When the Vatican decided to digitize their archives, they chose to store the mages in FITS format for pretty much the same reasons. One thing FITS doesn't address is preventing unauthorized access to the data.

In 1972, SAN to OAK was $24.50 on PSA with no restrictions. Equivalent fare on Southwest is ~$260, cheaper fares are available but come with restrictions.

Hmmm, "Get them out by Friday".

A bit OT, but I was surprised to learn that "Attack of the Giant Hogweed" was mostly based on fact.

Electorate, schmectorate, decisions like this are based on who provides the most campaign donations.

The proposed reactor design sounds a bit like the EBR-II at INEL, formerly the National reactor test site, with the design also referred to as the Integral Fast Reactor. This program got shut down in the 1990's, though stories have been told about people who were sent out to Idaho to shut it down came back as converts to the cause.

Not quite. Peak demand in California is between 6 to 7PM, peak solar production is approximately 12 noon. Peak load does not drop signficantly until well after sunset.

Decommissioning costs are still a lot less than it would cost to build the plant now. Letting the plant cool down for a few years makes the process simpler and safer, though the reactor vessel is going to be a challenge.

Something on the order of 97% of the atmosphere's mass is below 90,000'. 100km is an arbitrary value for the start of space, as the air at 100km is too thick to orbit and too thin to fly in (except dynamic soaring?). In imperial units, 100,000' seems to be the upper limit for flying and 100 miles is about the lower limit for orbiting.

The Perlan II sounds like it will handle like an unpowered U2 - where the planes ceiling will be defined by the "coffin corner" were the low speed stall (classic stall) approaches the high speed stall (Mach tuck from transonic airflow). Perhaps they will be using a more refined airfoil than the U2 to increase the Mach number for high speed stall.

IIRC, the pre-Perlan I sailplane altitude record of approx 47,000 feet was set sometime in the 1960's, surprising it took that long for someone to break that.

I first heard about use of series capacitors in an electric power systems class, 1H 1975, so they have been around for quite a while. It would seem to me that the caps should be able to withstand the DC potential set up by a Carrington event.

Any component for a high voltage transmission line is going to be gigantic. Google term "power transmission line series capacitors" should get you started.

An alternative way of minimizing the effects of a severe solar storm on the grid would be placing series capacitors on the long AC transmission lines. This is done already to increase power transfer capacity of some lines.

Since the solar flare is visible many hours before CME hits, the utilities should have time to configure the grid for the storm. The oerative word here is "should".

Not that much. A typical Tc99m scan involves injection a bit over a billion (10E9) bq per person, albeit half life is only 6 hours. Reminds me of a "warning sticker" for a CB radio - "Danger 5,000 milliwatts".

I agree wholeheartedly that the pot is more similar to the Jetboil in principle than different. There is a difference in details in that the Jetboil is designed for lighter weight and better heat transfer efficiency than the pot at the expense of a more fragile design.

I don't there is anyone in the US who was born in 1897 or earlier.

There was an article or two in the likes of Mechanix Illustrated or related magazine about the US Army experimenting with ammonia fueled engines. Reports indiacted that engines would function, but had not been developed to the point of practicality. Shudder to think what kind of NOx levels are present in the exhaust.