Posts by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
(DIR) Post #B2MWDTh5cECgTvvrpg by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T02:41:49Z
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@collectifission @whatisnuclear.com Professor Knief offered me the cassette at the same time he offered it to Nick, but I wasn't in a position to deal with it at the time, so I happily demurred.
(DIR) Post #B2Mdw6iYaSk7vrqYXg by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T04:08:17Z
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@vfrmedia Don't copy that floppy! But don't do _that_ either!
(DIR) Post #B2Ng8Pr3eiJ3pImPo0 by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T16:07:36Z
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@BlakeHamiltonCA There's a huge misunderstanding about energy and employment. Direct employment in energy production is often seen as a good in itself, although many of the jobs (not working in a nuclear power plant, mind) are both dangerous and badly-paid. The truth is, energy supply SUPPORTS all other economic activities, and so its economic footprint is optimally small.
(DIR) Post #B2NgN4tdrPU9AXyoXA by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T16:09:55Z
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@Nixie
(DIR) Post #B2Nkbo4V63oH9FKzRI by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T16:57:44Z
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@collectifission Would you be so cruel to the poor, downtrodden antinuclearites, as to deprive them of the opportunity to tell everyone that we don't need nuclear to replace fossil fuels, because renewables are so much cheaper and quicker to deploy that they are 20 to 100 times as cost–effective?
(DIR) Post #B2Nl0UqbhzOElVc0q8 by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T17:02:12Z
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@thomasfuchs I decline to state whether "artificial general intelligence" is possible or not. I do not believe that we understand the problem adequately to frame the question, much less answer it.But I can say with great confidence that "large language models" are quite irrelevant to the whole topic. They pose, however, a very special kind of epistemic risk, in that they corrupt the automated, high-speed information indexing and retrieval systems which modern society depends upon.
(DIR) Post #B2O0oyI60m8dsEzooa by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T19:59:29Z
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Today's A STEP FARTHER OUT on #anonradio has NASA going to the Moon in a very desultory fashion ; nobody going to Mars this year ; me unhappily going to Washington DC and then onward to Canada, a science-fiction convention in the Dallas area, and then Europe ; and Friedrich Merz admitting that antinuclear policies are wrongheaded, but not going to try to change anything.https://anonradio.net/asfo-2026-01-17/
(DIR) Post #B2O0tOR6kI9Y7XJsu0 by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T20:00:16Z
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@roly "Moses, stop leaving those things lying around!" — Pharaoh [citation needed]
(DIR) Post #B2O11QN5R0q6RHGhm4 by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T20:01:43Z
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@collectifission Spoilsport! Meanie!Yeah, I was flabbergasted by "20—100×". Some people are seriously detached from reality.
(DIR) Post #B2O22awFjPmtSLq5GS by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T20:13:07Z
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@collectifission https://man-and-atom.tumblr.com/post/806019525558632448/thanks-to-emil-jacobs-for-this-one-the-context-is
(DIR) Post #B2O3B8XgmF5pwnzEEy by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-17T20:25:53Z
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@collectifission I object to the article title on the grounds that that there's nothing identifiably "environmental" or "leftist" about opposition to publicly-owned nuclear power. Antinuclearites shouldn't be allowed to pretend to either.
(DIR) Post #B2OOiNOAhHsWaRE4LQ by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-18T00:27:07Z
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@BlakeHamiltonCA OWCH!
(DIR) Post #B2Q2fnjSUHfIkFTAlk by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-18T19:29:33Z
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@xhr @claudiom Munich bakers definitely call them Krapfen.
(DIR) Post #B2Q3JM9SS1OimwUYiW by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-18T19:36:46Z
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@collectifission Not that 20 GW (plus district heating hookups) wouldn't be better, but this is a step in the right direction.Personally I would love to see high-temperature helium-graphite reactors at the Ravenswood site, feeding into the existing Manhattan steam grid, and into new pressurized-hot-water systems.
(DIR) Post #B2Q3Ok7YlEKuZmAl84 by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-18T19:37:45Z
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@Peetz0r @collectifission I would have expected CE. But I don't really know these things.
(DIR) Post #B2QCF4jy8st9DZbSpE by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-18T21:16:52Z
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@NancyComicsSDF Oh, wow! This is one of those things that has, with social change and the passage of time, gone from being quotidian to super obscure.What has happened here is that the milk has frozen, and because water expands when it freezes, has pushed upwards against the carboard-and-foil seal at the mouth of the milk bottle, forcing it upward and forming a "neck" of frozen milk.
(DIR) Post #B2QE3oO0o2f1Df5d3Y by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-18T21:37:12Z
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@khm @donray South Africa is an important producer of uranium, which is recovered from gold-mine tailings. In fact South Africa supplied a substantial amount of the uranium required for the Manhattan Project, and for US nuclear activities of all kinds for years afterwards.South Africa also had an early interest in nuclear power, because of the long distance between its major coalfields and the large industrial and population centers of the Cape Town and East Cape regions.
(DIR) Post #B2QEZuUtcYafRHcE4G by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-18T21:43:03Z
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@ZaneSelvans There is nothing laudable about attacking a power station.Koeberg is an entirely civil installation, and was if anything an obstacle in the way of the South African nuclear weapons program. Not only did it divide their available trained manpower, but to get it built they had to allow much more international scrutiny (including inspections) of their nuclear industry, which had been been cloaked in secrecy.But the anti-nuclear zealots are arrogant.
(DIR) Post #B2Rq5Zgu7vuNNGhjuq by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-19T16:18:00Z
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@BlakeHamiltonCA Yes, I was reading something recently in which the author lamented how unfair it was that challenges to nuclear energy often failed in the courts because they were subjected to evaluation of facts.
(DIR) Post #B2Rq9AUtjpo6Obnnf6 by publius@mastodon.sdf.org
2026-01-19T16:18:40Z
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@religionnews I think that's the point. I think it always has been the point.