I liked this month of May.  We completed our 53-day around the world trip, and came home healthy.  I did gain 7 pounds, but by yesterday found out that I had lost 7.5 pounds of that. The World did okay too, if you are not Trump, Netanyahu or Red Lobster.   For example, that disquieting  unified reich  matter might have been a clerical error, but Truth Social did carry it, for a while, and any reference to Hitler can't help a presidential campaign. Red Lobster was one of ten companies going bankrupt this month.  I remember a bunch of  new restaurant openings in Florida going back as far as 1968  with Red Lobster.  Many of them, like Outback Steakhouse, LongHorn Steakhouse and Olive Garden seem to be having financial problems these days.  Fast food chains are doing well, and so are high end restaurants.  It is this middle category that is affected by consumer adjustments. Is it possible we now have a working U.S. Congress? They p...

Before science day, a couple of news items: Nothing to seriously worry about, but  our U.S. Congress has to act by 11:59PM Friday night before government funding runs out .   First, there is an announced compromise, which is shaky, and there seems to be no way for the full Congress to act until next week. Anyway, this stopgap measure is only until very early March, when they need to pass another stopgap bill. But not to worry anyway, for  since 1976 the Congress has had 22 funding gaps . Each time, the nation survived. Congressional leaders  met with President Joe Biden  today in the White House, and tried to work out something to combine immigration with Israel/Ukraine war funding. Easy to blame Republicans for what is happening. Let's see if Speaker Mike Johnson survives this mini-crisis, for he committed the cardinal sin of actually working out a deal with Democrats, and will need them to actually pass the needed legislation in the House. About that circ...

This blog site began with renewable energy, added the environment, then expanded in all other directions because of my book,  SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity .   Today, back to energy, and mostly from  Energy Matters , soundbites from the  American Energy Society . Top 5 hot topics at the end of 2022 Energy security. U.S. policy successes. Hydrogen. Transmission/pipeline infrastructure. Tie:  liquified natural gas and fusion. Five years ago (end of 2017) it was: President Trump. U.S. LNG production. Battery storage. Smart-grids. Autonomous vehicles. Here are the top stories this past year. January. There are 13 new lithium gigafactories under construction, just in the U.S., causing a supply imbalance. Solar power accounts for half of the new electric generating capacity in the U.S. February. Russian invades Ukraine. Global coal markets set new production records. March. Oil prices jump above $100/barrel. Electricity and nickel prices go haywire. Countries ign...