With all the talk of green energy alternatives, our greatest hope for energy is no longer drilling holes for oil or decapitating mountains for “clean coal”. Yes, solar, wind, wave, geo-thermal, conservation and recycling are all critical. But there is a larger need. A voracious appetite for energy that will require large output facilities. Traditional nuclear is not the answer. The poison seed we are planting in the desert will be our 10,000 year legacy. A legacy being made worse by importing other nations nuclear waste. The hope for mankind’s energy needs in the twenty-first century is controlled thermonuclear fusion and at $3.9 billion (GAO est.) that is exactly what the NIF is build to do.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world’s largest laser. It was built with the goal of studying the conditions needed to create controlled nuclear fusion on earth (the process our sun uses to generate energy). It is hoped that humanity is finally on the verge of unlocking the secrets of galactic grade power. This would provide clean, limitless energy for all. At least that is the hope. The steps necessary to get here have been herculean. On May 29th, 2009 we opened the star power business.

“The facility was dedicated today (May 29) at a ceremony attended by numerous state and national officials.”World’s largest laser opens | May 29th, 2009 By Andy Evangelista physorg.com

Creating star energy in a controlled environment with nuclear fusion can be seen as the opposite process that takes place in nuclear fission (for fission, think Three Mile Island and Hiroshima). In fission the nucleus of an atom is split into pieces, with fusion we are joining atomic nuclei together. Both are accompanied by the release of energy (nuclear fusion is used in the hydrogen bomb).

Controlling and sustaining the reaction (thermonuclear ignition) to harness as a power source has been the challenge of nuclear fusion. Once ignition is achieved, the NIF will generate more energy that is required to maintain its operation. A lot more.  The path to ignition experiments are scheduled to begin in 2010.

[Click to Continue Reading the Rest of This Article]

There are 1,596,270,108 people online. That is only 23.8% of the world population. Asia continues to lead with 657,170,81 people, equivalent to 48.9% of the world total. In North America 74.4% of the population is connected or 251,290,489 people. Internet growth to date since the year 2000 has been 342.2%. A record-breaking 46% of Americans used the Internet, email or text messaging to get news about the 2008 elections and 35% say they watched online political videos, three times the figure in 2004.

Americans spend 32.7 hours a week online (IDC) and 3 million homes in North America are now connected by fiber-based broadband, while connections are being marketed to another 10 million. Verizon and other former Bell companies accounted for 72 percent of these connected homes (RVA). US wireless subscriber market now totals 255 million, roughly 84 percent of the population (CTIA). More stats after the charts below.

WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS AS OF MARCH 31, 2009

The above chart is available as a print from: www.telegeography.com.

Advertising
Online advertising, which includes display, search, video, and other categories, is expected to tally $25.4 billion in spending this year and $29.1 billion in 2010. If those forecast figures are reached, they will account for 2.9 percent year-over-year growth in 2009 and 2.7 percent growth in 2010. Online ad spending at newspaper Web sites totaled $847 million (Newspaper Association of America).

Broadband
61 percent of broadband Internet users watch online video (Horowitz Associates). 13 million households worldwide receive broadcast via the Internet. President Obama signed into law the $787 billion stimulus package, which includes $7.2 billion for broadband programs.

Mobile Stats
US wireless combined data revenues now total $23 billion a year, accounting for 17 percent of total carrier revenue (CTIA). 21 percent of young US consumers use cell phones for banking (Aite Group). 25 percent of cellphone owners shop online on their phones (Harris Interactive). 52 percent of Internet users connect wirelessly (Pew Internet).

[Click to Continue Reading the Rest of This Article]

In the shadow of the Olympics and the 7th anniversary of 9-11, the US National Security Agency and Communist China are jointly proposing a new set of technical standards that threaten to end net neutrality once and for all.  According to a report, the UN’s International Telecommunication Union will be meeting in closed door sessions to discuss adopting the IP Traceback drafting group, named Q6/17.  If adopted, these measures would remove all anonymity from the web and they appear designed to allow a government to control the Internet-based free speech of their populations.” U.N. agency eyes curbs on Internet anonymity, cnet news

“Critics point out the newfound powers that would strip users of their anonymous identities could be misused, and in many cases violate an individual’s human rights that are protected by law particularly in the United States and internationally by the Council of Europe.

A document submitted by China and obtained by CNET News proposes to log essential information about the originator to ensure traceability. Another reportedly leaked document would give government reign over free speech, allowing it to quash their opposition and violating the UN‘s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though at least one member of Q6/17 does not recognize the political document as being part of any Q6/17 meetings.” Internet anonymity endangered by UN agency project, macnn/electronista

In lieu of these and other recent disturbing trends, one can’t help but fear that our trade with China is indeed more two-way than the financials portend.  The Chinese seem to be getting our technology, manufacturing, jobs and know-how and in turn, our NSA and assorted security agencies are embracing the more effective tactics of a totalitarian régime.  China has a true bounty to offer in its wisdom, rich heritage and people.  It is sad that while trading our best we choose to take their worst.