On matters nuclear

I’m not a big fan of nuclear power, mainly because of the human side of the equation. Our “friendly neighborhood” nuke plants were Fermi in Detroit (victim of a partial meltdown) and Davis-Besse (responsible for two of the five most serious civilian incidents in the US since 1979, according to the NRC).

However, current energy needs do not admit to a non-nuclear solution until we have wider-spread and higher-efficiency renewable sources.

That said, when you are looking at places to site a nuclear plant, does it not make sense to not put it somewhere that there is an active offshore fault, the presence of which makes a combined earthquake and tsunami inevitable over time? Or if you must put it there, that precautions against both should be taken?

Let’s be clear. The containment vessels far outperformed what they were designed to handle. What let the Fukushima facility down is the failure of the support facilities, which it now seems clear were not designed to survive what the reactors were designed to survive.

Unfortunately, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and now not only is there a growing radioactive leak, but even the reactors that were already shut down are at risk.

Can we afford a non-nuclear future? No, not in the short term. However, the lesson is clear: site plants in geologically stable areas, harden them against whatever the local environment can throw against them, and adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward corner-cutting, specifically including jailing executives, not just slap-on-the-wrist fines.

Half a century of wonders

Happy 50^th anniversary today, NASA.

Coolest thing I’ve seen all week…

Element Coins: cent-sized tokens struck from essentially pure samples (99+%) of elements, including some damn obscure ones. NOt just the usual suspects like gold, silver, platinum, copper, but the stunningly obscure like yttrium and dysprosium and lutetium and praseodymium. They also mint gallium. They suggest storing it in the fridge, since it can melt in direct sunlight. :D

They say they’ve almost sorted out how to strike carbon and sulfur, which blows my mind. I need this collection — albeit at the prices of some of the strikes, I will gather it but very slowly.

Yet another moral imperative.

I will grant that I really should finish my theremin cozy first, but presented with a pattern for a Lorenz manifold, just don’t get between me and my crochet hook!

I seem to be making a personal mission of finding the gawdamdest things to knit and/or crochet…

P17/Holmes

Holy shit! I saw it last night, even with the streetlight in the partking lot out back, it’s a HUGE fuzzy spot in Perseus, super easy to see even in the middle of the city!

And every day is a record.

Happy 30^th birthday, Voyager II (for whatever reason, Voyager I was launched second…). NASA poses, on their internal blog, the question of “What would one item from the last 30 years would you add to the Golden Record?”

My addition was a detailed spectrum of the sun so that any finding civilization would have the data necessary to locate our star and know not only that they were not alone, but where someone else was. Even if they haven’t got fast interstellar travel, even if they haven’t found a loophole around the speed of light, they would know where to point their radiotelescopes, where to direct their “hello”…

One is never too old to be a scout.

In this case, the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique.

I presume a certain amount of fudging is allowed on the matter of an above average physique. I leave it to the imagination what badges (of course there are badges! You can’t be a scout without badges!) I qualify for. I may fess up if asked. ;)

EDIT: For the record, I qualify for 21 of the 74 badges, in one way or another. Now I’m scaring myself…

EDIT EDIT: On second count, 24 of 74. Yike. Admittedly, some require a little bit of a stretch, but I figure it’s like the Purity Test: all technicalities count.

Oh. My. Effin. Ghawd.

Tom Lehrer. Live. Performing songs not on any of his albums. Part one and part two. These are all math-themed… but damn. TL I’ve never heard or even heard of before.

Edit: The original (and better, and one-piece) version is here, on archive.org.

Speaking of little furry animals

Just in case you’re traveling with your hamster and are worried about the little guy adjusting: Viagra reduces hamster “jet lag”.

I couldn’t make that up if I tried. Thanks to for pointing out what will surely be a big winner at the Ig-Nobels this year–I just nominated it (sure, someone there must have heard of it already, but I had to be sure).

Ho ho hooo, boy.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, trdsf sent to me…

Twelve mathematics drumming

Eleven cosmos piping

Ten astrophysics a-leaping

Nine numismatics dancing

Eight tornadoes a-milking

Seven cartoons a-writing

Six physics a-knitting

Five b mo-o-o-ovies

Four z movies

Three best brains

Two particle physics

…and an anti-bush in a special relativity.

Get your own Twelve Days: