Why do you think thermal runaway reactions are dangerous on an industrial scale?

Thermal runaway reactions are always said to be dangerous on an industrial scale since the reactions go faster in an industry where they tend to reach higher temperatures. As you would already know that Exothermic reactions tend to release quite a large amount of heat, so when the reaction mixture gets very warm, a very very hot exothermic reaction begins. 

When you use industrial floor scales, it wouldn't take long to measure how and for how long the reaction needs to run to completion, so although it begins to get very very hot, it's soon over at the speed it started off with. When we see no more heat is being generated by the industrial reaction, and when it'll start cooling once the reaction is over. Did you know that for around 30 years manufacturers of some of the top of the line industrial weighing equipment with the best quality, accuracy, advanced technology and durability have always struggled to sustain it. 

When you have got a large volume of raw materials reacting, and that too in an exothermic reaction, it then begins to get hot, and finally it can quickly spiral abd get out of control. What happens is that the heat generated from the reaction can't escape, the reaction goes quicker, which then leads it to release even more heat, which speeds up the reaction even more. So that is how you have a thermal runaway reaction - in such a reaction even vessels cold melt, or explode. 

The raw material or even the product might boil away and be lost. At times it might catch fire and lead to very very dangerous situations. So that leads to the conclusion that exothermic reactions have to be run with plenty of coolant available which will help to keep the reaction at a manageable temperature. But on the other hand Nuclear power stations is another example where you don't want it to get too hot.

--> Continue Reading 'Why do you think thermal runaway reactions are dangerous on an industrial scale?'

How to buy gold bullion and also steps to safeguard its value?

One of the easiest and time-tested methods to buy gold bullion is to buy it directly from a reputable local gold bullion dealer who's been in business for a pretty long time. Why I prefer to get it from a dealer the good old way is coz you can see and feel the gold bullion - also you can actually feel the weight of the coins before you buy.

It's most likely the best approach to buy coins that are actually issued by a Bank or a Government agency than to buy the usual 1 oz or 10 oz bullion in the open market.

Usually you will find in most cases that the bullion that you plan to purchase is assayed or usually tested (acid) to check that it is real. But if you buy gold bullion encapsulated by a the very reputed issuing company it usually comes in a tamper proof case so there's really no question of purity or safety. Well, if you happen to invest in gold, you must clearly understand that it is a very long-term proposition since once you have it, it doesn't do much. Much in the sense, gold bullion doesn't pay interest or dividends but I would think that it is nice to take out and look at from time to time and feel it in hand often.

Also, be prepared that in short term you may infact likely lose money due to the market but eventually inflation increases it's value over a long period. The recommended allocation that most wealth manager's suggest is not more than 5% of your total portfolio's value should be in precious metals. Also, here's a very important tip when at the dealer's outlet, make sure that you are not charged more than around 10% over the current spot value of the metal. Remember to check online to see the daily spot value's and keep yourself updated of the up's and downs.

Finally, remember to keep the gold bullion, encased in it's original protective plastic Air-Tight packet since condition (in the distant future) may be important when selling. Hope you found this stuff interesting and useful.

--> Continue Reading 'How to buy gold bullion and also steps to safeguard its value?'

Opera Vs Firefox - May the Best Browser Win

P.S.: This is a guest Post by Heather Johnson

The Olympics kicked off with great fanfare last weekend at Beijing, and fans wait with bated breath to see who among the thousands of athletes emerges the fastest and strongest in all the categories of competitions on both land and water. Meanwhile, the Internet is seeing its share of competition from the browsers that provide access to the numerous sites that it hosts. With Mozilla coming out with Firefox 3 RC3 and Opera with version 9.5 in June earlier this year, there’s a quest to see which is faster and which is better.

In my book, Firefox scores over the rest, but maybe that’s because I’ve been using it for years and the browser has sort of become a close friend. I’ve also tried Opera for a while but came back to good old Firefox simply because I’m a creature of habit. One browser that I try to avoid is Internet Explorer – it’s bulky, it’s slow and till recently did not support tabbed browsing (I had to have around 15 windows open simultaneously at one point, which is when I looked around for a savior and found Firefox). But there are certain sites that force me to keep IE around to use in a pinch, like the time I invested in anew notebook computer and faced a few problems with my security suite - the company’s online help insisted I needed Internet Explorer as they talked me through the process of reinstalling my subscription.

I recently downloaded the latest version of Firefox and found it fast enough for my browsing needs. But when looking around for the fastest browser in the field, I found that zdnet ranked Firefox higher than both Safari and Opera using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark (incidentally, Internet Explorer is way down at the bottom of the list). Opera and Safari scored high on the ACID3 test though, which checks how compatible a browser is to web standards.

Lifehacker tests the browser startup times and Opera wins hands down in a cold start with Safari close behind, Firefox third and IE at the bottom as usual. In a warm start however, Firefox takes bottom place with the other three almost equal. In multi-tab loading times, Safari came in first followed by Opera, Firefox and then IE. But Firefox took home the gold medal for the most efficient memory usage when 8 tabs were kept open; Opera comes in second, Safari third and IE last.

There’s not much to choose between Opera and Firefox at first sight, unless you’re averse to using software that’s not free and open source (Firefox scores here). As for me, with more than 15 tabs open at any given time, I’d say that Firefox still remains my favorite cup of tea!

This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who writes on the subject of high speed Internet deals. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

--> Continue Reading 'Opera Vs Firefox - May the Best Browser Win'