Tag Archives: News: Big News

Big News

Events that are happening currently, and persist for so long – as in years, decades, or generations – that we often forget that they are still happening and are still relatively new in our rapidly changing world. We ironically stop learning about these events because they are so ubiquitous to daily life. We assume we know more about them than we actually do.

It is worth consciously acknowledging that they continue to “happen” and continuously drive change. Often events that appear “new” are just small details driven by one of these global scale trends of change crossing another threshold.

Fact vs Force

Fact: Mankind has not yet been to the Moon.

Force: Most of mankind believes we have been to the Moon and laughs at people who don’t believe it.

I believed the moon landings were real and I dismissed theories to the contrary for one simple reason: the moon landings required the efforts of hundreds of thousands of people and that many people cannot keep a secret. There can’t be a lie that big – I thought.

Hundreds, Not Hundreds of Thousands

The theory was presented to me that the astronauts went to low Earth orbit, and unbeknownst to even ground control, they faked everything beyond low Earth orbit. They faked radio calls, flight data, and some images and videos that had been pre-recorded from the California desert (probably recorded in the summer of 1968). Since ground control couldn’t tell the difference between a real flight and even a training simulation, it may not have been easy but it is doable. Launching and faking the radio calls and some imagery reduces the number of people involved in the secret from hundreds of thousands down maybe a hundred or so.

Lie or Die

A hundred still seems like a lot of people to keep a secret until you consider that the ring-leaders, whoever they were, killed people to do it. You don’t have to kill everyone who might speak up. Once you kill a few people who are willing to speak up, the remaining people willingly fall in line and keep the secret, knowing what happened to their friends.

The phrase, “for two people to keep a secret, one of them has to be dead,” should be, “For two or more people to keep a secret, you must kill one of them who speaks.”

Timeline

What follows is a timeline of key events along with video. Throughout the summary, I make two simple statements to categorize the evidence:

  • “To believe the moon landings were real, you accept …”
  • “To believe the moon landings were faked, you accept …”

Both versions of the story are incredible, whether we went to the moon or we faked it. When I see the evidence laid out, I come to the conclusion that the moon landings are not just an incredible feat. They are truly not credible. They did not happen. Mankind has not yet landed on the Moon – or even left low Earth orbit for that matter.

March 1962: Operation Northwoods, Etc

Operation Northwoods made it to the president for approval, but he rejected the proposal. See also Operation Mongoose, and MKUltra that lasted from 1953-1973.

12 September 1962: JFK, “We choose to go to the Moon…”
22 November 1963

JFK was assassinated and replaced by Lyndon B Johnson, who remained in office until January of 1969.

25 November 1963: Big Media Lie

The official story is that Dan Rather accidentally misspoke on literally one of the most important details he ever reported, a detail that is blatantly obvious in the film he was describing. He went on to become one of the most successful news anchors of his time.

Why did he say Kennedy’s head went violently forward? I know little about the Kennedy assassination, but if I ever go down the rabbit hole, I start knowing two things: 1. the head shot came from the front sending Kennedy’s head violently backward, and 2. whoever took the head shot controlled what Dan Rather said about it.

4 August 1964: Gulf of Tonkin Incident Faked

The Gulf of Tonkin incident is unrelated to the moon landings directly, but faking the incident that initiated the Vietnam War that killed 60,000 Americans puts killing a few Americans to fake the moon landings in perspective.

For the record, I think it’s annoying when videos or other media are titled with things like “TRUTH…” in capital letters. It makes them look silly. If it’s the truth, just say it. It is recently widely accepted that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was faked to provide pretense to start the war in Vietnam.

22 January 1967: Gruff Gus

According to Gus Grissom’s widow, when he was home for the last time before the fire that killed him, Gus picked a large lemon from a tree in their yard and intended to hang it on the rocket to call it a lemon. Grissom was quoted as saying we were at least a decade from going to the moon, not 2 years as was advertised. His criticism had earned him the nickname “Gruff Gus”.

27 January 1967: Apollo 1 Training Fire

Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, the Apollo 1 crew, died in a fire.

To believe the moon landings were real, you accept the official story that the only deaths in the entire Apollo program happen to have included the most notable critic exactly when his death would have been necessary to transition from real moon landing effort to faking it and put other critics on serious notice to stay quiet.

I believe people would have to have died for either story to be true – real moon landings or fake. I believe the Apollo program could have crash-landed humans on the moon if that had been an acceptable outcome. However, the dead astronauts coincidentally died just when they would have had to to fake the moon landings and keep it quiet.

21 April 1967: Thomas Baron Report

Thomas Ronald Baron wrote a 275-page report on NASA safety protocol violations, which he gave to Rep. Olin E. Teague’s investigation at Cape Kennedy in Florida, on 21 April 1967.

27 April 1967: Thomas Baron Death

Thomas Ronald Baron died along with his family when their car was struck by a train.

To believe the moon landings were real, you accept that Thomas Baron and his family’s deaths were also coincidental, just 3 months after the Apollo 1 crew’s deaths and 6 days after he released his critical report.

The Apollo Program: 9 Isolated Claims

There are only 6 total claims of landing humans on the moon. Furthermore, there are only 9 total claims of humans even leaving low Earth orbit, all the Apollo program. Nobody else even claims to have left low Earth orbit before or since the Apollo program, not Russia, no other NASA program, not China, nobody else in all of mankind. Here is a list of those claims:

MissionLanding Date (UTC)Landing Time (UTC)EVA DurationMoon Phase at Landing
Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin20 July 196920:17:402h 31mWaxing Crescent (28.8% illuminated)
Apollo 12, Charles Conrad, Alan Bean19 November 196906:54:357h 45m (2 EVAs)Waxing Gibbous (80.6% illuminated)
Apollo 14, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell5 February 197109:18:119h 24m (2 EVAs)Waxing Gibbous (approx. 84% illuminated)
Apollo 15, David Scott, James Irwin30 July 197122:16:2918h 37m (3 EVAs)First Quarter (51.7% illuminated)
Apollo 16, John Young, Charles Duke21 April 197202:23:3520h 14m (3 EVAs)First Quarter (67.7% illuminated)
Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt11 December 197219:54:5722h 4m (3 EVAs)Waxing Gibbous (approx. 80% illuminated)

Apollo 8 claims to have orbited the moon 24-25 December 1968 with Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders

Apollo 10 “dress rehearsal” claims to have flown within 15.6km of the moon’s surface on 22 May 1969 with Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, Eugene A. Cernan.

Apollo 13 claims to have been a failed moon landing attempt but also claims to have sling-shotted around the moon in order to return to Earth with James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise

To believe we went to the moon, you accept the official story that from December 1968 to December 1972, a 4-year period, the Apollo program sent humans beyond low Earth orbit 9 times, and the feat has not been accomplished at all before or since, despite the obvious leaps in technology during the following 53 years and counting.

August 1969: Apollo 11 Press Conference

To believe we went to the moon, you accept the astronauts’ behavior at this press conference at face value. If the Apollo 1 crew was murdered and these guys went along with the mission because they knew they were next to die if they resigned, then this was a type of hostage situation – which is exactly what it looks like. Why does it look like a hostage situation? There are even teleprompters. Why are there teleprompters on the desk?

YouTube commenters bring up some poignant questions: were they raped by aliens on the moon? Did the moon land on them? This video would not have survived social media in 2025. There would have to have been some explanation and human behavior is timeless, so really, why do they act like that?

11 December 1972 Lunar Module Lift-Off Footage

To believe the moon landings were real, you don’t laugh at this footage of the Apollo 17 “final take-off” from the moon:

Lunar module flying on Earth:

To believe we landed on the moon, you accept that that aircraft went “6 for 6” landing on the moon and taking off again. There is one-sixth Earth’s gravity and no atmosphere on the moon to contend with, but still. Do it again.

Take another look at that aircraft flying and compare it to what a rocket looks like that can lift off and enter into orbit. Again, 1/6 gravity of the Earth and no atmosphere, but that thing had to land on an unprepared, unknown surface ready to lift off again and enter into orbit. I understand it supposedly docked with the lunar orbiter where Michael Collins was waiting, but does that make it easier or harder?

No Unfakeable Footage

To believe we went to the moon, you accept that although none of the imagery brought back can be definitively proven fake, all of the imagery could have been faked, taken in the California desert and altered. While the imagery is impressive if fake, NONE of it is definitively unfakeable.

No Earth Footage from the Moon Surface

To believe we went to the moon, you accept that the astronauts never panned the TV camera up to see the Earth from the surface of the moon, despite the following reasons to have taken some video of Earth from the moon:

  • They spent a total of 75+ hours on the moon (combined among all 6 missions).
  • Neil Armstrong stated that the view of the Earth from the moon was a source of comfort to him while on the moon.
  • The Earth was visible in the lunar sky from their landing sites literally the entire time for all 6 missions, which is an astronomical fact. The Earth does not move in the lunar sky because the moon is tidal locked to the Earth. Also, the Earth would have been separated from the sun by roughly 90° the entire time. This is an astronomical fact because they landed near first quarter moon phase every time. The Earth would have appeared as a “half-Earth” because of the position of the sun.
  • The first famous photograph shown to the public from near the moon was “earthrise,” supposedly taken from orbit, but they never did another similar photo or video.

They never showed the stars or the Earth from the surface of the moon, especially in a video. Showing the Earth from the moon in a video would have been easy and interesting … but impossible from the California desert with 1960s technology. Why is that footage missing? Were they too busy playing golf on the moon to point the camera at Earth that was right there in the sky the whole time?

The Van Allen Radiation Belts

To believe the moon landings were real, you have to accept that the 9 Apollo missions got to the other side of the Van Allen radiation belts – somehow – without really mentioning them and when astronauts were questioned about the radiation, they hardly remember dealing with it. Contrast that with plenty of footage of NASA itself and scientists talking about how intense and dangerous the radiation is.

22 January 1973

Lyndon B Johnson died the day before the war in Vietnam ended and Nixon mentioned him in his speech. LBJ knew about the moon landings and profited from the Vietnam War as well. We’re not talking about nice people here.

20 July 1994: Neil Armstrong Speech at the White House for NASA’s 25th Anniversary

Today we have with us a group of students, among America’s best. To you we say: we have only completed a beginning. We leave you much that is undone. There are great ideas undiscovered, breakthroughs available to those who can remove one of truth’s protective layers. There are places to go beyond belief.

-Neil Armstrong, 20 July 1994

To accept the moon landings were real, you have to explain why Neil Armstrong said exactly what someone would say if he had been forced to fake the moon landing against his will and had the opportunity to speak to students 25 years later.

Read what he said. That is not a cryptic statement buried in a long speech among many speeches. The guy most famous for having walked on the Moon became a recluse from media attention for the rest of his life, but in one of the few speeches he gave, that’s what he said. Neil Armstrong was an unwilling participant and he told us what happened the best he could.

A Word on Bart Sibrel

If you believe the moon landings were faked, be warned: you’ll be grouped with Bart Sibrel, the loudest denier of the moon landings. While I happen to believe his theory and I think he does a pretty good job of organizing the evidence, he is unnecessary to come to the conclusion that the Apollo program faked the Moon landings. Also, Bart Sibrel is obnoxious to the astronauts, who were mostly I think unwilling participants, especially Neil Armstrong. Lastly, Bart Sibrel believes in multi-dimensional aliens that interbreed with humans. So, quote verifiable facts, not Bart Sibrel.

18 July 1969, Apollo 11 Faking Being Halfway to the Moon

Why does Bart Sibrel have this video? He says NASA gave it to him by mistake when he requested footage for a documentary, which sounds fishy but plausible. The video was not seen by the public until the 1990s when Bart Sibrel got it. Unless somebody can tell me how Bart Sibrel doctored this video or modified the date or changed the audio or whatever, it shows Apollo 11 near the Earth faking that the Earth is far away when they are supposed to be halfway to the moon.

To believe the moon landings were real, you have to explain either how Bart Sibrel has this video, or how the video is something other than what it appears to be, which is Apollo 11 faking being halfway to the moon on 18 July 1969. You have to explain this or they didn’t go. Is the date stamp wrong? Does the audio not actually line up with what’s happening in the video? Is the person seen in the video not actually Michael Collins or one of the astronauts? Did Bart Sibrel fake the video somehow? Why does an individual with little budget have a video showing Apollo 11 in low-Earth orbit on 18 July 1969, faking being halfway to the moon?

In Bart Sibrel’s Astronauts Gone Wild, he presents the 18 July 1969 video to Buzz Aldrin and Buzz Aldrin has no explanation. At one point in the confrontation Buzz Aldrin even suggests that Bart Sibrel manufactured the video. Bart Sibrel may be an ass hole in the way he goes about doing what he does, but the astronauts don’t act right either. Bart Sibrel is really putting his life on the line saying what he’s saying. I think the astronauts are the wrong people to confront since I believe they were unwilling participants, but their behavior is consistent with fake moon landings.

Laser Reflecting from the Moon

Supposedly the astronauts put laser reflectors on the Moon facing Earth and lasers can be bounced off of the mirrors back to Earth. To believe the landings were faked, you have to accept that there are in fact no man-made reflectors on the Moon, so the lasers are reflecting off of the surface of the Moon back to Earth. So, you have to accept that the surface of the whole Moon reflects more than Neil Armstrong’s pocket make-up mirror.

Motive, The Usual

The United States spent approximately $25.8 billion on Project Apollo between 1960 and 1973, which is equivalent to about $257 billion when adjusted for inflation to 2020 dollars.

Why do people even ask what the motive was?

Russia and China Know We Faked It

If we faked the moon landings, the Soviet Union may have known at the time and both Russia and China certainly know by now. Why haven’t they said anything? To believe the moon landings were faked, you have to explain why Russia and China don’t say anything. One claim is they are blackmailing us to not say anything. Since we collaborate with Russia in space, I tend to think they are happy to work with us on space travel rather than expose us. I don’t totally understand why they don’t say something, but I am sure they know.

Nah, why am I questioning this? They knew. The Soviets knew. Anybody with a space program knew what they saw was not real. The public has nothing to compare it to, no context. The Soviet Union knew in 1969 that the Moon landing was fake. We collaborate with Russia in space, everybody knows that. The only news here is that we were already collaborating with them during Apollo so the Soviets collaborated with us faking the Moon landings. They were happy in second-place with whatever cut they got of the Apollo program to stay quiet.

21 April 2025: Conclusion

I started looking into the moon landings on 21 April 2025 when I realized they could have been faked. Since I started looking into it, I have seen zero compelling evidence that we actually went to the Moon and a lot of compelling evidence it was faked. Am I cherry-picking evidence? Or do people imagine that evidence is compelling that isn’t?

This really shakes my perception of reality, which is why I titled the post “Fact vs Force”. I am sure we did not go to the Moon. For such an extraordinary, incredible claim the lack of evidence is absurd. Especially now with 50+ years of hindsight, the continued fervor with which people defend the validity of this fabrication leads me to realize that when force is applied, force can trump fact for a very long time…

However,

facts are stubborn things, and to those who continue to believe in this historically anomalous feat I say, “Cool. Do it again.”

When we do actually go to the Moon, we’re going to:

  • ferry fuel for the departure back to Earth
  • shield against Van Allen radiation
  • land somewhere where we don’t have to deal with a scorching 350-hour-long day
  • get some video footage of Earth from the surface of the Moon, which Apollo was apparently too busy playing golf to get done.

The Moon landings were fakeable when the public had nothing real to compare them to. When we do go to the Moon, the contrast with the fakes is going to be hilarious.

Respect Literacy: Blogs are the New Book

Like books, personal blogs seem to have an innate ability built-in to the medium to bring out the best in people.

Do not confuse blogs with social media.

I have been keeping this list of my friends’ websites for several years now. Many are small business sites (pillars of society), none are vanity-driven, and all of the information is thoughtful, meaningful work by people who care. All of it is good. It represents the cream of 100+ years of electronic communication. That’s a strong statement and it’s true.

If you became literate and started reading books 500 years ago after the Gutenberg Press, you got ahead. If you understand the power the internet brings to people by enabling blogs, you get ahead.

COVID-19 One-Year Reflection

The Pandemic in Summary
  • Fact: SARS-CoV-2 is the third known new coronavirus in 20 years – not disputed.
  • The origin of the virus: The virus reservoir and evolutionary origin responsible for the three new coronaviruses since 2002 is humans sharing exhaled breath indoors on the scale enabled by the indoor economy explosion over the last 4-5 decades. SARS-CoV-2 would be more appropriately labeled “EBSRS-CoV-3” for “Exhaled Breath Sewage Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 3.”
    • Wet markets, bats, and camels are not the source. We make the animals sick, but we don’t notice sick animals until we get sick, then we blame the animals / markets. While hybridization by dual infection between animals and humans may contribute, it is a distant second-place factor and we are simply refusing to acknowledge the primary factor.
    • Lab leak? Like the director of the Wuhan Virology Lab herself, I considered it.
    • Bio-weapon? I thought for sure no until I saw how hard governments and media are pushing genetic injections and learned about binary poison, antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) and their capabilities with genetics.
    • We will continue to see new coronaviruses periodically unless we fix the conditions that allow coronaviruses to develop. We have barely touched this issue because it would be extremely costly to implement appropriate ventilation standards and by now we may have globally committed beyond the point of no return.
  • The spread vector of the virus: The virus overwhelmingly spreads indoors, especially in poor ventilation. There has not been a single confirmed spread event associated with only outdoor activity. There have been countless thousands of super-spread events indoors that can account for the entire pandemic.
    • Prevention should focus almost exclusively on being outdoors and ventilating indoors. City-owned governments and media will not promote this simple idea because it points the finger directly at cities.
    • The virus spreads by aerosols. Aerosol = micro-droplet. This means the WHO and the CDC had the spread vector wrong, obviously ignoring evidence for almost the entire year. The WHO and the CDC corrected themselves around December. Let that sink in. Wrong on the spread vector all year. They have quietly corrected themselves now on their sites.
    • There is a very good chance the virus does not spread by droplets at all. The WHO and the CDC are still claiming droplet spread, even though aerosols by themselves could explain the entire pandemic without droplets. Let that sink in. Very possibly still wrong.
    • Aerosols, micro-droplets, and droplets sound like technical terms to you? Too complex? Let that sink in. After a year of continuous coverage on TV, most are still unfamiliar with the simple terms for the possible spread vectors.
    • If you have 10 priorities – as lurching governments now do – you have no priority. Classic failure of leadership. Common under stress.
    • It is probable and even likely that all outdoor “prevention measures” are completely useless and even cause the spread of the virus by encouraging indoor activity.
    • Masks are highly-visible and make people feel like they are doing something.
  • The societal response to the virus: COVID-19 and the response have changed everything. It is worth learning about and considering, if for no other reason, because you can make money and avoid losing money.
  • The appropriate prevention measure: If there is one specific thing we should avoid to prevent the development and spread of coronaviruses, it is concentrated exhaled breath.
  • The “vaccine”: Genetic immune boost is the solution preferred by governments and corporations, which is being frantically promoted in the media. The term “vaccine,” while not outright lying, is much less accurate than “genetic immune boost”.
    • Genetic immune boost represents an attempt to artificially boost our immune systems against a disease instead of hygienically cleaning the conditions responsible. Realistically, we are nearly ignoring ventilation. This is the first time we have ever openly declined to fix the conditions that cause a disease. I expect genetic immune boost to be unsuccessful long-term against an unrelenting onslaught of virus evolution in the indoor economy.
  • A dream solution: Fusion energy would solve the virus by making it possible to continue climate control indoors and bring in enough fresh air (AKA “make-up air”). Will we make it to fusion?
Reflection After a Year

I rarely do self-reflections, strike 1.

People are tired of COVID, strike 2.

But this is my outlet, so I’m swinging away.

Reaching the year point reminds me that at the beginning of all this I had not payed attention to any news for several years prior. I need to put this to rest so I can move on and go back to mostly ignoring the “news.” This has to be the last virus post.

With respect to prevention, all year I have done my best to stay outside when possible, ventilate when possible, do my part to slow the spread by not getting sick. Duh. The fresh air has been nice anyway. (I also jumped through the government hoops as required). I still got the virus – I think, I got a cough, fever, and lost my smell for 5 days. I’m obviously not alone. I knew I was taking chances. I predicted I would get it when I did, which is some form of success. I continued to avoid most indoor situations while I knew I was sick. Success. I didn’t clog up the hospital by requiring treatment. Success.

We all remember how we first heard of COVID-19. I received a text message from a friend on 25 January 2020 that referenced a virus in China. I responded more or less, “huh?” A few days later I remembered that a friend had returned to China (4 January) to take care of her sick father. Could it be related? I texted her. Her father had died from a lung infection in Hubei Province.

For better or worse, the pandemic consumed me. From disease history to modern disease prevention to haywire governments in 2020, I researched to the best of my ability and came to the conclusions above. While I cannot rule out most of the various conflicting explanations, the conclusions seem so common sense and the counter-arguments so outlandish that I feel irresponsible if I did not publish.

Search EBSRS3

Global Carbon Transfer, and Evidence for Global Warming

Global Carbon Transfer

I have said before that we should call this concept we are all familiar with Global Carbon Transfer. That is what it is and always has been.

Global Carbon Transfer is directly measurable.

The term “Global Carbon Transfer” is completely accurate to what we are actually doing. We know that we are transferring carbon.

The name “Global Carbon Transfer” allows for consideration of other unknown effects that we have yet to identify that nobody even talks about.

We are transferring a lot of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere. This is an indisputable fact.

Simple Man’s Evidence for Global Warming

I personally believe that global carbon transfer is causing significant man-made global warming. Here is a list of the evidence that shapes my concept of the world, my personal observations that lead to my belief:

  • I learned in Physics class in high school in ~2001 that carbon dioxide reflects infrared light / heat more than the other more highly-abundant components of the atmosphere. This makes sense to me. It would be difficult to fake this, easy to confirm or refute. I put this under the heading of scientific fact.
  • We learned what the greenhouse effect is, and I have personally been inside both a hot car in the sun, and an actual greenhouse. Fact.
  • I have personally seen an equilibrium exhibit a large change based on a small increase in a catalyst. For example:
    • Milk goes sour if you drink from the carton.
    • I saw chemicals abruptly change color in chemistry class after just drops of liquid entering.
    • If I had drunk two beers this morning instead of two cups of coffee, my blood would have changed by less than one percent, but I would absolutely not have written this post.
    • Small change can yield big change.
    • Catalysts exist.
  • I have seen man affect the environment, both for good and bad. Some of these I didn’t personally see of course, but they happened:
    • Water quality in Columbus, Ohio versus Rio de Janeiro.
    • Chemical disaster in Bhopal, India 1984.
    • Smog in LA.
    • Scale of the Piper Alpha explosion in 1988.
    • Personal accounts of the reduction in litter in the United States following anti-litter campaigns in the 1970s.
    • Chernobyl of course, but that’s nuclear not chemical, a whole ‘nother level.
    • Urban sewage management, cities now versus 200 years ago.
    • Forests versus fields.
  • I see carbon entering the atmosphere that used to be in the ground from sources that are less than a century old. Sound ridiculous? It’s everywhere. Everywhere. Try not seeing it! We could not transfer more carbon if we started a campaign to transfer more. Everything we do contributes to carbon transfer, and is mostly new!
  • The earth is really really old. There has been a lot of time for plants live, absorb carbon dioxide, respire oxygen, die, and be buried in the ground. Let me repeat, really really old, and a lot a lot a lot a lot of time. A lot. There has been so much time in fact that I no longer view the air I breath as coming from “the earth in general,” but as being the breathed out breath of plants. Call me a tree-hugger, but it is an accurate concept, much more accurate than the “general earth air” idea that comes easy. The atmosphere is and always has been a product of life and vice versa. It is a two-way street.
Some more carbon numbers, click here.

What to Watch 24: Energy of an Industrialized Society – How Many Joules 3

How Many Joules?

  • 2,000 food Calories = 8.4 million joules = approximate energy usage of the human body in one day
  • One Tesla Model S battery charge ~ 36x this amount
  • One 2017 Honda Civic gas tank ~ 177x this amount
  • Typical furnace (100,000 BTU / hr rating) operating for 1 hour ~ 12x this amount
  • US energy usage per day (referenced in my post here) ~ 33.5 billion x this amount, or ~ 102x the US population*
  • Global energy usage per day (referenced in my post here) ~ 129 billion x this amount, or ~ 17x the global population*

*Relating the energy consumption of the modern world per person to the energy consumption of just the human body by itself is ambiguous, I realize. However, it puts in context the massive numbers that are constantly thrown around in the media on this subject, and consolidates the hype and various units into one unit.

https://nathanruffing.com/nates-numbers-hub-january-2017/ 

Start at How Many Joules 1

https://www.unitjuggler.com/energy-conversion.html

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

What to Watch 23: The Tesla “Gigafactory” – How Many Joules 2

Tesla’s Introduction Speech to the Gigafactory in Nevada, Elon Musk, 4 September 2014

How Many Joules?

  • Tesla Model S with large battery pack, 265 mile range = 306 million joules
  • 2017 Honda Civic 12.4 gallon gas tank,  (2017 best selling car in US) = 1,490 million joules
  • Energy from 1 barrel of oil (BOE unit) = 5.86 billion joules
Go to How Many Joules 3
Start at How Many Joules 1

What to Watch 14: Fusion Energy, 16 Minutes

1. Fusion Explained in a Nutshell by Kurzgesagt

2. JET, Joint European Torus, largest magnetic confinement fusion reactor.

  • JET is the current record holder for controlled fusion energy production by most measures. The record was set in 1997. See video.
  • Located in Oxfordshire, UK.
  • Annual budget 2014-2018 = 145.6 million euros ~ $175 million per year. Source.
  • Video is from 2014.

3. National Ignition Facility, was the largest effort at inertial based fusion.

  • The fusion ignition effort ended in April 2014, but is still one HUGE laser. Do not point this laser at your eye.
  • Located in California, USA.
  • NIF total cost was ~$3.5 billion. Source.
  • Video is from 2009.

4. More References

 

Click here for the historical context of fusion, fusion in the Cold War.

Click here to search fusion on this site.

What to Watch 13: Cryptocurrency 2, the Blockchain in Society and Pop Culture, 22 Minutes

The Blockchain in Society, We’ve Stopped Trusting Institutions and Started Trusting Strangers, Rachel Botsman on TED, June 2016

Blockchain in Pop Culture, Lovesong for Satoshi Nakamoto Whitepaper by “Bitcoin Girl” Naomi Brockwell, November 2015

Of Note

My Personal Conclusion on Cryptocurrency (For Now)

The idea behind Bitcoin is that you do not have to trust banking institutions. The transactions are verified by the technology / other users. I researched signing up for Bitcoin, and decided not to. The problem I found was in order to access the blockchain and “own” Bitcoin, you need a computer program to do it. The computer program is written by a coder and I am not going to take the time to understand the code. Therefore, instead of trusting an institution, I am trusting the coder who is the middleman who wrote the code. I actually trust both the banks and the coders (with a little research), but I do not have a reason to switch. The only advantage I see is that there is no tax trail, but I am not paying taxes on these transactions anyway. I don’t need a brand new currency in my life. Sticking with PayPal, Venmo, TransferWise, and dollars, for now!

What to Watch Must Watch: Amazon HQ2

Must Watch! Rob Morris, More Freedom Foundation, Amazon HQ2 Is A Scam, Feb 2018

Also: Beware the Tech Utopians

Click here for The Big Five, my post comparing the sizes of Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook to size the size of the US government.
  • $142.57 billion = Amazon’s annual revenue, ~ 2.7x the annual revenue of the city of New York.
  • $53.0 billion = city of New York’s annual tax revenue. (from NYC.gov)

Amazon’s latest post regarding the “competition.”

All Nate TV, click here.