Answering the Eco-Luddites, Electronics, Earth Science

by Lewis Loflin


I've been a part-time adjunct professor at a local community college teaching electricity and electronics.

Today I do this for the shear love of electronics.

I have 45 years experience in electronics, from vacuum tubes to modern solid state and industrial controls. I tend to teach from a general science viewpoint.

Some sample projects. New 7/15/2024 on my electronics website.


Welcome to my blog. Here, we will discuss issues of interest without Google censorship. Irrationalism is undermining science, medicine, and public policy. Feelings have replaced real objectivity; computer models by lazy researchers and activists have replaced empiricism and measured data.

Because of our toxic politics and throwing around terms such as denier, Islamophobia, transphobia, and racism at every turn, we will address this.

Climate "denier" is a slur, not tolerated here. Questioning endless failed predictions, the ruinous political and economic policies of activists, and the spiritual views of cultists is not a denial of anything. Climate is changing because it normally does. Even when influenced by humans nature can adjust - yes protect the environment within reason.

Unlike the climate-industrial complex and Stephen Schneider, I adhere strictly to the scientific method. As a lifelong science student, I use my textbooks or written books. I have had college-level science classes, but I will make clear I'm no expert and claim no special insights. But evidence is there for anyone not too lazy to find it.

The solutions to many problems are technology much of it available now, and the use of objective reason. There is nothing wrong with humans altering nature.

Quoting Marian L. Tupy:

There is no reason for pessimism about the future of our species or the planet. ... Put differently, nature adjusts to human activity in a multitude of ways and, the greater the human impact, the greater the natural adjustment. So, instead of seeing natural collapse, humans are encountering nature's resilience.

Stephen Schneider reveals false reporting of climate industrial complex.
Stephen Schneider reveals false reporting of climate industrial complex.

Case against science.

Eco-Theology in Public Schools Violates Constitution

by Lewis Loflin


There are proven technology solutions for producing power, to grew enough food, and produce resources to raise to give every human being a decent standard of living.

This is not the goal of eco-nuts that oppose any technical or scientific solution. They instead seek a spiritual revolution, population reduction, and lowering living standards to that of Mexico.

Schools are the target of this eco-nonsense competing with absurd race theories indoctrinated into the minds of children.

To quote a writer at researchgate.net :

Religious traditions have little to say specifically about biodiversity, but they provide the values, worldviews, or environmental ethics that shape the way in which different societies interact with biological diversity and nature in general. In this sense, religion can be part of the problem or part of the solution.

But solution to what? Most of the real pollution today is from Asia and China. Some students can't find Canada on a map, ditto Asia.

This from the US Department of Education (https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ881792.pdf) is a violation of separation of religion and state. To quote,

Abstract - Environmental educators are beginning to consider how to incorporate religious resources into their curricula. Common concerns about religion pose a challenge for integration, but these concerns are manageable. Reflection on the precursors of environmental citizenship behaviour provides a framework for considering some of the ways that religious elements can enhance environmental education. Furthermore, faith-based environmental education programs have existed for decades, and their practices can suggest some starting points. Abundant ecotheology resources also exist, including environmental policy statements within most denominations. These resources can provide a common ground between religion and environmental education.

So-called "eco-theology" is religion and I will not stand for it. If this is the case then reinsert Bible study into the public schools.

When I taught community college (electrical and electronics), I never required my students to memorize formulas and gave open-book tests. I did require them to find and use information to solve real-world problems. My tests were challenging.

It became clear how deficient the public education system was. In my community, we had some of the better schools yet still graduated students unable to read above 6th-8th grade or move a decimal point. Forget the basic atomic structure I learned as a child.

I grew up with five siblings in a poor household; we didn't even own a car. We walked to school. My entertainment was the school library and the Wise County bookmobile.

Books of those times covered science experiments at home and what would be obsolete technology today. One could even build a working hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell to generate electricity! I built working batteries and generated hydrogen and oxygen from water. I made money from electronics repair, a story in itself.

Science fiction was great, but in the early 1970s, they filed eco-apocalyptic literature under science fiction. There were science fiction books on the coming ice age, the latest scientific rave of the 1970s.

This science fiction of the 1970s soon moved in the 1980s into political literature with books such as "Nature's End" (1987 Strieber, Kunetka), "The End of Nature" (1989 Bill McKibben), and the end of Oil and mass starvation by 1980. Then 1990. Then 2000. For decades the same failed whining.

Environmentalism and government regulations to combat pollution was a good thing. Since the 1970s, water and air are far cleaner. Changes in technology did two positive things besides cleaning up pollution: enabled new sources of energy production (fracking, etc.) and new manufacturing processes that reduced resource use. For example, replacing metals with plastics.

I have witnessed a massive revolution in electronics over the past 50 years. Technology has reduced the energy and material inputs of electronic devices and added capabilities that were science fiction at one time.

This innovation is being threatened by Green Luddites and Gaia cultists - Gaia does not exist.

Norton, Virginia, was a coal mining town. I spent hours collecting fossils (mainly petrified wood and plants) and rocks. I still have an intense passion for geology and earth science. I learned a lot of new information just writing these essays - learning is life long.

Nature's End 1987 Strieber, Kunetka
Nature's End 1987

It became clear Strieber, Kunetka, and McKibben were radical anti-human zealots advocating or hinting at mass reduction of the human population through government force and an end to modern technological society. McKibben is the worse as a fundamentalist preacher for a nature-centered spiritualism. Every prediction these authors made has failed. I own their books.

McKibben makes it clear that even replanting trees is not good enough. No alteration of the environment by man is allowed. We must prevent human influence on Nature at all costs. This is the real view of these eco-zeolets and is irrational. That is why environmentalists oppose every technical solution.

Human beings are expendable in this fight. Ehrlich stated in a 2023 interview that the human population should be reduced to 3 billion. Our standard of living should be lowered to that of Mexico.

Earth in the Balance by Al Gore
Earth in the Balance by Al Gore

McKibben and his contemporaries, such as John Kerry and Al Gore, believe in this. His book "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit" by Al Gore (1992, and I own this book too) is a pseudo-religious appeal to climate socialism as public policy.

Science has nothing to do with the "human spirit." Ecology is no longer scientific but subjective social science bordering on religious superstition. The earth is not divine, and Gaia is a myth.

In the opening lines of his novel of personal religious self-discovery, Mr. Gore writes,

..."we feel increasingly distant from our roots in the earth...civilization itself has been on a journey from its foundations in the world of nature to an evermore contrived, controlled and manufactured world of our initiative and sometimes arrogant design. ... At some point during this journey we lost our feeling of connectedness to the rest of nature...We dare now to wonder: Are we so unique and powerful as to be essentially separate from the earth?..."

Like many of the hyper-religious crackpots the core belief must encompasse all facets of life and reality. To quote,

"As it happens, the idea of social justice is inextricably linked in the Scriptures with ecology."

No it is not. Social justice is socialism and I don't see Mr. Gore "redistributing" his personal millions.

Like Strieber, Kunetka, Paul Ehrlich, and McKibben, every prediction made by Mr. Gore and Mr. Kerry has failed to materialize. He did bring up legitimate pollution problems that we have mostly solved, but there were other issues for Mr. Gore, social and political. He also made a lot of money.


Typical climate hype:

The Canberra Times Sep. 26, 1988, Threat to islands

MALE, Maldives: A gradual rise in average sea level is threatening to completely cover this Indian Ocean nation of 1196 small islands within the next 30 years, according to authorities. The Environmental Affairs Director, Mr Hussein Shi said an estimated rise of 20 to 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) in the next 20 to 40 years could be "catastrophic" for most islands, which were no more than a meter above sea level. The United Nations environment Project was planning a study of the problem. But the end of the Maldives and its 200,000 people could come sooner if drinking water supplies dry up by 1992, as predicted. — AFP

Objective reality:

Using rich collections of Landsat imagery, this study analyses changes in land area on 221 atolls in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Results show that, between 2000 and 2017, the total land area on these atolls has increased by 61.74 km2 (6.1 %) from 1007.60 km2 to 1069.35 km2.

Since 2000, the Maldives have added 37.50 km2 of land area, while 16.57 km2 of new islands have appeared within the South China Seas Spratly and Paracel chains.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

Ref. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213305421000059

Eocene Epoch ocean currents 55.8 – 33.9 MYA when mammals thrived.
Click for a larger image.

Ocean Currents Control Climate

During the Cambrian Explosion (541 to 485.4 MYA), when complex life exploded onto the scene (including corals, etc.), the atmosphere may have been as high as 10,000 PPM CO2 as opposed to ~400 PPM today. The oceans were not "acid," and life did just fine. The fact we are here proves that.

Rising seas also eroded more shoreline, That, in turn, washed more minerals into the oceans. The elements in them included, of course, sulfur but also phosphorus and calcium. In fact, calcium levels in seawater tripled during the early Cambrian. "Calcium is what builds shells. Over time, animals in the seas developed thicker, more ornate shells.

Ref. https://www.snexplores.org/article/when-life-exploded by Beth Geiger November 13, 2014

Note: CO2 levels were 7,000-8,000 PPM in the Cambrian Epoch. Today 350 PPM in dry air. The oceans are not acid then or now. Sea shells, corals, and many other complex animals evolved and flourished at 20 to 28 times present CO2 levels. Modern corals appeared 225 million years ago (CO2 1,800 PPM). The oceans were still not acid.

Eocene Epoch (55.8 – 33.9 MYA) when mammals thrived.

"Lasting nearly 22 million years, the Eocene is the longest epoch of the Cenozoic. During this time, the first ancestors and close relatives of modern mammal species appeared. Many of these modern mammal groups appear at the beginning of the Eocene, a period of dramatic global warming called the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum."

Known as the Eocene Climate Optimum modern CO2 cultist claim 2,000 PPM CO2 caused this. It was geology (plate tectonics, commonly called continental drift) and how the continents were situated. South America was still connected to Antarctica, blocking the present circumpolar current that dried and cooled the planet about 34 million years ago. The collision of India into the Asia and volcanic eruptions changed ocean chemistry.

A vast equatorial ocean current also existed to distribute heat. Even if we had 2,000 PPM CO2, these conditions could not happen today.

See Eocene Epoch Versus Modern Climate Hysteria

Giant camels that once lived in the Arctic.
Giant camels that once lived in the Arctic.

We Still Live in an Ice Age

Related see Mastodons Roamed Greenland 2 Million Years Ago

3 million years ago, the northern hemisphere was ice-free and far warmer - no, it was NOT CO2 levels. Things changed when the Isthmus of Panama closed, connecting North and South America. This land bridge was due to plate tectonics. An exchange of animals from both continents led to the extinction of some mammals and large flightless birds. That is how we got the Virginia opossum that originated in South America.

The real damage was the change in ocean currents, particularly the exchange of warm water between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. When the Northern Hemisphere cooled, millions of mammals, birds, and reptiles went extinct while vast forests died. The high latitudes are mostly barren today. Cooling causes mass extinctions more than warming.

Central American Seaway 3 million years ago.
Central American Seaway 3 million years ago.

My hypothesis is when the Central American Seaway closed, warm water currents from the Pacific no longer joined with the Atlantic current to warm the Arctic. Refer to the above illustration. This idea is my opinion, and likely someone else thought of it before, and there is still debate on just how long ago this occurred.

Change Northern Hemisphere ice cover over 5 million years.
Change Northern Hemisphere ice cover over 5 million years.

The figure above illustrates changes over the last 5 million from warm (nothing to do with CO2) producing ice ages. Presently, we are in the Holocene interglacial that began 11,700 years ago.

Between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago, forests regrew in Eurasia to the Arctic Ocean during the Holocene Climate Optimum. It then cooled to present temperatures. Climate activists struggle to play these facts down or ignore them. See below.

The last 1 million has been mainly ice ages with brief interglacials. It would be far better to return to the climate the giant camels that died out in Canada once enjoyed.

Holocene Treeline History and Climate Change Across Northern Eurasia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017

Ref. https://doi.org/10.1006/qres.1999.2123 Abstract:

Radiocarbon-dated macrofossils are used to document Holocene treeline history across northern Russia (including Siberia). Boreal forest development in this region commenced by 10,000 yr B.P. Over most of Russia, forest advanced to or near the current arctic coastline between 9000 and 7000 yr B.P. and retreated to its present position by between 4000 and 3000 yr B.P. Forest establishment and retreat was roughly synchronous across most of northern Russia.

Treeline advance on the Kola Peninsula, however, appears to have occurred later than in other regions. During the period of maximum forest extension, the mean July temperatures along the northern coastline of Russia may have been 2.5° to 7.0°C warmer than modern. The development of forest and expansion of treeline likely reflects a number of complimentary environmental conditions, including heightened summer insolation, the demise of Eurasian ice sheets, reduced sea-ice cover, greater continentality with eustatically lower sea level, and extreme Arctic penetration of warm North Atlantic waters. The late Holocene retreat of Eurasian treeline coincides with declining summer insolation, cooling arctic waters, and neoglaciation.

Expanding plant growth due to higher CO2 levels.
Expanding plant growth due to higher CO2 levels.

Comparison of tree growth with higher CO2 levels. CO2 is plant food.
Comparison of tree growth with higher CO2 levels. CO2 is plant food.

Increased grain production from 1971 to 2018 by 50%.
Increased grain production from 1971 to 2018 due partly to higher CO2.

Unwitting Religiosity

Environmentalism as Religion - Unwitting religiosity makes the environmental movement less effective. Posted August 14, 2020 by John A. Johnson, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus of psychology at Pennsylvania State University.

That suggestion was borne out yesterday when I listened to a podcast in which Michael Shermer interviewed environmentalist Michael Shellenberger. During the podcast, Shellenberger made a point that had occurred to me long ago: Environmentalism has become a substitute religion for many atheists, agnostics, and other non-religious. It allows us to be part of something larger than ourselves that gives our life meaning.

But then Shellenberger made a more specific claim that hit me like a bolt of lightning: Those most passionate environmentalists have, probably unwittingly, incorporated imagery from Christianity about the ancient past and the distant future. From Genesis, they have borrowed the myth of the Garden of Eden, when the world was in balance and harmony before humans began misbehaving.

These environmentalists idealize nature as a system of beauty, peace, and harmony that humans have only recently begun to destroy with technology. This mythical view ignores the devastation of the environment by indigenous peoples as well as the brutal conflicts within and between pre-human species.

Ref. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cui-bono/202008/environmentalism-religion

Definition of pseudo-religion as used on this website: a philosophy or non-theistic belief system(s) that carry the emotional force and outlook of a religion. Relying largely on emotion a "believer" displays narrow-mindedness and dogmatic thinking equal to the worse religious fundamentalist. They can be just as intolerant of dissent attacking opponents as deniers, etc. They wrap their "belief" in false authority, scientific jargon, government agencies, etc. "Belief" becomes interchangeable with "faith."

"Religion" to me is a system of thought, not a particular belief. See My Answer to a Secular Fundamentalist

The earth was not created in 1979. There are extensive historical records, hundreds of years of thermometer records, mountains of proxy, and other data under the study of earth science.

Using "climate change" as a backdoor path to fascism and socialism will not be tolerated.

Rewriting and altering earlier data with computer modeling is unacceptable; it is scientific fraud. Science has nothing to do with social, racial, spiritual, or anything related to one's feelings.

Yes, reduce the use of fossil fuels and protect wildlife and habitat. Nature-centered spiritualism is unacceptable in public policy and violates the separation of religion and state.

Religious fundamentalists read their "faith" into every event and reference the faith to control culture, economics, and personal behavior.

Christians will read the New Testament into the Old Testament as proof that their version of reality is true. Never mind that objectively, as written, there is no support for their religious dogma.

Race and anthropogenic climate change are interpreted into every facet of reality like Jesus was with the Old Testament, even when contradicted or disproven by simple rational reading of the text. Those "deniers" were burned at the stake.

"Whiteness" is a racial slur concocted by post-modernist and leftwing racists. Whiteness is used in the same context as "Jewishness" by the Nazi socialists under Hitler. This racist term has degenerated into genocidal undertones.

Transphobia does not exist because "transgenderism" does not exist. It is an irrational "construct" of post-modernism. There are only two genders based solely on DNA and biology. Gender is immutable.

Islamophobia and other assorted "phobias" do not exist, just more slurs to silence needed discussions. We have every right in America to criticize or scrutinize any religion or philosophy. That is called free speech.

Cartoon lazy Hillbillies.
Fig. 2

White People, Crime, and Welfare Myths

by Lewis Loflin


Most poor whites like poor blacks end up in poverty for the same reason: behavior. As of 2016 28% of white children were born to single mothers. There is a lazy, shiftless white underclass no different than the lazy, shiftless black underclass.

Not only out of wedlock births, but high levels of substance abuse, violence, sloth, etc. The press loves to play race, but it is class and behavior regardless of race.

In Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee massive drug busts can net as many as 20-50 people in one sweep, 90% white. We have 70-year-olds being busted for drug dealing.

Four people arrested for meth.
43 People Arrested-Indicted for Drugs Spend Thanksgiving in Jail


The above is on my Sullivan County site.

This isn't 20-year-olds at least here. I averaged it to 37 or 38.

Conclusion: this is an overwhelmingly white problem clustered heavily around 30-45 age group located in or around public housing projects. Nearly all are of working age and if employed now (not likely), will be made more unemployable with a criminal record. Most employers already use drug tests and complain about the problems of finding employees in this region drug free enough to hold a job.

With little or no drug treatment available and even though these might be non-violent offenses, they often escalate to more violent offenses. That doesn't even account for the impact on children. Bristol according to reports has had a large uptick in crime clustered around, you guessed it, public housing.

This one is also a lot of fun in a sick way: Seatbelt Violation Leads to 14 Drug Arrests in Kingsport, Tennessee. This example includes multiple suspect engaged in all types of petty crime. 13 were white, one was black.

While I can't find the stats for just Southwest Virginia, we mirror closely West Virginia. To quote, "drug overdose death rates have increased in West Virginia from 36.3 per 100,000 in 2011 to 90.9 per 100,000 in 2021. Over the same period, drug overdose death rates increased from 13.2 to 32.4 per 100,000 in the U.S."

In study for the Virginia Government in 2016, "The Opioid Crisis Among Virginia Medicaid Beneficiaries" shocks even me. Please note the largest number of people in Virginia on welfare are white.

They note, "More broadly, at least 40,000 adults in Virginia's Medicaid program have a substance abuse disorder, and over 50% of Medicaid members with serious mental illness also have a substance use disorder."

And it gets worse, "More Virginians die each year from drug overdoses than motor vehicle accidents; Opioid prescriptions cost Medicaid $26 million annually; $28 million spent on ER and inpatient hospital treatment for Medicaid members with substance use disorders per year."

And, "Prescription opiate deaths are occurring statewide, especially in Southwest Virginia, Southside, Hampton Roads, Metro Richmond, the Shenandoah Valley, and Northern Virginia."

My County alone (Washington) suffered as many as 423 deaths CY2007-2014.

Download The Opioid Crisis Among Virginia Medicaid Beneficiaries PDF

"Americans Are Mistaken About Who Gets Welfare: People significantly overestimate how many African-Americans benefit from the most prominent programs."

Ref. Arthur Delaney and Ariel Edwards-Levy Feb 5, 2018, Huffington Post

Politifact or Politicrap claims 39 million people live in poverty, and whites make up 43% or ~17 million, thus are not the majority that live in poverty. Wrong, whites are by sheer numbers, not percentages. We also need a more realistic measurement of poverty.

The Huffington Post breaks this down. To quote, "Medicaid had more than 70 million beneficiaries in 2016, of whom 43 percent were white, 18 percent black, and 30 percent Hispanic."

Medicaid is the most extensive poverty program by far. 43% of 70 million is 30.1 million whites. In 2020 47.2 million Americans were black. By the numbers, poor whites are ~64% of the entire black population.

The white population in 2021 is ~252 million, with ~30 million in poverty is ~12%, far higher than the 8% given elsewhere.

In Southwest Virginia, 50% of the households live on government transfer payments. We are ~90% white.

By Medicaid use, there are ~2.4 times as many poor whites as blacks.

To quote, "Of 43 million food stamp recipients that year, 36.2 percent were white, 25.6 percent black, 17.2 percent Hispanic, and 15.5 percent unknown." The 15.5% is troubling. Of 43 million recipients, ~15.6 million are white, and ~11,000 million are black—again, far more poor whites than poor blacks or Hispanics.

Because there are far more poor whites than poor blacks or Hispanics, they get more welfare. The Huffington Post is correct on the public misconception of poverty and welfare use. However, the press pushes the false narrative that only blacks and Hispanics live in poverty.

Poor whites as a percentage are smaller than the total white population.



My other websites are as follows:





The following links are how I built my own Geiger counter plus more earth science. My home state of Virginia has some of the largest uranium reserves in the United States.


Definition of irrationalism - a system of belief or action that disregards or contradicts rational principles.

If one believes gender is not based on biology, you are mentally ill and irrational. Just so you understand:

Definition of a women: adult biological female.

Definition of a man: adult biological male.

This fact of biology is immutable, can't be changed regardless of surgery, drugs, or social science babble.

An ignorant Federal judge has proclaimed gender dysphoria, a mental illness, is a new protected class.

The same crazies promoting transgender mythology are demanding we refer to pedophiles (child molesters) as "minor attracted people."

They too will become another protected class while we mutilate and drug children for them to prey on.

This will end.

The US Military crippled by "Woke" irrationalism can't win wars, so get in on the climate hustle.

Quick navigation of my homepage:



PuTTY terminal program for Linux, Windows

Exploring Digital Computer Electronics

by Lewis Loflin

This is an offshoot of my website Hobby Electronics. That site was oriented towards building hardware projects such as H-Bridge motor controls or microcontroller circuits with Arduino, Picaxe, and Microchip PICs.

While touched on at my other site, this is dedicated to computers and related electronics. Reusing older computers or what I call "upcycle". What software to use and when. Learning computer hardware. Connecting computers to actual hardware. To use an old computer as a super microcontroller.

A computer as I define it is a complete system usually consisting of a motherboard and attached peripherals - printer ports, serial ports, plug-in cards such as wireless and video, USB ports, external memory, etc. It is a system.

Review older computer mother boards and explain aspects of software and hardware - how they come together.

What can I do with them? Running lite versions of Linux, we can learn programming - python, C/C++, bash files, set up various desktops such as Openbox, Fluxbox, PEKWM, and JWM.

Compile and create C programs to operate hardware connected to printer ports or build a complete plug-in card.

These subjects were touched upon with Raspberry Pi on my electronics website. They apply equally here. See the following:


Example PIC microcontroller on carrier board.
Fig. 1


A microcontroller often refers today to single board controllers built around a single integrated circuit with internal memory, IO, etc. An example is the control panel on your microwave oven.

Fig. 1 shows an example PIC microcontroller from Microchip Corporations. There are likely hundreds of variations. See my earlier projects. These are done in assembly.


The above video at the top of the page is an example. Learn about computer hardware and how it has changed. To fix, salvage, program vintage machines. Reusing an older system means less e-waste, easier learning curb, and low cost. A lot of us can't afford the latest and greatest.

That 20-year-old Presario still does a lot even with some versions of more modern Linux. I used it for streaming audio, word processing, software design, etc. Yes, it can even operate a CNC machine. The one in the video I got for free.

Linux Videos

Live Linux Distro for Using Printer Port with Electronics
Using the powerful Rox-Filer system in Linux
Use FEH under Linux for a Wallpaper Setter
How to create Symbolic links in Linux

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