The War on Growth
“The industrial revolution is not yet canceled, but it has become “problematic.”
When delegates arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, for Conference of the Parties 26, the 2021 edition of the U.N.’s climate jamboree, Britain’s then–prime minister, Boris Johnson, welcomed them with a speech in which, after some by-the-numbers apocalypticism (crops withering, locusts swarming, wildfires, cyclones, Miami underwater), he turned his attention to the industrial revolution:
“It was here in Glasgow, 250 years ago, that James Watt came up with a machine that was powered by steam, that was produced by burning coal. . . . We’ve brought you to the very place where the doomsday machine began to tick.”
There was no mention of the extraordinary spike in human flourishing that Watt and other inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs kick-started over two and a half centuries ago. And their rising interest in the idea of “degrowth” threatens to undo much of that progress.”
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As Max Planck once put it, a new scientific theory gradually gets accepted by scientists because “all the old scientists have died.”
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HELIUM 3
(More here) Of particular interest is a substance called helium-3, discovered in abundance on the Moon by geologist-astronaut Harrison Schmidt during the last Apollo mission in 1972. Radiated throughout our solar system on light waves from the sun, helium-3 is an extremely rare element on Earth because it cannot penetrate our planet’s thick atmosphere. But the airless moon is a near perfect collector.
What makes helium-3 so potentially valuable is the growing belief among nuclear engineers that it can safely and cheaply power fusion reactors. Unlike enriched uranium, reprocessed plutonium, or thorium, helium-3 is a fuel with the potential to supply a near-infinite amount of electricity without posing any danger from radioactive waste, accidents, natural catastrophes, terrorist sabotage or wear and tear on its plant’s containment walls.
Ok, I’m on a Quest Kick
Bullet Points:
** More Art Philosophy and a possible dive into the autobiographical from Jules.
** When Plague masking was introduced, a large group of studies were released at the same time, supposedly supporting the claim that masking reduced the spread of the virus. An historical note: Starting 100 years ago after the Spanish Flu, a bunch of studies were done on the efficacy of masking in the general population. All these studies showed what common sense would indicate: cloth or paper masks simply do not slow the spread of airborne respiratory viruses. So new studies had to be produced to counter the old studies.
I read the first 5, at least up to the point where their claims became patently ridiculous – usually not much past the abstract. Cherry-picked data. Tiny percentage differences, well within any reasonable margin of error, touted as proving something. Use of models which were instructed to say what the modeler’s funders wanted to hear.
** Nothing will kill a good employee faster than watching management tolerate a bad one.
Identify the Aircraft
This might be a tricky ID – production fighter aircraft but lesser known. Powered by the Rolls-Royce 275 hp Falcon engine, it was one of the fastest fighter aircraft developed during WW1. The lack of Falcon engines resulted in substituting the French Hispano-Suiza 8, which lacked the performance of the RR. A very similar aircraft followed this one and used the Hispano-Suiza 8 exclusively. That’s partly why it can be a tough ID.
H/T Frank… you’re a wicked man, Frank
“Nothing will kill a good employee faster than watching management tolerate a bad one.”
Boy, that’s the truth.
Plague masking: it’s essentially a religious belief. Can’t overcome it by reasoned persuasion or with facts. And the irony that the True Believers are the ones who go on the loudest about how “I believe in Science” is entirely lost on them. The inconsistency does not bother them.
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
If you get the number wrong, you need to be scourged and then executed. (was: court marshaled, shot, and sent to the Russian Front)
The HR departments of most large corporations make it damn near impossible to terminate incompetent or lazy employees, especially those tinted by the sun.
You just have to be willing to document-document-document. A lot of people are uncomfortable with doing that or with confrontation.
That’s true, but they put everything on a timer, so the sorry can wait for the oldest to fall off and then offend again. They all generally mess up in the end, but it can literally take years to rid your department of some. It is generally easier to arrange a transfer.
I talked to those who needed to square away: “You’ll be gone before the leaves change color, or you’ll fix yourself. What’s it to be?”
Surprisingly, they did. There was one black guy who I fired while on probation. My black HR chief (female) said, “He gots to go; he’s just a nigger with a job.” Echoed by the HR asst chief, also black, also female, “Yep, he just a nigger wit a job.”
It’s not always about race. This guy (tall, good-looking, black) porked everything with a vagina on duty while neglecting his work.
Or tinted by the Union Label.
X2
Industrial revolution. “We’ve brought you to the very place where the doomsday machine began to tick.” says the person who has a cell phone, laptop computer, uses modern medical care, and enjoys hot water showers with all the other benefits of a industrialized society. Let them live 6 months without any of those benefits and they would probably change their tune. Who am I kidding though, they will keep all the perks and let the proles suffer shivering in the dark.
Helium 3. Mmm didn’t read the article but Tritium is hydrogen 3. Helium 3 is a totally different kettle of fish and much rarer. Well rarer on earth anyway..
The tritium thing is a brain lapse on my part. They are talking about Helium 3 in the article.
Didn’t mean to get too pedantic. I will read the article, sounds interesting. Although fusion has always been 10 years away, at some point in time it will actually happen. Hope it is in my lifetime. Cheap, essentially limitless, power solves a lot of problems.
You were right, I need to make the tritium part vanish.
I thought the Ilhan picture was more of Ilhan farting in Gaetz general direction.
You may be onto something.
IDA:
1. Martinside F.4 Buzzard
Close
Martinsyde F2?
F3
That was a good one.
A tough one. Sometimes they’re tough, and sometimes they’re a lot easier. I have to spend time on that part of the blog to try and give you monsters a challenge.
Sopwith Camel
How could it be without a white beagle wearing a flying helmet, goggles, and a scarf?
Looks like the Laughing Man prefers a M1 carbine. Good choice IMO.
Looks like a Thompson and at least one Schmeisser in the foreground. Laughing Man’s logistics must be Hell.
A twelve-year-old boy bested him…so…
And a Thompson. Crazy that the first thing most of us looked at was the guns… Of course, Jezebel Jade wasn’t there with her perky boobs and nice butt.
The Jonny and Hadji are worried, Bandit is scared and Race is like who do I kill first.
I identify most clearly with Bannon.
It’s the white hair and broad skillset.
Must be.
The ones in front of Race all have the muzzles pointing upwards. He’s probably looking at those behind him to see which ones forgot to switch off the safety.
Read somewhere that Ilhan is a sex addict amongst other things. Ugh disgusting.
At least she keeps it in the family.
HogsbreathSS could travel to DC, tell her that he self-identifies as Somali, and maybe he could take one for the team and answer everyone’s filthy questions. (kidding)
Sorry to disappoint guys but I wouldn’t bang that Somali whore even if I were mop level 4, triple bagged with Mike C’s dick and Paul M pushing!
Well now, there’s a visual I could have done without, but I get the rather salty point…that one pegs the crazy meter all the way to the nasty level, Gaetz ought to be careful, might need a bit more Brillcream…well, never mind, it’s a semi-family blog.
At least HogsbreathSS didn’t sink into the whole skull-f’ing thing. Talk of skull-f’ing a female member of the black Congressional caucus on this blog would not be tolerated. Not one bit.
While it’s usually nice to be “mentioned in Dispatches” this is not one of those times. ☹️
There are various schools of thought on “double gloving” (or triple). One side says “wear two gloves. If you needle-stick yourself, each layer “squeegees” some of the goop off, so penetrating (you’ll pardon the word choice) two layers means smaller inoculum vs one layer. The other school of thought is that each layer decreases sensitivity, er manual dexterity, so go with whatever you usually do: if you always double-glove then do that. But if you single-glove normally then don’t change because your patient is riddled with nasty stuff. I subscribe to the latter school: unfamiliarity is what is most likely to cause you to stick yourself. (Apart from the patient actively fighting you, which sometimes happens.)
But here’s the real question: would you rather get a needle stick from an HIV+ patient, or stick it into Ms Omar? Tough question.
You’re a man of science, Mike_C. In some “hot environments,” surgery must be done remotely and robotically. In the case of the Congresswoman, “Call in the Robot” might be the correct decision.
I think everyone here is semi-permanently on a Quest kick… I certainly am.
So, you’re in good company, LL! Or at least some kind of company. Company, anyway.
-Kle.
Agreed! Funny what sticks is our brains.
Helium-3 will ‘burn’ with no radioactivity associated with it.
Unlike Hydrogen, in any of its isotopes, which will produce radioactivity.
And then there’s the storage issue. Hydrogen is so small it is known to be a slippery molecule, able to leak out of supposedly solid material or through seals. Helium is, comparatively, a much bigger molecule and therefore is easier to store and doesn’t escape nearly as easily.
We used to use helium as a shield gas for laser welding.
(Hydrogen would have been a disaster)
The helium liked to leak out of the wall of the hoses.
I liked to take a tank and put a garbage bag over it and open the valve, tie it off and let it float to the 40′ ceiling. Did a few one day. They were all over the floor the next morning.
Management was not amused.
Love the Johnny Quest posts, my favorite cartoon show from childhood.
X2
I am still in my childhood.