“There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people…religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” Linus from Peanuts.
Author: lenbilen
Retired engineer, graduated from Chalmers Technical University a long time ago with a degree in Technical Physics. Career in Aerospace, Analytical Chemistry, computer chip manufacturing and finally adjunct faculty at Pennsylvania State University, taught just one course in Computer Engineering, the Capstone Course.
Mark 13, Jesus told his disciples of the Signs of the End of the Age, the Great Tribulation, the Coming of the Son of Man, the lesson of the Fig Tree and the Day and Hour of his return, which shall remain unknown until it happens.
Proverbs 2 is, telling of the moral benefits of wisdom.
Psalm 37, of David. With two lines dedicated to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, this psalm is one of the longer acrostics in the book of Psalms. David wrote it late in life (“ I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread.“) It is full of promises and praise and was intended for memorization.
Psalm 38, of David, a Petition. This is a Psalm of deep despair and remorse. David acknowledged his sin and cried out to God. Yet, in failing health and abandoned by friends and family, his hope in God remained steadfast.
Mark 12:28-44. Jesus answered the question: “What is the Greatest Commandment,” by changing the question into a the riddle “whose son is the Christ?” Finally, looking at temple offerings Jesus noticed the widow that gave her all, two mites.
Ruth 4. Boaz redeemed Ruth, and that’s how Ruth came to be in the genealogy of David and Jesus.
Psalm 36, of David, the Servant of the LORD. This Psalm also tells of wicked people, but then shows the mercies of God and ends up with David recognizing that without God’s protection he too is vulnerable, as are we all.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions and boycotts that followed launched retail gasoline prices to record highs, a vulnerability for Biden’s fellow Democrats in November’s congressional elections. Ukraine has been called the breadbasket of Europe since before WWI, and this war will greatly reduce the worldwide corn supply by 15%, Wheat supply by 8%. and the sanctions on Russia will reduce the supply of fertilizer by 12%. The world was already in a precarious food situation, and this may result in hunger worldwide will increase sharply.
Faced with this looming catastrophe in the November elections the Biden administration decided to act decisively to improve its chances in November, so on Tuesday Biden went to Iowa and promised to remove the prohibition to use the ethanol blend E15 even in the summer. The summertime ban on E15 was imposed over concerns it contributes to smog in hot weather, though research has shown that the 15% blend may not increase smog much more than the almost mandatory 10% blends sold year-round.
Is blending ethanol in the gasoline a good idea in the first place? It might be if the price of corn is low relative to gasoline. On April 14, 2022 the wholesale contract price of corn is $ 7.84 a bushel. A year ago, the price was below five dollars per bushel. One bushel of corn makes 2.8 gallon of ethanol in the most efficient stills. That makes the feed-stock price to produce ethanol $2.80 a gallon. Add to that 50 cents to make the stuff and distribute it and the price per gallon is $ 3.30 Since the heat content of ethanol is 67% of regular gasoline (no ethanol), the gasoline equivalent price of ethanol is $ 4.93 per gallon. Nearly five bucks a gallon for ethanol! And that is before profit, blending, selling and taxes! That’s the good news. For the people that are worried about CO2 the bad news is: To make corn you have to use 150 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre. It takes the equivalent of 0.15 gallons of gasoline to produce one pound of nitrogen fertilizer. That comes to the equivalent of 22.5 gallons of gasoline to fertilize one acre. One acre of corn yields about 150 bushels of corn. The fuel spent to produce one bushel of corn is therefore more than 0.15 gallons of gasoline. Since it also involves sowing, preparing the soil, cultivating, pesticides, phosphate fertilizer and harvesting it takes 0.25 gallons of fuel to produce one bushel of corn. Here comes the kicker: When you ferment sugar into alcohol half the weight disappears as CO2! Let us examine the formula: C6H12O6 + Zymase → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2 The molecule weight of C2H5OH is 46 and the molecule weight of CO2 is 44. Well almost half anyway. Let us assume you have a car that gets 25 miles to the gallon and you drive 100 mile on pure gasoline. You have used 4 gallons of gasoline. Now take the same car and drive 100 miles with a 10% ethanol mix, mandated by the EPA. Remember, they are concerned about CO2. The ethanol has only 67% of the heat content of gasoline so the gas mileage will be lower. It will be consuming 0.04 x 0.9 +0.1 x 1.5 x 0.04 = 0.042 gallons per mile, 5% more or a total of 4.2 gallons for the 100 mile trip. With E15 it will be 4.3 gallons per trip. So you consumed 3.78 gallons of gasoline and 0.42 gallons of ethanol, for a total of 4.2 gallons. We have all experienced this increase in gas consumption. And this is best case. With E15 you will consume 3.67 gallons of gasoline and 0.63 gallons of ethanol. What about CO2 up in the air? In the pure gasoline case we produced 4 gallons worth of CO2. In the ethanol mix case we produced 4.2 gallons worth of CO2. Add to that another .4 gallons equivalence of CO2 from the fermentation, and another .04 gallons worth of CO2 to produce the corn in the first place. The sum total is 4.64 gallons worth of CO2, or about 16% more than in the gasoline only case for the 10% mix. With E15 you produced 4.96 gallons worth of CO2. But corn does absorb CO2 when it grows! Doesn’t that count? Corn is one of the worst crops for soil erosion and uses up other nourishment that will not be used if you make ethanol from it. Granted the cattle are happy for the cakes that are left when the sugar and oil is removed. In this age of looming food shortages nearly any other use of available tillable soil is to be preferred over ethanol production. Oh, and one more thing. Assume that pure gasoline is 4 dollars a gallon at the pump, which includes 50 cents in taxes. Unsubsidized ethanol should be $4.93 a gallon, before taxes But we subsidize the ethanol production so the price of E15 is $3.90 a gallon at the pump. If we used pure gasoline the hundred mile trip would cost sixteen dollars. If we paid full price for the 10% ethanol blend we would pay $ 17.19 for the trip and produce 16% more CO2. And in the case of E15 we would pay $17.78 for the trip and produce 24% more CO2 We are really paying $ 16.59 for the trip, produce 16% more CO2 and leave a bill of $ 0.60 for our grandchildren to pay, the subsidy of 0.42 gallons of ethanol. In the case of E15 we would pay $16.77 for the trip, produce 24% more CO2 and leave a bill of $1.01 for our grandchildren. This is EPA legislation at work, trying to combat the coming “climate catastrophe.”
There is a better way. Remove ethanol subsidy guarantees and let the corn be used to produce more chicken and pork, and use some of the acreage to produce grain for a hungry world. This will help to reduce food prices inflation.
Mark 12:1-27 begins with Jesus telling the parable of the unfaithful tenants, and after that the Pharisees tried to entrap Jesus with the question “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?” You know the answer, if not, check it and ponder. Then it was the Sadducees’ turn to entrap him with the question what happens to marriage at the Resurrection. Jesus answered: “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”
Ruth 1. Elimelech’s family went to Moab, and all the men in the family died. Naomi returned back to Israel with Ruth, a Moabite. The famous quote from Ruth 1: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:”.
Psalm 35, of David. An urgent call for God to execute His righteous judgment on the enemies of God and vindicate David. (This is the Psalm that has received the most hits of any Psalm on my blog!) A sign of the times we are living in.
Mark 11 starts what is called the Holy Week with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Jesus entered, riding on an unbroken foal of a donkey. This was the sign. The next day Jesus cursed a fig tree (symbol of Israel) and cleared the Temple of the money changers (You don’t want to give too much, you know). Following morning the fig tree was withered, and all marveled. Finally, Jesus authority was questioned by the religious authorities.
Proverbs 1. It extols the virtue of wisdom. Read it and apply it.
Psalm 34, of David. This Psalm is an almost acrostic psalm (except for the letter waw). Like many acrostic Psalms, this is to be sung and memorized as it is full of praise and good advice. It contains one notable prophetic reference: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.”
Mark 10:17-52. A Rich Young Ruler asks what he must do to receive eternal life, but he cannot make himself do what Jesus required of him, so Jesus commented: ”It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The disciples were astounded and said: “Who then can be saved?” upon which Jesus answered “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Yes, that’s how it is with salvation. Jesus then predicted his resurrection. James and John wanted to be great, but Jesus pointed out that greatness comes by serving. The chapter finally ends as Jesus healed Bartimaeus.
Judges 19 tells in painful detail about the Levite’s Concubine and Gibeah’s crime, probably the most gruesome story in all the Bible. The Bible is honest and tells it as it was, totally wicked.
Judges 20 describes Israel’s War with the Benjamites. Another horrendous chapter.
In Judges 21 they had killed nearly all so the Israelites had to find wives for the Benjamites. The book of Judges ends fittingly: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes,” in other words, anarchy.
In Mark 10:1-16 Jesus explained the Christian concept of Marriage: One man, one woman, one lifetime,“6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Then Jesus blessed the little children and said: “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”
Judges 16 contains the vivid story of Samson and Delilah and how he finally was captured. In his death Samson slew many more than when he lived.
Judges 17 is short, contains only the telling of Micah’s Idolatry.
Judges 18, as the Danites had failed to take their allotted land from the Philistines they wandered around and finally settled in Laish and changed the name of the city to Dan, and there they still practiced idolatry.
When I was a little boy is Sweden my father had a dear old friend that was so in love with birds and they with him that he had a great horned owl that came down and sat on his shoulder when he called. I was only three years old at that time, but the sight of this giant bird coming down from the big spruce tree is a sight I will never forget. Since then I have always enjoyed watching birds, normally soaring hawks, but on occasion eagles, rare as they may be.
Later in life I got gloriously saved and started reading the Bible, and one verse from the prophet Isaiah stands out :Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
I am now at the stage in my life where walk and not faint seems pretty good, but follow what goes on in the world is still exciting, even watching the birds. They inspire and soar effortlessly, seemingly defy limitations.
The big talk is fighting climate change, and the prevailing political belief is that rising CO2 levels is its major cause, so no expense is spared to find renewable energy in the form of wind power, but at what cost?
The Eagle has landed in aerie
on top of a windmill – that’s scary.
Doesn’t know she will die,
whacked right out of the sky
from rotating blades unawary.
The idea of wind farming is to create sustainable energy.
Will the population of eagles and other large birds be sustainable?
Eagles like to build their aeries on top of wind turbines, the highest structure in their territory.
It is estimated that the total bird kill by the year 2030 is going to be 1 million three hundred thousand birds. And that is if the Green New Deal is not implemented.
Is the large bird population sustainable even now?
This is a crane killed by a wind turbine blade. In parts of Ohio they have forbidden the turbines to run at night to protect a rare bat.
The allowable yearly limit for killing bald eagles by wind turbines was upped from 1100 to 4200 per year on Jan 17 2017, still under the Obama administration. The allowable limit for golden eagles is still 0. If the bird-kill exceeds the allowance, heavy fines are imposed, but that is just the price of producing clean energy. in 2013 Duke energy paid a 1.9 million dollar fine for killing 14 golden eagles and 149 other protected birds. Recently, a US-based wind energy firm has been slapped with an $8m fine after at least 150 eagles died at its wind farms across eight states over the last 10 years. The company has also been given five years of probation. In April 2022 ESI Energy, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, did plead guilty to three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The company acknowledged the deaths of golden and bald eagles since 2012 at its farms in Wyoming, California, New Mexico, North Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona and Illinois, see more here.
Now for something completely unrelated: If you as a person poaches an eagle egg, see this picture
And it takes energy to produce energy. The cost of de-icing the average airplane is $1500. And that is without a helicopter.
And I am not sure about the former.
But there is still hope to solve the wind turbine bird kill problem. One potential solution is the vertical wind turbine:
It has a somewhat lower wind efficiency than horizontal, 3 blade wind turbines, but can produce electricity for about 4 c per kWh, about the same as horizontal wind turbines, so all is not lost. They do not kill birds, and can be made to function under wind speeds of up to 70 mph, but cut out speed is typically around 30 mph. This is a rapidly developing field, and requires much further analysis. A typical power output for a vertical wind turbine is 1 to 5 kW, 12 or 24 V output, versus the modern horizontal 3 blade wind turbines are 2 to 4 MW. Yet, the cost per kWh is comparable.
Another design, 300W nominal. Simple. eh!
Bur vertical windmills are hardly a new concept. These windmills are from Nashtifan, Iran. Dozens stand atop a wall in the windy city, not far from the Afghanistan border.
From a distance, they look like wooden turnstiles. But they are vertical-axis windmills constructed over 1,000 years ago from wood, straw and clay. And since the blades are arrayed on a vertical axis, energy is translated down the mast to the grindstone without the need for any of the intermediary gears found on horizontal axis windmills.
Mark 9:33-50. Jesus’ disciples argued among themselves who was the greatest. To give a perfect object lesson Jesus picked up a little child and explained what it means to be “a servant of all”. Jesus taught unity, not division, “whoever is not against us is for us,” and warned of of the dire consequences of offenses and told them to be “salt with savor” and to be at peace with each other.
Judges 12 records Jephthah’s conflict with Ephraim, where they killed people based on their accent. After that three more people, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon led Israel.
Judges 13 tells of bad times for Israel for forty years. Then came a glimmer of hope, the birth of Samson.
Judges 14. Samson started out great, but then he took a Philistine as his Wife.
Judges 15. Samson defeated the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.
This local Gazette full page ad caught my attention.
As Christians it is our duty to be at peace with everyone if possible and to leave the world a better place than we found it. I totally agree with the Sierra Club that we need to save our planet (NOW). There are certain things we can do, and other things will happen no matter what we do. One of the latter things is Climate Change. I will answer each of the items and then come up with my suggested solution.
2021 one of the hottest years in human history. This is true, if human history starts with the Little Ice Age 800 years ago, but seen over the last 10,000 years, about 8,500 years were hotter. Long term we are entering into another ice age, which is the normal state of our planet.
As evidence from the Medieval warming is “Gården under sanden,” see here. As evidence from the Roman Warm period, see here
Rising sea level. The sea level rise is very uneven in different parts of the world
Up arrows: sea level rise, down arrows: Land rising
As we can see from the picture, most areas of the world experience sea level rise. In the upper Nordic countries, the Hudson Bay area and Alaska the land rises more than 3 feet per century. The North is still recovering from the last Ice Age. The U,S east coast and the northern Mexican Gulf has the largest sea level rise due to tectonic plate movements, but overall sea level rise is not increasing , and is about one foot per century. Besides the fact that most glaciers are decreasing , we are depleting many vulnerable aquifers, and Lake Aral is no more. All this melting and evaporated water ends up in the ocean.
Desertification. After an Aquifer has been used up and depleted, desertification sets in. The rivers that depend on the same aquifers to form and flow finally dry up. Vegetation wilts and dies, and erosion increases until there are only bedrock and sand left. Like Lake Aral began its demise in the 1970’s so the American Southwest is beginning the process now. One side effect of desertification is that the temperature control from well watered forests and grasslands is gone, and the land starts to experience
Heat stress. The people that dwell in the downtown deserts experience the so called urban heat island effect where the temperature can be up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the surrounding rural areas. This figure shows the extent of the effect:
Spread of tropical diseases. America is a land of immigrants. I am an immigrant. When I came to America I had with me a tube containing my chest x-rays, proof of negative Wasserman test and a bunch of other medical records. Upon entry at Kennedy Airport the customs officer opened up the tube, took a good look at the chest x-rays and all the medical and immigration records for about 5 minutes not saying a word, during which time the line behind me grew longer and longer. Then he put everything back in the tube, shook my hand and said: Welcome to America! The people that enter illegally may carry with them all kinds of diseases, such as drug resistant tuberculosis, STDs, and many tropical diseases. People entering legally from the Middle East, South Asia, most of Africa and Middle and South America are given a small dose of ivermectin per protocol.
Drought and flooding. America has a problem. The Eastern U.S.A has frequently too much rain, while the American west for the most part is too dry, made worse by multi year droughts. This is mostly because the mountains go north and south blocking the natural weather flows. Droughts and wildfires are not increasing, despite what we see on TV.
Economic losses. The economic losses from losing much of the water for the dry American South West can barely be calculated. It may eventually be in the trillions of dollars.
Severe Storms. No, storms and tornadoes are not increasing, they are just reported better.
Loss of farmland. Whenever a river dries up or an aquifer is exhausted there will be loss of farmland. Another cause is erosion, depleting the fertile topsoil. This is taking place mostly i the drying American West and South West. In the East there is occasional flood damage. Recuse we have made levees rather than letting the land flood and replenishing the soil with new silt the soil becomes depleted from nourishment.
Mass Extinction. Temperature is not the problem, loss of habitat, invasive species and land use changes are major threats, and must be vigilantly monitored to fight back invasive plants and animals, including bugs, fungi and bacteria. There is a problem with wind power. Wind turbines kill birds, and birds are important for a sustainable environment.
Ocean Acidification. Don’t look at us, look at China.
Refugees. Even if U.S. will successfully close the porous borders, there will still be two to three million legal immigrants per year, some of which have waited up to ten years for their immigration. They need to be resettled, and many prefer the dry South West, putting additional pressure on already strained water resources.
International conflict. It is way above my capability to solve international conflicts, but I can pray to God, that He, through the Holy Spirit will lead us into a worldwide revival and awakening, making us think with a sound mind rather than fall for this global insanity. But, since we are called steward the world and leave the world a better place than we entered it I will propose The TransContinental Aqueduct. A realistic way to save Lake Mead and reverse the desertification of the American South West.
It will, when fully built out provide 12 million Acre-feet of water to the American South West. This will save Lake Mead and also provide up to 50 GW of pumped storage power when fully built up. This power will be provided by an optimal mix of Solar, wind and Liquid Fluoride Thorium power to stabilize the net when the electricity demand increases from switching to electric cars and trucks. California has already had their first warning about charging electric cars.
If we switch all cars to electric power we will have to add 1,100 TWh per year to the electric grid. Electricity generated today is about 4,000 TWh per year. The cars will be recharged partly on peak demand, so the need for peak power will increase dramatically.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 