Mark Bowden, Contributing Writer - The Atlantic | msn
Stephan:
This is the best assessment I have ever read about how a military-industrial complex so expensive that it costs you and me almost a trillion dollars a year, more than the nine next biggest military national budgets combined, yet cannot meet the needs of even the Ukrainians because of poor planning and corporate greed. Imagine what those billions properly spent could have achieved, and what the remaining billions could have done to foster wellbeing.
At the Scranton facility, 155-millimeter howitzer shells drying on a conveyor belt Credit: Aimee Dilger / SOPA / Getty)
I. Supply and Demand
Here, in the third decade of the 21st century, the most sought-after ammunition in the U.S. arsenal reaches the vital stage of its manufacture—the process tended by a young woman on a metal platform on the second story of an old factory in rural Iowa, leaning over a giant kettle where tan flakes of trinitrotoluene, better known as the explosive TNT, are stirred slowly into a brown slurry.
She wears a baggy blue jumpsuit, safety glasses, and a hairnet. Her job is to monitor the viscosity and temperature of the mix—an exacting task. The brown slurry must be just the right thickness before it oozes down metal tubes to the ground floor and into waiting rows of empty 155-millimeter howitzer shells, each fitted at the top with a funnel. The whole production line, of which she is a part, is labor-intensive, messy, and dangerous. At this step of the process, both the steel shells and the TNT must be […]
I spent several hours of my afternoon looking for good news trends, because I wanted to do at least one edition this week that was positive. It wasn’t easy because this is not a happy time in human history. But I was able to find these.
Synhelion’s industrial-scale solar fuel plant DAWN – Credit: Synhelion
From Switzerland comes a new technology that aims to decarbonize the transportation methods we use right now.
Through a thermochemical process driven 100% by solar power, the energy startup Synhelion can synthesize gasoline, diesel, kerosene, or any other fossil fuel currently in use.
Their colloquially termed ‘solar fuels’ are carbon neutral, as they emit only as much CO2 as was used in their production, compared to fossil fuels that come from deep underground and add to the global carbon cycle.
The technology that powers the DAWN solar fuel plant pictured above relies on concentrated solar radiation reflected from a bank of mirrors into a receiver that creates temperatures as high as 1,500C°. This not only powers the production of fuels through synthesizing H20 and CO2, but also is fed into a storage system that powers the production after dark.
Launched in 2016, Synhelion has needed some time to get its feet under itself, but with its first industrial-scale plant in operation, transportation services are starting to take notice.
In September, Swiss aircraft manufacturer Pilatus Aircraft signed a five-year agreement with Synhelion that includes a commitment to […]
Here is some good news about EV batteries. If you drive an EV you will find this reassuring that your batteries will last longer than you were originally told they would which may save you a lot of money. This means that EVs are cheaper than was thought compared to the cost of buying and operating a petroleum-powered vehicle.
Electric cars charging in a parking lot under solar panels in Duluth, Minnesota on Oct. 11, 2024. Credit: HABesen / iStock / Getty
A new study has revealed that modern batteries in electric vehicles may last up to 40% longer than expected thanks to stop-and-go driving patterns that help recharge batteries on the go.
According to researchers, the common lab testing methods to determine battery life may not be the most accurate way to estimate how long EV batteries will last. In lab testing, batteries are often discharged at an ongoing rate, then recharged all at once.
But as the researchers pointed out, EV drivers experience different discharge rates in long spans of driving or stop-and-go traffic. These more frequent cycles of discharging the battery and recharging during braking could help preserve battery life.
Researchers tested 92 commercial lithium-ion batteries for a 24-month period, using both the constant discharge method as well as real-driving scenarios. The batteries tested under real driving methods had a better life expectancy, with about 38% improvement, compared to those tested under common lab testing scenarios. The team published the […]
The Republicans have been trying to take over the nation’s judiciary for several decades led by Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. This “unretiring” of Democratic judges, blocks Trump as this article describes. This isn’t getting much media attention, but it is going to have an interesting positive effect.
A circuit court judge out of North Carolina rescinded his planned retirement, prompting GOP outrage.
With little more than a month to go before Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, a set of federal judges who previously announced retirements are pulling back those decisions. And Republicans are none too pleased.
Most prominent among the federal jurists to reverse a retirement announcement is Judge James Wynn of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. His name vanished from a list of pending vacancies over the weekend, joining two district court judges in North Carolina — Algenon Marbley and Max Cogburn — in pulling back their decisions once it became clear President Joe Biden would not be able to appoint their successors.
In a letter to Biden, Wynn wrote “that, after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in regular active service” on the bench. All three were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Their decisions serve to deny Trump further bench vacancies to fill as he hopes to capitalize on his push to move the federal judiciary rightward. Though judges routinely time […]
Throughout the country the roads need to be rebuilt, and this new technology may provide resurfacing that is cheaper and less polluting, and that is good news.
Credit: Carbon Upcycling, Minnesota DOT and National Road Research Alliance
A private-public partnership has paved a section of Minnesota road with an experimental low-carbon concrete mixture that resulted in greater strength and lesser cement use, saving money and carbon.
Concrete and its most important ingredient, cement, is one of the most carbon-intensive industries on Earth because it’s used so often in construction. It has virtually no parallels for the ease of use, versatility, and structural properties, but emits about 0.6 tons of carbon per 1 ton of cement mixture produced according to Imperial College London.
US firm Carbon Upcycling Technologies, in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has successfully completed a three-year study on the use of the company’s low-carbon cement in highways.
The results highlight Carbon Upcycling’s ability to be a drop-in solution for reducing carbon-intensive cement in concrete, while saving money and making stronger roads.
The work in the study was carried out by Sutter Engineering and sponsored by the National Road Research Alliance (NRRA). It rigorously tested 16 unique concrete mixtures in real-world conditions on an active Minnesota […]
