Category: reader

Thorium fueled engine

Thorium Concept Car – Image Courtesy www.greenpacks.com Maggie has shared a couple ( here , here ) articles on Thorium as a super-fuel. This sounds like a fantastic implementation! Via IndustryTap : Laser Power Systems (LPS) from Connecticut, USA, is developing a new method of automotive propulsion with one of the most dense materials known in nature: thorium. Because thorium is so dense it has the potential to produce tremendous amounts of heat. The company has been experimenting with small bits of thorium, creating a laser that heats water, produces steam and powers a mini turbine. Current models of the engine weigh 500 pounds, easily fitting into the engine area of a conventionally-designed vehicle. According to CEO Charles Stevens, just one gram of the substance yields more energy than 7,396 gallons (28,000 L) of gasoline and 8 grams would power the typical car for a century.        

Read More:
Thorium fueled engine

New Kepler analysis finds many Earth-like planets; total 3,500 exoplanets

Sun-like stars are bright enough that their habitable zones are pushed close to the edge of where Kepler is able to detect planets. NASA Although NASA’s Kepler probe has entered a semi-retirement , discoveries from the data it collected continue. Scientists are currently gathered to discuss these results, and they held a press conference today to announce the latest haul. As of today, the Kepler team is adding 833 new exoplanet candidates to its existing haul, bringing the total up to over 3,500. So far, 90 percent of the candidates that have been checked have turned out to be real. The number of planets in the habitable zone has gone up to over 100. In conjunction with the press conference, PNAS is releasing a paper that performs an independent analysis of Sun-like stars. This finds that over 20 percent of these host a planet less than two times the size of Earth’s radius. Within Kepler’s field of view, 10 of them receive an amount of light similar to that reaching Earth. A status update Kepler spots planets by watching them transit in front of their host star. This creates a characteristically square-shaped dip in the amount of light reaching Earth. This method of detection, however, isn’t considered definitive. The sightings are considered candidates and need to be confirmed by another method. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

View post:
New Kepler analysis finds many Earth-like planets; total 3,500 exoplanets

Two Billion Reasons Why We’re About to Find Earth 2

Planet-hunting scientists announced today that 22% of sunlike stars in the Milky Way are orbited by potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds. This remarkable finding indicates that there may be as many as two billion planets in our galaxy suitable for life — and that the nearest such planet may be only 12 light-years away. Read more…        

View post:
Two Billion Reasons Why We’re About to Find Earth 2

This morphing table can create a virtual version of you in realtime

Keiichi Matsuda is excited about this invention and I can’t blame him: A solid table that reproduces a virtual version of anything that you put under its sensors—in realtime. You can see how it reproduces the hands moving in the clip above, but there’s more: Read more…        

More:
This morphing table can create a virtual version of you in realtime

WaPo to gov’t: Our story on NSA Google spying was true, here’s proof

National Security Agency via Washington Post The Washington Post reported the latest revelations about NSA surveillance last week, writing that the spy agency intercepted data from Google and Yahoo’s private “clouds” by tapping into fiber optic cables overseas. And despite NSA pushback stating otherwise, t he Post  is standing by its story . In light of the data tapping piece, the government’s response took a different tack than what’s been seen over the past several months. It didn’t say the disclosures were damaging to national security or irresponsible; they just flat-out said the stories were wrong. Asked about reports that the NSA “broke into Google and Yahoo databases worldwide,” Gen. Keith Alexander said flatly “that’s never happened.” He continued, “I can tell you factually we do not have access to Google servers, Yahoo servers.” Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

More:
WaPo to gov’t: Our story on NSA Google spying was true, here’s proof

RIAA Uses Pirated Code on Its Website Because of Course It Does

The RIAA is a real stickler about copyright. It basically wants to turn Google into its own private Internet copyright police , to make sure the Internet is free of offending links. But as we’ve learned before, the RIAA doesn’t always feel like paying attention to copyright laws itself, and over the weekend, we learned that this applies even when adhering to Read more…        

See more here:
RIAA Uses Pirated Code on Its Website Because of Course It Does

6TB Helium-Filled Hard Drives Take Flight

An anonymous reader writes in with some exciting news if you are a storage array manufacturer with a lot of money to spend on hard drives.”HGST Monday announced that it’s now shipping a helium-filled, 3.5-in hard disk drive with 50% more capacity than the current industry leading 4TB drives. The new drive uses 23% less power and is 38% lighter than the 4TB drives. Without changing the height, the new 6TB Ultrastar He6 enterprise-class hard drive crams seven disk platters into what was a five disk-platter, 4TB Ultrastar drive.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

See more here:
6TB Helium-Filled Hard Drives Take Flight

Why This Glow in the Dark Ice Cream Costs $225 a Scoop

Of all the unique varieties that Ben & Jerry’s has concocted over the years, nothing can come close to the wonderful absurdity that is this glowing ice cream created by Charlie Francis . Using a synthesized version of the luminescent proteins that cause jellyfish to glow when they’re agitated, this gleaming frozen treat actually gets brighter as you lick it. Read more…        

Original post:
Why This Glow in the Dark Ice Cream Costs $225 a Scoop

These Guys Just Built the Website Healthcare.gov Should Have Been

Calling the launch of Healthcare.gov a complete and utter disaster may sound a bit dramatic—but unfortunately, it’s also pretty accurate. With only six people able to actually enroll out of the 4.7 million unique visitors the site saw on launch day, something clearly needs to change. And since the government has its hands full with perpetually tripping over itself , three coders from San Francisco did what the feds couldn’t by building HealthSherpa.com— a website that actually works . Read more…        

Originally posted here:
These Guys Just Built the Website Healthcare.gov Should Have Been

Floating Generator Transforms the Ocean’s Motions into MegaWatts

While winds may die and clouds may obscure the sun, nothing can stop the rhythmic lapping of ocean waves. Now, an Australian company hopes to harness that power and covert it to usable electricity with the most powerful wave-energy generator ever created. And this is just their small-scale prototype. Read more…        

See the original article here:
Floating Generator Transforms the Ocean’s Motions into MegaWatts