8 thoughts on “If Something Cannot Go On Forever”

  1. I share his sentiments. Wish I didn’t, but I do. Many people will not survive, and I’m fairly confident the current form of the US of A will not survive either.

    I’m looking at practical skills to keep a community alive as my ticket for this ride. You can imagine that those with nothing to contribute would be turned away.

    Not a future I look forward to, particularly for my young grandchildren.

  2. Not on subject, I apologize but this is really interesting:

    “BREAKING: NASA discovers the perfect cave for humans to live in on the moon”

    Unique Features of the Lunar Cave
    The lunar cave’s unique features make it an ideal location for a potential lunar base:

    1) Stable Environment: The cave’s interior maintains a relatively stable temperature of around -20°C, providing a more hospitable environment for humans compared to the extreme temperature fluctuations on the moon’s surface.

    2) Radiation Protection: The cave’s thick walls shield its inhabitants from harmful solar and cosmic radiation, reducing the risk of radiation-related health issues.

    3) Micrometeorite Shielding: The cave’s natural structure serves as a barrier against micrometeorite impacts, which could damage equipment and structures on the lunar surface.

    4) Resource Availability: The cave is located near the moon’s South Pole, an area rich in water ice and other valuable resources that could be used for life support, fuel, and construction materials.

    https://www.physics-astronomy.com/astronomy/breaking-nasa-discovers-the-perfect-cave-to-live-in-on-the-moon/

    If this is correct this will be the most sought after piece of real estate in the entire solar system at least for the foreseeable future.

    1. If I have to defend the change of subject…well the Moon will be the hidey hole maybe if things go too bad on Earth? I know that is quite a stretch…

    2. Tim, … Hot as I would be for lunar lava tubes that close to Lunar Ice, this article not only tells me nothing new:

      1.) It does not give a location on the Moon for the Lava Tube
      2.) It uses pictures I recognize from over 10 years ago.
      3.) The publication’s other articles are fantasy fodder
      4.) In a cursory search, I cannot find out who publishes it, with each article being written by “Editor”.

      1. “Tim, … Hot as I would be for lunar lava tubes that close to Lunar Ice, this article not only tells me nothing new:”

        “Jul 26, 2022
        NASA’s LRO Finds Lunar Pits Harbor Comfortable Temperatures”

        https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/lro-lunar-pits-comfortable

        “Pits were first discovered on the Moon in 2009, and since then, scientists have wondered if they led to caves that could be explored or used as shelters. The pits or caves would also offer some protection from cosmic rays, solar radiation and micrometeorites.”

        “About 16 of the more than 200 pits are probably collapsed lava tubes,” said Tyler Horvath, a doctoral student in planetary science at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the new research, recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

        “Lunar pits are a fascinating feature on the lunar surface,” said LRO Project Scientist Noah Petro of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Knowing that they create a stable thermal environment helps us paint a picture of these unique lunar features and the prospect of one day exploring them.”

        Lava tubes, also found on Earth, form when molten lava flows beneath a field of cooled lava or a crust forms over a river of lava, leaving a long, hollow tunnel. If the ceiling of a solidified lava tube collapses, it opens a pit that can lead into the rest of the cave-like tube.

        Two of the most prominent pits have visible overhangs that clearly lead to caves or voids, and there is strong evidence that another’s overhang may also lead to a large cave.”

        “1.) It does not give a location on the Moon for the Lava Tube”

        “Focusing on a roughly cylindrical 328-foot (100-meter)–deep depression about the length and width of a football field in an area of the Moon known as the Mare Tranquillitatis, Horvath and his colleagues used computer modeling to analyze the thermal properties of the rock and lunar dust and to chart the pit’s temperatures over time.”

  3. Yes, but the status quo has a very strong interest in things continuing as they are, and will go to great lengths to ensure that their rice bowls continue to be filled to the degree to which they are entitled.

    My dad used to say that the only thing you’re entitled to in life is a kick in the ass and a smack upset the head. Everything else is gravy.

    I started seeing the cracks in the system back in the 90s, when I made my first attempt to get out of banking to try my hand in the space field. The government gaming the CPI and other statistics, company filings ending on EDGAR as they were snapped up by private equity, clarification rules that make it so much easier to obfuscate (I’m looking at you, mutual fund holdings statements…), and more. My space efforts seem ultimately futile, despite some notable accomplishments (and failures) so it was back into banking, where I got a behind-the-scenes look at the 2008 debacle.

    The point of recessions is to purge the poisons and excesses that have worked their way into the economic system. We’ve been largely avoiding them (though it may not have seemed like it) since at least the 90s, so there are a lot of toxins that have built up in the system. The system needs an enema, but everyone is too terrified of what is going to come blowing out, so everyone just keeps soldiering on, hoping they’re not in the line of fire when it does hit the fan.

    Because it will. When? Well, that’s what everyone wishes they knew. It’ll suck, but if we get back to basics we’ll get through, and be a healthier economy going forward. But we are going to have to face the music, and the music will have to stop.

    Let’s hope it’s a relatively brief cessation.

    1. Ken, that reminds me of that line from “Margin Call” where they are talking about the music slowing down, and the top guy says, “from where I stand, I don’t hear a thing. Just…silence.”

      1. Nah, the music hasn’t stopped yet, and I was thinking more along the lines of musical chairs. We are hearing more discordant notes, missed beats, and botched transitions, so there is evidence that parts of the system are freezing up. Not everyone is going to get a seat when things seize up, but those who are connected will ensure they’re taken care off in the way in which they are entitled.

        I’ll take a spitball guess and say the government will throw a $2.5 – 5.0Tn band aid at the problem this time around. What they hey, it’s just money…

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