The dow has closed down 777.68; not only is that three sevens, but the 6 and 8 average out to two more sevens! The reason the market went down is probably closely related to the $700 billion dollary bailout that failed to pass; if 12 of the "nays" had switched to "yea" the measure would have been approved by 217 to 216; more sevens! Don't forget that the mininum passing vote (assuming abstentions remained the same) would have been divisible by 7!
What a lucky day!
Edit: How'd I miss this? The Dow fell 6.98%, which easily rounds off to... 7.
Monday, September 29, 2008
If I had $700 Billion
I'd be rich!
OK, the Federal Government is prepared to spend about $2,300 for every person in the US on a bailout that may or may not work. Here's some other things we could do with the money:
1. Build 350 gigawatts of nuclear power generating stations. Palo Verde http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Verde_Nuclear_Generating_Station cost a little under $6 billion to build three reactors that generate over 1 GW each. The ~100 GW we currently produce generates 20% of our electrical power, so this would put our nuclear power generation at 90% of our current electrical demands.
2. Build 7 space elevators. Dr. Bradley Edwards did a study and estimated the cost of an initial elevator at $20 billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_economics Let's assume he was low by a factor of 5 (not unheard of in R&D). We could lift 14 million kg per year into orbit with these and have a roughly ten-fold reduction in the cost per kilo lifted to orbit.
3. Build 80 nuclear powered aircraft carriers. The navy's CVN-21 program's first unit is expected to cost $8billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_R._Ford_class_aircraft_carrier Let's say cost overruns on the first are compensated for somewhat by the economies of scale on later units. Related, a Virginia class SSN costs about $2.3 billion, a DDG-1000 will probably cost about $3 billion... you get the picture. We could buy an entire NAVY of several hundred ships for $700 billion.
4. Buy a year's worth of oil. We spend $650 billion/year on importing oil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States THAT ought to cut gas prices!
What would you do with $700 billion dollars?
OK, the Federal Government is prepared to spend about $2,300 for every person in the US on a bailout that may or may not work. Here's some other things we could do with the money:
1. Build 350 gigawatts of nuclear power generating stations. Palo Verde http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Verde_Nuclear_Generating_Station cost a little under $6 billion to build three reactors that generate over 1 GW each. The ~100 GW we currently produce generates 20% of our electrical power, so this would put our nuclear power generation at 90% of our current electrical demands.
2. Build 7 space elevators. Dr. Bradley Edwards did a study and estimated the cost of an initial elevator at $20 billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_economics Let's assume he was low by a factor of 5 (not unheard of in R&D). We could lift 14 million kg per year into orbit with these and have a roughly ten-fold reduction in the cost per kilo lifted to orbit.
3. Build 80 nuclear powered aircraft carriers. The navy's CVN-21 program's first unit is expected to cost $8billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_R._Ford_class_aircraft_carrier Let's say cost overruns on the first are compensated for somewhat by the economies of scale on later units. Related, a Virginia class SSN costs about $2.3 billion, a DDG-1000 will probably cost about $3 billion... you get the picture. We could buy an entire NAVY of several hundred ships for $700 billion.
4. Buy a year's worth of oil. We spend $650 billion/year on importing oil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States THAT ought to cut gas prices!
What would you do with $700 billion dollars?
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Presidential Debate #1
Due to a mistake on my part, I only saw the second half of the presidential debate.
What I saw looked to me like a tie. McCain was a little more specific and detailed, but I'd expect that from him on foreign policy. IMO, Obama met his expectations, or at least my expectations of him.
What did you think?
What I saw looked to me like a tie. McCain was a little more specific and detailed, but I'd expect that from him on foreign policy. IMO, Obama met his expectations, or at least my expectations of him.
What did you think?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Grey's is back :-)
Spoilers!
Spoilers!
Spoilers!
Last night was the season premiere of Season 5 of Grey's Anatomy. Two hours of pretty good television and really bad commercials.
I really liked Dr. Hunt (the army doctor who showed up); I heard somewhere he's likely to be a regular and I hope that's true - I really liked the actor in Rome and from the few Army docs I've known he did a really good job with the part. Plus you've got to love someone who staples his own laceration shut. :-) I'm hoping he shows up in uniform again; I spotted the jump wings right off (my father had a set, after all), but I never got a good enough look at the badge below them to tell what it was. Anyway, even if he is in the 'Almost Airborne' division, I hope we see him again. I'm also hoping he's a captain, just for the connection to Rome. Maybe with a wife who was informed he'd been killed in Afganistan and an med tech who only thinks about women and booze... OK, maybe not.
The iceicle impalement, OTOH, just seemed over the top to me, and not in a good way. Fall down, whack the back of your head, fine. Get an injury from that? That would have been fine. Happen to be in exactly the right spot when a SHARP iceicle falls STRAIGHT DOWN (for those who haven't lived with iceicles, that isn't exactly normal) and STICKS?!
People getting injured by iceicles isn't unheard of, don't get me wrong, but it tends to be blunt trauma, not penetrating.
Anyway, thumbs up to Season 5 so far (I'm carrying your child... gotcha!).
Spoilers!
Spoilers!
Last night was the season premiere of Season 5 of Grey's Anatomy. Two hours of pretty good television and really bad commercials.
I really liked Dr. Hunt (the army doctor who showed up); I heard somewhere he's likely to be a regular and I hope that's true - I really liked the actor in Rome and from the few Army docs I've known he did a really good job with the part. Plus you've got to love someone who staples his own laceration shut. :-) I'm hoping he shows up in uniform again; I spotted the jump wings right off (my father had a set, after all), but I never got a good enough look at the badge below them to tell what it was. Anyway, even if he is in the 'Almost Airborne' division, I hope we see him again. I'm also hoping he's a captain, just for the connection to Rome. Maybe with a wife who was informed he'd been killed in Afganistan and an med tech who only thinks about women and booze... OK, maybe not.
The iceicle impalement, OTOH, just seemed over the top to me, and not in a good way. Fall down, whack the back of your head, fine. Get an injury from that? That would have been fine. Happen to be in exactly the right spot when a SHARP iceicle falls STRAIGHT DOWN (for those who haven't lived with iceicles, that isn't exactly normal) and STICKS?!
People getting injured by iceicles isn't unheard of, don't get me wrong, but it tends to be blunt trauma, not penetrating.
Anyway, thumbs up to Season 5 so far (I'm carrying your child... gotcha!).
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
On a lighter note
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/22/nasa.ducks/index.html
Rubber Ducky, you're so great
You track glaciers, they migrate!
Rubber Ducky, NASA needs mail from you...
Rubber Ducky, you're so great
You track glaciers, they migrate!
Rubber Ducky, NASA needs mail from you...
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