Nuclear explosions in the home
THE following advertisement was spotted by Mike Birch in the February issue of Radcom, published by the Radio Society of Great Britain: âWould a person with a 1 kilowatt linear [amplifier] contact me? I want to use the output to test to see if I can initiate a thermonuclear fusion reaction. The experiment is to put a tube of low pressure hydrogen in the inductor of a tuned circuit and excite it with 1 kilowatt of radio energy to ionise the hydrogen and see if it will start a fusion reaction. If it does, the tuned circuit with the tube of hydrogen will be able to maintain oscillations by the energy of the fusion reactions⌠This is intended as a new source of power. The experiment is quite dangerous as it may be difficult to stop the nuclear reactions once they start. There is a danger from radiation and a possible nuclear explosion if the power runs away.â
Anyone feel like giving this advertiser a helping hand?
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Identifying birds scraped from planes
TWO weeks ago, we were intrigued to discover that normally non-flying animals such as turtles and armadillos can have fatal encounters with US aircraft, as recounted by the Federal Aviation Administrationâs (FAA) (7 February). Since then weâve been wondering how they know exactly what got hit. Doubtless some pilots know enough about birds to tell a starling from a Canada goose, but when theyâre flying a plane approaching the animals at more than 150 kilometres per hour, how many can tell a burro (one hit in Nevada) from a burrowing owl (68 hit across the south from Florida to California â presumably when they were not burrowing)?
It turns out the US government has an ornithological forensics team. Itâs the at the Smithsonianâs National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. The lab got into the forensics business in the 1960s when it helped investigators identify a flock of starlings as the cause of a fatal crash in Boston.
Museums collect things, and this one has more than 600,000 preserved bird skins, so researchers can compare feathers scraped from planes with samples from their collection. The feathers donât have to be as obviously unique as a blue jayâs â microscopic examination can reveal more subtle identifying features. Thatâs how the lab found that a golden crowned kinglet, which weighs only 7 grams, caused $74,000 of damage to a B-2 bomber.
Feathers can identify only about half of the 10 or 12 samples that come in daily, so in 2003 the lab started compiling a library of avian DNA. This, as The New York Times reported recently, has led to some unexpected puzzles, such as why a DNA test showed that tissue from a strike at 1500 feet came from a deer. No, the deer wasnât flying, any more than the FAAâs turtles and armadillos were. Further detective work revealed a tiny piece of feather with the tissue that the lab matched with a black vulture. Mystery solved â the tissue sample had come from the stomach of a vulture flying home after dining on venison.
Cooking fondue with MSN messenger
LOOKING for Australian chocolate fondue recipes on a famous web search engine, Gerald Chick came across a search result listed as follows: âChocolate fondue â The minimum requirements are MSN Messenger 6.0 or higher and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. Download Windows Live Messenger now.â
You may feel this doesnât sound very appetising, but if you type âchocolate fondue site:auâ into the FWSE, youâll find itâs still there â or it was when we last tried.
MARKETING departments running out of ideas on how to make products appear exciting sometimes turn to printing trivia questions on the packaging, to test consumersâ general knowledge. This, they think, will provide lots of fun and make everyone love the product.
Andrew Shepherd of Eltham, New South Wales, Australia, came across one of these questions on a Paddle Pop ice cream. It asked him: âDid you know that cows are herbivores for most of the year?â
Andrew says he has been worrying ever since about carnivorous cows and wants to know at what time of year they become active.
ââLegume to be fined or jailed?â asks Dan Ellis, after a headline in The New York Times at the end of last month left him momentarily nonplussed. It said: âPeanut Plant Was Cited for Violationsââ
If youâre unconscious, call the doctor
FINALLY, each time John Wilson receives a new batch of the powerful drug methotrexate to treat his rheumatoid arthritis, it comes with a sheet detailing its toxic effects which warns him: âYou should tell your doctor immediately if you notice any of the following: Loss of consciousnessâŚâ