I keep hearing about how the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables has “stalled”. I did a quick search looking for the data and found a few articles, but it seems Wiki has it. Not a surprise that with factories cranking out solar panels, and more factories being built, that solar continues on a “technology curve” with exponential growth. From Wiki:

From 2016-2022 it has seen an annual capacity and production growth rate of around 26%- doubling approximately every three years.

Growth of photovoltaics

Perhaps a better graph is one showing how far off predictions on solar have been.  From The Economist magazine / Bloomberg.

From Smithsonian Magazine.

The Hidden History of Bermuda Is Reshaping the Way We Think About Colonial America

Had to go to the BBC to learn some important info about the new Energy Secretary nominee.

In a video posted to his LinkedIn profile last year, he said: “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”

Trump names fracking executive Chris Wright energy secretary

Had my pool water tested and found out I needed to boost my Alkalinity. Needed 20 lbs of this special powder, which went for about $4 a pound. When I balked a bit the young fellow whispered to me that “it’s just baking soda”. So I took the hint and went to find 20 lbs of Baking Soda at the nearby big box home improvement store.

In fact, baking soda was a fraction of the price of the special pool chemical, at about $1 a pound. It was sold as air freshener but the bag even mentioned it was useful for swimming pools. While I was there I bought some toilet bowl cleaner. Not that expensive but I realized it was the same liquid chlorine that I put in my pool diluted 3:1. And a gallon of the pool chlorine costs about as much as the two smaller bottles of toilet bowl cleaner. To be fair the toilet bowl cleaner is in a fancy squirt bottle. I know what I’m doing when these bottles are empty.

i also saw, inexplicably, that my home improvement store is selling bacon fat, for about $10 a pound. Seems expensive since I have a bunch in my fridge I usually throw out.

I used to watch Godzilla movies as a kid on the Sunday Morning Movie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the original or one that wasn’t (badly) edited for US TV. From the BBC.

‘A film that only Japan could have made’: Seventy years on, why Godzilla is the darkest monster movie of them all

Who needs AI to drive a car when we have rats? A good article about more than just teaching rats how to drive. From The Conversation.

I’m a neuroscientist who taught rats to drive − their joy suggests how anticipating fun can enrich human life

As China ends decades of rapid economic change and growth, it will be interesting to see the reaction of its youth. From The Guardian.

100,000 Chinese students join 50km night-time bike ride in search of good soup dumplings

I was thinking about this just yesterday with a slightly different spin. Many of my own conveniences are either wasteful, bad for me or bad for others. Sometimes they are even not so convenient. When technology works, it’s often great. When it doesn’t, it can be a huge time waster and a frustration. There is an old song with a line I always liked: “people don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent”. From The Guardian.

The big idea: is convenience making our lives more difficult?

I’ve read a bit of Grabers stuff but will have to look for more. I have always thought people lack imagination, that where we are was inevitable. Maybe partly true. But only partly. From The Guardian.

‘It does not have to be this way’: the radical optimism of David Graeber

i’ve been enjoying getting some of my news from the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Recently I posted a link and I have since found it is a US-specific El Pais America news site. There is a Spanish El Pais with more local (Spanish) news. My browser, or perhaps the site, gives me an English translation though. Both parts of the site are a good read.