The team working to duplicate Dr. Bussard’s fusion technique has had some results (emphasis added):

The team has turned in its final report, and it’s been double-checked by a peer-review panel, [team leader Richard] Nebel told me today. Although he couldn’t go into the details, he said the verdict was positive.

“There’s nothing in there that suggests this will not work,” Nebel said. “That’s a very different statement from saying that it will work.”

By and large, the EMC2 results fit Bussard’s theoretical predictions, Nebel said. That could mean Polywell fusion would actually lead to a power-generating reaction. But based on the 10-month, shoestring-budget experiment, the team can’t rule out the possibility that a different phenomenon is causing the observed effects.

“If you want to say something absolutely, you have to say there’s no other explanation,” Nebel said. The review board agreed with that conservative assessment, he said.

The good news, from Nebel’s standpoint, is that the WB-7 experiment hasn’t ruled out the possibility that Polywell fusion could actually serve as a low-cost, long-term energy solution. “If this thing was absolutely dead in the water, we would have found out,” he said.

Posted: December 17th, 2008 under Space & Science.
Comments: none

Those dastardly drug companies, aided and abetted by software monopolists, are at it again: developing the first effective vaccine against malaria, a disease which kills a million children a year in Africa.

Damn Bill Gates and his running dogs at Glaxo-Smith-Kline!

Posted: December 9th, 2008 under World.
Comments: none

I just found out that a former colleage of mine in the field of computational linguistics has all along been a secret writer of romance thrillers.

You have no idea how much this makes me happy.

Posted: December 4th, 2008 under Journal.
Comments: 2

A week late, due to server problems, but here is a picture you may find interesting:

Yes, this is an echogram of our developing progeny.

Posted: November 19th, 2008 under Journal.
Comments: 5

Kevin Edgecomb reviews an article on Eastern Orthodoxy that is evidently an attempt to explain Orthodoxy to evangelical Protestants. Among several interesting things, he talks about the idea of the role of Scripture. It has long bemused me that though Protestants — especially the evangelicals of my heritage — claim to value Scripture above tradition and “organized” religion, you’ll often be hard-pressed to hear more than a couple of verses of Scripture in an evangelical service. Contrast the Orthodox liturgy:

The Gospel book, which itself is an ikon of Christ Himself, preceded and followed by candle-bearing acolytes, is held aloft by the priest in a solemn procession through the church, and in through the Royal Doors: Christ ascending His Throne. Later, at the reading of the Gospel, the choir sings an alleluia, and all the people stand as the priest proclaims the Gospel from the Royal Doors, an image of the dissemination of the Gospel from Heaven itself, again with an angelic honor guard of candle-bearing acolytes. This is the audible ikon of Christ, His image proclaimed in sound, not color. The actions of the priest and acolytes further glorify the Word, the eternal Logos, and are a lesson of God’s plan in themselves, when properly understood. The Orthodox honor shown to God’s Word can only be recognized as of an entirely higher order than something like, “Let us turn to Matthew 13…Matthew 13…verses ten…through…thirteen” to the rustle of pages, dropped notebooks, and clicking pens.

Further, it should be noted that of all churches, the Orthodox Church preserves the lengthiest pericopes in its lectionary. The readings of the the Epistle and Gospel likely comprise a lengthier reading from the New Testament than is common in any Protestant setting, and certainly do in the case of those Protestant churches using lectionaries. The setting of prayers and acclamations surrounding the Orthodox readings likewise outdistance in devotion any average introduction to the typical three-point sermon.

Posted: November 9th, 2008 under Rants.
Comments: 1

So now that it seems that Nasa’s new spacecraft designs are in such bad shape as to be unsuitable for their stated purpose of returning to the moon, it seems more and more likely that private companies like SpaceX are the future of space travel.

SpaceX has just announced a long-duration uncrewed version of its Dragon capsule that can be used as a little mini space station. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they were working on designs for getting to the moon and beyond.

Of course this all depends on the Falcon 9 being proven as a reliable launch vehicle. The Falcon 1 is one for four at the moment, so there’s still a ways to go.

Posted: November 4th, 2008 under Space & Science.
Comments: none

It is the published position of the Alberta Human Rights Commission that to call for the murder of a Christian is neither discrimination nor hate speech.

However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, ironically a churchgoing Albertan, recently told the press that “everyone has had some concerns” about the commissions which have been for too long trampling on the Charter rights of Canadians to free speech.

Posted: October 31st, 2008 under Canada.
Comments: none

It looks like Dr. Bussard’s dream of practical and safe fusion power (including an enormously efficient space drive) via his Polywell design has not quite yet been abandoned. IMC2 has a new contract from the US Navy to investigate his designs further.

This must mean that some positive results came from the summer’s work, even though they have not yet been published.

One cannot overstate the positive effects this would have on the human condition were it to be successful. Practially unlimited energy from seawater and borax! No radiation, no nuclear waste, no air pollution or oil wars, voyages of mere weeks to all the planets of the solar system…

Posted: October 30th, 2008 under Space & Science.
Comments: none

Andrea has been teasing me for a few weeks about this, so I thought I’d share… It should come as no surprise to those who know me that when I do watch TV it tends to be Discovery Channel. Here in Canada they’ve been running a spot that, well, just makes me smile.

Go and watch the whole thing.

Posted: October 22nd, 2008 under Journal, Space & Science.
Comments: 4

Well, we are off to a much-needed vacation, so email and blogging may be on hiatus for the next week as we sit by the pool in Palm Springs.

Posted: October 10th, 2008 under Journal.
Comments: none