Cap'n Refsmmat

I'd wait before jumping to that conclusion. The Security Council resolution specifically prohibits a foreign occupation force on the ground: http://www.guardian....ncil-resolution The Ivory Coast situation is being dealt with by the African Union, as it should be, and Yemen has not devolved into all-out civil war like Libya has. What I don't understand is: They already sell us their oil. We don't need to invade them to get it. Why does military action make sense? edit: Also, the Arab League asked the UN to impose a no-fly zone and take military action. The Arab League is a bunch of oil exporters. Why would they support Obama's evil plan to get more oil?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alarm_system There's a variety of companies that install them.

Yes, the coolant water had boiled off and left the rods exposed, but they were still inside the containment vessel last I checked. News reports are rather scattered and contradictory right now.

They have sensors that detect UV light, just like it's possible to have infrared cameras or radio telescopes. The pictures you see were colored on a computer, since the ultraviolet images don't directly correspond to normal colors. However, it is possible to convert UV into the visible spectrum. Fluorescent materials do this -- you shine UV light on them and they absorb it and emit visible light. There are also methods to turn infrared light into visible light by absorbing two infrared photons and emitting one visible photon with half the wavelength.

Now it'll be only dependent on your browser's cache, rather than the cache I had installed on the server.

This issue should now be fixed, although the solution is not as nice as I'd hoped.

Buoyant cars won't float when fast-moving debris propelled by the tsunami waves buries it, breaking the glass and generally smashing it up.

Also watch out for incidents like Kosmos 954: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_954

The developers of the forum software say they're looking into changing this for a future version.

This is true, but remember that the potential is given by: [math]U=\frac{1}{4\pi \epsilon_0}\frac{q_1 q_2}{r}[/math] where [imath]q_1[/imath] is the electric charge creating the field and [imath]q_2[/imath] the charge experiencing the field, and [imath]r[/imath] is the distance between them. The increase in potential decreases the farther away you get, if that makes sense, and eventually it's negligible.

It would probably be easier to put large solar panels in orbit and deliver the energy back to earth. Nuclear power in space brings the question, "How do I launch nuclear fuel into orbit without the risk of the rocket exploding on takeoff?"

Mobile replacement generators arrived soon after the incident. As I said, the electrical switching area was in the basement and flooded, so connecting the new generators to the electrical systems was difficult.

I don't think the issue is drowning inside your car. It's having your car lifted by the wave and smashed into buildings that does a bit of damage.

Yes, and the plant had several of those diesel power generators. They were on-site. They were damaged by the tsunami. They would have been able to produce sufficient power to run the cooling system -- that is their purpose. For backup power, the plants had: Multiple redundant diesel generator systems. Large batteries. Access to the local electrical grid. Steam turbine backup systems that used the residual heat and steam to pump more water into the reactor. The diesel generators and local power grids were damaged in the earthquake and tsunami. The steam systems are not sufficient to cool the reactor all the way. Apparently the electrical switching rooms are in the basements of the reactor buildings and flooded, making it difficult to connect new generators and power sources.

Ordinarily you'd use the electrical grid, but there was a bit of a problem with that as well. The sea wall around the reactors was assumed to be capable of stopping the tsunami, but the generators were on low ground and the tsunami was larger than anticipated.

It looks like fixing this will be somewhat tricky. I'm going to find a clever way if I can.

This morning, "Anonymous" released the first part of a series of leaks alleging fraud in Bank of America's mortgage practices: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0314/Bank-of-America-accused-by-anonymous-website-of-hiding-data http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/hackers-say-bofa-unit-tried-to-hide-mortgage-error/?src=mv Apparently this is the first part of the leaks, although the leak website is currently offline after being overloaded with traffic. The emails are light on evidence and detail, so there's not much to conclude so far. This looks like it'll be an interesting week in the news.

Backup energy was unavailable because of the flooding. Batteries were available, but the diesel generators had been damaged. The reactors did indeed shut down. They are not running currently. Apparently the waste products are still producing significant amounts of heat.

http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB930.html http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB930_1.html http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB910.html http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB920.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_experiment http://www.pnas.org/content/105/23/7899.full http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CC/CC150.html Well, evolution says one species will evolve into something different, so what's the problem? http://talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/ http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928023.900-living-oil-droplets-from-the-dawn-of-life.html http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB090.html There is a great deal of promising abiogenesis research. You should look into it.

Oh dear. Now that they've poured boric acid into at least one of the reactors, I don't think it's possible for it to go prompt critical and explode like Chernobyl did. I believe the worst case now involves the spent nuclear fuel pools near the reactors -- if a hydrogen explosion launches radioactive nuclear waste into the air, Bad Things will happen.

Could you clarify? I'm not sure how shapes, relativity and movement relate to calculus; do you want a mathematics textbook, a physics textbook, or a geometry textbook?

This one reactor is probably not essential to Japan's power grid -- they have fifty or so, plus other conventional power-generation facilities. Not really. The heat being generated now is from radioactive decay products, and not from nuclear chain-reactions. The heat can still melt things, but we will not see a sudden nuclear chain reaction causing a nuclear explosion, as in Chernobyl. The reactor is already shut off.

Indeed: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/meltdown-fear-after-nuclear-plant-blast-20110312-1bsf4.html That doesn't sound good.

Had you read either of the news articles linked here, you'd see that the diesel generators were damaged by the tsunami.

The Japanese reactors had to shut down due to equipment damage, so they're not generating electricity. The Guardian is now reporting that several other reactors have also suffered cooling equipment damage, and they've lost some control of the plants. Let's hope they get this under control quickly.