Done in the manner of our current technology for spaceflight a trip from Earth to Mars takes 6 months. That’s bad enough for unmanned probes. For a manned flight that means 6 months of subjecting humans to an environment being blasted by radiation the magnetosphere on Earth normally protects us from and requiring the ship to carry food and air for the trip as well as what they’ll need when they get there. There are a number of approaches we’re looking into to handle that but one of the more obvious ones is to complete the trip faster. That’s where a company called the Ad Astra Rocket Company comes in. They’ve got an idea for an advanced ion engine that could cut the trip from 6 months to 6 weeks:
Conventional ion engines blast a small stream of charges particles to propel a spacecraft. They start slow but can build up tremendous speeds over time.
Still, the regular ion engine wouldn’t get us to Mars very fast.
So Ad Astra uses superpowered magnets to heat the ion stream — and would mount a nuclear reactor on a Mars-bound craft to make it even more powerful.
Interesting, to say the least. The full story’s at New Scientist magazine. Ion engines have already been used by NASA and Japan, for example, but Ad Astra’s looks to make theirs even more powerful. Bring it on, boys & girls!
July 25th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Human Interest, Science, Technology |
no comments
I’m visiting family this upcoming week so blogging might be a little slow. Of course, that depends largely on the events of the day so I might get a sudden jolt of gotta-blog-this ever so often.
July 25th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Blogging |
no comments
The Dem leadership in Congress does not want the American public to see just how convoluted the Obama/Reid/Pelosi health care plan is and that’s because average people with common sense can see just how badly something this poorly constructed can go wrong. GOP Representatives have attempted to send the flowchart of the plan shown below out to their constituents but the Democrats filed a complaint with the franking committee to have it blocked. Reading the original story over on Roll Call you find out that the Dem’s primary complaint is that the chart doesn’t have enough lines, which only makes the issue worse in my view.
Republican House members contend that the Democrats are simply scared of what people will think if they see how this monstrosity is actually constructed and have moved to censor the document rather than actually address the problems in the plan. See for yourself and decide that on your own:
July 24th, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Politics |
2 comments
Now that Too Conservative is back on-line contributor VA Blogger is back at it with a post regarding the fundraising reports for Q2 for the Virginia races. The report puts all the numbers together in a concise package for you complete with basic analysis of trends. Great job, VA Blogger, and thank you for gathering this all together for us.
July 22nd, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Politics, Virginia Politics |
no comments
Responding to a Salon article that went rah-rah for the President and attempted to call out those “crazy Republicans”:
The Democrats have dumped a drastic, complicated health care bill on us and they are ramming it through before we can even figure it out. That’s what matters, not the fact that the party out of power is squawking about it.
(Hat tip: Instapundit)
July 22nd, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Medicine, Politics |
no comments
Loudoun’s laws have been brought in line with the State’s:
Adjusting to meet state rules on firearms, Loudoun’s supervisors voted 7-2 to allow guns in county parks.
County regulations had limited the carrying of firearms in local parks, while state rules allow them. Firing a gun in local parks is still prohibited.
“We’re doing a technical change to two county ordinances to bring us in line with state code,” said John Sandy, a county administrator. The county began looking at changes to its gun laws this spring. At that time, state lawmakers approved new laws that make it easier to file a lawsuit against a locality for violating state firearm rules.
As I’ve mentioned here before, Virginia is what’s known as a “Dillon-rule state.” What that means is that localities only have the power to enact those laws they are explicitly permitted to by state law. If the state law does not specifically say they can create a regulation, then they cannot do so nor can they enforce such a law if it’s explicitly overruled by a state law. That’s the situation Loudoun was in, here. The state passed laws that went into effect July 1st permitting otherwise lawfully permitted gun owners to carry guns into state parks. With that law passed, Loudoun’s ordinance saying they couldn’t was in violation of the Dillon rule. Since one of the other laws passed places the onus for paying court costs onto the local government should they be sued for creating or enforcing a law in violation of state laws, making the proposed change to the ordinances is a defensive maneuver for Loudoun.
Chairman York and Supervisor Delgaudio were the 2 who voted against the changes. Both should be ashamed of themselves and this action calls into question – again – whether they’ve really got Loudoun’s interests in mind. The changes to the laws were to bring Loudoun into compliance with state law and avoid lawsuits that would be won easily by the first people to file. When those suits would be lost, Loudoun would pay for the case. Not smart. York should consider his own commentary on the matter and give it some deeper thought:
“I’d like to understand just what kind of protection we’re offering our citizens,” Chairman Scott York (I-at large) said during an April discussion. “I pick this up, and I think, ‘Well that’s great, fine and dandy, but what happens when somebody pulls out a gun at Franklin Park because we have just done this? What protection have we left residents?’”
The person who pulls a gun in Franklin Park or any other park in Loudoun, unless he’s doing so in self-defense, is by definition engaging in an illegal act. The kind of person who’s likely to do that didn’t care that Loudoun’s ordinance said he couldn’t carry the gun before, which causes me to ask York the question of what kind of protection he was offering our citizens before this change was enacted. Quick answer: none. The only thing being done by restricting law-abiding citizens from carrying their firearms for self-defense was assuring the crooks who were carrying theirs in violation of that restriction an unarmed target populace. Unless York was proposing placing armed police in every park in sufficient numbers as to blanket the area, he was providing no protection to the citizens at all before this. Making this change allows citizens to provide for their own defense.
One more quick item: Delgaudio offered an amendment that would offer an exception to the ordinance prohibiting firing a gun in a local park for shooting in self-defense. For some reason, the amendment was voted down. What message does that send to Loudoun’s citizens? That the Commonwealth’s Attorney in Loudoun might cite you for unlawful discharge of a firearm should you have to shoot in defense of yourself and your family? If the BoS meant to permit such defensive shots, why deny the amendment? Curious.
July 21st, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
2nd Amendment, Law, Politics |
no comments
The Kincora development I wrote about yesterday came before the Loudoun Board of Supervisors at today’s meeting and the BoS voted to approve the zoning changes needed to allow the development to proceed.
Loudoun County supervisors on Tuesday approved zoning changes that would allow a 5,500-seat minor league baseball stadium and a mixed-use office and retail complex to be built at Routes 28 and 7.
The board’s endorsement of the project, part of the planned Kincora Village, came with at least 50 conditions of approval that addressed environmental impacts, open space requirements and road improvements.
The vote was 6-2 in favor of approval with Stevens Miller (D-Dulles) abstaining and Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac) and Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) voting against. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Supervisor McGimsey’s vote was hardly unexpected. With the decision made I would like to see all of the Supervisors taking whatever actions are necessary to ensure the development is done as it was specified by the builder and that all the promises made by the builder regarding building schedules be kept.
(More on this story at Loudoun Independent.)
July 21st, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Economy, Human Interest, Politics, Virginia Politics |
no comments
I got this in e-mail this afternoon and thought you might enjoy the chuckle:
For the Annual Company Picnic, management had decided that because of liability issues, we could have alcohol, but only one drink per person…
I was fired for ordering the cups.
July 21st, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Human Interest |
no comments
Too Conservative is back on the air, and with a new look besides! We’re damned glad to see them and looking forward to even better stuff over there.
July 21st, 2009
Posted by
ricjames |
Blogging, Politics, Virginia Politics |
no comments
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