lenbilen

March 19: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Matthew 25:1-30 begins with the parable of the ten virgins, five with oil, five without oil. (Give me oil in my lamp, keep it burning). After that Jesus told the parable of the five, two and one talent given to three different people, the one with five made ten, the one with two doubled his talents, but the one with only one talent buried his. Jesus had his one talent taken away and be given to the one with ten talents. The moral of this parable is: Equal opportunity, not equal outcome.

Deuteronomy19. God commanded to set aside three Cities of Refuge, maybe three more as the land expands. Do not change property boundaries. There must be two or three witnesses for a conviction in court. From this chapter also comes the saying “an eye for an eye”.

Deuteronomy 20. Rules for warfare: The Lord fights the battle for you. If you are too chicken or are building a house or are pledged to marry, you may be excused. For the rest of you, show no mercy unless they surrender, but above all, save the fruit trees.

Deuteronomy 21 deals with what to do with unsolved murders. Can you marry a female taken captive? What are the rights of the firstborn? What to do with a rebellious Son? A man punished to death and hung on a tree, he must be buried the same day. From this we get “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”.

March 18: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Matthew 24:36-51. Nobody knows the time or the day of Christ’s coming, not even Jesus at that time. Many have tried to predict it, and so far all have failed. This makes sense since we are supposed to watch and wait, and with this admonition the chapter ends.

Deuteronomy 16 describes in detail how to celebrate the Passover, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. Bring an offering, no one can go empty handed. Appoint Judges so justice can be properly administered. Do not worship any Asherah poles ever.

Deuteronomy 17, Anyone worshiping other Gods must have justice administered, including stoning. The Israelites will elect a King after they have entered the promised land. He must be an Israelite, not gathering riches or take many wives. He must read the scroll of the Law all the days of his life. As long as he does all these things he will reign a long time.

Deuteronomy 18. The LORD is the Inheritance for Priests and Levites. No Wicked Customs are allowed, such as child sacrifice, “ or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer ^”In other words: ^“Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.” Then the LORD gave a promise. He will raise up a Prophet like Moses. There will also rise up many false prophets, and they are not to be listened to.

Leg 2 of the Transcontinental Aqueduct: From the Robert S. Kerr Lock and dam to the Eufaula Dam on the Canadian River.

The length of Leg 2 is 20 miles on the Robert S Kerr reservoir and 22 miles on the Canadian river.

The Robert S Kerr reservoir has an area of 43,000 acres and its elevation is regulated by the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. This means that the water can be pumped up or released as long as it is coordinated for the whole canal system. This also means that the water flow can be stopped and the power normally used to pump up water can be used as peak power, which can come in handy on a hot humid day with no sun and no wind and every air conditioner in the area is going full blast to take out the oppressive humidity.

The part of the aqueduct going up the Canadian river will have 3 20 ft dams with concrete spillways, each with a 20,000 cfs reversible flow pumping station. The map:

The dam will have a 20,000 cfs pumping station added lifting water 87 ft.

The Eufaula Dam.
The Eufaula dam
*Riverbed at 498′ conservation pool at 585′*

The total power consumption in this stage will be up to 265 MW. The preferred power plant will be 3 100 MW LFTR SMRs.

March 17: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Matthew 24:1-35. Matthew twenty-four is knocking at the door is a song popularized by Johnny Cash and gives a description of what is coming. Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple and the events that will occur just before his return. He even quoted Daniel the prophet: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation.” Then he described his coming return to gather his people.

Deuteronomy14. Do not do as the heathen do with improper mourning, eat only clean meat and do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. Observe tithing, and every three years give an extra tithing for the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows.

Deuteronomy 15. Debts are to be canceled after seven years, show generosity to the poor, lend freely but do not borrow, free your slaves after seven years and give them opportunity to continue on their own. Set apart every firstborn animal.

Leg 1 of the Trans-Continental aqueduct. From the Mississippi river to the Robert S. Kerr Lock and dam on the Arkansas River.

The Trans-Continental aqueduct starts out at the Mississippi river, and for the first leg follows the Arkansas River from Mississippi River to Lock15 of the Arkansas River, a distance of 319 miles.

Location of the locks and pumping stations on the Arkansas river.

Lock 1, entrance from the Mississippi River to the White river. The water surface at Montgomery Point has fluctuated from elevation 104′ to 172′.

This lock was added later to better accommodate barge traffic when the Mississippi River was running abnormally low. If the Mississippi is normal to high level, this lock is bypassed. Since we are going to move 23,200 cfs of water over the rocky mountain the flow amount in Arkansas river will be reduced by the same amount. In times of drought, the Arkansas River flow is most often less than 23,200 cfs. To alleviate that, a series of 20,000 cfs pumps will be installed, one in every lock of the canal, beginning with Lock 3.

Montgomery Point Lock and Dam features “first of its kind” hydraulically operated gates. When the tail water is at elevation 115′ and rising, the dam gates are flat on the bottom of the river and barge traffic passes over the gates in the navigation pass spillway to minimize lockages saving time and money.

This lock is frequently submerged. Only the top of the control tower remains above water

The Mississippi river is muddy. When water is pumped up there needs to be a number of de-silting pools, where the silt is returned to the Mississippi river. Here is suggested 3 pools, each capable of de-silting 10,000 cfs of water, one for the Trans-Rocky Mountain aqueduct, and two for the Trans-Continental aqueduct, being built as the whole aqueduct is nearing completion. The top of the pools is set at 150 ft elevation. Should the Missisippi River flood higher than 142 feet the operation will be shut down until elevation is below 142 feet again, and Lock 2, the Norrell Lock and dam is operational again. For the Trans-Continental aqueduct up to 20,000 cfs needs to be pumped up between 20 and 62 feet, for an energy consumption of between 1MW and 112 MW. The map below show one possible location for the pools:

From Lock # 3 to lock # 15 (12 locks # 11 is missing) the Power houses have to either replace two of the operating turbines to a corresponding dual function pump/generator, or add a 20,000 cfs pump.

By removing 20,00 cfs from the flow of water in the Arkansas river, it will be necessary to add these pumps to ensure functioning locks even in times of extreme droughts. The total power generated by the power stations will be reduced by 20,000 cfs times (458 – 127) feet * 0.9 or about 630 megawatts total. This is most of the time all the power that was generated, so the standard hydropower generation in the Arkansas river will be for all practical purposes eliminated.

As a side note, every lock opening uses up water equivalent of between 22 and 66 kWh depending on the size of the lift or lowering of the barges. This is constant and not dependent on the size of the barges or boats. When the spillways are in use, the water is “free”, but otherwise every lock opening costs a few dollars in energy, not much, but in case of a drought the fact that water is pumped back up the river will help increase the capacity.

What is in it for Arkansas? The added pumps will give an additional tool to control the canal system. In addition, in the case of floods it will somewhat alleviate the flood control, and serve the canal system better in times of drought. To add 630 megawatts to the system, may I suggest 3 200 MW LFTR nuclear reactors, they are carbon neutral. In addition they have the ability to shut off the pumping of water and let the power plants provide 600 MW virtual hydro-storage power for up to five hours/day. The barges will benefit from sometimes go with the flow, and sometimes travel over still water, shortening the time of transport substantially.

March 16: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Matthew 23, Jesus warned the people about the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. At that time they had formulated the Talmud, which regulated every aspect of Jewish life. He did it in the form of telling of seven woes. Read the chapter carefully and draw your own conclusions.

Deuteronomy 11. Love and Obey the LORD, remember all He has done, meditate day and night on it and always teach the same to your children. God set before them a blessing and a curse, it dealt with obedience.

Deuteronomy 12. God proclaimed the One Place of Worship. All other places of worship where false Gods have been worshiped must be destroyed. You may eat from all clean animals, but do not drink their blood.

Deuteronomy 13. Apostates must be severely punished.

March 15: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Matthew 22:34-46 The Pharisees tried to entrap Jesus by asking him which is the greatest commandment. Jesus answered with the first commandment and added another: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Once more they tried to entrap him with the question: Whose son is the Christ? Jesus answered: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” That shut them up.

Deuteronomy 9, Israel’s rebellion is reviewed, but in spite of being a stiffnecked people doing abominations to the LORD like the Golden Calf, God in His mercy kept His promises.

Deuteronomy 10, take Two Tablets, Fear the LORD and circumcise your hearts, that is the Essence of the Law. Remember, you too were aliens in Egypt.

Psalm 22, of David. It is also called “The Crucifixion Psalm”. Read it and ponder.

March 14: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

In Matthew 22:1-33 Jesus continued to talk in parables. He was in Jerusalem, teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven and told the parable of the wedding banquet, from which we have the expression “many are called but few are chosen.” Continuing on, the Pharisees tried to entrap him with the question “is it legal to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus answered by the famous quote: “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” an early call to separation of Church and State. Jesus did not say “let the Romans do it”. The Sadducees also tried to entrap him with the riddle “if there is no resurrection and seven brothers have had a woman as his wife on after another, who would marry her in the resurrection?” Jesus answered with another, now made famous, saying: “God is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Deuteronomy 7 promised that the Israelites were always a Chosen People. God will drive out the people before them. When entering the land they must completely destroy all idols and false gods.

Deuteronomy 8. Remember the LORD your God, but if not you too will be destroyed.

Now it begins. We already have too many electric cars for the electric grid to function properly. Only in California.

The power companies in California asked people to avoid charging their electric vehicles to lessen the strain on the power grid.

California has a giant power problem. It depends on solar power to over 10% and wind power to 10%, but depends on hydro power for over 13% of their needs. The two last nuclear power plants in Diablo Canyon, supplying 9% of Californians electricity are being shut down in 2024 and 2025. Hydro-power is declining because of the drought, so the rest has to be made up by fossil fuels and imports from other states. Therefore California has one of the largest transmissions losses of any state, close to 10%. When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine they import peak power at a price that has a few times been as high as one dollar per kWh. But they are building fast charging stations for their electric vehicles:

This one is in Menlo Park, Ca. Where Else?

The infrastructure bill will add $7.5B in EV charging stations, which could result in around 1,900 highway and rural stations, 100,000 urban stations, and 215,000 Level 2 stations for workplaces, apartments, and airports. There are already 45,000 private charging stations, and s number of exclusive Tesla charging stations. And then there is no saying how many are installing a fast charger in their garage. If electric cars really takes off we will have to greatly expand our electric grid, which is still powered over half with fossil fuels.

But fear not, when all else fails, here is a diesel powered electric charging station for your electric vehicle:

Should you run out of charge there is always AAA:

I am for electric vehicles as soon as the electric grid is fixed up, the dependency of fossil fuel to stabilize the grid and the grid is built up to accommodate electric vehicles being charged at the same time. As it is now, over half of all electricity is still produced using fossil fuels, and coupled with 10% transmission losses and conversion losses, plus that electric vehicles use electricity to get heated, they are not carbon neutral.

I have a proposal to solve the water problems in the American Southwest and at the same time triple the nation’s hydro-power storage capacity allowing for a greater use of solar panels, and some windmills, they will be a small part of the solution, but the great change will be the use of Small Modular Reactors, preferably Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors. The proposal is here-.

March 13: Reading the Holy Bible in a year

Matthew 21:12-46. Jesus cleansed the Temple and threw out the money changers. The spiritual leaders were offended that people sang “Hosanna in the highest” at the triumphal entry, even that little children sang it. As an object lesson Jesus cursed a fig tree, the symbol of Israel, and it withered. The spiritual leaders questioned Jesus authority. Instead of giving an answer Jesus gave two parables, the one about the two sons and the parable about the wicked tenants. Moving on, Jesus quoted scripture by saying :The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” meaning that the kingdom of God will be inherited by another people.

In Deuteronomy 6 Moses laid out The Greatest Commandment, he recommended the Israelites to wear phylacteries to keep them always in remembrance of the LORD and cautioned against disobedience. It is surprising how many of New Testament references there are to the Old testament Law; some are listed here.