Visiting Friend Sleeps On The Rug Instead Of Guest Bed. Tabs, Thurs, April 18, 2024

And then the rug stinks! It's Tabs.

As expected, the Senate killed the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. That’s over and done with! (CNN)

Big damn volcanic eruptions this week from Mt. Ruang in Indonesia have shot plumes of ash and smoke as high as 70,000 feet and forced evacuations of 11,000 people. Officials have warned that if the volcano partly collapses into the sea, it could cause a tsunami. (WaPo on MSN / CNN)

Tesla, its stock price slipping (hey, we’re speaking Tamarian!), announced Monday it would be laying off a tenth of its workforce. Then on Wednesday, Tesla, its CEO insane, urged stockholders to vote for a $56 billion payout to Elon Musk which he really deserves but a court in Delaware denied in January as excessive. So it needs a new vote, please hurry. (Fast Company)

Marjorie Taylor Green’s boyfriend, Brian Glenn, was surprised to see when he visited New York City that it wasn’t actually a post-apocalyptic wasteland, or even overrun with migrants or homeless people. Bit of a letdown! But he did see “packs” of people from Africa. (Joe.My.God)

The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal election interference trial hasn’t actually ruled on whether Trump can skip the trial for a day to attend his youngest kid’s, whatsisname’s, high school graduation. But Charlie Kirk urged Trump to ignore the nonexistent ban anyway. “Get arrested. It's just more indictments, not as if you're already not facing 700 years in federal prison. I think the optics would be amazing.” Smart advice! (MediaMatters)

David Roberts breaks some big energy/climate news in his “Volts” podcast this week, although if you don’t listen to podcasts, you can also just read the transcript. Roberts interviews China expert Lauri Myllyvirta about how China’s energy transition is going. He shared some pretty amazing news: If China’s rapid rollout of renewable energy continues at the same pace as in 2023, it’s on track to grow more rapidly than new energy demand, and that means clean energy will start eating into fossil fuels’ share of the energy pie. That’s a whole lot sooner than anyone predicted. (Volts)

China also just brought online a “compressed air energy storage” plant that pumps compressed air into abandoned salt mines, then releases it to drive electricity generating turbines when the power is needed. Funky! (Energy Storage News)

Here at home, the Biden administration has a plan to crack one of the tougher nuts in the energy transition: the grid isn’t yet robust enough to handle the many planned renewable power projects out there. This week the Energy Department released a report on how to adopt new technologies that will allow the existing grid to carry more power — enough to meet expected new demand. (Canary Media / Department of Energy)

Also too, an experimental 100-foot ship, the Energy Observer, has for the last seven years been sailing around the world and testing zero-emissions tech for powering boats and ships, in the hope of cleaning up pollution from all the ships at sea. Sucker’s covered with solar panels, and makes its own hydrogen from seawater. Neato! (Canary Media)

Some people find evidence of the imminent collapse of civilization in the stupidest places. Like Rep. Jim Banks (R-Indiana), who demanded in a Yell At College Presidents hearing Wednesday that Columbia University President Minouche Shafik explain why students were allowed to distribute a guidebook that included the spelling “folx.” (It’s an alternate spelling meant to “signal the inclusion of groups commonly marginalized,” and apparently this is very upsetting to righties. I was surprised to see it first saw print in 1833!)

The best part of the video is where Banks angrily chides Shafik that this is NOT! A! LAUGHING! MATTER! That really cracked me up.

Finally, I readily admit am a complete sucker for this sort of thing:

Tweet text: “Teaching my first History course this semester has been rewarding but I don’t know what to do with this student” [“elijah’s final semester” on Twitter]

Sorry, alt-text not working. It’s Donald Trump’s weird thoughts on Gettysburg, written as if it were a high school history paper, with teacher comments in red ink.

Oh, yes: about that weird guest who sleeps on the floor. (Miss Manners)

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