To Mars and back - in just tank fill of fuel

Graphical illustration of how an ion thruster works by hurling particles backwards so that a spacecraft can be propelled forwards

A Ph D student at University of Sydney Australia has come up with an idea that may revolutionise space travel - specially man's quest to travel to distant planets like Mars.

Paddy Neumann has created a new type of ion space drive that could take humans to Mars and back on a single tank of fuel and believes his ion space drive Nasa's shatters current fuel efficiency record. 

The Neumann ion drive works by bombarding the fuel source with electric arcs, which causes ions be discarded. 

The innovative part of Neumann's drive is the type of fuel that was used. While HiPEP system runs on xenon gas, Neumann's ion drive can instead run on various metals many of which can be found in space junk.

Via | Source

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Lonodon plans Highyway for the Bicycle Riders - above London Railways

The SkyCycle, as proposed new network of cycle paths built above London's railways

In a unique and innovative move to reduce traffic on London streets and railways, plans area foot for a network of cycle pathways high above the streets of London have been unveiled by one of the world's most prominent architects.

SkyCycle is a 135-mile network of roads that would be constructed above existing suburban rail lines to create new cycle routes throughout the capital and has been developed by cycling enthusiast Sir Norman Foster, who designed St Mary Axe, known as 'The Gherkin', and the new Wembley Stadium.

The three-storey high routes would be accessed via ramps at more than 200 points.

The first phase is a four mile stretch from east London to Liverpool Street Station would cost an estimated £220m.

Read details at Mail Online

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Student designs 'City' to counter surveillance and targeted attacks by the pilotless remote-controlled drones

The USA has played havouc around the world using its drone fleet with such ferocity and with resultant collateral damage that the world is really questioning the US for killing innocent civilians more than the intended targets.

US drones have killed far more civilians, including women and children that militants, specially in Pakistan

The US drone fleet equipped with drones with surveillance capabilities is so powerful that it can track the movements of an entire medium-sized city all at once.

According to the UK's Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a minimum of 2,629 people have so far been killed by drones in Pakistan alone, with many more in other countries like Yemen and Somalia.

But while the US government is unmoved by such demands, a law student come out with a classic and novel design of city that would provide protection against the drones.

Shura City, designed as a class project by Asher Kohn, 25, is an attempt to use architecture to counter surveillance and targeted attacks by the remote-controlled aircraft.

Shura City: a class project by Asher Kohn,  to use architecture to counter surveillance and targeted attacks by the remote-controlled aircraft

The provocative design, which is like a sci-fi riff on traditional Middle-Eastern architecture, uses a range of tricks to confuse the aerial death machines and keep the city's inhabitants concealed.

Shura City, provocatively named for the groups of elders who take decisions in the Islamic communities which are the principal targets of drone strikes, is a product of Mr Kohn's fascination for 'drones' existence in a post-legal world'.

Ringed by minarets and built from concrete, which drone sensors cannot penetrate, its layout would be specifically designed to confuse from the outside - foiling the airborne watchers' ability to dish out targeted death from above.

'The goal is not defense-through-hardening, but defense-through-confusion,' writes Mr Kohn. 'By turning the entire community into a closed circuit, drones targeting individuals will not be able to select and detect the individuals they desire once they enter the city.'

Read more about it at: Mail Online
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Extreme Technology: The Legged Squad Support System for Men in the Combat

Moving and dragging combat support load when in actual combat may wear out men too early and leave them fatigued. The backpack carried loads make soldiers weary, sluggish and slow. 

In order to help soldiers and to take off their combat support load, a new head-less horse like robot has been designed and innovated to provide combat support system to the US soldiers.

The robot looks like a scene from the film Avatar - it remains to be seen whether it can really provide support in the combat or not as falling bombs and shells can seriously damage this huge 'legged support system' in the combat zone.

Watch the video below and decide:

Legged Squad Support System (LS3)

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Scientific breakthrough: Computer that can decode your thoughts and put them into words

A MUST READ POST

For quite sometime now, computer has been a man-controlled machine: we right something and computer retrieves it for us. But that was not much of technological work, though it was when computer was invented.

Now here is something that comes as a breakthrough: computer reading your thoughts and putting these to words. That is now computer is working instead of humans and bringing out what is stored in our brain.

 An X-ray CT scan of the head showing electrodes distributed over the brain's temporal lobe, where sounds are processed [Photo Adeen Finker, UC Berkely / Mail Online]

Scientists believe the inventions could offer a lifeline to those whose speech has been affected by stroke or degenerative disease, but many will be concerned about the implications of a technique that can eavesdrop on thoughts and reproduce them.

Read the full post at Mail Online and find an insight into this great scientific invention.

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Ekranoplane: Soviet Union's Awesome Nuclear Equipped Aeroplane

Ever imagined a huge bird, something like a pelican or some heavenly bird, flying in the skies? If you haven't, then you need to read more about the Soviet Union's Ekranoplane.

Built dusting the bygone days of the cold war, and equipped with the nuclear warheads, the huge Ekranoplane could fly at 340 mph. 

Ekranoplane was in fact a threesome - a plane, that it was, besides a boat and even a hovercraft - or should we say it was a Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV). 

A GEV takes advantage of an aeronautical effect that allows it to lift off with an immense amount of weight, but limits its flight to 16 feet above the waves. Its altitude can never be greater than the length of the wings.

Read more about this unique piece of technology and more photos at: Business Insider

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Braille Burgers From Wimpy 'Let Blind People See' Food' (VIDEO)

Here is something which one can say real innovation:

....... Wimpy had its chefs painstakingly adorn 15 burger buns with sesame seeds spelling out various messages in Braille. (For example: "100% Pure Beef Burger Made For You.") Wimpy then brought burgers using those buns to three institutions for the seeing impaired around South Africa and gave the burgers to 15 blind people. 

The company filmed these peoples' reactions and made a commercial out of it. The end of the commercial [SPOILER ALERT!] claims that social media spread the positive reactions of the 15 people to a total of 800,000 others.

Watch the video:

Read more: Huffington Post

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Couple completely make house with reclaimed goods that cost them next to nothing

[ via Mail Online ] 30 Dec

In these belt-tightening times, it always helps to shop around to get the best deal.

But one couple have taken that philosophy to the extreme by completely transforming their home simply with reclaimed goods.

Kresse Wesling and James Henrit bought their two-bedroom flat last year when it was little more than a shell.

• They snaffled items worth £35,000 new for a fraction of price
• Bed made from scaffold poles, tiles from fireman's hoses, seat-belts for curtain ties
• 'We don’t have two knives that are the same and we use old jars for glasses'

Read more: Mail Online

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Patent Office Presents $50,000 Innovation Challenge

[ via Information Week ] 20 Dec

The U.S. Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) is offering a $50,000 prize to technologists that special in image processing to create new technology to help modernize the process of patent examination.

The USPTO Innovation Challenge seeks the creation of a new algorithm to help reduce the paper burden of its current system for deciding whether to approve patents or not, according to a post on the White House blog.

Read more at Information Week

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Man-made mutant flu virus that can kill half the planet if released

[ via news ] 20 Dec

TWO scientific journals are debating whether to publish details of a man-made mutant flu virus that many fear could kill half the planet if it is released.

The report says that the US government paid scientists to figure out how the deadly bird flu virus could mutate to become a bigger threat to humans, then demanded virologists researching their work don't release full details of their success.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu is fatal in 60 per cent of human cases but only 350 people have so far died from the disease, largely because it cannot - yet - be transmitted between humans.

Read more: 

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Don't ask Google "Let it Snow"

A friend sent a SMS and told me to ask Google "Let it Snow" - and snow it will. I just took as an April Fool like joke and discarded it. But then more SMMs followed. SO I decided to give it a try.

Screen shot of my computer screen when it was snowing

And you know what? It really started snowing on my screen - and by and by the opened window became frosty just like a glass window becomes in real snow.

An innovation by Google. But when your screen is frosty, you can wipe away the frost by using your cursor as an ice scraper or pressing the "Defrost" button, which appears in place of the blue "Search" button.

Watch the video below, shared at YouTube:

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High-Tech Adidas Soccer Shoe and App Track User Performance

[ via Mashable ]

Your days of phony hustling on the soccer pitch — appearing to exert maximum effort while actually conserving energy — are over, thanks to a new shoe and app recently introduced by Adidas, reports Mashable.

The data transmitted from the chip allows players to track and measure their distance covered, top speed, number of sprints, and other statistics during games or practice. Players can then monitor their progress, compare performance to that of friends and measure against some of the world’s biggest stars while sharing the entire experience via Twitter and Facebook. Brazil and FC Barcelona defender Dani Alves also shares professional training tips via the app.

Read full story for more details.

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Singapore: "Shirtless" greeters cause stir in Orchard Road

[ Asia One ] 9 Dec

Wearing only bright red sweat pants and standing in a neat row, men with tight bods rather created a stir along Orchard Road. The men will continue to be "there" until the opening of apparel brand Abercrombie & Fitch's flagship store in Singapore.

About 40 male models have been hired to stand in a straight row in front of the store at Knightsbridge - which will officially open next Thursday - and take turns to greet passers-by daily from 11am to 5pm.

Read full story for details / more photos.

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Siri Hacked to Turn On/Off Lights and Fireplace

[ Chip Hazard / Wahaab JB ] 3 Dec

We have been listening to Siri users carrying out experiment like starting the car’s engine, controlling a thermostat etc. Now the latest innovation comes from a freelance webmaster, Mark Hodder who has manged to hack Siri via Siriproxy through which he can turn on/off his room’s lights and his fireplace.

Watch the video below:

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Toyota unveils "Smartphone on Four Wheels"

Full Story: Huffington Post 28 Nov

Toyota's president unveiled a futuristic concept car resembling a giant smartphone to demonstrate how Japan's top automaker is trying to take the lead in technology at the upcoming Tokyo auto show, reports Huffington Post.

Fun Vii - Smartphone on Four Wheels (photo AP)

The car works like a personal computer and allows drivers to connect with dealers and others with a tap of a touch-panel door. Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, called the new car  "a smartphone on four wheels" Monday.

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Electronic Contact Lenses Tested Successfully in Real Live Eyes

Full Story: POPSCI 22 Nov

Professor Babak Parviz of University of Washington, has made a working model of an electronic contact lens, which after tests on rabbits, is being claimed as a success.

The device's display has only one pixel, but serves as a working proof-of-concept for developing more complex information lenses. A useful device would need hundreds of pixels at least, to display a short email or text message.

Read full story for details

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Mongolia to build "Enormous Ice Block" to beat Summer Heat

Full Story: Popsci

In order to beat heat in its capital Ulan Bator during summer, Mongolia has announced a novel idea - piling up a huge and enormous ice block. The melting ice block in summer will "cool" the capital beside providing drinking water.

The project being launched later this month will cost $ 750,000 that will artificially make “naleds,” ice sheets that form along frozen streams and rivers. In Mongolian river beds, layers build up as new water flows onto the surface and freezes, forming ice caps that can build up to more than seven meters thick, reports Popsci.

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PANDA POO TEA: The most expensive tea EVER

Full Story: Mail Online 18 Nov

Don't be surprised by the innovation of a Chinese entrepreneur who has developed a £22,000 per pound tea. An Yanshi calls his innovation as the Panda Poo Tea, since it is grown on three acres of Panda's excrement. 

The novel idea behind this innovation is TTT: That is to "Turn Trash into Treasure." Mr Yanshi says the panda poo tea has a 'nutty' taste. 

Read full story for more about this interesting innovation.

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Wear "Milk" !!

Full Story: Yahoo News 16 Nov

 Model wearing Qmilch (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Wear Milk - You may think I am crazy in suggesting this, but not Anke Domaske, biochemist and fashion designer.

The 28-year-old German is the designer of an award-winning new textile made entirely from milk that's environmentally friendly as well as soothing to people with skin allergies. Called "Qmilch," it drapes and folds like silk, but can be washed and dried like cotton, reports Yahoo.

Currently, apparel depends heavily on byproducts from oil, or natural resources such as water — used in the thousands of liters (gallons) to produce just a bolt of cotton. But Domaske and her team of six has found a process of reducing milk to a protein powder that is then boiled and pressed into strands that can be woven into a fabric. She uses only organic milk that cannot be consumed because it has failed Germany's strict quality standards.

Read full story for details..

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