The octet rule is a pretty old and simplified model for chemical bonding. It is only applicable for second- and third-row main-group elements in the first place and even there you‘ll find many exceptions (for example: borane clusters, pentacoordinate carbon atoms). Still, many small molecules and most organic compounds follow the rule, and since it is easier to learn than the modern, more accurate bonding concepts, it is still widely taught.

Current research on chemical bonding is done with either molecular-orbital theory or valence-bonding theory, which are both based on quantum mechanics and were introduced in the early 1930s. Both theories have no need for an octet rule, and they are much more complicated. Sometimes, researchers still study whether a molecule obeys or violates the octet rule, but since 1) the concept has become redundant, and 2) many exceptions have already been found, this is no longer an exciting field of research.

There are always exceptions. For every rule there is some weird circumstance or extreme condition that breaks it. Our rules are constructed out of convenience because they fit basic circumstances and help us to learn.

When teaching chemistry we tend to teach a bunch of rules and then later teach the exceptions, because it's easier to understand the exceptions after you have the necessary base of knowledge.

I guess my further question which is more philosophical in nature, would then lead toward "why is 8 somehow the magic number that (mostly) all atomic particles follow for their stable bonds?"

like you and others have said though, some elements can have more than 8 and be stable which answers my question in a more broad sense because I learned thanks to yall (and googling it after reading these) that not all elements follow that rule! most do, but not all, and I wrote the question under the impression there were no exceptions to the rule!

Fascinating!

The way TV worked was that there were a small number of networks who had contracts with the local affiliates. Every city had an ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX but those designations only really told you what would be on TV during primetime (8pm to ~midnight). For the rest of the day those stations were mostly free to air whatever they wanted. To fill that time they bought the rights to show reruns of older shows.

Unlike the primetime broadcasts which aired on a specific night once a week shows in syndication would typically run every weekday. Because they were running episodes so often the longer the shows run was the more weeks they could get from it without cycling back around to the first episode.

Most affiliates wouldn't touch a show unless it had 100 episodes because shorter shows were not worth reworking their lineups. In response to this demand some shows ran longer in primetime than they otherwise would have to get past that threshold because syndication was highly profitable for the shows producers.

when are you handing in your resume to become an economics professor?

Well we know for sure from experimentation that some molecules don't obey the octet rule, and a whole class of elements, the transition metals, obey an 18-electron rule rather than the octet rule. But the general principle that certain electron orbital configurations are more stable and lower-energy states, and therefore atoms will readily undergo reactions to achieve those states, generally holds true. The least reactive elements on the periodic table (the noble gases) already obey the octet rule, and the most reactive elements are those that only need a little energy (being only a few electrons away from a noble gas configuration in either direction) to get to such a configuration.

When atoms form chemical bonds, they share or exchange electrons to become stable. Atoms are most stable when they have a full outermost shell of electrons. The octet rule says that atoms tend to gain, lose, or share electrons to have 8 electrons in their outermost shell because that's a very stable configuration.
The octet rule is based on observations of how different elements behave and how their electrons are arranged. However, there are exceptions to this rule, and scientists are still studying why certain atoms can have more than 8 electrons in their outermost shell and still be stable.

is it possible to create an "induced fission" environment for the nuclear waste to help it decay faster?

They did this research almost a hundred years ago. The s and p electronics are the most active chemically and there are 8 of those in each level. The electron configuration if the nearest noble gas is usually the most stable chemically.

This is especially true of the non-metallic elements in the top-right corner which are most often present in large organic molecules. C,N,O and the halogens. P and S are interesting exceptions! They can have 10 and 12 instead of just 8.

Subcritical RTGs is a thing. Notably for the designs intended to last more than a few decades.

Education and traditional family values is a huge factor to china's success. Having "good enough" is not enough and they make great strides towards improving how efficient their production is. Combine that with a strong sense of family ownership and you get powerful generational wealth.

ouch dang

Turkish contractors, apparently.

A long time ago, in the 90s, there was no streaming. Networks needed to fill their daytime slots, so they put "old" episodes of a series there.

A series needed about 100 episodes to air 5-10 episodes per week without airing a duplicate episode every other month.

Also television exploded in the 1980s with satellite TV and cable. The networks needed more content.

Baywatch was briefly the biggest series on earth.

> Basically a radioactive element that has been arranged to encourage it to just react a little bit faster.

They don't; there's no way to do that. RTGs just use isotopes that decay pretty quickly. Notably plutonium-238, which has a half-life of only 88 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238

Happy Days is owned by x. They sell the rights to the show to smaller, local stations.

Local station in 1985 has 3 competitors. Local station pays too dollar to lease Happy Days because they want more viewers and can charge more to advertisers.

Advertisers are willing to pay more to be watched by more people. But especially people in the 16-35yo male demographic. And that’s who was watching Happy Days in 1985.

Plus it was better than what’s on the other 3 channels (which were probably Donahue, local news, and After School Specials).

Everyone wins.

It does still exist today. I challenge you to watch Extended Cable for 3 daylight hours and not see one episode of Big Bang Theory.

Even the pun is good

Because inside the reactor we use unnatural practices to slow the neutrons down so they collide into each other and create fission.

?

Because they cut every possible corner they can and their workers are essentially slaves.

That being said I’ve been told that they can make things to whatever quality level you want if you want to pay but everybody just goes for the cheapest option on the line so they cater to that

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Originally (1940s-late 1950s or early 1960s) TV shows were shown just for that time slot. They would perform many of them live and not record them. They’d do 2 performances—one for the east coast and then a few hours later another live performance for the west coast. They were lost to time, not having been recorded. Eventually they did start recording them (I Love Lucy was one of the first) but there wasn’t a plan to do anything with them later. Recording just made it easier to show on the west coast without having to re-perform it. And then they could do re-runs later in the year. But because they used to do all the shows live, they did a lot of shows—like 36 shows a year, as compared to modern 22 shows or less/year.

Then, in the 1960s, they found a lucrative new way to make money—they would show old TV shows on another channel. To do this they would bundle up the existing shows and sell the rights to air them. There were only 3 channels but then they started expanding to new channels on UHF—these were channels larger than number 13. All the regular channels of NBC, CBS, and DuMont, then later ABC, were on channels 2 - 13. The UHF channels tended to have independent stations, not networks. They’d show local, cheap programming. Bad movies. Local news. Reruns purchased to be syndicated to these smaller channels.

Once the financial rewards of syndication were known, it was soon discovered that 5 seasons provided a good number of episodes for a syndication package, so often networks would continue to pay for shows to get to that 5th season so they’d have a lucrative package. Other shows that are shorter do syndicate, but might not get as good of a financial offer for it.

I am not sure that I see forced labor as a better situation than slavery, but if it makes you feel good….

Good bot.