Comedy Genius

That was extremely funny and entertaining, Douglas Adams watch out, you really should write a book before you shuffle off this mortal coil, oh in about 200-300 years or so. Do it !!

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Bass playing: yes that makes sense. The bass melody that takes us to the unexpected. Humans enjoy surprises (that's why we wrap up Christmas presents).

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Fusion: I remember the failed Holy Grail of the Cold Fusion announcement. Very disappointing. This latest one is not it. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) aims to prove fusion's viability and is slated to be built in France by 2016.

Here's how it will work: Two hydrogen isotopes -- deuterium and tritium -- are heated in a doughnut-shaped chamber to more than 100 million degrees Centigrade, at which point they form a plasma, or ionized gas.

Superconducting coils surrounding the chamber wall create a magnetic field that confines the plasma, forcing the deuterium and tritium nuclei to collide; when they do, they fuse to form helium nuclei, releasing neutrons.

The mass of a helium nucleus and a neutron is less than that of a deuterium nucleus and a tritium nucleus; the excess mass is converted into a tremendous amount of energy, which is imparted to the helium nuclei and the neutrons.

When the fast-moving neutrons hit the "blanket" that lines the chamber, they generate heat within it, which can be harnessed to produce electricity.

Since there's no plentiful natural source of tritium, ITER will test ways of using some of the neutrons to create tritium from lithium-bearing materials in the blanket.

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One of our posts in February had 22 blogcrawler comments! I wonder if it was because it contained the word "rich". "If I were a rich man, de de de de de de de de de de de de de de dum ..."