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11/30/07 -
Carbon Foam batteries cheaper, lighter, more power
The gestation was at Caterpillar in 2002, as part of its ongoing program of devoting research dollars to non-core technologies and supporting adventurous, early stage risk-taking R&D. Its chief material scientist, Kurt Kelley, devoted some of his efforts to battery chemistry, and he discovered that if he could remove the corrosive heavy lead grids of a conventional battery and replace them with carbon-graphite foam, he might end up with a lead acid battery that is far lighter, smaller and stronger, with two-thirds of the lead absent. Where to go first? Williams is targeting four key markets: lawn and garden power equipment, military vehicles, commercial trucks and hybrid autos. In all these applications, he says, the 3D technology provides important advantages, with battery life being No. 1. One of the first applications will be in military vehicles, he says, with prototypes being tested by the Army in early 2008. The 3D model will enable "silent watch," where Army surveillance/attack vehicles will operate on noiseless electric power, with gas engine turned off, and with a battery that has extended life in hot climates. Meanwhile, the Group 31 battery program will be an ideal and timely solution to help commercial truckers meet the tough new landmark California "anti-idling" rules effective next year.
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11/30/07 -
Efficient AirBlade saves money on drying
The product, which has been on sale in England for the last six months for £599 ($A1,399) is expected to cost more than the direct currency translation due to specific approvals processes and potential changes made to the product for Australian market. The hand dryer, which features the familiar silver and yellow colour scheme of the first Dyson vacuum cleaner - the DC01 - acts like a squeegee for removing water from hands rather than evaporating the water by turning it into steam which is the traditional process of hand dryers in bathrooms. It is expected to be sold commercially for installations in buildings and public areas such as sports stadiums and airports. Dyson claims his product not only cuts down time, but also energy consumption. “The AirBlade takes about 8-10 seconds, while others take 40 seconds and have a heater and we don’t - and a heater uses a lot of electricity,” he said today. “We are using new technology to make something that doesn’t work, work properly in a pleasing manner - your hands feel good, not chapped and nasty, they are dry and you have done it quickly - in about a fifth of the time.” Inventor James Dyson claims the product has been built around the X20 digital motor developed by the company - a small, long-life, low-energy and brushless motor spinning at 1,666 revolutions per second. “We created the X20 digital motor for use in Japanese vacuum cleaners, and while playing around with what we call AirKnife technology which creates a very high pressure knife of air, we applied it to drying hands in an area where we saw there was a problem - existing hand dryers which is daft way to do it. It gave us the high speed pressure like turbo chargers in cars - and we are just doing the same thing with air flow.”
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11/30/07 -
Inventor Loses Savings, Family Over Energy Efficiency Stove
Rene Nunez Suarez of San Salvador has spent years in a passionate, single-minded quest to provide the world's poor with a high-efficiency stove, in an effort to fight global warming and reduce deforestation. Now, the acclaimed inventor is left with praise, but no money and an estranged family, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The device clearly has noble aims. It's a stainless-steel cooker that uses about 95% less fuel than conventional wood stoves, with minimal pollution. In El Salvador, millions still cook their daily meals with wood, and the countryside has long been denuded of so many of its invaluable trees. Worldwide, about half the planet cooks and heats with inefficient, polluting traditional fuels, according to the World Resources Institute. That means millions suffer from asthma, cancer and other problems associated with inhaling so much particle pollution. In fact, cooking fire pollution has been blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people a year worldwide, mostly women and children. Plus, hours are often spent each day gathering and preparing firewood, dung and other fuels. That's time not spent in school or on other more economically productive activities. Nunez has secured a U.S. patent and a prestigious award from the Paris-based International Energy Agency for his Turbococina, or Turbostove. What Nunez has long sought is funding to get the stoves distributed to those who need them in the countryside. But so far he hasn't secured interest from investors he says he can trust or nonprofit organizations. Nunez's sad story isn't unfamiliar in a world fraught with inequality. Many observers have long complained that the technology may exist to provide better drugs for malaria, dysentery and possibly even AIDS, but that lack of the ability of those who need them most to pay means little incentive for capitalistic systems. Sometimes there seems like an orgy of R&D and marketing spending on the latest gadgets, hair-loss remedies or shiny, sexy toys, while a brilliant inventor with a relatively simple device to help save the world can't get any notice. - Source / DIY TurboStove - A turbo-stove uses gasification and combustion of the gases produced to achieve clean efficient use of a fuel such as wood. Essentially we have a chamber containing a smoky fire and a secondary flame which burns the smoke. Almost all natural fuels and many synthetic ones will burn very cleanly under the right conditions. A properly functioning turbo-stove burns wood and most other bio-fuels so cleanly that they can be used indoors without a chimney. They can be used for cooking in a similar manner to a gas flame.
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11/30/07 -
New Heavy Oil Recovery System
Oil for transportation systems is becoming very expensive and our current development of alternative liquid fuels and/or electrically fueled vehicles is not currently moving ahead fast enough to have a significant impact on oil prices in the near future. There is much heavy oil in the Western Hemisphere other than Canada, including Venezuela and western parts of the US, the use of which would greatly reduce our dependence on oil from the Mideast and Africa. A new method developed in Britain over the past 17 years for extracting oil is now at the forefront of plans to exploit a massive heavy oilfield in Canada. Duvernay Petroleum is to use the revolutionary Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI™) system developed at the University of Bath at its site at Peace River in Alberta, Canada. Although heavy oil extraction has steadily increased over the last ten years, the processes used are very energy intensive, especially of natural gas and water. But the THAI™ system is more efficient, and this, and the increasing cost of conventional light oil, could lead to the widespread exploitation of heavy oil.
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11/30/07 -
Harvesting Solar Power from the Sahara Desert
Using a massive network of roughly 1,000 100-megawatt power plants, and thousands of miles of high-voltage d.c. transmission cables, a conglomeration of researchers, environmentalists and businessmen is attempting to sell Europe on the idea of harvesting solar power from the Sahara Desert. The green-energy idea includes a mix of renewable energies, from wind to geothermal to biomass power, and is dubbed DESERTEC. Not surprisingly, the issue isn't technological, but economic and nationalistic in nature. Some, for example, are concerned about the idea of relying on Africa for power. Others are worried about the US$595 billion price tag. Jon Gibbins, an energy engineer at Imperial College London, commented, "Unless it's extremely cheap, it won't stop people using easy-to-get fossil fuels. We didn't stop using coal in the last century because of oil." / The vision is ambitious: it would require roughly 1,000 100-megawatt power plants, using mirrors to concentrate energy from the Sun's rays, throughout the Middle East and North Africa to meet the region's projected energy needs. A high-efficiency electricity grid, yet to be built, would then ferry the power around and across the Mediterranean Sea and northern Europe. The vision of covering the Sahara with solar panels to generate electricity for Europe goes back to Frank Shuman, a Philadelphia-based inventor who built a prototype solar thermal plant in Egypt in 1913. But the idea never took off, and today solar power in the region comes from relatively small solar-cell installations on houses and other individual buildings.
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11/30/07 -
More bad rap on Asian biofuels
European Union (EU) demand for Asian-produced biofuels, particularly palm oil, is coming at a high social and environmental cost, a report released on Tuesday by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) warns. "Expansion of cultivation of [oil palm] in East Asia has been associated with widespread deforestation and violation of human rights of indigenous people," said the report, entitled "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world". "Since 1999, EU demand for palm oil, primarily from Malaysia and Indonesia, has more than doubled to 4.5 million tons, or almost one-fifth of world imports," added the 384-page report. "Opportunities for supplying an expanding European Union market have been reflected in a surge of investment in palm oil production in East Asia." The rapid growth of palm oil plantations has resulted in massive deforestation in Indonesia, which has led to large amounts of carbon dioxide trapped in the forests being emitted into the atmosphere, stated that report. "As a result of deforestation, some of which is for palm oil, Indonesia is the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, after the USA and China," it said. "Deforestation to make way for large-scale mono-cropping of energy crops obliterates the 'green credentials' of the biofuel."
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11/30/07 -
Your Robotic Personal Assistant
New software lets robots pick up objects they have never seen before--an important step toward creating multifunctional domestic helpers. Researchers at Stanford University have developed software that overcomes one of the biggest challenges: teaching a robot how to pick up an object it has never encountered before. The robot's software suggests that the best way to pick up something new is by determining the most grabable part of the object--the stem of a wineglass, the handle of a mug, or the edge of a book, for instance. Instead of using predetermined models of objects, some roboticists, including Edsinger and Ng, are building perception systems for robots that look for certain features on objects that are good for grasping. In a robot called STAIR (Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot), the hardware consists of a mobile robotic arm with a microphone, a speaker, sensors, and cameras that help the arm retrieve objects. The robot's software has its foundation in machine-learning algorithms that can be trained to perform certain functions. The researchers trained the software using 2,500 pictures of objects, with graspable regions identified.
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11/30/07 -
There's Oil in That Slime
Driven by renewed investment as oil prices push $100 a barrel, Ruan and scores of scientists around the world are racing to turn algae into a commercially viable energy source. Some varieties of algae are as much as 50 percent oil, and that oil can be converted into biodiesel or jet fuel. The biggest challenge is slashing the cost of production, which by one Defense Department estimate is running more than $20 a gallon. "If you can get algae oils down below $2 a gallon, then you'll be where you need to be. And there's a lot of people who think you can," said Jennifer Holmgren, director of the renewable fuels unit of UOP LLC, an energy subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. Converting algae oil into biodiesel uses the same process that turns vegetable oils into biodiesel. But the cost of producing algae oil is hard to pin down because nobody's running the process start to finish other than in a laboratory, Douglas said. One Pentagon estimate puts it at more than $20 per gallon, but other experts say it's not clear cut. An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae. An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It wouldn't require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water. And algae can gobble up pollutants from sewage and power plants. Because sunlight doesn't penetrate more than a few inches into water that's thick with algae, it doesn't grow well in deep tanks or open ponds. So researchers are designing systems called "photobioreactors" to provide the right mix of light and nutrients while keeping out wild algae strains. Ruan's researchers grow their algae in sewage plant discharge because it contains phosphates and nitrates - chemicals that pollute rivers but can be fertilizer for algae farms. So Ruan envisions building algae farms next to treatment plants, where they could consume yet another pollutant, the carbon dioxide produced when sewage sludge is burned.
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11/30/07 -
An Algorithm That Makes Voices Clearer
As people age, they lose the ability to hear in the higher frequencies. Turning up the volume on the TV set or stereo is a stopgap measure, but in the long run it only aggravates the problem. Able Planet, a company located near Denver, has developed analog circuitry that makes the high-frequency components of speech clearer without increasing their loudness. The technology is built into a line of headsets, telephones, and assistive listening devices aimed not only at the elderly but also at younger people who are worried about hearing damage, and even at video gamers who want to hear each other over the din of virtual battles. Able Planet's technology offers an alternative. Called Linx Audio, it works by enhancing the harmonics of the high-frequency sounds. A harmonic is a sound spontaneously generated at a multiple of the vibrational frequency that caused it. For example, a piano string vibrating 100 times per second (that is, creating a 100-hertz tone) will also spontaneously generate tones of 200 hertz, 300 hertz, and higher. These additional tones are the harmonics. Virtually all complex sounds, speech and music included, consist of an original tone--called the fundamental frequency--and its harmonics. Remarkably, the ear does not hear a fundamental frequency's harmonics as separate tones, even though they are detected in different parts of the cochlea. The cochlea adds them together, or synthesizes them, so that the brain hears a single unified pitch. This is the idea behind Linx Audio. By enhancing the harmonics of the high-frequency sounds, it stimulates more areas of the cochlea.
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11/30/07 -
China to take lead in renewable energy
China will soon become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, outstripping even the U.S. Although the average Chinese produces fewer emissions per person than the average American, the sheer size of the population will push China ahead. That's bad news for our changing climate. China's growth in emissions is caused by the increasing use of non-renewable fuels. A growing urban population has increased from 375 million in 1999 to 577 million in 2006. More and more of these people are getting cars: 1,000 new cars are on the streets each day in Beijing. China uses nuclear energy, but even with new plants coming on stream, it is expected that nuclear will supply no more that five per cent of the country's electrical needs. According to a new book, Powering China's Development: The Role of Renewable Energy, published by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org), China will likely achieve or even exceed its target to obtain 15 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2020. It could hit 30 per cent by 2050. Renewable energy sources, like wind, solar and biomass are carbon neutral. China is expected to invest more than $10 billion in new renewables in 2007, second only to Germany, says Worldwatch. Wind and solar energy are expanding rapidly, with production of wind turbines and solar cells both doubling in 2006. China is poised to pass world solar and wind manufacturing leaders in Europe, Japan and North America in the next three years, and it already dominates the markets for solar hot water and small hydropower.
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11/30/07 -
University Robot Project Copies Cheap Toy
Massey University student Tom Yu Guan lashed a mobile-broadband-connected web cam to an off-the-shelf RC toy car, and called it the Smart Eyes robot for his honors engineering project. The project is basically the Spy Video Car from Wild Planet, which I told you about way back on March 29, 2006. The only difference is that Guan's project uses a cell phone, rather than an RC device, to control the car and watch the video. The best part: Guan flies a little Chinese flag on the car, a "gesture acknowledging Mr Guan’s homeland," but which doubles as a symbol for INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT. (via therawfeed.com)
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11/30/07 -
Carnegie Mellon's Digital Library Exceeds 1.5 Million Books
"Most Slashdot readers are probably familiar with Google's book scanning project, a collaboration with several major universities to digitize works of literature, art, and science. But Google may have been beat to the punch this time -- about a decade ago, Carnegie Mellon University embarked on a project to scan books into digital format, to be made available online. Today, according to new reports, they now have a collection of 1.5 million books, the equivalent of a typical university library, available online."
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11/30/07 -
Google Rolls Out Free Phone Location -- No GPS
A new beta of Google Maps Mobile provides GPS-LIKE LOCATION for any phone that runs Google Maps. Just press "0" and a blue dot shows where you are. (via therawfeed.com)
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11/30/07 -
New Nerve Gas Antidotes
"Scientists from Korea and the Czech Republic have discovered new drugs that can counteract the chemical overload caused by nerve gas. All of the experimental medications belong to a family of chemicals called oximes. Those molecules reactivate the enzyme that is damaged by the chemical weapons. Last year, the FDA approved the first combined atropine and oxime auto-injector for use by emergency personnel. Israel has been providing them to their citizens since the first Gulf War."
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11/30/07 -
France Building Taser- Armed Flying Saucers
Taser France is reportedly building a "mini-flying saucer like drone which could also FIRE TASER STUN ROUNDS on criminal suspects or rioting crowds." (via therawfeed.com)
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11/30/07 -
Decrypt Your DVD's Copy Protection with DVD43
Windows only: Freeware application DVD43 decrypts DVDs and CDs, removing most copy protections schemes so you can interact with the media using whatever ripping or copying application you please (similar to the shareware alternative AnyDVD). DVD43 runs in your system tray, detects when you've inserted a new DVD, and automatically removes the encryption (the smiley face turns green when it succeeds). I've always had a lot of luck using DVD Shrink to rip and copy DVDs, but if you've ever run into problems working with encrypted DVDs on your PC, DVD43 is worth a try. DVD43 is freeware, Windows only. (via lifehacker.com)
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11/28/07 -
Making Fuel from Leftovers
According to Penn State University (PSU) researchers, feeding table scraps to bacteria may be a clean and efficient way to produce hydrogen that can be used as fuel. Bruce Logan, Kappe professor of environmental engineering, and his colleagues at PSU have designed a tabletop reactor that uses bacteria to break down biodegradable organic material. Adding a small jolt of energy to the system causes hydrogen gas to bubble up to the surface. Logan says that this biological process--compared with today's existing techniques--may be a more sustainable and efficient alternative for generating hydrogen. The researchers grew bacteria in a specially designed, oxygen-free reactor: a bioelectrochemically assisted microbial reactor, which they dubbed BEAMR. The reactor comprises two compartments. The first houses a negatively charged anode, composed of granulated graphite, which Logan sprayed with ammonia gas to help bacteria stick better. The second compartment contains a positively charged cathode of carbon, with a platinum catalyst. An ion-exchange membrane sits between the compartments. Logan used a small wire to connect both electrodes to a small external power source. The researchers then fed the microbial reactor a varied diet of acetic acid and cellulose. They found that as bacteria fed, the reactor released protons and electrons. The electrons were immediately taken up by the anode, while the protons crossed the membrane to the cathode. The energy from the electrons (which amounted to 0.3 volts), coupled with a short jolt of external voltage (0.2 volts), passed into the cathode compartment, joining with the protons to produce hydrogen gas, which researchers captured and measured in a tube.
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11/28/07 -
Google aims for renewable energy priced below coal
Google Inc said on Tuesday the Web services and online advertising group plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive the cost of electricity derived from renewable energy below coal prices. The project, dubbed Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, is hiring dozens of engineers and targeting investment financing at advanced solar thermal power, wind power, enhanced geothermal systems and other new technologies, Google said. Google plans to be one of the project's first customers, employing the power to run its massive computer data centers while selling back excess energy to the electricity grid. "Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades," Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, said in a statement. A gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco.
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11/28/07 -
Garlic to keep you Healthy
A diet rich in garlic can have a significant positive effect on your health, according to the New York Times. It seems that garlic increases the production of hydrogen sulfide in your blood, which-in the short term-relaxes your blood vessels and increases blood flow. In the long term: The power to boost hydrogen sulfide production may help explain why a garlic-rich diet appears to protect against various cancers, including breast, prostate, and colon cancer, say the study authors. Higher hydrogen sulfide might also protect the heart, according to other experts.
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11/28/07 -
New Buchanan book declares 'End of America'
"America is coming apart, decomposing, and...the likelihood of her survival as one nation...is improbable -- and impossible if America continues on her current course," declares Pat Buchanan. "For we are on a path to national suicide." "America is in an existential crisis from which the nation may not survive." The U.S. Army is breaking and is too small to meet America’s global commitments. The dollar has sunk to historic lows and is being abandoned by foreign governments. U.S. manufacturing is being hollowed out. The greatest invasion in history, from the Third World, is swamping the ethno-cultural core of the country, leading to Balkanization and the loss of the Southwest to Mexico. The culture is collapsing and the nation is being deconstructed along the lines of race and class. A fiscal crisis looms as the unfunded mandates of Social Security and Medicare remain unaddressed. All these crises are hitting America at once -- a perfect storm of crises. Specifically, Buchanan contends: • Pax Americana, the era of U.S. global dominance, is over. A struggle for global hegemony has begun among the United States, China, a resurgent Russia and radical Islam. • Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a product of hubris and of ideology, a secular religion of “democratism,” to which Bush was converted in the days following 9/11. • Torn asunder by a culture war, America has now begun to break down along class, ethnic and racial lines. • The greatest threat to U.S. sovereignty and independence is the scheme of a global elite to erase America’s borders and merge the USA, Mexico and Canada into a North American Union. • Free trade is shipping jobs, factories and technology to China and plunging America into permanent dependency and unpayable debt. One of every six U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished under Bush. • “Sovereign Wealth Funds,” controlled by foreign regimes and stuffed with trillions of dollars from U.S. trade deficits, are buying up strategic corporate assets vital to America’s security. • As U.S. wages are stagnant, corporate CEOs are raking in rising pay and benefits 400 to 500 times that of their workers. • The Third World invasion through Mexico is a graver threat to our survival as one nation than anything happening in Afghanistan or Iraq. * European-Americans, 89% of the nation when JFK took the oath, are now 66% and sinking. Before 2050, America is a Third World nation. • By 2060, America will add 167 million people and 105 million immigrants will be here, triple the 37 million today. • Hispanics will be over 100 million in 2050 and concentrated in a Southwest most Mexicans believe belongs to them.
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11/28/07 -
Natural disasters 'have quadrupled in two decades'...
More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming. "Oxfam... says that rising green house gas emissions are the major cause of weather-related disasters and must be tackled," the organisation said, adding that the world's poorest people were being hit the hardest. The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report. "This year we have seen floods in South Asia, across the breadth of Africa and Mexico that have affected more than 250 million people," noted Oxfam director Barbara Stocking. "This is no freak year. It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people." The number of people affected by extreme natural disasters, meanwhile, has surged by almost 70 percent, from 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994, to 254 million people a year between 1995 to 2004, Oxfam said. Floods and wind-storms have increased from 60 events in 1980 to 240 last year, with flooding itself up six-fold. But the number of geothermal events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, has barely changed.
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11/28/07 -
Australia's Howard says comply or LEAVE! America needs a leader like this!
CANBERRA AUSTRALIA: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that australia was a secular state and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said on national television. "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to other country which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option," Costello said. Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the other country.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off". "Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can basically clear off," he said. Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques.
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11/28/07 -
Goodbye Batteries distribute front and rear lights for bicycles
The lights flash powerfully with twin LED’s using the power generated by magnets attached to the spokes of your bicycle. Why was it not invented before? There is no need for batteries or dangling wires - never, ever! The lights are easily fitted to any bike, and are a great safety device for you or your children. The lights are always on, day or night, constantly flashing. And just as important, there are no batteries to buy or to throw away when used. A recent independent study in Denmark showed a 20% reduction in accidents for bicycles fitted with these additional lights. Front light with two magnets, rear light with two magnets. £24.95 (24.95 GBP = 51.5767 USD)
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11/28/07 -
Michigan Woman Says Online Activities Helped Her Shed 530 Pounds
51 year old Nancy Makin, who weighed as much as 703 pounds, spent many years living reclusively in her one-bedroom Grand Rapids apartment. At one point, she had not been outside in more than three years. "I probably went out of the house eight times in 12 years," she told The Grand Rapids Press for an online story posted Monday. It wasn't until a relative hooked up Makin with a computer and Internet access that she started to slim down. While her weight made it difficult for her to interact with people in person, she discovered that she quickly made friends in online chat rooms. "Anonymity was key," she said. "They couldn't look at me and judge me based on how I looked." Makin said her online social life ended up working wonders on her figure as she stopped using food to bury her feelings of isolation. "I wasn't trying to lose weight," Makin said. "I was just reaching out."
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11/28/07 -
Maglev On the Drawing Boards
Popular Mechanics has an article on the growing interest in magnetic levitation trains in the US. It's unclear how many will actually get built here, at $100 million per track mile. (In recent years we've discussed maglev projects in China and Germany.) The article has a map of many proposed transportation projects in the US, some of them maglev, and a video of a General Atomics maglev prototype in action. On a related note, an anonymous reader recommends this article on a proposed maglev wind-power turbine, said to offer the promise of replacing 1,000 conventional wind turbines.
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11/28/07 -
MIT exercise bike charger
Taking a page out of the GZ PC-Sport and Power Stepper book, MIT students modified an exercise bike so it can power your laptop. This also begs the question: Does one have to pedal like a madman just to check your email? Not really, as these researchers discovered that only 30 watts are required to charge a notebook battery and the average person can generate up to 75 watts continuously. How the device works is the bicycle wheel is attached to a generator which charges a conventional car battery. A 12-volt cigarette-lighter adapter is then used to hook up with your laptop. This prevents overcharge and fluctuating current damaging your PC.
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11/28/07 -
More recycled water could be on tap
About 500,000 acre-feet of wastewater is recycled each year in California, enough to flood more than half of San Joaquin County one foot deep. But there's potential to nearly quadruple the amount of recycled water by the year 2030, state officials report. That could ease water shortages and relieve pressure on the Delta, from which 25 million Californians get at least some of their water. Lathrop's wastewater is treated, of course, before being piped to parks and schoolyards. "It's very clean water. It comes pretty close to meeting drinking-water standards," said Cary Keaton, the city's director of public works. Recycled water can contain not only salt, but metals, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. These can pass through the water-treatment process, says the California Coastkeeper Alliance, a network of groups including San Francisco-based Baykeeper. "Recycling water is a great thing," Madison said. "There will for a long time still be customer perceptions (about using treated wastewater) that will have to be overcome." Delta water watchdog Bill Jennings is concerned about the contaminants that might exist even in treated wastewater, he said recycling when properly regulated would be a "crucial" ingredient in future water policy. "We're going to have to start using our water more wisely," he said.
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11/28/07 -
SLR lenses on your digital video camera
Considering all the attention we give digital cameras, I wanted to find an interesting hack for those old school analog SLR cameras. (I spent a fair share of time behind one; I'm fond of the classic Canon AE-1) [Joshua] mated his Sony VX-2000e video camera with a Canon FD lens mount and created this monster. With the new lens mount, he's got a full selection of lenses without the huge investment of specialized lenses.(via hackaday.com)
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11/28/07 -
Internet Bill of Rights kicks ass
The Internet Governance Forum in Rio has released an Internet Bill of Rights that enshrines a bunch of really kick-ass values, and it's already been endorsed by Italy and Brazil: Privacy, data protection, freedom of expression, universal accessibility, network neutrability, interoperability, use of format and open standards, free access to information and knowledge, right to innovation and a fair and competitive market and consumers safeguard. On these principles the Internet Bill of Rights will have to be set up, an idea produced by our country and supported by the Italian delegation, led by the Communications’ Undersecretary, Luigi Vimercati, during the UN internet Governance Forum concluded today in Rio de Janeiro.
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11/28/07 -
DUIX gum to beat the Breathalyzer
The Alcohol Breathalyzer is definitely not in your favor and can cost you everything from your job, freedom, thousands of dollars or all of the above. Beat the odds! Prevent a tiny and unreliable machine to determine your fate. Our product is guaranteed to reduce the alcohol level on any breathalyzer test by up to 60%. If you are are put into a situation where you have to drive after consuming alcohol you have to prepare for what you will do if by chance you are pulled over and tested. 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE IF NOT SATISFIED - Chew one tablet per hour during consumption of alcohol for best results to eliminate odor and decrease breathalyzer read out by up to 60%.
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11/28/07 -
Having low expectations makes you happier
A short article in the New York Times reports that people in Denmark are happier than any other Western country. The reason? They don't expect good things to happen to them as much as people in other countries do, and when something good does happen, they're thrilled. "It’s a David and Goliath thing,” said the lead author, Kaare Christensen, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. “If you’re a big guy, you expect to be on the top all the time and you’re disappointed when things don’t go well. But when you’re down at the bottom like us, you hang on, you don’t expect much, and once in a while you win, and it’s that much better.”
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11/26/07 -
Zapping Trash with Electricity
In this case, the lightning is contained inside a reaction chamber, and the bolt never ends. This man-made lightning is so hot, most things put inside the chamber completely vaporize in seconds. The technology's called plasma gasification, and proponents say it could be the answer to our growing trash problem. Although it uses intense heat, developers say the process is not a new spin on incineration -- commonly used for waste disposal in the past, but discontinued because of emissions concerns. The process uses intense heat, but developers insist it's not incineration. The "not-in-my-backyard crowd" has complained for years about emissions from burning trash. Dan Cohn: It's a non-combustion process. The waste is not burned, it's converted. That's Dan Cohn of MIT. He was part of the team that developed the technology for the company Integrated Environmental Technologies. IET, in turn, has created a device that can reduce a ton of trash down to five cubic feet in less than a minute. The stainless-steel chamber where the lightning happens is about five feet long by three-and-a-half-feet wide. Before the sneaker can go inside the chamber, it has to be shredded. Critics say plasma technology uses too much energy and is too expensive. And Steve Boton with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry says the technology could send the message that trash is OK -- kind of the opposite of reduce, reuse, recycle. Plasma gasification might be the best way to shrink our growing trash problem, with technology as elemental as lightning.
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11/26/07 -
A Cool Way to Keep Food From Spoiling
A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world's poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity. Mohammed Bah Abba found a solution. He developed the "Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System." It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system. Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving. The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks.
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11/26/07 -
Hallowell's heat from cold system
Duane Hallowell, founder, CEO and President of the firm. He and his partners are engineers who stareted the company in 2005 without using V.C. backing. Their goal was to use existing hardware in the heat pump (and air conditioning) industry to build a system that would produce home heating even in sub-freezing weather. Though it uses existing hardware manufactured for the entire heat pump and air conditioning industry, Hallowell does assemble their unique system and have added a patented process that is crucial. They’ve patented a method for boosted compression. That allows their system to continue to draw heat from outside air even as it drops below O Fahrenheit. In the past this has been the fault point of air-to-air heat pumps in northern North America’s winter months. To prove its mettle, Hallowell’s Arcadia has been tested by independent utility co-ops, and not in Puerto Rico either. Cold places like northern Canada, Alaska and even Bangor, Maine.
Now says Hallowell, the man, Hallowell the company can sell you a system that does not require back-up heating systems. It runs on electricity alone. Of course, that electricty can come from the utility gird, wind, solar, geothermal or five hundred loping gazelle in harness. Hallowell said it was necessary to build a system that uses standard components. The parts are sold all over North America. Though Hallowell asemble the system, it arrives at the building site with instructions and repair manuals that are widely-used in the HVAC industry. Not special installation training or ducting is needed. This is the hardware verison of open source tecnology. And Hallowell’s Arcadia does not use a single part that is unique or specially made.
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11/26/07 -
Researchers find mirror fools phantom limb pain
Viewing the reflected image of an intact limb in a mirror can fool the mind into thinking that a lost leg or foot still exists, dramatically relieving phantom limb pain, researchers reported on Wednesday. At least 9 out of 10 amputees report feeling sometimes-severe pain in the missing limb, often the result of a sensation that the arm or leg is stuck in the wrong position. The sensation can be excruciating and pain drugs often do little to help. But some studies have suggested that using a mirror to trick the mind into thinking the lost limb is still there may help. Doctors do not understand why it works, but it appears to help a confused brain reconcile sensations coming from the severed nerves. With the mirror technique, patients saw a reflected image of their intact limb as they spent 15 minutes a day trying to move legs and feet. The setup gave the illusion that the missing limb was present and moving normally. Another group looked at a mirror covered by an opaque sheet as they tried to perform the same task. A third group was asked to close their eyes and spend 15 minutes imagining their limb moving normally. During the first four weeks of treatment, pain intensity dropped dramatically in the mirror group, going from an average score of 30 to about 7 on scale up to 100. Every person in that group reported less pain.
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11/26/07 -
Gandhi's charkha power generator
The hand-cranked spinning wheel, popularised by the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, has now been given an electronic tweak to transform it into a hi-tech gadget that not only produces yarn but also light a bulb on demand and is can even power a transistor radio. Called the 'e-charkha,' the invention by a Bangalore-based engineer is an ordinary charkha fitted with a battery and connected to a LED light. The energy produced by the charkha while it is being spun is used to charge the battery attached to the bottom of the spinning wheel and the power thus generated can power up a LED light used in home lamps. The maintenance-free lead battery fixed to the charkha functions as an inverter, and charges itself from the energy generated when the charkha is spun. "The big spinning wheel is connected to a generator and using the charkha for approximately two hours can generate enough power to light up an LED bulb, or to play a small transistor radio for around 6 to 7 hours," says Hiremath, an engineer who has patented the invention.
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11/26/07 -
Energy Efficient
Despite newer technologies that detect energy loss and state programs that offer incentives for efficient upgrades, many people waste energy because they neglect fundamental, low-tech fixes. "The basics haven't changed," says Bob Walters, co-owner of the Energy Savers Store in New Rochelle, N.Y. "The technology has advanced as far as being able to test your house for energy efficiency, but in the end, you're still going back to your caulking gun and your insulation." Here are 10 of the most overlooked ideas for saving energy in winter, according to home energy auditors and heating experts: Check your insulation, Avoid fiberglass insulation, Cover attic fan and hatch, Seal duct joints and pipes, Plug the fireplace and close the flue, Remove or cover air conditioners, Seal windows and doors, Keep heaters clean and Get an energy audit.
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11/26/07 -
Russia to build new Space Port
Vice PM Ivanov visited the enterprise to discuss the problem of building new space complexes in Russia. The official said that Russia had run out of the space potential created during the Soviet era. The home space industry has lost the ability to develop and produce the space equipment. As a result, Russia experiences problems with obtaining reconnaissance, navigation and meteorological information. “Russia must not become the country that offers only launching services. We can not be just a space carrier,” Sergei Ivanov said. Sergei Ivanov said that a new Russian space port would be built near the town of Uglegorsk, the previous disposition of a space troops division. On November 6, 2007 President Putin signed a decree about the building of a new space port in Russia. Construction and test works will take about two years. First launches will be possible to make in 2015, whereas the launches of manned spacecraft will begin in 2015. It is not ruled out that the new space port will replace Baikonur - the main launching pad of the Russian and Soviet space industry.
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11/26/07 -
Honda Debuts FCX Clarity Fuel Cell Vehicle for 2008
At the 2007 auto show in Los Angeles, Honda introduced their new edition of the FCX. The vehicle is based upon a hydrogen fuel cell which results in emitting only H2O from the tailpipe. Honda expects to begin leasing the FCX vehicles in the United States beginning in 2008 for as little as $600 per month. Consumers can expect the FCX Clarity to perform with efficiency equal to a 68mpg engine, a driving range just shy of 300 miles and a top speed of 100mph along with a complete suite of creature comforts built into the cabin. / This thing is no concept, no prototype. It's a finished automobile (and a beautifully finished one at that) that'll be available for three-year leases in Southern California for $600 per month. The Clarity's fuel-cell stack is located under the driver's right arm, is 65 percent smaller by volume, packs 17 percent more power (100 kW or 136 horses), and it can start at temperatures as low as -22 degrees F (owed to its vertical, gravity-drain water path). Combined with its co-axial and compact motor/gearbox up front, lithium battery pack under the rear seat, and single, 5000psi storage tank behind the rear passenger area.
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11/26/07 -
China to flood Russia with its low-quality cars over 5 years
Geely and its new-found Russian partner have agreed to try to sell an average of 30,000 cars in Russia per year starting Nov 2007, which Executive Director Lawrence Ang said would not present huge problems given that Chinese car makers had been selling within the country for years. Geely is one of China's few privately run auto companies -- and one of its most ambitious -- with no foreign partners locally. Selling some of China's cheapest cars under the Geely and Maple brands, Geely is planning to double capacity next year and set up assembly plants in North America and Europe, as it looks to expand beyond a fiercely competitive home market. Ang would not give an overseas sales target for next year, although Geely has said it hoped to sell 190,000 vehicles in 2007. Geely plans to double overseas sales to 20,000 cars this year, from about 10,000 in 2006. Vehicle exports from China, the world's third-biggest producer, may increase at least 46 percent this year as carmakers manufacture more sedans and trucks. Auto shipments will exceed 500,000 units in 2007, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Web site yesterday, citing the minister, Bo Xilai, at a meeting with the nation's car exporters. Last year, overseas sales doubled to 342,400 units, customs data showed. China has more than tripled automobile output and sales since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001. Last year, it surpassed Germany as the world's third-largest vehicle maker.
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11/26/07 -
The Electrical Vampire Effect
With the cost of electricity continuing to remain high, many people are doing what they can to save in different ways, such as switching to fluorescent light bulbs, drying clothes on a clothesline, or the much more involved methods of using wind or solar power. One thing that is often overlooked though, can be found in the so called "vampire power" used by consumer electronic products when they are in standby mode. Many stereos, TVs, cable boxes, and especially computers use a small amount of electrical energy even after the power switch is turned off, which can add up over a year's time. Though some of this power is critical to function for these items, it is estimated that 5% of all power used in the U.S. is for standby power with some European countries coming in at 10% and Japan at 12%. The state of California has even addressed this issue with a bill under the name of "Vampire Slayer Act of 2006."
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11/26/07 -
Find The Priuses of the Stock Market
The market has fallen sharply, and Solar stocks have fallen even more following rumors that Congress will pass the Energy Bill without the Production Tax Credit or Investment Tax Credit. Given this volatility and Renewable Energy's reputation for profitless startups, now might seem like an excellent time for a risk adverse investor to abandon the sector altogether. Not so. Even if all tax credits and other incentives for Renewable Energy were to be removed, the underlying drivers of Alternative Energy remain firmly in place: Rising energy prices and decreasing reserves, the need to reduce our Greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst effects of Global Warming, and the likelihood of continued nationalizations, or the more subtle nationalization by taxation/royalty increases practiced in more developed countries. A diversified investor must make compromises. Those compromises can be made at the portfolio level by mixing some dirty stocks in with the clean ones, or they can be made within the companies themselves. Our choice is not between a diversified portfolio of green companies and a diversified portfolio of green-ish companies representing compromises of our green ideals. In reality, our choice is between a risky portfolio of highly volatile green stocks, and a much better diversified portfolio of companies working to help the environment in many way, but nevertheless embodying real-world compromises of green ideals.
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11/26/07 -
How Do You Keep Your Digital Photographs Safe?
If you own a digital camera, you've certainly feared the worst: losing those precious memories on your memory card. The folks at T3 recommend ways to minimize the damage: don't rely on a single large memory card (instead, opt in for a few smaller ones), transfer images to a laptop or backup drive as soon as possible, burn the photos on optical media, and back up to an additional hard drive-just in case. If you already have a back up plan for your hard drive, it doesn't hurt to extend a disaster recovery plan to your digital snaps. (via lifehacker.com)
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11/26/07 -
Methane-eating bacteria could halt warming
New Zealand scientists hope a newly discovered bacterium that eats methane could ultimately help counter a key global warming gas. The bacterium was discovered living about 30cm below the ground in the hot, acidic environment at Hells Gate in Rotorua, a geothermal area. Microbiologist Dr Matthew Stott, who was part of the team that made the discovery, said they had been puzzled as to why methane produced geothermally at Hells Gate did not reach the surface.
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11/26/07 -
Ron Paul Blimp planned to draw attention
Imagine..the mainstream media is mesmerized as the image of the Ron Paul blimp is shown to tens of millions of Americans throughout the day (and throughout the month). Wolf Blizter, stunned and as if in a trance, repeats the words "Amazing, Amazing". As GPS co-ordinates stream to the website a map shows the Ron Paul blimp's location in real time. The local Television stations broadcast it's every move. The curious flock together and make a trip see history in the making. Emails with pictures are sent, then forwarded, then forwarded again. Youtube videos go viral and reach tens of millions of views. Ron Paul becomes the first presidential candidate in history to have his very own blimp. The PR stunt generates millions upon millions of dollars worth in free publicity, and captures the imagination of America. Please join us in our goal to raise $350,000 to make and fly the first ever Presidential Blimp in history. (What a BRILLIANT IDEA! - JWD) - Source / Media bias to EXCLUDE Ron Paul from the news. The Southern Avenger's response to the September 5, 2007 Fox News GOP Presidential debate and the often-asked question about Ron Paul's chances of getting the Republican nomination. But more importantly - why he should. Video - SA Radio - Does Ron Paul Have a Chance of Winning? - For those who claim the Ron Paul internet army skews votes by multiple texting of votes, this is a "Response to those who tried to vote multiple times during the Fox News texting poll that immediately followed the Sept. 5, 2007, Fox News sponsored Republican Presidential debate." You can ONLY VOTE ONCE as they record where the vote comes from and prevent additional votes from that address.
11/26/07 -
Just Free Books - A search engine to find only free ebooks
JustFreeBooks search over 450 web sites, including gutenberg.org, wikibooks.org and archive.org, so that you can find the book you need. With this search engine you can find public domain texts, open books, free audio books, ad-supported books and more. Just type in the search box the book, author or theme you want to find. Searches can be further refined by language (english, spanish and french), format (pdf, html, audio books, MS reader, etc) and type.
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11/24/07 -
Video - Bouncing bubbles could power microturbines
Researchers have hit upon an unusual way to spin tiny propellers - set them on top of tiny bouncing bubbles. Inspired by winged seed pods, they could find use for mixing tiny amounts of liquids, or strength-testing nanostructures, researchers say. Daniel Attinger, of Columbia University, New York, US, and colleagues hit upon the idea when investigating the way fluids move around vibrating bubbles. By heating water, the team made tiny bubbles around 40 micrometres across, the width of a few human cells, on a container's walls. Theoretical studies have suggested that bouncing creates a vortex around bubbles, so the researchers vibrated the container with a piezoelectric "buzzer" to achieve this. They then put small pieces of plastic into the flow around them to search for signs of the vortex effect. They found that flat pieces of plastic roughly the same width as the bubbles tended to stick to the top of them and spin around. Setting them spinning is a simple task. - Video Source. Just tossing thousands of the propellers into the container and vibrating it makes the propellers fall into position and start rotating. Shaking the container at the resonant frequency of the bubbles spins the propellers fastest - at nearly 700 revolutions per minute. The researchers can choose other rates of vibration to ramp the propellers' spin up and down. They suggest stringing several bubble rotors along a carbon nanotube, like pearls on a string, to act as a pump. / (This is pure Keely. Much like a bouncing magnet in coils to produce electricity. - JWD)
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11/24/07 -
Making Clouds from Scratch
Rainmaking technology funded by the Australian government has already been given the thumbs down by international scientists, says an adviser to the World Meteorological Organization. But proponents of the technology say the criticism is unjust. The technology is being tested to see if it can make new rain clouds from blue skies by generating ions in the atmosphere. This is very different from existing rainmaking technology, which relies on seeding existing clouds, and has been carried out for decades in Tasmania and the Snowy Mountains. Some Australian experts have already publicly said they are sceptical of the new ionisation technology and Bruintjes agrees. Scientists involved in testing the Australian Rain Corporation technology, including Professor Jürg Keller of the University of Queensland, say the ionisation system uses a ground-based device to attract water molecules. These then condense, generating heat that, in turn, triggers an up-draft of the kind that occurs when clouds form naturally. Consultant Andrew Campbell, is advising the Australian Rain Corporation on the Queensland trials. He says it is prudent to investigate whether the technology works in Australian conditions, even if scientists don't understand how it works. "From a water policy perspective, the much more important question is whether or not this technology enhances rainfall," says Campbell, former chief executive officer of Land and Water Australia. "If it does we can analyse the mechanisms at our leisure. If it doesn't then that's a completely academic exercise."
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11/24/07 -
Inflatable Moon Buildings
This approach involves the use of inflatable, expandable structures. While some Apollo era space architects suggested inflatable structures, the technology had yet to mature. Flash forward 40 years and structures - some of them exceptionally large (Denver's airport) are built with flexible fabrics. In the 1990s NASA embraced inflatable designs in a big way. Called "Transhab", NASA JSC put forth a design for a module that would hang off of the International Space Station and serve as a pathfinder for more advanced structures to be used on spacecraft and planetary surfaces. Alas, JSC was toying with human missions beyond low Earth orbit at a time when the White House forbid such notions. Transhab activity was shut down and the technology was put in a box. Eventually, millionaire Robert Bigelow bought much of the intellectual property associated with Transhab. Adding in some of his own technology Bigelow eventually launched two inflatable spacecraft - with plans for an inhabited, commercially operated, space station to follow. Without getting into a long engineering treatise, inflatable structures offer a lot of desirable characteristics - in space - and on a planet's surface. The one obvious advantage is ease of transport and set up. (via therawfeed.com)
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11/24/07 -
Earth's Moon is a Rarity
"Scientists have concluded that moons like the Earth's are actually quite rare. Only 5-10% of planetary systems are likely to contain moons formed by planetary collisions. 'By the time the Earth's moon formed, when the Sun was 30 million years old, the planet formation process in our Solar System should have been approaching its end. In the latest study, Dr Gorlova's team looked at the heat signature of stars using the infrared. This allows astronomers to predict how much of that heat comes from the star itself and how much is re-emitted by dusty material encircling it.'"
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11/24/07 -
Feds Have Access To Cellphone Tracking On Request
"According to a Washington Post article, federal officials are routinely asking and getting courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data on subscribers. The data is used to pinpoint the whereabouts of 'criminal suspects', according to judges and industry lawyers. In some cases, judges have granted the requests without even requiring the government to demonstrate probable cause that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime 'Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives. Such requests run counter to the Justice Department's internal recommendation that federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas. The requests and orders are sealed at the government's request, so it is difficult to know how often the orders are issued or denied.'"
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11/24/07 -
Robot controlled by moth brain
The moth is immobilize inside a plastic tube mounted atop the 6-inch-tall wheeled robot. To get the moth to imitate flight, [professor Charles M.] Higgins and his team placed the moth in its apparatus on a circular platform surrounded by a 14-inch-high revolving wall painted with vertical stripes. The moth's neuron reacts to the movement of the stripes and the process begins. The brain of a moth is about the size of a grain of rice. Although small, “its compact size and simplicity allows for an efficient way to do brain research,” Higgins said.
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11/24/07 -
Logo Graveyard
Defunct logos. Logo R.I.P. is a commemoration of logos withdrawn from the ocular landscape. Many are considered icons of their time or international design classics, whilst others cost millions only to be replaced within a year or two. These logos disappeared, yet in contract to the ceremony and pomp that greeted their arrival, they often suffered an ignoble death. Now deemed defunct, they are consigned to the logo graveyard, no longer allowed to signify.
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11/24/07 -
'Trolls' targeted by controversial patent reforms
When Lawnie Taylor set out to develop a bleach that is kind to cotton, he had no inkling that the detergent industry had written off the idea as impossible. An inventor and former US Department of Energy physicist, he pressed ahead with experiments in the laundry room of his home in Germantown, Maryland. Eventually he arrived at a recipe that whitens cotton without destroying it. He was granted a US patent in 2005, and this month the James Austin Company is due to start selling the product under licence. It sounds like just the sort of enterprise that patent systems are designed to nurture, but for Taylor it's not working out that way. In 2006, Clorox of Oakland, California, the biggest manufacturer of bleach in the US, began selling a product that Taylor alleges is identical to his patented formula. With the support of his trade association, the Professional Inventors ...
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11/24/07 -
Apocalyptic vision of a post-fossil fuel world
Richard Heinberg, one of the world's leading experts on oil reserves, warned that the lives of billions of people were threatened by a food crisis caused by our dependence on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels. Higher oil prices, the loss of farmland to biofuel crops, climate change and the loss of natural resources would combine with population growth to create an unprecedented food shortage, he claimed. The only way to avoid a world food crisis was a planned and rapid reduction of fossil fuel use - oil, coal and gas - and a switch to more organic methods in the growing and delivery of food. It would mean a return to living off the land not seen for 150 years. He said for thousands of years, until the 19th century and the onset of the Industrial Revolution, all food production had been local. In good years there was enough to eat and to store and in bad years there was starvation. The invention of the petrol engine increased the amount of arable land available to grow food, the size and efficiency of farm machinery improved, and better pesticides were developed - all of which contributed to a better food supply. As food became more plentiful and cheap, the threat of famine disappeared and obesity became more widespread than hunger. Food, grain, meat and vegetables began to be exported around the world and the world population increased six-fold. Heinberg said that, unfortunately, it was all unsustainable and the abundance of food depended on depleting, non-renewable fossil fuels whose burning produced climate-altering carbon dioxide. Heinberg said what was needed was a return to ecological organic farming methods which would require the transformation of societies. Heinberg added: "The transition to a fossil-fuel-free food system does not constitute a distant utopian proposal. It is an unavoidable, immediate, and immense challenge that will call for unprecedented levels of creativity at all levels of society.
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11/24/07 -
Invention Could Prove Illuminating for American Drivers
The Astucia company has invented a SolarLite road stud, which could replace conventional reflective road studs. Where the current stud simply illuminates the road by bouncing back cars’ headlights, the SolarLite stores the sun’s energy during the day to provide illumination throughout the night via small light emitting diodes (LED). This can increase visibility from a typical 90 meters (sorry, the Brits were doing the measurements) to nearly 900 meters. To put this in terms of reaction time, that’s a difference of having to react in 3.2 seconds versus 30 seconds when driving 60 mph. The LED studs have been deployed along 120 stretches of road in the United Kingdom, and Astucia said local authorities have reported a 70% decrease in nighttime accidents. If the difference were even half that, the benefits of lining American roads with SolarLite studs would be well worth the cost.
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11/24/07 -
Growing Organs in a Petri Dish
On Tuesday after researchers announced they were able to turn the clock back on skin cells and transform them into stem cells, the mutable building blocks of organs and tissues. "This is truly the Holy Grail: To be able to take a few cells from a patient - say a cheek swab or few skin cells - and turn them into stem cells in the laboratory," Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology said. "It’s bit like learning how to turn lead into gold." While the research is still in its infancy, the potential benefits are "tremendous" said Lanza, who has already found ways to cut the death rate following heart attacks in half, restore blood to limbs which would otherwise have to be amputated and construct a functioning kidney using stem cells. The use of skin cells will eventually allow doctors to create stem cells with a specific patient’s genetic code, eliminating the risk that the body would reject transplanted tissues or organs. "We can now envisage a time when a simple approach can be used to produce stem cells that are able to form any tissue from a small sample taken from any of us." One of the greatest advantages of the new technique is its simplicity: it takes just four genes to turn the skin cell back into a stem cell. This, unlike the complex and expensive process developed by Wilmut, can be done in a standard biological lab. And skin cells are much easier to harvest than embryos. The main hurdle to overcome is finding a safe way to transform the skin cells. The current method, developed by two teams of researchers in the US and Japan, raises the risk of cellular mutation because a retrovirus was used to deliver four genes to the cell.
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11/24/07 -
Termites Provide New Dawn in the Field of Bio-Energy
"Termite guts are incredibly efficient," said Andreas Brune of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany. "In theory, they could transform an A4-sized sheet of paper into two liters (1.8 pints) of hydrogen," he said. Present-generation biofuels are derived from corn, sugar and other crops, whose starch is converted into ethanol by enzymes, fermentation and distillation. One of the problems, though, is that this product entails converting food into fuel. Hefty US subsidies to promote bio-ethanol is having price repercussions across swathes of the global food market. Like cows, termites have a series of intestinal compartments that each nurture a distinct community of microbes. Each compartment does a different job in the process to convert woody polymers into the kind of sugars that can then be fermented into biofuel. The US team has now sequenced and analyzed the genetic code of some of these microbes in a key step towards -- hopefully -- reproducing the termite's miniature bioreactor on an industrial scale.
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11/24/07 -
Blogs may impact future prospects
Internet blogs risk leaving a permanent electronic footprint which could be seen by future employers, a privacy watchdog has warned. Many young people post content on social networking sites and online blogs which could embarrass them at a later date, according to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The warning follows an ICO survey which found 60% of 14 to 21-year-olds did not realise their online details could be accessed years into the future.
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11/24/07 -
Al Gore's 'nine Inconvenient Untruths'
Al Gore's environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth contains nine key scientific errors, a High Court judge ruled yesterday. The judge declined to ban the Academy Award-winning film from British schools, but ruled that it can only be shown with guidance notes to prevent political indoctrination. In the documentary, directed by Davis Guggenheim, the former US vice president and environmental activist calls on people to fight global warming because "humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb". But Judge Michael Burton ruled yesterday that errors had arisen "in the context of alarmism and exaggeration" in order to support Mr Gore's thesis on global warming.
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11/22/07 -
Pennsylvania State to test Kanzius Saltwater burning claims
Kanzius reached a joint working agreement Tuesday with Pennsylvania State University to develop uses for the device based on its ability to burn saltwater. "I think this device will yield a gold mine of scientific material," said Rustum Roy, Ph.D., director and founder of Penn State's Materials Research Laboratory and worldwide expert on the structure of water. "In science, we want to see something really new. This is most unexpected -- to everybody, to every scientist." Roy and his researchers will conduct experiments on the energy released from burning saltwater, the effectiveness of desalinating the water, and any other uses for the device other than treating cancer. Kanzius and Penn State will equally split the profit from any intellectual property gained from the device. Roy said he believes Kanzius' device uses radio waves to break the hydrogen-oxygen bond in saltwater using relatively little energy. He plans to study the energy released by breaking the bonds, and what is left when the bonds are broken. "In just the equivalent of two man-days of work, we learned enough to punch out two (scientific) manuscripts," Roy said. "I will present about John's device Tuesday at the Materials Research Society meeting in Boston." Now that an agreement between Kanzius and Penn State has been reached, Roy said the next step is to get research funding. "I think we will need a few million dollars for a few years of research," Roy said. "I'm confident we will get at least some funding. A major company was here, and I'm in contact with a half-dozen others."
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11/22/07 -
Who Wants A Kindle?
Three years ago, we set out to design and build an entirely new class of device-a convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. The result is Amazon Kindle. We designed Kindle to provide an exceptional reading experience. Thanks to electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology, reading Kindle's screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper-and nothing like the strain and glare of a computer screen. Kindle is also easy on the fingertips. It never becomes hot and is designed for ambidextrous use so both "lefties" and "righties" can read comfortably at any angle for long periods of time. We wanted Kindle to be completely mobile and simple to use for everyone, so we made it wireless. No PC and no syncing needed. Using the same 3G network as advanced cell phones, we deliver your content using our own wireless delivery system, Amazon Whispernet. Unlike WiFi, you'll never need to locate a hotspot. There are no confusing service plans, yearly contracts, or monthly wireless bills-we take care of the hassles so you can just read.
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11/22/07 -
Basic Telekinesis
How to learn and use basic telekinesis. It's much easier than I thought: 1. Place your object your trying to move in front of you. 2. Place your thumb near the object, this will allow your aura to extend into its aura. 3. Visualize the object moving, just see it sliding over the table. Try adding some more feeling to it by adding sound to the visualization. 4. If you still cannot move it, try again. Tip: If your tired, stop with the session. Lie down for a bit, try later.
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11/22/07 -
Who would the World Elect for President?
UNITED STATES Votes for: 27502 votes for Ron Paul 8568 votes for Barack Obama 4396 votes for Dennis Kucinich 1734 votes for Hillary Clinton 1371 votes for Mike Gravel 986 votes for John Edwards 871 votes for Fred Thompson 757 votes for Rudy Giuliani 560 votes for Mitt Romney 451 votes for John McCain 423 votes for Bill Richardson 311 votes for Mike Huckabee
297 votes for Joe Biden 197 votes for Duncan Hunter 165 votes for Tom Tancredo 117 votes for Chris Dodd 71 votes for Sam Brownback. (Bear in mind that Ron Pauls supporters are highly vocal and online, but he's my man. - JWD)
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11/22/07 -
Nuclear desalination: Could nuclear power be the answer to fresh water?
New solutions to the ancient problem of maintaining a fresh water supply is discussed in a special issue of the Inderscience publication International Journal of Nuclear Desalination. With predictions that more than 3.5 billion people will live in areas facing severe water shortages by the year 2025, the challenge is to find an environmentally benign way to remove salt from seawater. Jain emphasizes that a sustainable, non-polluting solution to water shortages is essential. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and wave power, may be used in conjunction to generate electricity and to carry out desalination, which could have a significant impact on reducing potential increased greenhouse gas emissions. "Nuclear energy seawater desalination has a tremendous potential for the production of freshwater," Jain adds. The development of a floating nuclear plant is one of the more surprising solutions to the desalination problem. S.S. Verma of the Department of Physics at SLIET in Punjab, points out that small floating nuclear power plants represent a way to produce electrical energy with minimal environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Such plants could be sited offshore anywhere there is dense coastal population and not only provide cheap electricity but be used to power a desalination plant with their excess heat.
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11/22/07 -
Climate Change Can Spark War
History may be bound to repeat itself as Earth’s climate continues to warm, with changing temperatures causing food shortages that lead to wars and population declines, according to a new study that builds on earlier work. The research does not represent direct cause-and-effect, but rather suggests a link between climate and conflict. To see whether changes in climate affected the number of wars fought in the past, the researchers examined the time period between 1400 and 1900, when global average temperatures reached extreme lows around 1450, 1640 and 1820, with slightly warmer periods in between.
Using records reflected in tree rings and ice cores, the researchers compared temperature changes to a database of 4,500 wars worldwide that co-author Peter Brecke of Georgia Tech compiled with funding from the U.S. Institute of Peace. The results of the comparison showed a cyclic pattern of turbulent periods when temperatures were low, followed by more tranquil times when temperatures were higher.
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11/22/07 -
The Most Dangerous Drug In The World
The drug is used almost primarily by criminals as a way of making victims so docile that they have been known to help thieves rob their own homes and empty their own bank accounts. Additionally, women have been drugged repeatedly and held as sex slaves, or have been convinced to willingly give up their own children. The most horrifying side effect of the drug is not is ability to make zombies of its victims, but the complete amnesia it causes. Scopolamine: Scopolamine is a colorless, tasteless, odorless drug. It is also known as hyoscine and is classified as a tropane alkaloid. The drug can be obtained from plants in the Solanacea (nightshade) family. Most scopolamine comes from jimsome weed, or as in Columbia, borrachero trees. The plants it can be derived from are many, and abundantly available. This makes its use widespread, and exceedingly dangerous. It is, surprisingly, one of the most feared substances in what is arguably the drug capital of the world, Columbia. In Columbia alone, there are over 50,000 reported cases of Scopolamine drugging, although rarely does this receive media attention, in Columbia or elsewhere. (via impactlab.com)
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11/22/07 -
6 Major Pre-Production Electric Vehicles Compared
"With all of the hype surrounding hybrid vehicles today, I thought I'd do some research and post my findings on the next generation of fully electric and plug-in hybrids. The fully-electric EV has had a bad name in the past, mostly due to insufficient battery technology, politics, lack of performance models and other factors. Starting this year with the Tesla Roadster, the EV is going to take on a new form in the eyes of John Q Public. Quiet, efficient EVs will start to become commonplace in the next few years as major manufacturers go into production with the newest generation of vehicle sporting more powerful motors, efficient generators and the latest battery technology."
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11/22/07 -
Video - Build a Solar Heater on the Cheap
Create a cheap and green solar heater for less than $10. All you need is foam board, lots of pennies, black spray paint, and plexiglass. The assembled product should be placed next to a window and can increase the room temperature by a minimum of 10 degrees (according to the video), depending on the amount of sunlight that reaches the heater. (via lifehacker.com)
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11/22/07 -
Ethanol Bust Makes Losers of Bush, Gates, D.E. Shaw
Ethanol is 2007's worst energy investment. The corn-based fuel tumbled 57 percent from last year's record of $4.33 a gallon and drove crop prices to a 10-year high [after] production in the U.S. tripled. Even worse for investors and the Bush administration, energy experts contend ethanol isn't reducing oil demand. Scientists at Cornell University say making the fuel uses more energy than it creates, while the National Research Council warns ethanol production threatens scarce water supplies.
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11/22/07 -
It's the end of the world
Mayan apocalyptic theories suggest that the end of the world is imminent. The multi-calendar society of the Mayan Empire predicts that December 21, 2012 will be doomsday. On winter solstice, for the first time in 26,000 years, the sun will align with the center of the Milky Way and some people believe that this will cause a reversal in the magnetic fields of the sun, causing a chain reaction on Earth. Possible results range from the Earth's rotation change causing massive floods, to the magnetic poles' reversal on Earth, which could act as a catalyst for many natural disasters that could destroy the planet. Would you classify these doomsayers as utterly delusional?
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11/22/07 -
U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS Epidemic
The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement. The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year's estimate, documents show. The worldwide total of people infected with HIV -- estimated a year ago at nearly 40 million and rising -- now will be reported as 33 million. "There was a tendency toward alarmism, and that fit perhaps a certain fundraising agenda," said Helen Epstein, author of "The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS." "I hope these new numbers will help refocus the response in a more pragmatic way."
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11/22/07 -
Man-sized sea scorpion claw found
The creature, which has been named Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, would have paddled in a river or swamp. The size of the beast suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought, the team says. The claw itself measures 46cm - indicating its owner would have been longer even than the average-sized human. / "We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies. But we never realized until now just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were," (paleontologist Simon Braddy) said... Braddy said the sea scorpions also were cannibals that fought and ate one other, so it helped to be as big as they could be. "The competition between this scorpion and its prey was probably like a nuclear standoff, an effort to have the biggest weapon," he said. "Hundreds of millions of years ago, these sea scorpions had the upper hand over vertebrates -- backboned animals like ourselves."
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11/22/07 -
Are Aliens Among Us?
Thirty years ago the prevailing view among biologists was that life resulted from a chemical fluke so improbable it would be unlikely to have happened twice in the observable universe. That conservative position was exemplified by Nobel Prize-winning French biologist Jacques Monod, who wrote in 1970: “Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance.” In recent years, however, the mood has shifted dramatically. In 1995 renowned Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve called life “a cosmic imperative” and declared “it is almost bound to arise” on any Earth-like planet. De Duve’s statement reinforced the belief among astrobiologists that the universe is teeming with life. Dubbed biological determinism by Robert Shapiro of New York University, this theory is sometimes expressed by saying that “life is written into the laws of nature.” How can scientists determine which view is correct?
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11/20/07 -
Invention boosts horsepower using a water-and-methanol injection system
Matt Snow launched his business five years ago with $5,000 and his invention: a water-and-methanol injection system that boosts the horsepower of just about any vehicle. His Woodland Park home became the factory for Snow Performance Inc. In his spare time, Snow began playing around with an old concept that was used on fighter planes in World War II - cooling an engine to increase performance using a combination of water and methanol. By applying technology to the physics of combustion, Snow said he and a few fellow engineers were able to create the most advanced system on the market. The system injects on demand a fully atomized spray of water and methanol into the intake track. As the liquid evaporates, it absorbs heat, which allows more air into the combustion chamber and increases performance. Compact digital sensors read internal engine signals, such as revolutions per minute and air flow, and engage the system to deliver power when it’s needed. On a typical street-performance car, the Boost Cooler kit adds 50 to 100 horsepower and on race-car engines, up to 200 horsepower, Dunn said. The system also improves fuel economy by 10 to 15 percent, he said, and decreases emissions. KAZ MotorSports’ Kouba said it takes him about five hours to install a Boost Cooler kit. Snow offers about 20 kits that fit virtually every vehicle, and can be used on either gas or diesel engines. Kits cost $249 to $769, before installation. Snow plans to continue to gain more of the market and sees the business potential as limitless. He’s making a move into the commercial diesel market.
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11/20/07 -
New exhaust system goes silent at the push of a button
German component supplier Eberspaecher has come up with a way of silencing the exhaust sound of a car at the press of a button. According to the company, a microphone in the exhaust pipe measures the noise level while an onboard chip calculates the amount of so-called "anti-sound" needed to reduce the exhaust note. In order to achieve this, a negative mirror-image of the undesired sound waves is played over a small loudspeaker installed in the silencer section of the exhaust system. The driver pushes a button on the dashboard to activate the device which sends out opposing sound waves to counteract the noise coming out of the exhaust pipe by up to 10 decibel points. The company says the invention also makes it possible to customize the engine noise produced by a typical four, six or eight-cylinder motor, making it sound very quiet, sporty or elegant as desired. - Source /
A related item - The Vroom Box, a horribly complex little electronic device that's able to digitally recreate the sound of 15 different cars and fantasy vehicles and play them through speakers under your car (amplifier and speakers sold separately, of course). Now that three-cylinder Subaru Justy of yours can sound just a like a Shelby Mustang.
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11/20/07 -
Food for thought: 10 off-the-wall projects
To help get your creative juices flowing, here we look at 10 do-it-yourself projects that fall somewhere between remarkable and ridiculous. MacGyver would be proud. 4) DIY Hoverboard - Then there’s “UK TV gadget maestro” Jason Bradbury, who, as recounted by the United Kingdom’s The Gadget Show on Five, used a gasoline-powered leaf-blower motor, a board, grommets, screws, piping and connectors, duct tape and heavy plastic sheeting (like pool lining) to create a hoverboard. Total cost: £150 (US$307). Total build time: about one hour (after you’ve "eventually figured out what the hell you're doing and fielded the questions from the [neighbors]”). 8) Inverted Pyramid for Water - Like energy, potable water is becoming a resource of greater concern for many people, especially those who live in arid areas. “WatAir” is an inverted pyramid array of panels that collects dew from the air and turns it into fresh water in almost any climate, producing at least 12 gallons per day, according to The Jerusalem Post (via Water Tech Online). According to one of its creators, WatAir can be incorporated into both rural and urban landscapes easily because it has a relatively small base. Its vertical and diagonal design utilizes gravity to increase the collection areas. The panels are flexible and easy to collapse when not in use, and provide shelter from rain and heat and play areas for children.
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11/20/07 -
Sunbaking your Dinner for free
Steve Sawyer has made an outdoor solar powered oven from recycled materials sourced from the local tip. The oven can reach up to 140 degrees on a hot day and can bake a tray of biscuits in an hour and a half and roast chicken and vegetables in about three hours. Glass from a window pane keeps the heat in, while old fibre glass battes from a ceiling are used for insulation. The frame of the oven is made from ply wood and the base of the oven from an old desk. The most important material in the oven is the aluminium foil. Steve says the foil serves two purposes. "The foil reflects the sun's rays into the oven, creating the heat to cook the food. It also acts as insulation, keeping the heat inside." If you're looking at making your own solar powered oven but don't have access to all the materials, using that other great Aussie invention, the eskie, is probably your best bet. Simply cut a hole in the lid of the eskie and attach cardboard panels covered in foil to the lid of the eskie. The insulation of the eskie will keep the heat in, cooking your meal to perfection.
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11/20/07 -
Public never warned about dangerous device
Twice a day at the Bio-Energy Services clinic, Campos held Antonio while the 260-pound machine pulsed powerful electromagnetic waves into the tumor bulging from his neck. The treatments failed, and Antonio died - the victim not only of his cancer, but of what one health official later called a "major national health fraud." The man behind that fraud is Panos Pappas, a math professor from Athens, Greece, who invented the PAP-IMI. He sold the machines to scores of practitioners in the United States who used them to exploit patients. They avoided detection by taking advantage of federal regulations that allow them to operate on an honor system in clinical studies. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked Pappas' machine to patient injuries and death, it has never warned the public about the dangers. Pappas, meanwhile, continues to insist the machine "is absolutely safe," and that it "can cure cancer and AIDS." Pappas, 60, a Greek scientist, invented the Pap-Ion Magnetic Inductor, or the PAP-IMI, a medical device he describes as a rapid healing machine. It pulses the body with electromagnetic waves that he says repair damaged cells. Johnny Heurung, former general manager of Bio-Energy Services, became troubled by how the PAP-IMI was being marketed. "They would tell people on the phone or Internet or in the meeting it would cure," he said. " 'Cure' is a big word in life, and it's wrong. "When people are very ill, people will fall into the trap. They were coming into the clinic looking for a magic bullet or cure, but it wasn't." Employees lured people of all ages into the Los Angeles clinic. They offered gift certificates and discount packages, like 20 sessions for $880. The company touted the device's cures to support groups for people suffering from chronic fatigue, immune dysfunction and allergies.
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11/20/07 -
Noah's Ark flood spurred European farming
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