# weirdly antiquated technological dead ends that are still a part of modern life **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 25, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245 "2004-06-25T22:07:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/81 "2004-07-01T14:02:28Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > What, and replace a one-stage process with several (any combination of scan, convert/compress, save, email)? The fax still has the edge on labour-saving. The copier in our office can scan and e-mail in one process. Just type in the e-mail address, put the document on the copier, and hit send. It converts it to a PDF and e-mails it. And it does it a lot more accurately than those stupid faxes with their blurry lines and such. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/82 "2004-07-01T15:17:28Z")
The postal service. Whenever we need to get a hunk of matter from point A to point B, we give it to a person who takes it to a big building who gives it to another person who looks at it to decide which other person to give it to who puts in on a big machine run by another person to hand to an another person et cetera until it’s finally at your door 4 days later and travelled 3 or 4 times as far as it should have. Why not implement a simple packet-based system of pnematic tubes that can send small packages/letters etc over a national/global network much in the same way that data is routed over the internet? ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/83 "2004-07-02T03:24:34Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > How about television? > And I like the suggestion about replacing power lines, but how the hell else are you going to get power from source to consumer? I suppose you could replace it with table-top fusion(fission?) devices in every home. Otherwise, I don’t see any way around it. Lines buried in the ground are just OK, they are expensive, more difficult to repair and floods cause problems. Also when a line in placed underground it tends to kill lots of the plant life because their root systems get severed when the trench is made. Don’t see any way around it. Check out Ballard power systems. “… we are developing a natural gas-fueled 1kW combined heat and power (cogeneration) generator for the Japanese residential market.” [http://www.ballard.com/tD.asp?pgid=680&dbid=0](http://www.ballard.com/tD.asp?pgid=680&dbid=0) ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/84 "2004-07-02T13:02:46Z")
> [@gatopescado](#): > > I’ll also add any electricity not generated by atomic power. Its safe folks! Look at the French!(and all those other countrys that use it…except the Ex-USSR. They did it wrong.) Well, it is reasonably safe. The risks of a core meltdown are near zero due to triple and quadruple backups, and what people learned from the mistakes made at Three Mile Island (which was just hours away from a complete meltdown). The problem with Chernobyl was mainly bad design (from a safety point of view at least). The secondary containment was non-existent or badly designed, and the reactor was cooled with sodium. When the containment was breached and the firefighters actually tried to put out the fire with water there was a big boom, as is wont to happen when sodium meets water. There are still some other things that can go wrong though (leaks of radioactive steam, for instance). However, one of the biggest problem with nuclear reactors is what to do with the depleted rods. They contain some really nasty stuff (including weapons grade Plutonium), and are radioactive for hundreds of years, and we just don’t know where to put them at the moment. In Germany there are huge problems at the moment, because most reactors store the depleted rods at the reactor site itself (in special tanks inside the containment), but they are almost all running out of room. One thing that might (temporarily at least) help with this problem is the use of “fast breeder” reactors. The second problem is that the mining of Uranium is expensive and dirty, and the Uranium has to be enriched first before it can be used in a nuclear reactor. A “fast breeder” is a solution to this problem also. Here is a quick and dirty description of how this works: You have a core which is (sort of) divided into a “reacting” and “breeding” zone. The reacting zone is made up of regular enriched Uranium rods, or rods with a mix of Plutonium and Uranium (so called mixed-oxide rods). In the breeding zone you can put depleted rods (thus the temporary solution to our first problem: What do we do with depleted rods? We send them to the “fast breeder”!) or just plain old non-enriched Uranium. The Uranium-238 nuclei capture neutrons from the “reacting” zone, and are converted to Plutonium-239, which is fissionable and can be used to make more mixed-oxide rods (or H-bombs, whichever you may prefer. :eek: What is done at the moment in most European countries is that the depleted rods are shipped to Le Hague in France or Sellafield in the UK. There the Uranium is chemically split from the Plutonium (and the rest of the highly radioactive crap), by sawing the rods in little pieces and boiling them in concentrated nitric acid. :eek: The Plutonium is used to make mixed-oxide rods (or H-bombs) again, which are shipped back to the owner of the original depleted rods. Since most of the Uranium is too expensive to be further processed and used again, it stays at the site (Le Hague or Sellafield) or is shipped back to the ractor it came from to be stored there. The really dangerous stuff is stored in steel tanks that are constantly cooled. Once the stuff is cool enough, it is mixed with molten glass, and the cooled radioactive glass is shipped to some place where we hope it won’t be seen or heard from again (for instance old salt mines in Germany). The lightly radioctive waste products with a short half life are either blown out through smokestacks (Krypton-85 for instance) or pumped into the English Channel (Le Hague) or the Irish Sea (Sellafield). :eek: Sounds really nice doesn’t it? So, unless someone comes up with a much better alternative, or we actually start using fast breeders (a lot!) even though they present risks of their own (like a whole heck of a lot of weapons grade Plutonium floating around), I would prefer to use other sources of energy (like solar, wind power, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/85 "2004-07-02T13:59:45Z")
Of course, the best thing to do with nuclear reactors is to turn them into [amusement parks](http://www.kernwasser-wunderland.de/). I’m not kidding! :eek: A German investor actually turned the former “fast breeder” in Kalkar into an amusement park. Just check out the link (sorry it’s only in German or Dutch). ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/86 "2004-07-02T14:19:44Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Toilet paper. > [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Men’s ties. > [@AlbertRose](#): > > I use my tie to wipe my glasses clean. brain. making. connections. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/87 "2004-07-02T14:31:22Z")
missed your post, Mayfield. :smack: still, it seems like we could develop a low power laser coupled with a lens that identifies and eliminates dingleberries pretty easily. Maybe a little female voice that says, “all done” when finished. I don’t imagine the smell would be very good. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/88 "2004-07-02T15:09:37Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > missed your post, Mayfield. :smack: > > still, it seems like we could develop a low power laser coupled with a lens that identifies and eliminates dingleberries pretty easily. > > Maybe a little female voice that says, “all done” when finished. > > I don’t imagine the smell would be very good. That could also be a home hemmorhoid removal device. And why would you smell the device? As for eyeglasses, I was a little offended at the suggestion at first. I just got a new prescription, and this is the best sight I have had in a year. I’m not offended now because I realize there is LASEK and other surgeries. Does it work for astigmatism? Ditto for fax machines. Very few documents are sent through this any more ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/89 "2004-07-02T15:46:30Z")
> [@The Great Zamboni](#): > > That could also be a home hemmorhoid removal device. > And why would you smell the device? I didn’t mean you’d smell the device. I meant you’d smell seared dingleberry. ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/90 "2004-07-05T17:30:40Z")
Steam tables. An old method that does not even work very well. I gave up on a restaurant near work. They use steam tables, and nothing’s ever hot enough. Surely by now we should have developed a better way to keep cooked food hot? ---
**Author:** ![Hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazel)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/91 "2004-07-05T17:39:09Z")
Oh yeah, and I agree about the way we build houses. I think Robert Heinlein and Buckminser Fuller both suggested building houses the way we build cars, on assembly lines. You select one from a variety of models and it’s brought to your lot and installed. And for those who do not feel the need to live in their own separate free-standing structure, how about arcologies? Another of Buckminster Fuller’s ideas. And another guy, I think. Arcosanti? As described in Niven and Pournelle’s Oath of Fealty. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/92 "2004-07-05T18:29:02Z")
Manufactured housing certainly exists, both in mobile home and modular varieties. And it does what the poster requested, provides a modest home without the investment of several years’ salary. It is not yet really suited to cold climates. But here in the SE US is quite common. It does not work as well in cold climates and it does not provide an asset that appreciates in value. It’s other failings seem to be primarily cosmetic. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/93 "2004-07-05T20:26:25Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I didn’t mean you’d smell the device. I meant you’d smell seared dingleberry. I know what you meant. Your vague wording gave an opportunity for me to strike. :wally > [@hazel](#): > > Oh yeah, and I agree about the way we build houses. I think Robert Heinlein and Buckminser Fuller both suggested building houses the way we build cars, on assembly lines. You select one from a variety of models and it’s brought to your lot and installed. What about the Zenon, or Xenon houses ( I can’t remember the name, but PBS had a special about these a few times) that were built in the fifties? These were mostly steel and ceramic, I believe, and still stand better than other houses built at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/94 "2004-07-05T20:31:41Z")
> [@The Great Zamboni](#): > > I know what you meant. Your vague wording gave an opportunity for me to strike. :wally > > What about the Zenon, or Xenon houses ( I can’t remember the name, but PBS had a special about these a few times) that were built in the fifties? These were mostly steel and ceramic, I believe, and still stand better than other houses built at the time. I just Googled for both, & can’t find a thing. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245/95 "2004-07-05T20:38:14Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > I just Googled for both, & can’t find a thing. All I really remember about the name is that it had a ‘z’ sound in it. :smack: I need to get this thinkblock removed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdly-antiquated-technological-dead-ends-that-are-still-a-part-of-modern-life/252245.md?page=4)