Future Technology

In the future, civilization will be forced to research and develop alternative energy sources. Our current rate of fossil fuel usage will lead to an energy crisis this century. In order to survive the energy crisis many companies in the energy industry are inventing new ways to extract energy from renewable sources. While the rate of development is slow, mainstream awareness and government pressures are growing. This page contains articles about the future of energy technologies.

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THE SPHERICAL SUN POWER GENERATOR

German Architect Andre Broessel believes he has a solution that can “squeeze more juice out of the sun”, even during the night hours and in low-light regions. His company Rawlemon

APPLE ELECTRIC CAR: CONCEPT PHOTOS

Recent rumours that suggest Apple may be working on an electric car have inspired the website carwow to produce some concept images of what the vehicle may look like. Speculation

TULIP SHAPED SOLAR PLANTS TO BE INSTALLED IN ETHIOPIA

AORA Solar has announced that it will begin construction of its solar-biogas power plants in Ethiopia. Construction of the first pilot plant will start by mid-2015. Ethiopia’s Minister of Water,

JAPAN CLOSER TO HARVESTING SOLAR ENERGY FROM SPACE

Since 2008, the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) has been working hard to develop technologies to transmit electricity wirelessly. The goal of the Space Solar Power Systems (SSPS), is to be

GOODYEAR RELEASES ELECTRICITY-GENERATING TIRE CONCEPT

We’ve been getting a lot of positive news about electric cars recently. This week at the Geneva International Auto Show, Goodyear unveiled a new concept tire called the BH03. While

MEET THE STRATI: A 3D PRINTED ELECTRIC CAR

3D Printing is all the rage these days, so it’s no surprise someone has printed a complete and functional electric automobile, appropriately named the Strati (Italian for “layers”). 18 months

GOOGLE BIODOME: NEW HEADQUARTERS TO BLEND WITH ENVIRONMENT

Today Google announced their exciting proposal to redevelop four sites in Mountain View, California. Designed by Bjarke Ingels at BIG and Thomas Heatherwick at Heatherwick Studio, the new headquarters will

3D PRINTED SOLAR ENERGY TREES

How would nature do it? Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland may be discovering the answer, thanks to advancing solar and 3D printing technologies. They have developed

INFINYTE I4: A PURELY ELECTRIC CATAMARAN CRUISER

While solar-power electric hybrid vehicles are a proven success story on the roads, the time is ripe for the appearance of solar-electric watercraft. Already a pontoon boat – Loon

FLYING WIND FARMS: FUTURE POWER HARVESTERS

How would you like swarms of kite-like airborne turbines spinning at high altitudes sending power down via nano-tube cable tethers to generate power for your community? This could very

HYDROGEN GENERATION & STORAGE MADE EASY WITH NANO-TECHNOLOGY

Fuels like gasoline, based on hydrocarbon, create pollution and carbon footprint. Hydrogen has been claimed to be a good alternative to replace fossil fuel since the 1970s. But hydrogen’s

COMMON ALGAE FOR BIOFUEL BUTANOL PRODUCTION

There have been various methods tried for reducing fossil fuel dependency and containing carbon footprints for a healthier and more eco-friendly future. Corn-produced ethanol has been used for mixing

WILL ROBOTS CLEAN UP FUTURE OIL SPILLS?

Cleaning oil spills can be costly business. If eco-friendly robots can take over and clean all the mess it will be good for marine life and humans too. MIT

MIRA EV TRAVELS 1000KM ON SINGLE CHARGE

Mira EV has created a world record with completing 1000 km run on a single battery charge non-stop, powered by Sanyo’s lithium-ion battery systems. This experiment took place

FUTURE AIR TRAVEL WILL HAVE LESS NOISE, LESS EXHAUST

EU’s ‘Clean Sky’ – the 1-6 billion euro research project – with 86 participating partners from 16 nations – has goals like developing unique application-specific technologies and evaluation and

CELL PHONE CHARGERS TO GO GREEN

Today cell-phones have become an integral part of our life and are the most used mode of communication. More prevalent the use of cell-phone, more imperative is the need

NANOSOLAR: SOLAR POWER AT A LOWER COST

In a market-friendly scenario, Nanosolar claims to be able to produce electricity at 5-6 cents/kilowatt hour almost as cheap as power from coal and at about one-third the cost

NASA’S PUFFIN: THE PERSONAL ELECTRIC AIR VEHICLE

Mark Moore, an aerospace engineer, is the person who dreamed about the Puffin. Puffin is a single seated electric powered airplane. Moore conceptualized the idea of electric aircraft for

And many more @ 

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/future-energy/

Normal Functioning Family?

Is there any way to tell if my family is functioning normally?

Many parents ask themselves this question, but there is no simple answer, since there can be such broad definitions of the term normal.

Still, there are several characteristics that are generally identified with a well-functioning family. Some include: support; love and caring for other family members; providing security and a sense of belonging; open communication; making each person within the family feel important, valued, respected and esteemed.

Here are some other qualities to consider when evaluating how well your own family is functioning.

• Is there ample humor and fun within your family, despite the very real demands of daily life?
• Does your family have rules that have been clearly stated and are evenly applied, yet are flexible and respond to new situations and changes in the family?
• Are the family's expectations of each person reasonable, realistic, mutually agreed upon and generally fulfilled?
• Do family members achieve most of their individual goals, and are their personal needs being met?
• Do parents and children have genuine respect for one another, demonstrating love, caring, trust, and concern, even when there are disagreements?
• Is your family able to mature and change without everyone getting upset or unhappy?

Maintaining A Healthy Family

In order to provide a supportive, emotionally healthy family environment, you need to devote some thought and energy to the following questions:

• Do you treat each child as an individual? Each child has his own temperament, his own way of viewing and interacting with the world around him. Parents may love their children equally, but naturally will have different sorts of relationships with each of them. Individualize your relationship with each of your children, reinforcing their strengths and talents and avoiding making unflattering comparisons with their siblings or friends.
• Does your family have regular routines? Children and parents benefit from having some predictable day-to-day routines. Morning schedules, mealtimes and bedtimes are easier for everyone when they follow a pattern. Children also appreciate family rituals and traditions around birthdays, holidays and vacations.
• Is your family an active participant in your extended family and the community? Families work better when they feel connected and supported by friends and relatives. Usually such relationships require that parents make an active effort to get together with others socially or for civic projects.
• Are your expectations of yourself and other family members realistic? Your child's self-awareness, knowledge and skills are constantly changing. Observe, read and talk to others to learn what can reasonably be expected of your child at each stage of development. Parents, too, have limitations on what they can accomplish, given their resources and the time available. There are no "superparents," just individuals doing their best.
• Does the time you spend with your family members contribute to good relationships among you? Most of the time you and your child and your spouse spend together should be fun, relaxed, meaningful and relatively conflict-free.
• As a parent, singly or as a couple, are you taking care of your own needs? You should be leading a healthy personal life (including proper diet, exercise and sleep habits). Set aside time, however brief, for things you enjoy. Your children will thrive when your own emotional needs are being met. They do best when they are reared by parents who are in a harmonious relationship with each other.
• Do you take moral and social responsibility for your own life? You are the most important role model for your child. Demonstrate your value system through actions as well as words.

Last Updated

 

11/21/2015

 

Bad News for Terraforming: Mars' Atmosphere Is Lost in Space

The hopes of turning Mars into a more Earth-like planet have just taken a hit.

Science-fiction writers have long dreamed of terraforming Mars — changing the frigid Red Planet's climate to make it more suitable for human colonization. One potential way to do this involves freeing lots of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the Martian crust back into the atmosphere.

And it had been reasonable to speculate that Martian rocks might contain lots of this greenhouse gas. After all, the Red Planet lost the vast majority of its CO2-dominated atmosphere billions of years ago, and the air had to go somewhere. [7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars]

"If that's where all the CO2 had gone from an early thick atmosphere, that [terraforming] might be possible," said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator of NASA's MAVEN mission, which has been studying the Martian atmosphere from orbit since November 2014.

But MAVEN results announced Thursday (Nov. 5) show that the planet's CO2 went up rather than down: Shortly after Mars' global magnetic field shut down about 4.2 billion years ago, the solar wind and powerful sun explosions stripped away most of the planet's atmosphere, sending it off into space.

That's bad news for terraforming advocates, according to Jakosky, who's based at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

"It's not there," he said of the atmospheric CO2 during NASA's news conference Thursday announcing the MAVEN results. "It's been removed from the solar system entirely, so it's not possible to bring it back."

This is not necessarily to say that terraforming Mars is impossible (there are many ideas about how to do it), or that the planet has no potentially accessible carbon dioxide. For example, Mars' two polar caps harbor some CO2 ice (though they're both composed primarily of water ice), and Martian soils soak up some carbon dioxide as well. But the new MAVEN discoveries suggest that making the Red Planet comfortable for human habitation — always viewed as a tall order — may be even tougher than previously thought.

NASA plans to put boots on Mars in the relatively near future, whether or not terraforming is a viable option. The space agency is currently developing a roadmap that will send astronauts to visit a captured asteroid in lunar orbit space by 2025, then get people to the Red Planet in the 2030s.

The $671 million MAVEN mission (whose name is short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) aims to help researchers better understand how and why Mars shifted from a relatively warm and wet world, complete with plentiful surface water, billions of years ago to the cold, dry planet we know today.

To this end, the spacecraft has been studying the Martian atmosphere using eight different science instruments, measuring how quickly molecules are escaping to space and a number of other characteristics.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

- See more at: http://www.space.com/31044-mars-terraforming-nasa-maven-mission.html#sthash.2kvIJixd.dpuf

2016 Snowmobile Release – Ski-Doo & Concepts

Ski-Doo is the first out of the gates with their 2016 model year launch, lest we forget who continues to be first in the marketplace. Ski-Doo continues to gain “snow” in most areas. They have been running strong ever since they changed the way we ride sleds – shortly after the 2003 REV when Ski-Doo gained, and has held the top position in the market. For 2016 they continue to move forward.

Here are the highlights for 2016, to give you some information on whether or not you want to upgrade or switch over to Ski-Doo next season.

New Tech (Pilot TS)

Something you will find on some of the models next year is a new Pilot TS adjustable ski. As trail conditions change, the performance of the snowmobile skis change. The Pilot TS gives the rider the ability to dial in the ski’s runner/carbide blade to be more aggressive and responsive, or less aggressive and relaxed.

Twisting a knob in front of the ski leg raises or lowers the runner blade. The further the blade is out or extended, the maximum bite in corners or on ice is achieved. Fully retracted, it allows the ski to steer a little softer (no darting), yet more relaxing to the rider when you are just cruising the trails. As trail conditions change throughout the day, say from hard frozen to soft mushy, you can simply adjust the steering and cornering effort with the turn of a knob.

Pilot TS skis are standard on the 2016 MXZ Blizzard, Renegade Enduro, and the Grand Touring SE (more on these below). They are also available as an accessory for sleds with the RAS 2 front suspension. Also on some models, you will get the Pilot TS’s if you spring-order the Adjustment Package with your sled.

Trail (MXZ)

Characterized by their ability to handle bumps in the ditches or tight turning in the trails, the MXZ is Ski-Doo’s flat-lander mainstay. This is also the model that the race sled is based from. MXZ riders typically care about light weight, quick response whether it’s throttle or steering, and fast mogul absorption. Here, the rMotion rear suspension shines.

The MXZ-X, X-RS, and Blizzard models will get the longer 129-inch track found on their race sleds. MXZ models with the 1200 4-TEC will also get the REV-XS body styling, and intelligent Throttle Control (iTC).

The new model for 2016 in this category is the MXZ Blizzard. The classic Blizzard name has been synonymous with highlighting the latest racing tech on a consumer sled. For 2016, the Blizzard is an in-season package that includes many of the features found on the XR-S, but offering a little tamer experience. This model includes a 129” rMotion rear suspension, HPG Plus shocks, Ice Ripper XT track, the new Pilot TS adjustable skis, and a fuller windshield.

The MXZ-X-RS differs from the Blizzard, in that it includes hand guards, KYB Pro 40 piggyback racing shocks, Pilot 5.7 skis (unless ordered with the Adjustment Package).

Full article > http://maxsled.com/my2016-snowmobiles-ski-doo/

Cool concept sleds.

Bush Family Funded Adolf Hitler

***I'm so glad they brought this up, let's start from the beginning.

"I'll get to who put Saddam Hussein in power, who supplied him the chemical weapons as well as who "bought" their way out of war crimes right along with Dick Cheney soon enough". 

But first..

Have you ever wondered how Adolph Hitler - a mediocre painter of Austrian origin - transformed himself into Germany's Fuhrer during the 1930s and 1940s?   The Nazi phenomenon was no historical coincidence, and far less a philosophical whim made real by just one man. Nazism had its followers, many of them exceptionally wealthy, veritable alchemists of the financial world back then.   According to research carried out over the last few years, Wall Street bankers (amongst others) financed Hitler's rise to power whilst making large profits at the same time. What is yet still more deplorable is the fact that relatives of the current U.S. president were amongst this group of individuals.   U.S. authors Webster G. Tarpley and Anton Cheitkin reveal in the recently published George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography that Prescott Bush (George W. Bush's grandfather) and other directors of the Union Banking Company (UBC) were Nazi collaborators.   The book relates how in 1922 - when national socialism was emerging - railroad impresario W. Averell Harriman traveled to Berlin and interviewed the Thyssen family with a view to founding a German-U.S. bank. The Thyssens were already behind-the-scenes owners of several financial institutions that allowed them to transfer their money from Germany to the Netherlands and from there onto the United States.   The banks in question were the August Thyssen Bank whose headquarters were located in Berlin; the Bank voor Handel (Netherlands) and the Union Banking Corporation (New York). At the beginning of the 1920s, one of the members of this family, Fritz Thyssen - author of I Paid Hitler - contributed some $25,000 USD to the recently formed German National Socialist Workers' Party, becoming the prime and most important financier of the Fuhrer in his ascent to power.   According to the book's authors, Thyssen was fascinated by Hitler, citing his talent as a public speaker and his ability to lead the masses. However, what impressed him most was the order that prevailed at his rallies and the almost military discipline of his followers.   And so, in 1931 Thyssen joined the Nazi party, becoming one of the most powerful members of the Nazi war machine.   At that time, the magnate presided over the German Steel Trust, a steel industry consortium founded by Clarence Dillon, one of Wall Street's most influential men. One of Dillon's most trustworthy collaborators was Samuel Bush: Prescott's father, George Senior's grandfather and great-grandfather of the current U.S. president George W. Bush.   In 1923, Harriman and the Thyssens decided to set up a bank and appointed George Herbert Walker - Prescott's father-in-law - as president. Later, in 1926, they established the Union Banking Corporation (UBC) with Prescott Bush at the helm. That same year, he was also named vice president and partner at Brown Brothers Harriman. Both firms allowed the Thyssens to send money to the United States from Germany via the Netherlands.   U.S. economist Victor Thorn has noted that although a large number of other corporations aided the Nazis (such as Standard Oil and Rockefeller's Chase Bank, as well as U.S. automobile manufacturers) Prescott Bush's interests were much more profound and sinister.   Thorn adds that UBC became a secret channel to protect Nazi capital leaving Germany for the United States via the Netherlands. When the Nazis needed to retrieve their funds, Brown Brothers Harriman sent them directly to Germany.   In this way, UBC received money from the Netherlands and Brown Brothers Harriman sent it back. And who was on the executive of both of these companies? Prescott Bush himself, the Nazis' first money launderer.   In their book, Tarpley and Chaitkin explain that in this way a significant part of the Bush family's financial base is related to supporting and aiding Adolph Hitler. Therefore, the current U.S. president, just like his father (former CIA director, vice president and president) reached the peak of the U.S. political hierarchy thanks to his great-grandfather and grandfather and generally his entire family, who financially aided and encouraged the Nazis.   Some time later, in October 1942, the U.S. authorities confiscated Nazi bank funds from the New York UBC, whose then president was Prescott. The firm was condemned as a financial and commercial collaborator with the enemy and all its assets were seized.   Later, the U.S. government also ordered the seizure of the assets of a further two leading financial agencies directed by Prescott through the accounts of the Harriman banking institution: the Holland-America Trading Corporation (a U.S.-Dutch commercial firm) and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation.   Then on November 11, 1942, an embargo was imposed on the Silesian-American Corporation - another firm headed by Bush and Walker - under the same Trading with the Enemy Act.   However, in 1951, the embargo was lifted and the enterprising businessman recovered some $1.5 million USD, earmarked for new investments largely to swell the Bush family's patrimony.   To this should be added a resumé of files belonging to Dutch and U.S. information services confirming the direct links between Prescott Bush, the German Thyssen family and the blood money of a group of rich U.S. families from the Second World War.   Tarpley and Chaitkin affirm that the great financial crash of 1929-1931 affected the United States, Germany and Britain, weakening their respective governments. At the same time, Prescott Bush became even more diligent, still more desirous of doing everything that was necessary to safeguard his place in the world. It was during this crisis that some members of the Anglo-U.S wealthy class supported the installation of Hitler's regime in Germany.   To sum up, the authors categorically state that the Bush family's fortune arose as a result of its unconditional support for Adolph Hitler's political project.   The UBC, under Prescott Bush's direction and with the long-term cooperation of Fritz Thyssen's German Steel Trust participated in the emergence, preparation and financing of the Nazi war machine through the manufacture of armored vehicles, fighter planes, guns and explosives.   The Bush family's habit of dominating territories and wealth is nothing new. Their fascist genes were generated during the 1930s. Therefore defining the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the threats to other countries as a continuance of blitzkreig offensives as fascist is no blunder. Neither is convening an anti-fascist front is a rhetorical exercise.   Astrid Barnet/Granma International