Next Big Future: China targets new molten salt thorium nuclear reactors

Next Big Future: China targets new molten salt thorium nuclear reac...: The deadline to develop a new design for thorium nuclear power plants has been brought forward by 15 years as the central government tries ...

Comment:

There must be something that I'm missing ---- 10 years?!  After reading this little report here, which was produced in 1985, a lot of what these people are worried about has already been solved.  It should not take that long.

quote:

The thorium reactors would need years, if not decades, to overcome the corrosion issue and the stability of accelerator-driven plants was also in doubt, he said.

speculation:

Could be disinformation for purpose of concealing their progress.  Or they have problems because the information mentioned above was not available to them.

I also found this link at NBF.  This is hardly a new topic, as the link was produced in 2010.


Update:

More here at Sorensen's website.  It asks a question that may be uncomfortable to answer as it may be "no".

Rise of the Bear

the economic collapse blog dot com: 18 signs that Russia is rapidly catching up to the United States

link courtesy of Al Fin next level blog.  Al Fin doesn't believe Russia is all that capable and has serious weaknesses.  Same for China.  It's all very murky.

Hard to tell where the truth is here.  I'll keep banging on the drums for molten-salt reactors, though.  It makes more sense now than ever.  But will that be recognized in time?  Doesn't look good at the moment.

End of petro-dollar, end of dollar's reserve status

Message:

Looks like a credible threat to me.

It could explain Obama's lack of response to Putin. It could also explain Putin's aggressiveness.

What it can't explain is why we are fooling around with windmills and solar panels. Commercialize the molten-salt reactor at the earliest possible time.

Published on Zero Hedge (http://www.zerohedge.com)

Home > Blogs > George Washington's blog > Forget Russia Dumping U.S. Treasuries … Here's the REAL Economic Threat

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Forget Russia Dumping U.S. Treasuries … Here's the REAL Economic Threat

By George Washington

Created 03/21/2014 - 18:33

Veteran Investor Jim Sinclair Says That If Russia Accepts Payment For Oil And Gas In Any Currency Other Than The Dollar – Whether It's Gold, The Euro, The Ruble, The Rupee, Or Anything Else – Then The U.S. Petrodollar System Will Collapse [1]

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Source URL: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-03-21/forget-russia-dumping-us-treasuries-%E2%80%A6-here%E2%80%99s-real-economic-threat

Links:
[1] http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/03/forget-treasuries-russias-real-leverage-u-s.html

Now I have heard everything.

That used to be a common expression.  If it still is, I haven't heard much of it.  I'm using it in reference to this story obtained via an Instapundit link.

Transgender Woman Claims Former Male Self a Murderer.---Breitbart

Great way to beat a rap!  Get a sex change operation.  If you have this homicidal impulse that just cannot be denied, go whack somebody and change your sex.  By golly, you may be able to get off scot free.

Crazy liberals

There are people like this, you know.  This is what informs a great deal of Democrat environmentalist policies.

I actually worked with a crazy liberal who said we had too much technology and should be living in caves again.  comment by "Luke21" on Free Republic

But we can do even better than fracking.  We can do molten-salt reactor technology.  I suggest taking the methane and heat treat it in order to remove the hydrogen.  Use that hydrogen to make ammonia and then ship it to end retailers who will crack the ammonia and sell the hydrogen for fuel cell cars.  This can all be done without any significant new technology.  Hell, molten-salt technology is 40 years old.   Even the enviros used it in their solar designs.  It retains heat that can be used to drive turbines.

From the "are" to the "is"

Just watched the video of the Civil War, from which the title of this post was obtained.  I first referenced it in the post before the last post.  There is only one link there, which I added this morning.  The link in this paragraph will take you to another link that will take you there.  This is the quote in which I remembered, thus the reference to it.  After having watching it, the video was very supportive of democracy, but that support has a dark side.  The dark side is the trajectory towards a unitary, centralized, and oppressively powerful government.  It has been a slow process, not unlike the boil-a-frog scenario mentioned here from time to time.

As the Roman Republic gave way to the Caesars, so does the American Republic give way to the dictators.  Unless something changes, that's where we are headed.  Those who advocate Democracy are only interested in becoming demagogues.  Some day, a demagogue will sweep away what remains of our liberty.  It may not even be a liberal Democrat who does it.  The love of power exists in both parties, and there is nobody who is truly dedicated to liberty, although I may be mistaken about that.

As for the sheep, they are only interested in wearing their chains.  Life as a slave is easier for the moment, but that is only the bait that will hook them in time.  Over time, the pull of the line will become oppressive and they will see their error.  But that time is not yet.

Pardon the mixed metaphors.  But they are good enough for the purpose.

Time for a bit of contemplation

That last post about the Civil War and such may have given the wrong impression.  I'm not defending slavery.

But the fact remains, the North conquered the South, and took their property.  It wasn't legal.  Those alive at that time said something to the effect that there was a "higher law" than the Constitution.  So, my thesis is sound.  They subverted the Constitution and created something different.  It cannot be argued that this had become a different nation.  It has been changing all the time.

The past is the past.  But the future hasn't been written yet.  You study the past in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, but you cannot change it.  What's done is done.

It is a question of how much freedom can be had.  Total freedom is inconsistent with order.  For example, you are not free to do whatever you want, for it you could, you could do any anti-social thing that popped into your mind.  Clearly, in order to have an orderly society, an individual must give up some autonomy.  A rather extreme example:  you cannot kill somebody just because you want to.  It can thus be seen that the prohibition against killing is a restriction upon freedom.  Random killings would cause a problem with order, no doubt.  People would be more inclined to live in peace with each other if they felt safe around each other.  But how much freedom should there be?  The more prohibitions, the less freedom.  These are not trivial questions.

So, we are left with deciding what kind of world we want.  Do we want a more civilized one, or a less civilized one?  For the more civilized it is, the more likely it is to have restrictions upon freedom of some kind.  There may be arguments about that one.  True, it may be an oversimplification.  But it is sound in the main point.  The point being that you must have restrictions of some kind or chaos will be your lot.

Too much control will remove personal initiative.  For if the government became too restrictive, people would lose all autonomy and cease to strive to better their lot.

I think there is a fear amongst some, or maybe even more than some, that too much progress can be a bad thing.  Referring to myself, I have expressed some apprehension about the progress of mankind if such progress leads to outcomes like self-driving cars and certain "trans-human" technologies.  Perhaps I haven't said it quite this way before, but sometimes I wonder if we are headed towards something like the Borg of Star Trek.  Could resistance indeed be futile?  No, I would prefer to resist that particular outcome, thank you very much.  I would prefer a human existence.  A Borg-like creature could not be free.

I suspect there is also a fear that to leave the Earth and live on other planets could change the basic order.  We are in a comfort zone here on Earth.  But that comfort zone may get quite crowded.  This leads to movements like Limits to Growth and environmentalism.  If humans left Earth, these humans could go off into completely new and strange directions.  There may be a real, justifiable fear of this.  If some don't become Borg, others might.  And so on.

Risk is a fact of life, however.  If the Christians hadn't left the Old World, would they have been conquered by the Muslims?  Quite possibly.  But the Muslims fear leaving the Earth, I suspect.  After all, there was some sort of fatwa against the settlement of Mars.  This confirmed my suspicion that Islam is incompatible with space settlement.  You cannot bow to Mecca if you can't even see the Earth with your naked eye.  But I think Christianity can survive anywhere in the Universe.  It may be well that Christians consider leaving Earth, but that would also be risky.  There was also a fear expressed by someone somewhere who said that we may not find God out there.  Whatever we may find may shake our beliefs to their very foundations.  There is a real fear of this, I suspect.  But staying put also has its risks.  Risks cannot be avoided.  There is no perfect safety.

The world changes.  Humans change.  The Universe changes.  It is folly to think you can escape this.  What do you do about the challenge of change?  Deny it, or embrace it?  I choose to embrace freedom.  I'll risk the changes that may occur that I may not like.  Besides, it is not completely my choice, as it isn't completely up to me to make this decision.  It is completely up to me in my own little world, though.  That is true for anyone, for what you choose to believe is really up to you.  At least for the moment, you can believe whatever you want in this country.

If the Republic is Dead, it has been dead a long time already

Barnhardt says the Republic is dead.  Let's start with that premise and say okay, it's true.

How then, did it happen?

If the Republic died, something else had to replace it?  What was that?  Could it have been Democracy?

Yes, since it was certainly not a Democracy in the beginning of the Constitution.  Only one branch was elected and it was balanced off by another co-equal House, which was the Senate.  Clearly, the Framers did not trust Democracy.  Asked what kind of government that they had just created at the Philadelphia Convention, Benjamin Franklin said "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Apparently, it did not keep for long.  Measures that should have been considered unlawful in a Republic guided by the rule of law were accepted as lawful.

Marbury v. Madison was decided in favor of judicial review.  Thus, the Supreme Court gave itself the authority to decide upon the constitutionality of a measure.  But there's nothing explicit in the Constitution that grants this power.  Some may claim that this is implied, but if it is implied, who is to decide that?  Why those who gave themselves that power, that's who.  Perhaps something's wrong with that.  It is the rule of men, not the rule of law.  It may take a man to decide something in the moment, but the law has to sort thing out legally.  A temporary expedient is not a solution.

Yet, if Marbury v. Madison is wrong, then a lot of our history is wrong.  For that occurred in the first decade of the nineteenth century.  It was less than 20 years after the adoption of the Constitution.  This may be considered one of the first signs of trouble.  If memory serves, George Washington thought the Constitution would be good for 20 years.  By George, I think he was right.

A better solution would have been to defer that to some process that could have decided it better.  While the process was being set up, the decision would have applied in the interim.  The process could have been a proposed amendment, or just an election proposition.  Or a time limit imposed upon any decision so that the political process could sort things out.

That decision led to many others, plus still other encroachments until we are at the place we are today.

For example, the Civil War was once said to have turned the United States from an "are" into an "is".  Prior to the war, when referring to the United States, it was spoken of as in the plural, as opposed to the singular.  As in --- "The United States are declaring war", rather than "The United States is declaring war".  The collective action taken was no longer accomplished by an entity that existed in the plural state, but one that had become a single entity instead.

It had changed from an association of states to a single entity which was composed of several lesser entities.  In other words, it went from a Confederacy like the European Union to what it has been since that time---a more centralized and powerful state.

The European Union is said to be weak, which may be true.  But being weak isn't necessarily bad if the individual states composing it retain their fundamental nature.  Such was the issue before the two sections in the United States.  Nothing in the Constitution gave the North the right to take the Southerner's property, which was the slaves.  But the war changed all that.

The price for freeing the slaves may have been the Republic.  It has been on the same trajectory all along.

Eventually, it has to lead somewhere as all trajectories do.  We seem to have a smidgen of a Republic with a strong Democratic component to it.   That may well lead to an complete end to the Republic and the rise of another form of government.  Perhaps a dictatorship of some kind.

The Republic isn't completely dead, but it may well be on life support.  So, I differ from Barnhardt.

In theory, at least, the Constitution can still be altered in order to change this trajectory back to a more Republican one.  For Democracies are not stable.  They always commit suicide.  If there's anything that happening now, it is that the West is committing cultural suicide.  A "con-con" can confirm that, or confirm that the Republic is not dead after all.

Very good, but I have one objection

This seems to be dead on target, so I'll quote it:

"The West reveals here a hatred of itself, which is strange and can be only considered pathological; the West is laudably trying to open itself, full of understanding, to external values, but it no longer loves itself; in its own history, it now sees only what is deplorable and destructive, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure."---Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's speech entitled "If Europe Hates Itself" given prior to his becoming Pope

My objection is that this is not a popular movement.  It is being imposed upon the populace by its own leaders.  Leaders who are what the former Pope just indicated.

How does this get turned around?  You have to remove the leaders.  In a democracy, that would come via an election, but that's in theory.  The fact is that the sheep, meaning the ordinary people, do not ordinarily take the initiative in matters of the state.  The initiative must come from someone outside the leadership who will do what it takes to overcome the failed leadership.

That is a lot easier said than done.

ParaPundit: What Vladimir Putin Thinks

ParaPundit: What Vladimir Putin Thinks

comment:

Interesting set of links and interesting comments.  Very complex situation.

Above all, we need a missile defense.  They don't trust us, we don't trust them.  If things get out of hand, we shouldn't be as exposed as we are.

Merkel declares G8 defunct; Europe scrambles to replace Russian gas

hotair via Free Republic

30% of Europe’s natural gas flows through Russian pipelines (Germany gets 40% of its natural gas supplies from Russia)

Yeah, but how did this happen in the first place?  Getting free of Russia will take time and it will hurt in the meantime.  Europe has been caught flat footed.  Chasing after that "green" weenie of solar and wind energy will have its consequences.

CBS News Spills Beans, Whitehouse Press Briefings are staged and rehearsed, Cover-up being attempted

Free Republic

Summary:

What we've got here are staged news conferences and the truth got out only to be covered up.

comment:

Contrast this with the hostile treatment of the press of the Bush Administration.  The media has been hijacked to serve the interests of the Obama Administration.  They are not independent at all.  A bunch of groupies.

I have been of the opinion that lying is a type of aggression.  Obama is at war with his own country.  They are systematically withholding information form the public.  A pattern of willful deceit.  Definitely bad.

Senior Israeli Minister’s Shocking Admission: “Israel Can No Longer Count on the United States”

Free Republic

Get this quote:

“Israel can no longer count on the United States… US foreign policy is collapsing all over the world.” ---Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon

If he is right, this will have grave consequences.  It will lead to a US dollar collapse.  A complete failure of the American security apparatus will almost certainly lead to this outcome.  This is like a "fire bell in the night".

Ukraine Sets Deadline for Militias to Surrender Illegal Guns

Free Republic

You've got to be kidding me.  But Ukraine is slipping under the influence of the EuroWusses.  Under EU pressure, they are going to give up their guns.

But it was those very guns that made their freedom possible.  Giving them up is stupid and futile.  They will almost certainly fail now.

Thanks to Obama's weakness and the EU's weakness, Ukraine may be doomed.

GOP might be finding their voice on foreign policy

There must be a messaging error amongst the GOP.  They come off looking like gunslingers while Obama lets Putin have his way with Ukraine.

If there's anyone more pro-freedom and anti-communist than me, I'd be surprised.  Yet, this is how the GOP looked to me.  The GOP made Obama's failed policy look good to me, of all people.  But that is changing.

Here's how it looks to me now.  Somehow, Europe has managed to get itself dependent upon Russian gas supplies while the United States has been making huge progress with fracking.  In other words, why hasn't the US been selling its increasingly abundant supplies of gas to Europe and allowed them to become dependent upon Russian supplies instead?  All this while pushing for freedom in Ukraine?  It's working at cross purposes.  It makes no sense at all.  It looks incompetent and is incompetent.  Where has this message been?

Not only that, this administration has been fighting the fracking boom.  This boom is the only good thing that come out of this past 5 years and this administration not only has failed to embrace it, but has done the exact opposite.  Instead of going after new markets in Europe, this administration would appear to be happy if the new found muscle thanks to fracking would disappear.  If such were to happen, Europe would become a huge version of Ukraine--- completely at the mercy of the Russian suppliers.  Is that what this administration wants?  Do they want a free Europe or an enslaved Europe?

Another thing I've been reading is that Obama's "sanctions" had no teeth at all.  The Russians have been withdrawing billions of dollars of deposits from banks in the West during this crisis.  This is laughable, as the "sanctions" do nothing to stop this.  Why did the administration allow this?  Furthermore, the Russians have threatened to withdraw from their purchasing of US bonds, which would cause US interest rates to rise.  Apparently, Obama has allowed himself to be bullied by this "threat".  The Russian threats are hollow.  Yet, Obama's responses are hollow.  It is as if we are totally dependent upon Russia and must march to their tune or something.  Ridiculous.  We are in a much stronger position than this, yet Obama acts like a weakling.

If the GOP had led with this instead of come off looking like gunslingers, I would have been more supportive.

There's no need for us to intervene militarily.  But we are falling into the trap of doing that or watching NATO be neutralized and Ukraine falling into Russia's hands.  That's the way it looks to me and that's what the GOP needed to be saying all along.

Better late than never.  Evidently, the GOP is finding their voice and Obama is looking worse by the day.

Laughing at Obama

This video is a really brutal one for Obama.  They are making fun of him.  Stuff could have been done that wasn't necessarily military in nature that could have gotten Putin's attention.  The "sanctions" were a joke.

ScienceShot: 'Chicken From Hell' Unearthed in American Midwest | Science/AAAS | News

ScienceShot: 'Chicken From Hell' Unearthed in American Midwest | Science/AAAS | News





One ugly mother.....

Grow up

I took down the donate button.  It wasn't generating any revenue anyway.  The Amazon link has been gone for awhile now, so the effort to generate revenue with the blog is now over.

Not that I have something against making money.  There's nothing wrong with making money as long as you aren't doing it dishonestly.

Now, I brought this up because of the tendency in our culture to be too self-absorbed.  A society can take just so much of that.  If the society can't stand on its own virtue, then a lot of that remaining virtue, which is being taken for granted, will also go away.

I was attempting to make money off something like this and came to the conclusion that it was a mistake.  Besides, I never thought that what I was doing was a charity.  I felt that I earned what I would have made, so I don't feel that I was going around asking for a handout.  If nobody thinks this blog is worth supporting with their bucks, then I'll accept that verdict.  But I can't accept the blog as being worthless.  Not exactly the same thing.  The value is there even if it cannot be monetized.  So, it won't be monetized.  The message will remain.

This overconcern for self is like being a baby.  A baby cares about one thing and one thing only, which is its own needs.  A society of overgrown infants cannot last for long.  Are we a society of overgrown infants?  Could be.

Beef Prices Surge Most In A Decade As Food Inflation Soars

Free Republic

Five bucks a pound for ground beef?  Well, I don't buy much of that anymore.

One of the commenters mentioned that the inflation rate should be about 10%, but is being reported as 1%.  Thus, the government fudges, but for how much longer?  After that fails, they will resort to force if someone tells the truth, like in Argentina.

A course correction is needed, but will it come?  We are told that the GOP will take over, but even if true, what does it mean?

Ann Coulter - March 19, 2014 - YOUNG PEOPLE DON'T CHANGE -- NEITHER DOES THE N.Y. TIMES

Ann Coulter - March 19, 2014 - YOUNG PEOPLE DON'T CHANGE -- NEITHER DOES THE N.Y. TIMES



Here's what caught my eye:

How about not letting them vote until they're at least old enough not to be on their parents' health insurance?

The right to vote is precious.  But something precious has to be respected, in my opinion.  I think what Coulter is saying is a way of protecting the right to vote.  The right to vote can't mean anything if someone is too ignorant to exercise it intelligently.  Question is, how do you address that?  She does it flippantly here, but she has a point.  If you are a dependent of some kind, should you be making decisions for other people?  You should be able to exercise some personal dominion before you try to exercise it on others.  For someone to be dependent upon their parents for insurance, that should be a disqualifier.

Secretary Kerry: U.S. To Send Scientists To Discuss Homosexuality With Ugandan President

Buzzfeed

“There’s been already a review taking place,” Kerry said, to examine policy towards all countries where homosexuality is criminalized, “to figure out what the options are as to how we can begin to change minds, move leaders, reach the public, the same kind of education that took place frankly here in our country.”

Better get your minds right, Uganda.  Or its 50 lashes with a wet noodle from Big Bad John.

No, he'll probably threaten to withdraw financial aid.  Yep, the love of money is the root of all evil.  Frankly, I hope the Ugandan President tells Kerry where to stick it.

Moscow signals concern for Russians in Estonia

Memeorandum  and NRO

The Bear is growling loud enough to make a number of people nervous.  As far as I know, Estonia is a NATO member.  Any attempt to go after that country is a direct challenge to NATO.

This puts Biden's remarks yesterday into perspective.  Biden is a buffoon, though.

Embrace the rich?

Oops!  Rand Paul slips up a bit.

Ronald Reagan famously called Berkeley a “haven for communist sympathisers” but Paul urged his audience to embrace the rich. “We have to get over this class warfare … the top 1% pay 40% of the income tax.”---The Guardian

True enough, but there is a bit of class warfare going on.  It's just not so obvious as tax rates.  With jobs disappearing left and right, and people being forced to exist on government handouts, I'd say some kind of warfare is being practiced against the working class.

Rand Paul's Berkeley talk: A U.S. dystopia?

Rand Paul's Berkeley talk: A U.S. dystopia?



Looks like Paul is being well-received in some quarters in the bluest of the blue states.

Rand Paul Does Berkeley

Power line blog

Hit em where they ain't.

For what it’s worth, I don’t even know what Paul’s positions on abortion and gay marriage are. He doesn’t go anywhere to “talk about his stance” on those issues. But the Democratic Party apparently has no better strategy than to try to ride those old warhorses until they drop.--- John Hinderaker

Do you go after their strong points or weak points?  Hinderaker seems to be saying to go after their weak points.

No takeover of internet

A couple of announcements

One, for now on, I am going to do my best to forget about popularity.  It is an intoxicating brew.  Even a little recognition seems to make one drunk with self-importance.  Popularity is out the window.  Truth is in, popularity is out.

Two, to back this up even further, I am strongly considering taking the donation button down.  Also, any advertising that may still exist on the front page.  This blog hasn't been profitable, but now, I will turn this to an advantage by not seeking a profit at all.  It may not be much of an advantage, but it does improve my credibility.

I sincerely think we have a problem in this society.  Too much me, me, me.  At the very least, I will try to avoid adding to the problem.  Less of me, me, me might led something that's good for we, we, we.  That's a solution that's worth getting behind, but I wouldn't hold my breath in this culture as it stands today.

Update: ( 3/21/14)

As a mentioned, popularity can be quite seductive.  I'm still watching those numbers.  Although it may seem to be a contradiction, I will keep the "Best of" categories, and I will update them.  Hopefully, I won't obsess over them.

The "me" generation

Interesting point that I almost forgot about.  The "me" generation refers to baby boomers.  But it hasn't stopped with the boomer generation.  If anything, it has gotten far worse.  It's the kind of thing that I referred to in the fall of the Roman Empire and the comparison with our own fall.  It all seemed to happen after 1968.

It's sort of like contemplating your navel.  Sooner or later this self involvement is going to get you into trouble.  You have to look beyond your own little world and self aggrandizement.

Update:

I compared the destruction of knowledge of the molten-salt reactor to the burning of the library at Alexandria.  In the original Cosmos series, Carl Sagan discusses Alexandria and its library.

Obama’s War On Full-Time Employment – Dick Morris TV: Lunch Alert!

Obama’s War On Full-Time Employment – Dick Morris TV: Lunch Alert!



Morris says that Obama is doing the opposite of his rhetoric about income inequality.  I agree.  The Democrats are mostly interested in themselves, not anybody else.  It is a mistake to allow oneself to be fooled by this smoke and mirrors economic policy.

Next Big Future: US Wages and salaries share of the economy has bee...

Next Big Future: US Wages and salaries share of the economy has bee...: For four decades, even in stronger economic times, USA wage gains have not kept pace with economic growth. Wages and salaries peaked at mor...

Comment:

It has sunk even more during the Obama Administration.  Democrats can talk all they want, but they don't deliver results.

Food stamps and unemployment checks.  Fewer jobs.  Welcome to the future, folks.

Update:

Interesting chart that shows an improvement in wages during the Apollo Era.  A big decline thereafter.  A bump upwards, but mostly flat during the 80's, with a spike in the 90's.  The 90's coincided with the arrival of the web.  Then the dotcom boom went bust and it resumed it downward trend and has been going down since.

I think it coincides favorably with my thesis.  Master energy and space, and you will go to the next level.

However, we are doing neither, so the country suffers.

Also, you should raise taxes on corporations.  Especially publicly traded corporations.  Income distributions from corporations should also be heavily taxed.  Corporations are too powerful.  I don't like unions.  I don't think unions are any different than corporations.  They diminish the importance of individuals.

Turkey threatens to close the Bosphorus to Russians

Crimea used to be a part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.  Would they have designs on Crimea?

As for the US, this could be an easy way to bottle up the Russian fleet.  Then the Russians couldn't help the Syrians.  The loss of Syria could be a blow to Iran, another Russian ally.

Gets curiouser and curiouser.

War Is a Certainty | International Man

War Is a Certainty | International Man



The sheep are being herded into a war that benefits the wolves.

Pearl Jam - Jeremy

Why put up this video?  It's not very nice, you know.

I never watched this video until I put it up just now.  But I was very familiar with the song.  I found a cassette tape with this song on it back in the early to mid nineties.  It was Pearl Jam's Ten, and I got into the habit of listening to all the songs on it.

There as a time when I had night deliveries that had me out until 2:30 am each night.  This song and the others on that cassette were what kept me awake.  I played them as loud as possible in order to stay awake.  It is a kind of loud music.

The one thing about this song, I didn't understand the words completely.  I don't know why, maybe its me, but the song was unintelligible in certain spots.  Only just now I thought of the song and decided to look it up on the internet.  It was about a boy who committed suicide in front of his class.

The striking thing to me is how closely the song matched me.  In many ways, I was like Jeremy.  Obviously, I didn't do myself in, nor had any intention to at any time during my school days.  I slugged a few guys, and I was also really quiet.  Still am, but I don't hit nobody now.

This is all a bit too much to reveal about myself.  Sometimes I think I write too much here.  But I'll put it out there anyway.

Vedder thinks that we should all rise above it.  Be better than these people.  I agree.

The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. Be stronger than those people. And then you can come back.  ---  Eddie Vedder

Can a society be organized like ours and survive?

I'm seeing those kind of reports out there.

What causes these types of possible scenarios?  Power outages, for example.

Could it be that we are too far removed from the source of our existence?

For instance, in olden days, most people lived directly off the land.  They grew their own food, raised their own animals and essentially provided for themselves.  Then, over time, people moved from the farms to the cities, and became employees of some larger organization.  The organization paid them money for their services, which they used to purchase things that they needed.  See the disconnect?  People went from being self reliant to being dependent upon a job.  Now that the jobs are disappearing, they will become increasingly dependent upon government to supply them with money so that they can support themselves.  If the government fails to do this, the people will die in large numbers.  Massive die off.

Maybe that is what the elite have in mind.  That's one way to cure the overpopulation problem.  Planned obsolescence and a massive die off.  The meek won't inherit the earth, it will be the robots and their owners.

An alternative way of looking at the employment numbers paints a bleak picture

American Thinker

Summary

Instead of hyping the "improving" employment numbers, an economist observes that the average work week is shrinking, which is equivalent to actually losing jobs as the total hours worked is actually less even though more people are working.  Another way of saying this is that the jobs being created are part time jobs, not well-paid full time jobs.

Another observation of my own is that there still aren't as many people working as there were when Obama took office despite five years of "recovery".  My own opinion is that a recovery is not a high priority with this administration nor is it a high priority among Democrats.  The Democrats are more interested in feathering their own nests instead of actually helping the country at large.

I'm waiting to die

My brother compared me to the man who said this.  Very funny.

Philosophy Professor Wants To Criminalize Scientific Dissent

reason dot com

Same kind of law that put Galileo under house arrest.  What a defense of "science".

Lying is commonplace in society.  Perhaps it would do well to remember that you can jail anybody for saying anything if you have the power to do so.  The state would determine what science is instead of the scientists themselves.

Curious that I  recently wrote something similar to what this professor advocates.  Did I go too far?  If I did, it is already standard practice to punish an organization for misrepresenting their product.  In that instance, propaganda is misrepresented as news.  In othe instances, one could be punished for claiming a medication does what it clearly doesn't.  Other examples can be found, I'm sure.

Could anyone consider the global warming theories as a misrepresentation of science and jail their proponents?  I think a better case could be made for that than what this professor is advocating.

Dianne Feinstein wants drones regulated

Dianne Feinstein wants drones regulated



What will the Queen Bee do without her drones?

Is America worth saving?

This is another one of those hurried posts as time is short.

Let's start off by noting that I"ve compared our situation with the crumbling Western Roman Empire of the Fifth Century AD.

Assuming America is like that, one could ask, is it worth being concerned about?  Let's turn to Rome.  As of that time, the Great Library of Alexandria still existed.  It may well have been greatly neglected, but it still stood and would stand long after the fall.

If Rome was worth saving, it may have been because of that Library.  It's fall meant that Library was in danger.  And so that is exactly what happened.  Rome was worth saving even if only for that, in my opinion.  I am somewhat influenced by what Carl Sagan said about the burning of the Library.  It set us back 500 years.

As for America, the most recent flurry of posts about the molten-salt reactor technology reminded me of the burning of the Library.  Great knowledge was literally being destroyed.  If it hadn't been for the intervention of a few people, the great knowledge that was accumulated may well have been destroyed forever.  Fortunately, it was not.  But some of it was lost.  Many of those who worked on it had died.  It came about this close ( picture two fingers about a millimeter apart ) to being snuffed out for good.

The molten-salt reactor technology is a metaphor in this instance.  That something like this was happening in this country is a very troubling thing indeed.  If it could be saved, maybe not all hope is lost.  It is worth fighting for, at least for the moment.  Perhaps if something were to happen that would "turn on the lightbulb" in people's heads, things could get really turned around.

ParaPundit: Indentured Servants In Hong Kong

ParaPundit: Indentured Servants In Hong Kong



Randall Parker has a number of interesting articles on labor and employment.  This is a most provocative post.



It is provocative because it indicates oppression on an economic basis.  People are actively being held down so as to make them more subservient.



I have to agree somewhat with this, but then what do you do about it?  In the previous post, I suggested that everybody who votes should be well-informed.  But what if efforts are made to dumb people down?  That is taking place in this country, don't you know.



You can't blame the sheep for being sheep when the wolves like the sheep for being sheep because they are easier to feed upon without mercy.

Mankind - The Failed Experiment » RobertRinger.com

Mankind - The Failed Experiment » RobertRinger.com

What an interesting read!  I wish I had more time to comment, but time has run out, alas.

Update:

Okay, it's early morning now and I've re-read the piece mentioned above.  It is a fascinating read indeed, but that doesn't mean that I agree with it whole-heartedly.  In fact, there are parts in which I strongly disagree.

Ringer downplays the right to vote.  But this is a precious thing.  Would it be better not to have any say over how the government operates?  I can't imagine a worse thing than that.  Voting is very important, but people do not appreciate it.  Perhaps it is given away too freely.  Perhaps the honor to vote must come with a responsibility to acquaint oneself with the facts at hand.  Ignorant people shouldn't be allowed to vote. People of poor character should not be allowed to vote.  And so on.

He says that you don't have the luxury of waiting for the world to change.  Rather passive statement.  I think you should take a more active part in making your world, and not "wait" for the world to do this or that.

I agree that there are limits to how much you care, or even if you should care at all.  Ringer seems not to care.  That can have serious repercussions over future events.

Finally, I recall writing about how the Roman Empire fell.  I said that it fell because not enough people cared about it in order to defend it.  Ringer's essay pretty much shows the mental attitude of someone towards his own society that can result in the same kind of thing.  If you don't take care of a thing, it will cease to exist.  Those things include ones own society.  Prominent people have a duty to lead, not to sit around and mope over how badly things are going.

An alternative view of Putin and Ukraine

from Instapundit and Ron Radosh

Those guys want us to stand tall  ( my words and inference ) against Putin, but don't exactly say how this will be done.

It’s the old apology for the Soviet Union by the Communists and fellow-travelers brought up to date to explain away Putin. Stalin and his minions in the West used to explain every Soviet action as a fault of “capitalist encirclement,” to which the poor USSR had to act to defend itself. So Cohen believes now we “went a bridge to far” in Ukraine. Putin had to act to defend the just national interests of Russia.

and,

Once again, leftists like Stephen Cohen join with paleoconservatives like Pat Buchanan in opposing a stand for democracy, and in charging critics of Putin with unfairly and aggressively opposing Putin’s supposed just and necessary policies. When will we learn the lessons we should have learned from the past? --- Ron Radosh

So, what exactly do we do about it?  No specificity to that is provided here.

Incidentally, the use of the far left and paleoconservatives as if they were equivalent is what might be called a smear.  Just exactly what is meant by that?  This looks like a desperate argument to me.

Update:

There was a link elsewhere that does go into specifics.  Okay.  A failure by the administration to do these kind of minimalist things could be used against them.  Go for it.

David LeBlanc - Molten Salt Reactor - Calgary Interview for Thorium Remix

Continuation of the videos that I've been watching.  There were 3--- I've watched 1, and this is number 2.  So far, about half way through.  I'm sure that a lot of people get bored and moved on, but there's still plenty of good stuff to keep you interested.  But the interest level dies down.

At the NextBigFuture site, he summarizes the first one a bit, but not this one, nor the one that follows.

I won't summarize, but I'll include some salient points that I add to this video.  I may post more later as I finish viewing this one.

• Canada's nuclear regulatory system is different from the US's.  Canada will allow a company like his, but it wouldn't be possible in the US.  That is a bit worrisome for Sorensen's Flibe Energy.  In the USA, it is all presumably based upon the current technology as if the technology is written in stone.  The US is stuck in the fifties.  Canada is more likely to produce a new generation of reactor than we are.  To me, that speaks volumes about what's wrong.
• But even in Canada, the regulatory and governmental inertia is present and is a problem.
• He discusses the irrational fears of nuclear energy.  Actually, this is probably something that should be required education in every school all over the world, but especially here in the US.  The ignorance could literally be fatal. 
• Update:  Finished now.  Only want to say that these opinions that I've written are my own.  Don't let them sway you into not watching the video.  Regardless of your position on nuclear energy, you should at least be aware of what's out there.  I think this is really good stuff, but maybe someone will not agree.  It would be interesting to see what another viewpoint would be after watching this.

Follow up on NextBigFuture post

I said I would watch the video and I am watching it now.  Stopped about 2/3rds through it to say that I can't say enough good things about it.

I wish that the GOP would take this up.  They could kill the Democrats with this.  But they aren't too smart, so they won't.  Meanwhile, the country suffers because of their failure.

Next Big Future: Terrestrial Energy Integral Molten Salt Reactor De...

Next Big Future: Terrestrial Energy Integral Molten Salt Reactor De...: Dr. David LeBlanc and Chris Popoff of Terrestrial Energy conducted an in-car interview regarding the use of nuclear power to make oilsands p...

Comment:

I've always been impressed with Dr. LeBlanc.  I hope he succeeds.

There's a lot of long videos linked there, but I haven't watched them yet.  You can count it that I will.

LeBlanc's idea is NOT a LFTR.  However, as Kirk Sorensen said himself, there are many ways to do nuclear energy.  It is rather unfortunate that many people probably think there is only one way and that is the way we do it now.
\
Update:

Finished watching all the videos and I am now looking at the comments in the post.  An interesting theory is that Putin is financing the anti-fracking campaign.  It would make sense.  He has a financial stake in the outcome.  If you want to talk about sheep, talk about the Russian people.  The polls say Putin is popular, but he is also quite rich from what I've heard.  If so, Putin is stopping something that will help millions of people to a better life, but that doesn't matter to him.  It's all about him, but he has all of them thinking that he cares about them.  Reminds me of the left over here.

Paranoia leads Vladimir Putin to the point of no return

Telegraph, link via Free Republic

The truth is very slippery.  What is the truth here?  Everybody has their own opinions.  I'm sure the ones that I've expressed here on this blog must seem incredibly naive to some people.  Perhaps it is.  But I'll hold to it.

What are we defending in Europe?  Even if Putin wants to take over Europe, why should we care?  Look at Europe has done to itself.  Should we be defending that?

I think not.  We have gone down the European route a long ways ourselves.  We are totally destroying ourselves, so it shouldn't be a surprise that a hostile power is seeing us in a weakened condition and is preparing to strike.  Putin may not have this intention, but I tend towards realism.  The reality is that Europe is weak and we are getting weaker.  The temptation to take advantage of the situation will lead to an aggressive response.  Always has, always will.

Our best option is to remain neutral.  We should be concentrating on righting our own ship.  Let Europe and the Russians take care of themselves.  We have other problems.  We are not the country we were when we stood as the only bulwark against Communism right after World War II.  It is folly to stretch ourselves beyond our capabilities.  The fact is that we've probably already lost Europe and are getting dangerously close to losing our own country.  That is what we should be concerned about most right now.