John J Filson

POPULATION GROWTH …will it continue, can it. All of the Predictions Agree on One Thing: Humanity Peaks Soon There are many opinions on world population growth, whether it's sustainable, whether we can overcome the limits. The NYT today, in an opinion... nytimes.com/interactive/20…

@lawofsea Kharg Is is more of a symbol, one of economic importance, than it is os military significance. Homuz is a a "gate"; Kharg is an "ATM".

For those people who assert that taking Kharg (aka Khark) Island somehow controls the Strait of Hormuz, I offer the following - arrow points to Kharg Island, circle is the Strait of Hormuz. You might note there is some distance between the two. Over 400 miles by sea. Just saying.

Wait wait wait! You mean to tell me Japan has rail launched anti ship cruise missiles. Japan's awesome! 😍

Retired 4-Star Navy Admiral and former Navy SEAL William McRaven on Donald Trump: "Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation." RETWEET if you stand with Admiral McRaven!

@2024dion ...unable to achieve the same kind of scale efficiencies & therefore cannot attract enough capital. The other problem, unlike railroads, they are very dependent upon the federal govt for navigational needs (locks, dams, dredging, etc). Europe & China don't have such problems.

@2024dion As you often note of the Missouri R, the inland waterway system is under utilized as it is. But there is tremendous potential. It has two serious problems. Fundamentally, the business model for river/canal transportation is inferior to that of the railroads in that they are...

Woah I had never seen this before There are so many crazy ‘what-ifs’ had railroads not come along when they did

@CharlesMullins2 Life, evolution, etc is essentially what happens if you has infinite time & try all the possibilities.

Everyone’s excited that galaxies formed earlier than expected. But faster structure ≠ earlier life. The early universe was chaotic, hot, unstable. No chemistry. No planets. No chance. Life doesn’t appear when things form fast… It appears when things become stable. What if life is a sign the universe has calmed down enough to hold structure?

@clark_aviation @maxjthinks more princess

The Saunders-Roe Princess airliner flying boat, this time with some reference to the proposed passenger cabin layout. The prototype only ever flew with an empty fuselage bar some monitoring equipment.

Fresh NEW Compilation Video!! #Train #Railfanning #Friday #Railroad #Railfan #Houston Tower 87 Diamonds Compilation! (RIP Dash 9's & GE P40DC's) youtu.be/AMPlO6cnPG4?si… via @YouTube

Shipbuilding in the United States has been in shambles due to decades of shortsighted policies and neglect. Today, the U.S. rolls out about three large cargo ships a year while China does around 1,000. The Trump administration has called this a national security crisis. Sunday.

@MyBigRedTruck Someone in the WH doesn't know the difference between cowardite & stupidity. Bone spurs might be related to cowardice ...I'm not totally sure.

Cowards! Trump called NATO nations cowards today for rising against Iran. 3 of NATO have nukes. Iran doesn't have 1 nuke. Is NATO threatened by Iran's already defeated military? Article 5 of NATO removes any threat by Iran. Not cowards at all!

@2024dion SORRY to confuse you, but in my mind I had coflated you post with another that I had just read: x.com/aakashgupta/st… ...it's also relevant to population growth & housing expansion (the retention of trees).

@2024dion In 1953 we moved to the newly built Lakewood outside of Long Beach, 3 BR, 1 bath, 2 car & it looked baren like your top picture (but smaller houses). It had been fenced grazing prairie w/o trees. Today (see below), nearly 75 years later, it's largely the same w/some nice trees.

Dallas adding 700,000 people in four years is crazy work. I believe that’s the most an American city has ever grown in a four year timeframe. And another Texas city added 650,000! The growth of the Texas Triangle is somehow still underrated.

@2024dion Yes, but I had a 12 mi bike ride to the beach, fabulous weather, & made good friends at the yacht club. Best part: In those days we kids ruled our own lives; nobody programmed what we did. Mega growth? ...eh, look at greater LA. That's what you get. No one entity gets to decide.

@2024dion So, for 5 years, long bus trips to schools that switched year to year, difficult to particulate in extracurricular activities, vist school friends, no scout troops, far from drs/hosp, parks were undeveloped, no nearby pool, mom had to learn to drive; yep, tough on kids.

@aakashgupta Such trees, very accessible in populated areas, if mature, in quantity, 30"+ dia at base, 100 ft+ tall, can be worth $500 to $1000/tree. It depends upon size, quality, market, & is highly variable, but the incentive to harvest is strong. Some developers do the math, however.

@aakashgupta Where I live (PNW), most of the available land is planted timber forests, most often owned by families, trusts, & companies in the business; the trees represent an asset. It's a natural to them, upon real estate development, to clear cut harvest the trees.

Let me explain exactly why every new subdivision in America looks like the top photo, because the math is wild. A mature tree increases a home's value by 7 to 19 percent. On a $400,000 house, that's $28,000 to $76,000. A single shade tree produces the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day. One tree on the west side of a house cuts energy bills by 12 percent within 15 years. The bottom photo is worth more, costs less to live in, and sells faster. This has been documented by the University of Washington, Clemson, Michigan State, and the USDA. The data is not in dispute. Removing those trees saves the builder roughly $5,000 per lot. Concrete trucks need twice the dripline radius of every standing tree. Utility trenches need flat ground. A bulldozer flattens 200 lots in an afternoon. Preserving trees adds weeks and thousands per home. So the developer pockets $5,000 in savings and the buyer eats $50,000 in lost value for the next two decades. The person making the decision and the person paying for it have never been in the same room. The Woodlands, Texas is the proof of what happens when they are. George Mitchell bought 28,000 acres of Houston timberland in 1974 and preserved 28% as permanent green space. He forced McDonald's to build behind the tree canopy. That McDonald's became one of the highest-volume locations in Texas. The first office building, designed to reflect the surrounding forest so you couldn't see it from the street, leased completely. The Woodlands median home price today: $615,000. Katy, a comparable Houston suburb that clear-cut: $375,000. Named #1 community to live in America two years running. Fifty years of data. The trees are worth more than removing them saves. Developers clear-cut anyway because they sell the house once and leave. You live in it for 30 years.

Fred Cecil Jones ‘ Chimney Stacks and Winding Ways’ Pencil and black chalk tinted with Watercolour