The Holy Grail for Electric Cars

From article, (“Instead of refining petroleum, the refiners would reprocess spent electrolytes and instead of dispensing gas, the fueling stations would dispense a water and ethanol or methanol solution as fluid electrolytes to power vehicles,” Cushman said. “Users would be able to drop off the spent electrolytes at gas stations, which would then be sent in bulk to solar farms, wind turbine installations or hydroelectric plants for reconstitution or re-charging into the viable electrolyte and reused)

Me, "It sounds like a way for the gasoline industry to save money by reusing current gasoline infrastructure to power an electric car. You would create a liquid electrolyte substance at a refinery, (water, and ethanol, or methanol solution) that can use current Gasoline infrastructure: Pipelines, Refineries, Gasoline tanker trucks, gas stations, and new solar and wind plants, to power electric cars.
There would still need to be a way of pumping out the used liquid substance. 

Maybe a grate under the car, to allow the electrolyte to be released into a gas station holding tank, like they do during oil changes. Then like gasoline, pump, the new recharged liquid electrolyte into the electric cars fuel tank. The used liquid substance that is collected, is returned to a recharging center to start the process again. (A Solar or Wind Farm.)

This idea seems to solve the recharge time issue, Battery life, and it reuses the Gasoline infrastructure. (Which saves the gasoline industries current investments.) Gasoline stations would need a few tweaks to it, instead of having to find places to plug in and wait for a recharge you would continue going to your local gas station.
It would reduce the cost of an electric car because no longer would you be forced to buy the most expensive part of an electric car, the battery. With this process you never have to worry about the battery ever going bad because every fill up is like getting a new battery.
What the researchers need to do, if this process is to get put in to production, is to get a major car manufacturer on board and the current oil industry on board. If they get a major car manufacturer to produce electric cars that use this system, then just by economics, the cost of the battery will be 0 and so the cost of an electric car will be much less. If this turns out to be the correct way to go, other car companies would get on board.
There is no way this system will pan out without major car companies on board and oil companies on board."
But this could be a way of saving the oil industries assets, refineries, and gas station infrastructure  and making electric cars cheaper then they are today. Even cheaper than (ICE) Internal combustion engines cars. The price could even end up being as low as an (ICE) motorcycle."

'Instantly rechargeable' battery could change the future of electric and hybrid automobiles

Seasonal allergies, Allergic food reactions, and Asthma cured; thanks to new ground breaking research.

From article, (A single treatment giving life-long protection from severe allergies such as asthma could be made possible by immunology research at The University of Queensland.

A team led by Associate Professor Ray Steptoe at the UQ Diamantina Institute has been able to ‘turn-off’ the immune response which causes allergic reaction in animals.

“When someone has an allergy or asthma flare-up, the symptoms they experience results from immune cells reacting to protein in the allergen,” Professor Steptoe said.

“The challenge in asthma and allergies is that these immune cells, known as T-cells, develop a form of immune ‘memory’ and become very resistant to treatments.

“We have now been able ‘wipe’ the memory of these T-cells in animals with gene therapy, de-sensitizing the immune system so that it tolerates the protein.

“Our work used an experimental asthma allergen, but this research could be applied to treat those who have severe allergies to peanuts, bee venom, shell fish and other substances.”

Dr Steptoe said the findings would be subject to further pre-clinical investigation, with the next step being to replicate results using human cells in the laboratory.”

“We take blood stem cells, insert a gene which regulates the allergen protein and we put that into the recipient.

“Those engineered cells produce new blood cells that express the protein and target specific immune cells, ‘turning off’ the allergic response.”

Dr Steptoe said the eventual goal would be a single injected gene therapy, replacing short-term treatments that target allergy symptoms with varying degrees of effectiveness.

“We haven’t quite got it to the point where it’s as simple as getting a flu jab, so we are working on making it simpler and safer so it could be used across a wide cross-section of affected individuals,” Dr Steptoe said.

“At the moment, the target population might be those individuals who have severe asthma or potentially lethal food allergies.”)

Gene therapy turns off severe allergies in animals and could eventually cure humans of allergies and asthma | NextBigFuture.com

Why U.S Missile Defense is not A Threat to China and Russia and is actually a Benefit

From article, (The Pentagon's successful interceptor missile defense test this week is seen as a step toward reducing the nuclear risk from North Korea, but now China and Russia are seeing the U.S. technology as a threat.
During Tuesday's test, the U.S. military intercepted a mock intercontinental ballistic missile target fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California during a test of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, system.
Besides California, the U.S. also has the GMD system deployed at Fort Greely in Alaska. The interceptor test took place a day after the North Korean regime fired its ninth ballistic missile test this year.
Tuesday was only the 10th successful test out of 17 conducted since 1999. This week's test also was the first live-fire test against a simulated ICBM target.
The test is seen as a sign the U.S. military is making progress to combat the mainland U.S. threat from North Korea. Still, the use of numerous decoy missiles or countermeasures by an enemy could overwhelm or confuse the interceptor system and render it useless.
Russia and China already have developed countermeasures to increase the chance of a missile reaching a target. And the North Koreans also are believed to be developing similar capabilities, which creates additional national security concerns given Pyongyang's rapid advances in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
There's an expectation that U.S. adversaries will intensify efforts to counter the GMD and other missile defense technology. Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted as much Thursday
"The enhancement of America's missile defense capability will, in theory, undermine the effectiveness [and] efficacy of nuclear strikes launched by its main strategic rivals, thus consolidating its own domination," according to an op-ed Thursday on the Chinese military's official web portal.
China believes the systems "will also stimulate other countries to develop strategic penetration technology at a faster pace or enhance their own strategic defense capability, which will exert a new impact on international security."
"They believe they were put in a situation where they are going to have to counter that, and that's the age-old story of military capability," he said.
The U.S. hopes to have a total of 44 GMD interceptors available by the end of the calendar year, up from 36 today, but even with that amount there may not be enough interceptors to take out more than a dozen incoming ICBMs, according to experts. A group of senators last month introduced a bipartisan bill that seeks to bolster homeland missile defense and sharply increase the number of interceptors.
The U.S. missile agency has received more than $120 billion since 2002 on the GMD missile defense system and it plans to spend an additional $37 billion through 2021 to further develop capabilities, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last month.
Laser weapons also show promise as part of a missile defense system. They have already been tested in manned aircraft and now development is underway in drones.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency's "long-term goal is to deploy lasers on high-altitude, long-endurance UAV platforms to destroy ICBMs in the boost phase at long standoff ranges," according to spokesman Chris Johnson.
That said, Karako indicated that the laser-based UAV weapon would only be useful for the boost phase of a ballistic missile when it's most vulnerable and rising. The laser probably wouldn't be reliable to kill the missile warhead on its re-entry since at that phase it is designed to withstand intense heat.)

Me, "Missile Defense is not a threat to any nation. Why? Let's look at history. The U.S. developed the atomic bomb. Russia and China soon followed with their own atomic bombs. The U.S. developed the fusion bomb, Russia and China soon followed with their own.
 So what can be learned? 
For every defensive weapons system other countries follow with their own. So, U.S. missile defense is just the next step in that process. The U.S. will figure out a way of coming up with an effective missile defense and then Russia and China will follow. Weapon systems beget Weapon systems. It's just the nature of things.
Missile defense will not give a country the upper hand for long. However, it will keep MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) in affect because no country would be able to win a future war. There would always be uncertainty of being able to win; keeping countries at bay, and continuing business as usual. 
Missile defense is really a program that will benefit all countries in the future. Not so much to prevent nuclear weapons from reaching their targets but as a way of learning how to intercept and deflect an incoming harmful to Earth asteroid, if, there is one out there. "  

US missile defense triggers alarm in Russia, China as North Korea issues new warnings

Politics is Politics even when it comes to Elon Musk...

From article, (Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that if President Donald Trump follows through on pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate change agreement, he'd "have no choice" but to cut off his participation in White House business councils.

POLITICO and others have reported that Trump is expected to withdraw the U.S. from the climate agreement.

 Musk has emerged as the Trump White House's go-to tech industry executive. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has taken part, for example, in the so-called "President’s Strategic and Policy Forum."

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down from that group in February after a public backlash, including from inside the technology industry. At the time, Musk decided to stay involved, saying, "I believe at this time that engaging on critical issues will on balance serve the greater good." Musk's threatened break with Trump comes as the White House is trying to bring tech CEOs and other executives to Washington on June 19 for a day-long summit on modernizing government technology, cybersecurity, immigration and other topics.)

Me, "Elon Musk's departure as a participant in White House business Councils has nothing to do with President Trump's pulling out of the Paris Climate Treaty. Musk is just looking for a reason to leave. He thought he could influence Trump into giving SpaceX contracts that would help SpaceX build its Interplanetary spacecraft. When Pres. Trump didn't, and instead approved NASA's budget without giving anything to SpaceX, Musk probably decided it was time to leave and he wanted to do it on his terms. By saying he is going to leave if Pres. Trump pulls the U.S. out of the Paris Climate treaty, he saves face with his fan base. His fan base did not like the fact that he stayed associated with Trump's administration when Trump tried to ban Muslim people from the Middle East from coming into the U.S. Elon Musk did not want to show weakness then that the will of the people forced him to leave. But Trump pulling out of the Climate Treaty would allow him to leave on his own terms." Elon Musk: Paris deal departure would force break with Trump

SpaceX May Make History Again.

From article, (SpaceX took a big step toward a fully reusable launch system earlier this year by re-flying a used Falcon 9 booster, and it is making progress toward eventually recovering the rocket's upper stage and payload fairing. Now, the company is set to try to recover another key component of its space hardware—a Dragon cargo spacecraft. The launch window for the supply mission opens on Thursday, June 1, at 5:55pm ET (10:55pm BST).

This particular Dragon spacecraft was sent to the International Space Station in September 2014, and it delivered nearly 2.5 tons of cargo to the orbiting laboratory. The Dragon returned to Earth about a month later, splashing down into the ocean. It is not clear how much processing SpaceX has had to undertake to ready the spacecraft for its second flight to the station, nor has the company released a cost estimate. It also had to manufacture a new "trunk," the unpressurized rear section of the vehicle, and solar panels.

Although the company has never placed a hard dollar value on the Dragon, the savings could be considerable. SpaceX received a contract worth $1.6 billion from NASA for 12 cargo supply missions to the station in 2008—about $130 million per flight. That would have included the cost of the booster, of course, so therefore an individual Dragon spacecraft is likely valued at between $20 million to $60 million.

No private company has ever reflown an orbital spacecraft, of course, and so SpaceX can make history on Thursday with its launch from Kennedy Space Center. If successful, it should help SpaceX transition its Dragon production line to the crew variant of the vehicle, Dragon 2. This upgraded spacecraft could begin carrying astronauts to the station as early as next year, but likely won't begin service until 2019.)

Me, "Reuse is a very important part of space travel. If done right, it can lead to cheaper access to space. If done wrong, it can cost way to much to justify continued flights.

SpaceX set to join rare company by re-flying an orbital spacecraft

The first steps to a flying car...

From article, (The Kitty Hawk Flyer is a sort of a flying car except it’s not a car at all – it’s much more like a flying ATV, which is probably more legitimately all-terrain than most. Linguistics aside, it’s a very cool piece of tech that’s backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, and it’s already in the ‘working prototype’ phase of development.

Business Insider got a peek behind the curtain at what it’s like to source and train test pilots for the first Kitty Hawker Flyers that can actually fly, and Kitty Hawk provided a clip featuring interviews with some of its demonstration staff. These people were selected from a range of backgrounds for their very particular skill sets, which included not just piloting know-how, but also a general love for sports and aerial activities like paragliding.

Amazingly, though each pilot got a personalized training program to get them comfortable with the experience, the basic controls are very similar to gaming with an Xbox controller, according to the BI interview. In the video above, pilots describe a moment when it all comes together and they ‘get it’ with regards to controls, so to speak.

Kitty Hawk aims to actually ship Flyers sometime later this year, and based on the clear enthusiasm of these early testers, more than a few extreme sports enthusiasts will want to pony up for an early unit.)

Me, "The first steps to a flying car."

Watch Kitty Hawk's early test pilots learn to love the flying motorbike

Another Internet Search Company another Self-Driving program. Only this time, its from a Russian Company.

From article, (Russia search and internet technology giant Yandex is showing off the self-driving vehicle prototype developed by its Yandex.Taxi on-demand ride service for the first time, and the video above is the first footage of the car in action. The prototype is meant to help Yandex test its software, which the company thinks it’s uniquely well-positioned to develop for this emerging space.

Yandex notes that it has navigation, geolocation, computer vision, and machine learning expertise from other ongoing products and services, including Yandex.Navigator and Yandex.Maps.

“We use anonymised data that we receive from Yandex.Navigator users, which allows us to understand how to drive in a city with its traffic congestion, accidents, speed limits, road closures and other traffic events,” Yandex.Taxi Head of PR Vladimir Isaev explained via email. “We have been using computer vision technologies in a number of our services for quite a while. We use them to find vacant parking spaces or read road signs, for instance, in our geolocation services.”

you may have noticed the lingering shot on that Nvidia GTX GPU in the car, as well as that Velodyne LiDAR unit up top: Yandex says it’s using its own “custom-built” hardware as well as mass market, generally available components for now, but it’s in talks with partners regarding the creation of fit-for-purpose automotive grade hardware down the road.

The vehicle in the video isn’t yet navigating real city streets, but Yandex says that testing is coming on public roads within a year, if all goes as planned. It’s too early yet for any projections regarding commercial service availability, however, Isaev tells me. Eventually, the company hopes to partner with car manufacturers and others looking to bring autonomous vehicles to market.)

Me, "Another Search and Internet company, Russian giant Yandex is getting in on Self-Driving cars. The more companies funding research into Self-Driving cars, the better off the driving public will be. If one company fails at it, there are more out there to take over."

Yandex's on-demand taxi service debuts its self-driving car project,

How a new word is born...

From article, (Covfefe: sometimes it takes something special to make you step back and realize the state of the world you live in.

That’s what happened this Tuesday evening in the U.S. when President Trump gifted the internet a very unexpected present: the covfefe meme.

Within an hour of the misspelled word going out in a tweet to his 31 million followers, “covfefe” had become Twitter’s No. 1 trending hashtag worldwide. It is even trending in countries outside of the U.S.

At the time of writing, the tweet was sent one hour ago and still had not been deleted. Over that period, it racked up nearly 35,000 retweets and over 42,000 likes.

As you’d expect, Twitter users — one of the internet’s most enthusiastic meme-loving communities — seized on the error, which has become the source of much comedy.

Update: The President has now deleted the original tweet, but then made light of his error with another 140 character missive.)

Me, "It just goes to show you, if you are popular and you misspell a word or miss pronounce a word, you can create a whole new word. This has been shown time and again with different languages. Latin, Spanish, French, Italian. German, English, all share words, they are just spelled and pronounced differently. The reasoning being as people spread out around Europe their pronouncement of words kept changing and whole new languages formed. While Pres. Trump, made a mistake in typing out a word, meant to be 'coverage' and it came out Covfefe.  It shows how new words are created everyday. And once you get enough people saying it, it ends up in a dictionary."

With one misspelled word, President Trump gifts Twitter the #covfefe meme

Not too Big, Not too Small.

From article, (smartphone screen size sweet-spot looks firmly settled at between 5 and 6 inches for the foreseeable future. At least until the computing paradigm shifts again — and some kind of socially acceptable wearable manages to lift everyone’s eyes off attention-sucking glass slabs with an augmented vista of the real world instead. At least that’s one theory.

it’s expecting the vast bulk of the smartphone market to become almost equally divided between devices with screens of between 5-inches and less than 5.5-inches, and those with screens of 5.5-inches and under 6-inches — expecting shipments to grow from 593.3M and 558.7M this year respectively, to 731.4M and 749.3M by 2021.

Analyst IDC put out its latest smartphone market projections yesterday, and looking ahead to 2021 it sees shipments of devices with screens of 4-inches (up to less than 5-inches) losing out to those with larger panes. It’s projecting 314.2M million devices in this iPhone SE size category will ship worldwide this year — shrinking to 223.3M by 2021.

That said, IDC isn’t expecting much market change for the very biggest smartphones (of between 6-inches to under 7-inches). It’s expecting shipments in this whopper category to be 32M this year — and to have grown only slightly to 37.4M by 2021.)

Me, "At one point the makers of cell phone were trying to make cell phones as small as possible thinking smaller was better. Now, it seems a certain cell phone size does mater. Not too big and not too small."

Smartphone screens find their size sweet spot

If we had to build the Verrazano bridge again Which is better? A Suspension Bridge or a Cable Stayed Bridge. A writer looks at the Golden Gate.

From article, (Due to huge upkeep costs, some people have suggested reconstructing the Golden Gate Bridge in a way that would limit ongoing maintenance and operation bills. Setting aside the political feasibility, how would engineers design the bridge if they were going to build it from scratch today?

Over time, researchers have developed lighter materials. Using Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) rather than steel or concrete is a way to reduce the weight of a structure of this magnitude. This self-weight is typically responsible for using up 70 to 80 percent of its resistence – that's the maximum load it can bear before it fails. By reducing it, the bridge's structure would need less strength, allowing for cheaper and easier options.

For example, designers have started using Fiber Reinforced Composite (FRP) materials in bridges such as the Market Street Bridge in West Virginia. FRP uses a plastic resin to bind together glass or carbon fibers, which give strength to the material. Being four times lighter than concrete, the FRPs are five to six times stronger.

Probably a designer's first target for change in a substitute Golden Gate Bridge would be the composition of the cables. The steel currently in use is corrosive, heavier by four times than newer materials and can fail in harsh moisture and temperature environments – just like those it encounters in this location. Carbon cables are more inert and already in use around the world.

These lighter-than-steel materials could also be utilized in other elements of the bridge, such as the traffic roadway. Using plastic composite decking could bring the Golden Gate Bridge's deck self-weight down by a factor of five. That would enable engineers to design and construct a cable-stayed bridge rather than a suspension bridge. The advantage there would be the ability to do away with the suspenders; in a cable-stayed bridge forces are transmitted directly from the deck to the towers by the cables. The first highway cable-stayed bridge with CFRP cables is Switzerland's Stork Bridge, opened in 1996.

A cable-stayed bridge can have a longer span than a suspension bridge, so its structure between the supports and the shore could be simpler. Also building the towers nearer to the shore, where the waterbed is more shallow, would help alleviate one of the main problems when the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed the first time around: It's very difficult and expensive to work on the tower foundations in deep water with strong currents.

The damping system could also be addressed with a new design. The lead core-based dampers that were used in the construction of the Golden Gate could be replaced by newer technologies that are better able to resist wind, traffic and seismic forces. This improvement would ensure that a failure such as the one on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge – when wind blew the bridge sideways, it twisted and collapsed – would be prevented.

With all that said, the Golden Gate Bridge is still doing fine.)

Me, "People question the idea of which kind of bridge is better? A Suspension Bridge or a Cable Stayed Bridge. A lot of this has to do with the culture that engineers are brought up in. At the time of construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, in the 1930's, and even as late as the Verrazano bridge, in the 1960's, there were a lot of engineers favoring Suspension bridges as the preferred method of spanning huge distances. But the present day culture is in favor of Cable Stayed Bridges that can span longer distances, so they are the preferred cheaper option. One just needs to look at the three bridges being built around NYC: the Goethals Bridge, Kosciuszko Bridge, and the New Tappan Zee Bridge. All are cable stayed bridges. So the engineers must have picked them for some reason."

How Would Engineers Build the Golden Gate Bridge Today?

If the many E-bikers in China (a very populated country) can coexist with Cars, Trucks and Buses there, so can NYC, here.

From article, (As it stands, e-bikes occupy a murky legal space in the state. In New York City, for instance, “throttle e-bikes” that can accelerate and maintain speed based solely on an electric battery with no human pedal input, have been outlawed. They are, however, legal in the rest of the state provided they’re not operated on public roads. The confusion lies in where these e-bikes can be legally operated, and the coalition is focused on expanding those operating restrictions.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles allows for mopeds (which sometimes have pedals) to be registered and operated on public highways, roads and streets -- or anywhere a standard vehicle is allowed to operate, such as in a parking lot. Pedal-assist or throttle e-bikes are currently unable to be registered and operated in such spaces, and riders that do so are subject to arrest, according to DMV rules.

Most models of e-bikes will run $2,500 to $5,000, but those who want bikes with more features or durability should expect to spend in the $10,000 range. 

Regardless of what the law currently says or will say in the future, there’s no denying that sales of e-bikes have increased in the region.

Freeman’s Bridge Sports owner Richard Himmelwright previously told the newspaper that his store sold four e-bikes in all of 2016. By late-April of this year he had already sold 12, and was in the process of ordering more to meet anticipated demand.)

Me, "This is silly. China has many more bikes on its roads of all types: Pedal, Pedal Assist, and throttle. How can we be afraid of accidents in a city of 8 million (with dedicated bike lanes) compared to a country of a billion (with none?). If even a fraction of a billion bike riders in China can get along with people and cars in that country, I don't see why our state and city can't. As long as they follow the rules of the road, for regular bike riding, there should not be any problems."

Coalition pushing for e-bikes in Albany

Bringing back a Beach Culture.

From article, (BY RACHEL SHAPIRO 

Rshapiro@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- While the proposed East Shore seawall that will run from Fort Wadsworth to Oakwood Beach includes a promenade component, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced his plans to include a full-fledged promenade along the length of the seawall that he expects will be a tourist destination.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, heading up the project for the buried seawall, which includes building a levee and floodwall in Oakwood Beach, recently entered the design phase which is expected to take one year.

The current design calls for a 38-foot-wide boardwalk on top of the buried seawall from Fort Wadsworth to Midland Beach. It would replace the existing FDR Boardwalk and be several feet higher, as well as longer, extending from the current end at Seaview Avenue to Miller Field.

The extension would replace a paved promenade that's about 10 feet high.

From Miller Field through Oakwood Beach, a 17-foot-wide promenade would be on top of the seawall.

When the Advance asked Cuomo, who gave few details in his presentation at The Vanderbilt,  how his proposal would differ from what the plan already includes, he said, "We don't think it's enough, I think it's too narrow. We're talking about a 30 or 40 foot promenade, we're talking about amenities along the promenade. A promenade is a tourism destination, it has amenities, there are food kiosks, there are benches, there are lookouts. There's all sorts of ideas that you can do."

He added, "It could be a tour of all the different cuisine that New York has to offer, it could be a tour of all the craft beers that New York has to offer. It could be a walking museum. It could be a lot of things. We don't want just a walkway for 7 miles, that frankly, is going to be a wasted opportunity."

A spokeswoman later told the Advance the multi-use promenade could "can support a range of recreational activities, including outdoor concerts, beer and food tastings, cultural festivals, nature walks, seaside carnivals, bike races, marathons and other running competitions, environmental education, and other events and community gatherings."

The cost of the project, expected to be completed in late 2022 -- originally 2021 -- has steadily increased from an estimated $579 million to the most recent $615 million estimate, making the federal government's share about $400 million; the state's share about $154 million; and the city's share about $62 million.)

Me, "It's all about building back what was once there. Robert Mosses destroyed a thriving beach community, that was as entertaining as Coney Island is, to Staten Island, and the CIty. With this Seawall, a lot of what was taken down can be brought back. You're talking about a once in a lifetime opportunity, to bring back something, or at least make something new that will be a part of the culture and life of Staten Island. Don't go overboard where the project gets to costly and is canceled but at the same time try and do something creative. The possibilities for this area, because of the protective seawall, and boardwalk, which will remake the area, are made even more impressive by Gov. Cuomo's plan to add a tourism destination aspect to it." 

Cuomo sees East Shore seawall promenade as tourist destination

OLEDs to the rescue for advertising and electronic displays.

From 2011...

From article, (We've long heard how OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) are poised to change the home electronics market thanks to their energy efficiency, but what about large-scale applications like lighting up urban buildings and façades?

UrbanTiles, created by Israeli designer Meidad Marzan, offers a glimpse into how OLEDs could potentially light up our cityscapes, in the form of two-sided, reversible tiles that have photovoltaics on one side which collect sun energy during the day, and on the flip side, OLEDs which shine using that power at night. Assembled on a surface, this checkerboard of light-collecting and light-emitting tiles could change how our cities are lit at night.

Though the flexibility, brightness, thinness and low energy consumption of OLEDs make them a prime candidate for replacing other technologies, the only current obstacle is their high price. But green designers are envisioning them everywhere -- from cellphones, monitors, laptops, games, to even clothing and wallpaper. And earlier this summer, Mitsubishi created a visually-impressive 20-foot OLED globe at a Tokyo museum using 10,362 panels -- so it may be a matter of time before you may see it on a building near you.)

Me, "While OLEDs are still expensive, in a few more years time, (Maybe, 10-20 years. The timing really depends on how much an owner of a building is willing to spend.) we may actually be looking at skyscrapers with full OLEDs displays. Hell, if the Empire State Building can change the colors at its top and along its sides? There is no reason that one day the whole building, if not most buildings, could not be a computer controlled display."

Reversible OLED Building Tiles Collect & Light Up Cities With Solar Power (Video)

An old Antibiotic finds new life as a Super Bug killer...

From article, (Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels around the world, threatening the ability to treat common infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning and gonorrhea, the World Health Organization warns.
Scientists in the United States have developed a vital tool in the battle against superbugs by re-engineering a decades-old antibiotic.

A modified version of the antibiotic vancomycin is believed to be much more effective at fighting Enterococci bacteria, which is found in hospitals and can cause dangerous wound and blood infections. The drug, which has been used for 60 years, is described as an antibiotic of last resort, used only after treatment with other antibiotics has failed. But some infections have become resistant even to vancomycin in its current form.

The research team, from The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, described the new drug as "magical" in its strength, the UK Press Association reported..

The study (PDF), published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says the modification gives vancomycin a 1,000-fold increase in activity, so doctors could use less of it to fight infection.

It works on bacteria in three ways to make it harder for them to develop resistance.

"This increases the durability of this antibiotic," said Dale Boger, who led the research and is co-chair of The Scripps Research Institute's chemistry department.

"Organisms just can't simultaneously work to find a way around three independent mechanisms of action," he said. "Even if they found a solution to one of those, the organisms would still be killed by the other two."

It could be years, however, before the completion of clinical trials needed to turn the lab discovery into a mass-produced medicine, Dr. Andrew Edwards, a lecturer in molecular microbiology at Imperial College, London, told CNN)

Me, "What  is now necessary is to see if other standard antibiotics can be modified in the same way Vancomycin was. With super bugs forming resistances to standard antibiotics, researchers need to find new ways of modifying standard antibiotics as well just in case even modified Vancomycin fails."

Powerful new antibiotic could halt superbugs

BMW may offer electric car options in each of its models.

From article, (Now, according to "multiple sources" cited by BMWblog, the i5 program has been canceled altogether.
 If true, that leaves open a question: what is BMW doing in electric cars?
If the BMW i5 has, in fact, been canceled in favor of electrified versions of mainstream BMW models, however, it may indicate that the German maker has decided electric cars are going to become simply another powertrain option.
 Rather than making them visually separate and building them with different technologies than its core lineup, it would adapt electric drivetrains into mainstream models the public already knows and buys.
 Which is, if you think about it, exactly what Toyota did with its Prius: that car's innovative hybrid powertrain has now spread across the Toyota lineup, with a hybrid version now offered in virtually every mainstream model it makes.)

Me, "If true, it means BMW lineup will include an electric car option in each Model class. Very exciting stuff! When a German company, with very well made cars, which caters to the upper middle class and rich it means big news for BEV's (Battery Electric Vehicles.) It means this is a phenomenon that is not going to go away."


If BMW i5 is canceled, what does that mean for its electric cars?

Blue Origin can only Benefit from Bezos' riches.

From article, (With Amazon's stock price brushing $1,000, Jeff Bezos is within striking distance of becoming the world's richest man.
Bezos would be the first man to bump Gates from his perch as the world's richest man since Carlos Slim in 2010. Gates has dominated the list for much of the past quarter century, holding the top spot for 18 of the last 23 years, according to Forbes.
As of Friday's close, Bezos was worth $85.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index. Bill Gates is at $88.8 billion. So assuming that Microsoft's share price remains constant or falls, Bezos needed another $3.8 billion to top Gates.)

Me, "What is good about this is that Bezos has more than enough wealth now, and continued wealth, to plow it into his space venture Blue Origin. When your doing a lot of experimental, to operational, space rockets, its good to have deep financial pockets. Until you start making a profit, and building up on successful rocket launches, a financial commitment is necessary."   Jeff Bezos is getting closer to becoming the richest man

Accidents can and do happen in Space.

From article, (In October 2014, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was hit by a tiny object – but lived to tell the tale.
The collision caused a strange glitch in the  LRO’s cameras (which you can see in the picture below), causing it to produce images showing “jagged patterns”.

Alien hunters spend hours poring over the footage produced by the probe’s footage of the lunar surface and even claimed it has recorded evidence of alien bases on the moon.

However, Nasa thinks “a small natural meteorite” was to blame for the collision.

Mark Robinson, a professor at Arizona State University’s school of earth and space exploration, said: “LROC was struck and survived to keep exploring the moon.”

He suggested a tiny meteorite hit the space probe, knocking its cameras so they produced a “wild and jittery” image of the moon’s surface.

“The meteoroid was travelling much faster than a speeding bullet,” Robinson added.

“In this case, LROC did not dodge a speeding bullet, but rather survived a speeding bullet!”)

Me, "Space can be a very dangerous place. You have to remember, things are flying around out there at great speeds. You put that together with another object, like a spacecraft or a space probe, that is also moving quite fast, and you can have a serious accident. The best thing to do in a situation like that is to either have more shielding between you and it, or have better radar, to see the object, and be able to avoid it in the first place."

Nasa admits a UFO smashed into one of its spaceships - but aliens were NOT to blame

Intel and AMD Jump on the Band Wagon with Multi-Multi-Core Microchips

From article, (Who wants an 18-core, 36-thread desktop processor? Well, this could be on the cards in the near future as the latest rumor points at Intel not stopping at just a measly 12-cores with its imminent launch of its X299 platform and Skylake-X processors. Instead, there could be 14-core, 16-core and even 18-core processors that sit above what we've already seen in unofficial data.
This summer was already heating up at the high end of the desktop processor market with AMD and Intel already doing battle with Ryzen versus Intel's X99 platform. Then we had the announcement of AMD's Threadripper processors - a range of 10,12, 14 and 16-core desktop processors and next month I expect Intel to release its anticipated X299 platform with up to 12-core processors. Now, it seems, Intel is planning a far more potent line-up of processors, and that 18-core part obviously pips AMD to the top spot in terms of cores and threads, with Threadripper slated to max-out at 16-cores.
It's a massive development if true as it means that Intel is nearly doubling the core count from its previous flagship, the Core i7-6950X, which has 10 cores, and that's just from one generation to the next. Previously, the core count only rose by two from the 8-core Core i7-5960X to the 10-core Core-i7-6950X. With AMD planning to go all-out with Ryzen and Threadripper - both desktop parts that use common PC components, and also with AMD's Zen architecture showing promise, this is perhaps not an entirely unexpected move from Intel.
Of course, the most important factor is missing - we still have no idea about Intel's X299 pricing and no clue about just how AMD will price-up its Threadripper processor range. However, many suspect AMD will continue to offer compelling performance for the price, although if this latest rumor is true, it will no longer enjoy an advantage in core count over Intel's next-gen high-end desktop platform.)

Me, "Just like getting on the band wagon and trying to make microprocessors work faster by increasing the clock speed on microchips in the 90's; Intel and AMD are now betting that more cores on a chip and more thread counts will make up for clock speed.  
It makes sense to make more cores on a chip because if the software can be fine tuned for these cores there is no reason that actual speed on a computer screen would not seem faster. The whole goal is to keep computer users happy with a decent amount of processing speed. Multi-core chips, which do not seem to have a Multi-core limit, is the new band wagon, and Intel And AMD have jumped on board."
Massive Leak Reveals Monster 18-core Intel Core i9-7980XE Processor: Should AMD Be Worried? 

Falcon Nine Rocket Passes Static Test. Now its time for the Launch.

SpaceX ran through countdown and fueling procedures with a Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, culminating in ignition of the booster’s nine first stage Merlin engines in a customary check of the launcher’s readiness before liftoff Thursday with a Dragon supply ship for the International Space Station.

The two-stage rocket was lifted vertical at pad 39A before dawn Sunday, and SpaceX’s launch team loaded the Falcon 9 with super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants before the launcher’s nine Merlin 1D engines ignited for more than three seconds at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT).

The static fire test is a customary milestone in SpaceX launch campaigns, used as a rehearsal for launch day and a check of the readiness of the Falcon 9 for liftoff.

SpaceX will lower the Falcon 9 rocket horizontal and return it to a hangar a quarter-mile away at the southern edge of the historic launch complex, where ground crews will mate a Dragon supply ship to the launcher.

The unpiloted Dragon spacecraft is already filled with most of its cargo load, which includes nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies and equipment for the space station.

The Dragon spacecraft’s payload manifest includes a NASA experiment to study quick-spinning neutron stars, collapsed super-dense stellar remnants left behind by supernova explosions. Other items to be delivered by SpaceX include rodents that scientists will use to help study medical remedies for bone loss and osteoporosis, an experimental new solar array that could be employed on future satellites, and an Earth-observing camera platform

Thursday’s blastoff, set for 5:55 p.m. EDT (2155 GMT), will be the first time SpaceX has reused a Dragon spacecraft’s pressurized compartment. The rear trunk segment, designed to accommodate large external cargo modules, is new because it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere at the end of each mission.

Repairs to neighboring Complex 40 are on track to allow launches to resume there in a few months, giving SpaceX two operational launch pads in Florida. Pad 39A will be taken offline for a few months later this year to finish upgrades for launches of Falcon Heavy rockets, SpaceX’s huge triple-core launcher set to debut before the end of 2017.

Thursday’s launch will be the 100th space mission to blast off from pad 39A since Saturn 5 moon rockets began test flights there in November 1967.

SpaceX plans to attempt a landing of the Falcon 9 first stage at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station following Thursday’s launch.

Falcon 9 rocket fires engines in hold-down test for station resupply launch

The Great Barrier Reef will soon not exist....

The 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) World Heritage-listed reef suffered its most severe bleaching on record last year due to warming sea temperatures during March and April.
Scientists said today the impact will accelerate unless global greenhouse gas emissions are cut.
WHY DOES CORAL BLEACHING HAPPEN?
Corals have a symbiotic relationship with a tiny marine algae called 'zooxanthellae' that live inside and nourish them.
When sea surface temperatures rise, corals expel the colourful algae. The loss of the algae causes them to bleach and turn white.
While mildly bleached corals can recover if the temperature drops and the algae return, severely bleached corals die.
Initial aerial and in-water surveys showed 22 per cent of shallow water corals were destroyed in 2016, but it has now been bumped up to 29 per cent and with the reef currently experiencing an unprecedented second straight year of bleaching, the outlook is grim.
'We're very concerned about what this means for the Great Barrier Reef itself and what it means for the communities and industries that depend on it,' Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) chairman Russell Reichelt said.
'The amount of coral that died from bleaching in 2016 is up from our original estimates and, at this stage, although reports are still being finalised, it's expected we'll also see an overall further coral cover decline by the end of 2017.'
Bleaching, which occurs when abnormal conditions such as warmer sea temperatures cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, draining them of their colour, also extended to deeper corals beyond depths divers can typically survey.
But mortality of those reefs could not be systematically assessed.)
 Great Barrier Reef can no longer be saved