hydroptic

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/11636550

Opinion piece by Sierra Solter, "a plasma physicist, engineer, and inventor who studies the intersection of heliophysics and aerospace". Relevant quote:

Upon investigating just how much dust in the form of satellite and rocket debris the space industry has dumped into the ionosphere during re-entry, I was alarmed to find that it is currently multiple Eiffel Tower’s worth of metallic ash. I wouldn’t have even been able to calculate that at all without a scientist’s personally run website. Our ozone is mere pennies thick, and soon we will be putting at least an Eiffel Tower’s worth of metallic ash a year directly into the ionosphere. And all of that will stay there, indefinitely.

How could we possibly think that burning trash in our atmosphere 24/7 is going to be fine?

Opinion piece by Sierra Solter, "a plasma physicist, engineer, and inventor who studies the intersection of heliophysics and aerospace". Relevant quote:

Upon investigating just how much dust in the form of satellite and rocket debris the space industry has dumped into the ionosphere during re-entry, I was alarmed to find that it is currently multiple Eiffel Tower’s worth of metallic ash. I wouldn’t have even been able to calculate that at all without a scientist’s personally run website. Our ozone is mere pennies thick, and soon we will be putting at least an Eiffel Tower’s worth of metallic ash a year directly into the ionosphere. And all of that will stay there, indefinitely.

How could we possibly think that burning trash in our atmosphere 24/7 is going to be fine?

The main message here is that it looks increasingly certain that we will run out of resources sooner than the coming deterioration of the climate could put an end to our lifestyle. (And that’s quite a feat, knowing how a growing Earth energy imbalance has accelerated warming recently…) The model also assigns a not so distant timeframe when the whole economic model we thought to be relevant for centuries to come might go badly wrong.

As to the reason why this might indeed be the case, and as an independent corroboration to the study above, I suggest to take a look on the state of the petroleum industry. Why? Well, energy is still the economy, as the basket case of Germany can testify, and despite all the handwaving oil is still the master resource, making all other energy and mineral resources available. Mining, agriculture, construction, long distance transport, plastics, all hopelessly depend on petroleum. Hydro, nuclear and “renewables” are also made possible by using diesel and gasoline burning vehicles to bring people, raw materials and equipment on site. Should the availability of oil decline, it would eventually bring all other resources and energy production down with it.

Todd produced something that's actually good‽

I've watched the first two episodes and I've really liked it so far. While FO4 as a game was OK at best (at least vanilla; Sim Settlements 2 is great fun), I've liked the art direction on it. I know the "chunky" look has been a bit… divisive, I think it looks suitably retrofuturistic and less drab than the earlier games, so it's fun that the show has really leaned into the style. The score by Ramin Djawadi is also really good, at times really reminds me of Ben Frost's and Marc Streitenfeld fucking amazing score for Raised by Wolves.

The dark humor and a somewhat quirky and sarcastic take on things is also very Fallout; it doesn't take itself too seriously, but is also surprisingly dark in many ways, and not just because it's postapocalyptic and bloody.

All in all, it's been a really nice surprise that the show seems to have turned out well; my cynical old ass was definitely prepared for something worse, heh. How have you folks liked it?

(Oh and for the love of the gods and all that is fuzzy, please remember to use spoiler tags if you talk about plot points 😁 It's the second button on the right on the comment format bar.)

Made by Per Bergland and, funnily enough, Max Tegmark.

There's also a slightly saner variant called Frac which is only 3D.

Also, anybody else find it a bit amazing that we can emulate DOS games in our frickin' browsers‽

Ignition! is part memoir and part history book from the 70's, written by John D. Clark who was an American rocket fuel chemist.

It doesn't go too deep into the chemistry side of things, so even if you're like me and don't understand that side at all you might enjoy reading it if you're into space history nerdery. Clark had a pretty hilarious writing style, so it's a surprisingly entertaining book considering the subject matter. As an example, here's what he had to say about chlorine trifluoride:

All this sounds fairly academic and innocuous, but when it is translated into the problem of handling the stuff, the results are horrendous. It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water — with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals — steel, copper, aluminum, etc. — because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.

A video about the Minuteman ICBM's guidance computer by Alexander the ok.

He even made a simulator for it, in case you want to try out what it would have been like to program an ICBM's guidance computer in the 60's 😁

By Michael Rosen