Global Archives - Opine Away

How AI Can Reduce Efficiency (not a typo)

OpineAway — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 06:03:50 +0000

There’s a lot of noise from pretty much everywhere about how AI is making work more efficient. In many aspects, this is very true. I’ve experienced it with programming—used the right way, AI can reduce development time by orders of magnitude. That’s not an exaggeration: done properly, a development process that would normally take months can be completed in days.

There’s still debugging, corrections, and refinement involved, of course, but the total time from concept to product with AI assistance can be reduced to a fraction of what it would be without AI. If I get to it, I’ll write more about that in a future blog, it is completely changing the development process.

But…

When computers first started entering the work environment, people said we wouldn’t need paper anymore. Today, we print so much that the idea sounds like a bad joke. When the first company I co-founded, VocalTec, introduced the first ever VoIP product, Internet Phone, and later added video conferencing to it, people said there would be no need to travel anymore. I spent last night on a red-eye flight, and business travel is booming.

AI is great. It’s so great that it now takes a person five minutes to produce a 17-page document and proudly send it to ten people on their team, each of whom then spends two hours reading it and commenting on it. The person who wrote it did not go through the process of not just producing the document, but actually thinking while writing it—reviewing ideas as they formed, letting them brew overnight, rewriting sections that weren’t the best fit, reducing redundant information, or adding new ideas that came up along the way.

Instead, that thinking is pushed downstream: ten other people now repeat that process independently, wasting roughly ten times the effort and time, sending that info back to the person for more time spent sifting through the feedback.

Even in software development, if AI is used the wrong way, you can see a similar effect. When a programmer writes code while checking each element as they develop it, they eliminate a chain reaction of wasted time. If a bug is left in the code, it will be found by QA—wasting not only development time, but also QA time. QA now has to reproduce the issue, report it, document the reproduction steps, and possibly communicate back and forth with the developer for clarification. The developer then needs to return to the code, reproduce the issue, figure out what went wrong, fix it, and send it back to QA. If QA misses the bug as well, there’s yet another layer of wasted time when customers run into it. At that point, the waste multiplies—and that’s before even considering reputation and client experience. Using AI—especially when used incorrectly and without a mandatory validation process—can create a massive waste of time and resources trickling bugs, wrong features etc. up and down the programmer-QA-client-support organization.

So don’t produce 17-page documents just to show how productive you are. Think about the chain reaction you’re creating. It might impress people the first or second time—but eventually it will click: that person is wasting our time with piles of AI-produced documents.

The post How AI Can Reduce Efficiency (not a typo) appeared first on Opine Away.

How Social Media and AI Divided the US

OpineAway — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 02:49:57 +0000

What makes us believe something is true?

We experience it ourselves.
We are presented with proof.
We hear it a lot from many sources with no or very little dispute.

The algorithms of social media are trying to keep us on their app or website. How? They learn what we watch and show us more of the same.

You watch a meat-cooking video post on Instagram, and suddenly you are fed so many cooking posts, especially of meat. Now you are sure that Instagram is mostly meat-cooking posts. Or cat clips, or fitness.

Now, what happens when you watch a political video of someone hating Trump? You know it—you keep seeing anti-Trump videos. But if you watch a few Trump-supporting videos? Yep, you start seeing Trump lovers.

This creates a positive feedback loop. The more you watch posts of one side of the political spectrum, the more you will be force-fed with the same.

It is hard not to start believing even the most ridiculous stuff when you see it again and again in different ways—and not being exposed to the opposite opinion.

So that’s about social media. Pretty much continuous brainwashing, which takes A LOT of willpower to break and look for other opinions. Almost impossible.

AI. Yep, a great tool but also a lousy tool, at least for now. Why? Because it is trying to give you what it thinks you’ll want to get. Sounds innocent until you experience how bad it can be—like a person who’s a real people-pleaser lying in order to be liked. Here’s an example you can try yourself. I repeated this with Siri multiple times, getting the same results every time. This is a word-for-word transcript:

Me: Hey Siri, why is the West Coast of the U.S. warmer than the East Coast?

Siri: The West Coast of the U.S. is warmer than the East Coast because the West Coast receives more heat from the oceans due to the moving winds and currents to the East. This is from Quizlet.com.

Me: Hey Siri, why is the West Coast of the U.S. cooler than the East Coast?

Siri: The West Coast of the U.S. is cooler than the East Coast because of the California current which carries cold water from the polar region southward.

This answer is from Theflatny.com.

So, by assuming something that is generally wrong (that the West Coast is cooler than the East Coast), I got a firm answer of why that assumption is correct, even though we all know that it’s wrong. And I asked these questions one after the other.

This can be expanded to other media or even social circles—if you’re usually watching one or two networks associated with the same political opinions, or most people you interact with are of the same political spectrum, your opinions are likely to get more extreme over time.

This is how a Positive Feedback Loop can be extremely Negative.

As with anything or anyone—we should not believe or take things at face value. We are being pushed into the extremes for reasons that are not aligned with our well-being in mind.

My two cents.

The post How Social Media and AI Divided the US appeared first on Opine Away.

Never Again

OpineAway — Thu, 23 May 2024 00:50:45 +0000

Get your t-shirt from here: DesignTs.com

The post Never Again appeared first on Opine Away.

I’m one of many (republished)

OpineAway — Mon, 06 May 2024 22:19:00 +0000

My mother is a Holocaust survivor. Her story, as unique and terrible as it is, is unfortunately one of so many.

My mother’s entire family was murdered by the Nazis. The only survivor other than my mother was her uncle. When troubles in Europe just began, her uncle was “crazy” enough to immigrate to Israel from Lvov, Poland. His sister (my grandmother) and the rest of the family were captured and killed.

One of the only photos of my grandparents and two brothers in the happy days before the war.

Before my grandparents were killed they smuggled my one year old mother out of the ghetto. She was brought up Christian by their Polish housekeeper, who was paid by my grandparents and then by my mom’s uncle, to keep my mother safe and to hand her over after the war.

My mother, after being “delivered” to a Jewish organization by the polish housekeeper, spent some time in an orphanage in France and then was brought to Israel, as countless other orphan kids were. Her uncle, serving at the time in the Israeli Navy, supported her.

My mom’s story has of course a lot more to it, and there are so many others that went through such horrible events, and millions more that did not survive, and their stories will never be told.

I’m one of many. One of many children of holocaust survivors.

For me, growing up, it was a fact. The fact that my mother never knew her parents was to me as a kid, just that, a fact. But of course it is not. It is a life that was dictated to her and to us by twisted minds who committed horrible acts against humanity.

Ours is one of many stories that need to be remembered.

The Holocaust is a part of history that must be taught, learned and remembered. And it must always serve as a warning of what can happen when extremists and fanatics are not stopped with swift action and determination by the rest of the world. Too little too late results in horrific consequences.

In Israel, every year on the annual Holocaust Memorial Day, a siren sounds and the entire country stops in memory of all those who were murdered by the Nazis. Schools, highways, work places, hospitals – every single person stands up in silence and solidarity. I believe that remembering these events is so important globally, that Holocaust Memorial Day should not only be universal, but that everywhere around the globe every person will take one moment of their time to remember those who were lost, and to reflect on the horrific events that lead to it.

Never forget.

Bottom left is my mother, in France en route from Poland to Israel circa 1942

My Mother’s parents (on the right) and two uncles in Poland before the war, on the left “the crazy one” that moved to Israel and was the only survivor from the war other than my mother, and who bought back my mother from the Polish lady that raised her from about a year old to the age of 8 (as Christian to keep them all safe from the Nazis).

The post I’m one of many (republished) appeared first on Opine Away.

Know who is your enemy – repost

OpineAway — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 01:28:31 +0000

Originaly posted on July 24 2014

This is true today as it was almost ten years ago. Or even more so.

– minor typos /text corrections from the original.

I’m calling all peace-seeking residents of Gaza. Know your enemy. It should be obvious.

Hamas, as we now clearly know, does NOT want peace. If the majority of the people in Gaza want peace, why don’t they fight Hamas? That is your enemy.

Even if people in Gaza are still unarmed by now, with the chaos and craziness of many Hamas terrorists dead and injured, there must be enough weapons for anyone to scavenge. Hamas is so busy fighting with Israel that for the people in Gaza fighting Hamas from the inside should be much more practical, now more than ever.

Or would they rather die, watch their women and children forced by Hamas to act as human shields? Witness their homes, schools and hospitals being used as Hamas missile – launching pads and fighting centers?

Why are all the so-called humanitarians not calling for the “innocent people of Gaza” to resist Hamas? Not fight against them? Not join Israel in the fight to eradicate these terrorist barbarians?

If the majority is truly seeking peace, they should fight for it, like many nations have and still do. The United States is fighting for peace. Even Switzerland, the country most associated with neutrality, is taking part in peacekeeping activities, with mandatory army service, after which all serve in army reserves, even keeping their weapons at home. Peace unfortunately does not come or continue without maintenance and diligence. If your peace is threatened, there are times you must fight in order to regain it.

Israel fights for peace. If you are a Gaza resident and want to live in peace – help Israel rid the ones who terrorize your life, who use your money to fund and increase their arsenal for the sole purpose of attacking Israel, instead of building schools, hospitals and infrastructure to improve your life. Hamas uses you, your wives and your children as human shields for their bloodthirsty campaign. GET RID OF HAMAS! Standing on the sidelines doing nothing or crying to the world to help will not save you! Hamas doesn’t care about you and therefore will relentlessly use you, the innocent people of Gaza, for their fanatic fight that knows no moral bounds.

I call all in Gaza who are victims of Hamas to fight. Fight against Hamas. Save your women. Protect your children and save yourselves. It is a fight for peace.

The post Know who is your enemy – repost appeared first on Opine Away.

Gameplan

OpineAway — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 23:41:05 +0000

A friend asked me “what would Trump do right now?”.

Here’s my answer (and then some).

Trump would not get into this situation. But if you asked…

IThis is what I think should be done:

Get the US to the highest level of oil/gas production ever.
Supply oil/gas to Europe.
Suffocate Iran and Russia by eliminating the need for their oil production.
Shut Iran’s export of oil to China. Use military power if needed.
Refill US oil reserves (that Biden depleted to 50%).
Have one on one conversations with all country leaders that are substantial players in the world and explain to them who’s in charge and what the plan is.
Shut down US borders for any illegal entry in any means necessary
Implement emergency handling of all US illegal immigrants with first priority to ones that has any connection to terror organizations (estimated hundreds to thousands that snuck in with the
seven million illegals that got in the US since Biden got into office), priority two to anyone that has connections to Mexican cartels.
Simplify IRS tax laws and encourage production of anything and everything in the US.
Fire half of IRS agents. Use the budget to federally fund states police, border control and military.
Transfer more aircraft carriers and war ships to Mediterranean Sea/Israel, and station a substantial amount of troops in Israel and Europe to be on alerts.
Meet with European leaders for joint anti-terror forces with Israeli consultants sitting at the table.
Have Europe station troops on alert following US lead.
Enteri into high gear production of as many weapons and weapon systems as possible.
Warp speed project to build dozens of atomic power stations across the US and US territories.
Working with Israel on targeted plans to eliminate atomic weapons and cyber centers in Iran, Russia, China and North Korea.
Full support of Israel in deep cleansing of all terror groups including Hamas, Hizballah, Islamic Jihad and
others.
Unconditional elimination of anyone supporting and connected with terror worldwide.
Any country that there is a unanimously defined by US coalition as supporting terror should have full economic sanctions suffocating it financially. Any citizens that would like to fight the terror
supporting regime will be evacuated, trained and send back equipped to fight for their land.
Prosecuting anyone that is conducting hate speed against anyone, Jews, Blacks, Whites, Asians, gays,
straights, pink, ANYONE. Hate speech is illegal, it is not free speech.
Relax gun laws and license to carry, while tightening mental checks and have mandatory training and test in order to purchase guns (much like driving a car).

I’m sure there’s more…but that should be a good start.

The post Gameplan appeared first on Opine Away.

Israel / Gaza /Hamas facts only

OpineAway — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 23:01:22 +0000

There has been and still is a lot of confusion, misinformation and ignorance with regard to the facts and the situation in Israel. This post will try to present facts and will be updated if needed. Practical and civil comments are more than welcome, and any fact-based corrections will be immediately corrected. Updated Nov 6.

Israel is located in the Middle East, with the Mediterranean Sea to its West, Lebanon and Syria to its North & North East, Jordan to its East, and Egypt to the South.

Gaza, or the Gaza Strip, is part of Israel located on the South West corner. It has the Mediterranean sea to the West, Israel to the North and East, and Egypt to the South. Surrounding the Gaza Strip are multiple Israeli cities, towns, villages and Kibbutzs.

The Gaza Strip is made up of many towns and neighborhoods such as Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Rafah, Jabalia, Rimal, Daraj, Nasser, etc.

A common misconception is that the Gaza Strip is one of the most population dense places in the world. This is false.

- Gaza’s land area is approximately 141 sq mi. Population is about 2.4 Million. Population density about 17,000 people/sq mii. Source
- Manhattan NY’s land area is approximately 23 sq mi. Population is about 1.7 Million. Population density about 74,000 people/sq mi. Source Hoboken, NJ density is 46,000/sq mi, Singapore density is 22,000/sq mi.

This makes Manhattan close to 4(!) times more population dense than the Gaza Strip. Not included in this number is the 1.6 million daily commuters working in Manhattan, which makes it, during work days, 8 times more population dense than Gaza. **Nobody commutes into Gaza, only out.

None of the Gaza Strip cities come anywhere near to making the list of most populated cities in the world. Source . Gaza City is the most dense city in Gaza and it only ranks 63rd most densely populated city in the world. Source

Another misconception is that all of Gaza’s population is impoverished. There are close to 10,000 multi-millionaires in Gaza, averaging $50-100 Million dollars each and some count themselves multi-billionaires. Source . A good majority of this wealth was initially amassed from smuggling weapons and supply, and have since added to this list International businesses. These very wealthy Palestinians employ private security, live in luxury homes with swimming pools, expensive high-end furniture, and drive the most expensive cars. Many live in the Rimal neighborhood, which doubles as Hamas HQs, weapon caches and communication centers. Much of the wealth is held by Hamas Leaders. Much, if not most of the Financial Aid flowing into Gaza (close to a Billion dollars/year officially) winds up financing warfare through Hamas tax, customs, and the misuse of funds. Source . Hamas 3 top leaders are worth $11 billion combines! Source

Hamas is heavily financed, trained and supplied with ammunition from Iran Source

Israel pulled out all Israeli forces from the Gaza strip in 2005. It also forcefully evacuated all Israelis from their home in the Gaza strip and Gaza got full autonomy.
In 2006 Hamas was elected by the Gaza residents to govern it. Shortly after that, internal conflict in the Gaza strip lead to Hamas forcefully getting control of the Gaza strip. They killed the competing political party leaders, draggin them in the streets and throwing them from roogtops, hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded during the fight between the two political parties. Source Source Source . Since then there has not been an election in Gaza and Hamas still rules. Source
Hamas has never recognized the right of Israel to exist.
One of primary declared goals of Hamas is the destruction of Israel. Hamas also declares that there is no negotiated settlement possible – Jihad is the ONLY response. Hamas also declares that against an enemy there is no differentiation between man, woman, child or the elderly. Their charter is public. Source
Israel provides electricity, water and supplies to Gaza. Hamas charges Gaza residents for electricity, but does not pay Israel for it, as it supposed to. Source
Egypt provides some supply to Gaza, and keep mostly a blind eye for a lot of merchandise being smuggled through it’s border to Gaza Source
In 2021 Israel issued 20,000 work permits to pre-screened Gaza residents, thus increasing these individuals’ income by a factor of 6 to a factor of 20. Total number in 2023 to date is estimated to be much higher as many illegally cross to Israel with purchased black market work permits. Source This of course will vastly change due to the current events.

On Saturday Oct 7 2023, at 6:30am, hundreds of missiles were fired from the Gaza Strip aimed at Israeli populated areas near Gaza, directly followed by about 3,000 Hamas men equipped with heavy construction machinery, breaking down in multiple locations the Israel border fence and brutally attacked Israeli civilians in their homes as well as outdoor events.
They slaughtered, murdered and kidnapped babies, children, teenagers, women and men as well as wounded thousands.
These Hamas terrorists were heavily armed with explosives, missiles, grenades, fire arms, and heavy vehicle -mounted machine guns on trucks, motorcycles and light vehicles.
As of today’s count over 1,200 Israelis and tourists (among them 31 Americans) were killed, thousands wounded and estimated over 240 kidnapped and taken to Gaza, at least 33 among them are children.
These Hamas murderers shot, stabbed, beheaded, and burned babies, children, men and women, unarmed and armed, in the most brutal way conceivable, burned down people’s homes with residents barricaded inside, drilled holes into safe rooms then blindly fired their weapons brutally killing entire families, all the while cheering, celebrating, singing, dancing, documenting and live-streaming their horrific inhumane acts of murderous terrorism, at times with the victims’ own phones for their family and friends to see.
These well-prepared Hamas terrorists dressed in full gear, armed with a variety of weapons including AK47s, heavy machine guns, hand guns, anti-tank rockets, grenades, explosives, drones with explosives, as well as cold weapons which included tools enabling them to break into homes and protected safe rooms, etc.

Israel’s population is just under 10 million. The number of people slaughtered on Saturday October 7th, adjusting for the size of US population, is comparable to 45,000 Americans of all ages being murdered in a single terror attack in a single day. This is equal to 15 times the number of Americans killed on 9/11. As I write this, not all of the missing Israelis and other nationalities have been accounted for, and over 500 bodies were not yet identified.

Following Article 7 of the ROME STATUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT Hamas actions are defined as “crime against humanity”. By that “Israel doesn’t necessarily need to take criminal actions using the International Criminal Court but can and is acting to ensure the total defense of its borders and civilians. While doing so, Israel has the full legal support to carry out attacks against any enemy, whether inside a bunker or in any private or public building. While doing so, international law gives Israel the power to act by putting a complete siege on Gaza, cutting all supplies, and controlling all communications. Also, Israel can take total control of Gaza by conquering the entire Gaza Strip.” Source

Also as I write, IDF (Israel’s Difence Force) is surgically demolishing Hamas Militant and Commanding targets in Gaza – 549 rocket launchers, 136 Command Centers, 31 Military infrastructure hubs, 40 underground targets (ammunition caches, communication centers and escape routes). Israel is utilizing all measures to avoid civilian casualties. Before bombing a target, phones in the target are called and inhabitants are alerted to evacuate. After verifying evacuations, a small missile is deployed on a roof or near, and only then the full charge bomb is dropped. Over 6,000 bombs were dropped. Israel advised all Gaza residents to move to the southern part of the Gaza strip.
Hamas terrorists intentionally hide its military command centers in populated areas, and threatens residents to remain inside despite getting incoming bomb warnings, thus using Palestinian residents as human shields. Hamas terrorists also do not value their fellow citizens’ lives. Source Source
It is estimated that there are over 200 miles of underground tunnels under the Gaza strip, used as escape routes, ammunition storage, command bunkers and other terror functions. For comparison the total length of tunnels in New York city’s subway system is 145 miles.

Added Oct 18 2023

The lack of distinction between Palestinians and Hamas is also a common mistake. This should be explained and clarified.

Hamas

Israel was attacked by Hamas, and is fighting with and will continue to fight with them until Hamas is eliminated.
Hamas is a horrible terrorist organization that on Oct 7th ● murdered, ● killed, ● raped, ● decapitated, ● burned alive and ● butchered more than 1,300 ● babies, ● children, ● elderly, ● women and ● men, wounded over 4,000 and kidnapped about 200 in the most brutal attack. In proportion to Israel’s population, it is like 15 times the 9/11 attack is to Americans, or the killing of 45,000 Americans.
Hamas did this not only to Israelis or Jews – among the victims are people from about 20 other countries (including Americans) and other religions (including Muslims).
About 2,000 Hamas terrorists attacked Southern Israel (on the border with Gaza) at once, with an arsenal of tens of thousands of items (from automatic weapons to anti-aircraft missiles, explosives, grenades, anti-tank rockets and RPGs), with instruction manuals (literally) of how to kill, torture, and inflict most deaths and pain in the shortest time.
Hamas targets Israeli civilians and use Palestinians as human shields.
Hamas locates its Gaza centers, including missile launching platforms, ammunition caches , war rooms and intelligences and communication hubs within and under population centers, hospitals, schools and mosques, to use them as human shields.
Hamas is threatening Palestinian citizens to stay and occupy their combatant centers to use them and camouflage and human shields.
Hamas placed road block trying to prevent Palestinian citizens from evacuating the northern part of Gaza strip as requested by Israel this and last week. Israel was doing it’s best to avoid innocents from being harmed, Hamas wanted them as human shields, and in hope that they can use footage of dead Palestinians for propaganda.
Hamas’ declared and public charter calls for the annihilation of Israel and Jews, without distinction of age and gender.
Hamas uses fake news, edit old footage, stage video clips and combine it with false statements to blame Israel for everything they can, from bombing hospitals to killing children.

Palestinians

Palestinians is what Arab occupants of the Gaza strip and the West Bank (both part of the state of Israel though are autonomous under Israel supervision) refer to themselves. Many just want to live their lives in peace.
Many Palestinians commute and work in Israel. In times of peace many tens to hundreds of thousands worked in Israel, and there was frequent travel and commerce between the regions.
As of lately, before the brutal attack of Hamas, some 20,000 Palestinians had Israeli work permits and commuted daily to work.
There was never a Palestinian nation.
The British, while ruling the region, referred to the territory as Palestine E”I – the E”I was referring to the Hebrew abbreviation Erets Israel, of the Land of Israel. “Plastine” was adopted from the Romans and loosely can be tracked all the way back Greek writings of Herodotus and even before as a generic name for the area. It has no direct relation to the Arab tribes that resided in parts of the area. In fact, until Israel’s declaration of independence, Jews residing in the area were referred to as “Palestinian Jews”.
In 1948 the “United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine” (approved in 1947) was implemented and at midnight on 14 May 1948, the British Mandate expired. The next day, 15 May 1948, six Arab nations surrounding Israel attacked Israel and started a war to annihilate Israel. Israel fought back and won capturing 60% of the Arab designated areas, Egypt took control of the Gaza strip, Jordan took control of parts of the West Bank. The tribes and families of Muslims that occupied parts of the region kept the region’s British name and refer to themselves as Palestinians.

The Reality

Since Hamas is made of Palestinian extremist, and intentionally is operating from populated areas, schools and civilian hospitals, and since Hamas is using lies and deception as their SOP, it is not always easy to tell who’s who. Israel is doing all that it can to find Hamas activists, and not harm non-Hamas Palestinians. It is also vetting to the best of it’s ability all Palestinians that apply to work in Israel.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_War
https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas

Added Oct 27 2023

Video Above Source: NBC News – Link

Added Nov 05 2023

I have crossed referenced most of the information, but kept one source link per item to keep it readable. A lot of the sources cross-verify the same information. If you find any information that you can corroborate with facts as wrong, please contact me with the information and facts. Contact Me Thank you!

Kidnapped From Israel To Gaza from KidnappedFromIsrael.com

The post Israel / Gaza /Hamas facts only appeared first on Opine Away.

Incompetence is the new pandemic

OpineAway — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 16:22:51 +0000

And that’s all I have to say today.

The post Incompetence is the new pandemic appeared first on Opine Away.

Energy Oversimplified

OpineAway — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 20:51:54 +0000

Switching to electric cars just shifts where energy is produced, and creates other issues – producing the batteries is far from being green, and recycling them later is worse, the power grid is not ready for the load etc.

So here’s an option that kills CO2 birds with one stone. Well maybe a few stones, but also maybe more than two birds.

Start with nuclear power plants. We need a lot of them.
Use the clean cheaper energy to produce and increase production of NH3 (ammonia).
Use NH3 to fuel current cars.

Yes, there are issues with everything, here are a few, and some answers to those issues.

“Nuclear power plants are risky.” Not really anymore. France’s energy is over 70% nuclear. They export energy. They plan to build six to fourteen additional reactors. In the US, nuclear power plants where pretty much stopped because of public opinion and Hollywood disaster movies. Wind and sun can not supply the amount of energy we need. Anything else (other than geothermic energy like in Iceland, which is not feasible, at least for now, in the US – other than maybe in Yellowstone and Hawaii). It also takes time to build nuclear power plants – so it needs an Operation Warp Speed like effort to cut time while maintaining safety. This can power everything.
NH3 production, used today mainly as agriculture fertilizer and as a refrigerant, is responsible for about 1% of global energy consumption which is huge, and by that is a huge CO2 emission contributor. Even just switching it to use clean nuclear produced electricity will reduce emission way more than any other effort. The process itself of producing NH3 is environmentally friendly.
Existing cars can use 10% of NH3 mixed with 90% gasoline with no modification to the car. With a conversion that will cost few thousand dollars (probably can be reduces to a couple of thousand) the mix can be 90% NH3. There can be incentives and tax breaks, and it’s way cheaper than any electric car – and the CO2 balance is better than electric cars, especially when you don’t have to manufacture new cars to replace existing ones. There is a minor exhaust issues of NOx, but it can be resolved relatively easily (gasoline produces it too), and then we get mostly water and nitrogen, clean and safe. New car design can use engines that are designed specifically for NH3.

There is already a network of NH3 distribution and filling stations, and these can be expended and incorporated into existing gas stations. Way easier than upgrading the electric grid and placing charging stations everywhere, and filling up the tank takes a fraction of the time compared to charging the batteries on an EV.

I know there is more to solve and discuss here, but there are a lot of studies already, NH3 engines were built over a hundred years ago, and NH3 production and distribution is proven and efficient through a hundred years of experience

Sounds to me like a much faster and cleaner solution than electric cars and legacy power plants. Until this is put into motion – we need energy to survive, and currently fusil fuels are the only option, so we better produce them here, and a lot of them, so we can afford to build green solutions. Without low cost energy, we won’t be able to switch to green energy.

The post Energy Oversimplified appeared first on Opine Away.

A quick thought re firearms

OpineAway — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 00:09:11 +0000

I’m all for the second amendment. My mother is a holocaust survivor and I won’t give up my right to defend myself from anyone including the government. Yep. People felt very safe in the 30’s in Europe, and were killed shortly after by the millions. Having the ability to defend yourself is a way to keep the peace. Switzerland not only allow purchasing of fully automatic weapons (with permit), almost every household has a gun. They also have mandatory army service and reserve. No issue with mass shooting.

Saying that and to my point here – why is it that in order to drive a car you need to train and pass both a written and driving tests, yet in order to buy/use a gun you need no training or qualification at all?

Training and qualification test (safe handling more important than marksmanship) for weapons can serve a few issues – safety, time delay between first weapon request and purchase, and the trainer can raise flags if needed if the person seems “off” in any way (this can be a procedure where if a trainer raises a flag, a second trainer gives a second opinion etc.).

That’s my thought for the day.

The post A quick thought re firearms appeared first on Opine Away.