technology

“Impossible” Engine

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This is either a completely new form of propulsion previously unknown or a load of rubbish. It’s a worry when devices appear to defy conventional laws of physics.

From the SMH:

‘Impossible’ propellantless engine appears to work despite breaking laws of physics

Date
JIt took New Horizons more than nine years to reach Pluto, but a craft powered by an EMDrive could make it in less than two.

It took New Horizons more than nine years to reach Pluto, but a craft powered by an EMDrive could make it in less than two. Photo: NASA

Ridiculed as impossible by the scientific community, the electromagnetic propulsion engine – which could supposedly take a craft from Earth to Pluto in just 18 months without the need for rocket fuel – has apparently been confirmed by an independent scientist as working.

German scientist Martin Tajmar​, who has a history of debunking fanciful propulsion systems, claims in a paper he has tested a copy of NASA’s experimental device (known as the EMDrive) and that it does produce thrust. This is controversial because the theory that has been used to explain the device violates conventional physics and the law of conservation of momentum.

The EMDrive is complete crap and a waste of time. 

Sean Carroll

The EMDrive theoretically works by converting electric power into microwaves which bounce around inside an enclosed cavity, using the difference in radiation to move through an environment. This violates the laws of physics, which state that if something moves forward it must also push something back, as no propellant is expelled to balance the engine’s momentum.

The original EmDrive was invented nearly 15 years ago, but its use has been consistently ridiculed as scientifically impossible.

The original EmDrive was invented nearly 15 years ago, but its use has been consistently ridiculed as scientifically impossible.

Despite appearing to contradict our understanding of physics, NASA’s tests of the device (which has been described by overenthusiastic  media as an attempt to make a Star Trek warp drive) inexplicably produced a thrust in 2014. If the results were accurate, a much larger version of the device could have incredible implications on future space travel and colonisation, as well as on vehicles and buildings.

Tajmar​’s tests were apparently an attempt to replicate NASA’s work and see the results for himself. He was careful to state his testing cannot explicitly confirm or refute the claims of how the EMDrive works, only that the thrust produced is consistent with those claims, even in a vacuum.

“We do observe thrust close to the actual predictions after eliminating many possible error sources that should warrant further investigation into the phenomena,” Tajmar says.

Predictably, many in the scientific community remain unconvinced.

“My insight is that the EMDrive is complete crap and a waste of time,” American physicist Sean Carroll told tech site io9. “Right there in the abstract this paper says, ‘Our test campaign can not confirm or refute the claims of the EMDrive’, so I’m not sure what the news is. I’m going to spend my time thinking about ideas that don’t violate conservation of momentum.”

Professor Tajmar presented his paper, which is not peer-reviewed, at the 2015 American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Propulsion and Energy Forum and Exposition this week.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/impossible-propellantless-engine-appears-to-work-despite-breaking-laws-of-physics-20150728-gimlhr.html#ixzz3hGNKAIpJ

Motor Vehicles- Eco-Saviours of the World

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Because our lives are dominated by petroleum-fuelled motor vehicles we often overlook their tremendous contribution to our health, wealth and even to the environment. Yes, the motor vehicle, even in its pre-1970’s polluting state, catalysed huge improvements in urban living, cheaper and more sustainable food production and played a part in the reforestation of continents.

Far from being the evil machines portrayed by environmental activists, cars, trucks and other modern transportation methods make our environment much healtheir than it would otherwide be.

Pierre Desrochers writes:

The rise of petroleum-powered transport was an environmental boon.

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter is generally regarded as the most historically accurate book of her semi-autobiographical Little House on the Prairie series. The Long Winter tells the story of how the inhabitants of De Smet (present-day South Dakota) narrowly avoided starvation during the severe winter of 1880-81, when a series of blizzards dumped nearly three and a half metres of snow on the northern plains – immobilising trains and cutting off the settlers from the rest of the world. Faced with an imminent food shortage, Laura and her neighbours learned that a sizeable amount of wheat was available within 20 miles of their snow-covered houses. Her future husband, Almanzo Wilder, and a friend of his risked their lives in order to bring back enough food to sustain the townspeople through the rest of the winter. With the spring thaw, the railroad service was re-established and the Ingalls family enjoyed a long-delayed Christmas celebration in May.

The Long Winter is a valuable reminder of how lethal crop failures and geographical isolation could be before the advent of modern farming and transportation technologies. Not too long ago, subsistence farmers across the West had to cope with the ‘lean season’ – the period of greatest scarcity before the first availability of new crops. As some readers may know, in England the late spring (and especially the month of May) was once referred to as the ‘hungry gap’ and the ‘starving time’. One problem was the cost and difficulty of moving heavy things over often muddy and impracticable dirt roads; three centuries ago, moving a ton of goods over 50 kilometres on land between, say, Liverpool and Manchester was as expensive as shipping them across the north Atlantic.

The development of coal-powered railroads and steamships revolutionised the lives of our ancestors. Among other positive developments, landlocked farmers could now specialise in what they did best and rely on other farmers and producers for their remaining needs. The result was not only more abundant food at ever-cheaper prices, but the end of widespread famine and starvation, as the surplus from regions with good harvests could now be shipped to those that had experienced mediocre ones. (Of course, a region that experienced a bumper crop one year might have a mediocre one the next.)

In time, petroleum-derived products such as diesel, gasoline, kerosene (jet fuel) and bunker fuels (used in container ships) displaced coal because of their higher energy density, cleaner combustion and greater ease of extraction, handling, transport and storage. Nearly two thirds of the world’s refined petroleum products are now used in land, water and air transportation, accounting for nearly 95 per cent of all energy consumed in this sector. Despite much wishful thinking, there are simply no better alternatives to petroleum-powered transport at the moment. For instance, despite very generous governmental subsidies, battery electric, hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles have repeatedly failed to gain any meaningful market shares against gasoline-powered cars. This is because of their limited range and power, long charging time, bad performance in cold weather, security concerns (especially in collisions), and inadequate electricity production and delivery infrastructure.

While the convenience of cars is obvious, few people grasp their historical significance in terms of public health and environmental benefits.

Read the rest here

Apple Could Have Bailed Out Greece

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From the SMH:

Apple could have bailed Greece out twice

Date
July 14, 2015 – 12:16PM
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Hannah Francis

Technology Reporter

View more articles from Hannah Francis

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A deal reached overnight will allow Greece to stay in the Eurozone.

A deal reached overnight will allow Greece to stay in the Eurozone. Photo: AP

If you needed any more proof of the size of Apple’s pudding — and the absurd brand power the tech giant wields upon millions of iFans the world over — chew on this.

At last count, Apple had $US194 billion ($A262 billion) in cash and securities.

That’s enough to cover the €86 billion ($A128 billion) Greek bailout deal struck overnight twice over — with a cool $6 billion still left over to spend on gyros and ouzo.

Record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have fuelled Apple's stock price.

Record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have fuelled Apple’s stock price. Photo: Bloomberg

And it’s all thanks to the iPhone.

According to wealth management firm Canaccord Genuity, in the first quarter of 2015 Apple reaped a whopping 92 per cent of the total operating income of the top eight smartphone manufacturers in the world, The Wall Street Journal reports.

That’s a 65 per cent jump on the previous year, fuelled by the September 2014 release of the iPhone 6, which produced record sales.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has stepped up the company's charitable efforts, but they look tiny compared to its profits.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has stepped up the company’s charitable efforts, but they look tiny compared to its profits. Photo: Robert Galbraith

Apple’s biggest competitor, South Korean manufacturer Samsung, reaped 15 per cent of profits out of the top eight manufacturers.

(No, we’re not numerically challenged; Cannacord says Apple and Samsung’s combined profits exceed 100 per cent because some of the top eight makers actually lost money on smartphones, including HTC and Microsoft, which just sacked thousands of staff from its mobile division).

While we’re on the topic of charity, it’s worth noting that Apple isn’t selling more smartphones than its competitors — its just charging (arguably) extortionate prices.

Tim Cook's spare change could buy a Greek island or two.

Tim Cook’s spare change could buy a Greek island or two. Photo: NYT

In fact, it has less than 20 per cent of the global smartphone market, per unit sold.

Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi says market share is a contentious point for Apple because it’s often measured in terms of how many handsets are sold, rather than the total profit reaped.

“This piece of [Canaccord] research is exactly the way Apple likes to see its market share, rather than by units,” he says.

Apple’s iron grip on its supply chain and bulk buying power allows it to reduce the prices of components, while its cornering of the “premium” smartphone market means it can get away with charging top dollar.

Its less about ripping people off, Fadaghi says, and more about tapping into the allure of “status” — and consumers’ undying desire to pay for it.

“If you look at other luxury brands they don’t convey the message of being ripped off to their consumers,” he says.

Apple’s not all smartphones, it’s true — it sells a few MacBooks here or there — but its gargantuan share price primarily hinges on those very profitable iPhone sales, Fadaghi says.

Despite its healthy profit margins, Apple has been criticised in the past for not being more philanthropic, particularly under the leadership of late co-founder Steve Jobs.

Since Tim Cook stepped up as chief executive in 2011, however, the company has been a little more generous — a few mill here, a few mill there; including more than $US50 million for organisations promoting diversity in the technology sector, announced in March.

Cook himself is also opening up the purse strings, pledging to give his $1 billion fortune to charity.

It could buy quite a few Greek islands, but it’s not nearly enough to stop the Greek economy sinking into the Agaean.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/apple-could-have-bailed-greece-out-twice-20150714-gibljr.html#ixzz3fpri09oM

A Great Idea!

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From the ABC, news of a great innovation

Texting while driving: Australia could launch gadget to stop drivers sending SMS messages

By consumer affairs reporter Josie Taylor

Updated about an hour ago

The device fits into a port under the steering wheel of most car models made after 1996.PHOTO: The device fits into a port under the steering wheel of most car models made after 1996. (ABC News)
RELATED STORY: Double demerits for Queensland drivers on phones
RELATED STORY: Covert motorcycles to target distracted drivers over Easter
MAP: Australia

Australia could be the first country to launch a gadget that stops drivers from texting.

American Scott Tibbitts invented the device after he turned up to a business meeting in 2008, to discover the man he was supposed to meet had been killed by a texting driver.

“I got there and he’d been killed a couple of hours before,” Mr Tibbitts said.

“It started this process of thinking, ‘what’s the solution going to be?'”

Mr Tibbitts is a technology entrepreneur based in Colorado who previously made space parts used by NASA.

He is in Australia this week negotiating with major telecommunications and insurance companies about a local release of his invention.

It is a small device that fits into a port under the steering wheel of most car models made after 1996.

It connects the car to the internet, and can then block the driver from receiving distractions on their mobile phone, such as text messages.

Would you use this device to help stop you becoming distracted by your mobile phone while driving?

“They are basically held for you while you drive and then they don’t end up on your phone,” he said.

“You won’t get anything that distracts you with a little bing.”

It’s kind of a breakthrough technology … we think it will go some ways towards improving driver behaviour.

Hollard Insurance chief operating officer Richard Heilig

The driver can customise what they do or do not receive while they are driving.

For example, phone calls can be blocked, but GPS and music functions can still operate.

When drivers turn the engine off, their messages come through.

Passengers’ phones are not affected.

Insurers could offer discounts to drivers who use device

About one-third of all drivers admit to texting and driving, despite it being illegal.

About two thirds of drivers under-25 admit to doing it.

“We see an increasing amount of claims where the accident is likely to have been caused by drivers texting,” Hollard Insurance chief operating officer Richard Heilig said.

He confirmed Hollard Insurance, which includes Woolworths Insurance and Medibank Private, was in discussions with Mr Tibbitts about his invention.

“It’s kind of a breakthrough technology … we think it will go some ways towards improving driver behaviour,” Mr Heilig said.

His company could potentially offer discounts to drivers who use a device that reduces distractions.

Scott Tippitts is negotiating with major telecommunications and insurance companies about a local release of his invention.PHOTO: Scott Tippitts is negotiating with major telecommunications and insurance companies about a local release of his invention.

Telephone networks are crucial to the device operating, and the ABC understands Telstra and Optus are also involved in negotiations.

“We’re talking to multiple telcos and [having] discussions with what the partnership looks like, and working towards having pilot [programs] roll out this year,” Mr Tibbitts said.

“If things were to go as we hope, it’s possible we’d have a product that deploys here before the end of the year.”

There are already phone apps available that perform the same function.

VicRoads, for example, has Road Mode, which disables text messages and silences incoming calls.

Like Mr Tibbitts’ device, people trying to contact the driver receive an automated text message telling them the person is driving.

However, phone apps have to be manually turned on and off every time and can drain the phone battery on long drives.

About 8,500 people have downloaded the VicRoads app since it was introduced in 2013.

Leap Second: Necessity or Disaster?

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From the ABC:

Leap second: Is one second difference in time too much?

 

The world is set to experience a leap secondPHOTO: The world is set to experience a leap second, but experts debate whether it is necessary or not.

(ABC News: Kathleen Dyett)
RELATED STORY: Warning issued over addition of leap second to world’s clocks
RELATED STORY: Leap second to make 2015 longer

Question: When is a minute not a minute?

Answer: At 2359 Greenwich Mean Time today (9:59am AEST Wednesday), when the world will experience a minute that will last 61 seconds.

The reason for the weird event is something called the leap second.

That’s when timekeepers adjust high-precision clocks so that they are in sync with Earth’s rotation, which is affected by the gravitational tug of the Sun and the Moon.

Few of the planet’s 7.25 billion people are likely to be aware of the change and even fewer will have set plans for how they will spend the extra moment.

But for horologists, or timekeepers, the additional second is a big deal and there is a wrangle as to whether it is vital or should be scrapped.

Service of the Rotation of the Earth (SRE) director Daniel Gambis admits “there is a downside”, the poetically named branch of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), is in charge of saying when the second should be added.

The leap second is not something that needs to be added to that old clock on your mantlepiece, but instead its importance is for super-duper timepieces, especially those using the frequency of atoms as their tick-tock mechanism.

At the top of the atomic-clock range are “optical lattices” using strontium atoms, the latest example of which, unveiled in April, is accurate to 15 billion years – longer than the Universe has existed.

Outside the lab, caesium and rubidium clocks are the workhorses of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, which have to send synchronised signals so that sat-nav receivers can triangulate their position on Earth.

On Earth, big-data computers may be less manic than atomic clocks but still need highly precise internal timers.

The internet, for instance, sends data around the world in tiny packets that are then stitched together in micro-seconds.

Some algorithms in financial trading count on gaining a tiny slice of a second over rivals to make a profit.

There have been 25 occasions since 1971 when the leap second was added in an effort to simplify Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the official moniker for GMT.

But over the last 15 years, a debate has intensified about whether the change should be made, given the hassle.

Roland Lehoucq of France’s Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) said critics argue it has become difficult to manage given the amount of equipment today that has internal clocks.

“The problem is synchronisation between computers. They do sort things out, but sometimes it can take several days,” he said.

Full story here

Great Moments in Technology

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I produced my first training video today- 15 minutes of me talking about stuff that ministers need to know when conducting weddings. Riveting stuff.

Producing it was a real patience tester for me!

We bought a video camera a year ago so I thought that would do the job- except the batteries were flat and the SD card has disappeared.

Then I remembered my trusty Canon camera does pretty good video. So I set it up and found that indeed it does work well.

I recorded my thing, and came up with a 15 minute video. The phone only rang once in the middle of it, so not too bad for interruptions.

Then the technical problems started piling in on me.

The file wouldn’t download to the computer via USB. I had to remove the memory card and put it into the card reader.

I wanted to trim off some bits at the beginning and the end- you know, where I reach to the camera to turn it on and then cough because that’s always the first thing you do when you’re recording a video.

That bit took over 2 hours. I tried several programs, and not one of them would simply let me select a section and hit “delete”. One of them would let me do that but then have the sound and the video out of sync. Another program told me “I’m not going to do the sound on this one.” Grrr.

Eventually I figured it out with some help from Mr Google. But somewhere along the line I deleted the “Documents” folder on my computer. Luckily I am fanatical about weekly backups, so I only lost a few vital documents. I have got no idea how that could even have happened.

Now I had a .avi file that was over 2 GB- way too big to upload to Youtube or Vimeo (and there’s something else I had to research and make a choice about!).

It turns out that handbrake, which is brilliant for ripping DVDs is also pretty good at taking your avi file and converting it into a mp4 or similar. My 2 G file shrank to 220 MB which is slowly crawling up through the tubes to Vimeo. We seem to have really slow internet this evening- but that’s just another annoyance to overcome. 🙂

So what I thought would be a great way to deliver training was a little more complicated than I expected. The learning curve was indeed steep.

Next time I might have some space in my brain to add some captions and maybe an opening clip of some sort. For now, I’m happy to have got to the end of the project.

Skylon Space Plane

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This is just breath-taking. I was blown away by the thought of a heat exchanger cooling air from 1000 degrees to 150 in a few hundredths of a second. You can take the man out of chemical engineering….

From The Week

Skylon space plane ‘could reach Sydney in four hours’

Skylon space plane

Approval for British Sabre jet engine marks another step towards hypersonic Skylon passenger plane

​​​​The European Space Agency has given its approval to technology developed by a British firm which could transform space travel – and lead to the development of an airliner capable of taking 300 passengers from Europe to Australia in four hours.

The Skylon aircraft is still at the theoretical stage, but the government is funding its development.

Reaction Engines Ltd, based in Oxfordshire, has developed a new type of jet engine, known as Sabre (Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine), which they say could power the space plane. The company has not yet built a full version of the engine, but it has constructed a critical component.

The heat exchanger made by Reaction is the key to the new technology, says The Independent. It cools air from 1,000C to 150C in one hundredth of a second, allowing the engine to use air as fuel, rather than oxygen from a tank.

Existing space rockets must carry tanks of oxygen with them – and the weight slows everything down. Reaction believe their new technology could make space travel 95 per cent cheaper.

The latest development is that the ESA have looked at Reaction’s data and agreed that the heat exchange technology is viable and workable. The next stage is to build working prototype of the full Sabre engine.

Last year, says the Daily Mail, the government announced it was investing £60m in building just such a prototype.

The Sabre technology could make space travel much cheaper and easier, allowing a jet aircraft to carry satellites and other spacecraft beyond the earth’s atmosphere before returning to the planet below. It could also be used to transport passengers quickly between distant locations on earth.

Reaction have designed an aircraft, the Skylon, which would use Sabre engines to carry 300 passengers from Europe to Australia within four hours. They hope to launch it as soon as 2019.

Read more: 

Fusion Power Within A Decade?

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I have to admit I am somewhat sceptical about the timeline of an operational fusion plant within ten years but, if true, this has the capacity to transform the world with cheap, non-polluting energy within decades.

From businessinsider.com:

LOCKHEED: We Made A Huge Breakthrough In Nuclear Fusion

sunNASA/Solar Dynamics ObservatoryNuclear fusion is the energy that powers stars.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade.

Tom McGuire, who heads the project, said he and a small team had been working on fusion energy at Lockheed‘s secretive Skunk Works for about four years, but were now going public to find potential partners in industry and government for their work.

Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire told reporters.

In a statement, the company, the Pentagon’s largest supplier, said it would build and test a compact fusion reactor in less than a year, and build a prototype in five years.

In recent years, Lockheed has gotten increasingly involved in a variety of alternate energy projects, including several ocean energy projects, as it looks to offset a decline in U.S. and European military spending.

Lockheed‘s work on fusion energy could help in developing new power sources amid increasing global conflicts over energy, and as projections show there will be a 40 percent to 50 percent increase in energy use over the next generation, McGuire said.

If it proves feasible, Lockheed‘s work would mark a key breakthrough in a field that scientists have long eyed as promising, but which has not yet yielded viable power systems. The effort seeks to harness the energy released during nuclear fusion, when atoms combine into more stable forms.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/andrea-shalal-lockheed-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-2014-10#ixzz3IzNACGN6

Six Ways Your Phone Is Changing You- Tony Reinke

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Did you know your smart phone is changing the way you think, the way you relate and the way you worship? A thought-provoking article from Tony Reinke.

 

Six Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

July 19, 2014

 

 

Six Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld Expo 2007, and I got my first one a year later. I can’t remember life without it.

For seven years an iPhone has always been within my reach, there to wake me in the morning, there to play my music library, there to keep my calendar, there to capture my life in pics and video, there for me to enjoy sling-shooting wingless birds into enemy swine, there as my ever-present portal to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

My iPhone is such a part of my daily life, I rarely think self-reflectively about it. That’s precisely what concerns David Wells, 75, a careful thinker who has watched trends in the church for many decades.

Wells asks Christians to consider the consequences of the smartphone. “What is it doing to our minds when we are living with this constant distraction?” he said recently in an interview. “We are, in fact, now living with a parallel universe, a virtual universe that can take all of the time we have. So what happens to us when we are in constant motion, when we are addicted to constant visual stimulation? What happens to us? That is the big question.”

That’s a huge question. What is life like now because of the smartphone? How has the iPhone changed us? These self-reflective questions may seem daunting, but we must ask them.

Read the full article here