Yesterday was the shortest day of the year....in the northern hemisphere.  Which means it was also the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere.  This day can be on June 22, today, but that is rare.  Happened in 1975 and will next occur in 2203.  In 2024, this summer solstice, will occur on June 20, and will repeat through 2026, returning to June 21 in 2027.  D-Day, or  The Longest Day  of World War II, actually occurred on June 6, 1944. That missing Titanic-viewing sub  Titan  leads me to space tourism.  This underwater tour cost $250,000/person, and unless a miracle occurs, will signal the end of this form of adventure for awhile. Space tourism is becoming widespread for the truly rich, starting at a mere $125,000 for a relaxing 6-hour ride to the stratosphere in a ballon, to Virgin Galactic's $450,000 suborbital joy ride of 90-minutes to experience a few minutes of zero-gravity experience during descent, to  Blue Origin's $28 million  ( or maybe it will only be $9

For Wednesday science-technology day I return to the  latest issue of  Energy Matters , compiled by the American Energy Society. India is not buying crude oil from Russia.  Politics?  No, cost. When the Ukraine War started, the West reduced imports from Russia, so  India became the second largest purchaser, next to China .  Then this sudden drop. One reason is that freight costs have risen, plus petroleum is now cheaper from places like the UAE. 91% of the global economy has pledged to cut emissions to zero.  However, a  lot of promises, but no action . That net zero pledge is supposedly for 2050.  Air travel will cripple that attempt. To begin, the U.N. climate science panel has said that man-made carbon dioxide emissions need to fall by about 45% by 2030 to limit warming to only 1.5 C ( 2.7 F ). Some say planting more trees can help.   I say planting more trees will hurt .  Most analysts don't consider methane in their calculations, and no one looks at the ultimate term.  All the

The  Inflation Reduction Act , to be signed today by President Joe Biden, provides generous funds for renewable energy.  I thus thought I'd go back to a dozen years ago when I wrote on this subject, and see how in 2022 things have changed.  You can  read the 730-page bill here .  In summary: In the past, the Farm Lobby had a heavy influence, and snuck in a stinker:  ETHANOL!  This new legislation used ethanol only 3 times, while biofuel appears 11 times.  Hydrogen?  65 times.  Nuclear has 25 references, and gained some ground in this package. $9 billion in home energy rebates. $30 billion in production tax credits for solar, wind, batteries, aviation and other biofuels, plus critical minerals. $20 billion in loans to build clean vehicle manufacturing facilities in this country. $2 billion to national labs to accelerate breakthrough energy research. A methane emissions reduction program. Well, the Farm Lobby scored again, for there is a sum of $20 billion to support climate-smart ag