Reasons for the uranium bull market from John Quakes

Never in my wildest imagination did I see this day coming when I started researching, investing in and posting about Uranium stocks as my retirement hobby over 12 years ago.

U might not see it but those of us who survived the decade long bear market from 2011 to 2021 are having our minds blown every day now with news of a world where the pendulum has swung back to embrace Nuclear as the key to a future powered by safe, 24/7 reliable, carbon-free energy fueled by the most energy dense power source on the planet - Uranium. 

The Uranium investing thesis we built many years ago DID NOT NEED a major Nuclear resurgence or NetZero or Climate Change or Energy Security or a bifurcated market where the West was going to give up cheap Russian Uranium as a major source of reactor fuel and even move to ban imports from Russia.

The thesis does not rely on or expect skyrocketing electricity demand from cryptocurrency mining, electric vehicle charging, or today's exploding demand...

https://x.com/quakes99/status/1784634339923493339?s=46&t=ef6nxoTw4ZJXKhsK8SAn7A

Firefighters - why don't you have this?

https://youtu.be/fuVGKqqe1bs?si=fWIVPKRnmdQ9hCBq

It seems like a fire engine could easily be adapted to spray like this immediately after arrival. Is this a common enough occurrence that firetrucks could justifiably be modified to do this? 

Wheeled quadruped robot navigates complex terrain

https://youtu.be/vJXQG2_85V0?si=jzvSJRqYZcTUdCsz

Coconut crabs on Vanuatu

https://youtu.be/VWqXSFgvKkY?si=qo33HYPYrC5mzcwe

0:24 "the largest terrestrial invertebrate on earth" 

Very cool drone flyboard slow-motion shots

The whole video is pretty amazing...

Hydrofoil electric surfboards (flyboards) are very cool, (and expensive!) especially when shot from a very agile drone. If you want to go straight to the great action footage, start at 7:43

Efoil Boards www.pacificnorthsports.com

Zombie ants and snails.

So weird. Have you ever heard of the zombie ant fungus? Such incredible biology, making the ant do exactly what it needs for reproduction.

https://youtu.be/vijGdWn5-h8?si=bLfiIMo7zwAvXP3f

Then there's the snail fungus that makes the snail veggie out into the open, and resemble a caterpillar. 

https://youtu.be/XMoP_47575c?si=Whd0y0KQXELTsQlp

When Neil DeGrasse Tyson met Carl Sagan

https://youtu.be/pCbsCDnz2Vo?si=EDdj54wiRZ2r6G1D

Neil deGrasse Tyson shares a story about how Carl Sagan inspired him as a young aspiring astrophysicist. Sagan wrote Tyson a letter inviting him to visit Cornell, where he showed him around and treated him with kindness. Tyson was so moved by Sagan's mentorship that he vowed to treat future generations of students the same way. Sagan's correspondence with Tyson was later displayed in the Library of Congress, symbolizing the passing of the torch from one generation of scientists to the next. During Tyson's visit to Cornell University, Carl Sagan showed him around the campus, including his office. Sagan also signed a book for Tyson and offered him his home phone number in case the bus back to New York City was delayed due to snow.

Clouds Make Nerds Look Good

Clouds Make Nerds Look Good: 

Field Evidence of the Impact of Incidental Factors on Decision Making. 2007

...Analyzing 682 actual university admission decisions. As predicted, applicants' academic attributes are weighted more heavily on cloudier days and non‐academic attributes on sunnier days. ...changes in cloud cover can increase a candidate's predicted probability of admission by an average of up to 11.9%. These results also shed light on the causes behind the long-demonstrated unreliability of experts making repeated judgments from the same data.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/219378519.pdf

50 words for snow

Considering that the Inuit have 50 words for snow, it's not surprising that the English language has so many synonyms for "lying."

And speaking of words, there's "doncha"...but my favorite reduction in English is "chupto" for "what are you up to?" Unfortunately it didn't make this list of English reductions. 

Hacker long range radio texting

https://youtu.be/40llxjrIG3w?si=ARMXzcCP91AMqwx0

"It's easy, just follow these few steps..." I love the iconoclastic idea of homespun technology for free, but this really sounds like a lot of work! 

Why do queen bees live so long?

In mankind's eternal quest to live longer, this interesting paper explores the mechanisms of aging in honeybees. Queen bees live for years, while workers live for weeks (unless it's winter when they live for months.) Ingenious experiments tease out whether workers live shorter lives because of their dangerous lives outside the hive - exposed to parasites* or drowning risk - or their immune and oxygen-radical scavenging systems diminish - probably the latter. Do the queens have a different hormone profile that promotes longevity, and is that a result of diet? The paper ends with a (likely unknowable)  chicken-or-the-egg question - did queens evolve longer lives because of honeybees' cooperative social structure that expends huge energies on maintaining the queen, or did the social structure evolve because queens were endowed with longevity? 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2527632/

*the "sugar-shake" test (dumping powdered sugar on bees) releases mites by sticking to their feet,  allowing them to be counted. 

Video SpaceX launch

https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1778440085391733233?t=vFg1dh_kUqnTR_WqFp3xUA&s=09

Cool composite video of SpaceX launch

Eclipse graphics

1) bookings on Airbnb along the eclipse path

2) instantaneous temperature monitors dip along swath of eclipse

E.P.A. Says ‘Forever Chemicals’ Must Be Removed From Tap Water - NYT

"Environmental Protection Agency mandates that water providers reduce perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS, to near-zero levels...the chemicals can be found in water-repellent clothes and carpets, certain shampoos, cosmetics and hundreds of other household items." 

"The E.P.A. estimated it would cost water utilities about $1.5 billion annually to comply with the rule..."

In 2022, the E.P.A. found the chemicals could cause harm at levels "much lower than previously understood" and that almost no level of exposure was safe. Under the new rule from the E.P.A.... reduce contamination if levels exceeded the new standard of 4 parts per trillion... Previously... no more than 70 parts per trillion of the chemicals."

"...estimated that more than 200 million Americans had PFAS in their drinking water."

"health effects of PFAS...associated with metabolic disorders, decreased fertility in women, developmental delays in children and increased risk of some prostate, kidney and testicular cancers...delay in the onset of puberty in girls, leading to a higher incidence of breast cancer, renal disease, and thyroid disease; a decrease in bone density in teenagers, potentially leading to osteoporosis; and an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes in women."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/10/climate/epa-pfas-drinking-water.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Mumbling dialog that necessitates subtitles

Makes a good point about how movie soundtracks have deteriorated over time for many reasons, and most people now watch with captions as a result. 

Use parking lots for solar power generation

A simple (but not cheap) solution - cover parking lots with solar cells instead of rural land. More expensive, still pays for itself, makes more sense than covering over farmland. It will only happen if legislated. 

https://youtu.be/yeaQUhAOdtk?si=YpkEYn4_l20GYfZq

- 3x cost because they're elevated 4:36

But

- shade protects parked cars 

- close to power needs

- large electrical infrastructure already in place

3:47 France mandated covering parking lots by legislation

Restaurant cooking tips

I found these cooking hacks really practical. 

 1:58 bruise herbs first to bring out flavor

 2:23 chicken thighs less likely to overcook than breasts

 4:57 how to zest

 6:58 how to core a pepper

 8:24 slice a bunch of cherry tomatoes

 12:55 xanthan gum fixes sauces

 17:41 peel ginger with a spoon

 20:07 damp paper towel under cutting board

 26:31 add salt when browning onions or garlic prevents it darkening

 27:49 season cooked veggies

 29:16 put soft cheese in freezer briefly before grating

 31:08 toast your spices first

 32:12 parchment paper grill fish 

https://youtu.be/H_erG7HSK0A?si=mMowJFx1TKO37I7Q

Eclipse patterns

https://youtu.be/0fgbMTC30F8?si=uC_CZtMr94n6rs5z

The mathematical patterns of total eclipses explained in detail. It's incredible to know that 4:25 the Babylonians figured out this pattern more than 2000 years ago. 

How to write song lyrics

This is a really intriguing method of reverse-engineering song lyrics from a central phrase through slant-rhymes in the middle of lines instead of the end of the line. 

https://youtu.be/aktKzYLRDOg?si=ncl5U806-0iVKHVy

Storm runoff engineering

https://youtu.be/coXe8_xnAOs?si=OddgpSb0yH8YP4Pb