Category: anonradio

ASFO 2023–07–22

Report from Pemmi–con, describing my displays, and bemoaning the computer problems (partly self–inflicted) which have caused a key part of my atomic energy display, built around circa–1990 German payphones, not to work. From here I jump off into a brief discussion of the problems of control interfaces, opining that the reasons which make touchplates a very bad choice for cars are much stronger for spacecraft, and indeed space settlements.

Luna Project display at Pemmi-con in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In the centre of the image a display of postal covers hangs over a table draped with a cloth displaying the blue-and-yellow Luna Project "rocket" logo at front. Along the panels to both sides are hung a set of six prints by Frank Kelly Freas.
Luna Project display at Pemmi-con as described in the show
A view of part of the "Man and Atom" display at Pemmi-con in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Two tables can be seen, one facing the viewer and draped with the "radiant atom clutched in a fist" logo and the slogan "Atomic Power to the People". A variety of nuclear-related posters and other materials is displayed along sections of fencing covered with pegboard.
Man and Atom display at Pemmi-con, as described in the show
A view of the "Man and Atom" display at Pemmi-con in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A table can be seen draped with the "atomic flower" logo and the motto "Split Atoms Not Wood". On it there is a portable video player. Along four sections of fence panelling, and on freestanding grid constructions, are posterboards with panels covered with text and images, including many pages scanned from public-information documents.
Another view of the Man and Atom display at Pemmi-con

ASFO 2023–07–08

Probably the last new show until August 12th, although I might be able to use the call–in feature while I’m at the beach in Manitoba. Mostly I talk about transport ― filling stations for motorcars versus charging stations for battery–electric cars, hydrogen propulsion for trains or perhaps airships, and especially the remarkable scaling properties of steel wheels on steel rails with overhead–wire electrification.

Supplementary Show

2023–07–11 Dialing in this time, to check that this should work for ASFO shows while I’m in Canada the next few weeks (I’ll leave the HNtW timeslot for repeats), I finish the Hoyle et al piece from last time, and then read Nuclear Reactions in Stars Without Hydrogen (Astrophysical Journal, 1952) by EE Salpeter and Primeval Helium Abundance and the Primeval Fireball (Physical Review Letters, 1966) by PJE Peebles, from the same source, and a bit of Hans Bethe’s famous 1938 “Solar Phoenix” paper, Energy Production in Stars (Physical Review).

ASFO 2023–07–01

Comparisons between the recent first revenue flight of a Spaceship Two for Virgin Galactic, and the now–infamous submersible Titan, are examined to discover how justified they may be. Also, Canadian space money, possibly soon to go out of circulation, and my recommendations for a new US coinage ; and the turmoil in Russia and popular indignation against the United States Supreme Court lead me to consider (once again) to what extent the problems of government can be solved.

Supplementary Show

2023–07–07 Tanabata! After a great deal of rambling about what is going on in my life, and why I find it unsatisfactory, as well as a bit of dead air, I finally read some selections from a booklet of reprints entitled Synthesis & Abundances of the Elements. Origin of Actinium and Age of the Earth by Ernest Rutherford (from Nature, 1929), and the better part of Origin of the Elements in Stars by Fred Hoyle et al (from Science, 1956).

ASFO 2023–06–24

Everyone must be tired of hearing about the ghoulish tourism vehicle turned billionaire crushing machine, but I think I make a couple of points which you may not have heard yet, and might be worth listening to ― whether it be about the sociology of wealth, or the ASME Boiler Code. Also I use a little simple arithmetic to explore assumptions about energy policy. And there are some intriguing fillers at the end.