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Certain elements are going to blow head gaskets on this one!

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

Global warming caused by chlorofluorocarbons, not carbon dioxide, new study says

Chlorofluorocarbons are to blame for global warming since the 1970s and not carbon dioxide, according to new research from the University of Waterloo published in the International Journal of Modern Physics B this week. This graph shows the predicted path of global temperatures is set to continue their decline as a result of depletion of CFC’s in the atmosphere. Credit: Qing-Bin Lu, University of Waterloo

More at: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-global-chlorofluorocarbons-carbon-dioxide.html

I always knew you were a Hologram!

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

Professor Skenderis has developed a mathematic model which finds striking similarities between flat space-time and negatively curved space-time, with the latter however formulated in a negative number of dimensions, beyond our realm of physical perception.
He comments: “According to holography, at a fundamental level the universe has one less dimension than we perceive in everyday life and is governed by laws similar to electromagnetism. The idea is similar to that of ordinary holograms where a three-dimensional image is encoded in a two-dimensional surface, such as in the hologram on a credit card, but now it is the entire Universe that is encoded in such a fashion.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-mathematical-links-space-time-theories.html
This sounds cool and provides my SciFi writing persona just oodles of rope.

Going to Mars, but Talk about the negative!

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

WIRED: Why We Can’t Send Humans to Mars Yet (And How We’ll Fix That)
BY ADAM MANN
This is a good article and it has an excellent recap of needed technology, but it is in my opinion reduced in power by a negative tone. It seems biased by a drum beat I have been seeing about how hard, how expensive, how risky…etc, and while I appreciate the challenges one does not open frontiers by dwelling on all the horrid ways one is likely to die. This also seems Blue centric NASA, NASA, NASA. In the end the commercial civilian drive will send us outbound not risk averse bureaucrats.

1.2GW of offshore and onshore wind was installed last year

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

1.2GW of offshore and onshore wind was installed last year

I drove up to my parents the other day via a route I had not taken for a year, along the route a new wind farm had sprung up, dozens of multi MW turbines, apparently most went in over a period of only a few months once the tracks cables and bases were in place. Several a week being finished off. Now the support crew is something like twenty full time maintainers. Not sure if this is really the hope of the industrial heartlands, it’s not bad but heatedly the sustained work the towns these behemoths rise near, need.

Same with the sea based units, though the ports the support vessels sail from will get more than the maintenance base of a land based array.

Multi material 3D printing // The Engineer

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

Kinda creepy actually.

…multi-material 3D printing aims to address inefficiencies by reducing the number of manufacturing steps for one object. Compared with single material 3D printing, it allows a functional product to be created with different properties without the need to bring together components. It increases speed to market by allowing organisations to prototype increasingly complex parts and reduces waste products by using exactly the right amount of material required.

OK THAT’S Funny

Image

3rd Power Law, 0 Complexity premium, working memes for 3D Printing

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

A 3-D printed table … with holes and all. Photo: rosemarybeetle / Flickr

WIRED http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/05/an-insiders-view-of-the-hype-and-realities-of-3-d-printing/

3-D printing is indeed an important fabrication technology, because it has the marvelous ability to make anything regardless of the complexity of the form.

BUT

Everything from cost and time to amount of material increases exponentially: specifically, to the third power. So if we want something twice as big, it will cost 8 times as much and take 8 times as long to print. If we want something three times as big, it will cost about 27 times more and takes 27 times longer to print. And so on.

Love simplifying memes, these are two great ones that help the mind focus on the issues involved when ‘discussions’ dealing with potentials are taking place.

Also in the article:
The reminder that these are not replicators, not yet anyway.

AND

That many of the technologies enabling 3D printing are enabling CNC machining, laser-cutting, robotics and more, at DIY / hobbyist scale.

21st Century Opportunity > Making The New Everything…

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

MIT Technology Review : Business Report : The Next Wave of Manufacturing

You Must Make the New Machines // Economist Ricardo Hausmann says the U.S. has a chance to invent the manufacturing technology of tomorrow.
From MIT Technology : read more: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509281/you-must-make-the-new-machines/

The basic knowledge is here, the ideas and innovation, even the entrepreneurial spirit, the problem is have we tied ourselves down with rules regulations taxes monopolies etc?

To The Moon!

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

Vision of an international research base on the Moon. Credit: ESA

New report indicates private industry interested in building moon base: by Bob Yirka

Two months ago NASA commissioned Bigelow Aerospace to conduct a survey of the corporate sector to learn about private enterprise plans for space exploration. While the report has not yet been completed, Bigelow president Robert Bigelow and NASA’s head of space operations William Gerstenmaier held a teleconference with reporter’s to discuss findings thus far
Bigelow told those on the line that he and his company have surveyed approximately 20 of the biggest names in aerospace, including some foreign entities. He says the major area of interest for aerospace companies right now is in establishing a permanent presence on the moon. Gerstenmaier responded by suggesting NASA would welcome such a development as it would work well with the agency’s future plans.

Binge Watching Is Changing Our Culture

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Sci Fi Engineer

WIRED // From Arrested Development to Dr. Who, How Binge Watching Is Changing Our Culture
BY GRANT MCCRACKEN 05.24.13 6:30 PM

Dr. McCracken is onto something, his modest article provides some ideas with strong explanatory powers. To me It also says that media (creative side) adapts to society quite rapidly, while corporate side ($ collecting mechanisms) tries to slow change and rent seek.