Swans on Tea

Notes from Steven Chu’s Senate confirmation hearings

“Will you take a lead, not just to talk about it, not just to opine about it, but actually do the things necessary to see if we can’t restart our nuclear industry?” asked Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Tennessee Senator Bob Corker echoed the question later, asking Chu if he meant to “pursue nuclear now… all out now?”

Yes, yes, and yes, Chu replied. “Nuclear power is going to be an important part of our energy mix,” he told the committee, a position he has stated before. Chu noted that nuclear power provides 70% of the carbon-free electricity in the country. Still, he said it was important to continue researching better waste disposal and fuel recycling technologies, perhaps in collaboration with other countries.

Earth, observed at the Big Picture

Here’s one of the pictures. I find this one fascinating — try and guess the scale of the picture, i.e. the horizontal size of the photo should be about 20 cm. What distance does that represent on the picture? Click the link to find out.

Superuseless Superpowers

SUPERUSELESS SUPERPOWER: Resistance to helium.
Legend has it that there walks a man with uncanny abilities. After a tragic blimp accident, this man has developed an immunity to Helium. As this man courageously inhales Helium, there is no effect on the timbre of his voice.

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