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What are we reading? April 14, 2022

Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web. Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor: This primer on COVID-19 test kits has some helpful dos and don’ts.
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Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.

Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor:

This primer on COVID-19 test kits has some helpful dos and don’ts. One of the dos: “isolating immediately after symptoms or exposure, then waiting a day or two before using a rapid test, to get the most accurate result possible from an increasing viral load.” – CBC

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-rapid-test-omicron-1.6416106

 

Only a “real” embargo on Russian oil and gas will persuade Vladimir Putin to stop his war against Ukraine, says the Russian president’s former chief economic adviser.

"His territorial ambitions, his imperial ambitions, are much more important than anything else,” says Andrei Illarionov, “including the livelihood of the Russian population and of the financial situation in the country ... even the financial state of his government." – BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61040424

Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:

The looming hydrogen economy is getting a lot of love these days in government circles and elsewhere, but its widespread industrial practicality is questionable and its long-term decarbonization value extremely dubious. Cleaner and greener options need more oxygen if the global economy is to really start moving to greener pastures. 

Here are four technologies worthy of consideration for that investment oxygen:

•Carbon removal

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/04/big-tech-investment-carbon-removal/629545/?utm_source=feed

•Solar power

https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/innovation-generates-1-000x-more-power-from-solar-cells

•Wave power

https://electrek.co/2022/04/11/eco-wave-power-will-construct-spains-first-wave-energy-power-plant/

•Wind power https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/historic-community-blockisland-pushing-nation-toward-wind-power-revolution-180979789/

Meanwhile, back at hydrogen economy reconsideration HQ, here are two reports that raise questions about hydrogen's real-world applications and its net value in addressing climate change. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1067144/atmospheric-implications-of-increased-hydrogen-use.pdf

https://energyinnovation.org/publication/assessing-the-viability-of-hydrogen-proposals-considerations-for-state-utility-regulators-and-policymakers/

Glen Korstrom, reporter:

Jen Gerson has an engaging opinion piece on why soaring prices in the Canadian housing market is a “grift” that governments have no interest in fixing. Instead, political parties put out sham promises or policies that do nothing to bring prices down. It is a good read to understand the frustration of many Millennials. – Substack
https://theline.substack.com/p/jen-gerson-no-one-is-going-to-fix?s=r

Retail crime is rising in part because penalties for offenders are mere slaps on wrists. Penalties are even getting more lax, with 39 states since 2000 raising the dollar-value threshold for what constitutes a shoplifting felony.
The article focuses on the U.S., but the rampant recent window-breaking, and smash-and-grab crimes in Vancouver make clear that this huge obstacle for retailers exists in Canada too. – Barron’s  https://www.barrons.com/articles/retail-crime-inflation-investing-51649371545?st=hs62qegqoc44st5

The recent controversy between Loblaw and Frito Lay could become widespread. Loblaw refused to allow Frito Lay to raise its in-store prices so Frito Lay cut off supplying Loblaw. – Toronto Star https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/04/09/how-an-escalating-battle-between-grocers-and-suppliers-could-see-shelves-laid-bare-for-years.html