The New Mars Rover Is Bigger And Better

The scientists at NASA are still gathering both data and images from the last two rovers that it launched to Mars years after they were expected to go dead. Spirit and Oppourtunity are still running around the surface taking pictures of all they see. They are certainly going to be a tough act to follow but NASA thinks it can do it. They are calling it the Mars Science Laboratory and it will include technology based on the lessons learned from their two great and long lasting rovers running all over Mars now more than 4 years after thier mission began (The rovers were expected to last only a few months with a little luck) and have been astonishing all with their staying power. The new rover will not only be built tougher but much larger and heavier too. It is just about 9 feet long and well over 200 pounds and will be powered by plutonium which should give it much more kick than it needs. Among its features it will have on board a neutron gun which it will use to fire at the ground in an attempt to detect any kind of ice beneath the surface. If there is ice then that is water and if there is water than there is the possibility of life either microbial or other and that is among the mysteries that NASA is trying to get to the bottom of with these missions. The Mars Science Laboratory (God I hope they can come up with a better name than that - why not call it MAC or something) is set for launch sometime in 2009.

Government Bailout Costing Taxpayers Trillions

With the decision just coming down today that the government has decided to rescue Citicorp with another 20 billion dollar handout in addition to the 25 billion it gave it a little over a month ago it made me wonder just how much has the government spent so far bailing out corporations with taxpayer money? Well if you add it all up so far the figure is about 7.4 trillion dollars. This figure includes money that has already been spent in addition to money that has been alotted and is being considered for other corporations such as GM. To give you an idea of just how much help that is the entire U.S. economy added up would total about 15 trillion. In addition one should consider that these "Loans" will not even guarantee that these companies will not return to "Uncle Sam" 3, 4, or even 6 months from now asking for even more which is probably likely.

Poverty In America

It should come as no surprise to anyone that under President Bush poverty in the United States increased. According to The U.S. Department of Agriculture over 320,000 U.S. households were forced to cut back on food consumption for their children due to a lack of money to buy food in 2007. This figure is up from just over 220,000 who had to do the same in 2006. The U.S.D.A. estimates that 1 in 25 U.S. households had to cut back on the purchase of food or limit their purchases because of a lack of money. 1 in 14 households had to utilize some kind of assisstance program such as food stamps or visiting a food pantry in order to meet their food needs both for themselves and their children. 1 in 6 households could not afford to but enough food to adequately feed all its members. That translates to a little over 16% of U.S. households who have members who go hungry on a daily basis.

The Monotracer: Coolest New Car On Earth

Finally some clever engineer came up with it. A vehicle that combines the features of both a motorcycle and a car. Called the Monotracer it looks like a cross between a motorbike, a car, and something you would see flying around in an episode of The Jetsons. You will be able to zip around traffic because it is not any wider than a conventional bike while at the same time you and a passenger will be in air conditioned spendor inside the dome that is made of Kevlar, which is the same stuff they make some parts of suspention bridges out of, just in case you can't keep your balance on its two wheels. It has windshield wipers for the front window, which is made of carbon fibers so it wont shatter, plus a roll cage that is made of aluminum hidden cleverly just beneath the skin of the outer surface. It is as energy efficient as anything on the road now getting about 65 miles to a gallon and it can go from zero to 62 M.P.H. in less than 5 seconds. So if you want the speed and manuverability of a motorcycle, the fuel efficiency of a compact car and beyond, and the safety of a reinforced protective dome you should give it a look maybe. In addition its futuristic style should cause heads to turn.

Cell Phone Sales Exceed 1 Billion For First Time

It seems that people all around the world love to talk and talk and talk especially to people that they dont have right in front of them at the time. For the first time in the history of the world the total number of cell phones sold in one year exceeded 1 billion worldwide. In 2007 1.15 billion cell phones were sold to chatty consumers all around the world. This represents an increase from 990 million in 2006. The company that has benefitted the most is Apple. The company sold millions of its I-phones around the world in 07 making it the third largest cell phone retailer in the world. It is still behind South Korean Firm Samsung which is still the worlds leader. Sales have already slowed down however due to the worldwide recession that is just beginning to take hold and sales have dropped from these historic highs this year.

Vatican Updates Seven Deadly Sins

In an attempt to keep up with modern times the vatican has updated its seven deadly sins with seven more modern ones it calls social sins. The seven new ones are:

1. Bioethical sins
2. "Morally Dubious Experiments" --- Such as Stem Cell Research
3. Drug abuse
4. Causing Pollution
5. Social Injustice
6. Being very wealthy -- wealth in great excess
7. Creating Poverty or causing poverty

Total U.S. War Dead And Wounded So Far

The war on terror has gone on now basically ever since we invaded Afganistan in October of 2001. It has cost the nation over 600 billion dollars and counting and thousands of lives. Here is a precise look at how many so far. These figures are official as of November 8th, 2008 and have been estimated where ever precise figures are not possible. The total number of American dead in Iraq: 4193. Total number of war dead since George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech (5-1-03): 4054. Toal dead since the capture of Saddam (12-13-03): 3732. Total wounded: 30,774. This figure is official but unofficial estimates have placed this number at over 100,000. Total number of U.S. dead in Afganistan: 626. Estimated number of Iraqi dead since the invasion of Iraq began (4-19-03): 1,284,105.

Flying Windmills May Point The way to Energy Future

There is an interesting attempt going on to try and make the idea of wind power actually generate enough energy to be useful. A company in california called Sky Wind Power has already designed a device that it calls A Flying Electric Generator (FEG). Working in conjunction with an engineer named Bryan Roberts from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia the idea simply put is a flying windmill. What it would do is harness the power of the high winds that blow in the upper altitudes of the atmosphere. Up in the sky between about 15,000 feet and 45,000 feet the winds that circulate around the world can blow at speeds of up to 200 M.P.H. The idea is that they would build a plane type structure that would float up in the sky not unlike a glider and be maintained in flight by the winds while at the same time it would have rotating propellers that would spin like windmills and generate energy. They would have a tether connecting them to a power station (The power grid) on the ground that would convert the energy produced to electricity. Basically they would be like kites in the sky collecting energy. It has been estimated that if a mere 1% of the power of these winds that exist in the upper atmosphere could be harnessed that it would be able to provide enough energy to meet the worlds current entire demand levels without doing any damage or polluting of the enviornment. All the research at the company has been done and the only thing they need now is a $4 million dollar investment in order to build the first prototype.

Buildings Being Built With Cement That Eats Smog

There is a new and interesting way of going about reducing smog and other pollutants in the air in Italy. They are using a cement that has been developed that will actually (or so they claim) significantly reduce the amount of pollution on a given street simply by paving the sidewalks and buildings with it. It is called TX Active and it took nearly 10 years to develop by a firm called Italcementi. It is ordinary cement that is mixed with a substance called Titanium Dioxide which it is believed breaks down smog into its componant parts and basically eliminates it from the air and leaves freash, clean air to breathe. They have tested the new cement by paving it all over a busy street in Italy and they claim that the amount of smog on that street has been reduced by 60%. An added benefit is that the residents of the street have been noticing that the buildings do not appear to be getting as dirty and blackened by smog and soot as they used to. A company called The Essroc Cement Corporation has begun producing the stuff now in North America.

The Secret Service Just Became Much More Important

On November 4th there was a call from the public for big changes to occur in the direction that this country is going. So much so that the constituants were willing to make an historic change by electing the nations first black president. Consider how important that makes the Secret Service now in light of that fact. They have always been important and even vital but never more so than now. The installation of the first black president still will not change the reality that the United States is still in many ways a nation divided by race. There are certain elements of the population that were not interested in having a black president and they are still not. It would not be shocking to anyone to believe that there are likely to be individuals or groups who are plotting already to reverse the change that the country has made with this historic election. Protecting every president is important but this one is a special case in many ways as we all know. If this particular president were to be asassinated it would be a disaster for the nation especially in terms of race relations. When Martin Luthur King Jr. was killed in April of 1968 there were race riots in over 100 U.S. cities that lasted for the better part of one week. The amount of damage was estimated to be in the billions. This time around such an occurance would likely be worse. The African American community would not react in such a way upon the assassination of a white president. They may well react this way if such a fate were to meet Obama. That makes the Secret Service and their work infinately more important guarding this president than perhaps any other. If they fail this country faces the possibility of tearing itself apart from within and inflicting upon itself a wound from which it may never recover.

First few years Will Likely Be Rough For Obama

It is undeniable that the euphoria that has arisen in the wake of President Elect Obama's victory on this past November 4th is Kennedy like. The country feels to me like it is taking a deep breath and a long sigh of relief and placing a good deal of hope for the future in the newly minted president. It is at this time important to remember that after his initial honeymoon period that times will begin to get rough for him. No new president escapes it. When a new administration comes in the public both hopes and expects big positive changes to occur and when they dont materialize quickly the initial joy that was expressed begins to fade into disappointment. Even the "Great Communicator" himself Ronald Reagan had these rough times. When reagan took office in 1981 the economy was in a similar state than what Obama is facing now. His policies were enacted quickly to effect changes especially after Reagan survived his assassination attempt but the results were lagging. Reagan was well into the third year of his first term and the economy had still failed to respond to his stimulus initiatives and as a result his popularity had dropped significantly. It had gotten so bad for Reagan that he privately was even considering not running for a second term because he felt he had little chance to win a victory because he was so unpopular by that point. He had to constantly give speeches urging the public to be patient and "Stay The Course." Fortunately for Reagan the economy responded just in time for the 1984 election cycle and it saved both his presidency and his legacy. This little bit of history would serve us well now to recall and help us understand that Obama faces the same situation likely. He will make changes and attempt to stimulate the economy but the fruits of these efforts will likely be years away. It is important to remember this and understand it. Even Ronald Reagan came within a few short months of just being a one term president and a presidential failure. Which of these futures is in store for Obama is something that sound policies, time, and a little bit of luck will determine.

Ten Interesting Facts About The World

This blogpost is just about ten interesting facts that i have come across over the last few months that i have been doing research for the articles on my blog. I thought they were very interesting and i hope you do too.

1. The Earth is the only planet that is not named after a pagan god.
2. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
3. The wingspan of a 747 jetliner is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight.
4. The National Orchestra of the nation of Monaco is larger than its army.
5. Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest person ever to serve as Defense Secretary. (He served under Bush and under President Ford in the 1970's)
6. 90% of plane crashes have survivors.
7. Iceland has the worlds largest concentration of broadband internet users.
8. The Himalayas cover 10% of the Earths surface.
9. Every U.S. president has had glasses.
10. The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.

Reality Check: Edison Did Not Invent The Light Bulb

Can you believe that it has been over 130 years now and there are still people out there who think that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb? The simple truth about it is that it was not the case. The actual inventor was a British physicist named Joseph Swan (1828-1914). He began working on the idea in 1850 and it took him ten years to actually have a working model. Initially the device had problems. The light did not work very well and did not last very long and after struggling with it for a while Swan abandoned the idea and did not return to it for 15 years. By 1875 he had tackled it again and improved its performance and received another patent for the improved design in 1878 which is almost a full year before Thomas Edison announced his breakthrough with light in 1879. As it turned out Edison's version was almost an exact copy of Swans idea. Swan sued him in court and won and in 1883 it forced Edison to go into business with swan to form a joint company called The Edison and Swan United Electric Light Company, a.k.a. Ediswan. In the deal that they struck Edison retained the rights to the invention in The U.S. while Swan kept the rights in the U.K. They both spent the following years lighting up the lives up their fellow citizens on both sides of the Atlantic with this invention.

Black Church Burned After Election In Boston

Anybody who knows anything about the city of Boston will tell you that it is not the most racially tolerant place in the world and now comes an incident involving a fire in a black church just hours after the election of the nations first black president and off the record investigators are calling it suspicious. Firefighters were called to the Macedonia Church of God In Christ at a little after 3 a.m. on November 5th and found the church was in flames and immediately set out to put out the fire. The flames were put out but not before officials estimated that there were about 2 million dollars in damage done to the building. The timing of it has police and citizens of Boston suspecting that the fire might have been deliberately set and may have had something to do with the results of the presidential election earlier that night. Officials are not stating this publicly for the record but they are suspecting. Federal investigators have been called in to look over the incident.

Solar Panels Might Finally Become Viable--Finally!

It is common knowledge that a move to solar power and away from fossil fuels would be good for the planet but the trouble with it is that its been too expensive a move to make for most of the public. Usually having solar panels installed on a home's rooftop can run anywhere between $25,000 -$50,000 and more. Now there is a company that makes these panels and they say that they can make them cheaply and it has the potential to change everything. The company is called NanoSolar and they are a new company based in San Jose, California. They manufacture what they call "Thin Film Solar Panels." The first thing that is different about them is that they are very light weight. So light in fact that they can actually be carried easily which is a marked difference from the usual heavy, bulky, and thick solar panels that are the standard today. The other big difference is the way that they are manufactured is radically different too. Usually silicon solar panels are complicated to make and require several steps not the least of which is that they have to be baked at high temperatures. The new thin film panels do not require that and as a result production costs are lowered and the panels can be manufactured faster and in greater numbers. Because of their light weight they are much easier to transport and can be delivered and installed quicker and faster as well. In addition to the technology being superior in general all these other factors work to help drive down the cost. We may finally be looking at a viable and affordable solar technology.

Bionic Contact Lenses Are New And Super Cool

Like everything else in the universe even contact lenses are making a quantum leap technologically speaking into the future. A researcher named Babak Parviz from the University of Washington has created a set of contact lenses that will be able to project a dispaly over the lens itself so that the wearer can view it just like the cockpit on a fighter jet. You will be able to view any kind of data such as maps, images, and other information right on the lens. The whole thing will work with the help of tiny L.E.D. (light emitting diodes) which will be embedded within the lens itself and can be powered by either radio waves and or solar cells. This of course can only mean the the coolest people in the world in the future are going to be the near-sighted and the far-sighted.

New Fingerprint Technology Will Solve More Crime

Imagine what law enforcement agencies would be able to do if they could still lift a fingerprint from a gun even if the prints have been totally wiped off. An English physicist named John Bond has developed a technique for doing just that. It seems that even after a fingerprint has been wiped off of a surface there is still some residual matter left behind and Mr. Bond had developed a way to uncover it. His method involves the use of an electrical charge which when combined with a fine carbon powder will reveal that residual matter on a surface and in many cases the entire fingerprint can be clearly revealed. This new discovery will open up a wealth of possibilities for police and other investigators because it will allow them not only to solve crimes that are taking place in the present but also to go back into their files and open up some of their cold cases and solve crimes that have not been able to be solved up until now with this new crime fighting tool. The technology is less than 6 months old and already it has begun to help in doing exactly that.

An Old Idea Of Einstein's Being Looked At Again

Albert Einstein came up with a few good ideas in his life. Some of them are more famous than others and an old one that had until now been largely forgotten is being looked at again. It is little known by the public that early in the 2oth century Albert Einstein actually dabbled in inventions and he came up with as it turns out an eco-friendly design for a refrigerator that he and a collaborator actually patented in 1930. His refrigerator design is different from the traditional fridge in that instead of using freon, which is a chemical that is contributing to the problem of global warming worldwide, his design cools the inside of a fridge using amonia, butane, and water. It is also incredibly energy efficient. His original idea is being looked at now and studied as to whether it can be in fact implemented and brought to the market place for consumers to consider.

Researchers Working On An Earth Friendly Fuel

Imagine being able to fill up your car gas tank with a fuel that had no carbon in it and thereby posed no threat to the enviornment. Well this guilt free driving experience may be coming in the future. Researchers at Arizona State University are attempting to grow an Algae that they would be able to turn into a biofuel that would work just as well as gasoline in your cars gas tank only without the harmful global warming exhaust coming out of the back. Algae consume carbon dioxide when they grow so the stuff would not have any in it to spit out into the enviornment when it is burned in your cars combustion engine. The added benefit is that it will not cut into the supply of food for people to eat like the biofuels that are used now such as sugarcane and corn because algae cannot be eaten, it is not a food source. The reason the price of food has been skyrocketing in the last few years is due in large part to the fact that nearly 1/3 rd of the crops that farmers have been growing in this country has been going to make biofuels. This has lowered the amount of food available to buy for consumers and as a result the price for many foods has shot up because the demand for food has remained the same and the supply shrunk. If this works and it can indeed be pulled off it will be a win/win for the earth and the people living on it.

Global Seed Vault Opens For Business

As the saying goes "if you build it they will come" and they have built it and it is up and running. What it is and what it is for has everything to do with insuring that there will be enough food for future generations in the event of a catastrophic agricultural disaster or nuclear event. The Global Seed vault has opend in a northern region of Norway on an island called Spitsbergen. It is designed to be a warehouse for seeds of every kind from around the world. Almost every country in the world has donated seeds that are native to its region for storage. In the event of a catastrophy there will be fresh seeds available for planting and new food can be grown and insure the survival of the human species. It has been deliberately located near the Arctic circle because the thinking was that the freezing climate would do well to preserve the seeds for many thousands of years it is estimated. The vault can hold up to 4.5 million seed samples at a temperature of -18 degrees.