Cheaper Thermoelectric Material to Hit Market Later This Year
July 17th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review:
California-based Alphabet Energy plans to begin selling a new type of material that can turn heat into electricity. Unlike previous thermoelectrics, as such materials are known, it is abundant, cheap, and nontoxic.
Thermoelectric materials can turn a temperature difference into electricity by exploiting the flow of electrons from a warmer area to a cooler one. Thus, they can theoretically turn waste heat into a power source. But an efficient thermoelectric material has to conduct electricity well without conducting heat well, because otherwise the temperature across the material would soon equalize. Most materials that are good electrical conductors are also good thermal conductors, and the few materials researchers have been able to develop with good thermoelectric properties have been rare, expensive, or toxic. Alphabet Energy’s solution is tetrahedrite: an abundant, naturally occurring mineral that also happens to be more efficient on average than existing thermoelectric materials.
Ali Shakouri, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, says that tetrahedrite has promise because it doesn’t require the expensive up-front manufacturing that other materials require. “I think that’s kind of quite unique in thermoelectrics,” Shakouri says. “People look at so many materials, but the starting point has always been pure materials that they synthesize together.”
The fact that it’s abundant is another big plus, says MIT professor Mildred Dresselhaus. Other materials are made from elements so rare that they wouldn’t be available for widespread use.
According to data released by Alphabet Energy, tetrahedrite costs about $4 per kilogram, whereas other thermoelectric materials cost between $24 and $146 per kilogram. For now, the company is focusing on stand-alone generators, but founder and CEO Matt Scullin says it’s currently working with car companies to see if tetrahedrite can be used to harness heat from car exhaust.
Scullin says that other thermoelectric materials have typically achieved about 2.5 percent efficiency in cars, but tetrahedrite could reach 5 to 10 percent efficiency. “These aren’t incremental improvements,” he says. “They’re really huge improvements that make really significant impact.”
Ukraine: Malaysian Plane ‘Shot Down With 295 On Board’
July 17th, 2014Via: Sky:
A Malaysian passenger plane with 295 people on board has been shot down as it flew above eastern Ukraine, according to aviation sources.
The plane, which is believed to have been flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was travelling at an altitude of 10km (6.2 miles) when it was shot down, Russia’s Interfax reported.
The aircraft, reportedly a Boeing 777, was brought down by a Buk ground-to-air missile, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry quoted by the news agency said.
4 Gaza Children Killed By Israeli Shelling
July 17th, 2014WARNING: GRAPHIC
Via: Reuters:
Four Palestinian children were killed and one was critically wounded on a Gaza beach on Wednesday by a shell fired by an Israeli naval gunboat, a Palestinian health official said.
Asked about the incident, an Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said he was checking the report.
“The kids were playing football on the beach. They were all … under the age of 15,” said Ahmed Abu Hassera, 22.
“When the first shell hit the land, they ran away but another shell hit them all,” said Abu Hassera, whose shirt was stained with blood.
“It looked as if the shells were chasing them,” he told Reuters.
Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said four of the youngsters were killed and a fifth youth was in critical condition. “This is a cowardly crime,” he said.
Ax Falls at Microsoft as Company Looks to Cut up to 18,000 Jobs
July 17th, 2014Via: Recode:
Microsoft on Thursday announced it plans to cut up to 18,000 jobs this year–its deepest-ever cuts–as the company looked to digest its Nokia acquisition and reposition itself for the future.
Following the Nokia acquisition, completed in April, Microsoft had roughly 127,104 employees, meaning the cuts could reduce nearly 15 percent of its workforce.
Microsoft said the company is “moving now” on 13,000 of the job cuts, with the vast majority of the overall cuts coming in the next six months and fully implemented over the next 12 months.
Some 12,500 of the cuts are coming from the Nokia Devices and Services unit–roughly half that unit’s workforce. The company said it expects pre-tax charges over the next four quarters of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion for severance and other costs.
U.S. Air Force Kicks Off Multibillion Dollar Bomber Competition
July 17th, 2014Via: Reuters:
The U.S. Air Force launched a formal competition on Thursday for a new long-range strike (LRS-B) bomber, saying it expected to award a contract for the multibillion-dollar program to a winning bidder next spring.
“The LRS-B is a top modernization priority for the Air Force. It will be an adaptable and highly capable system based upon mature technology,” Air Force Secretary Deborah James said in a statement.
“We look forward to industry’s best efforts in supporting this critical national security capability,” she added.
The competition is expected to pit Northrop Grumman Corp , the maker of the B-2 bomber, against a combined team of Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, the two top weapons makers for the U.S. government.
Feds Struggling to Cope With Medical ‘Breakdown’ at the Border
July 17th, 2014Via: ABC News:
The federal government is so overwhelmed by the current tide of migrants crossing the border it can’t provide basic medical screening to all of the children before transporting them – often by air – to longer-term holding facilities across the country, ABC News has learned.
The director of refugee health in the federal Health and Human Services Department “has identified a breakdown of the medical screening processes at the Nogales, Arizona, facility,” according to an internal Department of Defense memo reviewed by ABC News. The “breakdown” a systemic failure of the handoff of these children between CBP and HHS.
Inside the government, officials are sounding alarms, fearing that they and their teams who come in contact with the sick children face potential exposure to infectious diseases from chicken pox to influenza, including rare cases of H1N1, more commonly called swine flu.
Two unaccompanied children were flown from Nogales to California despite having 101-degree fevers and flu-like symptoms, according to the Department of Defense memo. Those children had to be hospitalized.
The memo said pointedly that officials in charge of moving the immigrants from Border Patrol processing centers to Health and Human Services facilities are “putting sick [fevers and coughing] unaccompanied children on airplanes inbound for [Naval Base Ventura County] in addition to the chicken pox and coxsackie virus cases.”
The document said three other kids were in the ICU at local hospitals in California, and two of them were diagnosed with strep pneumonia.
Less than a week later, that same Ventura Naval Base suffered an outbreak of pneumonia and influenza among the unaccompanied minors inside the shelter.
“Preliminary reports indicate that several unaccompanied minors in the shelter had become ill with what appears to be pneumonia and influenza,” according to a statement from the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services.
“Could a Brain Scan Protect U.S. Troops from Insider Attacks?”
July 17th, 2014I wonder if .gov will find domestic uses for this.
How about having to put one of these on to be able to fly?
Are you a loyal American, or a lone wolf terrorist?
Maybe the Magic 8-Ball cap can tell.
Via: DefenseOne:
So, if you’re a U.S. soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan today, how do you determine whether or not the Iraqi or Afghan soldier next to you is going to give up your location to the enemy at the first chance? One solution, developed by a former Army counterintelligence agent, is scanning the brains of Iraqi troops for signs of potential betrayal.
Veritas Scientific, based in Virginia, markets a truth detection system called HandShake for soldiers to diagnose the trust-worthiness of people they may have to work with. The technology was developed by Derrell Small, who served as a U.S. Army counterintelligence agent in 2003 and 2004.
Some Pictures Added to Storm Post
July 17th, 2014https://www.cryptogon.com/?p=44370
3D Printed Firearms? *Pfft* Check Out the AK with a Receiver Made from of a $2 Shovel
July 16th, 2014Via: Northeast Shooters:
Receiver came out as straight as Liberace in drag thumbing through gay porn magazines. I do not however discriminate between straight AK receivers and those that chose different orientation.
Research Credit: Pookie
Let’s Start Telling Young People the Whole Truth About College
July 16th, 2014Via: Bloomberg:
The idea that college is appropriate—essential, even—for all Americans is a myth. We’ve been told there are no decent jobs without a college education. While unemployment among recent college grads is 8.5 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute, if you dig into the numbers you’ll find that 46 percent of them consider themselves “mal-employed.” Translation: They’re working largely in retail and entry-level hospitality, jobs that do not require their college degree.
