Star Wars Vs. Spaceballs

I'll close the day with this. A little more comic relief.

I'm Tired - Madeline Kahn - Comic Relief 1986

This song, but not this performance, was in the movie Blazing Saddles.

The Big Show: JP Aerospace Blog

They've been busy over there and I've missed it.

We’ve teamed up with Samsung to do this live event from the edge of space.

The US Space Retreat: The Shuttle Era Is Over. Will the Next Man on the Moon Be Chinese?

1. Glenn Reynolds and Jerry Pournelle talk about post Shuttle era
2. Happy or sad occasion?  JP says both.  No follow on.  No longer have manned space program.
3. Military tactic of taking high ground has been sacrificed
4. Bad news, now the good news: commercial space moving fast
5. Private enterprise can do it, need to guarantee a market though, gives an example of a moon colony
6. Shuttle wasn't created just to take people to space, bureaucracy was goal, not space
7. Logistics of Apollo was military, example was D Day, Apollo itself
8. Apollo 20 mission, wasn't one, won the race, but left with army with nothing to do, needed to employ them, that was Shuttle's mission
9. Will commercial succeed long term?  Have to disband standing army.
10. Lost Challenger because SRB can't be made in Utah, had to break it up into pieces, bad idea
11. Main engines overstressed, caused Shuttle to fail mission
12. Series of prizes might do it

Update:

I am adding Jerry Pournelle's blog to my sidebar.

Shy/Forget/Naive & Invincible by Caryl Archer aka CarylCake

This is a live performance. She has an equipment malfunction several minutes into the video. No interruption of the performance at all, while she continues singing, she fixes the microphone. I guess you could say that was professional.

Gandalf vs Dumbledore. Epic Rap Battles of History #11

Since I don't follow Harry Potter, I didn't know who the f**k Dumbledore is. A little research makes this understandable. These rap battles require a bit of research, since a lot of what makes them work involve terms I am not familiar with. In addition, this thing moves a little too fast in the beginning.

Bose--Einstein Condensate (video)

In the description section, it says "Bose--Einstein condensate as it relates to Buddhism." I don't know anything about Buddhism, but it seems to explain the phenomenon well enough according to my understanding of it.

I did a google search for "boson" and got this Wikipedia entry. Here's the first part of the entry

In particle physics, bosons are subatomic particles that obey Bose–Einstein statistics. Several bosons can occupy the same quantum state. The word boson derives from the name of Satyendra Nath Bose.[1]

Bosons contrast with fermions, which obey Fermi–Dirac statistics. Two or more fermions cannot occupy the same quantum state.

Since bosons with the same energy can occupy the same place in space, bosons are often force carrier particles

How does that relate to the previous post?  I don't know.  Maybe some of the particles are acting like bosons and are trying to occupy the same quantum state- Bose -Einstein condensate.  If so, it is not at absolute zero temperature, which would appear strange.  But one thing about quantum mechanics, it is one strange phenomenon.




Update:

I've been reading a bit about bosons and fermions. Here's what I was looking for:

Weakly interacting fermions can also display bosonic behavior under extreme conditions, such as in superconductivity.

This could explain why rubidium is used for Bose Einstein condensates. It can act as a boson, presumably.

In 1995, rubidium-87 was used to produce a Bose-Einstein condensate,[29] for which the discoverers won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics.[30]

Why does rubidium act like a boson? I can't find anything that answers that question. Perhaps it is this hyperfine structure. At any rate, rubidium has unusual properties which make it useful.

Generalized Theory of Bose-Einstein Condensation Nuclear Fusion for Hydrogen-Metal System

A rather unique theoretical explanation. It is well above my pay grade, you might say. I read through about a third of it and stopped there. For those who may be interested, it is here.

There are a number of comments below, which Andrea Rossi answers a few questions asked of him. From what I saw, the questions didn't cover the theory, but you may have to read through them all to find these.

Bose-Einstein condensates were predicted for systems which were near absolute zero.  If there are any other circumstances for when these may appear, it will be the first time that I've heard of it.  But that means nothing, since I am not a physicist.

This will go on the sidebar because I will put the source of this story with the rest of the E-cat news links.

US Military Thinks Oil Shortage is Imminent

The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.  via eCatNow, Energy Catalyzer- E-cat and Guardian UK

This is a relatively old report going back to April 2010, so it is over a year old.  Oil production capacity has been tight for several years now, and may get tighter sooner rather than later.  The most likely outcome will be higher prices, as the article says.  In my opinion, the E-cat needs a lot of upgrading before it can be a significant player in this scenario.

Backtracking a bit, here

Rossi Cold Fusion Update With a Confirmation  (New Energy and Fuel, April 11, 2011)

My apologies everybody.  I think I needed to go back a review a few things that I didn't read well enough the first time.  I got the link above from the Al Fin blog post that I've kept on my sidebar ( Interesting reading).   The link was one that I click on the first time, or subsequent times that I've read that post.  So, I missed something significant.

Key points of interest to me now:

1. Kullander and Essen were permitted to examine the setup, check for hidden power supplies, and then fill the reactor with hydrogen, calibrate the volume of water flow, monitor the temperature of the water flow in and out of the system, and observe the entire experiment. 
2. Kullander and Essen have also ruled out that the energy could be coming from a chemical source.
3. To cap it all, Rossi provided Kullander and Essen a sample of his fresh nickel powder and a sample of nickel powder that had been in an active reactor for two and a half months.
4. he reported result shows that the fresh nickel powder was almost totally pure nickel and the reactor used nickel powder contained 10% copper and 11% iron. The two copper isotopes detected were Cu63 and Cu65. Kullander has stated his understanding this qualifies as proof of nuclear reactions is taking place in the reactor.

This corresponds well with the post I made recently.  It doesn't appear to be fraud.   This will be categorized as a sidebar entry as a good point of reference for anybody who wants to learn about the key points covered so far in this story.  Click on the label "sidebar entry" for a list of posts of this type, as well as the label for "Rossi Focardi E-cat".   It is set up this way as a source of information for easy reference to interested readers.

A reading of the comment section of the post referred to above shows a great deal of skepticism yet.

From the Focardi interview earlier today, it appears that the reaction is taking place at low temperatures and pressures.  Somewhat analogous to the pressures in an automobile's tire.  This is not likely to useful for creating electricity because of the low pressure, but that doesn't appear to be the target market for this device at the moment.

Prof Focardi Talks eCat

Independent eCat News

If you follow the links provided, you'll come to the interview here.   You may come to what appears to be a blank page, just scroll down.

Summary of questions ( I rephrased the questions, these are not literal matches to the translation page )

1. ...what are the theoretical and experimental evidence of how the E-cat works?
2. Some physicists say that fusion occurs only in stars.  Isn't this just a chemical reaction? 
3. What do you think is the key technology that makes the E-cat possible?
4. Have you observed emission of neutrons in this E-cat process?
5. How long does the reaction last? 
6. What have you observed in terms of energy balance of the entire process,  from
   the creation of nickel powder until the vaporization of water?
7. What will be the main application of this generator?
8. On June 23, ... the Greek company Defkalion Green
   Technologies has announced the construction of a 1 MW E-cat power plant by November 2011. Can you tell us more about that? What are the existing links with industry?
9. Are you planning further experiments on the subject? 

E-Cat Provides Real Opportunity to Replace the Current Nuclear Power Plant

Last week, Japan’s Prime minister Naoto Kan told a news conference that Japan will “seek a society that will does not rely on nuclear energy.”  via E-Cat World

This sentiment is most unwise because no other form of energy that we know of is as powerful as nuclear energy.  If his objection is to all forms of nuclear energy, that will also include "cold fusion".   Or, as it is also known as, low energy nuclear reactions.  As it can be seen, the use of thorium can be much safer than uranium, with much less waste, and even has some very useful by products.  There are other ways, which do not include uranium reactors.

This phenomenon expressed by the Prime Minister of Japan is understandable, considering what his nation is going through.  But it should not deter them from seeking all new forms of energy, provided that they can be made as safe as humanly possible.

It should also be kept in mind that the real danger came from a tsunami, not from the nuclear plant itself.

One old saying comes to mind about this unfortunate occurrence:  "If you fall off the horse, you get right back on."   You can let a fear take hold and frighten you into stopping something that may have some risk, but the rewards are worth it.  There is no complete safety in this world.  If the Japanese thought that, they wouldn't live near the coasts, because of the risk of tsunamis.  If such a hypothetical occurred, Japan would cease being Japan, and start being a less fortunate country.

Update:

Oops! I needed a morning summary to start the day. This will have to do.

Graphite + water = the future of energy storage

A combination of two ordinary materials – graphite and water – could produce energy storage systems that perform on par with lithium ion batteries, but recharge in a matter of seconds and have an almost indefinite lifespan.

 Key point:

“The reason graphene isn’t being used everywhere is that these very thin sheets, when stacked into a usable macrostructure, immediately bond together, reforming graphite. When graphene restacks, most of the surface area is lost and it doesn’t behave like graphene anymore.”

Now, Dr. Li and his team have discovered the key to maintaining the remarkable properties of separate graphene sheets: water. Keeping graphene moist – in gel form – provides repulsive forces between the sheets and prevents re-stacking, making it ready for real-world application.
 

Why is Vesta so bright?

Vesta is the brightest asteroid, with a surface about three times as bright as Earth's moon, "and why it is so bright is the No. 1 mystery of Vesta," planetary scientist Christopher Russell, principal investigator for NASA's Dawn spacecraft, told SPACE.com.

AUDIO: Newt Gingrich destroys Mitch McConnell's debt ceiling strategy

Laura Ingraham: Shut Up & Blog

Gingrich criticizes McConnell's plan.

It's all about enforcing one's will. Well, if that is the case, then don't give in.



Here's a video

Crazy animal videos

Angry Cat



Mean dog



wtf? Horse? or what?!



When you've had fat, you don't go back



ok, that's enough

Taxidermy, anyone?

Rhett and Link's Commercial Kings on IFC tonite.

Canceled Netflix

That'll teach 'em.

The Amazing Properties of Thorium

Could Thorium solve the world's energy problems? See NextBigFuture for the answer.

I think it could and it wouldn't require new technology.

Bingo!

Well, for once Krugman hits the nail on the head.  Thank you very much.

This does not say that there’s nothing policy can do. On the contrary, debt-deleveraging models say that fiscal policy can help bridge the gap while households pay down debts, and that debt relief — either directly or via inflation that erodes the real value of debt, can make a big difference. [emphasis added]

 What we are talking about here is default on debt.  The question is this: are you or are you not going to pay your debts?  This is true of governments as well.  Something that Krugman isn't concerned about.

Over the top, ver 2.0: Dear House Republicans, This is Your “Time For Choosing”

This is crazy too.

Now, some of you, if you have read this far, are saying, “But in 1995, the Republicans got blamed for shutting down the government.” They did. But that’s because Americans detest losers. And Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole threw in the towel instead of fighting. Their will broke. They did not break the President’s will. Of course, the next year the GOP still only lost 9 House seats and actually gained Senate seats. Imagine what would have happened had they broken the President’s will.

This is not a game, or shouldn't be.  The sad truth is that it is.  Partisans on each side are reducing the entire thing down to a battle of wills.  How about solving the problem?  Is the rising debt a problem?  Solve it!

So over the top, absolutely amazing

First of all, the modern G.O.P. fundamentally does not accept the legitimacy of a Democratic presidency — any Democratic presidency. We saw that under Bill Clinton, and we saw it again as soon as Mr. Obama took office.

This is from a guy claiming that the Republicans are crazy.  As what was pointed out before, the Republicans are rejecting tax increases, not the raising of the debt limit.  Obama insists upon raising taxes.  He won't accept a short term debt limit increase.  Who's making ultimatums?  If the Republicans pass a short term bill to raise the debt limit, will he veto it?  Or one with modest cuts only?  Wouldn't that be crazy if he did?

Also, isn't it a bit crazy to insist that there will be a default when there won't be if a debt limit increase doesn't occur.  It would only be a partial shutdown.  The rhetoric is getting pretty thick.  If they aren't careful, they are going to provoke a fight from some folks who aren't looking for one.

Heineken Experience Dutch Sing-a-long

I don't understand what they are singing, but I assume that it is family friendly.

Anybody out there who can give a translation?

Einstein vs Stephen Hawking -Epic Rap Battles of History #7

This may be getting a little stale, but what the heck. Hmm. That doesn't rhyme, but I don't rap.

KSBY coverage of the SpaceX Vandenberg Ground Breaking

Onward to Mars! Well, maybe not with the Falcon 9 Heavy.

SpaceX is investing heavily in this project, so Elon Musk could be serious. You will probably need more capability than this to get to Mars.

Rhett and Link: Harry Potter Song

I can honestly say that I have not paid the least bit of attention to Harry Potter.

Can anyone tell me the big attraction here?  My guess is that it is escapism.

Carol Peracchio: Negotiating with Lunatics

One of the benefits of having been a nurse for over thirty years is that people will occasionally allow me to be brutally honest.

Who's crazy and who's not?  Each side can say the same about the other.  I am persuaded that the negotiations must end and they can take a "clean" vote on the debt limit.  No new taxes, no new spending cuts.  This doesn't solve the problem, but it can't be solved in this political environment.  We need a united, not a divided government.  A divided government worked in the nineties, but this isn't the nineties.  It is not working now.  

One of Houston's Parks

Here are a few pictures in a small downtown park in Houston.  It is called the George Bush Monument, which is located across the street from the Main Post Office in downtown Houston.

Easy to overlook small park in Downtown Houston

Dedicated to the 41st President of the United States

It is a small part of a larger system of parks along the Buffalo Bayou, which winds its way through Downtown Houston

 Clickable link in the caption.  Click on it and see another blog about Houston and nature.

Nice view close to the statue which overlooks the bayou and the downtown business district nearby.

This is really easy to miss when you are driving through downtown Houston.  I know, because I have done it so many times before.  I have lived in this city for all these years, but this is the first time that I have bothered to look at this place.  It is actually quite nice, but it has the concrete jungle that has been built on top of it, so you can't see it unless you are looking for it.

By the way, for those of you not familiar with this city, Houston was founded on Buffalo Bayou.  The bayou is navigable all the way to Galveston Bay, which is how Houston became a major seaport even though it is 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.

Ocean going ships no longer come into the downtown area, but as recently as about 100 years ago, they did.  I don't have it here, but there is a picture of ships tied up the docks along the bayou, with recognizable buildings in the background.

Al Fin Energy: More About General Fusion

The General Fusion (near Vancouver, BC, Canada) approach to nuclear fusion is called "magnetized target fusion," which is a hybrid of magnetic and inertial confinement fusion approaches.

 What gets my attention is this:

 General Fusion is building upon research information developed at the different national labs, and attempting to create a relatively small-scale, low-cost fusion reactor using deuterium-tritium gas, magnetic confinement, and acoustic compression.[emphasis added]

Now, the big problem that I see with tokomaks which are being used by the ITER project, is that they are so big. If you can shrink the whole apparatus down to a small size, then the amount of energy needed for fusion is correspondingly decreased, and the magnetic confinement strategy can be more modest. This is interesting because of that as well as the acoustic compression technique.

Incidentally, I think the "cold fusion" techniques may be helping hot fusion in that it is showing new ways to reduce the requirements that are needed to be met so that fusion can occur.

The fine print: North Dakota may not be a state

The Daily Ticker: "A Tragic Moment": D.C. Politicians "Totally Wrong" About…

1. Prof Galbreath of Univ. of Texas says effective limits have been reached a long time ago for Fed policy.
2. Needs to be long term and strategic
3. Failure not to deal with structure of banking system, grossly exaggerated results of stress test, not facing reality
4. Do something bold, give an early buy out of social security
5. Common sense, but not popular at the moment
6. Not pie in the sky like jobs programs
7. Funding crisis losing jobs in public sector
8. Politicians have it totally wrong, completely disconnected, wanton piece of cruelty that will affect poor people down the road, tragic moment
9. Take debt ceiling off the table
10. US is not Greece
11. Need clean debt ceiling vote

Andrea Rossi a Lone Fraudster?

From Independent E-cat news

It is this sort of circumstantial evidence – a short example of many – that makes it difficult to reconcile the view that Andrea Rossi is somehow pulling the wool over all these people’s eyes.

Just speaking for myself here, and since I don't have any financial interest in it, perhaps it doesn't really matter what I think.  It would help if there was a more convincing demonstration than what I've seen so far.

This tech group discussion reminds me of a demo of dry steam.  I looked for it again and couldn't find it, but found a dry steam iron.  It seems that it should be possible to produce something like this out of an E-cat.  Actually, much more than this.




Dry steam would act as a gas and would have a lot more pressure per volume.  Any gas behaves that way according to the Gas Laws.  Notice how much pressure is coming from the iron when he presses the button.  That shows the pressure of the dry steam gas.

It should go without saying that one needs to be cautious about this because if you allow your judgement to be overwhelmed by your desire to believe in something, you just might be making a mistake.

I want this to work, but I will retain some skepticism until I see something stronger in terms of a demonstration.

PANASONIC DEVELOPS BREAKTHROUGH THERMOELECTRIC GENERATOR.

by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

Got this link via E-cat Now!

This could fit pretty well with the technology of the E-cat.

Could E-Cat be used to Power Spaceships?

In a recent interview with Ny Teknik (a Swedish magazine), Craig Cassarino of AmpEnergo said an unidentified company in the United States was interested in using the energy to catalyzer to propel space vehicles.

It seems plausible to me.  You would need to get a reaction mass up to a sufficient temperature so that the expansion of it can be similar to a "burn".  Provided the temperature was high enough, the pressure of the gas could propel a spacecraft.

By the way, good morning.  Finally made it to Friday and the weekend.  Thank goodness.

The damage already done by the debt ceiling debate

Felix Salmon   A slice of lime in the soda

When this all began, I had some hopes that these guys could negotiate this.  Silly me.  It does indeed look like the two political parties are not up to governance anymore.  It doesn't look good, and isn't good.

But I don't know about this statement:

And more generally there are still a lot of individuals and institutions who want to buy Treasury bonds.

Who?  It seemed to me that there was a report that the Fed was buying over 80 percent of the bonds.  That means no buyers.  So, I'm not too sure that the buyers are really out there.

He seems to be worried about gimmicks and sidesteps around good practices.  You know, like honoring the law and the Constitution.  He may well be right.

Anyway, that is all for today.  Have a great evening.

 

White House Dossier: Mitch McConnell’s Brilliant Maneuver

by Keith Koffler on July 13, 2011

He doesn't think the Republicans can pull off what they want to do, so this is their best option.  He thinks it will allow the Republicans to position themselves for the next election while not having to go into a headlong retreat.

The problem I see is that it isn't in accord with the Constitution, and it may not get past the House.  But something similar might.

Another problem is a purely practical one:  it doesn't solve any problems.  But that's the big problem in DC, isn't it?

Yahoo Breakout: Forget QE3, No Amount of Fed Stimulus Will Help Economy: Hedge Fund Manager

1. Obama has the upper hand in the game of chicken
2. Allows him to position himself as more responsible
3. Bernanke problem is growth, doesn't need more headwinds
4. Debt needs to come down before demand can resume, government is the only one spending
5. No amount of monetary easing will work, money isn't going anywhere
6. Fed could do it again, if things get ugly
7. Not a whole lot the Fed can do now, can't fix balance sheet for individual households
8. global story is good except Europe, just a soft patch now, need a trader mindset 

Fighting With Jell-O; or, The Ice Man Stays Cool

The Obama cheerleading section speaketh.  Not long ago, she said that the Democrats would be crazy to accept McConnell's deal.  Now, Obama is a genius and he should accept it and declare victory.  I am sure that the negotiators on the republican side have more sense than to fall for this. It reminds me a bit of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when it was written that Kennedy decided upon the Trollope Ploy.  Kennedy agreed to a removal of missiles in Turkey in exchange to a removal of missles from Cuba.  Krushchev accepted and that was the end of the crisis.  This situation is not comparable, as the debt situation will not result in default.  They need a sense of crisis though, and so they are pushing the notion that there is one.  Hopefully, the republicans are smarter than that.

Shuttle C

I've been listening to Dennis Wingo on the Space Show.  He was on the show a few days ago.  One thing that got my attention was that he said that Constellation was pretty much doomed from the start.  He also said that NASA could have had heavy lift which could have provided a seamless transition from the Shuttle system that we now are retiring.

He may have been referring to the Shuttle C concept, which I recall from the 80's.

http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/1989/PV1989_2521.pdf

This configuration would have used the Shuttle components as is, but without a Shuttle, of course.  It might have even flown concurrently with the Shuttles until recently.  In the meantime, NASA could have developed the Ares I  in order to continue with manned flights after the retirement of the Shuttle.   The Constellation was built in order to have a BIG rocket, which really isn't necessary.  The consequence of this decision, to scrap the Shuttle C in favor of Ares V ( the big cargo carrier) was the loss of capability.  Wingo blames NASA for this.  Now there isn't any heavy lift nor manned spaceflight capability.  If budget cuts go deep enough, it may get even worse.

Quote of the year

UM, ISN’T THIS A CASE OF CALLING YOUR OWN BLUFF? The Hill: Obama warns Cantor: ‘Don’t call my bluff’ in debt talks. I mean, I’m not a big poker player, but I thought the point of a bluff is not to admit it’s a bluff . . . .

LMAO!!!   I thought Obama was supposed to be brilliant.

We already were headed for a downgrade because of too much, not too little, debt

So the current debate over a downgrade due to failing to raise the debt limit is a sideshow. The issue is how we put ourselves on a path to lowering our debt, not how we raise the debt level.

Raising the debt limit without a plan to reduce our debt accomplishes nothing.

There is a lot of scare talk regarding the debt negotiations.  There are those who believe that if no agreement is made, that there will be a default.  Not necessarily.  The most likely outcome is a government shutdown of some sort.  Social Security checks will still come, interest on the debt will be paid, essential government services will continue.

If the debt isn't raised, we might actually find out how useless this extra spending really is.  If the sky doesn't fall, we might ask ourselves: Why are we spending so much which accomplishes so little?  I can bet you that the Democrats are more afraid of that than the default scare scenarios that they keep talking about.

Liberty and the Light Bulb

An email from Ruth McClung for Congress, which I will print here:

www.ruth4az.com July 12, 2011



H.R.2417 Better Use of Light Bulbs Act



The legislation to repeal the ban on incandescent light bulbs failed in the House today by 233 -193. While a majority voted for the repeal of the Republican pushed legislation that would make Thomas Edison's invention okay to buy, sell, and own in the United States, nevertheless, the bill needed at least a 2/3 majority which it fell short of, since the vote happened under suspension.



To save our light bulb choice fails!





Liberty and the Light Bulb

Op-ed by Ruth McClung





The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is quickly becoming known for its outlawing the incandescent light bulb, which will begin to take place in 2012. One of the bill's stated purposes is to "increase efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles." Two questions can be posed about this act. Is it accomplishing this efficiency goal? And, how does this Act affect our personal liberty?



To answer the first question, a brief discussion on energy and cost is useful. A 100 watt incandescent light bulb uses 100 watts of electricity. Burn it for an hour, it uses one-tenth of a kilowatt hour of electricity and costs about one-cent to operate - hardly a large part of one's electric bill. A 100 watt equivalent CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulb uses about one-quarter of this electricity (25 watts) and costs about one-quarter of a cent to run for an hour. The 100 watt equivalent LED (light emitting diode) bulb uses about 10 watts and costs about a tenth of a cent to run for an hour. The costs to purchase the three types of bulbs are roughly $1, $5, and $50 respectively. It is obvious it will take the average person years before the energy saved repays the cost of a $50 light bulb.



Clearly CFLs and LEDs save energy, but in reality how much? On the surface, CFLs and LEDs use one-quarter and one-tenth of the electricity that incandescent bulbs use. But to get the real energy savings, we must look at all the ways energy is used in our homes. We use light bulbs much more in the winter than we do in the summer because the days are shorter, and we spend more time indoors. We also heat our homes in the winter. By conservation of energy, a 100 watt incandescent bulb adds 100 watts of heat to a room, while a 100 watt equivalent CFL or LED adds 25 watts or 10 watts of heat to the room. During the cold months, our light bulbs help heat our homes, and the heat that is not added to the room by a light bulb is added by another heat source. No matter what type of light bulb you use in the winter, there is no difference in the amount of energy saved or used. The energy savings from CFLs and LEDs will only occur during the warmer months of the year, the same time of year we use light bulbs less.



When talking about light bulbs, there is more to discuss than energy and cost. Safety and environmental impact on our land and water is also extremely important. An incandescent light bulb used during the warmer months of the year will use a little more energy, so depending on the type of generator used to generate the electricity, it can contribute to pollution. The other two types of bulbs have a more harmful impact. CFLs contain mercury and fluorescent materials which can be very harmful to our health. White light LEDs contain arsenic and/or other hazardous materials, and many use fluorescent materials similar to CFLs. The CFL if broken, and both CFL and LED bulbs if dumped into a land fill, can pollute ground water and our environment. My nephew broke a CFL bulb last year and it took hours to clean it up appropriately. When our government enacted the Energy Independence and Security Act, it seems they were not thinking through the consequences of their legislation. Maybe all they could think about was the money the light bulb lobby was offering their campaigns.



Other considerations should be used when deciding which light bulb to use. The color of the light and quality of the light can be important. Fluorescent lights like CFLs and some white light LEDs can wreck paintings and fabrics, because their spectra contain ultra-violet light. A closet may need light for only seconds and certain bulbs will not produce light fast enough. In many parts of the country, it is too cold in the winter to use a CFL in the garage or outside, because the mercury inside does not vaporize properly, so it doesn't work.



The reasons to choose different light bulbs are as diverse as each person's lifestyle. I use all three types of light sources in my home. I choose a light bulb for its efficiency and practicality in each situation, whether it is in the garage, a closet, the living room, or my flashlight. One power of scientific innovation is that, as individuals, we get more choice instead of less. However, after 2012 I will be forced to use what Washington has dictated, whether it is efficient and practical, or not.

This leads us to the second question. What affect does this act have on our personal liberty? Thinking of freedoms, a light bulb may seem very small and insignificant. However, the government dictating our choice of light bulbs not only will have a large impact on the light in our homes and businesses, our purchasing power, and our environmental concerns - it also chips away at our liberty. A definition of liberty is to be free from arbitrary or despotic control. Removing choice of light bulbs may seem insignificant, but it is a loss of liberty and not something to be taken lightly.



Our nation's unemployment is high; our country's debt is heading us into bankruptcy; our nation cannot seem to pull out of the current economic slump. Nonetheless, our leaders seem more worried about our light bulbs than our economy. There is something wrong in Washington!



Fighting with all of you to defend our liberties!

Ruth

What will it take to make some real changes in DC?  The current crop of politicians can't govern their way out of a wet paper bag.

Note:  I supported Ruth McClung in the most recent election.  She was running against Raul Grijalva, who is co chair of the so called progressive caucus.

Gates' TED talk on Energy

Good morning. I used my links on the sidebar to check out the E-cat news in order to come up with this one. It is an expression of a hope that Bill Gates can get interested in the E-cat. The E-cat won't need Gates if it really works. Rossi has to make everybody a believer. The money will then take care of itself.

After watching this, I don't know if it is particularly helpful. Gates is worried about global warming. This is a waste of time, in my opinion. He wants to fund everything, but you only to need to perfect one source of new energy and you've got the carbon problem solved. (That part that comes from combustion.)

Gates may be quite rich because of Microsoft, but some of this stuff is not very useful. Terrapower? Why do this when you have Thorium? Sure, burning all of Uranium would be good, but there's a lot more Thorium available.

I don't have much more time to look at this. I'll stop here. I'll include this on a post because Gates could help, but he is wasting time on a lot of this stuff. Just my opinion, folks.

Sungha Jung Hotel California cover

Just got home. Not much time to write anything, so I'll just close with this one, a cover of the Eagles hit "Hotel California".

Automakers Give Flywheels a Spin

The automakers Volvo and Jaguar are testing the possibility of using flywheels instead of batteries in hybrid electric vehicles to aid acceleration and help engines operate more efficiently.

There are trade offs in such a system.  It appears not to be useful for long range driving:

One advantage of flywheel systems over batteries is their compact size. "Most hybrids with batteries provide a 15- to 25-kilowatt boost of power. The flywheel can deliver 60 kilowatts in a way smaller package," says Andrew Atkins, chief engineer of technology at Ricardo. The trade-off is that flywheels can't supply energy for very long. 

Research update: New way to store sun’s heat

Modified carbon nanotubes can store solar energy indefinitely, then be recharged by exposure to the sun.

The more I learn about carbon nanotubes, the more amazed I am.  Is there anything that it cannot do?

Cold Fusion Song

From the Cold Fusion Now website

Angel Cold Fusion Song by Elienation

Independent eCat News: Cold Fusion – 1956

We tend to think that the term ‘Cold Fusion’ was first made public in 1989, but the following newspaper article from December 1956 reminds us otherwise:

Gold strikes new high after Fed comments

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Gold jumped to a record high Tuesday after the minutes from the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting indicated the central bank might be open to more monetary stimulus.

Another new high today. Interesting observation below:

Tuesday's record high is not adjusted for inflation. Gold's inflation-adjusted record is roughly $2,233, according to Minneapolis Fed's inflation calculator.

There was something else I read recently.  The ratio between the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the price of gold was not comparable to the last historical peak in a bull market for gold.  Back in the late seventies and early eighties, the ratio of gold to the dow was about 1 to 1.  That is, 1 ounce of gold would equal the price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

To get that today would require a gold price of  $12,000 an ounce!  Or the Dow would have to fall to 1500.

Looking at oil prices in that era, it looks like it was about $35 a barrel max.   About 23 barrels of oil per ounce.  Today's ratio would be about 15.

There are those who say gold is in a bubble.  But when compared to those two numbers, it isn't.  Gold is relatively cheap.  Or the Dow and oil is expensive.  It can't be both.

Phillip Defranco: MILA KUNIS on GQ Magazine!

Ecatreport: Defkalion GT and Ampenergo to Meet with NASA to Discuss E-Cat Development

Another potentially big story.

Among many other topics covered in this interview, one of the most intriguing is the fact that on July 14th 2011 representatives of Defkalion GT and Ampenergo will be meeting with NASA “for an important discussion regarding the research and business development around the E-Cat”

There are a couple links for more info, be sure to read it all.

A Debt Ceiling Agreement!

Not really.  Both right and left hate it.

This is going to be a very difficult period.  It looks like there isn't the stomach to deal with it appropriately.

Digest of Rossi Q&As July 12, 2011 (“Remarkable Progress” on E-Cat with No Input Electricity)

A self-sustaining E-Cat with no electrical input would be a vast step forward

Actually, a self-sustaining E-cat will remove all doubt about its ability to generate power.  It would be the unambiguous demonstration that I've been referring to.  After all, if it needs no input power, where is it coming from?  From itself, of course.  If he is getting close to doing this, it will be HUGE.

Andrea Rossi Conducts Audio Interview with Bill Moore of EV World

There isn't enough time to listen to the mp3 file, so I'll have to comment later.

Update:

I listened to the recording.  It covers nothing new as far as I can tell.

Another mortifying McConnell head-banging-against-the-wall moment

Good morning.  It appears that a certain US Senator has made a certain proposal in the debt limit negotiations which have Michelle Malkin a bit upset.

If one reads the Constitution, the Senator is offering to take away the power of the purse from the House, which shouldn't be acceptable to the House anyway.  Why would any House member agree to that, unless their party loyalty is greater than their loyalty to the Consitution itself, and against their own interests as House members?

This is being suggested as a way to avoid responsibility for dealing with the problem.  I notice that the Republicans and Democrats are still playing political games.  Why not just deal with the problem instead of worrying about their political futures?

Google Plus series from TbonePearson

I think he is trying to put together something. Google plus is like facebook. I may try this. If I post it, then I will try it. So far, this isn't a post. As soon as I post this, and if you can read it, it is officially a post. When that happens, I will try it.

google plus


how to



get an invite

How Seawater Can Power the World

But an abundant, safe and clean energy source once thought to be the stuff of science fiction is closer than many realize: nuclear fusion.  source: NY Times

If it is closer than many people realize, it is because others are getting there faster.  This author proposes more money for the Tokomaks, which get the lion's share of the money already.  A faster pathway would be available if the money was spread out more evenly.

It makes sense that the New York Times would run such an article.  They are for big government projects all the way.  The bigger and more expensive and the least likely to work projects are the ones that seem to get the nod the most often.  That's how we end up with massive budget deficits.

Men don't follow titles...

They follow courage.



The Republicans are being tested. If they are found wanting in courage, they will lose their leadership positions. Watch and see.

The dismal science

Just googled that phrase and one of the results is this Wikipedia link.  Until I did that, I had thought the name, dismal science, applied to economics because of the reality of scarcity.  The bedrock of all economic theory is scarcity.  At least, that is my understanding.

Hence, in order to deal with scarcity, a method of rationing is necessary.  Since there isn't enough to go around for everybody, some folks will get some, while others won't.  Don't think so?  Have you been living in a cave all your life?

One of the big political arguments in this country is over the term "equality".  What does that really mean? Does it mean everyone is entitled to the same things as everybody else?  If that doesn't provoke a knowing smile, then you must be mentally asleep.  There is no physical way to ensure equality, it just can't be done. Communist countries have tried it, but it just doesn't work. Actually, I should rephrase that.  Communist countries say that they tried it, but it just didn't work.  That's because there is no way around scarcity. A gun to somebody's head isn't going to make a good harvest.  But there are those who think otherwise until they find that it doesn't work.

The above discussion reminds me of a passage from a book I read many years ago.  The author spoke to his class about the difference in performance between some students who did really well, and those who did not. He spoke of it in terms of the gene pool, implying that some people were just not that smart.  This provoked a reaction in some people who spoke with him afterwards in a disapproving way.  It seems that the notion that all people are equal is really ingrained in some people's minds, but the fact of the matter is that people are not equal.  Believing in it doesn't change that fact, nor does imposing force to attempt to require it by law.  Facts are facts.

The lack of equality in the gene pool explains the lack of equality observed in the world.  You may be able to do things to mitigate the differences, but there isn't much you can do about stupid people.  They are going to be stupid because they can't be anything else.

There is one thing that you can do.  You can increase the bounty that exists, so that all people can have more. I think that is why capitalism works and socialism can never work.  Whereas, socialism attempts to redress something, such as inequality- which cannot be changed- capitalism, on the other hand, redresses scarcity, which can be ameliorated to some extent.

It can be ameliorated by the market.   Therefore, the way to ration scarce goods is by way of a pricing system, which rations the goods according to an ability to pay.  This arrangement allows a means by which people's behavior can be incentivized in such a way as to produce better outcomes than what might be achieved by establishing some sort of arbitrary standard which is enforced somehow.

Hence, if the marketplace isn't allowed to ration scarce goods, something or somebody else must.  That will require a political body to set up and administer the rationing, which will not produce the outcome that is claimed.  The outcome desired, which is equality cannot be enforced, for the amount of goods are always going to be scarce by definition.  If unlimited goods were available, rationing wouldn't be necessary.  But since goods are scarce, some folks are going to get more than others.  No way around that one. If the politicos are doing the rationing, they will be assured of getting more than their own fair share.  If you think otherwise, you are still asleep!

My idea of space colonization is advocated in the hopes that by conquering space, we will have more for everyone. There is enough resources in space to make everyone on Earth a billionaire many times over. It will make scarcity a thing of the past because there won't be any more scarcity. That is, no more scarcity in terms of basic necessities and, to some degree, certain items which, for the moment, are considered to be luxuries.

But it won't create utopia because there will always be scarce goods. It just pushes up the scarcity to a higher level according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Carylcake has a new video up on YouTube

But it isn't this one. This one is the song before she finished it. It was way back after Valentines Day. I think the song is call "Shy". Here's the February video from her website. I went there for the lyrics.



Here's the lyrics:

I love you, I love you
But I am afraid of you
Hard to explain
That’s why I shy away from you
Mhmm
That’s why I shy away from you

You understand me
But only when I’m making sense
I wanna please you
But it’s easy to assume the worst
And now it hurts to touch you
I’ve cried far too much to

You found me and claimed me
So I ran away with you
Your patience, my distance
I know I put a strain on you
Mhmm
Let me take all that away from you

Want you to understand me
Even when I’m not making sense
Want me to please you
But it easy to assume
I won’t come through
And I’ll let you down

Won’t let you down

Phillip Defranco: MEGAN FOX WATCH IS BACK?! ... and with no facial expression

Washington Examiner: Space program was our biggest bridge to nowhere

A 2010 Rasmussen poll showed that more Americans think private enterprise should pay for space exploration than think government should fund it.

This is a not very bright editorial without any sense of history.  If Christopher Columbus couldn't get Isabella of Spain to fund his exploration for another route to China, America, as we know it, would not exist.

This, to put it frankly, is the kind of stupidity that could lead to America's demise.  I use the word "stupidity" with a deliberateness that I hope conveys my extreme contempt.

There's nothing wrong with private enterprise funding a good portion of space exploration, but there is at least some place of government funding, provided that it is done intelligently.  That's a big "if", however.  The real problem lies in how money gets spent, not whether it gets spent at all.  They can spend 10 times as much on the space program, and still be a bunch of screw ups.  On the other hand, if there was some real intelligence in Washington, which I doubt, they could do amazing things with half of what they get.

Space is not a bridge to nowhere.  It is a bridge to everywhere! What a moron.

PrudentSquirrel alert - Crash alert

Chris Laird has been a crash alert for months, but what makes this different is these debt negotiations.  That's a real event that could be a catalyst for a major sell off if things go badly, which is quite possible.

News release: In fusion race, lightning thunders over lasers

I guess you can say this is "hot"!  As in hot fusion as opposed to "cold fusion".  It is a bit of news from the Focus Fusion boys at  Lawrenceville Plasma Physics.  An excerpt from the press release:

NIF researchers hope to improve enough to reach ignition in a year, but LPP expects to substantially better its own results next month as major upgrades to FoFu-1 are completed. Yet, to judge from the work of most scientists at the conference, an observer might think that there were only two possibilities for fusion: NIF and the equally enormous ITER, a 100-foot tall “plasma donut” that may finish construction in France by 2025. 

http://lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/images/stories/AtLeft-NIF_Chamber_AtRight_LPP-FoFu-1_Chamber.jpg

 Looks like Focus Fusion is on schedule for feasibility demonstration at the end of the year.  A couple throw in quotes below completes the press release:

I think that the “Focus Fusion” approach of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. should be funded as the science behind it is very interesting. Even if this approach does not succeed in producing fusion energy, the research will produce valuable technology in the near term. - Bruno Coppi, Professor of Physics and Senior Fusion Researcher, MIT

The experimental program that LPP plans to carry out has great potential to show how the plasma focus can be used to generate fusion energy and to demonstrate the feasibility of hydrogen-boron fusion. In addition, the experiments will investigate the magnetic effect, which will be very exciting. Achieving giga-gauss magnetic fields with the plasma focus, getting gyro-radii of the order of the electron Compton wavelength, will certainly be new physics and will open up large new possibilities for energy production. - Dr. Julio Herrera, Professor of Physics, National Autonomous University of Mexico

As I stated before, I really like Focus Fusion as a space propulsion device.  I am going to put this press release with the label that goes with the rest of the posts I made on that subject.


More here at NextBigFuture.

Morning Summary, 7/12

Given the lack of time, there needed to be a way to improve efficiency so that I can do more with less time.  In that spirit, I added a new list of links to the sidebar.  This new list will have all of the E-cat, cold fusion and analysis links that I have found in the last few months since this has come to my attention.  I hope that you will find this useful.  As a matter of fact, I try to design my blog in such a way as it would be useful for me for doing whatever I would like, such as a research portal.  Perhaps it would also serve for that purpose for anyone else.  Thanks, much.

Eve. Wrap, 7/11

Hardly worth recapping this day, which saw only a few posts.  Just not enough time, that's all.

I had an idea to review The Saint, but that didn't materialize.  Okay, let me just say a few things about it that I haven't said already.

I didn't believe the romance between Simon and Emma.  It was a little too syrupy, especially the ending.  Too much like a fairy tale.

The talents of Val Kilmer were impressive.  He could pull it off by showing that he was a real master of disguise.  That part works.

Maybe it would have worked better as a James Bond type flick, but I've already said that.  Come to think of it, I don't recall a music theme, such as You Only Live Twice, sung by Nancy Sinatra.  The Bond movies had this, but I don't recall this movie having anything like that.

Using "cold fusion" as part of the plot may not have been believable for some.  As for me, I don't care.  It is fiction anyway.  They could have just as easily used some new "hot fusion" method.  It is a good thing for the cold fusion concept to get attention, but it really wasn't enough to educate people on what it really is, so it is just a plot device and nothing more.

All in all, it was a fairly decent movie.  But it could have been better.

Robert E Godes explains Brillouin energy and Los Alamos National Lab Situation

Brillouin Energy Corporation (BEC) technology uses the hydrogen in ordinary water in a nuclear process that produces no hazardous waste.  source NBF

Be sure to read this comment from Godes himself. 

It may be hard to tell, but my post about  "The Saint"  discussed Brillouin some more.  It's funny, but I looked it up myself and I couldn't find it on my own blog.  Here's what I said:

This video is very interesting in that it shows that it can be controlled at will. [emphasis added]

That's the key thing here- control.   He seems to have enough control over the reaction to turn it on and off at will.  This could be significant.   Be sure to watch that video.  You can link to it through the post above.  Don't forget to do this.

Newsletter - Edition 271 - 10 July 2011 By Christopher Laird

Good morning, all. This newsletter is apocalyptic, no doubt. In the past, I would have scoffed at this newsletter as being wildly pessimistic. But not nowadays. It doesn't mean that I agree with it, only that it might be true.

As the most recent example is the debt limit negotiations. They broke down over the weekend, as it looks as if there was no real intention to reduce the deficit after all. The cuts were all in the out years, which can not bind any future Congress. If the Democrats return, they will just cancel out all the cuts, leaving the new taxes in place. I agree with the Republicans. They needed much deeper cuts than these, plus caps and an amendment, before there is any consideration for a tax increase.


The result of this impasse will lead to who knows where. If there is no deal at all, there could be a constitutional crisis if the Democrats make good their promise to disregard the debt. If they do not, there will be massive cuts in spending, so that the Democrats will blame the Republicans for that real pain to come. This could lead to the Democrats returning. Either way, the debt issue will not get resolved. The Democrats can't, because that's where their power is. On the other hand, low taxes and small government is where the base is for the Republicans. This is an impasse and it must be resolved somehow. Time will tell how that works out, but it is not looking good.

In the meantime, conditions will begin to detioriate.

As always, the link to Chris' newsletter can be found in the products section. It is a paid service.


Intro
Change? I’ll give you some effen change buddy!
It happens very fast, now
The Malthus crisis
Must win
The collapsing ring
The century of survival
USA made a big mistake
History’s end
Totally oblivious
World banking crisis on threshold
Prices for next week:

The Evening Wrap, 7/10

I watched the movie "The Saint" again because there was something about it. I know what it is now. The movie reminded me of a James Bond flick. If you change these characters with the Saint being James Bond and the chick being the chemist who thought up cold fusion, you'd get a great flick. But it fell a little short of that.

Anyway, I'd thought I'd close today's posts with a video from one of the Bond flicks sung by Nancy Sinatra, You Only Live Twice.



Thanks for coming by and have a great evening.

Moonbase, Part IV

Don't know if I want to beat this topic to death.  I just got an idea from what I've read about JP Aerospace's plan to get to orbit.  Each of his airships to orbit will be over a mile long.  Now if you can inflate something that big and get to space with it, what else can you do with it?  Connect them up into a gigantic space hab?

It seems that he plans to get 40,000 lbs in LEO once he gets them going.  That may be a tall order in itself.  It turns out that Bigelows Space Habs weigh that much.  The idea here is that if he can get to orbit with that much, may it can be a space hab that can be boosted to a Lagrange point.  But that would be from Earth.  What about the Moon?

Perhaps this entire thought experiment is to show that you can begin building stuff out there and that once you get enough people and material out there, you can start doing serious things.

Update:
More Blogger troubles.  Let's try this again.  Here's a link to the Nautilus Concept, which is based upon Bigelow technologies.

Moonbase, Part III

Well, the previous exercise was a thought experiment on what might be achieved from a lunar base.  What exists today that might be useful in creating something similar to an O'Neil colony?  That's a big stretch.  But here's an idea.  Since 31 pieces of 500 feet each can make a torus of 1 mile in diameter, why not connected 310 pieces of 50 feet each to do the same?

It so happens that Bigelow Aerospace is making space habs about 50 feet long.  String 300 of these together and you get about a mile in length.  Connect them into a circle and spin it up and you've got artificial gravity of 1 g.

It would take 300 launches of a heavy lifter to get these to a Lagrange point.  That would probably rule this option out.  They accomodate 6 people apiece.  At most, you could get a small community up there, but probably at too great an expense.   Besides, these habs aren't designed to do what I'm suggesting.

Moonbase continued

Having trouble with Blogger again.  It won't let me update the previous post.  If it looks a little rough, that's why.

Correction therefore here:  if each piece of the outer rim is 500 ft, then for a 1 mile in diameter torus, you would need more than 3 miles to do the job.  This means 15624 feet.  Dividing this by 500 gives 31 pieces.  It so happens that the picture of the bicycle tire shows about that many spokes.  So each piece could be connected to the hub by 1 spoke.

This also means that you would need to launch each piece with a connecter to the hub and one at each end so that they can be connected together.  If they use a 16 inch "space cannon", the connectors between will be limited to no bigger than that.   Enough room for a man to go through?  Maybe barely.  Each would be like an airlock, so that it would preserve the air pressure inside.  Not real comfy, but livable, with 500 feet of space inside.

Mass driver at Moonbase

I ran the numbers with the artificial gravity equation, which I discussed here. You can reach orbital velocity from the Moon with a racetrack set up of diameter of two miles, with an RPM of about 10. That means that it circles the track every six seconds or so and goes a little over 6 miles. Approx 1 mile per sec. The number of g's would probably be too high, but I could possibly calculate that from the lunar gravitation constant.

substituting lunar gravitation constant in upper equation

I don't know if that is valid, but for the numbers above the "g" force would be ??? Actually, the number got larger for some reason. One would think otherwise. In the original equation, it would be over 160 g's. That would be too much for people.

On second thought, a racetrack setup like this may be unrealistic. Perhaps you could set up a "space cannon" type gizmo in order to move stuff around on the moon, or into orbit. Those were tested at hypersonic speeds on Earth already.  I wonder if you could build one that would obtain orbital velocity?

Actually, the ground test mentioned here would achieve escape velocity from the Moon.

How could you build something comparable on the Moon? You could load one of these on a space craft that could land on the lunar surface. It would have to be constructed in place and it may need to use materials obtained from the Moon itself. Or, if it couldn't be obtained from the Moon itself, the raw materials could come from the Earth, and processed on the Moon.

By processing, I mean, taking say, basic steel, or aluminum, or some other metal that could be easily transported to the lunar surface. It would then be melted down and cast into a the appropriate shape desired.

Here's an idea that I've considered in connection to landing on the Moon without incurring as large of a mass penalty. You could use solid metals as reaction mass for your descent. The descent should be nearly vertical over the landing area so as to "recycle" the metals later after landing.

You would heat a gas, probably hydrogen hot enough that it could push a larger mass of metal downward with considerable velocity towards the lunar surface. The opposite reaction is according to Newton's laws, and it would slow down the descent as it would with a hot gas. The difference is that the gas dissipates, but the metal remains to be collected later.

Several tons could be expelled in such a manner. Although the final descent should be with a conventional engine setup. This could be considered a dual staged descent.

Update:

The discussion of a space gun as an example above mentions a 16 inch 100 caliber Navy gun.  Here is a discussion of how big such a gun would be in length.   The calculation would be 16 inches x 100 = 1600 inches long.   133 feet!  The slug weighed in at 180 Kg.  ( nearly 400 lbs).

Now, in order to build a O'Neil colony in space with lunar materials, you would need to somehow break down the pieces to that size and weight, and fire them many, many times.  You may want to aim at L4 or L5 Lagrange point in the Earth Moon system.  One proposition would be to load up a module of carbon nanotube superstructure at a time.  The superstructure would be able to be inflated when it arrives the Lagrange point.  Subsequent firings could place stuff inside the superstructure to build it from the inside.

An estimate to its size?  Maybe 500 ft to 1000 ft cylinders that would fit end to end so that it could make a torus, or donut shape.  Or perhaps, the torus could be made with the carbon nanotubes making up the foundation of subsequent construction.  It would be set up in a ring 1 mile in diameter, consisting of 500 to 1000 ft at a time.  This would mean 3 to 6 main pieces connected together to form the basic structure.

It might look like a bicycle tire, with the carbon nanotubes making up the rim.  You would then build inwards toward the hub with "spokes" to fit towards the middle towards the hub.   The spokes could be tethers that fit into a central hub and extended out towards the periphery where the carbon nanotube "tube" is.  Like the bicycle tire.

http://www.everybicycletire.com/

Pardon me for the amateurish example above.  It is a common ordinary bicycle tire from an advertisement on a webpage.  It will serve as an illustration of what I propose.  So far, I have describe the outer ring of carbon nanotubes which are inflated and connected to each other to form the torus.  The spokes are connected to a hub in the middle so that the hub and the outer rim are connected.   The habitable part will be between the rim and the spoke with a connecting point to the rim on one side and the spoke on the other.

Now, getting the spokes and the hub into position with the space gun may be a challenge.  But since they are tethers, they may be coiled inside a container.

By the way, I am making this stuff up as I go along.  This is like thinking aloud.  The problem I see is that the carbon nanotube that forms the rim may be desirable a habitable space, but since they have to be shot up separately and connected together, they won't be as open as you may like.  This may give something of a confining feel to the place.

The Saint

I watched this movie yesterday.  It came from Netflix earlier in the week, but I didn't have time to watch it.  I may have put it in my queue because I was researching Eugene Mallove, and he is said to have been a consultant for the movie.  His advice was about "cold fusion".

The movie isn't rated all that high on Rotten Tomatoes' tomatometer.  It is considered "rotten".  But over 60% of the audience liked it, so maybe that isn't the total story.  I thought it was okay, maybe not great.  Evidently, they took a scene from the movie to make part of the video that I covered here previously. [I am looking for that post, but can't find it.  When I do, I will update here.]

Update:

I found it.

http://youtu.be/gGJiLrG3fLY  at 7:07 minutes into video

 The reason I mention this was that in the evening wrap on Friday, I mentioned this link, which has a video that you can watch that demonstrates his process.  This video is very interesting in that it shows that it can be controlled at will.  You will have to watch the video, I can't get any embed code in order to display it here. I'd like to make a screen shot of it, but it won't cooperate.  Just watch it and notice how he can make it "spark" at will, and shut it off at will.