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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • I like to tell my physics students this story. A man made a perpetual motion device, and dared the community to disprove him. After several had tried and failed, a physics professor looked at the layout of the device. In the center was a permanent magnet. He took reading of the magnetic field strength of the magnet, ran the machine for a day, and then measured the field strength a second time. The permanent magnet was being demagnetized by it’s operation. What the man had done was turned the magnet into a limited fuel source.

    This was fine and didn’t violate any conservation laws: the energy for the device was originally from the magnetization process that created the magnet. It actually was quite cleaver. One could just chuck a new magnet in every once and a while and the machine would keep running. The fuel source was also quite small. But, all things must be practical and efficient if they are to be industrally implemented. The process of creating permanent magnets is quite wasteful. The amount of gas needed to generate an electromagnet strong enough to create the permanent magnet was actually more than the gas needed to produce the movement from the perpetual motion device.

    Though disproven, the professor said that this was on the right track. “Instead of magnetic storage, while not use electric storage devices like super-capacitors? They are much more efficient, both because they have much less loss in creating them, and because the efficiency of electric generators increases with size - and we have a very efficient electric distribution system that connects us to giant generators already installed in every home.” Soon after, electric cars became a thing.












  • We have the baby boomers on the edge of dying. They are afraid of it, but there is nothing that can be done - so those fears shift to other things that “could” be dealt with.

    -Immigrants destroying the culture they grew up in (that culture went away for other reasons),

    -Gays and trans people being happy (The closeted Senator Graham saying there is no happiness in real life - why did gays of old have to suffer and hide if it was all for not?),

    -The worst economy in the history of the US! (They are in their 80s, don’t have a job, and running out of money, so it is bad for them)

    -Small town on the edge of dying (because there is no jobs or amenities because they didn’t want them in their town)

    Trump speaks their insecurities and offers a path to fix things that no other politician dares to go down: “Burn the system to the grown and the people you hate will be hurt”. Because modern Republicans care more about hurting the ones they hate than helping themselves, either because of self hate or a illusion that they won’t get hurt in the process.