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Power

Using Flywheels to Meet Peak Power Grid Demands 325

Posted by Roblimo from the our-squirrels-run-extra-hard-to-spin-our-flywheels dept.
hackertourist writes "A novel type of electricity storage was recently added to the New York power grid. The unit, supplied by Beacon Power, uses flywheels to store energy. This system is intended to replace gas turbines in supplying short-term peaks in power demand (also known as frequency regulation). It can supply up to 20 MW, using 200 flywheels." If you can't afford a 200-flywheel system, you can always get a racetrack-ready Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid, which has a single energy-storage flywheel that can give you a 160 HP burst of power when you need a little extra oomph.

Comment Err... (Score 1) 209

by taktoa (#36233646) Attached to: TEPCO Confirms Partial Meltdown of No.2 and No.3 Reactors

Facts:
1. A meltdown does not necessarily mean significant release of radiation.
2. Significant release of radiation doesn't necessarily mean "ZOMG CANCER MUTANTS".
3. Worrying will do nothing. Indeed, the real disaster here is the gigantic, house-lifting, island-eliminating tsunami, not the pitiful nuclear meltdown. If you want to help, donate to the Red Cross.
4. If people do worry, the ONLY result is more people dead due to panic.

Submission + - Can it be a force for good? (bitcoin.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Currently Bitcoin is generated by solving otherwise worthless number puzzles. I appreciate the value of the currency as it is but it seems to me that having all that computing power crunching away to solve otherwise pointless puzzles is a waste of potential energy. So I want to ask the slashdot community, can we find a way to harness the calculative power of the bitcoin community for a common good?
NASA

Submission + - NASA Sky Camera Captures Georgia Meteor (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by RedEaredSlider
RedEaredSlider writes: Last week, astronomers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center recorded a bright, man-sized meteor entering the atmosphere approximately 66 miles above the city of Macon, Ga, traveling at 24 miles per second. The team said the meteor was the brightest they had seen in the flight center's approximately three years of operation.

Submission + - FOSS, Multiplatform replacement for Skype ?

Submitted by obarthelemy
obarthelemy writes: Skype having just been borged, now may be a good time to edge our bets and look for a replacement. I'm *not* looking for for something that interfaces with POTS, but just a simple PC-to-PC video chat tool that is very easy to configure and use, reliable, multiplatform (my family has Windows, Linux, MacOS; iOS and Android would be nice extras), and has good video/voice quality. We're almost only skyping with each other.

What would you recommend ?

Submission + - Are socially shared photos free? (msn.com)

Submitted by
schnell
schnell writes: "Stefanie Gordon took a now-famous photo of Space Shuttle Endeavour out the window of her airplane seat and tweeted it to friends. By the time she was leaving the airport, she was barraged with media requests. The photo has been viewed nearly one million times on hundreds of websites, but Stephanie was paid for the photo by only five news organizations. Stephanie doesn't feel slighted, but a professional news photographer would have been paid many times what Stephanie received. In today's climate, are amateur photos shared on Twitter or Facebook basically free for all websites to use? Is re-tweeting or re-sharing automatically fair use?"
Politics

Submission + - Escaping the poverty trap (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by grrlscientist
grrlscientist writes: Scientists ask: "Which is the most effective way for the government to help people climb out of poverty: give them money or give them health care?"
Businesses

Submission + - Apple May Have Bought 200+ Patents from Freescale (patentlyo.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: By way of Patently O with a bit of context at Ars, news is spreading of Apple's acquisition of over two hundred of Freescale's patents and patent applications. To clarify from the article, 'To be clear, the assignment records available only indicate that Apple received an “assignment of assignors interest.” Thus, it is unclear from the information now available whether (1) Apple obtained full title to the patents and (2) whether Apple purchased the rights or obtained them through some other type of transaction. However, a cash purchase is likely because Apple has a large multi-billion-dollar cash surplus while Freescale has a large multi-billion-dollar debt that has come due. The patents were previously mortgaged and a release of the security interest has not yet been recorded.' Is it possible that a large exchange of cash has occurred betwixt the two? Keep in mind that Apple has a lot of arrows going to and from it in the smartphone lawsuit quagmire that erupted in March of 2010.
The Internet

Submission + - Can municipalities enforce local Net Neutrality? (boingboing.net)

Submitted by
reifman
reifman writes: "Instead of waiting for Congress to pass a bill to enforce Net Neutrality, net activists should take a cue from Pittsburgh, whose city council recently passed groundbreaking legislation banning fracking. While fracking and Net Neutrality have little in common, Pittsburgh's ordinance (pdf) uses powerful legal concepts that may be useful for preserving Internet freedoms. Like Pittsburgh has done with fracking, any community can enact an ordinance that enforces Net Neutrality at the local level, as the Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection Act of 2011 aspires to do at the federal level. And, they can do so now ... without waiting for Congress."

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