Wednesday, July 31, 2024

The Effects of the Climate Crisis

Archer Daniels Midland, the giant global commodity trading and processing corporation has become a victim of the ongoing and increasing climate crisis.The continuing droughts, floods, heat waves and hurricanes have put a heavy burden on profits. Second quarter statistics show that the company had adjusted share earnings of $1.03 on $22.2 billion of revenue. 

ADM spokesmen say that the problem is an international glut of cereal grains and soybeans that includes North America, South America, Europe and Australia, driving prices lower than they've been in four years. Chinese importers once purchased millions of dollars worth of soy beans and grain from the US but now find better deals in South America, although the agricultural bounty is being felt by producers there as well.

Grain Harvesting Combine Free Stock Photo - Public Domain Pictures

publicdomainepictures.net  

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Childless Cat Ladies

Of course NPR has come to the defense of "childless cat ladies" from the sarcasm of vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance. In the bi-polar world of US politics where there are no shades of grey and any remark from the past is dredged up to vilify an opponent such is bound to be the case. This will continue to be so as both sides pick through accounts in search of negative material for campaigns. Electioneering is one of the bigger industries in the so-called democracy and vast sums of money are involved.

Aside from that, the public, each and every member thereof, should keep two things in mind. The responsibilities of an individual of any species are: A. Reproduction and B. Finding and consuming enough food to enable reproduction. This is the case with both single-celled bacteria, members of the US Congress and the media and every organism between them on the evolutionary scale. Organisms that fail to reproduce their own kind are contributing to its extinction.

Any other part of that organism's life beside A and B is  superfluous and rare in plants and most animals. On the contrary, negative reproductive behavior is common among the cultures of "advanced" humans such as childless cat ladies. Human females that fail to become mothers are failures to their species. If large numbers of them voluntarily choose that option their particular society is doomed. Only in a sophisticated, complex suicidal culture is such behavior even accepted.     

Janet Yellen In Belem


 Janet L. Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, gave a speech on July 27 at the Goeldi Museum in Belem, Brazil. 

Janet Yellen to Join Brookings After Leaving Federal Reserve | TIME

time.com

Her presentation was part of a meeting of members of the InterAmerican Development Bank and private interests. As might have been predicted, there was a focus on climate change, which, by Yellen's prediction, will cost $3 trillion a year from now until the Net Zero goal of 2050. While the life-long 78 year-old academic economist may not have a grasp of atmospheric chemistry herself, she is surrounded by real experts and able to put into words, perhaps written by others, the impending doom faced by humanity if it fails to heed the advice of the Biden-Harris administration. 

In the past, US administrations have been referred to by the name of the President himself. Bill Clinton's terms weren't referred to as the Clinton-Gore presidency, Grant's weren't called the Grant-Colfax or Grant-Wilson administrations. The hyphenated Biden regime is an obvious attempt to legitimize the token that may be living in the US Naval Observatory.

  As we implement the IRA and see a boom in private sector investment in clean energy industries across the United States, American companies are also pursuing global opportunities.

Just one sentence in a fantasy. No private sector investment would be made without generous neo-Whig subsidies from the public purse.


U of Texas at Austin Gets Millions for Computer Research and Development

Neo-Whigs are setting up a capital of sorts in central Texas.

The Association of American Universities, a consortium of the country's most prestigious research institutions, has announced that the National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Texas at Austin $479 million of their 2024 budget of $11.355 billion to build an advanced computing facility, as below from their website.

NSF Investing Millions to Build New Advanced Computing Facility at UT Austin

The National Science Foundation is investing $457 million to build a Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF) at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin. According to the NSF, the facility “is expected to revolutionize computational research across multiple subjects in science and engineering” and will “deploy the largest academic supercomputer dedicated to open-scientific research in the NSF portfolio” when it becomes operational in 2026.

"UT and TACC have long been recognized as the home of one of the nation's leading academic supercomputing centers, which enables and accelerates discovery that changes the world. The creation of this new facility with NSF means continued excellence and reliability for top researchers from across the country,” said UT Austin President Jay Hartzell. According to NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, the “facility will provide the computational resources necessary to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time, enabling researchers to push the boundaries of what is possible.”

Per the NSF, the project “also includes a wide range of education and public outreach plans to grow the future science and engineering workforce and ensure that the nation benefits from access to the facility.”

Additionally, in an apparently unrelated development, the celebrated Defense Advanced Research Project Agency or DARPA, the federal outfit that funds the research and development of expensive and esoteric items that may be useful to the military, has given, through its Next Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing Program, $840 million to the Texas Institute for Electronics, also a part of the University of Texas at Austin. The Texas State Legislature had already given TIE $552 million to modernize current fabrication facilities.

Ergo, the educational and research environment of the Texas hill country is awash in government funds to further shrink the size and expand the capabilities of computer hardware. The NSF National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network also funds four programs at U of T, Austin, the Micro-electronics Research Center, Texas Material Institute, the Center for Nano and Molecular Sciences and the Nano Manufacturing System Center.

What does all this mean? Of course one result is that the Austin campus and surrounding area will be even more of a boom town than it has been, construction of facilities will mean an influx of thousands of grubby, ill-mannered blue collar pipefitters  and electricians, a subsequent increase in rental rates and more sales of new 4-wheel drive pick-ups.

But what will be the long term effect? How much can computer components be shrunk in practical terms and how much more can their ability to increase the speed of mathematical processes, which is what they actually do, be put to use in every day life? Is there some endpoint to this?

What's the opinion of the general population on this situation, since, theoretically, they are financing it? Of course tax receipts and sales of treasury bills won't cover the expenses either. Most of the federal budget is composed of imaginary money created on keyboards. Will US funds always and forever be accepted by everyone for the necessities?

As an aside, an interesting trend is taking place. First came "podcasts", internet information delivered by the spoken word. Now articles on internationally focused websites like the BBC, Deutsche Welle, CBC and others can be heard as well as read. This could be the result of many things but one of them might well be a decrease in literacy among the target audience. Every normal person can speak and understand their native language but aren't necessarily literate. Maybe the oral option is better than orthography on a smart phone but still, the printed word is there to stay, the sound disappears instantly. The adoption of the written word was more earthshaking than Bill Gates' Microsoft.     

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Closes Busy Interstate

A truck overturned on I-15 near Baker, California late Friday night or early Saturday morning and its cargo of lithium-ion batteries burst into flames. While the fire was successfully extinguished it reappeared and as of Saturday morning continued to burn. The northbound lanes of I-15, the main route between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, remained closed and traffic was being rerouted.

While other products present dangers while in transit, lithium-ion devices appear to be more hazardous than petroleum or even explosive cargoes. A federal government, led by Pete Buttigieg, devoted to our safety and happiness, should quickly solve the challenge of burning batteries.

It's re-opened, at least in part, but the fire goes on, over 55 hours later.   

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Pacific Skies 24


 German PA-200 Tornados take to the sky for Pacific Skies 24

Photo by Sr. Airman Julia Lebens, USAF 

A German Air Force PA-200 Tornado takes off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Alaska on June 17, 2024 as part of the Pacific Skies 24 exercise

The Future Combat Air System (FCAS_) is made up of the forces of Germany, France and Spain. The initial portion of Pacific Skies 24, Arctic Defender, hosted by Germany, takes place in Alaska, USA in cooperation with the US Air Force.

The exercise will move south and involve operations  with  the United States Pacific Fleet’s biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world’s largest international maritime exercise that includes the armed forces of 29 foreign countries. There will also be FCAS stops in Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and India.

There's a substantial amount of opposition to RIMPAC from indigenous groups that resent being colonies of imperial powers and their neighborhood being used as a practice battle ground.   

State of Minnesota to Sell 80,000 Acres of Wilderness to Feds


The Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources intends to "sell" 80,000 acres of land in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to the federal government. The as yet unspecified amount of the sale price will be used to establish a fund to finance public education, which is what the state-owned property was originally meant to do, chiefly through mineral and logging rights. A payment, of whatever scope, will mean that the land has been exchanged for money that will presumably be invested and receive an annual return.

This could end up being a bad bargain in a number of ways, regardless of the price. The federal government already owns about 640 million acres of the US, close to 28% of the entire country. In fact, it also owns and manages over 3 1/2 million acres in Minnesota itself, about the same area as the state of Connecticut. But the DNR and BLM haven't been able to consummate a land swap that would give the state title to property that could be rented or leased in perpetuity and that would, like all property, increase in value as time passes.

If no property could be found that would suit both entities, the feds have plenty more in other states that could be traded as well, 4 1/2 million acres in Florida, 24 million acres in New Mexico, and 45 1/2 million acres in California. Since much of northern Minnesota has extensive mineral deposits, any exchange should include property with a similar or greater value. The Gopher folks shouldn't accept filthy lucre for their priceless land. They should receive more land in return.

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

The Deep State And Kamala Harris

It should be no surprise that Joe Biden has decided, or been instructed, to drop out of the 2024 presidential election contest. The people surrounding him and making his decisions have had sufficient time to organize the next step in shuffling him off to a quiet retirement in seaside Delaware, as explained by Ryan McMaken.

Biden's press secretary maintains that Biden is still making presidential decisions although it's doubtful if that's actually been the case for some time. We must wonder who will be the one to decide on war with Russia, China, Iran or any other national entity, and the legitimacy of the executive orders that are used to implement policies that aren't decided in the halls of Congress. All presidents are surrounded by staff and counselors that provide them with information and opinions they use  to make decisions but Biden seems to now be a figure-head rather than a genuine force, the actual "boss".

Tangentially, the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle may not be all that it seems. In reality she is resigning from that post, not the Secret Service and the federal government itself. She acquired her position by protecting the Biden family in his vice-presidential days. It's likely that when some other earth-shaking event pushes the secret service fiasco off the media billboard she returns to organizing the protection of the Biden compound.  

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Climate Pollution Reduction Grants

The Orwellian titled Inflation Reduction Act includes a Whig Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program that will disburse almost $5 billion of funds that could be used to fill in the millions of pot holes on US highways that daily damage American automobiles and instead will  target global warming and atmospheric change with local schemes.

Accordingly, " September 4-6, 2024 – EPA will hold a CPRG Planning Grant Workshop at the University of Minnesota's McNamara Alumni Center in Minneapolis. This in-person-only workshop for planning grantees will focus on development of the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan. Planning grantees were emailed information about registration and the workshop website."

The purpose of the EPA Planning Grant Workshop must be to fill in the blanks for grant applicants that need to produce a satisfactory request. In the '70s and since the role of the employee writing grant requests is one of the most critical in the white collar workforce, especially among NGOs. This amounts to a training session for current and future efforts to justify government largesse, although the EPA probably already has a pretty good idea who the recipients will be.

 

Carbon Credit Scheme Shrivels

Carbon credits, or offsets, are abstractions purchased by businesses that are meant to make up for the carbon dioxide that they release into the atmosphere. They are ostensibly bought from other entities that absorb CO2, with, of course, a compensated middle-man that arranges the affair. 

An article in the Wall Street Journal indicates that sales of carbon credits have fallen dramatically and the recipients of the funds have thus fallen on hard times. It's but the latest in media reports of the failure of what has been a multi-billion dollar effort to eliminate global warming.

As usual in fin-tech superficiality America, financial geniuses solve problems by profitably shifting funds from one constituency to another without actually addressing the issue itself.

The WSJ article, hidden behind a pay wall, showed that in 2021 a metric ton of carbon credit could have been purchased for about $5 per ton by an airline or steel mill to "offset" a ton of CO2 they would produce. The price rose to a little over $16 in 2022 and has now plummeted to $6 a ton. Businesses have re-appraised the possible benefits of buying an invisible, intangible non-asset useful only as a virtue signal, if that. Who is really keeping track?

The importance of the decline in the transactions isn't damage to the atmosphere. It's that people, even corporate nabobs, are reaching the conclusion that even a well-engineered con game can be discovered and ignored.

  

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Albert Einstein Said

 "The work on satisfactory formulation of technical patents was a true blessing for me. It compelled me to be many-sided in thought, and also offered important stimulation for thought about physics. Following a practical profession is a blessing for people of my type. Because the academic career puts a young person in a sort of compulsory situation to produce scientific papers in impressive quantity, a temptation to superficiality arises that only strong characters are able to resist."  

Albert Einstein

 Albert Einstein-2

 lamarihuana.com

 



Friday, July 19, 2024

"CrowdStrike" IT Failure

The corrupted bug that shut down operations of millions of Microsoft systems on the morning of July 19 won't be the last. The monopoly computer operating system whose profits have made weird Bill Gates one of the wealthiest busybodies ever, has always had a reputation of jamming up when it was most inconvenient. 

It's truly folly at an immense level for important businesses to all rely on the same digital system for their successful operation.

It's always been a mystery how a monopoly like Microsoft can continue to exist when there are many successful alternatives available. Much of the Microsoft domination is a result of their marketing practices within the personal computer field. Users at all levels seem to feel comfortable with the format and accept the inconvenient updates and the fact that many applications are written for  Microsoft software exclusively even though other software and apps are readily available. 

The GAI data centers being touted as the answer to every problem will contain an overwhelming amount of information derived through Microsoft. No one can tell how much of it has been corrupted. Some of the failures of CrowdStrike are likely to be preserved for future inadvertent release. 

Ultimately, Microsoft or not, reliance on complex, macro-sophisticated software for day-to-day transactions is a weakness open to both accidental  problems and the deliberate sabotage that's becoming more and more common. Maybe some tech entrepreneur should develop a very simple but incorruptible simple system for the ordinary world. 

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

What Became Of The Ice Age?

Back in the '70s and '80s the fear was that increased snow fall would reflect the heat of the sun's rays back into space and quickly bring on a new and devastating ice age. What happened? Now, in just a few short years, in geological terms, the prediction has made a 180 degree reversal and we're looking at a short and torrid future unless carbon dioxide is curtailed.

Maybe it's the case that a certain element of the scientific community is interested in promoting humanity's demise, presently through it's own activities, for public recognition. In fact, there's no maybe about it. A voracious media uses academics as climate disaster sources much as tabloid newspaper reporters haunt police stations for info on bank robbers and serial killers. 

The difference is that crime fighting is entirely a government affair. Battling climate change has huge openings for hyper-capitalist activities, wind turbines, solar panels, CO2 direct-capture mechanisms, pipelines, sequestration, etc. financed with Whiggish government grants and subsidies. The recipients of these taxpayer funds, if they are actual monetary receipts, may very well realize that at some point this charade will come to an end. No matter, the acquired funds will have been invested in other, perhaps more legitimate activities. The national landscape will be dotted with fallen turbine towers and cracked, inert solar panels but their interests will have been divested among the unwary.

A similar fate is likely for the GAI mania that's gripping the technocrats. Basically an immense filing system with the ability to search itself, there's some doubt as to how or if its owners will be able to successfully monetize it after an incredible investment of other people's money. The frauds of Elizabeth Holmes, Charlie Javice and Sam Bankman-Freid are Little League stuff compared to Sam Altman and his GAI dream.   

Friday, July 12, 2024

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Advertising

If you're a normal American you've probably never heard of the World Federation of Advertisers. This organization and its GARM subsidiary represent 150 of the world's largest corporations. An article in the on-line New York Post described the efforts of GARM in censoring on-line media advertising and the article itself was scrubbed off the web in short order but has since been replaced. The article included this link to a US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee report on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, the WFA's censorship mechanism, operated by Rob Rakowitz.

While it's disturbing that corporations like Walmart, NBC Universal, Microsoft, General Mills, Nestle and many others are subsidizing the censoring of on-line media, an even creepier operation is the control of production and implementation of advertising itself by the WFA. 

You may have wondered how, quickly after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020, advertising in all forms began to include increased numbers of minorities, mostly blacks, and regular examples of mixed white and black marriages, gatherings and families. To mention this trend would be to invite conspiracy theory accusations and worse. 

 I thought a loving home was all we needed to raise a biracial child ...

today's parent.com 

 One explanation by an on-line source is the usual commercial effort to increase profits, not by selling a better product at a lower price but through creating empathy with a large share of the target market. This makes sense as far as it goes but hasn't been a decision made by these individual advertisers. Instead it's a direction from the WFA.

Diversity, equity and inclusion is a mantra of the WFA.

“Brand owners have a two-fold opportunity to promote a positive and progressive DEI agenda through the content they produce: first, by making sure that what happens in front of the camera is reflective of the diversity of people their brands serve, and secondly, by championing a diverse and inclusive culture on set, where everyone can feel like they belong. This new production guide is for those just starting their DEI journey or the seasoned brand marketers seeking to identify proven ways to leave a legacy of positive societal and business impact,” said Stephan Loerke, CEO, WFA.

Legally, like it or not, the obligation of corporate management is to maximize the returns of the business. A legacy of positive societal impact, if such a thing can even occur in a consumer society where sales of unhealthy food and junk machinery is rife, at the expense of profits, won't be accepted by shareholders. 

Another organization, the Advertising Producers Association,  is involved from the production end.

"This report is important because while there have been real efforts to improve diversity and inclusion across the production and advertising sector, measurement has been a week spot and needs to be improved. Production companies are committed to playing their part and want to work with advertisers and agencies who genuinely share that commitment- and who don’t just add contractual requirements to look like they are- but want to put the work in with us," said Steve Davies, Chief Executive at Advertising Producers Association.

What we're getting at here is that the conscious hypercapitalist effort to increase consumption isn't the only goal of American business now. Apparently, it's also the use of visual and verbal stimuli to psychologically change the culture. There are probably a lot of aspects of modern culture that could stand some modification but should that role be one for the marketing and advertising industry? Once upon a time people relied on religion and tradition to order their lives. Will Unilever, Lego and P&G do a better job? 

 

Thursday, July 11, 2024

EU Investigating Chinese Wind Turbine Subsidies

 

The EU is upset that Chinese firms are supplying the equipment necessary for the transition to Net Zero at prices lower than their own manufacturers, presumably through state subsidies. Once again we're forced to admit that the battle against hydrocarbon fueled climate change is actually a financial boondoggle. 

If climate change were the existential threat it's made out to be the Germans would be overjoyed that the Chinese were making it cheaper for the Germans to do their share to save the world. But no. The conversion from gas and oil to wind and solar is all about the money. 

The development and production of new wind turbines and solar panels is a relatively new business in terms of government subsidies. Companies all over the world are being formed to take advantage of the problem and existing companies are adding divisions devoted to alternative forms of energy. This would seem to mean that all things considered employment in the EU shouldn't be affected by imports of the equipment since few are being employed to make it.   EU companies hoping to jump on the new energy bandwagon are in a different situation. They need to sell their products at a significantly higher price to assure their existence and the general population must accept paying the bill. The cost per ton of CO2 elimination is apparently of no importance. Global warming turns out to also be a publicly financed jobs project, perhaps to put thousands of immigrants to work. 

Another aspect of the situation is the supposed contrast between the authoritarian East and the democratic West. During the Cold War the big argument about the Soviets was that their 5 Year Plans couldn't succeed because central planning ignored market realities and was divorced from prices. The Russian experience thus indicates a similar fate for other authoritarians, especially the Chinese, who have managed to lift the income and well-being of their population over a distance and time unrivaled in world history. The governments of the West are less worried about the economic success of the Chinese than the possibility that they might acquire more credibility among the "non-aligned" nations.

Of course the West's fixation on Net Zero generally uses the year 2050 as a target date. There could hardly be a more striking example of central planning.

In fact, the trillions of imaginary Euros and renmimbi required to reach the goals of the climate anxious will bankrupt the EU no matter who supplies the wind turbines and solar panels.  

Friday, July 5, 2024

An Environmental Conundrum

Somebody noticed years ago that many barred owls, (Strix varia), had moved from their original range in the eastern US to the old growth forests of the west. They began to displace the native spotted owls,    (Strix occidentalis), a species whose continued existence has worried people so much that their preservation has had a huge negative impact on the logging industry.

 Northern Spotted Owls Bullied Onto California's Threatened Species List ...

 audubon.org

A northern spotted owl

 Barred Owl — Eastside Audubon Society

eastsideaudubon.org 

A barred owl

Now, instead of calk-booted loggers waving snarling chain saws around, close cousins of the spotted owls are putting their future in jeopardy. A $5 million program to use trained hunters to kill with shotguns 3600 barred owls has received a permit for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. If successful, as it is sure to be, the plan is to dispatch as many as half a million barred owls to maintain the population of its relatives.   

This is another example, if any were needed, of the environmental movement's never ending attempts to maintain stasis in the natural world. Nothing should ever change on planet earth. The same animals should inhabit the same range in the same numbers in perpetuity.

In the upper Mississippi  watershed there's a concerted effort to prevent the Asian carp, an invasive specie, from moving upriver and displacing the native catfish, walleyes, pike,suckers, etc. No one seems to realize that all fish in the upper Mississippi are invasive species. Just a few thousand years ago the entire area was covered with a mile high continental glacier. No fish at all lived there for millennia until climate change melted the ice and enabled fish to move in from somewhere else. 

Isn't it the case that species competition for survival is a key element in Darwinian evolution?     

Thursday, July 4, 2024

No More Child Brides In Sierra Leone

Legislation has recently become law in Sierra Leone forbidding the marriage of girls under the age of 18, a move that follows that of a number of other African countries.

Estimates are that millions of post-pubescent females are brides all over the African continent. Arresting this phenomenon isn't related to biology but instead means that a substantial number of Africans are adopting the culture and mores of the West, where marriage of girls is universally banned.

 

 Former Child Brides Win Case in Court: Zimbabwe Bans Child Marriage ...goodnewsnetwork.org

This isn't as cut-and-dried of an issue as it might appear. Like any other age-determined limit, the age of eighteen is entirely arbitrary and has no relationship to the physical, emotional or intellectual state of any one individual. There are no doubt 22 year-old females that aren't really ready for wedded bliss.

Additionally, child brides are generally the result of marriages arranged by their parents, sometimes of both parties, for a number of different reasons. Wouldn't it be more sensible to prohibit arranged marriages, which actually occur all over the world?

Ultimately, forbidding "child" marriages means an abrogation of freedom, the elimination of an individual choice. Freedom of choice, of a course of action that doesn't affect in any way the freedom of others, is what true freedom is all about.

On the other hand, the personal choice of a geriatric to, for instance, pilot a commercial jet aircraft, might have serious effects on uninvolved strangers, so there are  upward age limits in some circumstances. But not in politics, where the aged have the fate of future millions subject to their diminished intellect and judgement.