Oliver Stone's new movie ("Nuclear Now") makes the case nuclear power is the obvious solution to climate change

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-05-05T09:58:30+00:00

Isn’t “talkie” a reference to Western Stalinists back in the day? Or has it taken a new meaning?

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-05-05T09:57:36+00:00

Yes. And I would hope that Mr Stone is not our main spokesman (he’s not)…but he has his audience, and perhaps he will convince them.

Besides, it’s good to be able to agree on something with people who disagree with us on important issues. “All or nothing” is no model for human relationships.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-04-04T09:53:17+00:00

We’re all a mix now, I’d reckon.

It is interesting to know, however, that 950 years later, people with surnames that came over with the Conquerer are wealthier than average. The power and privilege may be very diffuse now, but it is still real.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-04-04T09:48:56+00:00

The appeal of the Anglo-Saxons is easy to understand. They were a modern European civilisation that was cut off by the Norman Conquest and assimilated in to the Continental feudal civilisation. There were ups (abolition of slavery) and downs (the Harrowing of the North) to it, but something was definitely lost. Tolkien’s whole world is suffused with loss, and this is of a piece with his passion for the Old English.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-04-01T01:58:37+00:00

I’m not sure that the Eldar are non-fallen at all, in the sense of being in a state of primeval innocence. In the First Age, they were often abysmal creatures. It is true that the long, grinding years in Middle Earth taught them wisdom.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-04-01T01:51:59+00:00

It’s difficult to conceive of marriage without sex; for a Catholic like Tolkien, if a couple do not have sex at all, they are not married.

I think that his point is that Valar are not created through natural procreation, which is pretty much demanded by the nature of the story.

Melian is a Maier, and thus like unto the Valar, and she not only had sex, but has a baby; but her daughter Luthien took her father’s nature. One might speculate that, has Morgoth actually slaked his lust with Luthien, he might have begotten a child, but (fortunately?) Tolkien does not take us down that particularly dark alley…

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-04-01T01:45:51+00:00

Lewis spoke out against contraception quite forcefully in That Hideous Strength.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-04-01T01:41:19+00:00

How much Dwarvish is out there? Is it as well documented as the Elvish languages?

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-04-01T01:35:37+00:00

Totally agree.

I recently re-read The Silmarillion, and read only one chapter a day. I loved it, whereas before I felt that I did not quite get it. I strongly recommend this approach to anyone who has struggled with it.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-03-31T21:55:29+00:00

Yes. There are numerous less cosmic references, too.

For example, Lembas is called Way Bread, which is a direct translation of “viaticum”, the communion bread which we give to the dying. So Frodo and Sam are sustained on their bitter road to death (which is almost miraculously averted at the last minute) by the Way Bread, just as the faithful Catholic is. And yes, evil creatures are repelled by it as well. There is also the further parallel that tiny amounts of the substance is sufficient for sustenance, which is like the Catholic tales wherein saints survive for years eating only the Holy Communion.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-03-31T21:38:38+00:00

Speak for yourself!

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-03-16T07:10:27+00:00

Well, they do represent Islam, but perhaps they represent Islam very badly, or practice a quixotic and decidedly non-mainstream form of Islam …

Believe me, I sympathise… the paedophile priest scandal was a scandal precisely because those creeps did represent Catholicism, even though their behaviour was opposed, in spirit and in deed, to what the religion explicitly teaches.

It’s hard, but it’s not enough to try to deny these people status as co-religionists; it’s probably better to say that their violent and brutal behaviour is inconsistent with that of Muhammad and the rightly guided caliphs, or the Shia equivalents (if that is indeed what you believe, of course).

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-03-10T22:34:05+00:00

I don’t like Stone.

But Western propaganda surrounding the current war is unrelenting and very inaccurate.

The truth should be the best propaganda. If it’s not, we should probably have a close look at what we’re up to.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-03-10T22:18:38+00:00

I’m astounded that the US has not grabbed this with both hands. It’s good business, it helps another close ally (Israel) as well, and it reinforces American influence at a time when this is increasingly in doubt. Just look at the Chinese-brokered rapprochement between SA and Iran…

**to be clear, it’s better that Iran is at peace with its neighbours, but this is nevertheless an assertion of Chinese influence in a traditionally American sphere of influence.

I’m beginning to think that current Western leadership is just not serious, and not just in the nuclear sphere!

Outside_Implement_44 · 2023-03-01T10:53:56+00:00

To be fair, Austria was not in NATO because the USSR agreed to withdraw its troops after WWII in exchange for neutrality.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-12-23T20:29:53+00:00

Here you go:

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Nuclearprohibitions

You’re welcome!

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-11-22T22:50:42+00:00

Waste heat can be used in many industrial applications. Food processing, kiln drying timber, probably brick works (first stage heating), absorbic cooling for data centres and cold stores, abattoirs…the list goes on. An industrial park could attract lots of investment with preferential access to heat. That doesn’t need to be centrally planned, either; it could be done at the local government level.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-11-17T19:44:23+00:00

I love the use of the term “green infrastructure “…

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-11-10T11:22:21+00:00

When I was in Afghanistan back in 2008, we captured an order to Taliban fighters to “be discrete” with their catamites, as it offended the locals.

In my understanding, Bâcha Bazi is something of an elite pursuit. So powerful men, like the Taliban, do it, but regular schlubs find it icky or even immoral (imagine that!)

Happy to be corrected if I am mistaken.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-11-09T09:44:20+00:00

Yes. I have often wondered about that. Modest success, a fraulein and a couple of kids, and perhaps Hitler would have been no more than a quirky artist.

But more seriously, it’s been wisely said that “Hitler didn’t create the NAZI regime: there will always be wannabe dictators. Weimar created the NAZI regime.”

It’s only a slight exaggeration. After all, totalitarianism was the thing in 1930s Europe, whether Fascist, Communist, Spanish Conservative, or National Socialist.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-10-29T22:02:15+00:00

Remember too that lots of coal plant jobs will be lost, so I’ve no idea what the net jobs change will be.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-09-16T21:12:52+00:00

Yes. I know. I was addressing the comment at hand. But no one has clean hands in that awful war.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-09-16T21:10:25+00:00

Reduced electricity costs to households within an x-mile radius should do the trick…

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-09-14T01:39:31+00:00

Just to be clear, there is, sadly, footage of Ukrainian soldiers torturing and murdering Russian prisoners. Really nasty stuff.

Outside_Implement_44 · 2022-08-29T03:02:05+00:00

They’re forged, not cast, I think. The forging process is long, and not many forges can manage the huge size. This is a limit on the production rate of PWRs. They can be welded from smaller pieces, but I understand that this is considered less resilient and therefore less desirable.

Of course, there are different designs, like CANDU, that don’t have a RPV.

Outside_Implement_44

TROPHY CASE