Mars One: a new idea to reach Mars without government

Now here is an intriguing idea: an all commercial plan to colonize Mars.  And funded as reality show!

I love it.  I will definitely be track this!

NASA Johnson Style

NASA interns and Astronauts having some fun:

Economy Face Off: Ron Paul vs. Paul Krugman

So on April 30th while Paul Krugman was guest hosting Bloomberg TV Ron Paul was brought on for a live debate. My quick take is neither side had time to back up the assumption presented- how was the prosperity and growth right after WWII achieved in America. I agree with Ron Paul's assertion that the depressions debt was .... and the federal government slashed spending and debt.  But I believed that before the debate so I feel the debate was a tie.  (one note: Krugman actually saying we are in a depression!)

According to the NON-scientific bloomberg TV twitter poll most people disagree and call Ron Paul the winner.  https://twitter.com/#!/trish_regan/status/197496770253701120

According to http://azizonomics.com/2012/05/04/paul-vs-paul-round-2/ (another blog I enjoy):

The real debate occurred the last decade: (picture below taken directly from link above)

(I actually posted Krugman's quote on Facebook and a friend researched it claiming it is taken out of context and it is a joke.  I don't get it.)

[also taken from the above link]

Ron Paul's response on FT:

Control of the world’s economy has been placed in the hands of a banking cartel, which holds great danger for all of us. True prosperity requires sound money, increased productivity, and increased savings and investment. The world is awash in US dollars, and a currency crisis involving the world’s reserve currency would be an unprecedented catastrophe. No amount of monetary expansion can solve our current financial problems, but it can make those problems much worse.


And Krugman:
 
Would a rise in inflation to 3 percent or even 4 percent be a terrible thing? On the contrary, it would almost surely help the economy.


How so? For one thing, large parts of the private sector continue to be crippled by the overhang of debt accumulated during the bubble years; this debt burden is arguably the main thing holding private spending back and perpetuating the slump. Modest inflation would, however, reduce that overhang — by eroding the real value of that debt — and help promote the private-sector recovery we need. Meanwhile, other parts of the private sector (like much of corporate America) are sitting on large hoards of cash; the prospect of moderate inflation would make letting the cash just sit there less attractive, acting as a spur to investment — again, helping to promote overall recover.

I have heard a few economist who already claim that our debt is too big to ever be repaid.
 

This has succeed because the dollar is the reserve currency accepted through most of the world.  This is talk about this eventually ending.  There seems to be this idea that we can continue deficit spending eternally, but I believe that we cannot. So it is not there I am against the intentions of our government- it is this belief that something is "too big to fail".  We must also consider the results of these programs.  We have created and upheld a system with single point failures for decades now.  The biggest danger is the longer we ignore the harsh realities and continue to "kick the can down the road" (due to complexities to great for any one person to understand or solve- which leads to endless debates) the worst the problem gets. [I will once again recommend everyone check out "The watchman's rattle" which details how other societies reacted to complex long term problems.]

Space Shuttle Enterprise Flyby Yonkers on way to JFK

The Space Shuttle Enterprise fly around NY attached to NASA's modified 747 on its final trip to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York City.  Here are some great pictures take from the Yonkers waterfront.

The one above is great since it looks like it is from directly behind.  Taken from the roof of a building.

This last one is an American flag on the side of a building Yonkers since I am very especially Patriotic Today!

How to beat a patent troll and the patent system in general

Another great TED.com video to watch. I will be pulling stuff from memory so feel free to comment with corrections or additions.

Note: Drew is a new hero of mine and fark.com is one of my new favorite websites (based totally on the charisma in this video)

The patent system has been totally subverted for years (maybe decades).  I remember reading around ten years ago (I do not remember the magazine) an article about how at that time two companies owned around 90% of the patents.  First, let me be one to say that I do not think corporations should be treated as people and only a person (or team of people) should be able to own a patent.  In the article, if my rusty memory serves, talked about how before the Internet bubble burst companies would patent troll other companies.  One of the major companies that had a majority of patents acquired those patents by having a team of engineers writing and submitting proposals. 

As mentioned in the video above this hurts innovation and drains economic development.  Perhaps patents should be only maintained if viable progress has been made in leveraging it commercially (weather yourself or by leasing it) or else it becomes public domain.  Now of course the issue is much more complicated, but just wanted to put an idea out there.

oh, and way to go Drew!

Cool math trick: Converting between miles and kilometers

taken from: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/cool-math-trick-converting-between-miles-and-kilometers

Too great not to share:

The Fibonacci sequence is made up of numbers that are the sum of the previous two numbers in the sequence, starting with 0 and 1.



It's 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…


1 is 0+1, 2 is 1+1, 3 is 1+2, 5 is 2+3, and 8 is 3+5. The number after 144 is 233, or 89+144.

The Fibonacci number describes the golden spiral, an ideal form much beloved by designers everywhere. Interestingly, it also neatly matches the relationship between kilometers and miles. Three miles is five kilometers, five miles is eight kilometers, eight miles is 13 kilometers. It's not perfect, eight miles is actually 12.875 kilometers, but it's close enough in a pinch.

If you need to convert a number that's not on the Fibonacci sequence, you can just break out the Fibonacci numbers, convert, and add the answers. For instance, 100 can be broken down into 89 + 8 + 3, all Fibonacci numbers. The next numbers are 144, 13, and 5, which add up to 162. 100 miles is actually equal to 160.934. Again, close enough.

Math is cool.

Lego Shuttle in space

A great video of a Romania high school student who sent a Lego shuttle into space attached to a weather ballon.  I love he follow up at the end.