Reliance on Fossil Fuels

Modern societies would be impossible without mass-scale production of many man-made materials. We could have an affluent civilization that provides plenty of food, material comforts, and access to good education and health care without any microchips or personal computers: we had one until the 1970s, and we managed, until the 1990s, to expand economies, build requisite infrastructures and connect the world by jetliners without any smartphones and social media. 

But we could not enjoy our quality of life without the provision of many materials required to embody the myriad of our inventions.  Four materials rank highest on the scale of necessity, forming what I have called the four pillars of modern civilization: cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia are needed in larger quantities than are other essential inputs. 

The world now produces annually about 4.5 billion tons of cement, 1.8 billion tons of steel, nearly 400 million tons of plastics, and 180 million tons of ammonia. But it is ammonia that deserves the top position as our most important material: its synthesis is the basis of all nitrogen fertilizers, and without their applications it would be impossible to feed, at current levels, nearly half of today’s nearly 8 billion people.

The dependence is even higher in the world’s most populous country: feeding three out of five Chinese depends on the synthesis of this compound. This dependence easily justifies calling ammonia synthesis the most momentous technical advance in history: other inventions provide our comforts, convenience or wealth or prolong our lives—but without the synthesis of ammonia, we could not ensure the very survival of billions of people alive today and yet to be born.  READ MORE...

Approaching Birds

 

Americans Avoid Going to Work

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said he expects China to produce "some very strong companies" because of the country's workforce.

"There's just a lot of super-talented, hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing," Musk said in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday.

"They won't just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3 a.m. oil," he continued. "They won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all."

Musk himself famously slept on the floor of Tesla's Fremont factory during the "production hell" for the Model 3.

"I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company," he told Bloomberg in 2018. "Whenever they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse."

Last month, workers at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory were required to sleep at the facility as production resumed following a three-week shutdown, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A memo, which Bloomberg reported, indicated that each worker would be provided with a sleeping bag and an air mattress and expected to work 12-hour shifts with one day off per week.

But workplace tides may be shifting in China after tech workers there protested the "996" schedule that had many working 72 hours per week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for six days.  READ MORE...

Fireflies

TRUST 'n' TRUTH

Not sure which word should come first to signify importance because they both are equally important and to demonstrate why these two words are critical to my way of thinking let me say that I TRUST NEITHER POLITICAL PARTY nor do I believe EITHER POLITICAL PARTY TELLS THE TRUTH...

Without trust, there can be no truth and without truth, there can be no trust...

For me it is just that simple.

Trump had some sound economic policies but his mouth and opinion not just got him into trouble but it left me feeling that I could not trust him nor did I believe he was telling the truth.  Very few businessmen are successful if they are constantly telling the truth...  by definition, businesses have to withhold information in order to be successful and keep their strategies from their competitors.

Biden on the other hand, has been lying from the get-go...  and his decision in Afghanistan was painfully stupid...  plus, how much do you trust someone who blames everything that is happening on someone or someone else?  NOT MUCH!  Biden has given us Inflation, Equity not Equality, Illegal Immigration, Increased Violence and Crime, while presenting military weakness to the rest of the world...

TRUST AND TRUTH...  where are they?

Moving Colors

Filled With Invisible Walls

Scientists’ current best theories about the arrangement of the cosmos suggest that small galaxies should be distributed around their host galaxies in seemingly random orbits.

But observations have found that these smaller galaxies arrange themselves in thin disks around their hosts, Vice reports, not unlike Saturn’s rings. Needless to say, that represents a puzzling gap between knowledge and theory.

Researchers are now trying to reconcile this gap by suggesting smaller galaxies may be conforming to invisible “walls” created by a new class of particles called symmetrons — a fascinating proposal that could rewrite the laws of astrophysics.

The standard theory, known as the Lambda cold dark matter (Lambda-CDM) model suggests that the universe is made up of three key elements: the cosmological constant, which is a coefficient added by Einstein to explain his equations of general relativity, cold dark matter which are slow moving theoretical particles that don’t emit radiation, and the conventional matter we interact with every day.

That theory suggests that smaller galaxies should be captured by the gravitational pull of larger host galaxies and forced into chaotic orbits, something that has not been reflected in real world observations.

Now, two researchers from the University of Nottingham may have come up with an explanation, as detailed in a new, yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study.

They suggest a “fifth force” could be arranging the galaxies into disk shapes, while still considering the existence of dark matter, the mysterious substance that appears to make up the vast majority of the universe’s mass.  READ MORE...

Dancing Woman

 

Hypersonic Missile

The U.S.'s ability to counter emerging hypersonic threats has completed a major milestone as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Phase 2 of the Glide Breaker Program.

Among its other projects, DARPA is also focusing on the development of the hypersonic missiles which are currently under flight testing. 

However, with adversarial countries such as Russia and North Korea having tested their versions of hypersonic missiles, the U.S. also needs to develop systems that can counter these missiles if they were ever fired toward U.S. territory.

How does one counter hypersonic missiles?

To understand how a hypersonic missile can be countered, one needs to understand how the hypersonic missile works. There are two major hypersonic missiles: a cruise missile and a hypersonic boost-glide missile. 

While the former works like any other cruise missile but at hypersonic speeds, the latter is relatively easier to work with.  READ MORE...

Top ArticlesREAD MOREHumans will soon mine outer space. But we need toreach key goals to make it happen

2:30

Jealous Kitten

 

Buddhist Treasures in Caves

After Aihole, we reached Badami, also in the Malaprabha River valley. Now a quaint little town, this place was once the glorious capital of the powerful Badami Chalukya Kingdom (540 to 757 CE) which spanned across Deccan and Maharashtra. 

It is an enchanting place in North Karnataka with yellowish-red sandstone quartzite hills forming a canyon-like structure. Inspired by Ajanta and Ellora, the Chalukyas built many cave temples on the cliff face of Badami hills. Now, all that remains of the past glory are those intricately sculpted caves and temples.

The place is well-known for it’s exquisitely carved rock-cut caves (man-made caves) of Shaivite, Vaishnavite, and Jain traditions. However, the presence of Buddhism in Badami Caves is not so well-known. 

There are two natural caves with Buddhist carvings, albeit modest in details. The carvings in one of the natural Buddhist caves pre-date the rock-cut caves and temples.

The sandstone cliffs are around a lake, currently known as both Agasthya-teertha and Bhutanatha-honda. There are four rock-cut cave temples and a natural cave in the southern side of the cliff, overlooking the lake. The natural cave has the carvings of the Buddha and Bodhisattva Padmapani (Avalokitesvara). 

On the eastern banks of the lake is the Bhutanatha Temple. In the rainy season, water fills up in the lake covering three sides of this temple. On the south-east bottom of the cliff, is a hidden natural cave, not frequented by tourists. 

This cave has a beautiful stone relief of the Buddha flanked by two celestial beings holding chamara (whisk). The drapes and ornaments reveal a distinct Mahayana styling.  READ MORE...

Closing In

Spies

White Nationalism

In the wake of the Buffalo supermarket shooting, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (right) is accusing her party's leaders of enabling white nationalism, white supremacy and antisemitism.

The FBI is investigating Saturday's attack as a racially motivated hate crime, and federal authorities are also considering a potential terrorism charge.

The suspected shooter, who is white, is believed to have written a 180-page screed detailing his white supremacist ideologies and his plan to attack a Black community.

He is allegedly a proponent of "replacement theory," a conspiracy theory that claims non-white individuals are being brought into the U.S. and other Western countries to "replace" white voters to achieve a political agenda.

The idea is popular among white supremacist and anti-immigration groups, and appears to be gaining traction among the broader public, according to a recent poll. One in three U.S. adults believes an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral purposes, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found in a poll conducted in December.  READ MORE...

Seesaw

 

Krebs and Consciousness

IF WE need to perceive the character of life, we have now to consider the circulation of power and matter. So argues biochemist and author Nick Lane in his new e book Transformer. Quoting the poem Like Most Revelations by Richard Howard, he writes that “it’s the motion that creates the shape”.

Lane’s concentrate on power and the important dynamism of life has been an vital thread operating via his analysis. Some of the inventive of immediately’s biologists, his work ranges from the evolution of intercourse and the rise of planetary oxygen to the origin of complicated cells and the primary life on Earth.

In his final e book, The Very important Query, he argued that many of those seemingly disparate mysteries may very well be defined by life’s reliance on electrically charged particles to energy itself.

Transformer isn’t any much less bold. Its focus is a biochemical course of referred to as the Krebs cycle: a whirlwind of chemistry that spins round in all our cells many instances a second. It’s named for biochemist Hans Krebs, who described many particulars of the way it works.

Lane’s thesis is that biochemists have misunderstood the cycle and due to this fact underestimated it. Textbooks, he says, primarily deal with it as a mechanism for acquiring power from meals. However Krebs can also be a chemical manufacturing unit, manufacturing key elements of cells. And cells can run it in numerous methods, so there isn’t a one Krebs cycle. Lane compares it to a furiously busy roundabout, with totally different automobiles always whizzing in from totally different junctions and hurtling out on others.  READ MORE...

Bath Time

 

Bronze-Scaled Dragonfish

Researchers spotted the rare dragonfish during a week-long expedition on the RV Western Flyer. 

(Image credit: MBARI)

Marine biologists aboard an expedition in Monterey Bay in California recently spotted a brilliant and rare deep sea fish named for a mythical creature: the highfin dragonfish (Bathophilus flemingi). This species is the rarest of all dragonfish, and scientists have previously spotted living individuals only a handful of times.


For three decades, researchers with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have scoured the bay's depths with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), finding many wondrous beasties, including several species of dragonfish. However, the highfin dragonfish has proven to be the most elusive. This particular fish was found at a depth of 980 feet (300 meters).


"They are just amazing animals, and part of what is appealing is that color pattern," said Bruce Robison, a senior scientist with MBARI and research lead for the team that made the discovery. The dragonfish's scales shimmer with a metallic bronze hue that is unlike that of any other fish living in the deep sea, Robison told Live Science. 

The pigments that lend color to the fish’s brassy, bronze skin might actually be a form of camouflage, as these shades absorb the remnants of blue light that make it down to the depths, rendering the fish nearly invisible in its environment. "But when we shine our white lights on it, it’s just gorgeous," Robison said.  READ MORE...

Lightening Storm

INFLATION

We all understand INFLATION...  and what that means to our household budgets...  those of us who maintain budgets that is...  since many Americans have no desire to manage budgets as they just spend what they want/need to spend when they have to spend it...

In point of fact, a year ago, I was paying right at $2 a gallon for gasoline and a year later, I am paying right at $4 a gallon for that same gasoline...

Those higher prices tell me that I am experiencing inflation...  

NOW...  the Biden Administration BLAMES this inflation on COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine and on businesses for wanting to price gouge the public not understanding that these businesses are faced with increased prices as well...

HERE'S THE ISSUE...  I don't give a damn nor do I give a rat's ass who is to blame for the problem...   what I want is for the BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO FIX THE PROBLEM...

If they cannot fix this problem then they do not need to be in power in the USA...  we need someone, regardless of political party to fix our problem with inflation...  it is just that simple...

Once we fix the problem we can move in whatever direction that the party in power wants to move into as long as our economy is growing, we have plenty of jobs, and our prices are back to normal...

AND...  what I would really like to see is a SOLAR POWERED  AIRPLANE that flies me to Europe...

I would also like to take a Caribbean Cruise on a SOLAR POWERED cruise ship...

I would be very interested in watching jets land on a SOLAR POWERED aircraft carrier...

Elon Musk, I betcha, is longing for a SOLAR POWERED SpaceX vessel to take a crew to Mars...

BUT IN THE MEANTIME...  LOWER THE FRIGGING PRICES and stop inflation as it really keeps our economy from growing properly...

COMMON SENSE

Definition - good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.

• Is it sound judgment to stop mining for oil in the United States and purchase that oil from Saudi Arabia?
• Is it sound judgment to go from energy independence to energy dependence?
• Is it sound judgment to defund the police and redirect those monies improving black communities?
• Is it sound judgment to end gifted and talented programs because they don't include the intellectually challenged?
• Is it sound judgment to let millions of illegal immigrants come into the USA?
• Is it sound judgment to push a WOKE agenda on the American public that don't want it?
• Is it sound judgment to end fossil fuels when there is not a viable substitute readily available just to prove a point?
• Is it sound judgment to teach elementary school students about gender identity?
• Is it sound judgment for the federal government to tell Americans what to do with their bodies?
• Is it sound judgment to CENSOR all opposing viewpoints to prevent debates?

4:30

Hire Ukrainians Instead of Americans

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman (right) has advocated for U.S. companies to hire Ukrainians who are "grateful" over Americans who allegedly do not work as hard.

In a Tuesday tweet, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management said he had dinner with a number of startup CEOs who had complained about the work ethic of young American engineers. He suggested that employers should instead look to hiring people from Ukraine as Russia's invasion of the country continues.

"Tonight I had dinner with 15 startup CEOs who bemoaned the work ethic of young US engineers, particularly compared with those from emerging countries," Ackman wrote. "Idea: recruit engineers from @Ukraine. They are extremely talented, hard working and grateful, and you will be doing good."

Ackman's comments come as the COVID-19 pandemic's Great Resignation saw record numbers of people in the U.S. quitting their jobs, with many young people taking advantage of the labor shortage to seek roles that provide an attractive work-life balance and better pay and benefits.  READ MORE...

Delivery

 

Giant Sinkhole in China

This giant karst sinkhole, also called a tiankeng, has plants growing at the bottom in Luoquanyan Village of Xuan'en County, central China's Hubei Province. This is not the sinkhole discovered in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Image credit: Song Wen/Xinhua/Alamy Live News)

A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom.


The sinkhole is 630 feet (192 meters) deep, according to the Xinhua news agency, deep enough to just swallow St. Louis' Gateway Arch. 

A team of speleologists and spelunkers rappelled into the sinkhole on Friday (May 6), discovering that there are three cave entrances in the chasm, as well as ancient trees 131 feet (40 m) tall, stretching their branches toward the sunlight that filters through the sinkhole entrance.


"This is cool news," said George Veni, the executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) in the U.S., and an international expert on caves. 

Veni was not involved in the exploration of the cave, but the organization that was, the Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey, is NCKRI's sister institute.  READ MORE...

Traveling Cat

 

Causes of Cancer

A team of researchers led by Yale University scientists can now quantify the factors causing changes in the DNA that contribute most to cancer growth in tumors of most major tumor types.

In a new paper published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, they say that their new molecular analysis approach clarifies a long-standing debate about how much control humans have over cancer development over time.

Looking at the instances of specific genetic mutations can reveal the extent to which preventable exposures like ultraviolet light caused tumor growth in 24 cancers, said Jeffrey Townsend, Ph.D., the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).


“We can now answer the question — to the best of our knowledge — ‘What is the underlying source of the key mutations that changed those cells to become a cancer instead of remaining normal tissue?’” he said.

Some of the most common cancers in the United States are known to be highly preventable by human decisions. Skin cancers, such as melanoma, emerge in large part because of prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light, and lung cancers can often be traced back to tobacco use. But scientists have long struggled to gauge how much any individual’s tumor developed as a result of preventable actions versus aging or “chance.”  READ MORE...

Only Once

 

Thoughts of an American

I am a white male born to middle-class white parents under the zodiac symbol of the SCORPION hence the logo on the left...   

I make no excuses for my birth location of North Carolina, USA nor do I feel guilty because my creator wanted me to be caucasian...

I have no desire to apologize because I was also given a natural athletic ability or an above average mind given the millions of mediocre people in the world today...

I do not have a chip on my shoulder because I attended Woodstock or because I am a survivor of the 1960s or because I am a Vietnam Era Veteran...

I do not feel bad that my personality is different than yours nor do I feel bad that you may not understand or appreciate my personality because that is who I am...

I am retired...  after working 45 years...  and I am glad that the bullshit is finally over...  Bosses are assholes and I was a boss most of my career, although I was actually referring to my bosses and not me being a boss to others, however, I am sure that I was an asshole to them as well...  as that seems to be what bosses are...

I don't think much of politics as all politicians are liars as that seems to be a pre-requisite for the office.  All politicians are wealthy or end up becoming so none of them really ever represent a majority of Americans...  and, we are fooled by that shit, every time there is an election.

Today, I just collect my Social Security and the dividends from my investments and wake up when I want to, eat when I want to, and go wherever I want to whenever I want to go there.

If I have to pay a little bit more for food and gasoline sobeit...  I just cut back somewhere else if I need to...  but what helps me do that is the fact that I have NO DEBT...  in fact, I have been debt free for over 15 years.

The American people are getting screwed by the wealthy and this has been going on ever since my birth and will continue long past my death...  And, one day the people are going to see that it is the wealthy who are the problem and do something about it...  not sure what that is or will be...  but, I do know that the wealthy are only wealthy because of us...

That is to say, we buy their shit...  think about that?  What if we stopped buying? Or, at least, purchased a little less of the shit...  I mean, do we really need all the shit that we have?