Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
Timothy Gardner, - Business Insider
Stephan: This is the latest on what I confess I initially found a very odd story: A group of leading billionaires were putting $1 billion dollars into nuclear energy. And then I added up the Forbes wealth estimates for these people, and the corporations they control and realized that a collective billion dollars is actually a modest play which, should it work out, could return many multiples of the investment. And if not it would have no significant effect on any of them. Think about that.
On the technical merits I think this will be seen as a bad call, a waste of money. The idea is to replace the reactors now operating in the U.S., which are past their close down date. There are 99 of them in operation today, and these deteriorating physical plants become more degraded and dangerous ever year. They are just old. Superficially that makes sense.
But this new investment presumes a major breakthrough in nuclear power, which I think is problematic. And it still does nothing about the millions of pounds and gallons of radioactive waste, and that is going to become an increasingly hot topic. Imagine something like Fukushima in your area.
I think they have also significantly misjudged the rapidity with which the carbon era is ending, and the cost level to which noncarbon, non-nuclear generation has dropped. It will be interesting to see how this new-nuclear trend works out.
Credit: James Marvin Phelps
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Pentagon’s top arms provider and firms partly funded by Silicon Valley billionaires Bill Gates and Paul Allen are among dozens of companies collectively betting more than $1.3 billion that a new wave of nuclear power can be a force to fight climate change.
Advanced nuclear power plants, which will employ techniques such as using fuels other than uranium and coolants other than water, have attracted private investments from more than 40 companies from Florida to Washington state, the Third Way think tank says in the first report specifying the number of firms and total money invested in the technologies.
The reactors, which could come into development in 10 to 15 years, can help curb U.S. carbon emissions and make investments in electricity generation less costly, researchers at Washington, D.C.-based Third Way said in a report seen by Reuters and to be released as soon as Monday.
Companies expressing faith in advanced nuclear power range from Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon’s largest supplier, […]
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
Deborah Netburn, Reporter - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: Here is the latest on the psychophysiology of politics trend. It becomes ever more clear that much of our behavior, particularly as it pertains to religion, sex, and politics is driven by our neurophysiology. And apparently so is our ability to follow a diet.
Conservatives may be better at exhibiting self-control than liberals, a new study suggests. Credit: Michael Reynolds / EPA
Are conservatives more likely to stick to a diet than liberals? The answer might be yes.
In a paper published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say there is a link between political ideology and the ability to exert self-control.
In a series of three studies with more than 300 participants, the authors found that people who identify as conservative perform better on tests of self-control than those who identify as liberal regardless of race, socioeconomic status and gender.
They also report that participants’ performance on the tests was influenced by how much they believed in the idea of free will, which the researchers define as the belief that a person is largely responsible for his or her own outcomes.
For example, conservatives who are more likely to embrace the idea of free will overwhelmingly agreed with statements like “Strength of mind can always overcome the body’s desires” and “People can overcome any obstacles if they truly want to.”
“Conservatives […]
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
Kathleen Lees, - Science World Report
Stephan: Here is some very interesting news on diet that I personally am going to pursue. More information regarding the findings discussed in this report can be found at:
Cell Metabolism.
The diet includes about five days of 750-1,050 calories a day based on a very specific regimen of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and micronutrients.
Credit : Facebook/ Pulses Mumbai
Previous studies have long-debated the health benefits of fasting. What sounds like a quick and easy way to shed pounds fast with no calorie counting involved can ultimately slow down your metabolism and even disrupt circadian rhythms, increasing the risk of weight gain when one returns to a normal diet. But is there more to fasting than just potential weight loss?
Researchers at the University of Southern California examined a new diet intervention that can be followed just five days a month while improving several health measures, including reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
“Strict fasting is hard for people to stick to, and it can also be dangerous, so we developed a complex diet that triggers the same effects […]
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Tom Engelhardt, Co-founder of the American Empire Project - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: Gun deaths — firearms killed 32,251 people in the United States — are on a par with automobile deaths — 32,999 — in the United States. We have an death epidemic and it is taboo to talk about the generality, only a particular event, so very few people realize that there are cities in the U.S. where it is as dangerous to live as a war zone.
We run around waving our hands over Muslim terrorists but the natural background domestic death rate by gun fire is hardly recognized.
Consider this paragraph a holding action on the subject of getting blown away in America. While I write this dispatch, I’m waiting patiently for the next set of dispiriting killings in this country. And I have faith. Before I’m done, some angry — or simply mentally disturbed — and well-armed American “lone wolf” (or lone wolves) will gun down someone (or a number of people) somewhere and possibly himself (or themselves) as well. Count on that. It’ll be my last paragraph. Think of it as, in a grim way, something to look forward to as you read this piece on American armed mayhem.
National security officials and politicians have been pounding home the message that the “greatest threat” to Americans is an extreme and brutal jihadist movement thousands of miles away and the videos and social media messages its followers produce that make it seem close at hand. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few of the dangers of armed life in these United States, a quick survey of national insecurity in a country […]
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Stephan: The politicians who are so quick to go to war seem uninterested in the human wreckage such wars create. Here is the latest on the Veterans' Administration. There was lots of noise about change, but apparently not much actual change. This is a disgusting story that shames us as a society.
Tampa, Florida VA Medical Center
WASHINGTON — The number of veterans seeking health care but ending up on waiting lists of one month or more is 50 percent higher now than it was a year ago when a scandal over false records and long wait times wracked the Department of Veterans Affairs, The New York Times reported. (emphasis added)
The VA also faces a budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion, the Times reported in a story posted online ahead of its Sunday editions. The agency is considering furloughs, hiring freezes and other significant moves to reduce the gap, the newspaper reported.
In the last year, the VA has increased capacity by more than 7 million patient visits per year, double what officials originally thought they needed to fix shortcomings, the Times reported. However, the newspaper added, department officials did not anticipate just how much physician workloads and demand from veterans would continue to soar. At some major veterans hospitals, demand was up by one-fifth, […]
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