These are stories and reports that were not part of the weekly offering by the MSM……plus a little FYI to start your weekend.

The big news story, other than Ukraine, has been the possibility of a nuke war started….here is a story that could add some stress for those tortured minds….

On a record of decision regarding Project Pele issued by the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office this week, officials confirmed plans to produce an “inherently safe by design” transportable microreactor that can deliver 1 to 5 megawatts of electrical power for at least 3 years in full operation. 

“Advanced nuclear power has the potential to be a strategic game-changer for the United States, both for the DOD and for the commercial sector,” Project Pele Program Manager Dr. Jeff Waksman said. “For it to be adopted, it must first be successfully demonstrated under real-world operating conditions.”

Microreactors can operate independently from the electric grid and generate roughly up to 50 megawatts of power. 

Project Pele marks the first electricity-generating, fourth-generation nuclear reactor to be designed and built in the United States. Once operational, it will be a High-Temperature Gas Reactor that relies on High-Assay Low Enriched Uranium Tristructural Isotropic fuel. China’s HTR-PM was the first nuclear reactor demonstrated in the world, reaching criticality last September. 

This announcement comes several years after Defense officials articulated intent to conduct an environmental analysis associated with making such a reactor, as mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act—and also launched a microreactor design competition.

https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2022/04/pentagons-mobile-nuclear-microreactor-will-be-demonstrated-idaho-national-lab/365693/

There has been a rash of book banning especially in those moronic Red States…..but there is an answer…..

The New York Public Library is pushing back against book bans elsewhere in the country by making banned books available to all—with no New York library card needed. The Books for All initiative will allow readers over 13 anywhere in the country to access four books that have been banned in some jurisdictions for dealing with themes including race and sexuality, NPR reports. The titles, which will be available until the end of May, are Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, and perennially banned book The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger.

“The recent instances of both attempted and successful book banning—primarily on titles that explore race, LGBTQ+ issues, religion, and history—are extremely disturbing and amount to an all-out attack on the very foundation of our democracy,” library president Tony Marx said in a statement, noting that the American Library Association reported a record 729 attempted bans of 1,597 individual books last year. “The Library’s role is to make sure no perspective, no idea, no identity is erased,” Marx said.

The library worked with authors and publishers to ensure that the books would be available with no fees or wait times. Angela Montefinise, the library’s vice president of communications and marketing, tells Engadget that the library’s SimplyE app had to increase server capacity three times to deal with a spike in downloads when the program launched last week. “Making these books available shouldn’t feel like an act of defiance, but sadly, it is,” Marx said. “And we are proud to be part of it.”

If you live in one of those idiotic states where  books are banned…then go to the NY public library site…..you may find what you search for…..

The US Army chooses a new rifle to replace the M4 which replaced the M16 which replaced the M14 which replaced the M1….it is supposedly more lethal than the one it replaces….(just what we need)….

The Army has picked a replacement weapon for the venerable M-4 carbine, the service’s standard-issue weapon that was wielded by combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years.

After a 27-month prototyping and evaluation effort, New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer won a $20.4 million contract to manufacture and deliver two Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) variations — the XM5 rifle and the XM250 Automatic Rifle — along with the 6.8 mm common cartridge family of ammunition, Army officials said late Tuesday.

The XM5 Rifle will replace the M4 carbine while the XM250 Automatic Rifle is the planned replacement for the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW).

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/apr/19/army-chooses-new-rifle-combat-troops/

Finally news from the ‘shroom.

The active compound in magic mushrooms helps to unlock rigid patterns of brain connectivity associated with depression, according to a new study in the journal Nature Medicine.

The psychedelic molecule psilocybin has been shown to trigger a more flexible and expansive brain state that lasts for several weeks, correlated with reductions in depressive symptoms.

Depression tends to go hand-in-hand with heightened brain network modularity, whereby connectivity patterns within key brain regions are excessively strong while communication between different networks is restricted. This has been associated with a reduction in cognitive flexibility and a tendency to get stuck in cycles of negative thoughts.

Yet brain scans have indicated that psychedelics detonate a riot of connectivity throughout the brain, causing networks that wouldn’t normally communicate with one another to interact, resulting in more flexible patterns of thought and cognition. This explosion of brain activity is believed to underlie the apparent anti-depressant properties of psilocybin and other psychedelics.

https://www.iflscience.com/brain/psilocybin-increases-connectivity-in-brains-of-depression-patients/

They should have asked us old hippies we could have saved a lot of research cash…..we know the benefits of the ‘shroom.

Your round-up is complete…..

Enjoy your weekend……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”