Home » Open thread 8/16/23

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Open thread 8/16/23 — 35 Comments

  1. Just another comment about something I read.

    Yesterday, at PowerLine, John Hinderaker wrote a post about Robert Bryce’s essay “The Power of Power Density” (https://tinyurl.com/mryhbdu5). Bryce published this at his own substack, and I thought the whole thing was worth reading; but, like John Hinderaker, my eye was drawn to Bryce’s simple graph of areal power density (i.e. watts per square meter) for alternative energy sources vs. natural gas and nuclear reactors. According to the graph, Rolls Royce’s small modular nuclear reactor, which is under development, has the the highest areal power density, by far.

    I’m not a nuclear engineer, electrical engineer, or physicist. All I’ve done, so far, is read the Wikipedia entry on Rolls Royce SMRs. Do any of Neo’s readers have any knowledge of this kind of reactor? Can we really expect implementation by 2030? Thanks.

  2. Our Constitution was made ”ONLY FOR A MORAL AND RELGIOUS PEOPLE”. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

    John Adams

    I think I see what could be called ‘THE PROBLEM’.

  3. I’m a young fogey, who recalls when robert bryce, was on against cheney’s energy taskforce, which was the stepping stone to this march of folly, we find ourselves 20 years later, it’s a little known detail that enron was enmeshed in these climate change schemes, along with beyond petroleum and goldman sachs, the then ceo robert rubin even merged enron and put ken lay in charge,

  4. Spending an hour on twitter will make you want to take a shower.

    It will also make you realize that this country is heading for war. We live in two very different universes. One half genuinely believes that they are morally entitled to crush the other.

    Why war? Because everyone on the left believes that the right will simply accept the show trials and kangaroo courts as legitimate exercises of government power. That we may “disagree” with the verdicts or legal opinions, but that’s just the way democracy works, and we’ll accept it.

    They have no idea.

  5. Cornflour, I don’t have specific knowledge of RR reactor, but it’s a given that nuclear has the highest energy density.

    For Snow, and others: did you see what Avi Loeb said about discovery of ET? He let the cat out of bag. Said discovery of ET would help establish a world government. All this UFO press may be just another tactic towards globalization. Be skeptical.

  6. Who wants to bet that Jack Smith already knew what was in Trump’s DMs before Twitter gave them up?

    FISA Chief Judge Collyer told us in 2017 that FBI contractors (AKA Dem operatives) have had access to NSA databases since the early Obama years. Must be a treasure trove of blackmail stuff.

    IIRC they even have access through a connection located in Mark Elias’ law firm. Elias is the uber political dirty tricks election lawyer for Democrats.

  7. NEWT GINGRICH: This is going to be a horrendous period. And we just need to understand, the people who want to control America and dictate to the rest of us will break any law, lie about any topic, and manipulate the system anyway they can..

  8. Stan-“Spending an hour on twitter will make you want to take a shower.”

    I don’t doubt you — Where do you go to find the active trash on Twitter? — I just want to see for myself.

    I used to be able to lookup Twitter and see “trending” but no more. (And my Twitter account protocol is terminally mucked up, requiring me to have a new Email…blah blah blah…so it never gets done — too troublesome for me.)

  9. Anna-Maria is a human Theremin. I could hear the two simultaneous notes at some times in her performance, but not consistently through it. I did feel like the computer screen, or my eardrums. might shatter on some of the very high notes.
    _____

    There is an argument that because the acts Trump is charged with happened (for the most part, certainly) while he was president and physically in Washington DC, he could have the Georgia case moved to federal court. Also an argument that if elected president (which is extremely unlikely) he could pardon himself even for a state conviction. Also arguments against both contentions.
    _____

    “X” only lets me see tweets on my desktop computer, which is logged into Twitter. I used to be able to see them on my other devices. Seems like another bad business decision by Elon.

  10. cornflour, a major problem with nuclear power is that the nuclear regulatory commission is filled with anti-nuclear activists who do everything they can to impede and slow down, and therefore increase the cost of nuclear power plants. Small modular reactors are a possible solution to this but the NRC is fighting those.
    Look at the timeline of the approval of the Nuscale modular reactor
    This article from October 2020 says the design was approved, “but they still have rulemaking”
    https://hackaday.com/2020/10/01/certifying-nuclear-reactors-how-the-nrc-approved-its-first-small-modular-reactor-design/

    The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently announced that it had approved certification of NuScale’s SMR (small modular reactor) design, completing its Phase 6 review of NuScale’s Design Certification Application (DCA). What this means is that SMRs using NuScale’s reactor design can legally be constructed within the US as soon as the rulemaking process completes

    It took them until January 2023 to do the “rule-making” I’m not sure whether this is the final final step.
    https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nrc-certifies-first-us-small-modular-reactor-design

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its final rule(link is external) in the Federal Register to certify NuScale Power’s small modular reactor.
    The company’s power module becomes the first SMR design certified by the NRC and just the seventh reactor design cleared for use in the United States.
    The rule takes effects February 21, 2023 and equips the nation with a new clean power source to help drive down emissions across the country.
    The NRC accepted NuScale’s SMR design certification application back in March 2018 and issued its final technical review in August 2020. The NRC Commission later voted to certify the design on July 29, 2022—making it the first SMR approved by the NRC for use in the United States.

  11. did you see what Avi Loeb said about discovery of ET? He let the cat out of bag. Said discovery of ET would help establish a world government.

    –physicsguy

    Heck, we’ve known that since Michael Rennie played Klaatu in “The Day the Earth Stood Still”!
    ___________________________________

    Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer.

    –“The Day the Earth Stood Still (5/5) Movie CLIP – The Choice Is Ours (1951)”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9phuyRknPw

  12. Had a hard time concentrating on the singer in the video. Too distracted by her tits. Maybe younger guys, who grew up seeing more of them, aren’t affected as much. But they are a sexual lure for males. For many women, they are much bigger than they need to be for their lactation utility. It has been suggested by some experts in this area that they effectively grew so large in order to move males to the front, for frontal copulation, which is very rare in mammalian species. Our nearest ape relatives, Chimps and Bonobos, still retain small, functional breasts, and rear entry for copulation, so the evolution of these characteristics was in the last 7.5 million years.

  13. A comment on my current reading: “A Conflict of Visions,” by Thomas Sowell, published in 2007, is prophetic about the divide between left and right we see today.

  14. Bruce Hayden:

    Yes, she certainly had on something pretty low-cut.

    One remedy: close you eyes and just listen. 🙂

  15. physicsguy,

    There seems to be a pattern with UFO reports and government activity. It would not surprise me at all that such news is used by state actors as a diversionary tactic. There doesn’t seem to be any concrete information coming out of these recent hearings; nothing that requires so much activity and attention at this time. Odd that it seems to be one of the primary focuses of Congress, especially since there doesn’t seem to be anything new.

    Why now?

  16. I’ve listened to long interviews of RFK, Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy and Marianne Williamson. The first two are glib and adept at handling questions and stating their policies. Williamson was surprisingly superficial.

    For someone who has spent much of her adult life working, writing and teaching on theology and philosophy I expected her to be more adroit and explaining her goals and how she expects to get the U.S. there.

    It seems she’s been quite effective as a religious leader/minister and she’s seen good results from her outreach there. Odd that she doesn’t see the irony in trying to use the government like a Roman spear point to force her theology on the populous.

    No way to codify it, so I suppose that’s why the founders left it out of the Constitution, but along with a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances within government; it’s equally important to have separation of religion, charity, education, social groups (families, clubs…) separate from government and a strong system of checks and balances to prevent government from encroaching in those areas. From her inspirational personal mission work Williamson must know how difficult it is to change people and get them to act responsibly. Odd that she thinks “government” can do the same simply by empowering it. She believes putting government entirely over health care, education and poverty will perfect them.

  17. Interesting article that the political differences between men and women are really due to marriage status. Married and unmarried men and married women vote strongly for Republicans.
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/democrats-and-republicans-arent-divided-by-gender-theyre-divided-by-marriage

    Sure, married men break for Republicans by 20 points, but married women also vote Republican by 14 points. Even unmarried men vote Republican, although by a much smaller 7-point margin. But unmarried women are a Democratic bonanza. Democrats clean up among single women by a whopping 37-point margin.

    Some caveats: the statistics are from a CNN exit poll after the November 2022 election.
    https://www.cnn.com/election/2022/exit-polls/national-results/house
    The breakdown on unmarried women is 68% voted Democrat and 31% voted Republican. A big difference but about a third still voted Republican.
    Neo, this seems right up your alley, and you may have written about it already. I did a quick search, but could not find an article.

  18. Re: Marianne Williamson

    Rufus T. Firefly:

    I can’t tell if you are aware, but Williamson is not exactly involved in theology and philosophy as most people consider those fields.

    Williamson is a New Age teacher. Her background comes from the fascinating, though peculiar works known as “A Course in Miracles,” channeled by a Jewish atheist psychologist, Helen Schucman, from Jesus Christ. It’s core teaching:
    ________________________________

    Nothing real can be threatened.
    Nothing unreal exists.
    Herein lies the peace of God.

    –“A Course in Miracles”, p. 1.
    ________________________________

    Love is the ultimate reality. Everything else is illusion. Our lives about healing this illusory separation between ourselves and God.

    It’s not surprising that Williamson’s political prescriptions are vague and perhaps contradictory.

    That said, I have a certain respect for the “Course.” I broke my brain on it for a while. It’s not the usual New Age pablum. The “Workbook” part of the “Course” is 365 day-by-day exercises designed for one to deconstruct one’s accustomed false reality, then to experience the true reality of love.

    I’ve said too much … 🙂

  19. huxley,

    Thanks. I knew almost nothing about the course in miracles, except that it had a big impact on Williamson.

    I have done very little research on her, but whether she calls herself a theologian, philosopher or something else, it seems like she has helped a lot of people and she seems active in a lot of charities.

    It’s odd that someone who has made a living witnessing the good that can be wrought by personal, non-governmental health is advocating for big government, but she is, unfortunately, not alone (ahem, cough, Pope Francis, cough).

    And nothing to be embarrassed about. Spending some portion of every day for a year thinking about love and trying to magnify it in the world can’t be all bad.

  20. Here’s a quote from Marianne Williamson’s first book about how the “Course” turned her life around. It stuck in my mind for its humor:
    _________________________________

    If Jesus had yelled from the cross, “I hate all you guys,” it would been a completely different story. There would have been no resurrection. What created the space for his triumph was his defenselessness, his holding to love despite what others were doing to him.

    –Marianne Williamson, “Return to Love” (1991)
    _________________________________

    So, now you know more about Marianne Williamson than perhaps you wished.

  21. It’s odd that someone who has made a living witnessing the good that can be wrought by personal, non-governmental health is advocating for big government…

    Rufus T. Firefly:

    Yeah. Sad but true.

    I was a member of a “Course” group in the 2000s, after I had turned conservative, and I was disillusioned by what rubber-stamp progressives “Course” people almost all were.

    Which included hating on George W. while going on and on about love.

  22. Rufus T Firefly—

    Of course, this new bipartisan Congressional interest in UFOs could just be an attempt to distract from the information coming out about the Biden crime family.

    But what I think has actually happened is that—behind the scenes briefings by people like Lou Elizondo and Chris Mellon, plus reinforcing corroborating testimony from others— have awakened and really alarmed some members of Congress about the fact that what may be matters of supreme importance have been hidden from them for decades and, moreover, that this has been done by the equivalent of a hidden government within our government which has concealed and withheld this vital information from them for many decades.

  23. RE: The treatment of UFO whistleblower David Grusch

    It has been said that there are a lot of actual first hand witnesses who have seen and worked on recovered UFOs, who have seen alien bodies, but that they are waiting to see how David Grusch is being treated, before they decide if they want to come forward and testify.

    The fact that people within the Intelligence Community have pointed a reporter to police records about Grusch’ brief psychiatric hospitalization for PTSD—thus doing an end run around HIPAA protections—is their attempt to intimidate and to discourage such witnesses from testifying.

    Elements within our government have been running a UFO disinformation and intimidation program for many decades now.

    We will see if such intimidation tactics are again successful .

  24. Has anyone found themselves in the satellite view in a map app? My wife and I were looking at the sat view of our yard as an aid in a discussion we were having about finally landscaping this place. I noticed that my bright yellow sailing kayak was in the water which is rare but it was also beached nose into the shore which I only did one time about two years ago. Normally I beach parallel port-side to shore. That day I came in to use the restroom and then went right back out. Me and my dog are halfway between boat and house.

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