2022: A Year in Review
Interesting times. Both a blessing and a curse.
2022 has seen many transformational events, and others that are just fun. Here are a few:
Science:
In rocketry, the Space Launch System finally had its debut - and quite a success, from launch to splashdown. SpaceX had a rapid launch pace for its Falcon 9 rocket, and another launch of Falcon Heavy. But its blistering and exciting pace of flight tests on Starship and Superheavy has slowed - hopefully meaning the technology is maturing, and not that they've become unable to accept any chance of "rapid unscheduled disassembly".
The James Webb Space Telescope arrived at its orbit and has been delivering amazing science and imagery to the world. The Double Asteroid Redirect Test slammed a probe into an asteroid successfully. The Voyager probes are still going strong after 45 years. SpinLaunch is actually testing the stuff of science fiction.
Interesting Animals:
• Octopi 'throwing stuff' at one another
• Rats bopping to the beat
• Bumble bees play ball
• Insects contribute to atmospheric electricity
Words/phrases I learned
• Conan the Bacterium
• Regurgitalite (found at the "Jurassic salad bar")
Technology:
Artificial Intelligence brought us to a world I did not expect to see so soon. DALL-E. Midjourney. Stable Diffusion. ChatGPT. These things will change how creators create; whether for good or not is hard to tell. AI has even tackled a difficult quantum mechanics problem, following on somewhat related developments last year.
This drive for improving the capabilities of AI may lead to good things, but several companies seem uninterested in protecting private information. Be careful what you sign up for, and what you allow into your homes, hearts, and minds.
Education:
The education system in America is sick. It has been for a long time; but it has gotten worse.
A reasonable consolation: it seems that many are waking up to that fact, and are beginning to make decisions accordingly.
I would love older generations to have a greater role in teaching the young. It is a great waste when a lifetime of knowledge and skills are sitting unused in retirement, or when the pieces of a fantastic workshop or museum-quality collection are auctioned off at low prices or even thrown away. Homeschooling parents would love real people to teach their kids useful skills (rather than making do with online videos), but often, they don't know who to ask.
I welcome any efforts to reform education; if you have a plan I could contribute skills to, I would love to hear it. Contact us with your ideas.
Society:
A major war in Ukraine.Many surprising aspects to how it has progressed, and the ultimate outcome is still uncertain.There are many places you can read about that, so no links here.
Major protests, in many surprising ways, in many surprising places. And in several cases, the outcome is still uncertain. Truckers in Canada. Farmers in the Netherlands. Brazil. Iran. China.
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Inflation affecting the world. I am surprised so many were caught by surprise, and I'm surprised by the most common diagnoses.
Everything requires energy: to grow, to mine, to manufacture, to process, to transport. Even food is largely a type of energy (the Calorie is one of the earliest units of energy[*]1 Calorie = 4186 Joules) - and through food, all human labor. Although plants get most of their energy from sunlight, raising food consumes energy (and related products) to produce reasonable yields and bring things to market (tilling, fertilizing, planting, irrigation, pest control, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting).
When energy prices spike but quickly return near their prior levels, price shocks tend to be fairly limited. After all, most of the things being sold are already in inventory or will be delivered at a pre-arranged price. Increases can then be modest and gradual. But when energy prices shot up and stayed high, inflation was inevitable. First came the fuel prices themselves, then those things where the cost of shipping is a large percentage of the cost (through bulk, weight, or both), then products from energy-intensive industries (especially where there's a limited stockpile in inventory), until eventually, everything is affected. (I suspect aluminum products will be a late but growing factor: producing aluminum is extremely energy intensive with 1.8% of the world's total energy consumption in 2014 being spent toward producing it.[*]Aluminum metal was largely unknown until 1813, with the development of electrochemical processes. But years ago, I read about an alchemist touring castles centuries before, showing aluminum pieces to kings, and getting them to pay him large amounts of gold for more aluminum goblets, etc.; but then leaving to run his scam on someone else before he finished the work. From what I recall, no one knows how he got them. More recently, I've been unable to find a source giving the real history. If you know of one, please Contact us. Why haven't aluminum prices already increased? While they have somewhat, existing supplies of aluminum produced with lower-cost energy haven't been used up yet. Freshly-recycled aluminum uses more expensive energy, so it's too expensive until existing supplies are exhausted. And, with concerns about a global recession, some are expecting less demand.)
Many other actions, in our nation and around the world, have had their effects; but energy seems the most significant.
Teaching And Learning Labs:
teachingandlearninglabs.com went live in September. During this year, almost all content was created, updated, and uploaded. Two tutorials were posted on instructables.com. And more things are in the works.