It’s time to educate ourselves, or in some cases review the facts as we think we know them. This is a chance to test yourself with the help of current events, and a most wonderful gift from UC Berkley…. Professor Muller!
Show me the math
I’ve learned to recognize that those who argue loudest seldom have the technical background to argue the facts, I’m not suggesting you need be an expert to argue, but why not invest an hour or two to get the very basics? I recall an argument where a person who obviously didn’t understand the basics of kinetic energy in a collision attempted to end the argument with “open your mind!” Sometimes I think that’s a Mantra of sorts.
Do note you can back up and view other lectures in this wonderful series, so few will take the time, lecture number seven is the focus of today’s post.
After you listen to this lecture, let’s all review an earlier post where Utterpower and friends attempted to get our arms around the facts of what really happened in Japan during their disaster. A nuke power plant so old and antiquated, it was scheduled to be shut down experienced physical damage caused by forces far beyond its design criteria! What happened, and what is likely to happen in the future?
There’s other things you’ll need to sort out on your own, one is all the political nonsense we hear from some folks on the left who think we can run the American economy off the energy generated at an occupy rally. There’s other things to consider as you watch this lecture, one is the chant “Bush Lied”. Seems it’s always the same, if you don’t have the facts, you need talk louder and repeat yourself.
Hat’s off to a great Professor who stays on task and delivers most thought provoking ‘facts.’
So here’s the assignment, review this post made at the time of the Japanese disaster, what did YOU get right, what did you get wrong?
https://www.utterpower.com/just-the-facts-japanese-nuke-plants/
Perhaps it’s time to quit making fun of the French, they seem to have better technical minds in Government that ourselves.. Do our officials fear sharing the facts because it might alienate voters in their re-election? I also ponder a time I subscribed to a certain Alternative Energy Magazine. I wrote the Editor a letter and explained how disappointed I was that their magazine was more about delivering Left Wing propaganda than technical information about AE, and living off grid. A certain ‘Solar Bozo’, (a name he gave himself), was a self-proclaimed Nuke expert, and it seemed his mission was to give us all his vision of a steel smelting operation run off solar panels. I did get a reply from the Editor of the magazine by the way, and I was pleased he made the time to reply.. his letter to me was how they were a very ‘centered’ publication, and how I was mistaken. I guess it’s reality to know their job is to market the magazine, and how they do it is their business… “literally.”
Another article worth your read? http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2012/03/16/nuclear-scientist-responds-to-critics-of-his-belief-that-fukushima-refugees-are-victims-of-fear-not-radiation/
One last comment.. look at how few people made the time to ‘LIKE’ this lecture number seven, is this any indicator as to how different we DIYers think? Will you NOT like it?
Don’t forget comments below..
GB
He’s a good teacher. That was clear. I like around the 1 hour mark where he shows us the extremely counterintuitive idea that as a reactor loses its moderator the reaction doesn’t go into a steep exponential rate increase but instead stops dead since the neutrons are no longer slowed and reflected back where they have a chance to encounter the rare u235 atom and cause another fission. My thoughts before this would have been that unmoderated rods or a puddle of meltdown were a fission free for all. Instead the heating in the unmoderated fuel is the result of fission fragments that contaminate the fuel. He mentioned that new rods take a year or two before fission fragment load up the fuel. It seems then that it would be impossible to get fairly new rods to melt down.
Occasionally I see something from the French government that seems libertarian and I know the origin. http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html
Any reasonable person who reads this might cry. It is a founding document of libertarianism. What Einstein sought for physics but never achieved Bastiat accomplished in his own field over 160 years ago in France.
Here’s an article for you to digest Bill.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/03/17/effective-world-government-will-still-be-needed-to-stave-off-climate-catastrophe/
I’m sure the Author doesn’t know that I have a far superior plan to his… step one, get rid of him before he gets rid of me. Now don’t report me folks, I’m joking, but I don’t think he is.
Maybe it’s time to review historical events, It seems that those who find themselves in power find interesting ways to use it, we need look no further than Cambodia a few years back, or the Sudan, we can watch the EU as they whip UK around, and make the commoners wonder why their obtuse elected officials every agreed to be subservient, and to force them all to fall under foreign rule. You thought you had hardly any property rights left now? Just imagine if Clowns like those running the UN had authority over your pea patch!
Did you notice in your video link where the lecturer mentions, as I recall, global warming where he puts himself in the believer catagory? I need to double check. It’s slow tryIng to find something in a video.
I don’t have a strong a reaction for or against. I don’t know the exact equations and if I did I dont know the exact data to fill in. I am strongly opposed to solutions that are to be used as a lever to acheive something unrelated that was already on their agenda.
I was choosing to stay focused on the topic.. AGW is complex in deed, I do know how to solve the problem, and that is to eliminate the concern. Pol Pot had the solution to resource problems, polution problems and more. It’s a very old solution, and humans have been using it to eliminate concerns for thousands of years! The first step to being part of the solution is to agree to give others power over you. The guy who wrote the article in SA might be the perfect guy to run the camp and dig the holes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot
Perhaps the first step is to eliminate your political opponents by shouting them down.. I bet Muller is not for an end to the Scientific discussion as Al Gore is..
That is correct. He is not the type to end the discussion with “denier” like a monkey slings poo.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576594872796327348.html
From this link he concludes that global warming exists but respects reasons for why it might not. I don’t mean to wander too much but when I watch the fission video and see someone of his type seem to acknowledge global warming it is remarkable.
Gary stix does seem to me be a typical progressive, someone who is anti human pro big government and deeply anti technology. Look at this from an article of his that is mixed, but ultimately anti nanotechnology.
-“Any advanced research carries inherent risks. But nanotechnology bears a special burden. The field’s bid for respectability is colored by the association of the word with a cabal of futurists who foresee nano as a pathway to a techno-utopia: unparalleled prosperity, pollution-free industry, even something resembling eternal life.” ick.
I am confident that our brains are black boxes that are well under way to being fully understood and that knowledge mixed with nano-tech will one day eliminate dependence on traditional wet-ware biology and it’s severe limitations. But progressives are deep down anti-tech hippies whose solution is that we form an oppressive government, join a union or collective, listen to folk music, fornicate, sacrifice, drink expensive coffey and wallow in the gritty earthiness of their limits. It’s gives you soul.
Now, we’re light years off topic 🙂
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-national/31797-nuclear-energy-institute-report-on-japans-nuclear-reactors-march-19-2012.html
Very good lecture, great teacher. I like when he said I don’t care if you like it or not its history.
Yes Charles, hats off to a Professor who obviously has a full measure of common sense. We need freeze a few frames and check for dirt under his nails, he might change his own oil knowing some nut might leave the drain plug loose on his Prius 🙂 His comment on history… so few need facts to form opinions, he obviously looks at new data, and will change his opinions when the scientific evidence suggests he should. In a different lesson, he talks about the cancellation of his Long Standing Sierra Club Membership. He wrote them a letter explaining why, and they ignored him. Fact is they also ignore reality, and most of their members take pride in doing so. Thanks to your contribution to the conversation.
Nice link read them and i’m finishing the video. I agree with you that nuclear power is a good thing. We need energy and it has to come from some where and not from magnet generators that don’t work. Thanks George.
Richard, for the sake of clarity…. for those who might read our comments.. Magnet generators work great WHEN you dump energy into the prime mover that turns the rotor in the magnet generator 🙂