Getting spacey

A Year of Spectacular Comets
Two spectacular comets graced Earth's skies during 2007. Both comets became bright enough to be seen by the unaided eye of the casual sky enthusiast. Early in 2007, Comet McNaught grew brighter than any comet in 40 years, displaying a beautiful dust tail that flowed across the sky. Comet McNaught (c/2006 P1) became known as the Great Comet of 2007, sported unusual striations in its expansive dust tail, and showed unexpectedly complex chemistry in its ion tail. Toward the year's end, normally docile and faint Comet Holmes brightened suddenly and unexpectedly to naked eye visibility. Remarkably, Comet 17P/Holmes stayed bright for weeks even though it lies beyond the orbit of Mars. No distant comet in recent history has remained so bright for so long. In this view, a white Comet Holmes was photographed in early December posing with the Heart and Soul Nebulas.

Idle Curiosity

Take a peek at some of these images. I really like the aircraft carrier.

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And more good news

What are you going to do with all that cheap solar power from Nanosolar panels? How about replacing the internal combustion vehicle.

200MPG For Reals! Aptera Unveiled at TED

We've been hearing about the Aptera, the ultrahighmileage supervehicle from Accelerated Composites (aka Aptera Motors) for more than a year now. Steve Fambro and his merry band of geniuses over at AC let the math do the talking when it came to the design so that the car would be as aerodynamic as possible. Pair that with a super-efficient diesel hybrid engine, and the result is 200mpg. It's only fair to note that they originally predicted 330mpg, but we're cool with 200. It's also supposed to be pretty affordable (around $20,000), thanks to some magical carbon fiber fabrication process that AC won't really talk about. The actual prototype was unveiled at TED this past weekend in Monterey, and it looks like Batman's girlfriend's car. We just hope this thing actually goes into production instead of winding up in some museum. More pictures after the jump.
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From the company:
The Aptera was designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle, and later as an extended range electric vehicle. After building the proof-of-concept Mk-0, we hired the automotive design firm, 'eleven', to help us further develop the concept vehicle. The 'eleven' team, led by Jason Hill and Nathan Armstrong, made great strides in the development of the Aptera's body styling, interior design, and structural engineering. Meanwhile, we refined the Aptera's shape to maximize efficiency using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), developed and built advanced suspension and drivetrain components, and integrated a strong yet lightweight composite shell. Our entire process has been developed in-house exclusively by Aptera for the Aptera Typ-1. Our structural elements have undergone countless revisions of FEA (Finite Element Analysis) to be lightweight, robust, and manufacturable.
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Good News

This is the breakthrough anyone who wears even a tinge of 'Green' welcomes. I will now watch to see how the interests of what I call MegaCorp work to control and constrain the obvious benefits.

Solar energy 'revolution' brings green power closer
Panels start solar power 'revolution'

The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what British scientists called "a revolution" in generating electricity.

The solar panels produced by a Silicon Valley start-up company, Nanosolar, are radically different from the kind that European consumers are increasingly buying to generate power from their own roofs. Printed like a newspaper directly on to aluminium foil, they are flexible, light and, if you believe the company, expected to make it as cheap to produce electricity from sunlight as from coal.

Yesterday Nanosolar said its order books were full until mid-2009 and that a second factory would soon open in Germany where demand for solar power has rocketed. Britain was unlikely to benefit from the technology for some years because other countries paid better money for renewable electricity, it added.

"Our first solar panels will be used in a solar power station in Germany," said Erik Oldekop, Nanosolar's manager in Switzerland. "We aim to produce the panels for 99 cents [50p] a watt, which is comparable to the price of electricity generated from coal. We cannot disclose our exact figures yet as we are a private company but we can bring it down to that level. That is the vision we are aiming at."

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A Quick Test

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Think you know a thing or two about science? Take our short quiz to determine if you'd pass an 8th grade science test.

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Plaything

This is a handy little site that allows you to create voice files saying anything you want.

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For example: http://vozme.com/speech/en/a0dc71cc0bf733e23aa5e022a9699e88.mp3

Memories

This started out as a conversation with friend Tim in which I was trying to establish his experiences relative to my own. The discourse descended into 'Do you remember...' and one of the objects in question was Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

The resulting Google turned up a very delightful webby and I highly recommend streaming the Mikado bit.

There was a glimmer of a neuron firing in my childhood viewing which told me those characters were actually speaking of matters beyond my comprehension. It seems that in at least this one instance those twinges of perception were right.

While many remember Kukla, Fran and Ollie as hosts of the CBS Children's Film Festival, their original series (1947 - 57), was actually watched by more adults than children. This first show counted Orson Welles, John Steinbeck, Tallulah Bankhead and Adlai Stevenson among its many adult fans, and had sponsors like Life magazine and Ford Motor Co., who surely weren't trying to reach children. How did this happen? Click here to find out!
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The next battle

Bottled water has become ubiquitous but now faces challenges on two fronts. What brings this to mind was this story in the Washington Post.

The Water's a Must, but the Bottle Could Be Trouble

Retailers, Regulators and Researchers Wrestle With Whether Polycarbonate Containers Pose Health Risk

Catching his breath at a fitness club, Matt McHugh took a gulp of water from his trusty Nalgene plastic bottle and pondered the idea of switching to an alternative made of glass, stainless steel or another kind of plastic.

Worries about a hormone-mimicking chemical used in the bottles' construction led a major Canadian retailer to remove polycarbonate containers made by Nalgene and other manufacturers from store shelves in early December.

"It's definitely a concern, but I'd like to learn more before I make any decisions about my water bottles," McHugh, 26, a business manager for a reggae band, said with an easy laugh. "For now, I'll probably keep using my Nalgene until it breaks. It's indestructible, I've heard."

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While health is always a major concern, some cities are seeing water bottles from the perspective of waste management.

Water-bottle waste

Ubiquitous plastic water bottles, originally associated with a healthy lifestyle, aren't so healthy for the environment.

Aside from the fact that making so many individual water bottles creates a large carbon footprint, many of the plastics in the water bottles can be recycled only once. What is worse, in New Jersey, it has been estimated that up to 70 percent of plastic water bottles are not recycled at all. Instead, they end up in landfills or incinerators, where they pollute the environment. Nationwide, it is estimated that 2 million tons of plastic water bottles end up in landfills each year. The good news is that all of the problems associated with plastic water bottles are easily fixed by incor porating a few simple changes into our daily routine.

Switching from plastic to a reusable thermos or a glass is the best option. Filling the reusable container with tap or filtered water also makes sense. Recent reports show that up to 40 percent of the hyped "pure mountain spring water" we are buying actually comes from filtered tap water. There should be little difference in taste or quality between the two. Reus able containers help to save money, since people would not be constantly replacing their old water bottles, sometimes at more than $2 per bottle. Reus able containers are easy to clean, they can be refilled al most anywhere, and many containers hold more water than the average-size marketed water bottle, so they would have to be refilled less often.

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NEW YEAR, NEW LAWS

New Year brings bottled water tax

Retailers fear it will push customers out to suburbs

In her never-ending effort to maintain her health and appearance, Jill Walker credits bottled water with improving her digestion, maintaining her skin's elasticity and keeping her away from sugary soda.

The Chicago resident drinks one bottle in the morning after her workout. She tosses another into her bag to take to the office and finishes two more with dinner.
"It's a big part of my health regimen," she says. "When I'm properly hydrated, I can feel the difference in my muscles and my energy level."

Chicago is set to impose a 5-cent tax on bottled water on Jan. 1, becoming the first major U.S. city to demand such a surcharge. The move -- which officials predict will secure an extra $10.5 million annually -- will help the city plug a budget hole by building on the growing disdain for environmentally suspect.
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Words, words, words

Let's start with one which would unfortunately apply to this blog:

desuetude \DESS-wih-tood\ noun

: discontinuance from use or exercise : disuse

lahar (LAH-har) noun

An avalanche-like mudflow composed of volcanic debris and water,
originating on the slopes of a volcano.

[From Javanese lahar (lava). Javanese is a language spoken on the island
of Java, Indonesia. It has about 80 million speakers.]

kith \KITH\ noun

: familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives

I have heard this word used only in conjunction with 'kin', as in 'kith and kin'

An over-long hiatus

How about something amusing, like a bit of honesty?

PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE BANISHED FROM CABLE TV

Sick of all the squawking heads on cable news?
Same here.

Cable news networks have stumbled on a cheap way to suck in viewers - by stocking their shows with screaming spin-meisters.

The hosts who pull in ratings aren't going anywhere, even though their ratings are puny compared with the least-watched sitcoms on network TV.

But what about their favorite pundits, the ones who have discovered that the more outlandish they are, the more airtime they get - truth be damned?

Perhaps it's time for a timeout, for some civil discourse at a critical time in our history - just as Americans prepare to select a new leader.

Here's hoping that cable executives ring in the new year by banishing the Worst Pundits on Cable TV News.

1. Ann Coulter

'I'm here. I'm not queer. And I'm not going away.'

Day job: syndicated columnist

Face time: on Fox, CNN and MSNBC

Her shtick: Verbal bomb-thrower

On 9/11 widows, "I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much."

To a wounded Vietnam veteran, "People like you caused us to lose that war."

About the supremacy of Christians, "Jews need to be perfected."

On the planet, "God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.' "

Coulter, who owns a home in Palm Beach, is a verbal arsonist and it's made her rich. She knows what TV hosts want and she happily gives it to them. Even liberals such as MSNBC's Chris Matthews can't resist putting her on the air. It serves her pocketbook, but not her country, or her party.

If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, here is the list of the talking heads mentioned:

1. Ann Coulter
2. William Donohue
3. Michael Musto
4. Al Sharpton
5. Juan Williams
6. Bernie Goldberg
7. Karl Rove
8. Dennis Miller

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