Archive for January 2011

Eliminating Left Hand Turns





Thesestudies will have areal impact on street design and planning.  The bottom line is that left hand turns are hugelyinefficient during periods of heavy traffic and need to be diverted into rightturn loops.  The saving on fuelexperienced by myth busters is actually a shocking result and informs us justhow much fuel is spent idling while waiting for a traffic signal.

Fundamentally we need to stopcatering to the left hand turn and spend of making the alternates work well.  This means improving the available right handturn corridors so that the traffic can use it smoothly.  It may seem an inconvenience to drivers whowant to go left but we now know better and should we think on it, idling in aleft hand turn lane while waiting for a traffic opening has always beenproblematic.

The direct saving in both fuelusage and accident rates provide a direct incentive to reengineer all such busystreets and theirs feeders.  I know fromexperience that there are plenty of locations were doing a right hand turn isnot particularly practical and this will take time to fix if it can be done.

Yet beginning with the easy oneswill allow us to educate the public.

Obviously this clearly applies to heavily traveled streets and not your typical residential street network.  however, fixing all this will impact on a lot of residential streets to some degree.


JANUARY 10, 2011




Superstreets are thoroughfares where the left-hand turns from sidestreets are re-routed, as is traffic from side streets that needs to cross thethoroughfare. In both instances, drivers are first required to make a rightturn and then make a U-turn around a broad median. While this may seemtime-consuming, the study shows that it actually results in a significant timesavings since drivers are not stuck waiting to make left-hand turns or fortraffic from cross-streets to go across the thoroughfare.

* a 20 percent overall reduction in travel time compared to similar intersections thatuse conventional traffic designs

* superstreet intersections experience an average of 46 percent fewer reported automobile collisions – and 63 percent fewer collisionsthat result in personal injury



US motor vehicle deaths by year

2005   43,443  
2006   42,642 
2007   41,059
2008   37,261 
2009   33,808  

About 90-115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States

Worldwide an estimated 1.2 million people are killed in roadcrashes each year and as many as 50 million are injured. Projectionsindicate that these figures will increase by about 65% over the next 20 yearsunless there is new commitment to prevention.

There is the potential that widespread superstreet adoption would save severalthousand lives per year in the USA and a few hundred thousand lives worldwide.

The paper is called Operational Effects of Signalized Superstreets in North Carolina.

Mythbusters showed that only using right turns saves gas
The myth was setup from the perspective of a delivery truck driver.Several locations within the San Francisco area were setup as delivery points, then tworoutes were derived. The first route was a more “logical” route trying not tofavor right turns. This route had eight left turns, four right turns, and atotal distance of 5.2 miles. The second route tried to exclude as many leftturns as practical. The “right turn” route was 6.8 miles long, had one leftturn and twenty-three right turns. Each route visited each stop in the sameorder.

The MythBusters concluded that right turns were indeed more efficient in theirtest. While the route favoring right turns was a longer distance and took alonger amount of time, it used only 4.0 gallons of fuel compared to 6.8 gallonsof fuel on the “control” route.


No Left Turn: ‘Superstreet’ Traffic Design Improves Travel Time, Safety



Release Date: 01.10.2011

Filed under Releases

The so-called “superstreet” traffic design results in significantlyfaster travel times, and leads to a drastic reduction in automobile collisionsand injuries, according to North Carolina State University researchers who haveconducted the largest-ever study of superstreets and their impacts.

Superstreets are surface roads, not freeways.  It is defined as athoroughfare where the left-hand turns from side streets are re-routed, as istraffic from side streets that needs to cross the thoroughfare. In bothinstances, drivers are first required to make a right turn and then make a U-turnaround a broad median. While this may seem time-consuming, the study shows thatit actually results in a significant time savings since drivers are not stuckwaiting to make left-hand turns or for traffic from cross-streets to go acrossthe thoroughfare.

"Superstreet" traffic designs result in faster travel timesand significantly fewer accidents, according to the new study.
“The study shows a 20 percent overall reduction in travel time comparedto similar intersections that use conventional traffic designs,” says Dr. JoeHummer, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NCState and one of the researchers who conducted the study. “We also found thatsuperstreet intersections experience an average of 46 percent fewer reportedautomobile collisions – and 63 percent fewer collisions that result in personalinjury.”

The researchers assessed travel time at superstreet intersections asthe amount of time it takes a vehicle to pass through an intersection from themoment it reaches the intersection – whether traveling left, right or straightahead. The travel-time data were collected from three superstreets located ineastern and central North Carolina,all of which have traffic signals. The superstreet collision data werecollected from 13 superstreets located across North Carolina, none of which have trafficsignals.

The superstreet concept has been around for over 20 years, but littleresearch had been done to assess its effectiveness under real-world conditions.The NC State study is the largest analysis ever performed of the impact ofsuperstreets in real traffic conditions.

A paper on the travel time research is being presented Jan. 24 at theTransportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.The paper is co-authored by Hummer, former NC State graduate students RebeccaHaley and Sarah Ott, and three researchers from NC State’s Institute forTransportation Research and Education: Robert Foyle, associate director;Christopher Cunningham, senior research associate; and Bastian Schroeder,research associate.

The collision research was part of an overarching report of the studysubmitted to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) lastmonth, and is the subject of a forthcoming paper. The study was funded byNCDOT.

NC State’s Department of Civil, Construction and EnvironmentalEngineering is part of the university’s College of Engineering.

Richard Dell on Space Fusion





Thetake home from this industry insider is that over unity fusion is likely tohappen in the next couple of years.  Iconcur for the same reasons.  This weeksdemonstration of twenty times unity will turn out to be a very useful form offusion energy but specifically limited to producing heat.  The forms we are referring to will producehigh energy plasma and an energy takeoff that is mostly electrical which is waymore flexible.


His focus here is to tap suchenergy to drive an impulse motor space craft. Recall that it is only necessary to sustain a one g thrust on a continuousbasis to go to the nearby stars on a long trip. However, the same system puts everything within the solar system a fewweeks away.  Thus a fusion reactor and aone g thruster rigged up as a space craft completely opens up the solar systemto us.

The image gives us some of thepresent design concepts.  I think that weneed a prime space lifter to haul components out of the gravity well and thateverything else must be assembled there. A fusion based lifter would make it practical.

It is great to see folks getting excited about space travel again.



JANUARY 05, 2011


Here is the Richard Dell Jr interview. Mr. Dell believes that he andhis team have developed a method for generating fusion power which isappropriate for providing the propulsion for exploring and colonizing space. Heis confident that this approach could lead to spacecraft capable of flying tothe moon and landing on it, and returning to earth usinga single craft without jettisoning any stages or equipment. This technologycould also be used to send humans to mars in only 2 months. His company, which is stilllargely in stealth mode, plans on generating short term revenue by selling moreefficient satellite maneuvering thrusters to the satellite industry. Mr. Dellis confident that breakeven fusion power generation will be demonstrated withinthe next 3 years.


Highlight answers from Mr Dell in this the interview: 



This technology will change everything. By 2020, we could be activelyimplementing commercial settlement and/or tourist expeditions to Mars.


2011 or 2012 will be the year of small scale fusion


This system will have ten times the propulsive thrust of a George Miley IECfusion propulsion proposal 


5 weeks to Mars with Helium 3 version of the fusion spaceship


In the 98 pager there is a description of being able to use the IEC in jet modefor propulsion. 


Way down the development path would be big fusion rockets like this





The ships that are designed 


IEC Fusion Ship I
500 MT
Isp =16,000
Thrust = 1028 Newtons

IEC Fusion Ship II
500 Mt
Isp = 35,000
Thrust = 4369 Newtons

But near term are progressively better propulsion units that start withsatellite maneuvering thrusters that are ten times better than today’s Hallthrusters.

IEC power units can be added in series to develop higher power units such asrequired for deep space propulsion -- Magnetically Channeled Spherical Array,MCSA

High Power Operation
Eliminates Grid Structure
Increase Energy Confinement Time

They are tuning the IEC configuration for space propulsion

If they pulse it up to several thousand amps then it is OK if IEC only hasscales by cubing the power instead of to the fifth power to get to 25Megawatts.

A 7page paper- Magnetically-Channeled SIEC Array (MCSA) Fusion Device forInterplanetary Missions


Question: Tell us about how you became involved with Dr. Miley

Answer: Several years back I was a Program Manager for a small, family ownedcompany. While I worked there I became very interested in developing an Advanced Aerospace Research Center and began to makecontact with a variety of physicists, technologists and foundations. The ArlingtonInstitute and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin introduced me to Dr. Miley, about fouryears ago this March. I am truly grateful to the principals of both of theseInstitutes and I confess that I owe them a debt of gratitude more than I couldpossible ever repay.




So, we all shared at least one thing in common, that the problem with a youngperson out in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana is the same problem for theyoung person in the slums of LA - they have had their frontier taken away fromthem. Think about that. Americahas always had a frontier. We lost it for a couple decades, it was given backto us briefly from ’69 to ’72 and then it disappeared again. It’s time to giveour young people back their frontier. They want it, they need it, it offers aneconomic engine of unparalleled capabilities for our young people and ourNation.

And so our little loosely organized group is focused on three areas, energy,the environment, and space. The thrust I’d prefer to discuss first is SPACE,the commercial development of manned and unmanned space technologies thatenable and expedite exploration and settlement of our Moon and Mars and to doso in this century. Let that sink in. This century. OK? So we hope to beginnext generation development of technologies that facilitate this objectiveusing intellectual property that stands the test and muster of our intellectualproperty analysis as well as showing feasibility in data and testing at thesame time. The combination of the two is the fulcrum.

98 page technical presentation from 2009 by George Miley 



There has been advances since the presentation but the solidity of thetechnical basis can be seen.

Question: In a minute I want to ask you more about your intellectual property,but first, tell me more about the device you call an LTV?

Answer: Lunar Transit Vehicle. Moon and back safely, carry six people plus twopilots/attendants or two pilots and a good bit of gear. Nothing new here,except the Miley IEC technology and hybrid of airbreathing MHD hybrid IEC isan application which we believe we can now amplify in terms of propulsivethrust by 10 times. We want to develop larger prototypes of fusion poweredpropulsion systems that would allow a single stage re-usable rocket/spacecraftto fly to and land on the moon, recover regolith samples, do valuable science, offer some entertaining tourist sights, andreturn to earth safely. We are confident that our aneutronic fusion spacepropulsion system could be a key factor in opening up space and creating athriving space industry. I’m actually hoping with this interview to get someattention from the folks I heard some kid describe recently as the “SpaceBarons”. Space-Barons, if you want the next stage of propulsion, if you wantseven or eight week flights to Mars, we are here and open for business.

Question: Where is the intellectual property coming from?

Answer: We have a commercialization agreement with Dr. George Miley and hisNuclear Plasma Laboratory organization known as NPL. Wecreated a joint venture to explore a novel form of liquid sodium borohydridefuel cell, and I am developing a program for IEC Propulsion. What we all wantto see is improvements in the Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC)prototypes as we build larger and better. We have been conducting extensive Rand D as well as doing commercialization assessments through our cooperativeefforts with M-CAM. The past four years of diligence on a variety ofspace-related energy technologies may soon pay off.

Question: What’s M-CAM?

Answer: Well, I mentioned intellectual property diligence before, and havinglearned the M-CAM system I am still quite utterly blown away when I try toimagine what it was like to do diligence on technology *AND* intellectualproperty assessment before this kind of capability was available. M-CAM takesall the voodoo out, and the best antiseptic is applied, complete illumination.Without the M-CAM team and their software, the past four years of diligence andgroundwork on a whole variety of space-related energy technologies could neverhave paid off.

Question: Back to the technology, how closely are you collaborating with Dr.Miley?

Answer: We have been working with him for the past four years, and we hold himin the highest regard. We have an extraordinary working relationship with him,and now that Bussard has passed away, Dr. Miley needs to be the pivotal figurefor aneutronic fusion propulsion research. George is trying to create a fusionprogram that burns aneutronically, without magnets, and that burns a relativelyinexpensive fuel. This is what we need to get to Mars and back in less than twomonths, and with some excellent inherent shielding of 99% of cosmic radiation.Shielding can deal with the 1% we can’t filter out, the worst of the stuff, themetallic ions.

Question: What are the main technologies that you are developing?

Answer: There are two primary technologies that George’s people are developing.They are modifying current IEC designs to increase plasma flow and pressure. Theyare also developing a novel form of airbreathing hypersonic spaceplane with anIEC. This is called airbreathing MHD-IEC hybrid. The other is an injection ofIEC with a unique device to enable a vehicle to do a horizontal liftoff andthen proceed to LEO. By using these two technologies, we can develop a highlyefficient single-stage-to-orbit vehicle that can operate both within andoutside of the atmosphere. It could lift off from earth, land on the moon andcome back, without jettisoning any stages or equipment. This work is beyond thetheoretical and is now solidly in the realm of applied practical science.

Question: What fuel source will this fusion drive consume?

Answer: Initially it will use Proton-Boron 11. The ideal fusion fuel isHelium 3, which is found in abundance on the moon. PB11 is nearly as good, andrequires minimal shielding from radiation. So we will initially use PB11,and switch to HE3 when it becomes available, or when the Russians let us havemore, hahaha.

Question: You’re joking about the Russians, right?

Answer: ‘Not at all’, or perhaps ‘yes and no’ would have been better. The‘rumor on the street’ to explain why the Russians took He3 off the market isbecause they have an He3 reactor, big project…a project incidentally I would haveliked to see take root in Southwest Virginia.

Question: OK, back to Space, what are the size and weight parameters of thisproposed fusion powered spacecraft?

Answer: It is all very preliminary, so I can only provide ballpark estimates.George did some incredible simulation work to lay out the metrics, publishedthem over 15 years ago, btw. So imagine a 500 metric ton spacecraft outfittedwith a certain number of IEC fusion propulsion devices. With PB11 fuel, itcould lift off from earth, and reach Mars in eight weeks or less. Using HE3fuel, it could get to Mars in only five weeks. These reactors would be smallenough to be placed on a spacecraft the size of a standard commercial jet.

Question: How much funding is your program receiving? When will the firstprototype IEC drives be unveiled?

Answer: Both of those questions involve proprietary knowledge which I am notinterested in doing in this interview. I can, say, however, that all of ourfunding is from private sources - we aren't currently looking for anyGovernment funding. We have been informally working on this for the past fouryears, and we hope to be going public with more details in mid 2011.

Question: Are you collaborating with any other fusion groups, such as EMC2 orGeneral Fusion?

Answer: Developing partnerships and closing on funding agreements is where weare. We are interested in creating entrepreneurial partnerships which play tothe key values of our strategy. and bring more business to our company, whilesupporting efforts that move and advance our technology and commercializationcapabilities. So we are open to collaborating with other companies and we wishthe groups you referred to the very best of luck in 2011.

Question: How will your company generate revenue in the short term?

Answer: Current satellites maneuver based on Hall thrusters, whichare ion thrusters capable of providing small amounts of thrust. Dr. Miley hasdeveloped a new propulsion technique that provides an ultra-maneuverablethruster that can provide an order of magnitude more thrust than an equivalentHall thruster. We see strong short term Return On Investment (ROI) by sellingthis thruster to the satellite industry.

Question: When will we see breakeven fusion power generation?

Answer: We are confident that breakeven will be demonstrated within the next 24to 36 months by someone. I predict that 2011 or at the very least, 2012 will beremembered as the "year of small scale fusion"- there are just waytoo many people building fusors out there and for those who would prefer tokeep the djini in the bottle, sorry, but it’s bound to happen, and it surelooks to many of us that it could be sooner than anyone expects.

Question: How long will the research phase continue?

Answer: This project will be over 5-7 years, but will see economic returns waybefore the program is finished. We’re looking for the two year returns, not thethree year returns. This will be primarily servicing the small satellite sectorinitially, unless we can wake one of the Space-Barons out of their “chemical-enginehypnosis”. But ultimately this will be geared for deep space capabilities withmanned missions within the solar system.


Question: Will this system be safe? Are there any radiation issues with thesesystems?

Answer: To call these systems minimally radioactive is a disservice. Lessradiation will be generated than exists in background space. These systems arecompletely safe. When I first became acquainted with these technologies almostfive years ago I first asked what were the implications in terms of counter-terrorismand I was delighted to find that all IECs work basically the same, ifcontainment is lost, it is like blowing out a candle. It would be moredangerous to blow up a refrigerator than one of our reactors.

Question: How will this technology change the world in the next decade?

Answer: This technology will change everything. By 2020, we could be activelyimplementing commercial settlement and/or tourist expeditions to Mars. There isno silver bullet for jump-starting the commercial space industry except fusion.The demand for Space is there, we’ve all seen it. We are confident that withina decade we will have developed all of the infrastructure and commercialbreakthroughs necessary to enable the rapid manned occupation of the Moon andMars.

Question: How can someone get in contact with you to discuss this program?

Answer: I would prefer to receive email on this topic to my home email address,so you can publish the following : omega dot arimathea at gmail dot com.

Ad astra!

Breaking Network Bottlenecks




It is a simple enough trick, butit simply alternates random node data transfer with data transfer to an as yetunheard from node.  Inevitably bottlenecknodes get the necessary special attention and the overall network willnaturally speed up.

I am surprised this has not beenthought of before since the problem is obvious and obvious overcome byaddressing it more often.  It has likelybeen invented many times already.



Breaking bottlenecks

A new algorithm enables much faster dissemination of informationthrough self-organizing networks with a few scattered choke points.

Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office


September 24, 2010

A new algorithm spreads information (red) much more efficiently innetworks characterized by sparse connections between densely interlinkedclusters.

Graphic: Christine Daniloff
January 11, 2011

As sensors that do things like detect touch and motion in cell phonesget smaller, cheaper and more reliable, computer manufacturers are beginning totake seriously the decade-old idea of “smart dust” — networks of tiny wirelessdevices that permeate the environment, monitoring everything from thestructural integrity of buildings and bridges to the activity of livevolcanoes. In order for such networks to make collective decisions, however —to, say, recognize that a volcano is getting restless — they need to integrateinformation gathered by hundreds or thousands of devices.


But networks of cheap sensors scattered in punishing and protean environmentsare prone to “bottlenecks,” regions of sparse connectivity that all transmitteddata must pass through in order to reach the whole network. At the 2011ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, which took place in New Orleans theweekend of Jan. 9, Keren Censor-Hillel, a postdoc at MIT’s Computer Science andArtificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Hadas Shachnai of Technion – IsraelInstitute of Technology presented a new algorithm that handles bottlenecks muchmore effectively than its predecessors.


The algorithm is designed to work in so-called ad hoc networks, in which no onedevice acts as superintendent, overseeing the network as a whole. In a networkof cheap wireless sensors, for instance, any given device could fail: itsbattery could die; its signal could be obstructed; it could even be carried offby a foraging animal. The network has to be able to adjust to any device’sdisappearance, which means that no one device can have too much responsibility.


Without a superintendent, the network has no idea where its bottlenecks are.But that doesn’t matter to Censor-Hillel and Shachnai’s algorithm. “It nevergets to identify the bottlenecks,” Censor-Hillel says. “It just copes withtheir existence.”


Consistent inconsistency


The researchers’ analysis of their algorithm makes a few simplifyingassumptions that are standard in the field. One is that communication betweennetworked devices takes place in rounds. Each round, a device can initiatecommunication with only one other device, but it can exchange an unlimitedamount of information with that device and with any devices that contact it.During each exchange, it passes along all the information it’s received fromany other devices. If the devices are volcano sensors, that information couldbe, say, each device’s most recent measurement of seismic activity in its area.


It turns out that if you’re a sensor in a network with high connectivity — onein which any device can communicate directly with many of the others — simplyselecting a neighboring device at random each round and sending it all theinformation you have makes it likely that every device’s information willpermeate the whole network. But take two such highly connected networks andconnect them to each other with only one link — a bottleneck — and therandom-neighbor algorithm no longer works well. On either side of thebottleneck, it could take a long time for information to work its way around tothe one device that communicates with the other side, and then a long time forthat device to bother to send its information across the bottleneck.


Censor-Hillel and Shachnai’s algorithm works by alternating communicationstrategies from round to round. In the first round, you select a neighboringdevice at random and send it all the information you have — which, since it’sthe first round, is limited to the measurement that you yourself haveperformed. That same round, however, other devices may contact you and send youtheir information. In the second round, you don’t just select a neighbor atrandom; you select a neighbor whose information you have not yet received. Inthe third round, you again select a neighbor at random. By the end of thatround, since every device on the network forwards all the information it has,you’ve received not only the measurements performed by the devices youcontacted, nor just the measurements performed by the devices that contactedyou, but measurements performed by neighbors of your neighbors, and evenneighbors of neighbors of neighbors. In the fourth round, you again select adevice whose information you haven’t received; in the fifth, you select adevice at random; and so on.


“The idea is that the randomized steps I take allow me to spread theinformation fast within my well-connected subset,” says Censor-Hillel. But inthe alternate rounds, each device tracks down the devices it hasn’t heard from,ensuring that information will quickly reach all the devices, including thosethat communicate across the bottleneck.


According to Alessandro Panconesi, a professor of computer science at Sapienza Universityof Rome and anexpert on network analysis, the devices on ad hoc networks tend to have limitedcomputational power and battery life, so the algorithms they execute must bevery “lightweight.” The new algorithm is “an interesting contribution,”Panconesi says. “It’s a very simple, locally based algorithm. Essentially, anode in this network can wake up and start operating by using this algorithm,and if every node in the network does the same, then essentially you givecommunication capability to the entire network.” He points out that the currentversion of the algorithm, in which, every round, every device sends all theinformation it’s received, wouldn’t be practical: “The algorithm is veryexpensive in terms of the information that it needs to exchange.” But he believesthat developing a less bandwidth-intensive version is “not unlikely.” “I’moptimistic,” he says.


Censor-Hillel agrees that “a major thing for future work would be to actuallyget practical bandwidth.” But for the time being, she’s collaborating withassistant professor of applied mathematics Jonathan Kelner and with CSAIL gradstudents Bernhard Haeupler and Petar Maymounkov to develop an algorithm thatperforms even better in the idealized case of unlimited bandwidth. “It’s amajor improvement,” she says.

Islamic Revolt






Underlying the uprising in Tunisia and the ongoing massive agitation in Egyptis the rise of the Islamic middle class who quite rightly object to havingtheir aspirations throttled by authoritarian corruption and economicmonopolies.  Such was the self emulatingmartyr in Tunisiawho was no illiterate peasant but was a well educated young man and the prideof a well to do family who sacrificed to see him into university.

They can go on the internet andsee free peoples at work everywhere improving their lives under governmentsthat have slowly learned to just get out of the way.  It is only amazing that it took this long toget up their courage to hit the bricks.

This is a true revolt againsttyranny.  The middle class is not beenadvanced in these countries and they will try a new political system to get itall to work.

At the same time, the lesson of Iran in whichone secular tyranny was replaced by a Islamic tyranny has not been losteither.  The Army everywhere will opposesuch and the democratic process is likely to actually suppress the likes of theMuslim brotherhood. It will still be nervous times.

Whatever the outcome, allgovernments in the Islamic world have been put on notice that they must providefreedom for the middle class to breath and contribute to the political life oftheir countries.

None of this has anything to dowith radical Islam although they will struggle to take advantage of it just asthe communists used to do in days of yore. In Egypt,Mubarak did the obvious and rounded up all the Muslim Brothers leadership andput them in jail to wait out the revolt.  Unfortunately, they were all since sprung and the prison was also emptied.

To really ride out the revolt hewould have to establish a transition electoral program to divert the energyinto electing a representative government. Doing that has been problematic because autocrats never see their way toprovide a truly workable constitution and the result is usually deeply flawed.Recall Russia’sconstitution which still keeps real power away from the elected representativeslong after the original group of thugs went to their graves.

Ideally, Mubarak and the army canbe the midwife to a constitutional assembly whose first order of business is toprovide a constitution.   That way thearmy and Mubarak can be the guarantors of a successful transition and the blockto the rise of specific factions undemocratic in their objectives such as theMuslim Brotherhood.  Of course theproblem in Pakistanis that the army has been both undemocratic in its inclinations and a sponsorof the worst radicalism.  Thus such arole must be transitional.

Far more importantly, the genieis out of the bottle.  Whatever theactual outcome, the middle class has discovered it has the power to challengethe autocrat and demand representative government through the modern ability tocommunicate with cell phones and twitter. Governments can stall but they cannotcontrol the dialogue at all.

We now live in a world in whichthose secret bribes paid to your bros’ secret bank account can become known toall your fellow citizens.


The only solution for theautocrats is to implement representative government as quickly aspossible.  Otherwise, mob rule willchallenge them constantly.





Analysis - Egypt'sAl Jazeera bans channel's key role


By Andrew Hammond
CAIRO | Sun Jan 30, 2011 5:47pm EST


(Reuters) - Egypt'sdecision on Sunday to close the offices of Al Jazeera illustrates the leadingrole the Arabic broadcaster has taken in reporting unprecedented popularrevolts against Arab rulers.

Egypt has often harassed the Qatar-based channelsince it began in 1996, setting off a revolution in Arab media in the face ofstate-controlled information, but it had never before tried to shut down itsoperations completely.

But the channel led the coverage of a Tunisianuprising when it began in late December and toppled Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali onJanuary 14, even though it was already banned from the North African country.

Then, sensing that Tunisia'sexample would set off copycat movements elsewhere, the channel chartedmobilisation in Egyptthat led to huge protests in the past week demanding the end of President HosniMubarak's rule.

"Al Jazeera saw the gravity of the situation," said ShadiHamid of the Brookings Institute in Doha,referring to the two revolts. "They saw it was going to be big beforeother people did and that it would stand as one of the historic moments in Arabhistory."

Arab governments have often closed the offices of the channel, whichhelped put tiny Gulf state Qataron the map and boosted its status as a leader of regional diplomacy.

A major oil and gas power, Qatar employs vast resources toback the channel. This month it began a stack of secret documents revealingembarrassing Palestinian Authority concessions to Israel in peace talks. Emad Gad ofthe Al Ahram Strategic and Political Studies Centre said the effort to smotherAl Jazeera was the last effort of a dying authoritarian system to controlevents in the traditional heavy-handed manner.

He cited the government's move to completely shut off the Internet andmobile phone lines on Friday in an effort to stop people gathering.

"Is cutting the Internet or the mobile network in 2011 a solution?This is equivalent to that. It's the behaviour of a dictatorial state breathingits last," Gad said.

Social media and mobile phone technology have also been cited asplaying a major role in the street mobilisations of the past month, whichtouched Yemen and Jordantoo.

STATE TV TRIES TO HIT BACK

Having ignored the protests for five days, Egyptian state TV has nowfocussed on the disorder that erupted after state security forces withdrew fromthe streets on Friday rather than ongoing protests against Mubarak.

On Sunday state TV -- which like other Arab official outlets has triedto modernise to keep up with the Qatari trend-setter -- sniped against thestation saying only a handful of protesters were in central Cairo, "in contrast to the tens ofthousands Al Jazeera talked about."

But Al Jazeera carried images from a still camera of crowds gatheringthroughout the day at Tahrir Square. The station also has a live channel whosetransmission Egypttried to block on its Nilesat satellite last week.

"We should have taken steps before with this channel since it hascaused more destruction than Israelfor Egypt,"governor of Minya province, Ahmed Diaeddin, raged on state TV. "I call forthe trial of Al Jazeera correspondents as traitors."

Salah Issa, editor the state-owned weekly al-Qahira, said Islamistsoften said to dominate Al Jazeera's editorial line were driven by a vendettaagainst Mubarak.

"It's managers think they are creating a revolution, firstin Tunisia, now in Egypt," he said.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya has been more conservative in covering the Arabuprisings -- less proactive in covering the protests in the early stage andquicker to promote a return to stability once concessions are offered.

As'ad AbuKhalil, a politics professor in the United States, wrote on his popularblogsite Egyptian and Saudi media were both trying discredit the protestmovement.

Eliminating Left Hand Turns





Thesestudies will have areal impact on street design and planning.  The bottom line is that left hand turns are hugelyinefficient during periods of heavy traffic and need to be diverted into rightturn loops.  The saving on fuelexperienced by myth busters is actually a shocking result and informs us justhow much fuel is spent idling while waiting for a traffic signal.

Fundamentally we need to stopcatering to the left hand turn and spend of making the alternates work well.  This means improving the available right handturn corridors so that the traffic can use it smoothly.  It may seem an inconvenience to drivers whowant to go left but we now know better and should we think on it, idling in aleft hand turn lane while waiting for a traffic opening has always beenproblematic.

The direct saving in both fuelusage and accident rates provide a direct incentive to reengineer all such busystreets and theirs feeders.  I know fromexperience that there are plenty of locations were doing a right hand turn isnot particularly practical and this will take time to fix if it can be done.

Yet beginning with the easy oneswill allow us to educate the public.

Obviously this clearly applies to heavily traveled streets and not your typical residential street network.  however, fixing all this will impact on a lot of residential streets to some degree.


JANUARY 10, 2011




Superstreets are thoroughfares where the left-hand turns from sidestreets are re-routed, as is traffic from side streets that needs to cross thethoroughfare. In both instances, drivers are first required to make a rightturn and then make a U-turn around a broad median. While this may seemtime-consuming, the study shows that it actually results in a significant timesavings since drivers are not stuck waiting to make left-hand turns or fortraffic from cross-streets to go across the thoroughfare.

* a 20 percent overall reduction in travel time compared to similar intersections thatuse conventional traffic designs

* superstreet intersections experience an average of 46 percent fewer reported automobile collisions – and 63 percent fewer collisionsthat result in personal injury



US motor vehicle deaths by year

2005   43,443  
2006   42,642 
2007   41,059
2008   37,261 
2009   33,808  

About 90-115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States

Worldwide an estimated 1.2 million people are killed in roadcrashes each year and as many as 50 million are injured. Projectionsindicate that these figures will increase by about 65% over the next 20 yearsunless there is new commitment to prevention.

There is the potential that widespread superstreet adoption would save severalthousand lives per year in the USA and a few hundred thousand lives worldwide.

The paper is called Operational Effects of Signalized Superstreets in North Carolina.

Mythbusters showed that only using right turns saves gas
The myth was setup from the perspective of a delivery truck driver.Several locations within the San Francisco area were setup as delivery points, then tworoutes were derived. The first route was a more “logical” route trying not tofavor right turns. This route had eight left turns, four right turns, and atotal distance of 5.2 miles. The second route tried to exclude as many leftturns as practical. The “right turn” route was 6.8 miles long, had one leftturn and twenty-three right turns. Each route visited each stop in the sameorder.

The MythBusters concluded that right turns were indeed more efficient in theirtest. While the route favoring right turns was a longer distance and took alonger amount of time, it used only 4.0 gallons of fuel compared to 6.8 gallonsof fuel on the “control” route.


No Left Turn: ‘Superstreet’ Traffic Design Improves Travel Time, Safety



Release Date: 01.10.2011

Filed under Releases

The so-called “superstreet” traffic design results in significantlyfaster travel times, and leads to a drastic reduction in automobile collisionsand injuries, according to North Carolina State University researchers who haveconducted the largest-ever study of superstreets and their impacts.

Superstreets are surface roads, not freeways.  It is defined as athoroughfare where the left-hand turns from side streets are re-routed, as istraffic from side streets that needs to cross the thoroughfare. In bothinstances, drivers are first required to make a right turn and then make a U-turnaround a broad median. While this may seem time-consuming, the study shows thatit actually results in a significant time savings since drivers are not stuckwaiting to make left-hand turns or for traffic from cross-streets to go acrossthe thoroughfare.

"Superstreet" traffic designs result in faster travel timesand significantly fewer accidents, according to the new study.
“The study shows a 20 percent overall reduction in travel time comparedto similar intersections that use conventional traffic designs,” says Dr. JoeHummer, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NCState and one of the researchers who conducted the study. “We also found thatsuperstreet intersections experience an average of 46 percent fewer reportedautomobile collisions – and 63 percent fewer collisions that result in personalinjury.”

The researchers assessed travel time at superstreet intersections asthe amount of time it takes a vehicle to pass through an intersection from themoment it reaches the intersection – whether traveling left, right or straightahead. The travel-time data were collected from three superstreets located ineastern and central North Carolina,all of which have traffic signals. The superstreet collision data werecollected from 13 superstreets located across North Carolina, none of which have trafficsignals.

The superstreet concept has been around for over 20 years, but littleresearch had been done to assess its effectiveness under real-world conditions.The NC State study is the largest analysis ever performed of the impact ofsuperstreets in real traffic conditions.

A paper on the travel time research is being presented Jan. 24 at theTransportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.The paper is co-authored by Hummer, former NC State graduate students RebeccaHaley and Sarah Ott, and three researchers from NC State’s Institute forTransportation Research and Education: Robert Foyle, associate director;Christopher Cunningham, senior research associate; and Bastian Schroeder,research associate.

The collision research was part of an overarching report of the studysubmitted to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) lastmonth, and is the subject of a forthcoming paper. The study was funded byNCDOT.

NC State’s Department of Civil, Construction and EnvironmentalEngineering is part of the university’s College of Engineering.

Richard Dell on Space Fusion





Thetake home from this industry insider is that over unity fusion is likely tohappen in the next couple of years.  Iconcur for the same reasons.  This weeksdemonstration of twenty times unity will turn out to be a very useful form offusion energy but specifically limited to producing heat.  The forms we are referring to will producehigh energy plasma and an energy takeoff that is mostly electrical which is waymore flexible.


His focus here is to tap suchenergy to drive an impulse motor space craft. Recall that it is only necessary to sustain a one g thrust on a continuousbasis to go to the nearby stars on a long trip. However, the same system puts everything within the solar system a fewweeks away.  Thus a fusion reactor and aone g thruster rigged up as a space craft completely opens up the solar systemto us.

The image gives us some of thepresent design concepts.  I think that weneed a prime space lifter to haul components out of the gravity well and thateverything else must be assembled there. A fusion based lifter would make it practical.

It is great to see folks getting excited about space travel again.



JANUARY 05, 2011


Here is the Richard Dell Jr interview. Mr. Dell believes that he andhis team have developed a method for generating fusion power which isappropriate for providing the propulsion for exploring and colonizing space. Heis confident that this approach could lead to spacecraft capable of flying tothe moon and landing on it, and returning to earth usinga single craft without jettisoning any stages or equipment. This technologycould also be used to send humans to mars in only 2 months. His company, which is stilllargely in stealth mode, plans on generating short term revenue by selling moreefficient satellite maneuvering thrusters to the satellite industry. Mr. Dellis confident that breakeven fusion power generation will be demonstrated withinthe next 3 years.


Highlight answers from Mr Dell in this the interview: 



This technology will change everything. By 2020, we could be activelyimplementing commercial settlement and/or tourist expeditions to Mars.


2011 or 2012 will be the year of small scale fusion


This system will have ten times the propulsive thrust of a George Miley IECfusion propulsion proposal 


5 weeks to Mars with Helium 3 version of the fusion spaceship


In the 98 pager there is a description of being able to use the IEC in jet modefor propulsion. 


Way down the development path would be big fusion rockets like this





The ships that are designed 


IEC Fusion Ship I
500 MT
Isp =16,000
Thrust = 1028 Newtons

IEC Fusion Ship II
500 Mt
Isp = 35,000
Thrust = 4369 Newtons

But near term are progressively better propulsion units that start withsatellite maneuvering thrusters that are ten times better than today’s Hallthrusters.

IEC power units can be added in series to develop higher power units such asrequired for deep space propulsion -- Magnetically Channeled Spherical Array,MCSA

High Power Operation
Eliminates Grid Structure
Increase Energy Confinement Time

They are tuning the IEC configuration for space propulsion

If they pulse it up to several thousand amps then it is OK if IEC only hasscales by cubing the power instead of to the fifth power to get to 25Megawatts.

A 7page paper- Magnetically-Channeled SIEC Array (MCSA) Fusion Device forInterplanetary Missions


Question: Tell us about how you became involved with Dr. Miley

Answer: Several years back I was a Program Manager for a small, family ownedcompany. While I worked there I became very interested in developing an Advanced Aerospace Research Center and began to makecontact with a variety of physicists, technologists and foundations. The ArlingtonInstitute and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin introduced me to Dr. Miley, about fouryears ago this March. I am truly grateful to the principals of both of theseInstitutes and I confess that I owe them a debt of gratitude more than I couldpossible ever repay.




So, we all shared at least one thing in common, that the problem with a youngperson out in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana is the same problem for theyoung person in the slums of LA - they have had their frontier taken away fromthem. Think about that. Americahas always had a frontier. We lost it for a couple decades, it was given backto us briefly from ’69 to ’72 and then it disappeared again. It’s time to giveour young people back their frontier. They want it, they need it, it offers aneconomic engine of unparalleled capabilities for our young people and ourNation.

And so our little loosely organized group is focused on three areas, energy,the environment, and space. The thrust I’d prefer to discuss first is SPACE,the commercial development of manned and unmanned space technologies thatenable and expedite exploration and settlement of our Moon and Mars and to doso in this century. Let that sink in. This century. OK? So we hope to beginnext generation development of technologies that facilitate this objectiveusing intellectual property that stands the test and muster of our intellectualproperty analysis as well as showing feasibility in data and testing at thesame time. The combination of the two is the fulcrum.

98 page technical presentation from 2009 by George Miley 



There has been advances since the presentation but the solidity of thetechnical basis can be seen.

Question: In a minute I want to ask you more about your intellectual property,but first, tell me more about the device you call an LTV?

Answer: Lunar Transit Vehicle. Moon and back safely, carry six people plus twopilots/attendants or two pilots and a good bit of gear. Nothing new here,except the Miley IEC technology and hybrid of airbreathing MHD hybrid IEC isan application which we believe we can now amplify in terms of propulsivethrust by 10 times. We want to develop larger prototypes of fusion poweredpropulsion systems that would allow a single stage re-usable rocket/spacecraftto fly to and land on the moon, recover regolith samples, do valuable science, offer some entertaining tourist sights, andreturn to earth safely. We are confident that our aneutronic fusion spacepropulsion system could be a key factor in opening up space and creating athriving space industry. I’m actually hoping with this interview to get someattention from the folks I heard some kid describe recently as the “SpaceBarons”. Space-Barons, if you want the next stage of propulsion, if you wantseven or eight week flights to Mars, we are here and open for business.

Question: Where is the intellectual property coming from?

Answer: We have a commercialization agreement with Dr. George Miley and hisNuclear Plasma Laboratory organization known as NPL. Wecreated a joint venture to explore a novel form of liquid sodium borohydridefuel cell, and I am developing a program for IEC Propulsion. What we all wantto see is improvements in the Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC)prototypes as we build larger and better. We have been conducting extensive Rand D as well as doing commercialization assessments through our cooperativeefforts with M-CAM. The past four years of diligence on a variety ofspace-related energy technologies may soon pay off.

Question: What’s M-CAM?

Answer: Well, I mentioned intellectual property diligence before, and havinglearned the M-CAM system I am still quite utterly blown away when I try toimagine what it was like to do diligence on technology *AND* intellectualproperty assessment before this kind of capability was available. M-CAM takesall the voodoo out, and the best antiseptic is applied, complete illumination.Without the M-CAM team and their software, the past four years of diligence andgroundwork on a whole variety of space-related energy technologies could neverhave paid off.

Question: Back to the technology, how closely are you collaborating with Dr.Miley?

Answer: We have been working with him for the past four years, and we hold himin the highest regard. We have an extraordinary working relationship with him,and now that Bussard has passed away, Dr. Miley needs to be the pivotal figurefor aneutronic fusion propulsion research. George is trying to create a fusionprogram that burns aneutronically, without magnets, and that burns a relativelyinexpensive fuel. This is what we need to get to Mars and back in less than twomonths, and with some excellent inherent shielding of 99% of cosmic radiation.Shielding can deal with the 1% we can’t filter out, the worst of the stuff, themetallic ions.

Question: What are the main technologies that you are developing?

Answer: There are two primary technologies that George’s people are developing.They are modifying current IEC designs to increase plasma flow and pressure. Theyare also developing a novel form of airbreathing hypersonic spaceplane with anIEC. This is called airbreathing MHD-IEC hybrid. The other is an injection ofIEC with a unique device to enable a vehicle to do a horizontal liftoff andthen proceed to LEO. By using these two technologies, we can develop a highlyefficient single-stage-to-orbit vehicle that can operate both within andoutside of the atmosphere. It could lift off from earth, land on the moon andcome back, without jettisoning any stages or equipment. This work is beyond thetheoretical and is now solidly in the realm of applied practical science.

Question: What fuel source will this fusion drive consume?

Answer: Initially it will use Proton-Boron 11. The ideal fusion fuel isHelium 3, which is found in abundance on the moon. PB11 is nearly as good, andrequires minimal shielding from radiation. So we will initially use PB11,and switch to HE3 when it becomes available, or when the Russians let us havemore, hahaha.

Question: You’re joking about the Russians, right?

Answer: ‘Not at all’, or perhaps ‘yes and no’ would have been better. The‘rumor on the street’ to explain why the Russians took He3 off the market isbecause they have an He3 reactor, big project…a project incidentally I would haveliked to see take root in Southwest Virginia.

Question: OK, back to Space, what are the size and weight parameters of thisproposed fusion powered spacecraft?

Answer: It is all very preliminary, so I can only provide ballpark estimates.George did some incredible simulation work to lay out the metrics, publishedthem over 15 years ago, btw. So imagine a 500 metric ton spacecraft outfittedwith a certain number of IEC fusion propulsion devices. With PB11 fuel, itcould lift off from earth, and reach Mars in eight weeks or less. Using HE3fuel, it could get to Mars in only five weeks. These reactors would be smallenough to be placed on a spacecraft the size of a standard commercial jet.

Question: How much funding is your program receiving? When will the firstprototype IEC drives be unveiled?

Answer: Both of those questions involve proprietary knowledge which I am notinterested in doing in this interview. I can, say, however, that all of ourfunding is from private sources - we aren't currently looking for anyGovernment funding. We have been informally working on this for the past fouryears, and we hope to be going public with more details in mid 2011.

Question: Are you collaborating with any other fusion groups, such as EMC2 orGeneral Fusion?

Answer: Developing partnerships and closing on funding agreements is where weare. We are interested in creating entrepreneurial partnerships which play tothe key values of our strategy. and bring more business to our company, whilesupporting efforts that move and advance our technology and commercializationcapabilities. So we are open to collaborating with other companies and we wishthe groups you referred to the very best of luck in 2011.

Question: How will your company generate revenue in the short term?

Answer: Current satellites maneuver based on Hall thrusters, whichare ion thrusters capable of providing small amounts of thrust. Dr. Miley hasdeveloped a new propulsion technique that provides an ultra-maneuverablethruster that can provide an order of magnitude more thrust than an equivalentHall thruster. We see strong short term Return On Investment (ROI) by sellingthis thruster to the satellite industry.

Question: When will we see breakeven fusion power generation?

Answer: We are confident that breakeven will be demonstrated within the next 24to 36 months by someone. I predict that 2011 or at the very least, 2012 will beremembered as the "year of small scale fusion"- there are just waytoo many people building fusors out there and for those who would prefer tokeep the djini in the bottle, sorry, but it’s bound to happen, and it surelooks to many of us that it could be sooner than anyone expects.

Question: How long will the research phase continue?

Answer: This project will be over 5-7 years, but will see economic returns waybefore the program is finished. We’re looking for the two year returns, not thethree year returns. This will be primarily servicing the small satellite sectorinitially, unless we can wake one of the Space-Barons out of their “chemical-enginehypnosis”. But ultimately this will be geared for deep space capabilities withmanned missions within the solar system.


Question: Will this system be safe? Are there any radiation issues with thesesystems?

Answer: To call these systems minimally radioactive is a disservice. Lessradiation will be generated than exists in background space. These systems arecompletely safe. When I first became acquainted with these technologies almostfive years ago I first asked what were the implications in terms of counter-terrorismand I was delighted to find that all IECs work basically the same, ifcontainment is lost, it is like blowing out a candle. It would be moredangerous to blow up a refrigerator than one of our reactors.

Question: How will this technology change the world in the next decade?

Answer: This technology will change everything. By 2020, we could be activelyimplementing commercial settlement and/or tourist expeditions to Mars. There isno silver bullet for jump-starting the commercial space industry except fusion.The demand for Space is there, we’ve all seen it. We are confident that withina decade we will have developed all of the infrastructure and commercialbreakthroughs necessary to enable the rapid manned occupation of the Moon andMars.

Question: How can someone get in contact with you to discuss this program?

Answer: I would prefer to receive email on this topic to my home email address,so you can publish the following : omega dot arimathea at gmail dot com.

Ad astra!