Our radioactive world blinks

While searching for the origin of atmnospheric Gamma radiation, researchers looked high, where gamma radiation stood a chance of surviving long enough to have an effect but Real Life was — as it often is — a little different: the Gamma rays were being formed within a few kilometers of the ground — or in other words, down near us.

The original search was for Gamma emissions triggered by lightning, but to the researchers’ surprise, it turns out to be the other way around: Gamma radiation is causing lightning. The consequences of this haven’t yet been worked out, but I guess that a means for predicting and/or neutralising dangerous discharges of lightning and/or radiation will eventuate.

Generally, it sounds like debugging software: Real Life is typically stranger than fiction. (-:

Comments

Leon RJ Brooks said…

By the way, the near-light-speed phrases in the article call to mind just how, um, lightning fast those flashes can be.

Is the lightning having an internal flow-pileup? Are its electrostatic &/| magnetic fields holding atoms still until they get pummelled into Gamma-ness? What else could be happening?

23 May, 2006 08:15

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

pushing the actual boundaries of the physical (not extremes, the boundaries themselves) can often remove barriers not otherwise perceived. one can then often resolve an issue itself, rather than merely stonewalling at the physical consequences of the issue.

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

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