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[Bauglir]

Elephants, crows, or octopi. Dolphins can go suck an egg, I don't want a race of raping necrophiliacs running swimming around.

Ducks, then. Nothing can go wrong with uplifting ducks (you've probably all seen this at this stage though).

I like how it says "scientifically accurate" but still depicts the flu as causing any gastrointestinal symptoms whatsoever :I

Nah, it's more like a cold with brown snot and more moaning and fever and everything is worse all the time.

(I had the H1N1 swine flu back when that scare was going on)

There are two basically unrelated diseases we call the flu and it's stupid but here we are. Vaccines only cover the respiratory one, but there's always the stomach flu.

[Putnam]

That's called norovirus. Calling it "stomach flu" is sick (ha!) and wrong. It breeds ignorance and anti-vaccination sentiments. Screw that noise.

[Frumple]

... yeah, no one's going to actually remember the name of something called "norovirus". Come back when you have a name that won't be instantly forgotten

Maybe something nice and descriptive like "stomach flu".

[Putnam]

Maybe something nice and descriptive like "stomach flu".

That's about as nice and descriptive as calling salmon "water fungus".

[Bauglir]

I didn't say it was smart, I'm just describing the state of our language. It's a very silly language in some respects, but here we are. Although, if I can have a minute to rant about stupid language decisions that will never change, fuck our calendar with a rake. We could have strict alternation between 30-day odd-number months (January, March, etc), and 31-day even-number months (April, June, etc), with the sole exception of February (which would be 30 days most years, and 31 days in leap years). But no, we needed August to plunder an extra day and throw the whole thing out of whack.

Goddamn Romans. They ruin everything.

^Fun fact: Also Jesus' last words.

[Reelya]

Elephants, crows, or octopi. Dolphins can go suck an egg, I don't want a race of raping necrophiliacs running swimming around.

Ducks, then. Nothing can go wrong with uplifting ducks (you've probably all seen this at this stage though).

I like how it says "scientifically accurate" but still depicts the flu as causing any gastrointestinal symptoms whatsoever :I

Nah, it's more like a cold with brown snot and more moaning and fever and everything is worse all the time.

(I had the H1N1 swine flu back when that scare was going on)

Human flu and swine flu maybe, but the symptoms shown in the video fit with what the CDC and WHO says about avian flu:

According to the CDC and WHO the symptoms of mild avian flu are the same as having a viral fever. Symptoms include sore throat, running nose, muscle aches. Symptoms of infection by a more virulent form of the disease include severe respiratory illness, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, respiratory failure, multi-organ disease, sometimes accompanied by nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, confusion, dizziness etc.

Here's a report from the WHO website

Initial symptoms include a high fever, usually with a temperature higher than 38oC, and other influenza-like symptoms. Diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, chest pain, and bleeding from the nose and gums have also been reported as early symptoms in some patients.

[Putnam]

According to the CDC and WHO the symptoms of mild avian flu are the same as having a viral fever. Symptoms include sore throat, running nose, muscle aches. Symptoms of infection by a more virulent form of the disease include severe respiratory illness, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia, respiratory failure, multi-organ disease, sometimes accompanied by nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, confusion, dizziness etc.

[Reelya]

That stuff attacks multiple organs, not just the respiratory tract. In this report, it's stated that it can cause damage to the kidneys. If it can cause kidney damage to some patients, but not others, it's not hard to draw the conclusion that it can cause vomiting in some patients and not others.

Initially you said "can't happen at all" not "unlikely to happen" so the likelihood of it happening isn't relevant unless you're claiming that all vomiting is due to some undiagnosed separate disease. If it happens at all, to a point that it's worth noting in all the health reports, then it's valid to call it "scientifically accurate".

EDIT further research from the above article returned this as a common symptom of Avian flus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis

In that, muscle tissue is attacked by the virus, breaks down and enters the bloodstream. This then causes symptoms including vomiting and kidney damage.

[ChairmanPoo]

It's not even that unlikely for the flu to cause GI symptoms. Around one-third of the cases end up with them.

[10ebbor10]

National Ignition facility reaches break-even.

[Osmosis Jones]

National Ignition facility reaches break-even.

... not exactly. Breakeven implies the whole process is energy neutral or better; this hasn't happened yet. Rather, the resulting explosion released more energy than was delivered to the fuel by the lasers. That does not count the total energy required to power said lasers, merely the small fraction of it that successfully hit the target. A nifty result, but not really game changing.

Plus, it's inertial confinement anyway; it's not terribly practical for power generation, certainly less so than magnetic confinement.

EDIT: ...which is all explained in the article.

[10ebbor10]

Yeah, I don't expect Inertial Confinement to be successfully used for power generation. Bombs perhaps, but not civilian power generation.

[Osmosis Jones]

Yeah, I don't expect Inertial Confinement to be successfully used for power generation. Bombs perhaps, but not civilian power generation.

From memory, the whole original point of the NIF was to simulate and improve fusion weapons.

Best use I can think of for it would be for interstellar travel. I posted it here a few months back, but there's basically a promising propulsion system in development; basically, it's Project Orion, only using fusion pellets instead of fission bombs.

[Sheb]

How would it be practical for bombs? Having a tactical nukes attached to a huge, 500 MJ laser seems unwieldy... Maybe with chemicals lasers? Still would be one of the most expensive way to make things go "boom" around.

[10ebbor10]

You don't bring a laser for a fusion bomb, but you can use the fusion laser to simulate fusion explosions. After all, fusion is already used in all thermonuclear warheads. Having the options to carefully simulate what a pellet will do when it fuses allows you to optimize warheads.

The laser is not required for inertial containment fusion after all, any heat source will do.