Tourism and Beyond

TEDAX officers, experts in deactivation of bombs of the National Police of Spain, could be deactivating a second car bomb in Mallorca. Local Police is evacuating the hotels nearby and shutting the area.

This is an information given by Bartolomé Barceló, the general public prosecutor in Balearic Islands.

[UPDATE] Confirmed second bomb, TEDAX exploded the second car bomb in Mallorca.

[2nd UPDATE] Experts say that maybe the dogs marked the second car due to proximity with the first car, we will have to wait for a while until we have confirmation about this second car. In any case is sure that TEDAX officers have made a controlled explosion.

News, Uncategorized basque, bomb, calvia, majorca, mallorca, nova, palma, tedax, terrorist, terrorists

Bill Gates’ vision is part of most home PCs, laptops, netbooks, and even cell phones with the Windows operating system. Now he wants to redesign how cars work.

Earlier today, a patent filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office was made available for public viewing, detailing an electromagnetic engine that could very well replace the traditional combustible engine, paving the way to energy efficient automobiles of the future. Among the ten inventors listed in the patent–as Searete LLC, part of Intellectual Ventures–is none other than Mr. Windows himself, William H. Gates, III, and Microsoft’s former chief technology officer, Nathan Myhrvold. The group originally filed the patent back in October 2007.

Bill Gates patented engine

As the patent states, the electromagnetic engine “converts mechanical energy of a piston to and from electrical energy during each piston cycle.” However, the group also applied for two additional variants of the concept: free-piston and opposed-piston. While the free piston patent uses the same definition, the opposed piston electromagnetic engine is defined as an “engine [that] includes a cylinder having a two pistons slidably disposed therein, a port arranged to admit a reactant into the cylinder between the two pistons, and a converter operable with at least one piston to convert mechanical energy of the piston to electrical energy.”

While the patent mentions a “reactant,” that doesn’t necessarily indicate fuel used today. The patent talks about a liquid reactant injector and a carburetor that would deliver the reactant mixture to the first port of the engine. Another interesting note was the patent’s use of a “plasma injector,” a terminology widely used in the Star Trek universe. This device–whether its in the form of a spark plug, catalyst, particle beam igniter (that’s in there too), or the plasma injector– is referred to as a reaction trigger, an electrical igniter configured to initiate a chemical reaction in a reactant disposed between the first piston and the closed end of the first cylinder; the reaction trigger is located at the top of the cylinder.

Bill Gates patented engine

But how does this engine actually work? The electromagnetic engine apparently doesn’t need alternating pistons, but rather a set of pistons fitted with electromagnets to speed up the recovery process. With magnets on both ends, the piston is pulled up and down the cylinder. Once the piston reaches the top and fires, it is immediately pulled back down into the cylinder by magnetic force, and then repeats the cycle. According to the patent, the pistons can use either electromagnets, permanent magnets, or a magnetically susceptible material such as an iron core. The energy generated from the reaction trigger could be stored in a battery, capacitor, or some other energy management system.

With that said, there’s a good chance an automobile using this type of engine will run on electricity and utilize a rechargeable battery. If the engine is capable of storing energy as the patent suggests, the automobile may not even need an alternator. That may be incorrect of course, however, there’s no mistaking that Bill Gates is once again trying to change how things work in everyday things: first with DOS, then Windows, and now with the electromagnetic combustion engine.

VIA: Tom’s Hardware

Cars, Tech, Uncategorized bill, car, gates, injector, plasma

Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

Many longtime sailors have been mesmerized by the dazzling displays of green light often seen below the ocean surface in tropical seas. Now researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have uncovered key clues about the bioluminescent worms that produce the green glow and the biological mechanisms behind their light production. 

Marine fireworms use bioluminescence to attract suitors in an undersea mating ritual. Research conducted by Scripps marine biologists Dimitri Deheyn and Michael Latz reveals that the worms also may use the light as a defensive measure. The report, published as the cover story of the current issue of the journal Invertebrate Biology, provides insights into the function of fireworm bioluminescence and moves scientists closer to identifying the molecular basis of the light. 

“This is another step toward understanding the biology of the bioluminescence in fireworms, and it also brings us closer to isolating the protein that produces the light,” said Deheyn, a scientist in the Marine Biology Research Division at Scripps. “If we understand how it is possible to keep light so stable for such a long time, it would provide opportunities to use that protein or reaction in biomedical, bioengineering and other fields—the same way other proteins have been used.”

Read the rest of the article at LAB SPACES

Science, Tech, Uncategorized bioluminiscence, glow, green, ocean, sea

A 4-year-old boy has won the use of an uninhabited tropical island, with white sand beaches and clear turquoise waters, in a Taiwan lottery aimed at boosting spending during an economic downturn.

Port of Soller, Majorca

Officials said Yeh Chien-wei, who won the prize at Thursday’s draw, will get exclusive rights to the tiny plot in the Taiwan Strait from May through September.

Penghu County, an offshore archipelago, will provide food, drinks, water and electricity to the boy. He has been quoted in local media saying he wants to play in the sea.

“Penghu has a lot of islands, and that one has water and electricity, so someone can really enjoy it,” said county economic promotion official Lu Yan-chang, explaining why use of the island, which also has a cabin, was offered as a prize.

Counties elsewhere in Taiwan have offered cars, houses and other prizes to encourage locals to spend consumer vouchers worth T$3,600 ($103) that the government gave to every citizen in January to encourage spending to help boost the sagging economy.

Penghu, which comprises 64 islands, is known for its beautiful beaches and water sports.

According to the terms of the prize, the boy and up to seven family members can visit the island five times, for trips that last a maximum of three days.

Funny, Luxury, Travel, Uncategorized best places in the world, lottery, prize, tiwan

10 Ten Codes

The Ten Codes are a list of codes used by law enforcement officers in the United States. They are available on the Internet which would make them seem inappropriate for this list, but a large number of police departments have tried to have them made illegal for distribution, so they deserve a mention. The codes were developed initially in 1937 and were expanded in 1974. The California Police use a variety of extra codes which predated the ten codes. For example, a 187 (one eighty-seven) means homicide. In the ten codes system, a 10-31 means that a crime is in progress, a 10-27-1 means homicide (the 10 is usually not said when it is a three-number sequence), and a 10-00 (ten double-zero) means “officer down – all patrols respond. Wikipedia has a complete list of the police codes here.

9 Professional Codes

In computer support, a variety of codes can be used when referring to a customer. One of these codes has become fairly well known on the internet: PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair) but there are a variety of others that are lesser known. One of these is used when reporting a fault which has been fixed: “The fault was a PICNIC” (problem in chair – not in computer), or “ID 10 T Error” – ID 10 T is, of course, IDIOT. Let us hope that you never see this noted down on your file when a serviceman is fixing your computer.

8 Time codes

Time Check (usually taking a similar form to: “Time check: the time is 12:00″) can be a code in stores for a bomb alert. It alerts the staff to follow the bomb procedure, which can be to either try to locate any suspicious packages, or to prepare to get the hell out. If you hear a time check in a store, it is probably a good idea to start moving toward the exit. Surprisingly – and shockingly, the majority of stores that use this code actually expect their staff to search for the bomb – certainly an aspect of the job that the majority of teenaged checkout operators weren’t expecting when they signed up I am sure.

7 Code 10

A code 10 in hospitals can refer to a mass casualty or serious threat (such as a bomb alert), but the majority of people experiencing a code 10 will do so for another far more common reason: a “code 10 authorization” is made by a merchant when he needs to call a credit card company to enquire about your card. This means that he is suspicious of you or your card and doesn’t want you to know it while he gets it checked out. When the credit card company hears that they have a code 10, they will ask a series of yes/no questions to the merchant in order to find out what the situation is. This will often result in the merchant keeping your card if they believe it is safe to do so. This type of call often results in a call to law enforcement.

6 Doctor Brown

“Doctor Brown” is a code word often used in hospitals to alert security staff to a threat to personnel. If a nurse or doctor is in danger from a violent patient or non-staff member, they can page Doctor Brown to their location and the security staff will rush to their aid. In some hospitals, code silver is used to refer to a person with a weapon, and code gray can mean a violent person without a weapon. Hospitals have a huge array of various codes to describe all manner of situations. They often differ from hospital to hospital and they are usually not internationally recognized.

5 Code oscar

On a ship, a code oscar means someone has gone overboard. If the ship has to maneuver erratically to handle the situation, it must also send out blasts on the signal so that other ships nearby are aware of the fact that it is about to change its course. It should be noted that ships don’t have an internationally standardized set of PA signals and they can differ from place to place, but this is a fairly commonly used one. Oh – and a code delta can mean that there is a biological hazard – though who knows what that might be on a passenger ship. And finally, Code Alpha often means “medical emergency”. I wonder which code will Abramovich set for his Megayacht Eclipse

Read the rest of the security codes at The List Universe

Funny, Uncategorized codes, police, security

One step beyond. Ryanair will bill you 1 pound for using the toilette on board. In an interview on BBC television this morning, Mr O’Leary said that the low-cost airline was looking at the possibility of installing a coin slot on the lavatory door so that “people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny.

Mr O’Leary said that Ryanair was determined to make air travel easier and more affordable.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in history gone on board a Ryanair flight with less than a pound,” he added.

Later, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and, while this has been discussed internally, there are no immediate plans to introduce it.

“However, this highlights Ryanair’s continuing obsession with lowering costs and passing these savings on in the form of lower fares.

“Ancillary revenues, all of which are avoidable, help to reduce the cost of flying Ryanair and passengers using train and bus stations are already accustomed to paying to use the toilet so why not on airplanes?

“Not everyone uses the toilet on board one of our flights but those that do could help to reduce airfares for all passengers.”

Will the video below become the future of Ryanair?

Airlines, Uncategorized charge, pay, ryanair, toilet, wc, wtf

Wall Street Victims

The shock! The horror! These poor people represent the emotions many of us went through as we watched our investments plummet to unimaginable lows and then plummet some more. Two 3″ tall, hard vinyl figures in each figures in each package.

After the dedicated blog “Brokers with hands on their faces” here come the dolls of the victims of that brokers. For so only $5,95 you can have a pack of two figures.

Funny, Uncategorized Add new tag, brokers, doll, figures, victims, wall street

Example of eye-tracking on Google Universal Search results for [how to tie a tie]. This shows in real time how a participant in a user study scanned the page. The larger the dot gets, the longer the user was looking at that specific location.

When you look to a website, you probably do  not pay attention to where you were looking on the page and you most likely only used a few seconds to visually scan the results. Our User Experience Research team has found that people evaluate the search results page so quickly that they make most of their decisions unconsciously. To help us get some insight into this split-second decision-making process, we use eye-tracking equipment in our usability labs. This lets us see how our study participants scan the search results page, and is the next best thing to actually being able to read their minds. Of course, eye-tracking does not really tell us what they are thinking, but it gives us a good idea of which parts of the page they are thinking about.

View a complete article in: GOOGLE OFFICIAL BLOG

Tech, Uncategorized eyes, google, search, tracking, universal

Because of worsening economic conditions, travellers are changing their holiday plans for this year, with nearly half saying that they are scaling back, according to the results of a new study.
In a poll of 1,000 UK consumers, it was found that 46 per cent had already scaled back their travel plans due to the recession.

Travel bag

There are indications that concerns about the impact of travel on social and environmental conditions are also changing holiday plans.

Sixty-one per cent of the respondents to the survey indicated that they were intending to find out more about the environmental and social impact of their holidays, and 55 per cent said they would be choosing holiday destinations that could be reached by boat or train, rather than by plane.

Seventy-six per cent of those polled reported that they did not have sufficient information regarding the environmental and social impact of holiday travel to be able to make an informed choice.

It is expected that 2009 will be a difficult year for holiday operators, but those able to match value with social and environmental “values” are likely to fare better, and be better able to ride out the recession, according to Good Business, the corporate responsibility consultancy that commissioned the study.

Good Business founder and CEO Giles Gibbons noted: “With less money in their pockets it seems many holidaymakers plan to look for cheaper alternatives in the UK this year.”

He added: “Some might see this as good news from an environmental perspective, with reductions in things like flights.”

VIA: ASAP

Travel, Uncategorized conditions, economy, environement, real ecology

Last week we ran out of power at the villa.  Whilst trying to contact our electricity company (hard job, by the way) I was trying to find a solution and wondering why is so difficult to continue with normal life without our electric gadgets.

Most poeple’s first thought is to buy a portable generating set (I have two of those), but there is people that bring us very smart solutions like John Sweeney.

John Sweeney is a proud owner of a Hybrid Toyota Prius that gave him the necessary power to run his holiday home along the four days of blackout.

The Toyota Prius can output about 3 Kilowatts of constant electrical power, enough to provide electricity for the basic home needs such as refrigerator, wood stove fan, radio and even television.

John Sweeney has written a how-to guide to connect a Prius to your house. 

Cars, Tech, Uncategorized, real ecology balckout, electricity, toyota prius