Caustic Graphics Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.) is a startup company that claims to have made a breakthrough in the hardware acceleration of ray-traced graphics. Caustic claims a 20 times speedup for better graphics algorithms hardcoded into silicon now and 200 times faster for next generation in 2010. Caustic said it’s first-generation technology will deliver an …
NASA looks to be developing larger (12-40KW) radioisotope thermoelectric generators for the moon’s surface. Hopefully NASA finishes this work as they have a history of starting big RTG projects and not completing them. Also, it probably would be better to use the Hyperion uranium hydride reactor instead, which has been covered extensively on this site …
True strength properties of carbon nanotubes measured and they match with theoretical predictions. Previous measurements came up a lot weaker than theory. Not only do the new measurements show that defect free carbon nanotubes are as strong as predicted but the an irradiation strategy can fix defects and provide cross links to help carbon nanotube …
An Ipsos poll indicates that 17% of Americans feel that the United States is on the right track An opinion poll in February, found that 43% of Iraqis felt that things were going well in Iraq So more than twice the percentage of Iraqis are polling positively about their country versus the percentage of Americans …
Amory Lovins wrote the nuclear illusion which looks at the data from 2000 forward or 1990 forward but he claims a decades long (plural so at least two decades and Lovins has been claiming nuclear collapse since the 1970s) collapse of nuclear energy. Since 1980, nuclear power TWH has increased by over 400%. So Amory …
Some people have criticized the technological Singularity and Transhumanism because of the upside being things that they do not believe can be achieved.Also, the primary technologies that are often described as enabling the Singularity and Transhumanism are Molecular Nanotechnology and greater than human intelligence general AI. There has been virtually no effort or money spent …
Photos and Annotations from Akito Takahashi taken at the Arata Cold fusion demonstration. Yoshiaki Arata, a retired (now emeritus) physics professor at Osaka University, Japan, together with his co-researcher Yue-Chang Zhang, uses pressure to force deuterium (D) gas into an evacuated cell containing a sample of palladium dispersed in zirconium oxide (ZrO2–Pd). He claims the …
China (including Hong Kong and Macau) has a larger GDP than Germany based on current exchange rates. The Euro has traded down to 10.77 to the Chinese Yuan The Euro/Yuan exchange rate will likely continue to fluctuate. The European countries (France, Spain, Italy) have been saying that the Euro has been too strong. The US …
A full-scale, fully cantilevered electromagnetic railgun developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has successfully launched a full-sized projectile, with size and weight similar to a 120mm mortar, at speeds of 430 meters-per-second. 430 meters/second would be a little faster than the 101-318 meter/second speed of regular mortar firings. The railgun is the …
Charles Barton has an informative interview with Ralph Moir posted at Nuclear Green and Thorium energy.Dr. Ralph Moir was an extremely distinguished scientist at Lawrence-Livermore Laboratory, and a personal associate of Dr. Edward Teller. He first discusses fusion/fission hybrid reactors and then molten salt fission reactors. Fusion holds the promise–yet to be fulfilled–of providing a …
The Kiplinger Letter talks about the potential and timing of the Bakken oil play An official government survey of the Bakken region’s oil treasure trove is due out next month. The report is expected to play it very conservatively, because it will confine estimates to the amount of oil that likely can be produced profitably …
