Monthly Archives: July 2005

What can one do?

I think it’s relatively obvious that this isn’t the kind of thing that public representatives should carelessly spout off. However, what it really comes down to is this: If someone wants to start an uncontrolled fission reaction in a major US city, and the required materials are the size and weight of an overstuffed checked suitcase, what can we do to stop them?

How do you find that suitcase in New York City? Imagine this. Imagine that someone tells you that they have hidden a suitcase in New York, New York. They tell you it’s about 3 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot. Then they tell you that you have a week to find it. New York’s a pretty big and complex place.

Could you do it?

Could the NYPD do it?

What if they don’t tell you where it is? What if they just tell you it’s in a major city? Or, what if they don’t tell you at all?

What do you do when nobody finds it, and hundreds of blocks of one of the biggest cities in the world become a massive hole in the ground?

I don’t think the threat of nuking Mecca would help. Don’t think I’m suggesting that. It might even make it worse. The magnitude of the problem here is nigh on to insurmountable. I know that a lot of clever people… okay, a few clever people (at last check I had about 14 readers) read my blog. What would you suggest?

Almost-Final Preparations

I’m still in Mandeville (see the map link!). I finished the roll of film that was in the SLR camera, and popped it out. Much to my chagrin, it was professional-grade black-and-white. What that means is, barring possession of a lab and developing skills, it costs about $17 to develop the roll. That’s a lot of dough just to see if the camera is taking okay pictures. Not only that, but no place around here will do it in-house. They don’t have the equipment, so they have to send it away. Bah, I say, bah!

While I suspect that the camera is working fine, I may yet venture out tonight to get a cheap roll of color film, shoot it, and develop it. Taking 5 rolls of film on the trip only to find out that I have zero pictures would be something of a waste, not to mention a let-down.

Meanwhile, I discovered an error in some simulations I ran recently, one of which takes at least three days no matter how I slice it. I need the restart files from those simulations to run the 72 cases for the project I’m working on. I’d hoped to load them up in the cluster queue before I left, but alas, it’s not to be. Luckily, they’re short jobs, so I can swamp the whole cluster with them using the short queue when I get back.

The Countdown Continues

T-60 Hours and counting… (’til I get on the first plane of the trip to Niger). Lots of packing and finding of items. Strike that, reverse it. I’m still not sure where my old pair of nylon hiking pants are. I used them in March. I’m going to have to double my efforts searching at my apartment, because they aren’t here in Mandeville.

I also couldn’t find my old point-and-shoot Nikon camera, but my father offered to let me use his Yashica FX-2 35mm SLR on the trip. I’m pretty excited about that — I once took some snzzy black-and-whites with that camera. Too bad they now cost 3x as much to develop as color, since nobody has machines to do it on-site anymore. I can’t take my digital because the battery wears out too fast, and it’s a non-standard rechargeable, so I can’t just drop in a replacement. Lesson learned for the next camera purchase I make.

Sleepy now, time for bed. I’m getting a ride back into town tomorrow with my sister, and she has to leave at 07:00.