Science Scene - Goodbye Dish, Hello Cellphone TV?

Satellite dishes as we know them could be on their way out. A grad student at the Netherlands’ University of Twente has devised a microchip that allows for an array of nearly flat antennas to pick up satellite signals, with no rounded, concave “dish” required.

The array works as its own miniature network, like a virtual radiotelescopy dish. This all requires a lot of calculation, which is why it was impractical before. 

Rather than using conventional processors, the new system relies on many smaller, less-elaborate processors integrated into a single chip. This streamlines the process of making all the necessary calculations, allowing for greater flexibility in computing and saving on energy, as processors that are not in use can be switched off. 

Perhaps most importantly, the chips' small size means you could potentially carry a satellite receiver with you wherever you go. 

Source

Science Scene - Styrofoam Alternative?

Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups each year.  Styrofoam is NOT recyclable; it cannot be made into new Styrofoam.  However, there may be an alternative: biodegradable Styrofoam made from milk and clay.  Scientists at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio have successfully created an eco-friendly alternative to one of the most hazardous detriments to our planet.

Commercially viable and largely biodegradable, "Milk Styrofoam," as it is being called in the eco-blogosphere, decomposes in a month's time.  Conversely, traditional Styrofoam takes over a thousand years to decompose.  

Scientist strengthened a cow milk protein, casein, with clay and glyceraldehyde (a triose monosaccharide).  They chose casein, already popular for use in adhesives, because it is water soluble.  Alone, casein is not ideal for packaging, but mixing it with the other two ingredients and freeze drying that mixture creates an aerogel, which is then baked in an oven to create a substance comparable to traditional Styrofoam.  

Milk Styrofoam is sturdy, lightweight, and largely biodegradable.  The material is not yet mainstream as researchers are still working out practical and technological kinks.  However, different variations of the Milk Styrofoam will hopefully be used as packaging, furniture, insulation, as well as cushions.

Source

Happy Belated Anniversary ISS :o)

November 2 marked the 10th anniversary of human habitation at the International Space Station, meaning that humans have been living in space for more than two decades. 


The ISS has been continuously lived in since Nov. 2, 2000, when Expedition 1 commander Bill Shepherd and flight engineers Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko became the first residents. Since then, 200 explorers have visited, 15 nations have contributed modules and hardware, and more than 600 experiments have been conducted.


The ISS’ greatest achievements may be yet to come. In February, astronauts will install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02, designed to detect dark matter and uncover the secrets of the origins of the universe. The station is built to last through 2020.  Beyond that, its future could be as a base camp for expeditions to the moon, Mars, or an asteroid mission.


It is a bittersweet anniversary as the end of our Shuttle program looms.  I hope that our foray into privatizing of the space program starts to bare fruit soon.

Sunday Silliness - Trouble :o)

Winterize Your Car For Safety :o)

Do you believe injuries are preventable?  While an accident, by definition, is random and therefore not preventable, that does not mean that we cannot do things to minimize their potential.

Winter weather brings slippery roads and reduced visibility.  Is your car up to the challenge?  Simple things you can do to keep your car running safety this winter:

Check tire condition.  Use a tire thread gauge available from auto-parts stores.

Increase tire pressure to the upper limit (they loose air as it gets colder).

Top off the windshield washer reservoir, and keep a bottle in the trunk.

Replace your wiper blades.

Give windows a thorough cleaning on the inside (internal dirt decreases visibility decreased with window fogging).

Change your oil.

Clean battery terminals or buy a new battery if you have doubts.

This has been a Bucko's World Public Service Announcement :o)

Power of 3

One of the most powerful principles that can help everyone work more efficiently is also one of the simplest: It’s called the Role of 3, and it reflects the fact that people remember roughly three distinct things from any event, lecture, meeting, book or article. This limitation arises because your memory wants to focus on interconnected facts, rather than distinct and independent pieces of information.

Respecting this rule is easy. Just focus your meetings and presentations on about three things.

What that looks like in practice:

• Start every meeting and presentation with a brief description of the three things you are going to cover. This advance organizer gets everyone ready for what is going to happen. It prepares people to attach new information to what they already know, which is crucial for memory.
• Focus the meeting on just those three items. Resist the urge to add new topics or to go off on tangents. If something new gets raised in a meeting, or if a new thought occurs to you while giving a presentation, decide whether it is urgent enough to add it immediately. If it isn’t, push it off until later.
• Review the three key points. Make sure that you remind everyone what it is you wanted them to remember.

I know that your first reaction is going to be to look at this advice and say it’s common sense, that you already believe it to be true, and that you have heard it before.  But the real question is: Do you do it? 


Source

International Project Management Day 2010

November 4, 2010* marks the 7th Annual International Project Management Day (IPM Day). IPM Day was established as a way of recognizing the extraordinary efforts made by project management professionals everywhere - across industries and geographies.


Have you hugged a project manager today?

VisLab Complete :o)

Back in August, I posted about the Vislab vans (click here).

Gotta love the internet bots, Vislab knew I posted and sent the following e-mail to me:
______________________________________________________
Hi Ken,

I saw you had written about the Vislab autonomous vans back in August.
Today they arrived in Shanghai and attracted more media attention
worldwide. We produced a video about them with a range of those media
perspectives on the successful voyage and what it could mean for
autonomous street vehicles in the future that I thought you would
enjoy:

http://www.newsy.com/videos/driverless-fuelless-vans-make-8-000-mile-journey

Feel free to use the video on your site if you like.

Have a great weekend,

Daniel Maxson
Community at Newsy
http://www.Newsy.com
573.442.4557
________________________________________________________

So, without further ado, below is the video.

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Election Day - Should be an interesting evening.

Election Day in the United States is the day set by law for the election of public officials. It occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November. The earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest possible date is November 8. 


I truly believe that this is an obligation we have as citizens of this fine country.  If you do not vote, then you have no standing to complain on the goings on either locally or nationally.  


We will be watching the results tonight with interest.


I voted, did you?

Science Scene - Climate Change, It Is Not Myth

With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate — including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning — accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming. 

The candidates are not simply rejecting solutions, like putting a price on carbon. They are re-running the strategy of denial perfected a decade ago, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy.

Some candidates are emphatic in their denial, like the Nevada Republican Sharron Angle, who flatly rejects “the man-caused climate change mantra of the left.” Others are merely wiggly, like California’s Carly Fiorina, who says, “I’m not sure.” Yet, over all (the exception being Mark Kirk in Illinois), the Republicans are huddled around an amazingly dismissive view of climate change.

In one way or another, though, all are custodians of a strategy whose guiding principle has been to avoid debate about solutions to climate change by denying its existence — or at least by diminishing its importance. The strategy worked, destroying hopes for Congressional action while further confusing ordinary citizens for whom global warming was already a remote and complex matter. It was also remarkably heavy-handed.

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to recall that in 2000, George W. Bush promised to cap carbon dioxide, encouraging some to believe that he would break through the partisan divide on global warming. Until the end of the 1990s, Republicans could be counted on to join bipartisan solutions to environmental problems. Now they’ve disappeared in a fog of disinformation.

Please remember our earth and the inheritance we will be leaving future generations when you head to the polls tomorrow.
Source: New York Times.