Environmental News

Nuclear fission maths are tricky. A 1 gram of pre-fission nuclear material is reduced by the fraction converted to energy:

• 235.124 + 1.009 = 236.133 u - pre-fission
  
• 138.955 + 94.946 + 2.018 = 235.919 u - post fission
  
• 0.214 u - mass lost to energy conversions
  
• (235.919 - 236.133) / 236.133 = 0.090627% mass loss

Only a tiny fraction of the initial mass is converted because the resulting products weigh nearly the same. Just they have very high kinetic energy.

Hydrogen fusion is tricky because there is a precursor, lithium converted into tritium before fusion. So let me leave a thought about hydrogen explosives. A typical sketch looks like:

Double the bang for the same fission initiator:


This is how small the "primary" might be:


Bob Wilson

 

i wonder how the term 'screw someone over' came about. possibly a euphemism?

 

Something I wasn't expecting to see in Webster's 3rd just now was their quite separate treatment of meaning 6 (to do with extortion, economic exploitation, cheating someone out of a monetary amount) and meaning 7 (to do with the genitals).

I had been expecting to see them trace the economic meanings back to the genital one, but maybe that's not the way it happened.

What do we know about anatid economics?

 

so much slang gets added to the dictionaries every year, i wonder what the definition said a hundred years ago

 

See here, you've come to the right place. On this shelf here I have Webster's New International Dictionary, not 3rd New, not even 2nd New, just plain New, and for most of the time I've owned it I haven't thought of it as a hundred years old, but it passed that mark four years ago.

That one says:

3. To force as if by the pressure of screws.

4. Hence: To practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions or conditions; as, to screw one's tenants.
​

and the meaning to do with genitals isn't there.

In that one, it's also an intransitive verb. A question like "so, what does your husband do?" could be answered "he screws", meaning he's a practitioner of "extortion, oppression, or exactions".

 

From above, sounds like it came from fun, old thumb screws.

 

too late

 

When digging a hole, the first step is to stop going down and dig your way out. China is showing us the way.

Bob Wilson

 

Time Magazine seems to disagree

How China’s Social Policies Keep Hurting Its Economy | TIME

 

from what i have read, it is irreversible. we can slow the digging, but not stop it.

 

meh.
I'm reminded of one of Aesop’s Fables, The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf.
They've been monetizing this since the early 70's.

The sad truth is......'science is right.'
But after 50 years of telling us that the world is going to come to an end in 50 years, who really listens anymore?

SSDD

@ the CCP and 'environmentalism'
The CHICOMMS seem to be somewhat analogous to "Star Trek's" Ferengi - a fictional extraterrestrial species in that American science fiction franchise.
They WERE intended to be a critique of capitalism as the focus on the acquisition of profit as the highest goal - but I will let the folks in the studio audience make up their own minds......

 

fema
2024

Mayorkas warns FEMA doesn't have enough funding to last through hurricane season - ABC News

Anyone know how fema is currently being funded?

Anyone care how fema is currently being funded?

Get Assistance After a Disaster | FEMA.gov

Want a career with fema?

Careers at FEMA | FEMA.gov

What a fema job ?

USFCR | About US Federal Contractor Registration (USFCR)

 

i'd be more interested in how fema spends the funding, but what good would it do if i knew

 

"Congress recently replenished a key source of FEMA's response efforts, providing $20 billion for the agency's disaster relief fund as part of a short-term government spending bill to fund the government through Dec. 20. The bill also gave FEMA flexibility to draw on the money more quickly as needed."