Month: August 2013

Graphene based supercapacitors with 60 watt hours per liter are 12 times the energy density of commercial supercapacitors

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Monash researchers have developed a completely new strategy to engineer graphene-based supercapacitors (SC) with the energy density of lead batteries, making them viable for widespread use in renewable energy storage, portable electronics and electric vehicles. The energy density of 60 Watt-hours per litre – comparable to lead-acid batteries and around 12 times higher than commercially …

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Xkeyscore is the NSA tool to search everyones emails, online chats and browsing histories

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Xkeyscore is a secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system for …

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US has global travel alert and other US middle east news

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1. The United States issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans Friday about the threat of an al-Qaida attack and closed down 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world for the weekend. The alert was the first of its kind since an announcement preceding the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This …

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Neural dust could make a long duration, low power brain machine interface with thousands of sensor connections at the 10-100 micron scale

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Arxiv – Neural Dust: An Ultrasonic, Low Power Solution for Chronic Brain-Machine Interfaces A major hurdle in brain-machine interfaces (BMI) is the lack of an implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a lifetime. This paper explores the fundamental system design trade-offs and ultimate size, power, and bandwidth scaling limits of neural recording systems …

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Using cosmic ray scattering to map asteroid interiors to 1 kilometer and more NASA Advanced concepts

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Here are more of the most recent batch of NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program NIAC Phase I awarded projects. Pions and Muons from galactic cosmic ray collisions can be used to map the interior of asteroids to the meter scale and a depth of a kilometer Established remote sensing methods provide coarse, indirect information …

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Printing biomaterials out of thin air, deep sleep transfer to Mars and plasmonic thruster arrays

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More of the new phase 1 selections for NASA Innovative advanced concepts. Biomaterials out of thin air: in situ, on-demand printing of advanced biocomposites Imagine being able to print anything from tools and composite building materials to food and human tissues. Imagine being on Mars with the ability to replace any broken part, whether it’s …

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New NASA Advanced Concepts such as Eternal flight, pulsed fission-fusion propulsion

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The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has selected twelve new NIAC Phase I awards. The selected proposals include a wide range of imaginative concepts, including 3-D printing of biomaterials, such as arrays of cells; using galactic rays to map the insides of asteroids; and an “eternal flight” platform that could hover in Earth’s atmosphere, …

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Android has 80% of the smartphone market and Apple has 14%

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Global smartphone shipments grew 47 percent to hit 230 million devices in the second quarter of 2013, according to a new report from research firm Strategy Analytics. And Android captured record market share of 80 percent. Apple iOS reached 14 percent global smartphone share in the quarter. Microsoft has 4%. There will likely a bit …

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Reddit Futurology is having a vote for top futurist sites

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Reddit Futurology is determining what futurist websites to list on the sidebar of their subreddit. The vote on futurist sites appears to be at this link. Please go and vote up Nextbigfuture. Thanks If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist …

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Google Moto-x will allow customers to choose 2000 design options to customize and personal the smartphone

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The Google Moto X will let customers choose from more than 2,000 combinations of colors, accents and other design options for their phones in colors and textures ranging from woodgrain to bright teal. Reviews indicate that the Google Motorola is a competitively priced solid android smartphone. Equipped with a 10-megapixel “Clear Pixel” RGBC sensor and …

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Google will boost Starbucks Wifi speed by 10 to 100 times and copper telephone wires can transmit at gigabit per second speeds

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1. Google will team up with Starbucks to bring faster, free WiFi connections to all 7,000 company-operated Starbucks stores in the United States over the next 18 months. When your local Starbucks WiFi network goes Google, you’ll be able to surf the web at speeds up to 10x faster than before. If you’re in a …

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