Tuesday 15 March 2011

Japanese Nuclear Power Plant Accidents - Open thread

We've had a huge number of visits to Furry Elephant over the past few days from people trying to find out basic information about nuclear power.

My guess is that there will be releases of radioactive materials into the environment that will worry a lot of people but that won't have drastic health effects, certainly not compared with the earthquake and tsunamis that caused the accidents.

16 comments:

  1. Just watned to say that I really like your site. I hope you come back to the blog! I teach a basic electronics class, but for the military so without formal training. This site has helped to clear things up for me quite a bit!

    -Desdemona

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  2. Darth Plagueis was a male Dark Lord of the Sith[2] who, at some point, chose Sheev Palpatine, a human from Naboo, as his apprentice. As master and disciple, Plagueis and Palpatine—who took the Sith moniker Darth Sidious—worked together, trying to unlock the secrets of immortality[4] and to execute their order's long-percolating plan of supplanting the Galactic Republic with a new Sith Empire.[5]

    According to Sidious, Plagueis was powerful enough that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life and keep the ones he cared about from dying, a precious knowledge that awarded him the epithet of "The Wise."[3] Plagueis, however, also developed a belief that the Force could "strike back" at him for his power.[4] In truth, he became so powerful that the only thing he still dreaded was losing his power. Ultimately, Plagueis' only fear was bound to come true. At some point Sidious had learned everything he needed from his master.[2] Moreover, he had acquired his own pupil in the Nightsister Mother Talzin's son, Darth Maul,[3] a young Dathomirian Zabrak whom Sidious had kidnapped from Talzin when he was only a child.[6] As the Rule of Two mandated that only two Sith—a master and an apprentice—could exist at any given time, one of them had to die.[7] Now that he had no further use for a teacher, Sidious disposed of Plagueis, killing him in his sleep.[2] With the death of Plagueis, Sidious not only gained the status of Master, but also acquired 11-4D, the late Sith Lord's multi-limbed protocol droid assistant. Later, after taking Darth Vader as his apprentice, he reformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire and declared himself Emperor. In the years that followed his rise to Emperor, Sidious came to genuinely, if posthumously, appreciate Plagueis for the planner and prophet he had been. Sometimes, he mused about how his late master would have reacted when confronted with the trivial, day-to-day matters of Imperial politics.[4]

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