Nuclear Waste

A friend of mine had lunch today with a lawyer-turned-physicist. Well! If he isn't a beast for punishment ... ! As with some brainiacs, my friend included, it turns out this guy is the real deal - he walked away from a life of the law in search of wild stuff. Middle-aged (that's over 50 to you young 'uns), this friend of my friend works for the prestigious Lawrence Livermore Labs, guardians of our American nation's scientific secrets.

Titillated (no, honey, that is not a dirty word) beyond total control, I had to check out their site ... after all, it's what, almost 2 am and I'm not sleepy. I thought this would do the trick, and dull the life outta this mushy brain. Not so.

What a cool website! Nothing less than the following on the home page:

• Weapons and Complex Integration;
• National Ignition Facility and Photon Science;
• Global Security;
• Science and Technology (uh...duh...this one did not surprise me...);
• Working With Us;
• Community Connections;
• Year in Review (with Annual Reports for 07 and 08, no less!).

Yes, of course I'm impressed - here's why: Without much understanding of scientific tech gobbledygook, I get it, this site has a lot to say about how serious Americans are about Science. A lot. The first two bullets above alone tell me they're working on nuclear energy, nuclear warfare (OMG), smart bombs and the kind of science that Hollywood dreamt up in the 60s. The last three bullets (that's probably not a good word choice here, is it?) are kinda weird in a warm fuzzy way ... like "Yes, we conduct nuclear explosion experiments daily, but we still love you ..." You know what I mean?

Oh well, it turns out my friend's friend who gave up a life of slavery with rapacious legal adversaries (who knows what turned him off, right?) for the pure life of science is actually one of those guys trying to transform nuclear waste into positive energy for our children and grandchildren (I heard the going is so slow, it's like Gaudi's Holy Family Cathedral in Barcelona, we'll only get to enjoy the process...).

for Dummies

My friend, Neil Goldstein, is writing a For Dummies book. I'm not exactly sure what his topic is, I think something to do with computers, but I know when it goes out to print, he'll probably make a couple of sheckels or more. With more than 150 million books in print, covering 1,300+ topics, For Dummies is one of the most widely recognized reference series in the world. It started around 1987, when new technologies were popping up all over the place. Computer manuals were dull, dull, dull and totally incomprehensible. A frustrated customer in a computer store, who knew nothing about computers, was looking for a simple, basic book about the DOS operating system (this is the gran'daddy of all OS!). My understanding is that he suggested something like, “DOS for dummies.” And voilà, welcome to the For Dummies phenom!

From the start, For Dummies was a simple, yet powerful concept: relating to the anxiety and frustration that people felt about technology, by poking fun at it, with books that are insightful and educational and make difficult material interesting and easy. Now, you can find For Dummies brand online, where you’ll find the experts presenting even the most complex subjects in plain English. Published issues include mind-boggling topics like parenting (huge one for me!), horses, dogs, and website development. Everything is simply written, no high falutin' cross-my-eyes-what-did-that-page-say-again text.

Without critics, this would be too boring, so the truth is that I heard my boyfriend complain that the hard copy books are so much better to read than the online version ... oh well ... I'm quite happy to have it either way, thank you! His gripe was that the For Dummies online publisher relied 'way too much on branding power than securing a different (techie) class of For Dummies followers ...