Yesterday, Nextbigfuture reviewed a couple of the predictions of $5000 gold prices and a prediction that the US financial situation is not sustainable. The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) assumes that the yield on the 10-year Treasury will rise from an estimated 2.3% this year to 5% by the end of the decade; and the yield …
Science Daily – A group of Italian and Swedish researchers appears to have solved the problem of radio congestion by cleverly twisting radio waves into the shape of fusilli pasta, allowing a potentially infinite number of channels to be broadcast and received. To demonstrate this, the researchers transmitted two twisted radio waves, in the 2.4 …
Paul March looked at approaches for developing a Space Launcher Infrastructure that can provide for safe & rapid transport of up to 25 people to LEO AND provide low cost transport of bulk cargo to LEO for less than $100 per pound. (68 pages) NOTE – Selenian Boondocks – Kirk Sorenson has written why he …
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has successfully test fired SuperDraco, a powerful new engine that will play a critical role in the company’s efforts to change the future of human spaceflight. The engine will enable launch escape at any point in the launch. “SuperDraco engines represent the best of cutting edge technology,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX …
MSNBC – security researcher Brendan O’Connor is trying a different approach to spy hardware: building a sensor-equipped surveillance-capable computer that’s so cheap it can be sacrificed after one use, with off-the-shelf parts that anyone can buy and assemble for less than $50. At the Shmoocon security conference Friday in Washington, D.C., O’Connor presented the F-BOMB, …
Lawrence Krauss (physicist and author of the Physics of Star Trek) wrote in New Scientist that Newt Gingrich’s proposal to put a permanent base on the moon will have to cost about $1 trillion because the International Space station cost $150 billion and the Space Shuttle program cost over $200 billion. Apparently once the government …
By Joseph Friedlander One line summary: Irresponsible governmental behavior has made us most vulnerable at the precise time a major societal crisis—and choice of futures– is due to be faced. 30 Second version: Reckless government manipulations and spending often with a conscious attempt to ‘smooth out’ the short term economic cycles, may have adversely affected …
A new system for delivering a drug to organ transplant patients, which could avoid the risk of harmful side effects, is being developed by scientists at Strathclyde. The drug, cyclosporine (CsA), is widely used in transplant operations and helps prevent the patient’s body rejecting the organ but it can cause adverse drug reactions, of which …
Arxiv – Gaming is a hard job, but someone has to do it! (12 pages) We establish some general schemes relating the computational complexity of a video game to the presence of certain common elements or mechanics, such as destroyable paths, collecting items, doors activated by switches or pressure plates, etc.. Then we apply such …
Stanford Law Review discusses The Iraq War, the Next War, and the Future of the Fat Man The Obama Administration’s emphasis on targeted killing of terror suspects—what President Obama has called eliminating our enemies—is also a form of anticipatory self-defense. Indeed, as the administration continues to ratchet up its use of remote drone attacks, we …
FARS News – Israeli sources confirmed that the terrorist attack which killed a senior Iranian scientist in Tehran on Wednesday was a joint operation carried out by the agents of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, and the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO). The magnetic bomb which was planted by an unknown motorcyclist under the …