Exoplanet Watch
NASA are looking for help from citizen scientists to find exoplanets. This was posted to fedi, so am sharing here to help with reach and hopefully find people to take part.
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Rolls Royce Nuclear engine
Rolls-Royce Nuclear Engine Could Power Quick Trips to the Moon and Mars
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Child Sexual Exploitation Course
I undertook a course on Child Sexual Exploitation ( CSE ) several years ago. As I am now signed up with New skills academy I have now undertaken this course again as part of ongoing CPD.
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#Training,#CPD,#Safeguarding,#ChildProtection,#CSE,#ChildSexualExploitation,#NewSkills,#Academy
The cost of Lithium for electric cars
There is a huge drive towards adopting electric vehicles. The current technology relies on Lithium a group two element that is used in the batteries that power electric cars.
While moving from Petrol / Diesel / Gasoline is great for reducing the emissions of $CO2$, $NOx)$ and oxides of Sulfur along with other dangerous chemicals. very little is being said about how this Lithium is produced.
As with most things, Lithium metal needs to be mined, unlike coal or elements such as Tin (Sn). Lithium requires huge holes to be dug in to the ground, the result is huge environmental damage in other ways.
Back in 2020, I had actually prepared a talk on this, which looked at the situation in Chile [3], where local land owners are losing ground water as this is needed for the process of extracting Lithium Carbonate from the ground. I didn't give the talk. but still have the materials.
Fast forward 2023, and the topic is being discussed on the Fediverse. the following two links highlight the issue at hand, and how people living on the land, are being affected. [1].[2].
I have also provided links to other resources [4].
I feel this issue needs to be discussed, as well as lithium having many other uses, it is still finite, and we need to find better or more ways to produce batteries or power sources for vehicles.
We do have alternatives, such as Hydrogen or Biofuels, which perhaps need to be considered as alternatives or complementary solutions.
References
1 The True Cost of Electric Vehicles 2 Lithium America's Thacker Pass clears a court hurdle, decision sent back to BLM | Kitco News 3. Lithium robs Chilean communities of water 4. Lithium Battery Data Sheeet
Pollution incident- Palestine, Ohio.
This is not even hitting the news in the UK. It is a serious incident and has serious public health implications. Looking at the safety sheet for Vinyl Chloride it is pretty nasty stuff, this being the monomer of Poly Vinyl Chloride of course
$\ce{H2C=CHCl}$
Updated post 16/2/2023
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#USA,#Ohio,#Pollution,#VinylChloride,#Nature,#Health,#Industry
More Trojans Training Photos
New players always welcome.
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Home Chemistry 11 – Making a Citric Acid solution
Further to the previous post on making molar solutions I am going to make up a 250ml solution of Citric acid.
So based on my previous calculations
1 Molar solution is formula weight in 1 litre of Water
Molar Weight of Citric acid 192.19 Amount of Water = 250ml (0.250 l)
Therefore
192.19 / 4 = 48.03g
I can weigh this out easy enough now that I have got some small scales (which are actually used for weighing jewellery) but are really good as they measure to 2 decimal places. Granted max is about 200g, but for what I am doing in chemistry this doesn't matter too much.
The first task is to weigh out the required amount of Powder.
Given I wanted 48.03g, I think for the purpose of home chemistry this is fine.
For the next step I mixed the powder with about 200ml water, stirred well then poured (via funnel) in to a conical flask and topped up to about 250ml (note the flask is approximate.) I may be just over. in a proper laboratory, I would have access to a volumetric flask, which is more accurate. I am making do with what I have.
I would probably have access to some help with this too.
Finally, the solution is poured (via funnel) in to a suitable bottle, that I have already put a label etc on.
This is now stored safely before being taken down to the Library.
We can then use this for various experiments such as adding to alkalis, using indicator (paper or liquid) or whatever else we decide to do).
There is a really nice calculation tool which you can use to help or at least double check calculations.
#HomeChemistry11,#Chemistry,#Science,#HomeChemistry,#CitricAcid,#Solution,#Molar,#Concentration
I love free software day
February 14th is also I love free software day. This is a celebration led by the Free Software Foundation Europe, and a really good opportunity to celebrate and promote free software.
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Trojans Training – Training Setup
So one of the jobs I am helping with at the Torbay Trojans is to set out some of the equipment for training.
This shows all the kit, that I need ready to start. Setting up several areas where kit is laid out, the ladders, pads and hurdles form one part of this. The tackle shields and 11 cones form part of a defensive practice area.
Other cones / kit are set out depending on what is needed, and can be adjusted by coaches.
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Code Club 18/2/2023
Paignton Library code club 18/2/2023 10 am to 12:00, Happy to stay till 13:00.
Paignton Library code club is attendee ship is picking up nicely, lots of cool stuff going on.
The core code club activities are still available. If you have been Scratch or other block based coding for a while then you may want to start looking at the next stage. which could be useful if starting with the Raspberry Pi.
I have included a link to the GNU/Linux command line BASH shell tutorials,
If you would like to start undertaking more with Python, we have 4 copies of the Python for beginners book on the shelf, and there is a copy in the Library which can be borrowed. The Pis and laptops / netbooks do have Python installed. But it may just be easier to get a Repl.it account
Going further, the two laptops I gave out on the 7th have the GoDot game engine installed, this is for creating more advanced games, the main language for this is GD Script.
For those of you working on Responsive web design then this seems to be going really well.
There are also some contests you can get involved with, some of these are listed below.
- AstroPi
- Coolest Projects 2023
Next Code Club is Saturday 4th March.
STEM Group – Saturday 11th March 2022