DONALD TRUMP ON SCIENCE WEDNESDAY

Well, closing arguments lasted to 8PM EDT last night for the Trump hush money trial, so today Judge Juan Merchan instructed the jury, which is now deliberating.  Melania?  Ivanka?  They both never showed up at even one session.  Hmmm...

Who made the unintended funniest statement of  yesterday?  Todd Blanche, in reference to Michael Cohen.  Not eatest, but Greatest.

One final note.  Read Harry Litman's article summarizing the trial.  He is the senior legal affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of the Talking Feds podcast.  He thinks Trump will be found guilty.

Donald Trump is anti-science, but this is Wednesday, my sci-tech day, so I must march on anyway.  And, by the way, Scientific American, which began publishing 175 years ago, in 2020 endorsed its first presidential candidate, Joe Biden.  Why?  Because Trump rejects evidence and science.  

Instead of focusing on one subject, I will alert you to some upcoming topics in the coming weeks.  For some of the following, just this summary might well be sufficient.  Otherwise, feel free to read about these topics on your own.

• Timekeeping tomorrow will change.
• Today based on atomic clocks.  
• One such device uses lasers tuned to specific frequencies to excite electrons orbiting the atomic nuclei. 
• Type of clock lises one second every 100 million nuclears.
• The problem is that environmental factors can affect how electrons bounce.

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  Thus, the solution is to move inside the nucleus by exciting protons and neutrons instead of electrons.
• Isotope of thorium 229 shows promise.

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  A NUCLEAR CLOCK will lose one second every 31.7 billion years, which is more than twice the age of our universe.
• Don't confuse a nuclear clock with the Doomsday Clock.

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  Health span matters more than life span.  Sleep is an important factor.
• The USA for the first time dropped out of the top 20 Happiest Countries.
• The value of rest.
• Who is responsible for our warming world, and what justice through reparations can be justified?  The USA is perhaps most responsible today, but China and India are right behind.  On a per capita basis, the U.S. will continue to be the worst, perhaps forever.

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  Why cats might be the best pet.  Top ten:  
• Dogs (76 million) compared to cats (58 million).  But another source says dogs (90 million) and cats (94 million).
• However, there are around 140 million freshwater fish.  I have perhaps 50 in my tiny apartment.  Add 19 million saltwater fish.
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  Acid Rain and the Ozone Layer are two world success stories because the world worked together.  Any hope for Global Warming?
• Zipf's Law says that when something's size is doubled, the thing becomes half as common.  First applied to language.
• Does this apply to the human body?  
• Turns out that as you double the size of  a cell, the number of these cells is halved.
• The origin of wine.

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  When will we able to talk to animals?  Will AI be the solution?
• Are we limiting our search for extra-Earth life if we concentrate on the habitable zone?  
• I'll answer that question now.  Yes.  Life today exists in hot springs and deserts.

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  Is water necessary?  Almost surely no.
• A larger question is...what is life?
• Further, advanced civilizations if AI-based will not need human requirements.  Some source of energy will be necessary, but carbon, water, and so on will not.

Typhoon Ewiniar (also called Aghon) struck the Philippines at 99 MPH and left at least seven people dead.  The storm, however, made a sudden right turn away from Manila and seems to be headed for Japan.  Perhaps islands like Iwo Jima could be impacted.  

Ewiniar formed on May 24 and reached hurricane strength on May 26, reaching 110 MPH the next day.  Weakened to 75 MPH, but by the end of yesterday increased to 86 MPH.  The expectation is a gradual weakening, slipping past east of Japan.  The biggest typhoon to strike the Philippines is  Super Typhoon Haiyan, which attained maximum sustained winds of more than 150 MPH in 2023.  However, the monster of them all was Super Hurricane Patricia (pictured above), which in a 24-hour period on 23October2013 increased 120 MPH all the up to 215 MPH, but weakened "only" to 140 MPH when she made landfall over Cuixmala, Jalisco, Mexico that day.

The hurricane season for the Atlantic Ocean should be more active this year, with 8 of them expected.  However, the Philippines can get up to 20 typhoons and major storms/year.

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