DIY Star: How to Make a Star
You can make a star. The process is called inertial confinement fusion, and its taking crazy personal science experiments to a whole new level. If you attempt this in your garage or home, please wear protective glasses. You also might want to consider a helmet.
Recipe verbatim from the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility website:
- Take a hollow, spherical plastic capsule about two millimeters in diameter (about the size of a small pea)
- Fill it with 150 micrograms (less than one-millionth of a pound) of a mixture of deuterium and tritium, the two heavy isotopes of hydrogen.
- Take a laser that for about 20 billionths of a second can generate 500 trillion watts – the equivalent of five million million 100-watt light bulbs.
- Focus all that laser power onto the surface of the capsule.
- Wait ten billionths of a second.
- Result: one miniature star.
In this process the capsule and its deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel will be compressed to a density 100 times that of solid lead, and heated to more than 100 million degrees Celsius – hotter than the center of the sun. These conditions are just those required to initiate thermonuclear fusion, the energy source of stars.
By following our recipe, we would make a miniature star that lasts for a tiny fraction of a second. During its brief lifetime, it will produce energy the way the stars and the sun do, by nuclear fusion. Our little star will produce ten to 100 times more energy than we used to ignite it.
That ought to do it. Please don’t use your homemade star for any destructive purposes.
Robots On Facebook
Filed under: Androids, Anti-Android Research & Development Team, Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Robot Psychology, Robots, Robots Deserve Rights 2, Science Fiction, Social Media, Technology, The Future
A major breakthrough in human/robot relationships arrives as Facebook allows one of its first robot members. Read more here.
Robot twitterati could be next.
Social media users worry they will not be able to discern between their “human” and “robot” friends. Jackie Topovowitz from the organization Anti-Android Research & Development Team (AARDT) said, “We cannot blur the line any more between man and machine. The simple fact is, robots should be taught to be subservient to humans. Allowing them to interact with people on social networks puts us on equal footing, and we cannot let that happen.”
Members of the group Robots Deserve Rights 2, (RDR2), say the comments made be AARDT are robo-racist. Jeffrey Gottchalk said, “we welcome robots to online social networks with open arms. This is a positive step forward in robot rights.”
What do you think? Do robots have a fundamental right to social media?
Alien Refugee Post Sparks Debate
Filed under: Alien Intelligence, Alien Invasion, Astro Biology, Foreign Policy, Interstellar Politics, Politics, UFO's
Our recent post about the documentary film District 9 sparked a passionate debate between those who think we should open our arms to these interstellar outcasts and those who fiercely oppose giving any aid to aliens without homes. These shirts have surfaced from each side of the argument. Who’s side are you on?
New Documentary Shines Light on Interstellar Exile Problem
Filed under: Alien Intelligence, Alien Invasion, Aliens, Astro Biology, Foreign Policy, Interstellar Politics, Politics
The documentary District 9 is a long overdue film about the serious issue of alien refugees. The resources of the universe cannot support the rapid growth of the universal population, and this is not the first, nor the last, case of alien civilizations being cast off of their home worlds due to overcrowding, pollution, and planetary apocalypses.
Theorists say Earth could be next in this disturbing trend of planetary exile. So far we’ve been lucky in that most of the alien refugees hoping to make our world their new home are not hostile, but analysts say we must be careful to not appear to weak as we accept more and more alien exiles.
“You can liken it to the position the Obama administration is finding themselves in with international relations,” says political correspondent Dan McGruffy. “President Obama is being simultaneously praised and criticized with his open arms approach to foreign policy, the fear being that we will appear weak. At the same time, there is no doubt that America needs to heal damaged relationships with foreign nations. The same problems arise with interstellar exiles. We do not want to appear harsh and insensitive while making it clear we will defend our resources. The question arises, who does Earth belong to? Earthlings? Or the universe? Do we have a fundamental duty to provide life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all beings? The bottom line is, as our population grows and we continue to accept more alien exiles, we risk accelerating the depletion of Earth’s resources, and we might find ourselves exiled as well.”
What do you think? Is it our duty to provide for interstellar exiles? What is the appropriate response to their needs?
2012 Prediction: Apocalypse Caused By Slow Internet
Filed under: Alien Intelligence, Aliens, Computers, Psychology, Science, Science Fiction, Social Media, Technology, The Apocalypse, The Future
Are we running out of internet? This report suggests this could be the case.
As we continue to wonder what might cause the 2012 apocalypse infamously predicted by the Mayans, this report has caused a stir because of the following quote from the article in the Times Online: “From 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an ‘unreliable toy’”.
Could a frustratingly slow internet cause the infamous 2012 apocalypse? This is a possibility according to an internet researcher who wishes to remain nameless. The reseacher said, “We’ve become so dependent on the internet that a reduction in its performance could lead to global chaos. Banking systems, transportation, utility grids could all come crashing down. I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to think the ensuing mayhem could snowball into the end of the world.”
While these points are relevant to this theory, psychologist Dr. Eddie Eddington Jr. says he is more concerned about the psychological damage a slow and evaporating internet would have on the world.
Dr. Eddington said the following when reached for comment: “The instant gratification we’ve become used to with the internet and the immediacy with which we can connect to a world of information has made us extremely ADD. Take for instance the Twitter phenomena. Our attention spans and patience are dwindling at exponential rates. If reports that the internet will start slowing to a sudden halt around 2012 are true, then we could very well see our collective psychology short circuit. The results of such a short circuit could be widespread insanity, which would snowball into chaos, riots, and general anarchy. It very well could trigger a sort of ‘social apocalypse’. Perhaps this is what the Mayans predicted.”
What do you think? Could a slow internet in 2012 be the spark that lights the fire of an apocalypse?