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 ...

Our planet is heating up.  How hot?  Says   Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , if talks with Russia fail, it could lead to World War 3.  So, with 100 Hiroshima-size bombs, the   atmospheric temperature would fall around 2F.   Huh?  Yup, carbon particles will be tossed into the upper troposphere to reduce sunlight, and our weather will cool. 100 Little Boys ( fell on Hiroshima ) actually are almost nothing today.  That one 1961  Tsar Hydrogen Bomba  thermonuclear explosion of the Soviet Union imparted the energy of 1570 times those Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs combined.  Keep in mind, though, that this was only 25% the yield of the 1883 Indonesia Krakatoa eruption.  So nature can be worse. Scarily enough, nine countries have  13,400 nuclear weapons,  all more powerful than Little Boy.  1800 of those weapons are held in high alert.  That was old news, for the latest this year is that number is now...

  The USA is 245 years old.  Russia is only 104.   China is just about 3500 years old,  for the Shang Dynasty began ruling the country from the 17th century BC...for 600 years.   Some say modern China came into existence around 220 BC.  Thus perhaps China is only 2242 years old today. My past few postings have been way too long, so today, only Ukraine.  Will Putin attack?  When?  Why? Remember Chernobyl?  This is the Ukraine town located 66 miles from Kyiv that 36 years ago was destroyed by the nuclear power explosion with 400 times the radiation of the Atom Bomb that fell above Hiroshima.  At one time there were 14,000 residents.  Today, 1000. Malaysia Airlines never found flight 370, which disappeared on 8March 2014.  Lost forever were 227 passengers and 12 crew.  On July 17 of the same year, MH17 flew out of Amsterdam towards Kuala Lumpur.  Flying over eastern Ukraine, the plane was shot down by a Bu...