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Category Archives: Politics
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Suprapower | Superconducting, reliable, lightweight and more powerful offshore wind turbine.
Suprapower | Superconducting, reliable, lightweight and more powerful offshore wind turbine.
Suprapower | Superconducting, reliable, lightweight and more powerful offshore wind turbine. SuprapSUPRAPOWER (SUPerconducting, Reliable, lightweight, And more POWERful offshore wind turbine) is an EU FP7 founded research project focused on a major innovation in offshore wind turbine technology by developing a new compact superconductor-based generator.
The project aims to provide an important breakthrough in offshore wind industrial solutions by designing an innovative, lightweight, robust and reliable 10 MW class offshore wind turbine based on a superconducting (SC) generator, taking into account all the essential aspects of electric conversion, integration and manufacturability.
Today’s geared as well as direct-drive permanent magnet generators are difficult to scale up further. Their huge size and weight drives up the cost of both fixed and floating foundations as well as O&M cost. New solutions to provide better power scalability, weight reduction and reliability are needed. Superconductivity may be the only technology able to combine such features and allow scaling to 10 MW and beyond by radical reduction of the head mass.
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Gmail now lets you plan how your data is handled after death
There was a time when we wondered what might happen to our online accounts if we died unexpectedly; a question that has spawned a number of startups designed to address this issue. But some recent high-profile examples have shown that there is still no simple, widely accepted solution for handling one’s data in the event of sudden death. However, a recent update to Gmail offers a new feature that may help its millions of users feel a bit more secure about how their data will be handled in the event of an untimely passing.
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New report calls on countries to combine environmental and development goals
“Degradation of the natural world is undermining efforts to reduce poverty,” scientists warn in a new article published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
A farmer in the Lobesa valley of Bhutan, which pledges to be the first 100% organic country. (Photo: 10b Travelling via Flickr)The only way we can achieve a “thriving global society” and mitigate the combined effects of environmental destruction and global poverty, the authors write in Policy: Sustainable Development Goals for People and Planet, is for international policymakers to adopt new targets that combine the need for planetary stability with poverty alleviation goals.
“Humans are transforming the planet in ways that could undermine any development gains,” says lead author Professor David Griggs of Australia’s Monash University.
Washington Councilman Calls Person ‘Gay’ in Email
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Pennsylvania City Councilman Uses Citywide Emergency Alert System to Call His Friend ‘Gay’ Mayor Brenda Davis said Councilman Matt Staniszewski sent out a test alert of the city’s transit system using an inappropriate word.
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SUPERMASSIVE BREAKTHROUGH: SCIENTISTS NOW KNOW HOW FAST A BLACK HOLE SPINS
For the first time ever, scientists have been able to measure the precise spin rate of a ‘supermassive black hole’. The findings will provide some clue as to how some of the most mysterious objects in our universe began to form.
The black hole is located in the NGC 1365 galaxy, located 56 million light years away from us, and two million times the mass of the Sun.
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Google to monitor unused white space across the US, take us one step closer to spectrum sharing
One of the biggest hold-ups in the global deployment of LTE and long-range WiFiis a lack of available spectrum. Even when a particular frequency is free and usable for mobile broadband, it’s often officially reserved for some other purpose. Google’s charitable wing, Google.org, has long claimed that as much as 6 MHz ofwhite space kept aside for TV channels in the US is actually untapped, and now it’s going to get a chance to prove the point. The FCC has just granted it a 45-day window in which to run a trial public database (linked below) to keep track of exactly which bits of spectrum are free in which parts of the country.
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Earth 2 Hub™ gives new science and technology an immersive media platform that supports and drives new content creation and new programmes for change, through which to deliver and build a sustainable future. By presenting new scientific facts and futures as they emerge, to a global community, Earth 2 Hub™ aims to harness The Art of the Possible and cause a positive decision for change to occur on an on-going basis.
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The next big thing: 4D printing
Just as 3D printing has started to come into its own, some forward-thinking architect has just announced that he’s already working on the next big thing.
It was at this year’s TED conference in Long Beach that Skylar Tibbits, an MIT professor, gave attendees a sneak peak into an even more advanced manufacturing innovation he’s calling 4D printing — naturally. I know the name seems suspect because, frankly, what the heck is a 4D printed object? Well, rest assured that it’s not something that exists in some hidden spatial realm (what use would we have for that?). Rather it’s run-of-the-mill three dimensional printing technology, but combined with a neat enhancement that allows the parts to self-assemble and re-assemble into a myriad number of products.
