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The Duck Curve: California Learns The Awful Secret About Solar Power

The Duck Curve: California Learns The Awful Secret About Solar Power

Jul 08 2024 | comment(s)

California mandates and subsidizes solar power, but the money for that isn't from all taxpayers, it is instead taxes and fees tacked onto the bills of people who use conventional energy - people in apartments, renters, and anyone who can't afford solar installations.

Worse, solar owners, already privileged, also 'sell electricity back at the same rate they buy it', which everyone knows is impossible. Utilities have employees, infrastructure, and repairs, so without a markup to cover those, they'd be out of business. Thanks to a bulletproof-majority in state politics, science is pushed to the side, and conventional energy users pay even more to so the state can engage in fiscal magic.
Study: Diet Soda Has No Negative Effects - And Aspartame Has One Additional Big Positive

Study: Diet Soda Has No Negative Effects - And Aspartame Has One Additional Big Positive

Jul 07 2024 | comment(s)

It is routinely claimed by trial lawyers and their allied epidemiologists that diet soda has lots of nasty effects on humans. Science has never found that but that is why epidemiology is invoked. If an epidemiologist with an agenda looks at enough rows of diseases and enough columns of foods people claim they ate, it is easy to claim meat causes cancer. Or prevents cancer. Just like organic food causes autism and DDT improves male fertility.


Eco-Terrorist Attack Causes Italy To Extend GMO Policies

Eco-Terrorist Attack Causes Italy To Extend GMO Policies

Jul 05 2024 | comment(s)

Eco-terrorists perhaps thought Italy was like other European countries and destroying a CRISPR food test plot would make the government apologize and change their evil science ways.
Sickle Cell Disease: A Pill Cure In Mice And Monkeys

Sickle Cell Disease: A Pill Cure In Mice And Monkeys

Jul 05 2024 | comment(s)

Scientists led by Dr. Pamela Ting have reported the discovery and characterization of the first molecular glue degraders of the WIZ transcription factor for fetal hemoglobin derepression in Sickle Cell Disease, which means a pill-based therapy for humans could begin development.

Sickle Cell Disease is a genetic life-threatening condition caused by mutation in β-hemoglobin. Inducing fetal hemoglobin safely has been the goal for years but has remained out-of-reach. The discovery of dWIZ-1 and dWIZ-2 molecular glue degraders of the WIZ transcription factor that induce HbF in erythroblasts is a milestone toward a pill for therapy. The authors say WIZ is a previously unknown repressor of HbF.
Your Portable Radiation Spectrometer - The Wondrous Radiacode 103

Your Portable Radiation Spectrometer - The Wondrous Radiacode 103

Jul 03 2024 | comment(s)

A few days ago I put my hands on a RadiaCode 103, a pocket radiation counter, dosimeter, and spectrometer that has recently appeared on the market. The company that produces it, RadiaCode, is located in Cyprus (see https://radiacode.com). The instrument is a portable device that pairs up with a smartphone or a PC for maximum functionality, but can well operate as a standalone unit to provide quite a bit more functionality than the standard monitoring and dosimeter capabilities of other instruments.
Here is the unit as it comes, packaged in a style similar to that of smartphones. The package contains the unit and a USB-C cable, plus a card with a QR-code link to the manuals and software.


The Oldest Profession May Be Fashion Design

The Oldest Profession May Be Fashion Design

Jul 01 2024 | comment(s)

There are five professions(1) but lots of occupations and trades lay claim to being the oldest one despite predating the concept by millennia.

Farming is around 14,000 years old but a new study reveals one less-considered trade predates it by tens of thousands of years: fashion.

Humans wore clothing prior to that, but fashion is a different animal skin. It is clothing for social and cultural purposes, marking the major shift from clothes as protection to clothes as an expression of identity. Paleolithic eyed needles are now known to be as old as 40,000 years, and with it came the evolution of dressing. 
Exchange Sac In Blitz

Exchange Sac In Blitz

Jul 01 2024 | comment(s)

Time and again, I play a "good" blitz chess game. In blitz chess you have 5 minutes thinking for the totality of your game. This demands quick reasoning and a certain level of dexterity - with the mouse, if you are playing online as I usually do.
My blitz rating on the chess.com site hovers around 2150-2200 elo points, which puts me at the level of a strong candidate master or something like that, which is more or less how I would describe myself. But time is of course running at a slower, but more unforgiving pace in my life, and I know that my sport prowess is going to decline - hell, it has already. So it makes me happy when I see that I can still play a blitz game at a decent level. Today is one of those days.
It Took Biden Abuse Of Science To Get 'Chevron Deference' Limited But SCOTUS Finally Did it

It Took Biden Abuse Of Science To Get 'Chevron Deference' Limited But SCOTUS Finally Did it

Jun 28 2024 | comment(s)

In 1984, a court much farther to the left than today's is to the right made arguably its worst 'social justice living document' ruling - they found that an agency controlled by the president could create new regulations that act as laws if those regulations were in the agency's "mandate." All a president had to do was broaden an agency's mandate, or have a Congressional law written poorly, and anything was possible.
President Biden Calls It 'Good Neighbor', The Supreme Court Calls It Unconstitutional

President Biden Calls It 'Good Neighbor', The Supreme Court Calls It Unconstitutional

Jun 28 2024 | comment(s)

New York makes a big show of banning natural gas and nuclear energy while preventing brownouts across Manhattan by buying natural gas from neighboring Pennsylvania.

President Biden's EPA recently decided that not only should New York be allowed hypocrisy about the sources of its that even Russia-addicted Germany thought was laughable, he wanted Democratic states to be able to sue Republican ones for the emissions created by selling energy to the wealthy elites nearby. So California could sue Idaho and even states as far away as Utah because those states keep Governor Newsom from being the target of a recall vote yet again by selling energy - all the state would have to do is claim PM2.5 "virtual" pollution is wafting over the Sierra Nevadas.
Robert Zubrin's Credible Proposal to Save the ISS From Destruction.

Robert Zubrin's Credible Proposal to Save the ISS From Destruction.

Jun 28 2024 | comment(s)

Robert Zubrin, a great Aerospace Engineer and advocate for human space exploration, has a credible proposal to move the ISS to higher orbits around the Earth under its own power using electric propulsion.  This would not be a fast process, but it would not need to be a fast process since it is a space station, not a spacecraft.   Think of it this way, ISS is to space what an oil platform is to the sea.  People don't realize that many of those aren't anchored to the seabed but float, and interface with equipment placed on the seabed below.   They move slowly, very slowly compared to a motor vessel.  Moving ISS would be like that it would take years.  With enough time even a small thrust can

FDA: America Has Created Health inequity In Men

FDA: America Has Created Health inequity In Men

Jun 27 2024 | comment(s)

The National Center for Health Statistics shows that average life expectancy for American men in 2022 was down to 74.8 years, 5.4 years lower than American women.
CRISPR Isn't a GMO But Italian Eco-Terrorists Destroy It Anyway

CRISPR Isn't a GMO But Italian Eco-Terrorists Destroy It Anyway

Jun 27 2024 | comment(s)

Last week, eco-terrorists attacked and destroyed a new optimized rice called Telemaco Ris8imo, using genetic engineering (assisted evolution techniques) so that it needs less fungicide.

Rice is one of those rather ridiculous crops that western government subsidize and people who don't know anything about agriculture believe needs to be covered in water to grow. It is actually covered in water in Asia to keep it safe from...nature.(1) In many places, water takes energy and if we care about climate change, we want less energy pumping water or importing rice from China on emissions-belching ships. Science to the rescue. So scientists created a rice with three genes tweaked to make it naturally resistant to Pyricularia oryzae, rice blast fungus. 
More State Run Liquor Stores May Prevent Suicides

More State Run Liquor Stores May Prevent Suicides

Jun 26 2024 | comment(s)

Suicide is the runaway leader in gun deaths in the United States and a new demography paper says more government control of the alcohol business might provide a solution for that, and homicides also.

This was a statistical analysis, so only EXPLORATORY, but they correlate more restrictive alcohol laws with a reduction in specific states’ homicide rates. The authors at RAND used the Alcohol Policy Scale index, which measures state-year alcohol policy environments, higher is more social authoritarian, lower is more freedom, plus vital deaths data (total homicides, total suicides, firearm homicides, and firearm suicides) drawn from the National Vital Statistics System.
Utah Shows California How To Provide Real Clean Energy

Utah Shows California How To Provide Real Clean Energy

Jun 25 2024 | comment(s)

Each year when air conditioners are needed, California has to ask EPA for permission to violate federal emissions standards and burn enough natural gas to keep the brown-outs that nearly got Governor Gavin Newsom recalled from happening again.
Monsanto Trial Judge: Zhang Glyphosate Meta-Analysis Is Nonsense

Monsanto Trial Judge: Zhang Glyphosate Meta-Analysis Is Nonsense

Jun 21 2024 | comment(s)

Trial lawyers suing over a popular weedkiller saw six words they never want to read in a court document approving a motion to dismiss a study they consider vital to their future yacht payments: "Zhang’s meta-analysis is junk science."


This is not just authoritative, it is humiliating.

It doesn't end there. The court saw through their pay-to-publish scam and was immune to their time-honored technique of immediately having a bunch of other papers cite it to increase its impact factor and H-index.
Opposer At A PhD Defense

Opposer At A PhD Defense

Jun 21 2024 | comment(s)

Yesterday I was in Oslo, where I was invited tro serve as the leading opposer in the Ph.D. defense of a student of Alex Read, who is a particle physicist and a member of the ATLAS collaboration. Although I have served in similar committees several times in the past, this turned out to be a special experience for me for a couple of reasons.
The World Is Richer Than Ever, But It's Not Due To Communism Or Capitalism, It's Science

The World Is Richer Than Ever, But It's Not Due To Communism Or Capitalism, It's Science

Jun 20 2024 | comment(s)

There are lots of stories about the poor in America, and have been for decades. Smart demographers know that, like racism, if everyone is talking about The Poor, it's almost eliminated.

One of the giant cracks in the communist dictatorship called the USSR last century was when the television program "60 Minutes" had a segment on poverty in America. It was designed to tug at the heartstrings of those with more money. The USSR ran it for their citizens but it actually backfired. Being in 'poverty' in America meant having a television and more living space than anyone not an elite in the Soviet Union had.
Sen. Sanders Still Opposes Nuclear Energy But The American Science Community Marches On

Sen. Sanders Still Opposes Nuclear Energy But The American Science Community Marches On

Jun 19 2024 | comment(s)

If you tell me an old white person in America opposes nuclear power, I can tell you how they vote. I can also tell you with alarming accuracy what they think about lots of science, like food and medicine. They think natural gas is why climate change happens.

The reality is that climate change happened due to...them. Democrats gutted nuclear energy in America 30 years ago. Democrats cheered when Senator John Kerry and President Bill Clinton declared that any nuclear energy research could be a nuclear bomb. This was the capstone of a 30-year effort to undermine nuclear power in America, with politicians, their supporters, and allies in corporate media invoking the Precautionary Principle and saying any risk was too much.
EU Environmentalists Pull A Fast One On Austria To Get A 'Nature Restoration Law' No One Wants

EU Environmentalists Pull A Fast One On Austria To Get A 'Nature Restoration Law' No One Wants

Jun 18 2024 | comment(s)

Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler took one for the environmental team to push through a new environmental bill that few want.

If there is one positive thing that Russia invading Ukraine accomplished, it's forcing Europeans to stop being hypocrites about where their food and energy really derives. It is not Europe, and has not been since they started shutting off coal plants and nuclear energy and claimed solar and wind only needed political will to take over.(1) And that Russian organic food imports were anything more than a placebo in sticker form.(2)
Farmers Won't Be Replaced By AI But Environmentalists Opposing Agriculture Will

Farmers Won't Be Replaced By AI But Environmentalists Opposing Agriculture Will

Jun 18 2024 | comment(s)

A news article says that 2024 fact checkers are having a hard time keeping up with all of the disinformation and misinformation surrounding the American presidential election. While progressive activists want to allege it's only by the right-wing, that isn't true at all.(1)