Russians building world's largest nuclear powered ice breaker

Ace of Spades

quote:

Powered by two “RITM-200” pressurized water reactors the “Arctic” is being built to generate 175MWe. Its efficiency and power allows the new model to crack ice fields 3 meters thick.

comment:

I thought the arctic ice cap was melting.  If so, why do the Russians think they will need a big ice breaker?  Do you think it is possible that the Russians didn't get the memo?  Maybe Al Gore can break the bad news to them.

Catching up on some space news

With all this political stuff, it's time for a change of pace.  If for no other reason, to relieve the angst of watching those bozos.

Anyway, I was wondering what happened to the Falcon Heavy.  I thought they were going to have their first test flight this year, and now this year is nearly over.  What happened?  Well, I found no explanation.  But it is on for next year, so there's that.

Ah, but before that I started looking at the so-called SLS.  It has remarkably few flights proposed for it.  The pace is glacial, to say the least.  Besides, it's expensive as hell.  The first flight is scheduled for 2017.  Actually, that's not a terribly long time from now, but they have to stay on schedule in order to do it.  We'll see.

Bach to Spacex:  they've retired the Grasshopper.  There was some regret about that because they hadn't broken it, so sayeth their spokeswoman.  It reminds me of the movie "The Right Stuff", I think it was.  There was a scene in there where Chuck Yeager gets into a plane and crashes it.  You wonder what kind of craziness is this?  But it isn't crazy.  Engineers don't think they've tested something until they've made it fail.  So, he was just doing his job as a test pilot.  He pushed the plane into failure mode to test its limits.

Anyway, they are going to move to a location in New Mexico in order to continue tests on the new version.  It won't be called the Grasshopper anymore.  It's going to have more engines and it is going to go faster and higher, I suppose.  With that, it will most likely have some failures, and thus, it will get broken.  I think that is why they are moving to New Mexico.  More open space for the crashes.  You don't want to crash on top of somebody's house.

Anyway, there's a picture of an actual flight where the stage they are trying to recover was filmed just 3 meters above the surface of the water where it crashed.  Spacex was attempted to soft land on the water after delivering the payload to space.  It wasn't expected to succeed and it didn't.  However, the stage did survive up to that point, which is something.  Plus they got some data to play around with.  The engineers got a failure mode to learn something from.

One other thing on this post.  I noticed that there will be a lot of flights in 2014 for Spacex.  It looks like they are on their way to dominating the space business.  Let's see if I am right about that.

You know, if it weren't for Spacex, we'd be dead in the water as far as the space program is concerned.  Thank goodness they are having some success.

I'm going to watch the Right Stuff.  That's when this was a real country.  Not the way it is now.

Business lobbyists cheer Boehner smackdown of conservative groups

American Thinker

Sounds like more leftism disguised as free market capitalism.  I say threaten to tax them 90% with no loopholes, and let's see how fast they shape up.

Santa Claus is now a controversy

Megyn Kelly has supposedly gotten pretty big.  Perhaps this story gives a clue why.  This whole story that she relates here is ridiculous, as it was intended to be humorous.  But the lack of humor and humanity where we are in this country.  Thanks a lot, Megyn, for demonstrating what the left doesn't have to offer this country.

GOP on leftist payroll?

If the Big Money actually favors the Democrats, then why does the GOP not go along with a big, big tax hike on these bastards?  Could there be a lot of GOP types on the payroll?  Just asking.

Maybe the GOP is content with being a punching bag.  The pay is good.

Who Funds the Far Left? You’ll Be Surprised

Powerline

Actually, no, it doesn't surprise me that the Big, Big Money supports the Far Left.

What surprises me is how many people fall for their BS.

There are some names on that list in which I do business.  I am going to have reconsider why I should be doing business with some of these folks.

* Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, one of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists.
* American Iron and Steel Institute
* America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP
* Apple Inc.
* AT&T
* Bank of America
* Blackstone, one of the largest multinational private equity firms
* Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
* Citigroup
* The Coca-Cola Company
* Comcast NBCUniversal
* CVS Caremark Inc.
* Eli Lilly and Company
* Facebook
* GE
* Goldman Sachs
* Google
* Japan Bank for International Cooperation
* Microsoft Corporation
* Northrop Grumman, defense contractor
* PepsiCo
* Samsung
* Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States
* Time Warner Inc.
* Walmart
* Wells Fargo

Well, it's almost impossible not to do business with these dudes.  They own nearly everything.

CHINA SUCCESSFULLY SOFT-LANDS PROBE ON THE MOON

Obama once spoke of the Sputnik Moment.  Thanks to Obama, we're not going to the moon anytime soon.  Once again, Obama is all show and no dough.

Not that canceling Constellation was a bad idea.  But he did nothing to improve upon it.  Even something big and clunky is better than nothing, which is where we are now.

Steve Stockman is a loose cannon - be very afraid

Free Republic

Stockman has some good zingers.  Cornyn is full of corn.  The corn can only go so far.

Thanksgiving Celebrates Our 'Original Sin,' 'Views Virtually Identical To Nazis,' Prof Preaches

NOTE:  This is a repost from last year.  It is a bit late, admittedly, so let me explain why I put it up.  We have millions of white people being manipulated by appeals to guilt like this.  So, I'm putting this up as a way to counter the guilt-tripping of the left.


Besides what I wrote below, I have to object to the genocide charge.  There are more Native Americans now than ever before.  So, they were hardly wiped out.  Western culture has been good for them.  They only suffer to this day because of their continued opposition to it.  They won't be better off if they go back to the old ways.  That is the true myth being peddled.  That the past holds some garden of Eden that the white man destroyed.

If you ever care to notice, the left really never addresses solving problems.  They are only interested in exploiting conditions.  They are the true exploiters, in that sense.  It goes much deeper than this, even, but I'll leave it at that for now.


The repost begins directly below....


Free Republic

According to Jensen, Thanksgiving is “at the heart of U.S. myth-building. “But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today,” he explained.

The danger I see is the opposite.  This kind of thinking that Jensen espouses is destroying this country and Europe too.  It is driven by guilt.  Those who are driving it are trying to make people feel guilty.  The guilt is used to manipulate people and to gain power.

Why oblige them?

There are two sides to every story.  Every story of alleged wrongdoing back then would have another side.  But everyone alive then is now dead.  The dead cannot defend themselves. The wronged parties are also dead.  Nothing you can do now can reverse the injustice done back then.

The bottom line is that you don't apologize or feel guilty about being successful.

Besides, even if he is exactly right- that there's abundant proof of wrongdoing, it wasn't done by anyone now alive.  Therefore, the guilt is not going to change that, nor will it lead to justice.  Justice can only occur when those who are guilty are punished for their crimes.  If a person isn't guilty, then punishment for nonexistent guilt is also a crime.

It is also against the Constitution which forbids ex post facto laws and punishment for people who are related by blood (corruption of blood).

It is also wrong to impose some type of group guilt with punishment imposed for simply being who you are.

It is illogical and manipulative.  If there's anything that would help this country more than anything, that would be for people like this to be discredited.  But that doesn't appear to be in the cards.

California Voters Agree State is Expensive and Lacks Jobs

American Thinker

Quote:

One of the reasons the reported unemployment rate isn't higher is that the State of California's statistically considers all 1,427,000 welfare recipients to be "employed." With only 12% of the nation's population, 34% of nation's welfare recipients now live in California. This robust participation rate in this "employment program" is due to California paying ultra-high monthly cash grants of $638 to families on welfare. The state also continues to pay benefits for children after the parents lose eligibility and provides child care and transportation if beneficiaries attend school or training.[emphasis added]

Comment:

For those with a brain, let's figure out what this means.  Number one, giving people free stuff doesn't make them "employed".  That's dishonesty.  This is how California can fool themselves and the rest of us into thinking that conditions are good over there.  Number two, those who are on the receiving end can't pay for their benefits.  This impoverishes not only the recipients, but the state itself.  Number three, the people who like this outcome are the problem, which exacerbates the situation and makes it difficult to unwind.  Try taking away their free stuff and they will go on a rampage.

The only way to turn California around is to get enough people over there to recognize that all this free stuff is hurting them, not helping them.  Only if you pull that off can you even begin to have hope for that state.  They don't care that they don't have enough jobs.  After all, the government will take care of them.  But what happens when the government is no longer capable of doing that?

Battle of Midway, WWII

At the end of a film on that subject, the character for Adm. Nimitz asked if we were better than the Japanese, or just lucky.

Well, our side had a few things the Japanese didn't have.  We had radar.  We cracked their codes.  We had better reconnaissance, as we had more planes than they had.  We were also in our own backyard, so to speak.  We had other advantages, too.  Like better fire suppression in ships.  Better armor on our planes.

But we had some disadvantages.  There were few battleships available because of the successful Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.  These battleships could have provided greatly needed cover.  The Japanese had them and it was almost decisive.  We were nearly out of attack planes when the final ones came in and caught the Japanese by surprise.  It was a surprise because they didn't expect a third carrier to be available.  Yorktown was damaged at Coral Sea.  Emergency repairs made her sea worthy, and this wasn't expected.  Three Japanese carriers were knocked out with that last blow.  That final carrier was decisive.  Game over.

No, the Battle of Midway wasn't all luck.  There was some luck involved.  That luck could have been decisive as well.  But it wasn't all luck.  If that third carrier wasn't available, even this wouldn't have been good enough.

The moral of the story.  Don't count on luck.  You should strive to be good enough to take advantage of what luck you may get.

A trend that you won't see repeated on this blog

I realize people have to make money.  That's something I've always wanted to do with this blog.  Sure, it hasn't happened.  I haven't made a penny off of it.

Now, there are some well-read blogs out there.  One thing I'm noticing more and more is a lot of very annoying advertising.  Just before I started writing this, I clicked on a link from Instapundit to an article in the Altantic.   It was nearly impossible to read the damned article because of the advertising.  I've noticed that on Next Big Future too.  There's an irritating little ad that plays there, not once, but twice on the same damned page.  I've gotten around that problem by turning down the volume.  I hate audio when I'm trying to read.  Chron.com is also bad about that.  I figure if this trend continues long enough, you may as well not read these things anymore.  They are totally useless.

That will never happen on this blog. Even if I don't ever make a penny here, I won't compromise on content.  If you come here, you will see something and you will be able to read it.  Not like these other bozos who are getting too damned greedy and won't keep the damned advertising in check.

Prediction: China will get molten-salt reactors first

Well, duh!  Of course they will.  They have the means, the motive, and the will to do it.  If we were to get into a "moon shot" race with them for producing a commercial design, they'd probably win it anyway.  They are ahead and we still haven't gotten the will, and maybe not even the means to win the race.  But we have an even bigger motive than they do.  If they win this, we are in a lot of trouble.  This fact has undoubtedly not sunk in amongst our glorious leaders.  Our leaders are just not very bright, you know.

Why would we be in a lot of trouble?  The Chinese would replace the Saudis as the low cost producer of energy.  Instead of everybody paying the Saudis for their oil, they'd pay the Chinese for their MSR tech.  After all, the Chinese have made it very plain that they intend to enforce the intellectual property should they acquire it.  Make no mistake, they will acquire it.  We proved it in the lab.

If our glorious leaders had the snap, they'd have developed it immediately.  Instead we paid the Saudis and got the terrorists and now we are paying for that too.  I mean, how stupid can you get?

So the Chinese will get super rich off this, and we get relatively poorer.  There you have it.  They will outclass us at every turn.  The only reason the Saudis haven't done it is that they don't have the brains to do something like that.  That might sound "racist", but truth is truth.  Only in recent years has the Islamic world attempted to politically exploit their oil wealth.  They simply don't have the snap to do it.  The Chinese do.  Facts are facts.

The reality of this outcome just hit me.  We may have to throw a "hail Mary" pass in order to try to rescue ourselves from our past folly.  Just because we were dealing with dummies doesn't mean we will always be dealing with dummies.  This is going to cost us dearly.

What "hail Mary" pass?  One of two possibilities.  Cold fusion or aneutronic fusion.  Either one may work, or neither may work.  We'd better hope that at least one of them works, or start learning to speak Chinese.

Superfluid helium

Quantum mechanics is weird shit.

Huckabee candidacy?

The idea seemed intriguing, but I am already starting to sour on it.  Huckabee doesn't look like the real deal to me.  Ace of Spades' Gabriel Malor doesn't seem to like him either.

A few things stand out in a quick review:  1) has questionable judgment in clemency decisions.  Way too lenient there.  2) Said he was for a cap-and-trade system, then changed his story.  Of the two, the second one seems more serious.  He may not be on the level.  Another 3) quibble: wants to spend more on national defense.  That means a big government conservative.  We don't need that.

On the plus side, he seems to poll well. He should pull in the "stupids" who seem to be the ones who make the difference in this country.

So, we could have a couple hillbillies running for Prez in 2016.  Huck and Hill, what a thrill.

austin powers get in my belly

"You're lucky, wee man!"

There will have to be a political realignment

Perhaps you can see that in the concessions Paul Ryan made.  The other concessions are probably coming.  There is a danger that it can become a rout.

The Tea Party is going to have to act quickly, or they will be overwhelmed.

One thing that they can do is to support national defense and nuclear power.  Nuclear power might get some greenies on board.  Do we want those?  Their baggage may not be the kind we should want.  However, I think that impression should require a second look.  I look at Joe Sestak as a possibility.  He favors LFTR technology.  He seems to favor a strong defense.  It may be a start.

Look, the idea amongst those accommodationalists like Ryan is to help the Democrats grow the government.  There needs to be an alternative to the runaway-big-government-debt-paradigm that we are on now.

Hate to say it, but the Reagan idea of free trade combined with the increasing reliance upon paper money debt is now working against small government conservatism.  Small government conservatives may have to back away from Reagan worship.  Reagan looks more like a big government conservative these days.  We are on the wrong track with our trade policies, and a gold plated defense establishment.

Reagan strongly supported Milton Friedman's trade ideas.  It may have been a good fit for the times.  But times have changed.  However, I have always had a problem with what Friedman said in his book "Free To Choose", which Reagan lauded.  Friedman said that we shouldn't worry about trade deficits.  He even went to an extreme to prove his point, which was a dubious one in my opinion.  He said that even if all our industry left, and all we had was paper money to pay our debts, that this would be "wonderful for us".  He said that we can produce the paper in great quantity and at low cost.  Yes, of course.  But our backside is left exposed.

Thus, it is fatally flawed for it fails to consider final outcomes.  So, what happens at the end of the day when the rest of the world stops taking our worthless currency?  That appears to be the track we are on after 30 years of hollowing-out our industrial base.  We need to find another way.  Reaganomics is out of date.  We need to move on.  When Dick Cheney said that the eighties proved that deficits didn't matter, everybody should have seen the big red light on the dashboard.  A lot did, and that is how we ended up with an Obama.  Obama intends to grow the government without bounds.  Is that what we signed up for?

The runaway growth in military spending also helped the runaway growth in domestic spending.  There needs to be a way to fund the military without breaking the piggy bank.

The Tea Party looks like a reaction to big government debt paradigm.  But it is too easily marginalized as racist.  The Tea Party had better broaden its base, or the marginalization will be fatal.

I'm not suggesting so-called immigration reform.  I am suggesting smaller government and a growth policy that relies upon getting a competitive advantage in international trade.  Not all in the "minority" community favors immigration reform, you know.  In fact, the majority does not.  We could have an alternative for them with a policy like this which can provide more job opportunities here at home.  Most of these people come here to work, not to collect a government check.  Something like this could appeal to those kind of people that we should want here.  Not the kind that Obama is trying to attract with all their free stuff.  What Obama offers cannot last if our system collapses, and it will if it cannot produce and compete on the world markets.

GOP is going to lose on ALL the issues

Just you watch.  The Administration is going to get a crack at gun control through the arm control treaty.  The GOP probably won't stop that.

They are going to get all their judges and appointees because of the nuclear option.  Why?  The GOP won't shut down the Senate.  Harry Reid would have done it in 2005 -2006 if the GOP had have exercised the "nuclear option" back then.  More than likely, the GOP would have caved-in then as they always do.

They are probably going to lose on immigration too, because Boner is running scared.

By the time the election rolls around, it may not even matter.  The Democrats will have everything they need to steal the next election anyway.  Even if the Dems lose, the GOP will be too timid to do anything with their power.  We know that because that is the way they are acting now even though they do have some power.

What I see is a lot of boldness and daring amongst the Dems, and a lot of timidity and caution amongst the GOP.  What I see is that the Dems are willing to undergo some pain in order to get some gain.  The GOP on the other hand, insists upon playing it safe.  That's what Beanbag Romney did and we see what good that did him.  They are thinking like Romney did:  that all they have to do is play it safe and count the votes on election day and they will win that way. It didn't work then, it won't work now.

Joe Sestak - Governing, Logistics, Rare Earth Minerals & Thorium @ TEAC5

He talks a good line of shit, and not all of it is about Thorium.  He puts his finger on what the problem is in DC.

I've said it before, ideology can make you stupid.  If you blindly follow ideology, you really are stupid.

Sunniva Rose - TEDxOslo - Thorium Energy

At the end of the talk, she asks how is it possible to worry about global warming and not be pro-nuclear?

Sign petition---stop GUN GRABBERS

Yeah, the toe sucker created it.  But it is important and it needs to be done TODAY.  Otherwise, Obama can implement the treaty even without it being ratified.  ( UN gun control )

Mein Kampf The Story of Adolf Hitler HD History Channel

It has struck me recently how the Democrats rely so much upon stupidity to win.  Even some of their leaders are really stupid, as can be seen from videos.  Bush was supposed to be stupid, but he seems like Einstein compared to some of these bozos.

Maybe the appeal to reason cannot work.  This could explain some of the Democrat success.  Perhaps they have an inspiration.

Who could that be?  A clue could have been observed in Obama's acceptance speech for the Democrat nomination for President back in 2008.  He gave it at night and out in an open venue.  There was somebody in history who liked to do open air night time speeches like that.

Hitler thought the public was stupid, and could be controlled with emotion.  He learned some of his oratorical techniques by studying and emulating operatic performances.  It was all calculated to manipulate the emotions, definitely not an appeal to reason.

If an appeal to reason cannot work, it may well explain a great many things.  Not to mention that it doesn't bode well for the future.

Coup d'état, a slippery phrase

It is supposed to be an unlawful seizure of power, but I suspect that its usage is getting a bit muddied up.

For one instance, consider the latest fashion to call the Kennedy assassination a coup.  No, there was no coup.  Now, if LBJ ordered the hit so that he could become President, then that might be considered a coup.  However, nobody has ever said that.  Personally, I think that it is a bunch of nonsense.  Rather than to say why I think so, I just refer people back to what I wrote on the assassination itself.

Aside from this, there was the 1953 Iranian "coup d'état".  Back in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution, a lot of the reportage at the time seemed sympathetic to the revolutionaries.  The reason given was the CIA support for the "coup".  But was it really a coup?  The story is that the Shah dismissed Mossadegh and replaced him with a general.

Well, hoop-de-friggin'-do.  Monarchs have the power to dismiss Parliamentary figureheads like Mossadegh if they so chose.  If they couldn't, they'd have a different kind of government.  I looked it up.  Iran did have a constitution at that time, and the Shah did have that power.  So, was the power illegally used or not?  I'm not so sure it was illegal.  If not, it couldn't have been a coup.  One thing that I am sure of is that the Shah was a weak man.  That's why the CIA and the Brits had to step in.  He couldn't deal with it himself.

Yet another example here in the good 'ol USA.  The latest power grab by Harry Reid and the Democrats in the Senate has also been referred to as a coup.  No, it wasn't a coup.  But was it wise?  We'll see.

There are plenty of other examples, but this should be enough.  So, this word "coup" gets thrown out there and it seems a bit overwrought, and overused.  Pardon me for my being a stickler for definitions.  Words means things as Rush likes to say.  Let's make sure we use the right words at all times.

Who the Democrats Really Are

American Thinker

The results may surprise.  But it shouldn't really if you have been paying attention.

Benghazigate: Where are the Drone Videos?

American Thinker

quote:

One of the most startling revelations of late was that Congress has not seen the videos made by the Predator/Reaper...Sharyl Attkisson appears to have been the first journalist to (Caution-autoplay) report (20 Oct.) on those videos and aircraft a month after the event:...Devin Nunes (R-CA) asks about those videos here at 0:50 (Caution-autoplay) saying "just provide the videos."

comment:

Is there something here that's being suppressed for political reasons?  Could this be the equivalent of the Watergate Tapes?

Ryan Deal Includes Procedural Gift to Harry Reid

 Permitting Him to Raise Taxes on a Simple Majority Vote, Rather than Requiring 60 Votes

source: Ace of Spades blog

quote from National Review:

A House aide says Reid can send tax bills to the House all he wants, since they will never fly in the lower chamber. “House Republicans would never approve a tax increase,” he says.

Yeah, that may be true today since the GOP controls the House, but what if they lose control and the Senate minority could have blocked tax increases?  This is a giveaway.  Why do it?  Are these people nuts?

Florida Becomes Third State to Pre-File

Free Republic

quote:

Florida State Senator Alan Hays (R-Umatilla) filed SM 476 on Friday petitioning Congress to call an Article V Convention of States.

Senator Hays stated, “Everywhere I go, people ask me what can be done to reform Washington, D.C. This petition to Congress to convene the Article V convention is the first step toward that reform. This ‘runaway’ Federal government is of great concern to Americans of all political parties and of all the states.”[emphasis added]

Precisely.

"Why is Our Government Doing This to Us?"

Rush Limbaugh

comment:

To answer the question, what about oikophobia?

Republicans plan 30-hour talkathon to protest 'nuclear option' use in Senate

The Hill

quote:

“When you blow up the Senate rules, there has to be a consequence,” said a Republican senator.

comment:

So, what consequence is that?  A minor delay on a confirmation vote?  Whoo-de-do.  That'll show 'em!!!!! /sarc

Who believes these clowns anymore?

BOHICA Act of 2013 | RedState

BOHICA Act of 2013 | RedState


What does BOHICA mean?  Bend over, I think I know ya?

To be a Republican, you have to be a glutton for punishment

An Ace of Spades article shows how the Democrats will play this ObamaCare rollout thing.  They are going to claim success even when no success exists.   The GOP for its part will have to dispute the numbers and anybody who doesn't know any better will think it is just politics as usual.  This is a net zero for the GOP, and tends to show the pattern of futility that they seem to be so fond of.  It is almost as if they like this shit.

MIT BioSuit System Would Make Space Missions More Comfortable

MIT BioSuit System Would Make Space Missions More Comfortable

Next Big Future: Limits to Growth Model used for 2052 forecast

Next Big Future: Limits to Growth Model used for 2052 forecast and ...: Note- Nextbigfuture does not believe that the Limits to Growth Models are correct. [emphasis added, and I freaking agree]

Comment:

Not only are Limits to Growth freaking wrong, if we don't get this out of our system, China will rule the world.  That's my freaking prediction.

Obamacare and the Bifurcated Cusp

andstillipersist  via Transterrestrial Musings

quote:

One example that Prof. Ferguson cited was that of a man approaching a hostile dog chained to a post. The dog growls but does not bark until the man gets within a certain distance — say, 10 feet. At that point, the dog shifts suddenly from mere warning to outright attack. However, if the man takes one step back, the dog does not suddenly settle back down into warning behavior. Instead, the dog continues in attack mode — active barking and snarling — until the man has retreated a substantial distance farther than the point at which the attack mode commenced — say, 20 feet.

Comment:

This is said to be a catastrophe, since it is difficult or impossible to recover from it.  Sort of like a bug hitting a windshield.  "Sometimes you're the Lousiville Slugger, sometimes your the ball".

"Progressives" don't want progress

I'm reading this anti American stuff with a link gotten from Drudge.

It occurred to me from reading it that the so-called progressives really don't like progress very much.  Everything that has happened to the betterment of mankind has been blocked by these people at some point.  The same goes for nuclear power.

Look, I'm reading this book about the oil industry.  There can be no doubt that the oil industry has improved the hell out of living conditions.  But the people who made it happen were treated as villains by these so-called progressives.  If it were up to them, we'd all still be getting around by horse and buggy, and living shorter lives.

The beef I have with the rich is that they don't do even more of it.  But you can understand the reason they don't.  If you are going to be treated as a villain, why bother?  In the end, everybody holds on to what they've got and the wealth of the nation begins to ebb away, little-by-little.  A caste structure begins to take shape, which takes the place of upward mobility.  The left desperately needs this outcome so that they can continue to control everything and make everyone miserable with all their do-goodery.

Reading "The Prize"

It's a history of the oil industry from its beginnings to the present day.

The book was mentioned by Jim Kennedy as something of a must read and so I am.

Update a short time later:

Thought I'd mention something I came across with respect to the Russian Revolution.  The author has a very low opinion of the Czar and his men.  It reminded me of what I think of the current crop of so called leaders of this country.  Could the incompetence and stupidity at such a high level lead to a revolution in this country?  Could be.

Jim Kennedy - Nature & Loss of Wealth of Our Nation - REE, Thorium & MSR @ TEAC5

If you are a patriotic American, you should watch this video.  Sure, it is about Thorium, but much more than that, it is about how our country is on the wrong path and how to right the ship, and bring er back home.

It is not a technical address.  It is a patriotic address.  You have to watch this in order to understand what is going on and what needs to change and change soon.

GOP strategy, if it can be called that

It must be what Dick Morris proposed awhile back---"sweet reasonableness".  Rather than go for the throat, we are seeing nothing confrontational at all.

• The Democrats exercise the "nuclear option" in the Senate, the GOP response?---to be "sad".  Is there any doubt that if the shoes were on the other foot that Harry Reid would have shut down the Senate?
• Recall the shut down in October?  Back then, the Democrats were demanding an end to sequestration.  It now appears that they are going to get it.  Once again, no confrontation, just sweet reasonableness.
• They've been playing it tough on immigration, but Boehner gave off some hints that we may see a cave-in there as well.

In the meantime, there has been nothing but wall-to-wall negative news about the rollout of ObamaCare.  So, is that the angle they are playing?  That the rollout will not improve and it will lead to enough voter discontent that they can win back the Senate and keep on in the House?  But, it is a long time between now and next November.  It may be asking a lot to keep everything revolving around that discontent so that they can rake in the votes.

Or does the GOP love futile tactics?  Like the impeachment talk.  Like the shut down.  This could be yet another futile tactic.  In such a case, there is no real strategy at all except to look tough and go down swinging.  Or be like Charlie Brown and Lucy, with Lucy pulling back the ball at the last minute.  Charlie Brown gets fooled again.

Protesters in Kiev Topple Lenin Statue as Rallies Grow

New York Times

Quote:

we want the police and the government to pay attention to the people and come over to our side. They are fighting their own people.”

Comment:

Doesn't that sound familiar?  We have a government in DC that fights its own people too.

Ed Pheil on Molten Salt Reactors & Accelerator Driven Systems after ThEC13

Interesting talk here.  Pheil mentions that there is a place in Iran  that has radiation exposures far greater than that here in the US, but their cancer rates are lower.  The Linear No Threshold Hypothesis suggests that the cancer rate will increase in proportion to the rate of exposure, but this is not the case in this example.  In fact, the LTT is almost always wrong, and the people who push it know that it is wrong.  ( I suspect so. )  In other words, the anti nuke activists are LYING.  But you'd never get people to believe this because to believe it would be so frightening ( but for other reasons ).  Well, they should be afraid ( also for other reasons).  Their future prospects are being limited and their future is being stunted in order to gratify the whims of a few zealots.  If we don't get a handle on this, this country is in danger of becoming truly second rate.  For the zealots, this isn't a bug, it is a feature.

Update:

I hope to clarify what may not have been clear above--- people trust those who are lying to them.  That trust is misplaced for if these anti-nuke zealots are scientists, then they must know what hormesis is.  That makes the LTT a fraud, which is a fraud intended to scare people away from nuclear energy; an event that we simply cannot afford to let happen.

Th08 GREENS vs NUCLEAR and Thorium Energy to Curb Global Warming

Some of this is just downright chilling in how stupid people can be.  Do you realize how close we are right now in closing down our manned space program?  If it weren't for the manned space program, guys like Kirk Sorensen would never have had the opportunity to learn the necessity of energy in recycling everything in space.  That insight can be applied on Earth to great benefit, but it won't happen with expensive energy.  That's what the greens are attempting to force upon us---  a world of want cruelly enforced by unnecessarily expensive energy.  That world of want will be inevitable if we don't keep expanding into space and developing nuclear energy.

How can anything be so clear, yet seemingly so hard to understand?

Cost and Value ( unbeliveable quote )

spudis lunar resources

There was something here that blew my mind.  It just makes me shake my head in wonder at how people can believe stupid shit.

Many polls show that large segments of the public are convinced that NASA gets much more money than many other government agencies, particularly in comparison with social welfare programs.

How the hell can a nation thrive when so many people are dumber than a bag of fucking rocks?

"Objective Truth versus Relativism"

RobertRinger.com

quote:

I agree with C. S. Lewis’s observation that in most cases where people disagree, even heatedly, they almost never disagree on the concept of right and wrong. Arguments usually are a result of two people disagreeing — albeit often unconsciously — about which one is guilty of committing a wrong.

comment:

Yeah, we all know what the truth is in our heart.  That is to say, Obama must know what he means when he says what he says.  So, how do you explain when what he says turns out not to be true?  There's one explanation and that is this--- he's lying.

It may appear to be a sermon...

...but it is not.

Look, the left likes to let on how much they care about the little guy.  I think it is not that way at all.  Whatever good they do is incidental to what their real intentions are, which is to serve themselves at the expense of all others.

Which allows me to segue into the sermonizing.  Perhaps you've heard about this guy named Jesus.  Well, Jesus had a few things to say way back when, and one of those things strikes me as a great leadership model to follow.  To what do I refer?  He washed his disciples feet.  Now consider this for a moment.  Jesus, the Son of God, washes the feet of his followers.  Compared to the real world out there, it is the other way around. In our worldly world, it is the followers who must serve the master, the master never lowers himself to wash the feet of his underlings.  To me, Jesus meant to show his followers the way to lead their flocks: they must serve.  Their own needs come last, the needs of the many come first.

In the days of antiquity, the leaders would often be considered as gods.  Their subjects prostrated themselves before them, there was no chance that they, being gods of this world, would on bended-knee stoop to wash the feet of those below them.  They ruled their kingdoms by force and fear.  They did not serve their kingdoms, they were in command of them, and thus were served.

If you don't believe in Jesus, you have to admit that the idea to serve rather than to be served was quite revolutionary.  Try that today with this bunch in Washington DC.  If those in DC would do just this, things might have a chance to turn around.

Ammonia cracker..if it don't fit, you must uh...quit. ( Revisited!)

Note:

The Urbee concept car uses only a small amount of electricity to get on down the road.  Now, it just might be possible to use only 1 ammonia cracker in that car and that might be feasible.  If so, then you could replace the diesel engine with a fuel cell powered by hydrogen obtained from ammonia.  The amount of ammonia needed should be small, so storage problems are eased significantly.  Mileage per kg of ammonia may be impressive enough to use really small tqnks.  For example, given that about 6 kg of ammonia contains 1 kg of hydrogen, and mileage for the fuel cell is comparable to the battery system, then a tank containing just 6 kg of ammonia could give a range of over 200 miles.  


The repost continues just below....

Aronsson shows his ammonia cracker here.

I extracted some pics from the video:

Looks like the dimensions are approximately 1 cubic foot, this supplies presumably a 5 kilowatt hour fuel cell

The ammonia tank behind the cracker.

And a schematic of the insides of the black box.

There needs to be at least 4 of these crackers for 4 of the 5 kilowatt fuel cells that would be needed for highway driving.  That many fuel cells would be necessary because the electrical discharge on a battery at highway speed is about 20 kilowatts per hour.

Based upon this, I don't think all of this hardware will fit in a car.  The cracker will have to stay off the auto and the hydrogen will have to be compressed at the fueling station before being dispensed to the fuel tank in the car.

SolarCity, Using Tesla Batteries, Aims to Bring Solar Power to the Masses

Technology Review via Instapundit

Quote:

The fee based on that peak electricity...typically between 20 and 60 percent...The battery systems—and the software that controls them—are designed to reduce the peak draw from the grid.

Comment:

Very clever.  They're planning to give away the power generation equipment and selling the electricity.  They believe this will lower the cost of the batteries and make the whole concept work.  Also very clever.

You have to hand it to Musk, he is one clever dude.  But it still isn't a good solution.  Nuclear power would be much better, but you can't do a whole lot about people's irrationality.  It's built in at the factory, sadly.

I probably get a lot of head shaking from those remarks.  They just can't understand why nuclear would be better.  I'd say this in response--- they are so focused on things that don't matter nearly as much as they think and failing to see what should matter even more.  For example, an abundant source of energy like nuclear can make it possible to recycle across the board.  It does this by making it cheaper to recycle than to mine new stuff.  No matter how clever Musk gets, he can never produce the amount of energy nuclear can.  It will always be pricier, too.  All Musk is doing is skimming off the cream.