Russian tanks with wimpy guns?

 The Russians have been showing a lot of newsreel stuff of their army on maneuvers just outside of Ukraine.  Assuming this footage is recent, and not left over from WWII, I see some strange stuff.  A bunch of tanks with tiny cannon, like 1 inch (20mm)  bore.  The lesson from WWII is that any decent tank needs a three inch (75mm) gun.  Modern main battle tanks have moved up to 4 inch (100 mm) and 5 inch guns (120mm).  I wonder what the Russians are doing buzzing around in 1 inch gun tanks?  And I saw a number of Russian tanks with really narrow treads.  Another lesson from WWII is tanks want the widest tread possible to prevent them getting stuck in snow or mud.   

   Have the Russians forgotten their lessons from WWII?  Or are the Russian newsreels showing obsolete or training versions of their equipment? 

Biden is talking about leaving US citizens to sink of swim in Ukraine.

 He said that confrontation between Russian troops and US troops would touch off WWIII.  Not so.  We tell the Russians that were are getting our people out.  If they get in our way we will kill them. 

Brits claim break even nuclear fusion.

It was in the Wall St Journal today.  The achieved 60 Megajoules for 5 minutes.  That's enough fusion power output to cover the energy required to run the fusion reactor.  In more familiar units, a watt is one joule per second, so I read 60 megajoules as 60 megawatts, enough juice to do a lot.  Keep this up and we might be able to fuel our cars and keep our houses warm without drilling for more oil. 

Drug Rehab programs.

 Just the other day, as outrage flared up over Biden’s plan to issue free, taxpayer paid for crack pipes to druggies, several TV newsies suggested we put the druggies into a drug rehab program.  Good idea.  Question:  Anyone know how to run a drug rehab program that works?  Does 50% of the entering class graduate on time?  What percent of graduates are still off drugs one year later?  Two years later?  How many graduates are holding jobs, like right now, like one year after graduation?   Can we get any graduates to join a church?  How many graduates have hooked up with a friend?  With a friend of the opposite sex? Can we get program graduates hired into the private economy?  I have never seen any numbers on any of these questions.  

  In short, has anyone run a successful drug rehab program?  I expect such a program to have failures.  But I also want to see some successes.  If we don’t have any successes we are just pouring money down the drain.  If we can run drug rehab programs that work,  it is a better use of tax payer money than passing out free crack pipes.

I am sympathetic to the Canadian truckers

 They have certainly made Justin Trudeau (prime minister of Canada) look foolish and weak.  I agree with their idea that nobody should be forced to get vaccinated.  Those that refuse the vaccine are taking a risk, but it is a risk with their own lives.  If you fear infection, get yourself vaccinated.  

   The video is fun the watch.  I never saw so many red maple leaf flags in all my life.  The pix of flag waving crowds waving the trucks on are impressive. 

The other good thing, this demo is in Canada.  All the inconveniences, like Ottawa all parked up with 18 wheelers, is in Canada.  I'm in New Hampshire and it doesn't effect me. 

Booze or Pot safer than street drugs

Fentanyl is a super potent synthetic narcotic, about 80 times more potent than morphine.  Two milligrams can kill.  It is cheap.  Street drugs, good looking pills, are often souped up with fentanyl to make them hit harder.  Checks on street drugs show that 2 out of 5 contain a lethal dose of fentanyl.  Many of the current over dose deaths come from taking just one pill of a street drug. 

   If you are a parent, guardian, relative, or other person connected with the young, you want to make sure that the kids you talk to know that street drugs will kill them.  Encourage them to find a girl friend or boy friend instead of doing street drugs.  They will have more fun and live longer. 

   If the kid just has to take something, they will live longer drinking alcohol or smoking pot. 

   And have a word with the doctors.  According to the Wall St Journal, 70% of patients come away from a doctor’s appointment with a prescription for an opioid.  This is ridiculous.  And leads to opioid addiction.  After the prescription runs out, the kid will start buying street drugs until they kill him.  I cannot believe that 70% of patients need an opioid prescription.  I have lived a long life, and just once, after a very difficult tooth extraction, was I prescribed an opioid.  I would ask any doctor my kid was seeing how often he prescribed opioids.  The proper answer to this question is in 1% of cases.

Climate Scientists Encounter Computer Models' Limits.

 Front page headline in Monday's Wall St Journal.  I could have told them that 20 years ago.  I used to write computer models.  A computer model is just a computer program written to predict what will happen in the future.  If the model fails to give the answer the model writers want, they change the model code until they get the answer they like.  

This is not really science, not as Roger Bacon described science back in the high middle ages.  Science makes observations and preforms experiments.  The results are used to suggest or back up general theories.  When enough good scientists deem the theories true and the evidence sufficient, the theory becomes part of generally accepted science.   The models don't do experiments, and they tend to "correct" the observations they get fed.  I cannot call a model's results scientific.  They are more like science fiction.