New Florence. New Renaissance.

ANA's charter 787 flights

In a few weeks, ANA, the Japanese carrier will begin commercial service with the Boeing 787. The airline has a special section on the 787 on its Facebook page

While much of the attention has gone into the delays on the plane, it is one heck of an innovative plane - in construction, passenger comfort and in its supply chain. It is a case study in my next book, thanks to support from HCL Technologies which has helped in several software and testing aspects of the plane. Some of the extracts from my chapter:

• The LEDs will allow the crew to adjust the lighting to match different phases of the flight.
• The cabin will feel less dry (humidity twice as high as on current planes) since the 787 system will be driven by electricity generated by the engines.

• The superior strength of the composite fuselage will allow the passenger cabin to withstand higher pressurization -- equal to the air pressure at an altitude of 6,000 feet instead of the usual 8,000 feet.
• An active gust alleviation system will improve ride quality during turbulence.
• Passengers will breathe the cleanest air of any airplane ever built.(The air will have the same microbial content of outside air with air filters with an efficiency of 99.97%)
• The 18.5 inch tall windows, the largest on any commercial plane, have electronically adjustable electrochromic dimmers

Tidal Power

“Off the northernmost tip of Scotland, where the turbulent waters of the Atlantic Ocean meet those of the North Sea, sits a chain of 70 mostly uninhabited islands collectively known as Orkney. Best known for its wildlife and Neolithic historical sites, it isn't the first place you think of as a centre for cutting-edge science. Yet it is at the heart of what could soon be a renewable energy renaissance.

The strong tides around these islands have led the European Union-funded European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) to use Orkneys' waters as the world's largest testbed for a renewable energy source that has been stalled for years: tidal power.

If new turbine designs being tested here can survive the pitiless Scottish swells, they will finally tame one of the world's most promising sources of renewable energy. But that's not all. Some of these designs could go far beyond tapping tides along the coast, reaping energy from the most powerful phenomena in the oceans - the world's major ocean currents. Harness these powerhouses, and tidal power would help smash all previous predictions of how much energy the oceans can provide.”

New Scientist (subscription required)

The article discusses various turbine and other designs including SeaGen in photo.

Autodesk’s SketchBook

“Autodesk Inc. spent almost 30 years selling engineering and design software to accumulate 12 million customers. It took a single iPhone app -- and less than two years -- to attract 7 million more.

Autodesk’s SketchBook application, which also works with the iPad and Android devices, has boosted the company’s user base and drawn new kinds of customers, Chief Executive Officer Carl Bass said today in an interview. The $1.99 product, released in September 2009, can create sketches and paintings on touch screens with a range of brushes, colors and layers.”

BusinessWeek

IBM’s “Dr. Watson”

A "Dr. Watson" would not be the first automated diagnostic tool; other online systems are already available to walk physicians through lists of suggestions for what might be ailing a patient. However, IBM researchers believe Watson will outshine the others because it can automatically digest not only textbook medical knowledge (the software can read one million books in three seconds) but also patient blogs, insurance claims, and millions of observations that doctors are increasingly being asked to encode into electronic patient records.

MIT Technology Review

Miami’s free outdoor gyms

Spurred by a ranking as the country’s fattest city, the city has invested in 3 outdoors gyms. Besides the health benefits, the innovations in equipment that can handle the local heat, humidity and sand are also noteworthy

FCC and FEMA: How to Communicate Before, During and After a Major Disaster

“Today, we are pleased to release a set of new, easy-to-follow tips to help all Americans prepare their homes and mobile phones for a disaster.  These tips are practical things everyone can do to better preserve the ability to communicate effectively during – and immediately after – a disaster. “

see full list of recommendations on the FCC blog

Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle

“Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.

The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where -- exceptionally in scientific publishing -- both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.

Their target was a monomeric protease enzyme, a cutting agent in the complex molecular tailoring of retroviruses, a family that includes HIV.”

“Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, (Foldit) is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- using a set of online tools.

To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.”

Yahoo.com

Thanks to Frank Scavo for identifying.

Sprint's new app to combat distracted driving

Called Sprint Drive First, the app locks the phone when the car is moving over 10 mph and it is being marketed to parents of teenagers. When using the application, calls will go automatically to voice mail. Alerts for email or texts will be silenced when activated, and an automated, customizable message will be sent as a response. If the app no longer detects the car is moving, the cell phone will resume functionality. To allow for traffic delays, it won’t unlock the phone unless the vehicle is idle for a few minutes.

The device can be unlocked with Exit and 911 buttons, which can override the app, but parents can choose to be notified when this occurs. Parents can also choose up to five numbers that can ring through the locked phone and three apps that remain usable when the car is in motion, such as navigation or music.

Consumer Reports

Photo Credit

Next-gen motorcycle

Lit Motors CEO Daniel Kim wants to reinvent the motorcycle as we know it today. His idea? To design and manufacture a fully enclosed, two-wheeled motorcycle that runs purely on electric. SmartPlanet gets an exclusive first look at the C1-concept vehicle and its patented gyroscopic stability technology that helps prevent it from tipping over.

 

Greplin - "Google for your private life"

Users can plug in their credentials for Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a host of other popular Web services, and create a search engine capable of sifting through all manner of personal documents, contacts, and calendar items. It’s like Google for your private life.

Greplin has a “freemium” model: The basic service is gratis, but if users want to search business apps such as Salesforce (CRM) they must pay $5 per month or $50 per year. An iPhone app released in August adds a “suggested search” function to predict what people want based on their physical location and the date and time. When you’re on the way to a business lunch, the app will guess where you’re going based on your calendar appointments and automatically offer up the LinkedIn profile of the person you’re meeting.

BusinessWeek