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It Is My Privilege to Commit a Presentation
to a bunch of guys in a club of which I'm a member. This presentation is to be in a few days, and is on the subject of nuclear energy. I often start my blogitems with disclaimers, and this one is no exception: I am not an expert on nuclear energy. (If I were, you'd have to take my idea of using reactor waste to heat your swimming pool seriously. I don't recommend that you do that.) The idea for the presentation was occasioned by the nuclear fusion "breakthrough" reported on 13 December of 2022. I may have received this assignment by being especially vocal about what it all meant, or maybe it was just my turn.
Either way, I have to say something, and I do believe I could summarize everything my group needs and wants to know in a couple of minutes, which period would even be sufficient for a Q&A. But if you have even the slightest acquaintance with this blog, you know I have the gift of babble, and can be gratuitously discursive*. Although my "assignment" is to talk about fusion and maybe throw in a fission or so, my guys are not science people, so I thought I'd expand it to include "energy,"
Q: You mean, like, E=mc^2?**
A: Yes, I'm afraid so.
Q: Do you seriously expect a bunch of lawyers and other business types to stick around?
A: Of course they will. When I'm done, lunch will be served.
Also, if you have the slightest acquaintance with this blog, you know that I fanatically practice
Conservation of Text
I'm hardly going to prepare words and even visual aids without taking multiple advantage of them. Furthermore, I haven't done PowerPoint in decades yet I practically generate hyperlinks in my sleep. So, please forgive me if I defer my next CES report for a few days and press forward with my lay discourse on
ENERGY...
* If you don't believe me, just count my asterisks.
** This equation involves Big Numbers—so big that errors aren't intuitively obvious. Please check my math!
Update 01 July 2023
Physics Today recently had a far more competent, authoritative, and comprehenisve article on the fusion breakthrough.
| © 2023 |
| Richard Factor |
NP: "Mrs. McKenzie" Janis Ian
Not the version from the Society's Child album, which I've listened to since my teens, but something newer. Maybe the whole album has been re-recorded? Hmmm.. |
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ToTD Yikes! I've been to Florida too many times to remember where or when I got this.
I have the unfortunate habit of referring to Florida as "God's waiting room." Mr. Orange certainly belies that contention, at least as far as attitude is concerned.
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