November 10th, 2024 • 3h 14m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Climate Change
Jerry Pournelle on beamed satellite power
Adam,
Just got to where I can comment on today's NOAgenda. The satellite beamed power idea has been around for a long time. One of its greatest proponents was Dr. Jerry Pournelle.
Pournelle and Niven famously wrote a Sci-Fi story featuring beamed power at a Sci-Fi convention, crowd sourcing plot and accepting donations (value for value-wise) for being mentioned in the book as a character.
It is a real technology, proven theoretically, using microwave beamed power to rectenna collectors. More efficient than ground based solar photovoltaic panels, because a) more power delivery per area and because b)it can be delivered even when the sun isn't shining.
The part I remember best is that even though you get a great deal of power delivered to the antenna, people and things that come into the beam only get a small amount of energy delivered on the outside. The power doesn't come close to heating anything up internally.
One of Pournelle's last iterations on the subject was to calculate costs, working out that for a fraction of the cost of the Iraq war, we could have had a network of maintainable power satellites and secure receivers, along with a cheap launch and recovery network, all at early 21st century prices.
We'd still need big ground station rectenna farms, but these could be placed at the arctic circle or similar remote areas that wouldn't need good sunlight coverage.
Most of Pournelle's writing on this is still up at the Chaos Manor website, that I think his son is maintaining. Niven is still around, and might even take John's phone call to talk about it.
So John saw a demonstration on a small scale. It is all proven technology. And it is better than investing in a war, while using up some of that short Military-Industrial-Complex attention span.
Cheers,
-d
Cyber Pandemic
Austin F1 cyber event
just spoke to someone from DHS: During the F1 race in Austin, so-called sniffers were placed in all wifi routers on the circuit. These sniffers collected all data that went over the network. So everyone who did not use a VPN is screwed. All login data is compromised , in other words, this data is now in the hands of criminals
SS7
The system that ties all cellular networks together and allows them to interoperate globally is called the **Signaling System No. 7 (SS7)** network.
SS7 is a set of protocols that enables communication between different telecom networks, handling tasks such as setting up and terminating calls, routing SMS messages, managing mobile roaming, and enabling number portability. It essentially allows networks to share information, ensuring seamless connectivity across different mobile operators worldwide.
With SS7, cellular networks can manage interoperability functions such as call setup, billing, and roaming, enabling subscribers to use their phones across various networks and even in different countries.
Election 2024
DoD censoring election talk BOTG
ITM Adam,
Not sure if/how this fits in the show right now but I'm one of your moles inside the DoD (Air Force) and the morning after the election all of the senior leaders sent out the same prewritten email to everyone saying the following:
Team, I just wanted to send a quick reminder that even though the election is over, we should still not be talking about politics or this election at work. I appreciate all of you who voted and contributed to the US democratic election process, but discussions about who you voted for or your feelings about who was or was not elected should be saved for your personal time.
I pushed back on this and have pretty much got the run around about how this is somehow not allowed at work. They are trying to say it's a Hatch Act violation which is bull crap. The Hatch Act basically deals with campaigning at work and certainly doesn't include talking about your feelings about who was elected. I have no idea how far up the chain this goes but it was certainly written before hand and ready to go. When I brought up that this is a clear violation of the first amendment I was told that maybe they didn't mean the email exactly that way. This reminds me a lot of our covid policies where they would implement things from senior leadership on down the chain and no one would have enough balls to step up and say this is questionable and probably illegal. The censorship industrial complex is alive and well.
Sir Anonymous Eric
First Responders
Kamala
Trump
Big Pharma
Medicare and Home Care BOTG
Was listening to Thursday’s show and caught the conversation about Medicare and Kamala’s proposal to add Home Health coverage. I’ve worked in the healthcare industry for about 20 years, specifically in Managed Care, where I negotiate in-network agreements with insurance companies and help determine how much providers get paid by plans. Not super exciting, perhaps, but this topic is in my wheel house.
Any way, your questions about Medicare are reasonable, as it’s a fairly complicated landscape. Traditional Medicare is funded through payroll taxes and people become eligible for benefits (usually - though there additional routes) when they are over 65 years of age and retired. Yes, you do need to actively enroll to collect benefits, it’s not automatic.
Medicare’s benefits are divided out into various “parts”. Part A benefits cover inpatient hospitalization. Part A does not cover doctor’s visits, not outpatient testing nor procedures. That said, Part A benefits are essentially free if you’ve paid into Medicare long enough. (“Free” meaning no premium, but there may be co-pays or deductibles). Part B benefits are an add on and cost extra on top of Part A. Costs are usually $125/month per person in premiums for Part B benefits. Part B covers outpatient services and doctor’s visits. Then there’s Part C, which is a commercial, Medicare replacement coverage, like through United or Humana. You can’t have Part C coverage and also Parts A or B at the same time. Medicare Part D is for prescription drugs, and comes at additional costs. Part D didn’t exist until George W Bush’s term in office. You may have Part D coverage in addition to Parts A and B or C.
So, where did Kamala Harris’ plan for Home Health come in? Currently, Traditional Home Health services are sometimes covered under Part A or Part B if an individual is also eligible for nursing home care. It’s usually an “either or” proposition on care modality. Harris’ proposal was a modest plan to make it easier to qualify for home health and to allow more access to that benefit.
Part of the goal for Managed Care is to reduce the cost of health care while increasing quality. Not easy. Home health services are typically low-cost and help prevent re-admissions to the hospital. In theory, expanding coverage for Home Health through Traditional Medicare coverage (either Part A or Part B) would expand access to care with low cost and beneficial outcomes. Honestly, not a bad idea.
More on that here:
[https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/post-acute/5-reactions-to-harris-home-care-coverage-proposal.html](https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/post-acute/5-reactions-to-harris-home-care-coverage-proposal.html)
Have a great day, and looking forward to tomorrow’s show.
Best,
Jeremy,
Ukraine vs Russia
Russia BOTG
Stormshayd, your sole Knight in Iceland reporting once again from the streets of Moscow to bring you the latest from this side of the sanctions.
Since my previous visit, about 8-9 months ago, not too much has changed here. Things are still chugging along as normal in Moscow with people out doing their usual business. But I do feel that prices here have jumped a little since my previous visit. Last time I checked I saw that interest rates were about 21-22% from the central bank, so you can imagine that it's very expensive to get credit at the moment and for many people it's quite difficult to pay their current loans as well. I suspect many people are struggling with their day-to-day expenses, but honestly I feel the same in Iceland as well. I make a decent salary, but somehow I feel at the end of the month after all my bills are paid, there's not much left to put into a savings account.
Anyway, looking around the supermarkets in Moscow and in some smaller villages in different regions east of the capital, they are still all very well stocked but comparing to my last visit, there does seem to be fewer foreign products on the shelves. You can still find Coke, Pepsi, Swiss chocolates, French/Italian wines, German/Belgian beers etc., but there definitely is more Russian made products. I assume this is due to the increased cost of living and "parallel import" costs of sanctioned products from neighbouring countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
I was speaking to my brother-in-law about this and he was saying that ever since these foreign companies were forced to leave the Russian market due to sanctions, Russian companies have now filled their positions and are producing a similar replacement product. He believes that once the sanctions end, many foreign companies are going to have an extremely difficult time re-entering the Russian market because these last few years have created a very strong patriotic feeling in the country and he says people don't want to see their money leaving the country again. His young daughters don't even remember McDonald's anymore, they just call it by it's Russian name now!
Regarding the US election - people here seem optimistic about the result and believe there will at least be some diplomatic negotiations coming soon. There does seem to be some kinda mutual respect between Putin and Trump, judging by what my relatives have said about things here during Trump's last term. We can only hope that a peaceful solution can be found sooner rather than later, because both sides are hurting badly from this foolish war.
Until next time!
