Month: January 2013

Replicating Hardest Known Biomaterial Could Improve Solar Cells and Batteries

cylonlover writes “Inspired by the tough teeth of a marine snail and the remarkable process by which they form, assistant professor David Kisailus at the University of California, Riverside is working toward building cheaper, more efficient nanomaterials. By achieving greater control over the low-temperature growth of nanocrystals (abstract), his research could improve the performance of solar cells and lithium-ion batteries, lead to higher-performance materials for car and airplane frames, and help develop abrasion-resistant materials that could be used for anything from specialized clothing to dental drills.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Replicating Hardest Known Biomaterial Could Improve Solar Cells and Batteries

Archaeologists Mistake Viking Brewhouses For Bathhouses

For years, archaeologists studying Viking remnants and artifacts in Britain had assumed that certain stone structures were bathhouses, or a kind of primitive sauna. But a husband-and-wife team has now thrown this thinking into question by suggesting that they weren’t bathhouses at all — that they were brewhouses where the Vikings made their beer. More »

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Archaeologists Mistake Viking Brewhouses For Bathhouses

Wooden Bricks Finally Let You Build That Authentic Lego Log Cabin

You can get Legos in all the colors of the rainbow—even solid gold bricks to really flash up your creations. But wooden pieces? Unfortunately the Danish aren’t having any part of that; you’ll need to turn to the Japanese designers at Mokurokku for these beautiful knock-offs. More »

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Wooden Bricks Finally Let You Build That Authentic Lego Log Cabin

Coconuts are nature’s IV bags

Everyone reading this has heard of herbal medicine, but this is taking things a little too literally. Coconuts have been used as IV bags to rehydrate severely ill patients in remote areas. Learn why this works, and consider what it might tell us about the universe. More »

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Coconuts are nature’s IV bags

All backscatter “pornoscanners” to be removed from US airports

Bloomberg is reporting that the TSA will be removing all of the remaining backscatter X-ray machines from US airports. The removal isn’t because of health concerns—instead, the machines’ manufacturer, Rapiscan Systems , failed to meet a US Congress-imposed deadline for altering the machines’ software to produce “generic passenger images,” according to the report. TSA assistant administer for acquisitions Karen Shelton Waters, speaking on behalf of the agency, noted that Rapiscan Systems would absorb the cost for the scanners’ removal, and that the removal is unrelated to Rapiscan’s alleged falsification of the machines’ abilities to protect passengers’ privacy. Nor does the removal appear to be related to ongoing questions about the safety of the backscatter X-ray technology. The CEO of OSI systems, Rapiscan’s parent company, says that rather than pitching the expensive machines into the garbage bin, the TSA will be relocating them to other government agencies. In total, there are 174 Rapiscan backscatter X-ray machines that will be pulled from airports and relocated, on top of the 76 that were  removed last year. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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All backscatter “pornoscanners” to be removed from US airports

Stupid California Cost Itself $600 Million Over Stupid Facebook IPO

It’s generally a bad idea to base your budget on hypothetical money that may or may not end up in your pocket. It’s a much worse idea if you’re the state of California, and that money is wacky Facebook cash . More »

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Stupid California Cost Itself $600 Million Over Stupid Facebook IPO

The New Backbone of International Trade Is the Single Biggest Movable Thing We’ve Ever Built

You won’t have any trouble finding this Marco Polo in the pool—even with your eyes closed. Five Airbus a380s lined up nose-to-tail still wouldn’t match the length, much less the overwhelming mass, of the world’s largest container ship. More »

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The New Backbone of International Trade Is the Single Biggest Movable Thing We’ve Ever Built

Metamaterials perform image compression before light reaches the sensor

This metamaterial is the aperture of the new microwave imaging device. John Hunt Add image compression to the list of nifty applications for metamaterials. Metamaterials guide light waves to create “ invisibility cloaks ” and bend sound waves to make theoretical noise reduction systems for urban areas. But these materials are tuned to particular wavelengths; some invisibility cloaks don’t work at all visible wavelengths because they leak those wavelengths of light. Now researchers have capitalized on that leakiness to build a new functional device: a microwave imaging system that compresses an image as it’s being collected—not afterward as our digital cameras do. Every pixel in a picture from our digital cameras corresponds to a pixel of information recorded on the detector inside the camera. Once a camera collects all the light intensity information from a scene, it promptly discards some of it and compresses the data into a JPEG file (unless you explicitly tell it to save raw data). You still end up with a decent picture, though, because most of the discarded data was redundant. Compressive sensing aims to ease this process by reducing the amount of data collected in the first place. One way to do this is with a single pixel camera , developed in 2006. These devices capture information from random patterns of pixels around the image, essentially adding the light intensity values of several pixels together. If you know something about the structure of that image—say clusters of bright stars set against a dark sky—you’ll be able to capture that image with fewer measurements than a traditional camera. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Metamaterials perform image compression before light reaches the sensor

FBI responds to ACLU FOIA request…with 111 blank pages

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI seeking details of its surveillance policy — who it spies upon, and how, and under what circumstances. The FBI sent back two 50+ page memos in reply, each of them totally blacked out except for some information on the title page. In a 12-minute video posted online, Weissmann spoke about two memos: one focused on the use of GPS tracking on forms of transportation beyond cars, the other regarding how Jones applies to tracking methods outside of GPS (presumably like cellphone ping data). “Is it going to apply to boats, is it going to apply to airplanes?” Weissmann asks in the video. “Is it going to apply at the border? What’s it mean for the consent that’s given by an owner? What does it mean if consent is given by a possessor? And this is all about GPS, by the way, without getting into other types of techniques.” And those questions remain wholly unanswered. “The Justice Department’s unfortunate decision leaves Americans with no clear understanding of when we will be subjected to tracking—possibly for months at a time—or whether the government will first get a warrant,” Catherine Crump, an ACLU staff attorney, wrote on Wednesday. FBI to ACLU: Nope, we won’t tell you how, when, or why we track you [Cyrus Farivar/Ars Technica]

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FBI responds to ACLU FOIA request…with 111 blank pages