heimdall

Unfortunately, we live in a world where public opinion (skewed by fossil fuel companies or otherwise) is a huge driving force. We can lament what the world would be like if only people were more knowledgeable, but at the end of the day it's the ecosystem we have to operate in.

Fusion power has indeed had high R&D costs, but so has any significant project before the ROI starts to kick in. Fusion power (especially the types that don't generate a neutron flux) is safer and more productive in principle compared to fission, and I have high confidence I will live to see a commercial fusion reactor come online in my lifetime.

I don't work as a physicist (but I got my degree in Engineering Physics @ CU-Boulder, 2009) and I went to see Interstellar in IMAX on opening night. I really enjoyed it overall, and the scenes involving the realistically-rendered black hole were worth it alone.

I'm relatively easy to please when it comes to movies, but to each their own of course.

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” - Hitchens's razor.

The burden of proof is always on the person making an assertion or proposition. When they do not provide proof of their claim, and another person calls it "full of shit", it is not valid to shift the burden of proof onto them to disprove the original claim.

And there's a great reason for this - the bullshit asymmetry principle: the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.

My family visited here in 1998/99 when my dad (USA Air Force) was stationed at "Peace Vector 3" in Ismailia, Egypt. The Siwa Oasis was a fascinating place - people still lived in the ancient mudbrick houses that have been around for hundreds of years (so we were told). The whole neighborhood looked like Dr. Suess buildings because torrential rains that came once a decade warped everything and then re-dried. Just like everywhere we visited, the people were welcoming and generous, the street food was amazing, and there was more to experience than we had time for. I'd love to go back some day.

Also, we went on a tour of the dunes and salt flats and the guide started his jeep with a flathead screwdriver. That was a culture shock for my 12yo american kid self.

From the comments:

> ITER was designed before the newest generations of superconductors were available. ITER is now succumbing to the escalation of commitment that sunk-costs engender. SPARK [sic] has the advantage of an agile development model and new materials and technology that combined, dramatically shortens the path to breakeven and the reduction in costs to do so.

Just imagine where we'd be if fusion science were given equal footing with other investment endeavors.

Lightning Strike Energy == 1,000,000,000 Joules

1 Joule heats 1g water 0.24 C

1 L water == 100g

1 cu.meter water = 1000L

Room Temp == 23 C

Thus:

(77/0.24) = 320.8 Joules raises 1g water from 23 C to 100 C (boiling).

(1E9 Joules / 320.8 Joules) lightning strike with no losses along the way heats 3,116,883g of water.

3,116,883g of water == 31,168 L of water == 31 cu.meters of water. This is a block of water 1m x 3m x 10m.

Steam volume is 1600x liquid water volume. So even if we say that 90% of the energy is lost in the transfer, that's still 3 cubic meters of water that flash-boils into steam, quite possibly causing damage to the bridge.

So: perhaps unlikely, but quite possible.

Edit: 3,116,883g of water == 3,117 L of water == 3 cu.meters of water. Damn math errors, always creeping in. Still unlikely, still possible.

> In the game, players were fashioned as “planeswalkers,” who cast spells and travel between planes of existence. The spells themselves were the cards, ...

I played 1999-2004 and now 2016+, mostly non-tournament casual for this exact idea that most players seem to have forgotten. Decks with an emphasis on flavor feel more in line with the core theme of the game, and it's a very rewarding experience to roleplay a Planeswalker using their library of spells.

Many new players (especially tournament-minded) seem to treat the art and flavor as tertiary to the mechanics. One person told me they'd still play the game even if it was black text on plain white cards. Apparently the point was to win, not enjoy the aestetic.

Win or lose, I enjoy the fact that my decks have a rock solid roleplay theme and are usually under $40 each.

25 years later and I can still hear the theme music in my mind whenever it comes up in conversation. As a kid, the intro just got you so pumped up.

I graduated from CU-Boulder in 2009 and have lived in the Denver-metro area ever since. I could very easily see Amazon drawn to the Boulder-Longmont-Lafayette triangle if not in Denver proper.

Lots of growth here in the last 5 years especially. Many long-time locals are complaining about the cost-of-living going up, though.