Canada Revises GDP Statistics upwards by 2.6%

Statistics Canada revised Canada’s historical GDP statistics from 1981 to 2012 Revisions to the growth in GDP over the revision period were not substantial. Over the entire 1982 to 2011 period, the mean absolute revision to the annual nominal growth rate in GDP was 0.15 percentage points, while the mean absolute revision to the annual …

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China nuclear reactor program to resume in fourth quarter

Reuters – Shanghai Securities News said China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection had already started accelerating the approval process for the nuclear sector. The second phase of the Sino-Russian Tianwan nuclear project in Jiangsu province on the eastern coast was certain to start construction in December. Before the Fukushima disaster in Japan, Beijing had been expected …

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Lunar Space Elevator kickstarter over $65,000 with one week to go

The Lunar Space elevator kickstarter is over $65,000 with one week to go. Different Fund Raising Levels in Brief $8,000 – 2 km test $20,000 – better sensors $30,000 – at least 3 to 5 kilometer $50,000 – new robot and at least 3 to 5 kilometer $75,000 – transition from altitude to endurance $100,000 …

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Ferroelectric materials could bring down cost of cloud computing and electronic devices

– A new class of organic materials developed at Northwestern University boasts a very attractive but elusive property: ferroelectricity. The crystalline materials also have a great memory, which could be very useful in computer and cellphone memory applications, including cloud computing. A team of organic chemists discovered they could create very long crystals with desirable …

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Tyrannos Personal Aerial Vehicle for Civilians

Economist – Trek Aerospace is adapting a “personal aerial vehicle” concept originally developed for DARPA (DARPA TX Transformer Program.), the research-funding agency of America’s Department of Defence, to create a civilian vehicle. This two-seater, the Tyrannos, has ducted propellers powered by petrol engines, with a battery backup. Although it has been possible to make such …

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Celani demonstrates excess power at a conference

1. New Energy Times covers the Celani demonstration of excess heat at Austin conference. For this demonstration, Celani loaded the nickel wire for three days in Rome before bringing it to Texas. Because he and Letts could not bring cylinders of pressurized gas into the convention center, they took the wire that had been pre-loaded …

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NASA Landing nuclear powered rover on Mars using a Sky Crane

Mars Science Laboratory represents the first use of a “soft-landing” technique employed at Mars. The sheer mass of Mars Science Laboratory prevents engineers from using the familiar airbags to deliver their rover safely to the martian surface. As rovers become more capable and carry more instruments, they become larger. So, in order to accommodate this …

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DARPA Nanotech Projects -$34 million investigating cold fusion and excess heat was found

DARPA 2013 budget justification is out and it updates progress on DARPA projects. (336 pages) 1. Fundamentals of Nanoscale and Emergent Effects and Engineered Devices – IE Cold Fusion Investigation Funding FY2011 $16.745 million FY2012 $11.65 million FY2013 $5.5 million This is the project where DARPA is spending about $34 million to investigate cold fusion …

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Sabre spaceplane engine technology on track and funding looks promising for final design phase

BBC News – Reaction Engines is showcasing its revolutionary Sabre engine technology at the Farnborough air show. They are two-thirds of the way through an important test campaign at its Culham base. Sabre would burn hydrogen and oxygen to provide thrust – but in the lower atmosphere this oxygen would be taken from the atmosphere. …

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Optically Switchable Chiral Terahertz Metamolecules

A multi-institutional team of researchers that included scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created the first artificial molecules whose chirality can be rapidly switched from a right-handed to a left-handed orientation with a beam of light. This holds potentially important possibilities for the application of terahertz technologies …

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SpaceX’s Reusable Grasshopper Rocket will start having test flights within two months

SpaceFlightNow – SpaceX’s Grasshopper testbed for a reusable rocket booster could fly soon from the company’s Texas test facility on a short hop designed to demonstrate its ability to take off and land under thrust on a launch pad. The Grasshopper test vehicle stands 106 feet tall, and its initial flights will reach 240 feet …

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