Month: May 2007

bookmark_borderGalileo Upate

Posted on by PaulaO

From BBC News – Science/Nature:

Galileo firms miss key deadline

The private consortium asked to run Europe’s satellite navigation system, Galileo, has missed a key EU deadline for moving the project forward.

The European Commission (EC) said the companies had made “insufficient progress”, resulting in unacceptable delays and risks for public finances.

This is likely to mean European taxpayers stepping in to cover an advance payment for construction costs.

The EC is expected to present new plans to overhaul the project on 16 May.

These will be sent for approval by the EU’s transport ministers in June.

link to full article

bookmark_borderEarly Hurricane Season!

Posted on by PaulaO

Er, Mama Nature? It ain’t June yet.

From the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

BULLETIN
SUBTROPICAL STORM ANDREA ADVISORY NUMBER 1
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL012007
1100 AM EDT WED MAY 09 2007

…EARLY-SEASON SUBTROPICAL STORM FORMS OFF THE SOUTHEAST U.S. COAST…

SATELLITE IMAGERY AND AIRCRAFT DATA INDICATE THAT THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM OFF THE SOUTHEAST U.S. COAST HAS ACQUIRED SUBTROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

AT 11 AM EDT…1500 UTC…A TROPICAL STORM WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED ALONG THE SOUTHEAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES FROM ALTAMAHA SOUND GEORGIA SOUTHWARD TO FLAGLER BEACH FLORIDA. A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA…GENERALLY WITHIN THE NEXT 36 HOURS.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA…INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS…PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 1100 AM EDT…1500Z…THE CENTER OF SUBTROPICAL STORM ANDREA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 30.8 NORTH…LONGITUDE 79.3 WEST OR ABOUT 140 MILES…225 KM…SOUTHEAST OF SAVANNAH GEORGIA AND ABOUT 150 MILES …240 KM…NORTHEAST OF DAYTONA BEACH FLORIDA.

ANDREA IS MOVING GENERALLY TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 3 MPH. A CONTINUED SLOW MOTION AND A GRADUAL TURN TOWARD THE SOUTHWEST ARE EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ALONG THIS TRACK…THE CENTER OF ANDREA IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN OFFSHORE OF THE U.S. COAST THROUGH AT LEAST THURSDAY MORNING.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 45 MPH…75 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER GUSTS. LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

WINDS OF 40 MPH EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES…185 KM…MAINLY TO THE EAST OF THE CENTER.

THE LATEST MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY AN AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WAS 1003 MB…29.62 INCHES.

SINCE THE HEAVIEST RAINS ASSOCIATED WITH ANDREA ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN OFFSHORE DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS… ANDREA IS NOT EXPECTED TO PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL OVER ANY LAND AREAS THROUGH AT LEAST THURSDAY MORNING.

REPEATING THE 1100 AM EDT POSITION…30.8 N…79.3 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD…WEST NEAR 3 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…45 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…1003 MB.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 200 PM EDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 500 PM EDT

Linkage:

NHC:

The Emergency Email and Wireless Network

KG4VPY – my ham radio site where I try to keep updates. I failed last season.

bookmark_borderPodcasts, Writers FM, and more

Posted on by PaulaO

From Georgeanna Hancock, over at A Writer’s Edge:

Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Radio for Writers

You can find “radio for writers, by writers” at Writers FM. It’s operated by Karl Moore, who also has a blog, a website and a lovely British accent. Of course, it’s not really radio, AM or FM, but streaming media you can hear (with jazzy background music) on the Windows Media Player. The website also archives podcasts in MP3 format of some of the shows. A broadcast of an interview with historical biographer Lucinda Hawksley was playing when I visited this morning. The podcast playbill includes programs with Edwina Curry (Hell’s Kitchen), Joe Vitale (Internet marketing), Phil Harris (Waking God) and several more.

I did a Google search for “writing podcast” and got some good results. National Public Radio (NPR) has a plethora of good podcasts. They are sorted by topic, by title, and by provider. One of my favorite is The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. The provider of that show, American Public Media, also has a great collection of podcasts. Public Radio International (PRI) also has a good collection.

I don’t often download a podcast, but instead listen to them directly from the websites. I don’t have podcast software that regularly downloads or keeps track of stuff. I just go there and hit “listen” or “play”. I’m rather simple at times. If I am going to be waiting for a while somewhere, I download stuff (in MP3 format) and listen to it on my Creative Labs Zen player. I don’t do iPods. The world needs less iPods and iThis and iThat. But that’s a different direction.

bookmark_borderMore Space News

Posted on by PaulaO

From BBC News Science/Nature:

Galileo system ‘in a deep crisis’

Europe’s proposed satellite-navigation system, Galileo, will need more public funds if it is to be built.

Hope is receding that a private consortium asked to run the system can end its infighting and meet a 10 May deadline to move the project forward.

This is likely to mean European taxpayers stepping in to cover costs.

German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, speaking on behalf of the EU, said: “Galileo is going through a deep and grave crisis.”

He added: “We’re in a dead end street. The cardinal problem is that the companies still have not been able to agree on the way forward. We need to find an alternative solution.”

The consortium comprises leading aerospace and telecom concerns: EADS, Thales, Inmarsat, Alcatel-Lucent, Finmeccanica, AENA, Hispasat, and TeleOp.

The European Commission (EC) set the May deadline for them to come forward with a single company structure to run Galileo, a chief executive and common negotiating position.

But with little sign of the target being met to the Commission’s satisfaction, the EC is now expected to present new proposals to overhaul the project on 16 May.

link to full article

Politics and business will always be around. This would be an interesting twist to science fiction novels.

bookmark_borderSolar Sail Idea

Posted on by PaulaO

Way cool concept!

From Wired News – Science – Space:

Riding the Solar Wind on a 30-Mile Sail
Emmet Cole

A spinning web of electrified wire 30 miles wide may become the spacecraft propulsion system of the future.

A team from the Kumpula Space Center in Finland is proposing a huge electronic sail for spacecraft that may dramatically reduce journey times across the solar system. The giant sail, which would be twice the length of Manhattan, is made from about 100 wires spun up into a whirling disk. Electrified by an onboard, solar-powered electron gun, the positively charged wires repel the negatively charged protons of the solar wind, providing thrust.

The solar wind is a high-speed plasma stream blowing outward from the Sun. The average pressure of the solar wind is miniscule (a mere 2 nanopascals, or 0.2 grams of weight per square kilometer), which explains the need for such a large sail.

“It’s such a small force that it’s really hard to imagine even,” says Pekka Janhunen of the Finnish Meteorological Center, who leads the team behind the concept. “But it’s still enough to move the spacecraft because it’s doing it continuously over a large area.” The sail is described (.pdf) in the latest issue of physics journal Annales Geophysicae.

Because the wires, or tethers, are thinner than human hair, they can create a sail (.avi) that is much larger than a solid surface — up to 30 miles wide.

“The most difficult challenge is posed by the tethers and the tether reels,” says Jahnunen. “Manufacturing 25-km-long tethers (the equivalent of 15 miles long) thinner than human hair is an engineering challenge, as is development of the mechanics of the reel.”

Results drawn from computer simulations indicate that in an average solar wind, a 440-pound spacecraft could achieve final speeds of up to 62 miles a second (or 1.9 billion miles a year), allowing a spacecraft to reach Pluto in less than five years.

link to full article

Ever since Cosmos 1 was built (it never reached space due to the Russian rocket failed), I’ve been anxious for new ideas about solar sails. This type of stuff is great fodder for science fiction writers.

bookmark_borderA Different Kind of Traffic Problem

Posted on by PaulaO

From BBC News:

The Boeing 737 stuck in city road
By Monica Chadha
BBC News, Mumbai

Residents of the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) are wondering how long it will take to remove a disused Boeing 737 that has been abandoned in a busy road.

The decommissioned aircraft was being driven through the city at the weekend when the driver got lost and then abandoned the plane.

(snip)

It appears that after taking a wrong turn, the driver found himself facing a flyover that was too low for him to take the plane under.

The driver has not been seen since and no-one is assuming responsibility for the 737.

link to article

image from BBCNews

bookmark_borderCarbon Footprint

Posted on by PaulaO

I must be out of the eco-loop since I’ve not heard much about this. It apparently is the latest way to go green. Heck, even my web host is doing it.

Green Web Hosting! This site hosted by DreamHost.

Wikipedia has an article on Carbon Footprint and had a link to the Ecological Footprint Quiz. I failed miserably.

What can I do about it? Not much. I can’t do public transportation because of the rural area. I can’t bicycle into town, either. My chair won’t make it that far. Still, perhaps there are things I can do to decrease that footprint of mine, eh?

What’s YOUR footprint?

UPDATE: How strange I would come across this today? From BBCNews:

Queen tribute to Virginia victims

The Queen has said her “heart goes out” to those affected by the Virginia Tech shootings last month, in a speech on her first US trip for 16 years.

She and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived earlier at Virginia’s Richmond Airport, for the six-day East Coast tour.

The state visit will include two days in Washington DC with the President.

The royal couple will visit Jamestown on Friday to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the US’s first permanent English settlement.

(snip)

The Queen’s carbon footprint will be calculated and offset for the first time for a state visit.

link to article
I bold-ed the text for emphasis

bookmark_borderCalling All Bibliophiles

Posted on by PaulaO

My publisher, Regal Crest Enterprises (RCE), is operated by a really cool woman. A long time ago, RCE bought out RAP (I can’t remember what that stood for, dangit). She has collected some interesting books over the years. First round prints, proof prints, etc. One-of-a-kind prints.

Some of these (both RAP and RCE titles) are being auctioned via eBay. Check them out!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention why C.L. is selling them. Last year, Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge beat the crap out of the Gulf Coast. Later, Hurricane Rita beat the crap out of Texas. In most ways, H. Rita did as much damage as H. Katrina but is known as the “Forgotten Hurricane”. C.L.’s house was heavily damaged from H. Rita. After she had paid to have the house repaired while waiting for the insurance check, her insurance company went bankrupt! As a result, C.L., her partner, and her three teenage sons are squeaking by with no more savings and still more bills. Selling the books is just one way for them to get back on their financial feet.