Looking for a Home Safe from Zombies, Disasters, and Global Collapse

Ancient Zombie-Proofing
When the ancient people wanted to be safe from zombies, wild animals, and other enemies, they would locate their homes in difficult to access places. In cliffs, caves, or underground, they would take advantage of natural havens, and sometimes dig into sheer rock, to find safety for themselves and their tribe.

Modern people also dig deeply through solid rock, to seek safety from more modern weapons and enemies. But zombies would find it difficult to penetrate the defenses of Cheyenne Mountain, as would fire, flood, tornado, and most nuclear weapons short of a direct megaton scale hit.

Some tribes sought safety in the far north, and learned to survive where other tribes -- including zombies -- could not. Although their modern descendants are forgetting the ways of extreme arctic survival, they may soon be forced to re-learn those skills -- if they can.

We have recently looked at this example of a zombie-proofed home, complete with drawbridge and concrete shutters. While we have no record of how such homes survive in the face of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, or wildfire, there is reason to believe that for most natural disasters, such a home would do better than a traditional stick home.

Monolithic dome homes can be "bermed," or covered with earth. In fact, these domes are strong enough to be covered with approximately 30 feet of soil without suffering damage. Covering these steel-reinforced concrete domes with earth adds to their innate protection against fire and storm.

A regular monolithic dome placed on a hilltop location allows for maximum visibility and advanced warning against zombie attack. Monolithic domes have survived hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and wildfires, in situations where most other residences around them were destroyed. The steel rebar inside the dome should provide some EMP protection if grounded, although supplementary integrated wire mesh that is grounded should provide extra EMP shielding.

Some imaginative builders have built houses on hydraulic lifts, in case of flooding. Lifting the house up and out of reach of zombies, would provide the house with additional security. The ultimate in moving a house out of harm's way would be the flying house. But floating houses have been built for low-lying areas, and might be considered if one were forced to live in such a place.

This home in Hollywood Hills has sometimes been referred to as the "safest house in the world." More likely, it is the safest house in Hollywood Hills.

This Al Corbi house provides excellent protection against attack by criminals or zombies -- with its bullet-proof walls, windows, and doors -- and allows for quick evacuation via rooftop helipad in case of regional disaster or global collapse. But it lacks its own power supply, and other necessities needed for an extended siege situation, when basic services have collapsed.

The rolling steel shutters pictured on this house's doors and windows provides excellent protection against thieves, invaders, and zombies. Such types of protection are likely to be in greater demand as the Obama crisis deepens around the world.

Here are some other things to consider:

1. How would you keep your house from freezing in the winter if electricity were unavailable for a long period of time? Do you have some type of wood burning heater? What about hot water?

2. Do you have back-up cooking facilities if an earthquake made natural gas unavailable for a month or two? Could you heat hot water?

3. What if you lose both electricity and gas?

4. Would you be willing to rely on batteries and candles for illumination if a major power outage lasted more than a week?

5. Do you have extra tanks of potable water should public water supplies be cut off or contaminated? Would you know how to collect and filter your own water if none was available for a long time?

6. If a winter storm damaged windows in your home, would you have sufficient plastic sheeting and repair materials to quickly enclose the open areas to retain heat? _The Secure Home

Interesting questions to keep in mind, but what if you had to worry about all of that, at the same time that you were under zombie attack? Obviously th author of "The Secure Home" was not thinking in broad enough terms for the modern age.

If you had to choose one type of home to build for maximum security in a relatively short time span, the monolithic dome is probably your best bet. You would need to provide sufficient protected storage for food, water, medicines, trade goods, and other supplies. You should consider rolling steel shutters for windows and doors, or other methods of protecting those weak points. Avoid building on a flood plain, or in a location without adequate visibility of your surroundings. Stay away from high crime areas, and areas of known zombie habitation. Keep your garden spaces within a defensible area, for the most part.

Most importantly, make sure that you are close to a community of skilled and competent people, who possess a broad range of expertise, and who share your basic values toward private property, free market exchange, and respect for human life.

Re-usable Spacecraft Want to Bring Down the Costs of Space Travel

SpaceX Reusable Rocket (TechnologyReview)
Imagine how much it would cost to fly from San Francisco to London if the airlines had to destroy every airliner after each use. But that is the same basic logic that is used for space launch, where spacecraft typically do not survive the journey, requiring a new craft to be built for each trip. But what if you could re-use all parts of your craft, with rapid turnover between launches. Shouldn't that bring down the cost of space exploration and development?

NASA's space shuttle is the only orbital reusable launch vehicle that's flown to date, and it was retired this summer after falling far short of its original goals to launch frequently and inexpensively—the agency projected it would fly up to 50 missions per year at an operating cost of $10.5 million per flight. It turned out that the shuttles flew less than five times per year at an operating cost 20 times that.

SpaceX's approach is to convert the two stages of the Falcon 9 rocket into independent vehicles capable of making return landings at their launch site. The first stage, after separating from the rest of the rocket, would fire its engines to guide itself back to the launch site, extending a set of legs from its base to land vertically. The upper stage, outfitted with the heat shield that SpaceX developed for its Dragon spacecraft, which was designed to transport cargo and eventually crews to and from the space station, would reenter after deploying its payload in space. It would also use its engine for a powered vertical landing.

Musk is backing up his speech with development work. SpaceX has been quietly building an experimental vehicle called Grasshopper to test the vertical landing technology. Grasshopper is a Falcon 9 first stage outfitted with a single engine and landing legs to allow it to take off and land vertically.

...SpaceX is not the only company actively working on an orbital reusable launch vehicle. Blue Origin, the secretive aerospace company founded by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, has NASA funding to mature the design of a space vehicle that could be launched on existing expendable rockets, such as the Atlas V. Eventually, though, Blue Origin plans to replace the Atlas with its own reusable orbital launch vehicle, and is using part of the $22 million Commercial Crew Development award it received from NASA earlier this year to work on an engine for that rocket.

"We intend to fly our own Blue Origin reusable launch vehicles that will take [our] space vehicle up and make that system much more affordable," said Rob Meyerson, program manager at Blue Origin, at AIAA Space 2011. The company has not disclosed development schedules or other technical details about its planned vehicle. However, the support the company has from NASA, coupled with the financial backing provided by Bezos, makes the company's effort worth watching.

This is not the first time companies have shown an interest in building reusable launch vehicles. In the late 1990s, several companies, including Kistler Aerospace and Rotary Rocket Company, had ambitious plans for orbital reusable launch vehicles, but their projects never materialized.

What's the difference this time around? Charles Lurio, a space industry consultant and publisher of The Lurio Report newsletter, says current companies have made more progress than earlier firms, including building and flying hardware. "They have a fair shot at making it work," he says, "but nothing's guaranteed." _TechnologyReview

Can the Skolkovo Innovation Centre Save Russia?

The Skolkovo innovation center is a high technology business area being built near Moscow. It will host five scientific communities that carry top priority for Russia -- energy, information technology, telecommunications, biomedicine and nuclear technologies -- as the country diversifies from being largely powered by natural resources. The 600 hectare complex designed by French architects AREP will be situated next to the campus of Skolkovo Moscow School of Management, a top-level business school founded by leading Russian and international companies.... Siemens, Boeing, IBM, Dell and Nokia are among other leading companies that have committed to participation at Skolkovo.

Russian government-led initiatives such as tax incentives to stimulate development and loosening of restrictions on importing foreign workers and technologies have been enacted to facilitate the high-tech hub. Over 200 laws have been amended to facilitate the participation of international companies at Skolkovo and to encourage sustainable innovation among Russian startups. _Marketwatch

Russia is a resource-rich nation with a vast land area but a shrinking and aging population. Under Vladimir Putin, Russians have seen their freedoms steadily disappear, and their national health and morale wither. The best and the brightest are fleeing to better opportunities outside the country, as the infrastructure is stripped of capital by government insiders, and deposited in out of country bank accounts.

Skolkovo, a brainchild of Dmitri Medvedev, offers Russian innovators a way to hook up with outside investors and business interests -- perhaps Russia's last great hope to avoid inbred disaster under Putin.

Skolkovo IT Cluster was founded last year as part of a larger initiative to turn Moscow’s Skolkovo suburb into a kind of Russian Silicon Valley. The plan was initiated by Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, and the Skolkovo foundation has since won financial and logistical backing from pretty much every U.S. tech heavyweight. Cisco alone has committed to invest $1 billion over 10 years in the region. Part of that money is now used to jumpstart Russian startups. “In order to change things, you have to start doing things,” Gaika told me. _Gigaom

Medvedev's idea to change Russian laws to allow easier involvement with outsiders, was a brilliant idea. But no one knows what Putin will do if any of the Skolkovo startups grow large enough to be seen as a threat to his autocratic dictator's form of state control.

“Companies started in Russia are cheaper (to run) and the quality and talent level is high,” said Alex Gurevich, a partner with Javelin Venture Partners. “Innovation is happening everywhere–not just in the Valley. I want to see what Russia has to offer.”

...“One thing that’s clear is that there’s some amazing technology in Russia. It’s better than what I’ve seen stateside,” said Bill Reichert, managing director of Garage Ventures, who said he also plans to attend the demo day.

Companies presenting run the gamut from Bazelevs Innovations, which makes interactive 3D visualization of scripts for TV and film, to SpeakToIt, which allows smartphone users to better retrieve information with natural language. _WSJ

The three reports excerpted above present some intriguing startup ideas. But will they have the freedom to develop in Russia without interference and extortion from the thuggish regime or the Russian mafia?

Russia needs an infusion of fresh, new blood, and new ideas. Without new approaches, Russia will shrivel and die in stagnant statist autocracy. If not under Putin, then under some other bombastic autocrat. For Russia to live and thrive, something has to give.

Evolving Landscapes of Mind

Just because we are conscious does not mean we have the smarts to make consciousness ourselves. Whether (or when) AI is possible will ultimately depend on whether we are smart enough to make something smarter than ourselves. We assume that ants have not achieved this level. We also assume that as smart as chimpanzees are, chimps are not smart enough to make a mind smarter than a chimp, and so have not reached this threshold either. While some people assume humans can create a mind smarter than a human mind, humans may be at a level of intelligence that is below that threshold also. We simply don't know where the threshold of bootstrapping intelligence is, nor where we are on this metric. _KevinKelly

Technium
Kevin Kelly has created a "Taxonomy of Minds" as a way of classifying different types of minds and what they might be able to do.

Precisely how a mind can be superior to our minds is very difficult to imagine. One way that would help us to imagine what greater intelligences would be like is to begin to create a taxonomy of the variety of minds. This matrix of minds would include animal minds, and machine minds, and possible minds, particularly transhuman minds, like the ones that science fiction writers have come up with.

Imagine we land on a alien planet. How would we describe or measure the level of the intelligences we encounter there -- assuming they are greater than ours? What are the thresholds of superior intelligence? What are the categories of intelligence in animals on earth? _Read the rest...TaxonomyofMinds

Technium
The actual development of superior minds is more likely to occur via evolutionary mechanisms, rather than from straightforward design from principle. The adaptive landscape graphic above provides a small portion of an evolutionary adaptive landscape. Creatures that achieve the higher peaks may be capable of achieving greater feats, but also may be more subject to extinction when the environment shifts -- or when the adaptive landscape is enlarged by merging with a previously separate adaptive landscape (building a bridge between islands, tunneling through a mountain chain, digging a canal through an isthmus, or the emergence of an intergalactic wormhole).

Rather than waiting until our minds become capable of creating other minds, it is more likely that humans will create an evolutionary landscape from which a more intelligent mind than human minds might emerge.

Recently, in conversations with George Dyson, I realized there is a fifth type of elementary mind:

5) A mind incapable of designing a greater mind, but capable of creating a platform upon which greater mind emerges.

This type of mind cannot figure out how to birth an intelligence equal to itself, but it does figure out how to set up conditions of evolution so that a new mind emerges from the forces pushing it. _Technium

This is the approach to AI which Al Fin cognitive scientists have been promoting and utilising. It would be fooling one's self to imagine that it will be easy to evolve a smarter mind. But at least it is not impossible, as most conventional approaches to AI are proving themselves to be. (conventional AI researchers are attempting quantitative solutions where qualitative solutions apply)

There is something quite amusing here: The human mind itself can flit among the taxonomy of minds, at any given time. Because of how the human brain evolved, and the paths we have taken in development, each one of us is multitudes. Without a doubt, we all need better training in using our minds.

More: An interesting set of links to sources which expect or assume the imminent creation of a super-human machine intelligence (and a consequent "singularity") and a few sources which are critical of such a "hard take-off" to singularity superintelligence

Al Fin is among the skeptics of the "techno-singularity" concept. Rather, Al Fin expects any near-term singularity to be of the "bio-singularity" variety.

Taken from an earlier Al Fin posting

Is This Historical Reprieve from Violence Only Temporary?

Images via Steven Pinker Edge.orgIn a recent Edge.org article, Steven Pinker describes how human violence has subsided in recent years. The images on this page are a small sampling of Pinker's visual substantiation of his "reduced violence" thesis. For the most part, Pinker's argument is fairly persuasive.

As seen above, deaths from warfare in the UK have come down significantly from historical times. The chart below illustrates the reduction in European homicides since the year 1200. The bottom graph demonstrates the large peak in genocides in the middle of the 20th century, with subsequent decline. More from Pinker:

Believe it or not—and I know most people do not—violence has been in decline over long stretches of time, and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence. The decline of violence, to be sure, has not been steady; it has not brought violence down to zero (to put it mildly); and it is not guaranteed to continue. But I hope to convince you that it's a persistent historical development, visible on scales from millennia to years, from the waging of wars and perpetration of genocides to the spanking of children and the treatment of animals.

...The extraordinary 65-year stretch since the end of the Second World War has been called the "Long Peace", and has perhaps the most striking statistics of all, zero. There were zero wars between the United States and the Soviet Union (the two superpowers of the era), contrary to every expert prediction. No nuclear weapon has been used in war since Nagasaki, again, confounding everyone's expectations. There have been no wars between any subset of the great powers since the end of the Korean War in 1953. There have been zero wars between Western European countries. The extraordinary thing about this fact is how un-extraordinary it sounds. If I say I'm going to predict that in my lifetime France and Germany will not go to war, everyone will say, "Yeah, yeah; of course they won't go to war." But that is an extraordinary statement when you consider that before 1945, Western European countries initiated two new wars per year for more than 600 years. That number has now stood at zero for 65 years.

And there have been zero wars between developed countries at all. We take it for granted nowadays that war is something that happens only in poor, primitive countries. That, too, is an extraordinary development; war used to be something that rich countries did, too. Europe, which traditionally has been the part of the world with the biggest military might, is no longer picking on countries in other parts of the world, or hurling artillery shells at one other with the rest of the world suffering collateral damage. This change has been extraordinary. _Edge.org

It is worth at least skimming the entire piece, paying particular attention to the graphic images. Civilisation seems to be growing less violent in most of the ways that can be measured -- at least on a historical scale.

But can we expect this drop in violence to continue? To answer that question, one must look at demographic trends. The populations which are growing are those that exhibit higher rates of violence, and those that are shrinking are the ones which exhibit lower rates of violence -- as a rule. For example, populations within Africa, Asia, and South America which exhibit the world's highest rates of violence are also generally showing the highest birthrates. Even within advanced nations, the subpopulations which show the highest rates of violence also exhibit the highest birthrates.

If these demographic trends continue, the shrinking, less violent populations, are apt to either die off, or be killed off. The violent and prolific populations may just inherit the world.

In modern politically correct cultures, violence is often condemned outright, without qualification. But violence in defence of one's life, family, and property is the hallmark of civilisations which survive. Without the threat of defensive violence, the weak and passive become prey to any violent person who comes upon them.

Law enforcement cannot be everywhere, protecting everyone. Any society which forbids individuals from using violence to protect themselves or their property is a society in decay. The law is meant to be taken into the hands of citizens. Otherwise the law will serve only a corrupt oligarchy.

Humans have the choice whether they will transition back to another violent phase of history. If that is the choice, they are going in the direction which will accomodate that decision.

Babcock and Wilcox Moves Ahead With mPower Small Modular Reactor

B&W mPower SMR
Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are poised to change the world of power and energy -- if the US government Nuclear Regulatory Commission will do its job of fairly licensing the safe, clean, new nuclear reactors. Instead, developers of newer, safer reactors must jump through hoops, spend exorbitant fees, and wait many years or decades before the fat and lazy NRC will get off its ass and get to work.

One US company -- Babcock and Wilcox -- is apparently willing to spend the money, do the work, and put in the many years it will take to get the NRC to perform like a responsible public service agency. Here is one of the important first steps the company is taking to get its SMR -- the mPower reactor -- licensed:

The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) and Generation mPower LLC
(Generation mPower) will dedicate the unique B&W mPower(TM) Integrated System Test (IST) facility in Bedford County, Va., at a ceremony today. The facility is located at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER) at the New London Business & Technology Center.

The facility contains a prototype of the B&W mPower reactor that will undergo extensive testing to collect data to verify the reactor's design and safety performance in support of Generation mPower's ongoing licensing activities with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The primary technical features of the B&W mPower reactor are included in the IST, although the source of energy is electricity rather than nuclear.

The IST facility supports further development of the B&W mPower reactor technology that represents a new generation of smaller, scalable nuclear power plants. This world-class testing facility was made possible in part by generous support from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission (TICRC), which provided more than $7 million in grants to support construction of the facility and the purchase of process equipment.

"B&W and Generation mPower appreciate the support from all of those involved as we establish this key element of the B&W mPower reactor program," said Brandon C. Bethards, President and Chief Executive Officer of B&W. "The IST facility will allow us the opportunity to demonstrate to the world the value of small modular reactors as a practical and affordable choice for nuclear power generation. Today's dedication marks another step in our progress toward commercializing small modular reactor technology."

Christofer Mowry, President of Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Energy. Inc. and Chairman of the Board of Generation mPower, said, "We continue to see tremendous interest from potential customers in the United States and abroad for our small modular reactor. Generation mPower is working to meet a need for a reliable, carbon-free power source that can be deployed at a new site or replace an aging facility in North America or overseas."

The multi-year testing program is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2011. _MarketWatch

B&W will be lucky to get its reactor licensed before the year 2020. One of the essential changes within the US government will be the ejection of the Obama regime and its energy starvation agenda, and the replacement of NRC Chairman Jaczko with a person of more expertise, integrity, and impartiality.

As long as Obama is not re-elected, reason is likely to win over leftist dieoff.org prejudice and energy starvation. Eventually, SMRs and other safe, advanced nuclear reactor designs, will receive their licenses, go into production, and change the global face of energy.

Gas to Liquids and Coal to Liquids Etc: Trillions of Barrels and More

Peak Oil Chased Away by Massive Energy Resources
There is always big money to be made in substituting a lower cost feedstock or commodity for a higher priced one. The obvious big money substitution opportunity in the energy field, is the substitution of low cost natural gas or coal for high priced oil. Natural gas is difficult to transport globally, unless it is transformed into a denser liquid form, such as LPG or GTL. Coal can likewise be made more valuable by transforming it into a liquid fuel. Observe the huge potential quantities of fuels available from coal to liquids and gas to liquids in the chart above.

Gas to Liquids 

NYTThe above chart reveals the significant price differential between oil and the equivalent energy of natural gas. Clearly there is a lot of money to be made via efficient conversion of gas to liquids (GTL), via either Fischer Tropsch (FT) or methanol-to-gasoline (MTG).

Shell's gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology is producing high value hydrocarbon fuel and chemicals in Qatar and in Malaysia. But it is very expensive to build large scale GTL plants based on this technology, which limits entry into the field. As the technology proves itself in the market, other big players are likely to step in.

Sasol and PetroSA have GTL plants in South Africa, where rich shale gas fields are coming under development. Shell is moving into those gas fields, and may be thinking about opening its own GTL plant in South Africa, if it can deal with the government corruption.

applications of excess product. Primarily, natural gas is used as feedstock for the Gas To Liquid process. The GTL process converts natural gas to synthetic fuels. This has proven to be far more profitable product for oil/energy and exploration companies to supply into the energy markets. There are currently only two plants in SA capable of refining natural gas to liquid petroleum products. Sasol has its GTL plant located in Secunda and PetroSA has its plant in Mosselbay. _CBN

Australian companies are looking at building GTL plants to take advantage of large gas deposits there, but are somewhat daunted by the high cost of entry. The uncertainty of long term oil prices also causes planners to hesitate.

"Higher oil prices provide the incentive to look at ways and means of producing synthetic fuels, other than simply refining crude oil," Mr Wendt told AAP.


However, he says a major barrier is the high price of setting up a processing plant to make a product that is a commercial alternative to oil-based fuels.


It would cost $1 billion or $2 billion to build a plant that produces synthetic diesel at $40 or $50 a barrel.


But if the price of oil drops dramatically, people won't buy the synthetic product, leaving the owner of the plant unable to get a return on the investment, Mr Wendt said. _ninemsn

There is also debate in Alaska about turning North Slope gas into more lucrative liquid fuels. One of the problems is deciding on the best chemical approach to the transformation of gas to liquid fuel.

For a number of years there has been discussion of the potential to convert North Slope gas to diesel fuel on the North Slope using a process called gas to liquids, or GTL, and then shipping the diesel fuel down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. The core of the GTL process is the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, a chemical process first used in Germany in 1936 to produce synthetic liquid fuel. However, a study of the relative costs of the Fischer-Tropsch process and MTG has indicated that it is significantly cheaper to produce a given volume of fuels with MTG than with Fischer-Tropsch, while the gasoline produced from MTG has a higher value and quality than the diesel from GTL, Van Wijk said. _PetroleumNews

The Oxford Catalyst microchannel Fischer Tropsch GTL approach is just getting started, commercially, but is already receiving "buy" recommendations from Charles Stanley -- assuming the investor possesses abundant intestinal fortitude and staying power.

One of the largest driving forces behind the drop in natural gas prices -- and the opportunity to take advantage of the gas-oil price differential -- is the recent advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking technologies. Gas and oil trapped within shale has existed for eons, only waiting for a species intelligent enough to go in and get it.

Summary of gas-to-liquids technologies

Coal to Liquids 

Synthetic fuels from coal will compose a larger share of the transportation fuels market over the next few decades. This will come about due to more economical processes for coal to liquids (CTL) combined with a long term trend of rising oil prices.

Ambre Coal to LiquidsThe methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) process is the prime competitor to the Fischer Tropsch (FT) process, in the conversion of carbonaceous mass to liquid fuels. Ambre Energy of Australia is involved in the clean conversion of low quality coal to high quality liquid fuels, using the Exxon-Mobil methanol-to-gasoline process (PDF).

Methanol is usually synthesised from syngas, a mixture of H2, CO, CO2, methane, etc. Syngas can be produced via gasification of coal, natural gas, biomass, or any other carbonaceous material.

Methanol is used as a feedstock to produce fuels or other chemicals. Methanol can also be used as a fuel itself, or as a fuel additive. Methanol is also finding greater use in methanol fuel cells -- a market that is expected to grow very rapidly over the next several years.

Ambre CTL process
PDF description of Ambre CTL
Ambre is involved in a technical study agreement with Synthesis Energy Systems to develop an improved coal to liquids project which will produce both synthetic gasoline and LPG from methanol.

Economical Scaling of Fischer Tropsch 

Up until now, putting together a production plant for converting coal to liquids or gas to liquids would cost you around $1 billion. But the North American subsidiary of a UK company has devised a scalable method of converting syngas to liquid hydrocarbon (diesel) in a "shoebox" sized device. The microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (FT) devices can be combined for a capacity to produce as much or as little diesel fuel from gas, biomass, or coal, as a producer wishes to pay for.

...a major exploration and production company is seriously considering the possibility of incorporating microchannel FT reactors into a planned 5,000 -15,000 barrel per day (bpd) GTL facility onshore in North America designed to convert shale gas into finished synthetic fuels...The shortlisted technologies will be subjected to further evaluation as part of a major high-budget engineering study that will last for several months. The results of the study will be used to select the project’s technology providers. _Engineer

Oxford Catalyst's microchannel F-T technology for converting gas-to-liquids (GTL) is one of the frontrunners to be intensively studied for shale gas to liquids operations onshore in North America.

The technology is already being adopted for offshore applications in Brazil.

PDF presentation on Velocys / Oxford Catalyst's microchannel F-T technology

Microchannel FT reactors developed by Velocys and using a new highly active FT catalysts developed by Oxford Catalysts exhibit conversion efficiencies in the range of 70% per pass, according to Jeff McDaniel, Oxford Catalysts director of commercialisation.


“The high efficiency and modular nature of our microchannel FT reactors makes them particularly useful for this type of application because capacity can be easily increased by simply ’numbering up’ or linking together additional FT reactor modules,” said McDaniel. _Engineer

The potential fuels available from unconventional liquids goes far beyond all known petroleum deposits. And of course, proved deposits of oil, gas, coal, kerogens, bitumens, etc. are only going to continue going up over time, as they have done since humans began using hydrocarbons.

It is time for humans to jettison pseudoscientific garbage theories such as anthropogenic climate doom and peak energy scarcity doom, and move forward into a world of abundant energy.

Nuclear energy such as advanced fission and scalable fusion are much preferred to hydrocarbon energy in general, but we need to pay as we go. Hydrocarbons will serve until we can break through to better energy strategies.

Material above taken from previous postings at Al Fin Energy blog

Impulsive Violence: Can Brain Implants Affect Poor Impulse Control?

Poor decision making and impulsive behaviour are hallmarks of youth, sociopathy, and the violent criminal.

Interestingly, Parkinson's Disease patients can also exhibit impulsive behaviours -- often as a side affect of treatment. Both drug treatment for Parkinson's and deep brain stimulation (DBS) via implants can increase impulsive and dysfunctional behaviours in Parkinson's patients. Researchers wanted to know why DBS was causing this impulsivity, and what they could do about it.

For their first experiment, the researchers designed a computerized decision-making experiment. They asked 65 healthy subjects and 14 subjects with Parkinson's disease to choose between pairs of generic line art images while their mPFC brain activity was recorded. Each image was each associated with a level of reward. Over time the subjects learned which ones carried a greater reward.

Sometimes, however, the subjects would be confronted with images of almost equal reward -- a relatively tough choice. That's when scalp electrodes detected elevated activity in the mPFC in certain low frequency bands. Lead author and postdoctoral scholar James Cavanagh found that when mPFC activity was larger, healthy participants and Parkinson's participants whose stimulators were off would take proportionally longer to decide. But when deep brain stimulators were turned on to alter STN function, the relationship between mPFC activity and decision making was reversed, leading to decision making that was quicker and less accurate.

The Parkinson's patients whose stimulators were on still showed the same elevated level of activity in the mPFC. The cortex wanted to deliberate, Cavanagh said, but the link to the brakes had been cut.

"Parkinson's patients on DBS had the same signals," he said. "It just didn't relate to behavior. We had knocked out the network."

In the second experiment, the researchers presented eight patients with the same decision-making game while they were on the operating table in Arizona receiving their DBS implant. The researchers used the electrode to record activity directly in the STN and found a pattern of brain activity closely associated with the patterns they observed in the mPFC.

"The STN has greater activity with greater [decision] conflict," he said. "It is responsive to the circumstances that the signals on top of the scalp are responsive to, and in highly similar frequency bands and time ranges."

A mathematical model for analyzing the measurements of accuracy and response time confirmed that the elevated neural activity and the extra time people took to decide was indeed evidence of effortful deliberation.

"It was not that they were waiting without doing anything," said graduate student Thomas Wiecki, the paper's second author. "They were slower because they were taking the time to make a more informed decision. They were processing it more thoroughly."

The results have led the researchers to think that perhaps the different brain regions communicate by virtue of these low-frequency signals. Maybe the impulsivity side effect of DBS could be mitigated if those bands could remain unhindered by the stimulator's signal. Alternatively, Wiecki said, a more sophisticated DBS system could sense that decision conflict is underway in the mPFC and either temporarily suspend its operation until the decision is made, or stimulate the STN in a more dynamic way to better mimic intact STN function. _SD

We know that the prefrontal cortices (PFCs) are crucial to good executive function and impulse control. But it appears from the experiments above that the PFCs need help from other brain centres, such as the sub-thalamic nuclei (STN). Understanding the interaction of the various brain nuclei in the control of complex behaviour and decision-making, can help designers of brain implants and brain stimulators to avoid unfortunate side effects of implant therapy, and to increase positive serendipitous effects of such therapies.

Given the importance of impulse control in the prevention of crime and violence, it is likely that brain stimulators and implants will take on a greater role in the penal system. An interesting historical example of the electrical control of violent behaviour, is the curious instance of Dr. Jose Delgado and the charging bull. Law enforcement officers and correctional officers would like to be able to stop a charging maniac in his tracks, like Delgado did with the bull. It is likely that someday they will have that power.

It would be best if society set about training its youth to possess sound executive function from the earliest age, so as to avoid that type of dystopian future.

70 Kg Seaplane from Finland

PO
This one-seater carbon fibre plane lands and takes off on water, and weighs but 70 kg. It was designed by a Finnish aerospace engineer, has a topspeed of around 140 kph, and a wingspan of 5m. It will come in multiple models, with prices starting at US$ 39k. The company plans to start taking orders in 3 months.

The first version, one electric only, and two fuel based versions. The electric-only version has a 20kW engine. The two petrol-based engined run on 24 bhp and 35 bhp, respectively. The top speed on these planes is roughly 140 km/h, with a minimum speed of 70 km/h . The FlyNano has a wingspan of five meters. The plan can support a take off weight of 200 kg, as well as a take off speed of about 70km/h. In theory, the plane can travel about up to 70 kilometers in a single fueling, or charging, depending on the model that you have chosen to fly. _PO

The plane would be mainly for sport and recreation. For lake hopping, island hopping, or seastead hopping, the plane might be practical as a light mail carrier or courier craft. Future STOL (short takeoff or landing) versions of such planes might be convenient for getting out of a populated area quickly. Just be sure to have plenty of fuel caches pre-placed.

Previously published at Al Fin Potpourri

State of the Art in Energy Storage

The state of the art for energy storage leaves a lot to be desired at virtually every scale. Power grids and individual businesses, institutions, and residences are far too vulnerable to power fluctuations and unpredictable outages.

Images via ESA (ht NBF)
For those who are curious about the state of the art, the Electricity Storage Association provides a useful comparison for different methods for electrical energy storage (via Brian Wang).

One significant omission from the ESA list is "Cryonic Energy Storage," which may prove to be the best of the current crop of contenders for now, until "flow batteries" are perfected.

Large -scale stationary applications of electric energy storage can be divided in three major functional categories:

Power Quality. Stored energy, in these applications, is only applied for seconds or less, as needed, to assure continuity of quality power.

Bridging Power. Stored energy, in these applications, is used for seconds to minutes to assure continuity of service when switching from one source of energy generation to another.

Energy Management. Storage media, in these applications, is used to decouple the timing of generation and consumption of electric energy. A typical application is load leveling, which involves the charging of storage when energy cost is low and utilization as needed. This would also enable consumers to be grid-independent for many hours.

Although some storage technologies can function in all application ranges, most options would not be economical to be applied in all three functional categories.

... _ESA

More graphic comparisons from ESA below:

Read the entire ESA comparison sheet for more information.

Cryonic energy storage has far more potential than compressed air storage, given the phase change energies involved.

Among electrical battery storage methods, flow cell batteries are most scalable and versatile in application. Newer approaches to flow cells using more viscous electrolyte media should allow the technology to be used in vehicular power storage applications.

Adapted from an article at Al Fin Energy

Creative Use of Concrete Shutters for Zombie-Proofed House

All Images from All-that-is-interesting
Above you can see the zombie-proof house with all shutters fully closed. In this setting, the only access into the house is via a drawbridge, which must be lowered for entry.

Now you can see the shutters as they begin opening. Beneath the large front concrete shutter is a secondary steel shutter, for added zombie-proofing.

Concrete shutters are now fully opened, revealing the side windows and front entrance and windows.

Here you can see the lowering of the drawbridge -- the only access to the house when all shutters are closed in full zombie-proof mode.

This is the house as it would normally be seen, with no zombies in the vicinity. Regular patrols by ground and from the air are mandatory, to assure the absence of zombies. A constant seismic surveillance is likewise necessary, to guard against the dreaded tunneling zombies.

After the sun goes down, the house would normally be fully closed in, due to the increased threat of nocturnal zombie attack. Immediately after this photograph was taken, a zombie spotting was reported two houses down, requiring an immediate shuttering-in. Eternal vigilance becomes second nature inside the zombie zone.

The Brief Exhilarating Eroticism of Youth

"With girls, Nature has had in view what is called in a dramatic sense a 'striking effect', for she endows them for a few years with a richness of beauty and a fullness of charm at the expense of the rest of their lives; so that they may during these years ensnare the fantasy of a man to such a degree as to make him rush into taking the honourable care of them, in some kind of form, for a lifetime – a step which would not seem sufficiently justified if he only considered the matter." _Schopenhauer, "On Women"

Girls of JakartaThe beauty and eroticism of youth is powerfully striking. It can be of great use to the young woman who knows what to do with it, and a great curse to the young woman who does not. In the field of prostitution, youthful beauty is a highly profitable asset. But in that often rough and tumble world that frequently is mixed with drug abuse and every bad health habit known to man, youthful beauty fades even more quickly than in girls living more conventional lives.
Catherine Hakim, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, has published a book entitled "Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital." The book discusses the erotic power that women are capable of wielding, and bemoans the lack of awareness of this power on the part of too many young women.

According to Hakim, there’s a ''beauty premium’’ in the workplace – she cites a US survey that found good-looking lawyers earn between 10 and 12 per cent more than dowdier colleagues. Hakim also claims the ''beauty premium’’ makes it more likely that an attractive person will land a job in the first place, and then be promoted. And, says Hakim, erotic capital isn’t limited to the boardroom – ''marriages where the wife is more attractive are happier than those where the husband is the more attractive’’. _Telegraph

If the young woman "strikes while the iron is hot", or "makes hay while the sun shines," she is able to leverage her youthful beauty into a long lasting advantage for herself and her children.

...erotic capital – has until now been ignored but, according to Hakim, is just as important as the other three [ed: economic capital, social capital, human capital] and may be even more so because it affects you from the moment you are born. This last point, like much in the book, is dubious. Money surely makes a big difference from early childhood too, as does intelligence.

Hakim has assembled a good deal of evidence to show what we know already: that life tends to be easier and more rewarding for the beautiful. But far from saying that this is unfair, she argues it is just as it should be: the attractive are nicer to be with, get on with people better and are, therefore, more productive.
_FT

And so Hakim urges women to make the most of their erotic capital. Don't waste your years of beauty on frumpiness and grumpiness, she urges young women. Maximise your assets and use them to get ahead.

Some of this reminds one of maverick feminist Camille Paglia -- particularly Hakim's emphasis on erotic power and capital.

We are living through a particularly parched and dry sexual cycle -- in no small part due to the constipated dominant feministic ethos. Rather than liberating women, modern hyper-continent feminism attempts to paint women into an ideological and lifestyle corner, with little freedom of choice or movement other than to follow the PC dictates of feminist dogma. The beauty, eroticism, and fecundity of youth are thereby sacrificed to the shriveled and bloodless mindset of rigid, brittle feminist ideology.

For young women, puberty is a treacherous passage which is only rarely traversed in optimal fashion. Peer pressure, popular culture, and dysfunctional ideology combine in oppressive fashion to flog the unprepared youth along from hazard to hazard. And when the accoutrements of eroticism -- desire for companionship, home, family -- are not skillfully integrated with the passion -- the eroticism can tend to die too early. The desire for home and family can then either remain unfulfilled, or be realised in a tragically sterile and passionless way.

Sex and eroticism need to maintain elements of both daring and innocence. Of the forbidden and of the earned adventure. When eroticism is hobbled by dogma -- either religious or political (as in leftist feminism) -- the fun and excitement drains away.

No one can tell you what to do with your erotic capital. But you should know what it is, and how to use it if needs be. Everyone should be given that opportunity.

Too many young women begin to lose their erotic appeal, just as they are beginning to learn how to use it in a functional way, for their long term benefit. Most likely, they have received very little help from their parents in understanding their erotic capital. Modern child-raising methods too often either ignore a young woman's burgeoning sexuality, or try to suppress it as long as possible. A father is not supposed to notice his daughter's sexuality, and a mother is frequently too envious of her daughter to give her proper assistance in understanding what is happening to her.

Because eroticism is tied in to sexuality -- and sexuality is tied in to pregnancy, emotional turbulence, and STDs -- parents are naturally cautious when introducing their children to erotic ideas. This leaves the field of eroticism open to popular culture and peer pressure, which almost never have the best interest of youth in mind.

Advertising culture and popular entertainments geared toward youth distort sexuality and eroticism in a manner meant to induct youth into unthinking habits of consumption and counter-productive approaches to sexual exchange. When dysfunctional feminist anti-eroticism and anti-femininism are thrown into the perverse mixture, a young woman is quite lucky to have any erotic thoughts or feelings which she can call her own.

Still, as Tom Robbins said, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." But it would be better if it were to happen the first time through, in the context of wise and loving parents, in the midst of a wise and functional culture.

Adapted and expanded from an article previously published at Al Fin, You Sexy Thing!