Category: Physics

By Guardian Council

The Thorium Cycle, Part Two

A question you may be asking yourselves now is: if there is a commercially viable application of the Thorium cycle, why haven’t I heard of it before? Well, there is a very simple and obvious answer to this: according to calculations from Canada and India, a kilowatt hour of electricity generated from Thorium will cost about three pence. That’s about a tenth of the current price of immensely subsidised “renewable” energy in the UK and much of Western Europe.

If a truly environmentally friendly energy became available at that price, it would quite totally upset the apple cart of the “green” industry along with its research grants and subsidised non-businesses.

As a whole, “renewables” rely heavily on the taxpayers’ largesse to be kept alive, along with all the “green” and “eco-friendly” investment bonds which are of course not environmentally friendly or socially acceptable at all, as we’ve already seen with regards to the appalling impact of rare earth mining and the increasing number of deaths from NOx pollution since “decarbonisation” began in earnest.

Continue reading “The Thorium Cycle, Part Two” →

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusmail
By Philthetestmanager

The Flat Earth Society

Firstly a hat tip to the Flat Earth Society, their website is: https://www.tfes.org/  also for Wikipedia, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies

I thought it about time that we all knew something about The Flat Earth Society, (TFES).  I write this article not in jest, you can make your own mind up.  Those that have not blocked a regular poster, Behold a Pale Horse (BaPH), will have seen his oft quoted “Ain’t no such thing as space bro”.  I asked him to write an article, but I suspect this will not happen, so I thought I would do some research and lay out for you what their basic beliefs are and a little bit about them.

Modern flat Earth societies consist of individuals who promote the idea that the Earth is flat rather than an oblate spheroid.  Such groups date from the middle of the 20th century, although some adherents are serious and some are not.  Those who are serious are often motivated by pseudoscience or religious literalism.

Continue reading “The Flat Earth Society” →

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusmail
By Guardian Council

The Thorium Cycle, Part One

Rightly or wrongly, I consider myself to be a reasonably educated sort of fellow. But a few years ago, it struck me as rather odd that I had never heard of the Thorium cycle or the molten salt reactor (MSR).

I’m neither a nuclear scientist nor a physicist (nor much of a scientist neither) and I don’t pretend to be one. But I found it rather surprising that apparently a few chapters had been airbrushed out of the history of nuclear science, namely the before mentioned Thorium cycle and the MSR. Now, you might at this point wonder why this is even a thing, and never having heard of them neither, I would share the sentiment.

As we all know, to run a successful economy an abundant supply of safe and cheap energy is essential. And ever since someone on the Asian steppes bartered the first sack of bailey for a goat or a lamb, successful business transactions were at the heart of the human endeavour – no energy, no progress. Simple as that.

Without economic activity, there would have been no cuneiform script, no mathematics, no Pyramids along the Nile, and of course no classical antiquity along the Med from Jerusalem to Athens, and later beyond.

Guardian Council, Going Postal

Continue reading “The Thorium Cycle, Part One” →

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusmail
By Going Postal

How does a LASER work?

Rat Catcher, Going Postal
Green laser reflection and refraction

In my youth, I was an avid reader of Electronics Today International. Not only did it cover the more hefty electronic DIY projects but it also liked to look forward in terms of technology and covered items in far greater engineering depth that the likes of Tomorrow’s World which I also anjoyed.
One highlight of ETI was the Audiophile section which covered reviews and information on the latest hi-fi equipment. The author of this section had a thing for Felicity Kendal and usually printed a picture of her for no other reason that it was a very attractive picture.
I digress.
ETI once reported that it had been said of the LASER that “it was an invention looking for an application”. Up until recently, I had thought of this and what it meant. I now see it as an oddity that has many applications yet to be discovered but at the time, I took this to mean that it didn’t have many uses at all. My opinion changed when I saw an episode of the Avengers (From Venus with love, 1967, S5 E1). If the sight of Diana Rigg isn’t enough to whet your appetite, the plot involves astronomers being killed whilst looking at Venus. It turns out that they are being ‘zapped’ by a LASER and, if a popular programme can be considered a viable historical document, it goes on to state that LASERs are used for dental surgery, communications and eye surgery. This was certainly news to me that they were being used for these purposes in 1967 and there is something marvellous about seeing Mrs. Peel climb in to a Ford GT40 with a LASER mounted under the bonnet.
I digress again.

Continue reading “How does a LASER work?” →

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusmail