The working paper of the IMF finds that, under a baseline scenario, a full elimination of the US fiscal and generational imbalances would require all taxes to go up and all transfers to be cut immediately and permanently by 35 percent. A delay in the adjustment makes it more costly. “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal …
EETimes – the IC industry is moving full speed ahead with a monumental and costly push to develop TSV-based 3-D chips. A plethora of companies, including IBM, Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, TSMC and others, are exploring the possibility of stacking current devices in a 3-D configuration. The push for 3-D is because of problems with regular …
Here is a video of quadcopters being used to bounce a ball and then bounce balls between two quadcopters. This video demonstrates an MAV outfitted with a Kinect sensor flying indoors autonomously. This technology was developed at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and University of Washington’s Robotics and States Estimation Laboratory. MIT developed …
Between the Moon and Mars: NEO Redux Part 1 by Rob Landis, Ames Research As of March 30, 2011, 7922 Near-Earth objects have been discovered. Some 824 of these NEOs are asteroids with a diameter of approximately 1 kilometer or larger. Also, 1214 of these NEOs have been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). The …
Oil Shales in Israel by the Geological survey of Israel 35 page presentation The Shefela Oil shale occurance is 1000 square kilometers. It is from 25 to 400 meters thick. It could have over 250 billion barrels of oil reserves It could be extracted with insitu methods. EOM (easily oxidized material) is 15-16% If you …
Global In-Use Stocks of the Rare Earth Elements: A First Estimate Even though rare earth metals are indispensible in modern technology, very little quantitative information other than combined rare earth oxide extraction is available on their life cycles. We have drawn upon published and unpublished information from China, Japan, the United States, and elsewhere to …
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center have discovered a novel way of treating pancreatic cancer by activating the immune system to destroy the cancer’s scaffolding. The strategy was tested in a small cohort of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, several of whose tumors shrank substantially. The team believes their findings – and …
We expect global construction to grow by 67% from $7.2 trillion today to $12 trillion in 2020. Growth in China, India and the US will generate 54% of the $4.8 trillion increase in global construction output. A total of $97.7 trillion will be spent on construction globally during the next decade and by 2020 construction …
Plastic power: This microprocessor is made from organic materials. It is puny compared to most silicon processors, but is flexible and cheap. Credit: IMEC MIT Technology Review – Two recent developments—a plastic processor and printed memory—show that computing doesn’t have to rely on inflexible silicon. Researchers in Europe used 4,000 plastic, or organic, transistors to …
Germany currently gets 23 percent of its energy from nuclear power – about as much as the U.S. It’s ambitious plan to shut down its reactors will require at least euro150 billion ($210 billion) investment in alternative energy sources, which experts say will likely lead to higher electricity prices. Germany now gets 17 percent of …
A series of increasingly demanding flight tests have demonstrated that US Navy Aegis system is, achieving an 84 percent success rate versus missile that far surpasses the performance of other systems in the planned missile defense network. The Aegis Combat System is an integrated naval weapons system developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division …