We Have Our Quorum - The Meeting Is On

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johnkarls
Posts: 2034
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

We Have Our Quorum - The Meeting Is On

Post by johnkarls »

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---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Erratum + The Meeting Is On
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Tue, March 25, 2014 7:01 am
To: Tucker Gurney, Ted Gurney, June Taylor (aka Utah Owl), Thomas Chancellor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Tucker, Ted, June and Thomas,

What can I say??? Working late at night impairs reading comprehension!!!

When you, June, started your e-mail with "sorry" it must have been the
last word that registered on my poor noodle!!!

We do indeed have our quorum!!! So the meeting is on!!!

See you all on the 9th!!!

Your friend,

John K.


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: Re: Where Have All The ML’s Gone???
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Tue, March 25, 2014 1:26 am
To: Tucker Gurney, Ted Gurney, June Taylor (aka Utah Owl), Thomas Chancellor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Tucker, Ted, June and Thomas,

Thank you all for responding to the weekly RL e-mail of last Saturday.

You were right that although the 3/15/2014 weekly e-mail had said that
under our policy of last June, the 3/22/2014 weekly e-mail would announce
that the April meeting is cancelled unless 6 RSVP’s had been received --
the 3/22/2014 weekly e-mail (a copy of which follows below for your
convenience) simply said after much ado that zero RSVP’s had been received
but did NOT explicitly announce that the April meeting was cancelled.

And now with you (Tucker, Ted and Thomas though not June) RSVP-ing, we are
on the cusp of a quorum since Cal Burgart, our PhD in Nuclear Engineering,
had agreed three weeks ago to attend.

It’s always frustrating when we are one short of a quorum because the
temptation is to proceed anyway. But we have always decided that making
exceptions to standards really means having no standards at all.

However, if there is one more RSVP before our pre-dawn weekly RL e-mail of
next Saturday, I am fine with announcing that the meeting is on after all.

Though I hope you can all appreciate why I personally will not beat the
bushes for another participant = once you start down that path, then
everyone begins to count on it. And leaving the door open in the last
newsletter is the most that seemed appropriate.

I’m sorry that the news couldn’t be happier, but thought that since you
all had responded, you were entitled to know where things stand before the
next newsletter goes out.

I hope all is well with each of you.

Your friend,

John K.


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: Where Have All The ML’s Gone???
From: Tucker Gurney
Date: Sat, March 22, 2014 7:05 am
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oops. Ted didn't reply? He has reread the New Yorker article and also an
article on the same subject in the Science section of last Tuesday's NY
Times. I am part way through the New Yorker article. We both intend to
attend.

Tucker


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: Where Have All The ML's Gone???
From: June Taylor (aka Utah Owl)
Date: Sat, March 22, 2014 4:03 pm
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry John, I had an NIH study section this past week that took up all my
brain. I do expect to be there for the next mtg - I had exactly the same
reaction to that idiot article in the new yorker that you did.

BTW did you see the article on the interview w/ Adam Lanza's dad Peter
Lanza in the New Yorker. It was by far one of the best of its kind of
writing I've ever read.

June


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: April 9, meeting
From: Thomas Chancellor
Date: Sun, March 23, 2014 1:03 pm
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear John,

I can’t remember how far in advance we are to tell you that we will be at
the next meeting. As I recall it is many weeks ahead so that people will
know whether or not the meeting will take place before undertaking to get
or read the materials. Out of an abundance of caution, this is to let
you know that I will be at the April meeting but it is doubtful that
Denise will be.

Regards, Thomas


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Where Have All The ML’s Gone???
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Sat, March 22, 2014 2:58 am – 4:18 am
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

“Where Have All The ML’s Gone???” was written by Pete Seeger in 1955 and
his 1964 single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. An
important anti-war folk song, it was also recorded by many other groups
including the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary. In 2010, The New
Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs" of all time.

It is just as well that Pete Seeger passed away two months ago on
1/27/2014 so that he did not have to witness the fact that “All The ML’s”
among the 150 recipients of our weekly newsletter have indeed
disappeared!!!

What are ML’s???

Mystery Lovers, of course!!!

Last week’s e-mail announced that the topic for our 4/9/2014 meeting would
be “Nuclear Fusion = 50 More Years Wandering in the Wilderness Shunning
the Promised Land.”

Because for half a century, proven thorium/fission has been known to
possess all of the advantages of conventional uranium/fission and
will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion = (a) producing no greenhouse gases; (b)
eliminating the dependence of the U.S. and its allies on members of OPEC
(the long-standing Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries) and, in
the case of Europe, natural gas imports from Russia (in addition to oil &
gas imports from OPEC); and (c) eliminating the gaping U.S.
balance-of-payments deficit and resulting piling up of our foreign
national debt.

However, conventional uranium/fission and will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion
suffer from the same problem = they are both, in essence, trying to
control a nuclear/thermonuclear bomb explosion in order to extract energy
-- in contrast to proven thorium/fission which is incapable of exploding.

And neither of them possesses important advantages of thorium/fission =
(1) LFTR’s (Liquid Floride Thorium Reactors) require minimal containment
chambers because meltdowns are physically impossible since LFTR’s operate
near atmospheric pressure, (2) LFTR’s do not require elaborate cooling
systems because they operate well below the boiling point of molten salt
and can be passively cooled, (3) thorium has such an incredibly-high
“burn-up” that there is virtually no long-lived radioactive waste, and (4)
thorium is so stable that it is impossible to make a nuclear weapon from
thorium which is why the U.S. turned to uranium and plutonium instead of
thorium.

Why the reference to “50 More Years Wandering in the Wilderness”???

Because, unbelievably, after wasting massive amounts of money for more
than 50 years on will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion, its proponents admit
that AT LEAST 10 MORE YEARS will be required AND THERE IS NO ASSURANCE OF
SUCCESS!!!

Indeed, the current experimental hydrogen/fusion plant being constructed
in Southern France uses 2-MILLION-POUND MAGNETS to suspend the nuclear
material in a vacuum because the earth contains no materials capable of
containing it.

And no mention whether we can expect an explosion equivalent to a
hydrogen/nuclear bomb if the electric current powering the 2-million-pound
magnets fail.

So after 50 years of success in causing us to waste untold amounts of
money on research for will-o’-the-wisp hydrogen/fusion rather than
enjoying for HALF A CENTURY ALREADY all of its benefits which are shared
by proven thorium/fission -- WHO IS BEHIND THIS EFFORT TO KEEP US
WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS RATHER THAN ENTERING THE PROMISED LAND???

More information is contained (or implied) in this month’s Short Quiz, a
copy of which is attached.

Though you may want to start with the last question = “18. Accordingly,
since so many of us like mysteries on TV or in books, and since the
detectives always look for who benefits from the crime -- the “elephant in
the room” is who benefits from the nation’s continuing to Shun The
Promised Land in favor of Wandering In The Wilderness For Another 50 Years
(100 years total vs. only 40 for the Israelites in the Bible) by
continuing to shun proven thorium/fission??? Coal companies??? Oil
companies??? Oil-exporting countries such as Russia and Middle-Eastern
Kingdoms??? Anyone who does not believe in American Exceptionalism in the
world??? Anyone who believes America is The Great Satan??? Any American
Pols who accept ‘campaign contributions’ from any of the foregoing
(keeping in mind that foreign contributions have to be funneled through
intermediaries)???”

Since last June we have followed the new procedure of asking for RSVP’s
during the first week of each monthly cycle so nobody has to read the
suggested materials before knowing whether our minimum quorum of 6 will be
reached.

Last week’s e-mail, as usual for the first e-mail in each monthly cycle,
explained this policy and said this week’s e-mail would announce the
meeting is cancelled if there were not at least 6 RSVP’s.

There were zero* RSVP’s.

Which is the reason for this week’s e-mail subject = “Where Have All The
Mystery Lovers Gone.”

Sadly, nobody is interested in the mystery posed in Q-18 of the Short
Quiz, much less doing anything about the answer!!!

Your friend,

John K.

* Cal Burgart (PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the U.S. National
Nuclear-Research Laboratory at Oak Ridge TN) had agreed three weeks ago to
attend as our nuclear-engineering expert like he did for our 10/10/2012
meeting on Thorium Nuclear Reactors and our 4/13/2011 meeting on the
Japanese nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi -- for a total of two
prospective attendees on 4/9/2014 including Yours Truly.

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