Water, Water, Everywhere

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a30338137/first-international-hydrogen-supply-chain/

I seem to be the only person who has realized that burning hydrogen and releasing only water vapor is not, in fact, completely nonpolluting.

The question of how to generate the hydrogen, and if that generation procedure itself creates pollution has been pointed out. But even if the hydrogen is produced entirely by renewable energy sources, there is still a result from burning all that hydrogen in our automobiles, airplanes and etc.  The pollutant is water.

Water as a pollutant? Sounds ridiculous. Think about it however. Maybe it’s because I live in the high desert that I realize that replacing all of the tons of smog generating pollutants with tons of water vapor would greatly raise the local humidity. That would change the climate. That could kill off natural desert vegetation and wildlife.

I can’t even imagine what the consequences would be to an area that has already high humidity. What would San Francisco look like if it’s even more humid? How about the Pacific Northwest?

Yes, technology can solve many problems.  It usually does so by creating new problems.

The filth, disease, and stench of American cities that resulted from all the horse droppings were relieved by the new internal combustion engine. Which gave us smog, lung disease, and all the problems with which we are now so familiar.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

A conversation with my daughter.
It starts the cartoon showing a nurse In scrubs holding up a sign saying “science” as he blocks a car containing a woman holding up a sign saying “stuff I read on Facebook”.

Me:  Excellent

J:  🙂

Me:  Been saying it for decades. Like it or not reality is real. And it doesn’t care whether we like it or not. It’s just remains real.

J: I did read that 81% of Americans don’t support these protests.  Not sure where I read it.

Me:  Are you aware that the entire “grassroots movement” has been organized by three gun nut brothers?

Fox News is pushing it hard.

It is real fake news, deliberately orchestrated in order to undermine the democracy of the United States. Note how many of its supporters are “militia” members. That means a great many are “sovereign citizens” identified by the FBI as an anti-government terrorist movement.

J:  Yes, they are doomsday preppers.   

274 days until Inauguration Day. We better have a new president. Not that I ever liked Biden. But the alternative is unthinkable.

Me:  I’m no fan of Biden either. Obama was elected as an anti-establishment candidate. Obviously, he really was establishment, but he was regarded as a radical change. Trump was elected as an anti-establishment candidate who was regarded as exemplifying radical change. Which turned out to be correct. Biden is being presented as an establishment candidate — safe, secure, and bringing things back to the normal that we all hated and despised so much. Still, as you point out, he’s a lot better than the orange faced clown in his  yellow fright wig.

J:  A photo of a “Liberate” mob, well armed and angry. Captioned as follows:

I mean you have to admit that it’s hilarious that the people who have spent their entire lives stockpiling beans and ammo and publishing newsletters about preparing to shelter in place during  a global crisis are the ones having meltdowns because they can’t go to the cheesecake factory.

Unbalanced

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-did-the-universe-get-so-lopsided/

The big bang and all generally accepted theories of the development of the universe are based on an  isotropic universe.  That is, a universe which looks the same in every direction overall. Fine details will be different of course but you’ll find the same basic structure everywhere you look. This was confirmed  by the Wilkerson anisotropy microwave probe, the famous WMAP.

What this article indicates is that since 2003 data has been accumulating of universe is not isotropic in a number of critical ways.

This is why science can be trusted. It keeps checking on itself. And when science finds that it is wrong, it doesn’t struggle to make weird excuses; it admits it was wrong and  seeks a more accurate model of the universe.  If this data continues to accumulate, our views of the nature of the universe we live in will change dramatically. If.

What we can state with certainty is that whatever the facts are, science will face them.

Our Feast Of Fools

Thoughts on Mr. Trump.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming election. Will enough people will finally face the truth about Mr. Trump to bring his Feast of Fools to an end (obviously not his most ardent supporters; no amount of reality will ever change their minds)?

Will a sufficient number of Americans finally see that Mr. Trump simply does not care about the existence, welfare, or even the survival of his fellow human beings? Will they finally see that a very low intelligence, narcissistic, utterly incompetent dolt is not a good choice for president? We will see.

Win or lose one election, possibly the more important question is whether this lifelong criminal will ever be held accountable. I have made sarcastic references to “lock him up”, but they are of course, sarcastic.

I upset liberals because of this position as they want to see him held accountable. Well, so do I. I just don’t think he can be held accountable.  This is not because of the precedent set by President Ford when he pardoned Nixon for his atrocious crimes. I believed Ford was wrong at the time and I continue to believe he was wrong now. The idea that holding a president accountable would somehow harm the nation reminds me of De Gaulle declaring that no marshal of France could ever be tried as  traitor even though Petain had in fact utterly betrayed his country and assisted in the mass murder of French Jews. It was a bad decision and it set a horrible precedent.

Of course conservatives are even more angry at me for declaring why I feel Trump cannot be held accountable.

The reason is because I sincerely believe the man to legally insane. Remember that insane is not a clinical or medical term. It is a legal term. It refers to a person who cannot be held accountable for the actions which they undertake because they do not understand that there is anything wrong with those actions.  It does not refer to any particular type of psychiatric disorder, instead it refers only to the capacity of the individual to understand the difference between right and wrong and therefore to make a morally responsible decision. 

I simply do not believe that Donald Trump is capable of making such a decision. He does not know the difference between right and wrong. He does not know the difference between moral and immoral. I do not believe that he even understands that anyone in this world is an actual, real, sentient human being except for himself.

Yes, he is a monster. He has caused possibly irreparable damage to America and to decent people all over the world. His mishandling of this pandemic has caused people to die. He has systematized and legalized massive child abuse by our governmental officials through the abuse of immigrant families. He has committed many more crimes. But does he understand that they are crimes? Does he realize that these are not moral actions? I do not believe that he does. I do not believe he is capable of knowing this. Yes, he is a monster. However, I find him to be a monster to be pitied and be placed into the care of mental health professionals so as to protect himself and all those around him from his emotional disability.

Notes:

From Law.com. insanity n. mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior. Insanity is distinguished from low intelligence or mental deficiency due to age or injury.

From Britannica.   Feast of Fools. Feast of Fools, popular festival during the Middle Ages, held on or about January 1, particularly in France,

I, Human?

https://singularityhub.com/2020/01/08/the-top-biotech-trends-well-be-watching-in-2020/

Here’s an ethical challenge and also a great potential story.  Imagine a hybrid born with unexpected human characteristics.. .now what?  Euthanasia? Raise it as a lab animal even though it is disturbingly human?  Try to fit it into a human family like those chimps in 1970’s experiments?

In 2019 Japan removed restrictions from experimentation involving human animal hybrid embyos.  You don’t hear much about it today but I took a look just to see. Here are some excerpts from the report I read:

> The more ethically-challenged idea is to grow human organs directly inside other animals—in other words, engineer human-animal hybrid embryos and bring them to term. This approach marries two ethically uncomfortable technologies, germline editing and hybrids, into one solution that has many wondering if these engineered animals may somehow receive a dose of “humanness” by accident during development. What if, for example, human donor cells end up migrating to the hybrid animal’s brain?

Nevertheless, this year scientists at the University of Tokyo are planning to grow human tissue in rodent and pig embryos and transplant those hybrids into surrogates for further development. For now, bringing the embryos to term is completely out of the question. But the line between humans and other animals will only be further blurred in 2020, and scientists have begun debating a new label, “substantially human,” for living organisms that are mainly human in characteristics—but not completely so. <

So stop worrying about cyborgs and start worrying about “substantially human” creatures.

Reference note from Goodreads.com. >Asimov wrote the short story "The Ugly Little Boy" in 1958. But there is much more to the story of the little Neanderthal boy plucked out of time and transferred to the 21st century. Now, Robert Silverberg--in this second collaboration with Asimov--has made this sf classic into an engrossing novel-length tale.<

If Thine Eye Offends Me, Pluck It Out!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/apr/16/art-activist-barbie-protester-feminist-agenda

The male gaze is inherently evil?  No man should ever be allowed to gaze at females?  Seriously?

This is feminism as a mental illness.  There are so many branches of feminism today it’s easy to lump them all together by picking one particularly particular distasteful version and imagining every subgroup is like that.  They aren’t.

There are feminist movements of which I entirely approve. There are those I find extreme. There are those I find repugnant.

This particular example is repugnant. Porn is any representation of the beauty of the female body? I take it these extremists believe that all women should have uglification surgery unless they’re lucky enough to be born horribly disfigured.  It seems you can give them no greater compliment then, “I have absolutely no sexual interest in you whatsoever. The very idea fills me with disgust.”

No, a woman should not be treated as a sex object.  However, beautiful things are beautiful. This includes beautiful human bodies, male or female.  Sexual attraction is 100% absolutely normal and healthy. It is how many species, including those which came long before Hominins, experience stimulation in order to reproduce.

Feminism? I have no problem with the general concept. Anti-sex movements?  Anti-eroticism movements?  Anti-beauty movements?

I find those very ugly indeed.

Male hating and male bashing not withstanding, we do not need a new set of Byzantine iconoclasts destroying art that they find unacceptable. We do not need ISIS destroying art that they find sacrilegious.  We do not need a group of female Savonarolas burning the Renaissance art that they consider to be full of vanities.

Barbarians have always done a good job of destroying beautiful things. Things aren’t any different now just because some of the barbarians are calling themselves feminists.  New excuse?  No.  The excuse is always the same. We are pure. This is evil. This is bad. We are saving the world. Aren’t we wonderful?

No. You are not wonderful. You are uncivilized, bigoted barbarians.

Worse, you display all the brain power of an actual Barbie. You put on the clothes, the uniforms, all the accoutrements of being intelligent, free, and capable; but in the end you are hollow headed plastic dolls playing out the roles assigned to you.

Permit me to end with a word of comfort for all who support this corruption of the human intellect.  Even if you were cursed by being born with an attractive body, even a beautiful one, I still find you utterly repugnant. I have no desire to gaze upon you.

The Armor of God Ephesians 6:11

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bishop-who-preached-god-larger-dreaded-virus-dies-covid-19-n1183281

Me:  Those who  depend exclusively upon faith to act as a defense against reality remind me of a number of things in history, some of which I’ve already commented on. I’m also reminded of Isaac Asimov‘s comment that when preachers railed against the use of the new lightning rods invented by Benjamin Franklin, there was a strange side effect. Many townsmen used the lightning rods to protect their homes.  Those preachers who believed such use was defying  God‘s will found the only buildings in town likely to be struck by lightning were those with  tall steeples and no lightening rod.  In other words, their churches.

By all means pray and turn to your faith to ease your fear, such comfort is good and helpful. But that does not mean you should treat God as if he is a magic wizard who will protect you even if you do foolish things.   We are still responsible for the results of our own choices and conduct.

Pray and also take precautions.

S:  Karma.

Merry Crucifixion To All!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/happy-good-friday-trump-covid-19-twitter_n_5e90eeabc5b681ebffbe02b5?ncid=APPLENEWS00001

Sing along!

> President Donald Trumpcame up with an unusual greeting Friday to those commemorating the day Christ was nailed to a cross: “HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY TO ALL!”

He later wished everyone a “great” Good Friday at his press briefing.

...when Trump was about to tour a Pearl Harbor memorial, he turned to John Kelly, then his chief of staff, and asked: “Hey, John, what’s this all about?” <

🎼    Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about a science book

Don't know much about the French country

But I do know that I need love

And I know that if you love me, best

What a wonderful world this would be

Don't know much about geography

Don't know much trigonometry

Don't know much about algebra

Don't know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two

And if this one could be elected by you

What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I always claim to be a stable genius

When I'm really not

But maybe by claiming 

I’m a stable genius

I can win your love for me

Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about a science book

Don't know much about the French country

But I do know that I need you

And I know that if you love me, lots

What a wonderful world this would be

La ta ta ta ta ta ta (history)

Hmm-mm-mm (biology)

La ta ta ta ta ta ta (science book)

Hmm-mm-mm (French  country)

Yeah, but I do know that I need you

And I know that if you love me, lots

What a wonderful world this would be. 🎼

Blood Sacrifices

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/im-covered-in-jesus-blood-defiant-churchgoer-tells-cnn-she-cant-get-sick-because-shes-christian/

> ‘I’m covered in Jesus’ blood’: Defiant churchgoer tells CNN she can’t get sick because she’s Christian. <

Me:  I again remind you all of the battle which helped turn the tide against the Crusaders in the Holy Land. They were sure that their bad leadership and bad strategy would be overcome by the fact that they carried a shard of the True Cross which would absolutely insure victory over the Muslim forces who slaughtered them.

Let us also remember the snake handler cult which apparently is still happening in some parts of rural southern America.

>Snake handlers do not worship snakes, instead using the snakes to show non-Christians that God protects them from harm. <

S:  I wonder who told her she's covered in blood. I don't see it. Survival of the fittest, I guess.

Me: Well Christianity is based on human sacrifice. It is as much a blood religion as that of the Aztecs. The only difference is Christians only had to kill one person who had an infinite supply of blood for everyone bathe in.  For anyone reading this who doesn’t know me, yes I am a Christian, just not that kind of Christian.

S:  I think we drink his blood, not bathe in it. Or has that changed too?

Me:  It’s a branch of Christianity that not all Christians are even aware of. But it’s been around quite a while.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SDqTENtNvKQ

Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) took glorious inspiration from Revelation 7:14…

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Reminds me of the cult of Mithras. Popular among Roman soldiers.  It was a mystery cult so we don’t know all the details, but it is believed that a bull was sacrificed over a grating so that his blood would pour down on the new initiate. Washed in the blood of a bull.

S:  Similar. In Exodus, the Jews put lamb's blood on their doors so their firstborn wouldn't be killed. Egyptians didn't and their firstborn were. Lambs were considered pure way back then. I wonder how far back that tradition goes. I searched Zoroaster and found nothing similar. Well, all I can say is Good luck to the churchgoer who is covered in Jesus' blood. She won't get sick but I hope she doesn't become a carrier and infect others. 

Me:  Susan. Just noted an interesting thing today. I earlier commented that a Black racial supremacist group is telling members of their community that they are immune from the virus so they don’t need to obey any restrictions. Today I bumped in a report that members of the Q anon White supremacist racial group are declaring that White people are immune from the virus so...

 You know what I always say; when it comes to racial supremacists,  Black or White, they all look alike to me.

S:  It reminds me of what we used to say when we saw a drunk driver weaving down the road -"Well, I hope he only kills himself".

Republican Lemmings?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/05/trump-is-killing-his-own-supporters-coronavirus-covid-19?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

We don’t know what’s going to happen of course, but Republicans (especially those are fanatically dedicated to Trump) are refusing to take reasonable precautions and are even going out of their way to expose themselves. The consequences could be horrifically bad for them.

While it would be ironically just If they were to suffer the consequences of their callous indifference to others and their arrogant smugness; they are our fellow Americans. They are our fellow human beings. 

Not to mention all the innocents that they would dragged down with themselves.

> In the words of one administration insider, to the Guardian: “The Trump organism is simply collapsing. He’s killing his own supporters.”

There is nothing like populism marinated in wholesale contempt for the populace.

When Dr Anthony Fauci says there is no evidence to back up Trump’s claims surrounding hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, pay attention. <

Told You so!

As sometimes happens I did not copy the link to the article in question. However as brief as it is I think the post is worth making anyway. Essentially the article was noting that extreme gun rights advocates believe that the rush on purchasing weapons is vindication that they were right all along and now everyone is aware of it.

Gun nuts are rejoicing! It seems the entire population of America has turned into gun nuts! Or have we?

>“People are waking up, saying, ‘Wait a minute, what do you mean I need a gun?’ All of a sudden they're realizing that this affects them.”<

Actually, I don’t believe we are. Sorry to disappoint, you but most of us are not panic stricken, terrified little children afraid of the boogie man like you.  We are panic stricken, terrified little children afraid of not having enough toilet paper.  I’d be very surprised if the vast majority of people buying guns in a panic are not people who already have a full hoard of weaponry.

I’m not the only one taking this position.  >Rob Morse agrees. “I think in six months, we'll be able to buy a lot of secondhand guns cheap.”<

Also, I expect people will probably be giving away toilet paper because they would like to put the car back in the garage.

Short But Sweet

As someone noted in regard to Plato‘s criticism of democracy:

>The sweet shop owner can make the argument against the doctor that “he gives you bitter syrups and pokes holes on you, cuts your skin and take your blood,” but he can offer you many sweets and candies. Surely no one with their right mind would vote for the doctor would they?<

🎼

Who can spread the virus?

Who can make you sick?

Who kill your loved ones

And do it all so quick?

The orange man can!

‘Cause he’s so mixed up

And he’s also really dumb.

The orange man can...

🎼

Biblical Dissonance

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/hobby-lobby-keeps-disobeying-state-stay-at-home-orders-arts-and-crafts.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8176501/amp/Pennsylvania-evangelist-announces-hold-Woodstock-like-Easter-event.html

What is it about  fundamentalist extremist Christian sects that makes them so defiant of medical orders and common sense?

It isn’t biblical.  Although these groups invariably say the Bible is the word of God that must be obeyed somehow they never seem to actually do that.  Romans 13:1-2 says: "Obey the government, for God is the One who has put it there. There is no government anywhere that God has not placed in power. So those who refuse to obey the law of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow."

Yet they always insist that they do these things for religious purposes based on the Bible, which they ignore.

I see why radical fundamentalist evangelical atheists think all religion must be bad when faced with these extremists, but then again that particular group should look in the mirror and realize that they are just as mindless.

Emotionalism, a dependence upon reactions based upon your feelings rather than facts and the application of the higher functions of your brain, has had a devastating negative impact on humanity for as long as there have been humans.

Which makes me feel very depressed, emotionally.