So basically, going by current trends, by 2030, much of the Third World will be nuclear armed while the developed nations will have no nuclear capability?
Agreed. But what we should have taken away from the recent disaster is not how inherently unsafe nuclear power is, but how destructive the double-whammy tsunami was and that nuclear plants built in areas at risk of such disasters should have more fault tolerant designs.
If a disaster causes a technology to fail, the rational course of action is to make it disaster-tolerant; not to abandon it outright.
Passive designs for *anything* tends to beat active[ly controlled] designs in fault tolerance. Which is why, even as a software engineer, I'm against putting batteries and chips in every gorram thing that does not need it.
+1. If a building collapses due to an earthquake, it's not a civil engineering disaster, it's a NATURAL DISASTER. But somehow, no matter what hits a nuclear plant (be it an earthquake or an asteroid), its still a nuclear disaster.
I own a Dell Inspiron netbook as a secondary device. My experience is the same. It's an ideal mix of power and portability for someone who actually wants to produce content on the go. Tablets are great for content consumers. But I'm not one of those.
...people who are having genuine thoughts about suicide would be rather unlikely to care about updating their facebook status
No. While they will never directly announce it, people who are severely depressed or in crisis -- especially young people -- will tend to put up updates that are hints to their states of mind. I've seen these come in the form of famous quotations that say something to the effect, "This is a cruel world". Sometimes it is just an unhappy face smiley. Sometimes it is a cryptic update that hints something is wrong but doesn't say what.
Fortunately, most people among my friends quickly respond to such updates. People who are at risk will be the once who get no responses.
See technology review article. They are "only discussions". There is no partnership and no plans to build anything. Yet. Plus the type of reactor mentioned is still just a design.
In the new design, the reactions all take place near the reactor's center instead of starting at one end and moving to the other. To start, uranium 235 fuel rods are arranged in the center of the reactor. Surrounding these rods are ones made up of uranium 238. As the nuclear reactions proceed, the uranium 238 rods closest to the core are the first to be converted into plutonium, which is then used up in fission reactions that produce yet more plutonium in nearby fuel rods. As the innermost fuel rods are used up, they're taken out of the center using a remote-controlled mechanical device and moved to the periphery of the reactor. The remaining uranium 238 rods—including those that were close enough to the center that some of the uranium has been converted to plutonium—are then shuffled toward the center to take the place of the spent fuel.
Currently there is no known material that could be used to encase the fuel rods in -- they need to survive radiation exposure for decades without expanding.
In the days where there are lawsuit trolls roaming the earth trying to turn any mishap into $$$, I can't really blame them.
That's the problem. Every negative thing is can be litigated. Exposure to negatives and risks is an essential part of growing up. I suffered plenty of cuts and bruises growing up, had to learn to stand up to bullies, had to learn that I couldn't afford everything I saw in a shop window, had to learn that I had to look after myself when my parents were too busy etc. Today, I'm happy I had to. Every other species on the planet has to go through this process.
I'd hate to see what the world will be like when these kids are in charge.
Try the Asus Eee Note. You can do eBooks, handwriting and sketching: http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Note/Eee_Note_EA800/ . I've been planning to buy one myself, but it is still not available in this part of the world.
How can a democracy function effectively when the government is more complex than the average voter can understand?
For average people of that nature, there is a much simpler form of government. It's called a monarchy and has only one branch. Politics is a complex, age old problem. One needs at least a baseline level of intelligence to understand it and participate in it.
I'm a very safe driver with a zero accident record (I've been rear ended by other drivers twice though). But on a plane, my own precautions amount to naught -- it's as if the teenage drunk driver and the safe-driver-of-the-year had an equal chance of dying on the road!
You are quite correct. That was not the word I was looking for and probably not the phrase I was looking for either. Unfortunately I realized it after a hasty submission. What I meant to say was: public phobia of nuclear power is not in proportion to its actual dangers. Ideally, the post did not really need that last sentence.
In any case, this is a case of how people perceive the (probability of catastrophy x damage from catastrophy) factor. This is why I fear flying more than driving, despite knowing the statistics -- the probability is very low, but damage is almost always fatal, which is like (very small number x infinity), in psychological terms.
Didn't we sort the first-to-file vs. first-to-invent issue in a past story? I thought first-to-file was unambiguous and not open to legal challenge. A small time inventor who files first is safe no matter how large a lab/legal department a mega corporation has (assuming, of course, that the invention is valid). Where in the first-to-invent system, a large corporation with a large R&D department would be able to pull up various old/abandoned/half-baked proposals and claim to have invented it first. Of course I could be wrong. I'm a programmer, not a lawyer.
The wave disk engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_disk_engine) will solve many of these problems. They expect to have a automobile-scale prototype ready by next year.
Slashdot Mirror
So basically, going by current trends, by 2030, much of the Third World will be nuclear armed while the developed nations will have no nuclear capability?
Google's just making sure that we're all in compliance of their motto, is all.
Bigger on the inside, maybe it was.
There's a colonel of truth to what you say.
Agreed. But what we should have taken away from the recent disaster is not how inherently unsafe nuclear power is, but how destructive the double-whammy tsunami was and that nuclear plants built in areas at risk of such disasters should have more fault tolerant designs.
If a disaster causes a technology to fail, the rational course of action is to make it disaster-tolerant; not to abandon it outright.
Passive designs for *anything* tends to beat active[ly controlled] designs in fault tolerance. Which is why, even as a software engineer, I'm against putting batteries and chips in every gorram thing that does not need it.
+1. If a building collapses due to an earthquake, it's not a civil engineering disaster, it's a NATURAL DISASTER. But somehow, no matter what hits a nuclear plant (be it an earthquake or an asteroid), its still a nuclear disaster.
been.
Shot down in flames, this question has.
I own a Dell Inspiron netbook as a secondary device. My experience is the same. It's an ideal mix of power and portability for someone who actually wants to produce content on the go. Tablets are great for content consumers. But I'm not one of those.
Grand Theft Aero?
...people who are having genuine thoughts about suicide would be rather unlikely to care about updating their facebook status
No. While they will never directly announce it, people who are severely depressed or in crisis -- especially young people -- will tend to put up updates that are hints to their states of mind. I've seen these come in the form of famous quotations that say something to the effect, "This is a cruel world". Sometimes it is just an unhappy face smiley. Sometimes it is a cryptic update that hints something is wrong but doesn't say what.
Fortunately, most people among my friends quickly respond to such updates. People who are at risk will be the once who get no responses.
Don't talk nonsense. You need to reconfigure the deflector for that. In fact, you need to reconfigure the deflector for just about everything.
In the new design, the reactions all take place near the reactor's center instead of starting at one end and moving to the other. To start, uranium 235 fuel rods are arranged in the center of the reactor. Surrounding these rods are ones made up of uranium 238. As the nuclear reactions proceed, the uranium 238 rods closest to the core are the first to be converted into plutonium, which is then used up in fission reactions that produce yet more plutonium in nearby fuel rods. As the innermost fuel rods are used up, they're taken out of the center using a remote-controlled mechanical device and moved to the periphery of the reactor. The remaining uranium 238 rods—including those that were close enough to the center that some of the uranium has been converted to plutonium—are then shuffled toward the center to take the place of the spent fuel.
Currently there is no known material that could be used to encase the fuel rods in -- they need to survive radiation exposure for decades without expanding.
Moonbase chicks with purple hair and chrome miniskirts!
OP here. To be honest, the original submission does not contain the "but not by much" and the sentences following the one about the CNET article.
In the days where there are lawsuit trolls roaming the earth trying to turn any mishap into $$$, I can't really blame them.
That's the problem. Every negative thing is can be litigated. Exposure to negatives and risks is an essential part of growing up. I suffered plenty of cuts and bruises growing up, had to learn to stand up to bullies, had to learn that I couldn't afford everything I saw in a shop window, had to learn that I had to look after myself when my parents were too busy etc. Today, I'm happy I had to. Every other species on the planet has to go through this process.
I'd hate to see what the world will be like when these kids are in charge.
Try the Asus Eee Note. You can do eBooks, handwriting and sketching: http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Note/Eee_Note_EA800/ . I've been planning to buy one myself, but it is still not available in this part of the world.
I want the CGI done by these guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6C5_VbK6VCo (Ghana sci-fi)
How can a democracy function effectively when the government is more complex than the average voter can understand?
For average people of that nature, there is a much simpler form of government. It's called a monarchy and has only one branch. Politics is a complex, age old problem. One needs at least a baseline level of intelligence to understand it and participate in it.
Maybe we should couple Asimo with Siri. Maybe we'll end up with a wittier C3PO
I'm a very safe driver with a zero accident record (I've been rear ended by other drivers twice though). But on a plane, my own precautions amount to naught -- it's as if the teenage drunk driver and the safe-driver-of-the-year had an equal chance of dying on the road!
You are quite correct. That was not the word I was looking for and probably not the phrase I was looking for either. Unfortunately I realized it after a hasty submission. What I meant to say was: public phobia of nuclear power is not in proportion to its actual dangers. Ideally, the post did not really need that last sentence.
In any case, this is a case of how people perceive the (probability of catastrophy x damage from catastrophy) factor. This is why I fear flying more than driving, despite knowing the statistics -- the probability is very low, but damage is almost always fatal, which is like (very small number x infinity), in psychological terms.
Didn't we sort the first-to-file vs. first-to-invent issue in a past story? I thought first-to-file was unambiguous and not open to legal challenge. A small time inventor who files first is safe no matter how large a lab/legal department a mega corporation has (assuming, of course, that the invention is valid). Where in the first-to-invent system, a large corporation with a large R&D department would be able to pull up various old/abandoned/half-baked proposals and claim to have invented it first. Of course I could be wrong. I'm a programmer, not a lawyer.
The wave disk engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_disk_engine) will solve many of these problems. They expect to have a automobile-scale prototype ready by next year.