[ANALYSIS, OPINION and FUN]
Notes:
CBS News has reported that
.1. The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday a monumental milestone in nuclear fusion research: a “net energy gain” was achieved for the first time in history by scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
In other words, total input to make fusion energy, is less than the amount of energy output. Call us stupid but that almost seems to imply that theoretically we can someday produce unlimited amounts of power–or at least almost.
According to ITER (https://www.iter.org/sci/Fusion) nuclear fusion (atom fusing) has the potential of supplying an amazing amount of energy very inexpensively. Given equal amounts of material fusion has the potential of providing four times as much energy as today’s nuclear fission (atom splitting) process and millions times more energy than coal, oil and other means of energy production.
In terms of producing energy, particularly electrical energy, nuclear fusion produces positive fusion energy gain factor, i.e. more power output than inpu
Very importantly, nuclear fusion will provide a clean energy source. It doesn’t emit the harmful greenhouse gases like CO2 (carbon dioxide). Moreover, fusion does not produce long lived hazardous radioactive waste. Nor are its byproducts capable of being used to make nuclear weapons.
Fusion also has great potential as a source of propulsion in the field of space exploration.
Only time will tell us the financial feasibility of building and operating fusion-capable facilities. But as CNBC reports, actually building fusion reactors is not going to be feasible for many years.
.2. Actually, in terms of long term effects not much could top the recent breakthrough in nuclear fusion, however, our democracy is vitally important as well.
Thus recent events bringing to light the intense efforts of too many Republican members of Congress (last we heard that number was at least 34) to get the Trump Administration to declare martial law in order to overturn the 2020 Presidential election must be noted. What does one have to do, if one is a Congressman, or a President for that matter, to get convicted of sedition anyway? You may want to check out: Mark Meadows Jan. 6 Text Messages Revealed in TPM Report (esquire.com)
Dear Trumpsters: It’s okay to advocate for tougher immigration laws. It’s okay to be in favor of smaller government, less regulation, lower taxes and to take positions regarding abortion, education, marriage, social safety net and other issues that others may disagree with (sometimes strongly). Rational debate and honest differences of opinion advocated in a peaceful civilized manner have been an acceptable and fundamental part of American democracy since its founding. Simply put, however, it’s sedition to try to overturn our Constitution and democracy by force or some kind of political chicanery. Sedition is a very serious crime for which those who are found guilty should go to jail for very long time. The courts have spoken over and over and held that that 2020 election was valid. From a legal perspective, that’s the end of the story. Failure by anyone to abide by court decisions (many of them) (and some presided over by Republican judges) cannot and should not be ignored by law enforcement–or the rest of us. To allow such ignorance and/or disobedience of court decisions on such a scale, on such a vitally important matter would lead to societal chaos and severely weaken us in dealing with our foreign adversaries. Those who continue to take the position that the election was stolen are causing profound harm to both our nation and to democracy.
TUNES
Well after that there’s only one tune that will do
James Brown – Living in America – YouTube
Tick 12-15-22