Test post

This is a link to a youtube video. It isn't of much interest, in my opinion. I'm using to test some connections.











Test link

Trump response to SOTU

Comment:

Rather succinct statement. As for the SOTU, it wasn't worth the time to watch. In my opinion, all of this sucking up to a leader seems rather distasteful to me. For a long period of American history, the State of the Union wasn't delivered as a speech, but as a written document. The tradition started with Thomas Jefferson, and continued until Woodrow Wilson.

The official GOP response was given by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, which drew some mixed reviews. Dick Morris seemed to like it, but CTH's response was cool. There's nothing technically wrong with her response, in my opinion. However, you can never be too sure about the sincerity of these people. That's the biggest problem that I have with them all, truth be told.

One more thing: I think the GOP crowd owes Trump for all the crap they allowed the Democrats to pour down on Trump these last years. But they'll be sure not to do anything like that. Count on the GOP to take care of themselves first.

Interesting to contrast that with the America first message of Trump.

That is all.

We've been sold down the river

 

Dan Bongino video embedded below:

Comment:

I've used the phrase as a title because that is what it all means. It means loss of freedom, which means slavery...

Not that anybody is paying any attention, mind you.

This is how freedom ends. Maybe a lot worse than that. Slavery may be the best case scenario.

By the way, as I write this, I've watched less than half of the video. So, let's watch the rest and see if he actually says th

Watson Video: The Matrix is Malfunctioning | Frontpage Mag

 The Matrix is malfunctioning

Comment:  

Faster please.

Food for thought: Couple links to chow down on

Link one:

Jobs report. "Too good to be true"

Comment:

A bunch of statistical mumbo-jumbo. Over a period of 10 months during 2022, there was a LOSS of jobs of 10k. The job "gains" were part time jobs... Bloomberg chief economist Anna Wong said it was "too good to be true". Also, that the Fed won't put too much weight on this report. In other words, a report like this SHOULD cause inflationary pressures to increase, but the expectation is that it won't have much weight, and so the Fed won't raise interest rates on this one report...

Link two:

Egg yolk works to stop covid?

Comment:

Quite the coincidence that eggs are in short supply these days. Almost as if they don't want anybody to take advantage of this news to help themselves to some good ol eggs, and save themselves from the dreaded Kung Fu Flu.

Maybe the yolk is on us, ya'll. ( I know, groannnnnnn)

Lord of the Flies, film based upon novel

It's been fairly cold lately, and I decided to watch some videos. There was one about the book that was an assignment back in high school in the seventies, called The Lord of the Flies. I had a vague recollection of the novel, and have never seen a film version of it, so I watched it.

After watching it, I decided to do a post about it, but what should I say? Not everyone who could read this may be familiar with the film or novel, so this would lack some background. Rather than go over all that here, I think I should refer anyone who might be interested to check it out. You can find it easily enough on Google or any search platform of your choice. The book seems to have won an award, so it isn't like some obscure book or anything. Rather than watching the movie, you could read the Cliff Notes, for example. Or any of the other study aids in order to save time, if time is a bit short.

Of course the book is about the inherent savagery inside us all. There was a struggle against the savagery, which wasn't successful. Consequently, the book has some rather dark overtones about human nature.

There was an angle that I thought I might use in reference to what happened to the group of boys on the island, and it might well be a stark parallel with what is going on now in our time. In particular, the COVID situation, and the resultant power grab arising from it. You see, the boys were afraid of a "beast", but the beast was in their imaginations, and was not real. The fear of the beast was being used to manipulate the boys in following a power mad leader. The parallel is rather striking. COVID fear was put in the hearts of vulnerable people, and this fear was used in destroying the civil society upon which we depend. The same kind of thing happened in the novel, as the boys were in the process of destroying the basis of their own survival in their hunt for a dissident to the power mad leader's control over the boys.

Anyway, this is what I got out of it. Others may have different reactions. I noted in Spark Notes that there was something objectionable in their analysis. But I won't go over that here.

The person in the novel, who discovered that the "monster" was not real, was murdered. Fear was driving the behavior of the boys, and this particular boy actually had the courage ( for want of a better word) to find out about the beast. It was the ignorance and the fear that drove the irrational behavior ( in my opinion). It is rather disheartening to see that a voice of reason is likely to be ignored. Such was the case in the novel ( and film), and this is probably pretty close to being the case. Those who would push back against irratonal fear are in danger of being subjected to violence or murder.

The story does not speak well of our future. Let's hope that irrational fears will not lead to the end of us all. It may well happen that way.

PV= n R T

Some high school algebra on the gas law equation



Let's solve in terms of T ( temperature): Divide both sides by R times n. This yields this equation, which is equivalent to the Gas Law equation, or I don't know my algebra. That would be T= PxV / nx R ; So what does it all mean, Basil?

Let's use a concept in first semester calculus: Let's have n, which is the number of molecules, get really big. Like infinity big. What does that do to the number? It goes to zero, right? That's because the denominator gets bigger. As the denominator gets bigger, the number gets smaller, right? Again, what does that mean, Basil?

Let's swerve away from that for a moment, and look at it from a common sense viewpoint. If n is the number of molecules, then increasing n also increases the mass. To keep Temperature equal, you'd have to increase pressure times volume. But wait, one can get confused. That's why we need some common sense. You'd need more energy to heat more mass to the same temperature, would you not? It takes more heat to boil two cups of tea than one, right? So it means that to maintain temperature at a constant level, you'd have to add more heat when you increase n, or if you don't, you lose temperature.

Seems rather startling at first, but then you recognize that it is just common sense. More stuff to heat means more energy expended. It takes more heat to heat more stuff. Common sense. Does it make more sense then, that more stuff means that more heat can be stored? Wouldn't it also mean that it takes longer to cool off a lot of stuff, than just a little stuff? Just trying to make sense of this equation...

Some of this discussion wouldn't be scientific, but it does make sense. Or I hope it does. That could explain why Venus gets hot and Mars does not. Or part of why. Venus receives much more solar radiation than Mars. It's atmosphere is much thicker. It may be on the order of 10000 times thicker than Mars. Venus is hot, and Mars is cold. But both have a carbon dioxide dominated atmosphere. Therefore, referring to the equation again, in the comparison between planets, the number of molecules in the Venusian atmosphere is much higher than on Mars. It takes a lot more heat to warm it up, but once it does, it stays hot longer. Harder to cool off, let's say.

The idea I'm trying to get across is that it doesn't matter what kind of gas is in the atmosphere. It matters how much gas ( which also means how much mass of that gas) is in the atmosphere. More energy means higher temperature. It takes a lot more energy to heat up the Venusian atmosphere in the first place. If Mars had a thicker atmosphere, would it be hotter? Maybe. But only because there is a lot more matter there to retain the heat. It isn't because Mars would have a runaway greenhouse effect if it had an atmosphere like Venus.

Mars might even be colder than it is right now! That might "bake your bagels", as Bongino would say. Venus gets warmer than Mars because its blanket is a lot thicker. And tomorrow is Ground hog day. It's pretty cold, so break out those thick blankets.