Problem  Establishing local-scale power near end users ranks high on everyone's spec list for Grid 2.0. That's one reason Obama's stimulus plan contains a grant that will reimburse property owners for 30 percent of the cost of a solar energy system. But utilities—former monopolies, after all—are reluctant to give up control over their antique, accident-prone grid. And people with enough rooftop real estate to squeeze out serious juice balk at the hassle.

Solution  Create a new class of energy service providers that act as middlemen between power companies and large commercial facilities with big rooftops. For instance, SunEdison builds and maintains solar plants on the rooftops of operations like Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, and Kohl's in eight states. It's a win-win arrangement: Electric companies get a trusted partner in power generation, and businesses get green energy at a fixed, competitive rate—without additional investment. The secret sauce isn't photovoltaic panels; it's the networking gear, sensors, and software that let a SunEdison control room in California manage hundreds of solar sites cost-effectively. And that means it's suited for scaling up. Says Mark Culpepper, a veteran of Cisco Systems who is now CTO of SunEdison: "Generating power anywhere you can fit a panel totally changes the dynamic of the energy market."

from wired …

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Scientists said today the Antarctic ozone hole, caused largely by human pollution, is not showing any signs of recovery so far this year. Meanwhile, a separate study shows that nature itself is destroying ozone high in the atmosphere over Earth’s North Pole.

Ozone is a colorless gas that in the stratosphere (6 to 30 miles above the planet’s surface) absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Without the ozone,skin damage would suddenly be worse and the planet would be downright hostile to life as we know it. Holes, which are really areas where ozone is very thin, occur over each pole during their respective hemisphere’s spring. Typically these holes form when sunlight breaks up man-made chemicals, like chloroflurocarbons (or CFCs), and resulting gases such as chlorine destroy the ozone. But other naturally-occurring chemicals can also eat away at the ozone.

Strong winds

In March 2006, stronger-than usual winds circling high above the Arctic pulled ozone-destroying nitrogen oxides down in altitude some 30 miles, where they could attack ozone in the upper stratosphere, according to a study in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The destructive nitrogen oxides are created above the stratosphere when sunlight breaks up nitrogen and oxygen molecules. This finding shows that the winds have a greater impact on ozone levels than scientists previously thought. The destruction caused by the winds around the North Pole is only rivaled by the nearly 60 percent reduction in ozone molecules that occurred there in the winter of 2003-2004, when a series of powerful solar storms bombarded the region, creating higher levels of nitrogen oxides.

"We knew strong winds would lead to more [nitrogen oxides] in the stratosphere if there were solar storms, but seeing that much come down into the stratosphere when the sun was essentially quiet was amazing," said lead author Cora Randall of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

This upper-level destruction occurs far above the lower stratosphere’s CFC-induced ozone hole, and so doesn’t cause an immediate health threat. But it could have unanticipated climate consequences because the upper-level ozone usually heats up the stratosphere as it absorbs ultraviolet radiation, according to Randall. Human-induced climate change might also affect the strength of the polar winds, which could pull even more nitrogen oxides down into the stratosphere, she said.

"The atmosphere is part of a coupled system, and what affects one layer of the atmosphere can influence other layers in surprising ways," Randall said. "We will only be able to predict and understand the consequences of human activities if we study the entire system as a whole, not just in parts."

No Recovery over Antarctica

Studying the consequences of human activities on ozone is just what NASA scientists are doing at the bottom of the globe. Today, researchers released the latest image of the Antarctic ozone hole. Scientists have been monitoring the ozone hole’s annual maximum for signs of improvement since the Montreal Protocol, which phased out CFC’s, was passed 19 years ago.

"The Antarctic ozone hole will reach sizes on the order of 8-10 million square miles nearly every year until about 2018 or so," said Paul Newman, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. That area is larger that all of North America. Between 2020 and 2025, Newman expects to see detectable decreases in the hole’s size, but says it probably won’t reach normal levels until around 2070.

"So we will soon see what this year’s peak will reveal about the ozone hole and our ability to predict its development and recovery," Newman said. Meantime, in a statement, he and colleagues said: "Though it is still too early to tell, the 2006 Antarctic ozone hole has not shown any substantial signs of recovery."

from LiveScience …

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A couple of weeks ago there was an interesting opinion piece in the NYTimes about how physicists are the harbingers of doom, and are responsible for the end times. Or, more specifically, it’s because of physicists that the financial markets are in tatters all around us.

The basic idea is that greedy physicists have gone to Wall Street, cooked up all sorts of arcane derivative products, and subsequently unleashed these weapons of mass destruction on the financial markets. This sentiment is best epitomized by a statement from none other than Warren Buffett (perhaps the world’s most successful investor, and certainly the world’s richest): “beware of geeks bearing formulas”

Undoubtedly there is some truth underlying this sentiment, in the sense that there are plenty of (mostly lapsed) physicists working on Wall Street. And these physicists have indeed helped develop fairly mathematical and esoteric models for the markets. These models made it possible to leverage excessively (i.e., invest significantly with very little money down), and made it exceedingly difficult to evaluate risk. And it sure is convenient to find scapegoats on which to blame the global recession. But, fundamentally, the markets are in free-fall because of rampant and unfettered greed. And it turns out there was plenty of that to go around. For the last few years it was simply too easy to make huge sums of money by taking on large risk. So long as the markets went up, all was good. But when there’s the possibility to make vast sums of money, there’s an equal and opposite possibility of losing vast sums of money. Newton’s 3rd law of finance, I suppose. And this law has been much in evidence as of late.

from Discover Magazine …

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A robotic future holds the promise of providing tireless workers and companions for humans, but it can also evoke worries about an armed machine insurrection along the lines of the "Terminator" movies.

Experts consider that dark vision to be on the distant horizon, although they now point to other ethical issues that arise from the growing presence of battlefield bots and their potential to decide to attack autonomously, possibly as soon as in the next 20 years .

Most current military robots have human handlers, but some can pull the trigger on their own. The U.S. Navy and Army use anti-missile systems resembling R2-D2 toting a Gatling gun, which can go into full-automatic mode to track and shoot down incoming missiles. Israel and South Korea have deployed robotic sentries along their borders that may shoot first and ask questions later.

Such defensive systems could give way to robots that make attack decisions "within this century if not in the next decade or two," said Patrick Lin, a researcher at California State Polytechnic University who compiled a report for the U.S. Navy on the ethics and risks of military robots. And that raises questions of how to keep robots in line during confusing battlefield situations.

"Yes, a robot does not feel anger or revenge but neither does it feel empathy or compassion," said Noel Sharkey, a robotics expert at the University of Sheffield in the UK. Sharkey noted situations that may require decision-making beyond current robotic intelligence, such as civilians wandering into the field of fire or child soldiers forced into battle.

There are workaround solutions. Militaries will probably not replace humans entirely with robots, said Ronald Arkin, a robotics researcher at Georgia Tech. Instead, robots will operate and fight alongside humans in specialized roles. Their tireless presence may even end up saving lives, when weary human fighters might make bad decisions and end up abusing prisoners or killing civilians.

However, robotic perfection may not be feasible or ideal in all situations. And it is unclear if humans should demand more of robots than they do of themselves, in some ethical situations.

"It is not my belief that an autonomous unmanned system will be able to be perfectly ethical in the battlefield, but I am convinced that they can perform more ethically than human soldiers are capable of," Arkin told LiveScience.

And that question could become irrelevant as new technologies blur the line between robot and human.

from LiveScience …

for me … at present i am more afraid of humans then machines

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For the first time in 11 years, Friday the 13th is falling in two consecutive months. This double threat can only occur in certain non-leap years and only in a February-March combination. Look for it—or avoid it—again in 2015. The double whammy isn't the only Friday the 13th claim to infamy for 2009, a particularly tough year for superstitious minds.

The ominous date falls on three Fridays this year: February 13; this Friday, March 13; and again on November 13.

But three Friday the 13ths is the yearly maximum, as long as societies continue to mark time with the Gregorian calendar, which Pope Gregory XIII ordered the Catholic Church to adopt in 1582.

"You can't have any [years] with none and you can't have any with four because of our funny calendar," said Underwood Dudley, a professor emeritus of mathematics at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and author ofNumerology: Or, What Pythagoras Wrought.

The calendar works just as its predecessor the Julian calendar did, with a leap year every four years. But the Gregorian calendar skips leap year on century years except those divisible by 400. For example, there was no leap year in 1900 but one was observed in 2000. This trick keeps the calendar in tune with the seasons.

The result is an ordering of days and dates that repeats itself every 400 years, Dudley noted. As time marches through the order, some years such as 2009 appear with three Friday the 13ths. Other years have two or one.

Curious Calendar

"It's just that curious way our calendar is constructed, with 28 days in February and all those 30s and 31s," Dudley said.

When the 400-year order is laid out, another revelation occurs: The 13th falls on Friday more often than any other day of the week. "It's just a funny coincidence," Dudley said.

"At the end of every cycle you get a year with three Friday the 13ths the year before the last year in the cycle … and you also get one on the tenth year of all the cycles," he said. Two-thousand nine is the tenth year of the cycle that started in 2000.

Is it really unlucky number !!!

In history too this number was always considered as unlucky number … in last supper with Jesus, Judas was the 13th guest who betrayed him … in ancient Rome, witches reportedly gathered in groups of 12. The 13th was believed to be the devil !!! In Norse myth tale when about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow, another example !!! numerologists consider 12 a "complete" number. There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles of Jesus. In exceeding 12 by 1, 13's association with bad luck "has to do with just being a little beyond completeness. The number becomes restless or squirmy”. How can we forget apollo 13, right ??? Some biblical scholars believe Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit on Friday. Perhaps most significant is a belief that Abel was slain by his brother Cain on Friday the 13th. We all know that Jesus was crucified on Friday … right ??

Modern Trend ???

actually its not like that people used to do this from all the time …

"It's been estimated that [U.S] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do," said Dossey, who is also the founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina.

Among other services, Dossey's organization counsels clients on how to overcome fear of Friday the 13th, a phobia that he estimates afflicts 17 to 21 million people in the United States !!!

This fear of 13 can even be seen in how societies are built. More than 80 percent of high-rise buildings lack a 13th floor. Many airports skip the 13th gate. Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13.On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 1/2. In France, socialites known as the quatorziens (fourteeners) once made themselves available as 14th guests to keep a dinner party from an unlucky fate !!!

Well personally , i don’t believe in this myth … i believe there is only one thing unlucky for us and it is we are to each other !!! …

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For two decades, a ridge of volcanic rock 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas known as Yucca Mountain has been the sole focus of government plans to store highly radioactive nuclear waste.
Not anymore.
Despite the $13.5 billion that has been spent on the project, the Obama administration says it’s going in a different direction. It slashed funding for Yucca Mountain in its recently announced budget. And on Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate hearing that the Yucca Mountain site no longer was viewed as an option for storing reactor waste, brushing aside criticism from several Republican lawmakers.
Instead, Chu said the Obama administration believes the nearly 60,000 tons of used reactor fuel can remain at nuclear power plants while a new, comprehensive plan for waste disposal is developed.
“We’ve spent billions of dollars and many years preparing for Yucca Mountain to be our nation’s nuclear waste site,” Murkowski said. “Closing Yucca Mountain sends an unmistakable signal to nuclear developers that they might not have a place to store their waste, making them less willing to develop new facilities.”
Congress in 1982 declared that the government must assume responsibility for reactor waste from commercial power plants. Courts have upheld what they call a binding contract with the nuclear power industry. With no lawmakers wanting a nuclear waste dump in their state, Congress five years later declared Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only site to be considered.
Nevada officials openly labeled it the “screw Nevada bill” and the state’s political leaders have fought the project ever since, arguing that the Energy Department has not shown it is an ideal — or even safe — site for nuclear storage.
Obama, campaigning last year ahead of the Nevada primary election, said he agreed with the state’s assessment and promised to review the Yucca project. Last year the Bush administration submitted an application for a construction and operating license to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Obama’s 2010 budget calls for scrapping all spending on Yucca Mountain except for what is needed to answer questions from the NRC on the license application “while the administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear waste disposal.”
That isn’t sitting well with some congressional supporters of nuclear energy development. “What’s wrong with Yucca Mountain, Mr. Chu,” McCain asked Thursday at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on support for scientific research.
“I think we can do a better job,” the Nobel Prize-winning physicist replied.
McCain asked whether it was true that Obama — as well as Chu — viewed Yucca Mountain as no longer an option.
“That’s true,” Chu replied.
“Now we’re going to have spent fuel sitting around in pools all over America,” shot back McCain, who characterized the Obama position on nuclear waste — and its rejection of waste reprocessing — as a reflection of the administration’s opposition to nuclear energy.
Chu said there were short-term answers other than Yucca Mountain, while a long-term solution to dealing with nuclear waste is developed.
“The interim storage of waste (at reactors), the solidification of waste, is something we can do today. The NRC has said we can do it safely,” Chu said.
But killing the Yucca Mountain project may not be possible by presidential directive.
The federal government is obligated by law to accept the used reactor fuel from 104 commercial power reactors, but as yet it has no place to put it. The spent fuel, growing at the rate of 2,000 tons a year, is being held in pools and above-ground concrete containers at reactor sites.
There appear to be no immediate plans by the Energy Department to withdraw the Yucca Mountain license application that is pending at the NRC because to do so could trigger lawsuits from the nuclear industry. The NRC has up to four years to consider the application.
A report to Congress in December by the Bush administration, which strongly supported the Yucca Mountain project, dismissed suggestions that reactor waste be kept at temporary storage sites by the government. That would require Congress to change the law that singled out Yucca for nuclear waste.

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