Largest Known Star

Our Sun is a dust particle compared to it.

NASA's Image Gallery

NASA now has an online image gallery available. Very nice and intuitive interface.

Unintended Consequences of Food-Based Biofuels

Food based biofuels are bad.

Corn is probably the commodity most directly impacted by biofuels. An estimated 25 to 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop goes to ethanol...

The spike in corn prices began with the Energy Security Act of 2005, which increased the goal for ethanol use in the U.S., and Hurricane Katrina.

Overnight the federal government effectively shifted an entire marketplace that impacts every eating citizen of this country.

You can't move 25% of a staple resource like corn and make use of it some other way without an noticeable impact. Though not the only reason for increasing food prices, food based biofuels limit an already valuable resource that our economy needs.

It's simple Econ 101... law of supply and demand. The government created a demand for food-based biofuels where there was none before. So naturally, farmers are going to sell their corn where they can make the most profit, and as the market place is working itself out, 25% - 30% of the supply went to biofuels. That increased the demand for corn's food marketplace, rising it's selling price to match the biofuel's prices.

There is a solution though to meet both our energy and our food needs.

Biofuels from NON-food based biomass. What's biomass? It's not corn.

DuPont Co. has joined a state initiative to build the first pilot-scale biorefinery in the U.S. that would take corncobs and switchgrass grown on Tennessee farms and convert the biomass into ethanol for fuel.

There's still a problem: If farmers grow switchgrass or other more profitable biomass yielding plants in place of their existing corn food crops, the supply will have to be met with new planted acreage or the price of corn will still be higher than it was. But this is a much needed improvement.

A Pill for Prostate Cancer

Wonder Pill to the rescue:

British researchers have made a dramatic breakthrough against a lethal form of prostate cancer.

Trials of a new pill have shown that it can shrink tumours in up to 80 per cent of cases, and end the need for damaging chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

About time. Mice aren't the only ones getting cancer cures now. Congrats to the researchers at Royal Marsden Hospital.

Leadership by Bob Stevens

• Engage fully.
• Listen actively.
• Mobilize quickly.
• Seize the initiative.
• Adapt with agility.
• Persevere in the face of adversity.
• Celebrate the victories with those who have earned them.

Circumstances demand it.
Employees deserve it.

Path of Least Resistance

It's a force to be reckoned with:

T Boone Pickens is absolutely right: we can't go on transferring a trillion a year to the middle east... Whether his conclusion, that we ought to convert to wind power, is correct is another matter. It doesn't look as useful as nuclear, but there are fewer environmental fanatics opposed to wind. I suspect that energy economics is more determined by law suits than by engineering.

That answers one of my questions "Where's the nuclear in Picken's Plan?"

Last Shuttle Launch Schedule

Oct. 8, 2008 - Atlantis (STS-125)
The final service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

Nov. 10, 2008 - Endeavour's (STS-126 / ULF-2)
Supply the International Space Station (ISS) and service both Solar Alpha Rotary Joints

Feb. 12, 2009 - Discovery (STS-119 / 15A)
Install the final pair of Solar Arrays to the ISS

May 15, 2009 - Endeavour (STS-127 / 2JA)
Install the Japanese Kibo Laboratory's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section

July 30, 2009 - Atlantis (STS-128 / 17A)
Deliver science and storage racks to the ISS and return an empty ammonia tank assembly

Oct. 15,2009 - Discovery (STS-129 / ULF-3)
Stage spare components outside the station, including two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly, a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm, a spare trailing umbilical system for the Mobile Transporter and a high-pressure gas tank

Dec. 10, 2009 - Endeavour (STS-130 / 20A)
Deliver Connecting Node 3 and the Cupola, a robotic control station that provides a 360-degree view around the ISS

Feb. 11, 2010 - Atlantis (STS-131 / 19A)
Install science racks to the ISS and attach a spare ammonia tank assembly outside the station

April 8, 2010 - Discovery's (STS-132 / ULF-4)
Deliver maintenance and assembly hardware, the second Russian Mini Research Module, a boom assembly for the Ku-band antenna and spares for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm extension

May 31, 2010 - Endeavour (STS-133 / ULF-5)
Install two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and micrometeoroid debris shields

Politics Has an Effect on the Economy

Bush removes Executive Order restricting off-shore oil drilling.

Almost immediately...

...Oil falls $6 a barrell..

.. and dollar rises...

.. and DOW gains 280 points.

Coincidence? I don't think so. Actions by the government can have both negative and positive effects on our economy. Almost always positive when it gets out of the way.

Peak Oil Worries?

Uh oh:

The kingdom's message was clear: Saudi fields can pump oil to market quickly, if demand warrants...

Three industry analysts in the U.S. said the document's overall conclusion—that the Saudis cannot sustain higher than 12 million barrels a day maximum production for the next few years—appeared to be reasonable. "My view is that when they finish their expansion program they are unlikely to be above 12" million barrels per day, says Roger Diwan, a Middle East energy expert with PFC Energy...

Meanwhile in Mexico:

Mexico's average crude exports plummeted 17.3% to 1.46 million barrels a day during the first five months of the year compared to the year-ago period, contributing to record oil prices.

More reasons to drill at home.

July & August Launch Schedule

Sea Launch - EchoStar 11
July 16, 0521 GMT (1:21 a.m. EDT), Odyssey platform, Pacific Ocean (154° West, 0° North)
The Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket will carry into orbit the EchoStar 11 direct-to-home television broadcast satellite. The Loral-built spacecraft will provide services for DISH Network subscribers.

Kosmos 3M - SAR-Lupe 5
July 22, 0440 GMT, (12:40 a.m. EDT), Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
A Russian Kosmos 3M rocket will launch the SAR-Lupe 5 spacecraft into Earth orbit. The craft is the fifth in a series of five German radar reconnaissance satellites. Moved up from July 29/30.

Falcon 1 - Jumpstart
July 29, TBD, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands
The SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket will launch the Jumpstart mission for the U.S. Air Force Operationally Responsive Space initiative. The Jumpstart mission will fly the Trailblazer spacecraft built by SpaceDev, Inc. Delayed from late June.

Proton - Inmarsat 4-F3
August 13, 2246 GMT (6:46 p.m. EDT), Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
An International Launch Services Proton rocket with a Breeze M upper stage will deploy the Inmarsat 4-F3 mobile communications spacecraft. This is the third of three next-generation satellites in the Inmarsat 4-series. The launch will mark the return-to-flight for ILS and the Proton/Breeze M following the March failure.

Land Launch - MEASAT 3a
August 21, TBD, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
The Land Launch Zenit 3SLB rocket will carry into orbit the MEASAT 3a television broadcasting satellite for MEASAT Satellite Systems of Malaysia.

Delta 2 - GeoEye 1
August 22, approx. 1850 GMT (2:50 p.m. EDT), SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
The United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket will launch the GeoEye 1 commercial Earth-imaging spacecraft into a Sun-synchronous orbit for the GeoEye company. ULA will conduct this commercial launch for Boeing. Delayed from 2007 and April 16.

Ariane 5 - Superbird 7 & AMC 21
August, TBD, ELA-3, Kourou, French Guiana
Arianespace Flight 185 will use an Ariane 5 rocket with an ECA cryogenic upper stage to launch the Japanese Superbird 7 telecommunications satellite and the American AMC 21 television broadcast spacecraft.

International Space Ship

An idea to send the ISS someplace other than Earth orbit:

The ISS, you see, is already an interplanetary spacecraft -- at least potentially. It's missing a drive system and a steerage module, but those are technicalities. Although it's ungainly in appearance, it's designed to be boosted periodically to a higher altitude by a shuttle, a Russian Soyuz or one of the upcoming new Constellation program Orion spacecraft. It could fairly easily be retrofitted for operations beyond low-Earth orbit. In principle, we could fly it almost anywhere within the inner solar system -- to any place where it could still receive enough solar power to keep all its systems running.

There's even mention of fitting it with ion-thrusters. How cool is that?

ORNL & Lab Worker Cancer Rates

Good news:

A study of chemical lab workers at the government's Oak Ridge facilities found that overall death rates and death rates from cancer were actually lower than in the general population.

Help Ourselves First

Sen. John Cornyn speaks truth:

We’ve put 85 percent of our prime energy exploration lands off-limits. The U.S. is the only country in the world that refuses to develop its own natural resources. With a growing worldwide demand for energy, we’re willing to enrich foreign governments – some of which wish us harm – instead of helping ourselves.

As my former governor is saying, "Find More, Use Less." If the Democrats don't get behind this, they're going to feel the pain this November.

No Oil for You

From Foxnews:

A federal judge has overturned a decision by the U.S. Forest Service to allow oil and gas drilling near a forest and a river in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson of Detroit ruled Thursday the agency had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in 2005 by giving Savoy Energy LP of Traverse City a permit to drill an exploratory well near the Au Sable River's south branch.

...the judge ruled the Forest Service didn't consider how degrading the area could harm tourism, and said the agency did a "woefully inadequate" job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland's warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.

These people don't give a hoot about the endangered Kirtland's warbler by the way. It's just the easiest path for them to get what they want.

Advanced Handheld Filtration

Impressive:

The Lifesaver removes 99.999 percent of water-borne pathogens and reduces heavy metals like lead, meaning even the filthiest water can be cleaned — immediately.

It will be a boon to soldiers in the field, so it's winning accolades from the military.

It also stands to revolutionize humanitarian aid. It could be the first weapon in the fight against disease after a natural disaster, like the one in Myanmar this week.

Congratulations to the Lifesaver company. May they save millions of lives and be rewarded profitably for it.

Making of the Flu Vaccine Better

This year's flu vaccine was ineffective because the prevalent strain had already mutated by the time everyone got the shot.

Here's why it happened:

It's unknown whether the disaster could have been averted. But ... it was enabled by the WHO's old-fashioned approach: The meeting was open only to select invitees, depriving them of the expertise of other virologists and geneticists. Data used to justify their decision was released only afterward, in limited form. The genomes of circulating flu strains weren't shared with the scientific community.

Much like the bird flu strains are openly and quickly shared with scientists around the world, the same could be done for influenza.

Make it happen, because I want to start taking the vaccine myself.

Picken's Plan

Hearing lots about T. Boone Pickens and his wind and solar plan for the country. He's even running ads on the radio now.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Where's the nuclear component? One nuke plant can give us just as many gW of electricty as an entire wind farm spanning several states.
2. Why no mention of the erradic production from wind mills? England covered much of Scotland with a wind farm and is finding that on the mid-winter days when they need it the most, the wind-farm actually has a negative production.

I understand Mr. Pickens wants to do everything in the short-term as well, from ethanol to oil drilling... but nuclear should be the center-piece of any major energy plan for the country. It's a no-brainer. And it's sadly missing from this picture.

Body Armor and Batteries Come Together

From Foxnews:

[Lockheed Martin] plans to turn a soldier's body armor into a power source, making the armor rechargeable and its total weight minuscule.

If it succeeds, the armor could also solve another power problem. An estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of battery energy is wasted because key parts of a soldier's kit don't have a sleep mode to save power while they're inactive. That means normal batteries just run out.

Lockheed's body armor would manage power and incorporate a standby mode, meaning those critical tools could last even longer.

Good luck to Lockheed on this one.

Thank You

20 Years of Hysteria

Perhaps NASA scientists should stick to space.

Recently, Dr. James Hansen of NASA GISS gave his 20 year anniversary speech before congress, in which he was restating the urgency of the global warming crisis we now face. Warnings of tipping points, and a call for putting “energy executives on trial for crimes against humanity and nature” were parts of that speech.

America's Days Aren't Numbered

America is the next empire to fall. All the new books claim it, so it must be true, right?

From WSJ:

The last time I strolled through the local Barnes & Noble, there were so many books announcing the end of American power, wealth, influence, or just America itself, that I began to wonder whether my dollars would be worth anything by the time I hit the checkout counter.

First there was Patrick Buchanan ("Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart"), who told me "we are on a path to national suicide." Then Chalmers Johnson ("Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic") stopped me near the coffee shop to say that the "extinction that befell our former fellow 'superpower,' the Soviet Union . . . is probably by now unavoidable." And don't even get me started on Naomi Wolf ("The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot").

We're still the most blessed nation ever and will continue to be for some time to come. So say Thank You today this July 4th, 2008.

New TB Test

From NYTimes:

A new test that can detect multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis in two days instead of the standard two to three months promises to help significantly improve treatment and prevent the spread of the airborne infection, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

Very good news.