German software engineer and cyclist in Japan. Politics, environment, cyber security.
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Why waste biomethane on reducing iron ore when green hydrogen can do that job just as easily, whereas methane is much easier to liquefy as a shipping fuel than hydrogen is? H2 is a better fit for stationary uses like steel and fertilizer, CH4 a better fit for oceangoing ships.
Global biogas and biomethane production reached 1.6 Exajoule in 2022. Meanwhile, fuel consumption for marine shipping at 211m t/year at 41 MJ/kg for HFO works out as 8.6 Exajoule/year, if my math is right. Sounds like we're not that far off!
"Everybody want to go to up to heaven But none o them, none o them want to die" Peter Tosh, "Equal Rights"
Meanwhile Japan is planning to produce no more than 40-50% of its electricity from renewables in 2040, fifteen years from now! While the UK phased out its last coal power plant in 2024, Japan still started up brand new coal power plants in 2023 and 2024.
Technically, they are not rockets but cruise missiles. The Flamingo doesn't use a rocket engine for propulsion but a gas turbine. It is launched using a solid fuel booster rocket though.
"reciprocal" (in double quotes because those tariffs have nothing to do with any tariffs (or absence thereof) against US products in other countries, see UK and Republic of Korea. MAGA newspeak should not dictate our language.
This will be remembered as one of the coolest summers of the next 100 years. Seriously! It will only get worse and Japan is way behind the curve on switching to renewable energies. Only 40-50% of electricity is planned to be from renewabled by 2040 when 90% is possible, if there is political will.
Putin's version of "Seit 5:45 Uhr wird jetzt zurückgeschossen!"
It's a model aircraft engine, available in China for $2k-3k each, depending on order volume. sztelefly.en.made-in-china.com/product/cfhp...
Habeck zieht sich aus dem Bundestag zurück - und spricht die ganze Show und die ganzen Inszenierungen unserer Politik an: Den bedeutungslosen Kulturkampf - der bringt Klicks, Auflage und Schlagzeilen - löst aber keine Probleme.
To this day, a complete transcript of the 2008 ARD interview with these answers by Putin is on the website of the Russian government: archive.government.ru/eng/docs/1758/
August 25, 2025
Isn’t this what you do when you think the stock market is going to tank? www.nbcnews.com/business/mar...
72% of fresh tomatoes consumed in the USA are imported. 90% of those imports come from Mexico. Trump slapped a 17% tariff on them, payable by the importers who pass the cost on to consumers.
Oh look, the US is the "only Country in the World that uses Mail-in Voting" (his capitalization, not mine). That must be news to his buddy in the Kremlin: "Putin Signs Law Allowing Voting By Mail And Internet" RFE/RL May 23, 2020
🧵 THREAD: What the leaked Alaska summit documents really reveal (excellent scoop by @NPR) 1/ NPR just broke some big news: US government documents were accidentally left in a hotel printer in Anchorage, revealing the actual plan for the Trump-Putin summit. They show exactly what Trump intended.
Someone being told "you've got no cards" in Russian.
Weidel hat drei mal klar gelogen.
"He can only pull out of deals already made, or pretend he's made deals that soon evaporate, or give away the store. He's perfected the art of the no deal." -- Robert Reich about Trump, 10 Aug 2018
Another extension for China because he can't negotiate a trade deal with them. Extension after extension for Putin to end a war that he had claimed he would end even before he would take office. "The Art of No Deal"
Yeah, like the $41.35 million oceanfront property in Palm Beach he snatched away from his best buddy Jeffrey Epstein in the mid-2000s, over which their decades long relationship soured.
Well, he needs SOME place to store the Epstein files!
It's not a "land swap" until you offer, say Mar-a-Lago in return for Mariupol!
Genuinely, Germany was *THE PLACE* science was done. If you wanted to study Physics, or Psychology, or Medicine, you learned German. And then.
Pritzker: "It's cheating. Donald Trump is a cheater. He cheats on his wives. He cheats at golf. And now he's trying to cheat the American people out of their votes."
Deleting a post about Israel “accidentally” killing international journalists because I missed that they had declared them terrorists. Everyone involved in this genocide needs to be sent to The Hague bsky.app/profile/yasm...
Trump is declaring fake "emergencies" while reducing our ability to deal with real ones.
It's not a "land swap" unless Russia was offering to give up say, Kaliningrad or St Petersburg in exchange for the Donbas (that would be news!) The UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and multiple other treaties that Russia or the Soviet Union have signed, guarantee Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Meeting with an internationally wanted child trafficker is not the distraction from the Epstein files that Trump thinks it is.
Have agreed to meet Donald for his first 1-1 employee review of 2025.
I have managed to obtain a draft copy of the agreement to be signed by Vladimir and Donny at their meeting in Alaska
Actually, there have been 6 heads of the IRS, because this omits Daniel Werfel, who stepped down when Trump took over. For decades, IRS commissioners have been serving fixed 5 year terms as this was considered a non-political position isolated from political influences. The US is an autocracy now.
"Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm" (The apple doesn't land far from the apple tree) -- German proverb
It says everything that Republicans are working harder to arrest Texas Democrats than anyone on the Epstein list.
Undocumented worker who committed no crimes gets Alligator Alcatraz. The woman who recruited, groomed and sexually abused hundreds of underage girls gets “Club Fed,” movie nights, yoga, and even day outings into town. American Justice, 2025.
While Tesla sales in Germany for January-July dropped 57.8% from 2024, sales of Volkswagen EVs (ID.3, ID.4+5, ID.7, ID. Buzz) almost doubled from last year: 2024: 31791 2025: 61283 VW sold almost as many EVs in July in Germany as Tesla in all of 2025 so far (9K vs. 10K).
Tesla model Y (updated as recently as March!) sales are about 1/3 in July of what they were a year earlier. 2024/07: - M3:450 - MY:1926 - total:2470 2025/07: - M3:470 - MY:637 (-66.9%) - total:1110 (-55%)
Not only does he not understand how percentages work, as part of the framework announced late last month he also slapped a 15% tax on imports of pharmaceuticals from Europe, increasing drugs prices for Americans.
This is what is happening right now.
The GOP gerrymandering Texas in 2025 is feeling inspired by Bert Brecht's satirical advice to the East German communists in 1953.
Saskia Ludwig (CDU), war am Freitag Teil eines Panels des MCC - der Orbánschen Kaderschmiede - zusammen mit Max Tichy, Sohn von Roland Tichy, der ebenfalls bei Tichys Einblick arbeitet. In der 1. Reihe im Publikum: Alice Weidel. Ludwig und Weidel schütteln sich die Hand, sprechen 2x miteinander
He is rosegardening America. Before: After:
For the man whose best friend for many years was Jeffrey Epstein, everything is transactional. Wait for the other part of the Quid Pro Quo.
also, this is very Soviet, except that Stalin then arrested and executed the statisticians
"Donald Trump is showing all the signs of suffering from dementia. If this were a neighbor, a parent, or a family friend, you would have no trouble seeing it. We should not turn our heads just because it is the president." thehill.com/opinion/camp...
Future jobs numbers will be written with a black sharpie (might have some ketchup stains, too!)
If you want to know more about why Trump's latest round of regressive taxes on American consumers is stupid and dangerous ... here's your link. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...
Think about what the GOP is revealing with their attempt to suddenly change the Congressional maps: they know their agenda is so unpopular that they're going to lose unless something changes. Of course, what they should be changing is their policies, not the maps.
"Her boyfriend died in jail. And people are still trying to figure out how did it happen," Trump said. "Was it suicide? Was he killed? And I do wish her well. I'm not looking for anything bad for her."
One is not like the others.
#47: "I just signed the largest trade deal in history" FT: “Japanese officials said there was no written agreement with Washington—and no legally binding one would be drawn up.” If there's no paper agreement, what did he actually "sign"? Another souvenir picture to take home?
"A moral failure of unspeakable proportions, the Gaza war is also the result of a tactical, strategic and military failure. Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza because it has proved unable to defeat Hamas by force of arms." www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025...
The House Republicans’ early recess looks a lot like Ted Cruz’s Cancun trip.
The tariff in Japan on cars imported from the US before this genius made a deal? ZERO percent. That's right, Japan got rid of tariff barriers decades ago! Now he's slapping 15% on cars built in Japan, but 50% on the metals that could be used to build them in America instead: More jobs for Japan!
Why are Fox and WSJ (both Murdoch-owned) not on the same page on this? My take is, WSJ writes what Murdoch thinks, Fox is provided as a service to politician Murdoch supports. One can lag the other, but not forever.
Ich bin so alt, meine erste Floppy Disc fasste 243 KB und meine erste Festplatte 5 MB (es war eine 14-Zoll Platte). Internet? Da war ich schon Familienvater!
Ich als Bayer in der 1. Klasse zu meinem Tischnachbarn: "Warum redet das Fräulein Lehrerin so komisch?" Ohne Fernseher im Dorf aufgewachsen, kannte ich in dem Alter noch kein Schriftdeutsch.
Most important questions I have about the release of the MLK files: - What did the FBI find when Trump had them scan the Epstein files for his mentions? - Is Trump trying to protect influential people to whom he owes favours who are in the Epstein files? (Yes, he is trying to distract us, again!)
MLK’s daughter calls out Trump for using her father’s FBI files to distract from Epstein. “Now, do the Epstein files.”
On the same server as gotothebadge[.]pro: yourverification[.]pw get-verify[.]top gotothebadge[.]info truthsocialverification[.]com You can see they not only target BSky users.
bsky.app/profile/bria...
Everyone in America needs to read this FREE—I’ve gifted it below—report from the conservative WALL STREET JOURNAL about Trump and Epstein. Apparently the president has now threatened to sue the WSJ over this 100% accurate report due to how damaging it is.
If you’re writing, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” to your close friend who runs a pedophile and child trafficking ring, then it’s not a secret what “wonderful secret” Trump was referring to.
www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey...
Here's your real pedophile
Greece went from 50% coal for power to 6% in a decade, with wind and solar picking up the slack. Meanwhile Japan still progresses on renewables at a glacial pace. The discussion about nuclear is a distraction from the real issue: The Japanese switch to renewables is happening far too slowly!
The July 20, 1944 attempt on Hitler's life also failed. Are we supposed to believe that was divine providence, too? The QOP is a cult.
Toyota obviously still sees China as a niche market that gets EVs, but only a single EV model on sale in Japan, the US and in Europe. It builds Chinese products for the Chinese market, while the rest of the world is supposed to keep buying fossil fuel-powered Toyota hybrids for years to come.
@johnarnoldfndtn.bsky.social: "Good illustration of how much the Texas grid has changed in just 6 years. yellow = solar; purple = batteries; dark green = wind; blue = gas; brown = coal; light green = nuke" #alwaysbecharging nitter.net/JohnArnoldFn...
Trump is enabling Chinese power
Bs
Das geht z.B. durch ein Pfahlfundament mit Bodenplatte. In Tokyo leben ca. 6x so viele Menschen als in Gaza auf zum grossen Teil unstabilem Grund (wie z.B. verlandete Küstenebenen) und zwar sehr erdbebenfest. Die Argumentation ist politisch, nicht bautechnisch.
Interessante Ausführungen -- solange er in seinem Fachgebiet bleibt! Der Mann ist aber Geologe und kein Bauingenieur oder Statiker. Man kann auch auf instabilem Grund sehr stabile Bauwerke hinstellen, das ist alles eine Frage der Fundamente.
Someone else had the same idea and he has the receipts!
Almost half the copper used in the US goes into housing construction. Therefore, adding a tax on copper imports will drive up costs of homes for Americans. But as always you have to ask: Who benefitted? Did somebody own copper futures by the time this decision was announced? It's a shakedown.
Count me as a sceptic: 1) Hugenberg, Thyssen, Krupp were enablers of Hitler who came to regret their early support, being sidelined once the Nazis had seized power. 2) The oligarchs that supported Putin now have to beware of falling out of windows. There are many ways this could end badly for Musk.
Marco Rubio’s infamous legacy will be MILLIONS of needless deaths of innocents — mostly children. Damn him to hell.
Jeffries: "As a result of the all-out Republican assault on healthcare, people will die. Tens of thousands, perhaps year after year, as a result of the Republican assault on the healthcare of the American people. I'm sad. I never thought that I'd be on the House floor saying this is a crime scene"
If/when the Greenland ice sheet melts, it will raise global sea levels by around 7 meters. That half meter in Scotland will be a rounding error by comparison. And if the Greenland glaciers totally melt, Antarctica will at least partially melt too, with a potential impact 10x as large!
#45 was famously reluctant to read even the single page summaries the intelligence community had to come up with for his security briefings. His friend Jeffrey Epstein called him "functionally illiterate". So did Trump read the 940 page bill? Fat chance!
Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030. Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.
Full court document: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
This is the Gulag this administration is sending prisoners to.
A reminder that the economy enjoyed net job growth for 48 consecutive months under Sleepy Joe Biden
ICE *already* can't meet their detainment numbers without rounding up children, veterans, people born in the U.S., people with no criminal records, people at immigration hearings, plus academics and visitors with valid visas. So who do they plan to detain with >10x the budget? The answer is: you.
🇺🇦💪 If you need to be reminded that the seemingly unattainable goals can still be achieved by perseverance - watch this story about a Ukrainian hero who managed to walk out of Azovstal and make it all the way to the Ukraine-controlled territory.
Particularly victimized by this perversion of our rule of law by Roberts and the extremist majority on the court are, of course, as always, the poor. No money=no lawyers=no ability to sue. But think about that--it means only those with lawyers & $ to sue have any hope of protecting their rights.
The Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO in 1955, 44 years before Hungary did. At the time of its NATO admission and for the next 35 years, it officially claimed as its territory Germany within its 1937 borders (including East Germany and territories annexed by Poland and the USSR after WW2).
The Minnesota assassin appears to be a hate-filled right winger. So can we stop walking on eggshells about MAGA's legitimization of political violence? Yes, Republicans have also been the target of inexcusable violence, but this isn't a "both sides" issue. 1/ A🧵on the danger.
Is "Russia Day" MAGA's equivalent to July 4? When they tell you who they are, believe them!
The images look AI-generated, but they still have a bit of the feel of Maoist / NK propaganda posters. So pathetic!
"They're insurrectionists, they're bad people, they should be in jail." Donold about protesters in LA, not about the insurrectionists he sent into the Capitol on January 6 and then pardoned and released from jail.
"Trump let the attack on the Capitol proceed, even initiated it, then pardoned the culprits. The protests against his anonymous Gestapo, which drags away people in unmarked cars in raids - he now wants to crush them by military force."
There is no bigger story right now than the White House asserting that California residents are in a state "of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States."
How extreme is the June 7 Memorandum on federalizing the National Guard? One of several issues: It has NO geographic limit. None. No mention of California or any other state. It's open-ended. Now this from President Trump: "Well, we're going to have troops everywhere."⬇️
If this is how percentages work, isn't it comforting to know that this is the same guy who determines how many percent of tariff Americans pay on imported goods? 😜👊🇺🇸🔥
ICYMI — ICE DIRECTOR: “These are real people with real families you’re hurting.” He says this not about immigrants… but about ICE agents. A record-setting lack of self-awareness.
It's for coal: "Sviato-Varvarynska Beneficiation Plant produces coal concentrate for coking, including premium grades, and fuel for boilers and thermal power plants. Coal is supplied from Pokrovske mine located in close proximity to Sviato-Varvarynska Beneficiation Plant."
Fixed it for you @washingtonpost.com @ignatiuspost
your regular reminder that authoritarian populism will make your country corrupt and poor. look at Hungary