I've lived a life where I have been able to professionally dabble in pure fantasies. Three years with the U.S. Senate working on energy and the environmental legislation.  I drafted the bill that created the national hydrogen program in 1979.  Worked on laser fusion at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence ( SETI ) at the NASA Ames Research Center.   I had a full career in renewable energy, directing the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii and co-founding the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. Here is a  nine-year old posting providing some details on my experience with fusion .  in the mid-1970's I remember having an apartment adjacent to Wente Brothers, and watching the Watergate hearings.  That was almost half a century ago.  At the  end of 2022 : Lawrence Livermore first achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment using lasers. That...

  U.S. COVID-19 cases are no longer falling in the U.S., as shown below from   The New York Times this morning.   Has to do with this Delta variant from India, which is more contagious and dangerous.   However, the vaccines are working, for most of the new cases are of the unvaccinated, and the few vaccinated who have been infected now don't die. Other news of the day: A new vaccine is coming, Novavax.  It has been tested to be 90% efficient. After a 12-year run, Benjamin Netanyahu is no longer Prime Minister.  He was replaced by Naftali Bennett (the bald guy). And the winner as Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show was Wasabi, a Pekingese: It was 40 years ago that Harrison Ford made his debut ( with Karen Allen ) as Indiana Jones in  Raiders of the Lost Ark  ( Rotten Tomatoes 95/96 ), by Steven Spielberg and George Lukas.  Won five Oscars.  There were four films, ending with  Kingdom of the Crystal Skull  ( RT 78/...