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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 17:58:45 PDT
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
The first installment of this series may be found here, and it gives the basics as to how nuclear energy works. The way that the stars generate their energy is interesting, and we shall consider it in greater detail this time.
Young stars almost always fuse hydrogen into helium. There are several reasons for this, amongst them 1) hydrogen (protium, see the previous installment) is the most common nucleide in the cosmos, 2) more energy is released by fusing protium into helium nuclei than any other known process, and 3) there are multiple processes to accomplish it.
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Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 18:11:31 PST
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(10PM EST - promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
Hello, all. I did not have research time to finish up the next installment about nuclear fusion in stars, so we will have to do with this. I began planting my garden last week, so the subject of canning food came to mind.
Most people do not realize that canned foods are relatively recent developments, not counting wine and beer, which are at least technically, canned in many cases.
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Sun Feb 28, 2010 at 18:55:38 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Nuclear fusion is often proffered as the final solution to our energy needs. That well may be, but hardly anyone understands what it means, and almost no one, outside of physicists, knows how it relates to nuclear fission (the power source that we use now).
It all has to do with Dr. Einstein's simple, but seminal equation, E = mc2. This means that mass can be converted to energy in a huge fashion. Let us take a kilogram of mass, any mass, and convert it to energy. Using the formula, and it has been proved over and over to be correct, one kilogram of mass (think of a big sirloin steak, for example) becomes a LOT of energy.
According to the equation, that kilogram of mass becomes thus:
E = (1 kg)(2.9979 x 108 m/s)2 = 8.99 x 1016 Joules
This is almost 90,000 billions of Joules. We are talking big energy. But it does happen quite like this. Only in matter-antimatter annihilation does all mass become energy.
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Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 21:15:00 PST
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I have never been a stranger to admitting when I have been wrong. My philosophy is that is better to be wrong than to have no opinion. Since I write many of my thoughts here and at Kos, I am never short for feedback to show me how I am wrong, and I actually appreciate it. I always strive for accuracy, and welcome any corrections.
I have been very wrong about Limbaugh. I started listen to him around 1993 (please do not ask why, because the answer is extremely convoluted and very personal, [thanks, Cruz]) so we will not go there. Please follow my thoughts.
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Tue Feb 16, 2010 at 18:28:26 PST
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There seem to be more adverts on the TeeVee than content. I guess that is why it only costs from $20 to $50 a month for "free" TeeVee.
Some adverts are amusing, some are less than amusing, and some are just insulting. Please keep with me as I look at a few that I find in each category.
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Sun Feb 14, 2010 at 17:57:06 PST
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Well, I am back now. I had planned to provide an installment last week, but I had a bad cold and just did not feel much like setting at the keyboard.
Personally, I do not mind the coughing nor the sneezing, or even the sore throat. The one thing that bothers me the worst is to lose my ability to thermocompensate, such that I feel either cold or hot when I should be in my comfort zone of temperature. Aspirin assists me to regulate a bit better, but being well is the better feeling.
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Sun Feb 14, 2010 at 16:36:23 PST
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(10 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
 I've been like a hare chased by a hound this weekend, darting this way and that, so while I've got a lot of topics I could be writing on, I've got nothing coherent for a full fledged diary. So this week will be bits and pieces and this and that.
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Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 20:00:44 PST
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I guess that I am one of those "elite eggheads" that Rush Limbaugh (college flunkout and several times divorced, in addition to being a self proclaimed drug addict), Sean Hannity (college dropout), Glenn Beck (college dropout and divorced, and a self proclaimed alcoholic), Bill O'Reilly (who has a BA and and MA and a settled case of sexual harassment), Greta van Susteren (with a law degree from Gerogetown, and returned to teach law there), and the mighty eye candy Gretchen Carlson, the Miss America whose nanny was not any other than the bizarre Michele Bachmann, now in Congress from the diverse state of Minnesota. By the way, Carlson has a degree in the liberal (socialist) field of Sociology.
So the radical right goes from the ignorant to the well educated. I guess that I do not fit in well.
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Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 16:05:39 PST
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(noon. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
 Disclaimer: Nothing said here should be taken to imply that airport/train connections are the primary transport task for either light rail, mass transit, conventional intercity rail, or high speed intercity rail. In other words, the focus of an essay in a regular weekly series on one particular topic does not imply anything along the lines of "most important thing".
However, recently, I keep running into the issue of taking the train to the airport. I read an recent article in an air travel industry publication that focused on the airport connections associated with the projects funded in the $8b HSR funding. I read an older piece about the proposed intermodal station in Chicago that would allow our Ohio trains to get to O'Hare. And the proposal to terminate the California HSR at the redesigned Lindbergh Field came up as part of the discussion at the California HSR blog.
So with the Super Bowl coming up to distract things, I succumbed to what was clearly fate, and am going to discuss taking the train to the airport.
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Mon Feb 01, 2010 at 19:24:50 PST
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Things get expensive from time to time. Right now, with the cold weather, heat is expensive. At other times, being cool is expensive.
Please follow me over the fold to talk about cutting expenses starting now. Most of them will not affect your comfort, but one the most important one just might.
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Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 17:57:34 PST
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(10 pm. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Carbonated water is incredibly common, and, in one form or another, just about everyone drinks it. Sometimes it is enjoyed alone, but often it is mixed with flavoring ingredients. Just about all soft drinks are flavored carbonated water, and in a sense beer, ale, champagne, and spumati are as well, except the traditional carbonation method for the alcoholic drinks is different from that of carbonated water.
Carbonated water with no other ingredients is usually called seltzer in the United States, whilst carbonated water with some added minerals is usually referred to as club soda. Please join me in looking at the history of this material and its unlikely contribution to modern chemistry.
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Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 15:38:24 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
{I'm still sick, so I am going back to a 24 July 2006 dKos post, slightly updated (additions/amendments in braces and italics like this paragraph) to recall why the Sunday Train goes out under the "Living Energy Independence" banner.}
 All to often, the idea of Energy Independence has its priorities reversed. Scratch under the surface, and all too often the question lurking is, "How can we get as close as possible to Energy Independence without any real changes in the way we live and move?"
Stop and think about that ... really think about it, with your heart instead of your habits of thought. People - good people - are fighting and dying right now in Iraq {and Afghanistan} in a failing occupation, following a successful invasion ... in pursuit of a continued Energy Dependence policy.
In your heart, do you think that is a fair price to pay? If you do, do not read any further.
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Fri Jan 15, 2010 at 07:43:23 PST
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In recent conversation with a friend, we discussed the means by which any organization or group might best enlighten those who cling to bigoted, ignorant, or otherwise offensive points of view. It is a conversation no different from the very same ones we have in a multitude of related corners, spaces where abstract theorizing has to take the place of hard fact. As an anthropologist, my friend is constantly aware of the intersection where intellect and biological construction meet and couches her views from that point. As she puts it, evolution of any sort is a tediously slow process. We have, for example, still not really advanced to the point that we have gotten the hang of this whole walking upright issue. The human body's propensity to arthritis is but only one of those most visible examples of this fact of reality. If our skeletal construction are but unfinished business, it would stand to reason that many others are too.
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Sun Jan 10, 2010 at 17:49:02 PST
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It is still cold here in the Bluegrass, as it is in much of the country. The last time that it was freezing or above was at 02:00 on New Year's Morning. My thermometer right now reads 17.4 degrees F, and it made it up to nearly 30 when the sun came out for a little while this afternoon. There is still snow all over the ground, but the road crews have done a good job with the roads, although two people were killed on the highway off of which I live when it fist started, one only about two miles from me. Drive carefully, please.
Someone asked me the other day why static electricity is so noticeable in winter and not so much so in the summer. I thought this would make a good topic for Pique the Geek, but to understand that it is important to understand what static electricity is in the first place. Please follow for fun and information.
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Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 17:29:45 PST
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(6 pm. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Hello, all! Sorry not to post at the regular time last night, but I was enjoying my final hours with the family this trip and did not intend to disturb them by blogging. Please forgive me, but they are extremely important to me. I am sure that you will understand.
Part of our activities last evening was to watch the new Star Trek motion picture. It recently came out on DVD, and the former Mrs. Translator and the two boys remaining at home rented it for us to watch. It was nice to be able to pause it and hit the good Christmas leftovers from time to time as well.
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 at 16:05:44 PST
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(noon. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
 What is the CEI? It is the "Cost Effectiveness Index", used to evaluate applications for capital improvements in transit. As described by Yonah Freemark at The Transport Politic:
In reviewing transit capital projects to fund with New Starts grant money, the Federal Transit Administration evaluates proposals from a variety of perspectives. Since 2005, it has placed an overwhelming focus on one criterion, requiring a medium "cost-effectiveness" rating, which values predicted overall travel time saved by commuters likely to use the new service.
... but there's a problem with that.
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 17:57:49 PST
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The Geek took hiatus last week to attend, and be part of, the marriage between Eldest Son and his very wonderful bride. It was a very traditional Methodist service, and it went off perfectly insofar as no one fainted, no one objected (there was not a "If anyone objects..." clause in this particular service, so no one did.
The Geek also took today off and did not write a scientific column for several reasons. First, I stayed up too late last night reading the news and weather. Second, I could never come up with a good topic for tonight. I will do better for next week, I promise. Third, The Geek has just been feeling a tiny bit under the weather, but not horribly ill or anything.
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Sun Dec 20, 2009 at 15:50:48 PST
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(11 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
 Doctor Dan Mongiardo, Kentucky's Lieutenant Governor, has announced that he is running for the Democratic nomination for the Kentucky Senate race, to take on whoever wins the Republican nomination to challenge for the seat that Senator Bunning (R-Big$$$) has announced he is giving up.
Lots of politics to unwrap in that paragraph, which I'll leave to the political wise-guys. The Sunday Train today is about Dr. Dan's Rail Plan.
As far as I can tell, Dr. Dan's Rail Plan has four main parts, and regular readers of the Sunday Train will recognize much from each of the four parts:
- Support for expanding Kentucky's existing and potential Amtrak routes into 110mph Emerging Higher Speed Rail corridors
- Support for regional rail services to complete the above state rail map
- "Hybrid Light Rail" to provide cross-metropolitan local rail services, principally to Louisville
- Heavy investment in complementary local transit, including bus rapid transit and a high frequency driverless monotrain system for Kentucky.
Act Blue Page
For those looking to send some snake oil Doctor Dan's way: Daniel Mongiardo's Act Blue Page.
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Sun Dec 13, 2009 at 16:14:15 PST
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(11 am. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
 Last year, I told VP Joe Biden about the Sustainable Electric High(er) Speed Rail I wanted for Christmas (cf. links below). It involved electrifying the 30,000+ miles of STRACNET, and establishing 100mph Rapid Freight Rail paths, including support for running 110mph or 125mph long haul electric passenger services on the Rapid Freight paths.
In short, I wanted Joe Biden to take Alan Drake's plan and just fracking DO it.
I didn't get it for Christmas last year - but then, I guess he was only VP-elect last 25DEC08. The post today is to look at the progress toward the goal. The answer, surprisingly, is that we have made substantial progress. Certainly we are not halfway there, yet, but we are much further along than I expected to see.
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Tue Dec 08, 2009 at 17:07:48 PST
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So I'm ask of all of you, would it benefit the liberal blogosphere to have some kind of a platform to unite around? I'll keep it brief, since this should be more of a discussion than a lecture.
Let the navel staring begin!
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Reform Immigration -
March for America
Sunday, March 21
March on Washington
Saturday, March 20
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