Nathan Myhrvold

wiki Myhrvold attended Mirman School, and began college at age 14. He studied mathematics, geophysics, and space physics at UCLA (BSc, Masters). At Princeton he earned a master's degree in mathematical economics and completed a PhD in theoretical and mathematical physics by age 23. He also attended Santa Monica College. For one year, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge working under Stephen Hawking, studying cosmology, quantum field theory in curved space time and quantum theories of gravitation, but left to co-found a computer startup in Oakland, California. The company, Dynamical Systems Research Inc., sought to produce Mondrian, a clone of IBM's TopView multitasking environment for DOS. Microsoft purchased DSR in 1986 and Myhrvold worked there for 13 years. At Microsoft he founded Microsoft Research in 1991.

Myhrvold is a real polymath. In this TED talk he shares some of his interests.

He also has a cheap way to mitigate global warming through geo-engineering. Here's a white paper on the proposal.

He also puts too much emphasis on the H :)

Dutch Hockeystick

With the climate conference in Kopenhagen the coming days, climate change is hot again. Based on Al Gore's hockeystick, here is the Dutch hockeystick: Credits: sargasso.nl

Greenland Ice Canyon and Disappearing Meltwater Lakes

Mechanisms like this could really speed up melting and sea level rise beyond what the conservative models predict.

Failure hits Nasa's 'CO2 hunter'

"Nasa's first dedicated mission to measure carbon dioxide from space has failed following a rocket malfunction. Officials said the fairing - the part of the rocket which covers the satellite on top of the launcher - had not separated properly. Officials said the spacecraft crashed into the ocean near Antarctica (due to the extra mass of the fairing). The $270m mission was launched on a Taurus XL - the smallest ground-launched rocket currently in use by the US space agency." ~BBC The fairing is used to protect the satellite against air (wind) during ascent through the atmosphere. It is separated as soon as there is almost zero atmosphere, this decreases the mass and therefore increases the acceleration. They didn't see the increase in acceleration and concluded the fairing had failed. The separation of stages, fairings, engines etc is generally done with pyrotechnic switches/bolts/valves or mechanical springs. It's a simple device that fails surprisingly often in space flight. This is another disappointment for climate science, CryoSat failed in 2005. They are rebuilding CryoSat, not sure whether they will do the same with OCO. I suggest they use the cheap and most reliable Russian/ESA Soyuz launcher next time.

99% Nuclear Waste Destruction

U of T at Austin scientists propose destroying nuclear waste from other nuclear fission reactors using a fusion-fission hybrid reactor, the centerpiece of which is a high power Compact Fusion Neutron Source (CFNS) made possible by a crucial invention, the Super X Divertor. The CFNS would provide abundant neutrons through fusion to a surrounding fission blanket that uses transuranic waste as nuclear fuel. The fusion-produced neutrons augment the fission reaction, imparting efficiency and stability to the waste incineration process. One hybrid would be needed to destroy the waste produced by 10 to 15 LWRs (light water reactors). So Seven or eleven hybrids would be needed to match up with the existing 104 nuclear reactors in the United States. Thirty to forty-five would be needed to match up with the worlds existing nuclear fission reactors. The process would ultimately reduce the transuranic waste from the original fission reactors by up to 99 percent. More...

Via Next Big Future, a very interesting blog following technological development. If this works there is one less reason for those environMentalists to whine about nuclear energy.

Miniature Nuclear Reactors to be on Sale Within 5 Years

Using technology licensed from the U.S. government, an Arizona-based company is planning to bring a new generation of miniature nuclear reactors to market. The Hyperion Hydride Reactor is not much larger than a hot tub, is totally sealed and self-operating, has no moving parts and, beyond refueling, requires no maintenance of any sort. The reactor will output 27MW, enough to power a community of 20,000 homes, says Hyperion Energy, makers of the new reactor. The first models will roll off the assembly line in five years. Unlike conventional nuclear reactors, the Hyperion design uses no water for cooling, meaning it can be sited anywhere. It is designed to be covered in concrete and then buried while in operation, to reduce the risk of tampering. The reactor must be excavated every 7-10 years for refueling, but can otherwise be left entirely undisturbed. "Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world", says Hyperion CEO John Deal. Full Article...

One Day of Global Air Traffic

That's a lot of dots! I found out how to embed high quality YouTube videos. Click here for a higher quality mov.

US CO2 equivalents

CO2 emissions

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Don't know if this has been posted here before, but I reckon this is in Annom's street. Haven't seen all of it yet, but it's a good view and quite interesting to see the other side of the story.

Emissionary position

We are fucked anyway! Bring on global warming! Fuck sweat!

Proof of Global Warming

Getting Our Priorities Right

Bjørn Lomborg, the controversial author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, representing the Copenhagen Consensus.

The idea is simple, yet often neglected. When financial resources are limited you need to prioritize your effort. Everyday, from policymakers to business leaders, at all levels, priorities are made between investing in one project and not another. However, many times, and particularly at the political level, decisions on priorities are made not based on facts, science or calculations but on which issue gets the most media coverage or is most politisized. The Copenhagen Consensus approach works to improve the foundation of knowledge, to get an overview of research and facts within a given problem, so that the prioritizing of efforts to solve this problem is based on evidence and is comparable with solutions across problems.

Global warming appears not to be the highest priority.

A Global Warning

I just stumbled upon a video on Youtube which is quite powerful. It's not just another clip about global warming, it's a very compelling one. BTW, the part with the children is not so big.