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When I began Schwartzreport my purpose was to produce an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming. Also, to warn my readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values. Our country now stands at a crossroads, indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles. I want to thank all of you who have contributed to SR, particularly those of you who have scheduled an ongoing monthly contribution. It makes a big difference and is much appreciated. It is one thing to put in the hours each day and to do the work for free, but another to have to cover the rising out-of-pocket costs. For those of you who haven’t done so, but read SR regularly, I ask that you consider supporting it.
Here is some good news about an important new development for braking in EVs. Sadly, American automakers are falling further behind technologically, and this is going to be seriously exacerbated if Trump carries through with his Mexican, Canadian, and Chinese tariff schemes. American automakers are heavily dependent on those countries to produce their cars and trucks, and thousands of jobs will be at risk.
Exploded view of the in-drive brake for EVs. Credit: Mercedes-Benz
In the simplest terms, nearly every modern car on the planet uses disk brakes: a rotor attached to a hub with a caliper with brake pads fixed to the control arm at each wheel. The driver presses the brake pedal and hydraulic fluid is pushed down the brake lines into the caliper, expanding the pistons and pushing the brake pads against the rotor, slowing down the rotation of the rotor connected to the hub, thus slowing down the wheel.
There are other systems, like drum brakes, air brakes, band brakes, the Flintstones method, et cetera, that have also been around since the dawn of the automotive industry. The concept almost always remains the same: using friction to slow down. And so it doesn’t go unsaid, yes, there are compression brake systems as well, but that’s entirely different.
Mercedes-Benz has put a new spin on an age-old concept with what it calls “in-drive brakes” for electric vehicles. The system being developed at the company’s research and development department in Sindelfingen, Germany, integrates the […]
When you combine Trump’s tariffs and his deportation schemes, what you get is that you and I are, by Robert Reich’s estimate, going to face about $6,000 in additional annual expenses. It is going to particularly impact Trump working and middle-class voters in Red states. And that doesn’t even address the massive social disruption that will arise from ripping immigrants out of communities, or the loss of the revenue they pay into various government levels, but don’t benefit from. Even in Bue states, as this article describes, the effects are going to be dramatic and negative. How could farmers, construction companies, and meat packing plant owners not understand this. Look at the interview though with this California farmer. Like most of the Trumpers, he just doesn’t get it.
In the days following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, I reached out to a longtime Northern California family farmer to gauge his level of concern.
Trump has, after all, already made full-throated declarations that his administration will conduct the largest deportation of undocumented residents in U.S. history. That should resonate in a place like California, with its estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants—and it certainly would shake up a state agriculture industry in which nearly half of all workers are undocumented.
But the farmer, who asked not to be identified to avoid political conflict with business partners, was unruffled. A self-described social moderate and fiscal conservative, he and his family have spent generations in the business. While his own seasonal employees are on work visas, his understanding of the industry’s historical reliance on undocumented workers runs deep, through direct experience, colleagues and a seat on the board of an agriculture lending institution.
He knows the stakes. Even at a time when some farmers use more authorized workers than ever, the industry overall remains heavily reliant on undocumented immigrants.
“I suspect it’ll be like it always has been: If you’re undocumented but stay out of trouble, not much is going to happen,” […]
Here is an aspect of climate change I have not seen previously. It is going to have a significant impact on countries all over the world, particularly developing nations with poor infrastructure. It will though impact large parts of the United States. Humanity is simply not doing what needs to be done, and Trump doesn’t even seem to think climate change is an issue with which he needs to be concerned.
Using data from NASA Satellites, a research team of international scientists has observed a sudden drop in freshwater that started in 2014 and has persisted since then.
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites revealed a drastic decline in global terrestrial water storage, or TWS, between May 2014 and March 2016. The scientists warned that those water levels have still not recovered as of 2023. They shared their findings in a study published in the journal Surveys in Geophysics.
From 2015 through 2023, surface and groundwater levels were about 290 cubic miles below the average stored freshwater levels from 2002 through 2014, NASA reported. According to Matthew Rodell, a co-author of the study and a hydrologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the amount of water lost from 2015 onward was about 2.5 times the volume of Lake Erie.
The freshwater depletion was driven by drought and exacerbated by the 2016 El Niño event and the increasing modern agricultural and municipal demand for water. The team behind the study also predicted that global warming is playing a part in the declining freshwater levels.
Emily Stewart, Senior Correspondent - msn | Business Insider
Stephan:
Another AI problem. I have personally experienced this problem, have you? Not with insurance, but with medical group practices, setting up appointments. I think this trend is going to get much worse.
Credit: Liubomyr Vorona / Getty,
I’ve been fighting with my health insurance company a lot lately. The mundane billing disputes are exactly the type of situation that, theoretically, AI should make easier. That, however, is not what’s going on. The first point of contact is the AI-powered online virtual assistant, which asks what it can help me with but has, thus far, never been able to actually help. After some back and forth, it directs me to an allegedly real person who’s supposed to be better equipped to handle the matter. A lot of the time, I get referred to a phone number to call instead. Once I call that number, I’m presented with a new robot — this time, one that talks. It’s not any better at understanding my problem than the typing robot, but it’s also not so sure I’m ready to get to an agent just yet. Yes, it understands I’d like to speak with a representative, but why don’t I explain what about first? As my frustration grows, […]
Yet another good news story about nuts, particularly if you are older. Eating nuts. Simple. Tasty. Good for you.
Nuts notch up another win a new study showing their power to keep people healthy after the age of 70 Credit: Depositphotos
Adding another plus in the “nuts are good for you” column, new research shows that regular consumption of the superfood not only holds off death, but it also keeps the mind sharp and limits persistent disability. But age was a factor in the study.
If you look at the news coming out of the Red states what you see is the healthcare available to women is becoming more and more precarious. Here is the latest from Georgia. But what I am particularly seeing are four trends: First, OB/GYNs are leaving Republican-controlled Red states, practicing proper healthcare for your female patients has become dangerous, and can cost you your license or put you in prison. Second, medical schools in Red states are having to change their curriculums, and are no longer able to train physicians properly. Third, fewer young women as well as men are choosing medical schools and even colleges in Red states. Fourth, Republican-controlled Red states are developing “medical deserts”, particularly in rural areas, leaving women and girls unable to get proper healthcare.
Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey. Credit: Kevin C. Cox / Getty
Georgia officials fired everyone on the Maternal Mortality Review Committee after ProPublica reported that the panel found the deaths of two women whose care was restricted by the state’s abortion ban were preventable, the news outlet revealed Thursday.
ProPublica first exposed the committee’s findings for Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller in September, sparking a flood of criticism directed at abortion care restrictions and the primarily Republican politicians who impose them. Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who was running for the White House, even traveled to Atlanta to pay tribute to the two women.
Thurman and Miller’s stories, as the news outlet acknowledged Thursday, “became a central discussion” in not only the presidential contest—ultimately won by Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who has bragged about the role he played in reversing Roe v. Wade—but also ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights in 10 states, seven of which succeeded.
If Trump, the first felonious, rapist, criminal ever elected President actually does this, the effect on the military will devastating. Few Americans, I think realize that military as part of American society is a much smaller percentage than it was. In 1970, when I became Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations the number of active-duty service members was about 3.5 million. This was when the draft still existed. Today, when the military is all-volunteer there are only about 1.3 million Americans in service. Active-duty service members now comprise less than 1% of all U.S. adults. I can tell you from direct knowledge that when we created the all-volunteer armed forces it never occurred to any of us that the military would become such a tiny percent of the population. We never imagined the difficulty the military would have recruiting. If Trump fires the generals, as he says he wants to do, and takes out all the LGBTQ service personnel, which is what this will really do, the American military will be transformed in a negative way.
Donald Trump with Pete Hegseth, his nominee for defence secretary. Mr Hegseth has previously criticised ‘effeminate’ military leadership, Credit: Andrew Harnik / AP
Donald Trump will remove all transgender members of the US military from their posts, according to reports.
There are so many negative trends that I just don’t want to do any more tonight. So here are two stories that don’t deal with the destruction of American democracy by Trump and the Republican Party he controls. The research I have been doing for the last 60 years has convinced me that Max Planck, the father of Quantum Mechanics, and Einstein, the discoverer of Relativity were correct when they said consciousness is causal and fundamental, and consciousness produced spacetime. As a result, I have been telling you for decades that we live in a Matrix of Consciousness, and that all life has a measure of consciousness. A growing body of research confirms this, and this is the latest. Even fungi have intelligence. This is why I so strongly urge you to make wellbeing your priority in all the choices you make. All life is interconnected and interdependent and when you foster well being you support the Matrix of Consciousness, and the wellbeing of Earth.
The question of how intelligent plants and fungi are has been increasingly explored by scientists, as they have delved into the capability of these lifeforms to perceive and communicate with each other and the outside world.
A new study has found that fungi can not only perceive, but learn, have memories, solve problems and make decisions.
“You’d be surprised at just how much fungi are capable of,” said Yu Fukasawa, as assistant professor in the graduate school of agricultural science at Tohoku University, in a press release from Tohoku University. “They have memories, they learn, and they can make decisions. Quite frankly, the differences in how they solve problems compared to humans is mind-blowing.”
When you see mushrooms growing on the surface of soil, the small umbrella-like caps are really the fruiting bodies of an expansive underground mycelium below. The mycelium is an intricate and complex fungal network germinated and formed by spores. This subterranean web of long, spidery threads spreads underground like roots and is similar to the brain’s neural connections.
In the study, the researchers looked at how a mycelial network growing on decaying wood responded […]
