Slumdog Millionaire ... what should movies be like

#222 hamidm: i admit that the Quran was written by human scribes, not by some infallible source (like Mills or Dawkins or Marx or the Pope). but that does not mean one cannot appreciate the kernel of truth in what the Quran has to say (the "core message" of the Quran that I have been harping about on chowk). just as one need not be a Marxist to appreciate the kernel of truth in Marxism concerning the mode of production determining the socio-political superstructure of a society.

PS: now that you have mentioned the Quran, no doubt you have the ladduites of chowk itching. there goes this board...

Re: # 221

tahmed mian,

... i agree with your warning about masadiism, but haven't you accepted one single book as the source of your inspiration? .... a book that doesn't even have a known author and was edited by a goat .....

hamidm: be careful with this Dawkins-leaning daughter though. uncritically accepting the views of some "famous writer" or th other is the first sign of masadiism.

hamidm: being able to read signs in pakistan. that is indeed the one (and only) useful thing you learn through "religious education", pakistan-style!!

#190 Posted by philosopher

"Seriously.....sounds like a verse of the Quran.Is it?"

Hey, how did you guess it?

Man, You must be a maulvi!!

Re: # 217

tahmed mian,

.... i am glad to report that the poor mullah lost the battle and one of my daughters has declared herself to be an atheist who worships at the shrine of richard dawkins ...... the other one has adopted shopping as a religion and worships shoes ...... their religious education has had a positive effect in that they can read the urdu road signs in pakistan .....

....... as for masadi, i love him like the son i was lucky enough not to have .......

hamidm: you couldnt whip an egg to make omelette, let alone a son like Mr. Masadi as you say - you couldnt even stop a mullah from imparting his ignorance to your children in your own home, that is how much weight you carry around your house (much lighter than the weight you carry on your legs, in other words).

And Masadi is right - you secretly do want a son like him. An intellectual with a brain (or is it head?) the size of a small rocky planet. A writer whose works are plagiarized by Nobel laureates in every discipline. A real man who makes men envious and women lecherous when he walks into the room.

#213 i dont think masadi, for all his faults, gives a flying f about hindus. but dont let that stop you from this indian habit of seeking to draw attention to yourselves.

Re: # 213
Krishna...
When will we get the operationalized reactor? 2050 will be too late...I am not finding it in ITER site (www.iter.org)...

Rajni is THE Best...
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=phNelisqq4U&feature=related

masadi,

This is not fair. These "scientists", hated "hindoos" on top of that, are "inventing" stuff that already exists in the koran (encrypted, of course). I swear by the beard of allah, this is not fair!

Nuclear Fusion-fission Hybrid Could Contribute To Carbon-free Energy Future

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2009) — Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants.

The invention could help combat global warming by making nuclear power cleaner and thus a more viable replacement of carbon-heavy energy sources, such as coal.

"We have created a way to use fusion to relatively inexpensively destroy the waste from nuclear fission," says Mike Kotschenreuther, senior research scientist with the Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) and Department of Physics. "Our waste destruction system, we believe, will allow nuclear power-a low carbon source of energy-to take its place in helping us combat global warming."

Toxic nuclear waste is stored at sites around the U.S. Debate surrounds the construction of a large-scale geological storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, which many maintain is costly and dangerous. The storage capacity of Yucca Mountain, which is not expected to open until 2020, is set at 77,000 tons. The amount of nuclear waste generated by the U.S. will exceed this amount by 2010.

The physicists' new invention could drastically decrease the need for any additional or expanded geological repositories.

"Most people cite nuclear waste as the main reason they oppose nuclear fission as a source of power," says Swadesh Mahajan, senior research scientist.

The scientists propose destroying the waste using a fusion-fission hybrid reactor, the centerpiece of which is a high power Compact Fusion Neutron Source (CFNS) made possible by a crucial invention.

The CFNS would provide abundant neutrons through fusion to a surrounding fission blanket that uses transuranic waste as nuclear fuel. The fusion-produced neutrons augment the fission reaction, imparting efficiency and stability to the waste incineration process.

Kotschenreuther, Mahajan and Prashant Valanju, of the IFS, and Erich Schneider of the Department of Mechanical Engineering report their new system for nuclear waste destruction in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design.

There are more than 100 fission reactors, called "light water reactors" (LWRs), producing power in the United States. The nuclear waste from these reactors is stored and not reprocessed. (Some other countries, such as France and Japan, do reprocess the waste.)

The scientists' waste destruction system would work in two major steps.

First, 75 percent of the original reactor waste is destroyed in standard, relatively inexpensive LWRs. This step produces energy, but it does not destroy highly radiotoxic, transuranic, long-lived waste, what the scientists call "sludge."

In the second step, the sludge would be destroyed in a CFNS-based fusion-fission hybrid. The hybrid's potential lies in its ability to burn this hazardous sludge, which cannot be stably burnt in conventional systems.

"To burn this really hard to burn sludge, you really need to hit it with a sledgehammer, and that's what we have invented here," says Kotschenreuther.

One hybrid would be needed to destroy the waste produced by 10 to 15 LWRs.

The process would ultimately reduce the transuranic waste from the original fission reactors by up to 99 percent. Burning that waste also produces energy.

The CFNS is designed to be no larger than a small room, and much fewer of the devices would be needed compared to other schemes that are being investigated for similar processes. In combination with the substantial decrease in the need for geological storage, the CFNS-enabled waste-destruction system would be much cheaper and faster than other routes, say the scientists.

The CFNS is based on a tokamak, which is a machine with a "magnetic bottle" that is highly successful in confining high temperature (more than 100 million degrees Celsius) fusion plasmas for sufficiently long times.

The crucial invention that would pave the way for a CFNS is called the Super X Divertor. The Super X Divertor is designed to handle the enormous heat and particle fluxes peculiar to compact devices; it would enable the CFNS to safely produce large amounts of neutrons without destroying the system.

"The intense heat generated in a nuclear fusion device can literally destroy the walls of the machine," says research scientist Valanju, "and that is the thing that has been holding back a highly compact source of nuclear fusion."

Valanju says a fusion-fission hybrid reactor has been an idea in the physics community for a long time.

"It's always been known that fusion is good at producing neutrons and fission is good at making energy," he says. "Now, we have shown that we can get fusion to produce a lot of neutrons in a small space."

Producing an abundant and clean source of "pure fusion energy" continues to be a goal for fusion researchers. But the physicists say that harnessing the other product of fusion-neutrons-can be achieved in the near term.

In moving their hybrid from concept into production, the scientists hope to make nuclear energy a more viable alternative to coal and oil while waiting for renewables like solar and pure fusion to ramp up.

"The hybrid we designed should be viewed as a bridge technology," says Mahajan. "Through the hybrid, we can bring fusion via neutrons to the service of the energy sector today. We can hopefully make a major contribution to the carbon-free mix dictated by the 2050 time scale set by global warming scientists."

The scientists say their Super X Divertor invention has already gained acceptance in the fusion community. Several groups are considering implemented the Super X Divertor on their machines, including the MAST tokamak in the United Kingdom, and the DIIID (General Atomics) and NSTX (Princeton University) in the U.S. Next steps will include performing extended simulations, transforming the concept into an engineering project, and seeking funding for building a prototype.

Re: # 207
Masadi: "While reading Chowk he wishes he had a son with my character ."

With your character? You mean, a son with your delusional dispositions. Cut us some slack, ubermansch.

masadi mian,

..... if you were my son (god forbid!) i would have have whipped you into shape by now ..... i honestly believe that your diatribes against dr sohail are a cry for help - even though he is a quack, i am sure he can help you ...... actully dr shankar, the resident hindoo shrink, seems to be mre qualified since he is a licenced medical practitioner and can prescribe prozac .... in my opinion you need a full labotomy and shock therapy to jolt you into reality ......... you are one sick puppy!

...... i love you .......

Nice dog fight....
Santanu...
Movies should be like movies...for "unwashed masses", mumbai aardoo movies and cheap hollywood entertainers are OK......

masadi: Why? is there something wrong with chowk? Are the people on chowk not geniuses??

Tahmed, find another pastime.

Have a nice day,

TNITC masadi