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Comment Lie to word ratio approaching 1:1 (Score 2) 169

by Maury Markowitz (#49364935) Attached to: Graphene Light Bulbs Coming To Stores Soon

"A light bulb made from graphene"

It is not made from graphene.

"said by its UK developers to be the first commercially viable consumer product using the super-strong carbon"

There are a wide variety of consumer products that *clime* to use graphene. http://www.graphene-info.com/graphene-products

"Manchester University, where the material was discovered in 2004":

Ok, they got this right.

"It is said to cut energy use by 10% and last longer owing to its conductivity."

LED bulbs die when their electrocaps fry. Improving the conductivity of the LED (and I can't imagine how it would do this) would not change this.

"It is expected to be priced lower than current LED bulbs, which cost about £15 (~$22) each."

Current LED bulbs are widely available in the UK for £5 to 10. http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/shelves/Light_Bulbs_in_Tesco.html

Submission + - Material Made From Crustaceans Could Combat Military Mortalities (acs.org)

Submitted by MTorrice
MTorrice writes: A foam composed of a polymer derived from crustacean shells may prevent more soldiers from falling victim to the most prolific killer on the battlefield: blood loss.

Pressure is one of the best tools that medics have to fight bleeding, but they can’t use it on severe wounds near organs. Here, compression could do more harm than good. First responders have no way to effectively dam blood flows from these noncompressible injuries, which account for the majority of hemorrhagic deaths. The new foam could help stop bleeding in these types of injuries.

It relies on chitosan, a biopolymer that comes from processed crustacean shells. By modifying the chitosan, the developers gave the material the ability to anchor blood cells into gel-like networks, essentially forming blood clots. The researchers dispersed the modified chitosan in water to create a fluid they could spray directly onto noncompressible wounds.

Submission + - After 911 Cockpits Are Harder to Invade But Easier to Lock up

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Jad Mouawad And Christopher Drew write in the NYT that although airplane cockpits are supposed to be the last line of defense from outside aggressors, airlines have fewer options if the threat comes from within as it appears that the co-pilot of the German jet crashed Tuesday took advantage of one of the major safety protocols instituted after the September 11, 2001, attacks that turned cockpits into fortresses. “It is shocking to me that there was not a second person present in the cockpit,” says Mark Rosenker, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Access to the cockpit is strictly regulated in the United States. Passengers are not allowed to congregate near the cockpit door, and whenever the door is open, no one is allowed in the forward bathroom and flight attendants usually block aisle access, sometimes using a food cart. The crash, which killed all 150 people aboard the Germanwings Airbus A320, highlights a major difference between European and American flight deck procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration mandates that a flight attendant must sit in the cockpit when either pilot steps into the passenger area; European regulations do not have a similar two-person rule.

The Germanwings accident also points to potential shortcomings in how pilots are screened for mental problems, a recurring concern for an industry that demands focus and discipline in an increasingly technical job, often in stressful situations. In 2012, a well-regarded pilot with JetBlue, one of the airline’s earliest employees, was physically restrained by passengers on a flight from New York to Las Vegas after displaying erratic behavior. In that case, the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cabin and made an emergency landing in Amarillo, Tex. “Aircraft-assisted pilot suicides,” as the Federal Aviation Administration calls them, are rare. They include the November 2013 crash of a Mozambique Airlines plane bound for Luanda, Angola, which bears an eerie resemblance to the Germanwings plane’s demise. When the flight’s co-pilot left to use the lavatory, the captain locked him out of the cockpit and manually steered the aircraft earthward. The crash of Egypt Airlines Flight 990 off Nantucket, Mass., in 1999, which killed all 217 people on board, was also caused by deliberate action, a National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded. Experts on suicide say that the psychology of those who combine suicide with mass murder may differ in significant ways from those who limit themselves to taking their own lives. “This is not so different in some ways from someone who walks into a school and kills a bunch of people, and then kills themselves,” says Michelle Cornette adding that it was entirely possible that someone who was suicidal could pass psychological exams and receive a clean bill of health. “People know what’s going to raise a red flag."

Submission + - Micron And Intel Announce 3D NAND Flash Co-Development To Push SSDs Past 10TB (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Both Micron and Intel noted in a release today that traditional planar NAND flash memory is reaching a dead-end, and as such, have been working together on 3D memory technology that could open the floodgates for high densities and faster speeds. Not all 3D memory is alike, however. This joint development effort resulted in a "floating gate cell" being used, something not uncommon for standard flash, but a first for 3D. Ultimately, this 3D NAND is composed of flash cells stacked 32 high, resulting in 256Gb MLC and 384Gb TLC die that fit inside of a standard package. That gives us 48GB per die, and up to 750GB in a single package. Other benefits include faster performance, reduced cost, and technologies that help extend the life of the memory.

Submission + - RSA Conference Bans 'Booth Babes" (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: In what may be a first for the technology industry, RSA Conference 2015 next month apparently will be bereft of a long-controversial trade-show attraction: “booth babes.” New language in its exhibitor contract, while not using the term 'booth babe," leaves no doubt as to what type of salesmanship RSA wants left out of its event. Says a conference spokeswoman: “We thought this was an important step towards making all security professionals feel comfortable and equally respected during the show.”

Comment Re:So when are we invading Israel for possessing W (Score 1) 148

by Maury Markowitz (#49344895) Attached to: First Nuclear Power Plant Planned In Jordan

> That way the neighbors can conduct a full jihad against Israel without worrying about losing their capital cities.

Considering that three of its neighbours lost parts of their capital cities, and two others were under serious threat, Israel doesn't need nukes to do that.

And now that we're 50 years in the future, the neighbors have a lot more to worry between each other than Israel. There will be no repeat of '67.

Comment Re:Economics (Score 1) 148

by Maury Markowitz (#49344841) Attached to: First Nuclear Power Plant Planned In Jordan

> Cost over-runs are rampant, they never cost what is projected, often this is 2 to 10 times projected,
> but maybe that's just in the USA where the winning lowest bid forces unrealistic expectations.

Cost overruns in Canada were 100%, both on initial construction and refurbs. Current cost overruns in Europe are the same.

If there is a *real* theoretical problem with nuclear power is that its economics scale with size. To compete with wind or gas they have to make really large plants. That complicates financing and construction. Construction becomes so complex that you end up with many critical paths, as we're experiencing with Vogtle. Wind power may not be a panacea, but it's highly modular so you can build out slowly. It's a lot easier to get $25 million for a turbine than $25 billion for a nuke.

The providers are dumping nuclear for that reason. All that's left of Europe's industry is Areva, which just lost more than it's entire book value in one quarter. The other German, French and UK companies have all left the industry. In the US, Westinghouse is bankrupt, Betchel, Babckock and General Atomics are all out of the industry, leaving only GE and the zombie "Westinghouse" (Toshiba). Canada sold off AECL's design side for negative $750 million.

Comment Re:Economics (Score 1) 148

by Maury Markowitz (#49344575) Attached to: First Nuclear Power Plant Planned In Jordan

> and current designs are expected to last up to 60 years

No, they are designed to run for about 30 to 25 years, then be torn apart and re-built from new. All that remains is the containment building and the parts outside the nuclear island. This is supposed to get you a new reactor good for another 25 to 30 years (because now those other parts and breaking down) for about 50% of the cost.

However, those that have actually tried this have a 100% rate of overrunning the budgets, to the point where it's >100% of the original cost. That's why people are shutting down their reactors instead of refurbing them. The new designs are supposed to avoid these problems, but we won't really know for another 40 years.

Comment Re:Economics (Score 1) 148

by Maury Markowitz (#49344509) Attached to: First Nuclear Power Plant Planned In Jordan

> I'd also like to know how this compares to hydro, gas, coal, solar, wind, tidal, and any other generation method currently in use.

Page 2 of this: http://www.lazard.com/PDF/Levelized%20Cost%20of%20Energy%20-%20Version%208.0.pdf

According to that, this is an *extremely* competitive plant. If you turn to Page 11 you'll see the problem - it seems *HIGHLY* unlikely that the plant can actually be built for this number. This is *well* below the worldwide average. They may be quoting the wrong number, this might be the overnight costs, which would put the total CAPEX (which is what's on page 11) into the 8 range depending on the financing, which makes it much more in-line with other examples.

Comment Re:SOLAR (Score 1) 148

by Maury Markowitz (#49344327) Attached to: First Nuclear Power Plant Planned In Jordan

> Price per watt for solar is in the $5 range, not counting discounts for massive purchases.

Yeah, in 2011. Today, small residential installs are around $4.00 a watt, commissioned. Large industrial installs are $1.50.

Page 11 of this: http://www.lazard.com/PDF/Levelized%20Cost%20of%20Energy%20-%20Version%208.0.pdf

Submission + - Australia passes mandatory data retention law (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by Bismillah
Bismillah writes: Opposition from the Green Party and independent members of parliament wasn't enough to stop the ruling conservative Liberal-National coalition from passing Australia's new law that will force telcos and ISPs to store customer metadata for at least two years.

Journalists' metadata is not exempted from the retention law, but requires a warrant to access.

The metadata of everyone else can be accessed by unspecified government agencies without a warrant however.

Submission + - Now It's Easy To Tell Congress To Fight Patent Trolls

Submitted by Press2ToContinue
Press2ToContinue writes: Application Developers Alliance is running two campaigns to help get the message to Washington. First is the Fight Patent Trolls initiative, which includes a tool for sending a letter to Senators and Representatives.

The second campaign is Innovators Need Patent Reform, an open letter to Congress that makes the same key points along with a public list of signers.

As both letters note, there are already proposals in both the House and the Senate, plus recommendations from the President, that contain some of the all-important protections that the victims of patent trolls need. Though the future of these specific bills is uncertain, the building blocks are beginning to fall into place, and it's time to run with that momentum.

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