Techies 29 : Marks on Martian Dunes May Be Tracks of Dry-Ice Sleds

Marks on Martian Dunes May Be Tracks of Dry-Ice Sleds

Several types of downhill flow features have been observed on Mars. This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is an example of a type called "linear gullies." Linear gullies are characterized by relatively constant width and by raised banks or levees along the sides. Unlike gullies caused by water-lubricated flows on Earth and possibly on Mars, they don't have aprons of debris at the downhill end of the channel. The grooves shown here, on the side of a large sand dune inside Russell Crater, are the longest linear gullies known, extending almost 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) down this dune slope.

New research points to chunks of frozen carbon dioxide, commonly called "dry ice," creating linear gullies by gliding down sandy slopes on cushions of carbon-dioxide gas sublimating from the dry ice. Linear gullies are on mid-latitude sandy slopes, where the ground is covered with carbon-dioxide frost in Martian winter. Before-and-after pairs of HiRISE images indicate that the linear gullies are formed during early spring. Some linear gullies -- such as the ones in the magnified section of this image shown.

Astrophoto: Star-Studded Beauty in Gemini

Wide Field view of IC 443 and IC 444 in Gemini. Credit and copyright: Martin Campbell.

Speaking of shots of awe, here’s an amazingly beautiful wide-field view of IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula) a supernova remnant, as well as IC 444, a small reflection nebula, together in the constellation Gemini, surrounded by a sea of stars. Astrophotographer Martin Campbell put this image together by stacking 30 images, totalling 1.5 hours of exposure. His equipment was a Takahashi Epsilon 180 and a modified Canon 5D MKII DSLR.

In 100,000 years, we'll all look like scared teddy bears

In 100,000, we may have finally discovered alien life. Then again, we may merely look like alien life. At least, that’s what an artist and a computational geneticist think.

Nickolay Lamm, the former, and Dr. Alan Kwan of Washington University, the latter, decided to figure out what humans would look like in 100,000 years presuming our history continues on the path it seems to be on.

And man, do we look strange.

The first major difference between homo sapiens of today and those predicted of tomorrow are the sheer size of our heads. Like Seinfeld’s Elaine, we’ll all have cause to be sensitive about our head size since our brains will be larger thus needing a bigger case.

Those larger brains will come in handy too, as they’ll help us conquer some more advanced aspects of space travel. Colonization is key in this scenario, as the new environments will cause some other major changes.

First, our eyes will grow to anime-level caricatures (i.e. they’ll be enormous) to handle the dimmer environments as we live further and further from the Sun. Though this might seem odd at first glance, our skin will have more pigmentation for the same reason: we’ll be further from the Sun, therefore we’ll lose the protection of Earth’s ozone.

Finally, we’ll need thicker eyelids and a “more pronounced supercilliary arch to alleviate the effects [of] low or no gravity that disrupt and disorient the eyesight of today’s astronauts on the ISS.”

And, of course, the face will be generally hotter: stronger lines, straighter noses, and an adherence to that old golden ratio and perfect symmetry.

Techies 28 : Google to buy Waze for $1.3b

Google to buy Waze for $1.3b

Reports about a possible sale of Waze are not new. Last year there were reports Apple wanted to buy Waze and in late August 2012, it was reported that Facebook was in talks to acquire the company. According to some reports, Facebook representatives arrived in Israel to meet Waze executives, but no deal was reached in the negotiations, apparently because of the price tag.
Another reason was that Waze insisted that its Israeli employees should continue working in Israel, which Facebook did not accept. Google has already made two acquisitions in Israel, and it has an office here, in contrast to Facebook, which closed most of the companies it acquired, including Israeli start-ups. Both previous Israeli acquisitions by Google were modest. Google acquired personalized Website gadget developer Labpixies for $25 million and interactive video-clip developer Quiksee for $10 million. Both acquisitions were in 2010.
In the past few months, there have been numerous reports that Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) was interested in acquiring Waze. However, in an interview with "AllThingsD" at the D11 conference in late May, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple had not bid for Waze. He also stressed that use of Apple's map app was important, which was why the company was investing heavily in the product. “We screwed up," he admitted. "It’s greatly improved, but not there yet. We have more to do."
Waze was founded in 2009 and in October 2012, it announced a $30 million financing round from Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and iFund. The company has raised $67 million to date from Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Venture Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), and the investors in its 2012 financing round.

 In this undated photo made available by Google, Denise Harwood diagnoses an overheated computer processor at Google's data center in The Dalles, Ore. Google uses these data centers to store email, photos, video, calendar entries and other information shared by its users. These centers also process the hundreds of millions of searches that Internet users make on Google each day. (AP Photo/Google, Connie Zhou)

It's mind blowing......Originally Posted by Google India:

"Search on your finger tips. The weekend is almost here and so is a brand new initiative from our team exclusively for Indian users! Check out this cool new site we've set up for India to show you how search is working for you!

New solid Sulphur batteries could be the answer to your smartphone battery woes

When we talk about consumer technology, most companies claim that the innovation is the slowest in battery technology. This is because batteries are based on innovation in chemistry than in pure engineering. But a solution is on the horizon as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the US has developed a new Lithium-Sulphur technology, that addresses flammability issues of traditional batteries and is yet a lot cheaper and lighter while having four times the density of existing batteries that are found in phones,

The most obvious advantage of this technology is that a Lithium-Sulphur battery maintains a capacity of around 1,200 mAh per gram while a Lithium-ion battery has a capacity of around 140-170 mAh per gram. This amounts to a 800 percent bump, but since Lithium-Sulphur only delivers half the voltage of Lithium-ion, it should deliver around 400 percent improvement in capacity on current battery weights.
While Lithium-Sulphur was for long considered to be an alternative battery technology, the liquid electrolytes needed to perform often broke down. To solve this issue ORNL made a solid electrolyte that combined a Sulphur rich cathode and a Lithium anode for an energy dense battery. However, this also meant that the all-solid electrolytes eliminated flammable liquids, making the battery much safer.

This battery technology is also cheaper because Sulphur is a byproduct of petroleum processing, which basically means waste fuel is being recycled to create these batteries. These batteries are still at a demo stage and are patent pending, but the team at ORNL hopes that it will soon be used in commercial applications. We hope that we see this technology trickle down to smartphones and tablets, because the current battery life of mobile products is simply not acceptable, and this technology could be a potential breakthrough.

Food, Leisure And Lifestyle:1

2 Minute Noodles Or Something Else??

For all who love eating Maggi


DO NOT IGNORE THIS ....... Especially those fond of Maggi.......

'CORRECT WAY OF COOKING NOODLES'

The correct way to cook instant noodles without harming our bodies and health. `Normally, how we cook the instant noodles is to put the noodles
into a pot with water, throw in the powder and let it cook for around 3 minutes and then it's ready to eat..

This is the WRONG method of cooking the instant noodles.

By doing this, when we actually boil the ingredients in the powder, normally with MSG, it will change the molecular structures of the MSG
causing it to be toxic.

The other thing that you may or may not realize is that, the noodles are coated with wax and it will take around 4 to 5 days for the body to
excrete the wax after you have taken the noodles.

CORRECT METHOD :

1. boil the noodles in a pot with water.
2. once the noodles is cooked, take out the noodles, and throw away the water which contains wax.
3.. boil another pot of water till boiling and put the noodles into the hot boiling water and then shut the fire.
4. only at this stage when the fire is off, and while the water is very hot, put the ingredient with the powder into the water, to make noodle
soup.
5. however, if you need dry noodles, take out the noodles and add the ingredient with the powder and toss it to get dry noodles.

Dietician's Note: If you buy plain hakka noodles which you make initially need to boil in water and discard the water. This will soften
the noodles but to prevent it from sticking we need to add a tbsp of oil and also the noodles are deep fried partially to make it crunchy and
then dusted with flour to prevent it from sticking while boiling. Hence when you buy the noodles they are already made unhealthy and this
is the type we use to make stir fry noodles and the regular maggi too is made the same way plus they add MSG/ ajinomoto and other chemical
preservatives.

A large number of patient with the ages ranging from 18-24 years are ending up with pancreatitis either as a swelling or infection of the
pancreas due to regular consumption of instant noodles..... If the frequency is more than 3 times a week, then it is very hazardous...

Building India: 2

INDIA'S UPCOMING PRIDE: THE STATUE OF UNITY

Hat's Off to Mr. Narendra Modi, for his excellent vision, it's quite absurd but on this edition I have nothing to say but I want to request all viewers to watch this video.
Something for national integration and out of the box.

Techies 27

Moller's latest design, the Skycar M400, is designed to take off and land vertically, like a Harrier Jet, in small spaces. It can reach speeds of 400 mph (644 kph), but will cruise at around 350 mph (563 kph), and it has a range of 900 miles (1449 km). Gasoline, diesel, alcohol, kerosene and propane can be used to fuel the Skycar, and its fuel mileage will be comparable to that of a medium-sized car, getting 20 miles (32.2 km) to the gallon. The initial cost of a Skycar will be about $1 million, but once it begins to be mass produced that price could come down to as low as $60,000.

The four-seat Skycar is powered by eight rotary engines that are housed inside four metal housings, called nacelles, on the side of the vehicle. There are two engines in each nacelle so that if one of the engines in one of the nacelle fails, the other engine can sustain flight. The engines lift the craft with 720 horsepower, and then thrust the craft forward. The Wankel engine replaces pistons of a conventional engine with a single triangular rotor spinning inside an oval-shaped chamber, which creates compression and expansion as the rotor turns. There are three combustion chambers in the Wankel, with a crankshaft between them.

To make the Skycar safe and available to the general public, it will be completely controlled by computers using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, which Moller calls a fly-by-wire system. In case of an accident, the vehicle will release a parachute and airbags, internally and externally, to cushion the impact of the crash.

The CityHawk is similar to the Skycar and SkyRider in that it also takes off and lands vertically. However, there are some key differences. The CityHawk will be powered by fans that are driven by four internal combustion engines. Much like in the Skycar, this redundancy of engines will allow the vehicle to land even if one of the engines is lost. The CityHawk is about the size of a Chevy Surburban, and will have cruising speeds of 90 to 100 miles per hour (145 to 161 kph). CityHawk developers say that it could be used as an air taxi, for news gathering and for traffic control.

The mass availability of flying cars could be very exciting or very scary, depending on how you look at it. If proper safeguards are put in place, they could be the answer to our ever-worsening traffic jams. Flying cars that can travel at hundreds of miles per hour would not only cut that rush hour commute to a few minutes, but it would allow us to live hundreds of miles farther from work and still make it to the office faster than by road-bound cars today.

Archies 3:Green Health City unveiled

Eco-focused city planned for China Power International New Energy Holding Ltd

Green Health City is an ecologically sustainable development designed by Peter Ruge Architekten to support and promote the condition of physical and emotional human health. Situated in China’s Hainan Province in Boao Lecheng on the Wanquan River, five island districts bring together world-class medical facilities, employ new strategies for green energy production and rethink transportation networking to achieve a sustainable urban prototype.

Pathways toward a sustainable future are forged through strong ties to local identity and respect for history. By establishing a cross-disciplinary and inter-cultural approach to design that is routed in China’s long history, a comprehensive and well considered scheme is achieved.
A system of design is guided by concepts related to; 5 Elements - City of Creation; 5 Organs - City of Health; 5 Senses - City of Communication; 5 Islands - City of Relaxation; and 5 Rings - City of Individual Transport. Balance between these cycles and systems are applied to create a harmonious planning arrangement, promoting positive energy flow within each of the island districts and throughout the development as a whole.
Sustainable urban design that prioritises natural land use and planning strategies minimises energy consumption and reduces building footprints. 70% renewable energy production facilitated through the use of wind turbines, bio gas, photovoltaic cells, hydraulic systems and smart grid energy saving devices for the storing and distribution of power, will service this 100% Co2 neutral development.
Environments that promote health include a combination of facilities that treat illness and assist well-being through a five star process involving diagnosis, cure, rehabilitation, rejuvenation, and prevention. Check-up programmes with a special focus on geriatric care management and faculty’s specific to the development and application of stem cell research form the nucleus of the development complex.
Direct access to electro bus, e-car, bicycle hire services and a general circuit elevated magnetic railway network that use zero emission rechargeable battery operated power offers a variety of flexible and sustainable transportation options. All private and fossil fuelled vehicles will remain outside the development complex, and a fully integrated transportation system provided.
In co-operation with Charitè , the knowledge and expertise of more than 100 clinics and institutions worldwide will assure Green Health City a place at the international forefront of health care development.
Green Health City has been presented at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in Boao, P.R. China, the United Nations RIO +20 Implementation Summit in Berlin and the 9th Asia Pacific Week Berlin, as a prototype for new health intrastructure and urban design stratagies that pave the way toward future green city development.

Techies 26

Invisibility 'time cloak' developed

An "invisibility" time cloak which is able to hide events in a continuous stream of light has been developed by scientists. The cloak works by manipulating the speed of light in optical fibres and means any interaction which takes place during this "hole in time" is not detected. That is, a beam of light can be manipulated along its path. This work is different to other "invisibility cloaks" in that it hides events in time, rather than spatial objects - which similar efforts have looked into.

The team from the Purdue University in Indiana has shown it can hide events in the path of a continuous light beam by having several "holes in time". The researchers were able to cloak nearly half the data put in the beam's path, which they would otherwise be able to detect. Cloaking, just as it sounds, is where an object or event is hidden from vision. This can apply to frequencies of light or sound. For example, stealth war planes can be difficult to detect on enemy radar.
"In our system, we can hide the 1s and 0s. There can also be other kinds of disturbances in the light but this cloak provides a zone where one doesn't see how the light is being changed," Prof Weiner told BBC News.

He compared how a stream of light is manipulated to a flowing river.

"Think about taking a region of that river and pushing some of it forward, and some backwards so there are holes where there isn't any water. Maybe there's a dam, and we can pop the dam on and off very quickly, to somehow disturb or divert the water.

"If we part the water so it doesn't see the dam popping up and down, it isn't disturbed, and afterwards we can put the water back together so it looks like a nice calm river again.

"That's how we control the flow of the light. We're pushing it forward and backwards in time, so it avoids events that would otherwise disturb it," Prof Weiner explained.

 1,300 MPG Student-Designed Ultra-Light Car Runs on a Tiny Lawnmower Engine

Students at Brigham Young University in Utah have designed a car that can travel the distance from Utah to Michigan on a single gallon of fuel. The fish-shaped car—which weighs less than 100 pounds and gets an astounding 1,300 miles per gallon—will participate at this year’s SAE Supermileage Competition, an annual contest that challenges students to create the most fuel-efficient vehicle in North America. This fantastic fuel efficiency is attributed to the car’s lightness-it weighs under 100 pounds, a tank that holds only 20 grams of fuel and a tiny lawnmower engine that is engaged just enough to get the vehicle to a desirable speed, after which it shuts off and lets the vehicle glide along the track.

The newest version of the BYU Supermileage Vehicle weights exactly 99 pounds-22 pounds less than its predecessor. To maximize fuel-efficiency, the BYU team added ceramic insulation to the lawn-mower engine and made several modifications so it can be electronically controlled.

At the competition, the teams are given 20 grams of fuel to race around a 10-mile track. Vehicles that achieve an average of 15 miles per hour, have their tanks re-measured by the judges who deduce the mpg capability based on the leftover fuel. At the last year’s Supermileage competition the BYU team won second place with a final mark of 1,135 miles per gallon. This year they aim even higher-2,000 MPG.

Japan's New 310 MPH 'Floating' Maglev Bullet Train Hits the Tracks for Testing

Japan is working on a blazing fast 310 mph maglev “floating” train – and the latest prototype just hit the tracks for testing! This week Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Central) unveiled the top-of-the-line Lo series maglev train, which is currently slated to enter commercial operation between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027. The new train service will bypass the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, slashing travel time between the two cities from two and a half hours to one hour and seven minutes. The L0 series, also known as the “Linear motor car,” is expected to eventually service the entire Chuo Shinkansen Line, which links Tokyo with Osaka through Nagano Prefecture and Nagoya.

The train is designed to operate at 500 kph and it’s only 28 meters long – including a 15-meter-long streamlined “nose” that reduces air resistance at high speed. The subsequent cars are 24.3 meters long and they are designed to provide more interior space than current Shinkansen models. The maglev train has four seats in a row – one less than Shinkansen models.

“This is the first step toward commercial operations,” said Yasukazu Endo, director of the Yamanashi linear test center. “Everything is being done to gear up for a full-fledged test.” If all goes to plan, the new generation L0 Series trains will begin commercial service in 2027. The news marks the latest chapter in the ‘bullet train wars’ in Asia, wherein Japan is competing with China’s 268 mph Shanghai maglev train.

 

Techies 25

Bubbles Within Bubbles

This infrared image shows a striking example of what is called a hierarchical bubble structure, in which one giant bubble, carved into the dust of space by massive stars, has triggered the formation of smaller bubbles. The large bubble takes up the central region of the picture while the two spawned bubbles, which can be seen in yellow, are located within its rim.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope took this image in infrared light. The multiple bubble family was found by volunteers participating in the Milky Way Project (see www.milkywayproject.org). This citizen science project, a part of the Zooniverse group, allows anybody with a computer and an Internet connection to help astronomers sift through Spitzer images in search of bubbles blown into the fabric of our Milky Way galaxy.

The bubbles are formed by radiation and winds from massive stars, which carve out holes within surrounding dust clouds. As the material is swept away, it is thought to sometimes trigger the formation of new massive stars, which in turn, blow their own bubbles. The images in the Milky Way project are from Spitzer's Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire, or Glimpse, project, which is mapping the plane of our galaxy from all directions. As of June 2013, 130 degrees of the sky have been released. The full 360-degree view, which includes the outer reaches of our galaxy located away from its center, is expected soon.

How big is our Sun compared to other stars? In a dramatic and popular video featured on YouTube, the relative sizes of planets and stars are shown from smallest to largest. The above video starts with Earth's Moon and progresses through increasingly larger planets in our Solar System. Next, the Sun is shown along as compared to many of the brighter stars in our neighborhood of the Milky Way Galaxy. Finally, some of the largest stars known spin into view. Note that the true sizes of most stars outside of the Sun and Betelgeuse are not known by direct observation, but rather inferred by measurements of their perceived brightness, temperature, and distance.

NGC 6903: The Butterfly Nebula

Image Credit: +NASA, +European Space Agency, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130607.html

The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This sharp and colorful close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, installed during the final shuttle servicing mission. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).