Are you one of the millions of people who signed up for health insurance through HealthCare.gov? If your health insurance company is pulling out of Obamacare, you might want to head over to the site before the start of the new year. If you don’t switch your health insurance provider by January, the government will switch it for you. And you might not like their choice. Read more…
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HealthCare.gov Warns It Might Just Change Your Coverage For You By January
When Roman Mazurenko died, his friend Eugenia Kuyda created a digital monument to him: an artificial intelligent bot that could “speak” as Roman using thousands of lines of texts sent to friends and family. From the report: “It’s pretty weird when you open the messenger and there’s a bot of your deceased friend, who actually talks to you, ” Fayfer said. “What really struck me is that the phrases he speaks are really his. You can tell that’s the way he would say it — even short answers to ‘Hey what’s up.’ It has been less than a year since Mazurenko died, and he continues to loom large in the lives of the people who knew him. When they miss him, they send messages to his avatar, and they feel closer to him when they do. “There was a lot I didn’t know about my child, ” Roman’s mother told me. “But now that I can read about what he thought about different subjects, I’m getting to know him more. This gives the illusion that he’s here now.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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When Her Best Friend Died, She Rebuilt Him Using Artificial Intelligence
By Cat DiStasio We all love our battery -powered gadgets, but portable power cells can be devastating to the environment. Fortunately, recent developments have proven that greener batteries are coming in the not-too-distant future. Engineers are replacing toxic components with less harmful materials ranging from leaves to sugar . Other innovations on the rise look to nature to help make batteries last longer, perform better and leave less of a trace once they’ve been discarded. This gold nanowire-based battery , for instance, was created by accident and could make lithium ion batteries obsolete, while this single-use battery dissolves in water when its job is done, making it easier to reuse its components. The leafy green battery A team of University of Maryland researchers sought to develop an inexpensive material to serve as their batteries’ negative terminal (anode). In the end, they found the perfect material right on campus. The team found that oak leaves could be heated to 1, 000 degrees Celsius to destroy the existing carbon structures, and then introduced the electrolytes to the leaf’s natural pores for absorption. The result is a plant-based anode that performs similarly to traditional battery components. Research is ongoing to test other natural materials, such as peat moss, banana peels and melon skins in search of the nature-based battery of the future. A graphene battery that charges in an instant Scientists are working hard to create rechargeable batteries that can withstand more use. Australia’s Swinburne University has created a new graphene-based battery that shows rapid charging abilities — and it has enough durability to last virtually forever. Super strong graphene replaces lithium in the battery’s supercapacitor, addressing all of the shortcomings of that widely used material while also reducing the environmental impact of battery production. The graphene-based supercapacitor allows the new battery to charge to 100 percent power in just a few seconds, it can withstand many more recharging cycles and it also costs less to produce than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Sweet and cheap: a battery fueled by sugar A Virginia Tech team developed a sugar battery that lasts longer than any previous sugar-based prototypes could. Maltodextrin, a polysaccharide made from the partial hydrolysis of starch, is isolated from natural sugar and then used as fuel. When combined with air, the battery releases electrons from the sugar solution to generate electricity. Sugar is cheap and abundant, so it makes for a battery that’s not only affordable, but biodegradable as well. Gold-based battery that doesn’t die An accidental discovery by researchers at University of California, Irvine led to a technological breakthrough that could leave lithium-ion batteries in the dust. The team built a nanowire battery using gold and some new-fangled materials, and it can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times without slacking in the performance department like lithium-ion batteries are known to do over time. The battery consists of protected electrode nanowires made from a thin core of gold, surrounded by layers of manganese dioxide and a Plexiglas-like electrolyte gel. Although the team had initially been searching for innovations to increase the power capacity of batteries, they stumbled upon this method of building a battery that can last basically forever without showing any signs of wear. Self-destructing battery dissolves in water A self-destructing battery won’t come in handy for everyone, but the development of this dissolving energy storage device is a key innovation for certain applications where single-use batteries are currently being left behind to pollute the surrounding environment. Created by a team at Iowa State University, this battery is designed to self-destruct when triggered by light, heat or liquid, so it’s well suited for military applications and other so-called “transient” devices that require a power source for a finite amount of time. Certain medical devices and environmental sensors might fall into this category, and since the battery simply dissolves in water once it has served its purpose, its lasting impact on the environment is approximately nil. Edible saltwater battery Although there’s probably no need to eat a battery, you could chow down on parts of this one if you really felt compelled. In an attempt to demonstrate how natural and eco-friendly his company’s new battery really is, Jay Whitacre at Aquion Energy has eaten parts of the saltwater-based battery, and lived to tell. The battery’s components are comprised largely of naturally derived materials such as dirt, cotton, carbon and saltwater acting as an electrolyte solution. While hardly a delicious meal, the battery components demonstrate an ecological sensitivity not often found in the energy storage field. This battery is designed for large-scale jobs, such as providing backup power for a home or business equipped with a renewable energy source, such as wind or solar. It can also be charged up with off-peak grid power, to save money on energy use during peak times when prices are higher.
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Six next-gen battery technologies
Slashdot reader v3rgEz writes: When MuckRock started using public records to find the oldest computer in use by the U.S. government, they scoured the country — but it wasn’t until a few tipsters that they set their sights a little higher and found that the oldest computer in use by the government might be among other planets entirely. The oldest computer still in use by the U.S. government appears to be the on-board systems for the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes — nearly 40 years old, and 12.47 billion miles away from earth. (Last year NASA put out a call for a FORTRAN programmer to upgrade the probes’ software.) But an earlier MuckRock article identified their oldest software still in use on earth — “the computers inside the IRS that makes sure everybody is paying their taxes”. And it also identified their oldest hardware still in use — “the machines running the nuclear defense system”. (The launch commands are still stored on 8-inch floppy disks.) Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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MuckRock Identifies The Oldest US Government Computer Still in Use
Netflix has released the first trailer for Dreamworks Trollhunters , a children’s animated series directed by the same guy whose idea of a fairy tale includes rebel torture and child murder. It’s Guillermo del Toro… for kids! Read more…
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Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters Looks Really Damn Fun
Germany isn’t content with relying on financial incentives to usher in an era of pollution-free cars. The country’s Bundesrat (federal council) has passed a resolution calling for a ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. From then on, you’d have to buy a zero-emissions vehicle, whether it’s electric or running on a hydrogen fuel cell . This isn’t legally binding, but the Bundesrat is asking the European Commission to implement the ban across the European Union… and when German regulations tend to shape EU policy, there’s a chance that might happen. The council also wants the European Commission to review its taxation policies and their effect on the “stimulation of emission-free mobility.” Just what that means isn’t clear. It could involve stronger tax incentives for buying zero-emissions cars, but it could also involve eliminating tax breaks for diesel cars in EU states. Automakers are already worried that tougher emission standards could kill diesels — remove the low cost of ownership and it’d only hasten their demise. Not that the public would necessarily be worried. Forbes notes that registrations of diesels, still mainstays of the European car market, dropped sharply in numerous EU countries in August. There’s a real possibility that Volkswagen’s emission cheating scandal is having a delayed effect on diesel sales. Combine that with larger zero-emissions incentives and the proposed combustion engine ban, and it might not take much for Europeans to go with electric or hydrogen the next time they go car shopping. Via: Forbes , Gizmodo Source: Der Spiegel (translated)
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Germany calls for a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030