Monday, October 6
Sunday, October 5
Wonderings 2
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Mankind's Purpose
Here... it gets a little tricky because we are dealing with several unknowns...
First - is there a creator?
Second - is this creator God as mentioned in the Bible?
Third - was our creation merely a result of natural evolution?
Fourth - did extraterrestrials alter our DNA to accelerate or modify our evolution?
Fifth - does our existence come with an afterlife?
Sixth - are there multiple dimensions?
Seventh - are there multiple universes?
Eighth - are there white holes just as there are black holes?
Nineth - do these white holes create new universes?
Tenth - if the universe creates its own temperature, is there entropy?
With each new generation of human beings, there is increased knowledge and awarenesses that leads the wanderer and the wonderer to develop new questions, especially when technology advances providing us with such tools as Artificial Intelligence.
Although AI is limited in its scope and awareness, it still has access to knowledge that the normal human being does not know exists such as advanced cosmology, or theoretical physics, or biometrics, robotics, or astronomy to name a few.
Purpose, like anything else, must have a beginning and an end... a goal... an endpoint... that may not be death, if there is an afterlife... although our purpose might change a little... or for some, a lot.
If life is for 100 years and the afterlife is for infinity, then it is easily understandable that those two purposes in general will be different... and even moreso, after factoring all our individual differences.
This will give you something to ponder until my next article.
Enjoy your wonderings and your wanderings.
The world is going nuclear again
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Just like the dusty vinyl records your parents were on the verge of tossing for years, nuclear power is undergoing a renaissance.
For decades, the energy source fell out of favor due to safety concerns and high plant construction costs; its share of the world’s electricity supply plummeted to 9% in 2024 from 17% in 1996, according to the global energy think tank Ember.
But in recent years, amid advances in safety and experimental tech promising greater affordability, many countries have begun to view nuclear power generation as a source of scalable low-carbon energy. Meanwhile, tech giants have started bankrolling reactors to power the AI boom.
America united around splitting atoms
In the US, the embrace of nuclear energy has been bipartisan. During the Biden administration, Congress passed subsidies to incentivize the deployment of nuclear energy. And in his second term, President Trump issued executive orders aimed at reducing regulatory hurdles for new reactors, with the stated aim of quadrupling capacity by 2050.
Over a dozen reactors have been closed in the US since 2012, and no new large-scale nuclear power plants are getting built—yet. But as anticipated next-gen reactors undergo regulatory review, several older decommissioned ones are getting de-mothballed:A decommissioned reactor at Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in American history, is due to go back online (it wasn’t involved in the 1979 accident). The reactor’s owner, Constellation Energy, signed a 20-year power purchasing agreement with Microsoft last year.
And this summer, the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan became the first decommissioned US nuclear power plant to return to operational status, financed in part by a $1.5 billion loan from the Department of Energy.
The world powers ahead
Despite the renewed enthusiasm in the US, the vast majority of new capacity is coming online in other countries.
China, which lacks fossil fuel reserves, has added 80% of the world’s new nuclear capacity in the past five years and is due to surpass the US in total nuclear power generation, according to the International Energy Agency.
Meanwhile, the EU gave nuclear power a boost when it recognized it as a clean energy source, making it eligible for government subsidies. France currently plans to build six new nuclear reactors.
The UK plans to increase its nuclear capacity to meet 25% of its electricity needs by 2050, up from 15% currently. And Russia is working on 19 nuclear power plants beyond its borders in places like Turkey, Iran, and Bangladesh, making it the biggest exporter of nuclear capacity.
Looking ahead…Goldman Sachs projects that the world will have 500 functioning nuclear reactors in 2030, up from the current 440. By 2040, nuclear power will supply 12% of global electricity compared to the current 9%, according to the bank’s estimates.—SK
Robert Reich
We need to talk about it openly
Friends,
I’d like to talk with you about a difficult subject.
A significant number of you are disoriented by what Trump and his lapdogs are doing. Many are deeply anxious. Some of us are depressed.
For years, medical experts have recommended that Americans be screened for “anxiety disorders.”
But what many of us are feeling now is not a personal disorder. It’s a rational response to a nation that’s becoming ever more disordered.
What we’re experiencing is not a sickness or individual distress. It’s a sensible reaction to a society becoming sicker and more stressed.
Trump and the enablers around him aren’t just violating the Constitution and disregarding laws. They’re not merely doing cruel and vindictive things.
At A Glance
Some couples use chatbots to mediate their marriages—often ending in divorce.
A star investment banker was fired, launching a 10-year legal fight.
Imagining if Disney films about animals were scientifically accurate.
Reflections from Ben Giles, the world's greatest stain remover.
A tracker keeping score on past and future prophecies of apocalypse.
Restaurants are dishing out more chicken amid "The Great Chickening."
Six examples of unusually large single-celled organisms.
In "Life of a Showgirl," Taylor Swift nods to Pre-Raphaelite muse Elizabeth Siddal.
How NASA plans to build a base on the moon.
Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was a satire urging cannibalism.
Gatorade was first developed for college football players in the Florida heat.
How dreams have long been used for religious and political power.
A map showing trip durations via train from various European stations.
A history of the boombox, aka the Portable Radio Cassette Recorder.
In The NEWS
Hamas partially agrees to ceasefire deal.
Hamas agreed Friday to some elements of a peace deal proposal President Donald Trump introduced earlier this week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Namely, the group said it would give up power in the Gaza Strip and release all remaining Israeli hostages. Hamas said it was ready to enter mediated negotiations on the other points. The announcement came hours after Trump warned Hamas to accept the deal by 6 pm ET tomorrow.
Sean 'Diddy' Combs sentenced to over 4 years in prison.
The hip-hop mogul will receive credit for the 12 months he's already spent in prison. Combs is also subject to a $500K fine—the most allowed by law—and five years of supervised release. The two prostitution-related charges he was convicted of in July carried maximum sentences of 10 years each. Combs was acquitted of more serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors had sought more than an 11-year prison sentence, while Combs' lawyers advocated for no more than 14 months.
Scientists make strides toward universal donor organs.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia successfully converted a kidney from blood type A to universal blood type O and transplanted it into a brain-dead recipient. The feat could expand access to donor organs by eliminating blood type as a barrier. Current methods for overcoming mismatched blood types require a living donor and the recipient to undergo an intensive immune suppression treatment.
Property management companies settle multimillion-dollar rental-pricing suit.
Real estate giant Greystar and 25 other companies will pay over $141M to resolve a class action lawsuit accusing landlords of using rent-setting algorithms to inflate housing costs. The implicated companies must also stop sharing nonpublic information with RealPage, the software company behind the algorithms. Plaintiffs are pursuing a separate case against RealPage, which contends high rents are driven by limited housing supply and its tools often encourage landlords to lower rents.
Supreme Court to hear challenge to Hawaii gun law.
The high court agreed yesterday to decide whether states can bar people from carrying guns on private property, including stores and hotels, without the property owner's explicit permission. Hawaii is one of five Democratic-led states that enacted restrictions on concealed carry after a 2022 Supreme Court ruling made it easier to obtain permits. A decision is expected by next summer.
Trump administration freezes $2.1B from Chicago transit projects.
Funding was withheld for intercity train line improvements in Chicago amid the administration's threats to cut resources to Democratic-run states and cities during the government shutdown. Earlier this week, the administration froze roughly $18B earmarked for New York City infrastructure projects and nearly $8B for clean energy projects in 16 Democratic-leaning states.
Apple and Google pull immigration enforcement reporting app.
The tech giants' app stores no longer carry ICEBlock and similar apps that let users monitor and report Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. Apple said the decision followed concerns from law enforcement, who noted the gunman who attacked an ICE facility in Dallas last week searched for ICE tracking apps. ICEBlock has been downloaded over 1 million times.
Lessons Learned
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There are a few lessons that I learned during my 45-year career, I would like to pass along, but I wonder if it will make any difference to the reader... I wonder this because my father tried to pass along his lessons learned and I paid no attention to him, saying I want to learn on my own.
Learning on my own was brutal because I was terminated (not fired) ten times. Ten times during a 45-year career is once every 4.5 years which sounds horrible. But the essence of my terminations revolved around me not wanting to kiss anyone's ass.
My father worked for 40 years at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC. We lived in Alexandria, VA, four miles south next to the Potomac River.
Think about that a minute...
He worked for one company for 40 years and every 4 or 8 years, there was a new administration, either Democrat or Republican.
The only way that one can keep one's job for that long in a high-risk environment is to KISS ASS or keep a file of dirt on all high-ranking people.
So,
even if I had listened to my father, it would have made no difference because I had a difference personality.
My Lessons:
- Arrive early - leave late
- Learn as much as you can as quick as you can
- Be careful what you volunteer for
- Make sure you can outwork everyone around you
- Put your family second if you need to
- Change jobs every 3-5 years for more money
- Change states for even more money
- Eliminate all debt quickly
- Have backup plans
- Fake your loyalty
- Constantly look for a better opportunity
- Save what you can all the time
- Have a career plan that is fluid
- Have a retirement plan that is fluid
- NEVER LOOK BACK
We Might Be Living Inside A 2 Billion Light-Year Void
In 1981, while conducting a redshift survey of the distribution of galaxies, astronomers spotted something (or nothing) that they weren't expecting.
"[W]e discovered that the redshift distributions in each of the three northern fields showed an identical 6,000 [kilometers per second] gap. Because these fields were separated by angles of ~35°, this suggested the existence of a large void in the galaxy distribution of at least comparable angular diameter," the team wrote in a paper in 1987, adding, "The low density of this region is of high statistical significance and does not appear easily reconcilable with any of the popular models for the growth structure in the universe."
Lying in the vicinity of the Boötes constellation, it became known as the Boötes Void, or sometimes the Great Nothing. For a long time, it was the largest known void in the universe, spanning 330 million light-years across. To put that in context, that's about 0.35 percent of the diameter of the entire observable universe.
Saturday, October 4
Wonderings
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Most of my 78 years has been spent wandering around either INSIDE MY HEAD or around the US and Europe. My accomplishments to some, have been minor, while to others have been great. Life is relative is all its aspects, while most measure accomplishments in term of financial prowess or buildings and streets named after you. I could have added by holding elected office but here recently, those who hold/held office are not held in high esteem.
Wonderings of the Mind
These wonderings can been seen simply as a search to answer one question with two parts:
Why am I here and What is my purpose?
When doing this type of search, one must first look at:
- Philosophy
- Psychology
- Mythology
- Ancestry
- Country
- Geographic Location
All of this (and more) have an influence on who one is and one's purpose.
The first stop for me was identifying my personality and I did this through the Myers-Briggs Questionnaire which indicated that my type was INTJ.
Once you understand what type of personality you have, you have a really good understanding of who you are and especially WHY you act the way you do.
You are a byproduct of philosophy, psychology (personality), ancestors, mythology (includes religion), ancestry, and most importantly the country in which you live as well as the geographical location.
Example - being raised in the southern US is different from being raised in the northern US.
My next wonderings article will discuss our purpose....
