Video of a guy who found out about better fuel efficiency in cars in the UK.

Facebook has started testing a system that lets users pay to highlight or promote posts.

By paying a small fee users can ensure that information they post on the social network is more visible to friends, family and colleagues.

The tests are being carried out among the social network's users in New Zealand.

Facebook said the goal was to see if users were interested in paying to flag up their information.

Driverless cars will soon be a reality on the roads of Nevada after the state approved America's first self-driven vehicle licence.

The first to hit the highway will be a Toyota Prius modified by search firm Google, which is leading the way in driverless car technology.

Its first drive included a spin down Las Vegas's famous strip.

Other car companies are also seeking self-driven car licences in Nevada.

George Lucas might be about to sue somebody.

A company called Wicked Lasers, which produces some of the most powerful consumer-level lasers available, began selling on Friday a special attachment for one of their latest creations that turns it into a “LaserSabre,” which looks suspiciously like the favorite weapon of Jedi knights in the “Star Wars” films.

The company already attracted the legal hackles of Lucasfilm in 2010 with its Spyder III Arctic laser, which already looked suspiciously like a lightsaber.

 SpaceX said Friday it will attempt to send a cargo-loaded spacecraft to the International Space Station on May 19 after a series of delays, the latest over software issues.

“SpaceX and NASA are nearing completion of the software assurance process, and SpaceX is submitting a request to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a May 19th launch target with a backup on May 22nd,” said spokeswoman Kirstin Grantham.

“Thus far, no issues have been uncovered during this process, but with a mission of this complexity we want to be extremely diligent.”

UK engineers have begun critical tests on a new engine technology designed to lift a spaceplane into orbit.

The proposed Skylon vehicle would operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.

Its major innovation is the Sabre engine, which can breathe air like a jet at lower speeds but switch to a rocket mode in the high atmosphere.

Reaction Engines Limited (REL) believes the test campaign will prove the readiness of Sabre's key elements.

‎[It would not be long] ere the whole surface of this country would be channelled for those nerves which are to diffuse, with the speed of thought, a knowledge of all that is occurring throughout the land, making, in fact, one neighborhood of the whole country. ~ Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel F.B. Morse: His Letters and Journals (1914), vol. 2, 85. 

Samuel F. B. Morse, American artist and inventor, designed and developed the first successful electromagnetic (magnetism caused by electricity) telegraph system.

Chemists have devised a better method of coating fabrics with a water-repellent, "self-cleaning" coating.

Many such "super-hydrophobic" coatings have been made before, but areport in the journal Langmuir describes coated fabrics that are far more durable.

The trick was to engineer a multi-layered coating whose layers, when struck with UV light, bond more firmly to each other and to cotton.

The technique also may also be put to use in medical antibacterial coatings.

“Every day sees humanity more victorious in the struggle with space and time.” ~ Guglielmo Marconi 

Marconi, Guglielmo (1874-1937). He was the originator of wireless telegraph signals and created means of overcoming many of the hurdles to the commercialization of wireless. He was the first to transmit signals across the ocean without use of cables. Marconi was born in the Italian countryside in somewhat modest circumstances. He had little formal education, though his mother tutored him, and he loved to read from his fathers library about experiments with electricity. Marconi audited courses at the University of Bologna, since he could not gain admittance to the university for credit, and studied under Augusto Righi, a scientist who had worked with electromagnetic waves.

Curtis patented the first U.S. gas turbine in 1899. Among his other achievements, the Curtis steam turbine of 1896 required one tenth the space and weighed one eighth as much as machines it replaced. He sold the rights to the turbine to GE in 1901. In 1910 he was awarded the Rumford Premium by the American Academyfor Arts & Sciences for his improvement of the steam turbine. He then studied the “scavenging” (removal of burned gases from cylinders) of two-stroke diesel engines and patented the Curtis system of scavenging in 1930. Historians also credit Curtis with inventing the propulsion mechanism used in certain naval torpedoes. He received the first annual award from the Gas Turbine Power Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1948. In 1950 he received the Holley Medal from ASME, also for his gas turbine work.

Most Internet users and tech experts think cash and credit cards will become things of the past in the next decade as people turn to their mobile phones to make payments, results from a newly released survey suggest.

Nearly two out of three respondents to the survey (65%) told the Pew Internet & American Life Project that they think most people will have fully adopted the "mobile wallet" as their day-to-day means of paying by 2020.

Fruit producer Subsole is set to use the Atacama's solar-energy potential

One thing not lacking in Chile's Atacama Desert is sunshine.

Being the driest desert on Earth, it boasts some of the highest levels of sunshine in the world.

Here in the north of Chile, clouds appear on about 30 days a year at most.

Such weather conditions, combined with huge stretches of empty land along the Pacific coast, should make it an ideal place to tap the sun for energy.

But solar panels are almost nowhere to be seen.

A regional bank in central Japan will become the country’s first financial institution to adopt automated teller machines that will identify users by their palms.

Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank said it would install about a dozen palm-scanning biometric ATMs in late September and planned more in the future.

Dr. Peter Jansen, a PhD graduate of the Cognitive Science Laboratory at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has developed a scientific measurement device based on the tricorders used by Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and other space adventurers on the classic TV series that has spawned numerous spin-offs in more than 45 years.

South Korea prison system is testing a robot guard.  This guard patrols cell blocks and reports unusual behavior among the prison population.

A German motorcyclist aims to help fellow enthusiasts arrive at their final resting place in style - in a sidecar hearse fitted to a Harley.

Joerg Grossmann, from near Frankfurt, says he developed the hearse for die-hard bikers who want to ride right to the end.

His prototype recently attended its first funeral fitted to a Kawasaki.

In 1909 a Russian newspaper claimed Mozhaysky's hop was the first powered flight. This false claim was later repeated many times by the Soviet Union as propaganda. In 1971-1981 TsAGI researched the topic and disproved the claim. Mozhaysky's original aircraft was found incapable of generating lift because of low engine capacity. It was also shown that with a more powerful engine, which Mozhaysky had planned shortly before his death, the aircraft might have been able to fly.

Nevertheless, Mozhaysky's aviation achievements, particularly with regard to flight controls an  propulsion, were considerable given the limits of the technology available to him, and have only recently received serious attention.

Asteroid 2850 Mozhaiskij is named in his honour.

Scientists at the world’s biggest IT fair unveiled what they hope is the car of the future that can shrink to fit tight parking spaces and pick you up at the touch of a button.

At just 2.10 meters long, the futuristic cobalt-blue two-seater “pod” is not exactly roomy but was pulling in the crowds nevertheless with its extraordinary features.

If a parking space looks too small, drivers can reduce the car’s length by 50 centimeters. For further ease, the wheels can turn in a full circle, allowing a driver to pull up to a space and then move sideways into it.

Ralph Baer is a name many of this generation's gamers may not be familiar with. Yet if he hadn't invented what would become the Magnavox Odyssey — the first console to enter homes 40 years ago — there's no telling what the industry would look like today. As the "father of videogames" turns 90 this week, David Friedman is using the opportunity to share portions of an interview conducted with Baer last summer on his Ironic Sans blog.

A simple idea for a complex problem.

Water extraction from air. 

I simple Idea for a difficult problem.

Video demonstrating a new technology for extracting water from air.

“What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.” ~ Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born American inventor and teacher of the deaf, is best known for perfecting the telephone to transmit, or send, vocal messages using electricity. The telephone began a new age in communications technology.

This is some extraordinary news about a major breakthrough in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles . It promises to be a lot cheaper but provide more energy and at less weight than even what Tesla Motors is using .

As anyone who knows about electric cars can tell you , the weak point has always been the batteries .
They can only store a limited amount of energy but they are still extremely expensive . That is soon to change . How soon ? As soon as September of next year ...

[[
Envia Systems.com , a battery maker based in California, announced on Monday what it called a “major breakthrough” in lithium-ion cell technology that would result in a significant increase in the energy density — and a sharp reduction in the cost — of lithium-ion battery packs. Envia is financed by the Energy Department and G.M. Ventures, the venture-capital arm of General Motors, as well as other investors.
http://arpa-e.energy.gov/Media/News.aspx?ItemId=26&vw=1

“We will be able to make smaller automotive packs that are also less heavy and much cheaper,” Atul Kapadia, chairman and chief executive of Envia, said in a telephone interview. “The cost of cells will be less than half — perhaps 45 percent — of cells today, and the energy density will be almost three times greater than conventional automotive cells.”

Mr. Kapadia continued: “What we have are not demonstrations, not experiments, but actual products. We could be in automotive production in a year and a half.”
]]

Now for the technical specs . And these are really impressive . They are even better than the DBM Energy device I reported about back in October of 2010 .

Take a look at these :
[[
Envia’s announcement said that its packs would deliver cell energy of 400 watt-hours per kilogram at a cost of $150 per kilowatt-hour. Though it doesn’t disclose a cost breakdown, Tesla Motors rates the energy density of its Roadster’s pack
http://www.teslamotors.com/roadster/technology/battery
at 121 watt-hours per kilogram. Envia said its energy-density performance was verified in testing of prototype cells at the Naval Service Warfare Center’s Crane evaluation division.
http://www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/crane/default.aspx
]]

LINK

Addendum :

See comment #8 for the latest news and unsolved research issues .

John Philip Holland emigrated to the United States in 1873. Initially working for an engineering firm, he returned to teaching again for a further six years in St. John’s Catholic School in Paterson, New Jersey. In 1875, his first submarine designs were submitted for consideration by the U.S. Navy, but turned down as unworkable. The Fenians, however, continued to fund Holland's research and development expenses at a level that allowed him to resign from his teaching post. In 1881, Fenian Ram was launched, but soon after, Holland and the Fenians parted company angrily, primarily due to issues of payment within the Fenian organization, and between the Fenians and Holland. The submarine is now preserved at Paterson Museum, New Jersey.

Here is news about the latest plans to construct new nuclear reactors . They seem to be a variety which have passive cooling systems . Such a design is unlikely to experience the problems that happened at Fukushima , Japan .

For the first time since 1978, the United States has approved the construction of nuclear reactors. While the decision could herald a new dawn for nuclear power there, the major growth in the sector is likely to be elsewhere.

The nuclear industry had been expecting a renaissance in the next few years, until a major setback occurred – last year's Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan. In the aftermath, Japan closed most of its reactors for safety tests, Germany announced it was abandoning nuclear and other countries elected to review their plans.

The situation may now be changing. On 9 February the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a licence for Southern Company, an energy utility based in Atlanta, Georgia, to build a pair of reactors at its Vogtle site. No new reactors have been built in the US since before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.

The Georgia plant will probably soon be followed by a second pair of reactors which the South Carolina Electric and Gas Company wants to build at its VC Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, subject to licences being granted. The Florida Power & Light Company also hopes to build two new reactors.

Passive safety system

The Fukushima plant overheated when last year's tsunami flooded the engines that powered its cooling pumps. By contrast the Georgia site, along with the other two US sites awaiting approval, will use new AP1000 reactors, built by Westinghouse. These are fitted with passive safety systems that need no power – for instance, a rooftop water tank that can keep the reactor cool for 72 hours.

U.S. auto safety regulators have opened up an inquiry into reports of fires in the doors of several models of Toyota vehicles, officials said Friday.

A Toyota spokesman said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation “involves potentially” 830,000 vehicles, with the focus on Camrys and RAV4s of the model year 2007.

NASA is looking for at least two U.S. firms to design and build space taxis to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, program managers said on Tuesday. 

NASA plans to invest $300 million to $500 million in each of the firms selected under new 21-month partnership agreements, Ed Mango, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew program, said at an industry briefing at the Kennedy Space Center prior to the release of a solicitation on Tuesday.

The new program aims to build upon previous NASA investments in companies designing commercial passenger spaceships.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison (b. Feb. 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio) is the quintessential American inventor. Before he died, he gave us the phonograph, the transmitter for the telephone speaker, an improved lightbulb, and key elements of motion-picture apparatus, as well as other bright inventions. He also created the world's first industrial research laboratory.

The Department of Justice is now monitoring the Patty Dawson case in Fresno California.

The beating of Patty Dawson a NA is attracting nationwide attention. Many NA people have been at the courthouse for the hearings and AIM has representative from a couple of their chapters attending the hearings.

German engineer Wilhelm Maybach was for many years the right-hand man to early automaker Gottlieb Daimler, and together they designed early high-speed internal combustion engines. Maybach was a co-founder of Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1890, but left the firm the following year, when new investors refused him a seat on the Board. He then joined with his friend Daimler -- who had himself quit his company -- in designing a vehicle which won the first organized auto race in 1894. After their victory, Daimler and Maybach were re-installed at Daimler Motor Company. As the firm's technical director Maybach designed a groundbreaking carburetor, introduced in 1895, which was later the subject of several patent-infringement lawsuits, including one case that ended in a ruling against Maybach in England.

Zipping around on motor scooters is a fun way to get around any city, but the cramped quarters of city living don’t usually come with garage space. The BOXX is an electric scooter that’s about three feet long and weighs 120 pounds. It resembles a piece of carry-on luggage with front and rear handles, but can hold up to 300 pounds worth of passenger at a max speed of 35 mph.

A self-guiding bullet that can steer itself towards its target is being developed for use by the US military.

The bullet uses tiny fins to correct the course of its flight allowing it to hit laser-illuminated targets.

It is designed to be capable of hitting objects at distances of about 2km (1.24 miles). Work on a prototype suggests that accuracy is best at longer ranges.

A think tank says the tech is well-suited to snipers, but worries about it being marketed to the public.

Bridgestone Corp has developed a new printing technology for tires that is different from any tire printing or coloring process on the market today.

Until now, white rubber has been used on the sidewalls of tires to manufacture white ribbon and white letter tires. This process requires the use of large amounts of white rubber to prevent discoloration and to also maintain durability. This conventional manufacturing process can also add additional weight to the tire.

BRUSSELS —

A tiny revolutionary fold-up car designed in Spain’s Basque country as the answer to urban stress and pollution was unveiled Tuesday before hitting European cities in 2013.

The “Hiriko”, the Basque word for “urban”, is an electric two-seater with no doors whose motor is located in the wheels and which folds up like a child’s collapsible buggy, or stroller, for easy parking.

Bubbles aren't just for bath time anymore -- turns out they can also be used to improve the fuel efficiency of cargo ships.

Video discribing a new type internal combustion engine that is ready for the world market.

What do you think?  Is it just another form of two cycle piston engine?

WASHINGTON: Researchers have devised a new technology, which can dramatically increase the amount of sunlight that solar cells convert into electricity up to 45 percent.

With military colleagues, the University at Buffalo engineers have shown that embedding charged quantum dots into photovoltaic cells can improve electrical output by enabling the cells to harvest infrared light, and by increasing the lifetime of photoelectrons.

Renesas Electronics Corp, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, has developed a new 32-bit microcontroller (MCU), the V850E2/PJ4-E, which incorporates an on-chip resolver sensor interface. The new MCU realizes both higher performance and lower system cost for automotive control systems including motor control for hybrid electric vehicles/electric vehicles (HEVs/EVs) and other automotive applications.

The new MCU is a derivative of Renesas’ P-series of MCUs and belongs to the 32-bit V850TM RISC MCU Family. It incorporates Renesas’ V850E2 CPU core, which provides excellent real-time operation, and is equipped with a rich set of peripheral functions for motor control. Renesas’ P-series of MCUs are widely adopted as motor control system solutions for automotive applications. With the combination of the P-series’ dual core lockstep and on-chip resolver sensor interface, the V850E2/PJ4-E MCU is compliant with the ISO 26262 safety standard and easily realizes lower system costs.

[The steamboat] will answer for sea voyages as well as for inland navigation, in particular for packets, where there may be a great number of passengers. He is also of opinion, that fuel for a short voyage would not exceed the weight of water for a long one, and it would produce a constant supply of fresh water. ... [T]he boat would make head against the most violent tempests, and thereby escape the danger of a lee shore; and that the same force may be applied to a pump to free a leaky ship of her water. ... [T]he good effects of the machine, is the almost omnipotent force by which it is actuated, and the very simple, easy, and natural way by which the screws or paddles are turned to answer the purpose of oars.
[This letter was written in 1785, before the first steamboat carried a man (Fitch) on 27 Aug 1787.]

BEIJING: A Chinese locomotive companyhas rolled out the country's first home-made magnetically levitated (maglev) train that creates less pollution than the conventional ones and ideal for transport in the urban and ecologically fragile tourist areas.

Why isn't the West investing more into maglev technology?  I can remember experimental trains being built in the US way back in the late 60's.  Superconductor technology has allowed the use of liquid nitrogen temperatures for at least 30 years.

A Scottish instrument maker, mechanical engineer and inventor, who contributed to the Industrial Revolution with his improvements of the steam engine.

James Watt was born on January 19, 1736, in Greenock, Scotland. At the age of 17, while becoming intrigued with Thomas Newcomen's steam engine, he decided to become a maker of mathematical instruments. Two years later, he became interested in improving the Newcomen-Savery steam engines that were used to pump water from mines at the time.

In 1814, Peter Roget invented a slide rule to calculate the roots and powers of numbers. This formed the basis of slide rules that were common currency in schools and universities until the age of the calculator. He was also interested in optics and a paper on how the kaleidoscope could be improved. Later in his life, he attempted to construct a calculating machine. He also wrote on a wide range of topics, contributing to encyclopaedias of the day.

In 1840, Roget effectively retired from medicine and spent the rest of his life on the project that has made his name, 'Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases', which was a dictionary of synonyms. As early as 1805 he had compiled, for his own personal use, a small indexed catalogue of words which he used to enhance his prolific writing. His thesaurus was published in 1852 and has never been out of print.

Joseph F. Glidden.--Often do we hear it said of those who have attained distinguished honors by reason of a well spent and successful life that they were men who rose to eminence through adventitious circumstances, and yet to such carping criticisms and lack of appreciation there needs to be made but the one statement that fortunate environments encompass nearly every man at some stage in his career, but the strong man and the successful man is he who realizes that the proper moment has come, that the present and not the future holds his opportunity. The man who makes use of the Now and not the To Be is the one who passes on the high way of life others who started out ahead of him and reaches the goal of prosperity far in advance of them. It is this quality in Mr. Glidden that has made him a leader in the business world and won him a name in connection with the industrial interests of the country that is known throughout the United States.

LAS VEGAS —

A USB-style key that splits in two lets people open their home or work computer files from any Internet-linked computer.

Singapore-based iTwin was at the Consumer Electronics Show last week to entice technology fans with a way to avoid being out of touch with data on work or home machines no matter how far they roam.

“The iTwin acts like a cableless cable connecting you to your files,” said company spokeswoman Kara Rosenthal.

“If you are on a business trip and don’t know what files you need you can just access your hard drive from any other computer and have whatever files you want.”

LAS VEGAS —

A California startup out to change the world shined at the Consumer Electronics Show with a light bulb blending beauty and efficiency with love for the Earth.

Switch Lighting executives Tracy Bilbrough and Brett Sharenow glowed as they showed off new-generation LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs that they believe will transform the more than $30-billion global market.

“It is exciting to be the little David taking on the Goliath’s of the world,” Switch chief Bilbrough told AFP.

“You pick this because it doesn’t have mercury; you can dim it; it loves cold weather; there is no ultra-violet so they don’t draw any bugs outdoors, and it fits in any fixture an incandescent bulb goes in.”

Hands? Digital read-outs? All out of date The wristwatch of the future indicates the hour by using miniature pistons and bellows to drive a fluorescent green liquid around a ring.

According to a description quoted by Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing, “Pistons in the movement move the bellows. As one expands the other one compresses which moves the green Fluorescein liquid. Fluorescein even has applications in forensics to detect latent blood stains but this is likely a first and only use in horology!”

The $45,000 watch was developed by The Hydro Mechanical Horologists, which describes it as “a new dawn in watchmaking.”

NEW DELHI — A memo that triggered a U.S. investigation into a possible cyber-attack by Indian military intelligence is probably a fake, but it is clear from leaked documents that serious security breaches did take place.

A little-known hacker group, "Lords of Dharmaraja," began posting the documents last year, but only drew widespread attention after the anti-virus software firm Symantec confirmed on Saturday that a segment of its source code had been accessed by the group.

Reuters has obtained a large digital cache appearing to contain emails that were posted by the group but were quickly blocked by file-sharing sites.

We will build a machine that will fly. ~ Joseph-Michel Montgolfier

Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, also called the Montgolfier brothers (respectively, born Aug. 26, 1740, Annonay, France—died June 26, 1810, Balaruc-les-Bains; born Jan. 6, 1745, Annonay, France—died Aug. 2, 1799, enroute from Lyon to Annonay), French brothers who were pioneer developers of the hot-air balloon and who conducted the first untethered flights. Modifications and improvements of the basic Montgolfier design were incorporated in the construction of larger balloons that, in later years, opened the way to exploration of the upper atmosphere.

WASHINGTON — Scientists said Thursday they have designed tiny wires, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair but with the same electrical capacity as copper, in a major step toward building smaller, more potent computers.

The advance, described in the US journal Science, shows for the first time that wires one atom tall and four atoms wide can carry a charge as well as conventional wires.

That could lead to even tinier electronic devices in the future as well as new steps toward quantum computing, an industry still in its infancy which would create powerful computers that could sift through massive amounts of data faster than current digital computers which use binary code.

In a video published in the midst of the Christmas season, virtually guaranteeing we didn’t see it right away, scientists with the Japan Institute of Science and Technology created a toy race track with a unique feature: cars that float.

Inspired by the futuristic hover-craft racing games in Sony’s WipEout series for PlayStation consoles, the scientists designed their own high speed racers and built a track lined with electromagnets.

Using a device to manipulate the electrical current beneath both vehicles, they fitted each with liquid nitrogen propellant and let them go, watched as they sped around the track without ever even touching it.

When Concorde was decommissioned in 2003, supersonic air travel became a thing of the past. But work has begun on a passenger aircraft that could go further and faster - flying from Europe to Australia in four hours. Will it ever become a reality?

The European Space Agency's goal is to create a hypersonic passenger plane, one that flies more than five times faster than the speed of sound and six times faster than a standard airliner.

It's not the first time hypersonic flight has been attempted. In 1960, tests took place on the X-15 - half plane, half missile - which carried one pilot and flew for 90 seconds before its rocket fuel burnt out.

Its creators thought it would herald a new era of high-speed civil aviation but more than 50 years later, a hypersonic passenger plane has yet to be tested or even built.

Tablet computers and electronic readers promise to close the book on the ink-and-paper era as they transform the way people browse magazines, check news or lose themselves in novels.

“It is only a matter of time before we stop killing trees and all publications become digital,” Creative Strategies president and principal analyst Tim Bajarin told AFP.

A recent patent application filed by computer giant Apple reveals what might be the company’s next big thing: hydrogen batteries.

Hydrogen batteries work by splitting water into its core chemical components, then using those chemicals to generate electricity, but for many years the reaction was too volatile for most commercial applications.

“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all”

Charles Babbage

The father of Charles was a rich man, so it was possible for Charles to receive instruction from several elite schools and teachers during the course of his elementary education. He was about eight when he had to move to a country school to recover from a dangerous fever. His parents sentenced that his "brain was not to be taxed too much"; Babbage wrote: "this great idleness may have led to some of my childish reasonings."

Then, he joined King Edward VI Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, a thriving comprehensive school that's still operative today, but his fragile health status forced him back to private teaching for a period. Then, he finally joined a 30-student closed number academy managed by Reverend Stephen Freeman. The academy had a big library, where Babbage used to study mathematics by himself, and learned to love it. He had two more personal tutors after leaving the academy. One was a clergyman of Cambridge, and about him Babbage said: "I fear I did not derive from it all the advantages that I might have done.". The other one was an Oxford tutor who teached Babbage the Classics, so that he could be accepted to Cambridge.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China launched a super-rapid test train over the weekend which is capable of travelling 500 kilometers per hour, state media said on Monday, as the country moves ahead with its railway ambitions despite serious problems on its high-speed network.

The train, made by a subsidiary of CSR Corp Ltd, China’s largest train maker, is designed to resemble an ancient Chinese sword, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

It “will provide useful reference for current high-speed railway operations,” it quoted train expert Shen Zhiyun as saying.

TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronicsto the South Korean company for $940 million, as it struggles to reduce huge losses at its TV business.

The seven-year-old venture cut its capital by 15 percent in July and industry sources had said Sony was negotiating an exit, aiming to switch to cheaper outsourcing for flat screens for its TVs while Samsung pushes ahead with next-generation displays.

“In terms of direction it is a positive (for Sony),” said Keita Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mito Securities in Tokyo, about the deal. “But if they are making a loss on the sale, one could ask why they didn’t make this decision sooner.”

SMART GRIDS

And it’s not just “island mode.” Thanks to power electronics – semiconductor switching devices – DC can now be transmitted at high voltage over very long distances, longer than AC. It can be easily used in cables, over ground or under the sea.

High voltage direct current (HVDC) systems are the backbone of plans for smart grids, or supergrids, which aim to channel energy from places where power sources such as sunlight and hydropower are abundant to countries where it is scarce.

Siemens, which vies with ABB for market leadership in HVDC transmission, says demand is increasing fast. “By 2020, I’m expecting to see new HVDC transmission lines with a total capacity of 250 gigawatts. That is a dramatic increase,” says Udo Niehage, CEO of the Power Transmission Division in Siemens’ Energy Sector. “In the last 40 years, we’ve only installed 100 gigawatts worth of HVDC transmission lines.”

Research serves to make building stones out of stumbling blocks. — Arthur D. Little

Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as solid and long lasting structures? Aren't the genuine functions of strength always in keeping with unwritten conditions of harmony? ... Besides, there is an attraction, a special charm in the colossal to which ordinary theories of art do not apply. — Gustave Eiffel

“One of my primary objects is to form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work and give to every part its just proportion.” ~ Eli Whitney

The most important innovation credited to Whitney may be the concept of mass production of interchangeable parts. His idea of manufacturing quantities of identical parts for assembly into muskets, after undertaking in 1797 to supply the U.S. government with 10,000 muskets in two years, helped inaugurate the vastly important American System of manufacture.

“We can do more good by being good, than in any other way” ~ Rowland Hill

He invented the adhesive postage stamp. One of those little things that made a big difference to our culture.

If a pump is programmable, and its controls can be accessed via the Internet, a phone line or satellite then it is subject to a cyber attack.  Anything that has a public access port is subject to cyber attack.