Monthly Archives: June 2025

All things change, nothing passes away, joke cartoon

I’ve been blogging now for 13 years on all sorts of things; there were jokes, essays, politics, science, hydrogen.. I find that many of them are still relevant, though I would change most of them if they were to be written today. My first post was against the very high Detroit, MI minimum wage that was supposed to help black folks, but that I claimed ruined their city and their lives, and basically guaranteed corruption. I’d get back to this topic every now and again, but he problem has moved to LA and Puerto Rico. The last few Detroit mayors have eschewed this scam, to the benefit of the city.

Another topic I write about is engineering, like why the sky was blue, and why nuclear power makes lots of sense — and about hydrogen thermodynamics, or diffusion, or purification, or hydrogen cars being better than battery EVs.

MY opinion on hydrogen is still very high, though my opinion of hydrogen cars has soured in the past few years. There is infrastructure, and the cars themselves have improved, especially the batteries. There is now a good argument to be made that EVs make sense, especially for those who own their own home and who travel more than 500 miles per week. Meanwhile the customer base for hydrogen cars is only as a range extender.

Arctic Ice last month. It’s shrunk slightly, but still there — and I think the shrinking is a benefit.

I wrote disparagingly about global warming, arguing that Al Gore’s, Nobel prize winning claims were vastly exaggerated.. The arctic was supposed to be ice free by 2015 according to 98% of experts agreed (it’s things like that the ding the credibility of experts). I’d also argued that warmer was better. I’m reminded of a quote from Ovid, a Roman author: “Omnia mutantur, nihil interit”. Everything changes, but nothing passes away. It’s not that I read Ovid regularly, but the quote had appeared, in a modified form, in the British comedy, “Yes Prime Minister.”

I’d posted that it was unlikely that the Ukraine war would be fast, and it has not been, but neither was it as destructive as I feared. I did not sink the German economy, as I thought.

There is a new Pope now with words of hope — delivered, in English at White Sox stadium. This t seems like a big improvement. We have another war with Islam; different but the same, and continued issues with China. And I’m learning Latin via Duolingo. (Cum Duolingo, studeo linguae latinae.)

Robert Buxbaum, June 19, 2025. My company’s main website has changed too, it’s switched to WordPress format, check out the new look.

A customer gets contract for moon mining He3

A customer of ours, Interlune, just got a contract for any He3 they can bring back after mining it on the moon. He3 is a rare isotope of helium, used in cryogenic refrigeration, and (some) nuclear fusion reactors. It’s more common on the moon than on earth, and is expensive enough that it may make sense to mine it on the moon and bring it back. The US government has agreed to buy all of interlune’s lunar, He3 for the next ten years, ‘at the market rate.’

Our company, REB Research, comes into this because, lunar helium is found mixed with hydrogen species including HD. For prospecting, this is a problem in that He3 is easily confused with HD; they need to remove the HD to be able to determine how much He3 is in the ore. We make hydrogen extraction equipment, and were happy to supply them. It’s not a large part of our business, but we’re going to the moon because it’s ‘out there.’

Robert Buxbaum, May 29, 2025. Our site looks new; we’re moving to WordPress.