Sorry for sounding curt.. I guess it was the "nylon-like" mention that kickstarted my inner chemical engineer. Also I have not yet had my second coffee today, so I too realize I made a mistake when referring to "spider-silk" in another comment without indicating that spiders spin a large variety of silk.
As for educating the public, that is a commendable goal and it seems to me like we could use some of that! I also get the impression that many believe that after they finish their education, they are no longer in need of more education and ready to educate more offspring.
the UHMWPE fibres as Spectra and Dyneema are high-modulus fibres, so their strain (extension) is small when stress (load) is applied. This makes for good bulletproof material in principle. The problems with these materials are that they show creep (they gradually extend when a constant load is applied), and that their good properties reduce dramatically at elevated temperatures.
"Spider silk" is a bit of a misnomer as spiders produce a great variety of silk threads, some have high and some low modulus. The "spokes" generally have high modulus, whereas the "rings" have low modulus and are very elastic. So in order to validate their claim, they need to identify which silk they are talking about.
Except that kevlar and other aramid fibres are almost entirely unlike nylon or dyneema. The structure is completely different, the aramid fibres can withstand high temperatures whereas the nylon fibres cannot (different chemistry), and the manufacturing process is completely different.
Second point: the aramid fibres have a very small elongation (strain) at break, and can hold a large amount of stress. Indeed, on a per weight basis, they are "stronger" than steel, by volume, it is not so good. However, they do not exhibit much creep (but nylon does!) and do not suffer from effects of prolonged loading.
Lastly, they do not bend well, and they cannot handle sharp edges so well because of that. Interestingly, you can get two kinds of protective vests with different weaves: one bulletproof type and one knifeproof type. the knifeproof vest is not bulletproof and vice versa.
You may want to consider reading the introduction to my Ph.D. thesis (or its references) on this material as it appears you may be slightly misinformed. You can get it here: http://bit.ly/gfPdDN
indeed, one of the reasons to use it is the low elongation at break, and the relatively high stress at breakage. Some have suggested using spider silk for bulletproof vests, and indeed it would stop the bullet... just several meters on the other side of your body. more in the introduction of my thesis http://bit.ly/gfPdDN
I certainly have enjoyed the psychometrics toolbox for Matlab as it contains useful drivers for some of Measurement Computing's DAQ interfaces under Mac OS X. http://psychtoolbox.org/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage
I do have an agenda. I worry about the sanity of the media coverage. If you want dangers and pollution, I have yet to read much about the burning refineries in the north. And as said, more focus on the aftermath of the actual disaster.
As for nuclear power, we want a world with unlimited power 24/7 from a socket. As soon as we can accept living without that certainty, and can thus switch to solar and wind energy, I will be the first in line to switch off all types of fossil fuel (inc. nuclear) power plants. Until then, we have to stop blaming nuclear for all the problems we have gotten ourselves into.
On a philosophic note, I personally believe that we will be faced with a choice here soon. To rely a lot more on nuc power, or return to the middle ages. The previous paradigm of huge plants running at stressful levels and with easily pointed out failure points, and placed in bad locations is just something that shouldn't happen any more.
I agree with your posts, I just do not think the societal damage of the nuclear reactor issues are as bad as portrayed.
As for your philosophic note, I fully agree. I would be the first in line to shut off nuclear power plants, if we also shut off the other power plants. But we have grown up in a world where we expect unlimited power at any time to come from the wall sockets. As soon as we accept that power is not always available and not always the amounts we want, we are free to switch to less polluting turbines and solar energy. Until then, we have to live with the added risks of this power.
What I am asking for is a little fact-checking from the press and perhaps a smidgeon of accountability. There seems to be an insane amount of bullshit being spouted now, making people in Europe unduly worried about our safety here in Japan. In one of the worst examples of what press can do, bad press has caused unjustified refusal of vaccinations causing needless resurgence of nasty diseases (MUMPS/MMR, see f.ex. http://badscience.net/). No accountability at the press, they just find the most sensational snippet and extrapolate from that.
Meltdown? Yes and no. Some parts of the fuel rods will have melted, but the material should be contained within the containment vessel. Annoying to clean, but by no means a scare with a human toll looming that is ANYWHERE NEAR the tsunami toll. Just because it is nuclear does not mean it is scary.
Now that that is off my chest, the most objective news I have seen on the reactor issue comes from the IAEA:
Many aspects are correct (I am living in Japan now for more than a year), but they do also have some negative tendencies;
- The Obajan (miiddle-aged women) can be very rude and pushy in supermarkets and queues.
- The Japanese build shitty houses with poor isolation, requiring a lot of heating in winter and a lot of cooling in summer
- They do not have a sense of style, their houses are full of little trinkets and other shit
- Their telephones are rubbish
- They do not accept any criticism from foreigners
- Their treatment of secretaries is not as good as I had hoped
- They are very good at paperwork, not so good at reducing said paperwork
- They are very good at fixing consequences, not so good at looking at root causes
- Their education is top-notch before university, university itself is a "enter and you may pass"-joke
But overall, my impression is still very positive. They are kind people ready to help and when they say something is done at 14:00, something is done at 14:00.
It is certainly something to learn from, also for the Japanese. I suspect there will be new (or additional) rules and regulations coming soon for the Japanese reactors, and the Americans would be wise to look at them too.
All the generators in all of Japan? washed away? I am still here and there are generators around for festivals and the likes, so no. There must be a reason they could not use alternative power sources to power their pumps, and I am curious as to why that is.
no. If the army can airlift in an amount of coolant, they can also airlift in a portable generator or generator container. It is not like all of Japan is washed away. My only guess is that they would not be big enough or be able to provide the right type of electricity.
As far as I understood, the seawater+boric acid solution has been applied to reactors that were scheduled to be scrapped quite soon anyway. For an operational reactor, you do not want to do this until the very last moment. As for why there are no other power sources available to power the pumps... that is a good question.
Quite, that is some nasty reporting from someone who either has an agenda or who doesn't understand fuck-all. Also the rolling blackouts are due to the power plants having been shutdown. What do they expect? I have not heard about rationing, merely the president asking for people to conserve what they can. Lastly, most of the US does not suffer from earthquakes or tsunamis, so those similar reactors should be fine.
Someone is trying to blow this story sky-high. Why do they not focus on where the actual deaths are? Fucking media-journalice.
Let's see what happens. If the isolation of the average.jp house was a little better, I would not mind saving energy by switching off some heaters. As it is, we barely reach 16 inside with all the heaters on. Never mind that at my office they keep the thermostats at a ridiculous 25.5.
When I moved to Japan I hoped to experience a mild earthquake or two. Little did I know that around Aioi (Hyogo pref.) there are none. Nor are there typhoons. Boring place, this! (The supermarkets are still well-stocked though, feel free to shop here:) ).
Postponed indeed according to NHK. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/14_10.html Funny that in Kobe where I was nothing could be felt, while in Osaka a friend of mine did notice something.
Indeed. They are quite capable of handling this, as they have been preparing for this event for years. They also seem a little hesitant to accept all help (they did accept some, in particular dog rescue teams), likely as they do not want too many unknowns in the way of their own efforts. And on top of all that, the Japanese are remaining calm and organized. No Looting, stealing kids (e.g. Aceh), mass panic or the likes. Bringing in a boatload of foreigners from all over messing about without too much coordination will make matters much worse. Then there is the Japanese pride, and lastly there is the fact that this really is not as bad as the media make it sound. If the quake would have struck further south, the tsunami would have wiped Tokyo off the map (as the water would have then entered Tokyo bay.
Slashdot Mirror
this (more direct) link any better? http://orbit.dtu.dk/getResource?recordId=253339&objectId=1&versionId=1
Sorry for sounding curt.. I guess it was the "nylon-like" mention that kickstarted my inner chemical engineer. Also I have not yet had my second coffee today, so I too realize I made a mistake when referring to "spider-silk" in another comment without indicating that spiders spin a large variety of silk.
As for educating the public, that is a commendable goal and it seems to me like we could use some of that! I also get the impression that many believe that after they finish their education, they are no longer in need of more education and ready to educate more offspring.
the UHMWPE fibres as Spectra and Dyneema are high-modulus fibres, so their strain (extension) is small when stress (load) is applied. This makes for good bulletproof material in principle. The problems with these materials are that they show creep (they gradually extend when a constant load is applied), and that their good properties reduce dramatically at elevated temperatures.
"Spider silk" is a bit of a misnomer as spiders produce a great variety of silk threads, some have high and some low modulus. The "spokes" generally have high modulus, whereas the "rings" have low modulus and are very elastic. So in order to validate their claim, they need to identify which silk they are talking about.
your post screams "dyneema", not "kevlar". That I agree with one aspect of your post does not indicate my comments are redundant.
Except that kevlar and other aramid fibres are almost entirely unlike nylon or dyneema. The structure is completely different, the aramid fibres can withstand high temperatures whereas the nylon fibres cannot (different chemistry), and the manufacturing process is completely different.
Second point: the aramid fibres have a very small elongation (strain) at break, and can hold a large amount of stress. Indeed, on a per weight basis, they are "stronger" than steel, by volume, it is not so good. However, they do not exhibit much creep (but nylon does!) and do not suffer from effects of prolonged loading.
Lastly, they do not bend well, and they cannot handle sharp edges so well because of that. Interestingly, you can get two kinds of protective vests with different weaves: one bulletproof type and one knifeproof type. the knifeproof vest is not bulletproof and vice versa.
You may want to consider reading the introduction to my Ph.D. thesis (or its references) on this material as it appears you may be slightly misinformed. You can get it here: http://bit.ly/gfPdDN
indeed, one of the reasons to use it is the low elongation at break, and the relatively high stress at breakage. Some have suggested using spider silk for bulletproof vests, and indeed it would stop the bullet... just several meters on the other side of your body. more in the introduction of my thesis http://bit.ly/gfPdDN
I certainly have enjoyed the psychometrics toolbox for Matlab as it contains useful drivers for some of Measurement Computing's DAQ interfaces under Mac OS X.
http://psychtoolbox.org/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage
An additional useful chart can be found here, in a slightly more readable and intelligible format:
http://eq.wide.ad.jp/files_en/110315houshasen_mext_en.pdf
Not as all-inclusive as Randall's work, but still good.
IAEA, and kyodo are useful in that sense.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/japan_nuclear_crisis/
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html
I do have an agenda. I worry about the sanity of the media coverage. If you want dangers and pollution, I have yet to read much about the burning refineries in the north. And as said, more focus on the aftermath of the actual disaster.
As for nuclear power, we want a world with unlimited power 24/7 from a socket. As soon as we can accept living without that certainty, and can thus switch to solar and wind energy, I will be the first in line to switch off all types of fossil fuel (inc. nuclear) power plants. Until then, we have to stop blaming nuclear for all the problems we have gotten ourselves into.
On a philosophic note, I personally believe that we will be faced with a choice here soon. To rely a lot more on nuc power, or return to the middle ages. The previous paradigm of huge plants running at stressful levels and with easily pointed out failure points, and placed in bad locations is just something that shouldn't happen any more.
I agree with your posts, I just do not think the societal damage of the nuclear reactor issues are as bad as portrayed.
As for your philosophic note, I fully agree. I would be the first in line to shut off nuclear power plants, if we also shut off the other power plants. But we have grown up in a world where we expect unlimited power at any time to come from the wall sockets. As soon as we accept that power is not always available and not always the amounts we want, we are free to switch to less polluting turbines and solar energy. Until then, we have to live with the added risks of this power.
What I am asking for is a little fact-checking from the press and perhaps a smidgeon of accountability. There seems to be an insane amount of bullshit being spouted now, making people in Europe unduly worried about our safety here in Japan. In one of the worst examples of what press can do, bad press has caused unjustified refusal of vaccinations causing needless resurgence of nasty diseases (MUMPS/MMR, see f.ex. http://badscience.net/). No accountability at the press, they just find the most sensational snippet and extrapolate from that.
Meltdown? Yes and no. Some parts of the fuel rods will have melted, but the material should be contained within the containment vessel. Annoying to clean, but by no means a scare with a human toll looming that is ANYWHERE NEAR the tsunami toll. Just because it is nuclear does not mean it is scary.
Now that that is off my chest, the most objective news I have seen on the reactor issue comes from the IAEA:
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html
Many aspects are correct (I am living in Japan now for more than a year), but they do also have some negative tendencies;
- The Obajan (miiddle-aged women) can be very rude and pushy in supermarkets and queues.
- The Japanese build shitty houses with poor isolation, requiring a lot of heating in winter and a lot of cooling in summer
- They do not have a sense of style, their houses are full of little trinkets and other shit
- Their telephones are rubbish
- They do not accept any criticism from foreigners
- Their treatment of secretaries is not as good as I had hoped
- They are very good at paperwork, not so good at reducing said paperwork
- They are very good at fixing consequences, not so good at looking at root causes
- Their education is top-notch before university, university itself is a "enter and you may pass"-joke
But overall, my impression is still very positive. They are kind people ready to help and when they say something is done at 14:00, something is done at 14:00.
B.
It is certainly something to learn from, also for the Japanese. I suspect there will be new (or additional) rules and regulations coming soon for the Japanese reactors, and the Americans would be wise to look at them too.
Ah, that makes sense. Custom equipment sometimes has this problem. Thanks for the interesting info though.
So why not airlift in another set of batteries or generators?
All the generators in all of Japan? washed away? I am still here and there are generators around for festivals and the likes, so no. There must be a reason they could not use alternative power sources to power their pumps, and I am curious as to why that is.
no. If the army can airlift in an amount of coolant, they can also airlift in a portable generator or generator container. It is not like all of Japan is washed away. My only guess is that they would not be big enough or be able to provide the right type of electricity.
As far as I understood, the seawater+boric acid solution has been applied to reactors that were scheduled to be scrapped quite soon anyway. For an operational reactor, you do not want to do this until the very last moment. As for why there are no other power sources available to power the pumps... that is a good question.
Well, there were more injured in the second blast, perhaps that is how they spin it. There is a powerful anti-nuclear lobby active at the moment.
Quite, that is some nasty reporting from someone who either has an agenda or who doesn't understand fuck-all. Also the rolling blackouts are due to the power plants having been shutdown. What do they expect? I have not heard about rationing, merely the president asking for people to conserve what they can. Lastly, most of the US does not suffer from earthquakes or tsunamis, so those similar reactors should be fine.
Someone is trying to blow this story sky-high. Why do they not focus on where the actual deaths are? Fucking media-journalice.
B.
Let's see what happens. If the isolation of the average .jp house was a little better, I would not mind saving energy by switching off some heaters. As it is, we barely reach 16 inside with all the heaters on. Never mind that at my office they keep the thermostats at a ridiculous 25.5.
When I moved to Japan I hoped to experience a mild earthquake or two. Little did I know that around Aioi (Hyogo pref.) there are none. Nor are there typhoons. Boring place, this! (The supermarkets are still well-stocked though, feel free to shop here :) ).
B.
Postponed indeed according to NHK. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/14_10.html
Funny that in Kobe where I was nothing could be felt, while in Osaka a friend of mine did notice something.
B.
Indeed. They are quite capable of handling this, as they have been preparing for this event for years. They also seem a little hesitant to accept all help (they did accept some, in particular dog rescue teams), likely as they do not want too many unknowns in the way of their own efforts.
And on top of all that, the Japanese are remaining calm and organized. No Looting, stealing kids (e.g. Aceh), mass panic or the likes. Bringing in a boatload of foreigners from all over messing about without too much coordination will make matters much worse. Then there is the Japanese pride, and lastly there is the fact that this really is not as bad as the media make it sound. If the quake would have struck further south, the tsunami would have wiped Tokyo off the map (as the water would have then entered Tokyo bay.
B.
Thank you very much for the background and links. I was wondering how this differed from the optical tweezers already in place in labs...