Nuclear Fusion

We went on a cub scout field trip (called a Go-See-It) to General Atomics, a company where they do fusion energy research, specifically the DIII-D Program. This program is a large international one, with 90 participating institutions and a research team of 515 users. General Atomics operates DIII-D for the Department of Energy through the Office of Fusion Energy. The hope is someday to be able to produce an endless supply of safe and clean energy from fusing isotopes of hydrogen into helium. These are the same processes which take place on the sun and other stars and provide practically limitless energy. One of the scientists gave us a tour of the facility (specifically the Tokamak) and all sorts of fun science demonstrations, mostly about energy and different states of matter. There are other (larger) Tokamak machines throughout the world, but this one is the largest in the United States. The kids were entranced with the plasma ball, liquid nitrogen experiments and the gas tubes. I had fun watching the scientist freeze a wiener solid in liquid nitrogen and drop it on the floor, only to watch it shatter like glass in a hundred little pieces, then he asked the kids to imagine what would happen if they put their finger in the liquid nitrogen, then gave their friend a high-five. Meanwhile, their mother was imagining Lorena Bobbit and what damage she could have done with the liquid nitrogen and that other wiener. I have to mention the kids favorite thing was the over sized cookies and cans of soda pop for everyone.
Last night I tried to use my $40 Old Navy Bucks Back certificate at Gap.com. The Bucks Back can be used like cash online or instore at purchases of Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic or Piperlime. It was expiring and I hadn't been to the store in awhile. After I spent 20 minutes picking out a pair of jeans (they have a neat feature where you can turn the ladies in jeans around 360 degrees), I tried to place the order to no avail. The site wouldn't accept my coupon code. So I called customer service and they said I couldn't use it because it had expired at midnight. That was odd, because it was only 9:20 pm. With clarification, I found that midnight really means 9 pm for the west coast. That really ticked me off, because it is so hard for me to do any online shopping until 9 pm, after the kids are tucked in their beds. I wrote a complaint email to old navy customer service and they referred me to the bank that services their credit cards who agreed to send me a new Bucks Back coupon. Problem solved. Moral of the story? Don't wait until the last day to use your Bucks Back certificate.
This evening N started soccer practice. What can I say? Here we go again!