Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Nuclear Power, Waste, and Fukushima

Chu Hopes Kids Will Encourage Families To Go Green

Green like Kermit the Frog?  Or Frankenstein?  Oh, I guess he means saving energy, and saving a few "greenbacks".  Snarkiness comes from this guy wanting gas prices to go up.

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Properties of carbon useful in connection with "cold fusion"?

In any context, the chemical properties of carbon are amazing.  One use of carbon, as activated carbon, or charcoal, was mentioned in the "cold fusion" video discussed yesterday.   I highly recommend that video, by the way. Let's look at the advantages of carbon with respect to "cold fusion".

It is useful for absorption because of its surface area.  It can adsorb hydrogen, which may be useful in the nickel "cold fusion" reactions.  In the video, it was indeed useful, even necessary, in the palladium-deuterium reactions.  It is not clear that it is being used in the Rossi Focardi device, but the video could be hinting at this as a possibility.

Here are some advantages of carbon nanotubes that everyone may have heard about:

Carbon Nanotubes Are Superior To Metals For Electronics, According to Engineers

Questions:
Does this mean that it can be better used to store electrons, like a capacitor?  Can you "flick a switch" so that when the electron volts accumulate up to a certain point, then release the electrons to where you want them to go?  Would that be useful in "cold fusion" reactions? [ I think it could.]

Carbon Nanotubes can carry more current without deterioration.

They can conduct electricity as well as copper, conduct heat as well as a diamond, and are a hundred times stronger than steel at the same dimension.

Currently, more than 10 million amperes in a square centimeter area can be passed through a MWCNT continuously over six days without any deterioration. [emphasis added]

Question:

More current means more energy potential- would that be useful for "cold fusion"? [Yes, I think so.]

Speculation:

Here's what I am getting at: the current Rossi Focardi machine may be seen as crude, yet effective method of generating energy- as it may be seen from the future historical perspective.  It could be optimized in the future in order to produce even greater energy in smaller devices.

This is not to say that the current 1 MW design is inefficient.  Keep in mind that the first automobiles were effective in doing the job of moving people and goods, but they got more sophisticated as time went by.  The same is true of all new technologies.  This could be no exception.

I offer this speculation on the one hand to show how Rossi Focardi E-cat can work, but also to show how it might look in the future.

While I am at it, the following question could arise?  Who cares?  As long as it can produce energy for only 1 cent per kilowatt hour, what difference would it make?  I am thinking in terms of optimizing in size.  This would have advantages for spacecraft- inasmuch as any hardware can enforce mass penalties, the objective will be to minimize mass.

Note:  My book has arrived.  I will pick it up shortly.  The video mentioned above was made by the same man who authored the book- Eugene Mallove.

Hubblecast 44: Hubble spies on the Tarantula Nebula

From my YouTube Subcription: BestofScience


The Hubblecast's Joe Liske (Dr J) takes us on a tour of the Tarantula Nebula.

Comment:
You get the sense of the immensity of outer space from this video



Update:

Looks like a new video just got added. It is a nebula in the shape of the North American continent. Views in infrared bring out additional details.

Gov. Mitch Daniels on Budget Deficit

May 25th. CSPAN Columnist George Will talked with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels about the federal budget and national debt. Introduction of George Will by Pete Peterson.

Bandage on his forehead. I heard about his accident that required stitches.

Can he do the same thing as he did in Indiana?

Nothing magic about deficit reduction.

Will asks question about cognitive dissonance

Daniels agrees, but very important not to sell people short. People will grumble, but if act decisively and make it clear that average people are the reason why we do what we do, will succeed.

Will says can't print money and no requirement to balance budget. Complications?

Yes, have to wriggle around anyway and run up debts. Unfair treatments to evade law.

Can watching fellow governors, would amendment another occasion of lawlessness?

Favor super majorities, not complete answer, always exceptions, current situation may be diversion of real challenge. Preference to do what is necessary.

Gramm Rudman Hollings, put in place trigger that require budget cuts.

Limited utility. Blunt instrument. System finds ways around limits.

Institutional change and equivalent?

Should use different rhetoric. Meant major reductions. Super majority requirement in order to overspend. Arithmetic is plain. Have to transform safety net.

Should entitlements be limited to GDP? How would this work?

In favor of anything that changes trajectory we are on. Need to protect people in elder years, therefore don't know magic percentage. Listen to any approach.

Longer lifespan, need entitlements?

We all should agree, that to look after each other causes us to expend limited resources.

Make money two ways tax reform and deregulation, did you?

says he did that in Indiana. Gives examples.

Simplification of tax code in '86, it has been re-complicated. Is there an urge in DC that makes impossible for simple tax code?

Agrees. Metaphor of planting weeds. (laughter) Optimism to do a couple things one is a pro growth tax code.

Not to use a tax credit for Chevy Volt

No.

Public employee unions- experience in Indiana?

Discontinued collective bargaining by executive order. Employee indirect costs were getting out of hand- needed to restructure to private sources. Important in improving services and reducing costs. Limited government perform excellence.

Democracy's problem in pro-acting effectively

Foresee the problems. Rather not wait until 11th hour. Need to reach people- don't blame the people- never been informed properly- can deal with these issues before worst happens.

News tweets

I found the "infamous" Eagle joke.  Have you heard it?  If not, you can try it here.
Also from same source about small innovations that spark big innovations.

The carnival of space is up via NextBigFuture.

In this post by Vega00, the 22nd in the series, “Introduction to Cosmology”, there is a brief presentation about particle physics (in Spanish)

Lockheed Martin says hit by cyber incident

Daily Plan 5/29

The plan for the day is to make plans for the future.  I am beginning to run out of time to make some decisions, and these decisions are important.  One of those decisions is whether or not to sell my truck.  So far, the effort has been non serious.  If I get serious about it, I could probably have it sold in about 10 days, or less.  But, I don't know if I want to do this.

The blog figures into this.  Since the blog has not helped me sell anything at all, it doesn't look like it can monetized anytime soon.  Getting more audience can help, but that is a slow, painful process which I don't know if I'll have time to achieve at this rate.

Update:

I've listed the truck on Ebay.  Asking price is on the ad.

Morning Summary, 5/29

Looks like pageviews hit a plateau.  It couldn't keep rising forever.  Briefly yesterday, it appeared that it may go back into a downtrend.  If you were to feel for the pulse of this blog, you'd say it has peaked.  At least for now.  Most of the traffic is coming via E-cat, but there is just so much you can write about something that you really don't understand very well, nor have you even seen.  Consequently, the need is to look for audience in many other ways.  E-cat alone can't carry this blog very far.  The other side of that argument may be that the big audience may come later if E-cat tests are successful.  They may come here, or go elsewhere. You can not count on that one way or another.

I'll cover it as best I can, but I have to keep up with the other stuff.

These other topics can broaden the audience base and maybe they will read some of the E-cat material.  Not everybody is interested in the same things, you see.  But you may get a few people who are curious enough to check it out a little more.