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Submission + - 3D may be answer to solar power inefficiencies (scienceblog.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A team of MIT researchers has come up with a new approach to solar energy hardware: building cubes or towers that extend the solar cells upward in three-dimensional configurations. The results from the structures they’ve tested show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area. The biggest boosts in power were seen in the situations where improvements are most needed: in locations far from the equator, in winter months and on cloudier days.
Power

Submission + - DVD Writer Spins Out Graphene Electrodes for New Supercapacitor (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: The wonders of graphene seem to know no bounds. Not only is it one of the strongest materials known, is both highly conductive and piezoelectric, it can generate electricity from flowing water and now it is being used to make better supercapacitors. Using a DVD writer, a team of UCLA researchers has invented a new process for making high quality graphene electrodes and used these electrodes to make a new species of supercapacitor. Though the work is in the early stages of development, it could lay a foundation for supercapacitor-based energy storage systems suitable for flexible portable electronic devices.
Idle

Submission + - Robot Records Fish Farts (sciencemag.org) 2

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Researchers hoping to better understand fish distributions by recording the sounds they make have picked up something unusual: barely-audible, cricket-like noises they think could be nighttime fish farts. The team programmed a torpedo-shaped robot called a glider to head out to sea from Tampa Bay and back, running up and down the water column in a saw-tooth pattern, sampling ocean sounds for 25 seconds every 5 minutes. The probable farts were recorded shallower than 40 meters, and were most likely a group of fish, including menhaden and herring, releasing gas from an internal buoyancy organ called a swim bladder.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - The Man Who Quit Money

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "John Coyne writes about Daniel Suelo, a man who learned to live, sanely and happily, without earning, receiving, or spending a single cent. Suelo doesn’t pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He no longer carries an I.D. "When he dropped out, Daniel Suelo was thirty-nine years old, came from a good family, and had attended college. He was not mentally ill, nor was he an addict.," writes Coyne. "His decision appears to have been an act of free will by a competent adult. In the twelve years since, as the Dow Jones skyrocketed to its all-time high, Daniel Suelo has not earned, received, or spent a single dollar." Suelo wasn't always this way. Suelo graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in anthropology, he thought about becoming a doctor, he held jobs, he had cash and a bank account. In 1987, Suelo joined the Peace Corps and was posted to an Ecuadoran village high in the Andes where he watched as the villagers began to adopt the economics of modernity. They bought soda and white flour and refined sugar and noodles and big bags of MSG to flavor the starchy meals. They bought TVs. The more they spent, says Suelo, the more their health declined. He could measure the deterioration on his charts. By 1999, Suelo was living in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand. From there, he made his way to India, where he found himself in good company among the sadhus, the revered ascetics who go penniless for their gods. "Life has flourished for billions of years like this. I never knew such security before I gave up money," says Suelo on the website he maintains from the public library in Moab. "Wealth is what we are dependent on for security. My wealth never leaves me. Do you think Bill Gates is more secure than I?”""

Submission + - UK man jailed for "offensive tweets" (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
Motor
Motor writes: "A UK judge has jailed a man for 56 days after he posted offensive comments on twitter about a footballer who had a heart attack during a game. He's also been thrown out of his university degree course weeks from graduating. His comments may have been offensive... but do they really justify a prison sentence and ruining his life?"

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When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. - Edmund Burke

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