nik

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Posts posted by nik

  2. Posted

    I don't have a really big problem with emergency rooms, but for all their education, medical doctors can ask some pretty silly questions.

     

    I've been to the emergency room about half-a-dozen times - all the result of bicycle accidents, and all for very obvious reasons. When I go to the emergency room, I like to go in through the main hospital entrance with the nice receptionists desk and the nice plants and people there to see their granmda or their wife after she just gave birth. It's funny to see the people gasp when I walk in covered with blood and I walk up to the receptionist - who is usually and 85 year old lady who volunteers when she's not at the town hall playing bingo. I ask her if she can tell me where the emergency room is - which she doesn't of course becuase the emergency room has never been a part of her world at the receptionist desk.

     

    Getting little information from the information desk, I usually just decide to sit down in one of the nice plush chairs and think about my situation. That's about when a hospital employee walks up with a wheelchair and decides to give me a ride to the emergency room.

     

    When I get there, I usually wait for about six hours, so I always bring change, so I can get something from the vending machine. Anyone ever tasted the delectible combination of chocolate and blood? When I finally get in and they let me lie on a stretcher, I wait another hour before the doctor comes in. Then he says one of the most intelligent things I've ever heard.

     

    "What seems to be the problem?"

     

    "Well, doc," I say, "I have a big gash on my face, and another on my shoulder. There's blood on the outside of my body...... " I then begin to wonder if the doctor is blind which puts little faith in my heart in his ability to operate a needle and thread.

  4. Posted

    Hmmmm..... Interesting question. I don't know too much about the power grid, but I bet I could make an educated guess. It depends on several things: power source, consumption, and mechanical maintenance. If everyone disappeared, I imagine the level of consumption would go down at least a little, so the drain on the grid would drop.

    Coal-powered plants would probably shut off before a single day for the reason that they require a constant and large amount of coal to continue functioning. I'm guessing gas plants would be next to go - a week maybe? Sources of natural power such as wind and hydroelectric would probably operate for quite some time. Nuclear plants would also operate for quite some time - perhaps a decade. In the case of natural power and nuclear, the limiting factor would probably be maintenance. Fuel rods in nuclear plants corrode pretty quickly and are replaced every 5-20 years or so; corrosion can result in a change of geometry which would most likely result in a loss of efficiency or (much less likely) a meltdown. The same is probably true for hydroelectric power.

     

    However, considering that most of the electricity (at least in the U.S.) is via fossil fuels, the drain on existing power sources after the coal and gas plants go down would probably be pretty great, and there might be several brown outs. There are also safeguards built into the electric grid which would probably force a shutdown or rotating shutdowns. A similar situation occured last summer when the entire eastern seaboard lost power.

     

    This is just speculative thinking, but a likely scenario, I bet. I really don't know too much about the power grid. I did work in a nuclear power plant for a summer in college, so I'm aware of that avenue, and met several people who worked for the coal plants, which drink coal like water.

  7. Posted

    I worked in five-star restaurants in high school and part of college. I started out in Jr. High as a "pearl diver" and ended up running the kitchen during the day shift. I'm quite skilled in the kitchen. I've cooked enough that I never need to measure anything, can make up recipes in my head, and can tell what spices to use in a certain dish.

  10. Posted · Edited by nik

    Same here! I always wanted to see a chief engineer named Earl. I would also like to see helmsmen with names like Bo. We should also have a first officer with a deep south accent.

     

    In a college RPG, I modeled a science officer after Bonanza's Little Joe. His quarters were made out to look like a campsite in the dessert with holgraphic stars, crickets, and he owned a real horse, which made a great addition to the game. It was great because my character could come up with all sorts of western euphemisms which added an oddly humorous element to the game.

     

    I think the same would be neat in Star Wars. It would be interesting to see a Darth Maurice or a Darth Bob.

  11. Posted

    (This reminds me of a personal fetish of mine....)

     

    My Car: "Up your tailpipe, science boy!"

     

    My Calculator: "I love it when you touch me like that."

     

    My answering machine: "Talk dirty to me......"

     

    My microwave: "Oh, I'm having a hot flash....."

     

    There's more, but those are personal.....

  12. Posted

    Ok, I'll bite.

     

    Favorite Color: Green.

    Favorite time of day: Between 5:30am and 6:00 am

    Favorite fictional/mythical animal: Dragons

    Age group you prefer to teach: College Freshmen

    Prefer to speak in public or shovel out a barn: Speak in public?

    Buzzer or music on your alarm?: Buzzer.

  13. Posted

    It varies. When I'm not running an experiment, I get about 6 hours per night. When

    I'm doing an experiment, I usually work 45 to 65 hour "days," getting three to five hours of sleep per "day." If I'm training hard for a race, I try to get a minimum of eight per night.

     

    I never nap; I can't stand napping. I hate the guilt that goes with napping.

  16. Posted

    I'm a pessimist when it comes to human interstellar travel. I believe we will destroy or exhaust the resources on our planet necessary to develop the means for interstellar travel. Development of new technologies, fuels, and resources depends on existing technologies, fuels, and resources. I think we're going to run out of the old stuff before we can make the new stuff. Of course, I could very well be wrong but humans seem extremely dependent on

    fossil fuels and these seem to be getting more and more precious.

     

    This theory pretty much confines humanity to the inner planets. We will (maybe fortunately for the universe) probably stay here until we destroy ourselves.

  19. Posted · Edited by nik

    In response to the question, it's called the "God" particle because it is speculated that at some point in the very early universe, all forces were the same. That is, gravitation, electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces were all the same and all mediated by the same particle (in the particle physics paradigm). As the universe cooled and its density dropped, this particle decayed, and the forces began to "decouple." (Not all forces necessarily decoupled at the same time, by the way.) This as yet unobserved particle is referred to as the Higgs boson, but many physicists call it the "God" particle, as it is the source of all interactions in the universe.

     

    By the way, not all physicists - myself included - call it the "God" particle.

  20. Posted

    If I remember correctly, the "Kobayashi Maru" simulation involved RESCUING the Kobayashi Maru (which IS a freighter), not flying it. I believe the craft being flown was a Startfleet vessel (Constitution class?). I think the dialog in STII verifies this.

     

    Of course, DrWho's question inquired as to our actions if we were given command of the Kobayashi Maru, not what would we do in the simulation.