Cosmical

Planet found orbiting habitable zone of sun-like star | Reuters

2011-12-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

Planet found orbiting habitable zone of sun-like star | Reuters:

'via Blog this'

Let's Go!!!

Are the Durban Climate Talks—or Climate Talks in General—Doomed? | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

2011-12-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

Are the Durban Climate Talks—or Climate Talks in General—Doomed? | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network:

'via Blog this'

Say it ain't so, Joe! We can't be doomed. To quote T.S. Eliot in Hollow Men, we will go out not with a bang (nuclear holocaust), but with a whimper (climate changed to death)!

The Future of Deep-Space Exploration: In-Depth Reports

2011-12-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

The Future of Deep-Space Exploration: In-Depth Reports

The Future of Deep-Space Exploration

When humankind once again ventures out from Earth's neighborhood, where will we go? And how will we get there?

November 29, 2011 |

Scientific American Magazine

This Way to Mars

By adapting ideas from robotic planetary exploration, the human space program could get astronauts to asteroids and Mars cheaply and quickly

Interactive Features

Breaking the Deep Space Barrier

How a spacecraft propelled by ion drives could deliver humanity deeper into space than ever before

Observations

Forget Asteroids--Send a Manned Flyby Mission to Venus

Why not add our closest planetary neighbor to the list of destinations for astronauts to visit in the coming decades?

Features

How an Energy-Efficient Spacecraft Could Revolutionize Space Travel [Video]

In a Skype interview, Damon Landau and Nathan J. Strange of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory talk about the radical mission proposal they laid out in the December issue of Scientific American

Russian Phobos craft contacted

2011-11-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

As the Python skit goes "I am not dead yet"! The European Space Agency reports that it contacted the Phobos craft, still in earth orbit, using a special antenna attached to an Australian dish.

Scientists: Faster-Than-Light Finding Still Holds - ABC News

2011-11-19T18:26:00.000-08:00

Scientists: Faster-Than-Light Finding Still Holds - ABC News

Can it be true?? Probably not! I believe that they use GPS coordinates, accurate to only a few feet, then use some kind of fancy pants algorithm to compensate.

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press

GENEVA November 19, 2011 (AP)

The chances have risen that Einstein was wrong about a fundamental law of the universe.

Scientists at the world's biggest physics lab said Friday they have ruled out one possible error that could have distorted their startling measurements that appeared to show particles traveling faster than light.

Ants and Caterpillar Robots

2011-05-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

ANTS AHOY! and Caterpillar robots:

The latest on the bug beat: To survive floods, fire ants band together to form a raft. They can sail for weeks. But how does the raft stay afloat? Researchers report the answer in PNAS this week. Plus, engineers at Tufts are looking to the caterpillar for inspiration for soft-bodied robots. The problem is that squishy bodies make it difficult to move quickly--but some caterpillars have developed a workaround.

How Was Egypt's Internet Access Shut Off?: Scientific American

2011-02-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

How Was Egypt's Internet Access Shut Off?: Scientific American: "How Was Egypt's Internet Access Shut Off?
Preliminary investigations indicate that most of the country's ISPs cut Internet access within a 20-minute period, likely at the government's behest
By Larry Greenemeier | January 28, 2011 | 16"

See also the American Kill Switch Plan, CLICK HERE!

Landscapes of Extraction: Industrial Impacts Mar the Planet [Slide Show]: Scientific American

2011-02-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Landscapes of Extraction: Industrial Impacts Mar the Planet [Slide Show]: Scientific American

We Art Doomed!

Read the linked SciAm article for further information. Mountaintops leveled. Tar sands scraped and boiled. Water taps aflame. These are just a few of the ways that mankind's quest for fossil fuels manifests itself, beyond the obvious utility of being able to power a home or business or drive a car.

Industrialized civilization relies on coal, oil and natural gas—the stored sunlight collectively known as fossil fuels—for more than 80 percent of the energy that enables everything from driving to reading on a computer screen. For all its many benefits, that energy can also have hidden costs—invisible CO2 forming a thickening blanket in the atmosphere and causing climate change, asthma in inner cities, to name a few—along with the more visible impacts.

The frugal alien's beacon

2011-01-31T16:49:00.000-08:00

The frugal alien's beacon:

Waiting for the WOW signal in the SETI search? Read the article linked above. Also see the Science Fact column in the January 2011 issue of Analog Magazine.
Also, listen to the Planetary Society article on Planetary Radio by clicking below on MP3 or wmv

Gregory and James Benford on Benford Beacons for SETI

Airdate: Monday, October 4, 2010
Running Time: 00:28:52
Listen: Windows Media | MP3
Greg and Jim Benford return to Planetary Radio, this time to talk about their rethinking of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The twin brothers believe "classical" SETI may not have been looking in the right places or for long enough. Bill Nye covers several topics in his weekly commentary, ranging from Congress' vote on the NASA budget to losing fingernails on spacewalks. Emily Lakdawalla reports on the effort to pick a spot on Mars for the Curiosity rover. Bruce Betts shares a the night sky, a new space trivia contest, and a cookie with Mat Kaplan.
Click on the MP3 or Windows Media to listen

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

2011-01-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia: "The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia"

Keep up with the latest. Found recently was an earth type rocky planet only a few times larger than earth...unfortunately, it is too close to the sun to support life. Also, three planets in one system were actually imaged! (HR 8799 B, C D)Exopl

NEW SCIENTIST MAG.: New Approach to Quantum Reality

2011-01-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

Quantum reality: The many meanings of life

24 January 2011 by Michael Brooks
Magazine issue 2796. Subscribe and save
For similar stories, visit the Quantum World Topic Guide

Where the weird things are (Image: Richard Wilkinson)

1 more image

Editorial: "Don't fear the f-word in quantum physics"

Quantum theory is a scientific masterpiece – but physicists still aren't sure what to make of it

A CENTURY, it seems, is not enough. One hundred years ago this year, the first world physics conference took place in Brussels, Belgium. The topic under discussion was how to deal with the strange new quantum theory and whether it would ever be possible to marry it to our everyday experience, leaving us with one coherent description of the world.

Did 'Martian' methane signal come from Earth? - space - 23 December 2010 - New Scientist

2010-12-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

Did 'Martian' methane signal come from Earth? - space - 23 December 2010 - New Scientist

This can't be right! The Martians are playing with us! Doom!

See original NASA story.

2010-12-06T19:40:00.000-08:00

News Alert, Ozzie Osbourn has Neanderthal Genes!

From New Scientist

Are you really smarter than a Neanderthal?

What image first comes to mind when you think of a Neanderthal? Chances are you picture a brutish, subhuman figure &#8211 a cliche that survives in the face of mounting evidence that they were inventive, creative and cultured. Perhaps it's time we accepted that Neanderthals were people too? This week's lead feature examines that proposition. Elsewhere this week: we investigate the danger of unreliable paternity tests; find out how to create temperatures below absolute zero; and in the latest edition of our subscriber-onlyInstant Expert, cognitive biologist W. Tecumseh Fitch explains how we think language evolved.

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, online editor

Weird Arsenic-Eating Microbes Discovered? Yes. Finding E.T.? No. - NASA Watch

2010-12-05T23:38:00.000-08:00

Weird Arsenic-Eating Microbes Discovered? Yes. Finding E.T.? No. - NASA Watch

This, combined with deep sea worms existing on chemicals from ocean floor chimney's make it more likely that we will find some type of life away from earth. Perhaps the 1976 Mars lander did find life...just life with a different chemical basis.

Journal of Cosmology

2010-10-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Journal of Cosmology: "\Table of Contents - Volume 12
Colonizing Mars
The Human Mission to the Red Planet
October - November, 2010
Edited by
Joel S. Levine, Ph.D.,
NASA, Co-Chair, Human Exploration of Mars Science Analysis Group (HEM-SAG) of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG).
Rudy Schild, Ph.D.,
Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian
In Association and Collaboration with the Mars Society

Transorbital Railroad

2010-10-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

"Transorbital Railroad" Proposed
by Freya Jackson — last modified 2010-10-13 12:32
The following article by Mars Society president Dr. Robert Zubrin appears in the October 4, 2010 edition of the industry weekly Space News. The proposed “transorbital railroad” would greatly facilitate space development ventures of every kind, including both government and privately funded robotic and human Mars exploration, while stimulating the growth of the launch vehicle industry and a vibrant orbital economy.

Opening a Railroad to Space
Space News, October 4, 2010
Robert Zubrin
In the history of the American frontier, the opening of the transcontinental railroad was an epochal event. Almost instantly, the transit to the West Coast, which had previously required an arduous multi-month trek and a massive investment for an average family, became a quick and affordable excursion. As a result, the growth of the nation accelerated exponentially.
How can we today deliver a similar master stroke, and open the way to the full and rapid development of the space frontier? We need to open up a transorbital railroad.
Here’s how it could be done.
First, we could set up a small transorbital railroad office in NASA, and fund it to buy six heavy-lift (100 metric tons to low Earth orbit) and six medium-lift (20 tons to LEO) launches per year from the private launch industry, with heavy- and medium-lift launches going off on schedule on alternating months. The transorbital railroad office would pay the launch companies $500 million for each heavy launch and $100 million for each medium launch, thus requiring a total out-of-pocket program expenditure of $3.6 billion per year, roughly 70 percent that of the space shuttle program. It would then turn around and sell standardized compartments to both government and private customers at subsidized rates. For example, on the heavy-lift vehicle, the entire 100-ton capacity launch could be offered for sale at $10 million, 10-ton compartments for $1 million, 1 ton for $100,000, and 100-kilogram slots for $10,000 each. The entire 20 tons of the medium-lift launcher could be offered for $2 million, with 2-ton containers made available for $200,000 and 200-kilogram spaces for $20,000. While recovering only a tiny fraction of the transorbital railroad’s costs, such low fees (levied primarily to discourage spurious use) would make spaceflight readily affordable to everyone.
As with a railroad, the transorbital railroad’s launches would occur in accord with its schedule, regardless of whether or not all of its cargo capacity was subscribed by customers. Unsubscribed space would be filled with containers of water, food or space-storable propellants. These standardized, pressurizable containers, equipped with tracking beacons, plumbing attachments, hatches and electrical pass-throughs, would be released for orbital recovery by anyone with the initiative to collect them and put their contents and volumes to use. A payload dispenser, provided and loaded by the launch companies as part of their service, would be used to release partial payloads to go their separate ways once orbit is achieved.
As noted above, the budget required to run the transorbital railroad would be 30 percent less than the space shuttle program, but it would accomplish far more. Instead of perhaps 60 tons (three shuttle launches) delivered per year to orbit, it would launch 720 tons. The U.S. government thus would save a great deal of money, since its own departments in NASA, the military and other agencies could avail themselves of the transorbital railroad’s low rates to launch their payloads at trivial cost. Much further savings would occur, however, since with launch costs so profoundly reduced, it no longer would be necessary to spend billions to ensure the ultimate degree of spacecraft reliability. Instead, commercial-grade parts could be used, thereby cutting the cost of spacecraft construction by orders of magnitude. While some failures would result, they would be eminently affordable, and moreover, enable a greatly accelerated rate of technological advance in spacecraft design, since unproven, non-space-rated components could be much more rapidly put to the test.
With such a huge amount of lift capability available to everyone at low cost, both public and private initiatives of every kind could take wing. If NASA’s Exploration Mission Directorate were to desire to send expeditions to other worlds, all they would have to do is buy space on the transorbital railroad for their payloads. But private enterprises or foundations could use the transorbital railroad to launch their own lunar or Mars probes — or settlements — as well. Those who believe in space solar power satellites would have the opportunity to put their business plans into action. Those wishing to launch and operate orbital space hotels would have the low-cost lift capacity necessary to make their concepts feasible. Those hoping to offer commercial orbital ferry service to transfer payloads from low Earth orbit to geostationary orbit or beyond would be able to get their crafts aloft, and have plenty of customers. As such enterprises multiplied, a tax base would be created both on Earth and in space that would ultimately repay the government many times over for its transorbital railroad program costs.
While the implementation of a cargo-only transorbital railroad would be a great advance over our current situation, we should not limit it to that. As John F. Kennedy said at the dawn of the space age, “A new ocean has opened, and free men must sail it.” Thus the transorbital railroad’s compartments should be open to receive passenger capsules provided by private vendors, thereby making affordable trips to orbit possible for anyone. Some might say that such open access to human spaceflight would put people at risk, and this is true. But bold endeavors have always involved risk, whether personal or financial, and free men and women should be allowed to decide for themselves what risks they are willing to accept in order to achieve their dreams.
We don’t have to wait for years to implement the transorbital railroad. We can begin it straight away, with 12 medium-lift launches per year. This would cost only $1.2 billion yearly, leaving several billion dollars per year to support the development of heavy-lift vehicles through two or more fixed-price contracts issued to industry on a competitive basis. Once these heavy-lift launchers become available, they could be integrated into the program to enable the full transorbital railroad capability discussed above. With a guaranteed market, launch vehicle companies would be able to put mass-production techniques into action, thereby causing the costs of their rockets to fall over time. This, in turn, would allow the transorbital railroad to increase further the frequency of its service, from one launch per month to two, three or more, and result in a dramatic drop in the cost of launch vehicles bought outside of the transorbital railroad program as well.
Some might say that the implementation of the transorbital railroad would represent an anticompetitive subsidization of the U.S. launch industry. But the federal government has always subsidized transportation, supporting the development of trails, canals, railroads, seaports, bridges, tunnels, subways, highways, aircraft and airports since the founding of the republic. Rather than complain, the Europeans or others distressed by low American launch prices could create transorbital railroads of their own, thus multiplying humanity’s capacity to reach into space still further.
Within a few years, we could be sending not a mere handful of people per year to orbit, but hundreds. Instead of a narrow space program with timid objectives moving forward at the snail’s pace of politically constrained bureaucracy, we could have dozens of bold endeavors of every kind, attempting to realize every vision and every dream — reaching out, taking risks and proving the impossible to be possible. With the aid of the transorbital railroad, the vast realm of the solar system could be truly opened to human hands, human minds, human hearts and human enterprise, a new ocean for free men and women to sail, their creativity unbounded, with prospects and possibilities as unlimited as space itself.
Robert Zubrin, an aerospace engineer, is president of the Mars Society (www.marssociety.org) and author of “The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must.”

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

2010-10-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

Keep up with the latest extrasolar planets found!

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia:

Airships to return?

2010-06-02T14:30:00.001-07:00

U.S. Navy Airship Akron launching a plane from its flight deck.

I am a great fan of lighter than air rigid inflatables. Zeppelin NT is a German company bringing back commercial Zeppelins, though I think they are only semi-rigids as opposed to full zeppelins like the Hindenberg or Blimps like those flown by the Goodyear company.

NASA and Lighter than Air, see the New Scientist and a NASA video Test Inflation Video

See video of the Hindenberg crash...filled with Hydrogen.

Good books: Dr. Eckner's DreamMachine, about very successful Graf Zeppelin

or Skyships, a history of Airships in the U.S. Navy

I have read both of these as well as several of the others listed at the University of Colorado website referenced here.

To fly in a Zeppelin, check out Airship Ventures in California.

For those of you in Oregon, as I am, many of the books listed above are available at the Multnomah County Library.

Also, consider visiting a WWII Navy Dirigible base, The Tillamook Air Museum, at the site of the old Tillamook Airstation, a port for anti-submarine flights in WWII.

Smallest Exoplanet Is Most Earth-like Yet | Wired Science | Wired.com

2010-03-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

From Wired magazine...maybe the smallest exoplanet yet found. Astronomers are getting better and better at this....I really don't believe they can do it, but they do!

Smallest Exoplanet Is Most Earth-like Yet | Wired Science | Wired.com
The smallest exoplanet ever seen is less than twice the size of Earth, and orbits a star similar to our sun 390 light years away. Astronomers recently spotted this world, the most Earth-like planet yet discovered, with the COROT satellite.

"For the first time, we have unambiguously detected a planet that is
‘rocky’ in the same sense as our own Earth,” said Malcolm Fridlund, ESA
COROT project scientist.

For all its similarity to our own globe, though, it is still a far cry away from a habitable Earth-twin. For one thing, it is so hot — between 1,830 and 2,730 degrees Fahrenheit — that scientists think it might be covered in lava. It orbits extremely close to its sun and whips around the star once every 20 hours.

Nonetheless, the discovery takes us one step closer to finding another world that could host life. The newly found planet, dubbed COROT-Exo-7b, is distinct from most of the roughly 330 exoplanets so far discovered, which are by and large gas giants like Jupiter. This planet, however, is a terrestrial world like Earth, and seems to have a density similar to that of our own planet.

SPACE.com Image Gallery: Views from Space: Imagery from Past Shuttle Missions

2010-03-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

SPACE.com Image Gallery: Views from Space: Imagery from Past Shuttle Missions

Click above for interesting images from space.

NASA Needs a Destination — The Mars Society

2010-02-23T13:45:00.000-08:00

The existing Lunar program and boosters has been ditched. The new plan says that there are new "game changer" technologies in the pipeline that would cut travel time for a manned voyage to Mars significantly. However, Rubin of the Mars Society says that is not so. Click below to go to the Mars Society site.
NASA Needs a Destination — The Mars Society: "Consider the following: At the same time it announced its new space policy, NASA gave notice that the three key supposedly “game-changing” inventions it would seek to develop as part of the effort would be the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VaSIMR) propulsion drive, orbital space depots, and heavy-lift technology."

02.12.2010 - New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing

2010-02-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

02.12.2010 - New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing

This is from a U.C. California, Bezerkely site. Would you wear electric clothing? What about eclectic clothing (That will teach you to read my blog!)

Also, see about generator knees:

Generate power while you walk

An energy-capturing knee brace can generate enough electricity from walking to operate a portable GPS locator, a cell phone, a motorized prosthetic joint, or an implanted neurotransmitter.

Knee brace device is a bit heavy, but it can help generate electricity.

20090616_waves_saturn_rings.jpg (JPEG Image, 300x289 pixels)

2010-01-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

20090616_waves_saturn_rings.jpg (JPEG Image, 300x289 pixels)

shadows of small Saturn ring moon

Destination Phobos: humanity's next giant leap - space - 27 January 2010 - New Scientist

2010-01-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

The Moon is so yesterday...plus there will be delays. Aeres I will probably be scrapped and we will rely on the Russians and the Japanese to get us into orbit for a while. However, Phobos, a moon of Mars beckons! Be sure to see OMSI Space! if you make it to Portland, OR

Destination Phobos: humanity's next giant leap - space - 27 January 2010 - New Scientist

Exolanguage: do you speak alien? - space - 20 January 2010 - New Scientist

2010-01-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

"Exolanguage: do you speak alien? - space - 20 January 2010 - New Scientist: "THE cosmos is quiet. Eerily quiet. After decades of straining our radio ears for a whisper of civilisations beyond Earth, we have heard nothing. No reassuring message of universal peace. No helpful recipe for building faster-than-light spacecraft or for averting global catastrophes. Not even a stray interstellar advertisement.

Perhaps there's nobody out there after all. Or perhaps it's just early days in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), and we're listening to the wrong star systems or at the wrong wavelengths."

From the New Scientist

Supermassive black holes – the fathers of galaxies - space - 06 January 2010 - New Scientist

2010-01-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

Supermassive black holes – the fathers of galaxies - space - 06 January 2010 - New Scientist: "ONCE upon a time, a vast cloud of cold gas was floating in the void of space, a patch of inert blackness against the even deeper blackness behind. Then, as if from nowhere, a thin jet of matter streaked towards it at ultra-high speed. It slammed into the cloud, compressing its matter and triggering a firestorm of star formation. What had once been a dormant gas cloud was now a full-blown galaxy.

Is this how a galaxy is born? David Elbaz's team of astrophysicists is convinced of it"

Earthlike Wet Planet Discovered

2009-12-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

Too hot for us, but almost...signs of liquid water in the spectrum. It orbits around a red dwarf inside the habitable or "Goldilocks" zone. Click link above for WSJ video. Also, see Space.com for a recent story on the subject. 30 Billion Earths? New Estimate of Exoplanets in Our Galaxy
The photo below is from the Woodside Cosmology blog.

See NASA comment on finding Spock's home world, Vulcan

See the Exoplanet Database Here

Dark power: Grand designs for interstellar travel - space - 25 November 2009 - New Scientist

2009-11-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

Dark power: Grand designs for interstellar travel - space - 25 November 2009 - New Scientist

You may recall the 1060's proposal for intersteller travel, a ramjet propelled by hydrogen scooped up in magnetic fields as the ship sped on. The article above from SCIENCE magazine proposes something similar, propelled by scoops of dark matter!

Timewarp: How your brain creates the fourth dimension - life - 21 October 2009 - New Scientist

2009-10-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Timewarp: How your brain creates the fourth dimension - life - 21 October 2009 - New Scientist

"THE MAN dangles on a cable hanging from an eight-storey-high tower. Suspended in a harness with his back to the ground, he sees only the face of the man above, who controls the winch that is lifting him to the top of the tower like a bundle of cargo. And then it happens. The cable suddenly unclips and he plummets towards the concrete below."

This describes an experiment in which someone is thrown off a building to safely fall in a net. It was to measure how time slows..You know, like when you are in a car crash and everything g..o..e..s..so S>>L>>>O>>W!

The Wireless Future of Energy Tranfer | Singularity Hub

2009-10-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

The Wireless Future of Energy Tranfer | Singularity Hub: "The Wireless Future of Energy Tranfer
"June 30th, 2009 by Drew Halley
Filed under computing.

The electronic revolution of the past century has been a tangled affair. Remember when phones were always wired into the wall? When the internet required one more cord from the back of your computer? Wireless is the future, which is all well and good for information transfer. But what about energy itself?"

Remember Nikolai Tesla? He invented alternating current, transmitted energy through the air (not too successfully), and first detected cosmic background radiation? Wireless battery charging is on the horizon. Read the blog referenced above as well as MIT Technology Review and the Patent for such a device.

Radio Australia - Innovations - Solar Prints

2009-10-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

Radio Australia - Innovations - Solar Prints: "DESLEY BLANCH : In a country as sunny as Australia, you would think that every rooftop should have a solar panel on it. But the uptake of solar has been quite slow, mainly because of cost. Well, a consortium of Australian scientists may have an answer that is right on the money.

For ABC TV's science and technology program Catalyst, Mark Horstman investigates."

I heard this a few months ago an an Australian Broadcasting Company podcast. A company specializing in printing currency is on the verge of a breakthrough. See Also:

Australia's Printable Solar Cells : Renewable Energy News

Printable solar cells on the way | COSMOS magazine.

iTWire Discussions • View topic - New technology enables solar ...

Mercury looms large as probe closes in for final flyby - space - 29 September 2009 - New Scientist

2009-09-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

Mercury looms large as probe closes in for final flyby - space - 29 September 2009 - New Scientist: "NASA's Messenger spacecraft is set to make its third and final flyby of Mercury on Tuesday. If all goes well, the manoeuvre will use Mercury's gravity to slow the probe down enough to go into orbit around the planet in 2011."

The previous Pioneer spacecraft took a few pictures in a flyby long ago. After this, only Pluto, the "Dwarf Planet" will remain unexplored until NASA's New Horizons spacecraft arrives.

Reconstruct Mars Automatically in Minutes! | Mars Today - Your Daily Source of Mars News

2009-09-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

Reconstruct Mars Automatically in Minutes! | Mars Today - Your Daily Source of Mars News: "Reconstruct Mars Automatically in Minutes!

A computer system is under development that can automatically combine images of the Martian surface, captured by landers or rovers, in order to reproduce a three-dimensional view of the red planet
. The resulting model can be viewed from any angle, giving astronomers a realistic and immersive impression of the landscape. This important new development has been presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr. Michal Havlena."

Cosmos - Google Docs

2009-09-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

Cosmos

Print this page

Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?

06.01.2002

Eminent physicist John Wheeler says he has only enough time left to work on one idea: that human consciousness shapes not only the present but the past as well

Mars Rover Spirit Hits 2,000 Sols | Mars Today - Your Daily Source of Mars News

2009-09-01T02:09:00.000-07:00

Where has Mr. Cosmical been? Not off planet, unfortunately, just preocuppied. However, I am back!
Mars Rover Spirit Hits 2,000 Sols | Mars Today - Your Daily Source of Mars News: "Mars Rover Spirit Hits 2,000 Sols Still alive long after it's projected life. Interestingly, raw photos are posted immediately on the web. Often, amateur enthusiasts download and process the pictures immediately, giving the NASA folks a head start when they get to work. Click HERE to get to the raw images and give it a try. The following is from Mars Today

"August 18, 2009: Today marks the 2,000th Martian day, or sol, of what was initially planned as a 90-sol mission on Mars for NASA's Spirit rover.

Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach the 2,000-sol milestone on Sept. 8. Both rovers have found rocks altered by past action of water on Mars. Both show some signs of aging but remain capable of further scientific investigations.

Since their landing halfway around the planet from each other in January 2004, Spirit has driven 4.8 miles and Opportunity has driven 10.7 miles. Together, they have returned more than 246,000 images. Each Martian sol lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day.}

Mars Rover Spirit Hits 2,000 Sols

August 18, 2009: Today marks the 2,000th Martian day, or sol, of what was initially planned as a 90-sol mission on Mars for NASA's Spirit rover.

Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach the 2,000-sol milestone on Sept. 8. Both rovers have found rocks altered by past action of water on Mars. Both show some signs of aging but remain capable of further scientific investigations.

Since their landing halfway around the planet from each other in January 2004, Spirit has driven 4.8 miles and Opportunity has driven 10.7 miles. Together, they have returned more than 246,000 images. Each Martian sol lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day"

Larger image of Spirit's traverse
Larger image of Spirit's traverse"

List of phases of matter

2009-06-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

List of phases of matter: "List of phases of matter

This is a list of the different phases of matter including the more exotic ones."

Everything you wanted to know, as if it mattered!

Searching For ET: Kepler Launch A Success, Search For E.T. Is Underway

2009-03-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Searching For ET: Kepler Launch A Success, Search For E.T. Is Underway: "Gizmodo

As noted earlier, the Keppler launch took place on Thursday and I can now report, it was a success. Click on the link above for the Gizmodo site for more comment. Gizmodo is great for those of us who love electronic gadgetry! Click on this NASA site for mission information.

Beyond Green Roofs: 15 Vertically Vegetated Buildings | WebEcoist

2009-03-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

Beyond Green Roofs: 15 Vertically Vegetated Buildings | WebEcoist

Above is a link to a green building website. It is fascinating and hopefully a harbinger of the future. You should see also the first edition of Scientific American Earth 3.0 about the same subject. This also discusses urban farming and mentions a commercial garden in New York City that was in business until about 20 years ago. You could buy local and eliminate all transportation costs from farm to market!

NASA - Search for Habitable Planets

2009-03-06T19:09:00.000-08:00

NASA - Search for Habitable Planets

Extra Solar planets keep popping up all over the place. Gas Giants orbiting close to parent stars...against previous theories of planetary formation. Rocky planets have also been found. Keppler will build on the already 230 planets discovered looking for earth size planets in the habitable zone. If launch goes okay, we will increase our knowledge exponentially!
Kepler Scientific Objectives

Image above: Kepler's targeted star field. Credit: Carter Roberts of the Eastbay Astronomical Society The scientific objective of the Kepler Mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems. This is achieved by surveying a large sample of stars to:

Determine the percentage of terrestrial and larger planets that are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars
Determine the distribution of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets
Estimate how many planets there are in multiple-star systems
Determine the variety of orbit sizes and planet reflectivities, sizes, masses and densities of short-period giant planets
Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques
Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems.

Magenn Power Inc.

2009-01-29T16:17:00.000-08:00

Magenn Power Inc.: "Magenn Power's MARS is a Wind Power Anywhere™ solution with distinct advantages over existing Conventional Wind Turbines and Diesel Generating Systems including: global deployment, lower costs, better operational performance, and greater environmental advantages."

"Magenn Power's MARS is a Wind Power Anywhere™ solution with distinct advantages over existing Conventional Wind Turbines and Diesel Generating Systems including: global deployment, lower costs, better operational performance, and greater environmental advantages." They just keep coming up with better and more varied green solutions to the energy problem. The big problem remaining, however is storage and transmission.

Click here or the outline of the issue as discussed at a Boston conference last year.

NOVA | The Elegant Universe | Watch the Program | PBS

2009-01-29T10:29:00.000-08:00

NOVA | The Elegant Universe | Watch the Program | PBS

If you missed this three hour mini-series, you can watch it online by clicking above. It starts with Einstein's attempts at a unified field theory and goes from there to String Theory and the Higgs Boson.

Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking? | Physics & Math | DISCOVER Magazine

2009-01-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking? | Physics & Math | DISCOVER Magazine

Remember as kids, we sometimes thought if we closed our eyes, the world would go away? Well, at least in the strange quantum world it might? For any of you who may wane philosophical, read this!

'Cloak of silence' design is unveiled - physicsworld.com

2009-01-21T10:28:00.000-08:00

'Cloak of silence' design is unveiled - physicsworld।

"Get Smart" technology has gone beyond the shoe phone! Also, see this New Zealand Hearld website article on the technology of "Get Smart".

Also, see the CIA museum website for similar strangeness. At one time, the CIA met regularly with Hollywood script writers to exchange ideas! See Hollywood CIA links!

Storing energy from wind? A German approach:

2008-12-31T10:49:00.000-08:00

"Learning, Passive House, Wind-to-Battery Storage

Learning

Would World University and School's innovation focus help reshape how people learn, and help to facilitate a culture of learning, if learning becomes very fun, and people find avenues to share ideas richly? Add or take a course in any language and subject. (Here's World University and School's Facebook Group)."

Quantum effects on the Macro Level

2008-12-31T00:56:00.000-08:00

I found this by searching the above title. It is from another blog

"The Other Blog"

The author describes his blog as follows:

"This is my classic stream-of-consciousness blog designed to avoid clogging my friends' inboxes. We've got your interesting URLs for software development, aviation, the environment, and politics. Plus the odd thought. If you want my real writing, see Thoughts Aloft, my other other blog"

First Pictures Taken of Extrasolar Planets - NYTimes.com

2008-11-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

First Pictures Taken of Extrasolar Planets - NYTimes.com

He is back and what a zinger this time. Please see the linked NYT article on the first extrasolar planet ever photographed! A tiny dot, but none the less, the first.
Also see Space.com and Science Daily
for more articles.

Finally, click on Sea Snake wave energy demonstration for a video of one concept in sea wave energy production by Water SISWEB

2008-10-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

CEATEC: Panasonic Lifewall Is the All-Knowing Gesture-Controlled TV of the Future

2008-10-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

CEATEC: Panasonic Lifewall Is the All-Knowing Gesture-Controlled TV of the Future:
I want one! It is similar to the one described by Ray Bradbury in Farenheit 451. Who needs books? Well, maybe I do, but the wall is pretty nifty!

Scientific American: Scientific American Special Editions

2008-10-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

Scientific American: Scientific American Special Editions

Be sure and read this special digital edition of Scientific American. The articles include urban vertical farming, fresh water shortages, and other great features.

FEATURES

Is Focusing on "Hot Spots" the Key to Preserving Biodiversity?
Preserving biodiversity in rich habitats is good. But global warming and other new threats may call for a new strategy
By Robert Kunzig

Energy versus Water: Solving Both Crises Together
Water is needed to generate energy. Energy is needed to deliver water. Both resources are limiting the other—and both may be running short. Is there a way out?
By Michael E. Webber

For National Security, Get Off Oil
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey says America's oil dependence is a grave threat
By Stephen D. Solomon

LEED Compliance Not Required for Designing Green Buildings
Constructing buildings to the LEED standard can conserve energy and materials—or be exploited for promotional gain
By Daniel Brook

Global Warming: Beyond the Tipping Point
The world's most outspoken climatologist argues that today's carbon dioxide levels are already dangerously too high. What can we do if he is right?
By Michael D. Lemonick

Growing Vertical: Skyscraper Farming
Cultivating crops in downtown skyscrapers might save bushels of energy and provide city dwellers with distinctively fresh food
By Mark Fischetti

Hydro/Wind Power Followup

2008-07-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

The BPA and the wind community apparently believe that storage of wind and hydro power are too expensive. Please read the following article from the Tacoma News Tribune about hydrogen. Also below is a link to a patented system for converting excess hydro into hydrogen.
Hydrogen: River of Energy

Columbia River hydropower could put Northwest at a forefront of a revolution
By Jack Robertson
The News Tribune"

US Patent 6864596 - Hydrogen production from hydro power

Wind surge poses a risk to salmon and reveals flaws in BPA's power-regulating system - OregonLive.com

2008-07-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Wind surge poses a risk to salmon and reveals flaws in BPA's power-regulating system - OregonLive.com: "Wind surge poses a risk to salmon and reveals flaws in BPA's power-regulating system
With Columbia Gorge turbines pumping out extra electricity, the agency had to quickly adjust its hydro generation"

This was a story in the Saturday, July 05, 2008 Oregonian Newspaper by Gail Kinsey Hill, a staff writer. The gist of the story was that the greatly increased capacity of the wind turbines along the Columbia Gorge through which the Mighty Columbia River flows came close to causing a big problem on the BPA power generating dams. In order to deal with the surplus of electricity, the dams had to stop generating power and spill water over the dam thus potentially causing a problem with migrating salmon. My question is why the excess capacity of either the windmills or the dams could not be converted to hydrogen and stored for later use. Lacking an infrastructure to deliver hydrogen to other places where it could be used, it could be stored on site and used later to power generators or produce electricity when needed using fuel cells.

As a side note, as the old economy of the river based on aluminum smelting is in decline, a significant part of the BPA output is used by Google in it's semi-secret server farm in The Dalles on the banks of the Columbia. Despite Google's efforts to conserve, lots of power is used to run the servers and to cool the plant. Read about this in this Willamette Week article.

A blog about generating hydrogen with excess capacity can be reached by clicking here. Can anyone explain to my why this will not work?

Worms Do Calculus To Find Meals Or Avoid Unpleasantness

2008-07-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

Worms Do Calculus To Find Meals Or Avoid Unpleasantness

How could you not find this interesting. A worm with only 300 or so neurons in its brain finding food doing intricate calculations. I just love it! I can't do calculus. I vaguely recall that funny "S" symbol though!

Power and Control

2008-06-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

Power and Control

A good deal of my ramblings are about power, energy, conservation and alternative energy issues. The blog cited above is by M. Simon of Rockford Illinois. His focus is on energy also, but with a focus on fusion energy. Of late, there is a renewed interest in nuclear power as it does not directly contribute to global warming. I heard a podcast debate between one of the early Greenpeace guys who went over to the dark side and a member of the British Green Party on this issue. The debate featuring Partrick Moore can be heard by clicking this link.

The Green response is that Moore ignores the huge carbon footprint left by nuclear power when the mining, transportation and disposal of the fuel is taken into account. This argument left me questioning my recent conversion back to supporting nukes, but I am not good enough at the Dismal Science of economics to really come to any conclusions.

Finally, it should be said that I am a space nut. Perhaps He3 (an isotope of Helium) will play a role in fusion. Indeed, this might be why China, Japan and perhaps India have begun moon exploration programs. My view on this is the more the merrier. To the Moon, to Mars and beyond!

I do believe, however, that nuclear fusion might be the answer. See the blog cited above for more info on this. A bigger question, however, is whether or not we need unlimited power. Could it be that our lives would be simpler and more satisfying if we simply conserved for the sake of conserving? Go top M. Simon's blog and start a discussion on this!

BBC News | SCI/TECH | Fusion power 'within reach'

2008-06-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

BBC News | SCI/TECH | Fusion power 'within reach'

Is Fusion back in vogue? BBC says that the new approach to smaller reactors means Fusion is "within reach". Even if we could get cheap, clean, unlimited power, do we want to? Or is it better to scale down our lives strictly for it's own sake?

Harnessing the Weather | Natural Disasters | DISCOVER Magazine

2008-06-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

Harnessing the Weather | Natural Disasters | DISCOVER Magazine

The Russians try. The U.S. DOD has tried. Private companies have tried. Maybe it is all part of the Alaska HARP Project that the conspiracy theorists worry about.

New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin | The University of Texas at Austin

2008-04-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin | The University of Texas at Austin: "AUSTIN, Texas — A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation's transportation fuel if production can be scaled up.

Along with cellulose, the cyanobacteria developed by Professor R. Malcolm Brown Jr. and Dr. David Nobles Jr. secrete glucose and sucrose. These simple sugars are the major sources used to produce ethanol.

'The cyanobacterium is potentially a very inexpensive source for sugars to use for ethanol and designer fuels,' says Nobles, a research associate in the Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology."

The above is from the University of Texas at Austin News. As the article describes it, the problem with converting regular plant material to ethanol fuel is the difficulty and expense of breaking down the material. This process may eventually solve that problem as the new material involves cynobacteria that can be grown in production facilities or in land not suitable for agriculture using water to salty for regular use. Maybe we are not doomed!

Speaking of Not Doomed, try this at home:

From the Slashdot Blog
Newscloud brings us news of a startup called E-Fuel promising to ship a home-brew ethanol plant, the size of a washer-dryer, for under $10,000 by the end of this year. We've had plenty of discussions about $1/gal. fuel — these guys want to let you make it at home. The company says it plans to develop a NAFTA-enabled distribution network for inedible sugar from Mexico at 1/8th the cost of trade-protected sugar, to use as raw material for making ethanol. A renewable energy expert from UC Berkeley is quoted: "There's a lot of hurdles you have to overcome. It's entirely possible that they've done it, but skepticism is a virtue."

Nuclear energy becoming less sustainable | COSMOS magazine

2008-04-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

Nuclear energy becoming less sustainable | COSMOS magazine

"SYDNEY: The case for nuclear power as a sustainable alternative energy source is challenged by new evidence that greenhouse gas emissions from uranium mining are increasing.

An Australian report, detailed this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology argues that the availability of high-grade uranium ore will deplete over time making the fuel more environmentally and economically expensive to extract."

Just when it starts to look like "Good Nukes", the bad news comes. The above quoe is from Cosmos Magazine

Below is a quote from another source about the carbon footprint of nukes, citing the total process of generating nuclear energy: "As Michel Lee, chair of the Council on Intelligent Energy & Conservation Policy, wrote in an (unpublished) letter to the Times, the dirty secret is that nuclear power makes a substantial contribution to global warming. Nuclear power is actually a chain of highly energy-intensive industrial processes. These include uranium mining, conversion, enrichment and fabrication of nuclear fuel; construction and deconstruction of the massive nuclear facility structures; and the disposition of high-level nuclear waste." This quote is from a statement from a website maintained by the Orcanic Consumers Organization

I will try to find a link to a BBC broadcast of a recent debate in Great Britain between members of the Green Party and a "co-founder" of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore. I myself am not a big fan of most Green parties, but they can be correct. Maybe the old adage "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't". Refer back to the quote from Lewis L. Stauss head of the AEC in the early 1950's: "It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age." We are still waiting!

Please, someone convince me that nukes will work and won't contribute to global warming! All of those French Folks can't be wrong, can they? That country gets a very large percentage of its power from nukes. See the CNN link for a story on the countries in the world with the largest number of nuclear plants.

eSolar, the IKEA of Solar Energy, to Unveil Modular Power Plant This Year | SolveClimate.com

2008-04-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

eSolar, the IKEA of Solar Energy, to Unveil Modular Power Plant This Year | SolveClimate.com

eSolar is "scalable disruptive solution from IdeaLab, a part of Google. It is made from mass manufactured components. It is designed for quick construction and unlimited scalability. Those crazy folks at Google are really on tip of things! Also, see the GreenTech blog for more solar technology, including the venerable Sterling heat engine.

The search for astroengineers - physicsworld.com

2008-04-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

The search for astroengineers - physicsworld.com:

The search for astroengineers

"Having so far failed to find evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations by searching for their radio transmissions, some physicists think it is worth scouring the sky for signs of their astronomical construction work, writes Bruce Dorminey"

As physicist Enrico Fermi said, if they are out there, where are they? The Drake Equation postulates that they are there, based of course on some variables such as how long a civilization lasts as soon as it develops the power to destroy itself. This article talks about looking for advanced extraterrestrial civilizations who may have reached the K2 stage of civilization ( levels of civilizations postulated by Soviet physicist Nicolai Kardashev and commented on recently by physicist Michio Kaku) at which point a society could harness the energy of a star and build a "Dyson Sphere" around their star. The Physics World article calls for a new search for evidence of such super civilizations.

Alzheimer's Disease - Reporter's File - Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's - NY Times Health

2008-04-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Alzheimer's Disease - Reporter's File - Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's - NY Times Health: "Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's"

Wikipedia defines Zen as: "

Zen (Japanese: 禅) also known as Chán (Traditional Chinese: 禪; Simplified Chinese: 禅) (see lengthy etymology below) is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism notable for its emphasis on mindful acceptance of the present moment, spontaneous action, and letting go of self-conscious and judgmental thinking. ^{[1]" Mindful acceptance of the moment would seem to have some positive effect...as long as there is enough mind left for mindfulness.}

John A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term ‘Black Hole,’ Is Dead at 96 - New York Times

2008-04-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

John A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term ‘Black Hole,’ Is Dead at 96 - New York Times: "“For me, he was the last Titan, the only physics superhero still standing.”"

The last of the great 20th Century physicist has died. The linked NY Time article speaks of his career. He rubbed elbows with Niels Bohr, Einstein and taught Richard Feynman. You can hear a podcast on his life at this link to a Scientific American podcast. Click Here.

Scientific American: Expelled Explained

2008-04-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Scientific American: Expelled Explained

Go here to learn the truth about Ben Stein's new anti-evolution move Expelled.
The movie is psuedo-science at its best (worst?)

You can also go to an educational site, Expelled Explanined.

Finally, the SciAm link above will give you a gateway to listen to a recording of the editors meeting with the Expelled producers.

I am all for UFO's and crop circles and other fun stuff, but not this drivel!

Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines - New York Times

2008-04-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines - New York Times: "

Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines

See the referenced April 15 N.Y. Times article about home turbines. Also, please refer to earlier posts on this blog for other home wind turbine stories.

Scientific American: Does Turning Fluorescent Lights Off Use More Energy Than Leaving Them On?

2008-03-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

Scientific American: Does Turning Fluorescent Lights Off Use More Energy Than Leaving Them On?: "Does Turning Fluorescent Lights Off Use More Energy Than Leaving Them On?
Incandescent lightbulbs are lumbering toward extinction. Now, how best to use their energy-efficient replacements?"

Well, here is the answer. Turn them off all the time for pure energy savings and after 5 minutes if you want to extend the life of the bulb a bit.

A Test for String Theory After All? Or Just PR? | Wired Science from Wired.com

2008-02-17T16:51:00.000-08:00

A Test for String Theory After All? Or Just PR? | Wired Science from Wired.com

At last? String Theory has been around for a while. However, most authorities considered it as only an interesting speculation as there was thought to be no way to test the theory, therefore taking it out of the realm of science.

See the Wikepedia entry below:
Problems and controversy

Although historically string theory is an outgrowth of physics, some contend that string theory should (strictly speaking) be classified as something other than science. For a scientific theory to be valid it must be verified empirically, i.e. through experiment or observation. Few avenues for such contact with experiment have been claimed.[20] With the construction of the Large Hadron Collider in CERN some scientists hope to produce relevant data, though it is widely believed that any theory of quantum gravity would require much higher energies to probe directly. Moreover, string theory as it is currently understood has a huge number of equally possible solutions.[21] Thus it has been claimed by some scientists that string theory may not be falsifiable and may have no predictive power.[22][23][24][25]"

SPACE.com -- X Files Opened: The National Security Agency's UFO Investigations Unearthed

2008-01-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

SPACE.com -- X Files Opened: The National Security Agency's UFO Investigations Unearthed

"X Files Opened: The National Security Agency's UFO Investigations Unearthed
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 16 November 2005
01:36 pm ET

There is one question that persistently circles the community of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) true-believers: If the government has nothing to hide, UFO fans often ask, then why is it keeping so many UFO records under lock and key?"

Yes, UFO's are probably just goofy, but there is just enough out their to tease our minds.

Origins: CERN: Ideas: The Higgs Boson

2008-01-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

The Search for the Higgs Boson. What is it? See below. Also, see CERN
There, you will learn about the Swiss-French particle accelerator that will open in April to find both the Higgs Boson and perhaps create a very small black hole!

Origins: CERN: Ideas: The Higgs Boson: "An oft-cited analogy describes it well: Imagine you're at a Hollywood party. The crowd is rather thick, and evenly distributed around the room, chatting. When the big star arrives, the people nearest the door gather around her. As she moves through the party, she attracts the people closest to her, and those she moves away from return to their other conversations. By gathering a fawning cluster of people around her, she's gained momentum, an indication of mass. She's harder to slow down than she would be without the crowd. Once she's stopped, it's harder to get her going again.

This clustering effect is the Higgs mechanism, postulated by British physicist Peter Higgs in the 1960s. The theory hypothesizes that a sort of lattice, referred to as the Higgs field, fills the universe."

NPR : Doctor Saved Michigan $100 Million

2007-12-17T06:02:00.000-08:00

Listen to this podcast and also read about Atul Gawande, the Harvard Medical School prof, New Yorker writer, lecturer and best-selling author. As the story notes, if there was an expensive antibiotic that was this effective, every hospital in the country would use it.

NPR : Doctor Saved Michigan $100 Million: "Doctor Saved Michigan $100 Million
Listen Now [7 min 19 sec] add to playlist
All Things Considered, December 9, 2007 · Dr. Peter Pronovost saved the state more than $100 million and 1500 lives over an 18-month period by teaching doctors and nurses to use checklists for intensive care unit procedures. Andrea Seabrook talks to Dr. Provonost, as well as Atul Gawande, a surgeon who wrote about the success of the checklist in The New Yorker magazine."

Windbelt - Third World Power - Wind Generator - Video - Breakthrough Awards - Popular Mechanics

2007-10-15T17:37:00.000-07:00

Windbelt - Third World Power - Wind Generator - Video - Breakthrough Awards - Popular Mechanics

"Working in Haiti, Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, Calif., saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Conventional wind turbines don't scale down well—there's too much friction in the gearbox and other components. "With rotary power, there's nothing out there that generates under 50 watts," Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington's Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie)."

The new alternative energy sources keep coming on line. Any of you from the Seattle Tacoma area will be very familiar with Gertie.

Big Radio From the Stars -- Berardelli 2007 (927): 1 -- ScienceNOW

2007-09-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

Blast from the Past!

Big Radio From the Stars -- Berardelli 2007 (927): 1 -- ScienceNOW

"By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
27 September 2007
Astronomers have a new mystery on their hands. A team studying data from a recent sky survey has spotted a huge burst of radio waves that came and went in the blink of an eye and has not returned since. Figuring out what caused the cosmic broadcast could provide new insights into the dynamics of neutron stars and black holes and perhaps give astronomers another tool to figure distances to the farthest galaxies."

From Science Magazine
comes this report about a blast from the past, a giant radio signal. No signs of intelligence in the signal, though. However, what would Art Bell say??

Discovery Channel :: News - Space :: Cave Entrances Found on Mars

2007-09-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Discovery Channel :: News - Space :: Cave Entrances Found on Mars

The Themis instruments on the Mars Odyssey, in orbit around Mars, shows what seem to be cave entrances. A number of proponents of manned exploration/settlement of Mars have long speculated about these features and hope to turn them into living and work quarters. However, these seem to be at high altitutes and not around the Martian equator as many have hoped. You can also see the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters for more information. See also the Mars Society's proposal or the Powerpoint proposal by Gus Frederick of Silverton, Oregon.

Antimatter molecule could lead to ultra-powerful laser - tech - 18 September 2007 - New Scientist Tech

2007-09-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

Antimatter molecule could lead to ultra-powerful laser - tech - 18 September 2007 - New Scientist Tech

Just in time for talk like a pirate day! A pirate could sure make use of this short-lived anti-matter ray. This is from the magazine New Scientist.

"Antimatter molecule could lead to ultra-powerful laser

An exotic molecule built from electrons and antimatter is being touted as a route to powerful gamma-ray lasers.

An electron can hook up with its antiparticle, the positron, to form a hydrogen-like atom called positronium (Ps). It survives for less than 150 nanoseconds before it is annihilated in a puff of gamma radiation. It was known that two positronium atoms should be able to bind together to form a molecule, called Ps2, and now David Cassidy and Allen Mills from the University of California, Riverside, have made that happen. First, they trapped positrons in a thin film of porous silica. Those positrons captured electrons to form positronium atoms, and the pattern of decay rates signalled that some of these atoms had teamed up to form Ps2 (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature06094)."

APOD: 2007 August 27 - Huge Void Implicated in Distant Universe

2007-09-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

APOD: 2007 August 27 - Huge Void Implicated in Distant Universe

"Explanation: What has created this huge empty volume in the universe? No one is yet sure, and even the extent of the estimated billion-light year void is being researched. The void is not a hole in space like a black hole, but rather a vast region of the universe that appears to be mostly devoid of normal matter and even dark matter. The void is still thought to contain dark energy, though, and is clearly traversable by light. The void's existence is being postulated following scientific curiosity about how unusually cold spots came to appear on WMAP's map of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. One possibility was that this CMB region was not actually very cold but light from the spot somehow became more cosmologically redshifted than normal along the way.'

From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. That void is like my appetite is most of the time!! I still don't grasp the concept of Dark Energy or Dark Matter. Okay, maybe dark matter, but dark energy! These slow down the expansion of the universe. Also, see the Pioneer Anomaly.

Two Pioneer spacecraft, launched 30 years ago on a mission to the outer solar system, are now leaving the immediate vicinity of the solar system. While they are not yet in interstellar space, their speeds and trajectories do not match Newtonian and Einsteinian predictions. Either there is something new in gravity or problems in measurements or math. See the link for some new thoughts on the matter.

More Energy/Climate Stuff

2007-08-26T20:58:00.001-07:00

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Intelligence Report | PARADE Magazine

Intelligence Report | PARADE Magazine

"What's Really Heating Up the Planet?
Coal-mine fires in China and India could be huge culprits in global warming. In China alone, up to 200 million tons of coal go up in flames each year—which may be equivalent to America's total carbon-dioxide emissions from gasoline. India's mine fires waste up to 10 million tons of coal annually. The pollution has made land in both countries uninhabitable. And the problem is expected to worsen..."

All very interesting! Also, check the cosmic ray/sun/cloud connection.

"Cosmic Rays Linked To Global Warming

Science Daily — WASHINGTON - Researchers studying global warming have often been confounded by the differences between observed increases in surface-level temperatures and unchanging low-atmosphere temperatures. Because of this discrepancy, some have argued that global warming is unproven, suggesting instead that true warming should show uniformly elevated temperatures from the surface through the atmosphere. Researchers have proposed a theory that changes in cloud cover could help explain the puzzling phenomenon, but none-until now-have come up with an argument that could account for the varying heat profiles."

And finally:

"SCIENTISTS PREDICT SOLAR DOWNTURN, GLOBAL COOLING

New Scientist magazine, 16 September 2006

It is known as the Little Ice Age. Bitter winters blighted much of the northern hemisphere for decades in the second half of the 17th century. The French army used frozen rivers as thoroughfares to invade the Netherlands. New Yorkers walked from Manhattan to Staten Island across the frozen harbour.
Sea ice surrounded Iceland for miles and the island's population halved. It wasn't the first time temperatures had plunged: a couple of hundred years earlier, between 1420 and 1570, a climatic downturn claimed the Viking colonies on Greenland, turning them from fertile farmlands into arctic wastelands. . . "

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Saturday, August 25, 2007

Future Tech: Scientists Consider Mining Delicious Helium-3 on Moon For Fusion Power on Earth - Gizmodo

Future Tech: Scientists Consider Mining Delicious Helium-3 on Moon For Fusion Power on Earth - Gizmodo

Maybe this is why Japan, China and India are racing to the Moon! Go to visit the Fusion Technology Institute's site for the real poop.

SCIENTISTS PREDICT SOLAR DOWNTURN, GLOBAL COOLING��

2007-08-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

SCIENTISTS PREDICT SOLAR DOWNTURN, GLOBAL COOLING��: "SCIENTISTS PREDICT SOLAR DOWNTURN, GLOBAL COOLING New Scientist magazine, 16 September 2006 HYPERLINK 'http://www.newscientist.com/unpwlogin.ns' \t 'linkWin' http://www.newscientist.com/unpwlogin.ns It is known as the Little Ice Age. Bitter winters blighted much of the northern hemisphere for decades in the second half of the 17th century. The French army used frozen rivers as thoroughfares to invade the Netherlands. New Yorkers walked from Manhattan to Staten Island across the frozen harbour. Sea ice surrounded Iceland for miles and the island's population halved. It wasn't the first time temperatures had plunged: a couple of hundred years earlier, between 1420 and 1570, a climatic downturn claimed the Viking colonies on Greenland, turning them from fertile farmlands into arctic wastelands."

Those Crazy Japanese

2007-08-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings, campers! Yes, I am back. I thought no one was reading this, but occasionally someone does. Besides, it is a good way for me to keep track of my Internet wanderings. In light of the talk about space elevators, one cannot ignore the dreams of one Japanese construction company. The XSEED 4000 is a Utopian skyscraper modeled after Mt. Fuji and would be 4000m tall! Well, we all have to dream! Also see links to other proposed super buildings by clicking here! Keep those cards and letters coming. Please comment or email. I have to use to verification system to stop the pesky robots that cruise blogs and leave messages offering me mortgages and other less mundane things.

Technology Review: Special Reports: 10 Emerging Technologies

2007-06-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Technology Review: Special Reports: 10 Emerging Technologies

Read about how the Internet is about to drown in digital video, new DVD technology, nanohealing, nanocharging solar and more!

Technology Review: Mining for Cheap Flights

2007-03-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Technology Review: Mining for Cheap Flights: "On a flight to his brother's wedding in 2001, Oren Etzioni discovered that the people sitting next to him had bought their tickets later than he did, yet had paid less. For some, this could have been an infuriating revelation, but Etzioni didn't get mad; as a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington, in Seattle, he got inspired. 'I thought, 'Why don't I collect historical data [on airfares] and use that to anticipate ticket prices?''"

Trying to find cheap flights, read this article. Try Farecast
Also, try Kayak.

Let me know if they work!

Plasma process converts garbage into clean energy | The Green Geek

2007-03-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Plasma process converts garbage into clean energy | The Green Geek

I may have posted something similar in the past, but this site really lays it out. Garbage to Clean Energy...almost the holy grail of waste/energy! The site is also pretty nifty, "The Green Geek"!. Also, see the Sunday, March 25 2007 Oregonian Newspaper about the conversion of the Silicon Forest from semiconductors to solar panels in the article described below.

"New solar cell plant in Hillsboro may usher in better times
German SolarWorld's plant may help bring recovery after a high-tech slump"

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1174631106288630.xml&coll=7

http://tinyurl.com/27jpb4

Similarities in making solar chips and microchips
Friday, March 23, 2007
The Oregonian

Many Oregon chip-industry veterans possess skills that readily transfer to the solar business, piquing the excitement of state economic officials.

Five categories of production-operator positions common to both industries:

Crystal growing: The same process of growing silicon-crystal ingot is used in both industries, differing mainly in the purity of the polysilicon raw material. The steps: melting and chemically doping polysilicon, dipping seed crystal, extracting ingot from molten polysilicon. Solar usually grows ingots of smaller diameter, but three times longer (about 3 feet).

Grinding: In both industries, ingots are ground to remove surface irregularities. The major differences are grinding specifications and speeds.

Wafer slicing: Both industries use similar wire saw machines to cut ingot into wafers. Solar wafers are about as thin as a business card; chip wafers are about three times as thick. Using longer ingot, the solar business cuts about four times as many wafers at a time.

Diffusion: Both industries turn wafers into an electrical device with a positive and negative side. Typically, phosphorus is diffused into the wafers. The process forms an oxide layer, which must be removed.

Printing: Many solar businesses use a screening technique to print a grid pattern on both sides of cells. In the chip industry, photolithography is extremely complex -- much more so than in solar.

-- SolarWorld Group

http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/factboxes/11746329338810.xml

http://tinyurl.com/2pv73x

Seed: Science is Culture

2007-03-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

Seed: Science is Culture

This is a magazine that even I can understand. I have a subscription for it. The print edition is quite dramatic.

Science and technology information from Scientific American

2007-03-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

Science and technology information from Scientific American

This is a link to SciAm's great website. If you do podcasts, look for the links for the daily and weekly SciAm podcasts.

Strange Moon Facts

2007-03-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Strange Moon Facts

Strange Stuff...."The Moon is the Rosetta Stone of the Planets"

Asteroid threat demands response, experts warn - space - 17 February 2007 - New Scientist Space

2007-03-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Asteroid threat demands response, experts warn - space - 17 February 2007 - New Scientist Space

Technology Review: A Practical Use for Waste Methane

2007-02-28T06:11:00.000-08:00

Technology Review: A Practical Use for Waste Methane

Finally, something to do with Cow burps and Farts!

WAVE ENERGY

Previous posts here dealt with wave energy projects off of the
Oregon Coast

The above is a link to an Oregon government website on the current wave projects. Also, see my November 2005 posts by on Oregon wave energy by clicking here.

There was also a recent story on a BBC technology website about a different kind
of wave project off the coast of Portugal named Pelamis. The Pelamis is a sea snake, something
the new Portugal device resembles. The European Union has an aggressive alternative
energy program that includes wave energy. Click here for a link to the BBC World Podcast.

Speaking of energy, it appears that while Al Gore refused to rise to the bait at the Oscar
Awards ceremony and announce for President, former President Jimmy
Carter is bugging his so much about running, Gore is hiding from his calls. See a related story here.

On a closing note, I have hardly been keeping this blog up. I know, however,
that there are some readers. Please comment.

Telegraph | Business | PC World announces the end of the floppy disk

2007-01-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

Telegraph | Business | PC World announces the end of the floppy disk

Read this article from the Daily Telegraph. One of Europe's largest PC stores is liquidating its stock of floppies. As the article notes, even a HD disk is not big enough to hold a song or a high resolution photograph. Doom! Does anyone have a 5 1/4" drive available? I need to save some of my File Scavenger very old data. Please email me.

YouTube - Hiroshima Atomic Bomb CGI Re-enactment

2007-01-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Hiroshima Atomic Bomb CGI Re-enactment

Spooky, Scary, Intense reenactment from the BBC.

Time Travel by Ronald L. Mallett

2007-01-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

Time Travel by Ronald L. Mallett

Serious actual research into Time Travel. This physicist lost his father at 12 years old and began a life long search to enable him to go back in time and warn him about taking care of himself to avoid a heart attack. The irony is that it seems that if time travel is invented, one could not return to a time before it's invention!

See these previous posts:

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

What's done is done… or is it? - fundamentals - 28 September 2006 - New Scientist

New Scientist sets out to discover if the future can change the past - welcome to "retrocausality"

"Ever wish you could reach back in time and change the past? Maybe you'd like to take back an unfortunate voicemail message, or rephrase what you just said to your boss. Or perhaps you've even dreamed of tweaking the outcome of yesterday's lottery to make yourself the winner."

Read this for the description of a fascinating experiment.

Researchers Say Prehistoric Extinctions in Australia Were Mans Work, Not Natures - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog

2007-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Researchers Say Prehistoric Extinctions in Australia Were Mans Work, Not Natures - The Lede - Breaking News - New York Times Blog

A Dingo Ate My Baby!

He's back! Read above link to see how time really works! Also, see the Outsider's song, "Time won't Let Me Be"

Movie Review: Children of Men
The above review is from the Hollywood Reporter. I do not totally agree. I am a fan of the author of the original book, P.D. James. I really liked the book. I now see why all of the ads for the movie did not tout the author. She probably did not want them to. As a movie, it was pretty good, but not at all what I remember the book to be. I was disappointed.

Now, going to SF books (note: P.D. James is a high class mystery writer and not a SF writer), be sure and read books by the Australian author Greg Egan. He is a computer programmer and holds a math degree from the University of Western Australia.

So far, I have read Teranesia , a very good book based on genetics. I tried reading Schild's Ladder, but it was too highly mathematical for my meager mind. I am now reading Diaspora, a book about computer evolution, consciousness and intelligence. Be sure and see Egan's web page at http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/

Hypography Science Forums - TIME EXPLAINED (v2.1)

2007-01-25T21:22:00.000-08:00

Hypography Science Forums - TIME EXPLAINED (v2.1)
"A Dingo Ate my Baby!"
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/TERANESIA/TERANESIA.html

Mirror gives Italian village its place in the sun - Yahoo! News

2006-12-19T07:32:00.000-08:00

Mirror gives Italian village its place in the sun - Yahoo! News

This is a great Reuters/Yahoo Story. Click above for the full article.

"A village in the Italian Alps is finally basking in winter sunlight thanks to a giant mirror installed on a mountain top to reflect the sun's rays into the main square."

SPACE.com -- NASA announces discovery of evidence of water on Mars

2006-12-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

SPACE.com -- NASA announces discovery of evidence of water on Mars

See, I told you so! When to I get to leave for Mars? Also, don't miss the three planet display Sunday morning.

"Sunday, 12/10 Mercury-Jupiter, 11:30 a.m. Mercury, having passed Mars yesterday, grazes Jupiter by a tenth of a degree this morning. Look to the southeast about 45 minutes before sunrise. Mars, much fainter than the other two, is about a degree to the right. This is a very nice sight, but one requiring a low horizon; clear, dark skies; and good eyesight.

Monday, 12/11
Mars-Jupiter, 7:00 p.m.
Although they have been close for several days, today marks the closest approach between Mars and Jupiter, at slightly less than one degree. This is a daylight occurrence, but they appear nearly as close before down on Monday and Tuesday, low to the southeast."

Above from Space.com "Night Sky"

Image from www.duncans.tv/2006/03/

NASA - Mars Global Surveyor

2006-11-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

NASA - Mars Global Surveyor: "11.21.06 -- Mars Global Surveyor May Be at Mission's End NASA's Mars Global Surveyor has likely finished its operating career. The spacecraft has served the longest and been the most productive of any mission ever sent to the red planet."

Ack! How could this happen? Doom? Well, no, actually, it lasted a lot longer than scheduled and continued working even with many malfunctions. NASA is pointing the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at the spacecraft to see if they can get a picture and guess at what is wrong and try to fix it.

Technology Review: Hyperlinking Reality via Phones

2006-11-20T13:57:00.000-08:00

Technology Review: Hyperlinking Reality via Phones: "Nokia researchers are working on a system that allows physical objects to be identified and connected to the Internet through mobile-phone screens."

Interesting this. I read a Scientific American article about this system a few years ago.

Fires in Far Northern Forests to Have Cooling, Not Warming, Effect

2006-11-16T21:49:00.000-08:00

Fires in Far Northern Forests to Have Cooling, Not Warming, Effect

II just love all of this contradiction. Are we doomed or not doomed to global warming. What will more CO2 do? It was commonly thought that seeding the oceans with iron would increase production of organisms that would make the ocean a bigger CO2 sink. However, this may not be the case. See SOFeX2002
See also a National Academy of Science article here.

I am confused. Please help!

In a lighter vein, poetry from Ronald Hoffman, Nobel Laurete in Chemistry:

Below the fold, (http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2006/04/a_poetrywriting_chemist_for_na.php) Hoffman's poem "An unusual state of matter":

In the beach sands of Kerala,
abraded from the gneiss, in the stream sands of North Carolina
one finds monazite, the solitary
mineral. In its crystalline beginning
there was order, there was a lattice.
And the atoms - cerium, lanthanum,
thorium, yttrium, phosphate - danced
round their predestined sites,
tethered by the massless springs
of electrostatics
and by their neighbors' bulk.
They vibrated,
and sang
in quantized harmony.
to absent listeners, to me.

But the enemy is within.
The radioactive thorium's
nervous nuclei explode
in the random thrum
of a hammer
of no Norse god.

The invisible searchlights
of hell, gamma rays,
flash down the lattice.
Alpha particles, crazed nuclear
debris, are thrust on megavolt
missions of chance destruction.
The remnant atom, transmuted, recoils,
freeing itself from its lattice point,
cannonballs awry through
a crowded dance floor.
There are no exits to run to.
In chain collisions of disruption
neighbors are knocked from their sites.
The crystal swells from once limpid
long-range, short-range order
to yellow-brown amorphousness.
Faults,
defects,
vacancies,
dislocations,
interstitials,
undefine the metamict state.

(From W. Carleton and C. Bond, eds., Bound, Cornell University, 1986.)

Technology Review: Charging Batteries without Wires

2006-11-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

Nikola Tesla's ideas finally get a break! (Though I guess that Alternating Current idea did catch on!)

Technology Review: Charging Batteries without Wires

Tired of plugging in to charge your batteries. This is the Bluetooth of battery charging.

On another Science note, having the Demo's in charge in Congress might hopefully reverse the slide into the gross politicalization (a word?) of Science. One major victory in the war against superstition was the defeat of Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum. See the article summary in the magazine Science. Unfortunately, some other senators also support ID, including Arizona Senator McCain. See the article in the New York Sun newspaper. A more comprehensive discussion of the impact of the election on science can be found at: Democratic Victory and Scientific Research

Well, that's all for now, folks! Keep those cards and letters coming. Hope the deer hunting remains good in Minnesota!

SPACE.com -- Universe Might be Bigger and Older than Expected

2006-11-06T18:47:00.000-08:00

SPACE.com -- Universe Might be Bigger and Older than Expected

Just when you thought that cosmologists had figured out the age of the universe to be about 13.7 billion years old and 156 billion light years wide, the Hubble Constant changes. What? How can it change if it is a constant? Well, the value of the constant has changed due to new and more accurate ways of measuring the distance to a binary star system in M33.

Well, in a somewhat lighter vein: "LONDON (Nov 8, 1996 1:48 p.m. EST) - Scientists searching for one of the fundamental keys to the universe found they had been beaten to the answer by the comic cult novel "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"; and the answer was 42." This is from the Humor Archives

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Sun probe sends back first data

2006-11-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Sun probe sends back first data

Japan is one of those countries one does not always here about in regards to space exploration. They have a number of current and planned missions, though the one they sent to Mars several years ago failed. The Hinode mission described in the article linked above is meant to observe the sun. It is in a sun-synchronous polar orbit of polar orbit is about 600 km up. The Hinode mission is in conjunction with NASA and the European Space Agency. The link to NASA talks about plans to fix the Hubble Space Telescope discussed in an earlier post. It was launched by JAXA, the Japanese space agency. The Japanese are also involved in lunar, planetary and asteroid exploration. One of their projects, HAYABUSA) is a sample return mission from an asteroid. Click this SpaceRef.com link for an article about possible Japanese manned flight.

While in Asia, you might also be interested in the Chinese manned space flight program that is already operational. This is the link to the official China National Space Administration. India also has an ambitious space program and has flown astronauts on flights launched by the U.S. and Russia. One of its astronauts was killed in the Challenger disaster. This link will take you to an article about current space missions such as communications satellites and will soon launch and unmanned lunar mission.

Who knows what set me off on this strange mission. I will leave you all with a link to international space law. That will be a topic of future babblings!

Sayonara!

Orbiter to Look for Lost-To-Mars Probes - Yahoo! News

2006-11-02T07:32:00.000-08:00

Orbiter to Look for Lost-To-Mars Probes - Yahoo! News

As noted in earlier posts, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has entered its working orbit after a long series of aerobraking maneuvers that placed it in its working orbit around Mars. One of it's cameras may help find previous spacecraft that failed to call home. ( Mars Polar Lander , Beagle 2)
MRO will also look for potential landing sites for future unmanned and manned missions.

In other Mars news, the two vehicles exploring the surface of Mars (Spirit, Opportunity) are years beyond their life expectancy and still working. They are about to start their second Mars Spring. One, Opportunity, will explore the Victoria Crater (picture taken with the MRO Hi-Rise Camera). See also Google Mars.

In news that won't mean much to anyone not on the U.S. West Coast or somewhere in the middle of oceans, the planet Mercury will soon transit the sun. Telescopes will be set up at OMSI in Portland to watch this event, weather permitting.

Finally, SETI is still in business. Originally, the radio telescopes were tuned to the wavelength of hydrogen gas with the belief that any civilization would choose the frequency most likely to penetrate the fog of space. However, over time and distance, this frequency shifts. The next generation of radio telescopes will be better able to take this into account in the search for intelligent signals from other civilizations. If you wish to donate computer time to this search, go to SETI @ Home.

The U.C. Berkeley computer geeks hosting this program also run a system known as Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). Here, you can volunteer your computer time to SETI, math, biology, medicine, astronomy, physics or earth sciences. I've been a SETI @ Home participant for a number of years. However, to my knowledge, I have yet to analyze a "WOW" signal.

Well, that is all for today folks. Keep those Pink Flamingos in your yards!

Cosmopoly

2006-11-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

Cosmopoly

Okay, this is a link to a new blog, Cosmopoly, that I started when the old Cosmical blog crashed. well, the old one is back. Click her for the two days you might have missed dealing with Mars and Hubble.

Today, however, is dedicated to the demise of the Pink Flamingo lawn ornament. One of my favorites, though my wife will not allow me to have one. I had Pink Flamingo shower curtains before I married.

RIP: Pink Flamingo, 1957-2006

The above story is published in a South Florida newspaper, naturally. " The pink plastic flamingo, a Florida-inspired icon that has been reviled as kitschy bad taste and revered as retro cool, is dead at age 49."

Pink Flamingo Desktop Wallpaper, click here
Warning, you will have to edit out fake desktop icons or you may confuse yourself! You might also go to a website specializing in Pink Flamingo items for sale. Click here!

Finally, you can't miss Pink Flamingos, the John Waters movie! Also see Sex Vixens From Outer Space in which the characters stay at the Pink Flamingo Hotel or the ever popular Maltese Flamingo!
However, the later does not appear to deal with flamingos at all, but, hey, it's in the title!
Well, that is all for now!

RIP: Pink Flamingo, 1957-2006: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

2006-11-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

RIP: Pink Flamingo, 1957-2006: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Cosmical

Planet found orbiting habitable zone of sun-like star | Reuters

Are the Durban Climate Talks—or Climate Talks in General—Doomed? | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

The Future of Deep-Space Exploration: In-Depth Reports

The Future of Deep-Space Exploration

More in this Report

Russian Phobos craft contacted

Scientists: Faster-Than-Light Finding Still Holds - ABC News

Ants and Caterpillar Robots

How Was Egypt's Internet Access Shut Off?: Scientific American

Landscapes of Extraction: Industrial Impacts Mar the Planet [Slide Show]: Scientific American

The frugal alien's beacon

Gregory and James Benford on Benford Beacons for SETI

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

NEW SCIENTIST MAG.: New Approach to Quantum Reality

Quantum reality: The many meanings of life

Did 'Martian' methane signal come from Earth? - space - 23 December 2010 - New Scientist

Weird Arsenic-Eating Microbes Discovered? Yes. Finding E.T.? No. - NASA Watch

Journal of Cosmology

Transorbital Railroad

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

Airships to return?

Smallest Exoplanet Is Most Earth-like Yet | Wired Science | Wired.com

SPACE.com Image Gallery: Views from Space: Imagery from Past Shuttle Missions

NASA Needs a Destination — The Mars Society

02.12.2010 - New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing

20090616_waves_saturn_rings.jpg (JPEG Image, 300x289 pixels)

Destination Phobos: humanity's next giant leap - space - 27 January 2010 - New Scientist

Exolanguage: do you speak alien? - space - 20 January 2010 - New Scientist

Supermassive black holes – the fathers of galaxies - space - 06 January 2010 - New Scientist

Earthlike Wet Planet Discovered

Dark power: Grand designs for interstellar travel - space - 25 November 2009 - New Scientist

Timewarp: How your brain creates the fourth dimension - life - 21 October 2009 - New Scientist

The Wireless Future of Energy Tranfer | Singularity Hub

Radio Australia - Innovations - Solar Prints

Printable solar cells on the way | COSMOS magazine.

Mercury looms large as probe closes in for final flyby - space - 29 September 2009 - New Scientist

Reconstruct Mars Automatically in Minutes! | Mars Today - Your Daily Source of Mars News

Cosmos - Google Docs

Cosmos

Eminent physicist John Wheeler says he has only enough time left to work on one idea: that human consciousness shapes not only the present but the past as well

Mars Rover Spirit Hits 2,000 Sols | Mars Today - Your Daily Source of Mars News

List of phases of matter

Searching For ET: Kepler Launch A Success, Search For E.T. Is Underway

Beyond Green Roofs: 15 Vertically Vegetated Buildings | WebEcoist

NASA - Search for Habitable Planets

Magenn Power Inc.

NOVA | The Elegant Universe | Watch the Program | PBS

Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking? | Physics & Math | DISCOVER Magazine

'Cloak of silence' design is unveiled - physicsworld.com

Storing energy from wind? A German approach:

Quantum effects on the Macro Level

First Pictures Taken of Extrasolar Planets - NYTimes.com

CEATEC: Panasonic Lifewall Is the All-Knowing Gesture-Controlled TV of the Future

Scientific American: Scientific American Special Editions

Hydro/Wind Power Followup

Wind surge poses a risk to salmon and reveals flaws in BPA's power-regulating system - OregonLive.com

Worms Do Calculus To Find Meals Or Avoid Unpleasantness

Power and Control

BBC News | SCI/TECH | Fusion power 'within reach'

Harnessing the Weather | Natural Disasters | DISCOVER Magazine

New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin | The University of Texas at Austin

Nuclear energy becoming less sustainable | COSMOS magazine

eSolar, the IKEA of Solar Energy, to Unveil Modular Power Plant This Year | SolveClimate.com

The search for astroengineers - physicsworld.com

The search for astroengineers

Alzheimer's Disease - Reporter's File - Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's - NY Times Health

John A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term ‘Black Hole,’ Is Dead at 96 - New York Times

Scientific American: Expelled Explained

Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines - New York Times

Technology Smooths the Way for Home Wind-Power Turbines

Scientific American: Does Turning Fluorescent Lights Off Use More Energy Than Leaving Them On?

A Test for String Theory After All? Or Just PR? | Wired Science from Wired.com

SPACE.com -- X Files Opened: The National Security Agency's UFO Investigations Unearthed

Origins: CERN: Ideas: The Higgs Boson

NPR : Doctor Saved Michigan $100 Million

Windbelt - Third World Power - Wind Generator - Video - Breakthrough Awards - Popular Mechanics

Big Radio From the Stars -- Berardelli 2007 (927): 1 -- ScienceNOW

Discovery Channel :: News - Space :: Cave Entrances Found on Mars

Antimatter molecule could lead to ultra-powerful laser - tech - 18 September 2007 - New Scientist Tech