Biden's proposal is nothing but theft of private property. You must sell your property in order to pay taxes. The taxes are on unsold property. That is what unrealized gains means.
This. is. nuts.
Only complete fools could propose this. Only complete fools would support it. Even a traitor should know better than to tip their hand this obviously. This doesn't do any good for anybody except those who want to cause pain and disruption. Maybe sadistic bastards would like it.
🇺🇸 President Biden proposes a 44.6% capital gains tax, the highest in history.
The proposal also includes a 25% tax on unrealized gains for high-net-worth individuals. pic.twitter.com/ebiYWfO9Oj
"Trump doesn't need absolute immunity". Listen for that, as it comes up quickly.
There was an analysis of the arguments before the court, which gave me a quick sense of dread about some disastrous outcome that could occur. That outcome would be to allow the trial to go forward. Anyway, that analysis took Trump's defense team to task for its argument for absolute immunity. But this guy says absolute immunity isn't necessary for Trump to prevail.
Anyway, his take seems reassuring that this isn't likely. The Democrats should received a spanking, not more encouragement and support for really bad behavior. Ideally, the Democrats should have a lot of egg on their faces for all this. Anything less just won't do.
According to a ZeroHedge article, the West is losing the battle to keep sea lanes open in the Red Sea area. While keeping that in mind, what are we talking about today? We are talking about what is essentially a sex-based scandal involving Stormy Daniels.
If you turn back the clock to the Clinton Presidency, all you had with that guy was sex-based scandals. The Clintons and the media waved it all off due to its supposed triviality. The President must be allowed to do his job!, they said.
But we've got a President that is FAILING his job, and this trial means NOTHING except to keep the same failing President ( BIDEN ) , in office.
The country was prospering in that Clinton Era. Maybe the idea was to have a little leeway with regards to Clinton's escapades. Now it is struggling, and somehow the GOP is at risk of coming out on the losing end here as well! If this was a fight, the GOP is definitely getting outpunched.
How do you keep losing fights like this?! You lose at holding Clinton accountable for perjury, but you punish Trump for doing what exactly?
Indeed, if Clinton had paid off all his accusers, he wouldn't have had an impeachment trial. It has always seemed to me to be the smart thing to do was to make these stories go away. There's nothing illegal about doing that. Hell, the media runs interference for the Democrats ALL THE DAMNED TIME. But who prevented Bill Clinton from making the Paul Jones scandal go away? Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton. She could have been paid off since that what she wanted, apparently. But Hillary forbad it!
This trial is ridiculous. Not only that, it is hypocritical. The same people accusing Trump of impropriety also waved off Clinton's same impropriety. In the one case in which Clinton could have escaped without even a scratch, he erred badly. But it didn't matter. He wasn't going to held accountable no matter what. Yet, somehow Trump is different. The trial seems to be about who can win. Well, I won't argue that. The GOP can't win regardless of the merit or lack of same. The opposite if true of the Democrats. They win no matter what.
But ask yourself, what does that get US? Does anybody really give a shit about Stormy Daniels and a Playboy model?
Once again, it all doesn't add up. But the country is taking it on the chin, and we have the risk of a failing President being continued in office when a competent president is being punished over a trivial sexual allegation. What kind of crazy country is this now?
Can prosecutors be held liable for their official acts? That's my question. The question arises as to the assertions of the Trump prosecutors here. It's "We can do no wrong". Ok, but if Trump can do wrong, why can't YOU? He's saying that they wouldn't. Or in other words "Trust us".
Pardon me as I say "bullshit". Also, the bar for indictments from Grand Juries is a lot less than what it is for Petit Juries. You don't need to prove the case to get an indictment. Or even an unanimous decision to indict. Therefore, you can get a rabidly partisan place with Washington DC, and get an indictment without much trouble. But just try to get indictments against one of THEIRS. People in Washington DC vote for Democrats by over 90%. A prosecutor who wants to use DC as a venue has a very friendly venue. Likewise, a defense counsel has a very friendly venue to defend his client if the client is a Democrat.
Democrats! Be careful what you wish for. If the script flips, you could be compelled to fall on your own swords.
The Dreeben Rule: trust the self-restraint of Deep State and Soros prosecutors!
“Prosecutors have no incentive to bring a case to a grand jury and secure an indictment when they don’t have evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s self defeating.” pic.twitter.com/XA73H0QjKq
Yep. It's a Marxist Paradigm. Anybody who isn't a Marxist is "extreme", or a "fascist".
One thing though. One has to wonder who is actually supporting Biden now. Many of the traditional Democrat client groups are leaving. That is, they are leaving if the reports are correct. At least some of them are leaving because there's definite people being shown. At the very least, Democrats are losing SOME people. Maybe a LOT of people.
Which is to say that Marxists are great at propaganda. They can sell snowballs to Eskimos. They can convince you that down is up and vice versa. Be wary of these people. They are committed and determined LIARS. That's why I am posting about LIARS lately.
The polls say it is even. But Trump is stuck in NEW YORK, getting cheered by union workers, and serenaded by kids. He is cheered in HARLEM, of all places. The previous post shows downright HOSTILITY, on the part of a union organizer, to Biden in NEW YORK. How is that possible in a DEEP BLUE STATE?
Something doesn't add up.
I've never seen anything like this before.
Biden visits Manhattan (a city he won by 75%) and gets booed into oblivion.
Something about that kind of thinking is worrisome. One would be in awe of a higher order of intelligence. Why then would people want it?
But people want things for reasons that are baffling. Humans cannot control their own behavior. Why turn it over to a machine, and still expect to control the machine?
These are my thoughts. Watching this video is not reassuring. Perhaps AI should be banned, but there's no way that's going to happen. Somebody somewhere is going to develop it, and then if anything bad results from it, it cannot be stopped. Humanity will be screwed.
A result like that could happen with people too ( completely outside of AI). The problem seems to be with people. AI may figure it that way too, and decide to wipe us all out. (Terminator scenario)
Hmm. You might not realize some of these things... that is, as opposed to "never realized".
I can be a fanatic about language usage. But highly qualified language can said to have its counterpart in making movies that become blockbusters.
This video about that movie taken as a pair can be used an example of that so as to make a point. For if the movie was made too much in the way the critics wanted, the movie might not have sold to the public. The same point can be said to be true of another movie I can think of, which has some parallels with this movie. "The Alamo" was not historically accurate, but if it was, would it have been as successful at the box office? In completion of the pair of examples, with my criticism of the title to this video, the use of such imprecise language may actually help with getting more pageviews.
If movie critics could write great cinema, they'd be a lot richer. Perhaps if I wrote better, I could be a movie critic. Ha, ha.
Me too. Jewish folks vote Democrat, so this isn't a partisan thing for me. I don't know why it should be for ANY American. This is pretty fundamental here in our history as Americans. According to the First Amendment to the US Constitution, you have the freedom to believe as you wish as long as it doesn't interfere with others' rights.
Besides, I don't think it was Jewish terrorists who hijacked planes and rammed them into buildings on 911. Islamic Jihadists did that.
It's a fair thing to say. In the Koran, it is permissible, or even encouraged, to kill those who don't believe as they do. This belief is utterly incompatible with the letter and spirit of our law. This pernicious belief cannot be allowed to establish roots in our own country. Not ever.
It is also fair to say that not all who believe in what is called Islam also believe in the ways of certain Jihadists like the ones who attacked the USA on 911. Therefore, it is possible to accomodate so called Muslims. But there's a bright red line that must never be crossed. Otherwise, we have lost the fundamental character of our nation. This isn't just a Jewish point of view. It should and must be an AMERICAN point of view.
I agree with Prime Minister @netanyahu: Enough is enough.
There is NO place for antisemitism on our college campuses.
Looks like these university employees are hiding something. Cannot be said that they are protecting someone because these are journalists, not an angry mob. Indeed, they are protecting what appears to be an angry mob-- these faculty members aren't interested in protecting the public FROM this angry mob.
Don't these faculty members get paid with public funds? Does the public have the right to know who these people are, and what they want? It seems fair to allow journalists to ask some questions. Or has our government become likeTheranos. Or shall I say, Nazi Germany. Or ANY totalitarian government that suppresses freedom of the press. These are Brownshirt tactics.
Right now at Columbia: faculty members formed a chain to keep journalists out of the encampment. pic.twitter.com/2mJPisuVst
Nobody is immune to a cult. I'd buy that. Not even for a dollar.
There are plenty of red flags, and she goes over them in this video.
Question: What if a society falls into cultish behavior? It's happened before.
They'll say maybe this: can't happen to me, and can't happen here in the USA. Maybe you'd be wise to look very carefully at what's going on and ask if you really signed up for the shit that's going down.
I'll bring it up even if people leave here in droves. Polls have said for years that the USA is on the wrong track. How come we cannot get it together?
One of the points to emphasize here is that this video isn't just picking on Elizabeth Holmes. In order to see why, you have to watch all of the video.
For example, lying is more commonplace than believed. It gets worse from there. By the time you slog your way through, maybe you'll feel the way I have come to feel. Which is to say, you really have to have a passion for truth, and zero tolerance for lies. Otherwise, you'll helpless to the power of the lie.
Here's a thing you might consider also to keep in mind. The video will show you why there may be times when you'll lie anyway, even if you don't want to, or intend to. Finally, nobody considers themselves to be dishonest. We'll lie to ourselves too! Oh, hell yeah.
6:29 PM, Update a little later:
A Ted Talk about a young whistleblower who may have been instrumental at ending the fraud at Theranos. She gets cheers from the audience at the talk. Well, I hope that that is a good sign, but what I see is a whole lot of people in society want to keep their heads in the sand. Maybe those in that Ted Talk are cheering only because she won her fight. What if she lost?
From Nevada. Senator Cortez-Masto's staffer was killed by an illegal who shouldn't have been in the country. Wouldn't have happened under Trump. Voting for Democrats can get you killed. But let us not talk about it. Seth Rich anyone?
Wow. An illegal immigrant driving under the influence KILLED a longtime staffer for Democrat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
The illegal came recently in 2021.
Senate Democrats help illegals flood our country and Americans pay the price.
Cui bono? Who benefits? Looks like somebody's getting something from these crooks, and keep sending them back. Maybe they're hoping for some crumbs to fall off their table, or something.
In the link above, a number of quotes from the movie "Goodfellas" will demonstrate how the Predatory Mind works. This
is the mind of a wolf.
Basically, the wolf despises the sheep while he abuses the sheep. What could illustrate more clearly than anything else
the predatory mindset now living within the minds of the ruling class in this country.
This isn't a country of laws, but of willful men. This isn't a democracy, but a clique of the criminal class that has
taken over the country.
There is no easy way out of this. Elections are being overthrown so as to keep themselves in power while pretending
to have free elections. You cannot get rid of them. They are guaranteeing their own continuance in power under this
fig leaf that covers up their naked exploitation of the the people. The people get to pretend that they have a say in
all of this. Fake news supports a fake society that kids itself perpetually until they can't do it anymore.
There is virtually no difference between right and left. Both are now a bunch of thugs, who rule over the people with
a tightening grip of the iron fist. The pretense of democracy is making the horrible truth easier to tolerate. Once
the people get used to it, it will have become normalized. The left versus right false choice is being used to deceive
people into accepting the chains being forged upon themselves.
You can tell that there is no real will to oppose them. Brandon with these approval numbers? Are you kidding me?
The truth is in the Right track Wrong track poll. Only 35 percent think the country is on the right track. The other
one is the phony one-- if we're on the wrong track, how do you approve of Brandon? You don't and you can't without
the deception. The bad stuff has to be rationalized away somehow.
One thing that's true about it. In Goodfellas, it was mentioned that most people tangentally involved in the criminality,
are there for the ride. They like their trappings of crime while kidding themselves that they aren't enabling it. It is
also all over that movie how Karen, Henry Hill's wife, rationalized away the crime. She even kidded herself into thinking
that they were just hard working blue collar types.
That's about as close an explanation as there is to how people can see what's wrong, but aren't willing to do anything
about it. It explains a 35% poll for right-track wrong track, and a 48% approval poll for Brandon. These people sense
that they will lose something if Brandon and his ilk are repudiated. They circle the wagons around their corrupt leader.
If they are worried, it is only because they are worried about themselves first. They are co-opted into the wolfish
lifestyle, just as Karen Hill was. The movie was based upon real life, by the way. It happened. It's playing out in
the society overall. Nobody wants to end it. They know it's going to hurt.
The GOP only exists to make it possible for the criminal class to succeed in subverting the entire country. They are
like Judas goats that lead the herd to its doom. Supporting them is like rationalizing the rationalization. Most of
the GOP doesn't support the people. They are pretending. They are lying to us. They could do more, but you can
bet that they won't. They'll do just enough to fail. Then they'll make a million excuses why they couldn't do what
they said they would do.
It's not going to be easy turning this around. In fact, it may not even be possible. But if the effort is not attempted,
there's no stopping them.
Interesting video on this next one. He discusses the push for digital currency. He believes the powers-that-be want total control. My takes is that it is tantamount to making the whole world a prison.
The fact that our government is doing shit like that ought to have people alarmed, but nobody will believe it no matter how much evidence you bring to bear. ( I think the guy is more right than wrong.) No, I think the thing the people are alarmed about is the fictional climate change story. Otherwise, why would the powers-that-be push for all this crap? For our good? If you believe that, then you'll believe anything.
end update of 10:21 am post
10:21 am
It worked! How 'bout dat. I'm checking it out, like a new toy. Bongino's show is posted there. It's an alternative to Rumble.
end update of 8:57 am
An embed from a video platform called Odysee. I've seen the name, but today's the first time I checked it out.
For your amusement or whatever, the following is embedded for your perusal, with the caveat mentioned in the title.
Cannot afford $4500 cars, the narrator says. It isn't entirely clear where he is, Canada or USA. I haven't been on a lot in a long, long time. I guess I've been getting poorer all that time.
I wanted to put in this Braveheart video about deception in the context of betrayal and current events, but couldn't find the post I was
looking for. So, I'll use this one.
The point to make is that nobody should be surprised at what happened on the foreign aid vote. This is what you can expect from these people.
In the Braveheart video, Robert the Bruce's father said "you let yourself be deceived". That's right. You cannot be lied to without your own
permission. This doesn't excuse the betrayal, it only informs a person of a corrective that needs to be applied.
end update of 1/3/22 post
There was something on Ace of Spades HQ about some folks on CNN discussing the dishonesty
in media. It was somehow connected to Brian Stelter, and of course, it drew some crticism
at Ace.
Now I've heard a few things about Stelter, but since I don't watch TV, I don't know if I
could honestly say that he's a liar. Generally speaking, though, after watching the media
for years, I'd say on the whole that the media is dishonest.
It is a bit laughable for these people to claim to be objective and honest. If that claim
is going to be made, then that alone is dishonest.
Anybody can have an opinion. You could go on TV all day long expressing your opinion, and
I wouldn't care. But call it objective news is just plain dishonest. To turn around and
claim that it isn't dishonest is just plain laughable.
You probably wouldn't get a peep from the conservative side if these people would just be
honest about their opinions. It would be a good bet that 90% of those in media vote for
Democrats. Ask them about it, and they'll hem and haw and say it is none of your business.
If people knew where you were coming from they might not be swayed as much as someone who
claims that their reporting is straight down the line objective. There is the gullibility
factor, and a factor that involves laziness. There are plenty of ways to inform yourself.
It just so happens that to go on a place that is always trying to pull the wool over your eyes
is not such a good choice to get information. I never watch CNN, but I've watched network
news. I don't think they are objective. It seems more likely than not that CNN is no
better than network news ( over the air), and might be worse. Stelter could be trying
to pull the wool over people's eyes.
Stelter can have his opinions all day long, but his show is called "Reliable Sources". This
may not be accurate. Just sayin'.
There's a saying about "fighting the last war". That's what the "conservatives" may be doing. If you don't know the enemy, your chances are 50-50. If you don't know yourselves, nor your enemy, you will lose. I've got a bad feeling about things. But nobody pays attention here. Except maybe the enemies.
If we are to go postmodern, then make the most of it! But I jest.
I don't know Limbaugh's List of Undeniable Truths. I just remember the name of his list. I thought up a few undeniable things of my own. I called them "truths" as a joke. For all I know, I'm just repeating his stuff. With not the intention, mind you. I'm no Joe Bribem and plagiarize em.
Here's one I was thinking of this morning. Everything that the liberals say is 180 degrees out of phase. If they say they want Democracy, then they don't. If they say they want Freedom, they don't. If they say that they want Rule of Law, they don't. If they say that they want sustainabililty, then they don't. If they say they want Peace, then they don't. Whatever they say is inverted.
An argument out there? Let's take "sustainability". What exactly do the Libs want to "sustain"? They sustain NOTHING. Not even the "environment", which they claim to love so much. The former Soviet Union was terrible at managing the environment. The Chi-coms are terrible about the environment. But the libs love them so. How then can they be for the environment?
The same argument can be applied across the board. The libs lie. Constantly and relentlessly. You cannot believe a word they say.
As for the environment that they say they love so much, how many of these liberal loonie leftists women can survive in the wild? I'd say that the worst of them, this NPR broad, could not survive 30 minutes in the wild.
She loves POC? I bet she lives in an all white gated community, like so many other libs.
The main thing to know about libs is that they are full of sheet, main. But you all know that. I'm not telling you anything new.
It really is turning into a "Brave New World". Check out the video at 7:43, with the discussion between John and Mustafa Mond. This is the key to the whole story. John wishes to be free, but the "civilized" world has taken it all away from him.
It's about the alleged whistleblower in the first Trump impeachment.
Testimony could be compelled from him from his apparent connection to certain events discussed in the article. His whistleblower protections may not suffice to shield him from scrutiny. Provided that he is indeed the whistleblower.
Originally posted 9.15.15, reposted 11.19.17
The folks who believe in the Gramscian Theory believe that the media can make you see five lights ( which is false) and not say that there are only four lights ( which is the truth ).
The previous post made this post necessary yet for the fifth time.
You don't have to go along with what somebody in power tells you to be true when your own mind tells you what the truth really is.
Sen Hawley seems to excuse the public, but really. How hard is it to find out the truth, if that is what you care about? You have NPR CEO calling truth a distraction. It's postmodernism in action, I'd say. So many "truths", it's hard to keep up with them all. Let's just call it what it really is--lying.
The liars are not held accountable. A large segment of people just don't care. Frankly, I don't see how this administration has made it this far. But there it is.
Here’s the truth. Mayorkas illegally paroled Laken Riley’s killer into the US. He had a criminal record. He then committed a crime against a child in New York. No prosecution. In fact, HE GOT A WORK PERMIT. And then he killed Laken. Mayorkas knew *all* this. He lied about it pic.twitter.com/hA6qXhI1JO
In any normal election cycle, Joe Biden would at least be getting a primary challenge. That's why LBJ dropped out in 1968--ostensibly because of opposition to the Vietnam War. There's no accountability--neither political, nor otherwise, especially on the Democrat side. Even more amazing that a whole lot of people just don't care.
Usual (median) weekly earnings adjusted for inflation at end of Q1 are down 2.9% from end of '20; the 19.1% increase in prices over that time has outpaced wage growth so that real median earnings have never returned to where they were at start of '21 and are now falling again: pic.twitter.com/jCjUV0gzAn
Early nineties stuff here. I came to this song by remembering the phrase "Rage against the Machine". A google search discovers this band, and a search on ScrewYouTube finds this song.
So, what do I say about it now?
Contrast that against the last post. It is not that far away in time. It's what was happening in the underground back then, and what is happening NOW.
Just speaking for myself, here. I never heard this before this morning. I was completely somewhere else while this scene was out there. Now the rage is out there in the main culture. It's a war. Always has been. When Pat Buchanan said the phrase "Culture War" at the 1992 GOP convention at the Astrodome, people pooh-poohed it. This sounds pretty real to me.
Rob Braxman calls it Skynet. It is getting harder to escape the all seeing eyes and ears of the surveillance network. And it will be powered by AI. Isn't that nice? /sarc
Perhaps this could be built as a cycler.
Launch once and it will stay there forever. Instead of flying to a planet, you'd fly to and from this cycler.
These could be Jeff Greason's "islands" for the island hopping strategy for Mars colonization. You'd be making your own islands.
end update of the 6/22/23 post
Update of post made on -- 6-22-23
There are several ideas for a new space station. Of all of the ones that have been seen here, the Space Gateway is
the one in which holds the most capability. It is also the biggest. There would be enormous amount of space that could
house a lot of people. It would also take the most money, because of the extraordinary amount of material that would
have to be launched up to orbit.
But the same could be said for Elon Musk's plans. A smaller number of Starships, plus a new spaceship could be better
than the current plan. It wouldn't take much to make the Gateway station into a space ship. The only things needed
would be some engines. If the Starship provided the engines, then it could be towed to its destinations.
One of the Gateway stations mentioned appears to able to house 1000 people. Ten of these, towed by Starships, could
transport 10,000 people per flight window to Mars. A hundred trips could transport a million. A million is what
Musk plans to send to Mars. But each window is two years, so that would take over two centuries. Therefore, more
stations would be needed. Ten times as many should get the job done.
In situ resourcing could cut the launch costs for each station. It would be better to launch from the Moon or Mars
than from the Earth. Consequently, the ability to make the materials necessary in order to construct such stations,
needs to go off-world. But the Gateway presentation said as much already.
The stations could be like Islands in the sky. Each Island could be a waystation, or hub, for transporting people and
materials back and forth to destinations.
There are many possible destinations between Earth and Mars. The LaGrange points come to mind.
Who and how it would be funded is the key. Space mining, manufacturing, and tourism are possibilities. Whole new
industries could be born.
here's the original post...
Not to be too negative, but this guy is getting way, way out front of the game. Big thinking means big bucks. Where's
the money going to come from in order to get these space stations off the ground? True, I didn't watch the whole thing
(not as of this writing), but gee whiz. This guy thinks BIG.
On the positive side, I think this is the right way to think about going to far away places, like Mars. Put an engine
cluster on the space stations he's talking about, and bingo... You could transport many people this way to an off
world location like Mars.
This one didn't have a speculation alert. What I wrote may not have been accurate. I don't seem to mind popping off from time to time. Thus, the need for a speculation alert.
It's pretty dated, in the sense that I don't know how much research I did in creating it. Nor did I include any information that would support that speculation, in some way.
What does it all mean? Without going back and re-inventing the wheel, I'm pretty much screwed with posts like this. It may have had merit, but without the means by which to evaluate it, it's hard to tell. Looks like I'm just popping off.
It's nothing but sloppiness. Drat it. I think the blog link above is probably a better source than this blog. It mentions lots of water of Ceres. There may be plenty of resources on Ceres. The problem is how to get there.
Update a little while later (after 9:56 am) : I clicked through all the links, and one of the links clicked from Behind the Black is no longer there. That's also a hazard on the web. Stuff has a way of disappearing. Why would that be??? Hint: The internet definitely has a dark side.
10:50 am
Thislink still works. It links to a video by Jeff Greason, which I believe to be important enough to keep fresh. The link still works, and the ideas are still valid. Perhaps even more valid today than ever.
Just one thing to say here: it's that you must stick to a strategy. If you give up too easily, you cannot succeed. If a tactic isn't feasible, then change tactics. But if the strategy is sound, then don't drop it because a tactic failed. Greason was at XCOR. By his own words, he meant to get to orbit cheaply as a tactic, not as a settlement strategy. XCOR was making a space plane. XCOR went bankrupt. This doesn't negate his good words on settlement strategy. "Island hopping" was his recommended settlement strategy. Making a space plane was a tactic to get to orbit. Not the same thing.
Greason is still working on tactics. I suppose there's a reason for that, but the island hopping strategy is sound. But that's my opinion.
2/6/14:
After looking at the previous post and the chart, it would seem to be a very great challenge. There would be little room for cargo for a direct trip from Earth. The only configuration that give a reasonable cargo capacity would be a nuclear thermal rocket. Even then, there would have to be refueling capability on the planetoid that would allow a trip back to Earth.
A bigger rocket would help, but even a fully tricked out SLS with 260k pounds of heavy lift would only be able to put 100k lbs in orbit around Ceres. That 100k lbs would have to include the nuclear core and rocket casing itself. It would have to include a lander.
If you included the entire structure as just one piece, it would have to be about the size of an SIVB rocket stage that went to the moon during Apollo.
Life support would be an issue. Total trip time is about 16 months. You'd have to feed a crew and keep them alive for that long with only that much mass to work with. Without total recycling, it would seem to be a stretch.
Ceres will have to wait.
Even Mars is a stretch at this time and for a long time to come.
...with each second covering about 1 million years of history.
Doing the math, one hour equals 3600 seconds. Multiply that by a million, and get 3.6 billion years. You need about 900 million more years, and that equals 900 seconds of the video.
It makes a boring as hell video. That's because nothing seems to be changing. But it is changing, albeit at a very, very slow rate.
The point of the exercise is to show that our presence upon the Earth is very very recent, and very very short.
How someone may make of this depends upon who you are, I suppose. Most folks won't stick around for long.
I did, because I have lots of time. Plus I am curious enough about it so that I can critique it a bit. It may need some refinements. It is an impossibly complex job as is, so the idea of critiquing may seem unfair and too demanding.
But I'd like to know certain things that aren't being emphatic enough in the narration. One thing to know is the composition of the atmosphere over time. The narrator does do some of this, but it could be more detailed, in my opinion.
Not to be too critical though. Here it is, just in case you have the time and the patience.
Incidentally, the second time thru this video, and I discovered a way to read along with wikpedia. Pause the video, and put the name of the period in the google search box. Wikipedia may be at the top of web pages. You can click on the Wikipedia pages to read along while the video plays.
You can fact check that rant out the wazoo. Shooting fish in a barrel. That'd be my assessment even before starting. His is not a serious argument.
I'm pretty sure his claims are way, way off. At the moment, I'm using my Android looking at his nonsense and wondering who would fall for this nonsense. He was allowed to filibuster for awhile as nobody challenged anything he said.
End daily update
In the old days, in the early sixties when the Cold War raged, the school children would be taught this song. I know, because I was a child back then. In addition, the school children recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, and the Lord's Prayer.
These days are different.
Not intending to inspire hatred here. Just stating the facts.
Here's another fact. In those days, the country really was united. Today, the country is divided. Perhaps there is an explanation for this state of affairs?
I've read on the nets that children are being taught to be "triggered" over this or that. It seems that the flag was one of those things that seem to trigger some. Again, this is not to inspire hatred. It is just a statement of fact.
The current President of the United States has deigned to make those who are shouting "Death to America!" on our own shores, a protected class. Once again, this is not to inspire hatred. It is just a statement of fact.
And we are divided. Perhaps there is a reason why this is so. Just asking the question.
The ship struck the bridge in a manner in which the force would do the most damage, in my opinion. This is why I am suspicious. It couldn't have been random. The odds are against that happening.
The FIB has not distinguished itself in recent years. This may be considered snark, but it is a reasonable suspicion given their track record. No investigation will be allowed that will show the government in a bad light. It will be politically motivated. Consequently, it cannot be trusted to be accurate nor complete. It will be a white wash.
end update of the post of 3/27/24:
This reminds me of 2001, prior to the 9-11 attack. Two separate occasions when the 610 bridge over Houston Ship Channel was hit. Didn't happen before, and hasn't happened since ( to my knowledge).
I'd say definitely lower than 50-50 probably of an innocent explanation for this. The odds of it randomly turning that way right into the path of a collision? Nah!
Maybe it is the plain hatefulness of these people that gets them the attention they seek ( Cheney and this guy). Should they be ignored? I wonder sometimes why anyone ( including me) even bothers to post this stuff.
People like this are just hateful. What else can you say?
The idea must be to get you to hate them, and then say you are the one to blame for the hate that they seek to arouse.
It is as if he says "please hate me". If you do, then he says you are a bad person for doing so.
If such were the case, he would be an object of pity. But it is hard to feel sorry for him. He is like a fire ant. Nasty little creatures. By the way, PETA wanted to arouse indignation for advertisements for killing fire ants. Imagine that. Sympathy should not be wasted on fire ants. He isn't significant enough to fear or dread, either. He is pitiful, but not sympathetic.
Better example in this video:
Adam Kinzinger Posts 'Emergency Video' Blaming Trump for Iran and LOL the Jokes Write Themselves (WATCH) https://t.co/0IMYcYDYCo Comment: Even if he joined the Democrat party, they wouldn't vote for him. The same goes for Liz Cheney.
Divide and rule. That's the essence of politics schmolitics.
The country is said to be badly divided. How to end the division? The premise is to avoid groupthink, and Ground News purports to do just that. But does it really? I think not.
A few paragraphs in will show their bias. So-called "right-wing" news outlets do not cover these stories. Ground News calls it a "blind spot". Could it be that it is not covered simply because the premises are not correct?
I believe that Washington is in a "blind spot". It is in the bubble of groupthink. One aspect of the groupthink is to employ the Marxist paradigm that Ground News uses for its "analysis". The analysis always favors the left. Anybody who subscribes to this model is already biased towards the left because it is THEIR model. To play on their home field is dumb for true conservatives. That's how you can spot a phony conservative. A phony conservative will subscribe to this model. You see that model all over the "conservative" media.
Therefore, almost everyone is in that bubble. Ronald Reagan was unique in that he was not. He did not trust it. I believe he was successful because he didn't let himself be ruled by that bubble.
I've been on that soap box for a long time. I was on it before anybody else was. Ground News is NOT the answer. You do not end the groupthink with Ground News. You will only succeed in sustaining it.
Ground News might be useful in that sense only. To show WHY you should avoid the Marxist Paradigm. It's intent is to steer you away from the truth, and keep alive the phony fires of Marxist Class Warfare. Marxist destroys the notion of merit, and makes the poor exchange of phony equality over quality. All society is brought down to nothing, as Marxism is good for Marxists and nobody else. Marxism does not serve the people, as they like to claim; but rather, they serve themselves first and foremost. Always and forever. It is like "Gorbasms" that Rush Limbaugh used to talk about--- always fake.
Tax Day reveals a major split in how Joe Biden and Donald Trump would govern https://t.co/uuQVwQ5Rml Comment: Ground News rates this a "center" and "highly factual". I would challenge that rating. I say it is biased towards the left.
In the old days, we used glass. Milk came in glass jugs, and you had to take them back to get a new jug of milk. Cokes too. You could collect Coke bottles and send them back for their deposits. But we "advanced" to recycling, and it is a lie.
This is called progress.
Plastic recycling is a DIRTY LIE.
So why do so many green activists push it?
“I think they get a charge out of telling people what to do,” @JohnTierneyNYC tells me.
It would appear obvious what part of the ship could be discarded after the tran-lunar injection burn. Is it worth it? In essence, it would be a completely different ship. That costs $$$$.
end update of 4/13/24 post:
How much of this rocket is really needed to land on the moon?
I still say that's a lot of mass that really isn't necessary for the mission. They won't need the raptor engines after getting into lunar orbit, and they won't be coming back in the Starship anyway. If you're going to use a separate thruster system to land on the surface, but not the raptors for the entire burn, then what useful purpose do they serve? It's not going to be reuable either.
The video does not say how the secondary thrusters will be powered. Only that a secondary system will be needed. The raptors are too powerful for the final landing maneuver. Questions, questions. Maybe SpaceX has the answers. But it isn't what's going to land on the Earth or Mars. So there's that.
Iran has just completed an unprecedented attack on Israel. Should the Israelis ignore that? Everybody has their price it has been said. What is the price for peace???
https://t.co/9KkFUiOhHQ Comment: Biden tells Iran "don't" attack. Iran attack. Now Biden tells Israel the same. What will happen?
Too much, or too little aggression? That's the question. Is there a Goldilocks in the House?
End update of 3/7/24 post
After answering a number of questions from a British reporterette, MTG came back with a bit of rudeness of her own. The British reporterette was rude, but was this a good idea for MTG to retaliate? What can we learn from this?
Consider the reports have that Biden wants to get under Trump's skin, and this is something he expects will help him win an election. It's a variation upon the Bentsen-Quayle angle, as far as I can tell. To recall that 1988 debate tactic, Bentsen was losing the debate when he decided to get rude with Quayle. Quayle couldn't respond to it, and ended up looking weak. Contrast that with MTG here. Now that MTG has been equally rude, the response to it will be shock and outrage at MTG's lack of good manners.
The left is always at war with "We the People". It is well to understand their tactics and be able to counter them forcefully, but without incurring any type of backlash. What could have MTG have done differently? Well, don't get mad nor exasperated. Just brush it off, but don't fail to respond. For example, this woman was talking about conspiracy theories, and then asked about Jewish lasers. That's when MTG got exasperated. She could have reponded that she doesn't have any tin hats for you today, or something like that. Dish it back out, but keep it as cordial as possible. It would be a challenge, but the left wants to pick a fight, and then blame you for getting mad. Don't let them have what they want.
🚨🌎 “Why don’t you go & talk about Jewish Space Lasers & why don’t you f**k off”
WOW - listen to MTG tell former BBC News Anchor Emily Maitlis exactly where to go
Legacy media is dead - millions realise they’ve been relentlessly LIED too over all the major issues for years now pic.twitter.com/xTcnbnqcR2
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) March 6, 2024
In that Goodfellas movie, there was a scene in which Ray Liotta's character says what's in the title here. But I won't link it or embed it. Just use your imagination and/or memory. Not necessarily in that order.
Surgeon reveals which body part is a sign of a bigger penis https://t.co/NJBx38lJXQ via @MailOnline Comment: Is there something wrong with this picture? Or is it a joke?
Maybe you can get through this video without getting cross-eyed. Good luck. This makes two things I've seen today that I might feel sorry about seeing. :-)
What's the point of all this? Only that I learned something from watching this. If you feel that you learn something, that is an admission of ignorance. A display of humility, if you will. This is humbling because I thought incorrectly about something with respect to eclipses. In other words, I could be wrong. What a revelation. /irony
The pinkos might want to read it in order to see what their enemies are up to. The others need to read it because nobody seems to know what's really going on, and this might help. Maybe.
By the way, I wanted to share this on X, but it won't let me sign in. So I had to do it the old fashioned way. Ha, ha.
I didn't get this guy at one time, but this clarifies things a bit. So I don't have a problem with him now.
To elaborate on that isn't necessary for ME, but it might be useful if you were to dig a little deeper on your own. That is, if you haven't done that already.
Kinda like Jane Fonda at the anti-Aircraft battery during the Vietnam "conflict". Treason is defined in the CONUS, but nobody will be convicted of it because "reasons".
A financial collapse could be dead ahead. Maybe the Eclipse meant something after all? Maybe the song should have been "Total Eclipse of the Buck". I'm sure government can find a solution to this problem. /sarc
I hope my point was not taken to mean to blow off the video mentioned. But man! Keep it simple! People need to be spoon fed, or so it seems. A long video or movie will not be watched in its entirety.
I could make a series of what I consider to be the most cogent points. But a point may not be cogent for everybody. So how do you make that list?
Al Fin's blog has more info about the video, if you'd like to check it out. Maybe it might be helpful. However, the usual brand of Idiocracy types don't bother to read, anyway. Getting them to watch a video may become the next big challenge. And so it goes.
I agree, but it is too long for me. I watched about half of it. I could say don't waste your time, but who knows. Maybe some people will be persuaded by it. To me, the best approach is the shortest. While keeping it short, mention also that these people are wasting your time as well as your money. I'm talking about the "climate deniers" too!
end update of to last post of 3/24/24:
3/24/24:
Let's get to the heart of greenhouse gas theory, shall we? The contention is that by capturing energy within itself ( that'd be the electrons, I suppose), it will re-radiate that energy back into the environment. This will cause all the heat that will melt all the glaciers and cause us all to die. ( not that this would actually happen, but it is more dramatic to say "die" )
It has to be the electrons, because the nucleus will mean the entire molecule itself, since 99.9% of the mass is in the nucleus. Actually, electrons mass out at 1/2000th of what a proton does. So, an electron is more like .05% of the mass of the molecule ( or less since we are not counting the neutrons, which mass out as much as a proton--make that about .025% ).
Anyway, the infrared waves are captured by the tiny electron, and the tiny electron re-radiates it back out to the environment. With so little mass, it doesn't seem plausible. That's putting it mildly. Maybe a mite can lift an elephant, but I am skeptical.
As stated before, it's the mass, not the gas. Electrons cannot store that much heat because they don't have the mass.
end 3/24/23 update, the most recent update prior to this one is of 12/5/23, and follows:
12/5/23: Update to yesterday's post:
From the part below, where the amount of CO2 in terms of mass was calculated to be about 1 mole in a 5 gallon can:
and the mass of that was 44 g, then what would be the mass in terms of the actual amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 400 parts per million? Easy calculation. Divide 400 by a million, and multiplying it by 44 grams, yielding an incredibly small amount of mass. But that should be expected.
Punching the numbers in the calculator gives 0.0176 grams. That's less than 2% of 1 gram. All of that is going to melt all the glaciers and cause sea levels to rise? Puh leeze. By the way, that's how much in that 5 gallon container. Scape off a piece of paint, and you'd probably get more mass.
The implication is that any heating since 1948 is caused by human activity---thus it's the carbon dioxide. That merits another discussion, so here goes.
As mentioned on this here blog, it's not the gas, it is the mass. Gases doesn't mass out for much either. Let's take one mole of carbon dioxide. At standard temperature and pressure, one mole equals about a 5 gallon container.
A mole of substance is its atomic weight in grams. Since carbon dioxide atomic weight is 44g/mole, a 5 gallon container filled with carbon dioxide would have a weight ( other than the container itself ) of about 44 grams.
That much isn't much. It's about an ounce and a half. That much mass isn't going to heat things up very much, now would it? Fill it up with boiling water, and it will do some damage if you poured it on something alive. But at 212 degrees, 5 gallons containerful of carbon dioxide won't be much more than a puff of air. Not likely to cause too much damage, and by the time it contacted the living thing, it will have cooled down a lot!
That's true because of the nature of gases. Gases are the least dense state of matter. For those in Rio Linda, that means that the 5 gallon empty tank ( full of carbon dioxide ) doesn't weigh much. Well, duh.
That's pure carbon dioxide, too. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is 400 parts per million. That's 400 divided by a million. For 5 gallon container, that's 44 g times 400 divided by a million. The warmists want you to believe that this will melt all the ice in Greenland and such.
I was going to do an altogether new post here, but since I had written this one a short time ago, why not do an update? Anyway, I think this video will show that there isn't a sign from GOD here. These have been predicted from eons ago, and can be predicted well into the future. A sign from GOD ought to be at least somewhat unpredictable, yes? Or no?
end totally useless update:
That week there was a total eclipse. This was what I was doing back then.
I put a window unit in after this experiment. I put a watt meter on it and the ac pulled about 400 watts. Interesting.
the most recent post follows below:
Originally posted on 8.13.17, updated on, 8.23.17
Today, I worked on my "climate control device". That is to say, my "coffin", or to put it yet another way, my hidey hole.
No, I didn't make it small. Yes, I am thinking of doing that. Really small. Like 72 cubic feet. Do you realize the opportunity here? Well, look at this from the BTU calculator.
So, worst case scenario is only 516 watts per hour. Best case scenario is only 147 watts. Alright. That the ticket.
Now, to get my lazy butt actually working on it.
Meanwhile, I cleaned up the Coleman cooler, and cut away some unnecessary hosing. All in a day's work.
By the way, I may be able to upgrade the system with the batteries I have. Some ideas include using the existing battery outside, and putting in a cut out switch. A cut out switch will allow the solar panel to charge it during the daytime, and the grid to recharge it at night. Also, I have a battery that can run a 12 volt fan. I would have to purchase that.
Now I can waste time and money on something else... Just kidding.
the original post follows:
My van has an issue that I tried to address today. Actually, there are several issues, but this one needed attention.
The problem was with a terminal connector on the battery. It didn't tighten up like it should, and the reason why was that the thing was using a connector intended for the positive terminal, but was on the negative terminal. The negative terminal is smaller, and I didn't know that. How many people know that? Evidently, whoever put this terminal connector on didn't know that. It was somewhat loose because it was as tight as it could get. The thing could tighten no further. It wasn't designed for negative terminals.
It had to be replaced. So, I bought a universal connector. It tightens alright, but the thing is too dang complex to put together. I did get it together after a lot of cussing. I think the van is okay, but it isn't an ideal fix. We'll see.
Besides that, I am still fooling around with my solar panel. I am considering another battery for it, because it is putting out enough juice to charge more than one battery. Since money is tight these days, I have to consider things carefully when I am considering a purchase.
My little hidey hole, which is my bedroom, needs better insulation. That's another little piddling project I have been working on. My hidey hole is quite comfortable on a hot day. Everybody around here may wonder if I am ever coming out of my hidey hole. It is very nice in here. It is too hot out there.
So, the hidey hole gets a lot of attention. It isn't perfect, but it is getting better. It can be improved even more so that I can make a true "coffin" arrangement, that will minimize energy use. If I were to make a "coffin", it would be about two feet tall, by six feet long, and three feet wide. That is 36 cubic feet. About one tenth of the current cubic feet of the hidey hole.
The Butt head calculator says I need about 562 watts for my hidey hole, which I think is a low ball number. It is low ball if my insulation is "normal". Nearly 1200 if it is poor. It may be poor, but I think that it cannot be made much better, although I will try. At peak hour yesterday, I think this a/c was pulling about that much.
The coffin arrangement can improve that to only 332 watts. Personally, I do not think that it would take that much. My frozen ice thingy works better than that, I would guesstimate.
I'm sure everyone thinks I am going Howard Hughes with all this reclusiveness and everything. But I like to piddle around with this stuff and my hidey hole is doing aok.
In case you were wondering, the hidey hole does not work for nuclear fallout. If that happens, I am sol.
Update:
Because of CRS, I thought I would make a note of something today. Seems like it is about 7 pm when the solar panel cannot run devices and keep charging the battery at the same time. That is almost eight hours that it can do this. It is not an exact number, so don't quote me on it. If I didn't make a note of it, it would turn into something else.
Also, a crazy notion is going through my head. I may want to make a "coffin" after all. But all this costs money, and I don't have it. That's why it is crazy.
Democrats love their cookie cutter "solutions". It's the kind of tool for a uniform type of problem. It's not a specialized tool for a multi-faceted problem.
A search for cookie cutter government on YouTube yielded a video about immigration policy. During the discussion, the talk moved into a critique of "over-generalization". That must have been the sign of the cookie cutter mentality.
One size does not fit all. One tool does not work for all situations. Perhaps over-generalization leads to these cookie cutter "solutions" that do not work.
One thing DOES work though. Policy doesn't have to work. But winning elections allows you to set policies, even when the policies are bad. Democrats are bad at policy. But they seem to win elections.
Can the GOP figure that out? They haven't been doing it since the New Deal. Some folks think the GOP is learning. We'll see. We get a lot of bad policy. It shouldn't happen that way in a truly democratic society. However, we don't seem to have accountability. Where's the connections between policy and accountability for their outcomes? If that's missing, how can there be a true democracy?
There's a problem, and that problem seems to be more in line of $$$$$ than in what they're purportedly trying to accomplish.
That allows me to segue into a book I read back in the seventies, which discusses fundraising. It was called the Laws of Money. One thing I remembered about it was if you're doing the right things, the money will take care of itself.
Focus Fusion must be doing something wrong because money is now their biggest problems. No bucks, no Buck Rogers. How do you get the bucks?
That's a good question. A good question is one that there's no easy nor quick answer. That may not be the dictionary definition, but it is a simple one that I think is useful.
I think if your product will yield lower prices for energy, then that is what you should be selling. Not something like climate change. Those people are already rolling in the dough. You need to compete with THEM. That doesn't sound promising.
Focus Fusion is going after the little guy investor with these stock splits. But the big boys see that as a red flag. If you won't get the big bucks by appealing to the little guy, and the little guy has no money, then you've got a problem all right.
If they little guys won't organize for their own benefit, then they'll lose by default. What the little guy has is strength in numbers. A few bucks here and there will do wonders. A hundred bucks a share isn't that much. But the little guys aren't showing up for this dance. How do you get them to show up? Good question.
end update of 4/10/24, the most recent update of 2/18/24 is directly below:
2/18/24:
Focus Fusion announced a 10 for 1 stock split. The idea was to make each share more affordable. They are waiting for new electrodes, and the p-B-11 shots --that may demonstrate feasibility--- could be coming soon. Okay, no comment on that one.
This update shows that Lerner may be immersed too much in the totally fouled-up pop culture. Not sure that they should be doing that, and it would be extraordinarily ironic if they should succeed. The genius is not in the culture, it is in doing something unique that has never been done before. Let's hope that this works. My interest is in seeing that a 90% reduction in the cost of energy. The popular culture angle does not interest me.
end update: the original post of 3/15/20 is below:
LPPFusion Briefs the Nuclear Industry Council's Summit
New Podcast Series on Cosmic Connection
Wefunder Campaign Ends—Over $600,000 Raised
Thanks to all of you for a second successful Wefunder campaign. We raised $605,000 from 292 investors living in 22 countries. All 133 slots for new non-accredited investors were filled. For accredited investors, we will be continuing fundraising directly through ourwebsite. During the campaign, which began Nov.15, 2019 and ended March 1, 2020, we also raised $80,000 through our Reg D. offering. We are still aiming to raise an additional $400,000 in the next two months to fully fund our goals for 2020 and early 2021. Investments can still be made by accredited investors directly to LPPFusion, following instructions on our website.
During the campaign, the LPPFusion staff, coordinated by Director of Communications Ivy Karamitsos, posted dozens ofupdates, on the Wefunder website. Many will be of interest to the readers of this report. We especially call attention to our updates on thefusion transformation, the dangerousgrowth of charcoal use, and our "discovery" of an old video of FF-1'svery first shots.
COVID-19 and Fusion
Like the rest of the world, we are focused right now on the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. Rightly so, because this pandemic could kill millions. We at LPPFusion are taking what precautions we can. We will not participate in conferences, most of which are being cancelled in any case. We are disinfecting and practicing social distancing.
At first glance, this viral threat does not seem to have much to do with the long-term energy crisis the world faces, but in fact there are several important connections. First, the short-term threat of COVID-19 and the long-term threat of fossil fuels both endanger the lives and health of millions of people worldwide. While a pandemic like that in 1918 could kill millions, we know that air pollution due to fossil fuel consumption will kill over 7 million people in this year alone.
Second, the fossil fuel crisis actually makes COVID-19 worse. Medical studies have shown that high levels of air pollution, almost entirely due to fossil fuel combustion, weaken the lungs of both older and very young people, making them more vulnerable to pneumonia. This may be part of the reason that COVID-19 mortality rates are higher in the heavily industrialized—and heavily polluted—city of Wuhan, where the virus originated, than elsewhere.
In addition, the economic costs of high-priced fossil fuels divert trillions of dollars annually from the health expenditures needed to maintain the population and to prepare for epidemics. WHO has expressed deep concern for the spread of COVID-19 in Africa, where medical facilities are totally inadequate. Africa right now spends more on oil consumption alone than on health care. In the United States, despite high expenditures on health care, hospital beds per capita have been cut in half over the past four decades.
Last, and most important, both threats require crash research and production programs, coordinated by the world's major governments, which are not yet taking place. Leading health organizations like the WHO and CDC have warned that quarantines are unlikely to stop a disease as infectious as COVID-19. While the low infection rates in warm climates like Singapore give some hope that the disease may slow dramatically as spring arrives, it is also likely to roar back in the fall. The best way to stop such a virus is with a vaccine. But no government has yet initiated the sort of large-scale crash program that could develop a vaccine in time to help this year.
Worse, no government has tried to prepare for such an outbreak by building up the emergency capacity to both develop and mass-produce a vaccine in the case of a deadly outbreak. Nor have most governments, emphatically including that of the US, where our lab is located, built up significant reserves of medical equipment. It is not as if COVID-19 came out of the blue. This is the third coronavirus, along with SARS and MERS, to threaten a pandemic, and scientists have known of the threat for decades. But the crash program of research and production needed to develop an emergency response never occurred. Such a program is urgently needed right now.
To give a concrete example, for the 10% of coronavirus patients who get critically ill, ventilators to assist their breathing are the only way to preserve life. In the United States, health experts estimate that the need for ventilators may run into the millions at the height of the pandemic. But only 70,000 of these complex machines are available in the entire US. A crash production program, coordinated by the Federal government, might just possibly be able to produce machines that could save millions of lives. But nothing of the sort is being done. Indeed, where we are located there are no plans at the national, state, county or local level for what happens when the ventilators and intensive care units are all fully occupied. Unfortunately, the US government has not even been able to organize the sort of mass testing that has slowed the virus in South Korea. There is not even discussion of the national mobilization required.
A crash program for fusion research is also exactly what is needed to end the crisis of fossil fuel production as rapidly as possible. Only fusion energy can provide the cheap, clean, safe and inexhaustible energy needed to replace fossil fuels entirely. That would clean up the air and free up trillions of dollars for health care, and emergency reserves, among other critical needs. LPPFusion has long advocated an international government crash program to fund research for all possible routes to fusion.
Our Plan to Get to Net...Energy
During the Wefunder campaign, people have asked us: how can we expect to go rapidly from where we are to net energy—when we get more energy out of the device than we put in? We gave them an explanation. Since many people have told us how useful this information is, we are featuring it in this report. The information will remain available on our website.
Phase 1: Research to Achieve Net Energy Production in a Laboratory Device
Right now, our task in 2020 is to move our fusion yield up from the one quarter of a joule (J) we have achieved to the 30,000 J we need to get more energy out of the device than we put into it. This sounds like a huge jump. But it is feasible. Let's do the numbers!
First, we are talking about a very small amount of energy in total. Our goal of 30 kJ (30,000 J) per shot is less than the energy you get from eating 3 pistachios.
Second, we are a lot closer than any other private fusion effort. TAE, our closest rival, has to increase their yield a thousand times more than we do.
Third, our process gives us a lot of leverage to convert small gains in compression to large gains in yield. Our device produces a tiny ball of ultra-hot plasma called a "plasmoid". We have already gotten this plasmoid to the more than 2 BILLION degrees temperature we need. But we have to make it denser. Fortunately for every factor of two we improve the compression, and thus decrease the plasmoid radius, we get a factor of four increase in density. For every factor of four increase in density, we get a factor of 16 increase in fusion yield. In mathematical terms, yield goes up as the compression ratio to the fourth power.
To get better compression, we first have to achieve a high degree of symmetry, so that the filaments of current in our machine arrive together at the same point at the same time, so that they will twist up tightly into the plasmoid (see our video). The better the symmetry, the smaller the plasmoid, the more the density. We need to make sure the electrodes are clean of any metal specks and we have to get rid of any remaining oscillations in our current. We need to optimize the amount of gas, the mixture of gases and the magnetic field that gives our plasma an initial small twist. Each of these steps will only improve the compression by 15-20%, but together they will more than double the compression—shrinking the plasmoid by a factor of a bit more than 2, increasing yield by about a factor of 25 to 10 J. These are the steps we are working on right now.
Next, during the summer of this year, we intend to install new switches that are twice as small and twice as numerous as our present switches. This will allow us to initially increase the electric current in our device by about 40%. We get leverage with that as well, increasing yield by a factor of 4 to 40 J.
We will then turn on the full power of our capacitor bank, going up from eight capacitors to twelve and from 40 kV to 45 kV. That will increase our current and compression by more than 60% and our yield by 8 to about 300 J.
Then we will take the biggest step—changing the fuel in our vacuum chamber from deuterium to our final fuel—pB11, hydrogen-boron. We'll start mixing in a bit, but we hope by around the end of the year to be running with pure B11. Once we have optimized it, we expect to get a four-fold boost in yield because this fuel burns twice as fast as deuterium; a 3-fold boost in yield because each reaction produces three times more energy than deuterium. In addition, we'll get 40% better compression, giving another 4-fold boost in yield. Finally, our confinement time will increase 4-fold because much of the fusion energy we produce will be initially recycled back into the magnetic field that holds the plasmoid together. That gives us another 4-fold boost in yield. So, switching from deuterium to pB11 will altogether give us 2x3x4x4 or nearly 100 times the yield. This will therefore bring us all the way up to the 30 kJ we need.
To summarize:
A 3-fold increase in compression will give us a 75-fold increase in yield
A 2-fold increase in current will give us a 16-fold increase in yield
Switching to pB11 fuel will give us a 100-fold increase in yield
¼ Jx75x16x100 = 30 kJ. This is how we can make a huge jump—in not too many steps.
Phase 2. Developing a Working Prototype Generator Ready for Manufacture
In Phase 2, we will develop the Focus Fusion device as a repetitively pulsed generator, pulsing up to a few hundred times a second, develop the conversion devices to convert the ion beams and X-rays to electricity, and perfect the cooling system and general electrical control system. We will also optimize the fusion energy generation efficiency. At the end of Phase 2, which we estimate will take another 3-4 years, we plan to have the world's first functioning fusion generator producing 5 MW of net electricity. It will be ready for mass production. We estimate the budget for this phase to be about $100 million, to be raised from a combination of government and private sources.
Phase 3: Commercialization
We believe that the fastest and lowest-risk method of g
