Archive for July 6th, 2011
BBC News – Printer produces personalised 3D chocolate
Chocolate lovers may soon be able to print their own 3D creations thanks to work by UK scientists.
A 3D printer that uses chocolate has been developed by University of Exeter researchers – and it prints layers of chocolate instead of ink or plastic.
Although still a prototype, several retailers have already expressed interest in taking on the device.
3D printing using plastic and metal is already widely used in industry to speed up design work.
Lead scientist Dr Liang Hao told BBC News that chocolate printing, just like any other 3D printing technique, starts with a flat cross-section image – similar to that produced by ordinary printers turning out images.
“Then you do a 3D shape – layer by layer, printing chocolate instead of ink, like if you were layering 2D paper to form a 3D shape,” he said.
Expert urges mainland devil release – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
A leading tasmanian devil expert believes some of the animals in captive breeding programs should be released into the wild on the mainland.
The deadly facial tumour disease wiping out the wild devil populations has led scientists to protect more than 100 of the carnivorous marsupials in interstate captive breeding programs.
But the University of Tasmania’s Menna Jones says there is a danger these devils will adapt to become a captive species.
She says international programs with other species have found reintroduction from captive-bred animals has a fairly low success rate.
Dr Jones says it is critically important to have healthy devils living in the wild.
“Animals change when they live in captivity and they adapt to become not a domestic species but a captive species,” she said.
via Expert urges mainland devil release – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
NASA’s Stillsuit: Atlantis Crew to Test Pee-Recycling Bag | Wired Science | Wired.com
CAPE CANAVERAL – A textbook-sized kit that can convert urine into drinkable water will accompany NASA’s last space shuttle mission this Friday.
Soldiers already use similar technology to filter out parasites, bacteria, viruses and other contaminants from dirty fluids, including urine, but NASA’s adapted baggie system has yet to prove itself in space.
“This could be a first step toward recapturing the humidity from our sweat, from our breath, even from our urine, and recycling it and making it drinkable,” said NASA project scientist and experiment leader Howard Levine, who made a reference to water-recycling “stillsuits” used on a desert world in the science fiction series Dune.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station already drink water from a pee-recycling machine delivered several years ago, but it saps power from the orbital laboratory’s limited supply. The space-ready water conversion kit, however, won’t need an external power source because it relies on a passive property of fluids called forward osmosis.
NASA’s recycler will use a sugary solution injected into a semi-permeable inner bag, which is nested inside an outer bag. Dirty fluid that’s pumped into the outer bag will slowly pass through the inner bag and into the sugary solution, leaving behind its contaminants. On Earth, the double-sack system makes about a liter of sports drink-like fluid in four to six hours.
via NASA’s Stillsuit: Atlantis Crew to Test Pee-Recycling Bag | Wired Science | Wired.com.
Picasso Drawing Stolen: ‘Tete de Femme’ Snatched From Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — Police are on the hunt for a man who walked into a San Francisco art gallery, grabbed a valuable pencil drawing by Pablo Picasso off the wall and fled in a waiting taxicab.
Police on Tuesday said the drawing, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, was taken from the Weinstein Gallery near Union Square.
The gallery says Picasso created the one-of-a-kind drawing titled “Tete de Femme” in 1965.
Officer Albie Esparza told the San Francisco Chronicle that police hope a member of the public might recognize the piece if someone attempts to sell it.
Other artists whose works are still on display at the gallery include Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro.
Police described the suspect as a man in his 30s wearing loafers and dark glasses.
via Picasso Drawing Stolen: ‘Tete de Femme’ Snatched From Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco.
EXCLUSIVE: Google To Retire Blogger & Picasa Brands in Google+ Push
Say goodbye to the Picasa and Blogger names: Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products, Mashable has learned.
The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+, the search giant’s social initiative.
Blogger and Picasa aren’t going away, of course — they’re two of Google’s most popular products. Instead, according to two sources familiar with the matter, Google intends to rename Picasa “Google Photos” and Blogger will become “Google Blogs.” Several other Google brands are likely to be affected, though our sources made it clear that YouTube would not be rebranded. The technology giant shut down Google Video, its failed web video service, in May.
The move isn’t without precedent; Google acquired JotSpot in 2006 and rebranded it as Google Sites in 2008. In 2007, Google acquired VOIP platform GrandCentral and relaunched it as Google Voice in 2009.
via EXCLUSIVE: Google To Retire Blogger & Picasa Brands in Google+ Push.
Dangerous Amazing Photos! Spectacular Unbelievable Waves of Hawaii From Inside The Waves! – yourbadneighbor
Waimea Bay shore-break surfing pioneer, husband, and father of two, Clark Little
has gained nationwide recognition for his photography with appearances on
Good Morning America,Inside Edition, and many local news stations across the U.S.
Clark Little on Good Morning America (2009):
It all started in 2007 when Clark’s wife wanted a nice piece of art to decorate a wall. Voluntarily, Clark grabbed a camera, jumped in the water, and starting snapping away capturing the beauty and power of monstrous Hawaiian waves from the inside out.
“Clark’s view” is a unique view of the ocean that most will only be able to experience safely on land while studying one of Clark’s photos.
Now with a camera upgrade and an itch to get that better shot, Clark has taken this on full time and has moved his office from land, to the inside of a barrel. Since the recent stir of Clark’s work, his images have been run on the Today Show, ABC World News Now, Nature’s Best Photography, Paris Match (France), La Vie (France), Hana Hou (Hawaiian Airlines) magazine, Surfer magazine, Surfer’s Journal as well as multiple publishers and newspapers in the U.S. and overseas.
These incredible images of waves in the Hawaiian Islands were taken by Clark Little, the number one photographer of surf. He is dedicated to photographing the waves and has published a selection of his best images. He captures magical moments inside the tube as surfers say.
