Green New Deal-Dream to Reality

Posted on 06/02/2021 by Grumpa Joe

While driving north on interstate 355 this week I passed a familiar air inflated dome on the East side. My mind was racing through many wild thoughts like a newsreel gone wild. Flashes of ideas burning their way through my brain. It seemed like the wheels on a slot machine whirling through waiting to settle on something. Then the images stopped just as the dome came into view. Emblazoned across the balloon was the name “Bo Jackson’s Elite Sports.”

What if we were to enclose the entire country under one giant humongous air building like Bo Jackson’s? We might actually be able to achieve the dream of the Green New Deal? Without any dirty air coming at us from different parts of the polluted world it could be possible. Constructing the cocoon over America would be easier than convincing countries like China to cut their emissions. We could definitely control the air inside our cocoon. Or could we? Then, the practical aspects of living in a balloon began to spin in my slot machine idea generator. How would we cover the mountains? Building the fence between Mexico and the USA was a large enough task, but it would be declared a piece of cake compared to covering the Smokies and the Rockies under a balloon. The idea generator began spinning again, and a new picture developed. What if we merely covered the cities and towns all around the States? In other words, just put balloon buildings where people live. That way they can breathe absolutely 99.9999% pure air and be allergy and asthma free. The town balloon can be connected by balloon tunnels between. Oh yeah, well what about all the emission you generate inside the balloon? Not a problem with electric vehicles. Where will you get the electricity? Also not as big a problem when all the balloon structures are also encased in photovoltaic cells generating as much power as needed. Also, it will be without the unsightly acres and acres of solar panels.

When millions of people are enclosed within a limited air building they will generate tons of exhaled carbon dioxide which will have to be dealt with, how? Well we could just displace the carbon dioxide with pure filtered air without pollutants. In nature, the trees and vegetation do that work for us by using the carbon dioxide to power photosynthesis. But still, we will have to dispose of the tons of exhaled carbon. Where? How about we build a balloon chimney to blow the needed carbon into the space beyond our stratosphere? One novel idea proposed by science is to convert the carbon into coal. Isn’t that where all this began? Coal? My idea generator stopped spinning at two cherries and a lemon. Thankfully, by this time I arrived at my destination and my mind was forced into thinking about other matters like lunch and where to buy gasoline.

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PSA-210121-Did You Know???

Posted on 21/01/2021 by Grumpa Joe

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The Nucleus For Man Made Global Warming

Posted on 09/12/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Many observers argue that the first true automobile was gasoline-powered. They point to not one but two inventors: Karl Friedrich Benz and Gottlieb Daimler. The two men, who had never met previously, filed their patents on the same day—January 29, 1886—in two different German cities.  Benz’s three-wheeled vehicle, which he first drove in 1885, was the first to combine an internal combustion engine with an integrated chassis.  There were no gas stations then so drivers purchased fuel, Ligroin, from pharmacies.  Ligroin was intended as a stain remover but served as the first gasoline. In August, 1888, without her husband’s knowledge, Bertha Benz took her sons, Eugen and Richard, on the first cross country car ride from Mannheim to Pforzheim – taking 12 hours over a distance of 106 kilometers (64 miles). LINK   Bertha Benz and her sons Eugen and Richard during their long-distance journey in August 1888 with the Benz Patent Motor Car. Mercedes Benz has released a short commercial commemorating that history making ride:  see link below, recommend using full screen, sound on.  

Analyzing the facts stated above the first cross country trip by auto was at 5.6 miles per hour. Most people can ride a bike at 8-10 mph without breaking a sweat. You’ve come a long way baby. Of course we can’t say what kind of trail this ride was made on. Most likely it was a horse cart two track with varying surfaces like gravel, sand, mud, etc. Very likely it was a very bumpy ride.

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COVID Will Make Me Fly

Posted on 30/10/2020 by Grumpa Joe

This morning on my way into Home Depot to pick up some huge trash bags to stuff used winter coats in an idea popped into my head. I struggled while installing my face mask, and it occurred to me that my ears are out of capacity. My hearing aids hang off my ears, my glasses find a home there too, now when I hang on the elastic face mask keepers my ears begin to flap out. The vision of Walt Disney’s flying elephant Dumbo flashes through my mind. When will I be able to fly? My prediction is that if COVID-19 lasts much longer that I’ll fly pretty soon.

Alfred E. Neumann the cover boy of MAD Magazine has ears that project from his head like mine do with all the shit hanging off them. The prospect of flying by flapping my Alfred E. Neuman ears seems very possible.

What I fear more than anything is another shut down of business and a decreed lock down of citizens. The health effect on me has been noticeable. Mostly in my positive mindset. I seem to have taken huge steps backward into negativism. At an earlier age I realized that positivism beats negativism by a huge margin. BUT, in this environment the dark force of negativity seems to control. I see and hear Darth Vader speaking to Luke Sky Walker, and predicting his demise. Poor Luke had to fight off the evil empire all by himself, a task which seemed impossible, but Luke overcame the negative force and prevailed.

We too will prevail, but we need to remain positive to beat the evil curse of COVID. Once we take control we must then regain our drive to punish the real evil empire China for releasing this curse on the world. One tiny step I am taking to beat them is to avoid buying products originating in China. That is a chore, but it is possible.

As I write this the governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker has decreed a shut down of indoor seating at restaurants. What that does is cripple the restaurant businesses. I don’t know about you, but the prospect of eating outside in thirty degree weather is not appealing. Even in a tent with three sides and portable heaters blasting away I can’t see myself enjoying a meal in that environment.

I finally hung a mask on my face when I confronted a huge sign on the door of Home Depot. “All customers must wear face mask covering their mouth and nose.” How simple a way to control the virus, I thought. A company makes a simple request and their customers comply. So why is the Democrat candidate for president making a huge deal about passing a law to make us wear masks? He truly believes this action will kill the virus. I’m afraid that the only thing to kill this virus is to flood the world with sanitizer, and even then the sanitizer kill ratio is 99.9% with leaves 0.1% to keep on coming at us.

What is scarier than a new shutdown is the prospect of Joe Biden winning this election and then retiring from the presidency. His successor will be Kamala Harris, and that is more scary than a witch flying across the sky on a broomstick. Even more scarier is if Kamala dies in office and Nancy Pelosi becomes the next leader of America.

All of these thoughts are causing me to have insomnia which is not healthy for a senior citizen.

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Talk-over Debate?

Posted on 07/10/2020 by Grumpa Joe

Thank you Lord! The weather is kick ass beautiful, and the temperature is downright civilized. I took advantage by a attending the funeral mass of a friend’s mother Josephine. She is eighty-four years and old mother of seven children all still talking to each other, six boys and one girl. The family attending took up a third of the available seats.

Upon landing at home, I dressed into my garden clothes and headed for the pond. One of the filters is clogging and the water level is down four inches. With the temperature in the seventies I decided to take the pump out for the winter and to clean both filters. That took about a half an hour. With so much beauty left in the day I kept rolling and began raking muck out of the water while the level is low. That took me an extra hour and a half. I used two kinds of rakes this time, first a leaf rake to skim out the decaying leaf matter, and then the garden rake to yank out the surviving water lily foliage. I had never used that rake before and expected it to do some serious damage, it did. The result is a bucket full of water lily roots which I now have to deal with over the winter. Oh well, I thought about thinning the lilies out a bit since they covered ninety-five percent of the pond surface. To keep a pond healthy there only has to be seventy percent coverage. At that coverage the alga bloom is in control. Less than that and the algae takes over. Frankly, I would rather look at out of control lilies than at algae.

After cleaning the muck and depositing it into the blue barrel for recycling I was done petered out, and hungry. I had a keto friendly snack of cheese and ham roll ups and a tall glass of berry flavored ice-water. Now this body has rebelled and is stuck in surf the internet mode on the internet.

The Vice presidential candidates debate this evening and I intend to watch the fight to the bitter end. I only hope my candidate destroys the opponent. Hopefully, it won’t be a talk-over type of debate. I’d really like to hear both side’s points of view. I hate when the candidate speaking gets talked over by his opponent or worse by the moderator.

I finished reading The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and I was not disappointed. The author managed to get the expedition out of the pre-historic valley in a believable, but exciting way. The grand finale was the report to all the cynics who were anxious to dispute any and all claims the expedition made about their findings. Not having photographic evidence did’t help the expedition, in lieu of pictures they chose to bring back living proof. They unboxed one of the creatures they found living in the valley, a pterodactyl. The proof seemed to shut up the disbelievers and excite the supporters. I recommend this story to anyone who likes adventure. * * * * * and surprise endings.

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