ACEIZE

A Nation of Places Worth Caring About

Greg Kontos — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:46:39 +0000

In this delightful TED talk, James Kunstler lays out a strong argument against the urban and suburban planning of post World War II America. He goes on to make a few recommendations for improving the use of urban space in America. Improvements which, he says, are necessary in the face of current global uncertainties.

This is a great presentation, a must watch.

Visible Light Cloaking with Carbon-Nanotube Sheets

Greg Kontos — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:14:22 +0000

A sheet of carbon nanotubes is heated to produce the mirage like effect seen in the video. This work is being done by Ali Aliev of the University of Texas. I wonder what, exactly, is meant by 'sheets of carbon nanotubes'. Is it 'strands', or actual sheets. Incidentally someone has made 3ft by 6ft (~1m x 3m) sheets from carbon nanotubes.

Quantum Trapping and Levitation

Greg Kontos — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:16:51 +0000

Eyes turn to Fermi Lab

Greg Kontos — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:36:50 +0000

Following the announcement of apparently faster than light neutrinos from CERN, eyes have turned towards one of the two labs in the world which can recreate the neutrino experiment, Fermi Lab outside of Chicago. It turns out that they are about to shut down the resident atom smasher, the Tevatron.

Space X Developing Reusable Rocket

Greg Kontos — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:28:22 +0000

A rocket costs about $50 million. The fuel for a single launch costs about $200,000. A great way to save money is to keep the rocket after each launch. People realized this a while ago. The space shuttle was an attempt to move in the direction of reusable space craft. Now Space X is making some noise on the reusable craft scene. They recently announced that they will start attempting to develop a reusable launch platform.

Their announcement comes complete with an animation that is impressive for it's technological vision and the quality of animation itself.

49 years ago: Kennedy at Rice University

Greg Kontos — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:28:15 +0000

Forty-nine years ago, on Sept 12, 1962, John F. Kennedy spoke at Rice University giving us the bold words, 'We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things; not because they are easy, but because they are hard.'

In this same speech he also said, '‎This country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward.'

This is the full speech, take 17 minutes of your day to be inspired.

DRACO Flexible Anti-Viral Drug

Greg Kontos — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:23:40 +0000

From MIT's Lincoln Laboratory comes a new drug called DRACO (Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizers). Apparently DRACO is able to successfully treat 'nearly any viral infection'. This is accomplished because DRACO targets cells which have a type of RNA (double stranded RNA, dsRNA) which is only found in cells infected with a virus.

To date this anti-viral drug has been tested to be successful against 15 different types of viruses.

Neil deGrasse Tyson NASA's Budget and Dreams of the Future

Greg Kontos — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:02:16 +0000

Space Based Solar Power vs. Nuclear

Greg Kontos — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:23:38 +0000

Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) has been a dream of science fiction fans for decades. The idea goes back at least to 1941 when Issac Asimov described a SBSP system in the book Reason¹. The first related patent was awarded to Dr. Peter Glaser in 1973 for microwave transmission of power². During the 1970's the L5 society and others championed the cause of SBSP with seductive images of toroidal geosynchronous colonies providing enough electricity for the entire planet. In 2007 the National Security Space Office (NSSO) published a report which investigated the architectural feasibility of SBSP. They concluded that there was a need for both national energy security and battlefield preparedness, and that work on demonstrating key technologies should proceed immediately.

Moon Exploration Presentation

Greg Kontos — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:53:00 +0000

This slideshow presentation gives some compelling reasons why we should aim to return to the moon. Namely exploration and science. Shackleford's exploration of Antarctica gets some attention, especially in terms of the unexpected scientific advances that the exploration provoked. Also, this is a well put together group of slides -- these are not your typical bullet point list of 'talking points' that end up being the only existing notes for the speech. These look like real talking points.

Why the Moon?

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