I’m a bit unimpressed by the barrage of ads we see like this.
Are you 60 or 85? What type of cash-fueled lifestyle do you lead? How’s your health? How much income do you derive from your pension, portfolio, and Social Security? How much do you want to leave your kids?
When I was younger, ads like this would have been responded to with: “Leave me alone, fool.”
When 2GreenEnergy was launched in 2009, the concept shown at left, “solar thermal,” held great promise. The main reason for optimism lay in its integrated storage, i.e., molten salt, which could take on energy, raising its temperature, and then give it back, cooling off, as needed.
A friend, the late Bruce Allen, wrote a book on the subject that I helped promote.
The whole industry came to halt a few years ago when the levelized cost of energy, “LCOE,” i.e., the summation of the costs over the period of time that the system functions (the construction of the plant, operations and maintenance, the cost of fuel, and the decommissioning of the plant when its life ends) associated with solar PV and wind came crashing down. It didn’t help solar thermal that the price of silicon dropped by 80% in just a few years.
Another factor in the demise of solar thermal was the costs of thousands upon thousands of moving parts. If you look at the system shown here, each of these mirrors is constantly moving, tracking the (apparent) motion across the sky.
Speaking of moving parts, here is a story I like to tell that concerns another friend, this one still with us. John Perlin is a solar energy expert and author associated with UC Santa Barbara, known for his historical and future perspectives on solar power. He is the author of several books on solar energy and its history.
Among the dozens of other things he does on the campus, he conducts tours of the considerable PV arrays that one finds all over the dozens of UCSB’s parking garages. He told me with something of a grin that the only common complaint that people have when the tour is over is “That’s it? It just sits there? Nothing’s moving? Aren’t we talking about energy here? Where are the pounding pistons, the crashing waterfalls?”
He just shrugs his shoulders and thanks them for their kind attention.
Much has been written about the purpose and meaning of life.
The majority seems to think that human life has no external, a priori meaning, and that we confer meaning to our lives by the decisions we make. This, FWIW, is the core tenet of existentialism.
Kurt Vonnegut, true to form, takes a dissenting view.
Even those of us who detest Trump didn’t see this coming.
Withdrawing the United States from the global effort to prevent environmental collapse wasn’t bad enough.
It’s virtually certain that Trump will be connected to Epstein and the sex trafficking of underage girls.
The question, however, is will he lose any support? We’re talking about an adjudicated rapist who tried to overthrow the United States federal government. For the MAGA base, there are no deal-breakers.
It’s totally fine that the U.S. president doesn’t understand the principles of magnetism, but does he need to talk about it in front of a huge, international audience? If you haven’t seen this and the other videos on this subject, now’s the time.
If I’m asked to be on some radio or TV show, I immediately ask about the focus of the program. Things like environmental sustainability in general and renewable energy specifically get an automatic yes. But there are thousands of topics you couldn’t pay me enough to engage in: Chinese cooking, third-world politics, the life and times of Millard Fillmore. Of the many reasons I’d decline such requests, one of them is that I’d certainly make a total ass of myself.
Donald Trump apparently was born without that gene in his body. Ask him about, or, better yet, put him in change of domestic or world economics, and just watch him go.
This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that American voters can’t get enough of his ignorance.
Two hundred years ago, we wanted a Princeton grad like James Madison. One hundred years ago, we wanted another: Woodrow Wilson. Now we want the village idiot. Not only do we want an idiot, we will not accept a person of intelligence.
Until recently, we assumed that most Americans had the aspirations that were prevalent when we were young: get a good education and continue to learn until the day you die. Live a life of honesty, fairness, intelligence, and compassion. Perhaps, pick a role model who exemplifies what you consider being a good human being, and emulate their thinking and behavior.
As we watch and listen to Trump supporters, we’re learning something tragic: a huge swath of the American population has no interest in any of this; in fact, they could call it “woke crap.”
Some say that the reason we have Trump in the White House has little to do with the characteristics of Trump himself, but rather with those of the 77 million people who voted for him.
I wrote a post earlier today about a British geneticist, Dr. Gordon Strathdee, who had lived in the United States for four years, and believes that, by 2028, the U.S. will fall under military dictatorship. He believes this, not because of Trump per se, but because of the mentality of the typical American voter. I hope you’ll read his incredibly astute comments here.
In the earlier post, I argued against Strathdee’s position, but I’ve given a great deal of thought to this matter over the years since Trump came on the political scene here in 2015, and I agree that there is considerable reason to be concerned about this outcome, that strikes the civilized world as being so horrible.
To summarize Strathdee’s thinking in two quick statements:
1) A solid percent of U.S. voters love Trump and everything he stands for, and there are exactly zero deal-breakers here, certainly no criminal misconduct. Did his supporters bat an eyelash when the president, deposed in the 2020 election, tried (and nearly succeeded) in overthrowing the U.S. federal government? Not for a millisecond.
2) Given this, the American people are getting exactly what they are asking for. They adore Trump’s blend of racism, cruelty, and his extending his middle finger to our nation’s traditions, e.g., working against the world’s dictators, working in concert with our allies, and accepting the findings of the courts.
I’m sure this isn’t going to impress too many of my readers, but there is a certain justice and rightness in giving the people what they want. I need to accept the truth, i.e., that I live among tens of millions of grossly undereducated people who are thrilled with what’s happening here, and are going to be extremely resistant to changing their thinking.
We need to keep in mind that this situation is not at all limited to the United States. Until recently, Hungary, with its history of great art, architecture and especially music, was one of the most enviable societies on Earth. Now, they have a ruthless dictator. The precise mechanism behind all this I don’t know, but what about this suggestion: The people wanted one?
British geneticist Dr. Gordon Strathdee lived in the United States for four years, and believes that the answer to the question here is yes, but not because of Trump per se. Read his incredibly astute comments here.
Here are two competing notions:
1) Though I’m not pro-military by nature, I have a great deal of respect for those who rose through the ranks and achieved the pinnacle of success, focused on one single thing: Their loyalty to the U.S. Constitution.
It’s true that, under Trump’s first term, a few retired generals came aboard his staff and then left, apparently because of disagreements they had with the president. At this moment, however, things seem to be fairly quiet. We even have the absurd situation that an alcoholic Fox News commentator is the Secretary of Defense, and no one’s making too much noise about it. But wait until the order comes down, “We’re invading Canada!” or some equivalent form of insanity.
The answer, which will come immediately and unanimously: “The f*** we are. You’re insane, and you’ve given your last command here.”
2) The economy, driven at least partially by extreme tariffs, goes so far in the tank that the MAGA folks can’t feed their families, and they drop Trump like a hot rock. True, these are not the type of people who are prone to admit they were wrong, even in the face of compelling evidence (which is the entire problem here), but hunger and poverty are powerful motivating forces.
Under this scenario, the congresspeople who represent the red states and are desperate to remain in office drop Trump as well, as his support on The Hill evaporates totally and immediately.
H
oly s***! Is this guy, selling annuities, for real?
I wouldn’t trust him to feed my mule (even though he looks and sounds like he’d be dang good at it).
We’re rightfully concerned about well-spoken guys in suits, but have we really come to this?
