New Florence. New Renaissance.

5 Unexpected Tech Centers

No not Boulder or Austin, 5 other US regions benefitting from newer tech

• North Dakota (in photo) from tech to reach oil reserves we could not in the past
• Portland, OR from Cleantech
• Maryland from Biosciences
• Minneapolis-St. Paul from Health Tech
• Ohio from advanced manufacturing tech

Read more here

United’s Paperless Flight Deck

“These electronic flight bags will replace flight manuals and deliver aeronautical navigation charts via an app. All pilots will have iPads by the end of the year.

The iPads feature the Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck app. Jeppesen is a unit of Boeing and has delivered flight plans, navigation and other data to pilots via paper.”

ZDNet

Big Data calls for massive Data Drive

“A data repository almost 10 times bigger than any made before is being built by researchers at IBM's Almaden, California, research lab. The 120 petabyte "drive"—that's 120 million gigabytes—is made up of 200,000 conventional hard disk drives working together. The giant data container is expected to store around one trillion files and should provide the space needed to allow more powerful simulations of complex systems, like those used to model weather and climate.”

MIT Technology Review

Thanks to Ravi Ramakrishnan of HP for bringing it to my notice.

Google Maps adds weather

"Google has added a weather layer to its Google Maps application, allowing users to view current temperatures, weather conditions, and cloud conditions across the globe.

The company said the move should help make travel planning easier, because users can see weather conditions while they’re looking up directions to a picnic or any outdoor activity."

Consumer Reports

Farmer’s Mobile Catastrophe Fleet

Is gearing up for Irene to hit in the Northeast.

The buses in video below are “equipped with state-of-the art satellite communications equipment; seven claims stations; water, supplies; laptop and telephone capability for use by our customers and public; and a built in grill to serve meals to Farmers’ customers and others in need.”

Uncle Sam’s App Store

Nothing as big as the Apple or the Android Store, but hey it is a start here. And through September 15 they are seeking input on what else they should have in there.

Hurricane Tracking Technology

Even those who live in FL know little about the satellite, supercomputing, sensor and other technology the National Hurricane Center uses to track hurricanes.

As Irene threatens the Carolinas and the Northeast, you may find interesting the case study I had written on the NHC in my last book. Download PDF Attachment below.

Download Chapter 16 National Hurricane Center

Energy Harvesting Displays

"Adding solar cells to liquid-crystal displays could help recover a significant amount of energy that's ordinarily wasted in powering them. Two research groups have created light filters that double as photovoltaic cells, a trick that could boost the battery life of phones and laptops.

Over 90 percent of the displays sold this year will use liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology. LCDs are, however, tremendously inefficient, converting only about 5 percent of the light produced by a backlight into a viewable image. The LCD in a notebook computer consumes one-third of its power."

MIT Technology Review

The Logistics of moving the 9 ton Amenemhat II

Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhat II (ca. 1919–1885 B.C.) was installed recently in the Met’s Great Hall. It is on a 10 year loan from the collection of the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz.

The image on left shows the statue being lifted from the Berlin Pergamon Museum courtyard over the "Kupfergraben" canal (it looks puny but the bridge was not strong enough to carry the nine-ton weight). 

The following video documents the statue's daylong installation at the Met in New York.

 

Source: The Met

 

 

General David Petraeus' biggest innovation

History will treat him ambivalently given his role in two very expensive (human and financial) wars, but as he retires from the Army, Joe Klein at Time describes his big innovation.

"the general's most important legacy may lie in the role he has played in transforming the Army from a blunt instrument, designed to fight tank battles on the plains of Europe, into a "learning institution" that trains its troops for the flexibility and creativity necessary to fight guerrilla wars in the information age."

"Petraeus told me about visiting the artillery school at Fort Sill, Okla., early in his tenure. "They had this remarkable simulator there," he said, describing a video-game-like device that enabled artillery officers to respond to the sort of threats they might face in Iraq. They showed Petraeus a scenario in which American troops were trapped in a building by insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades from several armed pickup trucks. In the scenario, the U.S. captain called in mortar fire, which destroyed the vehicles. "I said, 'Wait a minute. We don't shoot mortars in Baghdad. They're too inaccurate. By using this scenario, you're putting our troops at terrible risk in the field.'" After his visit, the general told me, they shut down the school, quickly retooled the course and reopened with a curriculum that reflected the realities of war in Iraq."

Time (subscription required)