'A brilliant method to seeming madness'

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THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL! ... unless you're Ronny Simon

An engineering team from MIT have designed a solar-powered groundwater desalination device that could supply over 1,000 gallons per day and doesn’t require batteries. Envisioned as a way to provide water to communities whose groundwater is too brackish to drink, the device’s real trick is that it adjusts its desalination activity in response to the […] The post Hyper Efficient Solar-Powered Desalination System Requires No Extra Batteries to Purify Groundwater appeared first on Good News Network.

Looking for prepper fiction? It’s my favorite genre but man…not all of it is my cup of tea. Luckily for me, I found LL Akers’ SHTF series. I read Fight Like a Man, the first book in the series, on an overseas flight and I didn’t get a wink of sleep – I was engaged by page one. Here’s the synopsis from Amazon. As a prepper, Grayson Rowan was prepared for almost anything; anything other than being totally alone when the sh*t hits the fan. While he sat back and watched the United States rattle swords with Korea, play chicken with Russia, and strong-arm China, he felt sure if the lights went out, that he and his family would be ready and safe–whether it was due to a natural disaster or a man-made event. They had everything they needed at their homestead. What he wasn’t prepared for, was his family not being home if it ever happened. Olivia Rowan is with her sisters, Gabby and Emma, on a girls-only trip to Myrtle Beach. When chaos erupts and there’s no gas, their journey home is a nightmare, filled with predators and danger–and apparently, Olivia hadn’t learned a thing her husband tried to teach her. When your neighbors run out of water and turn on each other, what will you do? Jake, a country boy mechanic, never believed in TEOTWAWKI, but he’d heard his brother-in-law preach about it many times. He knew what to do; but he didn’t prepare. He lazily left it all up to Grayson–he was the prepper after all. When catastrophe strikes, will he continue to keep his head stuck in the sand while his clueless neighbors destroy each other, and his wife is stuck out on the road; or will he stand up and fight like a man? And if you’re alone? Bug in or Bug out? Graysie Rowan, a freshman at University, just wants to go home. When no word comes from the government, and the state capital is overrun with looters, chaos and mayhem, the college administration puts the students on lock-down. But her dad, Grayson, had prepared her for this. Now, if she can only remember what it was he said to do… If they want to survive this post-apocalyptic event, they’ll all have to learn to fight like a man. The end came not with boots on the ground, nuclear weapons or an EMP. It snuck in with a quiet clatter at the back door and flipped the switch, covering the states in darkness and sending this family on three divergent paths that ultimately lead home. When they collide in this surreal and gripping family drama, it won’t be without bullets and bloodshed. (source) Here’s what I thought of the book. The characters are realistic As the characters were introduced in the book, I found myself nodding in recognition. We all know a Grayson, a Gabby, and an Olivia, not to mention the other members of the cast. Nobody is so noble it makes you sick, and everyone makes errors in judgment – as would we all in a highly charged situation. The dialogue, thank goodness, is realistic too. My pet peeve in disaster fiction is when the whole world is falling down around the characters and they say, “Oh my goodness” or “gosh” or “darn, I forgot that lifesaving thing at the last campsite, how silly of me.” If we’re honest, I think we can all admit that an occasional swear word will be dropped when the SHTF, right? So if we want the rest of our dystopian fiction to be realistic, it’s kind of silly to have the hardened Marine say, “gee willikers.” All this being said, the book is definitely not loaded with profanity – but there is an occasional swear word where it’s appropriate. This is a book that will appeal to both men and women readers. There is plenty of tactical stuff and male protagonists who are focused on homestead security. At the same time, there’s a simultaneous story about women making their way home after an epic disaster, for a change. You won’t find women in need of rescue here. First, oh how I love books in which the women are not damsels in distress. Most of the women in this book were incredibly smart, brave, and skilled. These ladies didn’t wait around to be rescued. As would anyone who is prepared for difficult times, when things went wrong, they got things done. These women 100% were not victims. The book was very realistic about what can happen to women alone in a situation without rule of law. Their skills and their savviness play a starring role in the plot. Not every character is perfect. In some fictional worlds, every member of the family or core group is, well, perfect. Everyone is on board, they all “get it” and they are all serious about preparedness. But in real life, there’s always at least one family member who thinks you’re off your rocker. Raise your hand if you have a family member who loves you but thinks maybe you’re just a wee bit paranoid. Well, thank goodness for LL Akers, who shares the good, bad, and ugly about groups. There’s a character I wanted to smack more than once despite that character’s redeeming qualities. And that is real. Prepper skills are worked into the story I love it when stories have some prepper information and I learned two things in particular from Fight Like a Man (no spoilers.) The author definitely knows her stuff and is the person you’d want to be making your way home with after an EMP. At the same time, the information is worked into the plot in a way that isn’t preachy. It’s not “Survival Lesson Number One: do this thing when this happens.”  It’s just what the characters do in order to collect resources. It touches on taboo topics Without being graphic, the book touches on taboo topics – and they are truly essential. Things like rape and drug addiction and mental health issues are rarely included in the plot of prepper novels – and especially not all of these things. But, if it really hit the fan, every one of us would be dealing with these problems. Maybe not in our own families, but for sure we would be exposed to victims of these things in some way unless we are someplace so secluded that we no longer have human contact outside the members of our household. I recommend it. The only problem is that it was over before my flight and I couldn’t add one to my Kindle from the plane. I grabbed the other two books in the series the moment I had WiFi and they’re just as awesome. Grab this book – I think you’ll enjoy it! The series consists of: Fight Like a Man Shoot Like a Girl Run Like the Wind Wait Like a Stone You can find LL Akers (and many more amazing survival fiction authors) in this Facebook group. The post Book Review: The SHTF Series by LL Akers appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

WEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania—Local steelworkers, community leaders, and economic experts said President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday that a deal was struck between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel will go down in American history as the most enduring economic “big, beautiful deal” the 47th president has made. It is a deal robustly supported by the rank-and-file steelworkers from the three plants that make up the Mon Valley Works. The deal is believed to reverse the decline of steel that began under former President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. “I am proud to announce that, after much consideration and negotiation, U.S. Steel will REMAIN in America and keep its headquarters in the Great City of Pittsburgh,” said Trump, who had been engaged in intense negotiations over a sale between the iconic American company and Nippon Steel. “This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel … and the largest investment in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” he said. “I applaud President Trump, Secretary [Scott] Bessent, and other senior administration officials for achieving this huge victory for America and the U.S. Steel Corporation,” said Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa., who, along with other members of the Pennsylvania delegation, was working with Trump, community stakeholders, and the union members of USW Local 2227. USW Local 2227 President Jack Maskil, Vice President Jason Zugai, and Safety Chairman Gary Picketts, who have all clocked into their jobs at the Irvin Works mill for decades, said they were thrilled and relieved the deal would save not just their jobs but the jobs of men and women in the surrounding communities who will now be able to work here for generations. “We had faith in the president from the very beginning,” Zugai said from the West Mifflin plant. “I never doubted he would come through for us.” “This is huge for western Pennsylvania workers, families, communities, and, of course, the U.S. Steel family,” said plant manager Don German, who has worked side by side with the local union, the community, and upper management to get the word out that they supported it wholeheartedly. “I’m so happy for those employees, both management and union, that have just started their careers at U.S. Steel. This is a huge weight lifted and a huge opportunity to keep steel in the Steel City,” German said. A person familiar with the deal said the benefits include $14 billion in capital investment projects at U.S. Steel, with approximately $11 billion of the $14 billion invested by 2028. These are investments that U.S. Steel could not make as a stand-alone company. Those new capital investments include $2.2 billion to revitalize the only remaining blast furnace mill in Pittsburgh, $200 million for a new research and development center in Pennsylvania to bring world-leading technology to U.S. Steel, $1 billion invested by 2028 in a new Greenfield steel mill, and $3.1 billion in Indiana to transform the historic Gary Works mill. There will also be a $3 billion investment in the Arkansas plant, including $1.8 billion for advanced electrical steel production for power grid transformers, $800 million in Minnesota to enhance iron ore mining, and $500 million in Alabama for tubular upgrades to supply American oil and gas dominance. The investments and technology transfer will protect and create 100,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, according to an independent analysis by Parker Strategy Group. The analysis estimated that the investment would protect 11,400 jobs and create and support 14,000 new jobs, including over 10,200 in construction. The deal preserves U.S. Steel’s headquarters in the iconic Pittsburgh skyscraper, the tallest building in Appalachia, and the company will maintain its production locations and capacity in the United States. As part of the agreement, American jobs are protected and cannot be offshored. The deal also guarantees that the majority of U.S. Steel’s board must be U.S. citizens, and key management, including the CEO, will also all be U.S. citizens. The deal outlines that U.S. Steel’s trade actions will be determined solely by U.S. citizens, with oversight from the U.S. government, and free from any interference. As outlined, the deal will improve domestic supply chains in the trucking and rail industries, increase the production of American automobiles, and boost energy production in the natural gas and coal industries, as well as boost the building of pipelines and power grid transformers. The deal maintains U.S. Steel’s stature as an American icon, as well as stabilizes economic development in the Mon Valley, where three of the plants—the Edgar Thomson plant in Braddock, the Clairton Mill Works in Clairton, and the Irvin Works in West Mifflin—are located. Hudson Institute fellow Paul Sracic said that while Trump is considered headstrong by his critics, this deal shows Trump was willing to look past his own preconceived ideas of what U.S. Steel should look like and toward the reality that billions of dollars of investment in well-paying steel jobs in the Rust Belt was too much to pass up. “Instead of just killing the deal, he used his opposition as leverage to get even more investment dollars than Nippon Steel had originally offered,” Sracic said. “In every way now, Trump can take credit for this investment. It was his application of steel tariffs during his first term which led Nippon Steel to seek out the purchase in the first place,” Sracic continued. It’s important to realize that Nippon Steel wants U.S. Steel’s production to allow it to compete better with Chinese steelmakers, such as the state-owned Baowu Steel, which has been accused of stealing technology from the U.S. “Through his application of tariffs, Trump has managed to secure U.S. jobs and helped to directly take on China,” Sracic said. The money Nippon Steel will bring to U.S. Steel is crucial to its survival. U.S. Steel operates integrated blast furnace plants in places like Braddock. They are more expensive to operate than newer, nonunionized electric arc furnace mills, located mainly in the South, and need to be relined every decade, a very costly endeavor. U.S. Steel does not have the resources to maintain these facilities on its own. Sracic noted that just a few years ago, U.S. Steel announced it was canceling its plans to invest $1 billion in Mon Valley Works, the umbrella name for all three plants in Braddock, West Mifflin, and Clairton. Other domestic steel companies, such as Cleveland-Cliffs, which once was a rival bidder for U.S. Steel, are closing down plants and laying off workers. Without new investment, workers at U.S. Steel’s old blast furnace plants were looking at a repeat of the 1980s, with plant closures, massive layoffs, and decimated communities. “Trump can now rightly claim credit for saving these communities and the jobs of the workers who, unlike their union leadership, have served as one of his most loyal sources of support since he first ran for president in 2016. The future is now bright in Pennsylvania,” he said of the plants here and in Bucks County. Former President Joe Biden, who stubbornly refused to consider the deal, created a self-inflicted massive political wound from his failure to move on a deal, a decision that frustrated many members of his inner circle in the White House. Steelworkers here said they believed Trump could get a better deal when he said he was against the sale during last year’s presidential election. That is why when Trump came to Pittsburgh on election eve, they stood behind him at the rally in the city to voice their support. Because of Trump’s dealmaking prowess, this partnership will solidify the working class in the Republican Party for generations. “We’ve seen a massive realignment in U.S. politics, with union workers who used to be loyal to the Democratic Party switching in droves to the GOP,” Sracic said, noting the contrast between what Trump has done in saving places like the U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works and Carter’s refusal in the 1970s to meet with workers from Youngstown, Ohio, when those plants were shut down. “Under Trump, this is a very new Republican Party. Just as Roosevelt earned the trust of working-class voters in the 1930s and made them Democrats for the next 60 years, Trump is locking in these voters for the next generation,” he said. McCormick said the deal is an example of “America First” foreign direct investment because of the binding commitments Trump hammered out that both protect existing jobs and create new jobs by drawing in capital under strong American control. This was the deal the rank-and-file union steelworkers wanted but that was not sought by the international union leadership. This highlighted a common disconnect between the rank and file who live and work here and distant leadership that has no skin in the game. It’s difficult to overstate just how devastating the demise of the old steel mills was to the region. The economic rug was pulled out from under the area, and this not only affected factory workers but destroyed everything, including restaurants, barber shops, and stores. While new industries have emerged—health care and education in Pittsburgh, for example—they don’t provide the kind of opportunities, especially for those who are not inclined to pursue higher education, that the old mills offered. “It’s important to understand this was not just economic trauma; it was psychological trauma,” Sracic said, adding, “Steel. Just think of that word. It calls to mind something strong—Superman was the ‘Man of Steel.’ But also something solid, something you can depend on. In a practical sense, it also formed the backbone of the nation, necessary for everything from bridges to bullets. Take away steel, and everything collapses, or so it seemed by the mid-1980s. There is no more security.” McCormick added, “Only Donald Trump could have made this happen, and I’m grateful for him having me, congressman Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser from our Pennsylvania delegation in the Oval Office yesterday to discuss it.” COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump Makes the Deal of a Lifetime for US Steel appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Obama Wing of Democratic Party Is Losing Power and Prestige

“Our results show that spider venoms have evolved to be especially potent when tested on animals found in their diet in the wild."

Step aside, Great Wall of China, you've had your time in the limelight.

We don’t recommend taking romantic advice from a songbird, but if you did, it might tell you to look after yourself, the kids will be ok.