No, there are exactly zero big catastrophes going on right now. If you want to find catastrophes you need look no further than the actual tsunami that caused Fukushima - which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths (compared to zero from the failing reactors).

I live in Sweden, one of the countries that was actually affected by Chernobyl fallout. We had to make sure we didn't eat mushrooms for a short while - and that was it.

The "Big Lie" is that there have been nuclear catastrophes. A statement not supported by data: http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/...

Odd. I've always been asked, very explicitly and clear, if I approve of having my photos backed up to Google+ from my Android phone. I've always answered No, and they haven't.

... and here we are, 40 years later, and know it to be true. Even the worst failure scenarios possible have not resulted in catastrophe. On the contrary, nuclear has turned out to be the safest energy production method of all.

If we want to be rational and stick to the facts, of course.

The guy used to work at the Coogee Bay Hotel?

If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, read this.

Wow, I just noticed how poor my grammar was there.
Sometimes it sucks you can't go back and edit your posts.

Genuine question:
Have you considered ipads, what pro's and cons have you come up with?
To me the positives are as follows:
* Portable
* Great battery life
* Supports a number of software (skype, facetime, etc)
* can be locked down if required.
* Apple care support is pretty low cost and the guys seem pretty helpful from my interactions with them.

The biggest negative I can see is the requirement for wireless coverage, or failing that, cost of a cellular/mobile link. However I see this as a limiting factor for any technology selected. If you have cat5 wired in the building you could conceivably just plug in an airport adapter nearby and plug that into the ethernet port if you want to reduce costs for things like wireless coverage. When the call is done, just unplug the adapter and take it with you.

I'm genuinely interested in your thoughts on this topic.

Oh geez, not this again.
Some people may have this attitude, but the majority of us that suggested this as a solution actually think it is a good idea from a simplicity and useability aspect. Set the thing up with facetime and skype as the only non restricted apps, bundle it in a protective case, get apple care support on the device and set up a sufficiently broad wireless coverage within the centre.and you will go a long way to providing what the requestor is asking for.

Other solutions are either
1) harder to support
2) more prone to breaking
3) just a pain in the ass in general

I wrote down a whole spiel why this is a good idea but accidentally nuked it when i decided to log in and not post as an AC.

Abbreviated version:
I'm not an apple fanboy, but this is definitely the best solution. Keep the device locked down to only run facetime and skype, keep the carers in control of scheduling when people call and charging the ipad when it's not needed (it has a fantastic battery life anyway so overnight charging ought to suffice unless there's a busy day). Keep an applecare contract open for the device and keep the internet connection with a provider that does high levels of support (or centralised administrative group or outsourcer ) and there's 95% of the support you'll ever need. I considered the idea of a long life android tablet with a child proof launcher, but the potential for the one way charging connector was a bit of a deterrent from me suggesting that as a solution.

The roll your own box and administer it remotely/as a client is a fair idea, but requires someone, somewhere to administer the device and incurs a substantial additional cost as although it may use standards, it is a custom created monstrosity that could be a liability if things break in the future. The smart tv thing is an interesting solution, but seems like it could be a lot harder to get the device to the less mobile patients than a simple to carry device like a tablet.

the KISS principle applies here more than anywhere else it possibly could.

Gas lines need nonconductive sections to protect from becoming long ground loops.

It sounds like this transformer had its center tap grounded and was the path to ground on one side of a ground loop as the geomagnetic field moved under pressure from a CME, inducing a common-mode current in the long-distance power line. A gas pipeline in an area of poor ground conductivity in Russia was also destroyed, it is said, resulting in 500 deaths.

One can protect against this phenomenon by use of common-mode breakers and perhaps even overheat breakers. The system will not stay up but nor will it be destroyed. This is a high-current rather than high-voltage phenomenon and thus the various methods used to dissipate lightning currents might not be effective.

In March 1989 much of Quebec lost power for the same thing.

They lost power because the common-mode breakers tripped, not because their system was actually damaged.

This story was not accepted for publication by Slashdot, and I am submitting it to another venue for consideration. - Bruce

The actual question is: what are you going to do about it?

I became an active politician (and since I'm in a non-two party dictatorship it made a difference). /me - board member of the Swedish Pirate Party

I think it's more likely that more people are becoming obese because of exactly one factor: age. They are living artificially prolonged lifetimes due to access to adequate food and to medicine. It's easier to get fat when you are 50 than when you are 30 because of the natural changes in your metabolism.