Highlights a new invention called the Watercone that creates fresh, drinkable water. The Watercone
can generate 6 to 7 glasses of drinkable water a day using only the power of the sun. The invention offers a new solution
to challenge of providing fresh water to the 1 billion people worldwide who lack it. To view a streamed version suitable for
broadband connections, click here.
New Encryption Software
Can you Give You That Phone Call Privacy
You Would Expect In America
Phil Zimmermann, creator of the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) e-mail encryption software, wants to bring a similar
level of security to phone conversations. A decade after U.S. Customs investigated him for allegedly violating export restrictions
on cryptographic software (when PGP began to spread worldwide), Zimmermann has released encryption
software, called Zfone, that makes it impossible for eavesdroppers to listen in on Voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) phone
calls.
Zfone is
the software that implements my new encryption protocol, called ZRTP.
In a certain way. Zfone
is not a VoIP client; it watches for the packets of Internet data going in and out of the machine and looks for ones that
are VoIP related. Upon detection of a VoIP call, it intercedes to encrypt the call by setting up a key agreement in the media
stream and encrypts the packets of voice data. As time goes on, you'll start to see ZRTP inside VoIP clients. I have a software
development kit that people can stick in their VoIP clients
Take a step into the world of Crave and check out some of the blog entries submitted by CNET editors and writers. And
when you've read their scoops, talk back and tell us what you think about those products.
Self Destructing
USB FLASH
Self Destructing
This cool item will melt down and disintegrate if the wrong password is “tried to often”
Check
this Mission Impossible Style of Flash Memory out at
This looks interesting if.... you need to "be
In touch "
This smart software claims to roam throughout wired and wireless devices, automatically tracking
down recipants, interacting with them and, if necessary, escalating to alternate recipants.
Many law enforcement wiretap systems are vulnerable to simple, unilateral countermeasures
that exploit the unprotected in-band signals passed between the telephone network and the collection system
Matt Blaze discovers that a tone box can turn off wiretapping
equipment.
In these MP3 audio captures, Alice and Bob are suspected of illegal activity and are the subjects of a full
audio Title III wiretap interception on Alice's line. Alice uses C-tone spoofing to selectively suppress recording of part
of the conversation. The recordings were created in our laboratory on a simulated telephone network with various wiretapping
products.
Use the browser "back" button to return here after visiting these links:
These are great! 10 sec clips
This link [observed.mp3] gives the audio stream as captured and recorded by a Recall Technologies NGNR-2000 law enforcement loop extender wiretap
system connected to Alice's line. Note the C-tone burst at the end of the recording (which ordinarily indicates that the tapped
party has hung up and which causes recording to terminate). To the law enforcement agency, this appears to be a normal recording
of a brief call.
This link [unobservered.mp3] gives the full conversation between Alice and Bob, as captured by an inexpensive, consumer-grade telephone recorder interface
(sold by Radio Shack) connected to Alice's line.
Costa Mesa, California-based HPV showed off three sizes of its Magnetic Acoustic
Device, or MAD, a square panel composed of multiple speakers. The units on display ranged from about 4 to 10 feet across.
The device uses magnets approximately 6 inches tall and 9.25 inches wide to convert
electrical pulses into sound waves, and is capable of aiming sound precisely for thousands of feet -- like the sonic equivalent
of a laser, or spotlight.
A series of test sounds beamed out by MAD, including gunfire, music and instructional
commands, were audible and intelligible at distances of up to a mile.
When a subject is at close range in MAD's sonic path, and it is set to high volume,
the sound can be excruciating.
Ahura's FirstDefender
is the only light-weight, rugged handheld instrument for the immediate identification of unknown solids, liquids and mixtures
even through the walls of their containers.
Developers keep on offering lots of things to make the life of mobile phone users easier. For example, they started selling
replaceable lenses for camera phones. This accessory is usually available for the owners of professional SLR cameras –
and now it’s possible to use them with ordinary phones.
There are different lenses released with various optical zooming, wide-angle and others. They cost about 2.5 thousand Yen
for each or 7 thousand Yen for the set of 3 lenses (wide-angle, for tele- and macro shooting), i.e. about $20 and $58 respectively.
You can mount the lens using two magnet layers. This thing is supposed to improve image quality greatly.
All wireless cell phones have one thing in common. They are powered by rechargeable batteries and it is up to the user
to keep those batteries recharges. As you know, when dealing with computers, cell phone and other high tech equipment, Murphy’s
Law always applies. If anything can go wrong, it will. So there will, no doubt, be a time when you need to make that important
phone call and your cell phone batteries are too low.
That’s when you need the Cellboost, a battery with a special plug that fits into your
cell phone. The Cellboost provides approximately 60 minutes of talk time and 60 hours of standby
time in a tiny, light weight hard plastic container. At 2 ½” by 1 ¼”, and only ¼” thick, the Cellboost
can be kept in your briefcase, pocket book, or vehicle’s glove box for emergency power. The Cellboost
dispenses its energy through a “quick-charge” method that transfers full power to your phone quickly and easily.
In my testing, it provided instant power. The only real problem was on a completely dead phone battery, where it took about
two minutes before the phone turned on.
Cellboost
** is compatible with a long list
of common models for Motorola, Nokia, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Siemens phones. You need to purchase a Cellboost
that is compatible with your cell phone type.**
Each cell phone type has a different color cover, so once you have determined the type you need,
it is easy to pick up another Cellboost by simply choosing the cover color. Cellboost is available
at drugstores, supermarkets, and airports.
Cellboost is not rechargeable, like a regular battery, it’s disposable. The only drawback
is that, like a regular battery, there is no visible way to tell how much power the Cellboost has
left. However, at $5.99 it’s cheap enough that you can always keep a spare on hand.
Cellboost provides security in any emergency situation. Whether there is a blackout
or you have just talked too much, Cellboost can come to your rescue.
Watch this 5 minvideo on a software desktop application that helps organize your documents in a rather unique way. Excellent
looking desktop organizer for the busy multi-tasker.
Bang & Olufsen America, Inc. is planning to launch its first mobile phone to arrive in North America this
November 2006. The new mobile phone, entitled Serene, is a result of the cooperation between Bang & Olufsen and Samsung
Electronics Mobile Business.
The companies have been working since 2004 to develop a unique mobile phone.
Serene
incorporates Bang & Olufsen's concept development and design with Samsung's phone technology and engineering, bringing
an unconventional mobile phone concept to the market.
The phone consists of two equal parts that are bound together
by an aluminum hinge. The display and microphone are placed in the lower shell in a landscape orientation and the circular
keyboard and loudspeaker are placed in the upper shell with a thumb operated wheel in the middle taking care of all primary
operations.
Serene comes with a triangular table charger/docking station made in polished anodized aluminum with a
cut-out for the phone. If the phone is placed in the docking station or is set to table mode it can be used as mini-laptop,
as the display can turn 180 degrees for use in this position as well.
The , 2.1 inch QVGA TFT has 240 x 320 pixels
resolution, and the phone comes with a built-in VGA (0.3megapixel) camera. The handset supports SMS, MMS, WAP 2.0 and e-mail
with Outlook synchronisation. It also supports the Bluetooth wireless technology for connection with other mobile devices
and computers. It measures 2.5 x 2.8 x 0.9 inches and weighs in 0.24 lbs.
Users will be able to connect Serene to GSM/GPRS
networks (GPRS Class 10 Triband, GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz).
This handset
will be distributed through Bang & Olufsen stores in North America this November with
a suggested retail price
of US$ 1275.oo
including the charger/docking station and travel charger.
The Equipment for this work is made up of a Laptob, a Projector, a Camcorder + tripod, a emergency
generator and a lot of cables. The aim was to be as mobile as possible and not to spend too much money.
Wind and solar energy
could be used to set up mobile phone networks in rural areas of the world without power.
The world's first mobile phone base station powered by wind and the sun's rays will soon open in Namibia.
The base station needs between 1,200 and 1,500 watts and to meet that demand the site will have a six-kilowatt
turbine and four solar panels.
"In Namibia the turbine and solar panels will also be running the base station with traffic on it,
the peripheral communications, vsat (satellite transmitter/receiver) and even the protective fencing around the site," said
Ms Brown.
She said: "Capital costs for wind and solar are in the same range as a grid connection. But the roll
out time is an advantage; it's much faster.
Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access
by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung
through your local municipal sewage lines
Military Vest - sends impulse and vibrations as
signals
to the person wearing the vest.
A vibrating vest that writes messages on its wearer's back is being tested by researchers
in the US. In future, it could be used to send important commands to soldiers or fire-fighters, warning them of imminent danger
when ordinary radios cannot be used, for example.
The vest is made from black spandex and fastens around a person's lower torso with Velcro.
An array of 16 small vibrating motors is embedded in the back of the vest and connects to a control unit on one side. This
unit contains a wireless transceiver linked wirelessly to a controlling computer.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch group
Philips has developed an "intelligent pill" that contains a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir
to release medication in a specific area in the body. Philips develops "intelligent pill"
New Weapon(s) To Use On Public Citizens in the USA
US
POLICE WILL BE
GETTING A
"PAIN-BEAM-GUN"
SOON
The research arm of the US Department of
Justice is working on two portable non-lethal weapons that inflict pain from a distance using beams of laser light or microwaves,
with the intention of putting them into the hands of police to subdue suspects.
Like the ADS, the new portable devices will
also heat the skin, but will have beams only a few centimetres across. They are designed to elicit what the Pentagon calls
a "repel response" - a strong urge to escape from the beam.
A spokesperson for the National Institute
for Justice likens the effect of the new devices to that of "blunt trauma" weapons such as rubber bullets, "But unlike blunt
trauma devices, the injury should not be present. This research is looking to reduce the injuries to suspects," they say.
Existing blunt trauma weapons can break
ribs or even kill, making alternatives welcome. Yet ADS has recorded problems too - out of several thousand tests on human
subjects there were two cases of second-degree burns.
Dazzle and burn
The NIJ's laser weapon has been dubbed Personnel
Halting and Stimulation Response - PHaSR - and resembles a bulky rifle. It was created in 2005 by a US
air force agency to temporarily dazzle enemies (see image, right), but the addition of a second, infrared laser makes it able
to heat skin too.
The NIJ is testing the PHaSR in various
scenarios, which may include prison situations as well as law enforcement.
The NIJ's portable microwave-based weapon
is less developed. Currently a tabletop prototype with a range of less than a metre, a backpack-sized prototype with a range
of 15 metres will be ready next year, a spokesperson says.
The truly portable mini-ADS could prove
the more useful, as microwaves penetrate clothing better than the infra-red beam, which is most effective on exposed skin.
Although the spokesman says: "In LEC [Law Enforcement and Corrections] use there is always a little bit of skin to target."
Torture concerns
The effect of microwave beams on humans
has been investigated for years, but there is little publicly available research on the effects of PHaSR-type lasers on humans.
The attraction of using a laser is that it can be less bulky than a microwave device.
Human rights groups say that equipping police
with such weapons would add to the problems posed by existing "non-lethals" such as Tasers. Security expert Steve Wright at
LeedsMetropolitanUniversity describes the new weapons as "torture at the touch of a button".
"We have grave concerns about the deployment
and use of any such devices, which have the potential to be used for torture or other ill treatment," says Amnesty International's
arms control researcher Helen Hughes, adding that all research into their effects should be made public.
No longer a subject of science fiction, a car that can fly like a regular airplane, but then land,
fold up its wings and drive away debuted in Boston Wednesday.
Terrafugia of Massachusetts prefers to call its Transition a "roadable aircraft" rather
than a "flying car." It has completed several test runs and one test flight as part of its proof-of-concept phase. The company
plans to refine the craft further and begin commercializing it in 2011.
The plane was on display during a press conference at Boston's Museum of Science. Terrafugia's
CEO and founder, Carl Dietrich, said that the Transition "changes the world of personal mobility" and that "travel now becomes
a hassle-free, integrated land-air experience."
Its first test flight was on March 5, 2009, in Plattsburgh, New York, where retired
U.S. Air Force Reserve colonel and Terrafugia test pilot Phil Meteer took the plane to several hundred meters in the air and
then landed back on the runway. "It was kind of a wahoo moment," said Meteer. The flight spanned about 900 meters, and prior
to the air test the plane underwent several ground and wind tunnel tests.
After a flight the plane's wings fold in half and mechanically retract once the engine
is off and the pilot enters a PIN number on a cockpit panel.
"[It has] all of the controls of a car so that any driver can drive it ... in the air
it has all the controls of a normal airplane so that any pilot can fly it," Meteer said. In the air the pilot uses a control
stick and rudder pedals to fly, while on the ground a driver users a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals to drive.
The vehicle has a body that resembles an airplane more than a car, but it has four
wheels, an uncommon feature on general aviation aircraft, that lets it drive on roadways at 105 kilometers per hour (65 mph).
It achieves surprisingly good fuel economy of 30 miles per gallon. In the air its cruising speed is 185 kph (100 kts or 115
mph).
The Transition isn't going to be for everyone because the user would need a sport pilot
rating from the Federal Aviation Administration. Terrafugia claims that can be obtained in "as little as 20 hours of flight
time in a Transition-specific course." The craft also costs US$194,000.
In automobile mode, or when the wings are folded up, the plane measures 2.1 meters
tall, 2 meters wide and 5.7 meters long. As an airplane, the craft is 1.9 meters tall, 8.4 meters wide and 5.8 meters long.
It has a 100-horsepower Rotax 912S engine, a safety cage and crumple zone, side impact protection, and a parachute that will
lower the plane to the ground in case of mid-air engine failure.
The Transition already has 40 people on its waiting list, all of whom needed to pay
a $10,000 refundable deposit on the plane. Many of the buyers, according to Dietrich, are those in or near retirement who
already have their pilot's licenses.
Bio photonics. Until yesterday, when a story on Wired magazine’s website about a “MacGyveresque” cell phone lit up Twitter universe, I hadn’t a clue. This particular cell phone, developed by Aydogan Ozcan’s lab at UCLA,
doubles as a cytometer that can analyze blood cells for disease based on the cells’ light diffraction signatures. In
short, rapid diagnostics literally at the speed of light in a portable package that fits in the palm of one’s hand.
And as a cherry on the good news sundae, all the physical parts — an LED, a webcam, the phone itself — are off
the shelf and cheap.
The implications for public health, particularly in poor developing countries, are, of course, enormous. This also has
the potential to be a game-changer across the board, putting a “lab” in every doctor — or community health
worker’s — pocket, dramatically reducing the time and cost of tests. Imagine: health-care costs that go down.
(Although, as my colleague Ed Jezierski at InSTEDD points out, if it turns out that proprietary component of the test is expensive, the bargain disappears.)
The Wired story was grouped on TrackerNews with a Technology Reviewarticle providing a more detailed explanation of the imaging system (which can also be used for testing water):
The counter has high throughput–while it’s capable of detecting small numbers of cells, it can image as many
as 100,000 cells in a 20-centimeter-squared field of view in one second. The counter can, for example, determine the concentration
of red blood cells in an unprocessed blood sample with 90 percent accuracy. Red blood cell count can be used to diagnose anemia,
to monitor malaria, and to monitor patients’ responses to chemotherapy.
For those wanting even more detail, the Ozcan lab’s website has links to several technical journal articles. And for those, like me, who could use a fast backgrounder on bio photonics - Wikipedia to the rescue!
Origami Diagnostics
If you haven’t got cell phone handy, George Whitesides at Harvard can whip up a diagnostic chip out of paper and
tape. It turns to be surprisingly easy to create channels on the stamp-size pieces of paper to control the flow of sample
fluid — a drop of blood, for example. By creating layers separated by tape, a single chip can be used for multiple tests.
The results appear as tiny dots of color that can be easily and quickly analyzed, much like a pregnancy test.
Whitesides’ nonprofit, Diagnostics for All, which was created to scale up and commercialize the concept, won both the 2008 Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Business Plan Contest and the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, so is further
along the tech transfer trail than most.
Looking for the Unknown Germ
Both the the phone and the paper chip are designed to test for known pathogens. But what about the new ones that keep popping
up, such as SARS, or those expanding into new regions, such as West Nile virus in the U.S., or chikungunya in Italy? Ian Lipkin’s team at Columbia University have developed GreeneChips, glass slides with “over 30,000 pieces of genetic material, representing thousands of different pathogens. which can
test for almost all known viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites,” and Mass Tag PCR, a “multiplex platform that allows epidemiologists and doctors to simultaneously test one sample for the presence of
up to 30 different agents.” When a faced with a novel pathogen, the tests can quickly determine what its closest relatives
are, which, in turn jumpstart the investigation as to whether it is a vector-borne, air-borne, food-borne or water-borne disease.
Although Mass Tag PCR is provided free to WHO Network partners, these are still pretty boutique technologies.
But who knows? A Greene paper chip or a Mass Tag cell phone could be just around the corner….
Bio photonics. Until yesterday, when a story on Wired magazine’s website about a “MacGyveresque” cell phone lit up Twitter universe, I hadn’t a clue. This particular cell phone, developed by Aydogan Ozcan’s lab at UCLA,
doubles as a cytometer that can analyze blood cells for disease based on the cells’ light diffraction signatures. In
short, rapid diagnostics literally at the speed of light in a portable package that fits in the palm of one’s hand.
And as a cherry on the good news sundae, all the physical parts — an LED, a webcam, the phone itself — are off
the shelf and cheap.
The implications for public health, particularly in poor developing countries, are, of course, enormous. This also has
the potential to be a game-changer across the board, putting a “lab” in every doctor — or community health
worker’s — pocket, dramatically reducing the time and cost of tests. Imagine: health-care costs that go down.
(Although, as my colleague Ed Jezierski at InSTEDD points out, if it turns out that proprietary component of the test is expensive, the bargain disappears.)
The Wired story was grouped on TrackerNews with a Technology Reviewarticle providing a more detailed explanation of the imaging system (which can also be used for testing water):
The counter has high throughput–while it’s capable of detecting small numbers of cells, it can image as many
as 100,000 cells in a 20-centimeter-squared field of view in one second. The counter can, for example, determine the concentration
of red blood cells in an unprocessed blood sample with 90 percent accuracy. Red blood cell count can be used to diagnose anemia,
to monitor malaria, and to monitor patients’ responses to chemotherapy.
For those wanting even more detail, the Ozcan lab’s website has links to several technical journal articles. And for those, like me, who could use a fast backgrounder on bio photonics - Wikipedia to the rescue!
Origami Diagnostics
If you haven’t got cell phone handy, George Whitesides at Harvard can whip up a diagnostic chip out of paper and
tape. It turns to be surprisingly easy to create channels on the stamp-size pieces of paper to control the flow of sample
fluid — a drop of blood, for example. By creating layers separated by tape, a single chip can be used for multiple tests.
The results appear as tiny dots of color that can be easily and quickly analyzed, much like a pregnancy test.
Whitesides’ nonprofit, Diagnostics for All, which was created to scale up and commercialize the concept, won both the 2008 Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Business Plan Contest and the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, so is further
along the tech transfer trail than most.
Looking for the Unknown Germ
Both the the phone and the paper chip are designed to test for known pathogens. But what about the new ones that keep popping
up, such as SARS, or those expanding into new regions, such as West Nile virus in the U.S., or chikungunya in Italy? Ian Lipkin’s team at Columbia University have developed GreeneChips, glass slides with “over 30,000 pieces of genetic material, representing thousands of different pathogens. which can
test for almost all known viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites,” and Mass Tag PCR, a “multiplex platform that allows epidemiologists and doctors to simultaneously test one sample for the presence of
up to 30 different agents.” When a faced with a novel pathogen, the tests can quickly determine what its closest relatives
are, which, in turn jumpstart the investigation as to whether it is a vector-borne, air-borne, food-borne or water-borne disease.
Although Mass Tag PCR is provided free to WHO Network partners, these are still pretty boutique technologies.
But who knows? A Greene paper chip or a Mass Tag cell phone could be just around the corner….
Darpa’s Smart, Flat Camera Is Packed With Beady Eyes
Troops and unmanned aircraft could be the first to benefit from a new smart, ultra-slim camera technology which combines the
images from many low-resolution sensors to create a high-resolution picture. Known as Panoptes, it promises lightweight, flat
cameras with the power of a big lens in a device just five millimeters thick. It’s being developed by Marc Christensen, a professor at Southern Methodist University, with funding from Darpa. Planned applications include sensors
for miniature drones and helmet-cams for soldiers.
A key feature of the system is that is made up of a large number of tiny imagers. These are small,
simple cameras, each directed independently by a MEMS-controlled micro-mirror. Because there is no large lens, Pantoptes can be made flat, unlike other cameras.
A central processor combines the images into a single picture, producing a higher resolution than the
individual imagers. The intelligence is in the way that the system identifies areas of interest and concentrates the sub-imagers
on the relevant part of the scene. Christensen gives the example of the Panoptes system looking at a building in a field.
“After a first frame or two was collected, the system could identify that certain areas, like
the open field, had nothing of interest, whereas other areas, like the license plate of a car parked outside or peering in
the windows, had details that were not sufficiently resolved,” he tells Danger Room.
“In the next frame, subimagers that had been interrogating the field would be steered to aid in the imaging of
the license plate and windows, thereby extracting the additional information.”
As well as concentrating on areas of interest, the smart software will combine the overlapping images
in a way that will give a clear image without the ‘noise’ associated with low-resolution imagers like camera phones.
This sounds like it might require a tremendous amount of processing power. But it’s possible to achieve good frame rates
— 30-60 per second — using a normal digital signal processor.
“Our defense partners tell us a typical image only contains 10-15 percent of interesting features,”
says Christensen. “Non-adaptive cameras therefore waste 85-90 percent of their resources — resolution, bits, power,
etc — forming detailed images of regions that are not of interest.”
The project’s name is derived from Argus Panoptes, a hundred-eyed watchman in Greek mythology. According to Christensen, Panoptes stands for “Processing
Arrays of Nyquist-limited Observations to Produce a Thin Electro-optic Sensor.”
The current goal is to demonstrate an imager five millimeters thick, weighing tens of grams. Because
the cameras are flat, the professor says, they can be carried where other sensors cannot -– such as all over the surface
of an unmanned aircraft. Because the system is adaptive and can focus on areas of interest, it combines a very wide field
of vision with high resolution, without the need for a bulky zoom lens.
Panoptes builds off previous work in this field. The original inspiration comes from the compound eyes of insects. A few years ago, a German and Swiss team demonstrated a “paper thin” camera, based on a compound eye. More recently, researchers from the University of Osaka developed a button-sized camera called Tombo (Thin Observation Module by Bound Optics); using nine lenses, it could recreated three-dimensional scenes.
Panoptes goes beyond these; its individual imagers are active elements that can be trained on any part of the scene.
The other way of approaching the task is by having a single imager but with variable resolution: Use
high-resolution for the interesting part, and keep the rest fuzzy. This saves a huge amount of processing power, and it’s
the approach used by many vertebrates, including humans. Only the fovea, the small area at the center of your field of vision,
has high resolution. Machine vision can be designed either with a fixed fovea or like the Air Force-funded Variable Acuity Superpixel Technology system. In it, the software-defined fovea can be trained to follow a point of interest. This speeds up
processing so much that the high-resolution “window” of the VAST camera can follow speeding bullets in flight.
It’s also the approach taken by Darpa’s 1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS flying camera and the Air Force’s Gorgon Stare. These use wide-angle cameras to catch the whole scene, but only render small, user-selected areas of
interest in high resolution – 12 windows for Gorgon Stare, 65 for the bigger and more advanced ARGUS-IS. Panoptes is
aiming for the same effect, using a lot of scanning imagers that can be directed to grab more detail.
Eventually, the project could lead to a kind of wide-angle helmet cam. Linked to the right image-processing
software, it could be a life-saver, keeping a constant lookout in all directions for possible threats. Darpa is already pursing
a similiar approach to try to spot RPGs before they are fired.
But the first customer for Pantoptesmay be a robotic plane. The current stage of the program is due
to be completed next year when the system will be passed to a defence company for integration with an unmanned aerial vehicle.
Who knows what the drone might see, with its new eye in the sky?
The Weather Modification Office sprayed clouds with 186 doses of
the chemical to bring rain for the wheat crop, the Beijing Evening News said.
But the arrival of a cold front caused heavy snow to fall, disrupting
road, rail and air travel.
Cloud seeding is often used in China in an attempt to bring on rain.
The country's north is prone to droughts, while the south is often
flooded.
In Anhui province, which has been having a drought since September,
there was 4cm (1.5in) of rainfall at the weekend.
Much of the country's farming still relies on rainfall as many of
its communities have a poor irrigation system.
HOW CLOUD SEEDING WORKS
1. Silver iodide is fired into cloud using flares
on planes or from the ground
2. Water droplets then attach to these particles
3. They fall as snow if surface temperatures
are below or near freezing, or as raindrops at warmer temperatures
4. Heat released as the droplets freeze boosts
updrafts, which pull more moist air into the cloud
Despite the use of the cloud seeding technique,
many scientists remain sceptical of its effectiveness
In February, snow fell after the authorities seeded clouds over
Beijing in an attempt to alleviate the dry conditions.
However, many scientists - particularly in the UK - remain highly
sceptical of the effectiveness of cloud seeding.
Even if it is theoretically possible, one of the problems for proponents
has been to demonstrate that a rainfall or snowfall was caused by the seeding or simply occurred spontaneously.
In addition to cloud seeding, the government is building a huge
network of tunnels and waterways that will funnel water from the south to the north, but the project is still five years from
completion.
You can now use muscle power to charge your electronics. Easy Energy at CES 2010 showed off the YoGen hand charger, which
is now available for $40. When you pull the string, it turns a mini flywheel that produces a steady stream of power - up to
five watts - for small, portable devices. One minute of pulling is enough to charge a mobile phone, according to the company.
Easy Energy is adapting the same flywheel alternator technology for a pedal-powered laptop, called the YoGen MaxT, which
is still under development.
On Sunday 60 Minutes introduced the world to the "Bloom Box," a "power-plant-in-a-box" that gets buried in your backyard, off the grid. That's
right, your own personal, clean power system.
As game-changing as it sounds, Bloom Energy is not the only crew working on such a box. In fact, some are working on a
nuclear box -- small, sealed reactor in a concrete block with a heat tube -- that could provide cheap, long-lasting energy for communities
in the developing world...if it weren't for the whole security thing.
However, what makes Bloom's box so interesting is the reverse reaction, in which the waste CO2 is put back through the system, producing more fuel. In other words, in theory,
less greenhouse gas waste, more power. All of these systems (including those from Panasonic, Ceres, and ClearEdge) are a beacon
of hope in the fight against climate change, but Bloom could be a cut above. Though, according to Wired, "transforming carbon dioxide into fuels isn’t easy and neither is conserving that energy from the first reaction
to run the second one."
Why should we believe that Bloom has the goods? The genius behind this project is K.R. Sridhar, a rocket scientist
who had originally built a similar system to create oxygen for the planned manned mission to Mars. That's right, a la Total Recall. When the mission got scrapped, Sridhar turned to this project, and he could be soon delivering it to your backyard.
Standard cement, usually mixed with plaster sand. The standard cement is reinforced with more steel or fiber at a closer
spacing than traditional construction. Reduced spacing yields uniform force dispersion and increases strength.
It’s one thing to know what the next iPhone is going
to look like. It’s an entirely different matter to know what phones will be like a few years down the road.
This slideshow is a collection of our favorite futuristic
phone designs, ranging from realistic to not-so-much. Some come from the desks of design firms. Others come from the minds
of folks who know their way around Photoshop and have a little too much free time on their hands. Still others are real prototypes
from handset makers.
We probably won’t be getting our hands on any of
these babies for a few years, but most of them contain a kernel of an idea that could make its way into the mainstream, such
as OLED displays and pico projectors.
If you’ve snoozed through one-too-many alarms and then way overslept, Bim Bam Banana’s Puzzle Alarm Clock will
give you a quick intelligence test that is bound to wake you up before it will stop its incessant honking. As soon as you
can assemble the four puzzle pieces that are popped up into the air at your predesignated time, the thing will finally shut
up. That should be just enough commotion to assure that you won’t go drifting back into la-la land. You’ll pay
$52 for that privilege.
The
new batteries can also be recharged hundreds of thousands of times say MIT researchers
You could
be charging your long lasting batteries in a matter of seconds in the future if several researchers at MIT get their way.
According to a report on ScienCentralNews, researchers at MIT have discovered
a new way of making batteries that involves using millions of nanotubes. Leaping over traditional battery technologies, the
new types of batteries are based on capacitors, which have been around even longer than the battery itself.
A capacitor
maintains a charge by relying on two metallic electrodes. The actual storage capacity of a capacitor is directly proportional
to the surface area of those electrodes, and unfortunately making a capacitor in traditional battery sizes means that the
electrode surface area is simply too small. To overcome this, the researchers cover the electrodes with millions of nanotube
filaments, effectively increasing the surface area.
If you are a serious surfer ..these tools will help
I use AM Deadlink
But I love the Local Website Archive 1.24 Because this software allows you to save the whole page
-and- the URL ...cool!
It boasts that it will "Archive web pages permanently for future reference"
It is a better way to say websites ..especially to see the URL that goes with the saved site. .....AM Deadlinks ...goes
through your "Favorites" and puts it al on a sprad sheet. you can see multiple enteries and once again the whole URL is right
nest to the anme of the Favorite that you bookmarked and had saved..
Give them a try .....its free and no addware or bullshit ......ha surfs up!
Transparent transistors: Arrays of fully transparent transistors made with indium-oxide nanowires
are fabricated on a plastic substrate (red lines mark the array regions). The transistors, made by researchers at Purdue University
and Northwestern University, could be an important step toward bright, flexible, and completely see-through displays. Credit:
Sanghyun Ju and Chulwoo Son, Purdue University
Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays are currently found on mobile phones and digital cameras.
But in the future, manufacturers expect bigger, bendable, and completely transparent versions. They envision bright maps on
visors and windshields, television screens built into eyeglasses, and roll-up, see-through computer screens. And although
the OLEDs themselves can be transparent, to make a clear display, the transistors that control each display's OLED, or pixel,
need to be transparent as well.
Researchers at Purdue University and Northwestern University have now made flexible, see-through transistors
using zinc-oxide and indium-oxide nanowires. By contrast, the amorphous or polycrystalline silicon transistors used in existing
displays are not transparent. The new transistors also perform better than their silicon counterparts and are easier to fabricate
on flexible plastic.
Sony has developed a biologically friendly battery that generates electricity from
sugar in a way that's similar to what's found in living organisms.
Battery test cells have generated up to 50 milliwatts, or enough electricity to power music playback
on a memory-type Walkman. Sony said in a statement released in Japan on Thursday that the output is the highest for a bio battery of this type.
The battery generates electricity through the use of enzymes that break down carbohydrates, which is
essentially sugar. Sony has increased battery output by efficiently immobilizing enzymes and the electronic conduction materials,
while retaining enzyme activity at the anode, an electrode through which positive electric current flows into a polarized
device.
Sony also developed a new structure for the cathode, which is an electrode through which positive current
flows out of a polarized electrical device. The new structure efficiently supplies oxygen to the cathode while ensuring that
appropriate water content is maintained to optimize enzyme activity and the flow of electricity.
The bio battery could evolve into an ecologically friendly device, because sugar is a naturally occurring
energy source produced by plants through photosynthesis and can be found in most areas of the earth, Sony said. In addition,
Sony made the battery casing of vegetable-based plastic.
Such ecologically friendly batteries could help reduce the disposal problem with batteries used today.
Many of the chemicals used in current batteries are toxic and environmentally destructive. Sony plans to continue its research
into so-called "immobilization systems," electrode composition, and other technologies to increase power output and durability.
Sony hopes to one day use the new technologies for practical applications.
Sony presented its research this week as an academic paper at the American Chemical Society National
Meeting & Exposition in Boston.
In other recent ecologically friendly battery research, scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
reported last week creating a paper-sized device that functions as a high-energy battery and a supercapacitor that can use
human blood and sweat to recharge. The device is lightweight, thin, flexible, and geared toward future use for medical implants,
transportation, and gadgets.
During World War II, GIs in the field built really amazing
simple radios to listen too. These were made with materials that they could get their hands on and were small enough to carry
around in a...
During World War II, GIs in the field built really amazing
simple radios to listen too. These were made with materials that they could get their hands on and were small enough to carry
around in a big pocket. You can modify this design if you want to set it up so that it's tuneable too! To see all the plans,
go to makezine dot com slash podcast!
Flatpack is so two weeks ago; now we have robotic
chairs that assemble themselves. This one, by Canadian artist Max Dean and robotics expert Raffaello D’Andrea, also reconstructs itself after being smashed to pieces, which is particularly handy if you throw chairs
around the house. According to Cornell University this was a hit on the internets a year ago but we missed it, and apologise
to those who are seeing it again. ::BoingBoing Gadgets and ::Cornell
Wearable power: Researchers have developed
technology that combines multiple materials into intricately structured fibers, such as those shown here (right). The researchers
hope to make fibers that can store energy or convert sunlight into power, for use in soldiers’ uniforms. Credit:
(left) U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, (right) Hills, Inc.
Weaving Batteries into Clothes
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
A new machine that makes nanostructured fibers could turn soldiers' uniforms
into power supplies.
A novel machine that makes nanostructured fibers could be the key to a new generation of military uniforms that take on
active functions such as generating and storing energy.
The fibers can be made of up to three different materials, arranged in regular, nanoscale patterns visible in cross section.
(See slide show.) The machine, manufactured by Hills, of West Melbourne, FL, is one of only two in the world capable of producing such fibers,
says Stephen Fossey, a researcher at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, in Natick, MA. The machine is scheduled to be delivered early next year to the Natick facility, where it will serve as the
centerpiece of a program geared to making multifunctional uniforms.
Among the machine's many potential uses is assembling fibers that act as rechargeable batteries. Angela Belcher, a professor of biological and chemical engineering at MIT, says that some of the sample structures the device has made could
be useful for combining positive and negative battery electrodes and electrolytes into individual threads. Such threads could
be woven into uniforms and paired with threads that act as fuel cells or photovoltaics.
The machine was featured last week as part of a workshop on wearable power held at the United States Army Research Laboratory,
outside of Washington, DC. The workshop was part of a major push to develop better alternatives to today's batteries as foot
soldiers come to depend more on electronic devices, from night-vision goggles and laser range finders to advanced radios and
networked computers. Today, a typical platoon requires almost 900 batteries of up to seven different types for a five-day
mission, says Charlene Mello, a member of the macromolecular-science team at the Natick soldier center. Besides being cumbersome
to manage and carry, the batteries don't last very long, which could put soldiers in the position of having to change them
in the middle of a fight.
What's needed are ways to store energy in less space and relieve soldiers of logistical burdens so that they can concentrate
on their jobs, says Dave Schimmel, a project manager at the Natick facility who works with experimental technologies that
are close to being tested in the field.
Proposed solutions include lightweight fuel cells and batteries molded to the shape of a soldier's body armor. The Natick
machine is important for longer-range research on power sources that would simply disappear into the background.
The machine is a variant on a common manufacturing technology used to extrude polymers: heated materials are forced through
a die and then drawn down to make thin fibers. Its ability to combine three different materials into intricate patterns, however,
depends on separate control of the temperature of each material (the upper temperature limit is 350 ºC).
The machine can process materials besides polymers, which could be key to making functional fabrics. Metals with low melting
points could be used to make conducting fibers. A wide array of inorganic materials that can be useful for batteries, fuel
cells, and photovoltaics could be incorporated into the fibers by embedding them within polymers. The fibers, once formed
into novel shapes, could also serve as templates for inorganic materials deposited using other techniques.
One of the more exotic possibilities is creating fibers from viruses that Belcher has genetically engineered to bind to
and organize inorganic materials. She has already shown that the viruses can be used to make high-energy-density battery electrodes
and fibers. The machine could combine battery electrodes with a polymer separator and electrolyte to form a complete battery.
A similar approach could be used with photovoltaic materials. (Indeed, photovoltaic fibers made by other means have been demonstrated
in the past.)
Among the cross-sectional patterns possible with the machine (and illustrated by the slide show accompanying this article)
are some that look like sliced pies or concentric rings, and others that are much more complex. Once made, the fibers can
be modified by dissolving certain polymers, leaving behind fibers with increased surface area. In one example, called "islands
in the sea," a fiber thinner than a human hair is divided into dozens of nanoscale fibers. The machine can also produce fibers
with cross sections that, instead of being circular, could have the shape of a cross or a three-lobed structure.
"Pretty much any cross section can be made," Fossey says. Indeed, what's lacking now is not the capabilities of the machine,
he says, but enough researchers with ideas for how to use it.
Wallington has discovered what he believes is the incredibly simple secret of how the ancients managed
to build Stonehenge. He demonstrates in this video
Boston Dynamics keeps working on theirBigDog quadruped robot, which will probably grow
to be the future AT-AT of the Pentagon. Its evolution since the last time we saw it is nothing sort of mindblowing, and a bit spooky. It looks like an actual biological quadruped. Seeing it climb
through rubble, snow, jumping over obstacles like a wild goat, and saving a near-fall on iced ground at the last second (fast
forward to the middle of the video) defies belief. It feels so "animal" that I almost feel bad when they hit it to demonstrate
how it regains balance on its own. The new version of the robot can now carry 340 pounds, which is almost triple the previous
weight. It looks to me that that $10 million funding they got from Darpa has been put to good use.
The idea, if not the practice, of using the heat absorption capabilities of asphalt roadways to heat water is not new.
About nine months ago we reported on a Dutch civil engineering company which places water pipes underneath and then pump it to nearby buildings for heating. Additionally, the system is constructed
so that it can actually pump cold water in the summer for use in cooling.
In a similar vein, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are investigating whether roadways might also be able
to generate electricity. Science Daily provides the details:
Tests Done to Determine Maximum Heat Absorption of Asphalt The entire project is being
directed by Rajib Mallick, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at WPI, and is studying the heat absorption
capabilities of asphalt using computer models, as wells as small and large scale practical tests. The goal of these tests
is to measure heat penetration into the asphalt to determine the best location for heat exchangers, as well as testing how
well heat can be transferred to water contained in copper pipes embedded in the asphalt.
The tests show that maximum heat occurs only a few centimeters into the asphalt. It was also determined
that by adding highly conductive aggregates, such as quartzite, heat absorption can be increased significantly. Reflection-reducing
paint can also increase heat absorption.
Water heated in such a system could be used as is for heating buildings (like the Dutch have done) or
by feeding it to a thermoelectric generator to produce electricity.
Roadway Energy Systems Could Be Retrofit as Roads Resurfaced Mallick says that because
roads and parking lots are resurfaced every 10-12 years, a roadway energy system could be retrofitted at the same time. Furthermore,
extracting heat from asphalt could reduce the ‘heat island’ effect in urban environments.
While we certainly have an abundance of roads and parking lots in the United States, I wonder if the cost
and maintenance of such systems would be prohibitive.
Some other things that stick out to me: If maximum heat absorption occurs just a few centimeters and that’s
where you want to put your heat exchanger, would you have to move the whole system every time the road got resurfaced after
installation? Or to resurface the road? What would be the wear and tear on such a system in highly trafficked areas?
Any civil engineers out there want to weigh in on this one?
Waves work in a constant movement up and down, forth and back, and we can with the WaveReaper™,
a simple mechanical device take advantage of this in a cheap way.
As we said, the wave move up and down, but most generators, rotate around an axle, and the
wave size varies a lot, and creates problems, when you want to utilize the energy content of them. The current technologies
regarding wave energy today, is very costly, which brings that can’t compete with other ways of making energy.
Another factor, water, and generators, yes almost any technology, is having problem, when
it comes to the oceans salt water without more expensive design and material. Water can leak inside equipment and ruin electrical
circuits, and must therefore be safeguarded against corrosion, and in those cases it is under water, against leakage, and
pressure. Also water-depth, and the special environment, which crave divers, and other expensive equipment, has made wave
energy costly.
With other words, underwater technology is not cheap, with these problems to solve, which means high
costs, and therefore more expensive energy for the consumer. This is not what we would like, so it’s needed to solve
the wave generation concept, to go around these problems. And the solution is simple, we can use basic items, as wire, plastic
barrels, one way bearings, pulley, an axle, flywheel and generator.
That is the main components, in what up to day, is the cheapest wave energy technology in the world.
It can even be built in wood or by choice bicycle parts! This is very good, in countries which have limited access to expensive
metals, and heavy machining tools. Most of the parts in a generator, except wiring, can be made of wood or plastics.
Here is a short instructional video which details how to power a TV (or any device) using a
small but effective AAA battery.
You will need 3 simple items:
1. Duct tape 2. RCA cable 3. AAA
battery
Stopping Trucks the Superhero Way
By David HamblingFebruary 10, 2009 | 8:38:00 AM
Stopping a car or truck is fairly easy. Stopping a vehicle without doing any damage
is a lot harder, and it has led to a lot of very creative thinking in the field of non-lethal weapons. The end results may
be highly effective. But often, they end up looking like something out of a Marvel comic.
The Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate's current offering is the Vehicle Lightweight Arresting Device (VLAD) which is "a pre-emplaced net, that is man-portable and equipped with a unique barbed spike system
that stops cars and trucks traveling at high rates of speed." (Spikes -- VLAD the Impaler?) But the demand now is for a barrier
that does not obstruct normal traffic and which can instantly be raised to stop a speeding truck bomb.
One possible alternative under development by the Department of Homeland Security is described as being
"inspired by a famous superhero and a giant creature from the sea." It's the Safe Quick Undercarriage Immobilization Device. That's right: SQUID.
SQUID aims to overcome some of the problems with existing portable barriers with a Spiderman-style
approach. The DHS say the trap is "as small as a spare tire, as light as a tire jack, and costs under a grand," it is placed
on the road surface as a flat disk eighteen inches wide. When activated it shoots out sticky tentacles which hold on and stretch
to absorb kinetic energy. Instead of trying to hold the entire vehicle, SQUID just targets the axle. This requires far less
energy, and if the axle is stopped the vehicle won’t get far.
Does it actually work? Well, here's a video of a test showing it stopping a pickup truck moving at 35 mph; the ultimate aim is to stop a much bigger
5,000-pound truck hurtling past at 120 mph. However, stopping distance may be an issue -- the vehicle still travels about
the same distance as it would if you slammed the brakes on.
Another potential problem is that the bad guys may simply see the SQUID in the road and steer around
it; DHS suggests this might be countered by disguising it, for example having it in the shape of a speed bump.
Similar devices have been proposed for stopping boats by tangling running gear, and the makers ultimately
want to have a range of devices for "land, sea and air" (presumably the flying version will be a candidate for that parchutist/microlight-catching contract).
But if you want something a bit more ambitious that will really stop a truck dead, then there's the
Foam Vehicle Arresting System being developed for the Army. This consists of a series of small containers: when triggered, each container
generates several cubic meters of foam "extremely fast" (I think we're talking airbag-type inflation speed).
The foam stops the vehicle, absorbing the impact like a giant marshmallow. It also blocks all the engine
intakes and jams the wheels in place, preventing it from being driven away. Finally, "it will leave the driver trapped inside
an encapsulated vehicle, with no means of orientation." Presumably, it is a non-lethal system so long as someone rescues the
driver before he suffocates.
This is only a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project, and these often fail to develop
further; the contract runs until the end of April this year.
These are by no means the only vehicle-stoppers out there, or even the most science-fictional. Fiore
Industries are among many working on a microwave ray gun "Car Stopper" which fries a vehicle's electronics from a distance. It has the advantage of range and portability,
but issues such as collateral damage and what happens to the speeding car afterwards.
None of these technologies is yet mature. But before long, devices like these may be as commonplace
as Tasers -- and perhaps as controversial.
The entire world has been waiting for decades
with baited breath for the arrival of real, working shoe phone technology. You find that hard to believe? Would you believe
that someone, somewhere, has been occassionally thinking about shoe phones? Well, the shoe phone finally lives, as you will
discover below, and as you can hear for your self, here or here, or listen to an ABC interview which gets interrupted by the shoe phone
ringing.
The
attention the shoe phone has generated has been quite flattering, including the production of shoe phones by others, resulting
in an instructibles article and the first shoe phone on ebay. Perhaps what is most surprising is that noone had actually made a working shoe phone before.
But now that cat has been let out of the bag ...
Remote Patient Care:
The Serious Side Of Shoe Phones
A
significant part of the shoe phone project is the potential medical applications, as summarised in this television report:
Aside
from the props used in the TV series, there have been other shoe phones, but I believe that none have been true "shoe phones",
according to the following criteria:
1.Wearable as a shoe; can be worn and walked in for several hours.
2.Functional as a telephone; can receive, and preferably place telephone calls.
3.Operates as a mobile telephone; does not require a wired connection to the telephone
network.
Some
particular examples that were not true shoe phones by this criteria include:
the KGB Shoe Trasmitter which was in use from the 1950s through to around 1970, i.e., while Get Smart was being aired
(not a telephone, because it contains no means of reception).
The many shoe-shaped telephones
on the market (not wearable as a shoe; not a mobile telephone).
The
most interesting recent development I have seen is the 22nd of January 2009 report on smuggling mobile telephones into prisons in a variety of ways, including in the heels of shoes. While the covert nature does provide
a parallel to functional shoe phones, the telephones were only transported in the shoes. Therefore, it is my belief that the
following shoe phones represent the world's first real, and fully functional shoe phones.
Generation 2 Shoe Phone
(all electronics distributed between two shoes)
Together
with the Generation 1 shoe phone, this shoe phone was constructed as a prop for a church camp, after which I realised the potential
medical applications of the shoe phone. I'll be uploading some more images of this shoe phone here in the near future, but
for now, here are a couple of pictures. I have also created an instructable.
Scientists have found a way to bend lasers — and may use it to bend lightning as well.
A team led by Pavel Polynkin of the University of Arizona sent a special sort of laser beam —
pulsed instead of steady, and asymmetrical so that one edge was brighter than the other — through a series of filters.
They found that the beam actually curved a bit, by about 5 millimeters (about 1/5 of an inch) over
the total distance of 60 centimeters (2 feet).
"People expect lasers to do certain things, like propagate in a straight line," Polynkin told Scientific
American. "The fact that a laser beam actually curves is quite unusual."
Since the laser pulses are so intense, they zap the air they pass though, leaving behind an ionized
plasma trail. That trail might be conductive enough to form a natural pathway for lightning to travel along, points out Jérôme
Kasparian at the University of Geneva.
Kasparian, who's been trying to coax lightning from thunderclouds using straight plasma beams, thinks
Polynkin's curved beams could be used to divert lightning toward or away from specific targets.
Princeton Senior Finds Error in European Supercollider "It would be fun to see curved lightning
discharges," he told New Scientist.
Polynkin's teams' study was published in the April 10 issue of Science.
This site features the ways in which people modify and re-create technology. Herein a collection
of personal modifications, folk innovations, street customization, ad hoc alterations, wear-patterns, home-made versions and
indigenous ingenuity. In short -- stuff as it is actually used, and not how its creators planned on it being used. As William
Gibson said, "The street finds its own uses for things." I welcome suggestions of links, and contributions from others to
include in this compendium
US
firm says
handheld
puke ray is ready to go
Pistol style chunder-gat and torch/vom-sabre
models
A US industrial laser company says it has developed a functional puke-ray system,
ideal for use by cops or military personnel wishing to take down their opponents without shooting them. The firm proposes
to issue the "non lethal light fighting technology" in two form factors - light-sabre/torch and blaster-pistol.
The so-called Dazer Laser™ technology comes from Laser Energetics Inc, of New Jersey, which has been supplying more conventional
laser equipment since 1991. Now, however, the company is pleased to announce its new Defender™ and Guardian™ chunder-beam
weapons. According to Laser Energetics' statement:
These non-lethal weapons have the ability to control the threat at ranges of 1
meter to 2400 meters (model dependent). The Dazer Laser™ - Light Fighting Technologies - emit a green “eye safe”
laser beam, that is shaped into approximately a 1 foot to 8 foot Dazer Zone™ (model dependent) which when focused on
the threats eyes, the threats vision is temporarily impaired, their balance is effected, and they become affected by nausea.
This controls the threat making it difficult for them to manoeuver. The Ultimate Non – Lethal Weapon.
"This life saving non-lethal weapon will help all branches of the military, law enforcement, correctional facilities,
security, border patrol, piracy control, homeland security, airport security and much more," says Laser Energetics CEO Robert
Battis.
Battis says that his regurge-ray weapons are better than the well-known Taser electrojolt stungun as they have a longer
effective range and aren't single-shot. If an embattled cop, soldier etc. misses the target at first he can simply swing the
dazzle-beam onto his opponent's face and leave him slipping and stumbling helplessly in a self-generated chunky puddle.
The Defender™ is the ray-pistol model, perhaps effective to 2400m; the Guardian™ is the cylindrical job which
emits its belly-scrambling dazer rays from one end like a torch. The Guardian™ will work out to 100m, according to the
Laser Energetics pdf brochure. Both models also have a "searchlight" illumination mode - presumably without the nauseating special sauce. There's no word
yet on price.
It seems that there may be countermeasures that would have some effect against Dazer™-toting government goons. The
company specifies that both models "can control the threat with the threat's eyes shut, making it difficult for them to manoeuvre".
No mention is made of tactical possibilities involving mirrors, reflective sunglasses etc.
A video from Discovery Tech provides a brief overview of some smart grid basics. The screenshot from the video above is illustrating
a refrigerator that communicates directly with the smart grid that knows what is happening with electricity in the community
in which the house is located.
The smart grid will be networked across the entire country in the vision now being developed.
Will someone’s cooling needs thousands of miles away allow your frig to get warm and spoil your tomatoes? The video
say not: “This isn’t big brother: you can override the computer if you need your shirt washed right away or have
to run the dishwasher before your dinner guests arrive.”
How
to Keep an Eye on Things When You're Not There
September 28, 2009
3:00 PM (Monday) Author: andrew
Whether you want to keep an eye on your pet, your aging parents, your kids, your vacation home,
your boat, or whatever else you feel needs watching, the internet is now the best way to do it.
You can buy security
systems of all types and prices including PC or Mac-based systems that can use just about any camera hooked up to a computer.
For this roundup, we picked a handful of wireless cameras that make it easy to watch and listen to what's happening anyplace
that you are not.
Read This Full
Article on my blog "The Zebra3 Report" - here
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Foiling Car Theft with Your Cell Phone
Imagine you are attending a business meeting and you receive an e-mail on your iPhone,
subject line: “Car Theft Alert.”
The text of the e-mail warns you that there has been an attempt to break into your Toyota
Land Cruiser, activating the vehicle’s alarm. Seconds later, another e-mail arrives, informing you that your Land Cruiser’s
engine has been ignited. You tap your finger on an icon on your iPhone screen, and live video of the interior of your vehicle
appears, showing a stranger at the wheel. Another icon tap brings up a map, presenting the progress of your car as it leaves
the company parking lot and proceeds down the road.
You excuse yourself from the meeting, call 911 and inform the police operator of the location
of your stolen Land Cruiser. A third tap of your finger on an icon dubbed “Immobilize Vehicle” sends a message
to a Toyota control center to deactivate the Land Cruiser’s engine. You check the video again and watch as the clearly
unhappy thief first reacts with confusion as the vehicle coasts to a stop, and then puts his hands on the top of his head
and exits your Land Cruiser to be arrested.
“While this may sound like science fiction, for Toyota, these features are already
a reality in Japan with its G-Security system, part of the company’s G-Link, G-Book mX Pro, and G-Book Alpha Pro telematics systems that provide a range of car control and safety services via remote control from a mobile phone or PC,” said Hitomi
Larson, an analyst covering automotive electronics at iSuppli Corp. “Furthermore, other OEMs are getting into the game,
offering competitive solutions. Nissan, for example, will be the next automaker to introduce a mobile device service to the
Japanese market, debuting sometime in 2010. Likewise, there are other mobile device connectivity solutions that will come
into the U.S. and global markets in 2010 and 2011.”
Toyota was the first OEM to offer an in-vehicle mobile device connectivity and security
solution in Japan. Other OEMs, such as Subaru and Mazda, have adopted Toyota’s G-Book Alpha Pro, which also employs
the G-Security application. Beyond the capabilities already mentioned, G-Security gives users remote control via a PC or mobile
phone to features including door locks, power windows and hazard lamps.
“While it seems futuristic, mobile device in-vehicle connectivity interface is nothing
new, with Japanese OEMs accustomed to utilizing mobile phones for off-board service content delivery into cars,” Larson
said. “However, several automotive OEMs now are trying to further expand the usage of mobile phones as a direct communication
channel to send and obtain vehicle-centric information along with mobile applications.”
TOFTE, Norway, Nov. 24 2009 (UPI) -- A Norwegian power company announced
Tuesday Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit will head the opening of the world's first osmotic power plant.
Statkraft, Europe's largest renewable energy company, said the plant
at Tofte, outside Oslo, will generate power by using the energy produced when fresh water and seawater are mixed, the Norway
Post reported.
that will make a global contribution to eco-friendly power production, Statkraft said, adding it has been
researching osmotic power for 10 years.
"In an era of major climate change and an increasing need for clean energy,
we are proud to be presenting a renewable energy
source which has never been harnessed until now. We are also most grateful that the
crown princess wishes to lend her support to this milestone in our development of osmotic power," Statkraft CEO Bard Mikkelsen,
said.
Statkraft said the plant is intended mostly for testing and development
purposes, with the goal of building a commercial plant within a few years.
Osmotic power's global potential is estimated to be equivalent to 50
percent of the EU's total power production.
Osmotic power plants can, theoretically be built wherever fresh water
runs into the sea, and they produce no noise or pollution emissions, the Norway Post reported.
4. Modeling the Unseen Models are used to explain phenomena that are beyond the realm of ordinary perception.
5. A Matter of State Matter is examined in its three principal states — gases, liquids, and solids — relating the visible world
to the submicroscopic.
6. The Atom Viewers journey inside the atom to appreciate its architectural beauty and grasp how atomic structure determines chemical
behavior.
7. The Periodic Table The development and arrangement of the periodic table of elements is examined.
8. Chemical Bonds The differences between ionic and covalent bonds are explained by the use of scientific models and examples from nature.
9. Molecular Architecture The program examines isomers and how the electronic structure of a molecule's elements and bonds affects its shape
and physical properties.
10. Signals From Within Chemists' knowledge of the interaction of radiation and matter is the basis for analytical methods of sensitivity
and specificity.
11. The Mole Using Avogadro's law, the mass of a substance can be related to the number of particles contained in that mass.
12. Water The special chemical properties of water are explored, along with the need for its protection and conservation.
13. The Driving Forces Endothermic and exothermic reactions are investigated and the role of entropy is revealed.
14. Molecules in Action Observing molecules during chemical reactions helps explain the role of catalysts. Dynamic equilibrium is also demonstrated.
15. The Busy Electron The principles of electrochemical cell design are explained through batteries, sensors, and a solar-powered car.
16. The Proton in Chemistry Demonstrations explain pH and how it is measured, and the important role of acids and bases.
17. The Precious Envelope The earth's atmosphere is examined through theories of chemical evolution; ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect
are explained.
18. The Chemistry of the Earth Silicon, a cornerstone of the high-tech industry, is one of the elements of the Earth highlighted in this program.
19. Metals Malleability, ductility, and conductivity are examined, along with methods for extracting metals from ores and blending
alloys.
20. On the Surface Surface science examines how surfaces react with each other at the molecular level.
21. Carbon The versatility of carbon's molecular structures and the enormous range of properties of its compounds are presented.
22. The Age of Polymers How chemists control the molecular structure to create polymers with special properties is explored.
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Boeing
gets $89M to build unmanned aircraft that can stay aloft for 5 years
One of the more unique unmanned aircraft took a giant step toward reality this week when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) inked an agreement with Boeing to build the SolarEagle, a plane capable of remaining at heights over 60,000ft for over five
years.
Boeing says the first SolarEagle under the $89 million contract could fly as early as 2014.
The SolarEagle is built under DARPA's Vulture program. The idea is to build a single aircraft that could support traditional intelligence, surveillance,
and reconnaissance functions over country-sized areas - while at the same time providing an unblinking eye over a critical
target, monitoring that target night and day, day in and day out, month after month - providing unprecedented high-value intelligence.
Vulture aircraft will also be able to provide communications capabilities available today only from geostationary satellites
- offering opportunities for new, more flexible, expandable and relocatable communication architectures at a fraction of the
cost of dedicated satellite capabilities. The challenges with Vulture include developing solar cell, energy storage, and reliability
technologies that will allow the aircraft to operate continuously, unrefueled for over 44,000 hours, DARPA stated.
Under the Vulture II agreement, Boeing will develop a full-scale flight demonstrator, including maturation of the critical
power system and structures technologies. Key suppliers for the program include Versa Power Systems and QinetiQ.
During testing, the SolarEagle demonstrator will remain in the upper atmosphere for 30 days, harvesting solar energy during
the day that will be stored in fuel cells and used to provide power through the night. The aircraft will have highly efficient
electric motors and propellers and a high-aspect-ratio, 400-foot wing for increased solar power and aerodynamic performance,
Boeing stated.
Boeing has been on a roll this week. Earlier it had announced a marriage with outer space tourism proprietors Space Adventures to offer low Earth orbit
(LEO) flight services onboard Boeing's future commercial crew spacecraft. Under the agreement, Space Adventures will
market passenger seats on commercial flights aboard the Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft.
Boeing's (CST)-100, which is under development, can hold seven and is bigger than NASA's Apollo orbiter but smaller than
NASA's Orion. Boeing says the ship will be able to launch on a variety of different rockets, including Atlas, Delta
and Falcon. It will use simple systems architecture and existing, proven components, Boeing stated.
Gravity is one variable in a lot of scientific processes.
If you can remove gravity or minimize its effect,
then you can understand the other processes that are going on
Troops and unmanned aircraft could be the first to benefit from a new smart, ultra-slim camera technology which combines the
images from many low-resolution sensors to create a high-resolution picture. Known as Panoptes, it promises lightweight, flat
cameras with the power of a big lens in a device just five millimeters thick. It’s being developed by
One of the more 
Matthew Cordell
- February 23, 2010 - 2:18 pm
On Sunday 60 Minutes introduced the world to the "Bloom Box," a "power-plant-in-a-box" that gets buried in your backyard, off the grid. That's right, your own personal, clean power system.
As game-changing as it sounds, Bloom Energy is not the only crew working on such a box. In fact, some are working on a nuclear box -- small, sealed reactor in a concrete block with a heat tube -- that could provide cheap, long-lasting energy for communities in the developing world...if it weren't for the whole security thing.
However, what makes Bloom's box so interesting is the reverse reaction, in which the waste CO2 is put back through the system, producing more fuel. In other words, in theory, less greenhouse gas waste, more power. All of these systems (including those from Panasonic, Ceres, and ClearEdge) are a beacon of hope in the fight against climate change, but Bloom could be a cut above. Though, according to Wired, "transforming carbon dioxide into fuels isn’t easy and neither is conserving that energy from the first reaction to run the second one."
Why should we believe that Bloom has the goods? The genius behind this project is K.R. Sridhar, a rocket scientist who had originally built a similar system to create oxygen for the planned manned mission to Mars. That's right, a la Total Recall. When the mission got scrapped, Sridhar turned to this project, and he could be soon delivering it to your backyard.