Twenty-four million people have watched this:
Any of you?
The President of his own car company died from stopping to help a woman whose car died. He cranked it for her, but his dang jaw was in the way!
You don't make that mistake twice!
Then he talked about Thomas Midgely, the guy who put lead in gas:
Quote:
Globally, lead is believed to be responsible for nearly two thirds of all unexplained intellectual disability. According to a study published in 2022, more than half of the current US population, that's 170 million people were exposed to high levels of lead in early childhood.
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Name an older politician you don't like.
Lead!
He says that people who were arrested were 3-4 times more likely to have excessive bone lead concentrations, and the crime rate resembled elevated lead levels, offset by 20 years.
They estimated 100 million people have died prematurely from health problems they developed from excessive lead. The U.N. estimates that one million die yearly from it, costing $2.45 trillion.
Midgely was also responsible for CFCs like Freon.
Oops!
I read years ago that there wasn't a refrigerant that worked as well as freon.
Swell!
I checked and "In general, Puron systems are more energy efficient than Freon systems." and "Puron does not deplete the ozone."
https://thomasgalbraith.com/knowledg...on-cincinnati/
Ah, so go back and invent R410a fir--
Quote:
(R470A) is a new non-flammable Drop-in replacement for R410A with a low Global Warming Potential (GWP) less than half that of R410A. RS-53 (R470A) has a similar thermodynamic performance to R410A with matching energy efficiency and cooling capacity.
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https://www.refsols.com/RS-53.html
Fine. Go back and--
Quote:
Beginning next year, new cooling systems will contain a refrigerant called R-454b with a lower global warming potential. This refrigerant is more environment-friendly than its predecessors but also mildly flammable.
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https://acshvac.com/hvac-refrigerant...anges-in-2023/
They say you can't retrofit R410A systems to use R-454b, just replace them and reduce your utility bills today!
Yes, replace a system no more than 12 years old!
Perfect is the enemy of good.
It sounds like we still don't have an ideal refrigerant, but r410a would have been a great improvement.
Midgely was also mentioned here, not the only one who was on the wrong side of history:
He also mentioned Marie Curie.
Would you go back and say "Hey, that stuff will make you die a horrible painful death and your notebooks will be too dangerous to be handled for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. Lead. Lead can stop it, but make sure you don't absorb any. Tell people to not put it in fuel!"?
Midgely: "Good news everyone! We have a fantastic fuel additive that will solve all of our problems!"
Marie Curie, not dead from radiation poisoning, with a
third Nobel Prize: "One day leaded fuel will kill a million people a year, will lead to increased crime, and will make generations of humans stupider!"
Huh.
He did that in 1921:
https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/scie...entor-history/
The same year: "Curie is presented with 1 gram of radium by US President Warren Harding at the White House."
If I'm not mistaken, President Harding died, too!
Her husband died in a road accident in 1906.
You know, when I grew up in California, people talked about that year regularly...
"July‑December 1898 Marie Curie, along with her husband, discover new elements `polonium' and `radium'”
So yes, go back to early 1898, say what I mentioned, tell Pierre to look both ways before crossing the street, even when it was raining, tell them automobiles should have seatbelts, and when they talk to people in and around San Francisco they should probably prepare for earthquakes.
"Crossing the busy Rue Dauphine in the rain at the Quai de Conti, he slipped and fell under a heavy horse-drawn cart. One of the wheels ran over his head, fracturing his skull and killing him instantly." Ouch!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Curie#Death
Quote:
On the morning of April 18, 1906, a massive earthquake shook San Francisco, California. Though the quake lasted less than a minute, its immediate impact was disastrous. The earthquake also ignited several fires around the city that burned for three days and destroyed nearly 500 city blocks.
Despite a quick response from San Francisco's large military population, the city was devastated. The earthquake and fires killed an estimated 3,000 people and left half of the city's 400,000 residents homeless. Aid poured in from around the country and the world, but those who survived faced weeks of difficulty and hardship.
The survivors slept in tents in city parks and the Presidio, stood in long lines for food, and were required to do their cooking in the street to minimize the threat of additional fires. The San Francisco earthquake is considered one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.
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https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/sf
I doubt that even Marie and Pierre Curie telling Californians to modify every single building would result in almost anyone doing anything about it, but maybe they could persuade some people to stockpile food and stuff.
Have firefighting technology and techniques improved in... 116 years?
So, would you do anything about any of this?