Rio de Janeiro: Bar Codes on Sidewalks Give Tourist Info

Rio de Janeiro is mixing technology with tradition to provide tourists information about the city by embedding bar codes into the black and white mosaic sidewalks that are a symbol of the city.

The city installed its first two-dimensional bar codes, or QR codes, as they're known, at Arpoador, the massive boulder that separates Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. The image was built into the sidewalk with the same black and white stones that decorate sidewalks around town with mosaics of waves, fish and abstract images.

With an accompanying smartphone application, onlookers were able to take snapshots of the mosaic QR codes with their phones or tablets before being directed to a website that disbursed information in Brazil's native Portuguese, and also in Spanish and English. A map of the area was also included.

They learned, for example, that Arpoador gets big waves, making it a hot spot for surfing and giving the 500-meter beach nearby the name of "Praia do Diabo," or Devil's Beach. They could also find out that the rock is called Arpoador because fishermen once harpooned whales off the shore.

Each stone code reportedly takes about seven days to construct due to the level of precision necessary to make it scan, though some future iterations will be constructed out of different recycled materials. The next four, expected by March, will pop up at Redra do Leme, Sao Conrado Beach, Mirante do Leblon and Pepe Beach in Barra da Tijuca.


The Department of Conservation said it plans to implement the co-called QRIO project at 30 locations across the city by the year’s end and 50 locations by July 2014 when Rio hosts the FIFA World Cup.

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments

World’s Earliest Prosthetics: Egyptian Mummy's Fake Toe

Two artificial big toes - one found strapped to the mummified remains of an Egyptian woman - may be the world's earliest functional prosthetic body parts, according to a study: the linen and plaster "Greville Chester toe," which dates back past 600 BC; and the wood and leather "Cairo toe," which was built between 950-710 BC.

A superbly preserved artificial big toe from the Cairo museum in Egypt was found in 2000 in a tomb near Luxor in the ancient necropolis of Thebes. Archaeologists speculated the 50- to 60-year-old woman the prosthesis came from might have lost her toe due to complications from diabetes.

 

The Greville Chester Great Toe also shows signs of wear, suggesting that it may have been worn by its owner in life and not simply attached to the foot during mummification for religious or ceremonial reasons. However, unlike the Cairo specimen, the Greville Chester Great Toe does not bend and so is likely to have been more cosmetic.

That would easily make it the most ancient replacement limb known, several centuries older that the Roman-era bronze-and-wood leg unearthed from a burial site near Capua, Italy.

Both replicas, which even look like toes, were tested on two volunteers who had lost their right big toes. Lead researcher Dr Jacky Finch, from the University of Manchester, carried out the tests in the Gait Laboratory at Salford University's Centre for Rehabilitation and Human Performance Research. Sure enough, the false toes offered greater mobility and comfort. Said Manchester study leader Dr. Jacky Finch in a recent article in The Lancet:

To be classed as true prosthetic devices any replacement must satisfy several criteria. The material must withstand bodily forces so that it does not snap or crack with use. Proportion is important and the appearance must be sufficiently lifelike as to be acceptable to both the wearer and those around them. The stump must also be kept clean, so it must be easy to take on and off. But most importantly, it must assist walking. The big toe is thought to carry some 40% of the bodyweight and is responsible for forward propulsion although those without it can adapt well [...]
My findings strongly suggest that both of these designs were capable of functioning as replacements for the lost toe and so could indeed be classed as prosthetic devices.
If that is the case then it would appear that the first glimmers of this branch of medicine should be firmly laid at the feet of the ancient Egyptians.

A three-part wood and leather artefact housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the Greville Chester artificial toe on display in the British Museum, helped their toe-less owners walk like Egyptians.

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments

156 Years from birth of Nikola Tesla

Today, on the 156th anniversary of Tesla's birth, you could ask Europeans who Nikola Tesla was and their eyes will light up as they comment on his remarkable inventions. Over 100 years ago, Nikola Tesla proved the energy establishment wrong by creating something the establishment believed was impossible: a motor driven by alternating current. Ask most Americans, however, who Tesla was, and you’ll often get a blank stare.

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943), American scientist of Serbian origin, gave his greatest contribution to science and technological progress of the world as the inventor of the rotating magnetic field and of the complete system of production and distribution of electrical energy (motors, generators) based on the use of alternate currents.

He was an important contributor to the birth of commercial electricity, and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor, which helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution. His name was given to the SI unit for magnetic induction ("tesla"). Tesla also constructed the generators of high-frequency alternate currents and high-voltage coreless transformer known today as "Tesla Coil".

Tesla reminded us that a windmill is one of the most efficient energy devices ever devised, and suspected we’d eventually be able to harness the sun’s rays in an efficient way. He also advocated utilizing the heat “in the earth, the water, or the air.”

He proposed, essentially, geothermal energy plants, one capturing the heat of the earth, the other floating on the ocean, using the temperature differential between the surface water temperature and the deeper water temperatures to drive turbines to generate electricity.

Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan, Croatian Military Frontier in Austrian Empire (today's Croatia), he was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen. He received his education in Austria i.e. Austro-Hungary: primary school at Smiljan and Gospic (1862-70), and secondary school (Realgymnasium) at Karlovac (1870-1873). From 1875 to 1878 studied at the Polytechnic at Graz, and in 1880 he enrolled in the studies of natural philosophy at the Charles' University in Prague. After his demonstration of wireless communication through radio in 1894 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. During this period, in the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture, but because of his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist by many late in his life.

Not only did this gifted genius bring the world AC power and radio -- the foundations of modern civilization -- but he progressed far beyond in the latter half of his life; and the world is still playing catch-up, a century later. He is the well-deserved icon of the free energy movement, providing inspiration to thousands of researchers around the world, who labor to embody some of Tesla's later work, with the vision of having devices that can harness the inexhaustible sources of energy available to us freely from the environment and cosmos.
Tesla spent his last years in the hotel "New Yorker" in New York, where he died on January 7, 1943.


As Tesla said at his famous lecture in 1891, “We are whirling through endless space with an inconceivable speed; all around us, everything is spinning, everything is moving, everywhere is energy. There must be some way of availing ourselves of this energy more directly."
“Then, with the light obtained from the medium, with the power derived from it, with every form of energy obtained without effort, from the store forever inexhaustible, humanity will advance with great strides. The mere contemplation of these magnificent possibilities expands our minds, strengthens our hopes and fills our hearts with supreme delight.”

Happy 156th Birthday, Nikola Tesla.

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments

World Largest Outdoor Swimming Pool - San Alfonso del Mar

If you like doing laps in the swimming pool, you might want to stock up on the energy drinks before diving in to this one. It is more than 1,000 yards long, covers 20 acres, has a 115-foot deep end, and holds 66 million gallons of water.

Chile, home to immense natural beauty from lakes to parks to beaches, can now add another appeal to its two million tourists annually with the Guinness World Record holder of the world's largest pool, The Crystal Lagoon at the San Alfonso Del Mar Resort.
San Alfonso is located at only 90 kilometers apart from Santiago in Algarrobo's northern sector, the closer beach spot to the eastern sector of the capital city.

Swimming a length in this, the world’s largest outdoor pool, would mean stroke after stroke for more than three fifths of a mile – that’s 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.
The enormous man-made lagoon is set halfway up the country’s Pacific coast, in the city of Algarrobo, and is filled with 66 million gallons of crystal clear seawater.
It also hold the Guinness record for the world’s deepest – so if you don’t feel like diving 115ft to the bottom, it might be best to bring some spare goggles.
The Crystal Lagoon reportedly took over five years to construct, which totaled over $1.2 billion, and opened to the public in December 2006 and costs over $3 million to maintain annually.
It uses a computer-controlled suction and filtration system to suck water in from the ocean at one end and pump it out at the other, while the sun warms it to 75 degrees – nine degrees higher than the sea.

Chilean biochemist Fernando Fischmann, whose Crystal Lagoons Corporation designed the pool, said advanced engineering meant his company could build "an impressive artificial paradise" even in inhospitable areas. It uses hardly any chemicals.
"As long as we have access to unlimited seawater, we can make it work, and it causes no damage to the ocean."

For sport lovers, there are sport schools imparting training classes on sailing, kayak, scuba diving, swimming, ocean navigation, golf, tennis and paragliding, and they also will find at their disposal artificially-lit five-a-side soccer courts, volleyball courts and tennis courts, a real statutory soccer field, a last-generation 3D golf simulator and a gym with large windows that enjoy a stimulating overview of the lagoon.
Children have play grounds and entertainment activities organized by child monitors, whereas teenagers have an exclusive space destined for them - the Teen-Pub -, and also SubTerra discotheque, where often music recitals and live shows are featured.
The Beach Club with spa, a tempered beach under a crystal pyramid, open-air Jacuzzis, sauna, beauty parlor and gym; the Blue Spa, the first medical spa in Chile; the cybercafé; the exhibition and cultural activities room; the open-air amphitheater; the Lighthouse Café with icecream parlor and teashop; the sushi Lighthouse; the supermarket and the North Bay pub-restaurant with its own dock and a large terrace along the lagoon’s coastline – where often amusing parties and shows are held – are also part of San Alfonso's facilities.
To all that, the South Bay development has to be added, where the SubAqua Café stands out for its inner aquarium, the largest in Chile, which holds more that 60 Chilean species that can be appreciated in full magnitude through a 25-meters-long glass surface. A giant 100-meters-long water chute is also located in this zone. This sector will be completed by the South Bay Pub that will have a multiple-level restaurant, a Jacuzzi-bar with a giant screen and a gym.

Along with views of the sea and white sandy beaches, visitors can engage in a myriad of activities from boating to snorkeling.
San Alfonso has created a private world with activities for all family members to spend days full of enjoyment without ever leaving the resort.

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments

Flying Tennis! The World’s Highest Tennis Court at Burj Al Arab, Dubai

The world’s highest tennis court stands atop the one of the highest hotel in the world - Burj al-Arab at Dubai. On February 22, 2005, the Burj al Arab hosted Andre Agassi and Roger Federer to play a match on their helipad tennis court before heading to the US$1 million Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open, which was the first round of the two-week Dubai Tennis Championships. The tennis legends couldn’t resist the temptation to have a friendly ‘hit’ on the world’s most unique tennis court. The court is circular in shape ,and also doubles as a helipad, hovering 211 meters above the Arabian gulf and covers a surface area of 415 sq m.

Would you like to play round of tennis at this height?
Here is some info about hotel so you can book your game today!

Designed by Tom Wright and completed in 1999, the hotel features a double membrane PTFE fiberglass covering that reduces solar heat gain, but lets in filtered light. Burj Al Arab is located on Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach strip, 15 km from the main city centre and 25 km from Dubai International Airport. It is Dubai’s most recognisable landmark and the fourth tallest hotel in the world at 321 m (1,053 ft) and stands 280 metres offshore on a man-made island, linked to the mainland by a slender, gently curving causeway. Resembling the sail of a ship, the iconic hotel gives itself a 7 star rating, although we’re not really sure if you can go above 5 on the luxury scale. It is well served by taxis and has its own fleet of chauffeur driven Rolls-Royces, BMWs, and a helicopter.

Contact Details:

Burj Al Arab
PO Box 74147, Dubai, UAE

Tel: +971 4 3017777
Fax: +971 4 3017000

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments

World’s Largest Marine Turbine

The world’s largest tidal turbine was recently unveiled on August 11th 2010 at Invergordon, Scotland, weighing 130 tons, 74ft (22.6m) tall, with two 60ft (18.3m) diameter rotors and generating 1MW on both tidal ebb and flow. The Atlantis Resources AK1000 can supply power to 1000 homes, and is to be installed at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkney Islands, and has taken more than ten years to develop.

Atlantis Resources' chief executive Tim Cornelius explained that, " The turbines turn at six to eight revolutions per minute, so are incredibly slow turning and will have zero impact on the surrounding environment." Theoretically, the turbine rotors should not harm marine animals.

source

So what is Tidal Current Power?

Tidal current technology is a form of hydropower and harnesses the energy in tides and converts it into usable power.

Tidal current power is different from wave power. Wave power harnesses power of the waves while Tidal Current technology extracts energy from the high tide bulge created by the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun moving horizontally around the Earth’s surface.

As per the Atlantis, Sea water, which is 832 times denser than air, gives a 5 knot ocean current more kinetic energy than a 350 km/h wind; therefore ocean currents have a very high energy density. Hence a smaller device is required to harness tidal current energy than to harness wind energy.

Tidal Power and Tidal current power differ in that, Tidal power requires the building of barrages to manage and direct the flow of the current etc… the civil construction cost and impact on the environment is much higher in the tidal power barrage systems.

Tidal Power facts:

• The first large scale tidal power system the Rance Tidal Power station in Brittany, France, started functioning in 1966! It is still the largest tidal power station based on installed capacity.
• Tidal power stations were first developed and tested in the 1970’s; they harness the water masses that periodically flow into sea bays and drive conventional hydro turbines when the tide goes out. The disadvantage of this technology is that they require large barrages in the sea.
• Unless taken to extremes, Tidal Current power system does not require blocking of any waterways, and hence does not have the adverse environmental effects associated with Tidal Barrages.
• Tidal current energy takes the kinetic energy available in currents and converts it into renewable electricity.
• As oceans cover over 70% of Earth’s surface, ocean energy (including wave power, tidal current power and ocean thermal energy conversion) represents a vast source of energy, estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000 TWh per year, enough energy to continuously light between 2 and 4 billion 11W low-energy light bulbs.
• USA and UK could produce 15% of power they need from the Ocean itself.

On the whole the project sounds and looks really good and it has been working in Australia. Will wait to see how it works out in Orkney, Scotland.

source

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments

$100,000 bills

In an economic downturn, it might be tough to get your head around this: rare sheets of $100,000 bills, fabulous gold treasures dating back to the California Gold Rush era, rare coins including those tied to the first stirrings for America's independence and federal government securities worth more than a billion dollars.

That's the backdrop of the country's premier money show, the World's Fair of Money, which has brought about 1,000 coin dealers and hundreds of collectors to Boston, seeking to tap into the surprising resilience of the coin industry.

Held in a sprawling hall monitored by armed uniformed and undercover police officers, federal agents, private security contractors, electronic surveillance equipment and vigilant participants, the fair features seldom-seen gold treasurers brought from the Smithsonian Institution's vaults including America's first $20 gold coin — valued by independent experts at $15 million today — and its last $20 coin.

It also includes sheets of America's largest denomination currency, the $100,000 bill, which is said to be worth about $1.6 million today. The gold certificate note, which bears President Woodrow Wilson's portrait, was used only for official transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. It was not circulated among the general public and cannot be legally held by currency note collectors.

"The reaction from kids to grandparents is universally the same: `Wow, that's a lot of money.' So, they wouldn't mind having it," Kevin Brown, manager in the marketing division of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said while holding the $100,000 bills. "People like to see money."

There even was some free money at the show after the Bureau of Engraving and Printing handed out $150 bills to some children as souvenirs — thoroughly shredded and packed into tiny plastic bags.

The show, which ends Saturday, includes a comprehensive collection of U.S. paper money that has never before been exhibited. It has coins from the Mexican War of Independence and Mexican Revolution that are being seen outside of Mexico for the first time since 1970. There also are rare coins worth several million dollars.

The SS Central America, which sank in a 1857 hurricane off the coast of North Carolina with more than 400 passengers and 30,000 pounds of gold from the California Gold Rush, made its inaugural appearance in Boston. The exhibit features more than $10 million in gold treasure recovered from the ship, also known as The Ship of Gold.

Other historic items include one of the few known surviving copies of the Declaration of Independence printed in Boston circa July 17, 1776, and silver spoons crafted by Paul Revere.

"It's overwhelming. I mean, I have been to a couple of these other conventions and I've never seen this much, this many high-level items as you're seeing here. Just the exhibits they've got in this whole museum area, incredible," Jim Moorey of Northbridge, Mass., said while visiting the show with his 13-year-old son, Tyler.

More than 3,400 coins, paper money, medals, tokens and other numismatic items were being auctioned at the event, including a New England shilling struck in 1652, as sentiment for America's independence grew.

Greg Rohan, president of Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, said his company expects to raise $40 million dollars at its auction at the money fair. During the five-day show, more than $100 million will trade hands, he said.

"It's people who've decided they'd rather have the round, metal coins that we sell than $40 million in cash that they have in the bank," Rohan said.

There are an estimated 200,000 serious coin collectors in the United States and more than a million casual collectors who spend about $3 billion annually, he said.

"The economic conditions have not diminished the demand for material from the standpoint of collectors who seek and desire to own the rare and exquisite pieces," said Larry Shepherd, president of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based American Numismatic Association.

Demand also has been fed by rich people who are increasingly willing to store some of their wealth in rare coins with a proven history of gaining value after traditional investments vehicles, including real estate and the stock and bond markets, dipped to woeful levels during the economic crisis, Shepherd said.

"The very best coins, the very rarest coins, are worth as much today, if not more, than they were before September 2008," Rohan said. "So if you had bought rare coins prior to 2008, you've got the same value, if not more, today."

The rest of the coins have seen their fortunes range from gains of 10 percent to losses of up to 25 percent.

Still, that did not stop Brian Hendelson of Bridgewater, N.J.-based Classic Coin Company from offering to pay about $100,000 for a gold ingot salvaged from SS Central America.

"I'm 51, I've been doing this since I was 10 — collecting at 10 and trading coins at 14, 15 ... it beats pushing a broom," Hendelson said.

source

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments

Apple Inc. is getting exclusive access to an Liquidmetal

Apple Inc. is getting exclusive access to an exotic metallic material that could provide it with shiny, super-tough computer and phone casings.

Liquidmetal Technologies Inc., a Caltech spinoff in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., filed a regulatory notice recently that it's granted Apple a perpetual, exclusive license to use its technology in consumer electronics. Liquidmetal retains the rights for other applications.

Apple isn't saying anything about the deal, and it's far from certain that the material will ever make it into its products. Though it matches the sleek Apple aesthetic, it's prohibitively expensive.

The name "Liquidmetal" brings to mind the silvery, shapeshifting villain of the "Terminator 2" movie, but the company's products are somewhat less dramatic. It mixes molten metal alloys in such a way that, when they cool, the structure of the material is more similar to glass than metal.

The materials aren't translucent, but they have other interesting benefits.

One is that they can be cast so precisely that they need little or no machining afterward. Regular metals shrink as they cool, which means they lose contact with the die and need polishing for a smoothness.

"Metallic glass" can also be very hard. Hard materials are often brittle, like glass, and that was a problem with early alloys. Liquidmetal CEO Thomas Steipp said the company has figured out how to make tougher variants, much like Pyrex glass is tougher than regular glass.

Apple is big on using metal in its designs -- virtually every Mac is clad in aluminum, except for the cheapest MacBook. It's even started making the bodies for its laptops and Mac mini desktop computers out of single, big chunks of aluminum that it then hollows out. With Liquidmetal, that time-consuming process could conceivably be replaced with casting. Aluminum is also a relatively soft metal, prone to denting, scratching and scuffing.

However, Liquidmetal is still very expensive because of it needs exotic raw materials, including beryllium. Some Liquidmetal alloys contain large amounts of platinum, which costs $1,500 an ounce. The alloys have gone into luxury watches, luxury phones, medical devices and some sporting gear, such as tennis rackets and skis, but they are far from being mass-market materials.

Steipp said he could not say what Apple might use the materials for. Neither company disclosed the value of the deal, but Liquidmetal seems to have gotten a shot in the arm from it. It hasn't filed a financial statement since last year, but Steipp, an experienced technology executive, was appointed five days after the deal was announced.

"I believe there's an opportunity for Liquidmetal to be a catalyst for changing the way that product designers think about building their products. It's that different," Steipp said. "We have to prove that, but certainly from what I've seen as technology executive evaluating the technology before I came in ... we've made a lot of progress over the last eight years."

source

If you like this post just click here Posted By crkota with No comments