Fusion Energy Hustlers Keep Seducing Southern Governors

[KT is still recuperating, so please continue to keep her in your prayers. - Buck]

Just before Christmas, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) issued a press release announcing that he had fallen victim to some smooth-talking hustlers promoting a hypothetical new source of “clean energy,” which is going to cost Virginia taxpayers several million dollars.

I’m paraphrasing.

Actually, Gov. Youngkin’s press release titled “Governor Glenn Youngkin Announces World’s First Commercial Fusion Power Plant,” stated that Chesterfield County (suburban Richmond) was going to be the location of “the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant,” to be operated by a private company named Commonwealth Fusion Systems. Youngkin is quoted in the press release as saying, “This is an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is not just building a facility, they are pioneering groundbreaking innovation to generate clean, reliable, safe power, and it’s happening right here in Virginia. We are proud to be home to this pursuit to change the future of energy and power.”

Unsurprisingly, even though Commonwealth Fusion is a private company, it is quite receptive to generating cash by accepting government appropriations. At the end of the governor’s press release, it noted that Virginia taxpayers will have to cough up $2 million dollars in grants as the price for winning this prize. The rest of us are also contributing, as another $15 million was awarded to Commonwealth Fusion by the Department of Energy this past June. (Attention DOGE.)

There is no word yet if Virginia is competing to lure any companies promising to produce jobs and “grid scale” power with perpetual motion.

For many decades, nuclear fusion has been touted as an imminent source of limitless, clean energy – but it’s always been just 10 more years away. After all the failed timelines, it’s become a joke that nuclear fusion is the energy of the future, and always will be, because it’s always still 10 years away. This Virginia fusion project is promising to have figured out the technology to produce “grid scale” fusion energy by the 2030s – e.g. in about 10 years. Of course.

At nuclear plants that have been producing power over the past 60 years, it is nuclear fission that has been used to generate electricity. Fission is the process of splitting atoms. By contrast, fusion produces energy by fusing together the nuclei of two atoms into one. Fusion at an industrial scale has been, and remains, a hypothetical source of “grid scale” power. The Washington Post’s article about Youngkin’s fusion announcement includes this line, “If the technology can be proved, the project promises to supply about 400 megawatts of electricity — enough energy to power about 150,000 homes.” That’s a big “if.” That’s akin to me stating that if my wife can just master the skill of spinning straw into gold, we’ll never have to worry about money again. Perhaps I should apply for a grant from Gov. Youngkin for my straw-to-gold operation, promising that once the technology is mastered and scaled up, it will result in many high-paying jobs for Virginians.

Sadly, Gov. Youngkin is not the only southern governor to get seduced by the nuclear fusion, snake-oil salesmen. Governor Bill Lee (R) of Tennessee also fell for it.

It was less than a year ago, in February 2024, that Gov. Lee triumphantly announced via a press release that the state of Tennessee was partnering with a start-up company named Type One Energy to bring hundreds of jobs to the Knoxville area to develop commercially viable nuclear fusion energy.

“Our administration created the Nuclear Energy Fund in partnership with the Tennessee General Assembly to recruit companies like Type One Energy. Tennessee is ready to secure its place as the top state for energy independence, and we are proud to partner with Type One Energy to further that mission and bring hundreds of high-quality jobs and more reliable energy to Tennesseans.” – Gov. Bill Lee

I’m genuinely embarrassed for Bill Lee, as there is nothing “reliable” about a source of energy for which the technology has not even been developed.

An article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press stated that about $7 million of Tennessee taxpayer funds was being steered to this nuclear fusion promoter that has no actual revenue from the sale of electricity, nor any prospect of it for years to come, if ever.

An argument can be made that using taxpayer funds to incentivize the construction of nuclear fission projects, especially small modular nuclear fission plants, makes sense. The technology exists and the need for additional electricity is real. But it is deeply disturbing to see southern Republican governors like Glenn Youngkin and Bill Lee get swindled by smooth-talking Harold Hills promoting the “clean energy” equivalent of the River City Boys Band.

It is with great confidence that I state that by 2035, there will not be one kilowatt of electricity put into the grid by Commonwealth Fusion in Virginia or by Type One Energy in Tennessee. The future of nuclear fusion will then move on to the next state with a credulous governor willing to waste taxpayer money for the reward of producing a press release announcing his commitment to “clean energy.”

Low-tax states cannot remain low-tax if their Republican governors choose to squander taxpayer money on nonsensical “clean energy” boondoggles.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 10:15 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 /plants flag

Posted by: Brother Tim sez at February 08, 2025 10:22 AM (bYje+)

2 Good morning all

Posted by: kallisto at February 08, 2025 10:24 AM (PQ53j)

3 Another windmill type scam

Posted by: MAC V SOG at February 08, 2025 10:24 AM (P4Pk9)

4 "Fusion is the energy of the future, and it always will be." Right now, we desperately need power. Desperately. Between the crooked and inept State Governors, horrible Obama years, and worse Biden years, they have utterly crippled our grid. We don't have enough power.

Nuclear is the most effective bedrock power generator, and would do a great deal to shore up the baseload capacity we so desperately need. Yet, the imbeciles have held it back for decades. Now the charlatans are riding in to grift off a New Shiny Thing...

Posted by: Brewingfrog at February 08, 2025 10:24 AM (KQqCj)

5 Rookie mistake, I read it all.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at February 08, 2025 10:24 AM (ZVgZ4)

6 DMSO links at the end of the last thread.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at February 08, 2025 10:25 AM (EV2jz)

7 Isn't the biggest impediment to nuclear in the US the mandate that all reactors have to be breeder reactors? Hence, waste?

Posted by: MkY at February 08, 2025 10:25 AM (cPGH3)

8 Several years back, a similar fission-based company came through here talking up the plant they were going to put on the Snake River.
Turned out they were just a pump and dump stock scheme, and this was the third time they'd pulled this scam.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at February 08, 2025 10:26 AM (fOktg)

9 Dems get their graft from light rail, Repubs from fusion. We can recycle and use the waste now

Posted by: Notsothoreau at February 08, 2025 10:27 AM (EV2jz)

10 Is the Commonwealth Fusion rep named Mr. Haney?

Posted by: I'm Gumby Damn It! at February 08, 2025 10:27 AM (jQ+5q)

11 If the left would stop dismantling dams there would be more hydropower. Reliable and clean. If the left would allow nuclear there would be plentiful electricity. Reliable and clean. Not spending billions on wind would free up huge amounts for upgrading and protecting the grid.

"Nope!" yells the left, "fantasy power only!"

Posted by: Huck Follywood at February 08, 2025 10:28 AM (++MYW)

12 There's a sucker born every minute.

And a lot of them are in politics.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at February 08, 2025 10:28 AM (Q4IgG)

13
Hey, everyone! I have an auto engine that runs on water. Can I have $2 billion to build a plant?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 10:28 AM (dxSpM)

14 I guess the "plants for electric car" schemes for baiting governors into spending money are over.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at February 08, 2025 10:29 AM (fOktg)

15 We offered you unlimited clean free energy and all you did was complain.

Posted by: The Kanamits at February 08, 2025 10:29 AM (dDmld)

16
"Nope!" yells the left, "fantasy power only!"
Posted by: Huck Follywood at February 08, 2025 10:28 AM (++MYW)

The idea isn't that there should be cheap, clean, inexhaustible power. There should be no power at all.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 10:29 AM (dxSpM)

17 Are their staffs just as stupid?...don't they have people to protect them from krap like this?

Posted by: BignJames at February 08, 2025 10:29 AM (Yj6Os)

18

I have achieved atomic fusion between my prostate gland and the near simultaneous injection of hundreds of young men seminal fluids! I will soon be able to power central London with my butt queefs!

Posted by: Elton John, OBE at February 08, 2025 10:30 AM (JSBUw)

19 TAMU just built a 2400 acre site to house up to 5 small nukes.
I think 4 companies are building there so far on the small modular idea.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 08, 2025 10:30 AM (gbOdA)

20 The hardest part of a long journey is tyhgat first step.

That said, I like the idea of fusion power but my understanding is that we were decades away from building any kind of commercial viable power plant/source.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 08, 2025 10:31 AM (IOGah)

21 When we have all that free government electricity we can power the eight government EV charging stations that cost five billion dollars.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at February 08, 2025 10:31 AM (dDmld)

22 I believe fusion requires massive amounts of electricity. Maybe signing on to fusion is an end run around regulatory requirements for building conventional power plants?

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 08, 2025 10:31 AM (tT6L1)

23 Are their staffs just as stupid?...don't they have people to protect them from krap like this?
Posted by: BignJames at February 08, 2025 10:29 AM (Yj6Os)

Pump and Dump stock scheme, and the staffers just happen to own stock in the company?

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at February 08, 2025 10:32 AM (fOktg)

24 Greetings and salutations

Posted by: Miflin at February 08, 2025 10:32 AM (aA6YN)

25 22 I believe fusion requires massive amounts of electricity

----------

I think I see the problem here.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at February 08, 2025 10:32 AM (dDmld)

26 The record sustained fusion in about 100 seconds.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 08, 2025 10:32 AM (gbOdA)

27 An argument can be made that using taxpayer funds to incentivize the construction of nuclear fission projects, especially small modular nuclear fission plants, makes sense. The technology exists and the need for additional electricity is real.

It sounds like you're saying you are okay with government-funded applied science, but only if it's far enough along that it's almost guaranteed to succeed. I think goverment funding of basic science is also necessary, but I don't call it one when it's the other. Fusion is not even close to commercialization, so I was surprised that Youngkin sold it as such. I think continued funding for a technology which really would revolutionize humanity is okay, but don't sell it as ready for prime time. It isn't.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:33 AM (xCA6C)

28 Katherine Long is the WSJ reporter who doxxed the DOGE guy that got him fired for sh*t he posted as a youth. Turns out she did time at USAID so she's an embed. How many other journalists are embeds, not just fellow travellers?

I'd take the bet that someone gave her this leak to print without her doing a stitch of independent investigation.

All the Murdoch media properties are infected beyond redemption, Fox included, except parts of the NY Post who continue to fight behind the lines.

Posted by: Ignoramus at February 08, 2025 10:33 AM (Gqoy+)

29 My grandfather worked for a utility and worked on three nuclear plants (all since decommissioned after decades of reliable service). While I am now 29, I remember in high school mailing him an article about Fusion, which was a technology then thought to be right around the corner, and his laughter over the phone when he had read it and then called me to explain basic physics.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at February 08, 2025 10:33 AM (vpxZ8)

30 Business plans usually go 5 years out, but development plans go 10

The trick to keeping your pet project funded is to always be in the sweet spot between years 6 and 10.

"Fund me, but don't count on me for revenue"

Posted by: 2009Refugee at February 08, 2025 10:34 AM (qhH41)

31 Remember that 100mpg carburetor that big oil kept off the market?...me neither.

Posted by: BignJames at February 08, 2025 10:34 AM (Yj6Os)

32 Why not pyramid power? I remember reading about it in the 70s, and as an added bonus it will keep your razor blades sharp!

Posted by: MammaB at February 08, 2025 10:34 AM (cJeYb)

33 Fission, fusion...whatever it takes.

Posted by: one hour sober at February 08, 2025 10:34 AM (Y1sOo)

34 I half expected to see Tony Fauci doing a little Irish jig next to the pot o’gold. Fucking cocksucker.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at February 08, 2025 10:35 AM (fY84s)

35 When we have all that free government electricity we can power the eight government EV charging stations that cost five billion dollars.

And therein lies the problem with government-funded research. Obama made science a slave to politics; witness the green new deal nonsense. Biofuels to power military aircraft? Bite me.

You really do need experts who can sift the wheat from the chaff, but if politics is your metric, don't be surprised when chaff is all you get.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:35 AM (xCA6C)

36 The idea isn't that there should be cheap, clean, inexhaustible power. There should be no power at all.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 10:29 AM (dxSpM)
---------
Unless unicorn farts are a fuel source I believe, sir, you nailed it.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at February 08, 2025 10:35 AM (vpxZ8)

37 No, the mistake in the US is breeder reactors are NOT allowed. So instead of producing fuel as they work, they produce just waste. The problem with the fuel produced is it’s plutonium, and could be diverted for weapons.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at February 08, 2025 10:35 AM (ZVgZ4)

38 20 The hardest part of a long journey is tyhgat first step.

---------

Akshually, the hardest part is the Alps.

Posted by: Hannibal at February 08, 2025 10:36 AM (dDmld)

39 Sure, 17 million sounds like a lot, but it's 3 million less than an Iraqi Sesame Street.
You're welcome, taxpayers.

Posted by: Fiscally Conservative Paul Ryan at February 08, 2025 10:36 AM (4lsKt)

40 At least its not 200 million like it was with Solyndra.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 08, 2025 10:36 AM (IOGah)

41 While I am now 29, I remember in high school mailing him an article about Fusion, which was a technology then thought to be right around the corner, and his laughter over the phone when he had read it and then called me to explain basic physics.

Are you saying fusion doesn't work? The sun begs to differ.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:36 AM (xCA6C)

42 DMSO links at the end of the last thread.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at February 08, 2025 10:25 AM (EV2jz)

Thank you.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at February 08, 2025 10:36 AM (lFFaq)

43 Hey, this time around, it only took 1 megawatt of energy input to produce .75 megawatt of fusion output.

#winning

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 08, 2025 10:37 AM (tT6L1)

44 I was told that our cars would all be powered by Mr. Fusion by 2015.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at February 08, 2025 10:38 AM (dDmld)

45
Remember that 100mpg carburetor that big oil kept off the market?...me neither.
Posted by: BignJames at February 08, 2025 10:34 AM (Yj6Os)

So we're still stuck with these crummy old carburetors... Oh, wait...

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 10:39 AM (dxSpM)

46 Are you saying fusion doesn't work? The sun begs to differ.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:36 AM (xCA6C)
---------
Oh, fusion works. Containing the sun in a small space safely and economically is the hard part.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at February 08, 2025 10:39 AM (vpxZ8)

47 Trump's newest cuts are to NIH, where he is limiting overhead on federal grants to 15%. That will in no way suffice. Real research will be affected. I don't know what his plan is here, but from what little I've read, he may have made a mistake.

Naturally, the Dems are demagoguing it to say he wants to stop cancer research, but in this case, there is an element of truth to it. This WILL impact that research.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:39 AM (xCA6C)

48 My favorite story to come out of fusion research is "we broke even, if you discount the energy it took to run everything!"

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 08, 2025 10:39 AM (tT6L1)

49 "The problem with the fuel produced is it’s plutonium, and could be diverted for weapons."

Our private nuclear industry was developed to supply plutonium for military use. Now we're stuck with an ossified regulatory regime that inhibits non-military innovations.

Posted by: Ignoramus at February 08, 2025 10:39 AM (Gqoy+)

50 You people are giving pump and dump a bad name!

Posted by: Masturbatin' Pete. at February 08, 2025 10:40 AM (G5+As)

51 Are you saying fusion doesn't work? The sun begs to differ.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:36 AM (xCA6C)
---------
Oh, fusion works. Containing the sun in a small space safely and economically is the hard part.

And yet, there is constant incremental progress. The predictions for when we'd have fusion were certainly off, but we are slowly getting there.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:40 AM (xCA6C)

52 Cold Fusion....yeah, baby!

Posted by: BignJames at February 08, 2025 10:42 AM (Yj6Os)

53 I wonder how much the government spent on the Fission power plant Borax III to power Arco, Idaho?

I think the first commercial nuclear plant came a few years later.

This was in the 50's.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 08, 2025 10:42 AM (IOGah)

54 The NIH article:

https://tinyurl.com/yrets9vt

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:43 AM (xCA6C)

55 Real world fusion, on our scale, only occurs when a lithium battery fire burns down your domicile.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at February 08, 2025 10:43 AM (fY84s)

56 con
fusion

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 10:43 AM (/iMjX)

57 Fusion is promising but won't be ready for prime time for a long time. Nuclear is the way to go

Posted by: jeff at February 08, 2025 10:44 AM (ZiwLX)

58 >>> Governor Glenn Youngkin Announces World’s First Commercial Fusion Power Plant

It has been said that politics is Hollywood for ugly people.
Youngkin is trying to make people think that politics is Hollywood for stupid people but that is just cover for the fact that he thinks the people are stupid (they proved it to him by voting for him) and he is probably getting some sweet kickbacks.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at February 08, 2025 10:44 AM (/lPRQ)

59 I've been reading about small modular nuclear fission reactors for electricity for a couple of decades now. Not sure why it hasn't come about. We built fleets of nuclear subs in the past, all with the same design of reactor. Why not just start making a submarine, starting with the reactor and steam turbine, and then don't build the submarine part. Attach the steam turbine shaft to a generator instead of reduction gears.

Posted by: George V at February 08, 2025 10:44 AM (ugbqN)

60 There is a way we could ALREADY be using clean, cheap fusion energy.

See the sun is the biggest fusion reactor in our solar system and we already use some of its energy of course with the light that hits the earth.

But you could put solar panels in orbit to capture way more of its energy, use them to power a mazer, then point that mazer on a body of water on earth and heat it up to power a turbine.

The minor problem with this is you have to put a bunch of infrastructure in space. The major problem is those space mazers if misaligned can cause massive damage on earth or be used as explicit weapons...

Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 10:45 AM (t0Rmr)

61 >>Trump's newest cuts are to NIH, where he is limiting overhead on federal grants to 15%. That will in no way suffice. Real research will be affected. I don't know what his plan is here, but from what little I've read, he may have made a mistake.

The 15% number came from Musk based on how he runs his companies. The guy who is shooting rockets into space and then reusing them when government told us for years it was impossible.

I doubt most people could survive under the kind of conditions Musk runs his companies but 60% overhead is freaking insane.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 08, 2025 10:46 AM (LkLld)

62 con

fusion

Ball of

Posted by: The Temptations at February 08, 2025 10:46 AM (QB+5g)

63 I've never been to Alaska but many parts of the state are only accessible by plane, I guess. But a flight to Nome crashed killing all aboard.

Around 3:18 p.m. Thursday, the plane had “some kind of event which caused them to experience a rapid loss in elevation and a rapid loss in speed,” US Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin McIntyre-Coble said Friday before the wreckage was found. “What that event is, I can’t speculate to.”
~~ NY Post

Posted by: Huck Follywood at February 08, 2025 10:47 AM (G7X+g)

64 Re: the sidebar item about Andrea Mitchell. She’s not retiring, she’s only vacating the anchor chair she’s occupied for 17 yrs. She will continue as their chief Washington and foreign propagandist/asset.

Posted by: kallisto at February 08, 2025 10:47 AM (PQ53j)

65 From memory, Carter shut down commercial processing and recycling of plutonium in 1977, citing concerns about diversion for weapons use.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at February 08, 2025 10:48 AM (ZVgZ4)

66 Free beer tomorrow.

Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle for festive little hats at February 08, 2025 10:48 AM (S8hJY)

67 Another windmill type scam
Posted by: MAC V SOG

Worse. Despite everything wrong with them, windmills do produce power.

When the wind blows enough, but not too much, and when they're not on fire, and when they're not worn out, and.....

Posted by: mikeski at February 08, 2025 10:48 AM (DgGvY)

68 Governor Glenn Youngkin just realized he will never be President, and the chances of getting a sweet, sweet Senate seat are getting smaller by the day. A fellow needs to make hay while the sun shines, it you know what I mean (nudge, nudge.)

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at February 08, 2025 10:48 AM (fOktg)

69 The 15% number came from Musk based on how he runs his companies. The guy who is shooting rockets into space and then reusing them when government told us for years it was impossible.

I doubt most people could survive under the kind of conditions Musk runs his companies but 60% overhead is freaking insane.

My old lab was somewhere in between, but it was also falling apart, because there was no money to repair the plant. Overhead went to utilities (keeping the lights on), paying for literature subscriptions, office staff, and, of course, upper management.

Obviously you'd want to cut upper management, but that would in no way suffice. You can use Musk as your goal, but the fact is that there only one of him, and he's not easily reproducible.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:49 AM (xCA6C)

70 The inter tubes was a government project brought to life by the private sector. I don't have a problem with our government funding viable R&D but you run into the same problem Musk and his team is uncovering now.

It happened to NASA too. They lost their focus because the funding wasn't a concern. That's why there comes a point when it should be handed off to the private sector. Their focus is making money which means you have to have a successful product.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (IOGah)

71 I actually knew that guy. Rudolph Gunnarman.
Made the fuel with my own two hands.

Posted by: Reforger at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (xcIvR)

72 But you could put solar panels in orbit to capture way more of its energy, use them to power a mazer, then point that mazer on a body of water on earth and heat it up to power a turbine.

The major problem is those space mazers if misaligned can cause massive damage on earth or be used as explicit weapons...
Posted by: 18-1

No building kill sats and calling it clean energy. The people who thought Covid was a good idea will be in charge of them.

Posted by: mikeski at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (DgGvY)

73 Both fission and fusion are nuclear, they just work on opposite ends of the periodic table.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (ZVgZ4)

74 I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a fusion sandwich today.

Posted by: J. Wellington Wimpy. at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (G5+As)

75 I doubt most people could survive under the kind of conditions Musk runs his companies but 60% overhead is freaking insane.
I listened to the beginning of the first DOGEcast. Joni Ernst has been investigating these agencies for a long tome. She said they discovered 40-60% overhead was commonplace.

Posted by: kallisto at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (PQ53j)

76 "What that event is, I can't speculate to."

But it definitely wasn't the plane. I think we can all agree on that.

Posted by: Boeing at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (4lsKt)

77 22 I believe fusion requires massive amounts of electricity.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 08, 2025 10:31 AM

I thought fusion required massive amounts of mass. Like so much helium it has it's own gravity.

Posted by: fozzy at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (7PM4P)

78 13
Hey, everyone! I have an auto engine that runs on water. Can I have $2 billion to build a plant?
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 10:28 AM (dxSpM)

71 I actually knew that guy. Rudolph Gunnarman.
Made the fuel with my own two hands.
Posted by: Reforger at February 08, 2025 10:50 AM (xcIvR)

Posted by: Reforger at February 08, 2025 10:51 AM (xcIvR)

79 OT:

These two headlines appeared side-by-side in my local news website.

1. Cold weather leads to rise in demand at local homeless shelters

2. The effect of unseasonably warm weather on local vineyards.

I propose relocating the homeless encampments to the vineyards.

Duh!

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 10:51 AM (/iMjX)

80 >>But a flight to Nome crashed killing all aboard.

"Continued flight into known icing conditions."

-- the eventual NTSB investigative final report as to the primary cause of the crash.

Posted by: one hour sober at February 08, 2025 10:51 AM (Y1sOo)

81 She said they discovered 40-60% overhead was commonplace.

It is. That doesn't mean it's wasted. Research is expensive.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:51 AM (xCA6C)

82 If we're gonna do useless green energy boondoggles I'd still rather fusion than fucking windmills. But we really need fission plants, and a lot of them.

Posted by: Ian S. at February 08, 2025 10:52 AM (qB84H)

83
My question is: how much overhead goes to things like maintenance of physical plant, subscriptions, support that helps the research at hand and how much is skimmed off by the university for other purposes?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 10:52 AM (dxSpM)

84 If we're gonna do useless green energy boondoggles I'd still rather fusion than fucking windmills. But we really need fission plants, and a lot of them.

Agreed:
Short term: new generation fusion
Mid term: Space-based solar
Long term: Fusion

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:53 AM (xCA6C)

85 I propose relocating the homeless encampments to the vineyards.

Duh!

---------

Can't. It would make the wine taste funny.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at February 08, 2025 10:53 AM (hY4dx)

86 Isn't the biggest impediment to nuclear in the US the mandate that all reactors have to be breeder reactors? Hence, waste?
Posted by: MkY at February 08, 2025 10:25 AM (cPGH3)

I believe that the biggest impediment to nuclear in the US is the fact that the "anti-nuclear lawfare" industry exists and any attempt to build a reactor is likely to face 20+ years of litigation before the first concrete is poured.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 10:53 AM (ExV1e)

87 My question is: how much overhead goes to things like maintenance of physical plant, subscriptions, support that helps the research at hand and how much is skimmed off by the university for other purposes?

This is absolutely the right question. If you have an order of magnitude more administrators than professors, your priorities need radical adjustment.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:54 AM (xCA6C)

88 I remember the good old days when a house landed on Andrea Michell in Kansas.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at February 08, 2025 10:54 AM (fY84s)

89 A rainbow that appears in the sky for only 2 minutes or less contains enough electrical energy to power up the entire state of California! FOREVER!!! Every home, every business, EVERYTHING!! All the lights in the state could be turned on all the time! All appliances could run continuously forever! The EV cars would be completely recharged in precisely 3 minutes and 14 seconds! Never worry about black outs, brown outs, weather induced power outage again!!!
Here at Prism Energy Development we are moving rapidly to capture that rainbow energy! Our rainbow electricity capture system will revolutionize the way people can use electricity. We will change the way the world generates electricity so that fossil fuels like petroleum and coal will be obsolete. Just two minutes of capture in the state provides free electricity to every home, business and government building for free, forever. Each state will have it's own power generation hub forever! Every country will have a power generation hub forever! No more wars over oil! No more raping Gaia for coal! No more pollution in the air or water!
Call today to find out how you can be a part of this historic new technology!

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at February 08, 2025 10:54 AM (4XwPj)

90 Fusion is too real. Just fuse Trump, Musk, and Vance and see what happens.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 10:54 AM (L/fGl)

91 I've been reading about small modular nuclear fission reactors for electricity for a couple of decades now. Not sure why it hasn't come about. We built fleets of nuclear subs in the past, all with the same design of reactor. Why not just start making a submarine, starting with the reactor and steam turbine, and then don't build the submarine part. Attach the steam turbine shaft to a generator instead of reduction gears.
Posted by: George V at February 08, 2025 10:44 AM (ugbqN)

There are a dozen different designs, from Uranium to Thorium, with the heat exchanging being everything from water, to salt, and Lead.
Argentina has just restarted its own small modular reactor program.
I personally like the Thorium molten salt reactor design, but I admit it is more like favoring the Mariners as a baseball team, than any knowledge of the subject.

Part of the problem is exemplified in Oregon, where OSU has a nuclear engineering program, and Oregon State revised statutes outlaw nuclear reactors.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 10:54 AM (D7oie)

92 Obviously, High-Speed Rail to Nome is the solution.

Posted by: Governor Newscum at February 08, 2025 10:55 AM (G5+As)

93 It is. That doesn't mean it's wasted. Research is expensive.

Trump and Elon have both been hugely successful in the private sector and now, in government, have already achieved what no politician has ever done. I will defer to their judgment.

Posted by: kallisto at February 08, 2025 10:55 AM (PQ53j)

94 The minor problem with this is you have to put a bunch of infrastructure in space. The major problem is those space mazers if misaligned can cause massive damage on earth or be used as explicit weapons...
Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 10:45 AM (t0Rmr)

best case use for the development of "space elevator" tech. Just drop an extension cord from orbit.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 10:56 AM (D7oie)

95 If I were King, every state would have at least two nuclear plants. Rhode Island though would only require one Windmill and a Generac.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 08, 2025 10:56 AM (IOGah)

96 NIH caused more damage with COVID than good it has caused in its entire history. If he just removed it we'd be better off than allowing it to exist as is.

There needs to be real consequences for COVID *both* for the people that coordinated it and the organizations/systems that allowed it to happen.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 10:56 AM (t0Rmr)

97 Both fission and fusion are nuclear, they just work on towards opposite ends of the periodic table.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit

FIFY, actually.

Posted by: Wesley Crusher at February 08, 2025 10:57 AM (DgGvY)

98 Thx Buck. The Southern governors have the same problem with electric car companies. Rivian in Georgia, another in Tennessee which cleared land but nothing else. I'm sure there's others by the governors should stop listening to the chamber of commerce

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 08, 2025 10:57 AM (EUtBO)

99 >>Obviously you'd want to cut upper management, but that would in no way suffice. You can use Musk as your goal, but the fact is that there only one of him, and he's not easily reproducible.

No, of course not. That's why he's the richest man in the world.

But the private sector and particularly the part of the private sector that lives on government grants is the other end of the spectrum. I've been doing startups for 30 years after coming out of the corporate world and the differences are stark. I spent a few years at AT&T post divestiture and the amount of wasteful spending I saw was off the charts. The company travel budget alone was insane. The hotels of choice weren't Days Inn, they were at the top of the food chain. And I was a fairly mid-level grunt.

Time for companies that take government money to start running closer to the startup model because they are running on our nickel.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 08, 2025 10:57 AM (LkLld)

100 I've never met a department head -public or private sector- who thought he was overfunded. Cut all their budgets.

Posted by: Wally at February 08, 2025 10:58 AM (4lsKt)

101 jazz/Rock Fusion

Posted by: I'm Gumby Damn It! at February 08, 2025 10:58 AM (jQ+5q)

102 Yesterday they showed a bunch of clips of USAID being shuttered and the name removed from the front of the building. What struck me was the grandeur of the place. Federal labs (and labs in general) are usually dumps compared to the bureaucratic palaces.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:58 AM (xCA6C)

103 95 If I were King, every state would have at least two nuclear plants. Rhode Island though would only require one Windmill and a Generac.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at February 08, 2025 10:56 AM (IOGah)

It is still possibly the only good, sensible thing McCain ever said when he proposed a plan to build 100 new nuclear plants.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at February 08, 2025 10:59 AM (bss/y)

104 The NIH has been pretty useless in finding a cure for cancer after decades of research. There have been improvements in treatment, and a much greater remission rate, but at great financial and personal cost.
Meantime alt-medicine has come up with treatments that don’t leave people cold clocked from chemo, or financially bankrupt. So IMHO the NIH is a huge POS anyway. They pushed the plandemic bigtime.

Posted by: kallisto at February 08, 2025 10:59 AM (PQ53j)

105 98 Thx Buck. The Southern governors have the same problem with electric car companies. Rivian in Georgia, another in Tennessee which cleared land but nothing else. I'm sure there's others by the governors should stop listening to the chamber of commerce
Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 08, 2025 10:57 AM (EUtBO)

Beshear here in Kentucky with battery plants.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at February 08, 2025 10:59 AM (bss/y)

106 OT:
These two headlines appeared side-by-side in my local news website.
1. Cold weather leads to rise in demand at local homeless shelters
2. The effect of unseasonably warm weather on local vineyards.
I propose relocating the homeless encampments to the vineyards.
Duh!
Posted by: muldoon

Also saves shipping costs on hobo wine. It's a win-win-win!

Posted by: mikeski at February 08, 2025 11:00 AM (DgGvY)

107 I spent a few years at AT&T post divestiture and the amount of wasteful spending I saw was off the charts. The company travel budget alone was insane. The hotels of choice weren't Days Inn, they were at the top of the food chain. And I was a fairly mid-level grunt.

I can't speak to ATT, but I can speak to federal travel. You aren't staying in the best hotels, you fly economy, and usually the worst seats in economy, and it has become much more difficult to even get approved for travel, despite that being an essential part of a scientist's job.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xCA6C)

108 Greetings!

I’m home from the hospital now and feeling grateful. Went to my GP yesterday, who told me to “light a candle to God, because he saved your life”.

I just read through The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival and the comments mean a lot today. Prayers to all who need prayers, and thanks for some of the great perspectives.

And thanks for the prayers and well-wishes from The Horde while I was in the hospital, and for all the support from the COBS.

There don’t seem to be many after-effects from the stroke. I will need to work on staying healthy. Appointments with 4 specialists coming up, but not all at once.

Posted by: KT at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xekrU)

109 Vaya con Dios, KT.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at February 08, 2025 11:02 AM (bss/y)

110 >>>95 If I were King, every state would have at least two nuclear plants. Rhode Island though would only require one Windmill and a Generac.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmot

>Rhode Island gets no respect. There is some order in the universe.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at February 08, 2025 11:02 AM (fY84s)

111 {{{ KT}}}

Thank you for this good news. May your recovery be complete.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 11:03 AM (u82oZ)

112 The NIH has been pretty useless in finding a cure for cancer after decades of research. There have been improvements in treatment, and a much greater remission rate, but at great financial and personal cost.
Meantime alt-medicine has come up with treatments that don’t leave people cold clocked from chemo, or financially bankrupt. So IMHO the NIH is a huge POS anyway. They pushed the plandemic bigtime.

So, Biden was correctly mocked for saying that he was going to cure cancer in 4 years, and now that he didn't, you're upset that he didn't. You can go the alt medicine route as you wish, but I'd prefer that we continue doing actual science. Don't let NIH's duplicity surrounding COVID make you think that all science is worthless. In another comment above, I decried the influence of politics on science. This is a perfect case in point, but the answer isn't to destroy science, it's to keep politics out of it

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:03 AM (xCA6C)

113 The only perpetual motion involved in this is someone's hand under the table.

Posted by: Rex Reeder's Ghost at February 08, 2025 11:04 AM (MZ+PY)

114 The NIH article:

https://tinyurl.com/yrets9vt
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 10:43 AM (xCA6C)

That article is long on outrage and short on information. For example, unless I missed it, no one explains what constitutes overhead in this research area and why it is so desperately needed.

Prior to DOGE we were informed that not a single penny could be cut from government spending and now recipients of government spending are saying that not a single penny can be cut from this category. Color me skeptical.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:04 AM (ExV1e)

115
Mental Master Baiting - a limerick

A scientist on a nuclear mission
Got tired of the mocking and derision
At last, in frustration
Said "I need a vacation!"
Hung a sign on the door: "Gone fission!"

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:05 AM (/iMjX)

116 I’m home from the hospital now and feeling grateful. Went to my GP yesterday, who told me to “light a candle to God, because he saved your life”.

There don’t seem to be many after-effects from the stroke. I will need to work on staying healthy. Appointments with 4 specialists coming up, but not all at once.
Posted by: KT

Great news! Good to hear from you! God is Great! Gomething else that starts with "G"!

Posted by: mikeski at February 08, 2025 11:06 AM (DgGvY)

117 Mental Master Baiting - a limerick
A scientist on a nuclear mission
Got tired of the mocking and derision
At last, in frustration
Said "I need a vacation!"
Hung a sign on the door: "Gone fission!"
Posted by: muldoon

* golf clap *

You'll be publishing a book with all these someday, right?

Posted by: mikeski at February 08, 2025 11:06 AM (DgGvY)

118 That article is long on outrage and short on information. For example, unless I missed it, no one explains what constitutes overhead in this research area and why it is so desperately needed.

Prior to DOGE we were informed that not a single penny could be cut from government spending and now recipients of government spending are saying that not a single penny can be cut from this category. Color me skeptical.

Your skepticism is warranted. Please reread my 47. I'm not saying everything in the article is correct or a sufficient explanation.

Trump's newest cuts are to NIH, where he is limiting overhead on federal grants to 15%. That will in no way suffice. Real research will be affected. I don't know what his plan is here, but from what little I've read, he may have made a mistake.

I am certainly going to wait for more information before making conclusions.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:07 AM (xCA6C)

119 Glad to hear it KT. Good luck and God bless

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 08, 2025 11:07 AM (EUtBO)

120 Nick Sortor@nicksortor
President Trump just ROASTED Maxine Waters and the democrats for staging an insurrection at the Department of Education
“I see Maxine Waters, a low-life, I see all these people, they don't love our country.”
Darn right, Mr. President.

-
Maxine Waters a low-life?!!! Is nothing sacred?!!!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:07 AM (L/fGl)

121 One of the interesting impacts of reducing the overhead payments at NIH is that it might push our "allies" in Europe to actually have to spend their money on medical research instead of just leeching off of ours.

But a core point in all this, we are beyond broke. Biden spent the last of the money on illegals, trannies, and Ukraine. We don't have more money to spend even on "good" things.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 11:08 AM (t0Rmr)

122 Terrence Kealey has argued that government funding of science both forces the research into the areas that are not really fruitful, since researchers have to meet the conditions of the grants and if the grants are for things that may not have much promise then you do them anyways, but it also sucks up all the available labor, brains and other lab resources that could be focused on something that would be profitable. In short, government funding stunts science since it channels it away from useful things, and aims research at things that are politically popular.

An example of this is Every. Single. Research. Paper. has an ESG, Biodiversity or global warming tie-in since that is where they grants are all focused. Which is pointless if the research is into polymers, right?

You may disagree with Doctor Kealey, but he makes a very good argument for his thesis.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:09 AM (D7oie)

123 >>I can't speak to ATT, but I can speak to federal travel. You aren't staying in the best hotels, you fly economy, and usually the worst seats in economy, and it has become much more difficult to even get approved for travel, despite that being an essential part of a scientist's job.

For all intents AT&T was the federal government for many years. Guaranteed rate payments in exchange for service and no competition. And Bell Labs was funded largely through a tax on phone bills. It made some important discoveries but the place was oozing money. It was one of the worst run companies I've ever been around because there was no reason to do it better.

As soon as divesture happened the market exploded with cheaper, more efficient and in many case much better options.

I get that scientist want the best funding to do research but every group wants more funding and that isn't always the answer.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 08, 2025 11:09 AM (LkLld)

124 107 I can't speak to ATT, but I can speak to federal travel. You aren't staying in the best hotels, you fly economy, and usually the worst seats in economy, and it has become much more difficult to even get approved for travel, despite that being an essential part of a scientist's job.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xCA6C)

And, I'd get reamed if I were to pay for a upgrade *out of my own pocket* to opt out of the shitty economy seat. That makes no sense to me.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at February 08, 2025 11:11 AM (DTX3h)

125 In short, government funding stunts science since it channels it away from useful things, and aims research at things that are politically popular.

Yes - it is a simple paradigm - you get more of what you pay for, less of what you penalize.

So if you pay for global warming or racism, you are going to get all sorts of "science" on global warming and racism and not on things that would actually improve human life.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 11:11 AM (t0Rmr)

126 $2 million dollars

The company should have hit up Canada and gotten in on all of those carbon taxes that are never, ever accounted for.

Posted by: Stateless...35% - mental state clawing up from 10% at February 08, 2025 11:11 AM (jvJvP)

127 You can do fusion with a device no bigger than a 1950s color TV set - the Farnsworth Fusor. Invented by the same guy who invented TV. It takes more energy in than it puts out, but is a useful source of neutrons.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at February 08, 2025 11:12 AM (ZVgZ4)

128 ...it has become much more difficult to even get approved for travel, despite that being an essential part of a scientist's job.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xCA6C)

Why? Honest question. I'm not a scientist so I don't know.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:12 AM (ExV1e)

129 You can go the alt medicine route as you wish, but I'd prefer that we continue doing actual science.

**********

I agree. I sense a good bit of cargo cult mentality with fenbendazole for example. Any claim of miraculous cures should be looked at with a skeptical eye.

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:13 AM (/iMjX)

130 jazz/Rock Fusion
Posted by: I'm Gumby Damn It! at February 08, 2025 10:58 AM (jQ+5q)

Asian Fusion, man. Think bulgogi burritos with chimichurri, with a side of black pepper macaroni salad.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:15 AM (D7oie)

131 Kirk: My friends, the Great Experiment - the Excelsior.
Sulu: She's supposed to have transwarp drive.
Scotty: Aye, and if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon.
Kirk: Now now, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant.

Posted by: BalancedInteger at February 08, 2025 11:15 AM (Pjdf8)

132 You may disagree with Doctor Kealey, but he makes a very good argument for his thesis.
Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:09 AM (D7oie)

Eric Weinstein makes a similar argument, but he tends to focus on the hierarchy that exists inside the universities. They force scientists to focus on areas of study that tend to support the university's priorities, and that of the heads of departments, and/or the leading scientists in any particular field.

If you want funding, if you want tenure, you bend the knee.

So whether it's the government directly, or it's the power structure inside the field of science (what's the difference), it stifles anything that might push knowledge forward in a way that isn't already approved.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:15 AM (lH8E4)

133 That’s Mister Fusion, everybody has one in their car. In the future.

Posted by: Eromero at February 08, 2025 11:16 AM (jgmnb)

134 This latest fusion boondoggle should remind us that the Virginia GOP are big-government holdovers from the Bush/Rove era. They will never see a joule of power from this turkey.

Posted by: WarEagle82 at February 08, 2025 11:16 AM (YcfMX)

135 Earth1uakes! Lightning! Volcanos! WE'RE DOOMED!!!

House Approves Bill Supporting Fracking

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:16 AM (L/fGl)

136 A nuclear fusion reactor is theoretically possible, but I suspect we are going to have to wait until our technology advances a couple of more generations. No Mister Fusion powered cars in the near future I am afraid.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at February 08, 2025 11:17 AM (Rcnd3)

137 Sorry, but I missed the prayer thread. Please add AZ deplorable to your prayers. He had a stroke on 1/20.

Posted by: Ben Had at February 08, 2025 11:17 AM (mB6WH)

138 There don’t seem to be many after-effects from the stroke. I will need to work on staying healthy. Appointments with 4 specialists coming up, but not all at once.
Posted by: KT at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xekrU)

I am so glad to hear this KT, the wonderful thing is that there is so much better therapies for strokes than there were ten years ago.
If there is PT, do it twice. do the PT.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:18 AM (D7oie)

139 ...it has become much more difficult to even get approved for travel, despite that being an essential part of a scientist's job.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xCA6C)

Why? Honest question. I'm not a scientist so I don't know.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:12 AM (ExV1e)

My guess would be, while everyone is focusing on fraud, waste, and abuse inside the government, there actually ARE monitors who force everyone to fill out all the forms, to operate inside the rules of what will and won't be paid for, because of backlash against FWA that has been perpetrated in the past.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:18 AM (lH8E4)

140 > Beshear here in Kentucky with battery plants.
Posted by: Aetius451AD
-----------
I think one of the facilities down in Glendale is going to retool to build ICE F-150's. Or so I heard.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at February 08, 2025 11:18 AM (Q4IgG)

141 This is a perfect case in point, but the answer isn't to destroy science, it's to keep politics out of it
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:03 AM (xCA6C)

If the government is paying for the science, politics is in it. We can pretend that it's possible to elect philosopher-kings who will always make the correct decision in an unbiased manner but that's rather like pretending that we can power the world on unicorn farts.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:19 AM (ExV1e)

142 JackStraw at February 08, 2025 10:57 AM

Start-ups vs. corporate model: Interesting observations.

One thing I noticed from my hospital experience was that coordination seemed much better when I was in an ICU setting than when I was downgraded to a less urgent classification. Coordination between two hospitals, an ambulance, a helicopter and 3 medical teams seemed smooth when it was an emergency.

Then things slowed down and became less coordinated. There was even a security incident in which a man seemed to be playing keep-away with hospital staff while yelling at them, and had to be tackled to the ground. My bed was moved a total of 5 times.

I wonder if similar dynamics are seen in "important, new" projects like "fusion"? People may act more intelligently (well, maybe not with "fusion", but with reasonable projects), but get lost in the weeds as projects become more detailed and lose urgency.

Posted by: KT at February 08, 2025 11:19 AM (xekrU)

143 I think if we want to "fix" science but still leave the federal funding you actually need an inherently adversarial scenario like we had during cold war .

During the latter parts of the cold war where both sides were trying to present themselves positively to the world they spent a lot on various types of research.

But because the East and West were in opposition it created a situation were if one side produced bad science the other side was incentivized to call them out on it.

Since the fall of communism though that disappeared and slowly most of the western scientific communities fell into a state of intentionally not trying to find flaws with each other's science.

So you could address this by making *most* of the money that the government allocates to science actually be attempting to disprove already published papers and pay a much reduced rate for research that confirms an existing paper.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 11:19 AM (t0Rmr)

144 Small modular reactors, running on Thorium and modulated with liquid fluoride are the solution. There is enough thorium right now to power the whole world for a thousand years. It has 250x the potential energy of Uranium. It solves the waste problem. It is difficult to weaponize. The problem is, the salts are very corrosive, and the valves can’t take it for long. So, it’s a materiel problem.
HOWEVER: a couple months ago, I sat next to a guy on a flight out of Knoxville, who was coming from a conference at Oak Ridge, specifically about this. Interestingly, his company makes… wait for it… valves for reactors. He says industry and the research universities are working on this full-bore, and it is solveable. He expects a test reactor running within three years, and marketable, factory built reactors the size of an 18 wheeler trailer within ten. Expect one reactor would power a town of 50k, and not require refuel for 10 years.

Posted by: Hawkpilot at February 08, 2025 11:20 AM (YLdqf)

145 Also, Bill Lee is an idiot.

Posted by: Hawkpilot at February 08, 2025 11:21 AM (YLdqf)

146 Biden spent the last of the money on illegals, trannies, and Ukraine.

That's not fair. He spent a good bit on Islamic terrorists also.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:21 AM (ExV1e)

147 Actor & Comedian Michael Rapaport Open to President Trump’s Gaza Plan, Says “Nothing Worked’ Before”

-
I'm more a nuke them from space guy.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:21 AM (L/fGl)

148 You can look up Popular Mechanics issues from the 1950’s and read the exact same articles about fusion as are being written today. Nothing’s changed since then.
In fact a writer could probably do well just looking up all those old pieces, thinly rewriting them, and passing them off as his own.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 08, 2025 11:22 AM (MCgFl)

149 79
'1. Cold weather leads to rise in demand at local homeless shelters
2. The effect of unseasonably warm weather on local vineyards.

I propose relocating the homeless encampments to the vineyards.'

Put them to work. I'll bet there's nothing quite like wine from grapes mushed by hobo feet.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at February 08, 2025 11:22 AM (3wi/L)

150 This is a perfect case in point, but the answer isn't to destroy science, it's to keep politics out of it

I agree with keeping politics out of science. The best way to do that is to keep science and government separate.

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:23 AM (PcTds)

151 I can clap my ass cheeks together 3 times and produce sparks of energy through cold fusion.

Pay me.

Posted by: CommonAss Fusion, Inc. at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (R/m4+)

152 Tim Allen’s New Sitcom “Shifting Gears” Is Officially a Hit – “There’s Nothing Like It”

-
It may not be very good but at least it's not offensive and it's better than anything else on.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (L/fGl)

153 it has become much more difficult to even get approved for travel, despite that being an essential part of a scientist's job.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xCA6C)

Why? Honest question. I'm not a scientist so I don't know.

To save money. That's really the answer.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (xCA6C)

154 ...it has become much more difficult to even get approved for travel, despite that being an essential part of a scientist's job.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:01 AM (xCA6C)

Why? Honest question. I'm not a scientist so I don't know.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:12 AM (ExV1e)

My guess would be, while everyone is focusing on fraud, waste, and abuse inside the government, there actually ARE monitors who force everyone to fill out all the forms, to operate inside the rules of what will and won't be paid for, because of backlash against FWA that has been perpetrated in the past.
Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:18 AM (lH8E4)

I was unclear. I meant why is travel essential?

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (ExV1e)

155 Actor & Comedian Michael Rapaport Open to President Trump’s Gaza Plan, Says “Nothing Worked’ Before”

Trump's said things like this before but...there is actually an important point here.

We keep doing the same things and failing in the same ways. And endlessly the media will scream that's because we didn't spend enough money or we didn't all sing kumbaya in exactly the right pitch of whatever.

We've been trying various forms of "two state" solution in Israel for something like 3 generations now and it always ends the same way.

So the choice is stark we can have something like Oct 7/The Gaza war every decade for entirety, or we can try something different like moving the Gazans...

Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (t0Rmr)

156
I agree. I sense a good bit of cargo cult mentality with fenbendazole for example. Any claim of miraculous cures should be looked at with a skeptical eye.
Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:13 AM (/iMjX)

Save those claims for broccoli. Just ask Her Majesty. Cholesterol? Broccoli. High blood pressure? Broccoli. Hemorrhoids, sweating sickness, St. Elmo's Dance? Broccoli.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (dxSpM)

157 And, I'd get reamed if I were to pay for a upgrade *out of my own pocket* to opt out of the shitty economy seat. That makes no sense to me.
Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at February 08, 2025 11:11 AM (DTX3h)

I used to work for the state and I would get perdiem for travel. I would stay at bed and breakfasts off season, and they were always happy to see me, and the rates were pretty good then. However, they would look at me odd if I asked for a government rate.
My boss told me not to be ostentatious, since it made the taxpayers think I was wasting tax monies.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (D7oie)

158 We need small fission reactors of the type found in subs buried in the ground and pumping out electricity. This will make us truly independent.

Fusion will happen but not anytime soon.

Posted by: The Man from Athens at February 08, 2025 11:25 AM (e5BbH)

159
Step Right Up

The townspeople all ran to see a
pronouncement of pure fantasy, a
sure miracle cure,
made of alcohol, (pure)
Doc Muldoon's Magic Elixir Panacea!

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:26 AM (/iMjX)

160 For the record, free fusion energy will be brought to everywhere on earth in only about 4-5 billion years

Posted by: Its an astronomy joke folks at February 08, 2025 11:26 AM (t0Rmr)

161 Maxine Waters a low-life?!!! Is nothing sacred?!!!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex

They called us 'scum sucking pigs'! US!

Posted by: gKWVE at February 08, 2025 11:26 AM (gKWVE)

162 Doctor Says Democrats Suffering "Real Crisis" After Trump's Win: Depression, Insomnia, Grief, Genuine Fear, Panic

-
I'm not usually in favor of euthanasia but . . .

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:27 AM (L/fGl)

163 Thanks for the update KT. Prayers continue.

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:28 AM (PcTds)

164 Just so I have the timeline correct..

1. John McCain's funeral ends
2. The Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl
3. Hollywood becomes fiercely pro-American
4. Liberals stop screaming racism at everything
5. Nuclear Fusion!!

Sweet! It'll be a fun 10 years.

Posted by: Stateless...35% - mental state clawing up from 10% at February 08, 2025 11:28 AM (jvJvP)

165 I was unclear. I meant why is travel essential?

Scientists present their newest work at conferences. The literature is always behind. Furthermore, most of the true value is in the offline conversations with colleagues and competitors, who will hopefully become collaborators. Zoom calls and e-mails, while useful, are not a substitute for sitting across from your colleague and telling him why his work is wrong.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:29 AM (xCA6C)

166 I was unclear. I meant why is travel essential?
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:24 AM (ExV1e)

Oh, that is a better question, and I don't think there's a good answer.

It's what people in science do. They go to conferences, they listen to each other's speeches, they hobnob, and if any of the female scientists are hot, they attempt to bed them.

Or in the case of bat virus science, they fly from their university towns in the U.S. on commercial flights, with vials of deadly microbes in their carry on bags, on their way to Wuhan.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:29 AM (lH8E4)

167
19 TAMU just built a 2400 acre site to house up to 5 small nukes.
I think 4 companies are building there so far on the small modular idea.
Posted by: rhennigantx at February 08, 2025 10:30 AM (gbOdA)

-----

That's four separate chances to get it wrong.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at February 08, 2025 11:30 AM (Ijbq0)

168 Germs? Worms?
Lice? Mice?
Zits? Nits?
Constipation? Inflammation? Suppuration? Agitation?

BROCCOLI!!!

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:30 AM (/iMjX)

169 It's what people in science do. They go to conferences, they listen to each other's speeches, they hobnob, and if any of the female scientists are hot, they attempt to bed them.

You got me. That's how I spent my time; hobnobbing and bedding my colleagues.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:30 AM (xCA6C)

170 Scientists present their newest work at conferences. The literature is always behind. Furthermore, most of the true value is in the offline conversations with colleagues and competitors, who will hopefully become collaborators. Zoom calls and e-mails, while useful, are not a substitute for sitting across from your colleague and telling him why his work is wrong.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:29 AM (xCA6C)

And trying to bang the hot females.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:30 AM (lH8E4)

171 Archimedes

Except for library, IT, and subscription support, overhead has led to an unsupportable number of drone administrators. A smart University would pare the dross away. This is, IMHO, a good thing.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 11:31 AM (u82oZ)

172 We need small fission reactors of the type found in subs buried in the ground and pumping out electricity.

I suspect that you don't really know how submarine power plants work.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:31 AM (ExV1e)

173
"Udite, udite o rustici'" from L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti.

https://youtu.be/j9JJ2pbWT4A?feature=shared

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 11:31 AM (dxSpM)

174 I would love to see Trump specifically ban any scientist that had written a paper "confirming" global warming from being reimbursed for airline or car travel.

Enjoy the train boys and remember you are saving baby gaia!

Posted by: 18-1 at February 08, 2025 11:31 AM (t0Rmr)

175 I bet Vic would have some good insight into the nuclear conversations.

I wonder if building on the nuclear submarine idea as mentioned above would work.

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:31 AM (PcTds)

176 I have some contradictory thoughts… yes ideally I’d like government out of the science funding business because of perverse incentives. But…. I also know from history that only government could’ve done the Manhattan project and really government originated the internet (darpanet)… so our government has funded really positive things in the past. You need good people in government (Oppenheimer for instance?) and recently we haven’t had any (eg Fauci)

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at February 08, 2025 11:31 AM (6RwsA)

177 For the record, free fusion energy will be brought to everywhere on earth in only about 4-5 billion years
Posted by: Its an astronomy joke folks at February 08, 2025 11:26 AM (t0Rmr)

Assuming 2-3 stellar lifecycle theories are correct.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:32 AM (ExV1e)

178 She's like Einstein, Aristotle, and Hawking rolled into one!

Kamala on Wildfires: Wildfires Show Extreme Weather Occurrences Are Extreme

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:32 AM (L/fGl)

179 {{{AmericanKestrel}}}

I trust you and yours are thriving in the new, exciting, exceptional US of A.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 11:33 AM (u82oZ)

180 Except for library, IT, and subscription support, overhead has led to an unsupportable number of drone administrators. A smart University would pare the dross away. This is, IMHO, a good thing.

Agreed. From my 87:

This is absolutely the right question. If you have an order of magnitude more administrators than professors, your priorities need radical adjustment.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:33 AM (xCA6C)

181 Doctor Says Democrats Suffering "Real Crisis" After Trump's Win: Depression, Insomnia, Grief, Genuine Fear, Panic

**********

I recommend...

...BROCCOLI!

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:33 AM (/iMjX)

182 I agree. I sense a good bit of cargo cult mentality with fenbendazole for example. Any claim of miraculous cures should be looked at with a skeptical eye.
Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:13 AM (/iMjX)

I heard a good quip the other day: "The plural of anecdote is not 'data', the plural of anecdote is 'hypothesis'"

Of course the only thing to do with an hypothesis is to prove it wrong, and then show how it is wrong. In doing that we discover something new.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:34 AM (D7oie)

183
It's a write off, Jerry.
They just write it off.

Posted by: Kramer at February 08, 2025 11:34 AM (dg+HA)

184 You got me. That's how I spent my time; hobnobbing and bedding my colleagues.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:30 AM (xCA6C)

I realize some "scientists" work in fields where there are no hot colleagues.

That's what hookers are for.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:34 AM (lH8E4)

185
Meh, Nuclear Fusion is the High Speed Trains of Solar Panels.

Just like High Speed Trains, this Fusion grift is probably making the guvs a bunch of scam cash.

No need to seduce the governors when you can pay them outright.

Listen, a-holes, just built fission, nat gas, or coal generators. Maybe hydroelectric dams if you've got the proper rivers for that. Otherwise, GTFO with your airy-fairy, lame-ass scams.

Jail time is actually warranted IMHO.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 08, 2025 11:34 AM (iJfKG)

186 I used to have a different nic

That entire cooling water source was missing. Even I caught that error.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 11:35 AM (u82oZ)

187 1. Gazans go to Yemen
2. Gaza gets remodeled into beachfront resorts
3. Canadian provinces are asked individually to join the USA. Alberta, Manatoba, Saschatewan and maybe some of the Atlantic provinces join. Quebec becomes independent and the rest of the territories and provinces join us. Looking at a 60+ star flag with Greenland itching to join.

Posted by: The Man from Athens at February 08, 2025 11:35 AM (e5BbH)

188 Hi Salty! Hugs to you - I always appreciate your cheerful greetings.

What an amazing two weeks. Much more than I had even hoped for!

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:35 AM (PcTds)

189 Well, they're not wrong.

Oops: CNN Uses Graphic Calling Osama "Obama Bin Laden"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:36 AM (L/fGl)

190 On funding for medical research vs. basic research:

Many scientists are self-motivated to do basic research, so government funding seems to work relatively well as long as someone is not pressuring "post-normal science".

The grunt work of repetitive medical research is not exciting. The temptation to cheat is actually greater when research is funded by government, because if fabricated data leads to a product failure down the road (in an honest regulatory climate), company data producers would generally face greater consequences than government data producers.

Posted by: KT at February 08, 2025 11:36 AM (xekrU)

191 Einstein, Aristotle, and Hawking walk (roll) into a bar.

Bartender says, "Which one of youse is the wise guy, eh?"

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:36 AM (/iMjX)

192 Save those claims for broccoli. Just ask Her Majesty. Cholesterol? Broccoli. High blood pressure? Broccoli. Hemorrhoids, sweating sickness, St. Elmo's Dance? Broccoli.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

Listen to your wife. She knows. It's been proved!

Posted by: Brassica oleracea Development Council at February 08, 2025 11:37 AM (G5+As)

193 Unfortunately they can't do the "science" unless it is profitable for Big Pharma. You seem to be under the impression that alternative cancer treatments haven't come from doctors. That's just not so. The use of fenbendazole was discovered by a doctor researching cancer. She had innoculated mice for her study,then discovered they had parasites. She used fenben to treat them. All instances of cancer were gone. She later used it on herself, to treat her own cancer. But the drug is too cheap to spend money on studies.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at February 08, 2025 11:37 AM (EV2jz)

194 I think one of the facilities down in Glendale is going to retool to build ICE F-150's. Or so I heard.

Screw that. Build F-350s so they can haul whole trailer loads of illegals back south. (Yeah I know but I couldn't pass up the joke.)

Posted by: Oddbob at February 08, 2025 11:37 AM (/y8xj)

195 >>2. The Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl

The have to make it to one to win one.

My brother and I grew up Lions fans. I eventually gave up on that franchise after Barry Sanders said screw it.

My brother didn't.

Back in the early 2000s, when the Houston Texans were in their first season, I bet my brother $100 that the Texans would make it into the Super Bowl before the Lions.

It's still an active bet.

Posted by: one hour sober at February 08, 2025 11:37 AM (Y1sOo)

196 176 I have some contradictory thoughts… yes ideally I’d like government out of the science funding business because of perverse incentives. But…. I also know from history that only government could’ve done the Manhattan project and really government originated the internet (darpanet)… so our government has funded really positive things in the past. You need good people in government (Oppenheimer for instance?) and recently we haven’t had any (eg Fauci)

Agreed. The black and white paradigm is usually wrong. Sometimes, the best solution is to muddle through with an imperfect system.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:38 AM (xCA6C)

197 Doctor Says Democrats Suffering "Real Crisis" After Trump's Win: Depression, Insomnia, Grief, Genuine Fear, Panic

Good. I hope the bastards suffer enormously. We had to suffer all that plus being cancelled, thrown in jail, and told we should die for the last 20 years. They brought this on themselves with their hatred for us and now they can fuck right off and suffer the consequences of their own actions.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at February 08, 2025 11:38 AM (4XwPj)

198 Worst. Nazi. Ever.

Benjamin Netanyahu Weighs In on Summit with President Trump: “The Best Meeting” Ever Between Israeli, American Leaders

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:38 AM (L/fGl)

199 Stateless!

Good to see you! And I keep noticing your mental state continues to improve.

I'm so very proud of you. Thank you for being a good son and a good caretaker of the doggo and the kitties.

How is our favorite Trumpy cat?

Posted by: nurse ratched at February 08, 2025 11:38 AM (1FgDd)

200 BurtTC

I had my major professor tell a story talk about a scientist he worked for.

A giant in his field, he had his mom make him two meals for every day in the year. Then put in a freezer.

He would work, work, work, getting crankier and crankier. Then the vacation to Vegas. He would return, smiling and calm. Hookers for sure.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 11:38 AM (u82oZ)

201 I wonder if building on the nuclear submarine idea as mentioned above would work.
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:31 AM (PcTds)

I was a power plant supervisor on a submarine before I got out of the Navy. The power plant heats water, which turns different water into steam, which runs a turbine connected to a generator. It's not a bury in the ground and ignore kind of thing.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:39 AM (ExV1e)

202 The key to clean fusion power is a stable flux capacitor.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 11:39 AM (W/lyH)

203 >>Doctor Says Democrats Suffering "Real Crisis" After Trump's Win: Depression, Insomnia, Grief, Genuine Fear, Panic

Meet the new boss. He's not like the old boss.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 08, 2025 11:39 AM (LkLld)

204 The grunt work of repetitive medical research is not exciting. The temptation to cheat is actually greater when research is funded by government, because if fabricated data leads to a product failure down the road (in an honest regulatory climate), company data producers would generally face greater consequences than government data producers.
Posted by: KT at February 08, 2025 11:36 AM (xekrU)

One of those aspects of research that SHOULD be built into the cake, is failure.

There MUST be opportunities for researchers to fail, otherwise the incentive is too great to just fund something that will show results, even though it has little/no benefit, and this, unfortunately, is one of the driving forces behind what does and does not get studied.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:40 AM (lH8E4)

205 Will the Chiefs never stop cheating?

Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX: Report

Posted by: Anonosaurus Rex, Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Made Glorious Summer By This Son of [New] York at February 08, 2025 11:41 AM (L/fGl)

206 So, Biden was correctly mocked for saying that he was going to cure cancer in 4 years, and now that he didn't, you're upset that he didn't.

Where in my post did I mention anything about a 4 year timeline?
If you go back and read it , I said DECADES, as in at least a half century.
It only stands to reason that if the NIH gets most of their funding from Big Pharma and deep pocket concerns, their research will naturally tend to discovering and promoting treatments that involve products and services provided by those entities. Which may be successful in TREATMENT in many cases…but where is Big Pharma’s incentive to find a cure?
No cancer among the populace, no profit for Fat Daddy Legal Drug Pusher.

Posted by: kallisto at February 08, 2025 11:41 AM (PQ53j)

207 This is absolutely the right question. If you have an order of magnitude more administrators than professors, your priorities need radical adjustment.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:33 AM (xCA6C)

It should also be noted that Musk, at least, when asked about cutting said that he cut big and then looked to see if he'd gone too far or not enough. I suspect that things will be uncomfortable for a few years but, hopefully, we'll wind up at the right spot.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:41 AM (ExV1e)

208
37 No, the mistake in the US is breeder reactors are NOT allowed. So instead of producing fuel as they work, they produce just waste. The problem with the fuel produced is it’s plutonium, and could be diverted for weapons.
Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at February 08, 2025 10:35 AM (ZVgZ4)

------

Plutonium from power reactors is generally not useable in a bomb. The irradiation time to produce bomb-grade plutonium is very short -- minimizes amount of a plutonium isotope that is a spontaneous neutron emitter. The stray neutrons cause a "fizzle."

I believe that other elements in used fuel rods besides plutonium can sustain fission. The other elements are radioactive, whicb complicates things. A fission reactor cycle that ultimately uses almost all the U238 is possible.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at February 08, 2025 11:41 AM (Ijbq0)

209 I had my major professor tell a story talk about a scientist he worked for.

A giant in his field, he had his mom make him two meals for every day in the year. Then put in a freezer.

He would work, work, work, getting crankier and crankier. Then the vacation to Vegas. He would return, smiling and calm. Hookers for sure.

My wife, also a Fed chemist, was at a conference in Vegas once. She took a cab somewhere, and was chatting with the driver. He said they hated it when the American Chemical Society came to town because none of the attendees drank, gambled, or patronized hookers. They spent all their time at talks.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:42 AM (xCA6C)

210 PDT did mention ethanol recently which made me start thinking about that waste of money.

I imagine that was started because the narrative was that "fossil" fuels were scarce. I don't know that it is true that natural fuels are scarce.

Either way, if the government needs to subsidize something for it to be profitable in a capitalist system, something somewhere is broken.

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:42 AM (PcTds)

211 201: This is why plants are built next to rivers or on the coast. Better yet put them off the coasts.

Posted by: The Man from Athens at February 08, 2025 11:42 AM (LU6NC)

212 Has anyone ever told these governors about the wonderful opportunities available to invest in dilithium crystals?

Posted by: Archer at February 08, 2025 11:43 AM (IDphi)

213 137 Sorry, but I missed the prayer thread. Please add AZ deplorable to your prayers. He had a stroke on 1/20.
Posted by: Ben Had at February 08, 2025 11:17 AM (mB6WH)

Sad to hear that Ben Had. Will add to the list.

Posted by: kallisto at February 08, 2025 11:43 AM (PQ53j)

214 This is why plants are built next to rivers or on the coast. Better yet put them off the coasts.

Preferably in an area prone to earthquakes and tsunamis.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:43 AM (xCA6C)

215 I was a power plant supervisor on a submarine before I got out of the Navy. The power plant heats water, which turns different water into steam, which runs a turbine connected to a generator. It's not a bury in the ground and ignore kind of thing.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:39 AM (ExV1e)

there are other designs, ones that don't use Uranium that is enriched to the level the USN uses. But to be more specific, you don't bury and forget a natural gas or coal plant either.

You know, I am thinking that there may be less Green anti-nuke lawfare if the USAID and related grants get throttled back. I would not be surprised at this point to find the Dept of Energy is surreptitiously funding the Anti-Nuke lobby's lawfare.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:43 AM (D7oie)

216 Being here on the ground in VA, I'm satisfied that what I've heard and seen isn't a thoughtless boondoggle.

Posted by: WitchDoktor at February 08, 2025 11:44 AM (vt7xw)

217 202 The key to clean fusion power is a stable flux capacitor.
Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 11:39 AM (W/lyH
Finally. Here’s somebody who understands science.

Posted by: Eromero at February 08, 2025 11:44 AM (jgmnb)

218 I had my major professor tell a story talk about a scientist he worked for.

A giant in his field, he had his mom make him two meals for every day in the year. Then put in a freezer.

He would work, work, work, getting crankier and crankier. Then the vacation to Vegas. He would return, smiling and calm. Hookers for sure.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 11:38 AM (u82oZ)

See, many would read that story and think "it's wrong that he visits hookers." I read it, and think it's wrong that his mom cooks meals for him.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:44 AM (lH8E4)

219 There don’t seem to be many after-effects from the stroke. I will need to work on staying healthy. Appointments with 4 specialists coming up, but not all at once.
Posted by: KT

Praise God for that! So happy to hear this.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at February 08, 2025 11:45 AM (7gFa4)

220 Democrats outnumber Republican professors 4 to 1 in math, engineering departments

https://tinyurl.com/yc4c7675

Obviously because people on the left are much smarter.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:47 AM (xCA6C)

221 The ACS holds two national meetings a year. Vegas is not on the city list even though it can handle the influx. Participants go to the meetings mostly.

Posted by: The Man from Athens at February 08, 2025 11:48 AM (1lBiQ)

222 This is why plants are built next to rivers or on the coast. Better yet put them off the coasts.

Doesn't really need to be close to a major water source. Most of the water in the system is used over and over. In fact, it's considered a REALLY BAD THING if any of the water that comes close to the nuclear reaction gets out. Further, there is a lot of support equipment involved and, of course, people required to monitor things to prevent/respond to problems. Even "small" modular reactors, if envisioned to power a significant load, would be pretty big. Sure, the reactor itself might be small but all you get from that is heat and radiation.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM (ExV1e)

223 Additionally, Broccoli won't make your urine smell funny like that asparagus stuff.

And pay no attention to the FDA warning from five days ago warning about Walmart Broccoli and giving it their highest threat level including "risk of death".

Posted by: Brassica oleracea Research Council at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM (G5+As)

224 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX

***********

It's right there in their team victory song:

"Flu, Eagles Flu"

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM (/iMjX)

225 Unfortunately they can't do the "science" unless it is profitable for Big Pharma.

My daughter is a genomicist for the National Cancer Institute. She does basic science on the genomics of cancer. Big Pharma has nothing to do with it.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it isn't all a plot.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM (xCA6C)

226 197
'They brought this on themselves with their hatred for us and now they can fuck right off and suffer the consequences of their own actions.'

I second that.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at February 08, 2025 11:50 AM (3wi/L)

227 Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:39 AM (ExV1e)

Thank you for the explanation. I wondered if the environment, water, was an important piece.

Hasn't there been recent talk about small nuclear systems for personal home use? Was that practical or theoretical?

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:50 AM (PcTds)

228 7 Isn't the biggest impediment to nuclear in the US the mandate that all reactors have to be breeder reactors? Hence, waste?
Posted by: MkY

Wait, wait, wait....breeding for clean energy!?!?! Sign me up!

But no yellow.

Posted by: Hunter Biden at February 08, 2025 11:50 AM (JCZqz)

229 Hasn't there been recent talk about small nuclear systems for personal home use? Was that practical or theoretical?

AOC can't handle a garbage disposal. I hope to God she never has access to a nuclear reactor.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:51 AM (xCA6C)

230 Not a total disaster but at least the weekend is coming
See you when I get home.

Get well KT

Posted by: Skip at February 08, 2025 11:51 AM (dJmz5)

231 there are other designs, ones that don't use Uranium that is enriched to the level the USN uses.

Sure. I'm really intrigued by the Thorium reactors. Almost makes me wish I were young again to work on one.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:51 AM (ExV1e)

232 Sometimes, just sometimes, it isn't all a plot.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM (xCA6C)

Sounds like something someone involved in a plot would say.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:53 AM (ExV1e)

233 Sometimes, just sometimes, it isn't all a plot.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM (xCA6C)

Sounds like something someone involved in a plot would say.

*shifty eyes*

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:53 AM (xCA6C)

234
You know, I am thinking that there may be less Green anti-nuke lawfare if the USAID and related grants get throttled back. I would not be surprised at this point to find the Dept of Energy is surreptitiously funding the Anti-Nuke lobby's lawfare.

Very cynical and probably not wrong. 🙂

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:53 AM (PcTds)

235 See my comment at 65.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at February 08, 2025 11:54 AM (ZVgZ4)

236 See, many would read that story and think "it's wrong that he visits hookers." I read it, and think it's wrong that his mom cooks meals for him

I read it and think the guy needs a wife to cook and provide "other services".

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:55 AM (PcTds)

237 Hasn't there been recent talk about small nuclear systems for personal home use? Was that practical or theoretical?
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:50 AM (PcTds)

I suspect it would be something akin to the decay-heat reactors used on spacecraft. I haven't done any reading on it so anything I say is speculation... I suspect that even if it could be made powerful enough and safe enough that it would be far too expensive to be practical.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:55 AM (ExV1e)

238 Hasn't there been recent talk about small nuclear systems for personal home use? Was that practical or theoretical?
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:50 AM (PcTds)

In the book The Martian he had a nuclear battery that he was using for heating, it was a sub critical slug of Pu. Those are used on probes and the like.
Personally I would be worried about that in someone's basement. I mistrust most people to change their filters on their home furnace according to schedules.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 08, 2025 11:55 AM (D7oie)

239 232 Sometimes, just sometimes, it isn't all a plot.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM (xCA6C)

Sounds like something someone involved in a plot would say.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic

Pay no attention to the man in the lab coat behind the curtain!

Posted by: Off To See The Lizard at February 08, 2025 11:56 AM (G5+As)

240 Doesn't really need to be close to a major water source. Most of the water in the system is used over and over. In fact, it's considered a REALLY BAD THING if any of the water that comes close to the nuclear reaction gets out. Further, there is a lot of support equipment involved and, of course, people required to monitor things to prevent/respond to problems. Even "small" modular reactors, if envisioned to power a significant load, would be pretty big. Sure, the reactor itself might be small but all you get from that is heat and radiation.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 08, 2025 11:49 AM

When I worked as a security guard at the Nuke plant in CT there were always small boats on the sound just outside of the exclusion zone constantly sampling the water to try and catch us releasing contaminated water into Long Island Sound. Every once in a while some idiot would sue dominion calming they had "proof" that radioactive water was being released by the plant. The proof never panned out.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at February 08, 2025 11:56 AM (Rcnd3)

241 hmmm... *scribbles note* fusion-powered monorail

Posted by: anachronda at February 08, 2025 11:56 AM (vZ/Zl)

242 > He said they hated it when the American Chemical Society came to town because none of the attendees drank, gambled, or patronized hookers. They spent all their time at talks.

In my long-departed yoof I worked in a resort hotel that regularly booked conventions.

The craziest drunken hooker-intensive convention I can recall (and not by a small margin, either)?

School superintendents.

Posted by: Sleve McDichael at February 08, 2025 11:57 AM (W5ArC)

243 Hey, GP has a picture of the acting FBI director in one of their posts. I had no idea that he is apparently the Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin.

https://tinyurl.com/4h4xdkcj

Not exactly Efrem Zimbalest, Jr. Kind of...continental looking...as Ma Paco would have said.

Posted by: Paco at February 08, 2025 11:57 AM (mADJX)

244 My daughter is a genomicist for the National Cancer Institute. She does basic science on the genomics of cancer. Big Pharma has nothing to do with it.

Who funds them?

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:57 AM (PcTds)

245 Not just tiny homes:

https://x.com/matt_vanswol
/status
/1887843881712013329

🚨#BREAKING: The Mennonite Disaster Service has confirmed that a group of Amish crews from Ohio installed a MIND-BLOWING 150 temporary bridges and culverts in Western North Carolina.

These bridges were a lifeline to those who lost access to their homes.

God bless the Amish!!!!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at February 08, 2025 11:57 AM (Vqx30)

246 In the book The Martian he had a nuclear battery that he was using for heating, it was a sub critical slug of Pu. Those are used on probes and the like.

Da! Orphaned radiological batteries provide plenty of warmth on a cold night!

Posted by: Lia radiological accident at February 08, 2025 11:58 AM (JCZqz)

247 Coincidentally, I just finished reading the January 1981 issue of Omni Magazine. It’s focused on fusion, which was right around the corner. It included an interview with a Robert Bussard about his “small, independent company, Inesco”.

INESCO ran a full-page ad in the same issue.

FUSION NOW
INESCO’S RIGGATRON “throwaway” tokamaks will be running at hundreds of megawatts of fusion power by 1984.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 08, 2025 11:59 AM (Q9Zma)

248 I want my flying car. I was promised a flying car.
I don't want any more research into anything until I get my flying car.
100% of all research funding must go towards this end.
We can do pie in the sky, Once my car can fly.

Posted by: Reforger at February 08, 2025 11:59 AM (xcIvR)

249 My daughter is a genomicist for the National Cancer Institute. She does basic science on the genomics of cancer. Big Pharma has nothing to do with it.

Who funds them?

I believe most of their funding comes from the cancer moonshot program. IOW, it's a line item in the federal budget.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is funded by the United States Congress. The NCI is a federal agency that receives its budget from Congress as mandatory or discretionary funding.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 11:59 AM (xCA6C)

250 God bless the Amish!!!!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at February 08, 2025 11:57 AM (Vqx30)

That is absolutely amazing!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 08, 2025 11:59 AM (iJT07)

251 See, many would read that story and think "it's wrong that he visits hookers." I read it, and think it's wrong that his mom cooks meals for him

------
I read it and think the guy needs a wife to cook and provide "other services".
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:55 AM (PcTds)

I'm gonna go way out on a limb here, and say any decent marrying type woman won't get within a mile of him.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 12:00 PM (lH8E4)

252 . I mistrust most people to change their filters on their home furnace

Hahaha very true

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 12:01 PM (PcTds)

253 AmericanKestrel

I heard later that he did get married, settled down, and went to work for a much bigger university.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 12:02 PM (u82oZ)

254
🚨#BREAKING: The Mennonite Disaster Service has confirmed that a group of Amish crews from Ohio installed a MIND-BLOWING 150 temporary bridges and culverts in Western North Carolina.

These bridges were a lifeline to those who lost access to their homes.

God bless the Amish!!!!
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at February 08, 2025 11:57 AM (Vqx30)

Where were they when I needed them??

Posted by: Colonel Nicholson at February 08, 2025 12:02 PM (lH8E4)

255 Powerline Week in Pictures:

https://tinyurl.com/yyuj38br

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 12:03 PM (xCA6C)

256 205 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX: Report

bird flu, no doubt

Posted by: anachronda at February 08, 2025 12:05 PM (vZ/Zl)

257 256 205 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX: Report
---------
bird flu, no doubt
Posted by: anachronda at February 08, 2025 12:05 PM (vZ/Zl)

Is there no end to the lengths the NFL will go to give Taylor Swift's "boyfriend" another Super Bowl ring?

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 12:08 PM (lH8E4)

258 The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is funded by the United States Congress. The NCI is a federal agency that receives its budget from Congress as mandatory or discretionary funding.

Thank you for the answer. I don't think government funding is a good source because 1) lack of accountability 2) open to pressure to manipulate results 3) wastefulness

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 12:09 PM (PcTds)

259 "the biggest impediment to nuclear in the US is the fact that the "anti-nuclear lawfare" industry exists and any attempt to build a reactor is likely to face 20+ years of litigation before the first concrete is poured."

We need an "Energy Emergency" status to bypass all the lawfare garbage. It's a "Matter of National Security".

Posted by: illiniwek at February 08, 2025 12:10 PM (Cus5s)

260 BurtTC

He has a page on Wikipedia, and his wife is also a chemist.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 12:10 PM (u82oZ)

261 Nuclear fusion the energy source of the past and future. yea, the sun. (PS: its free for everybody)

Posted by: gov't is here to help at February 08, 2025 12:10 PM (PfnFb)

262 Da! Orphaned radiological batteries provide plenty of warmth on a cold night!
Posted by: Lia radiological accident

This is a very funny imaginative sentence

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 12:11 PM (PcTds)

263 Yay. Just checked my VA prescriptions. My stuff was mailed out from Fayetteville AR on the sixth, and is presently in some USPS center in Bumfuck TX.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at February 08, 2025 12:11 PM (gm9Sb)

264 260 BurtTC

He has a page on Wikipedia, and his wife is also a chemist.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at February 08, 2025 12:10 PM (u82oZ)

That's what they want you to think.

No, but seriously, birds of a feather and all that.

Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 12:11 PM (lH8E4)

265 05 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX: Report

bird flu, no doubt
Posted by: anachronda at

🤣

Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 12:12 PM (PcTds)

266 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX

*********

I thought the feds were cracking down on Ill Eagles...

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 12:12 PM (/iMjX)

267 Just think, hu-man... If there weren't any people, we wouldn't need any power at all!

Posted by: Bill Gates Mosquito With A Glowing Proboscis at February 08, 2025 12:12 PM (dAYXg)

268 Listening to NPR.

CRY HARDER BITCHES!

Posted by: nurse ratched at February 08, 2025 12:13 PM (00Rtw)

269 Thank you for the answer. I don't think government funding is a good source because 1) lack of accountability 2) open to pressure to manipulate results 3) wastefulness

There are many who agree with you. It is an ongoing discussion.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 12:13 PM (xCA6C)

270 Trump heard us on the Second Amendment.

Woo hoo.

Link to EO.

https://tinyurl.com/5bd2cs34

Let’s make sure Weasel puts this in the gun thread.

Posted by: Marcus T at February 08, 2025 12:15 PM (hUAHw)

271 Oops.

>@akafaceUS
·
>48m
BREAKING: New bank accounts linked to the Biden family were used to receive funds from China, Romania, and Russia during Joe Biden's tenure as Vice President. These accounts reportedly received over $240,000 with no clear explanation.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 08, 2025 12:17 PM (LkLld)

272 The dubious fringe politician, Lyndon LaRouche, was a peddler of fusion energy technology, which has always made be doubly skeptical of the science involved - or, at least, the practicality of turning the science into something useful.

Posted by: Paco at February 08, 2025 12:18 PM (mADJX)

273
I read it and think the guy needs a wife to cook and provide "other services".
Posted by: AmericanKestrel at February 08, 2025 11:55 AM (PcTds)

_________

Paul Dirac's wife basically took care of everything else so he could focus on his work.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 08, 2025 12:18 PM (dxSpM)

274 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX: Report
---------
bird flu, no doubt
Posted by: anachronda at February 08, 2025 12:05 PM (vZ/Zl)

Thread winner.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:18 PM (W/lyH)

275 For some reason, this keeps happening to socialists.

NEW - Brazil's far-left leader, Lula da Silva, is telling citizens of the country not to purchase expensive grocery items in a socialist effort to "combat" soaring food prices.

https://x.com/disclosetv/status/1888225936031539628

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 12:19 PM (xCA6C)

276 NIH was the pass through for a federal grant to study “communal living” at a place called Spahn Ranch, where a motley group of hippies had everything figured out.

Notice Charlie, barely a year out of Federal prison and on parole, was running underage prostitution, running guns, credit card fraud, car theft ring, and selling lots of drugs. Kept getting arrested, along with his camp followers, though somehow never convicted, till he sliced and diced some of the “Elite”.

Posted by: Common Tater at February 08, 2025 12:19 PM (5j54Z)

277 266 I thought the feds were cracking down on Ill Eagles... - muldoon

I confess, that one gave me a chuckle.

Posted by: Paco at February 08, 2025 12:20 PM (mADJX)

278 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX

*********

I thought the feds were cracking down on Ill Eagles...
Posted by: muldoon

*shakes head in amazement*

Posted by: Oddbob at February 08, 2025 12:22 PM (/y8xj)

279 >I thought the feds were cracking down on Ill Eagles...

Posted by: muldoon
---
BOOYAH
Muldoon from the top rope

Posted by: Don Black at February 08, 2025 12:22 PM (AOsQT)

280 Trump heard us on the Second Amendment.

Woo hoo.

Link to EO.

https://tinyurl.com/5bd2cs34

Let’s make sure Weasel puts this in the gun thread.
Posted by: Marcus T at February 08, 2025 12:15 PM (hUAHw)

I wonder if/how this will impact State issues? Washington State is going all commie on gun laws.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:22 PM (W/lyH)

281 7 Isn't the biggest impediment to nuclear in the US the mandate that all reactors have to be breeder reactors? Hence, waste?
Posted by: MkY
======
Nope. Carter banned the Clinch River breeder plant for nuclear proliferation reasons. Everyone else, Japanese, French, Russians, etc. run breeder plants to get rid of wasted fuel from conventional reactors. Greatly lessens the amount of waste to be stored.

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:22 PM (ctrM5)

282 Democrats outnumber Republican professors 4 to 1 in math, engineering departments
===
Now do students, or better, privately employed graduates.

Posted by: From about That Time at February 08, 2025 12:24 PM (4780s)

283 I thought the feds were cracking down on Ill Eagles... - muldoon

Dang. Another thread winner.
I can't keep up.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:24 PM (W/lyH)

284 Russia was where the US was sending control rods off to be re-processed.

Wonder if they are inclined to do this still? If not, wonder who is.

America has its ass in the air in so many key or critical ways it is too insidious to be anything but deliberate. One problem in the past was trying to explain this stuff to anyone, to the uninformed whom have been reliably informed everything is fine, we just sounded like paranoid lunatics.

The good news is, we weren’t paranoid all these years. The bad news, all our worst fears are coming true.

Posted by: Common Tater at February 08, 2025 12:25 PM (5j54Z)

285 259 "the biggest impediment to nuclear in the US is the fact that the "anti-nuclear lawfare" industry exists and any attempt to build a reactor is likely to face 20+ years of litigation before the first concrete is poured."

We need an "Energy Emergency" status to bypass all the lawfare garbage. It's a "Matter of National Security".
Posted by: illiniwek
======
The sad thing is we already have small reactors that have been tested and are highly reliable. We use them in US Navy ships. Then again, some of the environ weenies hindrance to domestic energy production is likely to have come from foreign country influence to steer us away from developing our own resources.

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:26 PM (ctrM5)

286 Now that the DOGE Boys (I remember the commercials) does that mean we get to stop talking about carbon?

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at February 08, 2025 12:26 PM (dg+HA)

287 America has its ass in the air in so many key or critical ways it is too insidious to be anything but deliberate. One problem in the past was trying to explain this stuff to anyone, to the uninformed whom have been reliably informed everything is fine, we just sounded like paranoid lunatics.

The good news is, we weren’t paranoid all these years. The bad news, all our worst fears are coming true.
Posted by: Common Tater
========
I do think it was deliberate and designed to create a global world trading system where everyone depended on key resources from other countries. And I think our natsec folks, the oligarchs, the big corporations, etc. were all in on it.

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:27 PM (ctrM5)

288 As part of the 2a review process, I'd like seeing a requirement to accumulate and distribute data on how often guns are used to save lives, rather than only focusing on misuse.

Posted by: From about That Time at February 08, 2025 12:28 PM (4780s)

289 I wonder if/how this will impact State issues? Washington State is going all commie on gun laws.
Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:22 PM (W/lyH)

DoJ should sue them for breach of the 2nd amendment to the United States Constitution. US constitution out ranks state constitution and state laws. If any state is passing laws that are in opposition to the US constitution the feds should sue the ever loving hell out of them.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at February 08, 2025 12:28 PM (4XwPj)

290 Sounds to me more like Carter was a spook. “Nuclear trained” you guys!!! And a nice good ole boy, too.

How many nuclear plants have been built since 1979? At least 30 or 40 right?

Posted by: Common Tater at February 08, 2025 12:28 PM (5j54Z)

291 DoJ should sue them for breach of the 2nd amendment to the United States Constitution. US constitution out ranks state constitution and state laws. If any state is passing laws that are in opposition to the US constitution the feds should sue the ever loving hell out of them.

I imagine that's coming, but they have a lot on their plates right now.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 08, 2025 12:29 PM (xCA6C)

292 286 Now that the DOGE Boys (I remember the commercials) does that mean we get to stop talking about carbon?
Posted by: Quarter Twenty
=======
One of Trump's EO's removed all the previous garbage of climate change, withdrew from the Paris accords, etc. and as a consequence, NOAA and EPA are in line for elimination of personnel directed toward this pseudo industry.

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:29 PM (ctrM5)

293 I must confess that I don't know the physics of nuclear fusion very well. But it seems like much trickier technology to confine and control nuclear fusion vs nuclear fission.

Posted by: PaleRider at February 08, 2025 12:29 PM (CKOCg)

294 Nearly Half-A-Dozen Eagles Players Suffering From the Flu Heading Into Super Bowl LIX: Report
---------
bird flu, no doubt
Posted by: anachronda at February 08, 2025 12:05 PM (vZ/Zl)

Is there no end to the lengths the NFL will go to give Taylor Swift's "boyfriend" another Super Bowl ring?
Posted by: BurtTC at February 08, 2025 12:08 PM (lH8E4)
***

No truth to the rumor that as the Eagles players were getting off the bus, the Chiefs were there handing out blankets.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:30 PM (W/lyH)

295 Everyone else, Japanese, French, Russians, etc. run breeder plants to get rid of wasted fuel from conventional reactors. Greatly lessens the amount of waste to be stored.

It amazes me when people say that the waste generated by nuclear power plants is so incredibly radioactive you can’t do anything with it.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 08, 2025 12:31 PM (Q9Zma)

296 Fusion power is always just 10 20 30 50 ... years away.
It not complete bullshit, but I doubt we'll ever have a system that actually produces net positive power.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at February 08, 2025 12:31 PM (XMwZJ)

297 >>> It amazes me when people say that the waste generated by nuclear power plants is so incredibly radioactive you can’t do anything with it.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 08, 2025 12:31 PM (Q9Zma)

Even if you just let it sit, after a century or two it's no more radioactive that the ore from which it came.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 08, 2025 12:32 PM (W5ArC)

298 Paul Dirac's wife basically took care of everything else so he could focus on his work.
====
My wife took care of everything else so I could concentrate on work.
It's called traditional marriage.
Her part way harder but more rewarding.

Posted by: From about That Time at February 08, 2025 12:32 PM (4780s)

299 I do think it was deliberate and designed to create a global world trading system where everyone depended on key resources from other countries. And I think our natsec folks, the oligarchs, the big corporations, etc. were all in on it.
Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:27 PM (ctrM5)

This goes back to Kissinger and his theory of global entanglements in trade and commerce.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:33 PM (W/lyH)

300 199 Stateless!

Good to see you! And I keep noticing your mental state continues to improve.

I'm so very proud of you. Thank you for being a good son and a good caretaker of the doggo and the kitties.

How is our favorite Trumpy cat?
Posted by: nurse ratched at February 08, 2025 11:38 AM (1FgD

Hi nurse!

Thanks so much. I'm slowly improving.

Sadly I had to tell my friends that cats need to go back to them. I have to rebuild a life, I need a career and the breaking point was one evening when all 4 animals were in and out constantly from 6pm to 11pm.

And then they'd chase through the house at night and have 3 hours of in and out in the morning.

It's cold but they have a cat house and heating pad. They kept going outside in worse. They still visit hop___ to come back in but they are outdoor cats despite my best efforts.

And Snowflake put on a lot of weight. Trumpy was heavier too. If Mom was still here, maybe things would have been different.

The house is cleaner now. Doors are open so it feels less like a prison. Trumpy would turn on water faucets. Snowflake woukd chew cords.

The one day just broke me. I need to take care of myself. God will find them a loving home.

Posted by: Stateless...35% - mental state clawing up from 10% at February 08, 2025 12:33 PM (jvJvP)

301 I wonder if the Eagles players are getting ivermectin. If they have a nasty flu bug ivm is not going to cure them in 1 day. But it does work on the flu, it is not specific to covid-19.

Posted by: PaleRider at February 08, 2025 12:34 PM (CKOCg)

302 >> I wonder if/how this will impact State issues? Washington State is going all commie on gun laws.
Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:22 PM (W/lyH)

A lot of it is cleaning out the ATF and DoJ. On 2A matters being litigated by DoJ it’s going to put an end to their participation in some existing cases where they’ve taken an anti 2a position. It should put an end to the ATF gun registry. We really need to watch the new AG on so called Red Flag cases. She supported some of that after Parkland.

The real issue is that SCOTUS has refused to take up any of the 2A cases post Bruen that would help with state overreach on things like gun and magazine bans. ACB has teamed up with Robert’s and the liberals to keep a lot of these cases off the docket. Which also means that taking them up could be a problem for the 2A. ACB is probably the worst choice Trump made on SCOTUS.

There is only one case out of NY that was remanded and outstanding for either cert or an in chambers opinion. That’s it until the next court session.

Posted by: Marcus T at February 08, 2025 12:35 PM (hUAHw)

303 288 As part of the 2a review process, I'd like seeing a requirement to accumulate and distribute data on how often guns are used to save lives, rather than only focusing on misuse.
Posted by: From about That Time

CDC actually did one study of studies using NCVS--National Criminal Victimization Survey, and estimated a range of Defensive Gun Usage from 60k per year absolute to a maximum of 2.5 million per year.

Something like 800k + defensive gun use episodes per year was the most likely interpretation of that study.

Biden and his anti gun group got rid of that study on the CDC website early on. Gary Kleck, professor emeritus from Florida State, has defense gun uses per year over 2 million times including where a weapon was never drawn but present or someone claiming they had a weapon (but did not).

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:36 PM (ctrM5)

304 With the millions in betting going on, if I were a Super Bowl team owner, I'd put the team in isolation right after the Conference game. Half a dozen guys with the flu will alter the betting lines.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 12:37 PM (W/lyH)

305 It not complete bullshit, but I doubt we'll ever have a system that actually produces net positive power.

I have a lot of respect for people who see a power source that requires a million million pounds of mass to kickstart and think, I could do that in my (city’s) backyard. That takes real vision, and I don’t mean that just as a joke.

I have no desire to give them money, however.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at February 08, 2025 12:38 PM (Q9Zma)

306 Nood

flowers

Posted by: JQ at February 08, 2025 12:38 PM (YoCnN)

307 BurtTC at February 08, 2025 11:40

100 percent. The opportunity for failure in research is very important. This opportunity is appreciated at some stages of corporate-funded research.

It is difficult to find grants for government-funded research that appreciates failure, or even which calls for confirmation of earlier research.

Truly "basic" research - the kind that turns scientists on for its own sake - sometimes occurs at a stage before the "opportunity for failure" thing becomes a big factor.

Posted by: KT at February 08, 2025 12:40 PM (xekrU)

308 I knew that Whig, but it is broadly unheard. I'd like that changed.
As with anything, I want to hear both sides.

Posted by: From about That Time at February 08, 2025 12:40 PM (4780s)

309 I regret the booyah

Posted by: Don Black at February 08, 2025 12:41 PM (AOsQT)

310 They have these magic black rocks that you can burn. They boil water which turn turbines. I think they may be able to develop a power grid based on this.

Posted by: Boss Moss at February 08, 2025 12:41 PM (KWujZ)

311 aw man there's gonna be guys puking on the field during the game

Posted by: Don Black at February 08, 2025 12:42 PM (AOsQT)

312 This goes back to Kissinger and his theory of global entanglements in trade and commerce.
Posted by: Diogenes

Kissinger borrowed from older theory which was around before WWI. In fact, a widely praised book came out shortly before WWI claiming that trading ties and investment flows have eliminated the risk for war. For example, before WWI, Germany and Britain were each other's major trading partners outside the Commonwealth.

Intl relations is replete with such regurgitations as good trading partners do not go to war with each other and how worldwide trading agreements prevent wars.

They are mistaking the cart for the horse---it is exactly when a particular country is so dependent on a key resource that it might go to war to gain it. See Japan and WWII.

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:42 PM (ctrM5)

313 308 I knew that Whig, but it is broadly unheard. I'd like that changed.
As with anything, I want to hear both sides.
Posted by: From about That Time

I followed Gary Kleck's research for years, he started out as mildly anti gun but found his results from his models did not agree with more guns equals more crime/death/etc. Instead, it had a reverse effect and Kleck paid a huge price for being a truth teller where our own government and its toadies ganged up on Kleck repeatedly at conferences, publication levels, etc.

He got the John Lott treatment.

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:44 PM (ctrM5)

314 Fusion Power is always 30 years away...

Don't get me wrong, they've made great strides, but they only recently broke the break-even point for what? a few hundred milliseconds of something?
The technology is quite challenging, using very high magnetic strengths and lasers to keep a highly pressurized plasma compressed.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at February 08, 2025 12:44 PM (ynpvh)

315 Does DOGE work weekends?

Posted by: Boss Moss at February 08, 2025 12:49 PM (KWujZ)

316 It amazes me when people say that the waste generated by nuclear power plants is so incredibly radioactive you can’t do anything with it.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair
=====
People in the US have been intentionally made stupid via science education designed to mislead more than its thesis of question everything and let the data provide the truth. Instead, we give them pablum. Back in grad student days, I used to sub at a middle school for my aunt who was a science teacher. The textbooks were appalling in quality and designed more to teach students to follow authority rather than how science actually worked.

I knew a bit about science and so brought in how vulcanizing rubber was found out by mistake, benzene's unique ring structure came from a scientist's dreams, and so on.

It is a process to resolve what is true and what isn't--not a game of memorizing disparate facts and theories that textbook publishers and teachers want you to imbibe.

Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:49 PM (ctrM5)

317 Some day soon my Brazil bonds will soar! (Gives Nazi salute).

On a serious note SC screwed itself on nuclear. Bonds were sold then the project was killed. USAID/EPA lawfare? Don't know, before my time. I do know my super cheap electric ratesare fixin' to soar (Again gives Nazi salute).

Posted by: Field Marshal Zhukov at February 08, 2025 12:51 PM (wBaIH)

318 >>Does DOGE work weekends?

Yes indeed.

Posted by: JackStraw at February 08, 2025 12:52 PM (LkLld)

319 This morning I woke up with thoughts that had little to do with myself, but instead was this idea: Glorious Revolution of 1688.
That's the year the English completely overthrew their system of government, and replaced centuries of autocratic tradition with a new populist Parliamentary
Monarchy, with hardly a shot being fired. Changed that country, and our history, radically and irretrievably but peacefully. It was arguably the least violent Revolution
in history.
So we may suddenly be living through our own Glorious Revolution right now. (the name, btw, was mainly because it was so non-violent) If so, then nothing will ever be the same as it was before.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 08, 2025 12:55 PM (wyMQY)

320 Maybe the "Trump isn't doing anything on 2A!" can stop now.

>>@RapidResponse47
·
>>20s
President Donald J. Trump signs an executive order to protect Americans’ Second Amendment rights

Posted by: JackStraw at February 08, 2025 12:57 PM (LkLld)

321 I regret the booyah
Posted by: Don Black

**********

No take backs!

P.S.. How about that Avs/Oilers game last night!

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 12:59 PM (/iMjX)

322 Fusion power is always just 10 20 30 50 ... years away.
It not complete bullshit, but I doubt we'll ever have a system that actually produces net positive power.
Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent

I think it may be possible, not necessarily in our lifetimes. Science seems to be series of pursuits in one direction, then suddenly, someone discovers an entirely different method and everyone swings around. 'We' may end up finding a different energy source before fusion becomes viable. Who knows, mebbe zero-point energy will turn out to be a real thing.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at February 08, 2025 12:59 PM (mlg/3)

323 So we may suddenly be living through our own Glorious Revolution right now. (the name, btw, was mainly because it was so non-violent) If so, then nothing will ever be the same as it was before.
Posted by: Tom Servo

*********

Maybe the president should rewrite the MAGA CARTA

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 01:01 PM (/iMjX)

324 Maybe the president should rewrite the MAGA CARTA
Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 01:01 PM (/iMjX)

Oh that's good! Should be up there in lights with his MAGAZA plan.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 08, 2025 01:03 PM (wyMQY)

325 It is a process to resolve what is true and what isn't--not a game of memorizing disparate facts and theories that textbook publishers and teachers want you to imbibe.
Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:49 PM (ctrM5)

This. So much this.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at February 08, 2025 01:09 PM (bss/y)

326 Step Right Up

The townspeople all ran to see a
pronouncement of pure fantasy, a
sure miracle cure,
made of alcohol, (pure)
Doc Muldoon's Magic Elixir Panacea!
Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 11:26 AM

*glares*

Posted by: Zombie Lydia Pinkham at February 08, 2025 01:10 PM (Wnv9h)

327 This is a really good tweet linked over at Insty:

https://tinyurl.com/42a2c3zk

Posted by: Aetius451AD at February 08, 2025 01:13 PM (bss/y)

328 It is a process to resolve what is true and what isn't--not a game of memorizing disparate facts and theories that textbook publishers and teachers want you to imbibe.
Posted by: whig at February 08, 2025 12:49 PM (ctrM5)

This. So much this.
Posted by: Aetius451AD

***********

Yep. It's interesting to me that the everyday practice of medicine is far from scientific. It includes a fair amount of received knowledge. I often observe that many (?most?) physicians know primarily that which they have been told/taught, as opposed to what they have learned by observation, or intuitive connecting of dots, or trial and error. Of course, trial and error is a hazardous practice when it involves human subjects. Deviating from the "standard of care" is not encouraged.

Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 01:17 PM (/iMjX)

329 I often observe that many (?most?) physicians know primarily that which they have been told/taught, as opposed to what they have learned by observation, or intuitive connecting of dots, or trial and error. Of course, trial and error is a hazardous practice when it involves human subjects. Deviating from the "standard of care" is not encouraged.
Posted by: muldoon at February 08, 2025 01:17 PM (/iMjX)
***

Some.days I feel like the trial, some days like the error.

Posted by: Diogenes at February 08, 2025 01:28 PM (W/lyH)

330 I thought the feds were cracking down on Ill Eagles...
Posted by: muldoon

😄😄😄

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at February 08, 2025 01:41 PM (WL2lA)

331 monorail ... Monorail ... MONORAIL!

Posted by: Grump928(C) at February 08, 2025 02:10 PM (aD39U)

332 Muldoon, I'll bet you are an amazing diognostician.

Posted by: Ben Had at February 08, 2025 02:23 PM (mB6WH)

333 don't believe CFS is close to anything useful, but Helion should produce net electric power from their Polaris prototype by the summer

it's not all green graft

Posted by: TallDave at February 08, 2025 02:27 PM (98TtQ)

334 If President Trump works on everything this week , he won't have much to do next week.
Can't give the Leftists any rest now.

Posted by: Skip at February 08, 2025 02:55 PM (fwDg9)

335 I often observe that many (?most?) physicians know primarily that which they have been told/taught, as opposed to what they have learned by observation, or intuitive connecting of dots, or trial and error. Of course, trial and error is a hazardous practice when it involves human subjects. Deviating from the "standard of care" is not encouraged.
Posted by: muldoon
----------

Just as an observation, and not merely my own but a common perspective among my demographic, the nature of physicians has changed over the last 10-15 years, it seems.

As the previous generation has aged out, the replacemnt generation is different. The common complaint is that they seem to listen and not hear, or hear and not listen, or perhaps do not seem to manifest empathy. It all might be called 'bedside manner'.

Perhaps it is patient load, paper work, or just a changing perspective regarding patients. I've no idea. I do know that the younger the doctor, the more likely that communication will be impersonal. It reflects, I believe, what might be regarded as the change in Healthcare, as opposed to any great differece in the qualities of the younger physicians, But, it is very real

Posted by: A patient patient at February 08, 2025 03:02 PM (XeU6L)

336 Perhaps it is patient load, paper work, or just a changing perspective regarding patients. I've no idea. I do know that the younger the doctor, the more likely that communication will be impersonal. It reflects, I believe, what might be regarded as the change in Healthcare, as opposed to any great differece in the qualities of the younger physicians, But, it is very real
Posted by: A patient patient at February 08, 2025 03:02 PM (XeU6L)

My father was a doctor for _many_ years; he is retired but spent his last working years practicing for Kaiser. His biggest complaint was that he wasn't allowed to spend enough time with a patient to diagnose and treat them properly.

Posted by: Dr. Fausti - I AM The Science at February 08, 2025 03:10 PM (lg881)

337 Buck, will your state governor listen to you - to anyone - and reconsider?

Posted by: Coki at February 08, 2025 03:10 PM (Wkrcf)

338 Nood Pets

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at February 08, 2025 03:18 PM (mEJdU)

339 Trump's newest cuts are to NIH, where he is limiting overhead on federal grants to 15%. That will in no way suffice. Real research will be affected. I don't know what his plan is here, but from what little I've read, he may have made a mistake.
====

Hookers and blow are technically not allowable overhead expenses when it comes to pissing away government money, no matter what they are called on the books. Nor are the diversions to support other university ventures such as athletics and the lesbian muslim erotic poetry department.
Being able to account for what is currently allocated as overhead as direct expenses is key to getting O/H below 15%. It also exposes all bullshit diversion of funds if they reach too far.

Writing proposals for other grants would be an acceptble o/h cost. Most costs normally dropped into o/h can be itemized as direct costs with some effort.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at February 08, 2025 03:22 PM (/lPRQ)

340 Retired Nuclear Engineer here - I had the opportunity to take a class in Fusion in college (1985) as a technical elective. At the time, one of the professors told us that while Fusion is interesting, it is not commercially viable, as there was no established technology for large toroidal magnets necessary for it to be built. Forty years has gone by, this has not changed.

Posted by: Nancy@7000ft at February 08, 2025 03:50 PM (qFnnL)

341 Oh, i wonder how many palms were greased to make THIS happen?
"Preston Bryant, senior vice president at McGuireWoods Consulting, which was involved in the site selection process, said Virginia was chosen in part because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined months ago that fusion technology does not require a federal license like fission and can instead be approved at the state level."
RUFKM?

Posted by: Nancy@7000ft at February 08, 2025 03:56 PM (qFnnL)

342 Trump stripping security clearances from Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Andrew Weis Sean and others, including Letitia James and Alvin Bragg.

Link to New YorkPost article >> https://tinyurl.com/52jk68zy

Posted by: Ann at February 08, 2025 05:31 PM (BCWQn)

343 The money is suductive and, I guess, irresistible. I live in Georgia and Kemp for the shiny Kia, Hyundai plants. Most infamously, the Rivian plant will never be built. At least they have not clear cut the trees. Here’s the rah-rah site
https://georgia.org/EV#/analyze?show_map=true®ion=US-GA

Posted by: FINGERS at February 08, 2025 06:19 PM (fdKiS)

344 Grand Gulf, the only boiling water reactor in the US, has been printing money for Entergy for over 40 years. Unlike Pressurized Water Reactors it can spin up and down to match demand. When it's hot in New Orleans, Grand Gulf powers their ACs. Demand up, prices up, Grand Gulf starts up. Just don't be in the turbine building when it's running.

Posted by: ZilWerks at February 09, 2025 01:36 PM (KG+gK)

345 One thing that is all too often left out of fusion promises is all the associated details that remain to be worked out once a net positive energy process is successful. Like, doing it long enough to be useful as a power supply at municipal scale. That's a big leap from a successful test of duration measured in seconds at most.

Posted by: Epobirs at February 09, 2025 01:47 PM (/0z9K)

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