The Duke Nuked'em

Note: this post is for informational purposes only, and I cannot be held resposible for any attempt on making a nuclear reaction (/bomb) in your bath tub, if you don't have a bath tub then in your shower, and if you don't have a shower either then I don't know you.

A nuclear reaction is a process where two nuclear particles collide, to simplify things I will only be going over the two most known reactions: fusion and fission.

A fusion reaction is, as the words says, the process of combining two lighter elements to create a larger one. That is what takes place in the sun as well as in hydrogen bombs, and so, that is how one can create a huge amount of energy. In short, two elements are thrown at eachother at very high speeds and depending on their weight they will either release energy or absorb it (the split point being at the Iron or Nickel state). The problem is that it currently uses more energy than it produces to be able to control it, so for the moment it is pointless to use it as a clean energy source.

A fission reaction is the oposite: spliting one larger element in to two smaller ones. We first used that reaction on August 6th, 1945, over Hiroshima. We then understood its potential and started using it as an energy source. The danger of a nuclear fission is that when started it undergoes a chain reaction: to split the element one bombards it with a neutron, but when done that reaction will produce another several neutrons enabling multiple other reactions to take place; so unless you are working with only one of those atoms it is strongly suggested to find the means to control the outgoing neutrons. This is what can be done in a nuclear reactor and was what failed at Chernobyl.
The main elements used in this process is a metal called Uranium (we'll drop Plutonium for this time). But it can only take place with Uranium 235 (235 being its atomic weight) and not Uranium 238 (accounting for 99% of earth's supply). So when extracted they must be seperated, a process also known as Uranium enrichment. But it is a very difficult and costly process: one must spin the compound at extremely hight speeds (aproximating 10,000 rpm) as to send the heavier atoms (U238) to the outside, and this must be done several times round. To understand this better you must know that a nuclear reactor uses Uranium enriched at 5% (5% U235 & 95% U238) whereas a nuclear bomb needs Uranium enriched at 90%, and to achieve the latter one must have aproximately 100,000 centrifuges (the machine that spins); which is most reassuringly not the case of Iraq.


post dedicated to Ricardas who complained about my posts being too boring (he's one of those guys who has nor bath tub nor shower)

Corporate Lesson 1:

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is
finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.
The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs
downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands
Bob, the next door neighbor. Before she says a word,
Bob says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel,"
After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her
towel and stands naked in front of Bob.
After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 dollars and leaves.
The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back
upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband
asks, "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door
neighbor," she replies.
"Great!" the husband says, "did he say anything
about the $800 he owes me?"
Moral of the story: If you share critical
information pertaining to credit and risk with your
shareholders in time, you may be in a position to
prevent avoidable exposure.

Corporate Lesson 2:

A priest offered a lift to a Nun.
She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.
The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling
the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.
The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"
The priest removed his hand.
But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.
The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"
The priest apologized "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak."
Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way.
On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129.
It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."
Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in
your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Corporate Lesson 3:

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the

manager are walking to lunch when they find an

antique oil lamp.

They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish."

"Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk.

"I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat,

without a care in the world." Poof! She's gone.

"Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to

be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal

masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the

love of my life." Poof! He's gone.

"OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager.

The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."

Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.

Corporate Lesson 4:

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day.

A rabbit asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"

The crow answered: "Sure, why not."

So, the rabbit sat on the gr ound below the crow, and rested.

A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very

high up.

Corporate Lesson 5:

A turkey was chatting with a bull.

"I would love to be able to Get to the top of that

tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."

"Well, why don't you nibble on my droppings?" replied the bull.

"They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that

it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.

The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey

out of the tree.

Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top but it won't keep you there.

Trust

It is in human nature to be gullible to a certain extent, and even if you're the most paranoid person in the world there would still be cases where your beliefs made you make choices that were to your disadvantage.
I only wish that those kind of situations were not man-made; I only wish that we could trust one another, not with our lives as that would be foolish, but with our hearts as it would take us one step closer to humanity.

Only then will you be able to watch the morning sky with a smile that would shame the sun...

Coffee Parisien

Thursday: Back to our modest lives...
Dinner with a princess in a restaurant called the Coffee Parisien. Fashionable place to eat, nice prices, and a good choice of food (mostly american style); I personally enjoyed the simplicity of the decor; just has a nice ring to it.
About the princess? Well... she's a princess allright.

Bling Bling

You're now in your new plane you bought a month ago from Netjets and are going through your Henk briefcase to find those files you need for a pretty important meeting later in the day.
After an extremely peaceful flight, upon landing at the Marseille provence airport, you notice that you business partners finally did take that Boeing Business Jet, in great deception you start calculating the loss on the bet you made. You then all very formally greet eachother, hoping nobody got airsick, and then hop into the Maybach 62, destination: the seaport.
And there awaits that splendid 71m yatch that you named after your favorite redfish Bobbly, you just thought the name Edmiston company gave it was too cliché (Utopia, what a rip-off); anyhow, you are now headed to Monte Carlo to conclude the deal, and so on the way you discuss the last few details with those hypocrite partners of yours; not that you really needed them in the first place but your close advisor and friend suggested that a more political approach to your purchase could help futur figures. Nevertheless you still give out a few of your "business" cards just for the fun of it.
Finally you arrive at destination: Hotel Port Palace, Monte Carlo, where your suite awaits.
In the end you close the deal in barely a few hours and are already packed and on the go when suddenly, on your way out, as unexpected as undesired, you bump into someone... and without word to say you stay in awe, you are now facing the partner of your wildest dreams, the one you said you'ld never find, that 'one'.
You then decide, in an instant, just like that, to drop everything! sell the whole company! And sail across the globe, passed the seven seas and over the edge of this world, only you and that one person until time itself comes to and end.

... pfou! What a day! I need a break!

butterfly

We've all made paper planes in class instead of listening to the teacher and most of us have wanted to fly a remote controles plane. Well here's a nice combination: Plantraco's carbon butterfly. It flies like a plane under your command and is even lighter than the lightest paper plane you could almost ever make (half the weight of a dollar bill). Pricy toy but all worth the fun.

Phonemes

A phonem is a linguistic sound representation, the smallest element of a word/language. Here are a few languages (most common & extremes ones) with their associated number of phonemes so that you have an idea of what it means. Some phonemes are also more difficult to pronounce, so what makes a language difficult is not the amount.

!Xóõ (southern-central Africa): 112
Hungarian: 68
Slovak: 51
German: 47
Portugese: 46
English: 45
Japanese: 42
French: 35
Spanish: 30
Arab: 29
Esperanto: 28
Italian: 27
Pirahã (Amazonian): 10