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.