The Future of Transportation

These two TED talks crossed my desk this morning:

The Contradictions of Battery Operated Vehicles   Good, as far as it goes.  Now expand the box to include the fossil fuel inputs/CO2 outputs needed to make your solar panels, your wind turbines, etc.  Even hybrid doesn't look so good now, does it?

The Amazing Way Bicycles Change You   Yes, and in this era of $5 per gallon gas they'll change your wallet too.

Bah.  Given recent trends in petroleum production, either we get serious about nuclear power, right damn now, or we get serious about a transportation future based around bicycles and oxcarts.  The first one, I'm good with for light-duty get-around-town.  It's the second one for heavy-haul that could be a problem.

On the plus side, if an ox-herder looks down at his cell phone, you're not as likely to get run-ass over.

Three Songs for This Week

I woke up Monday with a fever, flipped on the radio and heard:

Thirty-plus years after the nukes were taken off alert, the morons in charge have put them back on.  Over a border war to which we have no connection, half a world away.  No words to express my disgust.  So let's move on to:

Yep, that's more like it.  At least for some limited areas.  Nah, not really.  You know how these things tend to get out of hand.  Time for something more direct:

Yeah, wrap it up, I'll take that one.  Don't have an axe.  Will a chainsaw do?

Can't even smell my damn coffee, and I brew it strong, dark, and pungent.  Next time some idiot says "Let's do some GOF work on coronaviruses, it'll be cool," remember, life finds a way.

Don't get too near, a little snappish today.

One Note on the Reporting of Science

Sabine Hossenfelder has some relevant comments.  Yeah, this malreporting makes me grind my teeth too.

Two Notes on the Practice of Science

As usual, over at SMBC:

The plant-your-stakes paper.  It's even easier if it's a conference talk with a published abstract.

On selection pressure.  It helps to be long-lived.

They're only funny because they're at least somewhat true.  Be sure to mouse-over for another joke, and hit the big red button for one more gag.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Peter Zeihan's latest, The End of the World is Just the Beginning.  See link for the author's video summary.

No content to add so far beyond that, since I've barely begun the book.  Be sure to buy through your local bookstore.

Webb First Images, July 12th

The Webb IR space telescope's first publicly released images will drop on July 12th.    LINK

Radios, Hurricanes, and Other Related Hassles

New article up at The SWLing Post today, featuring some *ahem* knowledgable local input on the matter.

Speaking of which... oh, look.  The fun and adventure never ceases around this place.

Will be dialing it in.

X-Raydio on the radio, at 6pm EST this Sunday evening, 9395 kHz.

If this vaguely rings a bell, here's a tie-in blog post from about six years ago that's worth a revisit.

Post-Listen Note: Total bust.  Blasts of RFI in my neighborhood made listening futile.  I could hear the signal down in the noise, but couldn't at the moment relocate for an hour, so in the end I just gave up.

Ugh.

Already.