Eating

 

Small Modulor Nuclear Reactors

A new report has assessed the feasibility of deploying small modular nuclear reactors to meet increasing energy demands around the world. The findings don't look so good for this particular form of energy production.

Small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) are generally defined as nuclear plants that have capacity that tops out at about 300 megawatts, enough to run about 30,000 US homes. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), which prepared the report, there are about 80 SMR concepts currently in various stages of development around the world.

While such reactors were once thought to be a solution to the complexity, security risks, and costs of large-scale reactors, the report asks if continuing to pursue these smaller nuclear power plants is a worthwhile endeavor in terms of meeting the demand for more and more energy around the globe.

The answer to this question is pretty much found in the report's title: "Small Modular Reactors: Still Too Expensive, Too Slow, and Too Risky."     READ MORE...

After Nuclear War

 

Dachshunds Dogs

 

Nuclear Bombs

 

Wild West Photos

 

Nuclear Monday

 

A Star Older Than the Universe

For as long as humans have contemplated the Universe, we’ve marveled at the vastness of it all. Was our Universe infinite? Was it eternal? Or did it spring into existence a finite amount of time ago? Over the 20th and 21st centuries, these existential questions for all-time have, one-by-one, fallen into the realm of science, and now have the best answers we’ve ever been able to assemble. 

As of today, in 2024, we can confidently state that we actually know how old the Universe is: 13.8 billion years old, marking time at the start of the hot Big Bang. If we could step back through time, we’d find that the universe as we know it was a very different place early on. Modern stars and galaxies arose from a series of gravitational mergers of smaller-mass objects, which themselves consisted of younger, more pristine stars. 

At the earliest times, there were no stars or galaxies, and even farther, no neutral atoms or stable atomic nuclei, going all the way back to the hot Big Bang. Today, astronomers and astrophysicists who study the early universe confidently state its age with an uncertainty of no more than ~1%: a remarkable achievement.      READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Sean "Diddy" Combs sells stake in Revolt, the media company he founded, amid sexual assault allegations (More) | Eight-time Grammy-winning songwriter The-Dream accused in lawsuit of rape and trafficking (More)

> Janis Paige, prolific Broadway and film actress, dies at 101 (More) | Brother Marquis, longtime member of rap group 2 Live Crew, dies at 58 (More)

> Three-time reigning champion Oklahoma to face off against Texas in 2024 NCAA Women's College World Series finals beginning tonight (8 pm ET, ESPN) (More)


Science & Technology
> AI models trained on human speech can be repurposed to analyze dog vocalizations; approach may help provide insight into animal communications (More)

> Researchers discover the twin of an atmospheric effect nicknamed "Steve"; the phenomenon is similar to the aurora borealis but appears as purple ribbons in the sky at dusk and dawn (More) | All about Steve (More)

> New model predicts the mechanics of knitted materials, a complex mathematical problem despite its age-old use in textiles; results may help develop new wearable electronics and improve manufacturing processes (More)

Business & Markets
> US stocks close higher (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq +0.2%) amid interest rate uncertainty (More) | US job openings in April fall to 8.1 million, the lowest level in three years, while layoffs also fall (More)

> Microsoft and Google collectively lay off hundreds of employees in their cloud businesses as companies prioritize investment in AI (More)

> Appeals court rules VC firm Fearless Fund cannot issue grants solely to Black women, an approach the court says likely violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which barred the use of race in contracts; Fearless Fund to consider going to trial (More)

Politics & World Affairs
> Hunter Biden's gun case to continue today after opening statements and first witness called (More) | See previous write-up (More) | Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) brings felony forgery charges against three associates of former President Donald Trump for 2020 fake elector scheme (More)

> India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on track for rare third term in narrower-than-expected victory as his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party loses outright majority (More) | Two people arrested in the UK after former Brexit leader Nigel Farage assaulted with milkshake while announcing his candidacy for upcoming elections (More)

> Rep. Andy Kim (D, NJ-3), Republican entrepreneur Curtis Bashaw win New Jersey Senate primaries; Kim and Bashaw will face off in November against indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who filed to run for reelection as an independent (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

Dems versus GOP

 

After 60 years of watching politics and politicians play the game throughout the USA and in Washington, DC, I am convinced that the DEMOCRATIC PARTY has by far the best UNIFIED party of the two...

Years ago, it was pretty obvious that each party had a different but cut and dry approach to how the government should be managed.

DEMS wanted

Large government

Government Welfare

High taxes

Regulated Corporations

Small military

GOP wanted

Small government

Minimal welfare

Low taxes

Minimal regulations on corporations

Large military

While there were differences, the two parties always got together to work out their differences and compromise.

COMPROMISING IS GONE...

It is clear that the new Democratic Strategy is to SILENCE the opposition to the extent that the conservatives or GOP never again controls the Presidency or the Congress or the Supreme Court or the Judicial System in general.

Over the years, the Democratic Party has not only UNIFIED THEMSELVES with this goal but they have managed to get mainstream media to support their efforts as well.

The GOP has not even come close to that kind of unity, influence, power, and control.

While there may be many Dems that are leaving their party because they do not like this new direction, they are becoming independents rather than GOP Republicans.

That should tell us something...

NOW...  not only have the Dems got control of the media but they have control of our education system as well from K-12 and well into many of our colleges and universities.

SMART MOVE...

When these students become voting aged Americans they are already indoctrinated into the Dem's way of thinking.

Additionally, many of our companies support the Dems as well as many of our millionaires and billionaires.

This is STRANGE because many of these billionaires used the conservatives and their views to help get themselves wealthy...  because the Dems want to take money away from the wealthy and give to the poor to increase (by lowering the value) the middle class.

That attitude just does not make sense, but it is happening...  George SOROS, along with Bezos, Gates, and Zuckerburg have aligned their wealthy with the Dems...

BUT...  even more disastrous and more to the point the GOP (Republicans) have not been able to stop this from happening.

The GOP is politically impotent.

They deserves to lose their power and control and be SILENCED and CENSORED by the Democratic Party.

Right now...   only Donald Trump is keeping that from happening and he is beginning to LOSE as the deck is stacked against him...

Gym Cat

 

Quantum Physics Simplified

Quantum mechanics is simultaneously our most powerful and weirdest scientific theory. It’s powerful because it offers exquisite control over the nanoworld of molecular, atomic, and subatomic phenomena. It’s weird because, while we have a complete mathematical formalism, we physicists have been arguing for more than a century over what that formalism means. In other words, unlike other physical theories, the mathematics of quantum mechanics has no clear interpretation. That means physicists and philosophers have been left arguing about which interpretation makes the most sense. Sometimes the idea of “simplicity” is invoked to answer that question.

The “simplest” explanation
There are two main parts of the quantum formalism. The first is what’s called the dynamical equation. This part gives us a mathematical description of how undisturbed systems evolve. We physicists love our dynamical equations — things like Newton’s equations for particles or Maxwell’s equations for electromagnetic waves. In classical physics, the dynamical equation was pretty much the end of the story. Nothing else was required and we came to think of those equations as existing “out there.” They were timeless laws of physics that never required any reference to what physicists were doing.     READ MORE...

Lift Off

 

James Webb Telescope Photos

 

The Last Great Democratic President

The biography for President Kennedy and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association.

John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963), the youngest man elected to the office. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die.

On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die.

Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.

In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.

Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society.

He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained.

Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation’s military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe.

Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail.

Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race–a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of “a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion.” His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world.

For more information about President Kennedy, please visit the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

Learn more about John F. Kennedy’s spouse, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy.

Nude Photogreaphy

Concrete Homes - 3D Printer

 

Challenges to the US Energy Grid

No other energy source has seen more rapid growth in the United States over the past half a decade than solar power. But soaring solar installations have begun to distort the power distribution and transmission systems in the top solar-producing states such as California, creating challenges for utilities and the grid.

Battery storage could help alleviate these challenges, and although it is also surging, it is still lagging behind solar capacity additions.

It is no wonder then that despite a continuous decline in U.S. coal power generation, the share of coal in America’s electricity mix is still above 15%, more than any renewable energy source.

All renewable energy sources combined—wind, solar, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal—surpassed coal-fired generation in the U.S. electric power sector for the first time in 2022. But coal still holds about a 16% share of electricity generation, more than wind’s share of around 11%, hydropower’s 6%, or solar power’s 4% share of the electric generation mix.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political