The Blip Report for Tuesday, May 21st 2024
Happy Xiao Man
Saturday was International Museum Day, and I read a story about the new Yinshu Museum in Anyang - the place where a Canadian, James Menzies, found some oracle bones, and helped China to locate their ancient capital during the Shang dynasty from over 3000 years ago - ‘What did the Chinese capital look like 3,000 years ago?’, and after 100 years of excavating, it can be seen to have been a core city with a palace and temples and royal tombs area, but also at least 32 settlements around this main city. To visit Anyang is already on my bucket list, but even more so now.
And yesterday was the first day of Xiao Man, Lesser Fullness of Grain, the 8th term in the Chinese solar calendar, and the 2nd term of summer.
And so I watched a video about Xiao Man, that was about Shengze, a little town on the outskirts of Wujiang, and one of the most important centers of silk in China, and about the celebration of the birthday of the Silk Goddess, Leizu, who was the first person to raise silkworms and to weave silk – over 5000 years ago; and about the invention of the spinning wheel to make silk thread – over 2000 years ago; and the invention of the brocade machine - over 1000 years ago; and about the making of silk cloth and silk quilts!
And I read a story about our zebrafishes that have been in space for 20 days now on the Chinese space station - ‘Fish farming in space is coming soon!’, and they seem to be doing ok. I’m very curious about swimming in zero gravity.
And I started wondering about the title of the story ‘fish farming in space’ that I hadn’t thought about before. Maybe in the future, taikonauts and astronauts will be able to eat fresh fish out there.
And then I read a story about how some animals are eating soy-based wire insulation - ‘Eco-friendly brake cables eaten by foxes after switch to soy insulation’, after manufacturers switched from petroleum-based insulation to soy-based insulation. Here in Canada, we have had problems with squirrels eating the wires on cars, but now it’s other animals too. I don’t think that this is good for wildlife to be eating this stuff.
Maybe we should spray the wire insulation with fox urine, to help keep them away. Too eco-friendly, perhaps???
Then I read a story about the carbon capture industry - ‘The Carbon Capture Con’, that it’s just a silly idea and maybe even a dangerous idea, and that may only be practical in the oil industry.
“Pumping gases underground is only sensible if it brings real benefits such as using waste gases to increase oil recovery from declining oil fields – frack the strata, pump in CO2, and force out oil/gas.”
But in the end, carbon capture may just be futile, as the oceans will undo whatever man tries to do.
“Oceans contain vastly more CO2 than the thin puny atmosphere, and oceans maintain equilibrium between CO2 in the atmosphere and CO2 dissolved in the oceans. If man releases CO2 into the atmosphere, the oceans will quickly absorb much of it. And if by some fluke man reduced the CO2 in the atmosphere, CO2 would bubble out of the oceans to replace much of it. Or just one decent volcanic explosion could negate the whole CCUS exercise.”
Ms. Forbes ends with a warning that:
‘global warming has never been a threat to life on Earth – Ice is the killer’.