'Smart' window switches to dark mode to save energy

A new type of "smart" window that switches from summer to winter mode has been made by South Korean scientists.

The window darkens when the outside air temperatures soar, and becomes transparent when it gets cold in order to capture free heat from the sun.

Similar windows already exist, but the researchers say their method allows for an almost instantaneous switch from opaque to transparent.

This may help save more energy, the team writes in the journal ACS Nano.

"This type of light control system may provide a new option for saving on heating, cooling and lighting costs through managing the light transmitted into the interior of a house," said the scientists.

"Smart windows can prevent the inside of a building from becoming overheated by reflecting away a large fraction of the incident sunlight in summer.

"Alternatively, they can help keep a room warm by absorbing the sun's heat in winter."

New approach

The existing technology uses charged particles called ions sandwiched between panes of glass.

Electric current is then applied to switch the window from opaque to clear and back.

But Ho Sun Lim from Korea Electronics Technology Institute, Jeong Ho Cho and Jooyong Kim from Soongsil University decided on a different approach.

They used a special polymer, a different sort of charged particles known as counterions and solvents such as methanol.

The report states that the result was a glass that was a lot cheaper to manufacture and much less toxic than those currently available on the market.

The window is able to switch from 100% opaque to almost completely clear in a matter of seconds, said the authors.

'Instantaneous' switch

Although "dimming" windows already exist, it is often necessary to switch them from winter to summer mode and back manually, using additional equipment such as home-automation panels.

"Until now, the numerous technologies developed not only have been chemically unstable, prohibiting their use in long-term switching applications but have been accompanied by the use of expensive special equipment and complicated harsh processing conditions," stated the report.

Dr Stephen Morris from Materials Knowledge Transfer Network that is funded by the UK's Technology Strategy Board said that if the new method allows the window to switch from opaque to transparent and back pretty much instantaneously, then it is going to be a real benefit in terms of energy savings.

"That would mean that you're allowing light in much quicker - and this can reduce the amount of heat loss out of houses or increase the cooling in summer," he said.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15076773

Twelve new frog species found in Western Ghats

The Western Ghats region in the country, a global biodiversity hotspot, has opened up more of its secrets — this time a dozen species of night frogs hitherto unknown to science.

S.D. Biju of the University of Delhi and researchers from Bombay Natural History Society, Zoological Survey of India and Vrije University in Brussels, published the new finds in the latest issue of the international journal of zoological taxonomy ‘Zootaxa’.

Their paper also announces the rediscovery of three night frogs thought to be extinct for the last several decades.

In a press release on Thursday, the University of Delhi said the rediscovered Coorg Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris) had not been seen by researchers since it was reported 91 years ago. The Kempholey Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus kempholeyensis) and Forest Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus sylvaticus), the other two rediscoveries, had eluded sighting since they were reported 75 years ago.

The 12 new species were identified following a revision of the night frog genus Nyctibatrachus from specimens collected from the Western Ghats forests spread along the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra during fieldwork over the last 20 years, the press release said.

The researchers have named the new species as Nyctibatrachus acanthodermis, Nyctibatrachus danieli, Nyctibatrachus devein, Nyctibatrachus gavi, Nyctibatrachus grandis, Nyctibatrachus indraneili, Nyctibatrachus jog, Nyctibatrachus periyar, Nyctibatrachus pillaii, Nyctibatrachus poocha, Nyctibatrachus shiradi and Nyctibatrachus vrijeuni. (The name Nyctibatrachus is composed of two words — ‘nycti’ derived from the Greek ‘nux’ meaning night and ‘batrachus’ meaning frog).

These new discoveries take the number of new species described by herpetologist Dr. Biju and his colleagues over the last eight years from specimens collected from the Western Ghats during two decades of field work to 45. One of the earlier discoveries of the team led by him, a purple burrowing frog given the name Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis belonging to an entirely new family of frogs, was celebrated by the scientific world as a “once in a century find”.

Six of the 12 new species are from unprotected, highly degraded habitats. The night frogs require unique habitats — either fast flowing streams or moist forest floor for breeding and survival. They fertilise and reproduce without physical contact. The paper reporting these finds also describes the reproductive strategy and parental care habits of six of the new species.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article2456205.ece

Five Super Foods for Keeping your Bones Healthy

A strong skeletal frame is vital not only to provide structure to the body but also protect the internal organs and anchor the muscles.

Apart from this, a healthy set of bones is crucial for good posture, balance and strength. Now the two key nutrients responsible for developing healthy strong bones are calcium and phosphorus. Smaller amounts of other nutrients like vitamins, proteins and minerals are also important for healthy bones.

The process of developing healthy bones begins at birth. However, it is important that a healthy, bone-friendly diet programme is maintained all throughout the life. This becomes particularly important after about 30 years of age.

You of course have the option of going for calcium supplements (but do consult a doctor before you do that), you can also try some calcium-rich foods to make up for the deficiency of calcium and keeping the bones healthy. Below, we discuss five super foods which can help you boost your bone density at any age:

Milk

Without a shadow of doubt, milk is the best (and readily available) source of calcium required for proper bone growth. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), low fat or fat-free milk is the best choice as it has high calcium content without the added fat and this facilitates easy absorption of calcium by the body. And it's not just calcium. Milk is also rich in nutrients like potassium, magnesium, riboflavin, phosphorus and Vitamins D, A and B12, all of which are important for healthy bones.

Orange Juice

Oranges are packed with essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals and calcium. They are a must-have for healthy bone growth. They can be especially used by individuals who have intolerance to lactose and cannot obtain their daily calcium requirements from dairy products. So next time you help yourself with a serving of fruits, make sure you have enough oranges in that.

Dairy Products

Many experts have designated dairy products like cheese and yogurt as preferred source of calcium due to their high calcium levels. In case you are lactose intolerant, you can also opt for other dairy products that are either lactose-free or have low levels of lactose. Yogurt is contains a chemical called lactoferrin which an iron-binding protein which promotes the growth and activity of osteoblasts (the cells that build bones).

Nuts and Seeds

Besides being rich in calcium, nuts like walnuts, flaxseeds, almonds, pistachios etc are also very good sources of minerals and omega 3 fatty acids. Peanuts and calcium contain potassium which prevents loss of calcium in urine.

Greens

Dark green leafy veggies like brocolli and spinach are great sources of calcium and vitamin D and it's the latter which helps in absorption of Calcium and Phosphorus, thereby ensuring growth of healthy bones and teeth. Collards and turnip greens can also be helpful in providing you with your daily dose of calcium. The alkaline effect of eating a diet rich in these vegetables will help you to strengthen your bones and promote bone growth by preventing calcium loss. Besides, plant sterols (steroid hormones) are converted to a hormone called calciferol and that aids calcium absorption.

Source: http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/super-foods-keeping-bones-healthy-135837228.html

Spotify revolutionizes music listening

Attention, Carnegie Mellon students: A revolutionary new service has become available to music listeners across the nation. The name of this innovation is Spotify.

Spotify is a music streaming service that allows listeners to search and play songs from an impressively large variety of record labels. This selection of music includes about 15 million tracks, which means users can find almost any song from any album, by any artist. One exciting aspect of Spotify is that users are allowed to listen nearly instantly not to just a sample of the song, but to the entire, full-length song for free. The other incredible part is that all of it is legal. According to Wired, “Those who have tried Spotify know it’s like a magical version of iTunes in which you’ve already bought every song in the world.”

Spotify is easy to navigate, and searching for and playing songs is simple. There is no waiting for songs to download; it is as easy as one click. Listeners can hear almost any song they want whenever they want, make playlists of their own music files from their hard drive or iTunes library, and share music through social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Spotify’s music library is a compilation of both the user’s music and its own extensive music collection. With all music libraries collected in one place and the ability to connect to a social networking site, it is easy to share music with friends.

On the side bar of the homepage, there is a “What’s New” tab so users can be up to date on the latest music. The “Top Lists” tab shows the most popular music, and the “Feed” tab shows music shared among friends and Spotify news. There is also the music library and all playlists, including the “Starred” playlist, to which any song can be added in order to create a massive collection of every song that the user wants. It is also possible to rewind or fast forward to any part of a song, and of course to replay it as many times as the user wants. One other helpful feature is the filter tool, which allows the user to type in criteria to filter music from any playlist or search results.

Although there are many benefits of the free service, there are also some limitations that are a bit disappointing. Listeners can only listen to the same song five times per month, with a maximum of 10 hours of music per month after a certain time period. However, paid subscribers enjoy more enticing features. Users of Unlimited or Premium Service enjoy an advertisement-free version of the service, an unlimited number of playbacks, and an unlimited number of hours of music streaming. Premium users also have a mobile service, by which subscribers are able to sync all their favorite playlists from Spotify to their mobile devices. Premium users also have an offline mode, which allows them to listen to music without internet access.

This creative music service is certain to change the way we share and listen to music. The service is an accessible — and legal — alternative to pirating music. Many music listeners are willing to search through files of mediocre quality, risk downloading viruses, and wait for a long duration of time to download songs illegally as long as the music is free and accessible. Spotify presents everyone with plenty of music at their disposal instantly, with no painfully slow downloads, no viruses, and no guilty conscience.

It is an ingenious concept, and it has already received significant acclaim. Billboard.biz praised Spotify, saying, “Spotify makes music fun again, just like the iPod did nearly 10 years ago.” Recorded music has come from vinyl records to tapes, to CDs to music files, and now it has reached music streaming so that music is easier to access than ever before. Thanks to Spotify, listening to music will never be the same.

Source: http://thetartan.org/2011/9/12/pillbox/spotify

Google-powered bulbs, dishwashers

Google-powered bulbs, dishwashers

After the Internet, Google is now set to foray into the domain of household appliances -- it will produce bulbs, thermostats and dishwashers, and integrate them with wireless technology, the search engine giant has said.

According to Google, the new range of "almost anything electrical" household devices would be launched by the end of this year, and wireless technology will help these devices to communicate with tablets, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Announcing the new initiative, codenamed Project Tungsten, at a software developers' conference in San Francisco, Google said its aim was to let a range of devices "discover, connect and communicate" with each other.

In a series of demonstrations using its Android operating system 'Android@home', Google showed a tablet that could turn lights on and off and even a "near-field communications" chip that simply had to be touched on speakers to start them playing an album.

Although entering the crowded "home automation" market is brave move by Google, the US-based firm highlighted 400,000 Android devices are now being activated every day.

It said that apps integrated into the home environment, such as an alarm clock application that gradually raised the lights and turned on a user's radio, were the next logical extension.

The company already offers 200,000 different apps and they have been downloaded 4.5 billion times on 100 million different devices, mostly mobile phones.

Google also announced a service allowing users to rent movies online as well as to store music they already own on the Internet.

Read More :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/personal-tech/computing/Coming-soon-Google-powered-bulbs-dishwashers/articleshow/8240894.cms

Social media: The new battleground in Singapore elections

Social media

The odds are always stacked against opposition candidates in Singapore elections and for Nicole Seah, a political novice contesting in the backyard of a popular former prime minister, they should be overwhelming.

But are they? The winsome 24-year-old is already the city-state's second-most "liked" politician on Facebook and she enjoys a higher profile than many seasoned campaigners. She has clips on YouTube and is avidly discussed in blogs.

As Singapore gears up for elections on May 7, no one is sure how social media like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will affect the outcome. What is clear is these outlets are sharply different to the pro-government local newspapers and TV.

"What used to be mere coffee shop talk can now enter the public discourse, for better or worse," says Cherian George, associate journalism professor at Nanyang Technological University.

"Whether it will have any impact and to whose benefit is anyone's guess."

The People's Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore with an iron grip since independence in 1965, usually wins elections by a huge margin. But at the last election in 2006, when it won 82 of 84 seats, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter either did not exist or were in their infancy and confined to the West.

According to the government's Info-communications Development Authority, 81 percent of Singapore households had access to the Internet at the end of 2009.

Top source

Facebook is particularly popular in the wealthy Southeast Asian city-state where there are an estimated 2.5 to 3 million users in a population of 5.1 million, according to industry estimates.

In a recent survey by the Straits Times newspaper, 36.3 percent of people between the ages of 21 and 34 cited the Internet as their top source of local political news compared with 35.3 percent who preferred newspapers.

According to local media, "Generation Y" citizens, or those born after 1975, make up one in four voters. And opposition parties have been quick to take note.

"There is this explosion of new media tools and we have been able to use them effectively to reach out and tell the truth about our party and what we stand for," Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), told Reuters.

But despite the Internet's growing reach, Singapore's newspapers and TV stations continue to command a much wider audience. The Straits Times, for example, has an average daily circulation of 350,000 while the Online Citizen, a popular Singapore news and commentary site, gets around 25,000 hits a day.

Singapore Press Holdings, which has a near-monopoly on newspapers in the city-state, follows a strongly pro-government line. MediaCorp, which runs the TV stations, is a unit of state investor Temasek.

Seah, who set up her Facebook page just a week ago, had already received 22,372 "likes" as at 4 pm on April 26, far more than any Singapore politician other than the country's senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew.

Still, that may not be enough for her and her alliance from the National Solidarity Party to unseat the team from the PAP led by former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in a five-seat, winner-takes-all constituency.

"Social media has been more useful in forging connections between parties and sympathizers, for example, by helping party members identify people they could engage with in party activities," said Giorgos Cheliotis, who teaches communications and new media at the National University of Singapore.

"But I do not think that it has much power in swaying public opinion."

Read More :- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social-media/Social-media-The-new-battleground-in-Singapore-elections/articleshow/8092826.cms

New format for CAT 2011!

The Common Admission Test (CAT) to be conducted on 20 testing days within the 28 day window between October 22 and November 18 will be in a yet new avatar. According to the latest news, the number of sections has been reduced to two from the erstwhile three. These are as follows: o Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation, and o Verbal ability and Logical Reasoning. Each section will have 30 questions and 70 minutes will be given making the total test time as 140 minutes, 5 minutes more than CAT 2010. More significantly, both sections will follow a sequence with on-screen countdown timers for each. Students will not be allowed to go back to the first section once its time has elapsed. The check-in procedure this year will start one-and-a-half hours before the scheduled test time instead of two hours in CAT 2010 and the candidates will be given a 15-minute tutorial before the commencement of the main examination. Three new cities - Bhilai, Jammu and Dehradun - have been added to the existing 33 test locations. CAT brochures can now be purchased from any one of the 201 branches of Axis Bank. Further details are to be made available on the CAT site by August 8th.

Source: http://campus.yahoo.com/news/yeducareers360/new-format-cat-2011-20110801   

Honda to Recall 962,000 Cars

TOKYO—Honda Motor Co. said it would voluntarily recall 962,000 cars world-wide to repair problems with power windows and computer equipment.

The car maker said no serious injuries or fatal accidents have been reported as a result of the problems. The company estimated it would spend ¥1.29 billion ($16.8 million) in Japan for the recall. Honda declined to elaborate on the costs for overseas recalls.

The announcement came hard on the heels of another large recall and adds to Honda's headaches as it seeks to join Japanese rivals in bouncing back from production disruption in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Japan's auto makers must also cope with the yen riding near record highs against the dollar and other major currencies, making their exports more expensive and less competitive.

Honda, Japan's third-biggest car maker by volume, recalled more than 2.3 million vehicles in early August, citing problems with automatic transmissions.

Honda on Monday said it will recall 936,000 Fit compacts, CR-V and City models in Japan, China, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere because of defective power-window switches.

A Honda spokeswoman said there were nine reported cases of vehicles catching on fire in Japan and China because of the power-window problem. She also said two people reported light burns after touching overheated switches.

The car maker also will recall 26,000 CR-Z hybrid models in Japan, the U.S., Canada and other markets because of defective programming of electronic-control units.

Honda shares closed 4.7% lower on Monday.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904537404576551890942734716.html