If you live in a place that is cold and dry right now, do yourself a favor and pick up a humidifier. This particular model from Japan definitely has an elegant "ancient tech" kind of charm.
Carved out of Japanese Cypress, the Mast Humidifier absorbs water from the hull and diffuses it through the air—along with the natural lemony-scent of the wood itself. Its rot resistant and, naturally, electricity free. Plus it's really nice looking. [Masuza via Spoon and Tamago via Mocoloco]
DO YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE MACHINING NYLATRON GSM? I HAVE MACHINED IT BEFORE AND IT'S LIKE BUTTER BUT BETTER!
THIS TIME, I NEED TO BE CONCERNED WITH SURFACE FINISH ON THE CYLINDER WALL FOR FRICTION REDUCTION AND SEAL.
WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD TO DO THIS ON NYLON, AFTER THE BORING BAR IS FI
The best way to make a point about privacy and “invasive” body scanners at the airport–is to strip down to your underwear and then publish that video to YouTube so the whole world can see you in your nearly naked glory. Might sound strange at first, but we are covering it in Discoblog, so I guess it worked.
Warning: This video has mild nudity and so may be NSFW.
German activists from the Pirate Party thought organizing a “fleshmob” of people to strip down to their skivvies and converge on the Berlin-Tegel airport was a great idea. The activists were protesting the use of what the Germans call the Nacktscanner, or naked scanner–a body scanner that may increasingly be used for airport security, in the wake of the botched underwear bombing on Christmas Day.
As Wired reported:
The protesters marked their bodies with a number of messages such as, “Something to hide?” and “Be a good citizen — drop your pants.” One woman has the word “diaper” scrawled on her lower back with an arrow pointing to her underwear and the word “prosthetic” printed on her leg. The word “piercing” and an arrow point to one of her breasts. Another woman dressed in a beige sweater and flesh-colored tights wears a sign reading “pixelated.” (To address privacy concerns, security officials say the scanners can be programed to produce a blurred, pixelated image of passengers to protect their modesty.)
The full-body scanners work by using high frequency radio waves to produce an image of a passenger’s naked body beneath clothes. So anything strapped to the body–explosives, drugs–would be exposed. But if you chuck something in a body cavity the scanner fails to detect that. The scanners have raised concerns about passengers’ privacy, as pointed out by the semi-naked activists, but German authorities are pressing ahead with their plans to deploy them across the country’s airports over the next two years.
Related Content:
80beats: 5 Reasons Body Scanners May Not Solve Our Terrorism Problem
80beats: Are Digital Strip Searches Coming Soon To Every Airport Near You?
80beats: TSA Threatens Bloggers Who Published Security Info, Then Backs Off
Dear Members,
I would like to know and how to make or use Fly Ash or some other sort of cement replacement or using less cement but same strenght.
I would like to use less cement since it is a polutant material.
Upon refilling my < one month old butane torch lighter, I am having a problem with getting a flame.
The chamber fills up with the fuel from the can, and sometimes a small flame sputters for a moment, but it does not last long. I tested the lighter by keeping the valve open and passing
As Haiti reels from yesterday’s massive earthquake and its continued aftershocks, and nations rush to put rescue efforts together, scientists analyzing the seismic event say this disaster may have been a long time coming.
The earthquake in Haiti had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and it appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, scientists say [AP]. This fault, called the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, may have been slowly building up pressure since the major 1760 earthquake that struck Haiti.
“It’s been locked solid for about the last 250 years,” said Dr Roger Musson from the British Geological Survey (BGS). “It’s been gathering stress all that time as the plates move past each other, and it was really just a matter of time before it released all that energy” [BBC News]. Chillingly, scientists led by Paul Mann warned just two years ago that such a massive quake could strike Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. But there wasn’t much the impoverished Caribbean nation could do with that information, Mann said: “The problem with these kinds of strikes is that they can remain quiescent — dormant — for hundreds of years,” he said Tuesday evening. “So it’s hard to predict when they’ll occur” [CNN].
The BBC reports that the fault system of which Enriquillo-Plantain is a part normally moves less than an inch per year as the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates slide by each other, but this earthquake may have caused the earth’s surface along the fault line to offset by as much as three feet.
The fact that the Enriquillo-Plantain appears to have released all its fury at once raises further worry for people living near strike-slip fault zones—California’s San Andres fault also falls under this category. However, Caribbean geology expert Grenville Draper says that the Hispaniola fault system doesn’t behave exactly like California’s. The movement along the Hispaniola fault is relatively small compared with plates moving underground in California, Draper said. The effect would be less-frequent earthquakes, but relatively large ones when they do occur [Miami Herald].
Related Content:
80beats: Science Via Twitter: Post-Earthquake Tweets Can Provide Seismic Data
80beats: Major Earthquakes Can Weaken Faults Around the Globe
80beats: A Major Quake Could Release Plutonium from Los Alamos Lab
The Intersection: Ways to Support the Relief Effort in Haiti
Image: Wikimedia Commons / The Weatherman
The Libertarian Party of Indiana will have a large presence at the State's largest gun and knife show, the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Paul Morrell (Rush County Temporary Chair), Jerry Titus (Howard County Chair), and Tim Maguire (Marion County Chair) have collaborated to organize party members to promote the libertarian message of upholding the full Bill of Rights to the thousands in attendance.
Visit the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show's website at http://www.indy1500.com/.
When:
January 15th-16th-17th
Friday 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Saturday 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Sunday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Where:
The Indiana State Fairgrounds
1202 East 38th Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46205
Are the world’s most popular search engine and the world’s most populous country headed for a breakup? That’s the word reverberating around the Internet today after Google said it would no longer put up with the Chinese government’s demands to censor the Internet and the rampant hacking attempts against it, which could result in the company ending its Chinese operations.
The announcement came as a stunning reversal for Google, which had capitulated to the government’s wishes to gain access to China’s fast-growing population of Internet users. Since arriving in 2006 under an arrangement with the government that purged its Chinese search results of banned topics, Google has come under fire for abetting a system that increasingly restricts what can be read online [The New York Times].
The standoff comes as no surprise to China watchers, however. “The idea that Google would be allowed to run an uncensored search engine would be inconsistent with everything the Chinese government has done and every single statement it has made over the past year” about the need for controls on the internet, says Rebecca MacKinnon, an expert on new media in China [Christian Science Monitor]. In fact, the news of this fight over censorship remains itself censored in China, The New York Times reports. Early reports in the Chinese news media mentioned terms like “free speech,” but those quickly disappeared.
The details of Google’s other grievance—China-based hacks against it—haven’t all come to light yet. But these sophisticated attacks against more than 30 firms, mostly Silicon Valley-based, appear to have targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese humans right activists. Perhaps that was the last straw for Google; an anonymous source told Wired.com that the company already deals with the Chinese government harassing its own people over there. “[Google is] really concerned about their safety and feels that there is a very real possibility that they will be interrogated,” the source said. “They have been [interrogated] numerous times before, and this time they could be arrested and imprisoned” [Wired.com].
What happens if Google actually breaks with Beijing? Baidu, China’s number one search engine, will benefit, but it won’t be the only one. “With the easing of competition from Google, it’s actually going to benefit everybody. The small operators now see an opportunity to gain some market share,” said Elinor Leung, an analyst at CLSA. [Wall Street Journal]. But what’s good for the market share of Chinese search engines may not be good for Chinese Internet users. Google’s pullout could hamper the fight for Web freedom there and elsewhere, leaving governments with even more power to set the rules about how much of the Internet people within their borders can see.
That’s if Google follows through on its threat and ends its Chinese operations. As the Wall Street Journal reports, an Irish betting site is already taking wagers whether the company will do it by 2012, and the odds aren’t good—the bookies seem to think China is too tempting a market to surrender.
Related Content:
80beats: Is Google the Guardian Angel of Rainforests?
80beats: Googlefest Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: 3 New Ways Google Will Take Over Your Life
80beats: China Bans Electroshock Therapy for “Internet Addiction”
80beats: China’s Internet Users Force Government to Back Down on Censorship
Image: Wikimedia Commons / M. Weitzel
why earthing must with 3 phase circuits?
plz tell me answers in detail..
My latest Science Progress blog post looks at the case of a recent Science paper that has had a dramatic impact on the debate over so-called “MTR”–an extremely destructive and invasive form of mining that literally takes the caps off of mountain peaks to access the coal inside them. In essence, it’s the story of scientists being willing to stand up and say what they think about policy, and having a real influence as a result–a case study in how to make scientific information have its maximal impact. An excerpt:
To me, the most intriguing question is this: How did the 12 environmental scientists on the Science paper managed to achieve such an impact? Did they plan for it, or was it just fortuitous?
So I called up Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the article’s lead author. I was something like her 30th media interview on the topic, but unlike other journalists, I didn’t want to ask about either the policy or the science of MTR. Rather, I inquired about the communication strategy that had been employed to disseminate news about her paper. And thus unfolded a striking story of a group of scientists, with extremely important research on their hands, doing everything pretty much right to ensure its maximal impact.
As Palmer explained, the project out started as pure science. Her team of researchers began by synthesizing a wide array of data from different scientific fields on the consequences of MTR, in a more thorough way than had ever been done before—a process that consumed many months in the peer review process. But as the truly alarming results started to manifest, members of the scientists’ group soon coalesced around a strong, unanimous position about what they were finding. “Rather than just reporting the science,” says Palmer, “we all agreed that the consequences were so huge, we were very comfortable saying, ‘This just has to stop.’”
Resolved upon its message, the team then sought to disseminate it….
To hear more of the story, you can read the full post here.
what is the difference between 150 rating,300 rating
Esther de Waal on the importance of honoring thresholds as sacred things.
Which material are used for boiler tube and turbine varous parts.Why?
Dear Sir
I Have Two Atlas Copco Compressor Model#ZR315
Compressor is Set Point Pressoure is Not Acheewed
Intercooler Pressoure is 2.4 bar
why hydrostatic pressure is 1.5 times the design preesure
Which oil is used in turbine bearings for lubrication prupose and what is that oil special characteristcs
there are many materials in metallurgy but only those materials which has tensile stress 60 Ksi are used in piping contruction. why
It’s a time-honored tradition. After sunset, Californians gather at the beach and build a bonfire in one of the concrete fire pits that dot the beaches all up and down the coast. Whether the focus of a beach party, a night of star-gazing, or an impromptu hot dog and marshmallow roast, the pits are a cultural phenomenon in California.
Now that tradition is in danger of disappearing forever. Last week, the ranks of State-maintained fire pits were reduced when the following seven were removed due to budget shortfalls
California cities are following suit. San Diego recently ordered the removal of 186 concrete fire pits from its beaches and shoreline parks, including those located in Mission bay and on the beaches of La Jolla, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, and Ocean Beach.
Those in favor of the money saving measures insist the removal of fire pits is a good idea, since they are regularly used to burn trash that ends up littering the beach, and bonfire parties can often get out of control. Opponents say the move will forever alter the essence of the city. City and State officials, who seem generally pleased to be rid of the onerous task of maintaining the pits, point out that people are still welcome to build fires in their personal barbeque grills.
Video Credit: TVman1981
Article by Barbara Weibel at Hole In The Donut Travels
Photo: Alan Stern (center, green flight jacket) Twittering from the altitude chamber on Tuesday. More photos from Tuesday's activities are posted here. An embedded viewer will appear when we stream live centrifuge runs today around 11 am EST. This link points to the webcast location.
"The Suborbital Scientist-Astronaut Training Course [Tuesday/Wednesday, 12-13 Jan] has been developed by The NASTAR Center and is organized by Dr. Alan Stern and Dr. Dan Durda of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). "
Keith's note: You can follow events at the workshop at OnOrbit.com/suborbital or at The pre-flight of a sub-orbital scientist (Joe Hill)
On Twitter you can follow @thenastarcenter, NASAWatch or track all Tweets via #suborbital
You can also check the Suborbital Science page at Facebook and TheNASTARCenter on YouTube
- ETC's The NASTAR(R) Center Announces Winner of Student Patch Design Contest Outreach Effort, earlier post- NASA Solicitation: Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program - CRuSR - Request for Information, earlier post
- List of Speakers Announced for the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, earlier post
