Artemesia

I've been around online since the earlier usenet days when you had to have some chops to know what usenet is (was), and how to get on it. Mastodon right now feels a bit like the good days of usenet, there's some of the same vibe.

Interests: bike maintenance, ebikes, orchids, cymbidiums, weird succulents, gardening in general, security engineering, current events, congressional shenanigans, courthouse shenanigans, US and european politics.

#slavaUkraini

#nobridge

Last Notes

2025-01-15 18:08:05 UTC

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You just described microsoft's stack rank. Another side effect is that it damages hiring, because the team members don't want to hire someone who might take one of the coveted two (of ten) best performer slots in the annual review. Microsoft dropped stack rank in 2013, only a decade late. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft-ditches-system-that-ranks-employees-against-each-other/

2024-12-01 18:54:04 UTC

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The state of the art of chemical liquid rocket fuels for main propellant has *not* advanced somewhat--they're still using fuels discussed in the book, including the one that Clark's lab eventually determined was slightly the superior, extra-refined kerosene, which became RP1, which is used today in Space-X falcons and heavies. Methane, extensively discussed, is used in Space-X starship engines. SLS and the space shuttle use(d) hydrogen, again extensively discussed. Over 20 years they pretty much wrung dry the high energy compounds that can be created with the peridioc table we have. Iteration and improvement in rocket engines, yes. Main stage fuels, no.
I guarantee you every english-speaking professional working with rocket engines and fuels has read this book, and first edition copies are treasured and are selling for over $250 last time I looked. But it's your list, do as you wish, I will not bother you further.

2024-12-01 13:46:54 UTC

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Ignition! by John Clark. History and practice of American research into liquid rocket fuels. Still relevant today, since they ain't making new types of atoms. https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf

2024-10-04 20:30:00 UTC

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I really intensely dislike people who link to something then lie their asses off about the contents of the cite. From your cite:
"In 2010 the International Panel on Fissile Materials said "After six decades and the expenditure of the equivalent of tens of billions of dollars, the promise of breeder reactors remains largely unfulfilled and efforts to commercialize them have been steadily cut back in most countries"."
"It was expected that breeder reactors would quickly become economically competitive with the light-water reactors that dominate nuclear power today, but the reality is that capital costs are at least 25% more than water-cooled reactors."
"It was thought that breeder reactors could be as safe and reliable as light-water reactors, but safety issues are cited as a concern with fast reactors that use a sodium coolant, where a leak could lead to a sodium fire."

2024-09-20 18:59:44 UTC

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Bullshit. Cite. And if you cite China, Russia, or North Korea, or anyone else where they shoot you if you object to dear leader's plans for your town, I will block you. (Hint: Bure in France hasn't gone online yet, and they've been studying the problem since 1994)

2024-09-20 13:08:46 UTC

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Microsoft is the power purchaser, not the plant operator. But I'll ask what I always do--What's the plan for the spent nuclear fuel? Is it just going to sit on-site for decades in cooling tanks, until 20+ years from now the contract is up and the operator abandons the site, leaving the spent fuel as a problem for PA's ratepayers and taxpayers?

2024-07-09 20:53:15 UTC

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Let me guess. They're looking for the taxpayers and/or residential ratepayers to cover expanding the grid

2024-07-09 20:49:07 UTC

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...or you could, know, jack the price of electricity so the fuckers go somewhere else.

2024-07-01 20:16:06 UTC

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Senators sinema (I-Kstreet) and manchin (I-coal) say no. Re-elect Biden and give him 50 real senators in 2025.

2024-06-15 07:43:53 UTC

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Um, I'm pointing out the bullshit of those commenters who are attempting to bothersider the running of this program. Biden ordered it killed only three months into his term, and we don't know at what point he learned of it. He didn't even have all his cabinet positions filled.
...and how do you know no one was punished? The program was not illegal, just brazenly and stupidly counterproductive. Do you think if the authors and abettors of the program got reassigned to counting gravel at the aleutian islands, that we would hear of it?
...and what the fuck are you talking about when you say it was only terminated after it became public? It was ordered terminated in spring 2021. The psyops program became public via reuters' expose today, more than three years later.

2024-06-14 17:09:01 UTC

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"This ran under both Trump and Biden administrations."
Um, terminated by the Biden administration PDQ. From TFA:
The Biden White House issued an edict in spring 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found.

2024-05-31 00:10:46 UTC

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Don'r forget NYT reporting this is bad news for Biden.