Lets not pass this stuff on as soma from Brave new world eh? This is a schdule IV controlled substance with a respectable abuse potential with many of the same problems as amphetamines. No such thing as a free lunch folks.
Giving this to programmers or others so they can toil longer is no better than when physicians used to give amphetamines to college students to get throught finals week. It's bad medicine and probably illegal.
Like amphetamines there were reports of drug induced phychosis with this agent.
From the manufacturers package insert:
Modafinil is reinforcing, as evidenced by its self-administration in monkeys previously trained to self-administer cocaine. In some studies, modafinil was also partially discriminated as stimulant-like. Physicians should follow patients closely, especially those with a history of drug and/or stimulant (e.g., methylphenidate, amphetamine, or cocaine) abuse. Patients should be observed for signs of misuse or abuse (e.g., incrementation of doses or drug-seeking behavior).
Isn't sodium borate the conjugate base of boric acid, which is roach poison...
A roach poison powered scooter!
Seriously, I wonder if the breakdown product could be recycled by conversion back to sodium borate. It would then take more energy to recharge then you get out of it. Getting us back once again to the problem of electric electric vehicles moving the pollution generation to a different site (the electrical generation plant) rather than point of use.
Work hours for residents/interns is a complex issue. I'm living it now so I know.
About 2 years ago the ACGME ( america council for graduate medical education) which accredits physican training programs started to enforce "new" work rules, and they've put big name programs on probation for violations. I'm training under these "new" rules, they LIMIT us to 80 hours per week and no more than 36 hours straight, one day a week.
That said I have worked 90-100 weeks and you do not do your best work, although there are people who beleve that you do.
Under the rules I still have months where I work 30 hours at a time. Beleve it or not this is quite a reduction from the traditional system. In some specialties working 30-36 every other night for years at a time with no days off was the norm.
There are large differences from programming however. Code doesn't need to be watched 24/7. In general the fewer hours you work the more different "shifts" of doctor you need. The more handoffs the more errors, so simply reducing hours does not automatically lead to better medical care, and if done without thought, worsens it.
An interesting experment trying to deal with these problems was published recently: New england journal of Med 351: p1838-1848 ( sorry you have to subscribe to read it online, but you can read the abstract)
The cool thing about Morrowwind is that you can't really get stuck. Not powerful enough for the current quest? Just go find something else fun to do for a while. A lot of tedium in the travel though.
Length of games isn't really the issue.
It's getting stuck in a linear game that's really painful. The stealth missions in Rogue Spear come to mind...
The huge issue on a lot of console games is the big spaces between check points or save circles or whatever. Not everyone has hours to repeat tedious minor battles to rebattle the boss or whatever. The save anywhere cheat is one of the few I will use.
Prompt criticality is where the negative temperature coefficient really helps you out. The hotter it gets the crummier a reactor it becomes. equilibrium at a relatively low power....
The "small" reactors we're talking about could have very high negative temperature coefficients which would add significantly to the saftey of the design. ( Not clear to me if that's a feature of the design of the Toshiba reactor....)
I agree you should avoid prompt criticallity at 1000 MW thermal or 3000 MW as is typical of US power reactors..
Yes the CANDU reactor is under moderated.
The reason however that you can't build one in the US is that under specific conditions it has a positive power temperature coefficient. ( As it gets hotter power goes up!)
This was the problem at SL-1 as well.
The NRC will no longer allow reactors with positive temperature coefficients to be built in the US.
Chernobyl both increased in power with loss of coolant and had a postive temperature cofficient....
Not to flame the prior poster, I just can't resist the chance to clarify some common misconceptions about nuclear reactors.
# 1 - A critical reactor is bad;
A critical reactor is a stable reactor.
K effective is the ratio of neutrons in the current generation vs neutrons in the last generation.
A critical reactor is when K effective is equal to one. That is the number of neutrons is not changing. ( that is the reactor power is stable)
A sub critical reactor is when K effective is less than one ( The reactor power is going down.)
A supercritical reactor is when K effective is greater than one( the reactor power is going up)
A nuclear reactor goes through all three of the above states during normal operation.
I've taken a reactor critical hundreds of times and most of my time spent operating a nuclear reactor is to maintain criticallity at a stable power.
Obviously going up in power too fast is a bad thing thing.
Fallacy 2 - A nuclear reactor blow up like a nuclear weapon.
Nuclear reactors don't work in such a way as to support a nuclear explosion. There are several good posts about Chernobyl. This was just about a worst case accident, but is was a steam explosion.
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Lets not pass this stuff on as soma from Brave new world eh? This is a schdule IV controlled substance with a respectable abuse potential with many of the same problems as amphetamines.
No such thing as a free lunch folks.
Giving this to programmers or others so they can toil longer is no better than when physicians used to give amphetamines to college students to get throught finals week. It's bad medicine and probably illegal.
Like amphetamines there were reports of drug induced phychosis with this agent.
From the manufacturers package insert:
Modafinil is reinforcing, as evidenced by its self-administration in monkeys previously trained to self-administer cocaine. In some studies, modafinil was also partially discriminated as stimulant-like. Physicians should follow patients closely, especially those with a history of drug and/or stimulant (e.g., methylphenidate, amphetamine, or cocaine) abuse. Patients should be observed for signs of misuse or abuse (e.g., incrementation of doses or drug-seeking behavior).
Isn't sodium borate the conjugate base of boric acid, which is roach poison...
A roach poison powered scooter!
Seriously, I wonder if the breakdown product could be recycled by conversion back to sodium borate. It would then take more energy to recharge then you get out of it. Getting us back once again to the problem of electric electric vehicles moving the pollution generation to a different site (the electrical generation plant) rather than point of use.
Work hours for residents/interns is a complex issue. I'm living it now so I know.
About 2 years ago the ACGME ( america council for graduate medical education) which accredits physican training programs started to enforce "new" work rules, and they've put big name programs on probation for violations. I'm training under these "new" rules, they LIMIT us to 80 hours per week and no more than 36 hours straight, one day a week.
That said I have worked 90-100 weeks and you do not do your best work, although there are people who beleve that you do.
Under the rules I still have months where I work 30 hours at a time. Beleve it or not this is quite a reduction from the traditional system. In some specialties working 30-36 every other night for years at a time with no days off was the norm.
There are large differences from programming however. Code doesn't need to be watched 24/7. In general the fewer hours you work the more different "shifts" of doctor you need. The more handoffs the more errors, so simply reducing hours does not automatically lead to better medical care, and if done without thought, worsens it.
An interesting experment trying to deal with these problems was published recently: New england journal of Med 351: p1838-1848 ( sorry you have to subscribe to read it online, but you can read the abstract)
Length of games isn't really the issue. It's getting stuck in a linear game that's really painful. The stealth missions in Rogue Spear come to mind...
The huge issue on a lot of console games is the big spaces between check points or save circles or whatever. Not everyone has hours to repeat tedious minor battles to rebattle the boss or whatever. The save anywhere cheat is one of the few I will use.
reactor.reed.edu
The "small" reactors we're talking about could have very high negative temperature coefficients which would add significantly to the saftey of the design. ( Not clear to me if that's a feature of the design of the Toshiba reactor....)
I agree you should avoid prompt criticallity at 1000 MW thermal or 3000 MW as is typical of US power reactors..
Yes the CANDU reactor is under moderated. The reason however that you can't build one in the US is that under specific conditions it has a positive power temperature coefficient. ( As it gets hotter power goes up!) This was the problem at SL-1 as well. The NRC will no longer allow reactors with positive temperature coefficients to be built in the US. Chernobyl both increased in power with loss of coolant and had a postive temperature cofficient....
Not to flame the prior poster, I just can't resist the chance to clarify some common misconceptions about nuclear reactors. # 1 - A critical reactor is bad; A critical reactor is a stable reactor. K effective is the ratio of neutrons in the current generation vs neutrons in the last generation. A critical reactor is when K effective is equal to one. That is the number of neutrons is not changing. ( that is the reactor power is stable) A sub critical reactor is when K effective is less than one ( The reactor power is going down.) A supercritical reactor is when K effective is greater than one( the reactor power is going up) A nuclear reactor goes through all three of the above states during normal operation. I've taken a reactor critical hundreds of times and most of my time spent operating a nuclear reactor is to maintain criticallity at a stable power. Obviously going up in power too fast is a bad thing thing. Fallacy 2 - A nuclear reactor blow up like a nuclear weapon. Nuclear reactors don't work in such a way as to support a nuclear explosion. There are several good posts about Chernobyl. This was just about a worst case accident, but is was a steam explosion.