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Ma Ru

Hi-res photo of the moon taken by LROC WAC - 2 views

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    145m/pixel... in case you plan any follow-ups to curiosity cloning ;)
duncan barker

Can WISE find the hypothetical 'Tyche'? - 0 views

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    "In November 2010, the scientific journal Icarus published a paper by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, who proposed the existence of a binary companion to our sun, larger than Jupiter, in the long-hypothesized "Oort cloud" -- a faraway repository of small icy bodies at the edge of our solar system. The researchers use the name "Tyche" for the hypothetical planet. Their paper argues that evidence for the planet would have been recorded by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)."
Luís F. Simões

Shell energy scenarios to 2050 - 6 views

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    just in case you were feeling happy and optimistic
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    An energy scenario published by an oil company? Allow me to be sceptical...
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    Indeed, Shell is an energy company, not just oil, for some time now ... The two scenarii are, in their approach, dependant of economic and political situation, which is right now impossible to forecast. Reference to Kyoto is surprising, almost out-dated! But overall, I find it rather optimistic at some stages, and probably the timeline (p37-39) is unlikely with recent events.
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    the report was published in 2008, which explains the reference to Kyoto, as the follow-up to it was much more uncertain at that point. The Blueprint scenario is indeed optimistic, but also quite unlikely I'd say. I don't see humanity suddenly becoming so wise and coordinated. Sadly, I see something closer to the Scramble scenario as much more likely to occur.
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    not an oil company??? please have a look at the percentage of their revenues coming from oil and gas and then compare this with all their other energy activities together and you will see very quickly that it is only window dressing ... they are an oil and gas company ... and nothing more
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    not JUST oil. From a description: "Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies." Of course revenues coming from oil are the biggest, the investment turnover on other energy sources is small for now. Knowing that most of their revenues is from an expendable source, to guarantee their future, they invest elsewhere. They have invested >1b$ in renewable energy, including biofuels. They had the largest wind power business among so-called "oil" companies. Oil only defines what they do "best". As a comparison, some time ago, Apple were selling only computers and now they sell phones. But I would not say Apple is just a phone company.
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    window dressing only ... e.g. Net cash from operating activities (pre-tax) in 2008: 70 Billion$ net income in 2008: 26 Billion revenues in 2008: 88 Billion Their investments and revenues in renewables don't even show up in their annual financial reports since probably they are under the heading of "marketing" which is already 1.7 Billion $ ... this is what they report on their investments: Capital investment, portfolio actions and business development Capital investment in 2009 was $24 billion. This represents a 26% decrease from 2008, which included over $8 billion in acquisitions, primarily relating to Duvernay Oil Corp. Capital investment included exploration expenditure of $4.5 billion (2008: $11.0 billion). In Abu Dhabi, Shell signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to extend the GASCO joint venture for a further 20 years. In Australia, Shell and its partners took the final investment decision (FID) for the Gorgon LNG project (Shell share 25%). Gorgon will supply global gas markets to at least 2050, with a capacity of 15 million tonnes (100% basis) of LNG per year and a major carbon capture and storage scheme. Shell has announced a front-end engineering and design study for a floating LNG (FLNG) project, with the potential to deploy these facilities at the Prelude offshore gas discovery in Australia (Shell share 100%). In Australia, Shell confirmed that it has accepted Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s entitlement offer of new shares at a total cost of $0.8 billion, maintaining its 34.27% share in the company; $0.4 billion was paid in 2009 with the remainder paid in 2010. In Bolivia and Brazil, Shell sold its share in a gas pipeline and in a thermoelectric power plant and its related assets for a total of around $100 million. In Canada, the Government of Alberta and the national government jointly announced their intent to contribute $0.8 billion of funding towards the Quest carbon capture and sequestration project. Quest, which is at the f
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    thanks for the info :) They still have their 50% share in the wind farm in Noordzee (you can see it from ESTEC on a clear day). Look for Shell International Renewables, other subsidiaries and joint-ventures. I guess, the report is about the oil branch. http://sustainabilityreport.shell.com/2009/servicepages/downloads/files/all_shell_sr09.pdf http://www.noordzeewind.nl/
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    no - its about Shell globally - all Shell .. these participations are just peanuts please read the intro of the CEO in the pdf you linked to: he does not even mention renewables! their entire sustainability strategy is about oil and gas - just making it (look) nicer and environmentally friendlier
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    Fair enough, for me even peanuts are worthy and I am not able to judge. Not all big-profit companies, like Shell, are evil :( Look in the pdf what is in the upstream and downstream you mentionned above. Non-shell sources for examples and more objectivity: http://www.nuon.com/company/Innovative-projects/noordzeewind.jsp http://www.e-energymarket.com/news/single-news/article/ferrari-tops-bahrain-gp-using-shell-biofuel.html thanks.
LeopoldS

Earth's first Trojan asteroid: 2010 TK7 - 1 views

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    a place to go?
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    yup, for me next summer...
Luís F. Simões

USSR Wins Space Race As U.S. Shuts Down Shuttle Program | The Onion - America's Finest ... - 4 views

  • The termination of NASA's space shuttle program marks the end of a nearly 54-year rivalry between the USSR and the United States to achieve superiority in space exploration.
  • Sources confirmed that in commemoration of the capitalist defeat, extra bread and corn rations had been approved in all major cities, and factory workers were given time off their nine-hour work shifts to join in the festivities.
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    we can't access it from within the firewall I fear ...
Ma Ru

more space tourism - 3 views

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    Russian space hotel, but alcohol banned on board... something's not right here...
Juxi Leitner

Martian Projects Shall Use Nuclear Energy - 0 views

  • Since current rocket technologies are not sufficient for the future exploration of Mars and the whole Solar system, and since no alternative energy resources have been found as of now, the only possible way to implement those projects would be by using nuclear energy, Lopota said at an academic conference on aerospace.
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    blablabla
Friederike Sontag

AMS Policy Statement on Geoengineering the Climate System - 0 views

  • Therefore, the American Meteorological Society recommends:
  • Enhanced research on the scientific and technological potential for geoengineering
  • the climate system, including research on intended and unintended environmental responses.
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  • Coordinated study of historical, ethical, legal, and social implications of geoengineering
  • that integrates international, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational issues and perspectives and includes lessons from past efforts to modify weather and climate. Development and analysis of policy options to promote transparency and international cooperation in exploring geoengineering options along with restrictions on reckless efforts to manipulate the climate system.
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    policy statement regarding research on geoengineerin in the US (in force from July 2009-July 2012)
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    looking forward to your recommendations how we can get into it quickly :-)
ESA ACT

Label-Free, Single-Molecule Detection with Optical Microcavities -- Armani et al. 317 (... - 0 views

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    Single molecule detection: Might this be of interest for detecting proteins or other stuff on Mars etc.?
ESA ACT

ESLAB 2009 - Conference Announcement - 0 views

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    someone should attend ... a pity that the new YGT will not be here yet ...
ESA ACT

Phoenix Mars Mission - found ice!! - 0 views

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    wow!
ESA ACT

Obama Moves to Counter China With Pentagon-NASA Link - 0 views

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    interesting article - a lot of speculation though ...
ESA ACT

SPACE.com -- Delays and Cost Overruns Epidemic at NASA, Former Official Charges - 0 views

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    we could say to them " welcome to the club" ...
Juxi Leitner

Mendeley, the-Last.fm-of-research, could be world's largest online research paper datab... - 4 views

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    smells like ariadnet for ariadna papers and researchers
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    Ideed, seems like what we dream for ariadnet... However could have been good to allow the creation of groups. I will try it next week. The possibility to "Explore research trends and statistics" will please Leopold ;)
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    I am on mendeley now and I like it so far ! You can check my page on http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/pacome-delva/
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    am also on Medelay since some time - think that Tobias has showed it to me. Nice but did not actually use it yet really ....
Joris _

Water-Powered Spaceship Could Make Spaceflight Cheaper | Space Travel and Exploration |... - 1 views

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    what to think about that? spoiling important ressources, smart idea?, and is it really cheap?
LeopoldS

SpaceX Targets 2013 for Launch of Falcon Heavy | SpaceNews.com - 1 views

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    big big booster coming ... !
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    In similar story (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-spacex-rocket-elon-musk-20110405,0,3234336.story) the quote: " "This is a rocket of truly huge scale," said Musk, adding it would have the capability to one day enable moon or Mars missions." tells a lot about the ambition of it...
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    even bigger booster also coming: China Aims To Build World's Largest Rocket "Back in March, China revealed it is studying the feasibility of designing the most powerful carrier rocket in history for making a manned moon landing and exploring deep space, according to Liang Xiaohong, vice head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. The rocket is envisaged to have a payload of 130 tonnes, five times larger than that of China's current largest rocket. This rocket, if built, will eclipse the 53 tonne capacity of the planned Falcon 9 Heavy from SpaceX. It will even surpass the largest rocket ever built, the 119-tonne Saturn V."
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    still only "is studying the feasibility of designing a powerful carrier rocket" - we could easily do the same at no cost almost ... but still ... they might be serious ...
LeopoldS

Evidence of Water Vapor in Excess of Saturation in the Atmosphere of Mars - 2 views

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    Cynthia, Marion - have a look at this: I assume that this also affects our model, correct?
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    And I suppose they will (or already have) modify their GCM to take this in account...
Thijs Versloot

Real-Time Recognition and Profiling of Home Appliances through a Single Electricity Sensor - 3 views

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    A personal interest of mine that I want to explore a bit more in the future. I just bought a ZigBee electricity monitor and I am wondering whether from the signal of the mains one could detect (reliably) the oven turning on, lights, etc. Probably requires Neural Network training. The idea would be to make a simple device which basically saves you money by telling you how much electricity you are wasting. Then again, its probably already done by Google...
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    nice project!
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    For those interested, this is what/where I ordered.. http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/
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    Update two.. RF chip is faulty and tonight I have to solder a new chip into place.. That's open-source hardware for you!
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    haha, yep, that's it... but we can do better than that right! :)
Thijs Versloot

NASA's 'Swarmies' are a squad of smaller, less intelligent rovers - 0 views

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    Typically, we send rovers to our planetary neighbors one at a time -- but what if we sent a small team of smaller, less impressive robots instead? That's the idea NASA is exploring at Kennedy Space Center with Swarmies: a quartet of four autonomous robots designed to work together to complete a single mission.
Thijs Versloot

Bio-Derived Porous Carbon Anodes for Li-ion Batteries #Nature - 3 views

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    Here we explore the electrochemical performance of pyrolyzed skins from the species A. bisporus, also known as the Portobello mushroom, as free-standing, binder-free, and current collector-free Li-ion battery anodes. At temperatures above 900 °C, the biomass-derived carbon nanoribbon-like architectures undergo unique processes to become hierarchically porous. Basically they burned a Portobello mushroom and used it as a battery... now thats an multidisciplinary advanced concept
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