Posts by ian 22

And more recently "Mind the gap". There’s nothing new under the sun, which is why I mentioned something that exists where the sun doesn’t shine.

It seems that operating more than a decade (Earth time) beyond requirements isn’t good enough for some people.

Do you remember when we were told electricity from atomic power would be too cheap to measure?

Atomic power advocates rarely include waste disposal and plant decommissioning in the life-cycle costs of an reactor. A single drum of waste exploded at America’s WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) in 2014, shuttering it for 2 years and requiring US$2000 million to decontaminate.

Re: Science! ...and Bacon!

An optical link to the bacon sarnie? Is there anything bacon can’t do?

As Chou En-Lai (sp?) answered when asked if the French Revolution was successful, "It is too soon to know".

Re: Arabidopsis thaliana

Soylent green! And it doesn’t need to come back to Earth.

Re: I'd like more details!

Ah, I understand now. I thought you were referring to some tropical island. You meant aisle.

Re: No

As that old imperialist Winston Churchill said, "Nations have no friends, only interests." Substitute 'morals' for 'friends', and that quote will still be right.

Re: Needs a moon of decent size

Or panic..

Re: Robot killers ?

You forgot the part where we paint ourselves blue.

Re: Whoops!

In this case, it appears fortune favoured the uninvolved. Shite must have spattered far and wide.

Re: "I prefer not to think about it too much."

And sadly, both Einstein and Newton are both dead, gone, deceased, no more, passed away. Although their dead hands are still on the controls,

Re: Glider units

Reminds me of a story I heard. A group was working on a air defense missile system for the US navy, and supplied them with documentation using feet for altitude units. The navy rejected their work, demanding that they use nautical units.

They revised the documents this time using negative fathoms for altitude.

Re: A hint at the UK's future

Not to be snide about it, but it is better to be the lion's tail rather than the mouse's head.

Re: Mickey the mongrel

The Hanford Atomic Reservation in Washington state is at least as problematic as Windscale. Vast tanks of liquid radioactive chemicals must constantly be stirred lest solids settle and begin fissioning, causing the liquids to boil and vaporize.

Unfortunately, the tanks are leaking and the radioactive effluvia are draining towards the mighty Columbia River, threatening the West Coast of the United States. At least we have plutonium bombs to show for it all.

Re: "The Greek alphabet is currently protected legally"

No one has mentioned cultural appropriation yet. Will no one think of the children?

So you consider protesting police misconduct the equivalent of overturning the government? How many were killed by the police in these protests, pray tell?

Re: Inverse square law

Where is Nicola Tesla when we need him?

Re: @Pascal

When I read your comment, I immediately thought of R. Newman's song. However there may be those who are unaware of it.

Re: Bezos

Visit Seattle and see Bezos' balls. Big!

That's what they want you think.

Re: "Nauka" = "neukъ" ?

The Dutch translation seems to be most appropriate in this case. Neuked in 60, 59, 58…

Re: Water activity is not the only activity

Jupiter's radioactivity might be just the thing. After all there are plenty of life forms here on Earth that require radiation to drive their life processes. We call them "plants". Yes Jim, it’s life, but not as we know it.

Re: Capitlaism

Oddly, I thought charging what the market would bear was capitalism in action. And monopoly Capitalism was, well, capitalism.

Re: If it ain't broke

Well said. I was stuck doing maintenance on a system that required maintenance occasionally. I found it annoying so I developed an automated process to take care of it. I didn’t ask management for permission, and when they found out what I had done, they were oh so happy to take credit for it. I didn’t care. It saved me from annoyance..

Re: kitted out with a large ferromagnetic plate

If the trash consists of aluminium, couldn’t we take advantage of aluminium's diamagnetic property and repel it into desired destruction? All that would be required is an alternating magnetic field.

Re: Why is this news?

I seem to recall the US policy to convert to Metric. How is that going?