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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As historian Howard Zinn said, “If you’re Norway, or some other small country that does not represent a military threat, there is no harm in establishing a sense of national pride.  That is not true of a military superpower that has the potential to annihilate this planet many times over.”

If being an American “patriot” means striving to improve the quality of life for all our citizens, or making our country a more ethical player in international affairs, that’s fine. If it means cheering for America regardless of how wrong it may be, that’s dangerous.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In my mind, this is further proof that the former President of the United States had thoroughly convinced them that they were the true patriots, and that history would remember them as heroes who saved the nation, just like we revere Lincoln today.

All this does is raise the imperative to prosecute Trump.  His foot soldiers went down.  So must he.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Whether Clarence Thomas is more afraid of liberals than bigots is immaterial. These are opinions, and having opinions, even grossly insincere ones, is not a crime.

On the other hand, the fact that he’s been taking bribes, i.e., committing felonies, is quite important.  He needs to be impeached, tried, and convicted, not for his ridiculous ideas but for his crimes.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The Equal Rights Amendment was conceived over 100 years ago, and has had some hard-won progress, as shown in the graphic here.  To date, 38 states in green have ratified it, but other states have stalled.

This depiction of the “deep red” states is a familiar one.  Florida prides itself on the moniker, “It’s where woke goes to die.”

Some of this systemic inequality is cruel and should be eliminated.  Others, e.g., southern white straight males, frolic in it.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m often challenged by Libertarians to define precisely what’s wrong with their political philosophy.  I normally respond in terms of macroeconomic issues, we all live in a society in which it makes no sense to privatize things like national defense, the national highway system, and FAA, FEMA, etc.

Here is a “micro” example: 10 year old kids working (without overtime) until 2 AM at a few McDonald’s restaurants in Kentucky.

I want to live in a country in which there are child labor laws that supersede the greed of McDonalds’ franchisees.  Little kids, even those in desperately poor families, should be home, asleep, resting for their next day in school, rather than serving up French fries.

Those who can’t understand this are beyond repair.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The conviction of the top echelon of the white nationalist “Proud Boys” reminds us all that the largest element of their crime was that they trusted Donald Trump, the man who told them that he was the rightful president of the United States, when he commanded them into action.

All moral reasoning demands that the senior architect of the insurrection face justice.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The question above suggests that the suspect, at least at some point, beat his wife.

The question posed at left implies that Biden has an “anti-gun” agenda.  Note that the “poll” is organized by people who assert that concealed carry saves lives, as if this goes without saying.

In any case, between 80% and 90% of all Americans (depending on how the questions are phrased) approve of what the Biden administration is trying to accomplish re: guns.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Here’s a piece on a subject we haven’t talked too much about recently: energy storage.  In this case, it’s analogous to pumped hydro (see left) or advanced rail energy storage, both of which take off-peak energy and use it to raise a mass against the force of gravity, increasing its potential energy.  Then when needed, the mass can be allowed to fall, transferring that energy into electricity.

This guy proposes to install systems like these in abandoned oil wells, making use of the fact that the holes in the Earth’s surface have already been dug.

Is this a big deal?  I doubt it.

Yes, energy storage of this type requires elevation change, and thus cannot be sited in places like Kansas.  Yet this technology, which comes from Newton (ca. 1660) and Faraday (ca. 1830) doesn’t appear to hold much promise in a world in which battery technology is improving every day.

Btw, the piece linked above is called “Batteries that run on gravity.”  I don’t know whether this is an innocent mistake or a deliberately misleading attempt to explain the concept, but it’s incorrect.  Obviously, it doesn’t invoke batteries (electrochecmical storage) of any kind. But more to the point, it doesn’t “run on gravity.”  There is no energy in gravity; it’s rather a force, and moving objects around in a force field either requires external energy or releases energy, according to whether the objects are moved opposing or in the direction of the force.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

As our educational system continues to fall into an abyss, more and more Americans lack a basic understanding of science, and thus accept ideas like this as perfectly feasible.

Where does the energy come from? The roots of the plants on which you set up the system?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Remind me to stay far away from this guy’s house.

The sad/funny part of this: If his house is burning down, the government fire department will be there as soon as humanly possible to extinguish the blaze.

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