I yesterday focused on Cuba and America's vision of Manifest Destiny. Coincidentally, I saw a Quora contribution about Stanford University, which I will insert later.  As, in my memory, I can still vividly recall how I almost went to Cuba when I was at Stanford, I thought I'd see how these two entities are connected.   I began by asking Google AI about the two. Stanford University has a direct academic and research connection with Cuba primarily through The Cuba Observatory, [ 1 ]  the Center for Latin American Studies. Specific connections and initiatives include: The Cuba Observatory: This academic initiative is affiliated with Stanford's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLAS). It brings together scholarship, media, and public research to analyze Cuba's socio-economic, political, and cultural landscape. Visiting Professorships: Stanford frequently hosts Cuban scholars, such as Dr. Ernesto Domínguez López from the University of Havana, who served...

Wednesday is my sci-tech day.  With the recent passage of   Richard Garwin,   I'll assess where we are today on the Hydrogen Bomb, for he was the individual who was in charge of building the first one in 1951, at the age of 23.  Yes, he lived to be 97. My only link to nuclear energy is that I twice worked under Edward Teller at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  But this was in the 1970's, and for half a century I haven't done much in this field.  In any case, at LLNL I was with the laser fusion program.  Teller was not only the father of the Hydrogen Bomb, he also was director of this lab, where  John Nuckols  had developed a process to use a laser to produce fusion for power. Teller came to Hawaii in the 70's, proposing a bank of wind turbines at the top of the Koolaus.  This was so long ago that Google can't find that photo, which was on the front page of one of the local newspapers.  While there, I joined him and Momok...

The  Russo-Ukrainian War  is now in a stalemate: Started in February of 2014. Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014. In February of 2022, Russian launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Some history. Crimea was part of the Crimean Khanate from 1441 until it was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783. In the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine was absorbed by the Russian Empire  as a constituent republic Ukraine is the second-largest ( 1.7 times bigger than Germany ) European country after Russia. In 1922 the Soviet Union was formed with various  union republics , and until its dissolution in 1991, varied from 4 to 16 countries, always including Ukraine. Map of the Union Republics from 1956 to 1991, as numbered by the Soviet Constitution: 1.   Russia , 2.   Ukraine , 3.   Belarus , 4.   Uzbekistan , 5.   Kazakhstan , 6.   Georgia , 7.   Azerbaijan , 8.   Lithuania , 9.   Moldavia , 10.   Latvia , 11.   Kyrgyzstan ...