The last time this site had looked at the work of Reaction Engines, the designers of the Skylon Single-stage to Orbit vehicle proposal, they had designed the Mach 5 – A2 commercial Concorde replacement. Reaction Engines has gotten tens of millions of dollars in funding for various engine and cooler subsystem development and testing. They …
Over the past two decades, nuclear power plants have achieved increasingly higher capacity factors with the same or greater levels of safety. The average capacity factor for U.S. plants in operation in 1980 was 56.3 percent; in 1990, 66 percent; and in 2007, 91.8 percent. A 1994 analysis as the capacity factors were being improved …
Textron solid state lasers Aviation Week reports on the status of military solid state lasers. Hellad [High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System] program small [size of a large refrigerator and about 1650 pounds] 150KW lasers are working to ground tests in 2011 and will include a demonstration of the system’s ability to shoot down …
President-elect Barack Obama has put forth a goal to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. by 80% by 2050, using $150 billion over 10 years to create a “clean-energy” future. Cambridge Energy Research Associates has estimated that the potential for world-wide investment in clean energy, of which nuclear generation is the focal point, will reach …
Colorado College professor Daniel Johnson’s mathematical formula—one based on factors such as wealth and politics, and not on athletic ability—has come close to nailing down the final medal count for the last four Olympic Games. For the Beijing Olympics he has predicted the US getting the most overall medals with a total of 103. They’ll …
This site predicts that 2016 will be year of significant milestones for technology and other world changes. A prediction on a relatively trivial topic. Tokyo will hold the 2016 summer olympics. Three other cities are still in the running. 2016 will likely be the end of the second presidential term for the president elected in …
The US state department reports Iraq oil production for second week of May, 2008 at 2.52 million bpd. (slide 22 of the 35 slide report) Iraq exporting 1.88-2.04 million bpd, since Sept 2007. The May, 2008 projection is for 2.04 million bpd. Vitol, Anadarko, and Dome oil companies have formed a consortium currently negotiating with …
Some people scoff at mind uploading, human level or greater artificial intelligence or nanorobots that are able repair all damage to the human body Here is a review of the current state of brain computer interfaces, brain simulation, and nanomedicine related medicine (cellular repair and rejuvenation) and science. I do not see anything stopping zettaflop …
Seth Lloyd discusses adiabatic quantum computers in MIT technology review. Seth Lloyd and Kaminsky created the theoretical design of a superconducting adiabatic quantum computer on which the Dwave System is based. Seth has suggested experiments that Dwave can perform to prove if their system is achieving a quantum state. The pioneers of superconducting quantum computation …
As I had been predicting for nearly a year, Ma of the KMT won the Presidential election. He won by 58 to 41 over Frank Hsieh of the DPP Ma’s vote total topped the 7 million mark, a point at which it would be mathematically impossible for him to lose, the commission said. The commission …
Toyota Motor Corp. the world’s biggest maker of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, plans to lease cars whose batteries can recharge from normal electrical sockets by 2010, matching General Motors Corp.’s target for introducing the fuel-efficient vehicles. The planned new plug-in hybrids would use lithium-ion batteries. Toyota plans low- exhaust diesel engines for large Tundra pickups and …