What Is True? And What Is False? A Full Time Job On The Internet.

Me, "This is becoming a serious issue. Where do we chose to get our news? Do we believe national papers that are supposed to check and recheck their facts before running a story? Do we believe Cable TV News with their multiple talking heads that we are supposed to believe are telling us the truth when they blew who would win the presidential election and left a lot of people angry, upset and confused? 

Where can you turn to and get accurate news? 

The problem is that anyone can write what ever they want and you have to hope they are telling the truth or at least are conveying it in the most honest way possible. I try my best to re-post and discuss important issues, but the fact remains that there was really one organization that was at fault here and two levels of an organization that failed: The energy company was or was not called by the Washington Post reporter (This is how tricky news can be) trying to find out what was going on and the Washington Post editors should have held off on publishing this news until it had corroboration on what had occurred. This being the case my discussion, " A Fire Martial is needed in U.S. Cyber-Command for the private industry (Energy, Commerce,) that have computer systems that could be hacked." still holds merit because Cyber Command needs a way of reaching out to companies and telling them the areas that they need to fix so they have less of a threat from hackers. 
The fact that the Washington Post story was false does not negate the fact that our infrastructure needs constant monitoring and up keeping to keep hackers out."

From Article, "Russia Hysteria Infects WashPost Again: False Story About Hacking U.S. Electric Grid"

There was no “penetration of the U.S. electricity grid.” The truth was undramatic and banal. Burlington Electric, after receiving a Homeland Security notice sent to all U.S. utility companies about the malware code found in the DNC system, searched all its computers and found the code in a single laptop that was not connected to the electric grid.

Apparently, the Post did not even bother to contact the company before running its wildly sensationalistic claims, so Burlington Electric had to issue its own statement to the Burlington Free Press, which debunked the Post’s central claim (emphasis in original): “We detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop NOT connected to our organization’s grid systems.”

So the key scary claim of the Post story — that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid — was false. All the alarmist tough-guy statements issued by political officials who believed the Post’s claim were based on fiction.

Can't California Find A Way To Use Spill Way Water, During Seasonal Flooding, To Alleviate Drought?

Me, "What is not addressed here is all the fall and spring runoff of the mountains around California that run into huge storm drains that carry it into the ocean. You may have seen them in the movies. They are shown in the Terminator movies and in some drag racing movies. They carry flash flood warnings to residences to keep kids out of them because it could be a clear day and yet a huge deluge of water can come flowing down. My proposal is why can't this water be collected and cleaned to be reused as drinking water? Some people will say that it is too costly, others will say that it happens so irregularly that its not worth the money spent on an idea like this. But, my thinking is, if these spillways are so huge and that much water comes flowing down from the mountains, there should be ways to store it, filter it, and use it. Water is water, no?"  

From, "High Demand, Low Supply: Colorado River Water Crisis Hits Across The West"

(The Colorado River is like a giant bank account for seven different states. Now it's running short.

For decades, the river has fed growing cities from Denver to Los Angeles. A lot of the produce in supermarkets across the country was grown with Colorado River water. But with climate change, and severe drought, the river is reaching a crisis point, and communities at each end of it are reacting very differently.

The problem is that Colorado's population will nearly double by 2050. Future residents will need more water. Denver Water CEO Jim Lochhead says more storage is part of the solution. It's also an insurance policy against future drought.

"From Denver Water's perspective, if we can't provide clean, reliable, sustainable water 100 years from now to our customers, we're not doing our job," Lochhead says.

Demand for Colorado River water is already stretched thin. So it may sound crazy that places like Colorado and Wyoming want to develop more water projects. Legally, that's something they are entitled to do.

Wyoming is studying whether to store more water from a Colorado River tributary. "We feel we have some room to grow, but we understand that growth comes with risk," says Pat Tyrrell, who oversees Wyoming's water rights.

Risk because in 10 or 20 years there may not be enough water to fill up expanded reservoirs. A 16-year drought has dramatically decreased water supply even as demand keeps growing. And climate change could make this picture worse.)

A Fire Martial is needed in U.S. Cyber-Command for the private industry (Energy, Commerce,) that have computer systems that could be hacked.

Me, "It's obvious that any computer connected to the internet is a a security issue when it comes to the energy grid of any country. It's also obvious that there will be an increased demand for automated computer security programs and computer programmers to defend important parts of the U.S. economy from computer hackers. The field of computer defense is obviously taken seriously by the U.S. Government with its secret Cyber-Command and yet some how even the Department of Defense can get hacked.
 I have full confidence that out government is doing the best it can; has the best computer Tech-individuals, trying there best to keep the government computer networks secure, But, when it comes to energy systems or non-governmental businesses that are important to the running of our economy it is left to private companies to employ the right experts to help fend off these attacks. This is worrisome because to defend against these demands, costs money, that they may not have or want to spend.
 I am surprised that Cyber-Command does not have its own field department that can go to private companies important to our nations operation and advise them on the best way to secure their systems. You could say this department would be like a Fire Martial coming into a business, reviewing that the fire codes are up to date, and what needs improvement. Kind of like the government did with stress testing of big banks to make sure they would not fail. Unless the government steps in, and finds a way of informing these businesses of their risks, our nation will always be at risk of being one key stroke away from failure."



From, "Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, officials say"

(A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials.

While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a security matter, the penetration of the nation’s electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability. Officials in government and the utility industry regularly monitor the grid because it is highly computerized and any disruptions can have disastrous implications for the country’s medical and emergency services.

American officials, including one senior administration official, said they are not yet sure what the intentions of the Russians might have been. The incursion may have been designed to disrupt the utility’s operations or as a test to see whether they could penetrate a portion of the grid.)

Trump Loves NASA. So where does NASA and U.S. Space policy go from here?

Me, "Basically, Trump says he supports NASA. It should focus on deep space activities. Could mean continues support for Human manned Mars and or Moon missions. Maybe, even Asteroid missions. Less focus on Earth satellite science missions, to be picked up by other U.S. agencies, who would launch their satellites on commercial rockets, leaving NASA out of the equation totally. (Why should NASA waste its own money when another U.S. government organization can pick up the check?) New deep space probes missions to the other planets, including advanced Space Telescopes, already being built, and, a build up of an experimental and eventual full fledged Space Missile Defense Program. I am guessing about a lot of this stuff so just use it as a kind of food for thought."

From article, "China: We will be on Mars by 2020"

(During his campaign, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump professed his love for NASA and that "space is terrific." His senior advisors have advocated a "new vision" for the U.S. space program.

"NASA should be focused primarily on deep space activities rather than Earth-centric work that is better handled by other agencies," wrote Robert Walker and Peter Navarro in October.

"While the American government's space program has suffered from under-investment, both China and Russia continue to move briskly forward with military-focused initiatives," they added. "Each continues to develop weapons explicitly designed... to 'deny, degrade, deceive, disrupt, or destroy' America's eyes and ears in space.")

OPEC may have Helped U.S. Shale Oil Production

Me, "With OPEC's deal to reduce Oil exporting to prop up the price of a barrel of oil they have inadvertently helped U.S. Shale Oil drillers, (Frackers). I have written about this previously. With the conclusion being that even as OPEC tries to save itself by increasing the price of Oil, U.S. production may surge. Why is this important? Any increase in Oil production here in the U.S. helps increase energy jobs and can led to lower prices at the U.S. pump if not around the world as OPEC's cut is balanced out. The problem becomes what will OPEC do about this? They tried to drive U.S. Oil Frackers out of business by lowering the cost of oil. With that not working, Frackers just stopped drilling and waited OPEC out,  more curtailing of production may be hotly debated at future OPEC meetings. Since most of the OPEC countries did not want to cut production, the future of oil price is in question. Whatever happens, oil production will continue to be a speculators market."

From article, "Shale Specter Haunts OPEC’s Feast as Oil Seen Rallying Into 2017"

“OPEC is aiming for a much-needed lift to the oil price, given the stretched fiscal balance sheets of every producing nation,” said Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup. “The question really should be what happens afterwards -- how fast is U.S. shale going to come back?”

At 8.8 million barrels a day, the U.S. is already pumping almost as much crude as two years ago, with just a third of the rigs it operated at the peak, data from Baker Hughes Inc. and the Energy Information Administration show. Since May, drillers have added about 200 rigs, taking advantage of rising prices as talk of an OPEC supply cut circulated.

After three years of turmoil, there are already signs of a rebirth in America’s shale fields as prices have risen and stabilized at around $50. If they jump by another $10, shale output that’s now at 4.5 million barrels a day could quickly rise by 500,000 barrels, Citigroup’s Morse wrote in a Dec. 22 research note.

A bigger boost in prices could mean a million-barrel shale surge from the U.S., Macquarie Research analysts Vikas Dwivedi and Walt Chancellor noted in a Dec. 12 report to clients. That would all but obliterate the cuts OPEC agreed to in November.

A Fairer Tax Plan?

Me, "While I am a little concerned about the fact that most of the Tax Overhaul would benefit the wealthiest taxpayer, the best part of the Republican Tax Overhaul is how corporations would be taxed on where they produced and sold an item. It would encourage exporting of goods because there would be no taxes levied on it. But would put a tax on imports and on goods produced here. Right now, the tax code encourages jobs and corporations to be located outside of the U.S.. With this new tax code, businesses would be encouraged to keep production in the U.S. (and keep jobs here) making up for taxes on it with no tax on exports (which would increase export production)." 

From article, "Republicans have a massive plan to overhaul the tax code — here's how it would work"

(This is one of the most controversial parts of the House Republicans' tax plan. It is also key to making it work.

Under current law, the United States taxes the profits of U.S.-based companies, even if the money is made overseas. However, taxes on foreign income are deferred until a company either reinvests the profits in the U.S. or distributes them to shareholders.

Critics say the system encourages U.S.-based corporations to invest profits overseas or, more dramatically, to shift operations and jobs abroad to avoid U.S. taxes.

House Republicans want to scrap America's worldwide tax system and replace it with a tax that is based on where a firm's products are consumed, rather than where they are produced.

Under the system, American companies that produce and sell their products in the U.S. would pay the new 20 percent corporate tax rate on profits from these sales. However, if a company exports a product abroad, the profits from that sale would not be taxed by the U.S.

There's more: Foreign companies that import goods to the U.S. would have to pay the tax, increasing the cost of imports.

Exporters love the idea. But importers, including big retailers and consumer electronics firms, say it could lead to steep price increases on consumer goods. The lobbying has already begun.)

That is the way Netanyahu likes it

Me, "I don't know if I am allowed to have an opinion on Israel, being an American Jew, but here goes. The problem with Israel is two fold. You have a world class politician like Prime Minister Netanyahu who knows how to play both sides, Israel and how it deals with Palestinians, and Israel and how it deals with settlements in the West Bank. 

The facts are that Israel should not build settlements in the West Bank. It is not their land to do with as it pleases. This is shown time and again every time settlements are abandoned. They are bulldozes down into rubble, God forbid the Palestinians should acquire an abandoned settlement and have a decent place to live and the Israeli thinking is, we built it, we are abandoning it, so we will destroy it. Far better to destroy it then to let it to fall into Palestinian hands.

How many times should the Palestinians be devalued? It is the Palestinians who ran away during one of Israel's numerous wars with its Arab neighbors and are being refused the right to return to their lands. Why? Because millions want to return and Israel is scared there will be a new nation next to it with a huge army. Israel wants a buffer between the Arabs, and since it lost a lot of lives acquiring the West Bank, does not just want to get rid of it.

Then there is the other side of things. There is Netanyahu the politician. He is an excellent politician. He knows exactly how to play with the Israeli people's minds and world leaders. He tells one party, he is a strong leader, and would never give back the West Bank by favoring settlements, while telling world leaders he wants a two state solution. So, for him to react negatively to the U.N. Resolution this week is just another political move by Netanyahu to show the Israeli people he is a strong leader and the world leaders that they have deceived him and the Israeli people.

The thing is that Netanyahu knows that if he starts negotiations with the Palestinians it will be seen as a source of weakness so he does nothing hiding behind the fact he wants no preconditions during negotiations. So years go by, everybody gets a little older and the status quo stays the same. That is the way Netanyahu likes it."

From article, "Israelis Wonder How Long Netanyahu Can Back Settlements and Two-State Solution"

(For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, a conservative, has played a double act, competing domestically with his right-wing rivals in backing the settlement project all over the occupied West Bank while professing support for a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

Now, with the stinging United Nations Security Council resolution on Friday condemning Israeli settlement construction as lacking any legal validity, Israeli politicians and analysts on the right, on the left and in the political center say Mr. Netanyahu’s game may soon be up.)

Battery technology has been progressing slowly but now a new Battery is about to take over the world.

Me, "A new Battery technology is getting ready to take over the world by storm."

From Article, "Finally, better battery technology is hot — but not too hot"

(Room-temperature operation is just one of the potential advantages claimed by Ionic Materials. Its new polymer also has the ability to shuttle ions between a battery cathode and electrode as efficiently as is currently achieved by liquid electrolytes, or even more efficiently.

Zimmerman’s background is in the world of semiconductors; he worked at Bell Labs and then a company called Quantum Leap Packaging. Several university researchers who have worked with the company believe that has led him to a technology that will be more manufacturable than competing polymer and ceramic battery technologies being explored.

“What is so intriguing about Mike and his folks is they are using known production techniques borrowed from the semiconductor packaging industry,” said Jay Whitacre, a Carnegie Mellon University physicist who was involved with Ionic Materials when it first started and who now is chief scientist at Aquion Energy, a maker of home storage and industrial batteries based in Mount Pleasant, Pa.

The new progress has led a number of technologists in the field to believe that batteries may finally be getting out of their rut.

“We’re in a golden age of new chemistry development which probably hasn’t been seen in 30 or 40 years, since the last energy crisis,” said Paul Albertus, a program manager at the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. “It’s a pretty exciting time to be developing energy storage technology.”)

What bothers me about science today is that scientists, instead of welcoming new technology with open minds, denounce inventions as wrong even when they turn out to work.

Me, "This is what bothers me about science. You have a new discovery announced and it is either denounced as a false effect as Cold Fusion was in 1989 or you have a peer reviewed article about the EM-Drive that shows the device does work and yet for both of these discoveries you have mainstream scientists denouncing that either one was possible. Now we know that something was going on in 1989 and we know from the Chinese that the Em-Drive works in space. So why is it that there are so many scientists claiming when new technology is found that it must be a mistake? 
Respected scientists don't believe that there could be new power sources or rocket engines because for some reason they go against what is known at the time. 
For Cold Fusion, it really was labeling it Cold Fusion that made a lot of scientists angry who believed Hot fusion (Sun Fusion) was the only way to produce Fusion. If Cold fusion turned out to be true then all there years trying to make Hot Fusion work would be for nought. In the end it turned out that this Cold Fusion really was (LENR) Low Energy Nuclear Reactions; which in itself might be the wrong name to use too because scientists are still not sure what is going on here. All they know is when you put together a metal,[like palladium or nickel, in bulk, thin films or powder; and deuterium, hydrogen, or both, in the form of water, gas or plasma] and add an electric current excess heat is generated that shouldn't be but is. This excess heat can then be used to generate electricity. This data has been shown at many different labs around the world yet Science denounced it until now. Think of all the time that was lost that could have been used bringing this technology to the consumer. This energy source was researched underground because no researcher wanted to be denounced as a research heretic. 
 Then you have the Em-Drive, another technology that has also been denounced. It uses electricity to power microwaves which when bounced around in a rocket exhaust cone produces measurable thrust. The technology has been around since 1999 has been tested extensively in England but has only now gained attention by being tested by NASA and research labs in Russia and China. In fact the Chinese have demonstrated it works in Space. But once again you had mainstream scientists denouncing the technology as going against known scientific laws. I understand that you have to respect scientific laws but these laws are human laws. And we as humans can be flawed. So maybe there is something going on here that we just don't understand where by the Em-Drive does not violate the scientific laws. But if we just cry out, it should not work, even though for some reason it does, well I think real science is not being carried out. 
Every possible new technology has to be tested and retested to either show it does or does not work, instead of just assuming because it does not fit into known science so it should not work. You never know what you might find. And it is a discredit to true pioneers who are trying to advance society even when regular scientist say, no its not possible."  


From article, "It's Not Cold Fusion... But It's Something"

(A surprising opportunity to explore something new in chemistry and physics has emerged. In March 1989, electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, at the University of Utah, announced that they had "established a sustained nuclear fusion reaction" at room temperature. By nearly all accounts, the event was a fiasco. The fundamental reason was that the products of their experiments looked nothing like deuterium-deuterium (D+D) fusion.  

In the following weeks, Caltech chemist Nathan Lewis sharply criticized Fleischmann and Pons in a symposium, a press release, a one-man press conference at the American Physical Society meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, and during his oral presentation at the APS meeting. Despite Lewis' prominence in the media spotlight, he never published a peer-reviewed critique of the peer-reviewed Fleischmann-Pons papers, and for good reason. Lewis' critique of the Fleischmann-Pons experiment was based on wrong guesses and assumptions.

Richard Petrasso, a physicist at MIT, took Fleischmann and Pons to task for their claimed gamma-ray peak. Petrasso and the MIT team, after accusing Fleischmann and Pons of fraud in the Boston Herald, later published a sound and well-deserved peer-reviewed critique of what had become multiple versions of the claimed peak.

From this dubious beginning, to the surprise of many people, a new field of nuclear research has emerged: It offers unexplored opportunities for the scientific community. Data show that changes to atomic nuclei, including observed shifts in the abundance of isotopes, can occur without high-energy accelerators or nuclear reactors. For a century, this has been considered impossible. In hindsight, glimpses of the new phenomena were visible 27 years ago.)

Why Any Presidential Library Matters

Me, "I have only been to one Presidential Library. The J.F.K Library in Boston. I have to admit it really brings the history he was dealing with alive and this is the exact reason why former Presidents have presidential Libraries. 

It is to let people understand what was going on during a presidency and why it should matter to present day U.S. citizens. Sure, it's a legacy thing. Presidents don't want to be forgotten. They want a sort of way of showing what were their successes and less so their failures. It's really a way of not being forgotten, rewritten, or marginalized by history and historians. Plus, it gives living presidents a place to hold events and help their parties future Presidential candidates. Think of it as a Mini-White House with no control over the country but kind of political help for their party."   

From article, "Obama Foundation's daunting task: Raising money for his library"

(After turning over the White House next month to a successor who aims to scuttle some of his key initiatives, President Barack Obama and his foundation will embark on an epic endeavor — racing for mega-donors who can rocket-launch their fund drive for a presidential library and museum on Chicago's South Side.

The scale is daunting: While Obama's library planners decline to provide a cost estimate, the George W. Bush library and endowment broke records at more than $500 million, the latest example of skyrocketing costs. Adding to the pressure, the Obama project is the first to be built under sharply increased federal requirements for a sustaining endowment. Obama chose to add another hurdle by pledging not to personally raise money for the project during his term in office.

The Obama Presidential Center, which will include a library, museum and offices in historic Jackson Park on the South Side, will be the 14th presidential library in a system founded in 1939 by the National Archives and Records Administration. Several more presidential libraries pre-date that program.

The system is kept afloat by public and private money. The national archive spent $67 million in the last fiscal year on library operations and programs, with additional support coming from privately funded library endowments. Local governments and universities often provide backing too.The Obama Foundation will raise private funds for the center's construction and for an endowment to assist the National Archives' operation of the library and museum. The foundation must raise a sum equal to 60 percent of construction costs for the endowment, up from a 20 percent requirement previously in place.)

Plenty of Time to Think

Me, "V.P. Biden can say whatever he wants, but when the opportunity to run for president was handed to him, he hesitated. Maybe he knew, even then, that running for and winning the president, after an Obama Presidency, was not possible and he would have to wait a term.
Whatever the reason, we have to accept the results of the election and do our best to help Trump lead our country. The Democrats have to do some soul searching to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it in the next election. And, even then, if Trump has a successful first term we may have to wait two terms before a democrat is elected to the presidency again. Plenty of time to think."



From article, "Joe Biden admits the moment when he realized Hillary Clinton would lose to Trump"

(After watching a Donald Trump campaign rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in October, Vice President Joe Biden says that was the moment he realized Donald Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton in November’s election.

That’s what the vice president told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview.

“Son of a gun. We may lose this election,” Biden told the Times, recounting his reaction after watching the rally from his White House office.

“They’re all the people I grew up with. They’re their kids. And they’re not racist. They’re not sexist. But we didn’t talk to them,” the vice president added.

Reflecting on Trump’s connection with Americans throughout his campaign, and during that Pennsylvania rally in October, Biden attempted to diagnose Democrats’ inability to connect with middle America.

“My dad used to have an expression. He said, ‘I don’t expect the government to solve my problems. But I expect them to understand it,” Biden said, adding that he doesn’t believe Democrats are positioning themselves to “understand” the struggles of “an awful lot of people.”

“I was trying to be as tactful as I could in making it clear that I thought we constantly made a mistake of not speaking to the fears, aspirations, concerns of middle class people,” Biden went on to comment, explaining his central message during his 83 campaign stops for Clinton.

It was that message — one that connected with middle-class voters — that Biden wanted to bring to his own presidential campaign, he told the Times. However, Biden decided late last year not to run for the White House.)

Tesla's Charging Stations Are In Demand By Electric Car Owners But Especially By Businesses.

Me, "The benefits of a Tesla Charging station is increased economic activity by surrounding businesses by electric car users. It gives the old saying, 'if you build it they will come,' new meaning."



From article, "Tesla adds electric-car charging site off Interstate 71 in Morrow County"

(Tesla Motors now has its first charging station between Columbus and Cleveland, turning a Mount Gilead strip mall into a destination for electric cars.

Since opening recently, the charging station near Interstate 71 has led to a boost in traffic for nearby businesses such as 8 Sisters Bakery.

Tesla drivers "come in here, and they spend at least $20," said Emma Lister, the bakery's owner. "They'll grab pies or our specialty breads, stuff you couldn't get at the grocery store."

This is what Tesla calls a "supercharging" station, allowing for a charge in minutes as opposed to hours. The California-based automaker lists 769 of the stations. The Morrow County location has 10 chargers.

Officials in Mount Gilead, the seat of Morrow County, worked hard to attract Tesla, hoping that the presence of the station would help nearby businesses.

"We were able to present a proposal to (Tesla) to say why they needed to be in Morrow County," said Shane Farnsworth, Morrow County's director of economic development.)

What is to be Done about NASA's SLS Rocket and Could Private Aerospace Companies Step Up?

Me, "It's a big dilemma. You have all this money invested in the SLS Rocket NASA is building, yet when it was conceived no one realized you could reuse a rocket to the point of what SpaceX and Blue Origin are doing. Do you cancel it hoping you can rely on private industry to get you to Low Earth Orbit, The Moon, and Mars? Or, do you double down and hope its worth the money?
I believe private industry like SpaceX and Blue Origin are committed to bringing cheap access to space with reusable rockets. That said the thing that could pave their way is government seed money and maybe a new look at what NASA should be doing; instead of building rockets it should be like a college turning out world class astronauts for SpaceX and Blue Origin while if it wants to do manned missions buy a few seats on their rockets.
 I feel bad for SLS. But is it really worth the money? (One rocket launch every few years because it costs a lot to build and launch) or many public-private missions that try and make the most out of their funding? Taking the SLS money and investing it in private companies with more encouragement deals could help them and us get out into deep space. What is more beneficial in the long run? Trump has a very hard decision to make. I know if I were in his shoes, it would be for me."

From article, "Peter Thiel is pushing Donald Trump to use private space companies at NASA"

(NASA and its masters in Congress currently stand at a transition point, balancing two kinds of work: expensive and ambitious exploration missions done as cost-plus contracts...)

Me, "This is the problem, out of control spending contracts."

Continuing from article, (...by traditional firms like Boeing and Lockheed, and more prosaic near-Earth transit work performed as public-private partnerships with newer firms like SpaceX and Orbital ATK. Facing tight budgets, NASA’s efforts to split resources between the two have resulted in delays on all sides. The new administration promised a chance for advocates of both sides to re-litigate the pros and cons of each approach.
Trump’s comments on the campaign trail and his initial choice of advisers suggested that the businessman would lean toward reeling back NASA’s Mars ambitions and directing more resources to private companies operating in low-Earth orbit or, in the future, near the moon.)

The Problem with Government Contracts and the positives of Private aerospace companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Me, "This is what is the problem with government contracts. They plead, poor me poor me, costs have gone up, then explain all the jobs they are or have created, and the government rethinks killing a program. We need better contracts that raine in the extra costs of a program to a realistic amount. Doing more with less or what was negotiated should be the mantra of these companies. Not pay me more or forget the program. You want to talk threats? Sheesh! This is why I have lost confidence in the standard aerospace companies and believe private aerospace companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are the future. They set a goal and meet it. They may take some government money but they produce results."

From article,  "Trump suggests he would ditch F-35 in favor of cheaper plane"

(President-elect Donald Trump piled on fresh criticism of the Pentagon’s most sophisticated aircraft on Thursday, suggesting that he might abandon the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in favor of a cheaper plane because of the F-35’s high costs.

In a message on Twitter, Trump said that cost overruns in Lockheed Martin’s $400 billion program to develop the stealth jet had prompted him to ask Boeing, another major aircraft manufacturer, to “price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet.”

Trump has blasted the F-35 before, saying the cost is “out of control” and promising that his administration would find savings in military hardware purchases. His criticism of Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin and Chicago-based Boeing has roiled the defense industry and laid down a marker for a hard line from the White House in dealings with major players doing business with the government.

Even before Trump launched his public assault, the F-35, the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program, has come in for widespread criticism for design flaws and spiraling costs. While the current price for the various F-35 variants is at least $100 million per plane, the company has said that it will fall to $85 million each in four or five years.)

Reagan's Star Wars Again?

Me, "The whole problem with space based weapons is that most countries are afraid that if there's ever a war, their nuclear weapons would never reach the enemy's shores.  So, the thinking goes: You build a system of satellites that use lasers or small kinetic pebbles that can knock nuclear missiles out of the sky. The reasoning being that this shield will protect a country, so well, that Nuclear War will be averted. And the country with a Missile Defense will win. But let's look more deeply at this. 

Right now what we have is (M.A.D.) Mutually Assured Destruction. If we launch missile, they launch missiles and both sides lose. Now you enter with a nuclear shield and the game is changed. Well, not quite.

 If we build a shield, so can other countries and once again M.A.D. comes back into play. No side would ever be sure if their missile would reach their intended targets and so no country would launch missiles. 

Now of course there is also other sides to this equation. When President Reagan first proposed Star Wars, the technology for Laser weapons just wasn't there. But today you have lasers on ships, you have lasers on airplanes, on military vehicles and so laser are finally coming into their own and can be used in a realistic Space Missile Defense system. 

The whole point of Star Wars was an insurance policy. Not so much to protect but to prevent and right now with rogue countries like North Korea, Iran and the less expected terrorist groups, (Hey, they got access to Syria's chemical weapons so who knows) gaining hold of a nuclear missile, who could one day by accident, or deliberate intent, launch a nuclear missile at the U.S. I would feel safer with a fleet of defense satellites that could knock this missile out of the sky. And I am sure Russia and China would too. In fact as soon as we were to build our Space Based Defense they would be doing the same. We have to think what is in the best interests of the world? A rogue nuclear missile with no way to stop it or a missile defense system that can prevent a really bad day from happening."  

From article, " Congress scrapped this one word from the law, opening the door to a space arms race"

(By removing a single word from legislation governing the military, Congress has laid the groundwork for both a major shift in U.S. nuclear defense doctrine and a costly effort to field space-based weaponry.

Experts say the changes, approved by overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate, could aggravate tensions with Russia and China and prompt a renewed nuclear arms race. The bill awaits action by President Obama. The White House has not said what he will do.

For decades, America’s defense against nuclear attack has rested on twin pillars: The nation’s homeland missile defense system is designed to thwart a small-scale, or “limited,” attack by the likes of North Korea or Iran. As for the threat of a large-scale strike by China or Russia, the prospect of massive U.S. retaliation is supposed to deter both from ever launching missiles.)

The National Academy study, released in 2012, concluded that even a bare-bones space-based missile defense system would cost about $200 billion to put in place, and hundreds of billions to operate in subsequent years.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said in an interview that he drew inspiration from President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative of the 1980s, which was intended to use lasers and other space-based weaponry to render nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.” Known as “Star Wars,” the initiative cost taxpayers $30 billion, but no system was ever deployed.)

Generating Good Press

From Article, "Boring! Is Elon Musk digging his own hole?"
(What will the Boring Company do? Who knows? He might create a brand new infrastructure specifically for driverless cars. He might begin to manufacture machines capable of drilling the first Hyperloop routes. He might, I don’t know, drill a tunnel to Mars. My stupid human brain isn’t powerful enough to keep up with Elon Musk.)

Me, "Elon Musk knows how to generate news. In this day and age where constructing underground tunnels is a billion dollar job, maybe he sees tunneling as a place where he can make mass transit or massive underground highways cheaper than the sandhog union workers of today can. Plus, if we do get to Mars, we are going to need tunneling technology, to survive underground, from the solar radiation on the surface. I could see Elon Musk creating a new, easier and less costly to use tunneling device, and as he is perfecting it have astronauts, in full Mars suit get up, learning how to use it for a mission to Mars. Besides, if he were joking about this wouldn't he have said so? And if it isn't a joke he realizes that tunneling will be an important technology to master."

The Boring Companies New Underground Drill?

From article, Elon Musk talking about making a tunneling company to fix traffic

(Zaptec has a new plasma drilling technology which could achieve practical, affordable, and reliable deep drilling on the Moon, asteroids, Mars, and its moons. The drilling system comprises a freely advancing drill head tethered by a power cable to a power source topside and high voltage generator downhole. The drill advances by generating a high-energy density plasma at the drill head which breaks down and pulverizes the target rock. A key enabling technology is the system’s ability to deliver high energy plasma discharges via low mass, small volume power transformers located in the
drill head section. Powder cuttings may be removed by circulating compressed CO2.)

Me, "The Boring Company that Elon Musk may want to start, could use this technology on Earth, to test, and use on Earth and as another form of income from Earth for Space Operations. It could lead to greatly decrease drilling times for construction projects and could be used on Mars. the Moon, and other places."

A New Construction Project for Elon

Me, "Elon Musk seems serious about tunneling."

From Article, "Is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk serious about starting a new company to reduce traffic by digging tunnels?

(Musk had even suggested the tunnel idea a little more seriously almost a year ago, during a question-and-answer session after the awards ceremony for a competition to design passenger pods for the hyperloop.

"It's a really simple and obvious idea and I wish more people would do it: build more tunnels," Musk said after the ceremony on January 30, 2016. "Tunnels are great. It's just a hole in the ground, it's not that hard. But if you have tunnels in cities you would massively alleviate congestion and you could have tunnels at all different levels; you could probably have 30 layers of tunnels and completely fix the congestion problem in high-density cities. So, I strongly recommend tunnels.")

A College Motivational Speech 2061

A College Motivational Speech 2061

By

Marvin Ostrega

An introduction

“I used to believe in movies. I used to believe in love. But that’s really not something to believe in, is it?  I believed that the good guy will get the girl. That good triumphs over evil and life if you work hard at it is fair. None of those things are really true.  More likely than not the bad, rich guy gets the girl while the good, poor guy watches from the sidelines.  What’s good or bad depends on whose interpreting it. And if you work hard life can still be unfair. I am not trying to be a downer. Everybody has had a life that didn’t work the way they thought it would. Some people who were thin are now fat and people who were fat are now skinny.

God has a funny sense of humor.  I have tried many times to put to words what I have been thinking of for a long time. Started many stories, hardly got past the first few pages.  I am a sentimentalist. I long for the past. Live in the present and hope for a better tomorrow.

Ah, the past.

What things I have seen, what things I can’t forget. What problems I have caused and what causes I found problems with. I consider myself an optimist but at the moment feel pessimistic. How the two go hand in hand. I guess I should start at the beginning. Should I start at birth? I was a stubborn baby. Refusing to leave my mother’s womb as my mother tells it. She drove with my father three times to the hospital before they agreed to admit her.

 I was born. A wrinkly thing to look at I imagine. I had marinated for 9 months after all. I grew up in a quiet, traffic free neighborhood. I can still remember the kids playing outside baseball, or freeze tag, or stolen base. Usually, something exciting. The childhood games that neighborhood kids play. My house stood out from the others. While the other houses had nice green lawns and nicely kept bushes. My house was kind of like a forest:  evergreen bushes surrounding a wooden bridge that lead to the backyard giving way to a brick trail.

My dad had done the best he could. He poured years of sweat into that house. Always coming up with some kind of new technological achievement, that, he read about in his Do It Yourself books. My mother was the typical Jewish mother. Making all kinds of meals from scratch, slaving over a stove or gas oven. Her meals at least by the time I was old enough to remember them were as delicious as something made at an eat out diner. I basked in the unconditional love they provided me.

 Then my brother was born. I guess being the younger child he had it kind of rough. My teasing him over his weight didn’t help things and our mom telling us to play nice and for me to leave him alone I heard a lot. I wasn’t a bully. It’s just my brother had a tendency to piss me off and teasing him about his weight was the go to option. It’s interesting to note that in later years he became a junior high school movie filmer and singer listening to such bands as Pearl Jam and Nirvana. How he didn’t kill himself listing to such depressing music made me respect him all the more.  So, when he became a lawyer years later I was shocked but not surprised. His college film degree was as worthwhile as my Communication Journalism degree. Only he had the temperament to go back to school and find something he could make money at, while I was tired and too old to go back and start over again.

I wasn’t big into music until later on in life. When I was younger I just couldn’t handle lyrical music so I hardly listened to it. I steered more towards classical or movie soundtracks. Anyway growing up I ran into my share of bullies.

Kids can be cruel and mean and I hardly stood for it, my mouth getting me into more trouble than I could imagine. I would say brave things to the bullies and I would end up suffering for it. Once, my mother came upon me being beat up by one and she slapped the shit out of him. I mean a big whack. And the bullies’ mom came out of her house and started yelling at my mom. This woman saying I had instigated her son.  My mom saying she should teach her kid restraint. And if he came after me again she’d whack him again.

I went on through public school eating my lunches mostly alone in the school auditorium. The teachers fed up with telling me that I had to be quiet and not talk to my friends while the principal was making announcements during lunch. I would eat my lunch and then explore the auditorium finding teaching devices and learning how to operate the stage lights and curtains. It was fun. And I learned I had been given a lot of leeway. I probably relieved a stressed out principal. It wasn’t like it is now where someone is always watching you. They literally forgot I was even there. Once my homeroom teacher came to collect me saying she felt bad not asking someone to find me. She was that relieved that I wasn’t in class she had forgotten about me.

I guess I was the first in my class to start thinking about girls as sexual objects. I guess, when your first infatuation kicks you in the balls because you tell her and her family to go to hell because she had insulted you, and you kick her back in around the same place and you both fall to the ground in pain it’s hard not to laugh at the stupidity.  It kind of shapes your view of women. Not in a bad way.  I would never hit a woman now but back then, as a kid, who knew a girl cold feel pain in that area too? A lot of these arguments came about because I would always question things to death and my childhood classmates were not the kind of classmates who wanted to listen to endless debates. I guess I learned my lesson with keeping my mouth shut with a junior high school bully named Barf.
 Barf was the kind of kid who decided he would torment anybody and everybody waiting for the bus to school. If you said anything to him in defiance he beat you up. And every day for two years in junior high school I ended upon with my face in the grass having my head punched into it.

 I guess with all my interactions with people my extrovertedness turned to introvertedness a fancy way of saying I just kept my views to myself. For years I hated the fact that I couldn’t just say what was on my mind without getting in trouble for it. Years later Barf got hit by a car that broke his leg. I can’t say I wasn’t unhappy over that. 

So, years went by, I grew older, learned love and loss and then pain and anguish. A lot of women in high school brandished me a womanizer without a woman. They felt I was a male chauvinist pig. I thought they were just weird.  I had my views. While the other guys and gals were hooking up I was busy doing my homework and school work trying to get my grades up to get into college. And then before I knew it I was in college.

Suffered through, got my degree and went on with my life. Sure, there were adventures in college. First girlfriend refused to have sex with me. She enjoyed playing games. Second girlfriend gave me an STD that was quickly taken care of with penicillin.

My college life consisted of wacky professors, who in another life, would have made it as brilliant writers but somehow ended up a little short of the goal, and ended up teaching. They loved me. I was the go to guy when other kids were stumped or they needed someone to keep the discussion in class going. Then in my junior year I fell ill and had to come home. I finished out my college years at my home college.

Nice place. Full of civil minded college students. My mind was allowed to flourish again. I started writing for the college newspaper. I was a movie critic. I was a columnist. A lot of the students loved what I had to say. Then I graduated into the deceitful reality of real world jobs. I couldn’t find a reporting job. I couldn’t find anything at my local paper. Apparently, my political views did not match up with their political views. They were a Republican paper. I was a Democrat. I had always assumed once I had an internship with them I would be offered a job, at least this is what my college made me believe. I worked all kinds of hours for them and was rewarded with a nice handshake and an out the door you go mentality; made me curse their name for years.

But what had I expected? I was coming to the realization at college that my field was the wrong one to go into. That no sane person ever got rich at it but if you loved what you did that was your reward.  My scummy college could have told me that way at the beginning of my studies and I would have gone into something else. They didn’t. Even now they send me a letter asking for a donation. I put the note back into the self addressed envelope and send it back to them, a trick I learned from an old college roommate. His reply to my question, why, was, Well, I am just giving them back the note. Let them send it to someone who cares.

It’s not that I don’t care for my old school. I just feel that once again I got the short end of the stick. A lot of people will tell you let all this go get on with your life, which, to a certain extent I have. I do my digital art. I write selectively. I try and give my two cents. I get the usual Heckles. No one likes you when you’re on your way up and everybody wants to kick you when you’re down.

 My advice on this subject is two-fold.  Don’t let anything stand in your way. If you think you haven’t done anything wrong and life still throws you curve after curve, people frowning and making comments to your face and behind your back. Know that you are a decent human being and everything that goes around comes around. If you really did something wrong the police will arrest you. If not they will leave you alone. And, above all else, if you achieved a disgrace you will be forgiven. 

So don't worry about the past, worry about the present, and strive to make the future a better place.    

NASA working on a new Mars Orbiter, But What About future NASA Funding?

Me, "The more data, in pictures and scientific data, should help Astronauts find a good place to set up a Mars colony. We already have a lot of data on Mars, however, it never hurts to have another pair of eyes (another Orbiter) looking Mars over or for new things. It's better to have too much data than not enough. I would say NASA is doing a good job of exploration. 

Could it use more money? Sure. But sometimes having a set amount of money creates new ideas on how to make the most with the money given. It's a Catch 22. 

Of course, it also helps to know exactly how much money it can count on to be given a year. Maybe, a bill in Congress should be passed that finally states how much money NASA can expect to receive as a percentage of the U.S. economy? And, of course certain extra increases for special missions."

From article, "NASA's Next Mars Orbiter Is Being Planned for 2022"

(NASA is planning on sending a new orbiter to Mars. It'll be a chance to replace some aging hardware and also to get some more amazing science images and data from the Red Planet, in anticipation of more robotic missions to Mars and a possible human mission in the 2030s.

While the full funding hasn't yet been approved for the new mission, the 2022 orbiter — referred to as the Next Mars Orbiter or "NeMO" — early conceptual work has been carried out. In July, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., awarded five $400,000 sub-contracts for concept studies, to five companies.)

Water: an abundant space resource.

Me, "This is great news. It means that from a manned exploration point of view: Astronauts should be able to find water, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, to power their rockets, water H2O to consume and oxygen O2 to breath. It makes exploring the solar system easier and less costly than having to bring everything they need with them and back."  

From article, "Water, Water Everywhere on Dwarf Planet Ceres

(There's water, water everywhere on the dwarf planet Ceres, according to new research. New observations have provided direct evidence that water ice is ubiquitous on the surface and shallow subsurface of this massive asteroid.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, and has long been suspected of containing significant amounts of water — estimates projected up to 30 percent of its total mass. Evidence has pointed to water ice being mixed with the rock on Ceres' surface, and in a few rare cases, more concentrated patches of exposed ice have been found. Ceres has even belched up plumes of water vapor.)