Saturday, May 31, 2014

Recap of last weeks' posts --- 5/25 to 5/31/14

There was more posts about going off the grid.  A new series about the virgin killer.  The Focus Fusion crowdfunding drive is still on.

Where is it all going?  What's it all about?  In so many cases, it remains a mystery.  We find out when we find out.

Update:  I resolved to add a new feature to the recap of the previous week which was to be a list new "best of" posts.  Here are a few new ones:

This past week:

The Godfather - Johnny Fontane ( You can act like a man )

 Previous 100 ( or so ) posts:


Next Big Future: Why do so many Proposed "Solutions to World or National Problems" Suck even in the Design Phase ? Or Fail to solve the stated problem after implementation ?

Cost-benefit argument for focus fusion


Robert Ringer: On the TV Wagon Again



Eucharistic Miracles

A companion post to the Shroud of Turin post.

Sometimes, there just isn't any adequate explanation for something.  Read this and compare to the post linked above.  How does human flesh and blood preserve itself for centuries without any assistance nor help of any kind?  Can anybody make this stuff up?  How do you account for this?

A rigorous scientific analysis was performed in 1970-71 by Professor Dr. Odorardo, University Professor in anatomy and pathological histology and in chemistry and clinical microscopy, Head Physician of the United Hospitals of Arezzo. Prof. Linoli was assisted by Prof. Dr. Ruggero Bertelli, a Professor Emeritus of anatomy at the University of Siena.
  The research done on the fragments of the Blood and the Flesh yielded the following results:
  • The Blood of the Eucharistic Miracle is real blood and the Flesh is real flesh.
  • The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the myocardium (heart wall).
  • The Blood and the Flesh belong to the human species.
  • The blood type is identical in the Blood and in the Flesh, type AB.
  • The proteins in the blood are in the same proportions as those found in normal fresh blood.
  • There is no trace whatsoever of any materials or agents used for preservation of flesh or blood.
    emphasis added.

Mind you, this was a scientific inquiry. You can challenge this, I suppose. But I wonder if such challenge would make any difference. It is not as if this was a new phenomenon.

Update:

More here.  And here.


Focus Fusion responds to critics






On the Web, links lead to an analysis by Mike Hopkins calling your results “not even wrong.” What is your reply?

Dr. Hopkins’ analysis misses the whole point of our July 2012 paper, which was about our demonstrating record-breaking temperatures in our confined plasma. Hopkins complained that we had not demonstrated record-breaking fusion yields. But yields depend not only on temperature but on densities as well and we were not claiming any superior density or yield. The paper was about the record temperatures. It was demonstrating that this temperature—sufficient to ignite hydrogen-boron fuel, was indeed confined in a small plasmoid that made our paper the most-read one of 2012 in Physics of Plasma, the leading journal in our field. Evidently a lot of our colleagues got the point, even if Dr. Hopkins missed it. As to densities, we expect to greatly improve them and achieve record fusion yields as well in our next series of experiments."

I'm still supporting Focus Fusion.  Darn it.  I forgot about the crowdfunding effort.  Typical me.  I got things on my plate and some stuff gets neglected.

Boom: Q1 GDP revised downward to -1.0%

hotair

The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the “advance” estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, real GDP was estimated to have increased 0.1 percent. With this second estimate for the first quarter, the decline in private inventory investment was larger than previously estimated (see “Revisions” on page 3).

Not to worry.  Economic growth is set to resume.  ( As long as something bad doesn't happen first, like cold weather, which is the blame for this bad report. )


Blogging is a bit light while I do some research

In spite of appearances, I am busy as a bee.


What about this virgin killer? part 5

Prev

This shall be the last I will write about this unfortunate individual.  Frankly, I'm getting sick of him.

I skipped towards the last of the manifesto.  He began to claim that he was a god.  That pretty much settles it for me.  He was certifiably insane at that point.  His "Day of Retribution" was a punishment from a god towards those who had been unjust towards him.  He felt entitled to a certain reverence, it appeared.

He got a lot better treatment than what most people get.  Rather than getting poor treatment, he was rather pampered and coddled.  I'm thinking at this moment that this was the biggest mistake made towards him.  As far as I can tell, he never held a job.  He didn't take his education seriously, and he never made much of an attempt to solve any of the problems he said he had.  Any attempt to help him would have not been appreciated nor cooperated with in any significant way.  For example, instead of procuring a prostitute for him, perhaps it would have been better not to.  He needed to be forced to earn his way through life as opposed to having everything given to him.

Interesting to note that instead of progressing, he was getting worse all the time.  One of his stories included an assault upon a couple girls for not smiling back at him.  He spilled his hot coffee on them.

What was missing in this person?  When could he have been turned around?  Was it even possible?

Also interesting to note that he didn't want to go to prison.  If he had, the gangs in the prison would have owned his sissy ass.


Friday, May 30, 2014

Psychologists: Elliot Rodger Would Still Have Gone On Killing Spree Even If He Had Sex With Women « CBS Connecticut

Psychologists: Elliot Rodger Would Still Have Gone On Killing Spree Even If He Had Sex With Women « CBS Connecticut

Yes, I'm still reading this manifesto.  Sometimes it gets to be too much and I quit for awhile.  Just now, I quit.  I'm up to page 87.

It's really the same thing over and over again.  Life is unfair, he says over and over.  There does appear to be a racist tinge to his resentment.  He despises blacks and hispanics.  He thinks he's better.

Note:  This post doesn't go into the series.




The Godfather - Johnny Fontane ( You can act like a man! )

The impression I get from the virgin killer is that he needed a Godfather type to get into his face and tell him to act like a man.  Eliot Rodger wanted the world to cater to his weaknesses and hated everybody for not doing it.  In my opinion, Rodger had a lot of success getting people to treat him the way he wanted, all except giving him sex.  This is not something that he could do by crying and pitching a fit, which was his typical way.






On the other hand, if the virgin killer had somebody like the Godfather, they could have gotten him sex, or an attempt at sex. My guess is that if a Godfather type produced a hooker for him, he wouldn't have been able to do it. Then he really would have had a fit.



HOW TO KNOW when you’re lying to yourself.

Instapundit

How to know when you're lying to yourself?  If a psychologist cannot phrase the question properly, that person loses all credibility with me.

You cannot lie to yourself.  You can only be deceived about the truth from someone who does know and keeps that knowledge from you.  You can only believe what is false if you refused to honor and seek the truth.

The question should be this:  how do you know when you encounter truth?


Jimmy Soul - If You Want To Be Happy

This song might be considered a joke, but what makes it a good joke is that there's some truth to it.

Let me tell you, I had a strong tendency to go after the pretty ones.  I lost out to the competition.  True stories.  Guaranteed truth.

Better to look for beauty elsewhere besides raw physical beauty.  If the virgin killer had done this, he might have solved his problems.  Instead, his solution was to kill people.




What about this virgin killer? part 4

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This is a study of the text that the Virgin Killer left behind.

I'm up to about page 56 of the manifesto, and I was struck by what he said.  He seems to be the poster boy for one of the 7 deadly sins, which in his case, would be envy.

It seems rather incredible, but by this time in his life, about the late teens, he had developed an attitude that it would be a good thing to outlaw sex.  All because he couldn't get any.

As of now, I see no effort from him to improve himself.  Rather than put himself on a program that would enable him to conquer his shyness, he chooses to hate everybody for having what he didn't.

There's a lesson in this somewhere, and it doesn't have to apply to sex only.

Democrats try to use envy in order to gain power for themselves.  They would prefer to do away with all wealth if they cannot have it for themselves.  Like Elliot Rodger, they and their followers won't improve themselves, but would rather deprive others of what they cannot obtain for themselves.  People vote for this crap.

If Elliot Rodger was envious about money, he'd been a perfect Democrat.


Thursday, May 29, 2014

"Do you know what the ‘Hunger Games’ movies are about?... It’s teenagers killing other teenagers."

althouse via instapundit

“Why not blame Hollywood movies here? Oh, we can never, ever go there...” [Rush] said, sarcastically.
comment:

Did Rush read the kid's manifesto?  Then, how is he different from anyone who hasn't?

Why not try to understand what happened before you start pointing fingers?  Of course, it is easier to point fingers than to actually try to do something constructive about the situation.

The Ten Most Asinine Things About #YesAllWomen

Mollie Hemingway at the Federalist

comment:

I agree that the feminist response to this is asinine, but just about everybody's response to this is asinine.

It doesn't get to the root of the problem and so the problem will not get solved.


Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch should retire in disgrace

He says that "it’s obvious that gay marriage will become legal across the country sooner or later."

What he is doing is giving in to failure and incompetence as opposed to turning the situation around.  He is not a leader, he is a follower.  He may as well be a Democrat.  He accepts all of their premises, which makes him a follower.  If you want a leader, you need someone to oppose the Democrats.  As of now, there's nobody doing that.  Hatch is a part of the problem, he is definitely not a solution.


What about this virgin killer? part 3

This is becoming quite fascinating.  This story is like a case history that the kid writes himself.  He is telling the world how this happened and why.  If you want to know and to understand, this should be required reading.

I bet 10 to 1 that jerks like Michael Moore will never read this book.  If he did, he would shut the bleep up about gun control.  Gun control has nothing to do with what happened here.

I've now read up to about age 13 of Eliot Roger's life.  This is a point in which he describes as his "downfall".  One problem with young Eliot is that he doesn't do well socially.  He knows it too.  He's no good at sports, either.  I'm to the point now where he is considered by his peers to be somewhat weird.  This is where I'll stop reading for now.

Let's reflect a bit on that.  Couldn't young Eliot have gotten some attention and learned the social skills necessary for him to succeed better at life?  What about his athletic prowess?  Well, there are plenty of sports that he could have tried out for which would have given him a sense of accomplishment.  For this, he needed an older male to teach him these things.  He lacked this.  That's lesson number one, for those of you who think that gun control will solve problems like this.

Putting him in therapy at age nine did nothing to address this?  What does that say about his therapist?

I'm thinking archery and markmanship with a weapon might have worked for this kid.  Nothing like being able to kick some ass that might give a kid confidence.  Also, some martial arts.  Here's where a slightly built kid may have learned how to handle himself and gotten some respect from his peers.  Thirdly, get this kid to learn argumentation and debate.  Nothing better than being able to out argue someone that will give a kid some confidence.

The kid talks a lot about his envy.  About envy:  I think it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that envy is ignorance.  All the kid needed was a little training.  It was somebody's job to do that and it didn't get done.


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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

What about this virgin killer? ( continued )

At the end of the first post, I asked the question "Where was his father?"  After reading though the first 10 to 12 years of his manifesto, which reads like an autobiography, it appears that his father is mostly absent.  Also, he clearly preferred his mother.  His parents divorced while he was still very young.

He identifies a couple of his personality problems--- shyness and jealousy.  Furthermore, he is shorter and physically weaker than other boys his age.  He craves attention and admiration.  He pitches fits when he doesn't get his way.

Other impressions: intelligent but not intellectual at all.  In some respects, he should be considered fortunate since he grew up in a well-to-do family.  Basically, he describes his life as happy until he reached puberty.  With his jealous streak and his lack of physical stature, it may be easy to see how he develops an inferiority complex that complicates his social life.  But no evidence of a violent streak.  Perhaps this comes later.

There's a lot more to go.  Thought I'd stop here and give a short rundown of what I've read so far.

Next



Tesla equals tulip craze, S&P unimpressed

http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-28/s-and-p-throws-teslas-surging-shares-on-the-junk-heap

Lowers bond rating to junk, projects default by 2017.

All in the Family / Archie Bunker's Place Opening Credits

"Girls were girls, men were men."  Those were the days, alright.  This sitcom is over 40 years old.  This culture has moved a long way south since then.

Whatever.  I'm not going to waste any more time on this stupid stuff.






Man attacks woman, crowd intervenes, roles reversed, crowd laughs

According to this link from Instapundit.

My take from all this?  We are a rather mixed up culture.  Men acting like women, women acting like men.  We live in "interesting times."

You've got this virgin killer who can't get laid and is in a rage about it.  He kills people and the answer to this is to castrate men even more.  Then you've got the above story where it's deemed okay for a woman to beat up on a man.  The man is expected to take that garbage.  I don't think it was ever okay to beat up on anybody, but somehow it is okay for women to hit men and not okay the other way around.  Not saying that it's okay for a man to hit a woman, but why is it ever okay for anybody to hit anybody?  Yet the reactions noted from the above link suggests that the crowd approved of the woman hitting the man.

Glenn Reynolds is on to something here.  It's not a war on women.  It's a war on men.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

What about this virgin killer?

It looks from reading about this kid that he was ticked off about not getting laid.  In my opinion, you don't kill people because you can't get any.  Perhaps I shouldn't be writing this, but I'm not too different from this kid in that respect, but I never hurt anyone.  There has been just one time in my life in which I felt as though I had a true enemy, and I figured out how to handle it.  But this kid saw enemies everywhere.  He blamed his enemies for his failure to get laid, from what it appears.

Would it have made any difference if somebody could have helped him get laid if that is what he wanted so badly?  I was thinking, surely this isn't the real reason for why this kid went berserk.  Perhaps he fooled everybody because he was so calm?  He had been seeing therapists since he was 9 years old, according to one source.

Another thing.  This is a bit off topic, but the leftists are calling him white.  It looks like his mother is Asian, and his father is white.  The left just wants to harp on another white guy killing people with guns.

I think the system failed him and failed the rest of us.  But that's not anything new in terms of sentiment on this blog.  It seems to happen with a lot of frequency.  Nobody wants to help kids like this, especially the left isn't interested in helping kids like this.  They love to talk it all up a lot.  Ultimately, they are only interested in exploiting it politically.  Show me where they want to help kids like this, and then I'll back off with the criticism.  But they don't really want any solutions to any problem.  They just want to exploit this or any other problem for their own selfish purposes.

As for the so called "right", they are only interested in preserving gun rights.  So am I, but looking out for my own interests is not enough.  Because if you don't get off your back sides, you are going to lose your gun rights over stupid crap like this.

Update:

The Other McCain blog has a link to the manifesto.  I read through the first few pages.  It could be a fascinating read, but I'll leave that to another time.

More info here.  Especially the comment section.

One last comment before I leave this subject for the early morning of the next day that I'm posting this:  This kid may have benefited from a lot of male influence.  He was too concerned about appearance and looked ( and most likely acted ) female, if you ask me.  Where was his father?

Next!  This will be a new series.


Success Loves Speed - RobertRinger.com

Success Loves Speed - RobertRinger.com

As Ringer points out, it is reminiscent of his Fiddle Theory in Winning Through Intimidation viz. The longer you Fiddle around with something, the greater is the risk of a bad outcome.  In other words, don't Fiddle around like Nero did.  Memo to self:  Get moving.


Dhimmi Dhimmi coco-pop, Dhimmi Dhimmi pop

Protein Wisdom

Gonna embed this video in the post.  Yep, the left in this country admires the Europeans so much, and maybe admires Sweden above them all.  With some "luck", we may "rise" to their level some bright and sunny day.

Also, let me throw in this one:  the left is going ga-ga over the shootings in the Land of Fruits and Nuts aka California.  There's a war on women they say!  Yet, they cannot see a war on women in Sweden, which is now the rape capital of Europe.





Starting off the day right, writing something snarky

Feeling kinda blah this morning.  The long weekend is over and it's time to go back to work in the real world out there.  Oh, joy.

Anyway, browsing through the web I find a lot of political nonsense that just doesn't get me interested enough to post, but finally I came across something with a short and sweet observation that may be construed as a bit of snark.  Barak Hussein Obama is no longer the Messiah!  Well, now!  Who'd a thunk that one?  Just six years ago, this man could do no wrong, now he is the Incompetent One.  What brought about this change of heart?  Could it be that Barak Hussein Obama cannot run for office anymore and win an election?

Just throwing that one out there for y'all to chew on.


Monday, May 26, 2014

What will be on America's tombstone? Died of Dunning-Kruger Effect?

Of course it is Memorial Day, the day to honor the dead who gave the ultimate sacrifice to their country.  It may be advisable to write something about that, yet I have neglected it.  Rather than look to the past, I am looking toward the future, which does not look too good.  In fact, the retail sales performance is said to be in a Death Rattle.

Littered throughout the piece is the constant references to what isn't known.  It reminded me of Dunning-Kruger Effect.  Do most of the people in this nation not know their own incompetence?  Why do they insist upon electing "leaders" who don't do anything constructive to solve problems, but instead, do the very opposite?  Hasn't it dawned upon these people yet that something is wrong and something must be done to set things right?  But you have to know what the cause of the problem is before you have any hope in getting to a solution.  If you are incompetent, how can you do this?  There may not be a solution to this problem because there's nobody who can bring to bear a solution to it--- for that person may not exist.

Also littered throughout the piece is the assumption that money will solve our problems.  Could it be that the over-reliance and trust of money has put us into this very situation?  The socialists will cry "redistribution of wealth", and the capitalists will cry "lower tax rates".  Both are relying upon more money to solve the problem.  The socialists believe that more money to the poor will help--- but how does that make more wealth?  The "capitalists" will believe that all that is necessary is to improve the incentives by lowering the tax rates.   But what if the concentration of wealth simply helps only those at the top?  What's the average Joe supposed to do?  Perhaps both are right and both are wrong.  You can make more wealth, but what good does it do if it cannot reach everyone?  On the other hand, if you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, all you accomplish is to make everyone poor.  Behind all of this, I suspect, is the over reliance upon money in order to solve these kinds of problems.

That brings me back to Dunning-Kruger.  What if everybody is arguing about the wrong things and don't know it?  Is it possible to step outside the box and look for solutions elsewhere as opposed to recycling the same old stuff?


Life's a bitch, then you die

This post comes from reading about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, ie. "our incompetence masks our ability to recognize our incompetence".

Excerpts:

  • But when you’re incompetent, the skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.
  • We’re not very good at knowing what we don’t know.
  • The notion of unknown unknowns really does resonate with me, and perhaps the idea would resonate with other people if they knew that it originally came from the world of design and engineering rather than Rumsfeld.
  • Unknown unknown risks, on the other hand, are problems that people do not know they are vulnerable to.
  • Unknown unknown solutions haunt the mediocre without their knowledge.
  • With an “unknown unknown,” I don’t even know what questions to ask, let alone how to answer those questions.
  • Anosognosia is a condition in which a person who suffers from a disability seems unaware of or denies the existence of his or her disability.
It's really a bitch when you don't know how stupid you are.  You can go your entire life and not know it.

Lovely thought.




Why you can't fix stupid:Republicans Say They'd Restore Filibuster If in Power

Free Republic

comment:

Let's see.  The Democrats are in power, no filibuster.  They get their nominees without much of a fight.  Let the GOP get into power, and they restore the filibuster.  If, by any chance, a Republican is in the White House, the Democrats will filibuster nominees just as they did during Bush's tenure.  What kind of sense does that make?  The bottom line is you hurt yourself and help the other guy.  Sure, the rules shouldn't have been changed, but that's water under the bridge.  Restoring it now only favors Democrats even more.  It really is stupid.


Feeding Chickens Without Buying Feed

the prepper project

what chickens need

Chickens will survive on some pretty minimal fare. They are tough little birds and can get by on a diet that would make us die from malnutrition. However, hens won’t lay eggs unless they get a certain minimum amount of protein and calcium along with plenty of carbohydrates. A rough breakdown of a complete diet would contain 17% protein, 3% calcium and 80% carbohydrates.

Cool-season roots for chickens:

Turnips
Radishes
Jerusalem artichokes
Carrots
Mangels
Beets
Rutabagas
Parsnips
Onions
Garlic
White potatoes (this may be a warmer-season crop if you live up North)

Other sources of protein include:

Meat scraps from the table/butcher
Fish waste (Do you fish or have a fisherman friend? Have him save fish guts for you. Freeze and use as needed to feed birds. Been there – done that.)
Crickets
Wild game
Roadkill
Duckweed
Kale
Collards
Feral Cats
Beans
Maggots


Lovely list that last one.  Wild game waste could work.  Let's say you set up for deer hunting on your land.  Once a deer is bagged and processed, there should be plenty of waste to feed the birds.  Maggots don't sound so good.

Update:

This site also has an article about collecting rainwater.  It mentions snails, which can also be fed to chickens.

Snails that eat algae would work out great.  Micro snail farm video here.  Mealworms work too.  Nutritional facts about spirulina, not heavy on carbs.

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Top 10 Cheesiest One-Hit Wonders of the 1980s

Hey!  Some of those I managed to put up on this blog.  You saying my blog is cheesy???



Oh, hell yeah.

My favorite on the list? Whip it. Close second Funky town.


Sunday, May 25, 2014

Gourmet Bugs: Raising Grasshoppers?

Gourmet Bugs: Raising Grasshoppers?: Hmmm.  Doesn't seem to be anyone in the US raising or supplying live grasshoppers.  I wonder why?  They seem to be pretty high on the de...

Comment:

I wonder if grasshoppers would eat spirulina?  If so, you could feed the grasshoppers to chickens.

Perhaps you could do the same with crickets.  The goal would be to raise stuff that grew fast, like spirulina and insects.  This wouldn't require much land, you see.


Solve for X: Rob McGinnis on global water scarcity ( repost from 5/22/12 )

Previous    Next 


Note:

In connection with the series about going off the grid, I thought I'd do this again to show how the recycling of water could be accomplished.  Looking up the company didn't yield any results though, in coming up with an off-the-shelf product that would accomplish what I have in mind.




Update:

Some background info from Business Week.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory - Wonka's Welcome Song

Never saw EITHER movie.  Couldn't help making the connection between the new Prez of Ukraine and Willy Wonka.

Kill the Russians with kindness, I suppose.





Opportunity Overlooks Ridge for Spectacular Vista of Vast Martian Crater and Habitable Zone Ahead

universe today via Behind the Black blog

What's the black stuff at the bottom of the crater?  Looks like it could be carbon based.  That alone should be of considerable interest.


Poroshenko wins in landslide, vows to 'bring peace' to Ukraine (UPDATES)

kyiv post via Free Republic

..."You see that all exit polls held by the most trustworthy institutions say that the elections ended in the first tour and the country has a new president. First of all I want to thank Ukrainian people who showed a record turnout," Poroshenko said. "Neither rain no thunderstorm - although a storm is a good sign - did not prevent them. I want to thank all the Ukrainians for the trust they showed in me and my team. Over 90 percent of Ukrainians voted for a united Ukraine - not a federative state. I thank very much for this too. It was a basic issue of my program; 80 percent of Ukrainians supported the European vector for Ukraine. I want to especially thank the people of Crimea who in the most difficult conditions did what they can, managed to get out of Crimea and voted. Now we can say for sure - all the country voted. The president of the whole Ukraine was elected."---Katya Gorchinskaya reporting
Looks good so far.


Why Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Results are Not Even Wrong; a Detailed Analysis.

Plasma blog  ( June 20, 2012 )

Given that there's a crowdfunding drive towards completing the task of achieving net energy from fusion, I decided to look on the other side of the question and post something about the criticisms of Lerner's work.

With that in mind, I cite the following, which introduces a critical essay:

I recently responded to a claim from Lawrenceville Plasma Physics that they were close to a commercial fusion reactor. I was annoyed that such claims were being made and even more concerned that such claims were not receiving a strong criticism from the scientific community. I read the paper published in the journal – Physics of Plasma by Lerner and his colleagues. The journal is a reputable peered reviewed publication. It was clear to me that the paper was not significant. Dense plasma focus devices are well understood and have been modelled in detail. The results quoted by Lerner did not show that the focus device which he has developed was significantly better than other devices and there was no evidence that a commercial fusion device was any closer.--- Mike B Hopkins

Rather sobering.  Yet I wonder if any of these devices, which he says are just as good as Lerner's, were ever funded to completion?   It is a lot like what I read in connection with space.  Space is said to be really hard, so we don't know if we can do it.  Sometimes that becomes the rationale for not trying in space.  Could there be an analogy here?  He goes on to say that all Lerner has accomplished is to replicate what has already been done.  Sounds familiar to what is being said about Elon Musk.  In the case of Musk, he is taking it one step further.  Is the analogy accurate?  I don't know, but has anybody gone as far as Lerner with the development of a focus fusion device?  Maybe the problem isn't the science, but the engineering.  All that could be needed is to finish the job.


Recap of the last week's posts 5/18 to 5/24/14

Some of the things I did this week on the blog:

  • Worked on the series about going off the grid.  
  • Got in a few posts about the crowdfunding of Focus Fusion efforts to achieve net energy from fusion
  • The usual criticisms of the culture and the spreading rot---- versus ---- solutions
  • McConnell's victory and the claimed failure of the Tea Party, but isn't really a failure
All in all, pretty typical fare.  The good news versus the bad news.  People want fairy tales, but they don't get 'em here.  There are solutions, but the problems are out there too.  Which side prevails?  We may be getting weighed in the balance.  How that turns out remains to be seen.