October 10, 2022
By John Konard

A subsea power cable (click here) is now online after an earlier outage caused a complete blackout on a small Danish island. The cable is located near the Nord Stream pipeline which caused some European media pundits to worry that it was an attack on the power grid.

The cable, which links the island of Bornholm Denmark to the Swedish mainland, was reconnected just before noon today a spokesman for the German Energy giant EON SE told Bloomberg. The company said the power was shutdown because of a small fault landside and not an attack on the cable or cyber system.

The cable is the only link to a major power grid and supplies the 40,000 people who live on the island. It’s located near the Nord Stream pipelines.

The power cable has been damaged several times in the past, most recently earlier this year, but an investigation showed that a ship’s anchor had likely caused the damage.

A power plant on the island was put online to produce electricity during the cable outage, Danish media reported.

October 10, 2022
By Mike Schuler

All 33 offshore wind turbines (click here) have now been installed at Japan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.

The installation was carried out by Seajacks International’s Seajacks Zaratan jackup vessel at the Akita and Noshiro offshore wind farm situated off the Japanese Akita Prefecture.

The project, which is owned by Akita Offshore Wind Corporation (AOW), is the first commercial-scale fixed-bottom wind farm to be constructed in Japan. It is being constructed at two locations just off Akita Port and the nearby Noshiro Port.

The two locations have a total capacity of 140 megawatts (MW), enough to power approximately 150,000 homes. The power will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power Co. under a 20-year purchase agreement....

The meal he referred to is a community dinner held for the homeless. He eats every meal somewhere the community meals are served. He looks forward to them and seeing other people like him in the same situation.

He has family in Florida, but, states he would have to pitch a tent in the back yard as the family's home is full and then some. He also stated the tent would not be tolerated by the neighbors in Florida and he didn't want to cause anyone trouble.

Nick is one of many Americans sincerely struggling to achieve housing and with it some degree of monthly support to sustain the housing and some degree of quality of life. I think if Nick had a place to call home, food to eat, a television or more properly stated screen and internet he could be happy.

That is one of my conversations with Nick. He is "in it to win it" with the extremist Republican arm because of guns. He is convinced Americans need to be armed to protect from "the crazies." What Nick disconnects from is the reality that is Donald John Trump. There are no conspiracies against Trump, there is however the law. What Nick also seems to disconnect from is that Trump, like Victor Orban, IS THE CRAZY Nick seeks to protect from. He cannot fathom that reality. I tried to explain it to him and maybe he will "get it" someday, but, right now Nick is still lost in his own reality and willing to be a MAGA Republican because of the conspiracies against them.

Yes, I have talked with him face to face. He loves his car. 

I wanted to understand him more. I knew the information he was getting about important political issues was contorted to support extremist agendas. I respected the service to this country. I am here in the USA because of men like him and like my father and I needed to understand the misguidance that allowed him a false reality.

He is in his 50s and considered disabled. He receives about $1000 per month. I have no specific sound proof, but, in conversations with him there was no reason to think he was handing  me mistruths about himself.

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I take it all in. I don't argue every point. 

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In the video of the gold teeth, the Ukrainian man show his lower arms and hands. There is something wrong. I honestly had no concept of what that was about and Nick answered.

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This is the "YouTube" reference.

The video I posted earlier about the Gold Teeth followed this in the conversation and his reply followed. He relates to videos like no one I have ever written with before. The videos help solidify his basic political understanding.

 

The first video is the people of Ukraine.

We are both Americans and we both agree the war Russia has engaged in with Ukraine is very, very wrong. We both believe in the people of Ukraine, their safety and the way forward.

We both agree Russia has traitored the understanding of peaceful prosperity with the Free World.

As is also easily seen, AI substituted rally for really. Is that a conspiracy, too?

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What I found interesting about this is while Nick strongly believes the videos via YouTube he is willing to assign a conspiracy to any mistake he perceives as "screwing up" or "screwed up." Basically, any glitch or deliberately placed imperfection is the fault of a larger entity he cannot control such as Google. It is the basis of much that is MAGA Republican, recognizing a conspiracy wherever it exists.

I simply don't argue with Nick about such things because regardless of published privacy agreements, I would not be able to end his ideology of a conspiracy. I just don't recognize that silliness in the conversation and move on.

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Nick would not mind having our conversations on the blog. He is a good person and he likes the idea of reaching people to bring them his understanding of life.

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I have to give Nick credit for at least knowing there is a climate crisis that needs to end. He is trying his best and the information available to him is limited in scope of the potential for ending the climate crisis because so called experts are paid by the petroleum industry to act as a surrogate for their companies and/or the people speaking to Nick actually believe what they say, hence an uninformed or very stubborn professional.

Europe's energy crisis is not new and they hang onto every work from Russia/Gazprom to determine if the price of methane will increase. 

One might pay attention to fact the pipeline was blown up as was the bridge. But, there is no report of a direct link between the two.

This is an article I read this morning which invokes the issue of governance and who patrols such structures, the cost and the feasibility of such things.

October 8, 2022
By Natalia Drozdiak

NATO allies are struggling (click here) to work out how to better safeguard undersea critical infrastructure after the Nord Stream pipelines blasts laid bare the difficulty of monitoring facilities and identifying any attackers.

The sheer scale and underwater depth of assets such as pipelines — or data cables that allow the internet to function — heighten the challenge for governments. With most systems owned by private companies, proving which government may have sponsored an attack is even more complex.

“We’ve had a theoretical concern that it could be vulnerable but until these Nord Stream explosions, we have not seen an incident like this on that infrastructure,” said Kristine Berzina, a senior fellow for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, D.C. “Now this sets off lots of worries about what other kind of infrastructure can be targeted.”

Russia’s bellicose rhetoric and steps to throttle Europe’s energy supplies have sparked concern that Moscow might target crucial underwater infrastructure like the pipelines from Norway that supply more than a fifth of the continent’s natural gas, or some of the 400 undersea data cables that carry about 98% of international internet data and telephone traffic around the world....

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This is the video Nick sent me.

Right is right and wrong is wrong and using fossil fuels is wrong. This video portrays an urgency that is not new. SOME of Europe has been playing with fire while engaging with Russia for energy. Hind sight is always better than foresight, but, there are countries in Europe like Scotland that use nothing but wind power and the country is very successful. Not only is Scotland successful, they are independent of Vladimir Putin and his genocidal Russia.

 

Meet Nick, a MAGA Republican

I think he came to trust me because I heard something wrong with his car engine and he had it checked out. I was correct, there was something wrong with the engine and it needed to be rebuilt. He has six months left on the lease, so this discovery was very timely.

Nick is thinking about buying the car now. He said they did a lot of work on the car under the lease and it should be good to go for some time to come.

Nick's car is important to him because it is where he lives as a homeless veteran.

So, the conversation started and it got heated very quickly. Oh. Nick is Caucasian. The heated talk was over guns. There is a video he sent me before this conversation that I have to dig out to realize the tricks to the trade of the gun industry. Nick thought the video, which are numerous, are fact and the scientific way to think about weapons of war. What he doesn't realize is the video gives permission to think of people as strong enough to survive nearly any gun ammunition type. 

But, this conversation is not about that. It is about Nick. 

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In the meantime there is this.

Russian soldiers were torturing Ukrainians and taking anything of value, including gold fillings in teeth. The people were sometimes left alive during and afterward. It is not unusual for people to have gold fillings in European countries. It is thought by some to be a status symbol culturally.

 

Conversation with a MAGA Republican.

In the past month I have begun a conversation with a MAGA Republican. I didn't expect it to last more then one conversation because I didn't pander to his ideas, so much as seek to correct them. But, interestingly, the conversation has endured and I have been able to bring about a different reality. I would like to put the most recent conversation here if I can get the computer to do what I hope it will do. I never claim to be an IT wizard. I am not. I am proud of that fact.

The MAGA Republican is not a White Supremacist or Christian Nationalist. The conversation proved my theory about Trump's assault against our democracy, that it involves Americans from diverse backgrounds each protecting their own "moral" territory.

I need to retrieve my laptop. That is the only computer that will do as I ask.

Later today and thank you for your interest.

The climate crisis...

 ...is best fought by reducing greenhouse gas emissions of all kinds. The mitigation of the climate crisis is only mitigation, not an end. It is like a putting a quart of oil in an old clunker of a car, sooner or later the leak will end the use of that car. 

Mitigation of any kind of the climate crisis is simply that mitigation. 

Drastic measures need to begin to bring greenhouse gas levels down in Earth's troposphere. Using WHITE CONCRETE IN ANY CONSTRUCTION to increase albedo is an excellent idea, but, it will not decrease the CAUSES of the climate crisis. It is the causes that must be addressed. Mitigating the climate crisis is about function through an emergency, not an end to the emergency.

Good morning.

I am sure the USA Army Corp. of Engineers is working on a new channel. My guess would be dredging first with plans in the works for a new way of providing transportation for the freight on those barges. If there is going to be a continued pattern of lack of rain, the idea of securing a new channel may be a foolish pursuit.

October 6, 2022
By Elizabeth Elkin, Will Wade and Michael Hirtzer

...Top US barge operator Ingram Barge Co. said low water levels are affecting part of its operating network below Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“Chronic low water conditions throughout the inland river system have had a negative effect on many who rely on the river,” Chief Executive Officer John Roberts said Thursday in the email.

A barge carries 1,750 tons of dry cargo — the equivalent of 70 trucks. A tow hauling 15 barges can carry more than 900,000 bushels of grains and over 20 million gallons of liquid, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers. Shipping prices have soared in recent weeks....

...The reason for low river levels is simple: lack of rain.

Minneapolis received about a quarter-inch of rain in the past 30 days, below the average of almost 3 inches for this time of year, according to meteorologist Steve Silver of Maxar Technologies Inc. St. Louis received 0.86 inches, less than a third of average, and Memphis has seen a half-inch instead of more than 3 inches.

Many parts of the Midwest and Plains states are experiencing drought, which affects water flowing into tributaries that normally feed into the Mississippi, Silver said.

Things are unlikely to improve anytime soon. There’s less than an inch of rain expected across the region through the end of next week, according to Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham....

During the pandemic Midwest farm grain elevators found a route at the St. Lawrence Seaway. There were drought conditions along the Seaway last year.

June 20, 2022
By Harry Valentine

The international regulatory agency (click here) that oversees water levels on Lake Ontario and downstream along the St. Lawrence River is working to manage the effects of lower than normal water levels in their jurisdiction resulting from drought conditions. This drought follows two years of extremely high water levels in Lake Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River....

...Now the same officials are expressing concern over record low water levels caused by a drought that affects the watershed area of the Great Lakes. Presently, excess water from previous years is beginning to flow from the Upper Great Lakes....

The droughts are all a part of the climate crisis. Just because they are called droughts does not remove drought from the climate crisis. If anything the droughts enforce the understanding of the climate crisis. Shipping is the least of the concerns.

...The drought has reduced rainfall over watershed areas of numerous rivers that flow into the St. Lawrence River, including the Ottawa River, which has a hydroelectric power dam located northwest of Montreal. Hydroelectric power dams are located along many other rivers that flow into the St. Lawrence River, which also provide numerous municipalities with drinking water and sustain some agricultural production through irrigation....

...The Lower St. Lawrence River downstream of Montreal is under the jurisdiction of the Government of Canada, which has the authority to decide as to whether or not to install navigation locks along the river to assure sufficient water levels during future drought. Officials may be motivated to maintain the “status quo,” hoping for the return of traditional long-term weather patterns. They will need to establish strategy by which to manage future excess high water levels on Lake Ontario and along the Seaway in a way that prevents excess flooding around the City of Montreal....

Russian missle launchers…

 …must be viewed as battlefield targets in order to continue protection of Ukraine and its people. It will end the war.

By destroying the bridge Russia built to illegally annex Crimea, clearly demonstrates the lack of sovereignty Russia held over the region. It is very unfortunate Russia invaded Crimea at all after the tragedy of the Maidan. Needless to say hostilities existed in Ukraine long before 2014.

I will be blogging tomorrow. I think it will be surprisingly interesting to many.