BigRep ONE 3D printer creates whole pieces of furniture

 

Printing life-sized designs with the full-format RepRap-based BigRep ONE

Consumers and small businesses certainly have a handle on using 3D printers to create small mockups of bigger products, but there’s few options for creating true-to-size models or even finished products without having access to an industrial printer. German company BigRep aims to break that boundary with its RepRap-based BigRep ONE 3D printer, which offers over a cubic meter of print space.

The BigRep ONE prints in a volume of 1.3 cubic meters (46 cubic feet), with each side at or exceeding a meter in length, but really, at that point who’s counting? This large size allows for creating 1:1 prototypes, larger mechanical parts and prototypes, or even designer home furnishings.

It has the basic printing features like a heated bed, along with the not-so-basic such as optional CNC milling and double print heads.

The BigRep ONE's name alludes to, it's based off a RepRap printer design. RepRap is a family of open-source designs to create 3D printers, where a hallmark is the ability of one printer to create the parts for further printers.

The company's website will currently allow you contact someone to order a machine, with shipping estimated for March or April at a price of US$39,000.

More interestingly, the company indicates that it will be creating a network of service providers that will accept and print 3D commissions, perhaps in a manner similar to MakeXYZ, thus giving BigRep customers an outlet for recouping some of their purchase price.

SPARCS "camera grenade" offers an alternative to reconnaissance drones

 

 

The SPARCS round round has a CMOS camera sending back real-time images to a computerized receiver

Imagine a scenario where an earthquake brings down an industrial complex, trapping the survivors inside and as the disaster response team arrives, they unpack a grenade launcher and start lobbing rounds into the air. This may seem like madness, but there’s method in it. In this hypothetical case, the grenades are part of the Soldier Parachute Aerial Reconnaissance Camera System (SPARCS) built by Singapore-based ST Engineering. Instead of a warhead, each 40 mm grenade round has a CMOS camera sending back real-time images to a computerized receiver; turning disaster teams, police, and foot soldiers into recon units.

In military parlance, the fog of war refers to the uncertainty that incomplete knowledge plagues soldiers with. Even a glimpse over the hill can mean the difference between success and failure, which is why the use of drones has become widespread in recent years. Unmanned aerial vehicles present a far more attractive option that putting humans in the line of fire, but they are still expensive, and putting them in the field means carrying a lot of extra kit. SPARCS (also known as the S407 Round) is an alternative type of eye in the sky that ST Engineering says is low cost, simple to use, and requires no maintenance.

The SPARCS round is designed to fit any standard low-velocity 40 mm grenade launcher

ST Engineering already makes a wide range of grenades from less-than-lethal rounds to mini bunker busters designed to blow through walls. Aimed at military, law enforcement, and civil disaster management agencies, the 8 kg (17.6 lb) SPARCS is designed to fit a standard low-velocity 40 mm grenade launcher. The solid-state electronics are capable of surviving being fired at 76 m/s (250 ft/s) to an altitude of 150 m (490 ft), where a parachute slows its descent. As it comes down, the camera transmits top-down view images back to a receiver, with software stitching these together in real time.

According to ST Engineering, the receiver can be any wireless device that can pick up the 2.4 GHz signal and the software is compatible with most operating systems. The images can be retransmitted to other handheld devices or back to headquarters. In addition, the receiver can be repackaged into a load-bearing vest and the images sent to a head-mounted display.

Source: ST Engineering via IEEE Spectrum

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the Sun’s coronal loops.

 

 

 

Coronal Loops in an Active Region of the Sun

An active region of the sun just rotating into the view of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory gives a profile view of coronal loops over about a two-day period, from Feb. 8-10, 2014. Coronal loops are found around sunspots and in active regions. These structures are associated with the closed magnetic field lines that connect magnetic regions on the solar surface. Many coronal loops last for days or weeks, but most change quite rapidly. This image was taken in extreme ultraviolet light.

Cigarette Smoking Is Going Up On A Global Scale

 

January 20, 2014 |  by Eric Lyday  |  Health

Smoking has been cool for a long time. From the earliest days of advertisement, cigarettes were the ultimate indicator of normalcy, coolness, rebellion, and sexuality. Though cigarettes still may have these connotations, we all now know how harmful cigarette smoke can be for first-hand or even second-hand inhalations and the allure of cigarettes has somewhat died away. Or has it?

Almost 50 years after the U.S. Surgeon General declared cigarettes to be harmful for your health, a study from Washington State has found that cigarette smoking has gone up on a global scale. A staggering 1 billion people worldwide are still smokers. Between the years 1980 and 2012 the number of adult smokers went from 721 million to about 1 billion. In comparison, the approximate number of cigarettes smoked went from 5 trillion to 6.25 trillion.

You may ask yourself, “Well that doesn’t make sense, there seems to be less people smoking today than before.” If you’re living in the U.S. at least, you would be correct. The number of U.S. smokers has declined from 52 million to 38 million people in the same time period. The issue instead lies within third-world and other poorer countries where cigarette smoking has been embraced more fully, likely due to the lack of restrictions of cigarette companies in these areas.

What really makes these numbers truly staggering is that the World Health Organization estimates that 5 million people die every year from tobacco-related illnesses. This number trumps deaths related to AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined!

Photos Reveal What It's Like to Have Anxiety Issues

 

 

Photographer John William Keedy explores themes of anxiety and varied neuroses in his series titled It's Hardly Noticeable. Examining his own struggles with anxiety over the past nine years and drawing from other mental disorders, the images present an insightful look at behaviors that are deemed "abnormal" while simultaneously challenging ideas of normalcy. The serious topic is addressed in an intriguing fashion, one that offers small windows into the lives of people who suffer from mental illnesses. Each image is like a pocket of information that reveals a tiny corner of a bigger picture.

In one frame we are presented only with the hand of an anonymous character gripping onto a bloodied individual flosser over a sink filled with dozens of the tiny instrument, already used, and there are still over a dozen more flossers waiting to be used. Clearly, Keedy is reflecting the obsessive-compulsive behavior of an individual who is compelled to continually clean his teeth. Another image shows countless delivered packages at a doorstep, suggesting it's the residence of an extremely agoraphobic individual, finding difficulty to take even one step out the door.

Ultimately, the series exposes the struggles faced by people with mental disorders on a daily basis. At the same time, he questions what "normal" is anymore, seeing as there are so many individuals dealing with anxiety-based issues. Keedy asks, "Is it possible for a society to have a commonly held idea of what is normal, when few individuals in that society actually meet the criteria for normalcy?"

Fireworks–Be cautious

Link:

Fouth of July - fireworks –Infographic

So, this 4th of July, remember to follow the proper safety precautions during your annual celebrations. Other than the basic “Don’t let kids play with fireworks” and “Always have an adult around”, take special care to remember to some rules you might not think of in the spur of the moment at a party. For instance, always hold the firework away from your face when lighting, never try to re-light or pick up a firework that did not light properly, and be sure to have a source of water handy when lighting your fireworks.