Fantastic Future Friday: Space Based Solar Power II

In last weeks post Space Based Solar Power I left out some of the details in order to make it concise. Eventually I will merge all my posts on this topic into one long article but here is the next phase of Space Based Solar Power.

With more research and interest in Solar Cells they will become both more efficient and weigh less. It is a reasonable expectation that within 15 years solar cells will go from 14% efficient to at least 40% efficient (the range that the newest generation of solar cells are achieving), and that they will become lighter, hopefully half the weight of current ones.

With Solar Cells being in that range they will not only be useful for Space Based electricity but of course down here on Earth, as they become the roofing standard for south facing roofs.

Solar Cells on Earth have one big problem, night. Although battery efficiency will get better storing all the power you need to get through the night adds tremendously to the cost of Solar Power.

They also run into the problem that it is more efficient for heavy industries to gather together, so recycled steel can go straight to the steel pressing plant that sends their product straight to the assembly line, ect. It also allows industries to have a pool of semi-skilled workers available.

Without radically altering the lifestyle humans have been enjoying since the invention of fire we would still need a large power plant to handle these problems, that’s where the Space Based Solar Power Plants come in.

The best location for a Space Based Solar Power Plant to be built would be in a Geo-synchronous Orbit (GEO), high enough that it’s orbit around the Earth is exactly 24 hours, so it appears to be over the same spot at all times.

However it takes a lot more fuel to achieve GEO than LEO (Low Earth Orbit) so the first launch would need to include a upper, upper stage that was basically a ion propulsion Tug.

Ion propulsion uses electricity to speed up ions to extremely high speeds, making them very efficient but they have low acceleration. They also need a source of electricity.

As the space based solar power plant is built, it will use a super heavy lift rocket (like the Ares V) to lift small solar power plants that can generate power in the megawatt scale. As it's being built the power generated can be used to power the ion propulsion Tug, slowly lifting the parts from LEO to GEO.

The first few sections would be lifted months apart. Not only to give the tug time to lift the parts but for testing and problem solving phases. As more parts are lifted into GEO they can supply more energy to build the plant speeding up the process.

After the first power plant is built the amount of energy that Earth needs from it will be uneven with homes and businesses using Earth based Solar during the day and Space Based Solar at night, so the Space Solar Power Plant could be used to power the ion propulsion tug during the day lifting the parts and equipment needed to place a permanent base on the Moon.

One of the things that could be sent would be equipment to mine for Xenon and Argon to use as a propellant for the Ion Propulsion Tug. With power and fuel not having to be lifted from Earths surface the cost of moving material beyond LEO would become negligible.

Once robotic space exploration is freed from having to rely on fuel from Earth the Space Based Solar Power Plant could be used on something that would give mankind its greatest benefit. That power could be used to capture a Near Earth Asteroid.

Sending a probe to land on a small one and a half mile diameter Metallic Near Earth Asteroid it could unfurl a solar sail made of reflective Mylar, the power from the Solar Power Plants could be used to power lasers to steer it into Earth orbit.

Once it is within Earth’s orbit it could be mined for it’s metals, an Asteroid that size would have over $50 Trillion worth of Iron and precious metals such as gold and platinum, or roughly the World’s Gross Domestic Product for 2007.

With minor advancements in robotic manufacturing and unlimited energy from Space Based Solar Power Plants the whole system of scarcity based Economics will be a thing of the past as anything you can dream up, you can just draw into a diagram and robots will have all the necessary materials to make it for you within days.

Imagination and Creativity will become the new currency, not gold and gems. The human mind will be the most valuable commodity as simple stuff like iron, gold, gems become as cheap as air.

This will bring a whole new dawn for civilization and a fantastic future.

Number 1 on the Runway

Yesterday NASA launched the Ares 1X test rocket, with spectacular results. As I saw it on the launch pad with the Space Shuttle on NASA’s other launch pad I was reminded of the old NASA quote that goes back to the Mercury Missions, “You’re Number One on the Runway”.

At the time that quote was a joke as obviously there were no other spacecraft ahead of them waiting to take-off.

It’s not so much of a joke anymore with two Spacecraft waiting to take-off (even if the launches are weeks apart).

With the Ares 1X successful test, and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket moving along, in a few years we could see Cape Kennedy nearly always having two rockets waiting to launch, opening up great opportunities for the human presence in Low Earth Orbit.

Space Station Missions will become much simpler when they know the next flight is only days away instead of the current system of having to plan everything with the expectation that if something goes wrong the next flight might be months away.

If the Ares 1 and the Falcon 9 turn out to be even as reliable as the Space Shuttle, not a hard goal, America can start making real plans to use space.

By having 2 separate craft doing missions to space, the odds of continuous missions are exponentially improved. If they both had a 1 in 10 chance of a mission scrub that took them out of commission for months that would mean a 1 in 100 chance of something taking both of them out of the picture. (Not to mention the Russians and Chinese launches.)

Those are odds that make working in Low Earth Orbit practical.

I can’t wait until Mission Control has to seriously say to a crew on a manned flight, “You’re number two on the launch pad.”

To those people that are against having NASA go forward with building new spacecraft, I am reminded of the words of John F. Kennedy:

“the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so will space.”

Fantastic Future Friday: Water, Water Everywhere

Water is the key to life, and by extension Space Exploration. The human body needs 3 to 4 liters of water everyday just to survive. So that’s why it is so fantastic that there has been two discoveries of water on other worlds this week.

The first discovery this week was of water on the surface of the Moon. Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy does a great job of explaining how the water was found and how the amounts of water were calculated in his post “Water on the Moon…? Yup it’s real” I can’t explain how the three spacecraft Cassini, Deep Impact, and Chandrayaan-1 found the water without seriously plagiarizing his post, so I won’t even try.

Basically they found that on the surface of the Moon there is between 0.1 and 1% water. This translates into roughly a liter per cubic meter. While this is less than the most arid regions on Earth, which have 1 to 5% water volume, it still means any settlement on the Moon will have a source of water that they don’t have to bring from Earth.

The importance of this can’t be overstated as in order to get one pound of material into low Earth orbit it takes 24 pounds of fuel, at the minimum. To get material from the Earth to the Moon takes even more. If a lunar settlement can get even a fraction of its water needs from the lunar soil, it can translate into tons of material that doesn’t have to be lifted out of Earth’s gravity well.

If we can find ice deposited by comets in the craters near the poles, where sunlight can’t reach it, this would be an even better source, but having a confirmed source of water on the Moon means that plans for a Lunar Settlement can proceed with plans of using native water letting it expand much quicker than if all the water the settlement needs had to be brought up from Earth.

This discovery could also mean that we can send humans to Mars cheaper than if there was no water source on the Moon. The biggest obstacle in sending a human crew to Mars is cosmic rays and solar radiation.

The ISS is inside Earths magnetic field which shields it from this radiation, the Apollo astronauts only spent 8 days outside of Earths magnetic field and were exposed to the same amount of radiation that a worker in an atomic energy plant receives in a year.

Any expedition to Mars will require astronauts to spend up to 6 months in space, each way. This adds up to a lifetime’s worth of exposure during the round trip.

One proposed solution is to have the astronauts travel inside a large water tank. The outside walls of the craft would hold a few feet of water that the crew could use on the journey. This would lower the exposure to radiation during the trip.

If they can get their original supply of water from the Moon this would lessen the amount of mass needed to be lifted off the Earth. Once on Mars they could refill these water tanks, which brings me to the next discovery announced this week. Water has been found on Mars.

We have known water ice was present on Mars since the first telescopes saw that Mars had icy poles. This discovery shows that water ice is present just below the surface much closer to the equator than was previously thought.

With this discovery a mission to Mars can count on having all the water they need for living on the planet and as a fuel for getting back home.

These two discoveries are showing we have all the resources we need to open up the inner solar system we only need to have the will to take advantage of them.

That will lead to a fantastic future.

Fantastic Future Friday

I’ve spent a while thinking up a topic to fill the Friday posting on this blog. I realize most people nowadays have been drawn into the consumer over the citizen philosophy that the US government has been pushing for the last 30 years. So people have been working all week to have fun on the weekends instead of enjoying their work. So it would be nice to have a nice uplifting post on Fridays to set the weekend off right. (Although my explanation probably just killed that effect).

I was wondering about what uplifting topic to talk about when I read (and watched a cool video) over at Bad Astronomy, “What does 3.6 Million Pounds of Thrust Look Like” and I thought people might like to read the thoughts of a semi-professional science fiction writer about what the future has to offer. In the profound words of the mighty Crisswell in Ed Wood’s classic film, Plan 9 from Outer Space, “We all have an interest in the future, for someday we will all live there.”

SPACE: IT’S EVERYWHERE WE NEED TO BE.

As I noted last week NASA successfully tested their Ares I-X Rocket, Reports are also coming in that congress is pretty receptive to giving NASA the budget it needs to run a real space program.

What that means to you:

In the short-term 2015-2020: the International Space Station (ISS) will continue flying and with a crew of six, instead of the minimal crew of three, real research can start to be done. There is promise that research into micro-gravity pharmaceuticals can produce new lines of drugs that cannot be produced here on Earth.

Enthusiasm for this type of research has died down because it is clear that even if there was a breakthrough in drugs in micro-gravity there would be no way to produce them in quantities to bring them to the market.

If NASA is given a real budget, then by 2015 or 2016 there will be four types of manned rockets able to reach the ISS, the Ares, SpaceX’s Falcon, Russia’s Soyuz, and China’s space program as well as a half dozen unmanned rockets that can be used for cargo.

With a space infrastructure being developed it’s not a stretch to see how if a truly valuable drug can be made in micro-gravity, like a cure for Alzheimer’s or AIDS, a pharmaceutical company could spend several billion a year to produce it in commercial space station by 2025 or so.

With more options to get into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) private firms can take a serious look at working in space, this will lead to them demanding more options for getting into space reducing the costs more and making more products profitable to make in space, leading to more options, making more products profitable.

It’s been known since the days of the Apollo that space offers trillions of dollars to companies that can take advantage of it, but until the cost of getting into space come down no company can afford to take advantage of it.

Once the critical threshold is reached where the profits of working in space outweigh the costs, demand for space access will drive down the costs and space will quickly open up.

With a new budget and a new rocket NASA might help reach that threshold, and that will open up a fantastic future.

That’s Dongtastic III: Test firing of the Ares I-X

Yesterday NASA successfully test-fired the first stage the new Ares I.

Click here to see the test.

This is Dongtastic news as it means the first 36 miles back into space is available. NASA managed to build this new rocket on roughly the same budget, adjusted for today’s dollars, as the Apollo program spent on catering. (Citation needed)

Now that the research is done on the first stage booster, hopefully the per unit cost (sale price) of this booster is comparable to other boosters and it can be brought to market so through economies of scale private companies can greatly reduce the cost of the first 36 miles into space.

Even if it is slightly more expensive than other boosters, having another first stage booster to choose from gives space exploration a bit more flexibility.

Go NASA.

To Infinity and Beyond, or Die

President Obama’s Space Panel released its report yesterday and as expected NASA needs $3 Billion more per year to continue to advance in space exploration. $3 Billion is 0.4% of the Defense Department’s budget.

Ignoring the fact that every dollar NASA spends returns ten dollars to the GDP, and two to three of those dollars are recovered in taxes; and ignoring that advances made in scientific research continue to advance the economy for decades as those findings filter out to private companies. The simple fact is any civilization that does not continue to advance dies.

Without Space Exploration filling our kids heads full of wonder, they will instead turn to thinking up ways to carve the biggest niche of the contracting economy for themselves.

In the 60s kids wanted to be astronauts and scientists and build a bigger pie for all to share. With the death of the Apollo program those geniuses turned to finance, slicing up declining resources in order to get a larger share for themselves.

Instead of new innovative technologies, the geniuses of our day gave us Mortgage based Derivatives and Default Credit Swaps. They created money out of nothing and last year we saw the result, that money based on nothing was cashed in at its real value nothing.

It’s time to get serious about building a better world or Western Civilization will go the way of the Roman Empire and fall to whomever decides to take it over.

What are we waiting for?

I just read Phil Plait’s post over at Bad Astronomy about the Ares-1. He included this cool picture of it:

Ares-1 courtesy of Bad Astronomy

I checked up on the latest news and found out the static test of its primary engine has been rescheduled for Thurs Sept 10th.

As I’ve reported on this blog before NASA is at the state where it has to “Go Big, or Stay Home”. In order to make the Ares-1 fly on time and have the Ares-5 able to take us back to the Moon in the 20s NASA needs an additional $3 billion per year.

We have known since 1985 that the Space Shuttle was a dud, it couldn’t maintain the schedule necessary to reduce costs without becoming too risky. For 25 years we continued to pour money into that program draining the money that could be used for researching the next spacecraft.

The biggest thing we learned from the Space Shuttle Program was that the worst space program still gives us good returns on investment as the technology is passed out to the private sector.

If instead of cutting NASA’s budget every year, we had increased it; NASA could have been working on Space Shuttle alternatives for 25 years.

The aircraft industry has known since the 80’s that they would need to replace aluminum with carbon fiber for the skins of their aircraft, but that would require open testing of how it reacted to repeated pressurization and de-pressurization.

If NASA had been given the money to look into a Space Shuttle alternative in ’85 they would have needed to explore this field and the research would have paid for itself as American Aircraft would still be dominate in the world.

The new generation of spacecraft both public and private would be greatly helped by this as Burt Rutan’s Spaceship One’s biggest limitation is its Carbon Fiber skin.

SpaceShip One

SpaceX’s Falcon rocket series could have used this data as well, increasing its capabilities immensely.

Falcon 1

If NASA had been given this small increase, less than twice what the Federal government gives to Wal-Mart to help them eliminate competition and grants for Abstinence Only Education (a program proven not to work) we could already have commercial access to space as the research flowed down and NASA could concentrate on getting us to the Moon.

So what are we waiting for, lets build the damn Ares-1 rocket, then the Ares-5 and get back into space on a permanent basis, so we can advance as a civilization, instead of pouring money into Monopolies and programs proven not to work.

The Catspiracy in Outer Space

The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee is expected to announce that in order for NASA to continue it needs to either Go Big, or Stay Home.

In order to return to the Moon in the 20’s NASA will need approximately a $3 billion a year increase in their budget (roughly 3% of the money given to bailout banks who made really bad investments).

If NASA doesn’t continue to push space development this will give the Tigger an advantage in her quest to rule the world.

It is well known that cats are practicing how to work in zero-gee, that’s what all the acrobatic leaps are for.

Soon they will develop their own space program.

Catronaut

Without strong competition from NASA these Catronauts, (As well as China and India) will continue to advance in space exploration and set up a base on the Moon before NASA can.

The Moon has abundant supplies of He3 to power fusion reactors, believed to be the key element in the next energy revolution.

With the Catronauts controlling the supply of He3 (Along with China and India) the US will be dependent on them for its future energy needs.

In the next half of the century who ever controls the He3 deposits on the Moon will control the Earth.

It is in the US national security interests to make sure NASA gets back to the Moon before the Catronauts. (or China or India)

Celebrating 40 Years of Moon Landing Conspiracies

Monday July 20,2009 will mark the 40th anniversary of Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories. There are dozens of these floating around the internet, but most of them have serious flaws. But there is one Conspiracy Theory no one has challenged, I have seen this Theory on message boards that I post on, and on quick notes I type out to myself, so I will report on that one.

One of the big elements that people who believe we went to the moon, point at is the effects of one-sixth gravity on everything that was filmed, from the lunar shuffle the astronauts had to do to move around to the way dust fell when it was kicked up.

People have tried to recreate this effect on Earth and the only way to recreate it is to fly in a specially modified plane and that does large parabolic arcs simulating whatever gravity the pilot wants for about 25 seconds for every 65 seconds of flight.

NASA knew that people would get suspicious if the astronauts weren’t shown walking about in one-sixth gee so they built a huge soundstage roughly 4 miles wide to simulate the curvature of the Moon and built 3 huge jets with a roughly 20 mile wing span to simulate the Moon’s gravity.

They had identical sets on all three jets and had them take turns in the 25 seconds of one-sixth gee. The camera feed switched to whichever jet was simulating the Moon’s gravity at the time.

Now in order to fly these jets NASA needed huge engines shown here:

To keep the Russians from finding out about these planes, NASA needed to make them stealth and applied an early version of the stealth “paint” that military aircraft use today adding several 1000’s of tons to them.

With that much weight they wouldn’t be able to fly using normal jets so NASA needed to use He3 fusion rockets. The nearest source of He3 is the Moon.

So NASA secretly sent rockets to the Moon and built a Lunar Base with a few hundred people to mine He3 and bring it back to Earth to power the planes to fake the Moon Landing.

After Nixon canceled the Fake Lunar Landings in the 70’s there was no need for NASA’s lunar base to mine He3 and it was dismantled. But some evidence remains as seen here:

There were a few problems with this plan, like why didn’t the fake astronauts experience long-term radiation sickness that one would expect after being exposed to the cosmic rays of space?

NASA countered this problem by slowly exposing 24 out of the 33 astronauts that were supposed have gone to the Moon to powerful radiation giving them cataracts.

The astronauts who faked the space expeditions have become recluses afterward, taking low-profile jobs like: Senator, Authors, TV show hosts, and media consultants. People rarely see them doing tours where they might be questioned about their experiences and accidentally give away something about the conspiracy.

NASA also knew that the few scientists who weren’t in on the conspiracy would want to examine Moon Rocks. So they took roughly 1,000 kilograms of lunar rocks from their Lunar Base and thoroughly analyzed them. Knowing what lunar rocks were made of, they scoured Antarctica for lunar rocks and found 382 kilograms of lunar rocks (most of the lunar rocks that had landed on Earth). That’s why only 30 kilograms of lunar rocks have been collected in Antarctica in the forty years since, NASA took them all.

Elvis Presley found out about this conspiracy and NASA gave him the option of faking his own death or being killed. He naturally faked his own death on the toilet, as there is nothing undignified in that.

How many people were involved in this conspiracy?

Conservative Estimates point to at least 400,000 people being directly in on this conspiracy. The engineers who helped build the Saturn V and Lunar Lander, the international partners who helped monitor the radio transmissions, of course anyone who worked for NASA, the entire 10th mountain division who spent months combing the Antarctic for moon rocks in secret, the people that worked at NASA’s secret Lunar Base to mine the He3 for the secret jets.

Indirectly, all those people’s families and their families. So altogether several million people. Showing what type of agency NASA is to make such a vast conspiracy.

Never underestimate the power of NASA they anticipate everything that could possibly go wrong in a plan. BTW: NASA finally had good weather and were able to launch their $1.7 billion Space Shuttle Endeavour, it is unable to launch if it sprinkles cause engineers overlooked that fact that if water gets into the thrusters, it will freeze when it gets into space making the orbiter useless.

Two American Space Launches in a Week

The Space Shuttle Endeavor finally launched today, and as I noted before SpaceX’s Falcon I had a successful launch yesterday.

Things are looking up (pun intended) for the American presence in space.

Hopefully we will see more successful launches from SpaceX, the last few Shuttles take off more or less on time and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two flies at the end of the year.

If every thing goes extremely well 2010 could be the beginning of a new and more robust Space Era with three very different types of spacecraft taking off at the same time.

Excuse Me I’m so excited I have to change my pants now.

Responding to my comments

I love getting comments, especially from people who link to website. So when Tony commented that he liked me sharing information in my Post “Stuff I’ve missed” where I covered everything from the Falcon I space launch to Sarah Palin’s quitting as Governor of Alaska, I naturally wondered two things.

Which issue inspired the comment, and who Tony was. So I looked at the link they left. London Escorts (barely suitable for work aka: BSFW). No nudity but if you’re flying out to England with the company credit card and your boss sees you pulling up that site, accounting might take a very close look at your expense account.

The site didn’t have a picture of a Tony so I assumed it’s an alias and picked this picture to represent the mysterious Tony:

Then I got wondering which issue would Escorts in London be most concerned with?

Space Travel?

That would be interesting, SpaceX says they should be able to offer trips into Low Earth Orbit for $40 million on their Falcon 9 heavy. If I had $40 million laying around an Escort Service that would let me join the 100 mile high club would be the way to go. Sex in zero gee sound fantastic.

Community College Funding?

I suppose an English Lass might be interested in the US college funding system, if only to get a smug laugh. From what I understand, University on England is state funded with only charges for voluntary programs like gym.

Healthcare Reform

I know people in England are following our healthcare debate if only because their healthcare system is mentioned all the time in the debate.

Here is what everyone needs to know about the difference between English Healthcare and American Healthcare. The English Healthcare model is considered one of the worst nationally run Healthcare systems and it ranks nearly twenty countries ahead of us as far as service.

The English also spend a lot less per capita on healthcare than the US.

And their Auto Insurance is a lot cheaper.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin was a savior to the Democratic Party. A key battleground demographic in the last few elections being White Woman.

Younger Woman were overwhelmingly Democratic until they had kids, then the fear mongering of the Republicans played on their protective instincts.

When Sarah Palin took the national stage no mother wanted her to be a role model for their daughter. So moms across the country turned Democratic.

However, I’m not sure that English Escorts would care that 27% of Americans like the bubble-headed twitter quitter.

Maybe they need someone to point to and say, “Hey at least I used my looks to do something better than be a national laughing stock.”

That last line is not sarcastic, any job dealing with customers is tough and I respect the work that Escorts and other women in the sex industry do.

So Tony, next time you stop by could you clear up which topic you were interested in.

Stuff I missed, I've been busy. Sorry

It’s been a few days since I posted as I have been dealing with Bank of America trying to get my house out of foreclosure.

I’ve racked up a total of 6 hours on the phone with them trying to get them to answer 3 very simple questions.
1) Why didn’t they fulfill their obligations under the Mortgage Agreement?
2) Why are they lying to me?
3) Why are they breaking the law?

For some reason they don’t seem to want to answer these questions. They just keep passing me off to someone else. Their lawyer is supposed to call me maybe she can answer my questions.

But enough about those evil scum-sucking bastards.

Great News:

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)'s Falcon I successfully launched a satellite into orbit. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090714/sc_nm/us_space_business;_ylt=Aj0DwK8Vtrb3h5xDsTDzr0QPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJra203ZXJkBGFzc2V0Ay9ubS8yMDA5MDcxNC9



Even though the Falcon I isn’t technologically superior to the Atlas V it does offer a competing way to get objects into space. At $8 million per ½ ton flight it is the cheapest way to get into space.

Also SpaceX can start making these expendable rocket launches on a semi-routine basis freeing up resources for their work on the Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 heavy. These are the rockets that SpaceX hopes to use to take over the servicing of the ISS after the Shuttle is discontinued.

If the Falcon 9 is successful it will free up NASA to work on the Orion/Constellation Project and return humans to Moon.

Hopefully NASA can contract out all their Low Earth Orbit duties to private companies like SpaceX and turn their energies back to what they are good at pushing the envelope of space technology and expand the human frontier.

Bad News:

The International Space Station the massive spacecraft that is as big as a football field, cost $100 billion to build and is a key component to many private space companies long term plans, is scheduled to be scrapped in 2016.

It took over a decade to build the thing and now it’s going to be junked in less than half that time. That doesn’t make much sense to me.

Good News:

Obama proposes $12 Billion in Community College Funding.

Finally a good proposal to get some long-term benefit out of the Great Depression 2.0.

With unemployment nearing 10% it is damn near impossible for someone fresh out of high school to get a job. Let’s face it if you were the manager of a restaurant and you had two applicants for a waiter. One fresh out of high school with no work experience and one former Securities Broker who ran a multi-million company who would you hire?

By sending as many high school graduates through community college as possible right now it will ease the demand for entry level jobs giving the vastly over qualified workers a way to survive until the economy picks back up.

In 2 years when these students come out of college with their Associates Degrees, America will have better skilled workforce that can seriously compete with other nations.

It’s a solution that gives both short term relief and long term benefit.

Bad News:

This proposal doesn’t do anything to fix the Educational/Banking Complex that has turned into a vampire sucking the benefits of higher education out of the average American worker.

Nothing is being done about the fact that the Higher Education System rewards banks that default graduates on their student loans, even if the graduate is paying back the loan as promised.

Good News:

Healthcare reform with a public option, which 72% of Americans want, is moving forward.

Bad News:

7 Democrats, Max Baucus, Ben Nelson, Kent Conrad, Mary Landrieu, Dianne Feinstein, Jeff Bingaman, and Blanche Lincoln, are gladly taking some of the $1.4 million a day that Insurance companies are using to fight the public option.



The stupidest argument against the public option (you are welcome to disagree as there are a lot of stupid arguments against it) is that if people making more than $500,000 a year are taxed 1% to cover the cost they will take their ball and leave the country.

Oh no, What will America do without the people who gave us invaluable products like Default Credit Swaps, and Sub-prime Mortgage Backed Securities?

Good News:

Sarah Palin resigned as Governor so she can help candidates that share her lunatic vision for America. Now we have a quick way to Identify the wackos.

Bad News:


see more Political Pictures

The poster pretty much says it all.

A Brighter Tomorrow

Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in front of the TV at my Grandparents house watching the Moon Landings. Even as a five year old seeing those 12 astronauts walking on an alien world filled my young brain with hope for the future.

I thought I would get a chance to walk on the Moon as well, because just like when my mom was growing up Jets were a new technology that only a few people could travel in, but by the time I was growing up they were commonplace. Taking it back further when my Grandmother was growing up Lindbergh’s non-stop solo flight to Europe was a technological feat.

Now my wife and I are thinking of having a kid, I call this Project Scion, and even though I look forward to watching Moon Landings with the kid, this was not supposed to be a generational event.

Looking at the world today with the total economic collapse, the fact that last year demand for oil (the life blood of our industrial civilization) outpaced oil production, the fact that the largest climate shift in human history is looming, and thousands of other signs of doom and despair you might wonder why we have chosen this time to raise a child. The answer is simple for the first time since I was a kid growing up I feel optimistic about the future.

Over the course of my life I have watched science, research and development budgets being slashed. I was a kid when Nixon cut the last three Moon Missions, but the Skylab missions still had me hopeful of the future.

I was old enough to know that the Apollo-Soyuz was the last mission for the indefinite future I lowered my expectations. Even with NASA boasting of how the Shuttle would be all things to all people and would cost only pennies a day to operate it was obvious that it wouldn’t be the spacecraft to return us to the Moon and I’d have to wait for space technology to advance.

While that was happening I did have a glimmer of hope, Jimmy Carter announced that freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil would be the moral equivalent of war. I imagined a brave new world, where we could use our brains to advance as a people and put the vast scientific know how that allowed men to walk on the Moon to solve the problems that plagued mankind and in the pursuit of those goals we would make discoveries that would let us once more go into that final frontier.

Then he was laughed out of office.

I watched as Reagan and Bush slashed not only NASA’s budget but all funding towards Science and Technology even as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were putting some of the space technology (microchips) to use in the hands of the public.

If it wasn’t bad enough that they slashed Science budgets, the whole tone of the nation started vilifying science and by extension intelligence. Being intelligent in America became a curse.

When Bill was elected I thought things would change, clearly an intelligent person would recognize the importance of inspiring other intelligent people to succeed instead of having to hide, but instead he put on an “aw shucks” routine and played dumb while slashing scientific research in this country to the bare bones.

By the time Bush came through and declared war on science and the “Intellectual elite” it didn’t mean much as even when discoveries were made they wouldn’t be developed. Bucky Tubes and nano-technology have been around for a couple of decades now. If they had been funded so they could develop into mature technologies we could have cars that weighed hundreds of pounds instead of thousands, as well as planes and of course spacecraft.

Seeing policy makers turn public opinion into down right hostility against anyone who could think for themselves made me decide against having a child that, if genetics is any indication, should be a super-genius.

But now it seems that people are looking around and noticing what 30 years of embracing stupid and rejecting science has led to.

No new innovations in science has led to innovations in money making like Default Credit Swaps, and Mortgage Backed Derivatives.

Not inspiring our children to wonder “What if” has meant all our industrial products come from overseas as Japanese and Korean’s wondered “What if we did this to improve a car?”

In times of great crisis there is great opportunity. To overcome the challenges that are in front of us we will need to once again foster an environment where an interest in science is considered something to be praised not scorned. Where critical thinking is seen as the solution to a problem and not “the problem”.

After watching a country’s Science policy go from science and research being a source of strength for our nation to something that should be despised, I wouldn’t have a genius kid while our leaders considered logic a menace and truth the enemy.

We’ve seen what happens when we embrace the stupid; Peak Oil, Financial Ruin, Death and Destruction on a massive scale.

It’s time to put intelligence back to work, and that is why I am hopeful for the future.

It will be a long time before we can forget what embracing stupid does. 60 years if history is any guide. So that gives my kid plenty of time to grow up in a world that values intelligence, honesty and a strong work ethic.

So America I am putting you on notice, I will watch the Moon Landings with my kid but I will not sit by and let the world make it an event to have me watch the Moon Landing with my Grandchild.

You’ve got 60 to 80 years to make sure that a Moon Landing is no more eventful than a plane crossing the Atlantic.