[Dilmah G]

Fair enough.

[Klaustrophobia]

right now i'm a counselor at a summer camp NC State is running for high school kids about nuclear engineering. today one of our original professors, Dr. Murray gave a talk to the kids. i hadn't heard him before today either, he doesn't teach anymore. this dude is 90 years old and was THERE at the very beginning of nuclear. he was WITH Enrico Fermi and some other famous fission guy whos name i can't remember right now. he worked on the manhattan project and was at the Chicago PILE, the first ever sustained fission reaction. this dude is legit. he even confirmed that yes, there really WAS a guy with an axe standing next to a rope, ready to cut it and drop a control rod in should things go bad. we all thought that was just a legend/running joke of the nuclear industry. SCRAM (emergency shutdown by dropping rods in) was pretty well accepted as a "backronym" for Safety Control Rod Axe Man, but apparantly that really IS where it came from.

he's even still pretty spry for his age. he had a sample of uranium he passed around, about a 1 cm cube of it. the stuff is almost as dense as lead, so it was rather heavy for its size. he pranked one of the kids pretty well. the kid was handing it back to him. when he turned to walk away, Murray made the "oops" kind of noise and moved his arm really fast like he dropped it. so the kid whips around and about dove after it until he saw what was going on 

i'm gonna stop geeking out now.

[Aardwolf]

Happy birthday to Kalfireth! Also Moonred. And nobody else... none of the other birthdays for today are anybody I recognize the names of.

[Mongoose]

i'm gonna stop geeking out now.

I'd geek out too.  That sounds amazing.

[Aardwolf]

I should be asleep!!!

[Scotty]

I just spent 19 hours and 1093 miles in a car on my way from eastern Pennsylvania to eastern Kansas.  It was 100+ for a couple hours before we got out of that huge heat wave on the East Coast, then managed to hit a gigantic thunderstorm half-way across Missouri.  At midnight.  Was not fun to drive.

[headdie]

at the moment the local police helicopter is prowling the village at low altitude, no idea why

[Snail]

at the moment the local police helicopter is prowling the village at low altitude, no idea why

They're looking for Raoul Moatt.

[Jeff Vader]

at the moment the local police helicopter is prowling the village at low altitude, no idea why

Oh shi-

[headdie]

apparently a couple of armed idiots hit the post office 2 villages away and we think they came this way to use the motorway junction at the bottom of our village to get away but they got cornered at the top of the village by armed police and the helicopter was providing co-ordination assistance.

[qazwsx]

trainwreck cant drink he's only 14

Did that stop you?

I'm an optimist. I don't see people as similar to myself if I can help it.

1. I'm 16
2. No
3. It was a one-time thing

[perihelion]

i'm gonna stop geeking out now.

I'd geek out too.  That sounds amazing.

Too right!  That sounds like pure awesome wrapped in a pretty box with a bow on top!

On a related note, just finished reading an article on Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors.  I've been a pretty strong advocate of liquid metal cooled fast neutron reactors, but this is the first time I'd read about liquid salt reactors in any detail.  I feel I was criminally remiss.

The LFTR was designed and tested successfully in the 1950s.  It utilizes the Thorium fuel cycle instead of the Uranium/Plutonium fuel cycle.  The byproducts are generally less radioactive for a shorter period of time.  The fuel also stays in a liquid solution so you don't have to worry about fuel rod degradation and can keep on "burning" the fuel much further than you could otherwise.  Finally, it doesn't make Plutonium, so it is inherently proliferation proof.

Why are we not using this if it was designed over 50 years ago and proved to be better in all respects than LWRs?  Because it was proliferation-proof.  Our genius ****ing government wanted more Plutonium for their nuclear arsenal, so they ****-canned the best long-term fission reactor design I've ever seen right at the infancy of the industry and cursed us with a bull**** inefficient and dangerous fuel cycle we can't get out of.  God Bless America.

[Titan]

i'm gonna stop geeking out now.

I'd geek out too.  That sounds amazing.

Too right!  That sounds like pure awesome wrapped in a pretty box with a bow on top!

On a related note, just finished reading an article on Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors.  I've been a pretty strong advocate of liquid metal cooled fast neutron reactors, but this is the first time I'd read about liquid salt reactors in any detail.  I feel I was criminally remiss.

The LFTR was designed and tested successfully in the 1950s.  It utilizes the Thorium fuel cycle instead of the Uranium/Plutonium fuel cycle.  The byproducts are generally less radioactive for a shorter period of time.  The fuel also stays in a liquid solution so you don't have to worry about fuel rod degradation and can keep on "burning" the fuel much further than you could otherwise.  Finally, it doesn't make Plutonium, so it is inherently proliferation proof.

Why are we not using this if it was designed over 50 years ago and proved to be better in all respects than LWRs?  Because it was proliferation-proof.  Our genius ****ing government wanted more Plutonium for their nuclear arsenal, so they ****-canned the best long-term fission reactor design I've ever seen right at the infancy of the industry and cursed us with a bull**** inefficient and dangerous fuel cycle we can't get out of.  God Bless America.

Sorry dude, but you can't really blame them. I'm not trying to say they didn't screw up, but they were in the middle of a nuclear cold war with no end in sight.

[Colonol Dekker]

I got a text from a twenty three year old I've know for years who's showering me with sympathy re: my back  saying she can still fit into her school uniform and I should come round at the weekend and see it.
 
 
I need to find some new underwear. I just messed what i'm wearing.

[NGTM-1R]

I take it back.

You're [REDACTED] but without the urge to self-control.

[Scotty]

I finally got my housing assignment, but now I can't find my roommate anywhere.  At all.

Here we go.

[Bob-san]

I finally got my housing assignment, but now I can't find my roommate anywhere.  At all.

Here we go.

Hope that it stays that way and you're not assigned a roommate, period.

[Scotty]

I finally got my housing assignment, but now I can't find my roommate anywhere.  At all.

Here we go.

Hope that it stays that way and you're not assigned a roommate, period.

Unfortunately, if that happens, I am either A) charged extra for having a room to myself, or B) assigned another roommate anyway.

[Dark Hunter]

Why is it, when it's finally summer and the weather is nice and toasty, everyone turns up the AC so high I'm forced to wear a sweatshirt to stay warm?

People are so incomprehensible sometimes.

[Mobius]

Happy birthday to Kalfireth! Also Moonred. And nobody else... none of the other birthdays for today are anybody I recognize the names of.

You should send PMs...