATER COOKER!!

Yes, it got that ridiculous.

As is so often the case, a momentous decision may be triggered by something quite small. Indeed, the future of the western world may come down to this: a squabble over tea kettles. The Brits are riled up by the imminent threat that the EU, driven by its aggressive climate agenda, will outlaw the electric tea pots that the English have relied upon for generations to produce their daily fix of Earl Grey and toast.

New “eco-design” regulations governing small appliances have been on the EU shelf for months, delayed by officials correctly worried they might ignite a firestorm of protest just as Brits prepared to vote on their European alliance. Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, finally decided at an April 20 meeting to plow ahead with the new rules.

The issue grabbed headlines when David Coburn, EU skeptic and UKIP Member of the European Parliament, tweeted in February, “My toaster takes 4 attempts before bread goes brown and can put My Dundee marmalade on many thanks to EU.” Americans forced to flush twice because newly required water-saving toilets don’t get the job done can sympathize.

The ban on tea kettles is not the only issue that will decide the EU vote, of course. But it is a symbol, just as the proposed ban of 100-watt bulbs in the U.S. became a symbol of an over-reaching federal government.'

Here's an earlier article covering the ban on small appliances that consume "large amounts" of power (scare quotes are mine!)   The ban includes hair dryers!!  What the hell would you dry your hair with? Water is difficult to evaporate due to the high heat capacity and latent heat of vaporization of water.  What idiocy!

The decision to push ahead with the plans soon after the British vote was revealed by Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, at the weekly College of Commissioners meeting on April 20.

Internet routers, hand-dryers, mobile phones and patio jet-washers are also being examined by commission experts as candidates for new ecodesign rules.

However, several products may be granted a stay of execution, as officials admitted the plans are a lightning rod for public anger at perceived meddling by Brussels.

Blackouts Loom With California In Power Grid Emergency: "All Customers Should Expect 14 Days Without Power"

I covered this is 2013 when the nuclear power plants were shut down.  There's also a reference to a natural gas plant that was demolished because it was an "eyesore".  How stupid!

And now here we are again.  And look like this is what it will be like for the foreseeable future.

Reports say that “all customers” should expect to be without power a total 14 days – 2 weeks time – out of this summer. Some 21 million Californians stand to be directly affected:

All customers, including homes, hospitals, oil refineries and airports are at risk of losing power at some point this summer because a majority of electric generating stations in California use gas as their primary fuel. In April, millions of electric customers in Southern California were warned they could suffer power outages on up to 14 days this summer due to the closure.

[…]

Unlike some other gas transmission systems that can store large amounts of so-called linepack gas in pipelines, like PG&E Corp in northern California, SoCalGas cannot function with only pipeline or storage supplies.

Planned rolling brownouts have been done on a regular basis in Southern California since the days of Enron and the California energy crisis of 200o-2001, but the situation is getting more dire.

Isn't recurring blackouts a problem in 3rd world countries?

Fracked Wells Dominate Natural Gas Production

Without a doubt, fracking is here to stay.

For decades, hydraulic fracturing had been referred to as an unconventional completion technique, but over the past 10 years it has become the technique by which most natural gas is produced in the United States. Based on the most recent data from states, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration estimates that natural gas production from hydraulically fractured wells now makes up about two-thirds of total U.S. marketed gas production. This share of production is even greater than the share of crude oil produced using that method, where hydraulic fracturing accounts for about half of current U.S. crude oil production.

This graph is eye opening: