Monday, July 25
Decarbonizing Fossil Fuels
Philip Cross: De-carbonize production not consumption of fossil fuels
Philip Cross - Friday
On Monday the federal government initiated a consultation on whether to use a cap-and-trade or a carbon tax to reduce emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector by 40 per cent by 2030 — eight years from now. The industry is being asked to slash emissions more than the 30 per cent national target by either paying more than the existing tax on carbon or by lowering its production, which hardly seems what the world needs as it faces a growing energy shortage.
The federal government’s singling-out the oil and gas sector for outsized emissions reductions may have a silver lining, however. There is growing recognition in the business sector, if not yet in government, that decarbonizing our fossil-fuel supplies is a cheaper and more efficient way to lower emissions than decarbonizing their consumption. The latter involves overhauling the trillions of dollars of capital stock invested in our existing “mines, oil and gas fields, thermal power stations, hydroelectric dams, pipeline networks, ports, refineries, iron and steel mills, aluminum smelters, fertilizer plants, railroads, multilane highways, airports, skyscraper-dominated downtowns, and extensive suburbia” in the words of environmental scientist Vaclav Smil.
Moreover, decarbonizing oil and gas will be necessary even in a net-zero future since some uses of fossil fuels cannot reasonably be expected to disappear (notably their widespread use as a raw material in manufacturing everything from clothing to plastics). This is why the International Energy Agency expects fossil fuel production to still be a substantial 24 million barrels a day in its net-zero scenario for 2050.
Lowering emissions from oil and gas production will be costly. Some reductions, such as eliminating methane, are relatively easy, which is why the government expects them to fall 75 per cent by 2030. Other reductions involving carbon capture and sequestration will require billions of dollars of investment to capture emissions and ship them by pipeline to be buried underground. More investment will also be needed if small modular nuclear reactors replace the natural gas currently being used to melt the bitumen of in situ oilsands operations.
The fact that decarbonizing fossil fuels rather than re-tooling our whole society to shift away from using fossil fuels would save trillions of dollars makes it attractive for governments to subsidize these efforts, either through direct grants or tax credits, as both the Alberta and federal governments proposed in their spring budgets. READ MORE...
Sunday, July 24
Sunday Morning
However,
While I was there, I noticed that the gasoline prices had dropped to $3.92 per gallon. WHY?
President Biden has done nothing to bring prices down and the war in Ukraine is still going on... so, what caused this reduction?
The last time I got gas it was $4.22 and that was about a week ago.
I had 3/4 of a tank left but I did not top off.
The intense heat and humidity have all but destroyed our summer garden this year. I was able to have several meals of squash, zucchini, and bell peppers but I could have certainly eaten more. Our biggest crop this year was the cucumbers which I suppose need lots of rain were so abundant that we gave several of them away to our neighbors... assuming they liked cucumbers as much as we do.
I made some cucumber soup a few weeks ago that I froze and I got a container out last night to eat today. I have cut up some pieces of ham in the container to see if that is a good combination or not.
Sunday is a day of calm. No arguments... no anger of any sort should take place on a Sunday. It is a day for reflection and contemplation and maybe some planning... retooling the mind to prepare for the coming week.
Being retired, it is sometimes easy to think that everyday is a Sunday and oftentimes I have missed Sunday because I was thinking it was just another day of the week.
I have been walking in the pool twice a day for 40 minutes each time as a way of building up my legs and back muscles after having back surgery almost 7 weeks ago... but, today, since it is Sunday, I considering giving my body a break... allowing it to simply be as it is without trying to make it something that it isn't up to yet.
The good thing about walking in the pool is that I can walk unaided which is a confidence builder for when I am out of the pool and limp when I walk. I am hoping that over time, the limp will go away.
I have thought about meditating on Sundays but I am not there yet... One has to have a state-of-mind before one tries meditation... without that state-of-mind, it will not be successful.
Still... it is something about which to think.
Who Do You Believe?
However, I have watched all FIVE over the years and I can personally attest to the fact that there is different news being reported on each of these stations and as my brother likes to point out that he sent an email to Bret Baier while he was on the air that his reporting was misleading and incorrect and Baier did not alter his reporting.
So, according to my brother, this reporter and FOX were dissiminating incorrect information to the public.
I have no way of knowing if what my brother was telling the truth or not, but his comments bear out the fact that reporters do not always report the truth but their version of the truth or the version that their employers want them to present.
FOX covers the border crisis along our southern border but the other networks do not or if they report it at all, they give it minimal air time hoping that most of their viewers may have missed it.
Why would any media news outlet, withhold information from the public?
It does not matter if the news is slanted to one side or the other... the fact that information is being withheld is not just censorship but a form of a lie...
A cheating spouse withholds that information from their spouse... are they lying?
If we cannot believe our sources of information then how are we supposed to make intelligent choices?
Maybe that is exactly what is intended here...
Consider Hydrogen
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel for motive power. Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen-fueled space rockets, as well as ships and aircraft. Power is generated by converting the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy, either by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to power electric motors or, less commonly, by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine.
As of 2021, there are two models of hydrogen cars publicly available in select markets: the Toyota Mirai (2014–), which is the world's first mass-produced dedicated fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), and the Hyundai Nexo (2018–). There are also fuel cell buses. Hydrogen aircraft are not expected to carry many passengers long haul before the 2030s at the earliest.
As of 2019, 98% of hydrogen is produced by steam methane reforming, which emits carbon dioxide. It can be produced by electrolysis of water, or by thermochemical or pyrolytic means using renewable feedstocks, but the processes are currently expensive. Various technologies are being developed that aim to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with hydrogen production using natural gas.
The benefits of hydrogen technology are long range on a single refuelling. The drawbacks of hydrogen use are high carbon emissions when hydrogen is produced from natural gas, capital cost burden, low energy content per unit volume at ambient conditions, production and compression of hydrogen, the investment required to build refuelling infrastructure around the world to dispense hydrogen, and transportation of hydrogen. SOURCE: Wikipedia
Believing is the Easy Part
Do I have any proof of this?
Not really... other than Jesus saying "...my kingdom is not of this world..."
That phrase alone does not prove anything really but then where exactly is the location of heaven that all born-again Christians are going to be living in after death?
Now that our Federal Government has admitted to their being UFOs and former President Trump has created a SPACE FORCE as part of our military, one can easily construe that there is more going on than just admitting there are UFOs... and, it is entirely possible that some very special global people have already met with aliens.
But, I am drifting off topic...
Moses left us with the 10 Commandments and regardless of what you think of religion, the 10 Commandments are an excellent list of items to follow if one wants to live an HONORABLE life.
Jesus lived a flawless life and trying to live like he did offers many challenges and many of us fail to live up to his standards... but, that does not mean we should not try...
Being a "good" person is not a bad way to live one's life.
What happens to us when we die?
We don't know...
But, many religious leaders speculate and I think that is wrong as some people believe their speculations and their speculations may prove to be just as wrong as they might prove to be right. That's a 50/50 gamble and not good odds.
What I do know is this: If time is eternal, that is to say forever, what's the point of living 80-100 years?
This seems completely illogical to me and rather pointless.
Why do we live at all?
Therefore, it would seem to me that our alien creators have something more in store for us after we die... and, once we experience that, we will understand the purpose of our 80-100 year existence on earth.
The other issue that coincides with this is the size of our universe and the fact that there might be other parallel universes as well...
So, what's the point of the size?
Earth is insignificant in comparison to the entire universe...
So, does it really make sense that we are living here on earth as opposed to somewhere else?
Why was earth selected?
Who selected earth for us to live on?
These questions and there are more, make it increasingly more and more difficult to live like Jesus wanted us to live...
Being created is just the easy part.
Should Trump Be Prosecuted
Elaine Kamarck
Founding Director - Center for Effective Public Management
Senior Fellow - Governance Studies
EKamarck
The Justice Department could decide to prosecute at any time, on whichever charges for which they find sufficient evidence. Already more than 800 people have been charged in connection with the January 6 events—although most have been charged with lesser crimes. So far only 50 have pleaded guilty to felony charges.
But all along, the issue has been not what the 10,000 people who came to Washington D.C. for the rally knew or even what the 2,000 people who made it inside the Capitol building knew.
But all along, the issue has been not what the 10,000 people who came to Washington D.C. for the rally knew or even what the 2,000 people who made it inside the Capitol building knew.
All along the issue has been what did the president know and what did he intend? Was this a rally that simply got out of control? Or was it the first attempt ever by an American president to stage a coup d’etat?
If it was an attempted coup, it was a pretty pathetic and incompetent one.
From the hearings, we now know that Trump did not even have the support of his own family and friends nor his handpicked White House staff.
If it was an attempted coup, it was a pretty pathetic and incompetent one.
From the hearings, we now know that Trump did not even have the support of his own family and friends nor his handpicked White House staff.
To pursue his plans, he had to rely on a close group of advisors known as “the clown show” led by Rudi Giuliani, a pillow manufacturer, and a dot-com millionaire—none of whom was in government and none of whom controlled the most important “assets” (guns, tanks, planes etc.) needed to take over a government.
In contrast to most successful coups in history, Trump had no faction of the military, no faction of the National Guard, and no faction of the District of Colombia Metropolitan Police at his disposal. READ MORE...
Electrifying America's Roads
Within weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the average price for a gallon of gasoline reached its highest point in American history—a range where it has largely remained as the economic isolation of one of the world’s largest petroleum exporters looks to persist for months, if not years.
Ninety-one percent of American households own a car, meaning that almost everyone will feel the sting of elevated fuel prices when they fill up their tanks for the foreseeable future. However, the roughly 2 million owners of electric vehicles (EVs) will be spared the pain at the pump.
An oil shock of the magnitude not seen since the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo has sent Google searches related to EVs surging by 300 percent in the last few months. Thirty-six percent of Americans now say they plan to buy or lease an EV or are seriously considering doing so. The time is ripe to electrify American roads.
Increasing the ownership and production of EVs presents a strategic opportunity to not only insulate the public from price spikes in oil, but also boost the clean manufacturing workforce and decarbonize the transportation sector—the largest source of CO2 emissions in the United States. READ MORE...
Second Age: Rings of Power
Actress Sophia Nomvete plays the dwarven Princess Disa of Khazad-Dum
"We wanted to find a huge, Tolkienian mega epic!"
That's how showrunner Patrick McKay described his mission for The Rings of Power - Amazon Prime's hotly anticipated Lord of the Rings TV spin-off, as he unveiled a new trailer and unseen footage at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday.
In his armoury: a huge cast of comely elves, a rare female dwarf, the Hobbits' ancestors, a seriously impressive CGI city, a mystery menace, an entwife and a surprise Balrog.
The Rings of Power is the most expensive show ever made, at $1bn (£832m) for five seasons - and this is fans' best guide to how it will look, sound and feel.
But what everyone really wants to know is, can it compete with Peter Jackson's beloved Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the winner of 17 Oscars, benchmark for composers, and populariser of Second Breakfast?
Wisely, it's not trying - instead setting the action 4,000 years before the Hobbits Frodo and Sam journeyed through Middle Earth.
This is the Second Age, where the 20 Rings of Power are forged and the evil Sauron, Lord of Mordor, rises to assault the realms' hard-won peace.
The source material is Tolkien's appendix to the Lord of the Rings books. The core question: "How far into the darkness would you go to protect the things you care about the most?" says McKay's fellow showrunner JD Payne. READ MORE...
Saturday, July 23
It's Saturday Night
As children came along, there were still get together where we ate and drank alcohol but they were perhaps not as rowdy as they were when we were without children.
Friday nights were reserved for all male or all female nights where the males would play poker or end up at a local bar where we would "eyeball" all the females but remain with our pals.
Sundays were always reserved FOR NOTHING SPECIAL... just kicking back and pretty much spending the day doing nothing... there may be a football game to watch if it was the season but most of the time, it was just a do-nothing day... Although, as we got older there was talk of going to church and being seen by the right people...
Somewhere around the age of 35 or maybe 40, life began to change. For me, I quit smoking, quit drinking about 98% of the time, began exercising on a regular basis, cut out eating red meat, focusing instead on fish, chicken, beans, vegetables, and fruits. It was also a time when I actually attended church rather than just thinking about it..
When I was living with my parents K-12, it was a requirement that we attend church services every Sunday which included Sunday School. After the church service, our parents would always take us for ice cream regardless of the outside temperature.... I never thought of it as some sort of bribe.
So, when I started attending church again, none of the sermons provided me with any new information as I had already heard them all... in fact, many people in our Sunday School class were amazed that I knew all the stories in the Bible so well..
At 60, my life changed again with the discovery of cancer and experiencing a heart attack... What little wine I may have drank at Christmas and other holidays was forbidden by the Oncologist... and, my activity level suddenly reduced as I realized that there were many things that I could no longer do at least with the speed I was doing them before.
BUT, what's all this got to do with Saturday nights?
My Saturday nights changed as well. Seldom did my wife and I get together with friends for dinner and a game of cards... I don't know if we did not think about it or if we were too tired to think about it... or too lazy to get cleaned up for company.
At 74, our Saturday nights are like sundays and pretty much every other day of the week as both pretty much do very little other than the general housekeeping and maintenance that has to be done.
There is no talk of getting together with any of our friends for dinner and conversation... this inaction is further compounded by the fact that some of the spouses of our friends are deceased.
COVID hit our area a couple of years ago 2019/2020 and we have been reluctant to be out in public unless we absolutely have to. While most of the masks mandates have been lifted, there are still places where wearing masks are required.
So... here I am... sitting in my living room on a Saturday without the slightest desire to do anything than what I am currently doing which is writing and posting on my blogs.
I don't think about getting together with friends... I don't think about getting together with family - however, most of my family lives in other states.
We used to have cable and of all the 150+ channels there was really nothing we wanted to watch... We stopped cable and just acquired a WIFI provider and subscribed to HULU, Netflix, and Amazon Prime and believe it or not, but there is really nothing on those stations that I want to watch either other than the NEWS.
SATURDAY NIGHT IS A BIG BUST FOR ME...
Weekend in the Valley
I mow our backyard every Friday with the riding lawn mower and set the blade down to 2.5 which is rather low and may cut the grass too low in areas but it keeps everything growing at the same rate. Some areas, the grass clippings are so plentiful that I remow those areas at a setting of 3.0 or 3.5 for the sole purpose of spreading the cuttings around so that they cannot be easily seen.
Yesterday, my wife asked why I did not do that since it makes the yard look "nicer" and I replied to save gasoline...
Now, while this may not mean much to you, we try to maintain a NEAT appearance outside, even though many of our neighbors don't agree with us... cutting the grass is just cutting the grass and how the lawn looks afterward is just part of that.
We treat our vehicles the same way so that after 7 years of ownership on these last two, 2015 Venza and Lexus, they look brand new inside. We also follow the manufacturer's guide to servicing as well... every 30,000 miles... Typically, we drive about 7,000 miles a year so that works out to somewhere between every 4-5 years.
I just had both vehicles serviced at Toyota, the Venza was $500 and should have been $300 but I had my navigation updated after 7 years and the Lexus was a little more because it needed a water pump which was unusual since there was substantially less than 100,000.
Our plans are to keep these two vehicles for another 5 years and then maybe purchase one electric vehicle... but, we are going to wait and see how that plays out... especially as they work the bugs out of these EVs and have built enough charging stations to service properly.
While the rush to going green is moving faster than anticipated, it is nonetheless here and we simply must embrace its presence. However, it becomes increasingly clear that EV ownership will not save us any money at all.
If fact, it could take about another decade before we EARN BACK all the money that we recently lost in the stock market... and then, inflation will keep us down at the level we were at before the Biden Administration took office.
It may sound like a conspiracy but the keeps the average America from really getting financially ahead so that we never really challenge the wealthy people...
BUT... this is just my opinion.
Our Electric Vehicle Future
In 2016, I purchased a 2015 Venza that had 7,000 miles and brand-new tires for about $12,000 less than what a 2016 Venza would have cost. This car was almost brand new.
I finally replaced the original battery and put a new set of tires on the vehicle after almost 7 years of driving on the ones that came with the purchase. I figure these tires will last a good five years since I only average about 7,000 miles a year now.
In 5 years, I will be 80 years old, my wife will be 75 and we will take our two cars (2015) and sell them for whatever we can get for them and invest in an all-electric vehicle... At 80/75, I doubt that we will be driving all that much. However, for comfort in driving and ease of access, that all-electric vehicle will have to be an SUV.
As I understand it, there are 3 levels of charging:
Level 1 that uses household current (a three-prong plug) and takes a good 24 hours to fully charge.
Level 2 can be installed in the home but typically this will be the commercial version that will be available to the public. Depending upon the capacity of your battery, this could take an hour to fully charge an EV.
Level 3 is super fast and probably will not be available to the general public for a while.
One issue about EVs is the size of the battery. The larger the battery the farther the EV can travel and that sorta makes sense... but, the weather is an issue, the speed is an issue, and the load inside the car is an issue for all batteries.
Batteries are measured in KWH... and right now vary in size from 60 KWH to 100 KWH and a 200 KWH is expected in the near future. Some experts say don't charge 100% all the time, even though there is the mindset to do just that. Batteries are expected to last a good 10 years before they need replacing.
What is also curious is that over time (and the more the battery is charged) there is a loss of distance capability... In other words, if your car has a range of 350 miles, then the more you drive it, the more your range will also drop so that in 5 years, your range may only be 325 or 300.
Depending on the KWH of your battery and if you are at a level 2 charging station, it may take you 60 minutes to fully recharge and the cost of that electricity could be $30-$50 which is not much different than a current tank of gasoline. If you don't have that larger capacity, then your charging time is going to be well over an hour.
My concern is that there are not enough charging stations to take care of everyone's needs... and, companies are not going to build charging stations until they know there are sufficient customers to use them.
So, the EV driver is going to experience a little pain at first unless their driving distances are short and just around town... long distance journies are going to be a challenge... especially if you have to wait for a free charger and then your charge takes over an hour.
Additionally, do we currently have the electric power capacity to power all these vehicles?
Maybe we need to look into hydrogen vehicles...
Learning From An Animal
What I find amazing is that the loss of an eye does not prevent our Siamese cat from acting the way it did before the accident... playing with a string, chasing the other cats around the house, and wanting attention. In other words, the cat does not act like anything has happened at all to its physical appearance.
I recently had back surgery that has caused me not to be able to move or walk like I used to and it may be 6-18 months before I get back to normal...
What do I do?
I sit around pissing and moaning because my life is different and is no longer like it used to be and I worry that I will never get back to normal.
My Siamese cat would not act like that...
How long did it take me to realize that and can I maintain that level of understanding?
It has been six weeks since the operation...
But,
- I mow the lawn as best as I can.
- I drive the car as best as I can.
- I take out the garbage as best as I can.
- I stand at the stove and cook as best as I can.
Now, I find out that I may have bursitis in my left hip which often happens after this kind of back surgery...
I will manage with bursitis and I will not complain... and if I cannot do something then I cannot do something... If I cannot walk for a day or two... then I don't walk... I will do what I can do as best as I can do it and not bitch about the results or the limitations...
I am just as good as my Siamese cat when it comes to this stuff.
MIT: Building with Biology
Ritu Raman leads the Raman Lab, where she creates adaptive biological materials for applications in medicine and machines.
It seems that Ritu Raman was born with an aptitude for engineering. You may say it is in her blood since her mother is a chemical engineer, her father is a mechanical engineer, and her grandfather is a civil engineer. Throughout her childhood, she repeatedly witnessed firsthand the beneficial impact that engineering careers could have on communities.
In fact, watching her parents build communication towers to connect the rural villages of Kenya to the global infrastructure is one of her earliest memories. She still vividly remembers the excitement she felt watching the emergence of a physical manifestation of innovation that would have a long-lasting positive impact on the community.
Raman is “a mechanical engineer through and through,” as she puts it. She earned her BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering. Her postdoctoral work at MIT was supported by a L’Oréal USA for Women in Science Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Fellowship from the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine.
Today, Ritu Raman leads the Raman Lab and is an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. However, she is not constrained by traditional ideas of what mechanical engineers should be building or the materials typically associated with the field.
“As a mechanical engineer, I’ve pushed back against the idea that people in my field only build cars and rockets from metals, polymers, and ceramics. I’m interested in building with biology, with living cells,” she says. READ MORE...
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