Bananas Could Make Cars Leaner, Greener

Researchers are going bananas in the quest to build cleaner, greener cars.

Brazilian scientists have developed a way of using fibers from bananas, pineapples and other plants to create plastic that is stronger and lighter than the petroleum-based stuff. So-called nanocellulose fibers rival Kevlar in strength but are renewable, and the researchers believe they could be widely used within a couple of years.

"The properties of these plastics are incredible," Alcides Leão, a researcher at Sao Paulo State University, said in a statement. "They are light, but very strong — 30 percent lighter and three to four times stronger."

That could reduce the weight of new vehicles, which would increase fuel economy. Several automakers are cutting weight in their campaigns to maximize mpg. Ford, for example, hopes to trim 250 to 750 pounds from its vehicles and is exploring nanotechnology to do so.

Read more at bananas-could-make-cars-leaner-greener

GOP's anti-immigrant stance could turn Texas into a blue state

Not today, to be sure, nor tomorrow. But to read the newly released census data on the Lone Star State is to understand that Texas, the linchpin of any Republican electoral college majority, is turning Latino and, unless the Republicans change their spots, Democratic.

Figures released last month by the Census Bureau show that during the past decade, Texas joined California as a majority-minority state: The percentage of whites in the Texas population declined from 52 percent in 2000 to 45 percent in 2010, while the percentage of Latinos rose from 32 percent to 38 percent. Nearly half of all Texans under 18 - 48 percent - are Latino.

What these numbers mean is simply that the Republicans have an existential problem. As America becomes increasingly multiracial, the Republicans have elected to become increasingly white.

Read the entire article at Texas-blue

Military deploys acupuncture to treat soldiers' concussions

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — The U.S. military is applying an ancient Chinese healing technique to the top modern battlefield injury for American soldiers, with results that doctors here say are "off the charts."

Cdr Stuessi, a military doctor who treats soldiers at the Concussion Restoration Care Center at Camp Leatherneck, describes the results as "phenomenal." "It's like rewiring a computer; you're hitting certain nerves in the body. So instead of sending up a pain signal to the brain, they send up a signal saying everything's OK. It's almost like faking out the brain," Stuessi said.

Read the entire article at military-deploys-acupuncture
PERSONAL NOTE: I have severe tendonitis in my hands and arthritis in my thumbs caused by 48 years of using computer mice and keyboards. Orthopedic surgeons in VA and TX have told me that an operation MIGHT help so I have resorted to using pain medication when the pain gets severe. A couple of months ago I decided to try acupuncture. Acupuncture hasn't cured the problem but has helped to the extent that I no longer use medication.

World’s Total CPU Power: One Human Brain

"To put our findings in perspective, the 6.4*10¹⁸ instructions per second that human kind can carry out on its general-purpose computers in 2007 are in the same ballpark area as the maximum number of nerve impulses executed by one human brain per second,"

It turns out our computers aren't as powerful as we thought…

Read the article at world-computer-data

The Cranky Redskins Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder

The City Paper, a small alternative Washington newspaper, published an article detailing dozens of Snyder's inept and unpopular actions as team owner and businessman. It included the 2005 controversy surrounding the removal of more than 130 trees on National Park Service land adjacent to Snyder's home to improve his view of the Potomac River. Afterward Snyder paid a $37,000 fine and planted seedlings to replace the trees. Needless to say it will takes decades for the seedlings to reach the height of the previous trees and meanwhile Mr. Snyder will have an unobstructed view of the river. I remember this well because I lived in Fairfax County Virginia at the time. The episode marked one of the rare times Snyder got crisis PR help. He retained Mike Sitrick, who helped with damage control for the Michael Jackson family after the pop star's death and Paris Hilton after one of her arrests. Mr. Snyder is threatening a lawsuit against the paper and demanding that they fire the author of the article.

Mr. Robert Danno, the Shenandoah Junction resident and National Park Service employee who reported the tree removal to authorities, hasn't been as lucky as Mr. Snyder. Soon after he made his disclosures, he experienced a variety of administrative actions, including temporary reassignment, investigation, frivolous administrative charges, Board of Inquiry, suspension, isolation, permanent reassignment and criminal charges. He was removed from his position as chief ranger and reassigned for more than two years to the George Washington Memorial Parkway, where he was required to commute to Mt. Vernon from West Virginia, to issue picnic permits.

Read the entire article at the-cranky-redskins-fans-guide-to-dan-snyder

Darpa Wants Troop Cellphones With Heat Vision

There's the shopworn military cliche about every soldier being a sensor. And then there's Darpa's out-there project to shrink thermal imaging down to the point where it would fit on a cellphone screen or a rifle sight. The Pentagon's research branch wants personal infrared imaging that's good enough to tell a soldier whether an armed adversary is coming right at him.

Read more at darpa-wants-troop-cellphones-with-heat-vision

‘White House’ eCard Dupes Dot-Gov Geeks

A malware-laced e-mail that spoofed seasons greetings from The White House siphoned gigabytes of sensitive documents from dozens of victims over the holidays, including a number of government employees and contractors who work on cybersecurity matters.

The attack appears to be the latest salvo from ZeuS malware gangs whose activities over the past year have blurred the boundaries between online financial crime and espionage, by stealing both financial data and documents from victim machines. This activity is unusual because most criminals using ZeuS are interested in money-making activities – such as swiping passwords and creating botnets – whereas the hoovering up of sensitive government documents is activity typically associated with so-called advanced persistent threat attacks, or those deployed to gather industrial and military intelligence.

Read more atWhite-House-ecard-dupes-dot-gov-geeks

Global spam volumes fall precipitously

Global spam volumes have fallen precipitously in the past two months, thanks largely to the cessation of junk e-mail from Rustock – until recently the world's most active spam botnet. But experts say the hackers behind Rustock have since shifted the botnet's resources toward other money-making activities, such as installing spyware and adware. That's good news or bad news, depending on whether you have a good anti-spyware program. If you don't I recommend Spybot (free) or Systems Mechanic Pro ($49.95). System Mechanic Pro is also a very good PC tunup tool.

Read more at Rustock-ceases-operation

Déjà vu - Military Bans Removable Disks AGAIN

It's too late to stop WikiLeaks from publishing thousands more classified documents, nabbed from the Pentagon's secret network. But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial.

More info is available at Military-bans-disks-threatens-courts-martials-to-stop-new-leaks

NOTE: Removable disks were disabled on military computers and networks two years ago. It proved to be impracticable because many military users of imagery and other critical data only have access to low speed networks or no network access at all. In some cases critical operational readiness and project executions were being negatively impacted so the policy was changed. Removable media could be temporarily enabled under controlled conditions if documented. So one of three things occurred that allowed the WikiLeaks: (1) the military agency had not implemented the control procedures, (2) the WikiLeaks perpetrator who burned the documents to CDs had the authority to enable removable disks on the classified network, or (3) the WikiLeaks perpetrator convinced someone to enable removable disks on the classified network. The bottom line is the WikiLeaks were caused by weak management controls over classified networks and data.

ActiveWords – a program you need

ActiveWords is a simple, intuitive macro-program that allows you to create brief words or shortcuts to substitute text (up to 32kb in size); open programs, files and folders; navigate the Internet; open Windows settings; and execute scripting actions. After using the free trial program for a couple of days I purchased ActiveWords PLUS for $49.95. I have already created several dozen shortcuts. Examples:

    cs + F8 inserts "Charles Stone" wherever the cursor is located

    ad + F8 inserts my address wherever the cursor is located

    w + F8 opens Microsoft Word

    wc + F8 opens the wired.com web site

    cp + F8 opens the Control Panel

    cw + F8 closes the current window

I prefer my shortcuts to be 1-3 characters in length but you can make them any length you like. For example, you could use Word F8 to open Microsoft Word. ActiveWords joins my list of MUST HAVE Windows PC productivity applications: Alarm++, askSam Free-Form Database, Bookmark Buddy and Snagit. Try them – they will simplify your computing life. Trials are available for all of them.

Arsenic-munching germ redefines "life as we know it”

A strange, salty lake in California has yielded an equally strange bacterium that thrives on arsenic and redefines life as we know it, researchers reported Thursday.

The bacteria do not merely eat arsenic -- they incorporate the toxic element directly into their DNA, the researchers said.

The finding shows just how little scientists know about the variety of life forms on Earth, and may greatly expand where they should be looking for life on other planets and moons, the NASA-funded team said.

Read more at Arsenic_bacteria

IBM chip breakthrough may lead to exascale supercomputers

IBM researchers have made a breakthrough in using pulses of light to accelerate data transfer between chips, something they say could boost the performance of supercomputers by more than a thousand times. Such supercomputers should dramatically improve weather and climatic predictions by allowing larger parts of the earth to be simultaneously modeled and analyzed.

Read more at IBM Chip Breakthrough

Hurricane Forecasts Can Be Made Years in Advance

The parade of storms that pummels the western fringe of the North Atlantic every year just got a bit more predictable. Scientists say they have developed a way to forecast how many Atlantic hurricanes there will be — not just for the upcoming year, as some groups already do each spring, but for several years out.

Knowing how hurricane trends could change in the future, he says, will help society prepare for the damage of the kind that Hurricane Tomas recently dealt the Caribbean.

Read more at Hurricane Forecasts

Why Your Electric Vehicle 'Fuel' Will Be Free

How can EVs become more attractive to consumers price-wise? One of the ways can be from the realistic prospect of free 'fuel.' Imagine this scenario happening in the not so distant future: You get in your EV for a day of errands and your display screen notifies you that your battery is low. A quick scan on the navigation system says there is an available charge spot at a nearby grocery store where, best of all, charging is free to customers. With a few touches to the navigation screen, your vehicle automatically routes you to the location and you're able to refuel while grocery shopping is checked off your list.

Pie in the sky you ask? Not at all and here's why: depending on battery size, the cost of the total electricity needed to charge your vehicle should be around $1.00 - $1.50. Retailers will likely see this as good business: spending a $1.00 per customer in exchange for the $100 you'll spend at the grocery store is a high return; especially when considering the amount they normally spend on advertisements and reward programs to get you in the door. Essentially, electricity as fuel will be much more than a commodity—it will be a retailer's bargaining chip.

Read more at Free Fuel

Feds Plot ‘Near Human’ Robot Docs, Farmers, Troops

Robots are already vacuuming our carpets, heading into combat and assisting docs on medical procedures. Get ready for a next generation of "near human" bots that'll do a lot more: independently perform surgeries, harvest our crops and herd our livestock, and even administer drugs from within our own bodies.

Those are only a few of the suggested applications for robots in a massive new federal research program. The military's blue-sky research arm, Darpa, is pairing up with four other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Homeland Security, to launch a major push that'd revolutionize robotic capabilities and put bots pretty much everywhere, from hospitals to dude ranches to "explosive atmospheres."

Read more at Push-for-near-human-robot-doctors-farmers-troops

Computerized Grenade Launcher Heads to Afghanistan

It looks like a piece of riot-control gear. It's got a computerized in-board targeting system. It can kill someone from 2,300 feet away, while he takes cover. And it's on its way to the 101st Airborne Division and Special Forces units in the Afghanistan war.

The XM-25 grenade launcher shoots a 25 mm high-explosive round that's basically a "smart" grenade. What makes it smart? Sensors and microchips inside the round talks to the gun's guidance system, known as the Target Acquisition Fire Control unit, to learn where and when to explode, minimizing the likelihood of collateral damage.

Need to take out an insurgent who's popping out from behind a clay wall? Set the guidance for the distance to the wall and adjust a bit more for his body's position and fire — actually using Plus and Minus buttons on the side of the gun. Watch the round release bursts of shrapnel right over him. You can't do that with a regular mortar tube, even if you were able to shoot the mortar like a gun.

Read more at Computerized-grenade-launcher-heads-to-afghanistan

Comments on my blog

You can now comment on my blog posts if you like. I didn't know until recently that Blogspot was changed so that blogs were set to a default of "no comments". To comment on a post click on "comments" at the end. A new window will be opened to allow you to leave comments. You can choose an identity such as your Google Account or just click on "Anonymous".

Darpa's Self-Aiming "One Shot" Sniper Rifle Scheduled for Next Year

A sniper crouches near an open window and zooms in on his target, who sits a half-mile away. He peers through a scope and holds his breath, preparing to squeeze the trigger. But it's windy outside, and he can't afford a miss. What to do?

A new DARPA-funded electro-optical system will calculate the ballistics for him, telling him where to aim and ensuring a perfect shot, no matter the weather conditions.

Read more at Self-Aiming Sniper Rifle

Darpa Moves a Step Closer to Its Flying Humvee

In the spring, the futurists at Darpa rethought troop transport. Instead of adding armor or changing the shape to deflect bomb blasts, the agency reasoned, why not let it leap into the sky at the first sign of danger or inconvenience? That's exactly what Darpa's "Transformer" project is supposed to be: a mashup of a helicopter, plane and armored truck.

Read more at Flying Humvee

Cyber Thieves Steal Nearly $1,000,000 from University of Virginia College

Cyber crooks stole just shy of $1 million from a satellite campus of The University of Virginia last week, KrebsOnSecurity.com has learned.

The attackers stole the money from The University of Virginia's College at Wise, a 4-year public liberal arts college located in the town of Wise in southwestern Virginia.

Read more at Cyber Thieves Steal Nearly $1M From University of Virginia College