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Get Over Here and Play a Video Game

Submitted by: Meqad

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(My son has picked up the phone. On the line is a scammer claiming to be from ‘windows tech support’. He is trying to convince him his computer has a virus.)

Son: “Hello?” *pause* “Yes, this is he.” *pause* “No you’re not.” *pause* “No dumb-a***, that doesn’t exist.” *pause* “You can assure me all you want, you’re not getting access to my computer.” *pause* “No there aren’t, I regularly scan my computer with legitimate software to remove what few viruses get through the firewall.” *pause* “Oh really, one of our other computers? One of the Macs, so well known for being fixed by Windows tech support? I bet your parents are real f***ing proud of you, knowing you make a living trying to steal other people’s money.” *pause* “No call for it? Are you kidding me? There’s no call for you phoning me up trying to steal my money, so I’ll guilt trip you as much as I please.” *pause* “Yes, I know that will show lots of errors, that’s what it always does. I’d be more worried if it didn’t show any errors.” *pause* “I don’t understand why you haven’t hung up yet; you must realise you’re not getting any money out of me… unless you’re not actually allowed to hang up, in which case it’s story time!”

(My son walks into the dining room where my husband and I are sitting, grabs the first book he sees, and flips it open.)

Son: “Ah, J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Yes, I think we can skip the opening notes. ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirt’—aww, he hung up.”

(As a result of that exchange, we started keeping a small stack of books next to the telephone to read from when scammers or telemarketers call, to see how long it takes them to hang up!)

Update to earlier news post: Nathan Fillion says “Make It So!”

More news is coming to light about Nathan Fillion’s role in the rumoured Star Trek reboot for the small screen. Titled “Star Trek: Tranquility”, the series is set to be a fresh take on the franchise from the perspective of colonies ostracised by the Federation. Fillion is rumoured to be playing the ruggedly handsome Captain Maxwell Reed, leader of a rag-tag group of rebels, fighting against the oppressive Federation, and a descendant of Malcolm Reed, the armoury officer in Star Trek: Enterprise.

Set 10 years on from the current movie reboot in the “mirror universe” – a favourite storyline among die-hard fans of the show – the show plans to focus on the NFT Tranquility, a non-Federation transport vessel. Though discussions are still in their infancy, it’s rumoured that the cast will consist of some familiar roles for Fillion – a skilled and battle-hardened second-in-command, an unstable yet roguish heavy with an unnatural love of knives (most probably Klingon), a medical officer with a secret, a young female Betazoid (psychic), a pilot who can fly almost anything (rumoured to be a role with a guest star each week), an ambassador, a secretive scholar and – in a move rarely seen in TV sci-fi – a female engineer who is a strong female character.

When approached to respond to Joss Whedon’s comment that he “Must … do … all … the shows”, JJ Abrams – rumoured to be at the heart of the project – was overheard to emphatically declare “Star Trek is mine, Joss… Mine!! And Star Wars! All the sci-fi are MINE!”

No official word has come from Paramount, but it looks like the series will be hitting the small screen in 2014 with an April 1 premiere.

When we asked for further comment, sources close to the project responded.

With the success of the Star Trek reboot, sources have indicated that the franchise may be set to return to the small screen. Talks are rumoured to be underway between Paramount and JJ Abrams to build a series that is set 10 years on from the current reboot but in the “mirror universe” – a favourite storyline among die-hard fans of the show.

Casting discussions are apparently already taking place, with Nathan Fillion hinting at the possibility that he will be returning to his role as a (ruggedly handsome) captain of a spaceship. “It’s not a stretch for me,” said Fillion, “especially the ruggedly handsome part.” Fillion also indicated he was excited to be playing a role in a proper science fiction show for once. “I should encounter almost no cattle. It’s in my contract now.” It was not revealed exactly how tight his pants would be, but if previous iterations of the franchise are any indication, they will be lycra.

Pre-Production is rumoured to begin later this year, with production to commence in February 2014.

Cafe | Melbourne, VIC, Australia

(I am working a morning shift at a cafe. We are serving breakfast. A little boy and his mother enter the cafe.)

Me: “So, what will it be?”

Child: “I WISH TO DEVOUR THE UNBORN.”

(There is a sudden silence and everyone turns to look. The mother looks very embarrassed.)

Mother: “Eggs… he would like some eggs…”

Author : Townsend Wright

The young tech analyzed her monitor. Her blue uniform was worn loosely among her personal gothic choice of clothing which was oddly fitting of the dark, blue-lit, organic looking room they were in. “Download complete. Ready any time officers.”

Browner checked the watch on his eye-screen, 9:08 pm. “Ready, Owen?”

“Any time, Dom. Go ahead, flesher lady.”

The tech pushed the necessary buttons on her monitor and the gingerbread man-shaped vat of white goo in front of them began to bubble. “Genetic encoding: good. Cell differentiation: good. Cell formation, with cerebral encoding: good. And…wakey, wakey.”

The vat erupted in a jerky blob which after the runoff of goo reveal itself as a swarthy middle aged man frantically gasping for breath as he sat naked covered in ooze.

“Arthur Green?” asked Dom. The man nodded harshly in response, sending drops of goo flying out of his hair. “I’m detective Dominique Browner, this is my partner, Police Android unit O-N 17.”

“My friends call me Owen. Can you speak, buddy?”

“Where am I? What am I doing here?”

“That’s a yes,” Owen joked.

“Mr. Green, I’m sorry to inform you that you have been the victim of a homicide,” Dom said in accordance with protocol.

There was a pause, “Is this heaven?”

“No,” Dom continued, “this is a pod-cloning facility in Level 23 of Sub New York.”

“What am I doing here?”

“Legal maneuvering, mostly,” said Owen.

“What?”

Dom brought to mind the by-the-book explanation. “You are aware that your standard neural implants record all your memories for easier personal access?” Green nodded. “According to the Brenshaw Privacy Act of 2101, it is illegal for the police to directly access any of these recorded memories, even in the case of a murder victim.”

“Now, here’s where things get good,” Owen interjected.

Dom continued, “However, it is legal for any person’s memory to be temporarily downloaded into a ‘printed’ pod clone. Such a copy can be used for questioning.”

“You mean I—”

“Was a bathtub full of stem cells two minutes ago?” Owen interrupted, “Yep.”

“What is the last thing you remember?” Dom continued.

“I—I was arguing with my wife, and then she pulled out a kitchen knife and—and—”

“Ha!” Owen exclaimed, pointing mockingly at his partner, “I told you it was the wife!”

“Alright, you don’t have to brag,” Dom said. He turned to the tech, “That’s all we need.” The tech pushed another button and the clone of Arthur Green reverted back into a mass of programmable white slop. “Let’s go find some evidence against her.”

The officers walked back to the elevators. “Hey, Owen?”

“Yeah, Dom?”

“Does it ever feel weird to you? Melting them like that?”

“Nah, court’s already adjourned, all we do is burn a copy of the transcript.”

“I guess you’re right. Just promise me something, Owen.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t do that to me when I get murdered.”

“Heh heh. Don’t worry, Dom, I won’t,” the elevator doors opened and they stepped in. Owen added “Why would I kill ya’ just to make another one?”

 

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Spent Fuel Pool

What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to actually experience a fatal amount of radiation? How long could I stay safely at the surface?

—Jonathan Bastien-Filiatrault

Assuming you’re a reasonably good swimmer, you could probably survive treading water anywhere from 10 to 40 hours. At that point, you would black out from fatigue and drown. This is also true for a pool without nuclear fuel in the bottom.

Spent fuel from nuclear reactors is highly radioactive. Water is good for both radiation shielding and cooling, so fuel is stored at the bottom of pools for a couple decades until it’s inert enough to be moved into dry casks. We haven’t really agreed on where to put those dry casks yet. One of these days we should probably figure that out.

Here’s the geometry of a typical fuel storage pool:

The heat wouldn't be a big problem. The water temperature in a fuel pool can in theory go as high as 50°C, but in practice they're generally between 25°C and 35°C—warmer than most pools but cooler than a hot tub.

For the kinds of radiation coming off spent nuclear fuel, every 7 centimeters of water cuts the amount of radiation in half.

The most highly radioactive fuel rods are those recently removed from a reactor. Based on the activity levels provided by Ontario Hydro in this report, this would be the region of danger for fresh fuel rods:

Swimming to the bottom, touching your elbows to a fresh fuel canister, and immediately swimming back up would probably be enough to kill you.

Yet outside the outer boundary, you could swim around as long as you wanted—the dose from the core would be less than the normal background dose you get walking around. In fact, as long as you were underwater, you would be shielded from most of that normal background dose. You may actually receive a lower dose of radiation treading water in a spent fuel pool than walking around on the street.

That’s if everything goes as planned. If there’s corrosion in the spent fuel rod casings, there may be some fission products in the water. They do a pretty good job of keeping the water clean, and it wouldn’t hurt you to swim in it, but it’s radioactive enough that it wouldn’t be legal to sell it as bottled water. (Which is too bad—it’d make a hell of an energy drink).

We know spent fuel pools can be safe to swim in because they’re routinely serviced by human divers.

However, these divers have to be careful.

On August 31st, 2010, a diver was servicing the spent fuel pool at the Leibstadt nuclear reactor in Switzerland. He spotted an unidentified length of tubing on the bottom of the pool and radioed his supervisor to ask what to do. He was told to put it in his tool basket, which he did. Due to bubble noise in the pool, he didn’t hear his radiation alarm.

When the tool basket was lifted from the water, the room’s radiation alarms went off. The basket was dropped back in the water and the diver left the pool. The diver’s dosimeter badges showed that he’d received a higher-than-normal whole-body dose, and the dose in his right hand was extremely high.

The object turned out to be protective tubing from a radiation monitor in the reactor core, made highly radioactive by neutron flux. It had been accidentally sheared off while a capsule was being closed in 2006. It sank to a remote corner of the pool floor, where it sat unnoticed for four years.

The tubing was so radioactive that if he’d tucked it into a tool belt or shoulder bag, where it sat close to his body, he could’ve been killed. As it was, the water protected him, and only his hand—a body part more resistant to radiation than the delicate internal organs—received a heavy dose.

So, as far as swimming safety goes, the bottom line is that you’d probably be ok, as long as you didn’t dive to the bottom or pick up anything strange.

But just to be sure, I got in touch with a friend of mine who works at a research reactor, and asked him what he thought would happen to you if you tried to swim in their radiation containment pool.

“In our reactor?” He thought about it for a moment. “You’d die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds.”

Today we bring you something green and healthy. This is the time of year when I have to try and resist all sorts of delicous looking Easter candies every time I'm at the grocery store. It's hard to pass up a cadbury egg! So while I'm tempted by every color of Peeps marshmallows I thought I'd try to focus my kitchen efforts on healthy snacks this week. Behold: parmesan and wasabi baked edamame.These little guys are HIGHLY addictive. You have been warned. After snapping a few photos of these I stood staring out my kitchen window popping these in my mouth by the handful for probably about ten full minutes. Like a edamame eating zombie. (Which makes no sense because everyone knows zombies only eat brains. Duh.)Parmesan & Wasabi Edamame

2 cups cooked edamame (if frozen thaw beforehand)
2 tablespoons oil (I used olive oil)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (from a shaker is best for this particular dish)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon wasabi powder
salt + pepper to tasteFirst coat the cooked edamame in the oil. In a separate bowl stir together the parmesan, flour, wasabi powder, salt and pepper. Sprinkle the flour mixture in with the edamame, tossing as you go. You want each piece to get coated in the flour mixture without any big clumps forming. 

Lay the edamame out on a baking sheet lined with a silpat mat or parchment paper. Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes, tossing the edamame half way through baking so that they get cooked on both sides.Serve warm. These are best the day they are made but you can try reheating them in the oven should you have leftovers. I think these make a fantastic snack but I could also see them being served as a fun side dish. Enjoy! xo. Emma

P.S. Looking for other healthy snack options? Check out: baked fruit (three ways!), dairy free ice cream, homemade apple chips, brussels sprout chips and whole wheat pretzel bites.

As we’ve seen before, colour quickly conveys emotion and affects people’s moods. Whether you’re choosing paint for a room or designing a presentation, this chart, which matches specific Pantone colours, can come in handy. More »