How To Build a 400 Square Foot Solar Powered Off Grid Cabin for $2,000

 

The Mind Unleashed

on 21 December, 2013 at 22:46

How to build a nice small cabin powered by solar panels. Lamar Alexander built this cute little 400 square foot cabin for approximately $2000, and powers it with a 570 watt solar and wind power system. The whole system is very inexpensive, and the best part is he is mortgage free. Very cool little cabin. I’d be proud to build something like this myself and call it home.

“This cabin is 14×14 with a full loft and approximately 400 square feet of living space. Downstairs is Kitchen, Bathroom, Dining and Living area. Upstairs is a large Bedroom and Office. There is enough room for 6 people to sleep comfortably. Power system is 580 watts Solar electric and 400 Watts wind power which powers a 12 volt fridge, lights, water pump, TV’s, laptop and many gadgets. Heat source can be propane or wood stove. Toilet is composting or a septic tank system…

http://www.simplesolarhomesteading.com

To get directions, go to:

offgridworld.com

Philips is using LED lighting to help supermarket customers find products

 

The app-based system determines the shopper's location via the flickering of the overhead lights.

 

Wondering where your local supermarket keeps its whole wheat flour? Soon, an app on your smartphone may be able to guide you to it – with a little help from the store's overhead LED lights, and technology developed by Philips.

The system incorporates LED bulbs that are installed in the existing overhead fixtures. Depending on the specific fixture in which it's placed, each of those bulbs will flicker at a different distinct rate. Although that flickering is too rapid to be detected by the human eye, it can be detected by the camera of a phone running the app.

When a shopper wants to find a product, the app starts by ascertaining the person's location within the store, based on the flickering "signature" of the fixture immediately overhead. It then accesses a map of the store, and proceeds to guide the user from their current location to that of the item.

Because the app can tell where the shopper is at all times, it will also periodically present them with electronic coupons or other information that applies to products that they're near – a feature which could be useful, annoying, or perhaps both. Shoppers can additionally access recipes in the app, then get the ingredients using as efficient a route through the store as possible.

Philips is currently testing the system at several supermarkets. Similar technology has been explored by other groups, including a team from Pennsylvania State University and Hallym University in South Korea.

Source: Philips via IEEE Spectrum

K-Glass smart glasses mimic the human brain to improve energy efficiency

 

By Nick Lavars February 19, 2014

In basing the artificial neural network on the brain's central nervous system, the team says it was able to compartmentalize the processing of data, resulting in less congestion and significantly improved energy efficiency

It took a heavyweight like Google to bring the notion of head-mounted devices to the mainstream, but other developers are also testing the waters and pushing the boundaries of what's possible to achieve in the smart glasses space. Exhibit A is K-Glass, a wearable, hands-free display developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

Much like its counterparts, K-Glass is designed to offer users an everyday augmented reality (AR) experience. According to the developers, users will be able to walk up to a restaurant and have its name, menu, available tables and a 3D image of different food displayed in front of their eyes.

A point of difference that could distinguish the K-Glass technology from other head-mounted displays, and one emphasized by the researchers, is the approach used to generate the augmented reality experience. Rather than using methods such as algorithms, facial recognition, motion tracking, barcodes and QR codes to establish and deliver a virtual reality like other head-mounted displays, K-Glass is designed to replicate the process our brains use to establish our surroundings.

This all revolves around an AR processor based on the Visual Attention Model (VAM), which reproduces the ability of the human brain to categorize relevant and irrelevant visual data.

When we process visual data we use sets of neurons that, though connected, work independently on different stages of the decision making. One set of neurons completes part of the process and relays the information onto a the next set, before ultimately a set of decider neurons determine what data is required and what can be done away with.

In basing the artificial neural network on the brain's central nervous system, the team says it was able to compartmentalize the processing of data, resulting in less congestion and significantly improved energy efficiency. According to its creators, K-Glass can deliver 1.22 TOPS (tera-operations per second) while running at 250 MHz, using 778 mW powered by a 1.2V supply. The team says this equates to a 76 percent improvement on power consumption of similar devices.

"Our processor can work for long hours without sacrificing K-Glass's high performance, an ideal mobile gadget or wearable computer, which users can wear for almost the whole day," says Hoi-Jun Yoo, Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAIST.

The team presented its research this month at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California.

Um milhão de bebês morrem a cada ano nas primeiras 24 horas de vida

 

Um milhão de bebês morrem a cada ano antes das primeiras 24 horas de vida, afirmou nesta terça-feira a organização Save the Children, que considera essencial o papel das parteiras para reduzir este número.

Embora a mortalidade infantil antes dos cinco anos tenha caído à metade desde 1990 (6,6 milhões, contra 12,6 milhões), a ONG lamenta a "pouca atenção prestada à luta contra os riscos mortais que os neonatos enfrentam quando são mais vulneráveis: no nascimento e no primeiro mês de sua vida".

Segundo o relatório, 2,9 milhões de bebês morreram nos 28 dias que se seguiram ao seu nascimento em 2012, dos quais 1 milhão não viveu mais de 24 horas.

Estas mortes se deveram, sobretudo, aos nascimentos prematuros, às complicações no parto e às infecções, segundo a ONG, que estima que cerca de metade das mortes poderiam ter sido evitadas se cada mãe e recém-nascido tivessem tido acesso a atendimento qualificado.

Dos seis países latino-americanos mencionados no estudo, o Haiti é onde um recém-nascido corre mais risco de morrer, seguido por Bolívia, Guatemala, Brasil, Peru e México.

"Esta situação deplorável é inaceitável", afirma a organização, notando que, "em muitos casos, intervenções menores, mas cruciais podem salvar vidas em risco".

A Save The Children estima que 40 milhões de mulheres dão à luz a cada ano no mundo "sem a ajuda de uma parteira ou agente de saúde formado e equipado para salvar a vida da criança e da mãe".

A organização fez um apelo aos governos, para que garantam que "antes de 2025 agentes de saúde formados e equipados ajudem em cada parto".

"Se não começarmos a agir, urgentemente, contra a mortalidade dos neonatos, corremos seriamente o risco de frear o progresso na redução da mortalidade infantil e de não cumprir com nosso objetivo: ser a geração que acaba com as mortes evitáveis de crianças", advertiu o relatório.

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.