Edition #1155

I am thinking that I might take next week off. Not a definitive plan, but lots of family time coming up, and I do not want to miss any of it…although after a few days of it, I may want to miss some of it. So, if I don’t join you next week, I will be back the following one. And if I do join you, well, that kind of speaks for itself.

It is Friday today. And a wonderful weekend ahead…right? At the end of the day, it is really up to you.

“The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!, and there is nothing Iran can do about it…Praise be to Allah!” President Donald J. Trump on his money-losing proposition social media platform, again misstated the realities on the ground. I am sure that his sycophants will merely believe him and ignore all countervailing evidence, but you and I know that, as is true of most of what comes out of his mouth, this is just more bullshit. Iran has total control over the strait, and although only about twenty percent of the normal traffic is getting through, the vast majority of that is abiding by Iran’s demand to hug its shoreline and ask for permission. Apparently Trump doesn’t even have total control over his own mind.

I am pretty sure I wrote about this a few years back, but too lazy to actually look. A company called Form Energy has developed a battery based on the ability to use energy to create rust, and then to create electricity by having that rust turn back to whatever rust was before. Ok, you want more. From this article…”Form’s batteries use iron, water, and air, and operate on a principle it calls ‘reversable rusting.’ The battery takes in oxygen and converts iron to rust. It then reverses the process, turning the rust back into iron and breathing out oxygen to charge and discharge the battery.” If you want more, I ain’t got it. But the true advantage of this battery system is its ability to deliver energy as a backup for one hundred hours. Most battery backup systems cannot offer that kind of performance, relying on only short instances of power outages. And at one hundred hours, that is over four days of performance (Brad, check my math, please). The article only talks about massive systems designed for industrial uses, but I have inquired about smaller systems that could be used for smaller installations. I promise to keep you informed…unless I forget.

Just thought that this quote would not wait until I am back, whenever that will be. So here goes…

“If you endlessly mock the eminently mockable idea of defunding the police but shouted that we should defund the FBI solely because it executed a lawful and justified raid on Mar-a-Lago; if you decry the “weaponization” of the justice system under Biden but yawn at the deliberate criminal prosecution and persecution of Trump’s enemies and accidental pawns in his narrative; if you rail against the “cancel culture” of your enemies but cheer the same practice among your friends; if you wax sanctimonious about the antisemitism of the left but insist upon a “big tent” for the antisemites on the right; if you deplore the cronyism and corporatism you call “socialism” when deployed by Democrats but celebrate the same thing when championed by Republicans; if you heap scorn on left-wing identity politics but celebrate talk of “Heritage Americans” and other “real Americans”; if you spoke of the “Biden crime family” in whispered earnestness but write off Trump’s corruption as simply his nature … you get the point.” From Jonah Goldberg on the basic problem with our political discourse these days. And this is not meant to discredit the argument that one side or the other is worse on this issue or that, but we are all so deep into our tribes these days that we cannot help but act like the flawed species we are. We have no interest anymore in outgrowing the limitations that have been instilled in us over the past million years of evolution. The values of the Enlightenment seemed to set us on that path, but too many have, in recent years, subverted those values to their own twisted agendas as we fall back on the tribalism that ruled us over the course of humanity. Oh well.

A Japanese fishing lure is setting the bass fishing world on fire. Bass fishing lures have usually looked like the usual fare that the bass is looking to ingest. Insects, small fish, or whatever…Obviously, I am not a fisherman. But somehow this lure that looks like a bacterium, or a creature from another planet, or some mold, is attractive to the bass. They cannot stay away, apparently. I have nothing more to say about this, but it seemed perfect for my silly publication.

A bit ago, I wrote about how, in light of the experience that Ukraine and Russia have had over the past four years, it was a bit insane for the US to engage in building up a large stockpile of drones to be used in future battles. The brilliance of Ukraine’s efforts has been to introduce a very hands-on, front-line ability to innovate on the fly, no pun intended…unless an intended pun gets me more street cred. Pulling drones off the shelf that were state-of-the-art a few years ago, or even a few months ago, just won’t do it anymore. And that point was made in a recent military exercise between US and Ukrainian forces in Germany. Let’s just say that in no time the Ukrainians decimated the US forces who had no ability to counter the more experienced tactics. The Ukrainians had the same results in wargames with other NATO countries. And the lesson that should have been learned here was not to learn the specific tactics or strategies that are currently being used. No. The lesson is that the large weapon systems of the past that changed slowly between conflicts are incredibly vulnerable on today’s battlefield. Those who will dominate in the future are those who can modify their systems in real time, innovate on a weekly, and maybe even a daily basis, and whose troops can use those innovative skills rather than the vision that the likes of Pete Hegseth have of the lethal warrior. On today’s field of combat, Pete’s guys, doing one hundred pushups and fifty pullups, will be killed by a hundred drones before Pete can say “drop and give me…BLAM!!”

…from growing up. That was my first thought upon reading this article about how the University of Michigan was abandoning grades for Freshmen students. It seems that the pressure of having to actually perform in college was too much for those who qualified to be admitted to this otherwise fairly prestigious institution. And sure, going off to college when you are eighteen or nineteen, your first time totally away from home (assuming you moved away from home), can be scary. Having to manage your time, take care of yourself, create and manage new relationships and friend groups, and navigate the demands of a college education system can be daunting. But isn’t that what going to college is supposed to be about? The process should be a learning one, getting to know yourself and how to become an adult. But there seem to be a few problems here. First is the fact that many of us have not raised our kids to be prepared to accept the challenges of being on one’s own. As a generation, we have been too involved. Whether we have been helicopter parents or the snowplow kind, we have crippled our kids by not allowing them to overcome their own challenges on their own. We have not allowed them to fail and discover that they can learn from that experience and pick themselves up…on their own. And our educational system has failed them in the fact that a significant segment of freshmen enter college needing remedial assistance to be able to handle the work. That is an entirely different discussion, one that maybe we will have, but not now. The bottom line is that the more we coddle our cute little kids who have yet to learn to be adults, the longer our kids will need coddling to keep them from avoiding anything in life that may be uncomfortable or a challenge. In other words, how long do we protect them from life?

Man, I hope that someone as trustworthy as Karoline Leavitt is on the job by the time I get back. A truly gifted woman, whose entertainment value is second to none. Stay healthy and be good to each other.

Me.