A Merlin engine
Photo: Art Streiber
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Author Archives: Sci Fi Engineer
This would get my vote…the truth stinks
I strongly favor inking more trade and investment agreements on behalf of the United States. Yes, it’s likely true that greater globalization is one of the lesser drivers for increased inequality in the United States. Oh, and no trade deal is going to be a jobs bonanza — the sectors that trade extensively are becoming so productive that they don’t lead to a lot of direct job creation. Will some jobs be lost from these deals? Probably a few, but not a lot. But on average, greater globalization will boost our productivity a bit, which will in turn cause the economy to grow just a bit faster, which will indirectly create some jobs. Goods will be cheaper, which benefits consumers. Oh, and by the way, there are some decent security benefits that come with signing trade agreements. Finally, the rest of the world is going to keep signing free trade agreeements and bilateral invesment treaties whether we play this game or not. So we can choose to stand pat and have our firms and consumers lose out on the benefits of additional gains from globalization, or we can actually, you know, lead or something. Your call. Greater integration with the rest of the globe is no economic panacea, but the one thing we’re pretty sure about is that most of the policy alternatives stink on ice.
Sea Star indeed
Dornier Seastar CD2, developed by the son of the original Dornier and the grandson is now looking for venture capitalists to build it in the US. Designed for the Baltic and Oceania as a utility small airliner to provide access to islands and sections of islands with no airport but lots of water access. Normal 9 passenger 2 crew, up to 12 passengers. The latest seaplane designed in the world…hopefully not the last. Seaplanes are always beautiful in their functional ugliness and romantic (as in day dreaming of adventure) by nature.
And Back to Space | APOD | A Ghost in Cepheus
VdB 152: A Ghost in Cepheus
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin
Explanation: Described as a “dusty curtain” or “ghostly apparition”, mysterious reflection nebula VdB 152 really is very faint. Far from your neighborhood on this Halloween Night, the cosmic phantom is nearly 1,400 light-years away. Also catalogued as Ced 201, it lies along the northern Milky Way in the royal constellation Cepheus. Near the edge of a large molecular cloud, pockets of interstellar dust in the region block light from background stars or scatter light from the embedded bright star giving parts of the nebula a characteristic blue color. Ultraviolet light from the star is also thought to cause a dim reddish luminescence in the nebular dust. Though stars do form in molecular clouds, this star seems to have only accidentally wandered into the area, as its measured velocity through space is very different from the cloud’s velocity. This deep telescopic image of the region spans about 7 light-years.
The Cute Russian
Let’s think about this
I hate to add to the the conspiracy theorist’s trope but think about this; if President Obama were re-elected then impeached…President Biden! That should send a shudder down anyone moderately anything’s spine
So is the main-stream-media in its largely subconscious protection of the president on the cluster-f__k spiraling around the Benghazi attack figuring no one in their right mind would prosecute / impeach Obama if Biden would end up in the oval office?
Don’t get me wrong VP Biden’s probably reasonably smart and competent in the right environment (like his boss) but he’d most likely back the most rabidly reactionary liberal, union, tax and spend policies available because he believes those are the right policies and he’s much more of a doctrinaire warrior than Obama + he’d pretty much know he was toast come the next election.
Upshot? Get out the vote, vote the competent and reasonable Romney in as POTUS. Then if Obama really did leave our people to die, even if he thought it was ‘the right thing to do’ at the time we make sure he never holds another office of public trust..
‘Just sayin’
How cool is this?
Started in France but now in Quebec, projected to start shipping in 2014, 4and a half seat, 220 MPH, 600 mile rang, only downside is its avgas but hopefully a diesel/kerosene fueled option will arrive. See more at this AWST blog.
Earth Sized Exo Planets…
The smaller of the two planets, dubbed Kepler-20 e, is about the size of Venus, with a radius 0.87 times that of Earth. It orbits its star every 6 Earth days and sits at a temperature of 1,040 Kelvin — hot enough to vaporize any atmosphere and leave a solid hunk of silica- and iron-rich rock.
Kepler-20 f, the larger planet with a radius 1.03 times that of Earth, has a 20-day orbit. As a result, it is a bit less scorching, at 705 Kelvin. At that temperature, says Fressin, hydrogen and helium wouldn’t survive in the atmosphere, but a shroud of water vapour might.
Then there is this planet Alpha Centauri Bb
This planet orbits very close to its star, like Kepler-20 e, in fact its close enough that its surface is most likely molten. But its only 4 light years away and generally where there is one planet there are likely others. This planet was not discovered by the Kepler observatory and there is some discussion as to the data set used to derive its existence…but it seems likely that its there and it’s certainly cool….
A felt of stars
A rich collection of colourful astronomical objects is revealed in this picturesque image of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer, or WISE. The Rho Ophiuchi cloud (pronounced ‘oh-fee-yoo-ki’ and named after a bright star in the region) is found rising above the plane of the Milky Way in the night sky, bordering the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius. It’s one of the nearest star-forming regions to Earth, allowing us to resolve much more detail than in more distant similar regions, like the Orion nebula.
The amazing variety of different colours seen in this image represents different wavelengths of infrared light. The bright white nebula in the centre of the image is glowing due to heating from nearby stars, resulting in what is called an emission nebula. The same is true for most of the multi-hued gas prevalent throughout the entire image, including the bluish bow-shaped feature near the bottom right. The bright red area in the bottom right is light from the star in the centre – Sigma Scorpii – that is reflected off of the dust surrounding it, creating what is called a reflection nebula. And the much darker areas scattered throughout the image are pockets of cool dense gas that block out the background light, resulting in absorption (or ‘dark’) nebulae. WISE’s longer wavelength detectors can typically see through dark nebulae, but these are exceptionally opaque.
The bright pink objects just left of centre are young stellar objects (YSOs). These baby stars are just now forming; many of them are still enveloped in their own tiny compact nebulae. In visible light, these YSOs are completely hidden in the dark nebula that surrounds them, which is sometimes referred to as their baby blanket. We can also see some of the oldest stars in our Milky Way Galaxy in this image, found in two separate (and much more distant) globular clusters. The first cluster, M80, is on the far right edge of the image towards the top. The second, NGC 6144, is found close to the bottom edge near the centre. They both appear as small densely compacted groups of blue stars. Globular clusters such as these typically harbour some of the oldest stars known, some as old as 13 billion years, born soon after the Universe formed.
There are two other items of interest in this image as well. At the 3 o’clock position, relative to the bright central region, and about two-thirds of the way from the centre to the edge, there is a small faint red dot. That dot is an entire galaxy far, far away known as PGC 090239. And, at the bottom left of the image, there are two lines emerging from the edge. These were not created by foreground satellites; they are diffraction spikes (optical artefacts from the space telescope) from the bright star Antares that is just out of the field of view.
Apple’s iPad mini, its a steal…
There are arguments that Apples pricing power is limited and that the cost of making a premium small pad like the mini is something like 200 meaning that they break even at somewhere between 250 and 300 considering distribution and profit. There were arguments for a 250ish (essentially subsidized) and 300ish (bare profit.) Whereas the base 330 (ok 329 but don’t get me started on the last 9 pricing phenomenon!!) supposedly provides Apple with its traditional high profit margin.
Now this seems to beg the question how do these folks really know Apples costs? Yes its a public company but to be honest there are a lot of details hidden in the financials that are really hard to parse. Apple is highly profitable but it also has very high costs relative to its competitors who are either one shot wonders or whose HW / OS work is subsidized by a primary line business which the machine; Google-Nexus tab, Amazon-Kindle, Barnes&Noble-Nook, are important marketing&sales outlets, not fundamental products as products…as much as some chattering set blowhards try to conflate the business models.
The iPad mini is something of a steal, if 200 is the cost of a good 7 in screened plastic housed small pad . Why do I say this?:
- The above machine might have a higher resolution…but to be honest resolution is not the end of the matter, it enhances a screen, makes a small screen look better, ut it does not solve the problem that you have to hold a smaller screen closer or display less info to make it readable at all. And when you are a mature adult the eyes are not so good no more…so a 7.9 screen 40% greater area with the same resolution is (probably) a better deal. And now one has to light up 40% more area so the battery has to have a bit more capacity, etc.
- The system has all the sensors including the reasonably good front and backside cameras of the bigger brother, which none of the smaller competitors match.
- It also offers a decent processor chip that has proven its chops on other machines making it a smooth and reliable operator
- It’s almost as light and compact as some of its smaller rivals because Apple traded bezel for screen to make it ‘handable’ and thus much more of a reading machine in competition with the near pure readers.
- It has universally praised design and build standard and remarkable ruggedness (that’s a projection obviously.)
- It has the AppStore infrastructure &
- It seamlessly integrates with all the other iGizmos from Apple (of which my family has many.)
- It’s a good size and capability set for children with their smaller fingers, lower strength, sharper eyes, etc.
- At 329 its a better deal for the K-12 educational market and oh by the way its big brother and the rest offer a grown up infrastructure for teachers.
I’m certainly going to buy one and it won’t be a low-end unit, though I will also in the near future buy one of the new-new-iPads, with the understanding that its possible if not likely that Apple will upgrade the product again in 6 months.
Why is Apple doing this? It wants to dominate the space in most people’s minds like it dominates the smart phone, standard tablet, one piece desktop, and ultra-portable markets. It has moved sharply into these markets (which were not at the time particularly active) and dominated with yearly product refreshes of significance reinforced with a masterful media circus strategy. They are late to the game in the small pad market having at first seen it as a value only market, they stayed out till they figured out how to roll it up into the Apple iOs business, which I think they have as explained above.
This World and Others 