This is a fake, sure. Maybe it's not perfect, but the software is improving. So within a few years, I'm guessing that fakes will be indistinguishable from true recordings.
But this was based on the text of an actual speech written for President Nixen, to be delivered if the mission failed. So isn't it likely that he practiced it, just in case? And if he did, it might have been recorded, more or less accidentally. As Reagan's quip about nuking Russia was.
And so as others note, it becomes crucial to look at the historical context.
A few careers ago, some agribusiness dude asked me why I opposed the introduction of nonnative species, given that I was concerned about biodiversity loss.
And if you're "inside" an explosion that's too slow to generate a shock wave, you may not even be seriously injured.[0] At least, if the pressure spike is too low to rupture your body. And as long as objects don't get accelerated toward you.
As a child, a friend and I were electrolyzing water, in an enclosed space. And so the hydrogen flashed. But the concentration was so low that the air just turned faint blue. There was no damage, to us or the building.
> In an explosion, however, the devilish little instigator that is oxygen shoves the process into overdrive.
It's a great article, and I know that I'm being pedantic, but chemical explosions need not involve oxygen. For example, consider acetylene and silver acetylide, with a carbon-carbon triple bond. Or lead azide, with a nitrogen-nitrogen triple bond.
When lead azide detonates, you get elemental lead and diatomic nitrogen. So yes, the Pb++ oxidizes the azide.
When acetylene detonates, you get a mixture of organic compounds. But I don't believe that there's any redox involved. You just get various hydrocarbons with single and double carbon-carbon bonds. And just to be clear, this is when there's no oxidizing agent present.
In chemistry, an oxidising agent (oxidant, oxidizer) is a substance that has the ability to oxidize other substances — in other words to accept their electrons. Common oxidizing agents are oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and the halogens.
The jargon being that an oxidiser is an substance that can accept electrons, and doesn't have to by oxygen.
Just take oxidizer to me an “something that accepts electrons, like oxygen would”. Of course, there’s some oxidizers that can accept electrons from things that oxygen can’t (think of fluorine, for example) but... it’s just a term.
There’s also an enormous continuum of timescales, all the way from the detonation of high explosives, to deflagration of low explosives, combustion of fuels, to... sedate rusting, which is just oxidation of iron or steel. YMMV.
I agree. I mean, there are loads of organic chemicals with plenty of oxygen in them, and they aren't explosive. What makes ammonium nitrate explosive isn't the oxygen in it, it's the nitrogen in it. The manufacturing process for ammonium nitrate involves using quite considerable amounts of energy to persuade nitrogen to get itself hitched to hydrogen and oxygen, but it would much rather be free as diatomic nitrogen, and when that happens you get that energy back.
As I understand it, decomposition of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) alone produces a mixture of ammonia (NH3), nitric acid (HNO3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and water (H2O). But if there's a reducing agent around, such as charcoal, coal or fuel oil, you'll get lots of diatomic nitrogen.
I've always used line-interactive aka double-conversion UPS. Both because of the battery failure issue, and to protect equipment from crappy generator power. Basically there are rectifier and inverter circuits, with batteries on the DC side.
> Each of the 911's lighting units includes 84 individually controlled LEDs that allow the car to continuously morph the pattern of its beams. When a car approaches in the oncoming lane, the 911's headlights dim around it while leaving the rest of the pattern bright. The other driver doesn't get blinded, but you still have blazing lights on your side.
That is amazing. And I suspect that one could incorporate more autopilot technology. Perhaps to better illuminate pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and wildlife. Also perhaps police vehicles, identified through markings and/or tag number.
> But, there's no need to be concerned about being infected by the zombies. Unlike murder hornets or mosquitoes, these zombie cicadas are generally harmless to humans, researchers said.
I wonder if they're a workable source of psilocybin.
