08 June 2011 - The Mad Filkentist (original) (raw)

| | June 8th, 2011**06:18 am - A ruined book**This week I started reading The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Priscilla J. McMillan. It quickly became obvious that the author either knows nothing about physics or intentionally dumbs the science down. There's a chapter called "Fission versus Fusion," but it has no coherent discussion of that subject. In fact, there's a sentence which says, "After years of trying to think of ways to ignite a D-T [deuterium-tritium] mixture and make it burn, Teller wanted to know what would happen once it did burn: how the temperature and density would change, all the 'diagnostics' of burning." I'm sure Edward Teller wouldn't have found burning hydrogen a very challenging problem. A match usually works. She's actually talking about nuclear fusion, but apparently thought such big words would scare the reader. Explaining fusion to start out and then using "burning" as a convenient metaphor would have been OK, but that's not what she did.There are other odd statements. In the same sentence, McMillan says that the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission was "composed of the country's wisest and most experience nuclear scientists and engineers" and that it was "the tail that wagged the AEC dog."The history of the development of the H-bomb is fascinating, and there are lessons for today in its atmosphere of fear and secrecy. But I want a better book.(2 comments | Leave a comment)**07:57 am - IPV6 day**Today is IPv6 day, when a number of major services test the use of IPv6 on a broad scale. In case you haven't been following the news, the world has run out of old-style IP addresses and is getting by with an assortment of tricks. IPv6 provides 128 bits instead of 32. That should be enough for anything. Well -- almost anything.Are you IPv6 ready? Find out here. I got a 0 out of 10 for IPv6 stability and readiness, whether going directly or through the VPN at work.(6 comments | Leave a comment) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | LiveJournal.com | |