Impulse Drive under development in China

Captain Kirk called it impulse drive.  Larry Niven's stories called it a reactionless thruster.   A device that makes thrust without throwing propellant out the rocket nozzle.  Pure science fiction.   Until Aviation Week ran a story this week about the "Emdrive".
   It started back in 2001 when a British inventor named Roger Shawyer set up a company to develop the drive aided by a grant from the British government.  Needless to say, a number of people denounced the concept as quackery.   Shawyer built a prototype that produced 85 milli newtons (1/4 ounce) of thrust from an input 300 watts of microwave power.  A Chinese research group claimed an improved model developed  720 milli newtons (2.5 ounces) of thrust from 2.5 KW of input microwave power.
    Boeing's "Phantom Works"  took a look at the device some years ago, but is no longer pursuing the approach and Shawyer's government funding has gone away.
   If it works, it's pure science fiction, and the door to interplanetary space craft.  Aviation Week is a sober industry magazine.
   Except for now and then.  Aviation Week ran a story about a secret US project that built a single stage ground to orbit space craft on their cover some ten years ago.
    Very Interesting.  Believe as much as you like. 
 

De Tocqueville can be really gloomy.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

Alexis de Tocqueville.  Democracy in America

Bummer, Four More Years

Every thing I might say has already been said, ad infinitum. I guess the voters want four more years of the same.  Too bad, I thought Americans were smarter than that.

Poll Standing

I was at the polls at 8 AM, opening time.  It was cold, 20F, below freezing.  Fortunately the sun was out and it wasn't raining or snowing.  Which has happened in the past.  Anyhow my long woolen underwear and SmartWool socks felt pretty good. At the Bethlehem polls we Republicans were the only ones there, no Democrats.  Turnout was decent. 
  At Franconia,  Bob Mead (long time town moderator) called the turnout heavy.  Bob oughta know.  We had 4  poll standers, and the Democrats had 2.  
  Gotta go back out to catch the evening crowd.  Then turn on the TV to find out what happened.  Might be a long night.

Wreckit Ralph

Good flick.  Funny enough to make me laugh out loud, something I don't do very often.  It's from Disney, the old Disney animation studio, which is nice.  They still can make a good animated movie.  The premise of the flick is those characters on the screens of computer games actually have a real life, after the arcade closes.  Wreckit Ralph is a big clumsy bad guy from one game who wants to become a good guy, just once.  After closing time, Ralph journeys to Game Central Station and thence to some other games in search of his dream.  Since it's a Disney flick, Ralph eventually triumphs and returns to his own home game a hero.
  The dialogue is very funny, even the puns are amusing.
  I enjoyed it.  It's one of the better movies to come out of Hollywood this year.  

Second Snow of the season

Looks like winter is serious.  We got enough to stick.  The ground isn't frozen yet, so it's melting off the roads and lawns, but I still have nearly an inch on my deck railing. 

Words of the Weasel Part 30. Issues

Issue.  All purpose word used in place of failure, breakdown, bug, or problem.  Sounds much better.  Like something you can debate, rather than getting down to work and fixing it. 
As in "We have generator issues" from a lower Manhatten brokerage house explaining why they were not open for business on Wednesday after Hurricane Sandy. 
  Sounds much better than "Our generator is down".