Ar, matey!!

- posted by Doug @ 10:49 AM    Comment

 
Forward to the Past?
This Reuters story suggets that NASA may look into replacing the shuttle with a capsule-type craft, like Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo, rather than another winged vehicle. Presumably, these new capsules would be larger and have room for 4-7 astronauts.

This article has some more information and speculation.

I could see an Apollo-style craft, which would have a 'Command Module' for reentry and control, a 'Service Module' that housed the astronauts' sleeping and eating areas, and in place of the Lunar Module there would be a 'Payload Module' that could house experiments and a docking ring to the ISS. The SM would be expendable, and the PM could either be expendable or reenter separately from the CM.
- posted by Doug @ 10:47 AM    Comment

 
Another triumph for socialized medicine..
Canada can't even provide decent medical marijuana.
- posted by Doug @ 2:22 PM    Comment

 
Electrical engineers to the rescue!
One of my quantum profs at Rice, Dr. Naomi Halas, made the latest issue of Popular Science (unfortunately, this article is not one of the ones they post online). She, along with her research team - including Drs. West and Drezek at Rice, has developed an experimental new cancer detection method and treatment that uses tunable metallic nanoshells.

There's a news story describing her work here. Basically, she uses nanoscopic glass beads to which are bonded both a layer of gold atoms and antibodies for a specific cancer. These beads can be tuned to respond to near-infrared light. Using the antibodies, the nanoshells migrate to cancerous areas in the body. A doctor can then sweep the patient's body with infrared to illuminate the tumors. A stronger infrared beam can then be used to selectvely cook the tumors without harming the rest of the body's tissue.

Cool!

UPDATE: A more technical article on the work is here.
- posted by Doug @ 1:03 PM    Comment

 
Interesting..
According to the AP, China has put roughly 150,000 soldiers on its border with North Korea (link via USS Clueless).

That's roughly as many soldiers as we used to invade Iraq.

Granted, China will probably need more soldiers that that to invade NK, since the technological level of the two armies is closer than ours and Iraq's, but perhaps not many more -- NK is starving and their army can't be in anything like fighting condition.

The question is, would a Chinese invasion of NK be a Good Thing? Den Beste posits that it would, or at worst it would be the least bad Bad Thing -- contingent upon China agreeing to run NK as a protectorate of some sort.

Let's look at the options:

1. China invades, takes over the country, and sets up a UN protectorate, finally allowing the World Food Bank and others to get food to the starving NK people.
   
2. China invades, takes over the country, and annexes the territory. SK is pissed.
   
3. China invades, but NK launches a nuclear missile at Beijing before all is said and done. Bad mojo. China probably responds in kind to Pyongyang. Again, SK is pissed, along with everyone else downwind (Russia? Japan? US West Coast?)
   
4. China's massing of troops on the border is coupled with a cutoff of oil supplies to NK. This will result in the collapse of the NK government. The only question is whether they launch an attack at SK first in order to try to take them down as well.
   
5. China's move really is a border patrol operation, they don't invade, and the status quo continues for a while. NK continues to accumulate nuclear material. Frightened, SK, Japan, and/or Taiwan all acquire nuclear weapons as well.
   
6. Status quo, but the US decides it is in our best interest to preemptively attack NK to effect regime change. Note: we can't do this until we've moved a bunch of troops out of Iraq. Right now, we have (I think) 2 divisions ready to go in Korea -- the 2nd, which is already over there (at least part of it), and a reserve division based here in the States. That's not enough for an offensive operation in the mountains of Korea.
   
7. Status quo, but the condition in NK continues to deteriorate, causing them to launch an attack into SK.
   
8. Status quo, but the condition in NK continues to deteriorate, and the Kim government collapses without firing a shot. Thousands, if not millions, of refugees flee while various factions struggle for control.
   

Is there an option that I missed that's at least somewhat plausible? I mean, it's possible that Kim will have a change of heart, give up all his nuclear material, and agree to work for a peaceable reunification under a democratic system of government, but I won't hold my breath for that.

Given these options, I'll take #1 since it involves us least and has a good outcome. The only hitch is that this would continue the division of Korea, as China wants a unified democratic Korea on their border about as much as France wants fight Germany again.

UPDATE: Welcome to those visiting from the anniversary edition of Carnival of the Vanities! Please take a look around and glance through the archives. Note, last week will probably only be of interest to Texans, as it was all (except 9/11) about a special Constitutional amendment election we had last Saturday. Most of all, I'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment or two. :)
- posted by Doug @ 10:24 AM    Comment

 
And then there were 10..
Gen. Wesley Clark is jumping into the Democratic fray. The big question, though, is: Which member of the family is he? I'll go with "the nagging in-law who keeps telling everyone how they could have done things better after-the-fact". Of course, the even bigger question is whether "Mom" (Hillary) is going to come into the family room and tell everyone to shut up and go to their rooms.
- posted by Doug @ 10:13 AM    Comment

 
And the winner is..
.. all of them! With 99%+ of precincts counted, all 22 propositions appear to have passed.

The biggest blowout was Prop 10, allowing cities to donate old equipment to rural volunteer fire departments. It received 91.6% of the vote. The closest shave was on Prop 9, allowing the permanent school fund to distribute capital gains, which passed by only 20,000 votes out of nearly 1.3 million cast. It was closely followed by the controversial Prop 12, the tort reform amendment, which passed by 28,000 out of over 1.4 million.
- posted by Doug @ 4:44 PM    Comment