generalspeaking

Splitting Atoms

Perhaps people don't work hard enough. Leaving too much time for leisurely pursuits. And idle thoughts. Thoughts leading to forbidden avenues.

But then, so much is permissible and possible that it becomes boring. There are those who require and actively seek out additional challenges. Most such people, if they are physically fit turn to sport-type activities. And others, far fewer in number, seek to challenge their endurance and capability by pursuing extreme activities.

And then there are those who indulge in fantasies of violence, and to them it becomes an attractive option to join groups that claim to be representing the noble cause of religion's furtherance. As, for example, fervid Islamists who insist that their divine belief take precedence over all others as theirs only is not a pretender to the throne of divine potency and primacy.

For them the challenge is to induce terror.

Some people seek intellectual challenges that presumably will cause no harm to anyone. Consuming whole dictionaries in the process, to become creatively adept at philosophical, artistic, theatrical endeavours. And then there are those who are truly unique, whose interests very few are capable of pursuing, and who devote themselves wholeheartedly to truly unusual pursuits.

Intelligent enough to parse instructions meant for those skilled in analyzing science and particle and nuclear physics. But evidently too self-absorbed and engaged in the process of the challenge to realize that were they to succeed in the casual dedication of fashioning their very own personal home-based nuclear reactor, events might turn disastrously wrong.

Confident enough in his naivety to build a website where his progress in the challenge before him could be catalogued for the interests of others, Richard Handl, 31, living in Stockholm, busied himself with his attempts to build a nuclear reactor in his kitchen. Assuming he had a wife, one may also assume she is a most indulgent person.

His blog, "Richard's Reactor" must surely have drawn the attention of other would-be reactor-builders, among them, presumably, terrorists who might see such a successful undertaking as possibly adding much to their terror-inducing agenda. Mr. Handl stated his plan as simply focused on the fun of it.

He wanted to see if he could successfully split atoms at home. No one has yet reported how the neighbours might have felt about the potential of having their world consumed in a mushroom cloud of atomic reaction.

Labels: Energy, Technology, That's Life

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 06, 2011