[geeks] [rescue] Computerfests (was: first real server hardware) -OT

[Dan Duncan]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004, Brian Dunbar wrote:
> (shrug) not my field.  I've seen arguments from SPS proponents who
> claim the laser / microwave can be designed not to be so very hazardous
> - beam wander from a laser might (iirc) be noticed by the neighbors,
> and possibly annoying, but not injurious.

Presumably we're talking about megawatts of energy (otherwise why
do it?) and I doubt you could make that harmless at any frequency
unless you spread it out over a huge area.  Your safest bet would
probably be a crater in the middle of nowhere and then sending
the generated electricity over wires (maybe superconductors?) some
distance to the hydrogen plant.  Generating the hydrogen right at
ground zero would probably be a VERY BAD IDEA.  My current employer
(for 3 more days) operates a number of natural gas collection
and liquid extraction facilities and taking a cellphone anywhere
NEAR these plants will result in immediate termination after the guys
at the plant finish kicking your ass.[0]  I imagine a megawatt laser
would fall under the same rules.

> I imagine the same people who are irrationally against nuclear power*
> would have the same arguments against SPS.  Bah, they'll drag us to the
> Dark Ages, see if they don't.  Damn mundanes.

I like nuclear.  I've always felt the waste should be shoved back
into the same uranium mine it came from in the first place.  The
place is ALREADY radioactive and the stuff you're putting back
has LESS radioactivity than it did when you pulled it out.  What's
the problem?

-DanD


[0]  True story.  One of the guys ended up in the hospital after
another guy threw a hammer at his face from quite a distance.  The
company was investigating to determine whether they would be calling
the police after they fired his ass until they heard his side of the
story.  They had been working on one of the pipelines and broke for
lunch at which time hospital boy had started to light a cigarette.
That hammer probably saved the lives of the entire crew and was deemed
acceptable behavior.


-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
# "Sure, everyone always said 'Socrates, what is the meaning of life?' or
# 'Socrates, how can I find happiness?', but did anyone ever say 'Socrates,
# hemlock is poison.'???"  -- Socrates minutes before death.
#