Sunday, October 10
Our Going Back Economy
The voices warning of unsettling echoes with the past are influential ones, including Larry Summers and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Mohamed El-Erian of Cambridge University and previously of pimco, a bond-fund manager.
Iran's Nuclear Program
Recently I have been hearing that Israel can’t stop Iran’s nuclear program, and America is our only hope.
For example, here is Daniel Gordis:
[Former PM Ehud] Barak wrote that Israel no longer has a viable military option for preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold, and that the Mullahs are marching steadily forward on their quest. Israel needs the US to develop military plans to stop Iran (Barak said that not only does the US have no such plans, it also has no interest in developing them); furthermore, he said, Israel is going to have to recognize its increased dependence on the US, and to work hard to deepen its ties to America.
But Barak does not draw the appropriate conclusion from the facts that he presents, and neither does Gordis, who thinks that Israel must “mend fences with American Jews” to help influence the US “to do the right thing” and act against Iran. Barak’s argument (Hebrew link) actually implies that we cannot depend on America.
Barak wrote that Iran’s “breakout time” – the time it will take to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb once Iran has decided to do so – has been reduced to about 30 days. Of course there are other technological hurdles to pass before that uranium can be made into a deliverable weapon, but still, Israel’s moment of decision is closer than ever.
There is a lot of discussion of whose fault this is, with Barak and others placing the blame on Netanyahu and Trump. I don’t want to expend too many words on this, but I disagree. Trump is accused of precipitously ending the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (with Netanyahu’s encouragement), which allowed the Iranians to increase their uranium enrichment activities significantly. But Iran was already violating the too-weak deal, and Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” – both economic and covert, as in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani – was causing the regime great distress. The policy’s failure was assured by its early termination: Trump was not reelected, and Biden chose to scrap it. But it doesn’t matter who’s to blame; the question is what to do about it. TO READ MORE OF THIS OPINION, CLICK HERE...
But Barak does not draw the appropriate conclusion from the facts that he presents, and neither does Gordis, who thinks that Israel must “mend fences with American Jews” to help influence the US “to do the right thing” and act against Iran. Barak’s argument (Hebrew link) actually implies that we cannot depend on America.
Barak wrote that Iran’s “breakout time” – the time it will take to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb once Iran has decided to do so – has been reduced to about 30 days. Of course there are other technological hurdles to pass before that uranium can be made into a deliverable weapon, but still, Israel’s moment of decision is closer than ever.
There is a lot of discussion of whose fault this is, with Barak and others placing the blame on Netanyahu and Trump. I don’t want to expend too many words on this, but I disagree. Trump is accused of precipitously ending the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (with Netanyahu’s encouragement), which allowed the Iranians to increase their uranium enrichment activities significantly. But Iran was already violating the too-weak deal, and Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” – both economic and covert, as in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani – was causing the regime great distress. The policy’s failure was assured by its early termination: Trump was not reelected, and Biden chose to scrap it. But it doesn’t matter who’s to blame; the question is what to do about it. TO READ MORE OF THIS OPINION, CLICK HERE...
Saturday, October 9
Back Porch Pondering
Personally, I think this is the DUMBEST comment I have ever heard coming out of the mouth of a politician... however, I would have expected this to have been voiced by bartender now Congresswoman AOC...
We want all our students to be MEDIOCRE... no one should be stupid and no one should be smart...
HEY THERE MR POLITICIAN... what about the STEM program?
Do you want to do away with that as well because only a few excel in those four areas?
AND... while we are at it... why not apply this same concept in sports, making sure we have no players that are any better than the average player... boy, will that look good in professional sports...
WE ARE NOT EQUAL AND WE NEVER WILL BE EQUAL NO MATTER HOW HARD WE WANT IT TO BE SO...
Tear Drop
The 9/11 Memorial "Tear Drop" sits directly across from NYC, in Bayonne New Jersey, just the other side of the Statue of Liberty, yet we hear nothing about it. This absolutely beautiful, 100 ft.tall monument was gifted to the people of the United States by the people of Russia in 2006, in memory of all those who lost their lives on that fateful day, September 11, 2001.
The breaking in the cracked facade forms the shape of the two towers. The giant suspended tear drop signifies the tears of the entire world that day.
Maybe it's something that needs to be known?
Electric Propulsion System
The IX-6315 "Dawn" Electric Propulsion System is a tiny-sized engine which runs on electricity and xenon gas propellant. It's modeled after the real-world Hall effect thruster.
This engine has a phenomenal fuel efficiency (4200 s Isp), but very low thrust and requires a substantial amount of electricity to operate. Xenon gas is provided by xenon containers like the PB-X50R Xenon Container, PB-X150 Xenon Container or PB-X750 Xenon Container. Electricity can be obtained using solar panels, radioisotope batteries (RTGs), and fuel cells.
Solar panels are recommended in this case, however RTGs are very efficient when traveling to far distances such as Jool and Eeloo. The amount of electricity needed to keep one ion engine running at full thrust is roughly equivalent to half the output of one Gigantor XL Solar Array (however one array will power two engines only near peak sun exposure around Kerbin), 6 Fuel Cells, 12 PB-NUK Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, or 25 OX-STAT Photovoltaic Panels at peak outcdput.
When pairing with solar panels, it is highly recommended to bring more than it needs (slightly less than 9 Ec/s). Not all panels are at peak output during operations, and maximum available power falls of with the square of the distance from the star.
Batteries can be used to store the electricity since there may be times the solar panels will be blocked from the Sun by objects or the dark side of celestial bodies. For extended burns in the darkness the fuel cells happen to be a good choice. When the power is provided by the fuel cells the majority of the mass flow (about 69.2%) is liquid fuel and oxidizer used by the fuel cell.
Batteries can be used to store the electricity since there may be times the solar panels will be blocked from the Sun by objects or the dark side of celestial bodies. For extended burns in the darkness the fuel cells happen to be a good choice. When the power is provided by the fuel cells the majority of the mass flow (about 69.2%) is liquid fuel and oxidizer used by the fuel cell.
Thus the ion engine powered by the fuel cell may be seen as having much more modest but still impressive effective Isp of 1293 sec. However if the burn doesn't take more than a couple of hours the stack of RTGs providing the same amount of power (and thus thrust) tend to be heavier than the fuel cell array and its fuel tank. The RTGs should be reserved for very long low-thrust burns in the deep space. READ MORE...
A Salt Comparison
Variation in size and shape changes how densely salt crystals pack into a teaspoon. The denser they pack, the more salt a given unit of volume will deliver.
So pay attention to what the recipe calls for—1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt will have a bigger impact on your dish than the same amount of a larger-grained salt like Diamond Crystal. Using both interchangeably may mean an over- or under-seasoned meal.
When it comes to the question of kosher salt vs. sea salt, at BA, our cooking salt of choice is Diamond Crystal kosher salt: Its light and hollow flakes are easy to grip and crush, readily adhere to protein, and dissolve quickly. It’s also less salty by volume, meaning that it’s harder to oversalt.
When it comes to the question of kosher salt vs. sea salt, at BA, our cooking salt of choice is Diamond Crystal kosher salt: Its light and hollow flakes are easy to grip and crush, readily adhere to protein, and dissolve quickly. It’s also less salty by volume, meaning that it’s harder to oversalt.
But there’s also a strong contingent of chefs and recipe developers who prefer fine sea salt. Ben Mims of the Los Angeles Times turns to fine sea salt to dissolve seamlessly into baked goods; cookbook author Dorie Greenspan prefers it to regular kosher salt for its cleaner taste; and Joe Yonan of The Washington Post likes its reliability: In general, brands don’t differ that drastically.
So if you want fine sea salt to be your cooking salt of choice, go for it—but remember, when recipes call for Diamond Crystal kosher, you’ll have to adjust.
A rough conversion: About 1¼ teaspoon of coarse kosher salt will be about 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt, but be very wary—coarseness varies by brand of salt, and the only way to be absolutely sure is to take out that kitchen scale and make sure the two are equal in weight, especially in more finicky baking projects that require precision. READ MORE...
A rough conversion: About 1¼ teaspoon of coarse kosher salt will be about 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt, but be very wary—coarseness varies by brand of salt, and the only way to be absolutely sure is to take out that kitchen scale and make sure the two are equal in weight, especially in more finicky baking projects that require precision. READ MORE...
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