Day32 – Let Me Count The Ways …

February 1, 2025

Cymer’s light source only worked, though, thanks to a new laser that could pulverize tin droplets with sufficient power.

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fans that turned a thousand times a second,

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the company learned to use magnets so, so the fans floated in the air, sucking heat out of the laser system

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The company proposed a laser with four components: two “seed” lasers that are low power but accurately time each pulse so that the laser can hit 50 million tin drops a second; four resonators that increase the beam’s power; an ultra-accurate “beam transport system” that directs the beam over thirty meters toward the tin droplet chamber; and a final focusing device to ensure the laser scores a direct his, millions of times a second.

Every step required new innovations. Specialized gases in the laser chamber has to be kept at constant densities, The tin droplets themselves reflected light which threatened to shine back into the laser and interfere with the system; to prevent this, special optics were required. The company needed industrial diamonds to provide the “windows” through which the laser exited the chamber, and had to work with partners to develop new, ultra-pure diamonds. It took … a decade to master these challenges and produce lasers with sufficient power and reliability. Each one required exactly 457,329 component parts.

from CHIP WARS by Chris Miller

Pages 227 & 228

This is where chipmaking was five or six years ago. There are two fabrication plants left in the world that can make these kind of chips. It is so expensive that companies like IBM gave up as did the royal family of Saudi Arabia in their backing of a company.

China spends more on buying chips ($206B in 2017) than they do on oil.

Now for the good news or should I say the bad news ranked from best to worst:

1. Another plane crash, this time in Philadelphia suburbs. Because it crashed in a populated area it means the pilot was unable to divert it. And it had just taken off so it was loaded with fuel.

2. Senate sub-committee voter 11-0 to approve Russell Vought for head of OMB. That’s because the Democrats refused to show up. Vought is the architect behind Project 2025. The blueprint of how Trump is going to dismantle the U.S. government.

3. Kash Patel is being questioned about his statements about the FBI and other things. He has said that he would shut down the FBI main building in DC and open it up the next day as “a museum of the deep state.” It has also been revealed that on a Seal Team Six operation that was going into the Niger/Nigeria border the team needed permission to cross into Niger airspace. He lied and told the folks they had permission. While the troops were in the air they learned they hadn’t received permission. When confronted Patel answered that it didn’t matter because no one was killed.

4. FAA didn’t have a director because he resigned on Inauguration Day. SpaceX had a missile launch that blew up and rained pieces onto the Caribbean and South America. Flights had to be diverted. Thousands could have been killed. Musk thought the flight was “very entertaining.” He was pissed when the FAA grounded his rockets until they figured out what happened. No worries, the guy in charge of grounding is gone and when the plane and helicopter collided the day before there was no head of the FAA. Trump hadn’t gotten around to appointing one. Being the non-class guy that he is he refused to go to the crash site (What? I’m going to look at the water.) Blamed it on DEI and expressed no sympathy or understanding.

5. Rachel’s 1/30/25 program led off with the experience and background Lloyd Austin had before becoming Secretary of Defense. This included overseeing multiple combat operations and tours at the Central Command etc. etc. etc. His replacement? Had been in an Air National Guard unit, and a host on a Fox weekend show. He also has a huge Iron Cross tattooed on his chest. (Excuse me. Cross of the First Crusade – very popular with Christian Nationalists and white nationalists.) Rachel ended the segment with photos side by side of Austin (a black man) and Hegseth (a white man) and said, “I don’t think DEI is the problem here.” Hegseth’s first duty was to immediately reveal the ranks of the soldiers killed in the helicopter crash. Protocol is to wait at least 24 hours. 

One of the three killed name was not revealed by request of the family. This led to media speculation that it was a trans gender woman and she was specifically named. She was alive and immediately took to social media to say, ‘Not me.”

6. Robert Kennedy Jr. said that there was evidence from a study in Poland that said black people don’t need as much of a Covid vaccine as white people. it was finally figure out that he meant a study by a “Dr. Poland,” who has repeatedly said his study says no such thing and stop saying it does.

7. Elon Musk and his “team” has asked to have access to the Treasury Department’s payment program. This is tightly guarded and only a few people have access. This is the nation’s checkbook. It’s how everybody and every entity gets paid. The guy in charge asked. “Why do you want that?” He’s gone.

8. Trump has fired the people who led the investigations into Jan 6 and the documents case. He has asked for the names of everyone involved in either case. This is hundreds if not thousands of agents. If he fires them Kash Patel will be looking at a much smaller agency and the dream of making the headquarters building a Deep State Museum much easier.

I may not have the order of severity correct. But make no mistake Trump and his goons are out to destroy the functioning government (What? You like “radically transform” better?)

Would impeaching him do any good? Look who’s net in line – Vance. After that Speaker Johnson. None of them have a clue and or if they do it’s in the wrong direction.

Some folks are choosing to only check in from time to time. This is an effort to preserve their sanity.

If someone’s at the door. Do I answer? Hide? Get my gun?