Small Nuclear Reactor - Powers 300,000 Homes

US tech company, Westinghouse, has announced the launch of the AP300, a smaller version of its flagship AP1000 nuclear reactor, in an effort to extend access to nuclear power as demand for clean energy rises.

The AP300 nuclear reactor is scheduled to be operational in 2027 and will provide roughly one-third of the power of the flagship AP1000 reactor, according to an official press release by the firm on Thursday.

"The AP300 is the only small modular reactor offering available that is based on deployed, operating, and advanced reactor technology," President and CEO of Westinghouse, Patrick Fragman, said in the statement.

"The launch of the AP300 SMR rounds out the Westinghouse portfolio of reactor technology, allowing us to deliver on the full needs of our customers globally, with a clear line of sight on schedule of delivery, and economics."

Westinghouse's decision marks a significant turning point in the nuclear industry's effort to reinvent itself in response to climate change.

Nuclear fission reactor electricity produces no greenhouse gas emissions, and smaller nuclear reactors are less expensive to develop.

The AP300 is expected to cost around $1 billion per unit, compared to the AP1000's anticipated cost of $6.8 billion.

It will produce about 300 megawatts of electricity, compared to the AP1000's 1,200 megawatts, and power about 300,000 households.  READ MORE...

Current Events

 

EVs and Hybrids

 There is a HUGE push inside the current liberal administration to do away with FOSSILS FUELS...  which includes petroleum crude oil and natural gas...  the idea is that we GO GREEN and get all our energy from WIND<>SOLAR<>HYDRO.  That sounds simple enough but we do not have all the natural resources to do this inside the continental United States.

WHO HAS THESE NATURAL RESOURCES?

Did you guess CHINA?

If you did, you'd be right.

Additionally, CHINA has all the natural resouces to make EV Batteries for vehicles as well.

However, how much energy does it take to make EV Batteries and will that energy come from FOSSIL FUELS?

A hybrid car is part electric and part gas and may not be as expensive as a totally electric car, but with the hybrid, the cost of replacing the battery is $5-6,000.  Hybrid batteries may last 6-8 years and some say 10.   BUT...  when you replace the battery, you will spend all the money you save, not buying gasoline...

While it may help the environment, it does not help you financially.

The totally EV cars have the same problem with having to replace batteries...  BUT, they are much more expensive and in some cases too expensive for the average American Worker.

The problem with EV cars is going on a vacation and having to stop for a couple of hours to recharge...  providing you can find a charging station that is open.

Currently, we have less that 10% of the charging stations needed to become fully EV.  The charging stations are waiting for the increase in purchases of EVs before they spend the money on charging stations...

What this means is that the charging stations will always LAG  BEHIND the purchasing of EVs...  so, there will never be enough charging stations until the only car on the road is an EV.

There is no telling how long this will take as those who own gasoline cars, ARE NOT GOING TO PURCHASE and EV until they absolutely have to.

INTERESTINGLY, aircraft can only fly on jet fuel that is made from petroleum crude oil.  I doubt we will ever ELIMINATE commercial or military aircraft.  I doubt that millionaires and billionaires will ever give up their private jets...

REMEMBER.....  DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO!!!

REMEMBER...

only 1% of the population is ultra wealthy

only 10% of the population is super weathly

only 20% of the population is wealthy

THIS MEANS that 80% does not earn much money, nor do they have a large savings account

EVs and HYBRIDS are trypically for the 20%...  NOT YOU!!!

Something Funny

 

Climate Tipping Point

With climate-enhanced droughts, heatwaves and fires ravaging three continents and the threat of a new surge in global warming, the world urgently needs to ramp-up solutions for slashing carbon pollution. But which solutions are most critical?

The organization Project Drawdown has detailed the potential, feasibility and cost of nearly a hundred climate solutions since it was set up in 2017.

Executive director Jonathan Foley, a leading climate scientist, spoke to AFP about how to assess and prioritize the actions needed to keep Earth liveable.

The following interview has been edited for length and flow:

Q: What are the three most important questions in assessing the usefulness and integrity of carbon-cutting solutions?

A: Is it available now and ready to deploy? Because we need to start bending the emissions curve immediately.

Is it cost-effective? Otherwise, it's not going to scale effectively.

Does it create co-benefits for people, especially in terms of health, jobs, equity, and justice? This will make it far more appealing.

Q: A lot of hope—and investment—is going into technological solutions such as filtering fossil fuel pollution or pulling CO2 out of the air. Comment?

A: While some very limited carbon removal will be needed by mid-century, the vast, vast majority of the work we need to do—more than 95 percent—is cutting emissions, and doing it now.

Of the five percent focused on carbon removal, I think it should be more than 90 percent nature-based removal, such as ecological restoration and regenerative agriculture. Machine-based removal is unlikely to work at any meaningful scale.

Q: We often hear that solutions are already available, all that's missing is political will. Is that it?  READ MORE...

Kingston Trio

 

Iceland

 

Artificial Intelligence Needs Oversight

EVERY TIME YOU post a photo, respond on social media, make a website, or possibly even send an email, your data is scraped, stored, and used to train generative AI technology that can create text, audio, video, and images with just a few words. 

This has real consequences: OpenAI researchers studying the labor market impact of their language models estimated that approximately 80 percent of the US workforce could have at least 10 percent of their work tasks affected by the introduction of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, while around 19 percent of workers may see at least half of their tasks impacted. 

We’re seeing an immediate labor market shift with image generation, too. In other words, the data you created may be putting you out of a job.

When a company builds its technology on a public resource—the internet—it’s sensible to say that that technology should be available and open to all. But critics have noted that GPT-4 lacked any clear information or specifications that would enable anyone outside the organization to replicate, test, or verify any aspect of the model. 

Some of these companies have received vast sums of funding from other major corporations to create commercial products. For some in the AI community, this is a dangerous sign that these companies are going to seek profits above public benefit.Code transparency alone is unlikely to ensure that these generative AI models serve the public good. 

There is little conceivable immediate benefit to a journalist, policy analyst, or accountant (all “high exposure” professions according to the OpenAI study) if the data underpinning an LLM is available. We increasingly have laws, like the Digital Services Act, that would require some of these companies to open their code and data for expert auditor review. 

And open source code can sometimes enable malicious actors, allowing hackers to subvert safety precautions that companies are building in. Transparency is a laudable objective, but that alone won’t ensure that generative AI is used to better society.     READ MORE...

Fifth Dimension

 

AI & Your Job

 Artificial Intellignece is moving like a California wildfire moving through a dry National Forest.  It is only fitting that California be the first state where the workers get replaced by AI...  especially since Silicon  Valley is the birthplace of AI.

Some experts say the big employee screw job will come around 2030 while others say that because AI is progressing faster than planned, we will see dramatic changes n the workforce as early as 2025.  These experts are saying that 60-80% of jobs could be replaced in the next 2-3 years.

Actually, I think that is good news for most Americans because my wife and I have been retired since 2015 (7.5 years) and we really like the fact that we don't have to go to work and can do damn near anything we want.

The minor downside to all this losing your job shit, will depend on how capable the US government is of paying employment benefits and for how long.

The other good news is that with all these illegal immigrants coming across the border, they will do the work that Americans don't want to do.  You don't need to speak English to pick fruits and veges and you damn sure don't need to speak English to clean motel rooms and public restrooms.

However, the liberals say that there will be plenty of jobs making windmills and solar panels and if you know your way around a frigging vehicle, you will be able to build EVs...  Of course, if people lose their jobs due to AI, I wonder how many EVs will be sold?

Still, is is something FOR WHICH TO HOPE IF YOU LOSE YOUR JOB...

Are you familiar with EQUITY EMPLOYMENT???It is a concept that the liberals are pushing to hire BLACKS before WHITES, because they have been at a disadvantage in this country since slavery.  EQUITY will not just take place for employment but it will take place for healthcare services as well.  NO MORE TRIAGE!!!  They don't give a shit how sick you are, blacks go before whites.

Liberal DAs want to stop prosecuting Blacks and start prosecuting Whites so that there will be more whites incarated than blacks...  Of course, I would think the type of crime would make a difference...  but, from what I have read, it does not matter...  just the color of your skin.

If I was a WHITE DUDE, married to a WHITE WIFE with WHITE CHILDREN, I think I would be trying to save as much money as I could over the next two years.

Black Sea

 

Will BRICS be Successful?

Veteran investor Jon Wolfenbarger says that the success of BRICS could have serious effects on the US dollar and the living standards of Americans.

Wolfenbarger, a former investment banker at JPMorgan and Allianz, writes in a new article for the Mises Institute that throughout history, all empires have ultimately failed, and the US likely won’t be an exception.

He says that BRICS nations, which refers to the economic coalition of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, now have the power to dethrone the US after decades of irresponsible economic policy by the American government.

Says Wolfenbarger,

“If the BRICS are successful and the US does not change its policies to focus on a stronger dollar, less spending, and peace instead of war, it is possible the dollar will slowly lose its ‘reserve currency’ status.

This would hurt US living standards and lead to less power for the US government, similar to the weakening of the UK after World War II. All empires in history have failed, and the US will not likely be an exception – if the BRICS can create a successful hard currency to compete with the dollar.”

The investor, who founded investment research service Bull And Bear Profits, says that BRICS nations still have a big hill to climb if they’re serious about competing with the greenback.

According to Wolfenbarger, the BRICS can forget about taking the USD’s hegemony if it plans on creating another fiat currency that is created out of thin air.

“The US has the largest and safest government bond market, no capital controls, and a reputation for enforcing the rule of law. By contrast, the BRICS countries are hardly known for respecting laws or having strong currencies.

Perhaps more importantly, non-US entities have $12 trillion of US dollar-denominated debt that they need to pay back with dollars, so abandoning the dollar would be incredibly difficult and costly.”

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Flowing Fish

 

Almost

 

AI Needs to be REGULATED

For most of the past decade, public concerns about digital technology have focused on the potential abuse of personal data. People were uncomfortable with the way companies could track their movements online, often gathering credit card numbers, addresses, and other critical information. They found it creepy to be followed around the web by ads that had clearly been triggered by their idle searches, and they worried about identity theft and fraud.

Those concerns led to the passage of measures in the United States and Europe guaranteeing internet users some level of control over their personal data and images—most notably, the European Union’s 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

Of course, those measures didn’t end the debate around companies’ use of personal data. Some argue that curbing it will hamper the economic performance of Europe and the United States relative to less restrictive countries, notably China, whose digital giants have thrived with the help of ready, lightly regulated access to personal information of all sorts. (Recently, however, the Chinese government has started to limit the digital firms’ freedom—as demonstrated by the large fines imposed on Alibaba.) 

Others point out that there’s plenty of evidence that tighter regulation has put smaller European companies at a considerable disadvantage to deeper-pocketed U.S. rivals such as Google and Amazon.

But the debate is entering a new phase. As companies increasingly embed artificial intelligence in their products, services, processes, and decision-making, attention is shifting to how data is used by the software—particularly by complex, evolving algorithms that might diagnose a cancer, drive a car, or approve a loan. 

The EU, which is again leading the way (in its 2020 white paper “On Artificial Intelligence—A European Approach to Excellence and Trust” and its 2021 proposal for an AI legal framework), considers regulation to be essential to the development of AI tools that consumers can trust.  READ MORE...

Feel Good

 

2021-2023 (Biden Administration - almost 2 years later)

1. INFLATION
2. HIGH GASOLINE PRICES
3. HIGHER TAXES
4. INCREASE IN CRIME AND VIOLENCE
5. INCREASE IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
6. BLM...CRT...  WOKE MOVEMENTS
7. DECREASE IN MILITARY CAPABILITIES
8. DECREASE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
9. ENDING PETROLEUM CRUDE OIL/NATURAL GAS
10. PUSH FOR ONLY EVs TO BE SOLD TO CONSUMERS
11. CURRENT ELECTRIC GRID CANNOT SUPPORT 100% EVs
12. INCREASE IN RACISM DUE TO REPARATIONS
13. AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL DEBACLE
14. TRYING TO SILENCE CONSERVATIVE VOICE SO THAT ONLY ONE OPINION IS OFFERED
15. DE-DOLLARIZATION MOVEMENT PUSHED BY BRICS, CHINA, SAUDI ARABIA
16. DECREASE IN GLOBAL RESPECT FOR USA
17. USA POLARIZED (DIVIDED) MORE THAN EVER SINCE CIVIL WAR
18. DUMBING DOWN OF COLLEGE EDUCATION
19. AI/ROBOTS REPLACING JOBS
20. WEAPONIZING FBI AND DOJ POLITICALLY TO SUPPORT LIBERAL AGENDAS

Personally, I don't give a rat's ass what happens to the US of A as I will not be alive more than 20 years from now.  Granted a lot can happen in 20, but being retired and havng sufficient funds, most of the points listed above will not effect/affect me.

If Social Security is cut, well I have enough money saved to pick up the slack.  If illegal immigrants move into my community here in East TN, they will not be welcomed by those currently living here.  If they manage to buy a home, they will be austracized and not accepted.  It is nothing personal, it is just business and the way it is.

I don't give a shit if college education is watered down, because I got my education before that happened.  Watered down education will simply mean that American Business STOP hiring Americans because they don't know shit.  It ain't nothing personal just business.  If Americans do get hired, they will remain in the lower ranks of management their entire career doing bullshit work.

With low pay and increase costs, Americans will have to borrow money and go deeper in debt.  Lots of debt prevents you from buying a house, and even a car depending upon how expensive they are...  EVs are not cheap.

If the de-dollarization continues, it will increase inflation and you will have to borrow even more money.  Digging a deep financial hole for yourself and your family month by month.

What I would like to know is...  ARE YOU GOING TO LEARN SPANISH BECAUSE MOST OF THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DONT SPEAK ENGLISH.  None of the illegal immigration are vaccinated like Americans are...  those counries do not require it...  so, these illegal immigrants might spread diseases that had previously been eliminated in the US of A...   Good luck with that...

This is your country now...  ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN...

Immigration Tidal Wave

 

Faster Than A Human Construction Crew

California-based startup Built Robotics has unveiled a huge autonomous construction robot that speeds up the creation of utility-scale solar farms — accelerating the transition to a clean energy future and making workers safer, too.

The challenge: Electricity generation is responsible for more than 30% of the US’s carbon emissions, so transitioning the grid away from fossil fuels and toward renewables, such as solar, is essential to combating climate change. Not only that, we’ll need to generate a lot more electricity as we increasingly electrify cars, machines, and industry.

To meet the demands of the future, automation is gonna be key in the construction world.

JUSTIN RUSSELL

Constructing a utility-scale solar farm is a major undertaking, though: once a company goes through the potentially years-long process of finding a site and securing permits, it can still take another couple of years to build the solar farm.


Moreover, as solar panels have gotten dramatically cheaper, an increasingly large share of the cost of solar power is coming from things other than the panels themselves, like construction and labor. If we’re going to keep pushing the price of solar down, we’ll have to get more productive at those things, too.

The construction robot: Built Robotics has now unveiled RPD 35, an autonomous construction robot that accelerates an important part of building a utility-scale solar farm: installing solar piles.

These heavy steel beams are about 15 feet long, and during solar farm construction, they’re driven about eight feet into the ground — the part of the pile that remains exposed then serves as the foundation for a solar array.  READ MORE...

Roaming Cow