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Happy New Year!
Over Easy cures your New Years' hangover. You're welcome.
In the old days, new years basically meant nothing. People told time by the seasons, not by the Gregorian calendar. So the nearest holiday was the winter solstice. The calendar as we use it didn’t even exist until 1582
The holiday has evolved into a worship of Football and intoxication, normally by alcohol. Since it would be rude to ignore such a long and storied tradition…
Concussions are a part of football, some say. Yet universities are looking at the health effects. Well, some of them. Lawyers are looking at it, too.
While ethanol from corn turns out not to be the wisest idea we’ve ever had, ethanol as an alternative to petroleum is not without merit. It’s less efficient, but releases way fewer pollutants per mile. Here’s a company actually selling alcohol made from algae! They claim a cost of $1.00/gal.
Assuming you’re smart enough not to get caught drinking and driving, here are some suggested hangover cures. Boxturtle’s recommendation: Drink a packet of alka seltzer in twice the recommended amount of water before crashing. Hangovers are caused by dehydration and impure alcohol, among other things. This will prevent the dehydration, dilute the toxins, and give you a had start on the headache.
I learned something from this. UV sterilization of public water is a good thing, but I didn’t think it was this complicated. Different bugs die differently under different frequencies. Different, no?
Titan is cool. Add to the list of places that could support life. Ditto Enceladus. Slightly less interesting is Dione.
The rare pygmy right whale is actually a living fossil. We keep finding those. Wonder what we’ll find when we go deeper? Environment drives evolution and conditions at 5000ft haven’t changed much.
Hawaii is dissolving. Starting in 1.5 million years or so.
Fukusmina will likely kill us first. We still don’t have a clue on how to clean it up.
Boxturtle (Will avoid New Years Hangover by drinking Iced Tea. Works every time.)
Photo by Spencer E Holtaway released under a Creative Commons No Derivatives license.
102 Comments
Thanks, BoxTurtle, confess, you actually scheduled this five minutes ahead of time, it came up at 7 CT.
Driving on algae is a dream scenario.
Good morning everyone. Up to read!
Actually, I scheduled it 10 minutes ahead of time. There seems to be a time delay between the posting time and the scheduled posting time of between 5-10 minutes.
Algae is VERY doable. There’s been a pilot plant in Texas producing diesel from algae, but they’re nowhere near the $1.00/gal these folks are claiming. In theory, it should be possible to create a closed carbon loop with algae. Algae absorbs CO2 and produces alcohol. Car burns alcohol and produces CO2. I was unable to find any research on this, so it’s just one turtle’s opinion.
Boxturtle (Algae is fusion powered, just expose to sunlight)
Instead of fighting the local lake algae, we could be sunshining all over it. We have abundance in both categories.
Depends on the meaning of “abundance.” Here in the midwest, I’m not sure there is an “abundance” of sunshine.
Have you considered hemp today . If we didn’t have republican authoritarian low IQers deciding policy, we would have competing research to judge which gives the most bang for the buck corn, algae or hemp, even though it’s no contest.
The local lake algae is just a bit different from the algae they developed to generate alcohol. :-)
That’s what makes this a breakthrough. Algae naturally produces simple sugars, not alcohol. So before, you’d have to “harvest”the algae and process the sugars into alcohol. This looks like a continuous process and all you have to do is purify the alcohol.
Boxturtle (1 acre per car per year, just about)
Hemp is better than corn, but not as good as switchgrass or sawgrass. When considering bang for the buck, we also need to factor in the impact on food prices and food production acreage is shifted to fuel.
Algae may not generate as much as corn, but it can be grown without displacing food production.
Boxturtle (I love my hemp shirt)
Nor in Austin, TX….very drearrrrry. Happy New Year.
The last few years have seen superabundance in the southwest.
The conditions of producing these different kinds of algae are about the same, though, so a little tweaking would be very productive.
Could the southwest export the products of algae to the rest of the country that doesn’t have as much sunshine. I can see that we could provide SOME here, but not enough, probably.
Arid conditions exist in a lot of the prairie land, that have made it economically impossible to farm, and those can be planted in the trash grasses without displacing food production.
Here’s an off-topic but sorta scienc-y question for everyone. How does exercise on an exercise bike compare to exercise on a “real” outdoor bike?
As of now, I am riding the exercise bike about 45 minutes, want to try to get that to an hour. But when I finish I’m more winded and sweaty than in a much longer outdoor bike ride (I usually do 10-12 MPH). The sweaty part is at least partly because there’s no air flowing over me, but I am definitely winded at the end of 45 minutes.
Cannot see why not. We are building a pipeline to bring tarsand into the Gulf coast, which is stupid enough.
Your resistance factor is adjustable, isn’t it? On treadmills you can choose how hard you walk.
Depends on where you ride your real bike. And how. I find on my real bike, I send a lot of time coasting. On an exercise bike, I’m always pumping.
Boxturtle (YMMV)
My WAG is that on a regular bike ride, there is a variance in speeds, the amount of effort required to maintain a set speed and as you note, the breeze blowing over you as you go. I think it is more difficult and probably burns more calories and such maintaining the set speed on the stationary bike
Yup. And sawgrass and switchgrass are weeds, we spend a lot of effort to keep them from growing with only moderate success. If we actually tried to grow them, it’d probably be like alfalfa but with much less effort.
Boxturtle (And current combines could be adjusted to harvest switchgrass)
Yes, it is a good bike with several built in “programs” and I think the resistance is adjustable. The one I’ve been using is a series of peaks from low to high, sorta mimics going up small hills.
And yes, BoTurtle, you don’t coast on an exercise bike….well, I suppose you could, but what would be the point?
I was riding outdoors about 75 miles a week, and I’m substituting 45 minutes on the exercise bike while I hang out at Over Easy. Hope it’s enough to keep me from gaining back the 14 lbs. I lost over the summer and fall. I don’t have a weight problem, but it’s nice to be slimmer.
On that same theme, have always thought instead of fighting rats and mice, we could make catfood out of them. Why fish our overpushed oceans??
That would be “45 minutes a day, most days” on the exercise bike.
But even wearing my bike shorts, the seat isn’t comfortable for too long.
Not just slimming, but muscle building, very healthful.
Hmmm…it’s an idea. Even though my cats are little murderers, it might take me awhile to convince myself that canned ground mouse was good for a regular cat food.
Boxturtle (besides, WE may be eating catfood before the new year ends)
Yes, that, too. Except for a bit in the tummy, I don’t have any flab. And I’ll be 70, so not too bad for an old bat. LOL
I wonder if potential diseases in mice and rats would preclude using them for cat food? Interesting idea!
…of course, we could raise them disease-free for cat food. We wouldn’t be trapping them from old buildings or dumps or anything like that.
If it was cheaper, we sure would be trapping rather than raising. How many pounds of rat per day could be trapped in the NYC subways?
However, we already raise LOTS of sterile mice for research. Wouldn’t take much to expand that to catfood if we wished.
Boxturtle (but then what would happen to all the fish parts people won’t eat? Japan?)
Actually, the antibiotics we feed domestic herds is affecting our health negatively, so I would like to see less antiseptic herds of all sorts.
Rat and mouse food.
Not to mention beef and chicken parts. And I agree, there are too many antibiotics in our food.
But wouldn’t diseases from subway rats potentially sicken our pets?
The preparation and canning process could no doubt take care of any germs left over from wherever they originated.
Properly prepared, I wouldn’t think so. I can’t think of anything a rat carries that survives pasteurization and cooking.
Ruth, I agree. We may have actually made things worse with the amount of antibiotics we put into the food chain.
Boxturtle (If 9 Lives came out with Mouse Pate, I’d at least see what my cats thought of it)
Now we all should apply for a microloan to start our catfood processing plant!
There has to be something wrong with this idea, or else some big corporation already would be doing it. Or maybe there wouldn’t be a market for Fancy Feast Mouse Paté because of the ick factor.
I’m thinking the Ick factor, plus they lose an outlet for the rejects from meat/fish processing.
Boxturtle (Otoh, who REALLY knows what’s in Super Supper?)
That is filed under “things I never want to know about.” However, if we’re gonna be eating cat food, maybe I do care. Except I don’t think we’ll be able to afford Fancy Feast. I never calculated what the cost is per ounce compared to meat and poultry.
Oh dakine01, I just scrolled back up and saw this comment. Thanks, I was hoping I was at least getting a modicum of equivalent exercise on the stationery bike.
i know mine would eat Mousefood. they’ve killed several in the house and seem to love doing that. squirrel would also be popular with them; they long to have the time outside i don’t grant them to properly hunt them. dad’s old cat would climb trees and bring down baby birds from nests, so if there’s a pest bird species we need to control, that’s another option.
let’s draft this business proposal for the SBA today.
good morning.
Good morning, chicago dyke. Are you still at Ruth’s? Some of us yesterday expressed interest in your “sad story” if you haven’t changed your mind about sharing it.
I’m not sure how much my cats actually like mice. They love to kill them, but they frequently just eat the heads and leave me the rest.
Boxturtle (The joys of pet ownership. *sigh*)
I believe if the commercial artist drew a really luscious mouse for its ads, showing the cats looking eager and kittenish to chase it, we’d win over the buyers of catfood easily. With a catch tune about making the neighborhood safe from bitey mice.
A couple of times I had mice in the house here, because Cleocatra was scared of them and ran away when mouse sounds came from the cabinets. She did chase and catch birds. Making her very much the indoor cat.
ms molly, let me save it for another time. i am working my way back to being happy, and need a bit of distance from all that has gone on. but keywords include death, betrayal, and economic hardship brought about by homophobic family members. 2012 will go down as one of the worst years of my life, suffice it to say.
That’s funny. Years ago when we had a couple of indoor/outdoor cats and lived in a house with 3/4 acre in back (which backed up on more land) our cats would eat the bodies and leave the heads on the front porch mat. Often voles, I think, which are very much like mice.
I just spent a small fortune on Critter Control to find and eliminate whatever was skritching in my walls. He found droppings in the unfinished part of the baseement, but set traps that didn’t catch anything, but some traps outside did catch a couple of voles. Then he sealed up a few places he thought critters could get in. I still hear occasional skritching, but perhaps its voles or mice trying to get in. Or squirrels.
I do understand, and I am so sorry. I hope 2013 is better for you, and there are several here who would offer comfort when you are ready to talk. Meanwhile, it’s nice to see you back here with us. Forgive me if you haven’t really been gone, since you could be commenting on other posts and I may have missed those. I don’t read much in the afternoon and evening or late night.
Death can bring out the best in people, and also the very freaking most worst evah. I wish you the best in healing and happiness. You are in a good place to start a new year! Take care of yourself.
My mom called critter control once. I was over there when the fellow went through. He didn’t do ANYTHING I wouldn’t have done and he charged Mom $100 or so.
Since then, I’ve discovered that traps, peanut butter, and patience will work for most small pests.
Boxturtle (Dunno which fool thought of cheese in a mousetrap. it don’t work)
We once had chipmunks in the house. My brothers used a vacuum cleaner. . .the next day my mother received a postcard with a picture of a chipmunk that said, “Heaven is very nice.”
Good morning all. Thanks for the post and host BT.
The pigmy right whale is to the marine mammal world what grumpy cat is to us land dwellers. It’s frowny-faced all the time.
That’s the short version of the story.
I’ve had Critter Control several times, and it’s been considerably more than $100. But I haven’t got either the expertise or ability to deal with some of this.
During the summer they trapped 3 or 4 moles, and kept setting traps over a couple of weeks until they weren’t seeing more activity (my side yard was a mess with mole tunnels). Several years ago they trapped a raccoon on the roof, and then replaced all of the deteriorated screens on the soffit openings with little grills, and put wire mesh under my chimney on the outside where there was evidence of prior chewing and entry.
This time, in addition to trapping, he got on the roof and closed a couple of suspicious spots, and filled holes around where the outside meter cables enter the house.
Expensive, but the price I pay for living on a very wooded lot. And I DO get on my 12 ft. ladder and fill woodpecker holes!
Good morning, KrisA! I love that grumpy cat!
Is your wife recovering from her sickies? Are you doing anything for NY eve?
i gave up on trying to control the voles. the cats would sometimes come out with me and hang around the house as i gardened, and sometimes would catch one. i couldn’t stand to hear the vole screaming. they are a bitch when it comes to plant roots, i’ll say that much. i never could get that front bed to thrive, the little fuckers would make so many holes in the root balls.
I would like to be done with my ladder-days before 70! Lordy.
My mother once whacked a critter with a 2 x 4, I think she was past 70 when that happened.
Morning! Happy NYE firepups!
Alka Seltzer is one of those things that seemed just weird and old-fashioned (something your Grandmother used for headaches :) until a good friend insisted I try it for an upset stomach. Now I swear by it for nausea and give it to my friends for all their hangovers (since I rarely drink enough to personally experience this).
It’s not on topic for science but I find this to be a fascinating fact about it.
Yes! Austin has been gray for days, seems like. The sun peeked out for just a minute yesterday. At least we get actual rain today, and it is supposed to clear up before party o’clock…
She’s back to normal. All better. I battled through the same thing myself over the weekend, but a much milder case than she went through.
Now the littlest one has a cough. And oldnslow is sick.
Lots of crap going around in our little town right now. Seems everyone is sick with something different.
Now plans for New Years really. Lexi is going to spend the night at a friend’s house. Wife, little bug and I will probably just hang at the house, watch a movie, and go to bed well before midnight.
How about you?
If my kids were here, I would get scolded for getting on the ladder, but what they don’t know…LOL. My neighbor is a couple years younger than I am, and he calls the handyman to patch the woodpecker holes! I am just a DIY’er, was even that when I was married, since my husband was an accountant and while he was moderately capable of fixits, he had a low frustration level and didn’t like doing it, while I am like my dad, who could look at just about anything and figure out how to fix it.
I do most of my own routine home maintenance, within reason, as long as I feel comfortable that I have the ability. I didn’t, for example, attempt to install my new storm door (which took my handyman and his son a couple of hours!!), and I don’t tackle plumbing or electrical stuff at all.
Just about the full company at Pull Up A Cat had or just got over that catarrh.
I don’t have any plans at all. I rarely go out for NYE, but I’ll have a couple of glasses of wine and probably some cheese and crackers later in the evening, and go to bed before the witching hour.
Neighbors usually have a New Year’s Day open house, but I didn’t get an invitation this year. I can’t think of any reason I wouldn’t be invited (have attended for several years), so I’m guessing either they’re not having one this year, or my invite was lost in the holiday mail. No big deal either way. Despite being very outgoing, I’m not too fond of that sort of big group of people.
My Dad did everything, and one of my brothers is the same. I learn from him still. But I also know a few things he doesn’t, and it’s kind of exciting when I think of something he didn’t, because he’s also really smart. I had to learn plumbing, and it is one of the things I do the most. But yesterday when the sewer backed up, well, I called the plumber, since I don’t have that equipment. Electrical I can do basics, but gas I don’t mess with.
Thanks for the post and host BoxTurtle.
My grandmother,(dads mom) would tell us as children that if we kept watch out the front window today, we would see a man walk by with as many noses on his face as there were days left in the year. Kept us quite and corralled for more than a few minutes.
msmolly: Stationary bikes wear out your joints. You’ll get more exercise if you have a set of stairs in the house and you climb them repeatedly. Like three sets of ten. Try it and tell me I’m wrong.
Happy New Year’s Eve!
A small snake will do wonders, and I’m not sure whether that qualifies as plumbing or housework.
That’s interesting. I’m not sure I’ve ever used Alka Seltzer, although I remember well some of those commercials! Perfect photo for this post, too!
I’m not a big fan of large mixers either. The political and volunteer work I’ve done this year was initially uncomfortable, but I mastered the trick of ‘getting outside of myself’ and just operating. With purely social settings, though, there is no directive or end goal, so ‘getting outside of myself’ doesn’t work.
There is nothing off topic on Over Easy! I’m too young to remember single tablet alka comemrcials. I remember “Plop,plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is”
Boxturtle (And “I can’t believe I ate the WHOLE thing”)
If there wasn’t an Alkaseltzer tab at the bottom of that photo, it would just look like a glass of Sprite or 7-up :)
My ortho doc would disagree, spuds. He’s the reason I took up bicycling in the first place after decades of not riding. After I had my knee replacement surgery, he said “Find something else besides walking” for exercise. He said, “Your knee is a mechanical part and it will wear out, just like a car tire on the road wears out.” Apparently the impact of walking is wearing, especially “power” walking for exercise, which I used to do.
I do have stairs, both to my second floor and to the basement. When I was recovering from the knee replacement, one of the hardest things to regain without pain was going DOWN stairs, which apparently uses more or different muscles than going UP.
The basics help, and it’s amazing to see how much we save by doing them.
Is it too early in the morning for a ‘that’s what she said’ joke?
My two fav upset stomach cures are alka-seltzer or crystallized ginger.
I’ve replaced light fixtures, and changed washers in the faucets, but most of that sort of stuff needs expertise (and tools) I don’t have.
I took my vacuum apart and put it back together many times over the years, usually winding up with some part “left over” afterwards. I even replaced the motor.
I have a super handyman (most of the neighborhood uses him), who is expert in many things, very tidy, and quite reasonable cost-wise. He recently installed an egress in the basement of a neighbor’s home I look after in the winter, and that blew my mind. He had to bust open the cement block walls, dig an outside well with steps, put in a window, etc. When he finished there wasn’t a crumb of debris. I was awed.
It’s too early in the century for a that’s what she said joke!
Boxturtle (Check again about 2075)
kinda hate the taste of alka seltzer. dad used to drink it a lot (he had very poor eating habits) and sometimes would fail to rinse out the cup on the bathroom sink. i’d fill the cup later with water to rinse after brushing and get an unpleasant taste surprise.
he’s gone now, and so that memory is all endearing to me now. i do miss him.
Damn. There goes half my repertoire.
Oh, tell one, see what happens. I have some tomatoes I can throw.
So apparently there’s some fiscal cliff thingy going on that we’re supposed to give a shit about?
That’s what she said!
*ba-dum-splash*
Aren’t we supposed to be expelling the bad habits, to end the year? That would mean they are perfect today.
From people I worked with I learned one tradition, doing things on the first day of the year that you want to go on the rest of that year. And do not do housework!
I think you mean:
RIMSHOT
Ok, you do what you feel is best. Wear out your joints is about what I said. You’ve blown them out and replaced parts and I’m no ortho Dr. But I am just sayin. I have noticed women walk differently than men. Women step more heal..toe. You clomp along dropping your weight into your step to the back of your foot. I think men walk more on the front of their foot and toes. Listen to people walk by you and you’ll hear the difference. Maybe it’s just me. You can’t hear me walk by as my heel doesn’t land with my weight. It is just me isn’t it?
… says pro-fission industrial shill and new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the linked article.
He lies via misdirection and omission.
Strange days to see Chernobyl brought up as an example by the shills, but not so strange to hear them lie about it. They omit the extreme measures that were required to bring Chernobyl even to its current state.
As for Fukushima, as far as the plant proper is concerned, the basics of what needs to be done has been known since the 1940′s.
It would not be easy. In fact it would be a series of very tough technical challenges leading to a set of truly monumental engineering feats.
Locate the core melts. Locate and disperse corium lumps that are too close to criticality and at the same time divide the remaining melts until they can be passively cooled during storage.
And then clean up the remaining mess at the plant…
But it would cost billions of dollars.
And it would cost lives like any other massive project.
And most importantly, to the elites, there would be no way to hide what was going on. No way to hide what actually happens in such a nuclear meltdown.
The sheer extent of the resultant industrial graveyard would forever put an end to uranium fission power plants… and would severely crimp plans for any other type of fission plant.
And then there would still be the widespread contamination.
… and so instead they intend to basically ignore the facts and just live in a fantasy world.
Elites at work!
The philosophy was used on Wall Street in putting together toxic waste bonds
IBG
I’ll be gone.
i was a bigtime track and field athlete back in the day and my coaches taught me a couple of foot tricks. i don’t know about the general population/gender difference, but i think there are a couple of things to consider when trying to understand foot use habits.
-toe to heel is for speed. some sprinting shoes completely lack heels, because the idea is that sprinters are running almost exclusively on their toes.
-women learn early to walk in an elevated and sometimes narrow heel. it can be difficult to put all your weight on a tiny, high heel and it changes the way a woman holds her body up. i’m a chunky heel fan for this reason; it really hurts to stand in tiny heels for a long time.
-distance running and walking is best distributed along the entire foot, according to my coaches. the idea is that you want the shock effect spread out as evenly as possible, to avoid fatigue in any one area. that can take training, learning to put your foot down in a manner that will accomplish this.
-the right shoe, or lack of one, is everything. i am fascinated by the new trend among professional runners to go barefoot. dood, evolution is smarter than nike.
ymmv, of course.
Try *that sounds like my prom night* instead.
You may be correct, but at a couple weeks from age 70, I suspect I’m not going to change the way I walk.
I could make a point to walk up and down my stairs three times a day — I often do that anyway, just going about my house chores. But essentially the ortho doc said any exercise that impacts the knee wears it out, while moving it in the way it moves when bicycling will not. It’s titanium, so I suspect it will last long enough at my age.
I have a young friend (probably late 30s or early 40s) who runs barefoot. He has those special Vibram barefoot shoes. He swears by them.
Sometimes in the summer when I’m bicycling I pass a man running on the dirt side of the paved road completely barefoot. I can’t believe that’s good, with fine gravel, possible glass shards, hot surface, etc.
OK, friends, I have frittered away the entire morning, now I’ve got to get out and about. Have a great New Year’s Eve, and I’ll see y’all in the morning.
I wear elk hide moccasin all summer that I make myself. Niki can just suck it. I guess I even walk like an Indian. My tracks are with the feet pointing straight ahead and not turned out at an angle like most people walk. Keeps me silent on narrow deer paths. No side walks here.
Your coach is right, there’s alot going on with weight and balance and the pressure your feet go through. I was a sprinter in school. Wanted to play for Cleveland. Never tried though.
We have no way of doing that yet. And if we did, TEPCO wouldn’t permit it. They would prefer we continue to believe the melts are in containment.
We have no way of doing that yet. Even away from the melts, the area is too hot for even the hardest equipment to survive long. What would you use to cut hot corium? You have to be careful not to use any beryllium alloys, you can’t use anything that might work as a moderator or a reflector and you don’t want to do anything that creates small particles that could become air-born.
Boxturtle (They might just concrete over the entire site and pretend the Pacific isn’t there)
Not quite. Those with money are leaving.
Thanks for good company, off to do things. Happy New Year, already came to New Zealand!
I have an awesome snake colony going on here in the summer. An old wooded box upside down on the sunny side of the compost pile can be lifted and will usually be filled with them. No mice or voles ever in the yard.
I also have a few big leopard frogs and very large toads in the garden mulch that gets a little drip irrigation. Maybe these adults are big enough to be wary of the snakes? I have few destructive rodents or insect garden pests so I am happy.
Two minutes to say good morning pups, and thanks for the post BoxT.
BoxTurtle,
Could I get an addy for you? If yes, let me know at centurylink dot net.
“awesome snake colony”? I think not. I’ll take mice and moles, thankyouverymuch.
The simplyinfo link was awesome. It deserves a diary. I’m bookmarking the site. Thanks BT!
So I just watched the first episode of Doctor Who. Cool.
These are a type of common fox snakes, I think. I’ll refrain from posting the pictures of the one that took refuge from the heat on the cool stone wall inside the garage last summer. The fact that all these critters thrive in my garden is my assurance that my soil and veggies are likely not toxic. I had a proliferation of blue birds last summer, too. Availability of water had to be the draw for such diversity last July and August too.
BoxTurtle @ 91 said: (In response to zapkitty @ 83)
?
Not done before != impossible…
And yes, we can… it would be a huge undertaking involving massive amounts of digging and drilling and shielding being advanced bit by bit as well as equally massive amounts of fiber-optic conduits and cables being run from behind the shielding and probing for the melts.
Not to mention supporting structures being emplaced as needed along the way to ensure that the foundations of the remaining superstructures are not undermined.
And once the melts are located pneumatic and hydraulic systems will need to be engineered as needed to operate from behind the shields.
Yes, the total cost would dwarf the original cost of the plant itself… that’s why these fission plants were a bad idea in the first place.
I did mention that the engineering would be truly monumental in scale…
This is in consideration of whether or not it can be done… not whether the elites will permit it to be done.
If you wrap it all up in a ball and declare it unsolvable then it will remain unsolved… which would bother our owners not one bit.
Exit TEPCO elites, stage down… straight down… all the way down…
Actually, work is done all of the time in more intense radiation fields… but in prepared settings.
Improvising such preparations in the middle of the disaster site is what would be the mother of all bears.
But would there be a better time to start than now?
The remote mobile units can’t carry that much shielding… and TEPCO is careful to never show how much shielding would actually be required.
Sufficient shielding would enable workers to get close enough to usefully operate fiber-optic probes, hydraulics and/or pneumatics.
But TEPCO doesn’t dare show workers hiding in shells made up of a few yards of borated polyethylene (for the neutrons) backed by a few feet of lead (for the gammas) while they work their way closer to the melts.
How hot is the corium? Where is the corium? How much cooling is the water actually doing? We know they’re getting steam back in some places, but not all.
Locate and analyze the corium and the water flow and then make plans.
If worst comes to worst then the workers will need to bite off pieces chunk by chunk… and some of the corium pieces might mass several tons.
Yes, that’s nuclear engineering. In other words this is known science. Not saying it will be easy, but the parameters are known.
That’s fine, as long as they concrete under it as well… and while they’re at it… ;)
Yes, the Japanes elites bought islands for themselves and took options in China for several abandoned cities for the lesser people.
… of course there remains the question of why the Chinese abandoned any particular one of those cities in the first place…
Very late today – trying to get myself out of the house, but it’s chilly and raining and a perfect afternoon for a nap…like the kitteh on my lap. ;)
Have only looked at a couple of the links so far, but interesting. when reading the one about pygmy whales, I followed a link to a piece about rock carvings found in Egypt that likely are the first depiction of a pharaoh. Pretty neat.
Guess I should start working on my guest-hosting gig, huh? The hardest part will be getting up in time to post on time, I’m sure.
Need to get myself and my desk, currently piled with mail and folders and stuff-to-be-organized, into some sort of order to start the new year. Resolution: to get and stay organized, and downsize the stuff taking up space in my apartment. That’s it; if that’s accomplished, much other good will follow.
Alright, I’ve finished tomorrow’s post. I totally half-assed it :)
I’ll see you guys in the morning. Hope everyone has a safe and happy night. I’m off to a night of fast food and poker.