Radical new icebreaker will travel through the ice sideways

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The NB 508 (aka the Baltika) crashes through the ice side-on (Image: Arctech Helsinki Shipyard)

Given that icebreakers clear a path for other ships by traveling through the ice head-on (or sometimes butt-on), then in order for one of them to clear a wider path, it would have to be wider and thus larger overall ... right? Well, Finland’s Arctech Helsinki Shipyard is taking a different, more efficient approach. It’s in the process of building an asymmetric-hulled icebreaker that can increase its frontal area, by making its way through the ice at an angle of up to 30 degrees.
Arctech refers to the ship as “Icebreaking rescue vessel NB 508,” although according to a report in New Scientist, it’s also known as the Baltika. It’s being built for the Russian Ministry of Transport, and will be used not only for icebreaking, but also for rescue and oil spill cleanup duties in the Gulf of Finland.

The ship will be moved along by three propulsors on its underside, each one of which can rotate 360 degrees. This means that it will have no problem moving forwards, backwards, or sideways. By hitting the ice at an oblique angle, it will be able to clear a 50-meter (164-foot)-wide path – not too shabby, considering the NB 508 itself will have a breadth of only 20.5 m (67 ft), and a length of 76 m (249 ft).
Three diesel generators will provide a total power of 9 MW and a total propulsion power of 7.5 MW. That should be enough to send it through ice up to 0.6 meter (2 ft) thick when moving sideways, or 1 meter (3.3 ft) when going bow- or stern-first.
The NB 508 was designed by Aker Arctic Technology, and has been under construction at Arctech since June 28. It’s scheduled for delivery to the client by next spring (Northern Hemisphere).

Graphene-based supercapacitor a step closer to commerical reality

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Monash University researchers have created a compact electrode that uses a liquid electrolyte to maintain space between graphene sheets (Image: Shutterstock)

Graphene-based supercapacitors have already proven the equal of conventional supercapacitors – in the lab. But now researchers at Melbourne’s Monash University claim to have developed of a new scalable and cost-effective technique to engineer graphene-based supercapacitors that brings them a step closer to commercial development.
With their almost indefinite lifespan and ability to recharge in seconds, supercapacitors have tremendous energy-storage potential for everything from portable electronics, to electric vehicles and even large-scale renewable energy plants. But the drawback of existing supercapacitors has been their low energy density of around 5 to 8 Wh/liter, which means they either have to be exceedingly large or recharged frequently.
Professor Dan Li and his team at Monash University’s Department of Materials Engineering has created a graphene-based supercapacitor with an energy density of 60 Wh/liter, which is around 12 times higher than that of commercially available supercapacitors and in the same league as lead-acid batteries. The device also lasts as long as a conventional battery.
To maximize the energy density, the team created a compact electrode from an adaptive graphene gel film they had previously developed. To control the spacing between graphene sheets on the sub-nanometer scale, the team used liquid electrolytes, which are generally used as the conductor in conventional supercapacitors.
Unlike conventional supercapacitors that are generally made of highly porous carbon with unnecessarily large pores and rely on a liquid electrolyte to transport the electrical charge, the liquid electrolyte in Li’s team’s supercapacitor plays a dual role of conducting electricity and also maintaining the minute space between the graphene sheets. This maximizes the density without compromising the supercapcitor’s porosity, they claim.

NIAC 2013 Phase I winners showcases futuristic aerospace concepts

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A nuclear-powered spacecraft is one winning concept of NASA's Innovative

A dozen inventors have received a chance to demonstrate the potential for their pet space projects as winners of NASA's 2013 Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program Phase I awards. The winners were chosen based on their potential to transform future aerospace missions by enabling either breakthroughs in aerospace capabilities or entirely new missions. Read on for a closer look at some of the most promising proposals with a view to how they would work, and where the tricky bits might be hiding.
Each NIAC Phase I winner receives about US$100,000 to spend a year pursuing their ideas, including an initial feasibility study of a novel aerospace concept. The proposals this year include; 3D printing of biomaterials; using galactic rays to map the insides of asteroids; and an "eternal flight" platform that could hover in the Earth's atmosphere.

The list of this year's awardees includes:
• Rob Adams of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center – Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF) propulsion system
• John Bradford of SpaceWorks Engineering – Torpor inducing transfer habitat for human stasis to Mars
• Hamid Hemmati of NASA Jet Propulsion – Two-dimensional planetary surface landers
• Nathan Jerred of Universities Space Research Association - Dual-mode propulsion system enabling CubeSat exploration of the Solar System
• Anthony Longman – Growth adapted tensegrity structures
• Mark Moore of NASA Langley Research Center - Eternal flight as the solution for 'X'
• Thomas Prettyman of the Planetary Science Institute – Deep mapping of small solar system bodies with galactic cosmic ray secondary particle showers
• Lynn Rothschild of NASA Ames Research Center – Biomaterials out of thin air
• Joshua Rovey of the University of Missouri – Plasmonic force propulsion revolutionizes Nano/PicoSatellite capability
• Adrian Stoica of NASA Jet Propulsion Lab – Transformers for extreme environments
• Christopher Walker of the University of Arizona – 10 meter sub-orbital balloon refletor
• S.J. Ben Yoo of the University of California-Davis – Low-mass planar photonic imaging sensor

Let's take a look at three of the most promising concepts with a view to how they would work, and where the tricky bits might be hiding.

Ring Weeder gets to the root of the manual weeding problem

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What the weeds look like once pulled out of the ground with Ring Weeder
In be annoying, especially in an area with a lot of plants. Ring Weeder slips over the user's index finger and allows for precision weed pulling all the way down to the root.

When taking a hands-on approach to weeding, the challenge is to make sure that the pesky invader is pulled all the way out, root intact. If it's not a clean extraction, there's a very good chance that the weed will just grow back and you'll have to try again.
Ring Weeder is worn like a ring over the gardening glove, and has a forked end that the gardener sticks in the ground behind the weed. The offending plant and root are then removed with a smooth dig and lift motion. It's a simple tool, but one that could prove to be a time saver for anyone who does a lot of gardening.
Vincent Suozzi, the creator of Ring Weeder, is seeking funding on Kickstarter. It has already more than doubled its modest funding goal with almost two weeks of the campaign left to run. Early bird pledge levels have all gone, so backers will now need to offer at least US$10 for a single Ring Weeder.
The Kickstarter pitch below provides more information on the Ring Weeder.

Twitter finally gets tougher on death and rape threats

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It's been an exceedingly ugly fortnight on Twitter. Following a successful campaign orchestrated by journalist and feminist Caroline Criado-Perez to have a woman reinstated on Bank of England banknotes, she has been subjected to a relentless campaign of harassment, with rape and death threats being received by Criado-Perez at a rate of nearly one per minute on July 24, the day it was confirmed that her campaign had been a success. After being the platform for sustained threats and abuse for almost two weeks, Twitter has finally begun to act.
London MP Stella Creasy and television presenter and historian Mary Beard are among those who, like Criado-Perez, have received misogynistic death and rape threats through the social messaging service. Creasy's apparent crime against mankind was to post updates to Twitter in support of Criado-Perez. Beard (a long-time victim of online abuse) was to join in with a one-day boycott of the service on Sunday (proposed by columnist Caitlin Moran, who has also been on the end of threats and abuse), but broke silence to report yet more threats.
By July 30, two men in their 20s had been arrested in connection with harassment and malicious communication, but these arrests are only the tip of the iceberg. Hadley Freeman, India Knight, Grace Dent, Laura Penny and Catherine Mayer have also received threats via Twitter in recent days.
Twitter itself was slow to respond. After Criado-Perez contacted Twitter's Manager of Journalism and News, his remarkable response was to temporarily lock his own account so that his updates would only be seen by people already following him (and new followers would need his permission to see them). It took Twitter's UK General Manager Tony Wang a further week to apologize on Twitter, but in a post to Twitter's UK blog that same day (Saturday), Wang and Senior Director of Trust and Safety, Del Harvey, listed a number of measures intended to address the problem.
Perhaps most notable is that Twitter has introduced a "report tweet" button in the latest version of the official iOS app and on the mobile version of the website. The button should appear in the official Android app and on the main website during September. This would appear to be a direct response to an online petition with over 120,000 signatories which called for exactly this.

O2 Cool hydration backpacks offer both sipping and cooling mist

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O2 Cool showed its new backpack line at the 2013 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market

Wherever you weigh in on the global warming debate, it would seem that folks are hotter than ever this year. Misting and cooling products have been a trend over the past few months, with launches of products like the Aquabot and Q-FOG. The self-assigned leader in cooling products has decided to get in on the action with its own twist on the theme. It's incorporated a misting system into a line of hydration packs, so the reservoir of water on your back can both quench and cool.
O2 Cool packages its patented Mist 'N Sip technology into a line of backpacks. Instead of the simple bite valve common on other hydration packs, the Mist 'N Sip includes a push-button misting system that allows you to squirt yourself with a cooling spray. Of course, you can also drink out of it. The valve is held to the pack by a magnetic attachment, making it easy to pull on and off. The misting attachment can be removed and replaced with a standard bite valve when it's not needed.

The average hydration pack is easy to drink out of, but harder to use as a cooling device. You can dump the water out of the fill opening, wasting a lot of water in the process. You can shower yourself by pulling the bite valve out of the tube and holding the tube over your head like a hose. Both those less-than-ideal options require stopping and fiddling around with the pack, whereas the O2 Cool mister is simple enough to use on the go.
Geigerrig has popularized pressurized hydration packs over recent years. While we have not had the chance to compare them head to head, the Mist 'N Sip system appears simpler and lighter than Geigerrig's hardware, as it doesn't require a separate pump. It provides a gentler mist as opposed to the more powerful spray of the Geigerrig, so it won't be useful for things like spray-cleaning and rinsing, just cooling.
O2 Cool will launch the Mist 'N Spray packs in a number of different styles, from minimalist hydration packs to larger daypacks. The 2- and 3-liter water reservoir packs will range between US$60 and $80.

Nukes, kids and the Cold War: In conversation with the creator of Nukemap3D

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Nukemap3D produces virtual mushroom clouds

Feeling cheerful? Why not remedy that by going online and seeing what would happen if someone dropped an H-bomb on your hometown? The browser-based Nukemap3D uses a Google Earth plug in to produce a 3D graphic of the effects of a nuclear weapon on your city of choice. All you have to do is pick your target, select your favorite thermonuclear device, and you can see an animated mushroom cloud rising over ground zero. Gizmag caught up with the creator, Dr. Alex Wellerstein, to talk about Nukemap3D.
Wellerstein is Associate Historian at the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland, and specializes in the history of nuclear weapons and nuclear secrecy. He has taught courses in his specialty at Harvard and studies the question of secrecy in the story of nuclear weapons. In a telephone interview, he gave us the lowdown on Nukemap3D. Where did the idea for Nukemap come from?
Nukemap came out of my experience of trying to teach about [the history of nuclear weapons] to undergraduates, who completely missed the Cold War and aren't thinking about nuclear weapons at all and don’t have much cultural association with them.
So the Cold War and Hiroshima were all ancient history for them?
It was really ancient history. I’m not a very old person myself. I’m in my early thirties and I have memories of the Berlin Wall coming down. My wife is a high school teacher and she’s actually had students say “oh, my God, you were alive during the Cold War!” like it was somebody saying that they fought in World War One. So, one of the difficulties of teaching the subject is getting the students to take things seriously because a lot of the concerns of the 1960s or even the '80s were very remote and very unrealistic and not something they can easily relate to. They ask, “why were people afraid of Communism?” My question was, “how can I make that fresh for somebody, so they can relate it to the big issues of the present and the issues of the past.

RHex robot shows off Parkour moves

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X-RHex-Light shows off its obstacle beating agility

Parkour is all about hurling yourself quickly and efficiently past whatever obstacles are in your path while maintaining as much momentum as possible. It's a challenge for humans, so how would robots fare? In an effort to push the boundaries of robotic agility, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania decided to find out by teaching their RHex robot some Parkour moves.

RHex is designed to be an all-terrain walking robot that can deal with curbs, stairs, puddles, rubble, sinkholes, and other obstacles to accomplish rescue missions or carry out sensor surveys in inhospitable areas. While the RHex has been around for over a decade, a modified version called XRL (X-RHex-Light) is now being taught some new tricks by UPenn's Professor Daniel Koditschek.

XRL differs from its earlier relatives by using lighter materials and simpler fabrication methods. A complete shell of carbon fiber panels surrounds the XRL frame, and it has only a single battery compartment. The XRL is 51 cm (20 in) long, 40.5 cm (16 in) wide, and the body alone is 10 cm (four inches) in thickness. The diameter of the six flexible rotating legs is 17.5 cm (6.9 in), giving the XRL ground clearance of 11 cm (4.3 in) regardless of which end is up at the moment. It's weight including battery pack is 6.7 kg (14.7 lb).
For motive power, the XRL depends on two 50 watt brushless pancake electric motors by Maxon (one for each leg). The actual peak power for these motors is about 380 watts, or about half a horsepower. These motors are geared down by a factor of either 18:1 or 23:1, depending on the nature of the landscape on which it is being tested. Powered derives from a ten-cell lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 83 W-hr at 37 volts. Battery weight is about 0.6 kg (1.3 lb).

How to make Windows 8 Metro open files on the desktop

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One of the more annoying behaviors in Windows 8 and 8.1 is that all of your files are set to open in native Metro-style apps. For instance, if you're working on the desktop and view a picture or PDF, it opens full screen in the associated app. If you're working on a traditional computer without a touchscreen, this is frustrating to say the least. Especially if you're on a laptop with a single screen. Here's how to take control of your Windows 8 system and make your files open in the desktop programs you want them to.

Change default program file associations

Note: Here I am using the Window 8.1 preview but the process is virtually identical in Windows 8.
From the Windows start screen type: default programs and select the Default Programs icon under results.

The Default Programs windows will open on the desktop. Here you have a couple of ways to change the default programs that open your files. The easiest is to click "Set your default programs."

Now select the program you want to set as your default for your files. Here I'm selecting Windows Photo Viewer because I can't stand it when I want to view an image and the Photo app opens up. This way it will open on the desktop like it used to.

Portable fat breathalyzer indicates if you’re burning fat

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The portable prototype that detects if you're burning fat by analyzing your breath (Photo: NTT DOCOMO)

rtage of breathalyzers capable of detecting if you’ve had one too many drinks, a prototype device developed by researchers at NTT DOCOMO Research Laboratories analyzes your breath to detect if your body is burning fat. Besides letting users know if that exercise regime is actually shedding some pounds, its creators say the portable sensor could be helpful for diabetics and those trying to lose weight manage their daily diet. Rather than detecting exhaled fat particles, the device detects the levels of acetone on one’s breath. Although primarily produced in the blood when fat is broken down, acetone is also expelled through alveoli in the lungs and is therefore present in exhaled breath, making it a good indicator of when the body has begun to break down fat.
The device, which is 10 cm (4 in) long, weighs 125 g (4.4 oz) and is powered by two AA batteries, features a pressure sensor to detect when someone breathes into it, and two types of semiconductor-based gas sensors that are capable of detecting acetone concentrations of 0.2 to 50 parts-per-million. After detecting the exhaled breath, the device calculates the acetone concentration levels and transmits the results, either via cable or Bluetooth, to a smartphone within 10 seconds.
To test the device, the researchers enlisted 11 men and six women volunteers. All were healthy but had body mass indexes (BMIs) above the Japanese average. The volunteers were split into three groups with the first carrying on their normal routine without any calorie restrictions or exercise requirements.
The second group was required to perform 30 to 60 minutes of light exercise, such as jogging or fast walking, per day without any calorie restriction, while the third group had their daily calorie intake restricted while carrying out the same exercise routine as the second group.
Each day before breakfast for a period of 14 days, all volunteers measured their body weight, body fat percentage and breath acetone concentrations. In addition to using the prototype device to measure the acetone concentrations, a standard measuring instrument was used for comparison.
The results showed that the breath acetone concentrations remained constant for those in the first two groups who were not able to lose significant amounts of fat, while the volunteers in the third group showed a significant increase in their breath acetone concentrations and were able to lose “significant amounts of fat.”
“Because obesity increases the risk of lifestyle-related illnesses, enabling users to monitor the state of fat burning could play a pivotal role in daily diet management,” says Satoshi Hiyama, principal investigator of the study. “Current standard methods, however, are still not practically suitable for point-of-care instrumentation for diet-conscious people who wish to monitor their own fat metabolism at home or outside.”