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No, that's not accurate. The control rods had graphite tips, but were made of boron, which readily absorbs neutrons (graphite, not so much). One of several issues was that a bunch of the rods were completely withdrawn from the core. When the control rods were inserted, the first part in was the graphite tip. Graphite is a moderator, so it improved the efficiency of slowing neutrons down, making for an increased fission rate, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to happen when you are trying to shut the plant down. It was a design flaw, and was exacerbated by not following safety protocols - they pulled more rods out of the core than they were supposed to. The system also had a positive void coefficient, so when excess steam started forming inside the core, it increased the fission rate. Again, the opposite of what you want when trying to shut down. It's not about the rods being cheap. There were design shortfalls and procedures were circumvented; multiple issues which all acted together to cause the accident. https://www.vice.com/en/article/597k9x/why-the-chernobyl-nuclear-reactor-exploded https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx

First, something regarding the "sloshing around" bit. Vaccinations do not leave residues behind. They come in, trigger the immune system and then are flushed out of the system. Actual infections with virus or bacteria could stick around if they are not fully eliminated (though with SARS-CoV-2 we have not seen that happening yet). In other words, what sticks around is really just your modified immune response and not the vaccine. To date, all approved vaccines were developed against the original variant. While there are attempts to target vaccines more specifically to a given variant (similar to flu shots), there is nothing that has outperformed the 1st gen vaccines yet. So far most existing vaccines provide overwhelming protection against severe disease regardless of the SARS-CoV-2 variants. However, protection against getting an infection (and potentially transmitting it to other folks) is waning, especially without a booster. Also, as a side note, there are many, many, many more than eight variants of SARS-CoV-2. A huge number of folks were infected and as a result we have created hundreds if not thousands of different variants. However, only few are spreading successfully and those are also called variants of concern (VOC, but not all VOCs are first characterized by spread, some might be of concern due to mutations that could make them more likely to evade vaccines or changed their virulence). However, the dominant ones currently circulating are Delta (some of its subvariants) and Omicron (and mostly its subvariant BA.2, which has edged out Omicron in some areas). These have displaced most of the other variants of concern (such as Alpha or Gamma).

! Moderator Note This has been mostly off-topic for a while, and I just don’t have the bandwidth to filter the tiny bit of wheat from the chaff. Thus it’s all chaff, and to the trash it goes.

Vlad may not be pleased with this koolaid antidote: Arnold speaks of the harsh realities to the people of Russia, and weaves in some personal history with his father's WW2 sufferings.

Viruses are basically genetic material wrapped in protein (and sometimes other compounds). They do not replicate by themselves but are always spread by a host that produces them. Essentially they get in, inject their genetic material into your cells and forces them to make more viruses. Viruses generally become inactive outside of a body over time, but some are more resilient than others and it also depends a lot on the conditions (e.g. temperature, exposure to UV, humidity etc.). SARS-CoV-2 is mostly transmitted directly via aerosols produced by infected individuals.

I have, once, on foot, been invited to cross ahead of a car turning into a side road, when I stopped to let it go by. I was a bit surprised but then remembered this change. I doubt it will make much difference, especially since there seems to have been zero by way of a campaign to alert anyone to the changes. The trouble with these rules is that they will be observed fastidiously by the sort of person who is any case a careful road user. Yer average white van man, i.e. the sort of person actually likely to knock you over, won't give a toss, just as he never has in the past. It's a bit like voluntary covid mask-wearing: the people likely to be infectious won't be the ones who will bother with a mask.

Apologies it seems that the moderators banned my other account because I had more than one account. I just totally forgot about this one :'D But I can respond via this account now. Thanks again for your help on this and the other post, I'll update you as I go

We wouldn't want Putin to call Serge "scum" or "traitor", or otherwise accuse him of not swallowing the kool-aid... https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-putin-warns-pro-western-traitors-ukraine-1.6386960

Some people go through life accepting that one day they may need a cane, but for now they manage without, until all else has failed. You can continue with your ideology all day long, we all would like the fairy tale ending, unfortunately life seldom has one.

You need to stop just focusing on the official Russian version of events.

There is also the issue that there are a collections of folks who honestly believe that their way of life in danger from things like the white replacement, homosexual or liberal agendas and so on. To them, someone in a position of power and being openly bigoted validates their own believes, which have fallen out of public favour (or are considered non-PC, depending which vernacular you want to use). To them, a potato with a suit would be suitable candidate as long as it reflects these values, which they see under attack. This victim attitude creates an incredibly loyal group that have long decided that they do not need to be tethered to reality. Ultimately this group also managed to marginalize the reasonable folks in the GOP (i.e. those that can distinguish fact from fiction, even if they sometime pretend they don't).

It depends much on what media echo chambers you spend your time in. He has clearly motivated the less intellectually able and naive, as well as those more able who see him as a vehicle for their own personal advancement. America is a big country with a lot of isolated people distributed thinly and not well-connected compared those those in the big cities.... he appeals to the former, it seems.

@Ghideon and @joigus Thank you both for a useful continuing scientific conversation. +1 apiece. There doesn't seem much else scientific going on here at the moment. I think Shannon entropy is specified and calculated on the basis of 'ideal' computers devoid of earthly defects, including the need for power sources. This is nothing new and continues the Ancient Greek tradition of abstracting perfect circles, squares etc as 'ideals'. We have carried this tradition on thoughout history in both Philosophy, Engineering and more recently Physics. In particular physical (ie thermodynamic) entropy and other thermodynamic properties are calculated on the basis of 'perfect' or ideal processes. Ghideon's comment about time applies if he doesn't already know this as the equations are almost all derived on the basis of infinitely slow (ideal) processes called reversible ones. thermodynamics doesn't care how long it takes to get there. One difference is that the thermodynamic statement "Ideal entropy cannot decrease" is defined for a cyclic process. It does not forbid entropic decrease within a cycle and this actually happens in some practical situations. Computing processes are not, in general 'reversible' in the same way.

Are you aware that it's so called only by you? Exactly! That's a pretty big crowd of aristocrats, jurists and prelates throughout the history of civilization. However, it remains the opinion of persons with some stake in the practice, rather than of disinterested arbiters of ethical behaviour. Or judge, or archbishop or spymaster. Just as Herod imagined: if you kill all the baby boys, none of them can grow into the monster you fear.

This distinction you make between motorists, cyclists and pedestrians seems to me a false one, so far as taxation is concerned. Every motorist is also a pedestrian. Most cyclists are all three. The taxation principle, insofar as there is one, is surely not that a class of person pays more or less tax than another, but that an activity that requires costly infrastructure, causes pollution and contributes to climate change should be taxed.

I suppose, with the new reversed hierarchy, motorists will be more liable in an accident involving pedestrians and cyclists, or cyclists hurt a pedestrian, if they are shown to have not observed it. With the increasing use of in-vehicle cameras, it's probably more enforceable with that sort of evidence likely to be more available now. Even quite a few cyclists have them on their helmets. .False.

No, I have not, regardless how many times you repeat this misrepresentation. I have admitted to considering the commission of what I know is a wrong act, if I felt compelled by circumstances that I believed to be even worse, but I have never acceded to calling that wrong right. I consider Spock only slightly more credible as an arbiter of morality than Judge Posner. (PS. I don't believe Spock pronounced on the guilt and innocence of individuals in question, nor what specific needs the many may have that requires torturing a few, or how that specific need manifests in a decision between actions. Also, I'm not all sure he would be convinced by the 100% guilty/no other option scenario.)

The main losses are not in the Russian army, but in the people's militia of the DPR and LPR. And in the DPR and LPR troops, motivation and morale are very high.

What I meant was no reader of Swedish would find the missing marks surprising, because they expect to see them. So they would understand written Swedish with or without the marks; it's like how you can ndrstnd nglsh wtht vwls n t. Or wat. ys. mst frms r fr jrks. Lk xchmst. What a mature question; you must feel so proud of yourself; you don't even have to try, do you? Seriously, you don't have anything better than schoolboy jokes? What a bunch of clowns. Seriously. What a pack of goddam idiots. Patting each other on the back aboout how much you like each others inane posts. Jesus Christ. You can keep this shit. I'm wasting my time with it Eat shit and die, you dumb fucks.

Right. According to you a computer can be switched off and still be computing! What a fascinating worldview. More completely dumbass stuff from an "expert". Shannon entropy is about the frequency of messages; it's about information content and how to encode that efficiently. The surprise factor is not some kind of highfalutin terminology. Expectation is not an ill-defined term in communication theory. My guess is you probably think data and information are different things too. You provide an example: the Swedish language without the extra marks. A change of encoding that makes almost no difference to the information content. So it has about the same entropy. What a pack of retards.

That looks almost intelligent. What you've clearly forgotten is that languages are context-dependent. Strange too, that after dismissing the need for a sender, receiver and a channel, you invoke the concept of noise in a channel, and filtering. You don't realise how inane that is. You don't because you have immunity, right? The difference between information and data: there is no physical difference, it's entirely artificial; it's one of those things called a choice. You can't or won't agree of course, because this discussion is all about how much you can disagree with whatever you choose to disagree with. What fun you must be having,

I know you and @beecee, think I'm some sort of snowflake and not man enough to take a stand or make hard decisions; I just hope I'm the same sort of snowflake as my gramps, enlisted aged 14 for the 1st world war, fought for 2 year's and then became a conscientious objector in the full knowledge of the consequences. It's easy to follow the crowd, when someone shouts witch. Now please explain, how you know when "all else has failed"? That may sound philosophically smart to you, but it sounds down right practically dumb to me, and your usual obtuseness path in avoiding the answers when those answers conflict with your pretentious life philsophy. Sound's like a question to me, the question marks are a clue; hope that's not too cryptic for you... 😉

That may sound philosophically smart to you, but it sounds down right practically dumb to me, and your usual obtuseness path in avoiding the answers when those answers conflict with your pretentious life philsophy. We simply deal with the thankfully rare monsters to the best of our ability, and use any and all means that are appropriate at the time. eg: jail etc. Just to reaffirm, yes I can live with you using all means possible in the situations under debate, including torture, as you have openly admitted, but I do have sympathy that you would mentally beat yourself up and cause you so much anguish and discomfort, by doing the morally correct thing. This is due to your adhering to stubbornly maintaining that absolute factor for torture being absolute evil,, and being blinded to the fact that it is simply that rare morally acceptable exception to the rule of the general evil nature of torture. In that respect you have a tiny bit more intestinal fortitude then dimmy has, by admitting that you are in fact an emotional human, who will, when the chips are down, do the morally correct thing. Or as that old judge put it...... Richard Posner, a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, wrote: "If torture is the only means of obtaining the information necessary to prevent the detonation of a nuclear bomb in Times Square, torture should be used – and will be used – to obtain the information. ... no one who doubts that this is the case should be in a position of responsibility. Nup old friend, justice is what I want, but I must admit being a regular human being, I have in the past sought out limited revenge. I also suspect that if you were more honest with yourself and the forum, and showed an inkling of intestinal fortitute like your other compatriot ideological philsopher has, you would consider torture yourself when all else has failed, and particularly if it involved a loved one of yours, like a Mother, Father, Wife, Son, Daughter. Then we may see the real dimmy emerge from this fanciful, feel good pretentious life philsophy you are so fanatically adhered to. Ahh, aint that beautiful!!!! 😆

What a conversation between two adherents to a "feel good" unworkable idealistic philsophy sounds like......................... 😄🤭 Real airy fairy stuff and appropriatly summed up by There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it. Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 BCE) Roman statesman. De Divinatione I'm an early riser, always around 0500hrs, now 0845hrs