Nearly a dozen years ago I wrote an article for  The Huffington Pos t on  Star Power for Humanit y.  The latest June issue of  Scientific American  featured  Star Power: What is the future of fusion energy?   You can click on that link for the full article.  I'll summarize: This past December, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ( LLNR ) claimed a breakthrough in attaining net positive with their laser fusion system.  No one had ever done that before. As an aside, I worked there in the 1970's on that project, and left because I could not envision the laser that would accomplish this task.  Can you believe that was around half a century ago? The bad news is that net positive is a long way from commercialization.  And certainly, that intriguing ultimate laser has not yet been invented. Well anyway, this article was written by Philip Ball, a British science writer who is my same age.  He has a PhD in physics from Bristol University.  Easy to read  Sci Am  article with no eq

I said yesterday that I would provide more details about China's new covid crisis today.  Well, I couldn't find anything more, so will continue my search and lay out the situation on Thursday, my day for this virus. Instead, a little bit of everything to bring you up to date on even the most eclectic of topics, like the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Finals.  The only ice hockey games I watch are during some of the Winter Olympics. I begin with what the  New York Times  sends me every morning, a summary of what happened and will.  To begin, this is their expectation of a very hot summer: Hawaii looks to be great, so come over if you have a lot of money.  Also Blowout win:   The Miami Heat   beat the Boston Celtics   in Game 7. They will face the Denver Nuggets in the N.B.A. finals. Golden Knights advance, too:   Las Vegas is back in the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in the franchise’s six-year history after a   6-0 rout   in Dallas. The next Tiger?   The world is re

Before I get into what you see above, first,  China is back in covid crisis , and I'll have a full coverage tomorrow.  How bad?  Well, the  whole world this past week ( 7 days ) experienced around 300,000 new cases .   China will have 65 million new cases/per week for at least the month of June!!!   This is so shocking that I need more time to gather reputable information. Second, this is Memorial Day, a national holiday, and time for circumspection and forethought. Actually, there is a sixth branch of the military, the  U.S. Space Force , which was created on 20December2019, and reports to the U.S. Air Force, a similar relationship as the Marine Corps and Navy.  The USSP currently has 8600 active duty personnel with access to 77 spacecraft.   This was Trump's doing, but Biden apparently has decided to continue operations.  The current issue is whether SpaceCom moves from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.   Lots of politics involved . Recep Erdogan  beat his opposition i

  First of all, good news.    There has been sufficient agreement on increasing the national debt ceiling . The next new ceiling will again become a crisis point in early 2025 after the next presidential election. Appears that there will be some Democrat concessions regarding work requirements and standards on recipients of food stamps.  Medicaid will remain untouched. As Janet Yellen has more recently indicated an absolute deadline of Thursday, June 8, there will be some discussions in the House on Tuesday, where there will be grudging approval, followed by action in the Senate, probably on Wednesday.  Then the President signs on Thursday and the world will be saved from a Great Recession.  Might take a day later than Yellen's warning, but everything seems at this point  to be okay. I guess there will not be a fatal Act Two by Republicans.  What's that?   Read my posting of 26May2023 . So my take: Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that he has 95% of the his members happy, and while