News 27 September 2021
We talk about great nuclear plant disasters but one the is ongoing is the disaster at Fukushima, Japan. We know what happened, there was a reactor meltdown, but that was only the beginning. Even robots which were sent in broke down under the radiation and now the company wants to dump 1,000,000 gallons of contaminated water into the ocean. Another thing which might not be known is not only did one reactor melt, but all three. Since the accident the plant is leaking about 300 tons of radioactive water into the ocean. This has been going on since 2011. What has it done to the ocean life?
The search for alien life continues and some astronomers think there was a big breakthrough. No, it was not other life being discovered yet. It was the fact scientists believe life might be able to exist on some planets which are not like earth. They have named this type of planet Hycean. This stands for a new class which are hot, ocean covered and have hydrogen rich atmospheres. To quote what one article about this claimed, it is a real possibility life outside the solar system will be discovered in the next two or three years. I guess we will have to wait and see, but I doubt it.
There is talk the United States not only has a secret space weapon, but they might be thinking about revealing it. There are plenty of ideas about what it could be, and the money is on a weapon which could interfere with the electronics of satellites. This could be entirely wrong however. The X-37B is our secret space plane which has no pilot and is sometimes sent into orbit for years at a time. Could this have been the testbed for the weapon? We know the Russians can jam the electronics on our ships because they have done it, I would think we have at least the same capacity and could have a far stronger device for space.
Are you tired of having to recharge batteries in your devices because they don’t seem to last long enough? There could be good news on the horizon. Scientists from Stanford University and other countries have been studying this problem and they believe they have come up with an answer. A battery which will last six times longer between charges. These batteries, if they come to market, will be very useful for our gadgets, but not only that, they will allow electric cars to have six times the current range. If we look at the range today of about 300 miles or a little more, it would become 1,500 miles on a charge. This is if the automaker doesn’t decide to use less batteries to save weight and money in manufacture. Even in that case these cars would still probably have a greater range than today.
I think most of us know what a wind powered turbine is. They are like futuristic windmills only many times larger. It is hard to realize how big these things are until you get right next to one. What you may not know is the bigger they get, the more efficient they are. The Chinese are planning to build one with a 242 meter rotor. This is 794 feet. The swept area will be 46,000 meters squared. That is about 151,000 feet. This device will truly be a monster and is scheduled to be placed in the ocean. It is being said just one device this size could power 20,000 homes. Guess what, there are some ideas out there to make them even bigger.
There is going to be a new glue in town and one of the first uses will be for surgery. Scientists have developed a glue which dries in seconds and is very strong. They got the idea from studying barnacles. The glue is able to stick to slimy and wet surfaces and it is being figured it would be perfect for the medical profession to use. I have to wonder if it was put on a wound and after the wound healed, could you get any excess off?
Do you know who Lizzie Borden was? She was a lady who the old saying, says Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks and when she saw what she had done, gave her father 41. During a trial she was acquitted and no one else brought to justice. The owners of the house she lived in have decided to hire a paranormal investigator so they can conduct ghost hunts. I guess because of its grisly past the owners will do well with the hunts because people have been interested in Lizzie since 1892 when the murders took place.
Something strange is going on in our cities. The mammals that come into the cities and live there have been getting bigger. Scientists believed the climate had more to do with an animals size. My opinion is they are eating better because there is always plenty of garbage on hand and I also think if there was no food readily available, they wouldn’t come to the cities.
In a new study, it was reported 22 percent of people had a breakdown in their relationships in the last year. One had to wonder what effect Covid had on these numbers. There probably has been a lot of arguments about Covid related things. I’m thinking about mask, don’t mask, go out or stay home, and other things.
There is new hope for people who have lost a hand. It comes in the form of an inflatable hand which will still give amputees full control. As a matter of fact, it almost looks like a hand in a glove. It is believed not only is the hand better and soft, but it will lower the cost for an artificial hand tremendously.
A history teacher had decided to clean his aunt’s home in Hagen, Germany. What he found startled him. In a space he found all sorts of Nazi medals and a picture of Hitler. A local government official said he thinks these objects were hidden in 1945 at the end of the war. One can understand why this might have happened at the time.
Did you know there was an Indonesian Space Agency? I have to admit I was not aware of this or forgotten it. The reason I mentioned it was the fact they are going to also search for aliens on other planets next year. They are joining a long line of space agencies which are going to do this.