From CNET News.com:
More and more electric bicycles are being developed in Japan to give riders a little help when commuting or going grocery shopping. They're a common sight on the hilly streets of Tokyo, where "mamachari" bikes with baskets and kid seats over the wheels are the n
In a match-up between solar technology and the recently unveiled Bloom Box solid oxide fuel cell, which one emerges the winner? Solar delivers a crushing blow in terms of versatility and capital costs. A tie is clear in terms of energy cost, considering incentives awarded Bloom Box buyers. Solar als
By precisely tracking NASA's Cassini spacecraft on its low swoops over Saturn's moon Titan, scientists have determined the distribution of materials in the moon's interior. The subtle gravitational tugs they measured suggest the interior has been too cold and sluggish to split completely into separate layers of ice and rock.
The finding, to be published in the March 12 issue of the journal Science, shows how Titan evolved in a different fashion from inner planets such as Earth, or icy moons such as Jupiter's Ganymede, whose interiors have split into distinctive layers.
"These results are fundamental to understanding the history of moons of the outer solar system," said Cassini Project Scientist Bob Pappalardo, commenting on his colleagues' research. Pappalardo is with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We can now better understand Titan's place among the range of icy satellites in our solar system."
Scientists have known that Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is about half ice and half rock, but they needed the gravity data to figure out how the materials were distributed. It turns out Titan's interior is a sorbet of ice studded with rocks that probably never heated up beyond a relatively lukewarm temperature. Only in the outermost 500 kilometers (300 miles) is Titan's ice devoid of any rock, while ice and rock are mixed to various extents at greater depth.
"To avoid separating the ice and the rock, you must avoid heating the ice too much," said David J. Stevenson, one of the paper's co-authors and a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "This means that Titan was built rather slowly for a moon, in perhaps around a million years or so, back soon after the formation of the solar system."
This incomplete separation of ice and rock makes Titan less like Jupiter's moon Ganymede, where ice and rock have fully separated, and perhaps more like another Jovian moon, Callisto, which is believed to have a mixed ice and rock interior. Though the moons are all about the same size, they clearly have diverse histories.
The Cassini measurements help construct a gravity map, which may help explain why Titan has a stunted topography, since interior ice must be warm enough to flow slowly in response to the weight of heavy geologic structures, such as mountains.
Creating the gravity map required tracking minute changes in Cassini's speed along a line of sight from Earth to the spacecraft as it flew four close flybys of Titan between February 2006 and July 2008. The spacecraft took paths between about 1,300 to 1,900 kilometers (800 to 1,200 miles) above Titan.
"The ripples of Titan's gravity gently push and pull Cassini along its orbit as it passes by the moon and all these changes were accurately recorded by the ground antennas of the Deep Space Network within 5 thousandths of a millimeter per second [0.2 thousandths of an inch per second] even as the spacecraft was over a billion kilometers [more than 600 million miles] away," said Luciano Iess, a Cassini radio science team member at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy, and the paper's lead author. "It was a tricky experiment."
The results don't speak to whether Titan has an ocean beneath the surface, but scientists say this hypothesis is very plausible and they intend to keep investigating. Detecting tides induced by Saturn, a goal of the radio science team, would provide the clearest evidence for such a hidden water layer.
A Cassini interdisciplinary investigator, Jonathan Lunine, said of his colleagues' findings, "Additional flybys may tell us whether the crust is thick or thin today." Lunine is with the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, Italy, and the University of Arizona, Tucson. "With that information we may have a better understanding of how methane, the ephemeral working fluid of Titan's rivers, lakes and clouds, has been resupplied over geologic time. Like the history of water on Earth, this is fundamental to a deep picture of the nature of Titan through time."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. Cassini's radio science subsystem has been jointly developed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
More Cassini information is available, at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
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The outer layers of Earth's atmosphere hold many secrets yet to be uncovered and three scientific instruments will fly soon on the FASTSAT-HSV01 satellite and seek to uncover them to benefit us here on Earth. Known as MINI-ME, PISA and TTI, these instruments recently passed a series of important final tests to prove their readiness for spaceflight.These instruments were conceived and built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and were integrated to the satellite and tested at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
MINI-ME, acronym for Miniature Imager for Neutral Ionospheric atoms and Magnetospheric Electrons, is a low energy neutral atom imager which will detect neutral atoms formed in the plasma population of the Earth's outer atmosphere to improve global space weather prediction. Low energy neutral atom imaging is a technique first pioneered at Goddard which allows scientists to observe remotely various trapped charged particle populations around Earth that we would normally only be able to observe in-situ through direct instrument contact with the particles.
Michael Collier, Principal Investigator for the MINI-ME instrument at NASA Goddard said, "The satellite has gone through vibration, thermal, and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) tests and everything looks great. The MINI-ME instrument is performing as expected."
PISA is an acronym for the Plasma Impedance Spectrum Analyzer, which will test a new measurement technique for the thermal electron populations in the ionosphere, and their density structuring, which can interfere with or scatter radio signals used for communication and navigation. PISA will tell scientists on Earth when and where the ionosphere becomes structured or turbulent. That will give us better predictions of how space weather will affect GPS signals.
Doug Rowland, PISA's Principal Investigator at NASA Goddard said, "PISA has completed the same tests that the Mini-ME endured and has just passed powered Electromagnetic Interference Test. PISA is on track for spacecraft to be packed up and delivered to the launch site." The EMI, vibration and thermal testing are critical tests for all instruments and satellites before they're loaded aboard a rocket and put into orbit.
The Thermospheric Temperature Imager, or TTI, will provide the first global-scale measurements of thermospheric temperature profiles in the 56-168 mile (90-270 km) region of the Earth's atmosphere. The temperature profile sets the scale height of the thermosphere which determines the density at orbital altitudes and therefore the aerodynamic drag experienced by military spacecraft.
John Sigwarth, TTI's Principal Investigator at NASA Goddard, said "The TTI survived the satellite launch vibration levels, being blasted with radio waves, and the TTI had a great thermal vacuum test. We were able to characterize the operation of the instrument in space-like environments and the TTI is ready for launch. We are eagerly anticipating obtaining great data from orbit."
Electromagnetic Interference or EMI testing is done to ensure that powerful ground-based communications and radar systems do not cause interference on the satellite or instrument systems.
Vibration testing is an important part of the testing process, because when the rocket carrying the satellite lifts off and travels through Earth's atmosphere it experiences intense vibrations. Successful vibration testing assures scientists and engineers that their instrument will remain intact and fully functional after launch.
Thermal testing is also critical, because of the extreme temperatures in space. Scientists need to be sure that the instruments will maintain function at extreme temperatures, from the extreme heat the rocket carrying the satellite will experience during launch and when it travels through Earth's atmosphere into the cold void of space.
"With the completion of the last phase of environmental testing of the integrated FASTSAT-HSV01 spacecraft, our team is focused on readying the satellite and its six science and technology instruments, for its near term shipment to Kodiak, Alaska, and for an on time launch no earlier than May 28, 2010," said FASTSAT Project Manager Mark Boudreaux at NASA Marshall.
"FASTSAT-HSV" means "Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, Huntsville" The development, integration, test and operations of the three instruments is a collaborative effort between NASA Goddard, NASA Marshall, and the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.
FASTSAT-HSV01 will be flying a total of six instruments approved by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Space Experiments Review Board multi-spacecraft/payload mission named STP-S26, which is executed by the DoD Space Test Program (STP) at the Space Development and Test Wing (SDTW), Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. which is a unit of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The mission was designated S26 to correspond to the 26th small launch vehicle mission in STP's more than 40 year history of flying DoD space experiments. The mission will launch four satellites and three cubesats into low earth orbit.
The satellite was created at NASA Marshall with the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, in partnership with Dynetics, a corporate partner.
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This mosaic was created from two high-resolution images that were captured by the narrow-angle camera when NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew past Enceladus and through the jets on Nov. 21, 2009. Imaging the jets over time will allow Cassini scientists to study the consistency of their activity.
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Conservation Groups Align with World’s Worst Polluters
“Major environmental groups are coming under criticism from within their own ranks for taking positions that some say are antithetical to their stated missions of saving the planet. In the latest issue of The Nation magazine, the British journalist Johann Hari writes, “As we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world’s worst polluters—and burying science-based environmentalism in return…In the middle of a swirl of bogus climate scandals trumped up by deniers, here is the real Climategate.”
(From Democracy Now) There is money in any issue in Washington, and global warming is no exception. No wonder climate change legislation has morphed into “green jobs and energy” legislation. John Kerry and others are working hard to pass a bill that will (likely) allow coal use to thrive and new oil to be drilled and lots of natural gas to be extracted and burned, at a very toxic cost. Our Congress just doesn’t get it. There should be a moratorium on taking any money from any fossil fuel industries, given what we are facing with global warming. (Yet Nancy Pelosi herself is a big investor in natural gas, for example). Climate change and global warming are the biggest issues humanity has ever faced, and governments are dropping the ball. However, it’s not just governments being corrupted by corporate cash — it’s also the very “Green” groups we depend on for climate action and Congressional pressure!
Consider what we are facing already, according to Johann Hari, a columnist who wrote for The Nation — ‘The Wrong Kind of Green’:
“I have spent the past few years reporting on how global warming is remaking the map of the world. I have stood in half-dead villages on the coast of Bangladesh while families point to a distant place in the rising ocean and say, “Do you see that chimney sticking up? That’s where my house was… I had to [abandon it] six months ago.” I have stood on the edges of the Arctic and watched glaciers that have existed for millenniums crash into the sea. I have stood on the borders of dried-out Darfur and heard refugees explain, “The water dried up, and so we started to kill each other for what was left.”
Flooding in Bangladesh
People don’t realize that flooding and other effects of climate change are already happening. That’s because the narrative, and the media, is focusing on human errors made in a few emails about some bad scientific practices at a little, obscure university that no one depends on for climate data anyway. We have other places where climate data is stored and gathered, including NASA, NOAA and places in Japan and Canada. Who needs East Anglia. The IPCC is now reviewing its practices of collecting data). The real Climategate is that big fossil fuel companies continues to foul the process of coming up with [...]
Oh YIKES. Kerry and the Gang hold humanity's future in their political hands.
U.S. Senators now hold a large portion of humanity’s future survival prospects in their hands.
I’m very grateful for political climate news from ClimateWire. (A subscription-only service that recently bestowed on me a trial subscription.) There is a very welcome push by the Obama administration lately to get some climate legislation passed this year, but what President Obama means by “climate legislation” is not necessarily what many people would define it as. But if it doesn’t do a lot of harm with giveaways to coal and oil (like many people fear it will) then maybe, possibly, like the health care bill, it’s best to get something passed, crack the door open and later it can be amended and strengthened. But what John Kerry and Lindsey Graham are working on reportedly has a lot of allowances in it for coal, oil and other undesirable energy. Here is some of the latest.
President Obama yesterday huddled at the White House with more than a dozen key senators in an all-out push to pass stalled legislation that would put a price on greenhouse gas emissions. (E&ENews PM, 03/09/2010)
Partisan gridlock has largely kept the Senate climate and energy bill on ice, with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) trying to find a sweet spot on a plan that would limit carbon dioxide pollution from power plants and other major industrial sectors. [This group is not necessarily going to do what is necessary, but at least they are pushing something forward].
The Senate trio is trying to get a draft bill out before the end of the month, but they face resistance from moderate Democrats and Republicans who are urging a slower, “energy only” approach. . . . .
Among those expected at the closed-door meeting in the Cabinet Room were Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), George LeMieux (R-Fla.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska.). Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) also got an invitation but said he could not go because of a meeting on health care with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Heading into the meeting, several of the Republicans showed little interest in tackling such a sweeping proposal.”
Surprise, surprise. Of course Republicans and “blue dog” conservative Democrats aren’t interested, because they take a ton of money from Big Oil, Big Coal, and Big Gas, and Big Ag, and everything under the sun that pollutes a lot and is Big. When they are being bought and paid for, they won’t show much enthusiasm for biting the hands that feed them. I also question the value of input from Republicans in that group that are actively trying to kill climate legislation, like Lisa Murkowski. President Obama is taking his attempts at bi-partisanship too far. That is clear at this point.
Unfortunately, an [...]
Children’s Workshop to celebrate the birthday of Fortunato Depero
March 30, 2010
4-6pm
Casa d’Arte Futurista, Rovereto
Sulla soglia di questo museo, all’interno della corte del palazzo che lo ospita, la sezione didattica organizza un laboratorio all’aperto per festeggiare l’anniversario della nascita di Depero. L’attività si propone di coinvolgere i bambini e i loro accompagnatori adulti in una festa dai colori sgargianti, a cominciare dal brindisi futurista, a base di sciroppi di frutta che ognuno potrà mescolare a piacere. Nel corso dell’attività si sperimenterà la creazione di fiori fantastici, ispirati alla “flora magica” delle scenografie progettate da Depero per i Balletti Russi, per comporre un gigantesco mazzo di fiori in ricordo dell’artista. Inoltre, ogni partecipante potrà realizzare e indossare un panciotto futurista caratterizzato da vivaci tarsie in carta colorata.
Progetto didattico a cura di Annalisa Casagranda
Età consigliata: 4-12 anni
The Battery Replacement Service FAQ on Apple's site outlines their policy for handling iPads with diminished battery capacity, and it is a surprisingly generous: for a $99 service fee, they'll send you a brand new iPad. More »
The trade show floor is open at SXSW Interactive, so The Planet Server Challenge is officially underway. We went through the basics of the competition yesterday, so today we’re diving into the details.
The Goal: Reassemble our Pentium4 server faster than your SXSW peers and win an ASUS Eee PC Netbook.
The Rules:
*Fan, Heat Sink and RAM must be on the table outside of the chassis.
A Successful/Complete Installation:
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’m pretty sure videos are worth a few million. With that in mind, we recorded a quick explanation and demonstration of the challenge:
Do you think you have what it takes to get the best time? Swing by our booth and prove it! We will update the top times in the comments section of this blog so you can keep an eye on the current record in absentia.
UPDATE: We just spoke with one of the representatives from the Universal Records Database, and he suggested that we submit the fastest time to their database, and they will certify the winner as a universal record holder! Forget having the fastest hands at SXSW … You’ll have the fastest hands in the universe. 
-Kevin
P.S. Don’t forget to RSVP for tonight’s Tumblr/SoundCloud/Kickstarter party!
Oh dear. Sometimes it’s so hard to let go.
And most importantly, don’t forget to join us MARCH 13, at 1pm for the PLUTO IS A PLANET PROTEST MARCH AND RALLY. The march starts at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply store (8414 Greenwood Ave N) and will end at Neptune Coffee (8415 Greenwood Ave N).
But really, Greenwood Space Travel Supply is all kinds of awesome, even if they’re weirdly co-dependent with small rocks in the outer solar system. They’re the Seattle branch of the 826 network, which is a non-profit writing center for kids.
They also have cool t-shirts.
Yesterday, Netflix announced that they're pulling the plug on the sequel to their supercool Netflix Prize in which teams competed to improve the company's recommendation algorithm for a million dollar reward. Privacy: can't live with it, can't live without it. More »
After a last minute change of plans at SIAI, I was tasked with going to the AGI-10 workshop to speak on AI safety.
Many thanks to all those I interacted with there, it was certainly an interesting experience. The paper I presented is a paper draft that I wrote with Nick Tarleton on, loosely speaking, the state of the art in safe AI motivational systems.
Bootstrapping Safe AGI goal systems is up on my site.
Shane Legg comments:
"During the final workshop session Roko Mijic appeared out of the blue and gave a talk on Yudkowsky style Friendly AI. A show of hands revealed that while half the audience had heard of SIAI, few had heard of CEV. ... In any case, what did become clear is that a sizable part of the AGI community is not familiar with FIA thinking."
We're no strangers to the work of Lego master Nathan Sawaya, but his latest creation achieved the impossible: making a Blackberry exciting. It incorporates a working flat screen TV for comfortably displaying video. Clearly he took some artistic liberties. More »
UPDATE: SOLVED at 1221 CDT by Curt!
Today is the last chance to solve a riddle and be eligible to compete in the bonus riddle, Monday the 15th. Today’s riddle is pretty tame, so get your guesses in quick.
Image: Frank Kulasek
Today’s riddle subject is an event.
It occurred in recent history.
While the event was occurring, it was not known what was happening.
What actually did happen is still debated in some circles.
Image: slemkeatpb on PhotoBucket
This event has happened before.
It will happen again.
This event is well-represented in modern literature, TV shows, and songs.
Although there is significant scientific interest in modern times, at the time it occurred there was very little.
Okay, that should get it. Today’s winner will be the last one eligible for the bonus riddle, so give it a SWAG even if you’re not sure of the answer. Today’s winner will still pick the subject of my next post, but it will be up Tuesday instead of Monday.
Good luck!
Lurking... lurking
In addition to the orientation-lock button, yesterday's pre-order commencement delivered another surprise nugget: the iPad will read all EPUB books out loud. If you remember the shitstorm that surrounded Kindle's text-to-voice feature, you'll know that this is a bold move. More »
Though the last we heard, Google was nearing a compromise that would allow them to stop censoring their Google.cn results, the Financial Times is reporting that they are almost certainly going to close their Chinese search engine. Since their initial ultimatum in January, Google and China have traded vague statements about reaching a compromise, but, unsurprisingly, talks haven't produced a mutually agreeable solution. [Financial Times] More »
The Magic Mouse, for all of its sleek lines and multitouch, uh, magic, can feel a little awkward in the hand. MMFixed has the solution: a stick-on hump that gives your fingers some leverage and your palm some lovin'. More »
