25 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The ITER Project
Years from now—maybe in a decade, maybe sooner—if all goes according to plan, the most complex machine ever built will be switched on in an Alpine forest in the South of France. The machine, called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or iter, will stand a hundred feet tall, and it will weigh twenty-three thousand tons—more than twice the weight of the Eiffel Tower. At its core, densely packed high-precision equipment will encase a cavernous vacuum chamber, in which a s...Description of a multi-national effort to produce a fusion reactor. Something some refer to as a "non-optional" technology for the human race to survive.
13 APR 2012 by ideonexus
The Eiffel Tower as a Symbol of Time
Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is. I dunno. If the Eiffel tower were now representing the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle-knob at its summit would represent man's share of that age; & anybody would perceive that that skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon they would. I dunno.Folksonomies: big history time
Folksonomies: big history time
From Mark Twain, with the paint on the top of it as Man's time on Earth.