Archive of entries posted on December 2024

China To Help Mitigate Global Warming by Blocking Out Sun Over U.S. With Observation Drones

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Fed spokeswoman: “We can’t track them at all, because they seem to be originating from — and disappearing behind — slightly sloped roofs. Wait. Am I allowed to say that?”

IMAO Exclusive: Isolated Amazon Tribe Shakes Spears at Surveillance Plane; DHS and Pentagon Sending Teams To Learn Their Advanced Techniques

Related: Interns Shoot Down IMAO Nightly Nightie Drones

Straight Line of the Day: What? What Are Ancient Bacteria Radioing Each Other?

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Scientists Discover Radio-Like Communication in Ancient Bacteria
Scitech Daily | December 09, 2024 | University of Cambridge

Cyanobacteria use an AM radio-like mechanism to regulate their genes, with the cell division cycle acting as a “carrier wave” and their circadian clock modulating the pulse strength to integrate signals from these two rhythms. This discovery explains how cells coordinate these oscillatory processes and may have applications in biotechnology and synthetic biology.

Actually, this is a pretty darn cool discovery that may have a lot of implications.

Friday Night Open Thread: Giving

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This week, in the spirit of Hannukah and Christmas — but not Kwanzaa, which seems like a self-centered made-up holiday — we are talking about giving. And, I guess, taking, if you’re on the receiving end.

“Give till it hurts,” some say, but that doesn’t seem sustainable. So, my advice is: don’t.

I once handed money to a bum in Manhattan, but my college girlfriend, who lived there, told me I was dumb to. That hurt.

You can’t talk about giving without talking about Ebenezer Scrooge, which shows the genius of Charles Dickens. I like all his books. You should read all of them. When you’re done doing that, remember to come back and comment below.

In closing, I’d remind you that the quality of mercy is not strained, although spaghetti sauce often is. If you have any questions, please address them to Walrus, who probably makes a damn good sauce. What with all the interns.

And While We’re Talking About Germany: Adolph Hitler — Humanitarian???

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Saw this in a book [Churchill’s Deception, Louis Kilzer, 1994]. Either Hitler was dissembling, which of course he never did, or he really felt similar to the way normal people do when they read about people clamoring for war:

On October 6 [1939], Hitler slowly walked to the podium at the Kroll Opera House to address the Reichstag. For a time the hushed audience saw a side of Hitler they never knew existed, if in fact it ever did. …

Of the European conflict, Hitler said simply: “It would be more sensible to tackle the solution before millions of men are first uselessly sent to their death . . . Long-range guns will then be set up, and from both sides destruction will strike deeper and deeper, and whatever cannot be reached by the long-distance guns will be destroyed from the air. And that will be very interesting for certain international journalists, and very profitable for the aeroplane, arms, and munition manufacturers, etc., but appalling for the victims.”

Sounds a little like today.

Also sounding a little like today, in 1940, Ulrich von Hassell, a German ambassador (who, incidentally, was in on a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler), sounds Nostradamus-like in his predictions:

Europe had changed in ways that were fundamental. It would never again be as it was. … There would come, Hassell prophesied, the “ascendency of Hitler’s brand of socialism, the destruction of the upper class, the transformation of the churches into meaningless sects. … We shall get a godless nature, a dehumanized, cultureless Germany, and perhaps a Europe, conscienceless and brutal.”

Word of the Day: “Dunkelflaute”

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Germany’s Gas Use and Power Prices Jump Amid Weak Wind Generation
Oil price | Dec 11, 2024 | Tsvetana Paraskova

Intraday power prices in Germany jumped and natural gas-fired electricity generation rose to a two-year high this week as low wind speeds continue to depress wind power output.

Natural gas use for power generation rose on Wednesday to its highest level since December 2022, as a wider power supply gap had to be filled by fossil fuels amid very weak wind power generation.

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Germany’s power margin, the available electricity supply to meet demand, has dropped this week to the lowest level so far this winter, as low wind speeds and colder weather are straining the power system.

This week, wind speeds in Germany have dipped again, while colder-than-usual temperatures have settled over much of northwest Europe.

Since early November, the so-called ‘Dunkelflaute’, German for “dark wind lulls”, have often resulted in wind farms in Europe’s biggest economy generating only a fraction of their nameplate capacity, leading to day-ahead electricity prices for peak demand hours to high levels not seen since the peak energy crisis in 2022.

Near-term power prices have increased as supply has been fluctuating while demand has been growing with the colder temperatures. Germany has had to import more electricity from France and rely more on fossil fuels for power generation during periods of low wind speeds.

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Germany has to grapple with higher hourly power prices and increased gas demand…