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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

I responded to the reader who sent me the meme at left: Please forward the study from Spain.

I haven’t received a response, and I don’t expect to.  That’s because this is 100% excrement.

Before responsible people share feces with billions of social media users, they should take a few honest steps to ensure their message has some merit.  This, on the other hand, is pure doo-doo.

There are those who think that the Earth is flat and that climate change is a hoax; these are people who are a certain kind of “heads.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Most Americans are searching for answers as to the popularity of Donald Trump among U.S. congresspeople. Virtually all our lawmakers are intelligent and highly educated; moreover they come from considerable wealth.  So why are they so terrified of the prospect of withdrawing support of a criminal sociopath?

French/Algerian existentialist author Albert Camus has no definitive answer, though he has something important to say on the matter.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I normally don’t use ad hominem attacks in my posts, but I thought this was too funny to pass up.

As a nonreligious person, I don’t believe in the Antichrist, but those who do may wish to check out the meme below.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Two responses here:

Those authoring bills that would place bans on abortion are well aware that they’re causing “lives of hardship,” but they simply don’t care.  It’s politically expedient for them to do anything for the fetus while it’s in the womb, but absolutely nothing for the baby once it’s born.

Before the current configuration of the U.S. Supreme Court that was formed largely by Donald Trump, it had ruled that women have rights of autonomy to their own bodies, a concept that aligns with the thinking of the vast majority of Americans.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I’m occasionally asked if one can understand physics without math.  If this is taken to mean understanding physics entirely without math, the answer is No.

That said, first year algebra will get you through a base-level comprehension of mechanics and electricity/magnetism.  From there, the two disciplines parallel each other.  Lots of physics is based on logarithms/exponents, trigonometry, and calculus.

I’m not sure how to respond to the wise-ass author of the meme at left, other than to knock off the animal cruelty.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an offering from an ultra-right-wing group that’s hoping to terrify the American citizenry, especially young and other impressionable people.

In truth, we’re as close to centralized planning as we are to colonizing Neptune.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The most remarkable thing about this story is that Alabama (yes, even Alabama) seems to resent its Supreme Court for banning IVF, thus taking a ferocious bite out of women’s rights.

This woman won in a runaway against a Republican who sided with the court’s decision.  That’s very good news for the projected outcome in the general election in November.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

The average electric vehicle uses 0.32 KWhs of electricity to go a mile.  Since the average residential for power is $0.17/KWh, that’s $0.06 per mile.

This compares favorably to gasoline, whose average use per mile is 0.04 gallons at an average cost of $3.64, or $0.15.

Over the lifetime of a car, say 200K miles, we’re talking about $18,000.

Now, there are other pros and cons at stake here.  Replacement batteries for EVs are expensive, but the savings in terms of entire systems that are eliminated in EVs (fuel delivery, engine parts, pollution control, exhaust, etc.) are considerable as well.

Of course, the major motivation behind EV purchases is environmental responsibility.  Studies have consistently shown that phasing out internal combustion engines and the consumption of fossil fuels is essential to the decarbonization of the energy and transportation sectors, and thus to the success of our society’s efforts to mitigate climate change.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

As suggested in the meme here, does a mechanism exist that enables “a higher consciousness of people to fill the Earth?”

Though this might sound like science fiction, such a thing must exist, otherwise there would be no way to account for the amazing accomplishments of ancient Greece and Rome, the Renaissance, the European Enlightenment / Age of Reason, the French Revolution, the U.S. Constitution, the transcendentalists, women’s suffrage, and the Civil Rights movement.

Right now, we sure could use a fresh blast of whatever that is.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

This is from early sci-fi author H. G. Wells, written just over a century ago.

If it was true then, we can only imagine its value today, a time in which conspiracy theories abound, and tens of millions of American voters believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump, and that climate change is a hoax, perpetrated so as to cripple the U.S. economy.

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