Micro stories - small news bits too small to have their own thread

[SvenSvensonov]

VP-5 "Mad Foxes" Put Their New P-8A Poseidons To Work

The Navy is settling into its new maritime patrol aircraft and increased deployments abroad are part of getting the P-8A Poseidon up to snuff. Last July, VP-5 'Mad Foxes' took on their seven-month mission to Japan with gusto, with the P-8's fresh capabilities continuing to be a big hit in the region. Here's an awesome video montage of the Mad Foxes' historic deployment:

 

[IrbiS]

Earth Hour: What is the carbon footprint of an email?
Last Updated On 25 March,2015 About 5 hours ago

People around the world are getting ready to mark Earth Hour by turning out the lights on Saturday.




PARIS (AFP) - Sending a text message or email, eating an apple or watching TV -- each of these activities has a different carbon footprint.

People around the world are getting ready to mark Earth Hour by turning out the lights on Saturday, but a long list of seemingly harmless everyday actions also contribute to emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other planet-harming greenhouse gases.

Total global emissions in 2010 were estimated at 49 gigatonnes (Gt or billion tonnes) of CO2 equivalent (CO2e).



EMAIL AND INTERNET

Even a short email is estimated to have a footprint of four grammes (0.14 ounces) of CO2e (gCO2e) -- including greenhouse gases produced in running the computer, server and routers and a part of their manufacture.

An email with a large attachment emits about 50 gCO2e, and a spam message, not even opened by the recipient, is responsible for 0.3 gCO2e.

The annual global footprint of spam is equivalent to 3.1 million passenger cars on the road in a year, using two billion gallons (7.6 billion litres) of gasoline.

A web search on an energy-efficient laptop leaves a footprint of 0.2 gCO2e, and on an old desktop computer some 4.5 gCO2e.

A cellphone text message comes at a cost of about 0.014 gCO2e.



SHOPPING

A plastic carrier bag leaves a footprint of 10 gCO2e, and a paper bag 40 gCO2e.



DRINKING

A pint (473 millilitres) of water from the tap generates 0.14 gCO2e compared to 160 gCO2e for a 500 ml store-bought bottle.

A large cappuccino comes at 235 gCO2e, compared to 21 gCO2e for a cup of black coffee or tea for which just enough water was boiled.



LEISURE

An hour of TV watching on a 15-inch (38-centimetre) LCD screen yields 34 gCO2e, compared to 88 gCO2e on a 32-inch LCD screen, and 220 gCO2e on a 24-inch plasma screen.

A mile of cycling powered by a meal of bananas would be responsible for 65 gCO2e, compared to 260 gCO2e for a mile powered by cheeseburgers.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

This Jet Engine Will Take a Car to 1,000MPH

This week, engineers working on the Bloodhound Supersonic Car installed its EJ200 jet engine into the chassis for the first time. Good news: it fits. Bad news: they now have to install kilometers of cabling into the small gaps that are left.

Building BLOODHOUND | BLOODHOUND SSC

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Iceland Has Become the Perfect Genetics Experiment

A millenium ago, a group settled in Iceland and have stayed there ever since, with few people coming and going. And so their DNA has stayed remarkably homogenous. That's a major boon for genetics researchers, who today have released the results of sequencing the complete genomes of2,636 Icelanders—the largest such countrywide project ever.

Researchers at Decode Genetics, an Icelandic company owned by Amgen, have sifted through the complete DNA sequences of 2,636 people huntings for mutations that cause disease. This is a massive undertaking, but one made easier by the low level of genetic diversity in Iceland. With fewer genetic variants to sift through, it's easier to find meaningful variants.

Think of it as a smaller haystack in which to look for needles.

The results are published today in four papers in Nature Genetics. The researchers, who also had access to the medical histories of the participants, were able to identify several new mutations linked to disease. For example, notes Carl Zimmer reporting for the New York Times,a mutation in MYL4 caused early onset of a particular type of irregular heartbeat. And there's more:

The scientists also found a rare mutation to a gene called ABDB4 that raises the risk of gallstones. And they identified a gene called ABCA7 as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies had suggested a gene in the genetic neighborhood of ABCA7 was associated with the disease. But the Icelandic study pinpointed the gene itself — and even the specific mutation involved.

The study also identified "human knockouts," or people who have a nonfunctional copy of a particular gene. Scientists are especially interested in studying these people to figure out how a nonfunctional gene affects them. There's still, hopefully, many more insights to come from the this volcanic island in the north.




These Microscopic Videos Show How Our Bodies Are Really Fields Of War

Launch of Delta IV Rocket with GPS IIF-9 Satellite (satellite 9 of 12 in constellation) - March 25, 2015

 

[SvenSvensonov]

This video is proof that Tokyo is the most unique city in the world

Japan can be both traditional and effortlessly modern, but most of all it's unique. The chaos and quirks and creativity and energy of Tokyo all combine to create a city filled with things that exist nowhere else. Tokyo is an original and this video by Takuya Hosogane does a fantastic job capturing that.

New Nanofiber Is Tougher Than Kevlar and Stretches 7 Times Its Length

Bullet-proof protection may be about to get more bullet proof. A team of researchers has created a new kind of nanofiber that can extend to seven times its original length—and is tougher than kevlar, too.

Scientists at UT Dallas have created a new kind of fiber which makes use of its electromechanical properties to absorb energy. While Kevlar can absorb up to 80 joules per gram before it breaks, the new material can handle up to 98 joules per gram. That could make it extremely useful in applications like military vehicles and body armor.

The team took inspiration from the piezoelectric action—where pressure is converted into electrical charges—observed in collagen fibers within human bone. The researchers recreated the collagan fibers by spinning polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinvylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE)—themselves piezoelectric materials—into nanofibers. They then twisted these strands into yarns.

When stretched, these polymer-based yarns create an electrical charge which acts to attracts the polymer strands back in on themselves—an attraction found to be 10 times stronger than a hydrogen bond. (Hydrogen bonds, by the way, are considered some of the strongest inter-molecular forces we know of.) The result is a material that can absorbs terrific amount of energy before it fails. The result are published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Currently, the nanofibers are very small, so the next step for the researchers is to work out how to produce and use the material in bulk. If they can, the armor of the future may be made from little more than simple twisted yarn—one that just happens to be ultra-tough.




Russia's Soyuz Spacecraft Looks Fantastic as It Prepares to Launch

Looking like something straight out of a movie, this picture shows the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft as it was moved by train to its launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday.

The spacecraft is scheduled to launch on March 28th Kazakh time (which will be March 27th Eastern time). It will be taking NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly, and Russian Cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, to the International Space Station for a whole year. Check out the full image below.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Check Out This Award Winning Pic Of OH-58Ds Skirting The Hawaiian Coast

This hyperreal picture, taken by Wesley Prirchett, entitled simply "Wingman," won the US Army Aviation Photo Of The Year award. It depicts a super wide-angel view of a pair of recently retired OH-58D Kiowa Warriors skirting the colorful Hawaiian coastline, and it's nothing short of gorgeous.

The OH-58D is being controversially retired this year after incredible service in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Under a new Army Air master plan, all OH-58 and TH-67 trainer aircraft will be retired, many with long service lives left on their airframes. Training will be done on the Army's fleet of UH-76 Lakota twin engine utility choppers, many of which are brand new.

The Guard will end up giving all its Apaches to the active force and the armed scout mission will be taken up by AH-64E Apaches along with unmanned aircraft, such as the MQ-1C Gray Eagle.In exchange, the Army National Guard will gain some Black Hawks, although the deal is seen as a large net loss for the Guard overall.

To put it mildly, this plan is seen as a tough decision at best, and a horribly near-sighted one at worst, as the Kiowas offer an incredibly capable and cost-effective light air support and surveillance solution. Just as well, their crews have a reputation for extreme bravery when it comes to executing their mission.

The loss of the highly experienced National Guard Apache crews is an eyebrow-raising call, to say the least. Additionally, having students train on a six-million dollar twin-engine Eurocopter is a strange way to fill a square hole with a round peg.

As one Army Aviator put it to me, "it is like giving your 15 year old idiot kid a fully loaded, turbocharged Lexus SUV for his 16th birthday."

Regardless of the Army's recent decisions when it comes to its rotory wing force, congrats Wesley on the big photo win, and here's to all you Scout crews out there. You'll be sorely missed, but hopefully some of you will be greatly appreciated in the AH-64E Apache community and wherever else you find yourself in the future.

And for an added bonus, see an OH-58D's wild ride down low over lush Hawaiian canyons:

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Tornado

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Tornado

I hope everyone's alright, saw tornadoes in both Oklahoma and Arkansas.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Slow motion video shows a chameleon shoot out its tongue superpower

A chameleon's tongue is nearly two times the length of its body and it can shoot out that slimy sticky thing at 41 g, roughly four times the maximum acceleration of a fighter jet, with deadly quick accuracy: its tongue can reach its prey in 0.07 seconds. Basically, it's an insane, superpower-like weapon to have.

Here is Earth Unplugged showing the tongue action of the chameleon in slow motion. It's both impressive and gross at the same time.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

The mesmerizing ballet of container ships moving around a shipping dock

What's great about this time lapse that shows a container ship moving around a dock is that it's not doing anything special and yet, the carefully orchestrated ballet of dropping off shipping containers is almost hypnotizing to watch. You get to follow the ship from dock to dock and see other boats move around it too.

Sometimes, monotony can look pretty cool. This video is an old one but a good one of the MS Renata cruising around the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

Passing Through The Moon's Shadow Looks Way Too Scary

We though we'd seen the best of the solar eclipse images, but this video — unearthed by Reddit — has been hiding out on YouTube, saving the absolute best for last.

The video is a timelapse movie of flying through the moon's shadow. The timelapse is has been sped up, so you get a very real sense of being overtaken by the moon's shadow. Racing a shadow cast by an object 240,000 miles away is probably the closest I'll ever come to space.

These New Semiconductors Look Just Like Candy

This isn't a new kind of tooth rotter, but an exotic new breed of nanoribbon and nanoplate semiconductors. Made from silicon telluride, they may go on to be used in the batteries of the future.

The new semiconductors are built up layer-by-layer in a process known as vapor deposition. Temperatures in a furnace are taken high enough for silicon and tellurium to vaporize, some of which settles on a substrate placed within the furnace. The semiconductor then grows up in layers, depending on small tweaks made to the substrate that's placed in the furnace in the first place. The researchers are able to make nanoribbons as small as 50 nanometers in width and about 10 microns long or so-called standing plates. "We see the standing plates a lot," Kristie Koski, one of the researchers, told PhysOrg. "They're half hexagons sitting upright on the substrate. They look a little like a graveyard."

It's thought that the materials, which can forced to take up traces of lithium and magnesium, could be used to make new, 2D electrodes for use in batteries.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

This Robot Arm's Water Balloon Gripper Is Inspired By a Gecko's Tongue

Five fingers at the end of an arm has turned out to be a fantastic tool for humans, but coordinating so many digits is a lot to ask of a robot. So inspired by the stretchy tongue on a gecko, engineers at Festo have come with a bulbous-looking water-filled gripper that's just as adept at picking things up as the human hand is.

There have actually been grippers that function similar to Festo's FlexShapeGripper before, but they use a soft material filled with small granular particles to change shape. Festo's silicon gripper instead features a pressurized double-chambered designed filled with water and air. As varying amounts of liquid and gas are pumped into those chambers using pneumatics, the gripper changes shape allowing it to grasp, pick up, and hold onto objects.

The gripper appears dextrous enough to be able to pick up everything from small ball bearings, to mugs using the handle, to even something as delicate as a pair of glasses. And like an e-ink display that can maintain an image even when the battery is dead, once Festo's gripper has grabbed hold of an object it can maintain its grip indefinitely without requiring any additional power. That results in a more energy efficient arm which can mean big cost savings over time in a factory full of robots working away.

 

[topgun047]

A mother never forgets Elephant spends 11 hours desperately trying to pull her baby free from muddy well before villagers lend her a helping hand | Daily Mail Online

• Devoted mother stays by her baby's side for hours after it falls in a well
• Nearby villages help out to remove soil after hearing her distressed cries
• Pictured: Happy ending as mother and baby walk off into the sun together

By ELAINE O'FLYNN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:10 GMT, 27 March 2015 | UPDATED: 16:08 GMT, 27 March 2015

This is the heart-wrenching moment a mother elephant desperately tried to pull her baby from a well after, staying by his side for 11 hours.

The determined mum refused to leave her calf, first using her trunk and then her feet in a bid to haul her precious baby to safety.

Unfortunately the frantic mother elephant made matters worse by accidentally pushing more mud into the well and almost smothering the baby, which was trapped from 9pm until 8am the following morning.

Scroll down for video

Tugging: A mum frantically tried to get her baby out of a muddy well, after it fell in and became stuck

Help: Villagers from a nearby village in the Chatra district of India come to the young elephant's aid by removing soil at the top of the well

But thankfully the tiny elephant was eventually freed when people living near the Chatra district in India, where the incident happened, rushed to the scene after hearing the distressed cries.

Kind-hearted villagers deterred the mother and used the time to remove some of the soil stopping her from grabbing the calf.

The mother then tightly wrapped her trunk around the baby's slippery, mud-caked body and pulled her out.

The duo were later seen entwining trunks and happily walking side-by-side as they continued their journey.

Free: Mother and baby walk alongside after the calf is pulled to safety

A hug from mum: The pair are happy to be reunited after the little elephant's 11 hours trial

 

[SvenSvensonov]

USS Fitzgerald Races Through The Water During Underway Replenishment

This amazing photograph, posted by the US Mission to NATO, shows the Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) pulling alongside the oiler USNS Pecos during an underway replenishment operation. A good tripod, some awesome timing, and a long shutter lag, and we are transported right into the high-seas action.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

This folded aircraft looks like an awesome spaceship

From this perspective and in their fully folded stow position, the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey looks like a some weird spaceship concept. It's amazing how these things fold. It's fully automatic too. Here's a video showing the process: