To All,
Good Tuesday Morning September 10. We are supposed to drop to 90 today and 80 tomorrow. I welcome it with all the work going on here inside and out. Last class of the Summer quarter on Thursday. Start up again on Monday. I hope you all are dong well
The 22nd Anniversary of 911 is tomorrow. There are a number of writings and TV shows that summarize what happened. We should watch these and remember because what happened in Afghanistan recently and what is going on lately in our country will embolden them to come back. With our current policy of immigration they may be here already. We are not ready.
Warm Regards,
skip
Make it a good Day
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 83 H-Grams
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History Thanks to NHHC
September 10
1813 During the War of 1812, Commodore Oliver H. Perry leads his fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie, flying his "Don't give up the ship" flag on the brig USS Lawrence, which is destroyed during battle. Rowing in open boat to Niagara with survivors, Perry brings the fleet into action and wins the engagement. Reporting on British squadron defeat, he writes: "We have met the enemy and they are ours...."
1846 John Y. Mason becomes the 18th Secretary of the Navy, serving until March 1849. This term is marked by efforts to sustain the Navy's force in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast, to construct new steamers and an effort to obtain warships thorough the subsidization of civilian mail steamships.
1851 The paddle frigate USS Mississippi carries Gov. Louis Kossuth and the other refugees of the overthrown government of the Hungarian Republic from Dardanelles to Gibraltar.
1861 During the Civil War, USS Lexington and USS Conestoga support an armed advance at Lucas Bend, Mo. While supporting the advance, the vessels damage the Confederate gunboat, CSS Jackson, and silence a Confederate battery.
1944 Submarine USS Sunfish (SS 281) torpedoes and sinks Japanese merchant tanker, Chihaya Maru, east of Quelpart Island.
1945 USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV 41) is commissioned as the lead ship of its class. USS Midway is the largest ship in the world until 1955. USS Midway serves for 47 years during the Vietnam War and as the Persian Gulf flagship in 1991's Operation Desert Storm. In 1992, USS Midway is decommissioned and is now a museum ship at the USS Midway Museum, in San Diego, CA.
2017 Hurricane Irma makes landfall as a Category 4 storm in the Florida Keys, and makes landfall a second time the same day on Marco Island on the state's Gulf Coast. The Navy responds by sending USS Wasp (LHD 1), USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), USS Oak Hill (LSD 51), USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7), USS New York (LPD 21), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and 16 aircraft to provide humanitarian assistance that lasts until Sept. 19.
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Today in World History
September 10
1419 John the Fearless is murdered at Montereau, France, by supporters of the dauphin.
1547 The Duke of Somerset leads the English to a resounding victory over the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh.
1588 Thomas Cavendish returns to England, becoming the third man to circumnavigate the globe.
1623 Lumber and furs are the first cargo to leave New Plymouth in North America for England.
1813 The nine-ship American flotilla under Oliver Hazard Perry wrests naval supremacy from the British on Lake Erie by capturing or destroying a force of six English vessels.
1846 Elias Howe patents the first practical sewing machine in the United States.
1855 Sevastopol, under siege for nearly a year, capitulates to the Allies during the Crimean War.
1861 Confederates at Carnifex Ferry, Virginia, fall back after being attacked by Union troops. The action is instrumental in helping preserve western Virginia for the Union.
1912 Jules Vedrines becomes the first pilot to break the 100 m.p.h. barrier.
1914 The six-day Battle of the Marne ends, halting the German advance into France.
1923 In response to a dispute with Yugoslavia, Mussolini mobilizes Italian troops on Serb front.
1961 Jomo Kenyatta returns to Kenya from exile, during which he had been elected president of the Kenya National African Union.
1963 President John F. Kennedy federalizes Alabama's National Guard to prevent Governor George C. Wallace from using guardsmen to stop public-school desegregation.
1967 Gibraltar votes to remain a British dependency instead of becoming part of Spain.
1974 Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese Guinea) gains independence from Portugal.
1981 Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica is returned to Spain and installed in Madrid's Prado Museum. Picasso stated in his will that the painting was not to return to Spain until the Fascists lost power and democracy was restored.
2001 Contestant Charles Ingram cheats on the British version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, wins 1 million pounds.
2003 Sweden's foreign minister, Anna Lindh, is stabbed while shopping and dies the next day.
2007 Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister of Pakistan, returns after 7 years in exile, following a military coup in October 1999.
2008 The Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator—described as the biggest scientific experiment in history—is powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.
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Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 9 September 2024 and ending on Sunday, 15 September 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post of 8 September 1969… Ho Chi Minh, dead at age 79. His will and final "pep talk" are included in this post. Also, the issue of whether our captured air crewmen—Yankee Air Pirates held in North Vietnam — were POWs or war criminals subject to trials and execution resurfaces.
(Please note the eye-watering ongoing revamp of the RTR website by Webmaster/Author Dan Heller, who has inherited the site from originators RADM Bear Taylor, USN, Retired, and Angie Morse, "Mighty Thunder")…
To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro put together. You click on the url below and can read what happened each day to the aircraft and its crew. .Micro is the one also that goes into the archives and finds these inputs and sends them to me for incorporation in the List. It is a lot of work and our thanks goes out to him for his effort.
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "for 10 September
10-Sep: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1344Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info
https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
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The recent article on the 1000 plane raid join-ups has brought more information and stories…skip
The Mighty Eighth" - more ..
From the archives
Thanks to Dr. Rich
Thanks to Ed …
Rich,
The mere assembly of 1000 bomber raids is, indeed, hair-raising!
And imagine the German citizens in 1945 witnessing the endless streams above them!!
My uncle, Oscar Sampson, died before I knew this entire story.
His adventure, as part of the 92nd BG, of how and why he escaped from Switzerland (sic) is mentioned in 8 books so far.
Sampson was a co-pilot in the 92nd BG, out of Podington, England.
John Steichen, the crew's surviving navigator, gave me much of the story, and described his first mission, with a different crew, when the pilot told him, "Give me a heading to the 'flasher' ".
John replied, "What's a 'flasher'? "
It must have been a different name for the 'buncher'.
Ed
For those interested, the whole story:
http://jmisys.com/WWII/page_one.html
https://www.classicwarbirds.co.uk/articles/the-history-of-lead-assembly-ship
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Thanks to History Facts
The Dutch and English "fought" a 335-year war without any battles.
The Isles of Scilly, a quiet archipelago off the coast of Cornwall in southwest England, is the unlikely site of one of the longest wars in history — although the 335-year conflict between the Dutch and the English was because of a clerical error rather than lingering animosity. There were no battles or bloodshed, and everybody involved forgot they were at war after just a few months. Starting in the 1640s, the British Isles were mired in a civil war between the Royalists, who supported the monarchy of Charles I and II, and Parliamentarians, who supported Parliament. The Dutch were longtime allies of the Royalists, but they predicted — rightly — that the Parliamentarians would be the victors. Wanting to be in England's good graces after the likely change in leadership, they threw their support behind the Parliamentarians. The Royalists were, predictably, unhappy about this, and started raiding along Dutch shipping routes in the English Channel. By 1651, the Royalist navy had been forced out of Cornwall and pushed back into the Isles of Scilly. The Netherlands saw an opportunity to confront its former allies about the damage to its trade ships, and sent 12 warships to demand reparations. When they didn't get what they wanted, Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp declared war on the Isles of Scilly, and therefore the Royalists, on March 30. The Dutch forces were still there when the Parliamentarians took the Isles of Scilly from the Royalists that June. Since the region was no longer under Royalist control, the Dutch sailed home, leaving a major loose end: their declaration of war.For more than three centuries, life went on in the Isles of Scilly as if the war had ended when the Dutch left. But in 1986, a local Scillian historian named Roy Duncan wrote to the Dutch Embassy in London inquiring about the conflict. Sure enough, the embassy found documentation that the war had never technically ended, although it's unclear whether Admiral Tromp had the authority to declare war in the first place. Duncan invited Dutch Ambassador Rein Huydecoper to come to the Isles of Scilly to sign a peace treaty, thus officially ending the war on April 17, 1986.
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Thanks to this Day in History
On September 10, 1897, a 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building. Smith later pleaded guilty and was fined 25 shillings.
In the United States, the first laws against operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol went into effect in New York in 1910. In 1936, Dr. Rolla Harger, a professor of biochemistry and toxicology, patented the Drunkometer, a balloon-like device into which people would breathe to determine whether they were inebriated. In 1953, Robert Borkenstein, a former Indiana state police captain and university professor who had collaborated with Harger on the Drunkometer, invented the Breathalyzer. Easier-to-use and more accurate than the Drunkometer, the Breathalyzer was the first practical device and scientific test available to police officers to establish whether someone had too much to drink. A person would blow into the Breathalyzer and it would gauge the proportion of alcohol vapors in the exhaled breath, which reflected the level of alcohol in the blood.
Despite the invention of the Breathalyzer and other developments, it was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that public awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving increased and lawmakers and police officers began to get tougher on offenders. In 1980, a Californian named Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, after her 13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver while walking home from a school carnival. The driver had three previous drunk-driving convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days earlier. Lightner and MADD were instrumental in helping to change attitudes about drunk driving and pushed for legislation that increased the penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. MADD also helped get the minimum drinking age raised in many states.
Today, the legal drinking age is 21 everywhere in the United States and convicted drunk drivers face everything from jail time and fines to the loss of their driver's licenses and increased car insurance rates. Some drunk drivers are ordered to have ignition interlock devices installed in their vehicles. These devices require a driver to breathe into a sensor attached to the dashboard; the car won't start if the driver's blood alcohol concentration is above a certain limit.
Despite the stiff penalties and public awareness campaigns, drunk driving remains a serious problem in the United States. Each year, roughly 10,000 people die in alcohol-related crashes and more than one million people are arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
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Thank to Brett for this bit of reality
As usual, Dr. Hanson is right on target. How in Heaven's name can this debacle be corrected? The lesson is: don't elect weak people!!
https://victorhanson.com/the-biden-harris-world-is-afire/
The Biden-Harris World Is Afire
September 9, 2024
Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
Somehow the United States ended up this summer with no engaged president and an absent vice president who avoids the missing president and is frantically repudiating everything she co-owned the last three years.
The world was already confused over how President Joe Biden was apparently declared by unnamed Democratic insiders and donors unfit and unable to continue as their presidential candidate—as if he were a dethroned Third-World usurper.
It further wondered how those who staged his removal had no problem allowing him, in his debilitated state, to continue as America's commander-in-chief until January 20, 2025. They demonstrated their priorities that focus on retaining power, not the welfare of the nation or the will of over 14 million Biden primary voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris, until Biden's forced abdication, was judged by these same backroom fixers as too incompetent to ever be commander-in-chief and thus for three years a good reason why Biden apparently was not forced out earlier.
Now nominal Vice President Harris is on the campaign trail nonstop, while Biden has taken the most vacation time off and worked the shortest workweek in presidential memory.
The world again wonders who is in charge, what they believe, who is a friend, and who is an enemy. Harris is busy trying to get elected on three premises: disowning her prior co-ownership of what was mostly a disastrous Biden term and certainly no recommendation for reelection; reinventing her affluent radical past and present as moderate and working-class; and keeping absolutely silent about any detailed agenda or policy plan for governance as president.
Our rivals and opponents abroad cannot decide which is better for their own anti-American agendas—a derelict and absent Biden-Harris or dealing with a cognitively challenged Biden and a linguistically loopy Harris?
So, again, who or what now governs America?
Is it Biden again at the beach or closing up shop at noon for his nap and early bedtime?
Or is it Vice President Harris, far from the White House, out campaigning and confused over who she really is or wants to be, what, if anything, she plans on doing if elected president, and how to avoid any unscripted moment?
Or are our real rulers the stealth cabal of Democratic grandees and billionaire donors who arranged the Biden presidency by forcing out his 2020 primary rivals, staged the conspiratorial silence about his real disabilities for well over three years, ambushed him, and forced him off the Democratic ticket, and are now frantically reinventing Kamala Harris as capable and centrist when just a few months ago they had written her off as incompetent and a hopeless wannabe California radical?
As a result, a confused but also encouraged world of enemies watches the listless United States and wonders whether to try something stupid.
In this widening vacuum, lots of foreign opportunists, outright enemies, and nihilists are seizing the day—on the assurance that Biden is not a lame duck, but a lame, lame duck, and Harris is a near functionary in search of an identity and an idea.
The Houthis, a ragtag cabal of terrorists who hijacked Yemen after shaking off a few prior Biden "precision" retaliatory strikes, now "own" the Red Sea. They just hit a Greek-flagged oil tanker that is now adrift and polluting the Red Sea. It serves as their warning for commercial ships to keep clear of their mare nostrum.
The Houthis expect neither a Western nor an American response to ensure safe transit in and out of the southern Mediterranean by the world's commercial fleet. Apparently, they believe that they are so backward, and their drones are so cheap and simple that the top-heavy U.S. cannot afford to hit their ad hoc launches with sophisticated, multimillion-dollar, and often misapplied weapons. And they are probably right.
Indeed, under Biden-Harris, the world has now lost free and safe transit in the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the South China Sea, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Will the Caribbean or mid-Atlantic be next? The military is short thousands of troops, the merchant marines idling ships.
Our NATO enemy/"ally" Turkey—when it is not threatening to send missiles against fellow NATO member Greece, bragging about once again ethnic cleansing Armenians, leveling more warnings to Cyprus, bombing the Kurds, colluding with the Russians and Chinese, trying to veto Finnish and Swedish NATO membership, or claiming US nuclear weapons based in Turkey are virtually its own—apparently has created such an anti-American climate that its pro-Erdogan street thugs feel they can beat up visiting American sailors, docking at Izmir to help aid the Turkish navy.
Not a peep follows from the White House. If it had, President Recep Erdogan would have leveled one of his accustomed unhinged responses.
Hamas just murdered more of its Israeli hostages, among them an American citizen.
Now non-candidate Biden is apparently still more worried about 250,000 Muslim voters in Michigan (who profess more solidarity with Hamas than lament the murder of a fellow citizen) than US interests in the Middle East. He customarily and matter-of-factly issued one of his empty editorials before returning to form by performance art blasting Israel.
In Biden's world, our closest and only democratic ally in the Middle East is at fault because it will not, this election year, give constant concessions to the murderous Hamas clique. Biden-Harris forget that Hamas started the current war by butchering 1,200 Israelis at a time of peace, scrambled back to its subterranean labyrinth with over 250 hostages, hid their terrorist killers under schools, hospitals, and mosques, murdered any who were about to be rescued by Israeli forces, and promised to kill more if rescue attempts continue.
The Biden-Harris messaging seems simple: pro-Western, civilized, and consensually governed nations are rational and so listen to the U.S. and therefore should be leveraged and often punished for rationality; anti-American, medieval, and theocratic terrorist cabals do not and therefore should be appeased and exempted from criticism or retaliation given their lawlessness.
Normally, when asked about foreign threats to harm Americans or their interests, Biden gives one of his accustomed blowhard, one-word threats, "Don't!" That empty and tired banality is now interpreted abroad as zero consequences will follow when you harm America. As a general rule, an animated Biden is far more likely to threaten to beat up or go after Trump than Hamas or Iran.
Harris has been mum—other than her usual on the one hand/on the other hand vacuity. Her vice presidential candidate running mate, the usually frenetic and loquacious Tim Walz, when asked directly about the murder of an American hostage, similarly goes mum—and simply waved off the question and turned away. Walz seems as terrified as Harris of any unrehearsed utterance, as if he knows only his silence masks his foolery.
Brazil, as was warned by many, is heading toward full-scale Latin American communism of the Venezuela/Nicaragua/Cuba sort. It is now waging a censorship war against Elon Musk with the tacit approval of the Biden-Harris consortium—for the crime of turning the former useful Twitter leftwing and censored megaphone into a global free speech pavilion.
Ukraine has now been inside Mother Russia for weeks, which is strategically understandable but geo-strategically dangerous against a nuclear hyperpower run by a ruthless dictator. Biden has no clue what the U.S. is doing other than supplying enough arms to Ukraine not to lose but more than enough to trigger a wider theater war. Ask Biden and Harris what the U.S. strategy is on Ukraine, and one will mumble incomprehensibly, the other, if unguarded, plunge into a circular word salad about the "art of diplomacy" or "democratic fragility."
Iran is more afraid of an Israeli response than U.S. threats.
Or is it worse than that? Does the theocracy now rely on Biden-Harris to restrain any Israeli retaliation for the tens of thousands of rockets launched by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran against the Jewish state.?
All Biden-Harris had to do was continue the Trump protocol of warning Iran to stay out of the conflict. Instead, it de facto greenlighted the Iranian supply chain to Hamas and Hezbollah and turned all of them loose to murder.
In truth, US foreign policy toward Iran is the resumption of the Obama-era embrace of the supposed underdog Shiite/Persian counterweight to Gulf moderates and democratic Israel. Biden-Harris cares not a whit whether Iran goes nuclear and might even in their warped Ben-Rhodes/Barack Obama-era imbecility tacitly support such nuclearization to "rein in" the Jewish state.
Mexico's outgoing "president," Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has now unabashedly also gone full communist. As he preps the way for his even harder-left successor, Obrador is seeking to destroy what is left of Mexico's democracy.
AMLO, remember, bragged of the tens of millions of illegal aliens that Mexico drove out and into the U.S.—especially given the $60 billion in remittances they send to prop up an otherwise failed narco-state. In retirement, he will brag that he was the first Mexican president to destroy the U.S. border.
He even urged all Mexican-American expatriates to vote anti-Republican. For the next few months, he will cooperate with the US to slow down the influx northward in order to allow Harris-Biden to claim they are for pre-November 5 election-cycle "border security." And thereby help Harris get elected and welcome in another 10 million illegal aliens.
In his delusions, AMLO—who proved one of the truly dangerous anti-Americans on the world stage—thinks he is winning phase two of the 19th-century Mexican War. In fact, all he is proving is that millions of Mexicans want out of his country and only romanticize it when they are safely and permanently distant from its numerous failed paradigms.
In sum, there really is no President Biden or Vice President Harris. The former is non compos mentis and failing ever more rapidly. The latter has no clue who she is or what she should do. The cabal that engineered their respective exits and entrances cares more about retaining power than using it for American interests.
So, we are in perilous times.
All of our enemies and even former neutrals are coming out of the woodwork. They are convinced that the next two months offer one-time advantages—unless Harris is elected and thus can extend their opportunities for four more years of what Americans see as a chaotic decline, but the world abroad views as a rare and ripe opportunity.
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From the archives
Economy"
Bill Gates has said that when it comes to understanding energy realities "we need to bring math to the problem." He's right.
Sunday, July 7, 2019
A week doesn't pass without a mayor, governor, policymaker or pundit joining the rush to demand, or predict, an energy future that is entirely based on wind/solar and batteries, freed from the "burden" of the hydrocarbons that have fueled societies for centuries. Regardless of one's opinion about whether, or why, an energy "transformation" is called for, the physics and economics of energy combined with scale realities make it clear that there is no possibility of anything resembling a radically "new energy economy" in the foreseeable future. Bill Gates has said that when it comes to understanding energy realities "we need to bring math to the problem."
He's right. So, in my recent Manhattan Institute report, "The New Energy Economy: An Exercise in Magical Thinking," I did just that.
Herein, then, is a summary of some of the bottom-line realities from the underlying math. (See the full report for explanations, documentation, and citations.)
Realities About the Scale of Energy Demand
1. Hydrocarbons supply over 80 percent of world energy: If all that were in the form of oil, the barrels would line up from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, and that entire line would grow by the height of the Washington Monument every week.
2. The small two-percentage-point decline in the hydrocarbon share of world energy use entailed over $2 trillion in cumulative global spending on alternatives over that period; solar and wind today supply less than two percent of the global energy.
3. When the world's four billion poor people increase energy use to just one-third of Europe's per capita level, global demand rises by an amount equal to twice America's total consumption.
4. A 100x growth in the number of electric vehicles to 400 million on the roads by 2040 would displace five percent of global oil demand.
5. Renewable energy would have to expand 90-fold to replace global hydrocarbons in two decades. It took a half-century for global petroleum production to expand "only" ten-fold.
6. Replacing U.S. hydrocarbon-based electric generation over the next 30 years would require a construction program building out the grid at a rate 14-fold greater than any time in history.
7. Eliminating hydrocarbons to make U.S. electricity (impossible soon, infeasible for decades) would leave untouched 70 percent of U.S. hydrocarbons use—America uses 16 percent of world energy.
Since 1995, total world energy use rose by 50 percent, an amount equal to adding two entire United States' worth of demand.
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8. Efficiency increases energy demand by making products & services cheaper: since 1990, global energy efficiency improved 33 percent, the economy grew 80 percent and global energy use is up 40 percent.
9. Efficiency increases energy demand: Since 1995, aviation fuel use/passenger-mile is down 70 percent, air traffic rose more than 10-fold, and global aviation fuel use rose over 50 percent.
10. Efficiency increases energy demand: since 1995, energy used per byte is down about 10,000-fold, but global data traffic rose about a million-fold; global electricity used for computing soared.
11. Since 1995, total world energy use rose by 50 percent, an amount equal to adding two entire United States' worth of demand.
12. For security and reliability, an average of two months of national demand for hydrocarbons are in storage at any time. Today, barely two hours of national electricity demand can be stored in all utility-scale batteries plus all batteries in one million electric cars in America.
13. Batteries produced annually by the Tesla Gigafactory (world's biggest battery factory) can store three minutes worth of annual U.S. electric demand.
14. To make enough batteries to store two day's worth of U.S. electricity demand would require 1,000 years of production by the Gigafactory (world's biggest battery factory).
15. Every $1 billion in aircraft produced leads to some $5 billion in aviation fuel consumed over two decades to operate them. Global spending on new jets is more than $50 billion a year—and rising.
16. Every $1 billion spent on data centers leads to $7 billion in electricity consumed over two decades. Global spending on data centers is more than $100 billion a year—and rising.
Realities about Energy Economics
17. Over a 30-year period, $1 million worth of utility-scale solar or wind produces 40 million and 55 million kWh respectively: $1 million worth of shale well produces enough natural gas to generate 300 million kWh over 30 years.
18. It costs about the same to build one shale well or two wind turbines: the latter, combined, produces 0.7 barrels of oil (equivalent energy) per hour, the shale rig averages 10 barrels of oil per hour.
19. It costs less than $0.50 to store a barrel of oil, or its equivalent in natural gas, but it costs $200 to store the equivalent energy of a barrel of oil in batteries.
20. Cost models for wind and solar assume, respectively, 41 percent and 29 percent capacity factors (i.e., how often they produce electricity). Real-world data reveal as much as ten percentage points less for both. That translates into $3 million less energy produced than assumed over a 20-year life of a 2-MW $3 million wind turbine.
If solar power scaled like computer-tech, a single postage-stamp-size solar array would power the Empire State Building. That only happens in comic books.
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21. In order to compensate for episodic wind/solar output, U.S. utilities are using oil- and gas-burning reciprocating engines (big cruise-ship-like diesels); three times as many have been added to the grid since 2000 as in the 50 years prior to that.
22. Wind-farm capacity factors have improved at about 0.7 percent per year; this small gain comes mainly from reducing the number of turbines per acre leading to a 50 percent increase in average land used to produce a wind-kilowatt-hour.
23. Over 90 percent of America's electricity, and 99 percent of the power used in transportation, comes from sources that can easily supply energy to the economy any time the market demands it.
24. Wind and solar machines produce energy an average of 25 percent–30 percent of the time, and only when nature permits. Conventional power plants can operate nearly continuously and are available when needed.
25. The shale revolution collapsed the prices of natural gas & coal, the two fuels that produce 70 percent of U.S. electricity. But electric rates haven't gone down, rising instead 20 percent since 2008. Direct and indirect subsidies for solar and wind consumed those savings.
Energy Physics… Inconvenient Realities
26. Politicians and pundits like to invoke "moonshot" language. But transforming the energy economy is not like putting a few people on the moon a few times. It is like putting all of humanity on the moon—permanently.
27. The common cliché: an energy tech disruption will echo the digital tech disruption. But information-producing machines and energy-producing machines involve profoundly different physics; the cliché is sillier than comparing apples to bowling balls.
28. If solar power scaled like computer-tech, a single postage-stamp-size solar array would power the Empire State Building. That only happens in comic books.
29. If batteries scaled like digital tech, a battery the size of a book, costing three cents, could power a jetliner to Asia. That only happens in comic books.
EVs using Chinese batteries will create more carbon-dioxide than saved by replacing oil-burning engines.
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30. If combustion engines scaled like computers, a car engine would shrink to the size of an ant and produce a thousand-fold more horsepower; actual ant-sized engines produce 100,000 times less power.
31. No digital-like 10x gains exist for solar tech. Physics limit for solar cells (the Shockley-Queisser limit) is a max conversion of about 33 percent of photons into electrons; commercial cells today are at 26 percent.
32. No digital-like 10x gains exist for wind tech. Physics limit for wind turbines (the Betz limit) is a max capture of 60 percent of energy in moving air; commercial turbines achieve 45 percent.
33. No digital-like 10x gains exist for batteries: maximum theoretical energy in a pound of oil is 1,500 percent greater than max theoretical energy in the best pound of battery chemicals.
34. About 60 pounds of batteries are needed to store the energy equivalent of one pound of hydrocarbons.
35. At least 100 pounds of materials are mined, moved and processed for every pound of battery fabricated.
36. Storing the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil, which weighs 300 pounds, requires 20,000 pounds of Tesla batteries ($200,000 worth).
37. Carrying the energy equivalent of the aviation fuel used by an aircraft flying to Asia would require $60 million worth of Tesla-type batteries weighing five times more than that aircraft.
38. It takes the energy equivalent of 100 barrels of oil to fabricate a quantity of batteries that can store the energy equivalent of a single barrel of oil.
39. A battery-centric grid and car world means mining gigatons more of the earth to access lithium, copper, nickel, graphite, rare earths, cobalt, etc.—and using millions of tons of oil and coal both in mining and to fabricate metals and concrete.
40. China dominates global battery production with its grid 70 percent coal-fueled: EVs using Chinese batteries will create more carbon-dioxide than saved by replacing oil-burning engines.
41. One would no more use helicopters for regular trans-Atlantic travel—doable with elaborately expensive logistics—than employ a nuclear reactor to power a train or photovoltaic systems to power a nation.
This article is republished with permission from Economics 21.
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This Day in U S Military History
September 10
1813 – In the first unqualified defeat of a British naval squadron in history, U.S. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry leads a fleet of nine American ships to victory over a squadron of six British warships at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The battle was closely contested for hours, and Perry's flagship Lawrence was reduced to a defenseless wreck. He then transferred to the Niagara and sailed directly into the British line, firing broadsides and forcing the British to surrender. Perry had won a complete victory at the cost of 27 Americans killed and 96 wounded; British casualties were 40 dead and 94 wounded. After the battle, Perry sent a famous dispatch to U.S. General William Henry Harrison that read, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." The Battle of Lake Erie forced the British to abandon Detroit, ensuring U.S. control over Lake Erie and the territorial northwest.
1964 – Following the Tonkin Gulf incidents, in which North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers, and the subsequent passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution empowering him to react to armed attacks, President Lyndon Johnson authorizes a series of measures "to assist morale in South Vietnam and show the Communists [in North Vietnam] we still mean business." These measures included covert action such as the resumption of the DeSoto intelligence patrols and South Vietnamese coastal raids to harass the North Vietnamese. Premier Souvanna Phouma of Laos was also asked to allow the South Vietnamese to make air and ground raids into southeastern Laos, along with air strikes by Laotian planes and U.S. armed aerial reconnaissance to cut off the North Vietnamese infiltration along the route that became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Eventually, U.S. warplanes would drop over 2 million tons of bombs on Laos as part of Operations Steel Tiger and Tiger Hound between 1965 and 1973.
2005 – Operation Restoring Rights begins in which approximately 5,000 soldiers from the 3rd Division of the Iraqi Security Force in conjunction with 3,500 troops from the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division entered the city of Tal Afar. The operation lasted until October and resulted in 10,000 pounds of explosives being uncovered and destroyed. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi accused the American military of using "poisonous gases" on Tal Afar in an audiotape received and posted on an Islamic website. The United States denied using chemical weapons in Tal Afar saying such reports were propaganda created by Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi and were false and without merit. There was an incident in which US troops wore gas masks after discovering chlorine-based chemicals. The operation tested a new strategy of "clear, hold, build", in which areas would be purged of insurgents and then occupied and then rebuilt to win support from local people before being handed over to the Iraqi security forces. An ambitious reconstruction effort was immediately implemented. New sewers were dug and the fronts of shops, destroyed in the assault, were replaced within weeks. Numerous police stations were built or rebuilt in the town by an Anglo-American construction team led by Huw Thomas. In March 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush pointed to Tal Afar as a success story, where one could "see the outlines of the Iraq we've been fighting for". The operation was considered one of the first successful counterinsurgency operations in Iraq. Colonel H.R. McMaster, commander of the operation became an advisor to General David Petraeus in the planning and execution of the 2007 troop surge.
2010 – The Battle of the Palm Grove, a 4 day engagement, took place during the Iraq War when elements of the Second Advise and Assist Brigade (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), 25th ID of the US Army supported 200 Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police in a search and sweep operation against 15-25 insurgents planting IEDs in Hudaidy, Diyala Province. During the fighting, Apache attack helicopters and Air Force F-16 fighters were called in. The fighter jets dropped two 500-lb. bombs, but it seemed to no effect. After three days of clashes, the insurgent force managed to withdraw without suffering any casualties, while up to 33 members of the Iraqi security forces were killed or wounded and even two U.S. soldiers were also injured. The battle showed the continuing struggle of the Iraqi security forces with their abilities to take control of the security in the country, without the U.S. military. In the words of an Iraqi lieutenant, If it wasn't for the American air support and artillery we would never have dreamed of entering that orchard. It was also the last major battle of the war involving U.S. forces against insurgent elements.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*CRAIG, GORDON M.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Reconnaissance Company, 1st Cavalry Division. Place and date: Near Kasan, Korea 10 September 1950. Entered service at. Brockton, Mass. Born: 1 August 1929, Brockton, Mass. G.O. No.: 23, 25 April 1951. Citation: Cpl. Craig, 16th Reconnaissance Company, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. During the attack on a strategic enemy-held hill his company's advance was subjected to intense hostile grenade mortar, and small-arms fire. Cpl. Craig and 4 comrades moved forward to eliminate an enemy machine gun nest that was hampering the company's advance. At that instance an enemy machine gunner hurled a hand grenade at the advancing men. Without hesitating or attempting to seek cover for himself, Cpl. Craig threw himself on the grenade and smothered its burst with his body. His intrepid and selfless act, in which he unhesitantly gave his life for his comrades, inspired them to attack with such ferocity that they annihilated the enemy machine gun crew, enabling the company to continue its attack. Cpl. Craig's noble self-sacrifice reflects the highest credit upon himself and upholds the esteemed traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 10, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
10 September
1927: E. J. Hill and A. G. Schlosser set a FAI distance record for subclass A-7 balloons (1,600 to 2,200 cubic meters) in the Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race by flying 745 miles from Detroit, Mich., to Baxley, Ga. Georges Blanchett and Dr. George LeGallee also set a 49-hour duration record in the same event by flying to Waverly, Ga. His record went into the books for three subclasses: A-7, A-8 and A-9 (2,200 to 3,000 and 3,000 to 4,000 cubic meters). (9)
1942: The Secretary of War formed the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Then in October, female pilots began ferrying aircraft from production sites to airfields in the US. (18)
1944: Over 1,000 Eighth Air Force bombers, escorted by hundreds of fighters, raided aircraft factories, motor transport parks, engine plants, a jet engine plant, and German airfields. (4) The C-82 prototype made its first flight at Fairchild's plant at Hagerstown, Md. It was the first aircraft designed in World War II to carry cargo exclusively. (12)
1945: The USS Midway, first of the 45,000-ton class carriers, commissioned at Newport News. (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. After USN Task Force 77 withdrew its close air support of the Eighth Army (see 3 September), General Stratemeyer asked General MacArther to direct all close air support requests to the Fifth Air Force. If unable to meet a request, Fifth Air Force would forward it to FEAF headquarters for coordination with the Commander, Naval Forces, Far East. (28)
1951: KOREAN WAR. South of Pyongyang, a 3 ARS H-5 helicopter, with fighter escort, rescued an F-80 pilot, Capt Ward M. Millar, 7 FBS. He suffered two broken ankles during his ejection from the jet, but escaped after two months as a prisoner of war and then evaded recapture for three weeks. The helicopter delivered Millar to Seoul. (28)
1953: First Douglas C-124C Globemaster delivered to MATS.
1956: First flight of the F-107.
1960: Operation SKY SHIELD. NORAD tested the defense readiness of American and Canadian radar and electronic systems. (24)
1964: Agreements between the Departments of Treasury, Defense, Interior, Commerce, the FAA, and NASA established the Joint Navigation Satellite Committee (JNSC). This committee evaluated requirements for a nonmilitary satellite system for air-sea navigation, traffic control, emergency and rescue operations, and related functions.
1965: The USAF launched the first Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) weather satellite, which enabled the Air Weather Service to gather global weather data. (2)
1969: Project Rulison occurred as the second in the Atomic Energy Commission's Operation Plowshare to explore peaceful uses of atomic energy. The first event, Cabriolet, involved a cratering experiment that took place on 26 January 1968 at the Nevada Test Site.
1974: Last Minuteman I transferred from SAC inventory to be replaced by Minuteman III. This action completed a modernization program to replace Minuteman I after 11 years of service in SAC.
1980: TYPHOON ORCHID. The typhoon caused severe flooding along the eastern coast of South Korea. An HH-3E helicopter from Osan AB rescued 229 people from swirling waters southeast of Osan. (16) (26)
1988: Through 15 September, MAC wings flew 100 tons of relief supplies and a field hospital to help victims of a flood in Bangladesh. The flood covered 3/4s of the country and almost all of the capital city, Dhaka, killing 1,200 people and leaving 28 million inhabitants homeless. (26)
1993: Boeing rolled out its 1000th 747 (747-400 model) commercial jet at Seattle. (20)
2003: A B-2A successfully dropped 80 independently targeted JDAM GBU-38 "smart" munitions against 80 separate targets at the Utah Test and Training Range to test a new Smart Bomb Rack Assembly (SBRA). The SBRA allowed the B-2 to carry, target, release, and control up to 80 GPS-guided weapons rather than its normal load of 16 weapons.
After an 11-sortie buildup toward qualifying the B-2 for the maximum munitions load, B-2 global power bomber combined test force experts successfully dropped the inert munitions. It happened at the Utah Test and Training Range, located approximately 80 miles west of Hill Air Force Base, Utah, according to Maj. William Power, 419th Flight Test Squadron project pilot.
2005: The first-ever C-130 combat mission by an all-female crew was flown from a forward location in Southwest Asia with 151 Marines and their equipment. The crew included Capt Carol J. Mitchell, aircraft commander; 1st Lt Siobhan Couturier, pilot; Capt Anita T. Mack, navigator; SSgt Josie E. Harshe, flight engineer; and loadmasters TSgt Sigrid M. Carrero-Perez and SrA Ci Ci Alonzo. The six women were all assigned to the 43 AW at Pope AFB and were deployed to the 737th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron to fly troops and cargo in and out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. (22)
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