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Its been on the news now and again for several years the idea of building a nuclear waste disposal facility in utah, and accepting waste from european countries imported here.  I don’t think I have to tell you that the only people who aren’t against it are 1 the european countries, and 2 the people who stand to make the money.  Absolutely nobody wants nuclear waste in their backyard or even in their state.  Why this ever even became a possibility begs the question “What are we letting our politicians get away with?”

It isn’t a big surprise to me that I see things differently from everyone else.  I’ve always known that my mind is a little off from what other people call normal.  I think most of the people around me would agree.  It is this ability to see things in a little bit different light that enabled me to come up with the idea that I’m going to give to the world today.  This is not the first time I’ve told someone about my idea mind you.  In fact I’ve been laughed at or scorned several times when I’ve stated my thoughts.  Maybe I’m ahead of my time, or maybe I’m just plain nuts.  Either way, I’ve decided to put the idea down in writing for the whole world to see, and just maybe someone will be able to actually use it. 

To really understand the idea a bit of a primer is in order.  First you need to understand exactly what nuclear power and nuclear waste is really all about.  You see pretty much everyone has the idea that nuclear waste is this aweful byproduct of nuclear power production.  Most people don’t know why it exists or what it really is in essence.  The first part of this article is to explain what nuclear waste really is.

To put it into terms that everyone should understand, think about building a fire in your fireplace.  You toss in some wood, a bit of kindling, maybe some paper, and light it up.  As the wood breaks down in a reaction with the fire, energy is released in the form of heat and light.  The remnants of the burned fuel become the ash and charcoal left when the fire is extinguished.  A nuclear reaction generates scary amounts of power, but in its basest form it is the equivalent of a fire in your fireplace.  You start a really hot fire under intense pressure and burn uranium fuel rods.  The energy release is so intense that you melt the atoms that make up the uranium.  The matter that the fuel rods are made of melts down into energy which is captured as heat.  From there on its handled the same way a steam engine works.  The heat boils water to turn turbines and produce electricity. 

A fuel rod is made up of uranium fuel surrounded by carbon in the form of graphite.  As the uranium melts away the graphite balances the heat and prevents a meltdown.  As the atoms break down and the intense energy is released there is so much energy produced that it radiates at virtually every frequency.  Energy comes out as ultraviolet light, Violet light, Heat, electricity, and probably some other forms that we don’t even know how to measure or quantify. 

As you are putting gasoline in your car, you may or may not realize, but not all of the gasoline you burn actually turns into energy and moves your car foreward.  The fact is that less than ten percent of the energy in the fuel is ever utilized in the internal combustion engine.  The whole process is terribly inefficient.  A nuclear reaction is somewhat the same.  I don’t know how much of the energy we are actually able to capture, but it isn’t anywhere near one hundred percent.  Where does that extra energy go?  In your car, that energy is lost as heat and as pollution out your tailpipe.  In a nuclear reaction that extra energy is radiated out and absorbed into the graphite bars.  The graphite bars become radioactive because they are so infused with energy that it is litterally bleading out slowly.  Energy will continue to “radiate” from these graphite bars for at least 50 years at intense enough levels to make you sick just coming near it.  It will continue to leak out at lower levels for hundreds more.

So now you know what nuclear waste is you can probably can infer why its such nasty stuff.  What is the key element that everyone is missing.  In nuclear waste we have a massive amount of unharnessed energy captured into a compact substance trapped in a barrel and coated with thick layers of lead to keep any of it from escaping.  Can anyone describe what a common everyday battery you use to power your mp3 player or smoke detector is?  Two poles separated by a barrier of material which has been infused with latent energy wrapped in a metal can…  The components that make up a battery and a barrel of nuclear waste are pretty similar no?

So now you have the foundation for my idea, what is the missing element that would turn a nuclear waste disposal facility that nobody wants into a powerplant that will produce massive amounts of electricity with virtually no labor or environmental impact?  The key here is photovoltaic cells.  Over the last thirty or so years we have been working hard to harness the ability of photvoltaics so that we can produce electricity from the sun’s energy.  Thousands of variances in dopants, spacing between NP junctions, ect have been tried in the manufacture of PV cells to find a combination that can utilize and convert most of the energy that hits the cell.    Still Like gasoline in your car, most of that energy is lost. 

The inherant problem with solar panels is that as the sun hits them one freqency of energy converts into eletricity and the thousand of other frequencies are reflected back off the surface of the panel into the atmosphere.  They don’t hurt the environment, but they don’t do a very efficient job of harnessing energy.  You need a whole field full of panels to power a typical home.

So what do we need to do?  Stick one of these solar panels into a tub of nuclear waste and gather the energy that hits it.  Any energy that reflects just goes back into the waste barrel to be bounced around until it hits the panel again, and again, and again for the next fifty years.  Now the idea at this stage is oversimplified.  Just sticking an off the shelf panel into a barrel of waste is not going to be efficient enough.  The same testing that has been done to optimize PV arrays for solar energy capture needs to be done again to reoptimize them for capture of low level nuclear radiaion. 

There are hurdles that need to be overcome and they aren’t the kind of hurdles that I or probably you can overcome.  The people who posess and control the flow of nuclear waste can’t exactly hand out a barrel to anyone who wants to expiriment.  The people who have access to the semiconductor fabrication laboratory equiptment probably don’t have barrels of nuclear waste at their disposal.  I don’t imagine the would want them.  In order to bring this into the realm of possibility it is going to take a funded government project with an aim to actually make this work. 

Anyhow, now that I’ve put the idea out there I hope someone gets the chance to see it and maybe someday after I’m long dead I’ll get the credit for an idea that really will change the world.  I was thinking about the whole concept of importing nuclear waste into utah for storage.  It would be really ironic if someday eighty percent of the worlds nuclear waste was stored in my back yard, and all of a sudden a barrel of nuclear waste became more valuable than a hundred barrels of oil.  I know enriched uranium isn’t exactly commonplace.  As a fuel I’m sure its more scarce than anything you or I could buy.  The fact that most of the world is willing to give us the half burnt fuel for free could be a blessing in disguise.

Related articles by: Washington post, gregornot.wordpress.com, Wastewatcher.com, Utah planners corner, kotterreport.blogspot.com, breitbart.com, outside.in, senatesite.com, utahamicus, Starrynightlights

I don’t think I have ever felt so relieved as when I heard the news story announcing the implementation of a government backed “Do Not Call Registry.”  While its true that I have been perpetually sinking further and further in to debt, it is also true that I have by most peoples standards a good credit score.  Part of that comes from the fact that I am so far in debt.  The creditors know there’s no chance I could raise the money to pay them off quickly but I always make timely payments.  The burden of having good credit however is that everyone wants a piece of me.  (no matter how little there is to go around)  Prior to the do not call registry’s inception  I was plagued by telemarketers.  Somtimes five or more calls could come in a single day.

The biggest problem behind the government trying to protect its people is that the real people we need protection from are still under the jurisdiction of that same government.  After my number became permanent into the do not call registry, calls almost stopped.  At its onset the program allowed people to report abusive telemarketers and they would be fined for calling someone they shouldn’t be.  I really liked that feeling of security.  When I did get the occasional call I took great pleasure in informing the turd on the other end of the line that he had just made a huge mistake and that I was logging the time of his call.  I took even more pleasure in actually reporting the calls knowing that a proactive person like me could really teach these bull marketers a lesson.

It had been at least a year since the last time I got a call obtrusive enough to merit reporting when the last one that really got to me came through.  When I informed him that my number was listed on the do not call registry, the dung pile who called me had the nerve to tell me that his organization was exempt from the progam due to its charter and that they could call whomever he wanted.  I wish businesses would wise up.  If I go so far as to regster my name I DON”T WANT YOU TO CALL ME.  IT DOESN”T MATTER WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE!!!.

It was as I went to report this doo doo head that I made the horrific discovery.  Over the past year or so the do not call registry has been bastardized.  No longer the thing of beauty it once was it is now the redheaded stepchild nobody wants.  All of the enforcement that once protected us consumers is now depleted.  Instead of promising to follow up with my telemarketer complaint and fine the offender, they simply keep the complaints as “statistical data” that law enforcement could potentially use in a serious harassment case.  Just imagine trying to prove “harassment” by way of telephone marketing calls…  Furthermore they have managed to slip in an amendment to exepmpt non-profit organizations.  I’ll say it again.  WHEN I LISTED MY NAME IT WAS BECAUSE I DIDN”T WANT UNEXPECTED PHONE CALLS.  IT DOESN”T MATTER WHO YOU ARE, YOUR CALL IS NOT WELCOME!!!

A year ago my phone was silent.  No more than one call a week from a friend or family member.  I’m now back to getting a few calls a week from people asking me to buy tickets to a fundraiser or support my local firefighters.  BTW, to dispell the myth, those people collecting mony for the firefighters are not actually giving the money to the firefighters.  By donating you are not supporting a good cause.  I watched a local news story on it, and in most cases over 90% of the money they collect goes to the telemarketing company and less than 10% makes it to the charity you think you are donating it to.

Its obvious that the only thing these marketers understand is what hits them in the pocketbook.  Its also become obvious that the governtment is to impersonal to really help us little guys out.  There will always be some elected camel dropping who feels its appropriate to amend a pefectly good very effectve law to poke a few loopholes in it in exchange for a campaign kickback.  After all, nobody is ever really going to know who it was that made it ok for telemarkers to start harassing us again.   

I can’t depend on people ever getting smart enough to stop giving money to telemarketers.  There will always be some elderly woman who will actually believe she is donating to poor familys of firefighters who aren’t getting paid enough.  Thats what our taxes pay for people, If they weren’t getting paid enough there would be a shortage of firefighters because they would find other jobs.  In turn the shortage would prompt people to be willing to pay a higher tax rate to get more.  Its a self balancing system. The only thing that will ever really stop the telemarketers is outside of the realm of reality.  Thats for people to wise up.

Anyhow the reason or idea behind my blog post today was to make a suggestion to other people like me who simply don’t want to recieve incoming calls from businesses.  The next time you get a call don’t tell the marketer you are not interested.  Don’t tell them anything.  Say “hold on, I have to get my baby out of the tub,” or “The food is burning, let me turn off the stove.”  Set down the phone and go back to watching tv or whatever you were doing.  Make an effot to keep the guy on the phone for as long as possible and NEVER give them anything for their call.  If the calling company has to pay this guy ten bucks an hour, for every six minutes of his time you waste, you’ve cost them a dollar.  If we are proactive enough we can make it too expensive for it to be worth them calling us back. 

If you have the time to spare, listen to their whole speech.  Act interested.  Keep them on the phone as long as possible, then give them a made up credit card number or tell them you’ve changed your mind.  You can even hang up half way through giving them your bogus payment information.  I’d love to hear everyones ideas on other ways to waste a telemaketer’s time.  There are a few good ones here.

I know it seems like I’m going a bit overboard and nobody should be this upset about an unwanted call or two.  The real heart of the problem stems from the fact that I used to work graveyard shift.  Telemarketers target my house between four and eight in the afternoon because that is when they expect most people to be at home with time to talk.  For me that means they ring the phone and wake me up during my beauty rest.  I get a bit irate when I don’t get my rest, and it gets worse when I find out the reason I didn’t get my rest is because some donky face I don’t even know felt he had a right to deprive me of it.

Today we will be continuing on with my saga about the constant decline in my finances comparative to the decline in the markets.  I’ve probably written about my pending decision to give up sattelite for broadcast tv.  (really its not a decision its an eventuality.)  I personally only consume about five hours a week of television.  It used to be alot more.  Anyhow I know its something I can easily give up to spare myself some trouble in the face of this recession.  My family however uses it almost constantly.  I’m not sure I can put up with the complaints that will ensue.  I guess we will see.

Well what I wanted to write about this week was actually writing. I’ve been looking for ways to make a quick buck online.  (legally of course)  And aside from selling what little I have left on ebay I’ve come up with a few ideas.  The adsense from this website has earned me a whopping seven cents this year.  (at that rate I’ll get my first check from google in the year 3046)  So internet advertising is out of the question.  What I’m thinking of trying is article writing. 

I know lots of websites purchase well written articles for a small fee.  I know you’ve been reading my blog and you are thinking well written? I actually can do much better than my writing is here.  My blog is the place where I unwind and let off some stress, so sorry folks you are not getting the best of what my mind has to offer.  The real question is whether I can convince someone to pay me enough to unlock the lazyness barrier.

I’ve done some research about what it takes to make it working as a writer.  Theres an interesting article about it here. I don’t plan to try it full time.  I’m just wondering if its a reasonable way to make a few bucks on my day off.  I might be able to do two or three articles a day during the weekend.  At twenty bucks a pop that is not too bad a haul for playing with the computer.  Of course I look the part, so I could probably make the same cash sitting on the street corner with a coffee cup and a cardboard sign. 

As a last resort there is always blood plasma donation (its not really a donation).  It would be first on my list, except that the donation center is more than a half hour drive away.  If I drive there it costs me the gas and I don’t make much if any money.  If I ride the bus, it takes all day and I chance getting sick from some contagion bieng hacked around.  Have you seen the kind of people who ride the bus downtown into the heart of the city? 

I’m very handy, and can do almost any kind of odd job.  That would seem to be my out except with a recession I’d have to fight with every other looser out there who thinks he knows how to hold a wrench.  (I’m probably not really any better than them but I can pretend to be for my blog.  Nobody here knows me in real life…)

Well the saga continues…

If you’re dumb enough to have been following my blog so far, you probably know I’m a few steps ahead of the crowd in the recession game.  The stock market is plummeting now, my finances started months ago.  It has me wondering though, am I going to do better in the recession because I’ve already hit bottom?  There are lots of people who are better off than I am so lots of them stand to lose alot more.  I’m just wondering how its going to work. Am I going to get more even with everyone and stay where I am at, or are grocery costs going to go up and I’m going to be worse off?

I’m happy to say I had NOTHING in the stock market at the time it started plummeting.  Its just too bad I don’t have a few hundred thousand to dump into the market now.  Since it has got to be reaching the bottom soon, I could get some great stock deals today.  At least thats how I think it is going to work.

Sadly I already know the cost of groceries, gasoline, ect will skyrocket soon.  I can only hope there isn’t any hidden clause in my home mortgage or my equity line that will allow me to be exploited.  I can easily pay my mortgage and loan as it is, even if I were to lose my job.  I could temp and make enough to cover them so I don’t need to worry about staying current there.  I just don’t know if somehow the bank can raise my interest rate or change my loan to make it cost me more.  If it does I’ll be in real trouble.

It will be interesting to see how the things go.  I haven’t heard about any stock brokers jumping out of windows just yet.  Its a bit morbid, but I’m looking foreward to the news stories with live video of the jumpers…  I’m sick…

I have always had an innate ability to only remember the most useless information.  Its kind of like a retarded photographic memory syndrome.  My locker combination in high school I had to keep written down in my wallet because I couldn’t remember three numbers from one day to the next.  Here fifteen years later and I can still remember the temperature at witch alcohol turns from a liquid to a gas. Something I heard one time in a chemistry class.

This sort of strange effect where odd numbers seem to happily embed themselves into my subconsious blocking out the far more important things like the faces of my family is really a curse.  If my own mother went missing and I was asked to describe her for a sketch artist I wouldn’t be able to do it.  I can tell you what the picture on the front of our generic brand corn flakes looks like though. :( 

In any event this odd curse has also been a bit of a strange blessing.  Yesterday at the market I needed to purchase some margarin as we were running low.  I can remember exactly how much I paid for a box last year and the year before that, and the year before that.  Two years ago a box of imperial margarin in the brownish gold packaging cost me 40 cents, and it was the cheapest package on the shelf.  Yesterday the same package of margarin is $1.19, and the cheapest on the shelf was blue bonnet coming in at a whopping 77 cents per package.  My favorite cheeze colby jack in the local brand garnered between $12 and $14 for a five pound brick two years ago.  (cheeze fluctuates from week to week)  It now rests happily within +/- $1 of $18 every week.

My blog seems to be a constant complaint session where I detail just how poor I’m getting and how I can’t seem to get beyond that.  For a while now I haven’t been able to put two and two together to figure out why.  My fuel costs go up, and I get a little raise to match the increase.  I start a side business that brings in an extra $250 a month.  Previously I had a little spending money left over after I got my paycheck, but now I find myself borrowing to make ends meet.  The math didn’t work until I realized just how much all those little increases in food costs has hurt my family budget.  $2 more a month in butter, $2 more a month in flour, $50-$100 more a month in meat, $35 more a month in fruits and vegetables.  All spread nicely across many items so I only barely notice the difference at the register. 

I’ve finally found the leak in my budget and the grim reality is that its not something I can fix.  Bottom line is that my family has to eat to survive.  The only way out is to make more money.  I’ve had sort of a job offer on the table for a while that I really don’t want to accept.   The numbers are a bit sketchy, but I do know It would litterally double the number of hours I have to work each week, and that would put an end to my home business.  That would also mean the death of any hope I once had to be self dependant.  The salary would have to be significant and it would fend off the jackyls for at least a few more years, but I think I’ll be selling my soul if (when?) I accept.

Its times like these I kind of wish I didn’t have people I care about.  I would be alright standing in the soup line at the homeless shelter.  It might even bring a sense of freedom along with the bitter cold and indignity.  I just can’t do that to my family.  I guess we’ll all know in the next few weeks.  I’m going to ask them for a solid dollar amount.  I just need to decide how much they will have to say for it to be worth giving up the last shreds of my dreams and becoming a total wage slave.