The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram - "Wart on the Umpire's Nose"

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is the bulwark of stellar evolution, but consider this little story:

An umpire is standing in a crowded stadium. Upon his nose is an intelligent wart. This wart desires to know the process of evolution of its host, the umpire. To aid itself in this quest, the wart observes the other people in the stadium. Although the wart cannot see, it is able to monitor the heartbeats and blood pressure of the people present. Armed with this information, the wart constructs a graph upon which it now places its data.

The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, where luminosity is replaced with blood pressure, and temperature with heartbeat.

The wart now mistakenly believes that by comparing people in this manner it has acquired a system that displays a sequence of evolution from birth to death. The graph displays no such information; it merely describes the momentary state of excitement of the people in the stadium.

Published in Science News,
Vol. 177, Mat 17th, 1980

"An Empty Sun - Is Gravity being Induced?"
A proposal suggesting that the Sun is a shell of sustained charged plasma encasing a non-space/absolute vacuum sphere that induces gravity. There is a FAQ page here

Life on Titan?

Perhaps it would be going out on a limb, but would it not be possible that Saturn’s surprisingly active moon Titan might support a unique life-form? This moon exhibits temperatures that make superconducting electrical currents a certainty, and there is an awful lot of chemistry sloshing about. Might it not be possible that some pretty stunning surprises await us?

"Just the facts, Ma'm..." If you want a clear picture of how to go about building a space elevator, you cannot do better than visiting The Space Elevator Blog. Concise and interesting, a great resource for learning the principles of space elevator construction.

The Space elevator and Dooms Day pundits

Space Elevator detractors  are such an interesting phenomenon. If you were to peruse newspapers, magazines and science periodicals from the late 1800's, you will find endless articles by the learned who ceaselessly informed the public that powered flight was impossible.
Critical discovery is inevitable and necessary. It is an inherent aspect of tackling a new, bold idea. In a way, it is evidence that the Space Elevator is coming of age.
Unfortunately, rather than just stating the possible problems that might incur in the construction a Space Elevator, the pundits inevitably infer that the hitch is insolvable, making construction impossible.
Discovering possible pitfalls is healthy. But the sweeping pronouncements that a newly discovered hurdle makes building a Space Elevator impossible is both arrogant and counterproductive.

Space Elevator Animation 1, 2, 3 & 4

My hat off to the creators of this visionary work. This series of animations gives a very credible blow-by-blow account of how to build a space elevator. Yes, the animation is somewhat crude and the ambient techno music that accompanies the documentary is dorky, but this in no way inhibits the inspirational work. I recommend you turn down the sound and play some appropriate classical music. Sit back and enjoy what will be mankind's greatest accomplishment in the 21st century.

Space elevator animation, part one:


Space elevator animation, part two:



Space elevator animation, part three:



Space elevator animation, part four:

Nauru and the coming of the Space Elevator Complex

Open Letter to the Government and President of Nauru:

Dear Friends,

It may not have come to your attention yet, but the Republic of Nauru is about to become the most valuable real estate on our planet, because it is one of the very few locations where a space elevator can be realized.

For physical reasons, the space elevator can only be constructed on or near the equator. Your country is ideally suited because Nauru has harbor installations, asphalt roads and a landing facilities capable of handling large aircraft. Most importantly, it is an island surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean. Hence, security will not be an issue.

If you look at a globe and circumvent the World at the equator, you will see that most of the equatorial landfall is on countries that are politically unstable and where security would be a real issue. The other few islands that exist on the equator have no infrastructure to speak of. These factors make your nation a very attractive site for the space elevator complex.

Because of these factors, it would behoove your government to give close consideration to this issue and take a pro-active stance. It would be nice to see Nauru gain a long term benefit from this resource, rather than have it become an exploited Panama, or as in your not so distant past, a wholesale rape of your island by mining speculators.
Could the unproductive land in the island interior be nationalized? If that were possible, it could be leased to the highest bidder without the conflict that would inevitably occur if it were left to real estate speculators.

When you have your ducks in order, it would be prudent to start making NASA, the European Space Agency and the Chinese Space agency aware of your real estate. As far as the media goes, this will be a very "sexy" issue, and your nation is sure to gain a lot of coverage, long before the space elevator is actually realized.


Respectfully yours,