Latest On Havana Syndrome

 

 

 

 

kenningtonosteopaths.co.uk

Havana syndrome has been mentioned here before. Now known as Anomalous Health Incidents, the malady has been under study in one way or another since it first appeared in 2016 among personnel stationed at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba. At that time the headaches, vertigo and nausea afflicting these people was thought to be caused by mysterious forces directed by hostile powers. Investigations of the Havana thing and incidents in other locations didn't come up with a definitive answer but those suffering from it were made eligible for compensation. 

Now, two new studies by the National Institute of Health  have failed to find a cause for the syndrome. Of course that can't eliminate the possibility of nefarious behavior on the part of the country's enemies and some researchers are reluctant to accept the NIH findings. So some scientists somewhere will continue to look into this mystery.

In 2021 the Congress approved the Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks (HAVANA) Act that provided compensation for those affected. In the case of CIA victims it was a one-time lump sum of $187,300.

In a further development, CBS and it's news show 60 Minutes have developed contacts with Russian dissidents who have convinced them and government authorities that Russian intelligence is at the "nexus" of the problem. 

Russian on-line publication Sputnik International has put together its own version of the affair. It's also a matter of interest in the on-line news source Aljazeera.

 

Hail and Solar Panels

 

 

patabook.com

The 350MW Fighting Jays Solar Farm near Needville, Texas on the Brazos River was hammered by a hail storm on March 16 that destroyed thousands of solar panels on the 4,000+ acre installation. No word yet on the fate of the damaged panels or the cost of replacement and if the facility is now completely out of service for the foreseeable future.   

Global Temperatures Over The Last 65 Million Years

 

Global surface temperatures were generally high throughout the Paleocene and Eocene, with a particularly warm spike at the boundary between the two geological epochs around 56 million years ago. Temperatures in the distant past are inferred from proxies, in this case, oxygen isotope ratios from fossil foraminifera, single-celled marine organisms. "Q" stands for Quaternary. Graphic produced using data from Zachos and Hansen, with help from Dr. Carrie Morrill, Director of the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.

Further Evidence of Cultural Decline

 

 

Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A work of graffiti by celebrated but anonymous artist Banksy has appeared in a London suburb. It's so dramatic and imposing that it's become a topic of international conversation in the art world, if not that of the unwashed masses. The UK seems to be the capital of bad art.

Update:  The Banksy masterpiece has been defiled with white paint. Panels have been erected to protect it and it's also been covered with clear plastic. 

 mattmckenna 

More Problems With Renewable Energy

It isn't just the complexity, expense and unreliability of so-called renewable energy that keeps it from taking over our lives. It turns out that integrating solar power, wind power and hydrogen power into the existing system is plagued with both technical and bureaucratic  problems.

This piece describes in a general way what hasn't been happening in the field. Maybe the process is so complex that diagnosing the individual issues and the possible approaches to their resolution is more difficult than actually producing the product itself. 

 

clipground.com

It appears that the renewable generators are more interested in joining the grid than the grid is in accepting them. There may be some disagreement as to who is responsible for the expense of the connection. Utilization of "free" power is more expensive than we've been led to believe.

Wild Springs Solar Energy project near New Underwood, South Dakota has been approved by regulators to go into operation providing up to 128 megawatts of electricity to Basin Electric Power Cooperative. Originally scheduled to begin supply on May 1, the date has been moved up to March 15. No word on if this is the date when power will actually move from Wild Springs to Basin Electric on that day or if that's simply the date when it will be permitted.

   

The Strange Numbers Of American Capitalism

 

 

Americans For Tax Fairness

Eighteen of the 35 companies on this list operate in the energy sector, at least in part as regulated utilities. Although their executives can normally only make decisions that are endorsed or guided by government regulators, they are among the highest paid executives in the world.

bizjournals.com

Lynn J. Good, CEO of Duke Energy, received   $21,008,835 in total compensation in 2023. On the basis of the 2000 hours of an annual 40 hour work week, CEO Good would be earning a little over $10,500 per hour.

Ben G. S. Fowke III, retired CEO of Xcel Energy, is now the interim CEO of American Electrical Power, probably making more than he did before.

 beaconjournal.com

Brian Tierney is the CEO of First Energy, an Akron, Ohio fully regulated utility. His compensation package is described by the Akron Beacon-Journal :

"According to the company's latest 8-K filed Monday, Tierney's compensation package, approved by the board on March 22, includes an annual base salary of $1.5 million, which will be reviewed annually, and a hiring bonus equal to $1.5 million.

He's also expected to be eligible to participate in the company’s executive relocation program, executive deferred compensation plan, 401(k) plan, vacation and paid time off program, and standard health and welfare benefits.

In addition, his compensation package includes the potential for millions of dollars in cash and stock incentive awards based on the company's performance under his leadership."

Feds Approve Gas Power House in Superior, WI But . . . .

 

mncenter.org 

Evan Mulholland is the Healthy Communities Program Director for the Minnesota Center For Environmental Advocacy

According to the MCEA website:   Evan holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Brandeis University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an LL.M. in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.  Prior to working at MCEA, Evan was a Assistant Attorney General at the New Hampshire Department of Justice and served as Compliance Bureau Chief of the Air Resources Division at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

 

The federal government has approved the siting of a new combined cycle power plant in Superior, WI., the Nemadji Trail Energy Center. The $700 million project of Minnesota Power and Light, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Dairyland Power Cooperative will result in a 625 megawatt gas power plant that's intended to provide necessary buffering and stability to the power grid with the addition of renewable power from other sources, if it ever gets built.

Planning for the project began seven years ago but permitting and lawfare have prevented a single spade of earth being turned over or the welding of one pipe joint. Much of this delay and probably more will be the task of MCEA figure Evan Mulholland, pictured above. He is a member of a class of legalists whose specialty is the obstruction of progress in the name of environmental stasis, a post-modern occupation. No such concerns were present during the construction of the railroads, inter-state highways or the electrical transmission system that insures almost continuous service to any American that cares to use it. Times have changed.

Nemadji Trail Energy Center Update: Local resistance to the new power house is being described by the local news media. A rally is planned for outside the Douglas County courthouse on March 19.

 

Unusual Doings in Electricity Transmission

It's possible to make money on moving electricity without actually doing anything but planning to do so. An example is the PATH project, a 290 mile transmission line that was never approved by the states involved or constructed that cost consumers $250 million. 

Energy and the Poverty of Nations

 

A Builder of Renewable Energy Projects

A few quotes from an article by Jennifer Hiller in the March 11, Wall Street Journal on Michael Polsky and his company, Invenergy:

    "Sean Klimczak, global head of infrastructure at Blackstone, which invested $4 billion in Invenergy's renewables business since 2021, estimates Invenergy has a pipeline of projects valued at about $150 billion."

    "Invenergy has built roughly one in every 10 US wind or solar projects and has one of the largest solar farms operating and under construction in the U.S., unfolding across 18,000 acres in Texas."

    "Polsky's wind projects were hugely profitable, but he was only partially right about renewables being easier to build. Invenergy is still fighting with communities nearly everywhere it goes ...." 

rechargenews.com

  

University Millionaires

New hire as president of the University of Minnesota, Rebecca Cunningham, has been given an employment contract of $975,000 in annual salary with a provision of at least a 3.5% raise annually plus retirement benefits of $120,000 each year. One couldn't expect someone receiving a salary of a million dollars a year to squirrel away some of that for their golden years.

The lady has been a fixture in various administrative positions at the University of Michigan and now receives a salary that eclipses that of the state governor and all but a handful of local business titans.

 

twincitiespioneerpress 

Perhaps "fixture" is the best term for the new president, whose actual duties are similar to that of a chrome female statuette on the hood of a '50s sedan. Many smaller, dirtier parts allow the car to function as designed but the most obvious part is the first thing seen, which has no effect on the car's operation.

goodspeedusa.com

This isn't an isolated incident. University presidents all receive huge compensation packages, ostensibly because they're able to cajole wealthy alumni into donating vast sums to the school or local business nabobs into financing esoteric research programs. This may or may not be true but aren't potential donors already inclined to contribute to a certain school with which they have some familiarity? Would they be less likely to make a significant gift to a school with a less well-paid boss? 

What are their actual day-to-day duties? Do they roam the campus, auditing classes to see if the profs, or more likely TAs, are arriving for class on time and delivering a lecture that can be easily understood by English-speaking students whose tuition has risen steeply through the years. The president probably won't run onto the field leading the Gopher football squad into battle against the hated Wisconsin Badgers since she makes only a fraction of the $6 million dollars a year that football coach PJ Fleck does.

  

The US House Select Committee on Competition with the Chinese Communist Party

Yes, there is a committee in the US House of Representatives whose function is to monitor the competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Not competition between US business and trade interests vis a vis that of the Chinese nation but between the US as a whole and the Chinese Communist Party, which rules that country.

The members of the committee are: 

Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.)

Ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.)

Jake Auchincloss (D- Ma.)  Andy Kim (D-NJ)

Jim Banks (R-Ind.)              Darin La Hood (R-Il)

Andy Barr (R-Ky)                Blaine Leutkemeyer (R-Mo)

Shontel Brown (D-Oh)        John Moolenaar (R-Mi)    

Andre Carson (D-Ind)        Seth Moulton (D-Ma)

Kathy Castor (D-Fla)         Dan Newhouse (R-Wa)

Neal Dunn (R-Fla)             Mike Sherrill (D-NJ)           Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla)      Michelle Steel (R-Ca)

Ashley Hinson (R-Ia)         Haley Stevens (D-Mi)

Dusty Johnson (R-SD)        Richie Torres (D-NY)

Ro Khanna (D-Ca)             Rob Wittman (R-Va) 

 

The committee is introducing legislation on March 7 to, among other things, forbid Tik Tok from taking over the minds of juvenile Americans.

"Not only is the CCP-controlled TikTok an immense national security risk to our country, it is also poisoning the minds of our youth every day on a massive scale. China is our enemy, and we need to start acting like it. I am proud to partner with Representatives Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi on this bipartisan bill to ban the distribution of TikTok in the US. This legislation will make our country better off and more secure," said Chip Roy, US Representative of the 21st district of Texas, north of San Antonio and including parts of Austin.

If, indeed, China is our "enemy", over a billion souls are our enemy, this is a serious situation. If a social media web-site from any location is poisoning our youth on a massive scale something needs to be done about it. But an even bigger problem seems to exist, at least in some minds. That problem is the fragility of American "democracy", an issue for many decades. According to   James McHenry, a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention, there's this quote from Benjamin Franklin: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

Franklin probably wasn't talking about an invasion from across the seas. It was more likely that the republic would be endangered by domestic forces. Such remains the case today. Few sensible people are worried about Chinese or Russian troops occupying Des Moines or Rapid City. In the case of Tik Tok or Chinese-built dock cranes acquiring valuable information, what information would that be? On the other hand, there seems to be no end of government intrusion on the privacy of its own citizens. 

We hear regularly that Muslim Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province are in re-education camps and used as slaves to pick the cotton that goes into American T-shirts. If it's true or not, at this time one of the most popular and financially successful entertainers in China is a Muslim Uyghur from Xinjiang, Dilraba Dilmurat.

  

cpophome.com 

 

 

 

 

 

Tracking Down Neutrinos

You'll probably be happy to know that an effort is being made to investigate the most ephemeral particle in the universe, the neutrino.

 

 

 

  As the neutrino people ponder:

 

"What is the absolute mass scale of neutrinos?

Neutrinos probably are the most fascinating species of elementary particles. The "ghost particle of the Universe" is a key to open issues in science on many scales, linking the microcosm of elementary particles to the largest structures in the Universe."

This is quantum physics, the ultimate in scientific reductionism, the search for reality and truth at the most elementary and smallest levels. As far as we know, all matter is composed of molecules made up of protons, electrons, neutrons and maybe neutrinos and other exotic particles or waves. While it might be interesting to those employed in nuclear physics, what does the study of these incredibly tiny particles actually have to do with our day to day life?

The answer is basically nothing at all. These particles don't become meaningful until they are assembled into larger arrays, minerals, gases, liquids, single-cell organisms, plants and members of the US Congress. 

Reductionism was criticized by, among many others, Arthur Koestler, who coined the term holon in his book The Act of Creation to describe the hierarchies of sub-assemblies that make up a holon.

Aquiring real knowledge of the neutrino or even more prominent examples of quantum particles is an intellectual luxury whose expense should not be borne by the uninterested.      

CO2 Capture, Pipeline and Sequester Plan Expands

Valero Energy has added eight of its ethanol plants to  the Summit Carbon Solutions plan to gather the CO2 by-product of 57 midwest ethanol refineries by means of a 2000+ mile underground pipeline system and inject the climate-warming gas into the ground in North Dakota. The private company joins POET LLC, the world's largest producer of ethanol, in the proposed Summit stable of corn converters after POET's partnership with Navigator CO2 Ventures was terminated by Navigator's abandonment of their similar project.

 

 spottracker.com

Of course the Summit project isn't merely an effort to selflessly alleviate the impending tragedy of a baking world. Rather it's a plan to reap the financial benefits of a federal policy subsidizing meaningless and ineffective attempts at counteracting a problem that may not even exist. Without federal subsidies none of these projects would have reached the planning stage. 

The real problem is an expanding federal bureaucracy operating at the behest of financial forces in an expensive battle against an imaginary catastrophe in what has become a religious, rather than scientific effort. 

    

Phaedrus's Ghosts

"Whether or not we believe that the future can be influenced by the circular rhythms of the dance or foretold from an analysis of Bible verses, or that from a few underlying physical laws we can generate a cosmos, we all share a faith that lurking beneath the world's complexity is simplicity. Psychologists have found that if you put people in a room with a contraption of light bulbs wired to blink on and off at random, they will quickly discern what they believe are patterns, theories for predicting which bulb will be next to blink. Once a person becomes enmeshed in an ideology or a scientist in a hypothesis, it is difficult not to see confirmation everywhere. Our brains are wired to see order, but we are prisoners of our nervous systems, cursed with never knowing when we are seeing truths out there in the universe and when we are merely inventing elaborate architectures."

Johnson, George. Fire in the Mind. Science, Faith and the Search for Order. pg 21. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995

 

Texas Panhandle Wildfires

azcentral.com

The Smokehouse Creek wildfire in the Texas panhandle north of Amarillo beginning on February 26 has been met with outrage by the landowners whose property has been incinerated and also by the insurers who might be forced to pay their claims. Legal papers have been served on Xcel Energy to force them to preserve a downed power pole near Stinnett, Texas, toppled by high winds, that may have ignited the blaze.

While the damage caused by the fire and the possible liability of Xcel Energy are major considerations, there are other important issues. Insurers and others note that there are deficiencies in the maintenance and repair of transmission and distribution lines in many electrical systems. The insurance industry is likely to take a closer look at electrical distribution infrastructure because there's a general feeling that a large percentage of utility poles have reached the end of their service life. 

This means that not only will expensive new lines be needed to tie in new renewable sources like solar arrays and wind turbines but also the existing power grid will have to be brought up to a more reliable condition.

It's likely that insurers and state regulators will require inspections and assessments of grid infrastructure by independent entities. Remediation of deficiencies will add to the bill for renewable adoption which will be passed along to the consumer. It's going to be expensive.