Zap

The Navy's laser project hits a milestone. [Link]

“Five hundred [kilovolts] has been the project goal for a long time,” says George Neil, the FEL associate director at Jefferson Labs, whose Rav 4 license plate reads LASRMAN. “The injector area is one of the critical areas” of the whole project.

The free-electron laser is one of the Navy’s highest-priority weapons programs, and it’s not hard to see why. “We’re fast approaching the limits of our ability to hit maneuvering pieces of metal in the sky with other maneuvering pieces of metal,” says Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, the Navy’s chief of research. The next level: “fighting at the speed of light and hypersonics” — that is, the free-electron laser and the Navy’s Mach-8 electromagnetic rail gun.

Say goodbye to an adversary’s antiship missiles, and prepare to fire bullets from 200 miles away, far from shoreline defenses. No wonder the Navy asked Congress to double its budget for directed-energy weapons this week to $60 million, most of which will go to the free-electron laser.

It won’t be until the 2020s, Carr estimates, that a free-electron laser will be mounted on a ship. (Same goes for the rail gun.) Right now, the free-electron laser produces a 14-kilowatt beam. It needs to get to 100 kilowatts to be viable to defend a ship, the Navy thinks. But what happened at Jefferson Labs Friday shrinks the time necessary to get to 100 kilowatts and expands the lethality of the laser. Here’s why.

All lasers start off as atoms that get agitated into becoming photons, light that’s focused through some kind of medium, like chemicals or crystals, into a beam operating on a particular wavelength. But the free-electron laser is unique: It doesn’t use a medium, just supercharged electrons run through a racetrack of superconductors and magnets — an accelerator, to be technical — until it produces a beam that can operate on multiple wavelengths.

That means the beam from the free-electron laser won’t lose potency as it runs through all the crud in ocean air, because its operators will be able to adjust its wavelengths to compensate. And if you want to make it more powerful, all you need to do is add electrons.

But to add electrons, you need to inject pressure into your power source, so the electrons shake out and run through the racetrack. That’s done through a gun called an injector. In the basement of a building in Jefferson Labs, a 240-foot racetrack uses a 300-kilovolt injector to pressurize the electrons out of 200 kilowatts of power and send them shooting through the accelerator.

Currently, the free-electron laser project produces the most-powerful beam in the world, able to cut through 20 feet of steel per second. If it gets up to its ultimate goal, of generating a megawatt’s worth of laser power, it’ll be able to burn through 2,000 feet of steel per second. Just add electrons.

Fantasy World Map

This would be awesome to play in. [Link]

A hobbit, a Sleestak, a Who, and the Cheshire Cat walk into a dungeon...

Health Care Ping Pong

If only there had been some sort of debate on what was in the health care bill. [Link]

We clearly haven't figured out a good way to going to handle the (fairly large) problem of intra-year variations in income.  We just paid for the 2010 "doc fix" by requiring families who experience a mid-year boost to their incomes to repay at least some of the subsidy they received when they had lower incomes earlier in the year.  Families who improve their job prospects will thus get to enjoy a privilege previously mostly reserved for freelancers: a surprise tax bill at the end of the year, when they were expecting a refund.

This is more than fiscally tricky (the sort of families that get subsidies are less likely to have thousands of dollars in the bank to repay them at year end).  It means that lower-income workers will implicitly face a higher marginal tax rate on their wages, since getting a new job may mean a hefty tax bill at year end.  For those even lower down the income scale, it means bouncing on and off Medicaid--and while I presume the private option will be better than Medicaid, the uncertainty and hassle may encourage them to stay put at lower wage rates.

This is the problem with complex new programs that aim to do everything:  it's hard to predict ahead of time how all the moving parts are going to work together.  There are still a whole lot of kinks to be worked out before 2014.

RoboCop coming to Detroit

The people have spoken. Emphasis added. [Link]

The statue has set off debates about the artistic value of a RoboCop statue. Some complain that the movie, about a dystopian, crime-ridden Detroit, would hurt the city's image.

Others said it's a fun way to bring more attention to the struggling, but resilient city.

Fund-raising began last week after Detroit Mayor Dave Bing politely rejected a suggestion on Twitter that RoboCop would improve the city's image. Although the Tweet was a joke from a New England computer technician, fans of RoboCop swarmed cyberspace to call for a statue.

Once the price tag is determined, a team of skilled sculptures, including a team that worked with Bjork's husband, Matthew Barney, will build the sculpture from any number of materials. The group is working with the Mayor's Office to consider public spots, such as areas near Comerica Park or a downtown park.

If that doesn't work out, the statue may end up at Imagination Station, an outdoor art project cofounded by Paffendorf near the abandoned Michigan Central Station just off Michigan Avenue.

Paffendorf and other local artists hope RoboCop is just the beginning of a series of public art installations.

"With all of this publicity, we have a big opportunity to extend this to other projects in Detroit," Paffendorf said.

Supporters of the statue got a big boost Tuesday when San Francisco businessman, Pete Hottelet, donated $25,000.


"Despite everything, we live in a great country, and every day, there's an opportunity out there to do something awesome," Hottelet, owner of Omni Consumer Products, told the Free Press. "You just have to find it."

Who uses violent rhetoric?

I wonder. [Link]

I asked the woman if she thought Scott Walker was like Hitler, and she said "Yes." So I said, "Are you saying that you think fascism could come to America," and she said, "It's what's happening."

2012 Budget

Not serious on the budget. [Link]

This week may be a teachable moment for the gentry liberals and Obamacons who swooned over Obama in 2008. They thought that someone so smart, so reasonable-sounding, so much like them would be the one to chart a course to fiscal sanity.

They accepted the years of massive deficits during the recession. But by the 2012, he would finally start to put the budget on a path to a sustainable future, right?

Instead, he ignored his own fiscal commission and punting on America’s entitlement crisis. As Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank noted, Obama kicked the can again.

Obama’s budget proposal is a remarkably weak and timid document. He proposes to cut only $1.1 trillion from federal deficits over the next decade — a pittance when you consider that the deficit this year alone is in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion. The president makes no serious attempt at cutting entitlement programs that threaten to drive the government into insolvency.

Andrew Sullivan said Obama’s budget was “deeply unserious.” Slate’s John Dickerson argued that Obamamust be working on a secret plan because the one he released was so lame.

Even if Obama is pursuing closed-door talks, it’s clear he’s unwilling to lead on the most important domestic policy issue of our generation.

Full motion video in e-ink

This is interesting. [Link]

The details are few with this one but really it's the highlights that matter here: Bookeen has managed to get smooth full-motion video to play on an E Ink Pearl display. Yes, the same sort that delivers agonizingly slow refreshes on the latest Kindles and such. It's a simple H.264-encoded clip (the same one with the chubby rabbit you've probably seen a dozen times before) played on a TI OMAP3621 processor. Power consumption in this mode is said to be no more than a non-backlit LCD, which is quite frugal indeed. No word on which actual readers this will debuting in, but according to E-Ink-Info.com it will be "available on the next-gen e-readers to appear soon."

Turnabout

Homeowner forecloses on bank. [Link]

Patrick Rodgers, an independent music promoter in Philadelphia, has won a judgment against his mortgage lender, Wells Fargo, which Wells hasn't paid, and so he's foreclosed on them and arranged for a sheriff's sale of the contents of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, 1341 N. Delaware Ave to pay the legal bill.

Rodgers made all his mortgage payments on time, but Wells decided out of the blue that he had to carry insurance for the full replacement value of his home -- $1 million -- and started to charge him an extra $500 a month in premiums. When Rodgers sent a formal letter to the lender questioning this, they did not answer in good time, so a court awarded him $1,000 in damages, which Wells wouldn't pay. So the court is allowing him to sell the contents of the lender's office to make good on the bill.

Looking into the past photos

Very cool. A great collection. [Link]

Giger Bar

Drink in a creepy bar. Very creepy. [Link]

Looking to quaff a drink in a watering hole that resembles a xenomorph's hive? Famed Alien designer H.R. Giger has designed several "Giger Bars" throughout his career, and you can still visit two of them in Switzerland.

The baby wall is watching me again!

Creepy vintage Valentines

Real vintage, real creepy. [Link]

a series of vintage Valentine’s Day cards that, similarly, have a different effect given our contemporary cultural sensibilities. After decades of efforts to draw attention to and problematize men’s violence against women, these cards seem misguided at best:

Comics fans will find this one prescient. Women in Refrigerators.

Nautilus X MMSEV

We'll need ships like this to continue long term space exploration. [Link]

Lack of money or direction has not caused some at NASA to decline to dream big. In that spirit, two engineers at the Johnson Spaceflight Center, Mark Holderman and Edward Henderson, have developed a concept for a space vehicle called Nautilus X MMSEV.

Nautilus X MMSEV is a NASA acronym for Non-Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for Lengthy United States X-ploration Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle.

The Nautilus X would be able to support a crew of six for missions ranging from one month to two years. It would be assembled in low Earth orbit with between two and three launches of the planned shuttle derived heavy lift launcher and a variety of commercial launchers (Falcon 9, Delta 4, and Atlas 5.)

The Nautilus X would consist of a variety of ridged and inflatable modules, solar dynamic arrays, any of a number of mission specific propulsion modules, a manipulator arms, docking ports for Orion or commercial space craft such as the SpaceX Dragon, landing craft for destination worlds and (this is the key) a centrifuge that would simulate partial gravity to maintain the health of the crew for long duration space missions. There would be logistical modules, a radiation mitigation system, facilities for a hydroponic farm, and hangers for landing craft and EVA pods.

The centrifuge would consist of inflatable modules in the shape of a donut. A version of the centrifuge could be attached to the International Space Station for testing and use as a low gravity laboratory and a sleep module for the crew.

The initial mission of the Nautilus X would see its deployment at the L1 Lagrange point where the gravity of the Earth and Moon cancel out. The Nautilus X would serve as a way station for astronauts headed for the Moon. An Orion or commercial space craft such as the Dragon would take a crew from the Earth to the Nautilus X. After an initial check out, a crew would take a landing vehicle to the lunar surface either for exploration missions or extended stays at a lunar base. Crews would depart from the Moon after their missions have been completed, dock with the Nautilus X, then take the Orion or commercial space craft the rest of the way to Earth.

How to think about the Tea Party

Interesting essay on its predecessors and place in history. [Link]

Over almost a century, under the influence of the Progressives and their heirs—the proponents of the New Deal, the Great Society, and Barack Obama’s New Foundation we have experienced a gradual consolidation of power in the federal government. Legislative responsibilities have been transferred to administrative agencies lodged within the executive—such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, and the vast array of bodies established under the recent health-care reform—and these have been delegated in an ever increasing number of spheres the authority to issue rules and regulations that have the force of law.

In the process, the state and local governments have become dependent on federal largesse, which always comes with strings attached in the form of funded or unfunded “mandates” designed to make these governments fall in line with federal policy. Civic agency, rooted as it normally is in locality, has withered as the localities have lost their leverage. The civic associations so admired by Alexis de Tocqueville have for the most part become lobbying operations with offices in Washington focused on influencing federal policy, and many of them have also become recipients of government grants and reliable instruments for the implementation of federal policy.

The Tea Party movement is, however, testimony to the fact that all is not lost. When confronted in a brazen fashion with the tyrannical impulse underpinning the administrative state, ordinary Americans from all walks of life are still capable of fighting back. It is easy enough to mock. Like all spontaneous popular movements, the Tea Party has attracted its fair share of cranks: it would have been a miracle if it had not attracted those who are obsessed with the question of Barack Obama’s birth certificate or the heavy-handed and ineffective procedures adopted by the Transportation Security Agency.

_____________

But it should be reassuring rather than frightening to the American elite that at the dawn of the third millennium, Americans know to become nervous and watchful when a presidential candidate who has presented himself to the public as a moderate devotee of bipartisanship intent on eliminating waste in federal programs suddenly endorses “spreading the wealth around” and on the eve of his election speaks of “fundamentally transforming America.” It should be of comfort to them that a small-business owner in Nebraska believes he has reason to express public qualms when a prospective White House chief of staff, in the midst of an economic downturn, announces that the new administration is not about to “let a serious crisis go to waste” and that it intends to exploit that crisis as “an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.” And it should be a source of pride to elites that the philosophical superstructure of the United States demonstrated extraordinary durability when a significant number of their fellow citizens refused to sit silent after an administration implied the inadequacy of the founding by promoting itself as the New Foundation, and after the head of government specifically questioned the special place of the United States in the world by denying “American exceptionalism.”

Most important, it should be humbling to those elites that ordinary American citizens choose spontaneously to enter the political arena in droves, concert opposition, speak up in a forthright manner, and oust a host of entrenched office holders when they learn that a system of punitive taxation is in the offing, when they are repeatedly told what they know to be false—that, under the new health-care system that the administration is intent on establishing, benefits will be extended and costs reduced and no one will lose the coverage he already has—and when they discover that Medicare is to be gutted, that medical care is to be rationed, and that citizens who have no desire to purchase health insurance are going to be forced to do so.

The end of car CD players

So soon after the end of the cassette player? [Link]

In what's likely to be the first stage of a drawn-out phase-out, Ford will stop selling CD changers for its vehicles at the end of the 2011 model year, and it's suggesting the single-slot CD player will follow. It's a sign of rapid changes in the in-car entertainment world, changes that are particularly swift at Ford, which is jumping on the connected bandwagon with vehicles like the 2011 Lincoln MKX.

As the whole music industry shifts from "hard" digital delivery to "soft" delivery through networks like iTunes and Pandora and less legitimate outlets, automakers are faced with a choice--to adapt audio systems and to put portable players foremost in their product plans, or to deal with the legacy formats like CDs in other ways to hang on to more Luddite users.

In many ways, it's shaping up exactly as did the end of the car cassette player, which Ford dropped from most cars by 2005. A group of potential buyers don't want to abandon significant, expensive music libraries. On the other hand,playlists are the new mix tapes, and the world has clearly moved on from CDs, as it did with tape and vinyl.

There's incentive to move away from CDs quickly. As with cassettes, eliminating CD players from the standard-equipment list will save money and build complexity for automakers. But even more importantly, the move will free up space on the middle of the dash-- "Manhattan real estate," according to Ford'sdirector of electronics engineering, Jim Buczkowski--in favor of more expressive styling and for other features, like larger LCD screens.

Battlestar Galactica Timeline Infographic

Neat. [Link]

Smallville finale May 13th

Will we believe a man can fly? [Link]

Smallville is coming to a close, and just as pretty much everyone suspected, it will be ending with a big two-hour finale. Officially announced today by the CW, the big finale hits Friday May 13, 2011.

Hopefully the fight between Clark Kent and Darkseid will be longer than the 2.5 second fight against Doomsday, and maybe will even see Clark don the iconic costume.

Check out the full official press release after the jump!

Cockpit Panoramas

Very neat. [Link]

The end of automotive cassette players

The last factory installed cassette player was in a 2010 Lexus. [Link]

The cassette tape was warmly received in the 1970s, and it co-existed for decades with CD hardware. In the 21st century millions of drivers are still attached to their tape libraries — the homemade party mix tapes as well as store-bought titles — that provided durable, portable alternatives to vinyl records and eight-tracks, neither of which were practical to record at home.

That nostalgic affection for tape holds no sway with automakers, though. For the 2011 model year, no manufacturer selling cars in the United States offers a tape player either as standard equipment or as an option on a new vehicle. The most recent choice for a factory cassette deck was the 2010 Lexus SC 430.

“Lexus was the last holdout,” said Phil Magney, vice president for automotive research for the IHS iSuppli Corporation, a firm that does technology industry analysis. “We actually stopped tracking cassette players in cars some time ago. Now the question the automakers are asking is, how long has the CD got to go?”

The answer may lie in the progressive ascendancy of the digital music device, especially those using the MP3 and similar file formats, as the preferred source of music in cars. TheiPod and its ilk are easing the journey along the path to the increasingly popular concept of file storage known as the cloud — that place in the Internet ether from which music is streamed, generally through a Web-connected mobile device that communicates with the car by a wireless Bluetooth connection.

“We went from radio to tape to optical and then to flash memory or a hard disc drive, and now we’re moving away from memory and to storage of our tunes in the cloud,” said Mike Kahn, director for mobile electronics of Sony Electronics.

It’s nothing radically new: Ford’s Sync infotainment system, developed with Microsoft, employs a similar technology, and at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, a host of carmakers, including General Motors, Mini and Toyota, showed off similar streaming options.

Among the choices offered by Sync is Pandora Internet radio, a cloud-based service that lets users customize music programming to their preferences. In many of these systems, the Bluetooth pathway streams content from a smartphone. An app specific to the particular source is downloaded to the smartphone, enabling it to communicate with the in-car system.

The director of industry analysis at the Consumer Electronics Association, Steve Koenig, expects carmakers to continue to support CDs while at the same time marketing USB connectivity for portable players and in-dash slots to accommodate flash memory cards that hold tunes. Eventually, he expects, automakers will shift to Internet radio services.

I have a cassette player in my car that is only used with an adapter to play my iPhone. I don't even use the 6 disc changer with it anymore. I want to replace it with a new head unit that does Bluetooth for phone and streaming audio. Besides being cooler, not having to plug anything in would be nice.

Something like this: Sony Xplod MEX-BT2900

If you want a car stereo that makes your life a little easier, consider Sony's MEX-BT2900 CD receiver. Its built-in Bluetooth® technology lets you keep your eyes on the road when you're taking a call on your phone — just press a button and talk to callers as if they're sitting next to you. The receiver's built-in microphone picks up your voice, as you hear your caller through your car's speakers. Plus, you can stream music from a compatible audio device straight into this Sony, no wires needed.

Superhero toy designs that almost were made

Three words: Road Warrior Batman. [Link]

According to the Roman numerals across the top, these designs date from 1985, which means that if they had come out, they likely would've shared shelf-space with Kenner's well-remembered Super Powers line. But while those were pretty basic takes on the members of the Justice League and their enemies -- albeit with the finest Power Action Bat Punch features that squeeze-the-legs-together technology could bring you -- the unused designs hint at plans for evil yet highly accessorized takes on the same characters.

Specifically, the villainous versions are broken up into three different design schemes: Hi-Tech, Road Warrior and Robotic, which basically ensures that no matter how crazy they might seem looking back, kids would have absolutely loved them. I mean seriously, just look at these guys:

Knife ears.

Engineering-level work

Don't be too smart or you might get in trouble. [Link]

The eight-page document with maps, diagrams and traffic projections was offered to buttress their contention that signals will be needed at the Falls of Neuse at Coolmore Drive intersection and where the road meets Tabriz Point / Lake Villa Way.

It did not persuade Kevin Lacy, chief traffic engineer for the state DOT, to change his mind about the project. Instead, Lacy called on a state licensing agency, the N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, to investigate Cox.

Cox says Lacy is trying to squelch dissent.

"All we ever tried to do was express our view about this," said Cox, a computer scientist. "We never expected something like this. We think it's wrong. We're just trying to make our neighborhood safe."

Lacy said his complaint "was not an accusation" against Cox.

"I'm not trying to hush him up," Lacy said.

Cox has not been accused of claiming that he is an engineer. But Lacy says he filed the complaint because the report "appears to be engineering-level work" by someone who is not licensed as a professional engineer.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/03/964781/citizen-activist-grates-on-state.html#ixzz1D6BoNYoM