All posts by Finn O’Connor

Cartels and Collapse – The Deep (Economic) Impact of Asteroid Mining

Written By: Finn O’Connor

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report released in late March has once again spurred discussion on how we can reconcile humanity’s massive consumption with the relative continuation of our way of life (1). One solution that has long been discussed is the possibility of harnessing resources outside the terrestrial ecosystem to bolster our scarce supply. The most attractive place to start this process is with asteroids; mineral-rich rocks that orbit our sun. Companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries cropped up in recent years intending to harvest asteroids for their resources and transport them back to Earth. However, they have barely begun the exploratory stage, where probes are sent to assess the composition of target asteroids (2). Continue reading…

The Irony of Reform- Gorbachev’s Anti Alcohol Campaign

 

Written By: Finn O’ Connor

Gorbachev was a complicated figure to say the least. He is as close as a Russian politician can be to a hero in the West. As the victors of the Cold War, the United States refer to him as the man who conceded defeat and brought an end to the tense superpower rivalry that spanned nearly half a decade. In former members of the Eastern Bloc, he is remembered for his brutal crackdowns in Lithuania and Estonia. His economic policy, one that contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union, leaves an equally complicated legacy.  Continue reading…