U.S. Air Force Space Plane to launch next April

The U.S. Air Force plans to launch the unmanned X-37 OTV next April on top of an Atlas V booster.

X-37-OTV. Credit: U.S. Air Force

X-37-OTV. Credit: U.S. Air Force

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0911/24otv/

The Road: A Storm Warning for Humanity

“It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,” Stephen Hawking

Actors Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee play a father and son attempting to survive in the harshest and most terrifying post-apocalyptic world ever imagined

There is no film that illustrates the foolishness of confining human civilization solely to our planet of evolutionary origin than John Hillcoat's brilliant motion picture 'The Road' based on the Pulitzer prize winning book of the same title by Cormac McCarthy.

The audience is quickly introduced to a post- apocalyptic world where a father and son attempt to survive in a cold gray overcast environment devoid of other living animals and plant life. What caused this global apocalypse is not clear (nuclear war, asteroid impact, super volcanoes, global warming?). But what is clear in this hauntingly beautiful yet devastating film is that we are witnessing the possible total extinction of humanity!

Equally as terrifying as the environmental disaster is the human response to it: with most organized groups of humans apparently turning to predatory cannibalism in order to appease their relentless hunger!

The basic theme of the movie is how a father, played by Viggo Mortensen, tries to teach his son, who was born right after the apocalypse, how to retain his humanity in an absolutely horrifying world largely devoid of it!

But the lessons our current human civilization can learn is to do whatever is necessary to avoid putting all of humanity into this predicament in the first place!

Yes. We need to do all we can to avoid another nuclear arms race in the future where perhaps Russia and the US could be joined by China, India, Pakistan, Japan, Iran, Israel, and the EU in having the power of life and death over the entire planet. Yes. We need to locate all NEOs that could potentially destroy the Earth. Yes. We need to deal with global warming and other environmental hazards. Yes. We need to deal with human overpopulation in relation to the Earth's resources.

But we also need to start expanding human civilization beyond the Earth starting with the Moon then Mars and then finally using asteroid materials to manufacture hundreds if not thousands of rotating solar orbiting artificial worlds with Earth-like environments all over the solar system. That's the key to the long term survival of our species. But confining our civilization solely to the surface of the Earth and just hoping for the best will eventually doom our civilization and our species to extinction.

Marcel F. Williams

http://theroad-movie.com/

Daily Kos: Storm Warning

The 150th anniversary of Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species'

"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows."

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. "

Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species
November 24, 1859

Senator Jeff Bingaman on the future development of small nuclear reactors

“I plan to introduce a second bill, to complement Senator Udall’s bill. My new bill would require the Secretary of Energy to develop and demonstrate, in partnership with the private sector, two designs for small modular nuclear reactors – less than 350 megawatts electric in size. The Department would help demonstrate the ability to license these reactors by funding applications to obtain design certification by 2018, and to obtain a combined operating license for each of the designs by 2021. Having certified and licensable designs for small modular nuclear reactors would be a significant boost to the field of nuclear power, and would help nuclear energy be a cost-effective contender for a broader array of carbon-free electric generation needs in the future."

Jeff Bingaman U.S. Senator from New Mexico
November 16th, 2009


New Papyrus strongly supports such forward looking legislation from US Senator Bingaman. The development of small commercial nuclear reactors in America could be a major game changer as far as carbon free energy production in our nation.

The lower initial cost of small nuclear reactors should be economically attractive even for the smallest utilities in the US. And economies of mass production could potentially dramatically reduce the capital cost of such small centrally mass produced nuclear reactors which could also reduce the cost of electricity and even the electrical production of carbon neutral synthetic fuels and industrial chemicals such as: ammonia, methanol, methane, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and dimethyl ether. Small centrally mass produced nuclear reactors could be transported by rail or by ship to practically any energy producing site anywhere in the world while potentially producing millions of manufacturing jobs right here in the USA !

New Papyrus urges you to express your support to Senator Bingaman's for his bill at:

http://bingaman.senate.gov/contact/

while also contacting your local Senators to express your support for the Bingaman bill.

Live Interview with AVATAR special effects master!

Jennifer Chan informs me that: Actor Kevin Pollak is hosting on his weekly show today with guest Robert Legato, the Academy Award winning Visual Effects Director of“Titanic,” and upcoming “Avatar” – the biggest film of the year. Kevin will interview Robert and discuss the visual effects behind “Avatar" today starting at 5p PT.

You can view the stream at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kevin-pollak%27s-chat-show.

Duke energy boss on nuclear energy and jobs

In the November 20 Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog, Duke Energy boss, Jim Rogers argues that nuclear power will probably replace coal in the long run in the US by 2050. Additionally, he argues that nuclear power creates more jobs than wind and solar and at a higher level of pay:

"In an operation of a nuclear plant, there [are] .64 jobs per megawatt. The wind business–and we have a very large wind business–is .3 jobs per megawatt. In the solar business–and we’re installing solar panels–it’s about .1. But the difference in the jobs is quite different, because if you’re wiping off a solar panel, it’s sort of a minimum wage type of job, [with] much higher compensation for nuclear engineers and nuclear operators. If our goal is to rebuild the middle class, nuclear plays a key role there, particularly if coal is out of the equation."


Duke’s Rogers: Why Nuclear Power Will Probably Trump Coal
Environmental Capital blog
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/11/20/dukes-rogers-why-nuclear-power-will-probably-trump-coal/

Thorium Energy Future: The LFTR Concept

Energy from Thorium

Nuclear Green