Nuclear Energy Fun!

Okay so probably the #1 topic I've followed closely in terms of the recent and terrible Japanese disaster is the issues they are having with their nuclear energy plants. This is a very worrying concern, and I've taken it upon myself to become one of the most knowledgeable around me and my friends so I can put it into perspective just how much this could affect us. And a great learning opportunity too!

Alright so hopefully by now we all know of the 2011 Sendai earthquake/tsunami that has devastated the Japanese country. It's sent them spiraling downwards, and they aren't being given a break. From one of the strongest earthquakes to grace our Earth's crust, to a tsunami that wiped out entire cities and the NE coast of Japan, including aftershocks of magnitude 6.0 and above... they have plenty on their hands to handle.

The explosion seen at Fukushima #1, following major earthquake.

One of the greatest aspects to be known originally was the initial damage caused to the Fukushima #1 plant of Japan. Fukushima is a city that contains 2 nuclear power plants. The first, designated Fukushima #1  (Fukushima Dai-ichi) currently contains 6 nuclear reactors each providing energy, and massive amounts of it. They are each run as a separate entity, and are supplied by different companies. The plant itself is owned and operated by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), with GE (General Electronics), Hitachi, and Toshiba being the 3 separate companies supplying all 6 reactors. GE supplies 1, 2, and 6. Toshiba 3, and 5. And Hitachi runs reactor 4. They are all light-water (meaning normal, everyday water) reactors, and more specifically about the function, are boiling water reactors (boiling water being the result of the nuclear fission).

Each of these reactors, in construction, is the same. They are light-water reactors that provide energy through creating steam that powers a turbine. This is the manner many of the world's nuclear plants operate in. The fuel used to power the steam-making is the most complex part of the operation. Essentially, you take uranium pellets that are enriched to have concentrated amounts of uranium. The enriching process of uranium is basically taking mined uranium (natural in the earth), mixing it with other components and getting a specific isotope of uranium to put into reactors. It's a complex process, but not terribly important to the way the plant operates.

Nuclear Plant Fuel - How it's processed - learn more about how uranium pellets are processed/used.

A simple explanation: These reactors will take the uranium, and using it, power the process of nuclear fission. Fission is the breakdown of atoms provided from the uranium and breaking them down into smaller nuclei. This all starts at the reactor core, where the 'fissioning' happens. The core basically just creates such intense amounts of heat, it boils water circulating through the reactor to create steam. This steam is then harbored, and used to turn a turbine with a generator which produces electricity.

I go into more detail below.

1) Reactor Pressure Vessel; 2) Fuel Rods; 3) Control Rods; 6) Steam; 8+9) Turbine; 10) Generator

The reactor core consists mainly of 2 parts. And I'm sure you've heard the terms all along, just not knowing exactly what they are. Well here's a rundown!

So you have your uranium fuel pellets, which are loaded in 'fuel rods' - pellets are inserted into one end of a tube with the other side sealed off. These fuel rods are bundled by the hundreds, and placed in the bottom of the reactor core. At the top of the core, there are 'control rods' - another term I'm sure you're familiar with hearing about now. Basically these control rods are similar to the fuel rods, only instead of uranium they are filled with other substances that capture the neutrons that are created in part of this process, more able to control the chain reaction that happens - but also capturing the radiation that comes from the uranium. These must also be properly stored and controlled as they have radioactive properties.

Control Rod driving mechanism, these will be pushed
up to cover fuel rods

Alright so we've got a basis for the construction, and a general understanding of what all is going on. So we have our reactor core, and it is going to start the process of nuclear fission. If you were just to leave the fuel rods in a nuclear reactor alone, and start the fission process, everything would go hay-wire with far too many fission reactions going on instantaneously. You NEED to be able to control how much fission is happening at any given moment.

That's where the control rods come into play. The fission creates separate neutrons from atoms, creating heat. This heat becomes so intense, it heats up everything around it. The fuel rods, control rods, reactor, and containing facility. If control rods are completely lowered, the materials contained within them will completely halt the fission process. As they are raised, increasing amounts of chain reactions can occur. Thus, controlling how much heat (energy) is created.

To further control the flow of neutrons, and to make sure nothing gets so hot it's unmanageable, there is a coolant used. Luckily for us, ordinary water found from natural sources are an ideal product to use for this. So you can use ordinary water from rivers, lakes, and oceans. And that is why nuclear plants are situated along major water ways. And why Fukushima #1 is on the NE coast of Japan, hardest hit by the earthquake/tsunami.

Water is pumped through the reactor core to carry the heat created from fission away from the control rods, so they don't overheat. The heated water is taken to a turbine, where the actual energy will be created.

Okay so now a quick break to explain the actual plant itself. Generally, a plant will be designed to have the reactor core situated by itself with all required components, and they will pipe away the created steam to a separate room. You will have all the fission/cooling equipment in one area, and the electricity production equipment in a separate area as an added level of security/containment.

Pretty much how Fukushima operates

So you have the reactor room, where a pipe is taking the hot water/steam created from the reactor core to a turbine which will use the steam to power the turbine, sending energy to a generator as is the basis of many power production plants. After the steam passed through a turbine, it is condensed back to regular flowing water, cooled, and sent back through the same process. Depending on the facility, they may add an additional coolant to the water being circulated from a fresh water source to assist in the cooling process.

Now, take everything we've gone over and assemble it to be placed placed within a facility. You've got everything ready to go - fuel is loaded in fuel rods, and control rods are placed over the fuel to prevent any nuclear fission from happening. When everything is given the go-ahead, a reactor that has been down for maintenance comes alive and starts breaking down atoms. It has many systems in place to monitor and control the functions within the reactor. One function is the raising/lowering of the control rods. When you're ready to begin producing energy, a technician will gradually raise the control rods until a self-sustaining chain reaction of nuclear fission takes place. In other words - once enough atoms are being split to cause the steady explosion of surrounding nucleus, it has reached the 'criticality', or operating stages. Then you can start harvesting the steam starting the processes explained above.

A typical nuclear power plant

One last thing to add. Whenever a nuclear reactor is shut down to reload fuel or for maintenance or even in the case of an emergency shutdown that happens automatically, there is still heat contained within the reactor that needs to be dealt with. From what I have read, the Fukushima reactors after shutdown require a cooling process to be handled for another 24 to 48 hours as heat remains (Decay Heat). Decay heat is the energy created from the radioactive elements within the reactor, who in a half life, still create energy. It goes through a steady decrease in amounts of energy created. This is important because if the fuel / control rods are not cooled down properly, they can begin to melt from the intense heat which make them extremely difficult to manage.

This is what a nuclear 'meltdown' is - the literal meltdown of the fuel required for fission inside of a nuclear reactor. If all the uranium puddles together, it creates a near uncontrollable fission process creating massive amounts of uncontained radiation. This is why nuclear situations can have such high risk, and the fuel in and around Fukushima must be closely watched and controlled. Unfortunately, there have been significant problems doing this so far.


Quoting a bit from Wikipedia about decay heat, as it is a very critical measure to take into effect with nuclear reactors.

"An additional 23 MeV of energy are released at some time after fission from the beta decay of fission products. About 10 MeV of the energy released from the beta decay of fission products is in the form of neutrinos, and since neutrinos are very weakly interacting, this 10 MeV of energy will not be deposited in the reactor core. This results in 13 MeV (6.5% of the total fission energy) being deposited in the reactor core after any given fission reaction has occurred.

When a nuclear reactor has been shut down, and nuclear fission is not occurring at a large scale, the major source of heat production will be due to the beta decay of these fission fragments. For this reason, at the moment of reactor shutdown, decay heat will be about 7% of the previous core power if the reactor has had a long and steady power history. About 1 hour after shutdown, the decay heat will be about 1.5% of the previous core power. After a day, the decay heat falls to 0.4%, and after a week it will be only 0.2%. The decay heat production rate will continue to slowly decrease over time; the decay curve depends upon the proportions of the various fission products in the core and upon their respective half-lives^[2].  An approximation for the decay heat curve valid from 10 seconds to 100 days after shutdown is"

Essentially, after the initial nuclear fission reaction, a specific amount of energy is created EVERY separation that takes place. And, after the initial fission there is a follow up burst of energy as the radioactive elements reach their half-life. Only a percentage of these (about 1/3) are not 'big' enough to react very strongly. So about 2/3 of the energy created from the radioactive elements reaching half-life is deposited into the reactor core, and needs to be dealt with in the form of water cooling it. Significantly less energy (heat), so fairly easy to deal with and isn't that big of a deal, just extra time to make sure it's properly handled.

Generally, the Fukushima plant needs about 24 to 48 hours to be cooled after shutting down to deal with these issues.

Then, they re-load the fuel rods and do it all over again! It's an amazing process, highly complex (yet simple at the same time!), with a great return but leaves us in an overall disadvantage. Nuclear power is not forever, provides many risks, but for the moment great reward. It will be used until something newer and better is found. It has a much better return compared to other fossil fuels, not ideal, but the risk is worth it to create a functioning and large civilization as others are so innefective. Truly a technological advancement, and there are many different types of reactors. This just explains the ones cooled by water, produce steam, etc. There are nuclear reactors built for the U.S. naval carriers and other large ships, and used in many other applications including similar process for creating nuclear weapons.

The latest nuclear powered supercarrier of the US, CVN-77 named USS George H.W. Bush

Thanks for reading! Any discrepancies in what I've presented and what is the truth would be greatly appreciated if they were pointed out. I wanted to get a rundown of just how nuclear power plants work, giving real life examples and relations to make it a bit easier to comprehend. I couldn't find an explanation enough online that was relative, so I decided to dive in and take it upon myself to dig through all the technical stuff and write out a lengthier, broken down explanation. Hope you learned something! I know I did!


Boiling Water Reactor overview - Wikipedia

Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant overview - Wikipedia

Light Water Reactor overview - Wikiepdia

Uranium Enrichment Process and Products - Argonne National Laboratory

How Stuff Works - Detailed Nuclear Plant workings

A perspective

Alright so right now I'm watching an amazing documentary about Chernobyl...

Battle of Chernobyl (The True Battle of Chernobyl Uncensored) via google video.

True Battle of Chernobyl - Link


And wow. I'm less then 15 minutes in and already my jaw is constantly dropped in awe... I can't even believe it.

It has a lot of unseen footage of the disaster, and the video is from 01/28/2011 so very recent. I'll be writing more of this as I watch the video and post my biggest "Holy Shit!" points.

1) Smoke coming from the reactor, except it's not smoke. It's pure radiation... in a pretty much solid form.. CAN YOU EVEN COMPREHEND THAT?!? My god... The journalist on a helicopter put his head out the helicopter window and was hit by it... He was the first to take a picture of the damage.

2) The first video footage taken from the city can literally show the radiation on the ground and in the air around them it shows up as an anomaly on film... And they had NO idea.

3) The city wasn't told anything for days... whaaaa... Within 4 days they would have had a lethal dose of radiation. They were 3 KM from Chernobyl. Just to put some perspective on that, Japan has already vacated 15 km from their power plant just as a precaution of the Fukushima plant in danger right now from the earthquake... poor Russians had no clue at all.

4) Great secret to keep... Other countries knew about the radiation before officials in Russia did... Awesome!

5) You can take 2 "roentgen" (measure of radiation) a year as a "safe" dose per year of radiation. Normal atmospheric roentgen levels are 1/ . When they started fighting the blaze, there were an estimated  1000 roentgens in the atmosphere around the explosion... Firefighters were exposed to 5 roentgens every time they did a drop to help put the fire out.

6) The government hid this all from the people. They encouraged them to act as normal... There was a holiday coming up, and the people paraded in the streets. An entire city was afflicted by radiation on a holiday from the disaster... and hadn't a clue.

The rest is too amazing to not know and see. If you have read this far, and are interested, please check out the documentary.

The efforts of the people, sacrifices made... is so selfless. They risked everything to fight an unkown, invisible enemy. And won, while still feeling effects and illnesses to today's date, and a good portion of them will die prematurely.

Get to know what these sacrifices were, you'll appreciate our world a lot more.

Elephants and Donkeys . . .

Alright... this is getting to be enough. I am getting so tired of people fighting over how it's fair and correct for corporations to do nothing but focus on making as much money as possible. That is no way to live... for anyone. Corporations should have a fair chance of making profit, competitiveness and all that but should equally feel the burden to provide for the culture and people that brought them up in the first place... starting with education.

Nobody in this country would be where they are without an education. And I'd say, what, at LEAST 75% of all 'functioning' people from public schools. Why take away anything from a teacher? Why be worried that they have TOO MUCH?!? They have the biggest responsibility and we give that to them by putting our children's future in their hands... why not just work out what is fair, what is right, rather than what they have too much of?

The crisis in Wisconsin has reached the point where it's no longer a fight for justice, there are outright lies and pandering to corporation greed with the governor there admitting he's gone hypocritical on everything that's happened. He was raised on a platform of budget reform, 'tightening the belt' so to say, NOT union busting. Then he pushes a corrupt, snappy bill through that he publicly admits had NOTHING to do with fiscal matters. None. But they HAD to push it through while the democrats were gone... disgusting, and sad.

I was in a discussion about this on a forum today and responded to a post as such:

"Originally posted by dolphinfan

It is not a companies obligation to create jobs.   It is a companies job to deliver share holder value.   Ideally they have enough confidence in the future prospects of the economy to hire people as they pursue a growth strategy, but they are not obligated to do so.
Let me get a chalk board and draw it out for you.   Revenue/profits does not equal jobs.   It may, but it may not.   A clear economic policy and some competence in the governance of international affairs creates economic stability which encourages firms to embark on growth strategies.   We have an absence of both at the moment.   In light of that the right corporate strategy is to hunker down and ride out the uncertainty.   If a company has x people and is generating a healthy profit and sees organic growth which they deem sufficient, should they hire?   Of course not.
Profits are up because inventories are low and firms have cut waste and streamlined operations to maintain profit margins (the same thing government should be doing). "

AND MY RESPONSE...

And being that your opportunity to make this money, to start this huge successful corporation was because of America. Because it was America who raised you, created the culture you thrived in and the ability to create your own empire you shouldn't feel you have any dues? It was the people around you, that made you. It was the teachers that when you were young inspired you, your hospitals and fire departments that responded when YOU needed help or your life saved, just so you could go on tomorrow and create a big business.

It's great that people have the intelligence, skill, and aptitude to be CEO of a huge corporation and reap massive benefits. All the power to you, but do you not feel any need to give return to or just live amongst your countrymen and peers? I personally imagine, knowing that eventually it will come to reinforce me in the end (through business model) that sacrificing 5% of my profits to make their lives better is similar to our government giving the rich a tax break, so they aren't concerned as much about how much they spend.

Apple creates a product that Americans enjoy, they outsource to China for cheap parts and sell it back to Americans. That's great and all for the corporation, but couldn't that CEO feel a little responsibility and warmth to his country to give the opportunity to create jobs for his own people who made him what he is today?

I don't see any problem with big corporations sacrificing some to give back to those who made them what they are. And certainly don't take away from those who are continuing to provide a quality of life you expect and do receive. Why would you want to take anything away from our teachers that educate your young? The brave, daring firemen who rescue your family and belongings when YOU or someone else mess up.

The situations with unions may not be perfect, but by no means should we take ANYTHING away from our infrastructure and our citizens. It's immoral. Why not be civil and democratic about the situation and DISCUSS the collective bargaining to where it makes sense for both the government AND, God forbid, the people. You know, the people actually have a say in what's fair for their tax money to be spent on?

No, go ahead and continue these illegal actions because the CEOs and huge corps had just as much opportunity as the teacher who passionately educations and furiously fights for fair rights, and resources. Let's keep piling on the demands for our public workers. Let's kick 'em to the curb, and not listen to them or give them a chance. Let's just listen to the big corporations who fill our pockets, not to the people. They aren't struggling with over burdened class sizes, hectically long work weeks, improving their plans and quality of teachings, lack of resources or anything like that. They could give up their job and go be an analyst with their education and make mega bucks, unfortunately a lot of them feel passion and just want to be able to live comfortably doing what they love and what people NEED in society.

This is about fairness, democracy, and being enough of an adult and American to discuss with the people what is right to do. By hastily sneaking bills under the people's noses... treating them like dirt... what are you accomplishing at all?

We'll just let the corporations suck us dry then they can pick up everything, move over to India and continue on selling services back to the US when we get back on our feet and start expanding again. What then will you say, that's their total right. They shouldn't feel any obligation to be an American company, and serve the American people? Everyone can do a lot more to help our their fellow man. You can redistribute your wealth, just as someone else may redistribute their time priorities to donate time to volunteering, helping the needy. Nope, make them worker harder for less and give back less.

We are accomplishing corporate level perfectly. What does a country mean, when you can be competitive and just wait for Google to be the next country, maybe Yahoo will follow and then Wal-Mart can get a chance. Vicious, glorious cycle of money and opportunity to make yourself more and others less!

I don't see why we can't break it down to a fundamental level and see that this isn't working for everybody. We need to handle this more humanely, take time and patience and do things RIGHT long term than what will get us through until the next party can take over in 2012 blah blah blah... fuck it. We're all people... Living in a great country with great opportunity and people, let's reinforce that by structuring our teachers and making sure our kids are taken care of first... that will never happen if we continue fighting over who is making TOO MUCH money, than what is right for everybody and their respective responsibility, working conditions, and benefits.

*************************************************************************

I'll go back and say this much... the biggest problem that people have, as far as I can tell, with the public workers is that they aren't up to snuff. That when they are marked with a similar profession, they have to out perform them for 1/4 the benefits and blah blah blah... Well, my main thing right now is this...

"GOVERNMENT'S POSITION IS NOT RESTRICTION, IT IS REGULATION"

And that should apply to controlling their workers, too. I think if you represent the state you should be held to highest standards of requirement, as they have the most resources available to dedicate a quality job takes place. I think collective bargaining is good, not only in terms of negotiating wages but work environment regulation on how many resources are available, what requirements they need to make (such as whiteboards for a classroom, and what dimensions they need to be. How many desks need to be available, sizes of classrooms) as well as what would be a comfortable wage and expenses and such... why can we not look at this as people, as Americans, all as once society and respect each other and our skills, work, dedications...

Instead we have corrupt parties, going for corrupt actions, for corrupt corporations and corrupt people who wouldn't know what helping a fellow man meant other than throwing some change in a homeless man's cup. That isn't providing for your fellow man. That isn't creating an equal playing field. Pity for the weak, praise for the strong... and cut out the middle class completely.

Unfortunately that's where I, and many other Americans find the true American dream. In that we have the opportunity to chase almost any career imaginable, go to a multitude of education establishments, see such a huge diversity in hill sides, country, big cities, forests, deserts, mountains all wrapped in a bundle of freedom to be ourselves... I don't want to be RICH, I don't want to work 80 hours a week. I want to make a decent wage, working decent hours in a career that I ENJOY where I'm enjoying my career and providing a service rather than working. Where I can balance professional time with family, vacation, helping my neighbor and building up a house to be a functional part in a good looking neighborhood to bring a sense of self-satisfaction to myself and a sense of pride to my neighbors by living in such a good place.

Where I know my children will have a good education from a teacher that doesn't want to sit in front of a class and BITCH about their job for 45 minutes, and half assedly assign you Algebra homework for the other 15. Those were my middle school years, seriously. People get into teaching because they are passionate, want to make a difference but everything about the current system downplays that as we should be run like a streamlined, sleek corporation not a do-well cornerstone of success...

THE AMERICAN DREAM IS DYING FOR THE AMERICAN MAN. And it saddens me, as when we're left crumbling Convergys, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft, etc. can pick up everything and move to another country in the blink of an eye and continue profits. That they can, right now, take the investments from American people and tax moneys and develop jobs for other countries... and still have Americans drool over your product for a 5% profit margin... makes me sad. Because you gain everything, but have given nothing back...

Twister!

Wow, so I just watched a couple videos online.

Simply amazing and surreal to see the utter destruction that can be brought upon us in moments... And a perfect viewpoint too! I love this footage...

And here's another perspective

That is just too cool and amazing. And from what I've seen nobody was hurt, just minor injuries. Lucky people, kinda be weird to go back if you were them and watch your own reaction to a fucking tornado pop up in front of your face. With the lights flickering... ah... bet it's funny to see yourself scared shitless.

And something that I found really cool as well:

Supposedly used as an alternative means for smoke escape in case of fire as when they originally built the Mercedes Benz museum, did not include enough fire doors according to fire protection standards. So they came up with an alternative means of getting rid of smoke! Very cool.

Ads. . .

I'm really curious to know what the next frontier of advertisement will be. Mainly because I'm already going crazy with how much more obtrusive and sneaky they are making the bastards... that mixed with my unpredictable internet, and massive amounts of internet tabs I generally have open it can create quite a ruckus.

I remember when I was younger I'd put on some of those looping Weebl & Bob cartoons or something similar and let it loop continuously, then open another 8 or 16 tabs, put on the same video at different times and feel myself slowly slipping into insanity as the children's laughter increases in pitch and intensity and your head explodes.

Not quite there, but I'd get pretty close. Sadly I'd take that over some of these ads any day. And that's just one on their own, I'd rather find a way to turn that noise solid and eat it for the rest of my life than deal with the way some of these ads build up on each other and cause just as much insanity if not more.

One of the sites I frequent, like... every 15-30 minutes is a forum and on the main page of that forum it lists all of the different sub-forums for discussion. The home page is quite large, a great portal to the other information, shows hot topics, new ones, important ones, etc. I tend to forget I leave this page open and check on it every now and again. Unfortunately, hidden 3/4 of the way down there's usually a 2"x2" box that after the page sits dormant for about 5 minutes will start playing, and way louder than anything else.

If you've ever been trying to watch an interesting or in-depth Youtube video or something of the like, or are reading, and all of a sudden you have some male voice blasting through your speakers in some unconceivable language until you tune in a little and realize it's a solicitation and that demonic voice you were convinced of is actually just trying to sell you sweet, innocent Air Wick. Sweet. Innocent. Air Wick.

Airwick: Peddling Good Smellin' Evil since the '50s

Okay so we've got the ad that lays dormant, waits until you least expect it and then BLASTS a ridiculous advertisement for something that only an 80 year old woman would even consider buying. And that's if even she can get over the demonic possession of solicitation they use.

On top of that there are the most God forbidden ones I can imagine... the smiley ads that talk to you. Or, more like humiliate and shame you because you pissed yourself after hearing 5 smileys simultaneously make a kissing gesture, bark, yell, and bitch at you about not checking your mail that whirls together into a Transformable Tomas Voltron of Smily Hell. I know he's the ring leader around the whole thing, just look at his smug chest.

Can't forget to add the ads that come up in a new window upon your first visitation of a site, and instantly greets you with despair as a "live cam" window pops up, and you are presented with one of the most scantilly dressed transexual cam performers that ever escaped the circus. And here they are, blasted right onto your screen for all to see. You know when you get one of these, you've gone to the wrong site and as much 'X' mashing as you can muster won't let you escape.

But it doesn't trap you as bad as my least favorite example. Don't you love the ads that let you view a page for a second, get you all comfortable then snatch anything you held onto away from you by redirecting you to a completely unrelated page, force you to wait 2 minutes while a terrible ad loads, blasts a crappy slogan and presents you with an application to apply to the glorious, respected online university of Ham Sandwich: Fine Teaching Institution of Mayo Clinic, Meatbonanza Arena, and Lettuce Be Lovers Group for Bread bakers Pride and Union. Very prestigious! You can tell as they have a rounded ad, crappy music, happy people with huge white teeth and books! Lots of books!

Always on the forefront of Technology

You've seen past the guise of HSU, laughed in triump and go to close the ad when... there's no close button. Anywhere. You've scoured past the false promises, made up testimony and avoided giving your e-mail and phone number to a group who will call you 5 times a day from different 1-800 #'s and never leave a voicemail. You oughta get a damn medal for getting this far.

You've scoured the ad twice, and now a third time and there's no close button. You go back, try to load the website again, it starts to load, stutters, and displays the same ad. With no close button. I JUST NEED TO CHECK MY SHOPPING ORDER, PLEASE DEAR GOD LET ME THROUGH!! No luck. The ad has won. Give up and wait, because you aren't gonna be able to get a customer service # with that ad there, either.

I think I've worked out possibly the most harmful virus to sanity of man, if pulled off correctly. If you can convince someone to go onto your personal relations website with the intent of digging through it, you're halfway there. They hop onto the URL and first thing they get an offer to video chat with other users. Sweet! Let's check out luver_kitten12 OH MY GOD IS THAT A LEG, OR AN ARM?!? Oh god is that its face, and why is it wearing that low cut shirt?!? The panic sets in, they close that window to have an ad for Ham Sandwich University pop up. This is relieving as they've been looking at getting an education, and who doesn't like sandwiches? They put all their info on... and on second thought after submitting the first application aren't so comfortable with giving out your personal, professional, and academic information to a website claiming to give you full certifications for Subway. Too good to be true, they 'skip to your original destination' to be greeted by a too innocent looking cartoon character promising happiness and laughter.

As soon as they start feeling the waves of acceptance and communication emanating from the Comcast box, they're ready to create an account. But not before a new ad pops up requiring them to 'Put in yur cell fone # to kno whu yur crush islololol!!!1!!11!?' ... wow, already people wanna party with me. Sure I'll give you my # baby, good thing I don't check my phone bill.

You settle down, and write your about me. As soon as you finish, you take a look around. Wow, first search and there's 150 supermodels in your area that wanna bang young white dudes that don't have money so they can feel better about their wealth. Perfect!!! I'd write a message...but I dunno if I'll look cool enough. Wait a minute, if I get a smily that YELLS how cool I am AND it wears sunglasses, they'll definitely do me!!!! I'm downloading those NOW. Now that I've got that installed, I had better check my online banking to make sure I can afford to buy them a hot balloon ride for a first date. And enough to be sure on my second date I can afford a ring. My life is gonna be complete in like a week!!!


And thus you have the ULTIMATE ad hell. Yeah.

Space. . .

The Universe, cosmos, stars, galaxies, solar winds, magnetosphere, black holes.

Galaxies contain up to a few thousand stars each. Our own Milky Way contains ~300-400 BILLION stars, just in our cosmic backyard. It would take you thousands of light years to travel from one side of our own galaxy to the other.

If you were able to exit our atmosphere, and look into space with a fine tuned eye you would be able to easily see thousands of galaxies, each looking like a little, beautiful platter in space. In reality each of those collections and groupings of stars you see are literally billions of stars. There are millions of billions of stars just in the universe we know of, that we can actually see. It's not even worth attempting to grasp the universe, really...

Every part though, is fine tuned. Within every galaxy or star system, you can define quadrants (say, with us we're on a tail of the Milky Way galaxy), and within those quadrants you can define planetary systems such as our own Solar System. That is, what will generally be 1-3 stars (usually 1) and a grouping of other cosmic bodies including asteroids, planets, satellites,  comets, and cosmic dust.

And that's just what a, more or less, 'standard' planetary system would consist of. There's free floating planets not even belonging to a particular system, just orbit the galaxy, suns that are being born, are dying out... all sorts of crazy things.

Using a generous example, of approximately 10,000 years we've had the opportunity to be at our common 'intelligence' with society, technology, science, etc. we can't come close to our own planet, let alone who knows for distant reaches of the universe. The general consensus is that our own Earth is about 4.5 BILLION years old. We've really only existed in our actual potential 1/4,000,000 the age of our own planet and we have the ability to understand and conceive what is around us, or at least potentially try to with a good degree of success as far as we can tell.

We've developed so quickly in the past 1,000 years it's hard to believe that in all this time there hasn't been a large number of other intelligent life in the universe to gain some cosmic understanding and aptitude that is far different from our own reality, even if is in the same 'physical' realm. I think the most accurate representation of what an intelligent body of life would perform, act like given all the time to advance technologically AND spiritually would most likely end up like the Protoss from Starcraft. I think that is an accurate representation of what an 'alternative' society may have been able to develop into.

My main intent with this passage though was to convey the utter size and the ability the universe contains to overwhelm any of our ideas, thoughts, beliefs just by us looking up through the dark skies and trying to comprehend what we maybe able to accomplish even just living in a different section of space... hard to come to terms with. That there is so much more possibility with the energy we know is around us, and what we may evolve the ability to use... that there's more to just this physical form we are in tune with.

And here's one of my most favorite videos I've seen of all time... it gets me everytime.

I... stepped out, of a supernova. And so did you.


I agree with a lot of this video. It has some fantastic points about our physical realm, and how we need to treat each others as long as we KNOW what we are. That we are human beings, that we just want to advance and live as fruitfully and joyfully as possible, and live for yourself and your knowledge. I'm more of a spiritual person, so I don't agree completely but I think it brings fantastic points to light.

And there might yet be a Heaven, but it isn't going to be perfect, and we're going to have to build it ourselves.

Twinkle, twinkle

A sky nostalgia
Explains tonight's mood
The stars they wink
Inviting me to sink


Sink deep and in
Go home again
Consumed by void
Devoid of sense

Screw up once, never get the opportunity to again.

Today I was going through my loop of checking out hot articles, reading through discussions on forums and Facebook. One of the interesting articles that I found some interesting debate on was about how ex-convicts are treated / will be treated in Seattle.

Recently there has been discussion about a provision to give ex-convicts a fair chance at putting their life together again following their "treatment" or "rehabilitation" or "prison", whichever you prefer.

The responses I read about the bill instantly jumped to the conclusions that rapists and child molesters will be given more rights -- how abominable!! This even coming from a source I thought to be a little more even minded. After reading the article it gave me great insight into how the common criminal is treated after they are released from their sentencing.

And specifically about how an ex-convict instantly translates into some horrible, horrible monstrous person. We need to be aware that everyday there are new laws proposed, drafted, and presented to our government to impose stricter control, add more regulation, make new things illegal and a lot of this goes underneath our eyes. You can become a convict for any number of things, not to say that they are innocent crimes by any means nor is it excusable to not know of a crime.

It's not all like Ocean's 11, they ain't going in for a huge heist, and they
aren't immediately being released to a billion dollars

But just because someone has a felony on record, is an ex-convict does not mean they are forever stuck in a criminal mind set. Another interesting thing I'll skew off a little bit about here - is in relation to my Lucidending post, in the same area I found another thread that took me to an ex-convicts rundown of his prison experience. From when he was charged, till a few months after his release an in-depth, personal experience of being a convict and the prison system for 2 years.

It was another great eye-opening experience hearing about what general populace is in prison, the molds that are shaped from those who are sent there, the kinds of people there and what not. It described his struggles both in and outside the pen, dealing with correctional officers and his probation officers. It shows you there are people that deserve to be treated as criminals (through their repeat actions) and someone who happened to make a mistake.

Back on topic though, it made me realize that a good majority of convicts just want to try to return to a productive life after 'learning their lesson', and our current society does not in any way embrace their will to change, but rather puts up a front of intolerance and hate. How can we ever be a progressive society if we can't even try to pick up those that have fallen?

As it is now though, according to insight from a Seattle convict trying to get his life back on track it's a very tough path. And righteously so, but should we make their remaining life hell? By no means. I think we need stronger rehabilitation for criminals, education for those convicted, and opportunities outside the pen. According to the source of that prison experience, the majority of inmates were black. And about 90% of them were illiterate. They were stuck in a perpetual motion of crime, as they had no ability to do anything else. They would have their cell mates write letters to their children, about any paperwork or whatever for parole. If an inmate is literate, that is a huge bonus right off the bat. If you can read and write, you can get mega goods traded for your services as so many are illiterate.

As it stands right now, you can immediately be excluded from a great number of things, just by being convicted of a crime. Sure, in some cases it's justified that you wouldn't grant a particular person access to a living area you were renting out or something like that. But in others, it doesn't make sense to be immediately judged based on your record. The article talks about letting landlords and such do an independant review of any tenants, rather than them immediately be forgotten about.

Give those trying to make a change in their life by attending rehabilitation, finding work (which is also very, very hard to find even the easiest of jobs as a convict), a chance to prove themselves. People can change for the good if they find the right help in life... unfortunately prison just ends up being 2 -25 years of 'survival', and nothing else. It's a blank life... and if they can show they can change, why take that away from them?


SEATTLE ARTICLE: http://www.king5.com/home/Ex-Cons-A-Protected-Class-117496888.html

Since I'm just getting started here... Atheism

 DEFINITION:

Atheism, in a broad sense, is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.^[1] 

In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.^[2]

A deity^[1] is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers, often religiously referred to as a god. 

I believe there is no God. I do not straight up denounce religion's ideals, just the idea there is a God. I do not believe there is an omniscient, all-knowing, all-loving, judgmental, being in the center of the cosmos sitting upon a throne dictating how mine and your life are lived.

Not to say there isn't good in religious 'ideals' and what not, just that there is no God. I have not ever, and in the foreseeable future will never believe in the presence of an all superior God.

Not to say I don't think there are 'beings' above 'human beings', just that there's not ONE command center blasting orders throughout the Cosmos. That is counter-intuitive to me to think that all our balance, progression, and love found over millions of years in nature was controlled by someone who knew exactly where that was going. And why aren't we there already, if he exists and is so perfect, and can create a perfect world and people?

That you live in a world where you're not constantly surrounded by bliss, happiness, and most of all a boring life. You have the ability to have anything but a boring life, and that should be appreciated. If everything was a given, was certain... would you do anything? If you knew in your afterlife, in the presence of God, you would be able to feel full all the time why would you want to enjoy good foods now? If you will be reunited with your perfect family in Heaven, why give everything you have now to ensure they have a good life? Why wouldn't you just massacre them all, with the intent of reuniting them in a 'world' where there is no harm, no bad. Just forever bliss. Ignorance. And probably a lack of chairs. Isn't that what the ultimate goal of religion is? To have to do nothing but feel absolutely perfect? That is unnerving to me, and sounds the least bit perfect.

I grow. I develop. I learn. I teach. Everyday I knew more than I did yesterday, and tomorrow I'll know more than someone 1,000 years ago could have possibly imagined. And that is special to me. That we have this ever expanding consciousness, the constant ability to learn and grow. That energy is all around us.

And if we don't tap into that energy, but rather just 'tough it out' until the big guy gives us an escelator to the pearly gates... what are we doing still alive? What do we have to gain from this life, that we could take to an afterlife?

I'm not some completely morbid and dark person. Although I don't entirely discredit it, I also don't believe we end up in a dark abyss at the end of life and that's it. That we just rot in a box in the ground forever... although conceivable, I don't believe it.

I don't believe in an ever blissful afterlife either. I personally hope there isn't one, it sounds so... boring. I don't know what happens, but that our energy continues. I believe in energy, souls, philosophy, nature, life, growing, learning, and teaching.

I believe that we are set to learn something in this life we are given, and you CAN find a passion. There's a reason that everybody ticks for something, or else you would be against all life, all nature. If you could honestly find 1 person who couldn't find anything in their life they feel passion for, you would literally destroy all my beliefs. And I would love to be given the learning opportunity for that to happen.

Unfortunately, I believe that is impossible and have a *pretty* good idea of what life really equates to... and that is learning. All life is, is learning. You are born, you learn to breathe. You learn to walk. Learn to talk, to interact. You learn to work, to do a better job, to raise kids. You learn to love, learn to accept life. And eventually you learn that death is just another leg in the perpetual journey of existence.

How we can manipulate that existence is what I am absolutely driven by, and it's what fuels me today in addition to my passion and love for technology and a hope for a brighter tomorrow.

I believe that we need to do everything we can for our fellow man to ensure they are given the same opportunities as we are, to grow globally and expand consciousness. Everybody has the same opportunities to learn, grow, love. We just have different manipulating factors overhead of us that we need to weed out before we can fully appreciate that.

I could go a lot more in-depth (not to say I haven't already) but I'll leave you with a  final thought that I believe to be essential:

"You're only worth as much as what you can provide for your fellow man"

Make of that what you will.

Only when faced with certainty, can we focus on the uncertain

That nothing we have is worth hurting anyone else for. 


It's all fleeting people. 
Stop seeing race, color, sex, religion, etc.... 


Theyre all just people, and if you try to love them you won't lose anything.

There was a posting I read today that I found very, very interesting. There's a section on Reddit which I will be spending a lot more time on, I do believe.

My everyday curiosity comes with what we encounter every day. How my neighbor's life looks, works, and jives. What makes them happy, how do they celebrate? Are they happy?

I'm a people watcher at heart. Knowing what makes other people tick, is what makes me drive. Getting into their heads and then taking a step back, seeing a certain position through their eyes and thoughts.

But what if you could take that experience to the farthest extreme possible, faced (figuratively) with the eyes of someone who is dying, and able to dig into their psyche in a respectful way... was amazing to me.

I'm going to live. This is as close to travel and meeting new people as I can get now. I'm sorry if that sounds dumb but this is my world tour

There was a user who only very recently registered onto Reddit, as he barely gained the ability to lucidly hold and interact with an object such as an iPad. He had little knowing of the ability to in the flick of a finger experience the entire world through still images, explore people's reactions through video, and contact other living people through a digital means. The ability to share your thoughts with anyone... and have them so deeply appreciated, you could never understand your impact yourself.

This new user is Lucidending who registered on Reddit with one purpose, to give insight into someone who has legally, and (in my humble opinion) morally decided to end his life and suffering for himself and close relatives. And he has probably had one of the most profound impacts in a public forum I could ever imagine...

His story is one of numbness, and a sheltered life.

Everyone. You all could have improved my life through your adventures. When someone gets sick those that love them shut offnthe outside world to focus on them. All we want is a glimpse of normal

Fantastic image from Stuck in Customs. Definitely a sight to behold

 For six years he's suffered with lymphoma, swam through pools of opiates and been up and through the medial loop. And I'm sure he's been on that ride a few times. Now he has a chance to end his suffering, bring closure for his family, bring a message for the world and rest in peace. And what more could you want out of a human life?

He's shared his experiences and thoughts. He knows he had 51 hours to live as he started this new journey on the last peg of his life. If you were faced with the same situation, how would you handle it? How would you spend the last of your known reality?

He shared it with the world, and they reacted positively. His message will be spread to those who fortunately have more of a chance of combating these diseases that slowly kill you and everything you know. As you're thrown through a gauntlet of medicines, treatments, specialists, and medical bills. The ever stacking medical bills that take what little you had and pulverize it.

At the time of writing, it still has yet to reach the point in which his 51 hours is up, but it steadily ticks. And his thoughts are more concerned about protecting his family's happiness than on the pain he will endure or what comes next...

It was a very sobering read, and gave you a good smack of reality and how to appreciate what you're given and will have. Read for yourself, but I'll put the most profound quotes that I found here.

jjfr000 186 points 21 hours ago[-]

Fondest memories?

• permalink

Lucidending [S] 600 points 21 hours ago[-]

Seeing my nephew beat cancer. He had it as a child and the doctors at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia cured it. 9 years and it never came back. A close second, the summer my dad and I saw a baseball game in every AL city 

When he was asked about how he would spend the last of his hours, and about how his iPad was his new link to the world. Users sharing their favorite images, views, scenes with him...

gt5snake 463 points 21 hours ago[-]

Other than answering our questions, what are you going to spend your last hours doing? And most of all, good luck, my friend. May you have the peace you deserve.

• permalink

Lucidending [S] 1202 points 20 hours ago[-]

I'm going to live. This is as close to travel and meeting new people as I can get now. I'm sorry if that sounds dumb but this is my world tour

And probably the most important, profound, sentimental, and life-changing is this one...

daffygremlin 409 points 21 hours ago[-]

what message or lesson would you like to give to us and the rest of the world

• permalink

Lucidending [S] 1691 points 21 hours ago[-]

That nothing we have is worth hurting anyone else for. It's all fleeting people. Stop seeing race, color, sex, religion, etc.... Theyre all just people, and if you try to love them you won't lose anything.