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Monday, May 6, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Drive to make energy cleaner has stalled. Shale gas could help.
Average unit of energy is 'basically as dirty' as two decades ago, says new IEA report, despite boom in renewables. Among its recommendations: Encourage move from coal to gas by developing unconventional gas.?
A natural gas drilling rig casts a shadow on a residence near Remuda Ranch Estates in Parker County, Texas. In Texas, shale gas and renewable energy sources work together to reduce carbon emissions. A new IEA study says shale gas could help make world's energy cleaner.
Courtesy of Kathy Chruscielski/File
EnlargeAs usual, the real news belongs to a couple of things you may have missed this week.
Skip to next paragraph Nick Grealyis a shale gas consultant and publisher of No Hot Air, a forum on energy issues published from Britain that follows the emergence of shale gas around the world.?For more of his insights, click?here.
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One, at first completely unrelated to energy, but of major consequence to everything else was the ?discovery that the Reinhart/Rogoff?economic study that underpinned austerity economics world-wise had a key error in it.You couldn?t make this up. Reinhart and Rogoff certainly didn?t but they did make two key errors in the 2010 economic study that was cited world-wide as the reason why governments should cut back spending during the recession instead of spending their way out. In short, it was all down to an Excel error and leaving some key information out. This was easy to miss due to the newsflow from Boston and Texas, but seek this amazing story out or go directly to Paul Krugman in the NY Times?or just one of several places in the FT. Think of this as paradigm shift equal to that of shale energy, only bigger and quicker.
The second story was within an IEA report last week Tracking Clean Energy Progress Reduction. Or, as we see from?the Guardian, the complete lack of it:
What Is the Prettiest Gadget You Own?
Beautiful design isn't good design, and even the prettiest gadgets can still suck. But all that said, there's something to be said for devices that are just easy on the eyes, and if they're good too, that's a bonus. Show us the prettiest gadget you've got hanging around. Or, if you're living in a trash-heap or something, what's the prettiest one you aspire to someday own?
Source: http://gizmodo.com/what-is-the-prettiest-gadget-you-own-491022320
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Saturday, May 4, 2013
Samsung releases new Galaxy S4 commercial, targets the iPhone. Well.
Samsung has just released a new commercial for their new flagship phone, the Galaxy S4... and it's pretty good. The sheer size of the Galaxy S4 is evident in the ad, as are features like Drama Mode, which lets you capture a series of images -- think multi-exposure sports pics -- and Air Gestures that let you navigate without touching the screen with sticky -- in this case tasty rib covered -- fingers. Some of the other features, like Hover, which feels like a terrible violation of Fitts' law, and S Beam, which is like Bump over NFC, are a tad more gimmicky, and more demo-ware than software, but they come off okay in commercials for just that reason. (Samsung even suggests their screens support smell capture, which was probably a bad idea since injecting farce into an otherwise real, if strange, feature set only creates confusion.)
Samsung's also packing a one-two punch here: not only are they showing off what they consider to be feature differentiation, they're doing their best to make Apple and the iPhone look lame by comparison. Previously they attacked iPhone owners, which probably wasn't the best of ideas. Now the focus is more squarely on the iPhone as a product. Also, unlike the nowhere nearly as good Nokia Windows Phone commercial, they're doing it without promoting Apple's brand.
Apple has incredible brand power and image, and people want to own Apple stuff because of it. Every strength is a weakness as well, however, and attacking the brand, trying to make it seem like Apple is not as advanced or cool anymore, is an effective strategy. It makes Apple seem vincible.
So how does Apple counter-program assaults on its brand image? Does it make a similar commercial showing the Galaxy S4 not fitting in skinny hipster jean pockets, not working well one handed, harming eyes with vintage Soviet-era interface utilitarianism, and piquing frustration through seemingly random and unfathomable feature sets?
I'm not a huge fan of the GS4 in general. I find it too big, too plastic, and too incoherent as a product compared to other offerings on the market. But I do appreciate the sheer amount of technology, both hardware and software, Samsung is putting behind the GS4. Apple tends to be very conservative. Samsung is the opposite of that. They push out as many ideas as they can, as quickly as they can, and while not all of those ideas will be good, the ones that are will likely get picked up faster because of it. Sort of like the PCs of old.
Along those lines, it'd be fun to see Samsung as the new "beige box" of computing -- "I'm an iPhone... and I'm an Android phone...." That might make for an amazing call-back. Yet despite their phenomenal global sales, Samsung is still trailing Apple in the US market, and until that changes, we'll probably see Apple stick to subtler, more powerful commercials like their recent ad Photos Every Day.
Samsung has marketing dollars in the billions. They're going to keep pushing the Galaxy S4, and they're going to keep doing it at Apple's expense. So far, Apple hasn't spent nearly as much on commercials, nor focused anywhere nearly as overtly on Samsung. Check out the Samsung ad above and let me know what you think of it in the comments below. With Samsung targeting Apple's image, should Apple fight back and how?
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Ve8RLF6_x0o/story01.htm
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Telling time on Saturn
Friday, May 3, 2013
A University of Iowa undergraduate student has discovered that a process occurring in Saturn's magnetosphere is linked to the planet's seasons and changes with them, a finding that helps clarify the length of a Saturn day and could alter our understanding of the Earth's magnetosphere.
Saturn's magnetosphere is the third largest structure in the solar system, eclipsed only by the magnetic fields of the sun and Jupiter. Unlike Earth, which has a visible rocky surface and rotates once every 24 hours, Saturn is composed mostly of clouds and liquid gas layers, each rotating about the planet at its own rate of speed. This variation in rotation made it difficult for scientists to pin down time for the planet.
Decades ago, a strong and naturally occurring radio signal, called Saturn kilometric radiation (SKR), was believed to give an accurate measurement of a Saturn day. But data gathered by an ESA/NASA spacecraft proved otherwise.
Now, using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which entered orbit around Saturn in 2004, UI space physicist Donald Gurnett and other scientists showed that the north and south poles have their own SKR "days" that vary over periods of weeks and years. How these different periods arise and are driven through the magnetosphere has become a central question of the Cassini mission, according to NASA officials.
The discovery by Tim Kennelly, a UI junior majoring in physics and astronomy, is one of the first direct observations of seasonal changes in Saturn's magnetosphere. In addition, the finding carries over to all planets having a magnetosphere, including Earth.
"I'm pleased to have contributed to our understanding of Saturn's magnetosphere so early in my career," says Kennelly, the lead author of the paper published online in the American Geophysical Union's (AGU) Journal of Geophysical Research. "I hope this trend continues."
Scientists have known for some time that Saturn's magnetospheric processes are linked together, from the activity generating the SKR emission relatively near the planet to the periodic signatures in Saturn's magnetosphere stretching millions of miles downstream in the planet's magnetotail. But they didn't know how they were linked.
Kennelly analyzed phenomena recorded between July 2004 and December 2011 by Cassini's UI-built Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument and came to some novel conclusions about how the events are linked. First, he looked at inward-moving "flux tubes" composed of hot, electrically charged gas, called plasma. Focusing on the tubes when they initially formed and before they had a chance to dissipate under the influence of the magnetosphere, he found that the occurrence of the tubes correlates with activity in the northern and southern hemisphere depending upon the season.
Kennelly found that during winter in the northern hemisphere, the occurrence of flux tubes correlates with SKR period originating in the northern hemisphere. A similar flux tube and SKR correlation was noted for the southern hemisphere during southern winter. The events are strongly ordered, he says, and follow Saturn's seasonal changes.
This finding may alter how scientists look at the Earth's magnetosphere and the Van Allen radiation belts that affect a variety of activities at Earth ranging from space flight safety to satellite and cell phone communications.
Commenting on his research experience, Kennelly says, "I'm really happy with the support I've received from Don Gurnett's group. They let me do a lot of the research on my own. I'm really appreciative." He adds that he will begin applying to graduate schools next semester and plans to earn his doctorate in plasma physics.
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University of Iowa: http://www.uiowa.edu
Thanks to University of Iowa for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128124/Telling_time_on_Saturn
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Why the Air Force Flies 50-Year-Old Tankers
The cause of the U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker crash in northern Kyrgyzstan today?and the fate of the crew of three?is unknown at this time. But today?s news is likely to reopen questions over why the United States is dependent on aircraft that were developed in the 1950s to extend the range of its warplanes, and what is being done to replace an aircraft that the Air Force acknowledges uses obsolete parts and aged avionics.
The answers to both questions are troubling. The Pentagon tried to replace its aging fleet of tankers in 2001, but scandal and industrial disputes derailed the effort. Even now, a dozen years later, we?re not even close. The Air Force now has 418 KC-135 tankers in its inventory, but only 178 replacements will be ready to fly in 2028. That means these old birds will be flying for quite some time?until 2040?a fact that forced the Air Force to embark on a recently concluded upgrade to extend the life of the KC-135 fleet.
That effort, which ended in April, added a digital flight director, a radar altimeter, an electronic engine instrument display, and Automatic Flight Control System to the aircraft. None of these safety enhancements were on the KC-135 that crashed this week. But if weather or visibility was a factor, the radar altimeter could have been particularly helpful to provide ground proximity warning.
Here?s what?s at stake. The United States is a powerhouse of power projection?the ability to move people and material across the globe exactly when needed. Every branch of the military uses KC-135s operated (mostly) by National Guard units to extend the range of their aircraft, because fuel is the true limit on an aircraft?s range and ability to stay overhead. Need an A-10 Warthog to stay overhead long enough to support Army units on the ground? Want a B-2 Spirit to take off from Missouri and spook North Korea? Require an MV-22 Osprey to bring Marines far inland without fighting for a beachhead? You need a refueling tanker.
The U.S. has known for years that an aging fleet of tankers could be a weak link in American defense planning. In a 2004 report, the General Accountability Office?noted that its investigators "reviewed the aerial refueling fleet in 1996 and found that KC-135 aircraft were aging and becoming increasingly costly to maintain and operate." At the time, the Air Force had a plan to keep the KC-135s flying until about 2030. But once Congress expressed an interest in the airplanes, the Air Force?s mood shifted from complacency to urgency?it wanted the refuelers in service by 2013.?"The Air Force stated that the urgency was due to growing operating and support costs, declining aircraft availability, and an increasing possibility that a fleet-wide grounding event would prevent continued operation of the KC-135," the GAO report said.
Then, during the 2000s, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan showed that urgency was founded. Twin wars demonstrated how vital tankers are to an extended fight program, and showed the heavy toll that a fast pace of operations could place on the fleet. Congress backed the tanker replacement program as a no-brainer, but something terrible happened on the way to the flight line?the Washington, D.C., procurement process.
Boeing won the contract for a new tanker, but in 2003 the deal fell apart amid allegations of crooked contracting. One former Air Force official and the Boeing executive who hired her were both given jail sentences. The contract was reopened, closed, reopened, disputed by others in the industry who?d lost the contract, and subjected to General Accountability Office review and political speeches. At the end of the day?and at the end of the decade?the KC-135s were still flying with no replacement in sight. (Amazingly, the Air Force keeps them at about an 80 percent mission readiness level.)
Boeing, the original victor, emerged as the winner of a $35 billion contract for 179 new tankers, called the KC-46. (That amount does not include future maintenance and parts, which could reach $100 billion.) ?"Our number one acquisition priority in Air Mobility Command?and it remains the Air Force?s number one priority?is making sure the KC-46 tanker delivers on time," USAF Gen. Paul Selva, head of AMC said recently. "And on cost."
With luck, the new aircraft will be ready in 2028. That leaves hundreds of KC-135s still in the fleet, serving as the aged backbone of future military operations until 2040. And all the while, the cost to maintain and repair the aircraft rises, not to mention the cost of keeping them safe to fly.
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