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Rolls Royce Nuclear Reactors Are Going To Revolutionize The Eclectic Power Generation Industry Worldwide

       Most of us have heard of the British company Rolls Royce. In most of our minds, this company is the manufacturer of some of the most expensive luxury cars on earth. Those of us who fly on jets many times a year know that Rolls Royce is the manufacturer of some of the finest jet engines on the earth. They have been building these fine jet engines for over 75 years. In an irony of history, Britain gave the Soviet Union a gift of 8 Rolls Royce jet engines. These engines went on to power the Mig-15 jet fighter. 

    Only people enthusiastically involved in the space industry know that Rolls Royce is a builder of some of the best nuclear reactors used to power spacecraft on deep space missions. Building a nuclear reactor for a spacecraft is a huge challenge. The reactor has to take the stresses of a spacecraft launch and high-velocity trips through space. These reactors have to be able to stand wild extremes of temperature as they would never experience on earth (-400 degrees Fahrenheit to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.) These reactors have to be able to endure all sorts of radiation bombardments a ground-based nuclear reactor would never have to endure. 

     There is another giant challenge that these nuclear reactors must overcome. In the event of a launch failure or other spacecraft failure, the reactor will fall to earth at high speed and hit the ground with a hard impact. It must be tough enough to stand up to the impact. A release of radioactive material from such a reactor would be a public relations disaster. Violent protests and lawsuits would follow. 

    Rolls Royce is now offering these reactors to companies all over the world that generate electricity. There is going to be an evolution away from generating electric power at large power stations to much smaller power stations disbursed widely and can respond better to local power demands. Small nuclear reactors would make this possible. 

 

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The Economist Magazine Cover For 11/26/2022

 

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NOVEMBER 26TH 2022

SUBSCRIBER ONLY Cover Story How we chose this week’s image

Brexit has made life more complicated for farmers and small businesses by multiplying paperwork and spooling out red tape. It has also made life more complicated for our cover designers.    We used to depict Europe using the handy iconography of the European Union—euro coins, the EU’s yellow-starred flag, or the Berlaymont, a monstrous office building in the middle of Brussels. Since Brexit, all those are off the table, because the EU is missing Britain—just as it always missed Norway, Switzerland and a host of other places. This adds to a longstanding difficulty with European covers, which is that some of our Asian and American readers need a helping hand to see why the affairs of the old world should matter to them.   This week, with a worldwide cover on Europe, we faced both of these problems.

Ukraine is having a profound effect on Europe’s fortunes. A brutal economic squeeze will pose a test of Europe’s resilience in 2023 and beyond. There is a growing fear that the recasting of the global energy system, American economic populism and geopolitical rifts threaten the long-run competitiveness of the EU and non-members, including Britain. It is not just the continent’s prosperity that is at risk, the health of the transatlantic alliance is, too.   These images give you a sense of what our designers were up against. In one of them the euro-filled snowglobe has sprung a leak and in the other the EU’s flag is drooping as forlornly as the figure walking away from it. Unfortunately, both were out from the start, because they do not include all the countries we’re talking about.

We might have been able to tweak these designs. The windblown tree might have borne something other than yellow stars. The shrinking coins could have included the odd pound—which, after all, went through a dramatic period of shrinkage while Liz Truss was prime minister.

This is, admittedly, a star. However, at this point, we were thinking of a title “Europe: the sick man of the world”—a contrast to the more familiar “sick man of Europe” that, over the decades, has variously served as an epithet for Turkey, Italy, Germany and Britain. Next to it is a path leading down into the depths, a measure of the decline that lies ahead.

This looks good, but in colour it obviously refers to the EU alone. And it has a second fatal problem. If you ask around the globe what people think of Europe, some respond first with an expression of admiration. In the struggle to help Ukraine and resist Russian aggression, Europe has displayed unity, grit and a principled willingness to bear enormous costs. Only then do they follow with alarm at Europe’s gloomy prospects. The star is wrong because Europe is suffering not from its own frailties so much as from standing by Ukraine.

We could have fallen back on typography. Here we have EU colours, but we could easily have chosen black on red or some other combination. It looks good, but we thought an image would be more striking.

Here is where we came down. We have used a map to show that we are talking about the European continent, rather than the European Union. The icicles point to a large part of the problem, which is Russia’s weaponisation of energy supplies. And, paradoxically, the title—“Frozen out”—hints that the problem goes beyond the cold weather.    Energy inflation is spilling over into the rest of Europe’s economy. The war has exposed a vulnerability in Europe’s business model. Too many of Europe’s industrial firms, especially German ones, have relied on abundant energy inputs from Russia. Plenty of companies have also become more dependent on another autocracy, China, as an end market.    In Europe this winter promises to be long and hard. Alas, so does the next.

Cover image • View large image (“Frozen out”)

Zanny Minton Beddoes Editor-in-chief

Update from Ukraine | Ukraine on counterattack | The key battle for Meli...

Mr. Putin Your Callous And Inhumane Campaign To Destroy Ukraine Infrastructure for Electric Power And Natural Gas Won't Work!!

       One of our readers is a special man named Denys Davydov. He was given the nickname "Our man in Ukraine." Due to the vicious Russian attacks on the infrastructure of power generation and heating he has relocated his family to an unnamed country where he can continue his superb podcasts and renew his career as an airline pilot. 

   My mind goes back to Germany during World War II. Germany was bombarded day and night by US and British bombers and fighters. Most German cities were reduced to piles of ruin. History pays scant attention to what happened to electricity generating and distribution grids and the system for distributing natural gas for heating during cold German winters that I know well. 

    I am sure that many German people suffered like people in Ukraine are suffering now. I will send Vladimir Putin a lesson in history from 1945 after Germany surrendered. Albert Speer was a man from a wealthy family. He was cultured and highly intelligent. He spoke fluent English. Albert Speer first came to Adolf Hitler as his chief architect. He later was promoted to Nazi Garmany's Minister of Armaments. Historians praise his brilliant performance. The majority of historians believe that Germany would have collapsed at the end of 1943 without the work of Speer. He kept the Nazi war machine going for another year and almost months. On the day of Germany's surrender, fighters were being produced in underground factories to resist allied air attacks. 

    Speer was captured by the US Army. A group of US Army Air Corps and British Royal Air Force officers eagerly came to interview him. The first question posed to Speer was: 

      "How effective was our day and night strategic bombing campaign?" 

      Speer thought carefully. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. He responded in English as follows: 

      "It did no good at all." 

     Mr. Putin, your callous and inhumane attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure for power production and distribution as well as natural gas will not break the spirit and the will to resist the people of Ukraine have.  

 
 

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Big Crime Problems At Stanford Mall

 

• Stanford mall shooting: Police arrest man suspected of firing shots

  

Such measures made little difference to shoppers who periodically surveyed their surroundings on Tuesday. Several acknowledged that Stanford Shopping Center had become a target.

“Just look at all these stores,” Fran Hall, a visitor from New Hampshire, said from a courtyard bench, pointing to a phalanx of designer retailers that included Zegna, Louis Vuitton and Sephora, where a security guard stood in the doorway. “You could see why someone would come” to shoplift, she said.

Anna Foster, a tourist from the United Kingdom who witnessed the crime scene on Monday evening, said she was in a car tooling down Sand Hill Road when she saw the swarm of police cars at El Camino Real. Pulling up to the police roadblock, Foster watched an officer jump out of his cruiser and run toward the shopping mall with a rifle.

The dramatic episode didn’t stop Foster and her family from heading to the shopping center on Tuesday, though they appeared shaken.

“I don’t feel safe anywhere,” Foster said.

Shards of glass littered the ground beneath a boarded-up window at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse, where a gunman — who police identified as Ginsberg — fired at least two rounds into the restaurant at 4:25 p.m. on Monday, before fleeing in a black Chevrolet Camaro.

On Tuesday morning the restaurant was closed, with blinds drawn over the windows and umbrellas folded at its al fresco dining tables. The shooting left no one injured, though a few mallgoers tweeted that they had to evacuate, and others said they were temporarily stranded in nearby shops.

Representatives from Simon Property Group, the company that operates Stanford Shopping Center, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Monday’s burst of gunfire capped off a year of high-profile capers and raw nerves at the shopping center. This month, five shoplifters struck a Burberry store at the mall and swiped several handbags, threatening to hurt employees and pushing a security guard, though no one reported any injuries. Police had arrested four suspects in July for allegedly ransacking a Lululemon store, where officers said they caught the thieves carrying 100 pairs of leggings, worth $12,000.

Other, more disturbing instances include a shooting in the shopping center parking lot in February, which left a man wounded in his foot and hand, and an armed robbery in January in which a teenager allegedly stole purses from restaurant-goers.

These crimes mirrored the issues welling up in Union Square, where Mayor London Breed and other city leaders stood before TV cameras last week, promising to clamp down on organized retail theft, and begging shoppers to return. Breed and other politicians have struggled to reinvigorate business corridors that wilted during the pandemic, and viral videos of shoplifters haven’t helped.

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Merchants who face comparable challenges at Stanford Shopping Center showed varying emotions, from trying to write off the shooting as an unfortunate feature of modern life, to blaming city and state officials for failing to stop crime.

“There’s definitely a lack of enforcement; it’s the culture of government in California,” said Daren Bryant, a worker at Therabody, which sells products to help athletes recover from injuries. The shop recently opened across the parking lot from Fleming’s, and on Tuesday morning Bryant and his co-workers looked unflappable as they prepared for a Black Friday sale.

Still, Bryant voiced concern that apathy at the state level had trickled down to local law enforcement.

Kim Parkes, a superintendent overseeing a construction project at the mall, said he was “a bit surprised” to learn of the shooting that morning, though he dismissed it as a one-off act, rather than a foreshadowing of more chaos and disorder. Gesturing as a Palo Alto police officer walked by, Parkes said he felt the mall had ample security.

Suong Tran, a traveler from Orange County who was sitting with family outside Blue Bottle Coffee, said thoughts of grab-and-go heists crossed her mind as she passed a nearby jewelry store, but she tried to brush them off.

“I’m very vigilant when I’m out, but I’ve let my guard down here,” Tran said. “Just now I was thinking about how this is a very safe area.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan

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Congress Woman Jackie Speier Steps Down After 15 Years In Office- What An Amazing Life!

      Yesterday morning I was honored to attend a breakfast here in Pacifica for our departing Congress Woman Jackie Speier. She has had an incredible life. She was interested in politics from the time that she was a young lady. She got hired onto the staff of Congressman Leo Ryan. She went on a fact-finding trip to Jonestown, Guyana. A mad pastor opened fire and killed several hundred people. Jackie was hit with 5 bullets. She lay on the tarmac of an airport for many hours playing dead. She was rescued by US forces. 

       Jackie had a long hospitalization. When she recovered, she ran for congress to get elected to the seat of her deceased boss. She came in #3. Jackie did not give up. She launched a political career by running for San Mateo County Supervisor.  She defeated a 20- year incumbent. She next ran for State Assembly and won. After some years of service, she moved up to State Senator and did a great job. 

   As her political career prospered, Jackie married a man named Steve and had two children. Steve was tragically killed in a car crash. Jackie became a single mom for many years until she remarried. 

    When Congressman Tom Lantos died, she made another run for the congressional seat that was a big part of her life. 15 years ago, Elena and I were at Jackie's election headquarters. I was standing next to Jackie when she was declared the winner of the election. I shared her elation. Jackie was wearing high heel shoes that night. Despite this handicap, she started dancing to rock and roll music. I reminded her of this story yesterday. I finished the conversation with these uplifting words for her as follows: 

        "Jackie, you are tough!!!" 

    Everyone have a good day. Give thanks for your good fortune in life. Eat some healthy food and get some exercise. Attend religious services if you are so inclined. 

Theranos-An Opportunity Lost

       Yesterday there was a big courtroom drama in San Jose, California. The disgraced founder of the high-tech start-up Theranos was sentenced to 11.25 years in Federal prison for defrauding investors out of $1 billion US dollars. Elizabeth has a 1-year-old child and is pregnant with a second child. Massive numbers of letters from celebrities begged the judge to give her a shorter sentence. The probation officers recommended a sentence of 9 years. The sentencing judge was US District Judge Edward Davila. He normally gives lenient sentences. 

    The real tragedy of this case is an incredible opportunity lost. Holmes and her partner claimed that they had invented the machine that would make the very unpleasant blood tests we all have to endure obsolete (You know the routine of rolling up your sleeve and getting needles put in your arm, etc.). A patient would have gone into the doctor's office. A medical assistant would prick the patient's finger. In a few seconds or minutes, the doctor would have a detailed blood report. Medicine would have been revolutionized. All of our lives would be improved. 

    As I have indicated before, I truly knew Elon Musk before he was rich and famous. When Elon was working to make a start-up company a reality in 1996, he lived in a run-down two-bedroom apartment with his first wife Justine, and his brother Kimbal. He drove a 20-year-old Jaguar that ran half the time. He wore blue jeans and old sports shirts. When he got the payments app that became Pay Pal launched and he got $160,000,000 US dollars, he started to drive a nicer car and live in a nicer residence. 

    When Elizabeth Holmes collected some $1 billion she used it to finance a lavish lifestyle including a mansion. She made a half-hearted effort to make her blood testing machine work. 

     If I had received those $ 1 billion dollars, I would have lived modestly as Elon did. I would have been out there hiring the best scientist and engineers to get my machine to work. Only when I got the working (and I know that using this method I would have pulled it off), would I have begun to live the good life. 

      Had Elizabeth Holmes done this, she would have been in the same class as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, etc. She would have been honored and revered. She will regret being given this opportunity and not doing it right. Her children will grow up having to go to prison to visit their mother. Her husband will drift away and find a new partner.