It’s probable that fascism, in which a strongman takes control over a country and its people, has been around in one form another since the beginnings of organized society +/- 10,000 years ago.
Given the imperfect nature of the human animal, it’s possible that there is no permanent remedy; no way to prevent its return. (more…)
This isn’t the only joke we encounter about the mental state of the undecided voter in the coming U.S. presidential election.
From American humorist David Sedaris: (more…)
I find it very hard to believe that Camus (author of the profoundly existential and nihilistic short novel “The Stranger”) said this. It is, of course, reminiscent of Pascal, four centuries earlier, known for his “wager,” i.e., that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, he stands to receive infinite gains and avoid infinite losses. (more…)
When the Trump administration is viewed in the cold light of history, which one(s) of its atrocities will be best remembered? Because of its import to the nation and its democracy as a whole, it’s a good bet that the number one abomination will be the assault on rule of law, i.e., how Trump assembled a team of henchmen, chiefly Bill Barr, to rig the entirety of the U.S. Justice Department in the president’s favor, an entirely unprecedented feat in our nation’s past. (more…)
The concept of an energy transition came up briefly in the latter of the two presidential debates, where Biden suggested that he supported the phasing out of fossil fuels. When he pointed out that fossil fuels pollute, Trump tried to make it appear that this was somehow in dispute, and that any attempt to separate the United States from Big Oil was tantamount to communism. (more…)
IMO, Trump did fairly well in last night’s debate, insofar as he appeared to be in control of his faculties; I think we can agree that he seemed less blatantly unhinged and sociopathic than he did last time.
The problem, really, is that almost everything he says is false, and Biden doesn’t gain anything by pinning him down. Is Biden a puppet of China? Of course not, but how much time and energy needs to go into that refutation? (more…)
The venerable 20th Century journalist and cultural critic H.L. Mencken left us with this: ‘The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.’
Hydrogen is a carrier of energy, not a source. In most cases in our world today, it’s made by electrolyzing water, i.e., breaking down the H2O molecule to its component gases, using electricity from the grid. Since most of our grid energy derives from the consumption of fossil fuels that have negative effects on the environment, efforts are big taken to replace them with low-carbon sources, e.g., renewables and nuclear.
As discussed here, green hydrogen, or hydrogen created from electrolyzing water with low-carbon power, will likely be an important component of our energy mix as we enter the middle part of the 21st Century.
True, the processes by which hydrogen is made and consumed (through fuel cells) have low efficiencies; in total, only about half of the energy going in is ultimately available for use. But hydrogen is portable, making it ideal for the transportation sector that consists of large, heavy vehicles: ocean-going cargo ships, aircraft, and Class 8 trucks.
Storing energy in batteries and discharging them through motors is a far more efficient undertaking, but will battery technology improve to the point it becomes feasible for these purposes, and hydrogen becomes obsolete? It’s possible, but it’s good to know that hydrogen represents a solid solution if required.
Here at 2GreenEnergy we’ve been trying to make readers aware of the “100” rollbacks in environmental protection that the Trump administration is inflicting on our planet. Well, the correct number is 99, and linked above is the status of each.
This underscores the importance of the upcoming election. Note how many of these atrocities are currently held up in court. If Trump is removed in November, most of the damage he intended to wreak will never actually happen; if he is re-elected, the cost will be incalculable, and the destruction, in many cases, irreparable.
A reader notes:
I want to stress the relative success that we have had compared to other first world countries. Here are the stats from John’s (sic) Hopkins updated today.
The first chart shows deaths per 100,000 in population by country ranking. The second shows the mortality rate per number of cases ranked by number of cases, but if you look at the ration (sic) of cases to deaths, we rank 49th on the list, ranked from worst to best…we have performed better than the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, etc. (more…)
