If the SSD in your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro is squeezed for space, this clever device sits nearly flush in your SD card slot and adds 128GB of extra storage. Today's $98 price is over $20 less than the previous low.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/seOKpddSxHk/a-great-airplay-speaker-for-40-pny-storedge-game-of-1460211030She just jetted out of LAX Airport and now Miranda Kerr is leaving New York City on Thursday (November 7).
Arriving at JFK Airport, the former Victoria's Secret Angel was all smiles as she made her way to the busy terminal to catch her flight to London.
As previously reported by GossipCenter, the 30-year-old supermodel revealed her latest magazine cover on Instagram Wednesday evening (November 6).
Miss Kerr shared the snapshot of her Japanese ELLE December 2013 cover and wrote, "New #ELLE cover."
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778
University of Houston
The University of Houston will be part of a Texas-based operation established by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to manage the Ocean Energy Safety Institute, according to an announcement Thursday.
The five-year, $5 million agreement will be managed by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station's Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, working with UH, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer for the University of Houston, said the goal will be to provide both industry and regulators with reliable knowledge about critical safety issues.
"Safety is going to have to be integrated into rapidly evolving technology to support ultra-deep exploration and production," he said. "Regulators have to be kept in the loop. We can bring the best academic minds to work with industry and government regulators to implement the best available and safest technology in deep water and extreme environments."
The announcement was made today in College Station, where representatives of the bureau gathered with those from the three universities.
"I look forward to working closely with our partners at the Institute on finding ways to improve safety offshore," said Brian Salerno, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). "The Institute will develop a program of research, technical assistance and education that serves as a center of expertise in offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production technology, including frontier areas, such as high temperature/high pressure reservoirs, deep water and Arctic exploration and development."
The Institute stems from a recommendation from the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee, a federal advisory group comprised of representatives from industry, federal government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the academic community.
It won't have regulatory authority over the offshore industry but is intended to be a source of unbiased, independent information.
M. Sam Mannan, chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M and principal investigator for the project, said each of the three universities involved bring something to the institute.
"We applaud BSEE for supporting this major undertaking of national importance that will impact ocean energy safety for the nation and world for years to come," he said.
Krishnamoorti, who heads the UH energy initiative and is a co-principal investigator for the Institute, said the University of Houston's strengths include its proximity to, and relationship with, companies engaged in the offshore industry, many of whom are based in Houston, as well as several of its academic programs.
UH has the nation's only subsea engineering program, and Krishnamoorti said the University's geosciences and seismic programs also will be an advantage for the new Institute, as will its imaging center, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, which could provide continuous monitoring for leaks or spills.
The Institute, which was first proposed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will provide recommendations and technical assistance to BSEE related to emerging technologies and the best available and safest technologies. In addition, it will develop and maintain an equipment failure monitoring system and train federal employees to enable them to remain current on state-of-the-art technology.
The Institute will also promote collaboration among federal agencies, industry, standards organizations, academia and the National Academy of Sciences. Information on issues related to offshore research and best practices will be shared with industry, government and the public through Institute-held forums.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778
University of Houston
The University of Houston will be part of a Texas-based operation established by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to manage the Ocean Energy Safety Institute, according to an announcement Thursday.
The five-year, $5 million agreement will be managed by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station's Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, working with UH, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer for the University of Houston, said the goal will be to provide both industry and regulators with reliable knowledge about critical safety issues.
"Safety is going to have to be integrated into rapidly evolving technology to support ultra-deep exploration and production," he said. "Regulators have to be kept in the loop. We can bring the best academic minds to work with industry and government regulators to implement the best available and safest technology in deep water and extreme environments."
The announcement was made today in College Station, where representatives of the bureau gathered with those from the three universities.
"I look forward to working closely with our partners at the Institute on finding ways to improve safety offshore," said Brian Salerno, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). "The Institute will develop a program of research, technical assistance and education that serves as a center of expertise in offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production technology, including frontier areas, such as high temperature/high pressure reservoirs, deep water and Arctic exploration and development."
The Institute stems from a recommendation from the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee, a federal advisory group comprised of representatives from industry, federal government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the academic community.
It won't have regulatory authority over the offshore industry but is intended to be a source of unbiased, independent information.
M. Sam Mannan, chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M and principal investigator for the project, said each of the three universities involved bring something to the institute.
"We applaud BSEE for supporting this major undertaking of national importance that will impact ocean energy safety for the nation and world for years to come," he said.
Krishnamoorti, who heads the UH energy initiative and is a co-principal investigator for the Institute, said the University of Houston's strengths include its proximity to, and relationship with, companies engaged in the offshore industry, many of whom are based in Houston, as well as several of its academic programs.
UH has the nation's only subsea engineering program, and Krishnamoorti said the University's geosciences and seismic programs also will be an advantage for the new Institute, as will its imaging center, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, which could provide continuous monitoring for leaks or spills.
The Institute, which was first proposed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will provide recommendations and technical assistance to BSEE related to emerging technologies and the best available and safest technologies. In addition, it will develop and maintain an equipment failure monitoring system and train federal employees to enable them to remain current on state-of-the-art technology.
The Institute will also promote collaboration among federal agencies, industry, standards organizations, academia and the National Academy of Sciences. Information on issues related to offshore research and best practices will be shared with industry, government and the public through Institute-held forums.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics
A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.
Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.
The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.
Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.
In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.
A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw
Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.
"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."
At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.
The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.
When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.
A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.
"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.
The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.
###
From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump
3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.
Bioinspiration and Biomimetics
4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.
We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.
IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.
Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics
A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.
Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.
The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.
Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.
In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.
A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw
Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.
"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."
At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.
The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.
When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.
A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.
"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.
The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.
###
From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump
3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.
Bioinspiration and Biomimetics
4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.
We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.
IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.
Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Schildi is not your average turtle. After having been abandoned and losing a leg, some awesome German vets found a way to make him a better, stronger, faster tortoise. Now, fitted with a Lego wheel for a leg, he's a bionic hero in a half shell. And he's stolen my heart.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xEfXpfZZW_8/@barrettWhat are the most striking features of the new version of Office Web Apps? The ones that aren't there.
It isn't the fact that the Save button has been nixed (shades of Google Docs!) or that multiple users can edit the same document in real time and not stomp all over each other's work. It's how little -- as opposed to how much -- variation there is between OWA and its desktop counterparts.
That small margin makes a big difference.
Better collaborative editing than the desktop
Tony Bradley at PCWorld covers in detail all the new goodies in OWA, which still consists only of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The biggest is simultaneous co-authoring: Many users can log into OWA, open the same document, and work on it simultaneously. Flags within the document tell you where each user is.
One particularly smart touch here is how Microsoft has set different levels of editing granularity for each document type. For Word, it's a paragraph; for Excel, it's a cell; for PowerPoint, it's a slide. They're good commonsense defaults, and in my conversation with Microsoft's people, they hinted at the possibility that it could be made even more fine-grained.
From a practical standpoint, it's unlikely two people will attempt to edit the same sentence at once. But if Microsoft can nudge the line of thinking a smidge further in that direction, it's a sign of how completely Web apps could be able to eclipse their desktop cousins. For one, the desktop versions of these apps don't have anything like the simultaneous-editing features found in OWA -- a case where the Web app actually sports a feature superior to the desktop app.
This brings up the first of two big questions about OWA. Do Web apps need to displace their desktop counterparts?
The answer may be different depending on whether you're asking Microsoft or end-users. End-users may enjoy the convenience of OWA, but there comes a point where OWA simply can't deliver. The longer and more complex the document, the greater the odds OWA -- or your browser -- will simply gag.
There's little question that Microsoft needs to create a product portfolio off the desktop that's as valuable and rich as the one the company has created on it. But I doubt it can move people off desktop editions of Office and into OWA anytime soon, and not just because OWA's feature set is lacking.
Algeria-born Albert Camus poses for a portrait in Paris following the announcement that he is being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. Camus' views on his birthplace still stoke controversy.
Algeria-born Albert Camus poses for a portrait in Paris following the announcement that he is being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. Camus' views on his birthplace still stoke controversy.
A hundred years after his birth, French writer-philosopher Albert Camus is perhaps best-remembered for novels like The Stranger and The Plague, and for his philosophy of absurdism.
But it's another aspect of his intellectual body of work that's under scrutiny as France marks the Camus centennial: his views about his native Algeria.
Camus was born on Nov. 7, 1913, to a poor family that had settled generations earlier in French Algeria. His father died a year after his birth, and Camus' illiterate and deaf mother, who worked as a cleaning lady, raised him. His brilliance would deliver him from that world of poverty.
This photo from 1920 shows 7-year-old Albert Camus (center, wearing black suit) in the workshop of his Uncle Etienne in Algiers.
This photo from 1920 shows 7-year-old Albert Camus (center, wearing black suit) in the workshop of his Uncle Etienne in Algiers.
Camus is regarded as a giant of French literature. But according to Smithsonian contributor Joshua Hammer, it's Camus' North African birthplace that permeated his thoughts and shaped his writing.
"His two greatest novels, The Stranger and The Plague, were both set there, in Oran and Algiers. He wrote incredible lyrical essays about his life there," Hammer says. "So he's extraordinarily Algerian ... down to the core."
But Algeria has never reciprocated that love, says Hammer, who recently traced the writer's roots there. That's because Camus' French Algeria, much like apartheid South Africa, was divided into two worlds: an Arab world and the world of the pieds-noirs, or black feet, the name given to the million-plus Europeans who lived there.
"He represents an Algeria that essentially is banished from the map, an Algeria of the pieds-noirs. So this was the world that Camus knew. It was a very segregated society, he really didn't know the Arab world," Hammer says. "So that's what you saw reflected in his work."
During World War II, Camus joined the French Resistance against the Nazis and published an underground newspaper. It was his novel The Stranger, published in 1942, that brought him instant international acclaim. In 1947 came The Plague, a novel seen as a classic of existentialism.
In 1957, at the age of 43, Camus won the Nobel Prize for literature.
But it's Camus' politics, not his philosophy, that still makes waves in France. Though he hailed from the left, today he's embraced by conservatives. In the 1950s, Camus fell out with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and the Paris left bank literary scene after he denounced communism.
Camus' stance on the Algerian war infuriated both the left and right at the time. He supported Arab aspirations for political rights, but he couldn't imagine an independent Algeria.
The topic remains sensitive in France, where 1 million pieds-noirs fled after the war ended in 1962. One Camus exhibit was canceled and two historians fired, reportedly to appease the sensitivities of the local pieds-noirs community.
Biographer Elizabeth Hawes says Camus was always more simple, seen from the U.S.
"Americans in general don't know anything about Algeria and they know very little about French intellectual politics. And so Camus was always just sort of a hero," Hawes says. "There was a lot of the mythic to Camus. He was great looking, and he was heroic, and there was the resistance, he was the outsider."
Camus' life was cut tragically short at the height of his career in a car accident in 1960. He was only 46. France is still grappling with his legacy.
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