Monday, August 08, 2011

Why not go back to the axis of evil?








We're a bit late to this story, but it's too good not to pass along: A Swedish man was arrested late last month, after he tried to build a nuclear reactor in his kitchen.
The AP reported, yesterday:
Richard Handl said he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his flat in southern Sweden when the police showed up.
He said on Wednesday he had always been interested in physics and chemistry and "just wanted to see if it was possible to split atoms at home".
Handl never tried to hide what he was doing. In fact, according to The Local, an English-language news site from Sweden, police went to his apartment after he contacted the Swedish Radiation Authority to ask if it was legal to build a nuclear reactor.
A picture posted on Richard's Reactor blog.
A picture posted on Richard's Reactor blog.
A picture posted on Richard's Reactor blog.


A picture posted on Richard's Reactor blog.
Handl even kept a blog about his adventures. He wrote about how he got radioactive Americium from a smoke detector and he posted a picture of a vial filled with glowing tritium.
In another post, he featured a picture of the remains of what he called "a meltdown" in his kitchen.
He wrote:
No, it not so dangerous. But I tried to cook Americium, Radium and Beryllium in 96% sulphuric-acid, to easier get them blended. But the whole thing exploded upp in the air...
In a post dated July 22, he writes that because of his arrest, his project had been cancelled.
Handl gave an interview to the Swedish Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD) newspaper. He was released from jail and told the paper he spent a little over $1,000 to build the reactor but he "got it going.
"I had just bought what was needed, so I do not know if it had worked," he told HD, according to a Google translation of the piece. "It's probably pretty hard to get it to work. But they took all my stuff, so now I'm done. Now I'll keep it at the theoretical level," he said.

A letter to a radio station:

To KCBS radio:

I listen to KCBS all the time with appreciation for all that you do, but this morning I was surprised and offended by an advertisement by “AJC,” which contained a highly distorted view of the Palestinians and Israelis, presenting the Palestinians as “the party of ‘No.’”  (There were valid reasons why the Palestinians could not agree to the peace proposals set forth by the American or Israeli governments.)   Most disturbing, however, was the fact that “AJC,” which sponsored the ad, was never identified.  I assume it was the “American Jewish Community” or something like that.  It was biased and bigoted, and under the guise of innocence, blamed the Palestinians – the victims of Occupation – for the lack of progress in terms of a just peace.  Identifying “AJC” would have at least allowed your listeners to know the bias of the “advertisement,” so that they could hear it in context.   It was the most subtle – disgusting - piece of deception I’ve heard in a long time, disguised, even, to make it sound like a KCBS editorial or news item.  I have been to Israel & Palestine many times – just returned from 18 days there in May, and continue to work with peacemakers on both sides.  Believe me, there is no truth to the AJD ad.   The American people already receive very narrow reporting from the Middle East, almost always slanted in Israel’s favor – much different news than the European community receives, along with the rest of the world, Arabs included.  Please don’t add to the misunderstanding and distortion.  Insist that your advertisers honestly identify themselves, not hide behind mere letters that most people would not recognize.  I’m surprised and disappointed that you let such a thing slip through.  I am copying this note to many interested people in the area, so they can be alert to any other deceptions in the advertisements of KCBS.  The nation’s oldest broadcasting station should be better than this.

The Reverend Ernest W. Cockrell
Episcopal Priest
San Jose, CA
I was a bit intrigued by the designation claimed as the country’s “oldest radio station” so I checked it.  The results are below.  The main reason for interest is that most stations started East of the Mississippi River and therefore start with a “W”.  I’ve also noticed a few west of the river that start with a W, but none East that start with a K.  This is important stuff, you know.

List of oldest radio stations

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The title of oldest radio station is disputed by several in Europe (UK and Germany), and in the United States and Canada.
Several potential contenders for the title of "oldest radio station" are listed below, organized by sign-on date:

[edit] Stations

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.


Table of Experimental Radio Stations (AM/Mediumwave/Longwave)
Radio
Call-sign
(Original)
Radio
Call-sign
(Current)
City/Location
On Air
Broadcast Frequency
(AM Radio / FM Radio)




(Reginald Fessenden experimental alternator station)

December 21, 1906 (Audio tests from various locations from as early as 1900)
AM 50 kHz (approximately)
 ? W




9-BC, 9-XR, 9-BY, WOC-AM
1907

Class-B




FN/SJN/6XF/6XE/KQW/"San Jose"
1909, 1921 (officially granted experimental license as KQW, become commercial in 1921, and KCBS in 1949)
AM 740 kHz (Originally used 15 watts modulated with Carbon microphone)
Class-B




2XI
1915?
AM 810 kHz
Class-A




9ZP, 9CLS
1915–present
Various frequencies, 1060 kHz today
Class-B





1916
Unknown
Unknown




1916
AM 1020 kHz
75 watts (1916), Class-A (1920–present)




2RN/RTE (First radio studio)
April 24, 1916
morse code only (Despite this claimed by some to be "world's first broadcast" as transmission not aimed at specific target)
converted ship transmitter




December 4, 1916 (regular Morse code weather broadcasts; first voice broadcast in February 1919; regular programming January 1921)
AM 970 kHz
Class-B




(Experimental Czech tests)

Petřínská rozhledna (Petřín Lookout Tower), Prague, Czechoslovakia
October 28, 1919 (Experimental),
May 20, 1920
AM ??? kHz
 ?? kW




N/A
November 6, 1919 - November 11, 1924
N/A




December 1, 1919 - January 29, 2010
AM 940 kHz (Not original frequency). Considered by many Canadians to be "First scheduled broadcast station;" prior callsign CFCF stood for Canada's First, Canada's Finest.
Class-A (Clear channel)




2MT (Marconi experimental station with a regular news service)

February 23, 1920
AM 107 kHz
15 kW




LOR
August 27, 1920
Continued daily commercial broadcast up to 1997
AM 857KHz[1]
5 Watts initially, 500 Watts by 1921




6ADZ
Summer 1920, granted license 1922
AM 930 kHz
Class-B




October 27, 1920 (May have aired as 8ZZ that night)
AM 1020 kHz
Class-A (Clear channel)




August 20, 1920
AM 950 kHz
Class-B




WRR
August 4, 1921 (Unlicensed broadcasts date back to 1920)
AM 1310 kHz





KYW
Chicago, Illinois (1921)[2]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1934)[3]
Cleveland, Ohio (1956)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1965)[4]
November 11, 1921
AM 560 kHz, 570 kHz, 1020 kHz (Chicago)[5]
AM 1020 kHz (Philadelphia)
AM 1100 kHz (Cleveland))
AM 1060 kHz (Philadelphia)
Class-A (Clear channel)




January 13, 1922
AM 770 kHz
Class-D




February, 1922[6], some sources cite March 18, 1922
AM 833 kHz
Class-A




March 17, 1922
AM 610 kHz
Class-B




4XD
December 18, 1920, License granted April 10, 1922
AM 1110 kHz
Class-A




May 11, 1922
1 hour daily tests on 350 metres (857 kHz) AM. Full service opened: November 14, 1922





May 17, 1922
Test TXs: 350 metres (857 kHz) AM. Full service opened Nov 15, 1922: 375 meters





DN
October 4, 1922
originally AM 1431 kHz, now AM 1305 kHz and FM 99.8 MHz





9BT
October 7, 1922
now FM 101.9 MHz





November 15, 1922
Not known





November 25, 1922
AM 570 kHz





December 3, 1922
AM 580 kHz
Class-B




1923 (experimental), 1925 (official launch)
 ?
 ? W




WKBV-AM
William Knox BrookVille
WKBV-AM
1923
AM 1000 kHz 24/7
Class B




Regular Czech service - Radiojournal
May 18, 1923
"Long wave"
292 kHz (1025 m)




Radio Journal de la Tour Eiffel
(Eiffel Tower Newsreel)
1921
"Long wave"
115 kHz (2600 m)
N/A




N/A
June 15, 1924
originally AM 1500 kHz (200m)
later AM 1223 kHz (245 m)
currently AM 1116 kHz (269 m)
various




N/A
Summer 1925 - 1927 (experimental), license granted March 1928, Regular broadcast from November 1, 1928
"Long wave"
N/A




September, 1927
AM 630 kHz
Class-B




JODK
1927
AM 711 kHz





GOW, ZBW
1928






1XE, 1CDP
off the air - later as WGI (and WARC until 1925)
mid 1920
 ? - later on 833 kHz






1913; 1920







1916








And here is a longish piece on Anti-Semitism, a very strange term, originally posted on the Daily Kos and reprinted in the Jewish Voice for Peace.

It is worth noting that the editor of the Daily Koz was banned from MSNBC for a failure to apologize to Joe Scarbourough, or however he spells it.  “Rabbit Ears” Joe is our new name for him.  Keith has him back on Countdown at Current TV.

 **********************
Guide:

Main article: Nuclear weapon design
There are two basic types of nuclear weapons: those which derive the majority of their energy from nuclear fission reactions alone, and those which use fission reactions to begin nuclear fusion reactions that produce a large amount of the total energy output.

Fission weapons

All existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as atomic bombs or atom bombs (abbreviated as A-bombs). This has long been noted as something of a misnomer, however, as their energy comes specifically from the nucleus of the atom.
In fission weapons, a mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is assembled into a supercritical mass—the amount of material needed to start an exponentially growing nuclear chain reaction—either by shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another (the "gun" method) or by compressing a sub-critical sphere of material using chemical explosives to many times its original density (the "implosion" method). The latter approach is considered more sophisticated than the former and only the latter approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium.
A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of less than a ton of TNT upwards of 500,000 tons (500 kilotons) of TNT.[8]

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