Zark's

New Nuclear Power Plants for the United States

U.S. Will Approve New Nuclear Reactors explains that the U.S. Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) is going to approve three applications for new nuclear reactors.  These will be the first nuclear power plants constructed in the U.S. since Three Mile Island on March 28, 1979.  Supposedly up to 29 other reactors are under consideration by the NRC. 

US Nuclear Power Plants Set Record Highs for Electricity Production and Efficiency in 2007 says that nuclear plants produced 807 billion kWh in 2007.  1/3 of all U.S. electricity is generation by carbon-free production such as hydroelectric, nuclear, solar, etc.  Nuclear is almost 70% of that, so nuclear power generates roughly 23% of the country's electrical power.  France holds the enviable position of producing 80% of their electricity with nuclear power plants.  The U.K. is  at 19%, but nuclear power is receiving considerable debate, Britain promotes dash for nuclear power. 

In 2007 the average production cost for a nuclear plant was 1.68 cents/kWh.  More importantly, it was less than coal and natural gas-fired electrical plants.  Unlike  the previous development of nuclear power, there are both environmental and economic motivations for building new power plants.

I am a proponent for nuclear power, but I still remember a line from the movie Apollo 13 - "Let's work the problem people, and not make the problem worse by guessing."  The world needs to address safety at several levels: a) nuclear fission waste has a long radioactive life - we need a solution for processing it, b) we must keep dangerous radioactive substances from bad guys, c) cleanup team - we need a different solution for a nuclear accident other than evacuating the region for a century.  There will be a nuclear accident - we are human.

A Desperate Music Industry

The business models for intellectual property have not evolved as quickly as either technology or culture.  Although all forms of intellectual property such as patents and books are causing problems in the 21st century, none is more sensitive than music.  At the heart of the problem is how to fairly compensate writers and musicians for their work.  It takes Blood, Sweat, and Tears (no, that was a group) to create a song or music track that the world wants to hear.  That work and talent should be fairly compensated.

The problem is how to define "fair".  A top-40 group might think they deserve $1.00 an MP3 file and they should receive it for every device an individual uses.  Yet a garage group might have just as good as sound, and be willing to distribute for a penny an MP3.  Because of the music industry's barrier to entry, see Jerry Corbetta's Don't Call Us, We'll Call You (yes, I know I used that reference lately) we don't have economic competition in the music industry.  With today's technology, garage bands are able to post their music on the web for distribution, but believe me, most websites are dark.  Despite Google's great search engine, it is hard to attract web clicks without outside promotion.  I fully appreciate the problem as a first-time novelist.

Something that people might have missed is Warner Music's attempt to tax your internet provider for music.  Essentially, they have declared they cannot make their music business work anymore, so they want to impose a flat $5 a year music tax on everyone.  See Fee for All or Jim Griffin says ISP music tax only one possibility.  The internet service providers (ISP)s might go along with it to avoid lawsuits and simply pass the costs onto consumers without any choice.  See - Music Tax Details From Source: "Pay Us Not to Sue You". 

Are You Waiting for the Pogo?

It seems like only yesterday that Netscape (remember them?) ruled the wild, wild, web (www).  Their first browser was released in 1994 and was an overnight sensation.  For the first time, non-hackers could graphically surf the beginning of the web.  A year later, Microsoft introduced Windows '95, which gave IBM PCs and clones an operating system similar to the Apple Macintosh.  As a Windows 95 Plus Pac, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 1.0, and the browser wars began.

About 1998, Netscape realized that Microsoft could outspend them, so they attempted an open-source version of the Netscape browser, called the Mozilla project.  At almost the same time, AOL (remember them?) purchased Netscape.  Netscape sued Microsoft for anti-trust, and won a substantial sum of money.  Soon after, Time Warner - AOL dropped development of the Netscape browser.  The original open-source project initiated by Netscape, Mozilla has survived, and the Firefox browser is now the number-2 browser for PC users.

That brings us to today.  AT&T, the developers of the ubiquitous operating system, Unix, is about to release a new browser called Pogo.  The new browser is a collaboration between AT&T and Vizible a 3-D rendering company.  As you might expect, the new browser is featured with 3-D effects.  Most notable, is the management of multiple pages via a visible string that shows clips of the pages instead of the tabs currently used by Firefox and Internet Explorer. 

Yawn ?  Well, it is where the concept is headed.  Suppose that all of your daily content was managed this way, not just web pages?  Get the idea?  To see some interesting videos of their concept, check out AT&T is Working on Its Own 3-D Browser (Pogo). 

If you would like to download the browser, you need to know someone.  (Something akin to Jerry Corbetta's Don't Call Us, We'll Call You).  At the present time, the beta version of Pogo is only open to invited techies.  However, you can sign up to receive an email when it becomes publicly available.  Check out their website at Pogo. 

Is India Feeling the First Breezes of Peak Oil?

India is woefully energy poor, although according to the CIA World Factbook, it has 1/4 the world's known reserves in coal.  India imports over 2 million barrels of oil a day.  Currently India is idling over 900 MW of electrical generating capacity because of inadequate liquid natural gas (LNG) supplies. 

The shortage has been created because Japan has unscheduled maintenance of nuclear power plants and outbid other countries for LNG. In addition to the pain of idling electrical power plants, India is also short of petroleum supplies for its fertilizer companies.  Six months from now, that will culminate in food shortages.

Peak oil theory is based upon the historical development of oil fields in North America.  There was a buildup, followed by a plateau and then a decline in production.  Today the United States imports 13.2 million barrels of oil a day.  Similar to global warming, peak oil sounds plausible and the real disagreement is when we reach the edge of the plateau and production begins declining.  Today we already have more demand than supply. 
Some of the theoretical curves for peak oil predict production declining by about 30% over a 5 year period once we reach the corner of the plateau. 

Because of its nuclear weapons program, India has been isolated from worldwide advances in nuclear reactor technology.  The recent nuclear diplomacy between the United States and India is intended to bring modern technology to India.  The worldwide awakening to nuclear power has created a shortage of uranium. In 2000, a pound of uranium was $7.  Today it is about $74.  Yet because of India's defiance in developing nuclear weapons and not signing the non-proliferation treaty, many countries such as Australia will not sell uranium to India.  Similar to its poor petroleum resources, India has no uranium resources.

What options does India have?  a) Begin transformation to acid-rain producing, CO2 choking coal plants.  b) Transformation to plutonium-fueled reactors which will become highly desirable terrorist targets.  c) The world community works collaboratively to share energy with a energy poorer neighbor.  (Note that in this brave new world, energy is the new currency.)

Hybrid Embyos - Chimeras or Angels?

The experimentation with stem cell therapy and human cloning is creating a demand for human female ova.  Hybrid embryos, also known as cybrids or admix embryos are created by taking a cow or rabbit egg and replacing the nucleus with the skin cell nucleus of a human.  Believe it or not, these actually develop into viable embryos.  It is sort of scary isn't it?  Life is a very powerful force and some of today's genetic experiments are beginning to resemble The Island of Dr. Moreau.  We really don't know what we are creating.

The argument for hybrid embryos is that stem cell harvesting would not really be destroying a human embryo, since it is only 99% human.  Some scientists view this a pragmatic solution to the ethical problem of destroying embryos for medical treatments and research.  As reported in A clump of cells?  Or a living being with a soul? , Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Scottish Catholic Church declares such experimentation as "monstrous".  Advocates believe this reduces the number of human eggs used in stem cell therapy and research. 

So if a stem cell treatment can heal someone suffering with Parkinson's disease, is it acceptable to create these 99% human embryos?  Or is it the ethical equivalent of killing a human for a blood transfusion when it would be possible to safely harvest blood from donors?   

In the novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau, the mysterious Dr. Moreau performs vivisection (experimental science) upon animals, creating part-human, part-animal creatures.  "Not to go on all fours, that is the Law; Are we not men?" is the chant of some creatures that roam his island.  Dr. Moreau's tragedy occurs from experimentation with a puma.  Both he and the puma are fatally wounded after the puma makes a surprise attack upon him. 

This contrasts with someone that actually extends mercy and compassion, say like the 19th century medical missionary, Dr. David Livingstone.  Of course, there are tens of thousands of dedicated medical workers who work to heal.  In many ways, today's genetics experiments are reminiscent of the early days of atomic energy when experimenters did all sorts of dangerous things such as the x-ray box at shoe stores which would x-ray your shoes to see if your feet fit properly.  There was a difference though, those x-ray boxes could not reproduce.

Are we Dr. Moreau or Dr. Livingstone?

Changes in Antarctica

I was convinced of global warming after watching the movie, Ice Age.  Well, not really.  Probably like most people, I consider global warming plausible when I think of the billions of BTUs that mankind is producing every day.  (Especially whenever I land in Las Vegas at night.)  It is unfortunate that one of the cheapest ways to create energy is the chemical reaction, oxidation.  You might know it by the scientific name, fire. 

Combining oxygen and another element such as carbon, produces (cough) CO2, and heat  It is cheap and it is plentiful.  Usually we somehow convert the heat energy into mechanical energy through a car engine's piston and crankshaft, or a turbine.  Our dilemma is that we need energy to sustain the industrial revolution, but our cheap sources of energy could possibly (or probably) be causing global warming.

I don't accept that we have undeniable evidence that mankind is directly responsible for rising global temperatures.  Since the earth experienced temperature cycles long before the industrial revolution, we cannot discount that some, if not all, of the earth's temperature increase is due to naturally occuring phenomenon.  However, I tend to believe mankind is having an impact upon the earth's temperatures and we need to work collaboratively to reduce whatever contribution we are having upon global warming.

Antarctic chunk splinters; huge ice shelf threatened describes how an iceberg the size of Manhattan Island calved recently and a massive ice shelf the size of Connecticut is in danger of being loosed into the sea.  Whether you accept or deny global warming, you must admit 'The times They Are a-Changin.'

Ethics in healing

Therapeutic cloning works in mice with Parkinson's describes a new treatment for Parkinson's disease.  The disease if you remember, is a degenerative  disease of the central nervous system.  Victims suffer from tremors, muscle rigidity, and in some cases, the inability to even use the muscles.  It appears to be related to the production of dopamine in the brain.  Dopamine is a hormone or neurotransmitter that is transmitted from the brain to the central nervous system to stimulate the various muscles in the body. 

There are several  forms of cloning.  Two of them are reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.  Reproductive cloning is the replacement of DNA in a donor egg cell with the DNA of the desired clone.  This is called somatic nuclear cell transfer.  Therapeutic cloning is where the complete life form is not permitted to mature, but instead, only the first few cells of the embryo are harvested.  These first few cells of an embryo are stem cells and can develop into any tissue within the body. 

In the report linked above, therapeutic cloning is used to harvest stem cells that are stimulated into growing dopamine-producing neurons.  These neurons are then placed into the brain where they have improved the ability of the victim to control the body's muscles.

At issue is whether a viable embryo is being destroyed to create the stem cells.  The ethical polarization is that one group claims that it is destroying life.  The other group claims a simple embryo is not a human life, so using it to create stem cells is not an ethical dilemma. 

NASA Needs A Different Bunny

NASA has a battery problem.  Although the Energizer bunny keeps going and going, NASA needs a much longer-lasting battery for deep space missions.  NASA uses a radioisotope thermoelectric generator for its long missions.  This is essentially a battery that produces electrical power through a thermocouple attached to a radioisotope.  Thermocouples directly convert heat into electricity, and while too inefficient for commercial purposes, they are adequate for space missions.  (At one time the Soviet Union powered remote lighthouses with Pu-238, and some early heart pacemakers used Pu-238, although lithium batteries are used today.)

NASA's preferred radioisotope is Plutonium-238.  Although it is radioactive, it only emits alpha particles which can be shielded by a rubber pair of gloves, unlike the Plutonium-239 used in atomic bombs and nuclear reactors.  (Pu-239 emits gamma rays that require extensive lead shielding.)   Although Pu-238 is relatively safe from a radioactivity perspective, it could arguably called the most toxic substance known to mankind.  A single inhaled speck can cause lung cancer. 

The problem is that the United States has stopped producing Pu-238.  All of the cold war stockpiles have been used and Plutonium Shortage May Thwart Future NASA Missions to Outer Planets.  After the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, NASA is out of plutonium.  The only other source of plutonium is Russia, but Russian authorities have advised NASA "that they are down to their last 10 kilograms of plutonium."

Unless the U.S. Department of Energy reestablishes Pu-238 production, NASA will need to invent a different power source for long space missions.  Although funding has not been allocated or identified, the Department of Energy would produce Pu-238 at the  Idaho National Laboratory.

 

Is the world flat or not

Many have read Thomas L. Friedman's book, The World is Flat.  I'm sure to many, like myself, it was an eye-opener to global competition.  He described how a McDonald's restaurant was outsourcing even the drive-through order taking out of the U.S.  Friedman described how India had taken advantage of the Y2K software refactoring to train its software professionals and compete against the U.S. for future software contracts.  There is much, much, more to the book, all describing outsourcing and global competition.

A new book though, explains there are some buckyballs or spikes to this flat perspective of global competition, and even living.  What does your city say about you? describes the new book, Who's Your City?  Richard Florida explains that yes, Friedman is correct that with today's technology, you can live anywhere on the planet and essentially telecommute to your coworkers.  However, despite this flatness, professions have developed critical mass in certain cities.  Nashville - music, Los Angeles - film, New York - finance, and so on.  To have a splash in a profession, you need to be physically located within that critical mass. 

Something that has puzzled me about globalization is the monopolization instead of the innovation I expected.  Instead of there being an explosion of small companies with new ideas and products for consumers, we are experiencing multi-national corporations buying out their competitors and reducing the selection available to consumers.  There is much to learn yet about globalization.

Ending a Life

Despite competing with news stories on the democratic party nomination, the Bear Stearns debacle, and petroleum prices, euthanasia has appeared as two separate stories this week.  Recall a French teacher, Chantal Sebire, was suffering from incurable tumors of the sinuses.  She appealed unsuccessfully for a court to allow a doctor to end her life.  She argued that she wanted to end her life partying with her friends.

She died mysteriously yesterday and her lawyer opposed an autopsy, claiming it would be a "shameful act."  Mystery death of cancer patient ignites French euthansia debate explains that five years ago, a mother and doctor were unsuccessfully prosecuted in France for ending the life of a man in his 20s.  So far, the Catholic church and mainstream politicians in France were opposing euthanasia laws. 

Today, we discovered that Author Claus dies by euthanasia.  His wife said the author chose the moment to end his life.  Also today there is a report that instead of Euthanasia: Continuous Deep Sedation Used Increasingly In The Netherlands. This reminds me of the author Aldous Huxley who made his wife promise to send him on an LSD trip immediately before his death.

I think that if your life values are based upon the shifting sands of the world, you will a have different response than if you have established absolute principles and values.  It is sort of like the training of a soldier.  The soldier is trained to automatically react and respond to situations without having to think through possible responses.  If your character has been trained, you are going to respond appropriately even in the deepest of pain or grief.