Fifty Years is a venture capital company that specializes in funding startup companies that promote a sustainable future. Their website has a long list of startups that they support. We can expect to see some of these companies become successful in the future.
2020-12-06 Structurally Integrated Batteries
Also left a comment on JHAT Dec 6.
Structural batteries and also integration with motors is a fascinating subject. But it suffers from the same problems that the integrated circuits suffered from over the last several decades. Before the integrated circuits could be highly integrated, the optimal structure had to be determined. Things like 8, 16, 32, 64 bit word sizes had to be determined. The technologies behind memory, cache, registers and other specialized architectures had to be optimized.
The same situation affects an integrated structural power system. Optimum shapes and sizes of fuselage and wings in an airplane have to be determined. And for airplanes the skin has to be conductive to be lightning-proof. Another major hurdle is how to make the structural batteries changeable so they can be replaced when they are worn out. If the structural batteries are like other highly integrated systems they could take decades to develop. Meanwhile climate change is relentlessly making the planet worse, so it looks like we humans will have to sacrifice technology for our survival as we battle flooding and desertification. It’s not a serene future.
2020-12-05 The Bond Fire In Silverado Canyon – The Irony
This Bond fire is in the canyons, down the road from where I live. This was really ironic. In the years past the utilities, mainly PG&E, got in trouble for causing big fires. PG&E had to go bankrupt to mitigate the lawsuits because of the fires. So the utilities came up with PSPS — public safety power shutoffs. When it gets very windy they will shut off electricity in areas of high fire danger.
So the above Bond Fire was in an area where they shut off power. One homeowner started up a generator to keep power to his home. Later, apparently the generator started this Bond fire and burned up the home and over 7000 acres. So it’s ironic that the very thing that was supposed to prevent wildfires ended up causing a huge wildfire. Now instead of a utility, the victims would have to sue the homeowner. And it’s doubtful the suit would result in any monetary benefit. Crazy.
2020-12-04 High Voltage B Battery Using LR44 – AG13
I thought about a way to solve the expensive oddball battery problem that is so often found in old electronics like portable radios. The B battery voltages of old portable tube radios are 45 V, 67.5 V and 90 V. The number of 1.5 VDC cells in each of these is 2/3 of the number of volts. 45 V is 30 cells, 67.5 V is 45 cells and 90 V is 60 cells.
Different sized cells have different current capacity ratings. A typical alkaline AAA cell is rated for 800 mAh. The button cells have lower ratings. The LR44 AKA AG13 button cell is rated for approximately 100 mAh.
The LR44 cell is 5.4 mm or 0.213 inch high (according IEC 60086-3). The cells can be stacked to get any voltage in increments of 1.5 VDC.
I can buy 100 LR44 cells on eBay for less than $10.00, name brand cells are more expensive. I can stack them easily – I’ve used this method with AA and AAA cells and it works okay.
I stacked the cells, end-to-end with them all pointing positive to the same direction. I cut a piece of paper to the same width as the length of the cells. Then I put the cells on the edge of the paper and rolled them up in a roll. I put a few rubber bands around the paper to hold it tight and to not unroll. I later put clear adhesive tape once I was satisfied.
I would break up the cells into two equal stacks and put them side-by-side so the plus and minus were next to each other on the same end. The problem with making a 22.5 V stack is that it’s an odd number of cells – a 7 cell and an 8 cell stack. So it makes sense to add one cell and make both 8 for a total of 24 V.
2020-12-04 Benghazi, Iran And Other Blame-HRC-For-Its
Nancy Burian
I don’t think you know the whole story about the killings in Benghazi and other US embassies before that. But you’re too closed-minded to find out the truth and get rid of your hatred for HRC.
You certainly don’t know about the “Iran deal” because that $400-some million was Iran’s money that the US had seized, and we were giving it back to its rightful owner. The other points you brought up were also not as you described. You’ve been indoctrinated into believing half-truths and outright lies.
You seem to be the type who is critical of educated people (maybe you’re jealous). Obama wrote books because he had stories to tell, like on page 206 he says outright “I’m a Christian,” and thus blowing up the claim that he’s a Muslim.
You really need to be better informed.
Brenda Hughes
What? Accusing the Dems of lying? That’s the pot calling the kettle black!
No one will believe you if you don’t give us an example. Please give us an example.
I have read so many “he said – she said” claims made by both Dems and GOPers. This started bigtime on FB before Trump was elected. I started fact-finding to see if the claims were true or not. I tried to be fair and keep an open mind. But after over a hundred fact-finds, I generally (but not always) found true claims from Dems, but seldom found claims from the GOPers true.
If you’re afraid you might discover the truth and have to change your mind, we can sympathize with that. If you go on making false claims, that’s morally wrong.
Nancy Burian
I think you’re living in the past. You need to deal with the present. HRC has been gone for 4 years. Obamba [sic] has been gone for 4 years. You need to deal with the wounds and scars that government has after Trump has slashed away at the bureaucrats and career government officials. They run the government day-to-day, and Trump has tried his damnedest to ruin the bureaucracy. You have been spoonfed lies the past four years saying he’s “draining the swamp” and the Deep State, when in reality he has turned the officials into yes men who have to kiss his a$$ or get fired. The mess Trump has made may take decades to undo and you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem because you supported him.
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“I’ve never heard such a disconnect with reality in my life. Congratulations, Mr. Thinks-He-Knows-It-All, from exiting from the cave you’ve been in for the last four years; you’ve got a lot to catch up on. I hope you find your moral compass while you’re at it. Good luck!”
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2020-12-03 Purdue Pharma Dept of Justice Case
The Purdue Pharma Co. will have to have to become a PBC (public benefit company) as part of its settlement over the federal opioid lawsuit. There are billion dollar fines too.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/opioid-manufacturer-purdue-pharma-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-kickback-conspiracies
2020-12-02 Facts – Maternal Mortality
From PBS Newshour Dec 4, @50 minute time point:
David Attenborough interview and his new book A Life On Our Planet
The equivalent of a football field of rainforest was lost every six seconds in 2019.
<< Women in the US are more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than anywhere else in the Developed World, according to the Commonwealth Fund. >>
– Judy Woodruff, PBS Newshour
2020-12-01 LTA Blimp Hangars 1945
I lived up in Panorama Heights for 6 months, and my high school friends owned the house up there that was one of, if not the first house built upon the hill. It was built long after 1945, IIRC 1956. In the evening we could sit in their living room and look out the window and see the two red beacon lights slowly flashing on the tops of the two blimp hangars. The house in the foreground of this photo leads me to believe that the photo was taken in the mid to late ’50s because I don’t think there were houses up there until that time.
<< Looking south from Panorama Heights toward a vast sea of orange groves when the orange was “King” in Orange County. The two large buildings on the horizon are the Santa Ana U.S. Navy Lighter-than-air base hangers, home of the wartime “Blimp” Coast Patrol, 1945. >>
Sherman Library
2020-11-30 All 6 States Have Certified Vote Counts – Trump Has Lost
Today all 6 states where the votes were contested have now certified their vote counts. After a recount in Wisconsin Joe Biden’s lead gained 87 votes. Trump would’ve been better off if he hadn’t asked for a recount. Trump is still denying that the vote counts are accurate: he’s still tweeting that there was voter fraud in those states. He refuses to concede. And the courts keep dismissing his lawsuits as having no substantive proof.
But at least Biden has access to the government to prepare for the changeover on Jan. 20. Biden has chosen several women as heads of various cabinet departments. And many of the women are of color.
Update Dec 2 – NBC cut Trump off when he made false statements about election fraud. It is something that should have been done from the moment he started campaigning and especially when he took office. Every time he made a false claim he should have been censored. From what I have seen in the past month (since the election) is the mainstream media have become bolder now that they have known that Trump is a lame duck president. What really bothers me is that so many people were fooled into supporting him. It’s as if the US was brainwashed into the belief that Trump was good for the country.
Update Dec 4 – Trump went and gave a 46 minute speech again insisting without proof that there was massive voter fraud. Several Republicans have said that he should stop, as more of the lawsuits that Giuliani and his lawyers filed have been dismissed by the courts as unsubstantiated. I think it’s more than 38 so far.
The scars and wounds that Trump’s 4 years have left on the US government will be seen and felt for long after the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Trump has left most departments in a shambles with ‘acting’ department heads who were never nominated and confirmed. Trump wanted ‘yes men’ who were afraid that if they were out of line, Trump would fire them — like he did with many, many of his staff. He said they were Obama boys, or part of the Deep State, among many other bigoted excuses.
Update Dec 5 – They said on the news that California finally certified the election results and gave all of its 55 electoral votes to Biden. This puts Biden’s electoral vote count at 279, over the 270 votes he needed to win the election. The fool we have in the White House still refuses to concede and is still trying to fight the results in court. He is going to appeal to the Supreme court of one state, I’m not sure which one. But it’s a foregone conclusion that the results will be the same as all the previous lawsuits he has filed: the court will dismiss it as baseless. Meanwhile the news said that he has collected over $200 million in campaign donations that he can spend on more fiascos.
2020-11-28 Studies Of Reliability Of Fact Checking By Laypersons
Two studies of whether or not laypersons can be relied on in large numbers to fact check news sites. They singled out Facebook as being one of the worst for fake news. Gee, I wonder why? 🤗😂 It says Republicans distrust mainstream news sources – no surprise there; they go out of their way to label mainstream news as Fake News.
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/7/2521
Quote from Abstract
>> Reducing the spread of misinformation, especially on social media, is a major challenge. We investigate one potential approach: having social media platform algorithms preferentially display content from news sources that users rate as trustworthy. To do so, we ask whether crowdsourced trust ratings can effectively differentiate more versus less reliable sources. We ran two preregistered experiments (n = 1,010 from Mechanical Turk and n = 970 from Lucid) where individuals rated familiarity with, and trust in, 60 news sources from three categories: (i) mainstream media outlets, (ii) hyperpartisan websites, and (iii) websites that produce blatantly false content (“fake news”). Despite substantial partisan differences, we find that laypeople across the political spectrum rated mainstream sources as far more trustworthy than either hyperpartisan or fake news sources. Although this difference was larger for Democrats than Republicans—mostly due to distrust of mainstream sources by Republicans—every mainstream source (with one exception) was rated as more trustworthy than every hyperpartisan or fake news source across both studies when equally weighting ratings of Democrats and Republicans. Furthermore, politically balanced layperson ratings were strongly correlated (r = 0.90) with ratings provided by professional fact-checkers. We also found that, particularly among liberals, individuals higher in cognitive reflection were better able to discern between low- and high-quality sources. <<
