I Hauve A Cold

I've recently been seeing this article making rounds around this website and particularly people misusing this very cool advancement to imply that modern nuclear reactors are "unsafe" or "dangerous", which is partially due to the just blatantly bad journalism on display here.

The accomplishment of this new reactor is definitely exceptionally impressive but I think that news websites (Even ones specializing in science) have been mischaracterizing the reactor as "meltdown-proof" which is just - wrong? and implies that current reactors are just begging to meltdown.

The cool thing about this new reactor is that its passively cooled, but that doesn't mean its INVULNERABLE to nuclear meltdowns, for example the Chernobyl meltdown happened completely independently of whether it was cooled passively or not.

In fact, passive cooling would only pose an advantage in situations where ALL pumps and backup pumps break and the core doesn't get coolant pumped to it. That's happened exactly once: in Fukushima and only after a literal tsunami hit it, and there's no reason to think that the passive Helium coolant in this new reactor wouldn't also just break. Fukushima happened because of corruption in regulation, preventing suitable defenses against this exact thing from getting built, not because of unsafe reactor design.

There's also some articles like this one which talk about the new reactor being "self-regulating" which is true, but misses the point that the vast majority of nuclear reactors in service today are also stable in the exact same way. Negative feedback loops are a HUGE part of reactor design, the most popular reactor design today is the Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) which is incredibly stable - PWRs just truly hate increasing (or decreasing) energy output.

Most nuclear reactors today are already incredibly safe, even if you had complete control over a nuclear reactor it would be effectively impossible to cause a meltdown on purpose - both the physics of the system and the thousands of automated components would beat the ever loving shit out of any hope of trying to do so.

Articles like these just turn this impressive achievements into a kind of fearmongering over the "dangerous" nuclear reactors currently being used. The fact is that nuclear reactors are incredibly safe, PWRs are an incredible feat of engineering genius and its a genuine shame that the general public isn't aware of how much care goes into their design and safety, let alone how useful and essential they are in our electrical systems.

Modern nuclear reactors are clean, they are safe, and they are vital to a healthy energy grid in the post-fossil-fuel future.

A really good read I highly recommend is Colin Tucker's How To Drive A Nuclear Reactor. He's very clear and very frank with the workings and reality of nuclear power today.

In light (haha) of the recent eclipse, I’d like to point out that it was during an eclipse in 1868 that French Astronomer Jules Janssen observed an unusual spectral line produced when he pointed his telescope at the partially obscured sun. He assumed that it corresponded to the spectrum of Sodium.

Observation by English astronomer Norman Lockyer later that year revealed it to be a different element. The first one discovered on a distant celestial sphere before it was discovered on Earth. He chose to name it after the sun.

In 1968, one hundred years later, a space probe was launched to orbit around and study the sun.

not even JRR Tolkien, who famously developed the concept of the Secondary World and firmly believed that no trace of the Real World should be evoked in the fictional world, was able to remove potatoes from his literature. this is a man who developed whole languages and mythologies for his literary world, who justified its existence in English as a translation* simply because he was so miffed he couldn't get away with making the story fully alien to the real world. and not even he, in extremis, was so cruel as to deny his characters the heavenly potato. could not even conceive a universe devoid of the potato. such is its impact. everyone please take a moment to say thank you to South Americans for developing and cultivating one of earth's finest vegetables. the potato IS all that. literally world-changing food. bless.

THE TRIANGLE-INEQUALITY APPRECIATION SOCIETY

Hello fellow travelers & ponderers on this planet we call home.

Having recently been freed from a truly miserable coursework project, I am happy to announce my new project: The triangle-inequality appreciation society (TIAS).

Our goals are to:

Appreciate the triangle inequality

Create an irregular newsletter about the triangle inequality

Have semi-regular meetups to discuss our appreciation of the triangle inequality

From the poster above I've removed the phone number and email, but you can just respond to this post or message me and I'll hook you up.

The truth is that for all the love famous results in maths like the hairy ball theorem or Fermat's last theorem get, one of the most frequently used results gets the least love. This is why we've started this society for the appreciation of the triangle inequality.

We're based in Exeter, but all are welcome. At the moment, most members are math students but everyone can join us there's no requirements other than to appreciate the triangle inequality.

Any contributions you would like to make to the newsletter are appreciated, it can be anything! A poem, a quiz, a comic strip, an article, a derivation, anyway you want to express your love is wanted.

Come and join us!

[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled “do not stand at my grave and weep” after the poem by mary elizabeth frye. the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, “do not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.” page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, “i am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.” the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, “when you awaken in the morning’s hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.” the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, “i am not there. i did not die” / end id]

a comic i made in about 15 hours for my school’s comic anthology. the theme was “evolution”

You might be frustrated by the library never having a complete manga collection on its shelves at any given time, but the 12 year old checking out 14 volumes of One Piece at once is vital to the library ecosystem. He's like the sea otter keeping the kelp forest from being devastated by an excess of sea urchins.

early gnostic theologian: material existence is a form of torture thrusted upon humanity by the treacherous demiurge.

the same theologian eleven months on estrogen: well maybe actually it not so bad.

Pater Hoyt: Let me tell you this tragic story of the slow death of my church, the desperation of believers to save it, the most terrifying trees, the dismissiveness of science for "unimportant" subjects, and a concept of immortality so gruesome it makes priests question the existence of god.

Sol Weintraub: Let me tell you about the slow death of my only child, about time and inevidability and being a parent, about having to witness your daughter wake up confused and frightened every single day and my powerlessness to help her. Let me tell you about the Binding of Isaac and a nonbeliever's struggle with god.

The Consul: Let me tell you about the doomed rebellion of a beautiful world and the death of it's ecosystem. About how interstellar travel and relative time separate people. About my lifelong struggle to fight my grandmother's fight to the detriment of my own person to the point where I do not even have a name.

Martin Silenus: Let me tell you about my incredibly long life and all the stuff I've lost, including earth itself and my ability to speak. How I became unfathomably wealthy writing shitty pulp fiction. About art and the process of creation in such a profound way that you'll forget you hated me.

Brawne Lamia: Let me tell you about our Robot Kings and how humanity is unable to stop whatever they are doing. About how everything you have been told about our history might be a lie. About corruption and murder in the highest office of our government. And about the cute twink I met, fell in love with, got pregnant from and then lost.

Het Masteen did not live to tell his story.

Fedmahn Kassad: Let me tell you about my incredibly hot secret girlfriend and about all the sex we had in detail!