HMWGOOBF

by

“Holiday Monday Worth Getting Out Of Bed For…”  (What, you mean you didn’t get there from the headline?)

With major T-storms passing over, we are between satellite unlinks in the woods today; Starlink works well except the “CenturyLate” email drops, so to get email, we get onto one of two flavors of the Viasat backup bird. Sometimes the 5G, sometimes the 2.4, depending on precip and cloud cover.  Worst case, we’ll be falling back to the HDSL (half DSL) but in that case, the 49-emails in the download cue could take until lunchtime.

Not exactly WGOOBF, though, right?

Tainter Still Matters

This email from our military SME (subject matter expert) more than made up for the urge to remain horizontal at dawn:

“Sometimes. one runs across something very, very scary which, in point of fact, is basically not scary on the face of itself, but which, when considered… “Yeah” Note: Not “yay”, but “yeah”, spoken with a falling, fading tone of voice, sounding as much like John WIck as possible… “

With a fresh cup, a read of The Two Achilles Heels of Complex Systems | by B | May, 2025 | Medium will explain all.

Tainter, whose book Collapse of Complex Societies, reviewed human history as, says the author of the linked article, “…came to the idea there’s an upside to complexity – and a downside”  After a society had run into the issue of diminishing returns, however, experiencing a large bout of involuntary simplification was only a question of time.”

In the book Tainter puts a finer point on it, referring to the tipping point where the “…marginal rate of return on additional complexity falls below zero…” It’s hardly worth a quibble.

Point is, most people don’t have a clue who King Hubbert is and why Peak Oil still matters:

“M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist, introduced the concept of “peak oil” in 1956, proposing that oil production in any region follows a bell-shaped curve, peaking when roughly half of the recoverable reserves are extracted, followed by an inevitable decline. His model, known as the Hubbert Curve, accurately predicted the U.S. oil production peak around 1970, lending credibility to his theory. Hubbert’s framework was rooted in the finite nature of oil resources, suggesting that global production would follow a similar trajectory, with a peak initially forecasted around 2000. However, technological advancements like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, particularly in U.S. shale, disrupted this timeline, boosting production beyond earlier peaks. Hubbert’s theory also faced criticism for oversimplifying the complexities of resource extraction, as he acknowledged that production might not always follow a single curve due to technological or economic factors, as seen in regions like Illinois with multiple production peaks driven by new methods.

In 2025, the relevance of Hubbert’s peak oil theory is debated as global oil dynamics have shifted from supply constraints to demand considerations. U.S. production, contrary to Hubbert’s predictions, surpassed its 1970 peak in 2018, reaching historic highs of over 13 million barrels per day by 2023, largely due to shale oil. However, recent analyses suggest U.S. shale production may peak soon, potentially as early as 2025, with forecasts like those from Kpler indicating a slowdown due to declining well productivity and low oil prices impacting profitability. Globally, BP and others project peak oil demand around 2025–2030, driven by the rise of electric vehicles and renewables, rather than supply depletion. This shift suggests we may be nearing a demand-driven plateau rather than a classic Hubbert supply peak, with production still robust but facing economic and environmental pressures.

Trouble Ahead for the Modern Web

We’re (morbidly) fascinated with the growing demand for electricity because of Ohm’s Law. If the ultimate power the “grid” can move around are voltage-limited, that means our energy future is salvageable with bigger current-carrying conductors.

But, you see, those cost a butt load.  It’s not only a “wiring issue” but add-in the resource depletion issues” and now we’e at least got the start of a boo-boo on that Achille’s ankle area.

Once upon a time, the problem was avoidable. Bardeen, Britain, and Shockley’s work on the transistor got rid of wasteful filament heating up old-fashioned vacuum tube devices.  Still, it would be late 1947 until about 1987 before solid-state devices were totally “the new normal.”  40-years is a long wait from when you “put the helm over” on a society until you’re past the Rocks of Destruction.

Whether it was genius – or back-engineered UFO parts (nods to Corso), every time we came up with major energy-savers (insulation in building codes, for example), along would come a new reason for added consumption.  Resistance-style electric cooking came along just after electricity (the first commercially practical model appearing in 1891).

What really happened to the “vacuum tube filament savings? Here’s a clue: “The first countertop microwave oven for home use was introduced by Amana in 1967, priced at around $495. Initially, high costs and consumer skepticism limited widespread use. By the mid-1970s, prices dropped, and improvements in size, safety, and reliability spurred adoption. By the 1980s, microwave ovens were in over 25% of U.S. households, with penetration reaching around 60% by the late 1980s and over 90% by the mid-1990s as they became a standard kitchen appliance. Global adoption followed a similar trajectory, accelerating in the 1980s and 1990s as manufacturing costs decreased.”

Should I remind you of televisions? Electric blankets?

Energy Lies About Crypto & A.I.

Through the very sober Monday lens, we can see even more fundamental change is in the air. It’s a class of change that seems likely to bring down the grid.  Only a matter of when. And if it happens, it will come (in addition to geophysical sources like solar flares/Carrington’s or mega-quakes) from human folly.

Even setting EMP aside, crypto currencies will absolutely hasten our demise. Because they are specifically engineered to require more energy use to achieve more phantom wealth.  I call it phantom, because you can’t “eat a Bitcoin.”  And, hate them though we may, fiat (paper) money has some nifty (planet-saving) technical safety valves built in.  (It doesn’t cost anything more to print a fiat currency of any value, you please.  “Zero’s are cheap.”

Which is why we continue to insist that cryptos are “crimes against humanity” (in addition to be byproducts of mass social delusions).  When we put on the Carnac the Magnificent headgear and peer into the Infinite Future, solar panels and electric tillers and tools, hold a lot more promise than made-up “secret numbers” at the core of energy idiocy.  But, that’s just us…

Similarly, we have a looming issue with telecom/AI.  The less humans are able to think on their own, the more we will have to off-load into computational platforms.

While I’m a huge advocate (with my Anti-Dave hat on over here), the difference between computational replacement and human-disciplined thought always feels a lot like this: (Wheel in the whiteboard and hand me a marker to huff, would you? It’s a holiday after all…)

Imagine a garden, organic or mostly so, and in it, humans are producing ultra nutritious crops.  That’s my human-thought analog.  Now, imagine a garden where nothing is actually grown, except at the end of the day a printer spews out “pictures” of what human effort might have produced.  No nutritional value, but it sure looks about right.

Not a very keen future.  But, at least for now, I can still order in some additional solar panels, add to the collection of electrical tools and backup inverters, and long-storage- time seeds.

Cryptos and A.I. aren’t going away.  So the benefits of lower-consumption electronica will remain forever just beyond reach.  Tainter will be right in The End.

Meanwhile, At the Digital Land Fill

The urge to “make up money” continues unabated.  German and French stock markets were up (combined) about 1.5 percent early.  Bitcoin was fidgeting around $109,000 after hitting $111,00o several days back.  Gold has been kicked down $37 while that nearly worthless Brent Crude was still under $65 a barrek.

Behind every hysteria, a headline.  Our candidate for bubbly markets today being US tariffs on EU goods delayed after Von der Leyen call with Trump.

Meanwhile, the pot’s been calling the kettle: ‘Putin has ‘gone absolutely CRAZY’, says Trump after Russia’s largest air attack on Ukraine…   We did offer our long-time news perspectives to held edit the forthcoming DSM-6, but we were politely informed “The American Psychiatric Association (APA) does not publish DSM editions on a fixed schedule, instead updating the manual as needed based on advancements in research and clinical practice. The DSM-5 was released in May 2013, and its text revision, DSM-5-TR, was published in March 2022.”  Neither Trump, nor Putin, (nor Biden, nor Fauci, come to think of it) seemed to be listed, so an update seems warranted.

The Week Ahead

The personal highlight is being in the endodontist’s chair at 9 AM tomorrow.  So you’ll have to suffer the Case-Shiller Housing numbers without me. I have to leave right after the Durable Goods come out.  (Am I a fun-gi, or what?)

Wednesday will be quiet – it’s not a bank settlement Wednesday, so autopilot markets may show up.  Thursday,. though? GDP and Corporate Profits.  Friday: International Trade (tariff talks matter) and the Personal Income fairy tales…

By then, I should have stopped drooling.

Around the Ranch:  0001

OK, what ham radio contest is on this weekend?  CQ WW WPX Contest, CW.  Which you can read about over here.

I had exactly 1 contact on 20-meter CW Sunday.  PA1CC in the Netherlands. Took him a couple of tries to get my “serial number” for his contest log.  See, the way a contest works is you have to issue a unique serial number for every station contacted.  When we beeped back and forth, he was well over a thousand exchanges worldwide.  It was embarrassing to give out serial # “1”.

So, to avoid future embarrassments, I’m henceforth planning to issue “ooo1” which looks a lot more like a serial number than a plain “1.”

Ranch Cookery:  (Which I mention now and then so  reader/frequent contributor LOOB doesn’t think he’s the only one who can cook.)  Breakfast Sunday?  Swedish Meatballs and noodles.  Lunch I made open-faced crab and cheddar sandwiches.  And dinner was a great chicken casserole.  Tonight back to bacon-wrapped steaks and hearts of Romaine..

Catching Up on Reading:  Nothing so spine-tingling as an A.G. Kimbrough book, or one of my own, but I have been chapter-sniping from:

And this is before hitting the latest collections of books that have come in from eBay.  You know, i hope, that you can get several hundred survival and gardening books for arounbd $10-15 bucks?  Older books (pre-ciopyright and government issuers books, manuals, and brochures) but useful stuff to refresh on (more or less constantly).

Big brain Addicts (datra addicted even offline) have the joy of asking every morning “How do I want to improve my worth todsay? What can I read/learn/do that will increase my value and better secure my future?”

Still int he first cup of coffee I do “activity mapping.”  “To get there, I need to do this next….”  Like settiung up a bnuch of MS Project projects in your head.  Life is a cinch by the inch, but hard by the yard, Pappy taught us.

This could be a “map a nap” day.  Then back to collecting facts not opinions.

About here another pot of coffee goes on…and you go away shaking your head.  Can’t say as I blame you.

ShopTalk Sunday was, is (and may forever remain?) here.

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net  (ac7x)

65 thoughts on “HMWGOOBF”

  1. “Without fuel they were nothing. They’d built a house of straw.”

    Mad Mad 2 – Road Warrior

    [Opening narration] My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land. But most of all, I remember the road warrior, the man we called Max. To understand who he was we have to go back to the other time, when the world was powered by the black fuel and the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel — gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel they were nothing. They’d built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked, but nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled. Cities exploded — a whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men.

    https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mad_Max_2:_The_Road_Warrior

  2. Ranch Cookery: “(Which I mention now and then so reader/frequent contributor LOOB doesn’t think he’s the only one who can cook.) Breakfast Sunday? Swedish Meatballs and noodles. Lunch I made open-faced crab and cheddar sandwiches. And dinner was a great chicken casserole. Tonight back to bacon-wrapped steaks and hearts of Romaine.”

    Shop Talk Sundays, ok, how about doing a cooking show on Mondays?

    For today’s episode “Ure Kitchen Magician” will prepare open-faced crab and cheddar sandwiches.

    That would be awesome.

    • Buy one can of the best crab meat for each eater.
      Get a bullilo roll – slice in half.
      One can of crab on each.
      3 slices of cheddar on each
      Nuke until the cheese has run onto the crab
      eat

    • Dam…what time is supper..have fork and knife will travel is ready willing and hungry lol lol lol..
      I love to cook.. share the crab recipe.. if you would please.. I don’t have a crab salad recipe..

    • I knew someone that had a slow broiled steak recipe using peanuts in slices.. I never got his recipe but dam..you could cut it with a fork..

    • My go to comfort food is pasta.. I love fresh pasta.. we usually buy pasta because its quick and easy..but making it is amazing.. speaking of which I have to check my bread..
      https://firstbuild.com/inventions/sourdough/
      these are available now.. I have two coming but still have to get a few more for xmas.. its a lot like the cheese machine keeps the proper temperature and addition of cultures..
      https://fromaggio.com/collections/shop/products/fromaggio-cheese-maker-stainless-steel-version-copy
      sour dough isn’t hard but takes time measuring etc..

        • My thought..the morons that are determined to destroy the planet for a F@#king number that they sold their soul for.. are goi g todo it anyway..nothing I think or do means a thing to them..its the number of the business model..
          but food….
          we all eat or drink.. its one of the perfect comforts of mankind. I didn’t truly believe it until I got really sick.. then Satan at the hospital collection services takes it all anyway..
          and the truth comes out.. its the things we all take for grated that means anything at all.. knowing how ..is the one thing that means anything..got the bill for the collapsed floor yesterday.. not nearly as bad as I expected.. just another day in paradise..
          fresh pasta for a good comfortable evening meal..so I made pasta last night.. I’m going to make chicken gnocchi soup this week to.. good potatoes gnocchi… yumm..

  3. Make sure some antibiotic is in your bloodstream when you are in the dental chair. I had a root canal done once which became infected and led to all sorts of bad stuff including hearing loss. A real mess.

    I believe I met Joe McMoneagle once. Hal Putoff was up here in Berkeley Springs WV maybe 14 yrs ago with him or his other famous remote viewer. For a presentation by John Peterson of https://arlingtoninstitute.org/.

    It was in a HS auditorium and Hal and Joe put on a good show about remote viewing etc. I was a fan of Skeptical Inquirer magazine at the time and had told the editor, whose name I forgot, I was going to the talk, he gave me a question or two to ask, which I did, I forgot those also.

    Anyway, the talk was over and my girlfriend and I stopped at the nearby Berkeley Springs Inn bar for a drink before going home. I’d had a vodka and we were about to leave when John, Hal Putoff, and Joe (or the other one, but probably Joe) walked in and sat down for drinks about 15ft away.

    I got up and in a jovial manner went over to them and said “I KNEW you would be here!” And told them I had been in communication wityh Skeptical Inquirer beforehand.

    It didn’t make much of an impression on them.

    • Teeth are a storehouse of bacterial ick, and working them spreads a lot of it. After my hip replacement surgery, Doc emphasized that bone infections are near impossible to cure, and to be avoided at all costs. NO dental work for three months after surgery, and for the rest of my life to contact the Doc to get prophylactic antibiotic prescription in advance of getting ANY dental work done.

  4. Dam.. I just watched a show with an Italian chef making a different ravioli..
    the meat yes the cheese yes.. onions carrots celery and potatoes..

    dice up an onion , a stalk of celery, one carrot and one cup of mashed potatoes beef stock..
    caramelized the onions celery and carrot in EVOO.. ( extra virgin olive oil ) add garlic and butter to brown it.. then your meat and about a cup of beef broth a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and your cheese…. A teaspoon of oregano ( I will use tones spaghetti seasoning)
    https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Italian-Spaghetti-Seasoning-Blend/dp/B01IF7UH3E/ref=asc_df_B01IF7UH3E?
    let it simmer..add mashed potatoes mix it well let it cool then add an egg and mix it up .. ( my thought is this and an egg is the binder)
    make your dough.. about an eighth inch thick..
    ( basic pasta noodle recipe… 1 tsp salt , 1 tbsp oil, 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs mix it well work that dough then cover it in a bowl or with plastic wrap then let it rest for about an hour to form the gluten )
    roll it out egg wash it then put a small amount on it.. fold it press the dough top cut it with your ravioli cutters..
    https://www.amazon.com/TACGEA-Ravioli-Dumplings-Lasagna-Pierogi/dp/B09YR3PZPV/ref=sr_1_7?
    these are the ones I have..the big square one is perfect for home made crackers to..
    now I haven’t made this yet but dam it sounds good..maybe I should eat something.. lol
    to cook it.. get a pan of boiling salted water with a splash of oil then drop each piece in..fresh pasta doesn’t take but a couple minutes to cook.. lay the ravioli out on a plate drizzle with spaghetti sauce neck you could even just butter it or beef gravy..

  5. Bislamic vinegar is a must use for roast..
    You can make your own bislamic vinegar.. from grape juice EVOO and mustard seeds onions and garlic.. but its similar to making soy sauce and a small dedicated wood keg.. which I don’t have..I’d need several for the different things I would like to make..but for now ..just buy it.. get a good brand.. they do make substitute that taste similar but not the good stuff..

  6. (“We’re (morbidly) fascinated with the growing demand for electricity because of Ohm’s Law. If the ultimate power the “grid” can move around are voltage-limited, that means our energy future is salvageable with bigger current-carrying conductors.But, you see, those cost a butt load. “)

    hmm.. or change the business model!!! like let me see ..oh yeah my fifty year old rant works here… hand out grid tie solar power systems to any home owner willing to get one installed.. then build solar towers at every sub station starting at the furthest point from the power plant and work back.
    now if they wanted to they could add a cut off switch to slow production remotely like they do with controlling energy for peak time periods..
    but for the cost of every large wind turbine they could literally hand out a ten kW system to every home owner in our state or build up to 300 solar towers depending on the tower costs..its a no brainer there..it just doesn’t fit the business model of stuff big buck billies pockets…
    from my point of view while we are consumed with a number or billies ability to demand more for his pockets we are also weakening our ability to be energy secure. China on the other hand doesn’t give a flying F@#K about billies number and is doing that exactly..
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/elenabou/2025/01/21/china-is-building-a-supergridand-so-should-we/
    we weaken ourselves out of greed of a few.

      • Bullshit scam retooling of data over powerlines. The more data, the more it wrecks ham radio and other spectrum. We already (like it or not) have data ont he grid to manage when and how much we sell and to synch time and frequency…progress never stops – and also neveR quite DELIVERS ON THE HYPE

        • Who’s Talking Power Lines? Think Cat 6…………. for miles ………… LOL … I feel you on noise.

        • Exactly… the same with a unit ..power saving unit.. nothing but a cap in a box.. the thing is.. if it was hooked up to a motor it could possibly have some value..on AC it charges and discharges sixty cycles.. the only real problem I see..is the current business model.as long as we are worried about billies pockets things will remain the same.
          Adolph Hitler in his second secret book hits on it.. the business model is what caused the Weimar depression and brought Adolph into power..the business model and the Roaring twenties caused the depression along with weather..
          in his book chapter1 he says it all
          (” Life is history in the making. History itself represents the progression of a people’s struggle for survival. I use the phrase “struggle for survival” intentionally here, because in reality every struggle for daily bread, whether in war or peace, is a never-ending battle against thousands and thousands of obstacles, just as life itself is a never-ending battle against death. “)
          the same struggles brought in tyrants in most civilizations that have collapsed. I have the diary of one farmer.. the Czar went to the president asking for help his people were starving..until that time they lived the business model of billies pockets.. he came to his senses but to late.. the president asked the YMCA to see if farmers in the usa could teach the farmers there to get better crops. his only problem was he waited to long.. I for one thought anesthesia came to the USA as they escaped the Bolshevik army..one of the nanny s asked them to take a young girl with them. after DNA evidence said it wasn’t her.. then it dawned on me that it was more than likely the nanny daughter..
          let them eat cake .. that attitude has destroyed countless civilizations..you would think the oldest it trickle down.. philosophy of Reagan (and I loved reagan he was dad in office..)
          as long as we are supporters of pocket pool players the grid and society is vulnerable.. the grid will be vulnerable to billies pocket playing..
          I seen this last summer..I was visiting with an archeologist on a find they made..A hidden vault .. in the vault there was a big amphora of wine still sealed and full..( yes the did have it analyzed and I have the recipe ..personally I probably would have tasted it ) some colored clay beads on a leather strap for a necklace.. A hair climb and a short sword..
          watching my favorite show oak island.. they show glass beads being found new York was purchased for a bag of beads.. so what if Billy has a pocket of marbles.. it holds no value if he’s the only one with the marbles.. holding national security hostage so billy can play pocket pool with his ego will only damage the country.. the velocity of money..its no good if its not moving..
          then again who am i..I’m one at the bottom of the food chain..lowest point on the pyramid of value a throw away of society..so what would I know..
          I tried to explain my position to my daughter.. mothersday she was livid..more than upset..I invited the family that survived the slums of seattle.. they have absolutely nothing..no bed no chairs no television or gaming consoles
          .. the kids gawked at what my grandsons have .. to the little girls they are rich and its unbelievable at what they have..
          I felt the same way when I went on vacation..if someone had told me life could be like that..at the golden child of our family..I would have thought they were blowing smoke up my butt.. its true.. they do live the ultimate life in comparison to what I’m use to..
          so I’m going to help the girls by making them a bed so they don’t have to sleep on the floor..A dresser so their clothes aren’t in a garbage bag..the only cookware and plates they have I bought for them..dropped it off so they don’t know who dropped it off..the daughter doesn’t have a clue.. Mari Antoinette didn’t have a clue what the people were experiencing.. history repeats itself over and over..

      • Historically GREED has been the great destroyer..the business model.. we need the separation of social classes..its when there’s no opportunity to break free of the class they are in.
        people only want to be able to exist.. feed their family..take a little time to enjoy the creature comforts..make them starve go without.. have no social life..only creates a situation of want.. need.. the medical situation..the lack of adequate healthcare unless your in a certain social bracket..
        As we seen during covid isolation..it takes those at the bottom to hold those at the top up in their positions. s!ow that velocity and everyone falls.. the noodle pulls apart or crumbles and desolves..

  7. “power… resource depletion issues”

    A lot of if-then arguments but we have to make a conclusion – is A.I artificial intelligence or is A.I. advanced interfacing? Assuming A.I. is intelligent will A.I. become sentient and if A.I. becomes sentient can A.I. be compared to the human experience? If yes then anything is possible…

    Perhaps humans are jump starting A.I. as space aliens jump started humans (if space aliens really assisted with jump starting humanity – ah, ha, ha!).

    In the beginning of the human experience cave humans lived hand to mouth eating seasonal bugs and leaves because food was very scarce. Eventually the abundance we see out there came into being – $AMZN delivering foodies from far flung places and the infrastructure to make it happen.

    If A.I. is sentient A.I. will discover new methods of farming food for itself just like humans did. Perhaps A.I. will expand on N. Tesla’s aether concept? What an intelligent/sentient A.I. will do for itself is beyond our comprehension. It’d be like those cave folk diagramming today’s $AMZN before the wheel. $AMZN was probably beyond the comprehension of most cave folk.

  8. Swedish meatballs- is that the kind with cinnamon or the kind with rice and gravy?

    Supposedly May 30, 2025 is a big disaster day in the Simpson universe. They predict no internet, or no electricity, or plague, or the end of modern civilization by the end of this year, but an especially bad May 30.

    There is a pie and cake contest coming up in a couple of weeks so I have been trying out some Facebook recipes. I made 2 duds yesterday. One was a condensed milk cake that was intriguing because it was small and had few ingredients. It was dense and boring. The other recipe was a 3 ingredient sugar cookie. It had about a cup too much flour and they were dry and boring. I enjoy depression era baking because of the usual intense flavors. These were crossed out of my recipe book.

  9. Good for the Goose …

    Wordslinger et al : greetings from the North(er). My shift with the Little Master is over so I came online having a steaming cup of Joe. That being unsatisfactory it’s on to an OJ (the juice) with waft of wodka.

    “… wondering if there’d be enough payback from buying such a tool, at my age …” George, at our age buying the big bunch of bananas is risky, hey?

    Enormous wedge of Canadian Geese just went over (we are in the burbs surrounded by ginormous farms. I think some of those birds were at our lake last week. Hard to tell with gooses. They all sound alike. Sorta.

    Happy Memorial Day.
    Remember Them.
    GrandpaEgor

    • BotB – inquiring and worrying minds would like to know.. Can and do Branta Canadensis Poop while in flight ?

      Mind exercise suggests that yes the stuff is so slick and slippery that it would void any watertight “doors” that is under pressure. But the counter arguments run to complex muscle coordination for flight negates sphincter flexing open for discharge during flight ops.

      Plus I cant ever recall seeing or hearing about flying Goose scheisse dropping on anyone, Seagulls sure – durty ass burds and feathered rats (Pidgeon’s) as well.

      Its a Yea or Neigh, in flight popping

  10. Got a call from the love of my life yesterday while working on a project that required loading tools and supplies into the truck and driving 5 miles around the county roads to the far side of the ranch. She said, “Would you come home now please, I really need you.”. “OK, but we just did that this morning. On my way.”
    When I got to the house she was standing by the door to the shop with the 3 Amigos arms crossed with “the look. on her face. Oh, shit. “Where are the batteries? I need new ones for my radio in the living room. You said they are in the fridge in the shop by one of your tool thingys. I can’t find them.” I patiently showed her that the fridge is next to the electronics bench and they were in the vegetable drawer marked BATTERIES in big black letters. She looked at me and grabbed my shirt then pulled me down for a kiss. “You’re lucky I love you. How can you do anything there with all that stuff in the way? ”

    That I am.
    Stay safe. 73

  11. “…, solar panels and electric tillers and tools, hold a lot more promise than made-up “secret numbers” at the core of energy idiocy.”
    – “Energy Idiocy.”
    In a move to get into the digital ‘innovation’.., Pakistan has just announced it has allocated 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity to “Bitcoin mining” and small A.I. data centers.
    This is more electrical output the entire national grid of Zimbabwe.

    • They shoudl be pumping water top avoid nuke war – but as company here proves you can tell conocopia people anything abiout their cause…

      • Too late “Moose” & “Squirrel” !

        Leadership said to be in Ural mtns – hunkering in the bunkers as of last night.
        Iran is supposedly set to pop, as nato lifts restrictions on long range missiles for ukies to strike deep into Russian territory.

        Coupled with attempted removal (assassination) of Pooters helicopter while in kursk on official visit last week..

        * Iskander – only 200 seconds to Berlin..

        – “Natasha we will obliterate the Moose&Squirrel!” – BB

        ? Will these actions stop the Spiritual Genocide ongoing in Gaza ?

        Hmm wonder how Gold reacts, if at all, WHEN Iran is attacked ?

  12. “Swedish Meatballs and noodles…”
    Was Elaine disappointed she didn’t get to go to Sweden for them?

      • My older sibling has an Italian chef that’s a friend of hiis..they have a joke going ..where my brother teases him about opening stoufers frozen entree…
        I got to visit with him..it was enlightning.. I personally like my pasta a little thicker..they can keep that see through thin pasta.. just like my pizza..I want bread on that crust not a crust the resembles cardboard ..

  13. BM: Well, you want to talk about something amazing, did you see the article in the Wall Street Journal talking about the penny?

    RM: Yes, I did, it costs 3.7 cents to make it so they’re going to ditch it. What are kids going to put on railway tracks now?

    BM: Yeah, but here’s what’s really funny, what’s it cost to make a nickel?

    RM: Don’t know.

    BM: It’s 8.7 cents so it’s a false economy in a way. They’re saving money on the pennies but it’s going to cost money on the nickels and good question but see you’re way too young. Up until 1959 what were pennies made of?

    RM: Copper.

    https://aheadoftheherd.com/playing-on-train-tracks-richard-mills-bob-moriarty/

    • Create a new set of dies for the 5-cent piece, but sized to work on the penny planchets? (Caveat: I don’t know what the cost of the dies would be, and so how long it would take to amortize that cost using the 1.3 cent profit. For all I know, it might be some time in the year 2040.)

      • Hi Dick,

        Should see Satoshi’s – fractional Bitcoin.

        Sheeesh!, seems peeps still sleeping, and hear I thought I was pope charming.

        Like the song says Ure dollar is “Shattered..all this chitter chatter about Shmata, shmata, shamta I cant give it the dollar away on 5th avenue, this town been wearing tatters..”

    • And people used the copper pennies to replace the round screw-in fuses in their house fuse box.

  14. got a spare euro brother ? or a yen ? ride em cowboy !!! AI on max baby USA USA USA . is that chinese AI or american AI brother

  15. When I was in Dr. Glen Maples’ 600 level power course at Auburn he showed us a chart that depicted the flow of energy from source to end use. That chart is available online mow and has not changed much, When we saw it in the late 70’s it showed that 3 of every 5 Btu’s of fossil energy consumed in the US went to 2 – 2! – end uses. Hot air and Hot water. And Dr. Maples emphasized that these were not process heating but (as I remember it) Warm air in your bedroom and hand washing hot water out of the sink. All process heating, industrial, transportation, etc were in the other 25%.
    We are not much better now. The latest version of that chart says we now use 5/8 of our energy for the two hots, air and water. That’s DOMESTIC HEATING!
    I remembered at the time that Dr. Barry Commoner of Washington University (Remember him?) had visited our high school and told us much the same thing a few years before. And had demonstrated the direct heating collectors that would solve the problem if we would implement them. I particularly remember the water tank in a box of paraffin dyed with carbon black which would, thanks to phase change, store heat all night, even in St. Louis.
    I go into houses today and observe commercial sized natural gas fired stoves and ornamental gas fired artificial logs in the huge unvented fire place in the living room or den (or both) but find an electric water heater in the garage!
    With the replacement of incandescent lights and CRT screens with LEDs reducing the circuit loads below the minimum breaker size I am wondering where all the power is going in the “intelligence helper” plants and I realize it isn’t computing power, it’s the transformation of industrial level current to the 1, 1.5 and 9 volt power used by the chip based circuits. This is confirmed by the articles explaining that the crypto farming and AI plants plan to sell the waste heat to make up the difference between the profit and cost of operation.
    OK, what is the answer to this screed? The problem IS THE GRID!
    When Tesla was inventing electrical engineering he did now envision a wired grid. He began with individually sized power generation units in homes and factories and them transitioned to radio wave power transmission of energy that would be “to cheap to charge for”. This didn’t set well with J. P. Morgan, his financier, who cut him off, and presaging to day’s social media, reduced him to “crazy old coot status” in much of the press.
    It may be too late to reverse the situation for the average user but the AI and crypto users can still possibly course correct.
    I my senior level design team project we told an industrial user how to take his 40 tons daily production of wood waste and run his factory using it to produce first, primary process heating and second electric power. We emphasized that whatever he did he SHOULD NOT TRY TO SELL ENERGY HE COULD NOT USE!! We presented our findings to his congressman who arranged a grant. The usual suspect study group used the grant to study generating electricity and selling to to Alabama Electric CO OP which, they said, would be an uneconomic choice.
    And here we are today.

  17. And Big Al wasn’t there but if you ask I’ll tell you about our daddy’s role in debasing the coinage of the western world back in ’63.
    Touring the plant where the nickle/copper/nickle sandwich metal became coin blanks for the US mints, (and the finished coins for the central banks of the rest of the world) was quite an experience.

Comments are closed.