A go-ahead was given last week by the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) that clears the way for exchanges of technical information between Scaled Composites of Mojave, California and Virgin Galactic of the United Kingdom to build passenger-carrying suborbital spaceliners. LINK — U.S. Okays Virgin Galactic Spaceship Plans
Category: Technology
techno stuff
Power of Pee Runs a Battery
Scientists have developed a way to turn pee into electricity. And there’s plenty were that came from, they point out. Cheap, disposable, and renewable, urine-powered batteries may be the perfect power source for disposable healthcare test kits called biochips, the researchers say. “We are striving to develop cheap, disposable credit card-sized biochips for disease detection,”…
SPACE.com — SpaceX Private Rocket Shifts to Island Launch
LOGAN, Utah—Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of El Segundo, California is putting in place private rocket facilities at a Kwajalein Atoll launch area in the western Pacific Ocean. Yet the going has been tough for the private start-up, bankrolled by Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive officer of SpaceX. SPACE.com — SpaceX Private Rocket Shifts…
China to Build Offshore Wind Power Complex – Yahoo! News
(Go China!!!!!…cd) China to Build Offshore Wind Power Complex – Yahoo! News SHANGHAI, China – China plans to construct its first offshore wind power complex next year in hopes of easing chronic electricity shortages, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. ADVERTISEMENT The complex, to be built in the Bohai Sea off the northern province…
The Terrorist and the Grid – New York Times
(I’ve been suggesting this for years. I think the world would be a better place if someone were to log the telephone poles and mine the substations…Go ELF!!!…cd) AFTER the blackout of 2003, addressing the vulnerabilities of America’s electrical grid was a top priority. Not only was the creaky system going to be repaired and…
Check out the Meteors Tonight
(Grab a blanket, head to the beach, and enjoy!!! –cd) Good show expected from meteor shower By Helen Altonn haltonn@starbulletin.com The annual Perseid meteor shower is worth staying up for tonight if it is not cloudy, says Carolyn Kaichi, Bishop Museum Planetarium manager. That is because the moon will only be in the first quarter…
Company to Sell Trips Around the Moon
NEW YORK – The company that pioneered commercial space travel by sending “tourists” up to the International Space Station is planning a new mission: rocketing people around the far side of the moon. The price of a round-trip ticket: $100 million. The first mission by Space Adventures could happen in 2008 or 2009 and is…
Melanoma Is Epidemic. Or Is It? – New York Times
(I’ve got a new spot on my nose…maybe I should get screened?–cd) Melanoma Is Epidemic. Or Is It? – New York Times The nation is in the grip of what looks like a terrifying melanoma epidemic: melanoma is being diagnosed at more than double the rate it was in 1986, increasing faster than any other…
Why Great Minds Can't Grasp Consciousness
At a physics meeting last October, Nobel laureate David Gross outlined 25 questions in science that he thought physics might help answer. Nestled among queries about black holes and the nature of dark matter and dark energy were questions that wandered beyond the traditional bounds of physics to venture into areas typically associated with the…
The Epoch Times | Flu Viruses Can Quickly Swap Genes
WASHINGTON — Strains of the influenza virus are constantly swapping genes among themselves and giving rise to new, dangerous strains at a rate faster than previously believed, U.S. researchers reported last Monday. They found that slightly mutated influenza A strains in New York that circulated between 1999 and 2004 gave rise to the so-called Fujian…