Micro and small nuclear reactors

Very intereresting; full site is here and it leads with the text below:

More than 50 new small and medium size reactor designs were developed and are being considered by research groups around the world in 2006.

There are a number of small and medium nuclear reactors that are in funded development.

Toshiba has designs for a micro nuclear reactor that generates 200 kw for 40 years

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy. It has dimensions of 20 feet by 6 feet.

Toshiba expects to install the first reactor in Japan in 2008 and to begin marketing the new system in Europe and America in 2009.

Mammoth tusks show up meteorite shower

Fossils could provide a new gold mine for micrometeorite hunters.

Rex Dalton


Bullet-like pieces of what is thought to be an ancient meteorite shower have been found embedded in mammoth tusks and bison bone.

The discovery of the 2–5 millimetre holes left by meteorites opens a window into a impact event thought to have happened over Alaska and Russia tens of thousands of years ago. And it could provide a whole new way to chart impacts from space.

Click above for the whole story

The $1mm Personal Jet

Eclipse Concept Jet. Nice toy for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxOOX8oMnfw

Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers

Interesting puzzle.

By David Alexander Mon Dec 3, 12:19 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507 Waldseemuller map remains a puzzle for researchers.

Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before European explorers discovered the Pacific?

"That's the kind of conundrum, the question, that is still out there," said John Hebert, chief of the geography and map division of the Library of Congress.

The 12 sheets that make up the map, purchased from German Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg for $10 million in 2003, were mounted on Monday in a huge 6-foot by 9.5-foot (1.85 meter by 2.95 meter) display case machined from a single block of aluminum.

The case will be flooded with inert argon gas to prevent deterioration when it goes on public display December 13.

Researchers are hopeful that putting the rarely shown map on permanent display for the first time since it was discovered in the Waldburg-Wolfegg castle archives in 1901 may stimulate interest in finding out more about the documents used to produce it.

The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.

The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.

"The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert. "The width of South America at certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy."

Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.

The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.

"So this is a rather compelling map to say, 'How did they come to that conclusion,"' Hebert said.

The mapmakers say they based it on the 1,300-year-old works of the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy as well as letters Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci wrote describing his voyages to the new world. But Hebert said there must have been something more.

"From the writings of Vespucci you couldn't have prepared the map," Hebert said. "There had to be something cartographic with it."

MISGIVINGS ABOUT AMERICA

Waldseemuller made it clear he was naming the new land after Vespucci, describing how he came up with the name America based on the navigator's first name.

But he soon had misgivings about what he had done. An atlas Waldseemuller produced six years later shows only part of the east coast of the Americas, and refers to it as Terra Incognita -- unknown land.

"America has gone out of his lexicon," Hebert said. "(No) place in the atlas -- in the text or in the maps -- does the name America appear."

His 1516 mariner's map, on the same scale as the 1507 map, steps back even further, showing only parts of the new continents and reconnecting the north to Asia. South America is labeled Terra Nova -- New World -- and North America is labeled Terra de Cuba -- Land of Cuba.

"Essentially he's reconnecting North America to the Asian mainland, suggesting a continual world of land mass rather than separated by those bodies of water that separate us from Europe and Asia," Hebert said.

Why the rollback? No one knows.

In writings accompanying the 1516 map, Waldseemuller comes across as if he "has seen the better of his error and is now correcting it," Hebert said.

He speculated that power politics played a role. Spain and Portugal divided the globe between them in 1494, two years after Columbus, with territory to the east going to Portugal and land to the west to Spain.

That demarcation line is oddly absent from the 1507 Waldseemuller map, and flags marking territorial claims in South America suggest Portugal controls the region's southernmost land, even though it is in Spain's area of influence. On the later map, the southernmost flag is Spanish, Hebert said.

"It is possible one could say the 1507 map is influenced strongly by Portuguese sources and conceivably the 1516 map may be influenced more by Spanish sources," he said.

Although the map conceals many mysteries, one thing is clear: it represents a revolutionary shift in the way Europe viewed the world.

"This is ... essentially the beginning or first map of the modern age, and it's one that everything builds on from that point forward," Hebert said. "It becomes a keystone map."

Ethanol/Alternative Fuel FAQ

Good resource on biofuels:

http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2007/08/ethanolalternative-fuel-faq.html

Fill 'er Up with Corn, for a Full Tank of Food Inflation

By Brad Zigler

The U.S. government is supporting ethanol production in the hope of increasing supply fivefold by 2017. So much acreage has been given over to government-subsidized corn production now that fully one-third of the domestic corn harvest goes to fuel production.

More fuel, less food.

There's been a notable ripple effect felt here and overseas. The price of food has gone up. BIG TIME. Been to the grocery store and seen the price of milk or eggs recently?

Click here for whole article

How Low Can the US $ Go?

Financial Times, Published: December 3 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 3 2007 02:00

What would be the effect if commodities including oil were priced in a currency other than the dollar?

David Woo: The impact on the US dollar would be negative. The fact that the dollar is the main transactional currency for global trade means that the world has to maintain minimum dollar balances to facilitate international payments. If these dollar balances are no longer required, it will be clearly harmful for the dollar. That said, we think the risk that the pricing of Opec oil will soon move to a system based on a basket of currencies is low. For one thing, such a move will necessitate an overhaul of the existing pricing system, given that Opec crudes are currently priced in terms of dollar adjustments from dollar-denominated benchmarks. The absence of non-US dollar alternatives would therefore require moving away from current market mechanisms and setting up a brand new pricing system, which we do not think is feasible right now.

click here for the whole article

George Carlin: education and the owners of America

Some good observations by George Carlin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMqJvhmD5Yg

Canaccord vice-chair quits, blames governments

Things are going right off the rails. Are we heading towards a future like Children of Men?

'2008 Looks Bleak'

Claudia Cattaneo And Jon Harding, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2007

CALGARY - Veteran energy investment banker Rick Grafton, one of the pioneers of Calgary's bustling financial community, has resigned as vice-chairman of Canaccord Adams Inc., blaming Alberta and federal government policies for drying up investment in the country's junior oil-and-gas sector.

Mr. Grafton, 54, helped build the city's competitive energy investment business, including Canaccord's global energy practice, but is walking away in frustration because he expects 2008 to be bleak for both energy brokers and oil and gas producers and service companies alike.

Investors are so turned off they won't even meet with anyone from the oilpatch, he said.

"It took us 30 years to build a worldwide institutional [investor] following in the Alberta energy business, one cold call at a time, and these governments have put a very serious dent in a very short period of time," Mr. Grafton said in an interview yesterday, a day after quitting his job.

Vancouver-based Canaccord is Canada's largest independent brokerage firm.

"It's time to go to the sidelines and map out a new plan, until the governments come to their senses, and I believe in the next two years they will. But 2008 looks very, very bleak," said Mr. Grafton, who plans to devote the next year to investing in Alberta oil companies active globally.

Mr. Grafton said Ottawa's decision last year to tax income trusts and Alberta's recent royalty review and subsequent increases to royalties have combined to destroy oil entrepreneurship in Canada.

"There is no reason to start an oil company because it would be nothing but 10 years of hard work, and you never know what decisions the government will make," Mr. Grafton said in a rare display of candor in a sector that tends to be guarded to avoid spooking investors.

"Now they have a [royalty] structure in place, that when you risk dollars, the risk is on the company and the upside is for the government."

Mark Maybank, president of Canaccord Capital Corp., Canaccord Adams' parent company, said Mr. Grafton "has been a phenomenal partner and a cornerstone of our success in Calgary. My only regret is that I'm not able to join him on the golf course in Phoenix."

Some of Mr. Grafton's industry counterparts agreed the business is in a free fall, particularly since Ed Stelmach, Alberta's Premier, announced in October a new framework for royalties that will take effect in 2009.

Jim Davidson, chief executive of FirstEnergy Capital Corp., one of the largest energy specialist dealers, said it has become difficult to raise money.

Unlike previous cycles, in which the sector's fortunes were tied to commodity prices, this time the big hit came from policy decisions, he said.

"In the provincial government's defence -- and they don't have a lot to be defended on here, frankly -- governments worldwide are grabbing more," he said. "It's not like this government is standing out alone and moving in a different way."

George Gosbee, chairman of Tristone Capital Inc., another top energy investment dealer in Calgary, said any remaining interest in Canadian energy has gravitated to Canadian-based companies active globally.

According to the brokerage, its own financings of international companies have more than tripled in value so far this year relative to 2006, while the value of financings for companies active in Canada is down 50%.

"The federal government decision, the provincial decision and our traditional cycle have aligned to make investors focus on the big exploration and production companies with opportunities elsewhere, and on international juniors," Mr. Gosbee said.

"You can see it in the share-price performance," said Mr. Gosbee, noting that juniors and intermediates with assets in Alberta are down collectively 19.6% since Sept. 17, the date of the royalty review panel report, while their U.S. counterparts have risen almost 17%.

Canaccord's Calgary office is headed by former oil and gas trust analyst Bruce Mc-Donald, managing director and global head of energy investment banking.

U.S. Stocks Fall After Fed Cuts Benchmark Rate by Quarter Point

Stocks are supposed to go UP in response a rate cut. Good illustration of the world going topsy-turvey.

By Eric Martin

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks tumbled the most in a month as investors speculated the Federal Reserve's quarter-point interest-rate cut will fail to prevent a recession.

Click here for the whole story

Senate drills Bush official over oil prices

Indeed; why add to storage during a period of high prices? Probably because prices are expected to get even higher.

By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer

December 11 2007: 5:16 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A Senate panel grilled a key government energy expert Tuesday over why the Bush administration plans to continue adding to the nation's oil reserve as the price of crude spikes near $100 a barrel.

Click for the whole story

Mars rover finds signs of microbial life

By Katie Franklin and agencies

Last Updated: 2:41am GMT 12/12/2007

Nasa says its Mars rover Spirit has discovered "the best evidence yet" of a past habitable environment on the planet's surface.

Microsoft's mind reading patent

As if kid's toy ads on the TV aren't bad enough:

Could a worrying patent application from Microsoft point to the future of advertising?

15 November 2007

The art of predicting customer behaviour has become increasingly sophisticated, as technology companies have improved their data mining algorithms and added ever-greater processing power to the number-crunching machines. This has allowed organisations to build detailed profiles of their customers, their buying habits and interests, often without the consumers knowing they were being tracked.

Now one company believes it can take the concept of customer profiling one step further: it wants to literally read its customers’ minds.

In August 2007, software giant Microsoft filed a patent application for a system that would allow it to access thoughts. The patent describes pattern-recognition techniques that can be applied to electroencephalograph (EEG) signals – a measure of electrical activity in the brain – to determine what cognitive state the subject is in.

Microsoft’s intention is ostensibly to use EEG testing to measure the effectiveness of its own user interfaces. “It is possible to determine the effectiveness of a user interface by analysing a user’s brain states before, during, and/or after a user performs a task using the user interface,” the company asserts in its patent application.

But it is hard to believe that Microsoft will stop there, if it does effectively hone and patent EEG techniques. For one thing, its presence in the computer games market opens up intriguing possibilities: it could use brainwaves as a control mechanism.

There are other possibilities too. Microsoft has an avowed commitment to taking on search engine giant Google in the lucrative online advertising market. Now that is one area where a little mind reading could go a very long way.

The Story of Leaded Automobile Fuels

The Ethyl-Poisoned Earth

Written by Alan Bellows on December 8th, 2007 at 12:56 pm

At the turn of the twentieth century, as the age of automobiles was afoot, the newfangled gasoline-powered internal combustion engine began to reach the limitations of the fuel that fed it. As higher-compression designs were tried, an engine-wrecking condition known as "knock" or "ping" would invariably develop. Though they didn't know it at the time, the noisy destruction was caused when the the increased heat and pressure prompted the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder to detonate all at once as opposed to an orderly burn. In spite of this problem, there was a demand for high-compression designs since they provided increased horsepower and fuel efficiency. The latter was particularly appealing in light of America's forecasted fuel famine.

Click here for the whole story

Alberta House Price Developments

A report from the Edmonton Journal.

“Edmonton home prices dropped an average of 6.5 per cent in November from October. Edmonton house prices now are down $50,000 from their May peak of $426,028. The volatile mixed category of duplexes and rowhouses plummeted 15.4 per cent to $311,193. ‘The current market is very price-sensitive,’ Carolyn Pratt, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton, said today. ‘If property is not priced right for this market, it may languish in the listings.’”

“Edmonton-area housing starts fell to 1,091 units in November 2007, down 42.1 per cent from November 2006. ‘Builders have been reacting to concerns about the size of new and resale inventories and their impact on prices,’ said Richard Goatcher, senior market analyst at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., which released the figures.”

“‘Overall, the Canadian housing sector continues to outperform expectations, and is in stark contrast to its U.S counterpart where the recession in the housing sector continues unabated,’ said TD Securities strategist Millan Mulraine.”

“However, the signs of economic strength and optimism were released as Bank of Canada governor David Dodge was warning that the credit crunch has intensified, adding to the risk posed by the weakening in the U.S. economy, of an economic downturn.”

“‘These tighter credit conditions have come as financial market difficulties have intensified over the past few weeks and as bank-funding costs have increased globally,’ Dodge said. ‘At the same time, there is an increased risk attached to the prospects for demand for Canadian exports because the outlook for the U.S. economy, particularly the U.S. housing sector, has weakened.’”

From the Calgary Sun:

“Despite a plunge in housing starts in the region, experts say Calgary’s economic boom is far from over. The federal housing agency, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, reported a 48% drop in housing starts between last month and November, 2006.”

“Total housing construction in Calgary is so far down by 17% this year over last. Last month, 776 homes were started in the Calgary area, down from 1,497 the previous November.”

“Even so, the pace of construction remains hectic, said Deep Shergill, president of the Calgary Region Home Builders Association.”

“‘Most of the builders are still building at or near capacity,’ said Shergill, adding the sector’s labour squeeze continues. ‘There’s just no way we could maintain that kind of pace we’d seen.’”

“Multi-family housing starts in the city dropped a whopping 76% last month compared to November, 2006.”

“Lai Sing Louie, a senior analyst with the CMHC, said some of the overall slowdown is caused by more used listings diverting buyers. ‘There’s still lots of supply in the re-sale market,’ he said.” “In Alberta’s seven largest centres, housing starts in November, 2007, were down 38% from the same month last year.”