Something I’ve never thought about but I suppose it’s highly necessary.
Each time the space shuttle rises from its launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., an Air Force officer waits anxiously for the first 2 minutes to pass safely. If the spaceship were to veer off course and endanger a populated area, this range safety officer would bear the terrible responsibility of flipping a pair of switches under a stenciled panel reading “Flight Termination.” The first switch arms explosives on the shuttle’s two solid rocket boosters. Flipping the second switch would detonate them, destroying the shuttle and crew.
Article with pictures of the switch and the no-fly zones.
Cat Power is the pseudonym for Chan Marshall, an indie rocking chick from New York. I love the sparse nature of her work - none of it is too busy or over-engineered.
Watch the video at the article. This man loses the last 2-3cm of his finger and after sprinkling some special powder on it, the finger grows back and you can’t even tell it was originally severed.
Pressure from those with vested interests, including farmers and biofuel manufacturers, plus muddled planning by decision-makers, threaten to take the country down an energy supply dead-end, said the chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry today.
Richard Pike called for restraint on the promotion of biofuel as the simple answer to Britain’s future fuel demands and urged clear debate and sounder legislation to make sure that the right answers are found to the challenges ahead.
“Future historians may ultimately see the biofuels of the early twenty-first century as a technological dead-end,” said Dr Pike.
“We have to bear in mind that the 80 tonnes of kerosene used for a one-way commercial flight to New York is equivalent to the annual biofuel yield from an area of approximately 30 football pitches.“
(emphasis mine)
It should come as little or no surprise that:
The UN’s new top adviser on food has urged a freeze on biofuel investment, saying the blind pursuit of the policy is “irresponsible”.
Entries (RSS)