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Tiberius Brastaviceanu

Roithner Lasertechnik - Start - 0 views

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    We purchased LEDs and laser/LED drivers from them. See with me and Jonathan.
Kurt Laitner

Inequality: Why egalitarian societies died out - opinion - 30 July 2012 - New Scientist - 0 views

  • FOR 5000 years, humans have grown accustomed to living in societies dominated by the privileged few. But it wasn't always this way. For tens of thousands of years, egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies were widespread. And as a large body of anthropological research shows, long before we organised ourselves into hierarchies of wealth, social status and power, these groups rigorously enforced norms that prevented any individual or group from acquiring more status, authority or resources than others.*
  • How, then, did we arrive in the age of institutionalised inequality? That has been debated for centuries. Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau reasoned in 1754 that inequality was rooted in the introduction of private property. In the mid-19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels focused on capitalism and its relation to class struggle. By the late 19th century, social Darwinists claimed that a society split along class lines reflected the natural order of things - as British philosopher Herbert Spencer put it, "the survival of the fittest". (Even into the 1980s there were some anthropologists who held this to be true - arguing that dictators' success was purely Darwinian, providing estimates of the large numbers of offspring sired by the rulers of various despotic societies as support.)
  • But by the mid-20th century a new theory began to dominate. Anthropologists including Julian Steward, Leslie White and Robert Carneiro offered slightly different versions of the following story: population growth meant we needed more food, so we turned to agriculture, which led to surplus and the need for managers and specialised roles, which in turn led to corresponding social classes.
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  • One line of reasoning suggests that self-aggrandising individuals who lived in lands of plenty ascended the social ranks by exploiting their surplus - first through feasts or gift-giving, and later by outright dominance
  • At the group level, argue anthropologists Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd, improved coordination and division of labour allowed more complex societies to outcompete the simpler, more equal societies
  • From a mechanistic perspective, others argued that once inequality took hold - as when uneven resource-distribution benefited one family more than others - it simply became ever more entrenched. The advent of agriculture and trade resulted in private property, inheritance, and larger trade networks, which perpetuated and compounded economic advantages.
  • Many theories about the spread of stratified society begin with the idea that inequality is somehow a beneficial cultural trait that imparts efficiencies, motivates innovation and increases the likelihood of survival. But what if the opposite were true?
  • In a demographic simulation that Omkar Deshpande, Marcus Feldman and I conducted at Stanford University, California, we found that, rather than imparting advantages to the group, unequal access to resources is inherently destabilising and greatly raises the chance of group extinction in stable environments.
  • Counterintuitively, the fact that inequality was so destabilising caused these societies to spread by creating an incentive to migrate in search of further resources. The rules in our simulation did not allow for migration to already-occupied locations, but it was clear that this would have happened in the real world, leading to conquests of the more stable egalitarian societies - exactly what we see as we look back in history.
  • In other words, inequality did not spread from group to group because it is an inherently better system for survival, but because it creates demographic instability, which drives migration and conflict and leads to the cultural - or physical - extinction of egalitarian societies.
  • Egalitarian societies may have fostered selection on a group level for cooperation, altruism and low fertility (which leads to a more stable population), while inequality might exacerbate selection on an individual level for high fertility, competition, aggression, social climbing and other selfish traits.
Tiberius Brastaviceanu

Laser Driver - SENSORICA - 0 views

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    Project page for the Laser and LED driver project. 
Guillaume Barreau

Growing lettuce under LED in Japan - 0 views

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    The LED lights are a key part of the farm's magic. They allow Shimamura to control the night-and-day cycle and accelerate growth. "What we need to do is not just setting up more days and nights," he says. "We want to achieve the best combination of photosynthesis during the day and breathing at night by controlling the lighting and the environment." Shimamura says that the systems allows him to grow lettuce full of vitamins and minerals two-and-a-half times faster than an outdoor farm. He is also able to cut discarded produce from 50 percent to just 10 percent of the harvest, compared to a conventional farm. As a result, the farms productivity per square foot is up 100-fold, he says.
Tiberius Brastaviceanu

Open Source 3-D Printed Nutating Mixer - Appropedia, the sustainability wiki - 0 views

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    "As the open source development of additive manufacturing has led to low-cost desktop three-dimensional (3-D) printing, a number of scientists throughout the world have begun to share digital designs of free and open source scientific hardware. Open source scientific hardware enables custom experimentation, laboratory control, rapid upgrading, transparent maintenance, and lower costs in general. To aid in this trend, this study describes the development, design, assembly, and operation of a 3-D printable open source desktop nutating mixer, which provides a fixed 20° platform tilt angle for a gentle three-dimensional (gyrating) agitation of chemical or biological samples (e.g., DNA or blood samples) without foam formation. The custom components for the nutating mixer are designed using open source FreeCAD software to enable customization. All of the non-readily available components can be fabricated with a low-cost RepRap 3-D printer using an open source software tool chain from common thermoplastics. All of the designs are open sourced and can be configured to add more functionality to the equipment in the future. It is relatively easy to assemble and is accessible to both the science education of younger students as well as state-of-the-art research laboratories. Overall, the open source nutating mixer can be fabricated with US$37 in parts, which is 1/10th of the cost of proprietary nutating mixers with similar capabilities. The open source nature of the device allow it to be easily repaired or upgraded with digital files, as well as to accommodate custom sample sizes and mixing velocities with minimal additional costs."
kozak30k

Starter Kit for Arduino - Flex - SparkFun Electronics - 0 views

    • kozak30k
       
      Users want starter instructions/project cookbook, spec sheet, ideas for cool projects.
  • The package I received contained some warranty info, but not even a spec sheet for the Duo R3. I was hoping to have it programmed to make an LED blink today, but I’m at a dead end from the get go here.
  • Inventors Kit Guide too.
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    Feedback and comments from users for the Arduino Starter Kit
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    Nice discovery Tony
Tiberius Brastaviceanu

Science and Technology Consultation - Industry Canada - 0 views

  • Under this strategy
    • Yasir Siddiqui
       
      Testing
    • Yasir Siddiqui
       
      testing
  • Genome Canada, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
  • Still, Canadian businesses continue to underperform when it comes to innovation—a primary driver of productivity growth—when compared to other competing nations. The performance of business R&D is one oft-cited measure used to gauge the level of innovative activity in a country's business sector.
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  • Canadians have reached top tier global performance in reading, mathematics, problem solving and science, and Canada has rising numbers of graduates with doctoral degrees in science and engineering.
  • This valuable resource of highly qualified and skilled individuals needs to be better leveraged.
  • The ease and ability of the academic community to collaborate, including through research networks, is also well-recognized.
  • to develop technologies, products and services that add value and create high-paying jobs.
  • Canada has an impressive record when it comes to research and the quality of its knowledge base.
  • Still, the innovative performance of Canada's firms and the productivity growth continue to lag behind competing nations.
  • The government is also committed to moving forward with a new approach to promoting business innovation—one that emphasizes active business-led initiatives and focuses resources on better fostering the growth of innovative firms.
  • Achieving this requires the concerted effort of all players in the innovation system—to ensure each does what one does best and to leverage one another's strengths.
  • the government has invested more to support science, technology and innovative companies than ever before
  • Canada must become more innovative
    • Kurt Laitner
       
      problem statement
  • providing a new framework to guide federal ST&I investments and priorities. That is why the Government of Canada stated its intention to release an updated ST&I Strategy in the October 2013 Speech from the Throne.
    • Kurt Laitner
       
      exercise
  • seeking the views of stakeholders from all sectors of the ST&I system—including universities, colleges and polytechnics, the business community, and Canadians
  • written submissions from all Canadians on the policy issues and questions presented in this paper.
  • The government remains focused on creating jobs, growth and long-term prosperity for Canadians
  • encouraging partnerships with industry, attracting highly skilled researchers, continuing investments in discovery-driven research, strengthening Canada's knowledge base, supporting research infrastructure and providing incentives to private sector innovation.
  • has transformed the National Research Council, doubled its investment
  • supported research collaborations through the federal granting councils
  • created the new Venture Capital Action Plan
  • helping to promote greater commercialization of research and development
  • Our country continues to lead the G7 in spending on R&D
  • Canada has a world-class post-secondary education system that embraces and successfully leverages collaboration with the private sector, particularly through research networks
  • destination for some of the world's brightest minds
  • global race
  • businesses that embrace innovation-based strategies
  • post-secondary and research institutions that attract and nurture highly qualified and skilled talent
  • researchers who push the frontiers of knowledge
  • governments that provide the support
    • Tiberius Brastaviceanu
       
      Why a race? We need to change the way we see this!!! We need to open up. See the European Commission Horizon 2020 program  http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/ They are acknowledging that Europe cannot do it alone, and are spending money on International collaboration. 
    • Tiberius Brastaviceanu
       
      There is nothing about non-institutionalized innovation, i.e. open source! There is nothing about the public in this equation like the Europeans do in the Digital Era for Europe program  https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/node/66731 
  • low taxes, strong support for new businesses, a soundly regulated banking system, and ready availability of financial services
  • reducing red tape
  • expanding training partnerships and improving access to venture capital.
  • Collaboration is key to mobilizing innovation
  • invest in partnerships between businesses and colleges and universities
    • Tiberius Brastaviceanu
    • Tiberius Brastaviceanu
       
      But the public and in people is still not in sight of the fed gov. 
  • Economic Action Plans (EAP) 2012 and 2013
  • provide incentive for innovative activity in firms, improved access to venture capital, augmented and more coordinated direct support to firms, and deeper partnerships and connections between the public and private sectors.
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