Month: May 2017

New zinc battery competes with lithium-ion

Enlarge / Lithium-ion batteries do a lot of great things, but they also do this more often than we’d like. (credit: Crushader) Lithium batteries are currently the belle of the battery ball. They have a lot going for them, including high energy storage for their weight and the ability to charge and recharge many times before losing much capacity. But we’re all familiar with the drawbacks, too. Lithium-ion batteries pose a fire risk, and the lithium and cobalt used in them aren’t the most abundant elements, which makes things more expensive. Plenty of other possible battery chemistries could compete with lithium, but getting them to live up to their theoretical potential is difficult. Zinc, for example, performs admirably in your non-rechargeable alkaline batteries, and it could theoretically make a safer and cheaper rechargeable one—with a water-based electrolyte rather than a flammable organic one. This hasn’t happened, though, and the reason becomes apparent if you throw the batteries under a microscope. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read the article:
New zinc battery competes with lithium-ion

Facebook will hire 3,000 moderators to tackle livestreamed violence

Following a spate of suicides and murders that were streamed or hosted on Facebook for hours before they were taken down, Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company will be hiring an additional 3, 000 people to its global community operations team over the next year. That will bring the total size of the department to 7, 500, and the manpower will be dedicated to reviewing “the millions of reports we get every week, and improv(ing) the process for doing it quickly.” Zuckerberg wrote that these reviewers will “help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation, ” and that the social network will continue working with law enforcement and local community groups who “are in the best position to help someone if they need it.” In addition, Facebook will make it simpler for members to report problems and speed up the process for its reviewers to determine which posts violate community standards. The company previously opened up access to its suicide-prevention tools to all its users, and developed an AI system to identify potentially suicidal people. One of the biggest criticisms against Facebook in the recent incidents is its delay in addressing the problematic content on its video platform. Zuckerberg appears to acknowledge that issue in this post, saying “If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly. We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner — whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down.” Hiring more people over a year is a prolonged step towards alleviating the problem, but it will hopefully make for speedier response to such situations in future. Source: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook post)

Link:
Facebook will hire 3,000 moderators to tackle livestreamed violence

Indian IT firm Infosys to hire 10,000 American workers

Enlarge / Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka discussing financial results in Bangalore in April 2017. (credit: MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty Images) An Indian company that has been accused of abusing the H-1B visa process says it will hire 10,000 American workers over the next two years. Bangalore-based Infosys, which has been criticized in testimony before Congress  over its use of the H-1B visa program, announced today that it will open four new US-based “Technology and Innovation Hubs” to serve Infosys clients in financial services, manufacturing, health care, and other industries. The first one will open in Indiana by August and is expected to create 2,000 jobs there by 2021. The move comes shortly after President Donald Trump signed an executive order asking agencies to study changes to the H-1B program, which is largely used to hire technology workers. Members of Congress from both parties have introduced bills this year that would change the H-1B program dramatically. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Continue Reading:
Indian IT firm Infosys to hire 10,000 American workers

Father & Son Invent New, Inexpensive Type of Metal 3D Printing Machine

When people say “3D printing” they commonly mean one of two things: FDM printing, which turns a plastic filament into something that can be squirted out of a nozzle; or one of multiple sintering processes, by which a machine uses lasers to fuse parts together out of metal powder. Plastic is not strong but it’s affordable. Metal is strong but it’s expensive, and the metal powders can reportedly provide a health threat to the operator. Zack Vader, who was then an 18-year-old student at the University of Buffalo, conceived of a 3D printer that would offer the best of both worlds. Five years later he and his mechanical engineer father have succeeded in creating it. Vader Systems’ MK1 Experimental machine can take inexpensive aluminum wire and, using the Vaders’ patented MagnetoJet technology, extrude it in liquefied form through a nozzle. The MK1 Experimental can 3D print at twice the speed of a powder bed machine and offers a shocking 90% reduction in the cost of producing parts. Here Zack and father Scott explain how the machine works, show you what it can do and explain how they pulled it off: This is no mere concept; the Vaders have won grants to develop the technology, have three advisors from the U. of B., have hired three mechanical engineers and are currently gearing up for production of the MK1 at a factory in nearby Getzville. They have attracted interest from the automotive supply industry, and the U. of B. reports that there are medical applications as well: Ciprian N. Ionita, PhD, a research assistant professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department — a joint effort of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB — foresees the Vader Systems printer ultimately printing out custom stents and other surgical devices right in the hospital. “This is a game changer, ” he said. The metal powder used in the current metal printing processes is a contaminant that is difficult to clean up and can be toxic inside the body. The Vader printer also will be valuable making custom knee and hip replacements, he said. The Vaders’ plan is to advance the technology so that it can print from copper and bronze wire as well. You can learn more about the machines, which will start rolling off of the assembly line in 2018, here .

See original article:
Father & Son Invent New, Inexpensive Type of Metal 3D Printing Machine

These cards are for throwing

These Banshee playing cards are made for throwing! Made of plastic, heavier and stiffer than my normal US Playing Cards Bicycle 808 style decks, the Banshee cards sail through the air. The cards also have some cuts in their face to make them scream! Made of tougher stuff, these cards last a lot longer than a paper deck and are a bit easier to learn with. You will need to practice, however, these cards do not instantly imbue you with skill. Talk about useful skills to have at a party! Banshees: Cards for Throwing via Amazon

Excerpt from:
These cards are for throwing

Babylon 5 now available to stream for free in the US

Babylon 5, even during its original run, was never particularly easy to watch when it aired. the changing TV landscape of the time, as well as the failure of B5’s original network PTEN and subsequent re-emergence on the TNT network, meant that timeslots and airdates shifted several times during the show’s five-year run. Show creator Joe Michael Sraczynski’s “B5 books” site is reporting that Go90.com now has the entire show available to stream for free for the first time, along with several other recent series. I’ve always believed that B5 represents one of the better Sci-Fi “space opera” TV shows in history, and one that many people were never able to watch during its run on television. The story and effects hold up extremely well for a show that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Now’s your chance to see it in its entirety on your own terms. Unfortunately, the site is US-only.

See the article here:
Babylon 5 now available to stream for free in the US

India’s controversial national ID scheme leaks fraud-friendly data for 130,000,000 people

Aadhaar kicked off in 2009, linking each Indian resident’s biometric data and sensitive personally identifying information to a unique 12-digit number. (more…)

Continue reading here:
India’s controversial national ID scheme leaks fraud-friendly data for 130,000,000 people

Marvel Joins Comixology’s All-You-Can Read Subscription Service

When Amazon and Comixology first announced Unlimited last year, two of the biggest comics publishers around were conspicuously absent from the list of comics available in the read-what-you-want service: Marvel and DC. But today, one of them has finally gotten on board. Read more…

See the original article here:
Marvel Joins Comixology’s All-You-Can Read Subscription Service

UK’s Newest Tokamak Fusion Reactor Has Created Its First Plasma

After being switched on for the first time last Friday, the UK’s newest fusion reactor has successfully generated a molten mass of electrically-charged gas, or plasma, inside its core. Futurism reports: Called the ST40, the reactor was constructed by Tokamak Energy, one of the leading private fusion energy companies in the world. The company was founded in 2009 with the express purpose of designing and developing small fusion reactors to introduce fusion power into the grid by 2030. Now that the ST40 is running, the company will commission and install the complete set of magnetic coils needed to reach fusion temperatures. The ST40 should be creating a plasma temperature as hot as the center of the Sun — 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit) — by Autumn 2017. By 2018, the ST40 will produce plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), another record-breaker for a privately owned and funded fusion reactor. That temperature threshold is important, as it is the minimum temperature for inducing the controlled fusion reaction. Assuming the ST40 succeeds, it will prove that its novel design can produce commercially viable fusion power. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visit link:
UK’s Newest Tokamak Fusion Reactor Has Created Its First Plasma

Apple Has a Record $250 Billion In Cash, 90% of It Is Banked Overseas

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phone Arena: On Tuesday, Apple is expected to report its fiscal second quarter earnings. In that report, the tech titan will reportedly announce that it is holding $250 billion in cash. If you think that this is a lot of money, you’re absolutely right. According to Marketwatch.com, this is more than the foreign currency reserves held by the U.K. and Canada combined. Looking at it another way, at current valuations Apple could purchase all of the outstanding shares of Walmart and Procter & Gamble and still have money left over. It has taken Apple only 4 and half years to double its cash hoard. During the fiscal first quarter of 2017, Apple was adding $3.6 million to its cash position every hour. It finished the quarter ending in December with $246.09 billion in cash. 90% of the money is banked overseas, which means that Apple would be one of the companies to benefit the most from President Trump’s plan to offer a one time tax break on repatriated funds. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
Apple Has a Record $250 Billion In Cash, 90% of It Is Banked Overseas