The fire that killed five people at a Connecticut home early Christmas morning occurred after a homeowner's friend placed a bag filled with fireplace ash in a room reserved for shoes and coats. The home had no working smoke detectors.
Fire experts on Wednesday said that homeowners with fireplaces must be extra careful when disposing of hot fireplace ash because ash can ignite a fire if left next to a flammable surface. It's easy to assume that removed fireplace ash is no longer flammable when in fact it is.
"Just because you don't see embers glowing in the ashes, you don't know how much heat those ashes are holding," said Robert Palumbo, fire chief for Hemlock Farms Fire Company in Pike County.
Palumbo said that it takes 72 hours for ashes to fully cool and for the threat of their potentially starting a fire to be neutralized. He said fireplace ash should be placed in a metal container with a lid. After that's done, the container should be placed a safe distance away from the home.
"We've been to too many fires where people place a bag of ashes right on their porch, and then the next thing you know the wind kicks up , and then the whole porch is on fire," Palumbo said.
Ira Rosenblum, who owns A Sweeping Beauty Chimney Professionals in East Stroudsburg, said that gauging the temperature of ashes can be tricky because ash is a good insulator. If you put your hand over a pile of ashes you've removed from a fireplace and you feel no heat, it could still contain glowing embers.
If you leave hot ashes in the fireplace, make sure there's a metal screen or glass partition in place, fire officials said. And, of course, make sure you have working smoke detectors, they advised.
Winter is when most house fires occur in America, according to United States Fire Administration. About 40 percent of all fires in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009 were fireplace-related, the fire administration said.
About 192,700 of yearly residential fires spread beyond the source, and 6 percent of those fires are caused by hot embers or ashes, the Fire Safety Administration says.
And 15 percent of multiple-fatality fires are caused by unintentional or careless actions, the agency says. There are about 250 multiple-fatality fires in the U.S. each year, resulting in an estimated 825 deaths and 200 injuries.
In Stamford, fire officials say they believe Michael Borcina left a bag of hot fireplace ashes near the back of the house between 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. The fire that killed his friend's three children and their two grandparents was reported just after 4:40 a.m. Borcina and the mother, Madonna Badger, escaped the blaze after failed attempts to rescue her daughters.
Badger's three daughters, 10-year-old Lily and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah, and her parents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson, died amid frantic rescue attempts by Borcina, Badger and local firefighters.
2011年12月28日星期三
Visually Stunning, Incredibly Tough Find Out What Devices Have It.
'Smart' windows are expected to play a significant role in energy-efficient homes, ideally by generating energy themselves (see "Energy-generating smart window") but at least by allowing light in and keeping the heat out (in hot summers) or in (in cold winters).
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) has long been recognized as a a material of significant technological interest for optics and electronics and a promising candidate for making 'smart' windows: it can transition from a transparent semiconductive state at low temperatures, allowing infrared radiation through, to an opaque metallic state at high temperatures, while still allowing visible light to get through. VO2 is best known in the materials world for its speedy and abrupt phase transition that essentially transforms the material from a metal to an insulator. The phase change takes place at about 68 degrees Celsius.
So far, VO2 hasn't been considered to be particularly suited for large-scale practical smart-window applications due to its low luminous transmittance and solar modulating ability. Strategies to improve these properties, for instance through doping or composites, have resulted in trade-offs between the luminous transmittance and thermochromic properties.
Researchers in China have now developed a process that can prepare VO2 thin-films with a controllable polymorph and morphology (including grain size and porosity). Their results show that with increased porosity and decreased optical constants the performance of the VO2 films is enhanced, leading to a higher transmittance of visible light and improved solar modulating ability.
"The traditional methods for the preparation of VO2 thin films are gas-phase reactions, such as sputtering or chemical vapor deposition," Yanfeng Gao, a professor at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS), explains to Nanowerk. "These methods can grow VO2 with fine controlled thickness and homogeneity, however, low visible transmittance due to intrinsic absorption of VO2 and unacceptable solar energy modulation ability pose significant drawbacks. There are only very few reports on the chemical deposition of VO2 films using – for example – sol-gel process, but the quality of film is still not satisfactory. We are aiming to develop a process that can finally commercialize VO2. We selected our method to control the crystalline phase and morphology, and also optical properties."
To prepare their nanoporous thermochromic VO2 films with low optical constants and tunable thicknesses, the team used a polymer-assisted deposition technique, resulting in single-layered VO2 films.
"When we measured the spectral transmittance and reflectance of our VO2 films, we found that by increasing their porosity we could increase their solar modulating ability without decreasing the luminous transmittance," says Gao. "Another interesting phenomenon that we found is that the changes in luminous transmittance across the metal-insulator transitions (MIT) are thickness dependent. For thin-films, the visible transmittance at 20°C is generally lower than that at 90°C and, vice versa. However, the visible transmittance at 20°C for our 100 nm thick films exceeds that at 90°C."
Experimenting with various thicknesses, the team found that the optimized thickness for films prepared by their technique to balance luminous transmittance and solar modulating ability is 100 nm. As Gao points out, a single-layer film of this thickness shows comparable luminous transmittance and solar modulating ability values to those of five-layered TiO2/VO2/TiO2/VO2/TiO2 films with optically optimized structures.
"The change of the optical constants of VO2 across the MIT can effectively modulate the infrared transmittance and shift the position of the reflectance valley at 20°C, leading to a significant enhancement of the infrared modulating ability at a certain wavelength," says Gao.
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) has long been recognized as a a material of significant technological interest for optics and electronics and a promising candidate for making 'smart' windows: it can transition from a transparent semiconductive state at low temperatures, allowing infrared radiation through, to an opaque metallic state at high temperatures, while still allowing visible light to get through. VO2 is best known in the materials world for its speedy and abrupt phase transition that essentially transforms the material from a metal to an insulator. The phase change takes place at about 68 degrees Celsius.
So far, VO2 hasn't been considered to be particularly suited for large-scale practical smart-window applications due to its low luminous transmittance and solar modulating ability. Strategies to improve these properties, for instance through doping or composites, have resulted in trade-offs between the luminous transmittance and thermochromic properties.
Researchers in China have now developed a process that can prepare VO2 thin-films with a controllable polymorph and morphology (including grain size and porosity). Their results show that with increased porosity and decreased optical constants the performance of the VO2 films is enhanced, leading to a higher transmittance of visible light and improved solar modulating ability.
"The traditional methods for the preparation of VO2 thin films are gas-phase reactions, such as sputtering or chemical vapor deposition," Yanfeng Gao, a professor at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS), explains to Nanowerk. "These methods can grow VO2 with fine controlled thickness and homogeneity, however, low visible transmittance due to intrinsic absorption of VO2 and unacceptable solar energy modulation ability pose significant drawbacks. There are only very few reports on the chemical deposition of VO2 films using – for example – sol-gel process, but the quality of film is still not satisfactory. We are aiming to develop a process that can finally commercialize VO2. We selected our method to control the crystalline phase and morphology, and also optical properties."
To prepare their nanoporous thermochromic VO2 films with low optical constants and tunable thicknesses, the team used a polymer-assisted deposition technique, resulting in single-layered VO2 films.
"When we measured the spectral transmittance and reflectance of our VO2 films, we found that by increasing their porosity we could increase their solar modulating ability without decreasing the luminous transmittance," says Gao. "Another interesting phenomenon that we found is that the changes in luminous transmittance across the metal-insulator transitions (MIT) are thickness dependent. For thin-films, the visible transmittance at 20°C is generally lower than that at 90°C and, vice versa. However, the visible transmittance at 20°C for our 100 nm thick films exceeds that at 90°C."
Experimenting with various thicknesses, the team found that the optimized thickness for films prepared by their technique to balance luminous transmittance and solar modulating ability is 100 nm. As Gao points out, a single-layer film of this thickness shows comparable luminous transmittance and solar modulating ability values to those of five-layered TiO2/VO2/TiO2/VO2/TiO2 films with optically optimized structures.
"The change of the optical constants of VO2 across the MIT can effectively modulate the infrared transmittance and shift the position of the reflectance valley at 20°C, leading to a significant enhancement of the infrared modulating ability at a certain wavelength," says Gao.
2011年12月27日星期二
Vigilance Bureau resumes cash-for-vote scam probe
The development has come after The Pioneer published a report on December 22 regarding delay in investigation into the case. The Vigilance Bureau has summoned the other five accused persons. One of the accused, Teklal Mahto, has passed away.
“After repeated requests, the complainants in the cash-for-vote scam have come up and have given their statements. They have also shown us the place where the sting operation was done,” said IG (Vigilance) M V Rao. He also added that earlier these people were reluctant to come because of security reasons.
Six legislators, Teklal Mahto, Umashankar Akela, Simon Marandi, Yogendra Sao, Sawna Lakra and Rajesh Ranjan were caught on camera in a sting operation conducted by the Kobra Post in association with CNN-IBN.
Talking about the scam in Jharkhand Public Service Commission, Rao said in a 200 hundred page report submitted to the Government the department has clearly outlined the irregularities committed during the second JPSC exam. He also said he recommended the dismissal of most of the candidates as they had exercised the fraudulent means to pass the examination.
Rao also revealed that the department had to go through more than 3 lakh answer sheets to come to the conclusion. Besides, 90,000 copies were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Ahmedabad. Rao also alleged some JPSC officials were not cooperating with the Vigilance Bureau.
“It was a hectic exercise. Only then have we reached a conclusion. As it is a case related to the administrative officers, you have to be doubly sure before pointing fingers at somebody,” said Rao.
He said bureau will now take it for granted that the evidences have been destroyed and will lodge a case against these persons.
Three charge-sheets have been filed as the accused have been categorised in three parts - office bearers of JPSC, who are already in jail, professors and members of interview boards and thirdly the beneficiaries or the candidates.
Rao also disclosed that Vigilance Bureau has succeeded in completing investigations in some of the cases which were pending for several years, such as Electric Insulator Factory Scam of 1983 in which three people have been chargesheeted and final reports have been submitted in favour of three persons. The bureau has also disposed off sixteen cases relating to the medicine scam of year ranging 2004-2005 and only two cases relating to this are pending now.
Enquiry related to the equipment purchase scam in the 34th National Games is still on and twelve firms have been marked which had supplied equipments in the National Games. “It will take three more months to investigate the case,” said Rao.
Reviewing the achievements in the year 2011, Rao said that out of 100 pending cases, 64 have been disposed off while out of 117 pending enquiries, 53 enquiries have been completed. Rao also said that despite an acute shortage of officers and staffs in the Bureau they had tried to do their best and will continue doing so in the future.
“After repeated requests, the complainants in the cash-for-vote scam have come up and have given their statements. They have also shown us the place where the sting operation was done,” said IG (Vigilance) M V Rao. He also added that earlier these people were reluctant to come because of security reasons.
Six legislators, Teklal Mahto, Umashankar Akela, Simon Marandi, Yogendra Sao, Sawna Lakra and Rajesh Ranjan were caught on camera in a sting operation conducted by the Kobra Post in association with CNN-IBN.
Talking about the scam in Jharkhand Public Service Commission, Rao said in a 200 hundred page report submitted to the Government the department has clearly outlined the irregularities committed during the second JPSC exam. He also said he recommended the dismissal of most of the candidates as they had exercised the fraudulent means to pass the examination.
Rao also revealed that the department had to go through more than 3 lakh answer sheets to come to the conclusion. Besides, 90,000 copies were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, Ahmedabad. Rao also alleged some JPSC officials were not cooperating with the Vigilance Bureau.
“It was a hectic exercise. Only then have we reached a conclusion. As it is a case related to the administrative officers, you have to be doubly sure before pointing fingers at somebody,” said Rao.
He said bureau will now take it for granted that the evidences have been destroyed and will lodge a case against these persons.
Three charge-sheets have been filed as the accused have been categorised in three parts - office bearers of JPSC, who are already in jail, professors and members of interview boards and thirdly the beneficiaries or the candidates.
Rao also disclosed that Vigilance Bureau has succeeded in completing investigations in some of the cases which were pending for several years, such as Electric Insulator Factory Scam of 1983 in which three people have been chargesheeted and final reports have been submitted in favour of three persons. The bureau has also disposed off sixteen cases relating to the medicine scam of year ranging 2004-2005 and only two cases relating to this are pending now.
Enquiry related to the equipment purchase scam in the 34th National Games is still on and twelve firms have been marked which had supplied equipments in the National Games. “It will take three more months to investigate the case,” said Rao.
Reviewing the achievements in the year 2011, Rao said that out of 100 pending cases, 64 have been disposed off while out of 117 pending enquiries, 53 enquiries have been completed. Rao also said that despite an acute shortage of officers and staffs in the Bureau they had tried to do their best and will continue doing so in the future.
2011年12月26日星期一
OmniGuide’s Flexible Lasers Make Surgeries Safer
Rather than use scissors as per traditional technique, he operated with a flexible laser scalpel that a small manufacturer called OmniGuide had started selling earlier that year. It enabled Michaelides to avoid touching the inner ear’s delicate bones, which could cause more damage and more hearing loss. “It’s very accurate because you can place the tip of the instrument exactly where you want, change angles, and deliver precise amounts of cutting energy and coagulation throughout the middle ear,” says Michaelides. “The bottom line is that it is very precise and safe.”
Operating with flexible lasers isn’t new—surgeons have been using versions powered by carbon dioxide since the 1980s. Compared with a metal scalpel, carbon dioxide laser cuts are shallower, which means patients experience less postoperative pain, heal more quickly, and scar less. OmniGuide’s laser is one of the first to use optical fiber to guide its beam; previous versions used hollow metal tubes. The fiber permits even more precision, says OmniGuide founder Yoel Fink, making tricky procedures in challenging areas of the body safer.
OmniGuide, which has $80 million in venture capital investment, is one of a handful of companies that make flexible optical lasers. While competitors such as LuxarCare market mostly to small medical offices and veterinarians, OmniGuide, a 130-employee Cambridge (Mass.) manufacturer, has been gaining traction at hospitals across the U.S. So far, surgeons in about 500 hospitals are using OmniGuide's devices to perform about 1,400 surgeries a month—mostly for surgeries above the neck.
Now the company, which Fink expects will generate $21 million to $22 million in 2011 revenue, up from $18 million in 2010, is expanding its factory and developing a new line of laser fibers for procedures to treat disorders such as fibroids and other gynecological disorders.
Dr. Sharyn Lewin, a gynecologist specializing in oncology at Columbia University Medical Center, has used OmniGuide’s system to treat growths from papilloma virus and sees potential advantages for other procedures, such as endometriosis. “It’s a little more flexible for getting into smaller crevices,” says Lewin, comparing it with a traditional carbon dioxide laser. “It’s more precise, and there’s less tissue trauma. It’s easy to use and appears to be quite safe.”
Laser surgery isn’t without hazards. Accidents can happen if, for example, the laser beam touches a patient's sterile coverings or if oxygen and anesthetic gases build up while a surgeon is operating on the patient’s airway, says Michaelides. “But these instances are rare. It’s not a dangerous tool any more than a scalpel is, and surgeons are trained to use both to minimize risk.”
OmniGuide’s laser scalpel, which attaches to a small machine typically mounted on a rolling stand in an operating room, costs about $80,000, including two years of service. The laser, controlled by the doctor holding the fiber, acts as a scalpel to cut tissue close to the fiber’s tip. The fibers, which are designed to be used during a surgery and then thrown away, cost $500 to $1,500, depending on the procedure. "We try to be as [clinically] specific as we can," says Fink. "It's important because we want to do value pricing ... obviously the amount a patient or insurance agency will pay to restore hearing is less than to remove cancer from your brain."
Worldwide sales for surgical lasers will be $1.3 billion this year, up from $96 million in 2000, according to a 2010 report on medical laser systems by market research firm Global Industry Analysts.
Fink’s invention was sparked by a 1996 challenge by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to scientists to design a highly reflective mirror. Then-graduate student Fink’s winning structure reflected objects from all angles, what he calls a “perfect mirror.” Fink’s mirror worked on differently shaped surfaces—flat, cubic, tubular. He reasoned that alternating rings of the chemical linings—an insulator and a semiconductor—would transmit the light through a hollow glass fiber. Because the laser beam could be controlled with the fiber’s tip, he envisioned, it would enable surgeons to reach difficult nooks and crannies more easily.
Fink, who holds a PhD in materials science from MIT, returned to academia this fall to run MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, passing the reins at OmniGuide to Chief Executive Scott Flora, formerly a division president at surgical products maker Covidien. Fink’s lab is looking for other applications for his fibers, using funding from the U.S. Army to research material that images surroundings and garments that capture information from the body such as blood flow, temperature, and calories burned. And he envisions clothing woven of fibers that recharge cell phones, as well as chameleon-like apparel that changes color when the wearer leaves work. “Material will become a high-tech object, or the object of high-tech,” says Fink.
Operating with flexible lasers isn’t new—surgeons have been using versions powered by carbon dioxide since the 1980s. Compared with a metal scalpel, carbon dioxide laser cuts are shallower, which means patients experience less postoperative pain, heal more quickly, and scar less. OmniGuide’s laser is one of the first to use optical fiber to guide its beam; previous versions used hollow metal tubes. The fiber permits even more precision, says OmniGuide founder Yoel Fink, making tricky procedures in challenging areas of the body safer.
OmniGuide, which has $80 million in venture capital investment, is one of a handful of companies that make flexible optical lasers. While competitors such as LuxarCare market mostly to small medical offices and veterinarians, OmniGuide, a 130-employee Cambridge (Mass.) manufacturer, has been gaining traction at hospitals across the U.S. So far, surgeons in about 500 hospitals are using OmniGuide's devices to perform about 1,400 surgeries a month—mostly for surgeries above the neck.
Now the company, which Fink expects will generate $21 million to $22 million in 2011 revenue, up from $18 million in 2010, is expanding its factory and developing a new line of laser fibers for procedures to treat disorders such as fibroids and other gynecological disorders.
Dr. Sharyn Lewin, a gynecologist specializing in oncology at Columbia University Medical Center, has used OmniGuide’s system to treat growths from papilloma virus and sees potential advantages for other procedures, such as endometriosis. “It’s a little more flexible for getting into smaller crevices,” says Lewin, comparing it with a traditional carbon dioxide laser. “It’s more precise, and there’s less tissue trauma. It’s easy to use and appears to be quite safe.”
Laser surgery isn’t without hazards. Accidents can happen if, for example, the laser beam touches a patient's sterile coverings or if oxygen and anesthetic gases build up while a surgeon is operating on the patient’s airway, says Michaelides. “But these instances are rare. It’s not a dangerous tool any more than a scalpel is, and surgeons are trained to use both to minimize risk.”
OmniGuide’s laser scalpel, which attaches to a small machine typically mounted on a rolling stand in an operating room, costs about $80,000, including two years of service. The laser, controlled by the doctor holding the fiber, acts as a scalpel to cut tissue close to the fiber’s tip. The fibers, which are designed to be used during a surgery and then thrown away, cost $500 to $1,500, depending on the procedure. "We try to be as [clinically] specific as we can," says Fink. "It's important because we want to do value pricing ... obviously the amount a patient or insurance agency will pay to restore hearing is less than to remove cancer from your brain."
Worldwide sales for surgical lasers will be $1.3 billion this year, up from $96 million in 2000, according to a 2010 report on medical laser systems by market research firm Global Industry Analysts.
Fink’s invention was sparked by a 1996 challenge by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to scientists to design a highly reflective mirror. Then-graduate student Fink’s winning structure reflected objects from all angles, what he calls a “perfect mirror.” Fink’s mirror worked on differently shaped surfaces—flat, cubic, tubular. He reasoned that alternating rings of the chemical linings—an insulator and a semiconductor—would transmit the light through a hollow glass fiber. Because the laser beam could be controlled with the fiber’s tip, he envisioned, it would enable surgeons to reach difficult nooks and crannies more easily.
Fink, who holds a PhD in materials science from MIT, returned to academia this fall to run MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, passing the reins at OmniGuide to Chief Executive Scott Flora, formerly a division president at surgical products maker Covidien. Fink’s lab is looking for other applications for his fibers, using funding from the U.S. Army to research material that images surroundings and garments that capture information from the body such as blood flow, temperature, and calories burned. And he envisions clothing woven of fibers that recharge cell phones, as well as chameleon-like apparel that changes color when the wearer leaves work. “Material will become a high-tech object, or the object of high-tech,” says Fink.
2011年12月25日星期日
The Darkest Hour is the best worst movie of the year
Alien invasion flick The Darkest Hour, released this morning, is like a bad holiday fruitcake that somebody tried to spruce up with a zillion lumps of neon-colored, soggy jellybean guts. Put another way, this movie is what you get when you add the plot of Skyline to the creature effects of The Happening. It is truly the greatest bad monster movie of 2011.
Two guys, one of whom is played by Emile Hirsch, fly into Moscow to sell some people in suits on their real-time mobile travel social nightlife youth software, called something like MySquareDoppler, which is variously described as a "blog" and an "app." When they arrive at their business meeting, they discover that some Swedish guy they were working with on the intertubes has stolen their app blog social thing and is making the pitch to the Russian investors on his own.
"OMG WTF BBQ!" the guy who isn't Emile Hirsch says.
"You should have made me sign an NDA!" retorts Swedish intertube guy.
"You mean a Non Douchebag Agreement?" Hirsch snarks in one of the film's many "clever quip" moments.
And then a bunch of people yell in Russian and suddenly we're in a nightclub and Hirsch and not-Hirsch are drinking and hitting on some women who know them from MySquareDoppler.
Which is around the time a bunch of lens flares fall from the sky and start menacing everybody with their invisibleness, which has the property of reducing anybody who touches it to glowing specks that are super cheap to render in Photoshop. Our gang of social mobile app developers, including Swedish guy, have to make their way across a foreign city with the two women while dodging the invisible monsters! The only hint that the monsters are around is that they juice up all electrical devices - including lights, cell phones, car alarms, whatever - so that their presences are announced by flickering lights and other spooky shit.
I should note that the "we had no money and therefore made invisible monsters" thing isn't quite as bad as you might think. The idea of tracking aliens indirectly with handfuls of lightbulbs is pretty cool, and there are some amazing scenes of the shredded Mocow: planes have plowed into malls, tankers have shattered bridges, and the aliens are vaporizing buildings spectacularly in order to extract minerals or tap into our geothermal heat or maybe mine for holiday fruitcakes.
When it comes to plot and dialogue, however, all this creative conceptual design is wasted. Scenes are so hastily edited that we actually see characters run through exactly the same place twice in the opening alien attack sequence. And, inevitably, the aliens' powers change dramatically from scene to scene as the plot requires. At first they reduce everything they touch to dust. Then it turns out they have to lasso people with poorly-aimed lightning ropes first. Also they can't see through glass for some reason, and they can't seem to run or fly even though they flew down to Earth.
Eventually our band of mobile social app losers randomly stumbles across several other survivors, one of whom is a mad scientist living in a Faraday cage who has developed microwave guns to "disrupt the alien shields." Because - wait, whut? They aren't electrical aliens? Nope - they actually just have electrical SHIELDS, which we can disrupt and then "shoot with good Russian bullets," as another resistance guy says. Also, Faraday cages are the magical weapon humans can use against the aliens because the aliens can't see inside them - but the humans can use radios and cell phones inside them to communicate with each other. The mad scientist has even wrapped his adorable orange cat in a bunch of wires (a feline Faraday cage?) to make him invisible to the aliens.
OK, time out for a moment of nerd snarkage. The whole Faraday cage bit pissed me off. I was willing to give you the "glass as shield" defense because, hell, glass is an insulator. (Sadly, nobody thought of dressing Emile Hirsch in a rubber fetish suit to make him invisible because hey - rubber is an insulator too!) But people - the whole point of a Faraday cage is that most electrical signals cannot penetrate it. That means signals can't come in, and they can't come out. You cannot use radio or mobile phones inside them. Sigh.
Anyway, my OCD Faraday cage issues are like screaming about a grease fire during a mega volcano eruption. There were so many inconsistencies in this flick that it seemed like the whole crew had decided to embrace the credo that Hirsch and not-Hirsch espouse early on: "Every culture has alcohol and religion. That's why I drink religiously!" See what I mean about the writing in this flick? Pure gold.
Two guys, one of whom is played by Emile Hirsch, fly into Moscow to sell some people in suits on their real-time mobile travel social nightlife youth software, called something like MySquareDoppler, which is variously described as a "blog" and an "app." When they arrive at their business meeting, they discover that some Swedish guy they were working with on the intertubes has stolen their app blog social thing and is making the pitch to the Russian investors on his own.
"OMG WTF BBQ!" the guy who isn't Emile Hirsch says.
"You should have made me sign an NDA!" retorts Swedish intertube guy.
"You mean a Non Douchebag Agreement?" Hirsch snarks in one of the film's many "clever quip" moments.
And then a bunch of people yell in Russian and suddenly we're in a nightclub and Hirsch and not-Hirsch are drinking and hitting on some women who know them from MySquareDoppler.
Which is around the time a bunch of lens flares fall from the sky and start menacing everybody with their invisibleness, which has the property of reducing anybody who touches it to glowing specks that are super cheap to render in Photoshop. Our gang of social mobile app developers, including Swedish guy, have to make their way across a foreign city with the two women while dodging the invisible monsters! The only hint that the monsters are around is that they juice up all electrical devices - including lights, cell phones, car alarms, whatever - so that their presences are announced by flickering lights and other spooky shit.
I should note that the "we had no money and therefore made invisible monsters" thing isn't quite as bad as you might think. The idea of tracking aliens indirectly with handfuls of lightbulbs is pretty cool, and there are some amazing scenes of the shredded Mocow: planes have plowed into malls, tankers have shattered bridges, and the aliens are vaporizing buildings spectacularly in order to extract minerals or tap into our geothermal heat or maybe mine for holiday fruitcakes.
When it comes to plot and dialogue, however, all this creative conceptual design is wasted. Scenes are so hastily edited that we actually see characters run through exactly the same place twice in the opening alien attack sequence. And, inevitably, the aliens' powers change dramatically from scene to scene as the plot requires. At first they reduce everything they touch to dust. Then it turns out they have to lasso people with poorly-aimed lightning ropes first. Also they can't see through glass for some reason, and they can't seem to run or fly even though they flew down to Earth.
Eventually our band of mobile social app losers randomly stumbles across several other survivors, one of whom is a mad scientist living in a Faraday cage who has developed microwave guns to "disrupt the alien shields." Because - wait, whut? They aren't electrical aliens? Nope - they actually just have electrical SHIELDS, which we can disrupt and then "shoot with good Russian bullets," as another resistance guy says. Also, Faraday cages are the magical weapon humans can use against the aliens because the aliens can't see inside them - but the humans can use radios and cell phones inside them to communicate with each other. The mad scientist has even wrapped his adorable orange cat in a bunch of wires (a feline Faraday cage?) to make him invisible to the aliens.
OK, time out for a moment of nerd snarkage. The whole Faraday cage bit pissed me off. I was willing to give you the "glass as shield" defense because, hell, glass is an insulator. (Sadly, nobody thought of dressing Emile Hirsch in a rubber fetish suit to make him invisible because hey - rubber is an insulator too!) But people - the whole point of a Faraday cage is that most electrical signals cannot penetrate it. That means signals can't come in, and they can't come out. You cannot use radio or mobile phones inside them. Sigh.
Anyway, my OCD Faraday cage issues are like screaming about a grease fire during a mega volcano eruption. There were so many inconsistencies in this flick that it seemed like the whole crew had decided to embrace the credo that Hirsch and not-Hirsch espouse early on: "Every culture has alcohol and religion. That's why I drink religiously!" See what I mean about the writing in this flick? Pure gold.
2011年12月22日星期四
COP17 inspires local mechanic to complete eco-friendly geyser
A LOCAL mechanic’s idea to manufacture a bio eco-friendly geyser was motivated by the load shedding which began in 2008, but the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) inspired him to complete his project.
Prithy (Batchu) Bhekarie, owner of RVN Motors workshop in Raven Street in the city centre said: “I was annoyed every time while watching television and enjoying whatever programme was on, when the lights would go out without any warning.
“During that time the television would show a warning about saving electricity by switching off geysers and other electrical appliances.
“That is when it hit me that as an experienced mechanic who has been running his workshop for 14 years I can contribute towards saving energy by creating a bio-eco friendly geyser which would be cost effective and also benefit indigent households,” said Bhekarie.
He said at R3,50 a day he manages to have hot water by using a bio-gel to heat the geyser.
“I am in the process of producing a bio-gel that would burn for longer, in collaboration with producers of environment-friendly gel. This can be used inside the house because it does not produce smoke,” he said.
Bhekarie said he is still trying to finalise patent rights for his Trisuv Econo-geyser. “I actually named it after my two sons,” he said.
He is determined to make this a household name as an appliance that is used by restaurants, workshops and those who do not have electricity, as well as those who want to save on electricity bills at the end of the month.
“My aim was to create accessible hot water for the people living in the rural areas and those living in RDP housing who cannot afford electrical geysers,” he said.
He said this was his contribution to help the government ease the electricity load and to reduce carbon footprints while people enjoy hot water.
“I have manufactured a 50 litre geyser, which can be used during cold days by applying bio-gel and during hot days by using installed solar energy to heat water and save the bio gel,” said Bhekarie.
Bhekarie said it takes just 30 minutes to heat the water.
“This works like a tea flask, when you put hot water in today, it would still be hot tomorrow because of the special insulator that I have put inside the geyser,” he said.
Prithy (Batchu) Bhekarie, owner of RVN Motors workshop in Raven Street in the city centre said: “I was annoyed every time while watching television and enjoying whatever programme was on, when the lights would go out without any warning.
“During that time the television would show a warning about saving electricity by switching off geysers and other electrical appliances.
“That is when it hit me that as an experienced mechanic who has been running his workshop for 14 years I can contribute towards saving energy by creating a bio-eco friendly geyser which would be cost effective and also benefit indigent households,” said Bhekarie.
He said at R3,50 a day he manages to have hot water by using a bio-gel to heat the geyser.
“I am in the process of producing a bio-gel that would burn for longer, in collaboration with producers of environment-friendly gel. This can be used inside the house because it does not produce smoke,” he said.
Bhekarie said he is still trying to finalise patent rights for his Trisuv Econo-geyser. “I actually named it after my two sons,” he said.
He is determined to make this a household name as an appliance that is used by restaurants, workshops and those who do not have electricity, as well as those who want to save on electricity bills at the end of the month.
“My aim was to create accessible hot water for the people living in the rural areas and those living in RDP housing who cannot afford electrical geysers,” he said.
He said this was his contribution to help the government ease the electricity load and to reduce carbon footprints while people enjoy hot water.
“I have manufactured a 50 litre geyser, which can be used during cold days by applying bio-gel and during hot days by using installed solar energy to heat water and save the bio gel,” said Bhekarie.
Bhekarie said it takes just 30 minutes to heat the water.
“This works like a tea flask, when you put hot water in today, it would still be hot tomorrow because of the special insulator that I have put inside the geyser,” he said.
2011年12月21日星期三
Soitec dedicates San Diego North American HQ and manufacturing plant
Soitec of Bernin, France, which makes engineered substrates including silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers (as well as III-V epiwafers through its Picogiga International division), has dedicated its new North American solar headquarters and manufacturing plant in San Diego, CA at a ceremony on 16 December.
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr, provided remarks at the event. Also participating were San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) chairman & CEO Jessie J. Knight Jr and commissioner Timothy Simon of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), as well as governmental officials and more than 300 community and business leaders.
The factory is located in San Diego to supply more than 300MW in solar projects that will provide electricity to SDG&E. All power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been approved by the CPUC. The new factory will enable a manufacturing capacity of 200MW of Soitec’s fifth generation of Concentrix concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules, with the opportunity for future expansion to double the capacity to 400MW per year.
Soitec says that its efficient, durable CPV systems have enabled it to plan for more than 300MW in utility-scale solar power plant projects throughout the Southwest USA, including 155MW in PPAs with SDG&E, approved by the CPUC in November. Also approved on 15 December was a power purchase agreement for up to 150MW for the Imperial Solar Energy Center West project, which is being developed by Tenaska Solar Ventures LLC (an affiliate of independent energy firm Tenaska) also using Soitec’s CPV technology. Tenaska’s CEO Jerry Crouse also attended the San Diego dedication event.
“SDG&E has signed more contracts using CPV technology than any other utility in the world,” reckons Knight. “At the time we began our talks with Soitec, we realized we had a unique opportunity to negotiate not only a good contract for solar energy at prices that competed head-to-head with other technologies, but also to solidify an agreement that would bear fruit for years to come in new local jobs and overall economic benefits,” he adds. “From a reliability and grid stability perspective, this technology is far superior to other typical ground-mounted arrays.”
Soitec has CPV installations on four continents around the world. The firm claims that the technology demonstrates unique cost competitiveness compared to other solar technologies, due largely to its higher production yields at peak times and lower construction and maintenance costs. In addition, its abilities to operate without cooling water, to withstand hot ambient temperatures and to accommodate the dual use of land with minimal environmental impact make it suitable for use throughout the desert southwest USA.
Soitec employs a distributed manufacturing model that locates CPV module factories close to its customers, with the aim of to providing the most efficient and environmentally beneficial power. The distribution model also calls for a large percentage of local content and local job generation.
“Soitec’s new facility will create hundreds of well-paying jobs and build on San Diego’s growing reputation as one of the world’s leading clean-technology clusters,” comments Sanders. “San Diego’s collaborative business community will continue to work with Soitec to ensure the company’s success and prosperity,” he adds.
“The expansion of clean energy businesses is a direct result of legislation mandating that one-third of California’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2020,” notes Governor Brown.
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr, provided remarks at the event. Also participating were San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) chairman & CEO Jessie J. Knight Jr and commissioner Timothy Simon of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), as well as governmental officials and more than 300 community and business leaders.
The factory is located in San Diego to supply more than 300MW in solar projects that will provide electricity to SDG&E. All power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been approved by the CPUC. The new factory will enable a manufacturing capacity of 200MW of Soitec’s fifth generation of Concentrix concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules, with the opportunity for future expansion to double the capacity to 400MW per year.
Soitec says that its efficient, durable CPV systems have enabled it to plan for more than 300MW in utility-scale solar power plant projects throughout the Southwest USA, including 155MW in PPAs with SDG&E, approved by the CPUC in November. Also approved on 15 December was a power purchase agreement for up to 150MW for the Imperial Solar Energy Center West project, which is being developed by Tenaska Solar Ventures LLC (an affiliate of independent energy firm Tenaska) also using Soitec’s CPV technology. Tenaska’s CEO Jerry Crouse also attended the San Diego dedication event.
“SDG&E has signed more contracts using CPV technology than any other utility in the world,” reckons Knight. “At the time we began our talks with Soitec, we realized we had a unique opportunity to negotiate not only a good contract for solar energy at prices that competed head-to-head with other technologies, but also to solidify an agreement that would bear fruit for years to come in new local jobs and overall economic benefits,” he adds. “From a reliability and grid stability perspective, this technology is far superior to other typical ground-mounted arrays.”
Soitec has CPV installations on four continents around the world. The firm claims that the technology demonstrates unique cost competitiveness compared to other solar technologies, due largely to its higher production yields at peak times and lower construction and maintenance costs. In addition, its abilities to operate without cooling water, to withstand hot ambient temperatures and to accommodate the dual use of land with minimal environmental impact make it suitable for use throughout the desert southwest USA.
Soitec employs a distributed manufacturing model that locates CPV module factories close to its customers, with the aim of to providing the most efficient and environmentally beneficial power. The distribution model also calls for a large percentage of local content and local job generation.
“Soitec’s new facility will create hundreds of well-paying jobs and build on San Diego’s growing reputation as one of the world’s leading clean-technology clusters,” comments Sanders. “San Diego’s collaborative business community will continue to work with Soitec to ensure the company’s success and prosperity,” he adds.
“The expansion of clean energy businesses is a direct result of legislation mandating that one-third of California’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2020,” notes Governor Brown.
2011年12月20日星期二
Metal undergoes novel transition under extreme pressure
Iron oxide was subjected to conditions similar to those at the depth where the Earth's innermost two layers meet.
At 1,650C and 690,000 times sea-level pressure, the metal changed the degree to which it conducted electricity.
But, as the team outlined in Physical Review Letters, the metal's structure was surprisingly unchanged.
The finding could have implications for our as-yet incomplete understanding of how the Earth's interior gives rise to the planet's magnetic field.
While many transitions are known in materials as they undergo nature's extraordinary pressures and temperatures, such changes in fundamental properties are most often accompanied by a change in structure.
These can be the ways that atoms are arranged in a crystal pattern, or even in the arrangement of subatomic particles that surround atomic nuclei.
A team at the Carnegie Institution for Science subjected the material to pressures up to 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure at sea level, and temperatures up to 2,200C.
They found that it pulls off the trick of changing its electrical properties without any shifting of shape - it can be an insulator or conductor depending just on temperature and pressure.
Combined with computer simulations of just what was going on with the material's electrons, the group claim that the results show a new type of metallisation.
"At high temperatures, the atoms in iron oxide crystals are arranged with the same structure as common table salt," said Ronald Cohen, a co-author of the study. "Just like table salt, iron oxide at ambient conditions is a good insulator—it does not conduct electricity."
"Our new results show, instead, that iron oxide metallises without any change in structure and that combined temperature and pressure are required. Furthermore, our theory shows that the way the electrons behave to make it metallic is different from other materials that become metallic."
A mixture of magnesium and iron oxide makes up much of the Earth's mantle - the solid layer just outside the planet's liquid outer core. The fact that iron oxide behaves as a metal means it will electrically link the core and mantle, affecting the way the magnetic field makes its way to the Earth's surface and beyond.
At 1,650C and 690,000 times sea-level pressure, the metal changed the degree to which it conducted electricity.
But, as the team outlined in Physical Review Letters, the metal's structure was surprisingly unchanged.
The finding could have implications for our as-yet incomplete understanding of how the Earth's interior gives rise to the planet's magnetic field.
While many transitions are known in materials as they undergo nature's extraordinary pressures and temperatures, such changes in fundamental properties are most often accompanied by a change in structure.
These can be the ways that atoms are arranged in a crystal pattern, or even in the arrangement of subatomic particles that surround atomic nuclei.
A team at the Carnegie Institution for Science subjected the material to pressures up to 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure at sea level, and temperatures up to 2,200C.
They found that it pulls off the trick of changing its electrical properties without any shifting of shape - it can be an insulator or conductor depending just on temperature and pressure.
Combined with computer simulations of just what was going on with the material's electrons, the group claim that the results show a new type of metallisation.
"At high temperatures, the atoms in iron oxide crystals are arranged with the same structure as common table salt," said Ronald Cohen, a co-author of the study. "Just like table salt, iron oxide at ambient conditions is a good insulator—it does not conduct electricity."
"Our new results show, instead, that iron oxide metallises without any change in structure and that combined temperature and pressure are required. Furthermore, our theory shows that the way the electrons behave to make it metallic is different from other materials that become metallic."
A mixture of magnesium and iron oxide makes up much of the Earth's mantle - the solid layer just outside the planet's liquid outer core. The fact that iron oxide behaves as a metal means it will electrically link the core and mantle, affecting the way the magnetic field makes its way to the Earth's surface and beyond.
2011年12月19日星期一
A new kind of metal in the deep Earth
The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth's deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials change. New experiments and supercomputer computations discovered that iron oxide undergoes a new kind of transition under deep Earth conditions. Iron oxide, FeO, is a component of the second most abundant mineral at Earth's lower mantle, ferropericlase. The finding, published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, could alter our understanding of deep Earth dynamics and the behavior of the protective magnetic field, which shields our planet from harmful cosmic rays.
Ferropericlase contains both magnesium and iron oxide. To imitate the extreme conditions in the lab, the team including coauthor Ronald Cohen of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory, studied the electrical conductivity of iron oxide to pressures and temperatures up to 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure and 4000°F—on par with conditions at the core-mantle boundary. They also used a new computational method that uses only fundamental physics to model the complex many-body interactions among electrons. The theory and experiments both predict a new kind of metallization in FeO.
Compounds typically undergo structural, chemical, electronic, and other changes under these extremes. Contrary to previous thought, the iron oxide went from an insulating (non-electrical conducting) state to become a highly conducting metal at 690,000 atmospheres and 3000°F, but without a change to its structure. Previous studies had assumed that metallization in FeO was associated with a change in its crystal structure. This result means that iron oxide can be both an insulator and a metal depending on temperature and pressure conditions.
"At high temperatures, the atoms in iron oxide crystals are arranged with the same structure as common table salt, NaCl," explained Cohen. "Just like table salt, FeO at ambient conditions is a good insulator—it does not conduct electricity. Older measurements showed metallization in FeO at high pressures and temperatures, but it was thought that a new crystal structure formed. Our new results show, instead, that FeO metallizes without any change in structure and that combined temperature and pressure are required. Furthermore, our theory shows that the way the electrons behave to make it metallic is different from other materials that become metallic."
"The results imply that iron oxide is conducting in the whole range of its stability in Earth's lower mantle." Cohen continues, "The metallic phase will enhance the electromagnetic interaction between the liquid core and lower mantle. This has implications for Earth's magnetic field, which is generated in the outer core. It will change the way the magnetic field is propagated to Earth's surface, because it provides magnetomechanical coupling between the Earth's mantle and core."
"The fact that one mineral has properties that differ so completely—depending on its composition and where it is within the Earth—is a major discovery," concluded Geophysical Laboratory director Russell Hemley.
Ferropericlase contains both magnesium and iron oxide. To imitate the extreme conditions in the lab, the team including coauthor Ronald Cohen of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory, studied the electrical conductivity of iron oxide to pressures and temperatures up to 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure and 4000°F—on par with conditions at the core-mantle boundary. They also used a new computational method that uses only fundamental physics to model the complex many-body interactions among electrons. The theory and experiments both predict a new kind of metallization in FeO.
Compounds typically undergo structural, chemical, electronic, and other changes under these extremes. Contrary to previous thought, the iron oxide went from an insulating (non-electrical conducting) state to become a highly conducting metal at 690,000 atmospheres and 3000°F, but without a change to its structure. Previous studies had assumed that metallization in FeO was associated with a change in its crystal structure. This result means that iron oxide can be both an insulator and a metal depending on temperature and pressure conditions.
"At high temperatures, the atoms in iron oxide crystals are arranged with the same structure as common table salt, NaCl," explained Cohen. "Just like table salt, FeO at ambient conditions is a good insulator—it does not conduct electricity. Older measurements showed metallization in FeO at high pressures and temperatures, but it was thought that a new crystal structure formed. Our new results show, instead, that FeO metallizes without any change in structure and that combined temperature and pressure are required. Furthermore, our theory shows that the way the electrons behave to make it metallic is different from other materials that become metallic."
"The results imply that iron oxide is conducting in the whole range of its stability in Earth's lower mantle." Cohen continues, "The metallic phase will enhance the electromagnetic interaction between the liquid core and lower mantle. This has implications for Earth's magnetic field, which is generated in the outer core. It will change the way the magnetic field is propagated to Earth's surface, because it provides magnetomechanical coupling between the Earth's mantle and core."
"The fact that one mineral has properties that differ so completely—depending on its composition and where it is within the Earth—is a major discovery," concluded Geophysical Laboratory director Russell Hemley.
2011年12月18日星期日
HEA responds to Soldotna, Cohoe outages
A large section of the Soldotna was without power Sunday morning. The outage started at 7:25 a.m. and impacted 2,317 homes and businesses. Homer Electric crews responded to the Corral Street area of Soldotna where they found a broken insulator on a power pole. The crew made repairs and had the power back on at 9:17 a.m.
HEA crews also responded to the South Cohoe Loop area for an outage that started at 5:30 a.m. and is impacting 94. Crews made repairs after finding a tree on the power line and wire on the ground. Power was restored to the South Cohoe Loop area at 11:40 a.m.
As a safety reminder, HEA would like to remind homeowners who own generators to make sure they are taking proper precautions. If operated incorrectly, the generator can send power back on to the electric system and cause serious injury or death to linemen working on the power line.
It is very important that a transfer switch exists between the generator and the HEA system. The transfer switch must be equipped with a visual open ensuring that the generator is not back feeding into the HEA system. Make sure that you have properly installed your generator and if you have any questions, please contact a qualified electrician before operating the generator.
HEA also reminds people to stay away from any downed power line. The lines are very dangerous and can cause serious injury or death if contact is made.
HEA crews also responded to the South Cohoe Loop area for an outage that started at 5:30 a.m. and is impacting 94. Crews made repairs after finding a tree on the power line and wire on the ground. Power was restored to the South Cohoe Loop area at 11:40 a.m.
As a safety reminder, HEA would like to remind homeowners who own generators to make sure they are taking proper precautions. If operated incorrectly, the generator can send power back on to the electric system and cause serious injury or death to linemen working on the power line.
It is very important that a transfer switch exists between the generator and the HEA system. The transfer switch must be equipped with a visual open ensuring that the generator is not back feeding into the HEA system. Make sure that you have properly installed your generator and if you have any questions, please contact a qualified electrician before operating the generator.
HEA also reminds people to stay away from any downed power line. The lines are very dangerous and can cause serious injury or death if contact is made.
2011年12月15日星期四
Shellac and the Female Lac Bug
This forum is usually about high-tech wood coatings.
But from time to time, I will discuss something that is tried and true and, perhaps, not so high tech. Shellac is definitely a low-tech product. It is the secretion of the female Lac bug (Kerrialacca) found in India and Thailand. It takes approximately 100,000 bugs to create 500 grams of shellac flakes.
There must be a lot of these little ladies doing their thing because shellac is still a widely used product. It functions as a primer, tannin sealer, odor sealer, insulator, and a clear wood finish. Though not terribly robust as a clear finish, none the less, it is not dissolved by anything other than ethyl alcohol.Beware of manufacturing dates when found in liquid form.Liquid shellac has a shelf life. That’s why it is so often sold in dry flakes.Liquid versions only lasts about a year. Thereafter, it remains tacky. Also, look for the 100% de-waxed version.
Let’s change gears for a moment and talk about water-borne clear finishes.
The facts of life about water-borne technology include some things that are different from solvent-borne clear coatings. Finishers are well aware that water-bornes “wet the wood” differently.
The “look” is not the same and, in some cases, inferior to what a solvent lacquer will give.
Also, some water-bornes have a bluish-white appearance even when totally cured. Thirdly, tannins are an issue with water-borne technology since they are miscible in water and tend to migrate up through the coating…even after drying. Usually this is not an issue with a clear but it certainly can be with a pigmented coating. Tannins can show up days later.
I had the opportunity to do an experiment with some Sapele.
A customer wanted some help with a door he was submitting for approval and I agreed to spray it for him. I wanted to check out what shellac would do to enhance wetted color so I grabbed a piece of Sapele and sprayed a coat on half the sample. (see the attached photo) I was really surprised at what the shellac did to the color of the wood. It was as though I had stained the board. The richness was significantly increased.
On the other hand, when my client brought in his door to be sprayed, his was of highly ribboned Sapele. Much lighter in color than my sample, his did not change as dramatically. Therefore, this effect may be selective and will require you to experiment. It may be that shellac adds something to darker woods only. But the effect was really appealing! The board in the picture has 3 coats of pre-cat clear over the shellac. The total dry mils of pre-cat is approximately 5.
Change gears again. M.L. Campbell makes a tannin-blocking primer for use under its pigmented coatings. It is a wonderful product. It sands like a dream. Its secret sauce is a high-tech resin that bonds with the tannins and holds onto them. It is not a shellac-based primer.
My grandpa always said that you could definitely trust a guy who wore both a belt and suspenders. He’d never let you down, he used to say.
Here’s my point. If you are making a paint-grade project out of a wood with a known reputation for tannin bleed, I’d heed his advice and spray one coat of shellac, scuff, then use the MLC primer. Then, you’re as sure as you can be not to lose your pants on that job.
As I said, tannin bleed often doesn’t show up for several days. By then, some of us will have the project installed. This is a call-back that you definitely don’t want to have! The fix for tannin bleed is NOT fun!
But from time to time, I will discuss something that is tried and true and, perhaps, not so high tech. Shellac is definitely a low-tech product. It is the secretion of the female Lac bug (Kerrialacca) found in India and Thailand. It takes approximately 100,000 bugs to create 500 grams of shellac flakes.
There must be a lot of these little ladies doing their thing because shellac is still a widely used product. It functions as a primer, tannin sealer, odor sealer, insulator, and a clear wood finish. Though not terribly robust as a clear finish, none the less, it is not dissolved by anything other than ethyl alcohol.Beware of manufacturing dates when found in liquid form.Liquid shellac has a shelf life. That’s why it is so often sold in dry flakes.Liquid versions only lasts about a year. Thereafter, it remains tacky. Also, look for the 100% de-waxed version.
Let’s change gears for a moment and talk about water-borne clear finishes.
The facts of life about water-borne technology include some things that are different from solvent-borne clear coatings. Finishers are well aware that water-bornes “wet the wood” differently.
The “look” is not the same and, in some cases, inferior to what a solvent lacquer will give.
Also, some water-bornes have a bluish-white appearance even when totally cured. Thirdly, tannins are an issue with water-borne technology since they are miscible in water and tend to migrate up through the coating…even after drying. Usually this is not an issue with a clear but it certainly can be with a pigmented coating. Tannins can show up days later.
I had the opportunity to do an experiment with some Sapele.
A customer wanted some help with a door he was submitting for approval and I agreed to spray it for him. I wanted to check out what shellac would do to enhance wetted color so I grabbed a piece of Sapele and sprayed a coat on half the sample. (see the attached photo) I was really surprised at what the shellac did to the color of the wood. It was as though I had stained the board. The richness was significantly increased.
On the other hand, when my client brought in his door to be sprayed, his was of highly ribboned Sapele. Much lighter in color than my sample, his did not change as dramatically. Therefore, this effect may be selective and will require you to experiment. It may be that shellac adds something to darker woods only. But the effect was really appealing! The board in the picture has 3 coats of pre-cat clear over the shellac. The total dry mils of pre-cat is approximately 5.
Change gears again. M.L. Campbell makes a tannin-blocking primer for use under its pigmented coatings. It is a wonderful product. It sands like a dream. Its secret sauce is a high-tech resin that bonds with the tannins and holds onto them. It is not a shellac-based primer.
My grandpa always said that you could definitely trust a guy who wore both a belt and suspenders. He’d never let you down, he used to say.
Here’s my point. If you are making a paint-grade project out of a wood with a known reputation for tannin bleed, I’d heed his advice and spray one coat of shellac, scuff, then use the MLC primer. Then, you’re as sure as you can be not to lose your pants on that job.
As I said, tannin bleed often doesn’t show up for several days. By then, some of us will have the project installed. This is a call-back that you definitely don’t want to have! The fix for tannin bleed is NOT fun!
2011年12月14日星期三
When leaving home is the only way out
EVERY culture has its own spectre of hardship, says economist Alan Barrett. For Germans, it is the hyper-inflation of the Weimar Republic and its destruction of families' hard-earned savings. For the English, it is the rationing during and after World War II, which left some in that generation still prone to hoarding every time headlines cause alarm. For the Irish, it is landlessness.
Their folk memory turns on the stories of the potato famine of the 1840s, when starving people were evicted from their homes by English landlords and died by the roadsides with grass stains around their mouths.
Even today, says Professor Barrett, of Trinity College, Dublin, "in the social collective consciousness, losing your property and eviction are the worst things that can possibly happen."
This has led to a national preoccupation with property ownership, agrees Professor Piaras Mac Einri of Cork University, "We have an obsession with land. Owning your own land is the biggest thing you can do.''
Which partly explains what has happened with traditionally frugal, hard-working Ireland. In the 15 years to 2008 the country boomed, proclaimed as "the Celtic Tiger". On a surge of prosperity and optimism, and turbo-charged by low interest rates, Ireland spent billions building roads, luxury hotels, golf courses, and a gleaming, futuristic, 600 million (A$783 million) international airport, T2. The Irish also borrowed heavily to buy into a feverish local property market.
Barrett, who is on secondment from Ireland's Economic and Social Research Institute, says: "If you asked anybody what was the big benefit of the Celtic Tiger, I think a lot of people would have answered that for the first time ever, if you were born in Ireland you could assume that you could live and work in Ireland for the rest of your life."
But the Celtic Tiger is now a mewing kitten. Last month marked the first anniversary of Ireland's humiliating bailout by the troika of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, without which it would be bankrupt. Ireland has also just suffered its fourth consecutive austerity budget, this time one that provides an "adjustment" of
3.8 billion through increased taxes and slashed spending. It follows cuts of 4 billion last year.
The Irish are talking about unemployment tripling to 14.5 per cent with 450,000 now jobless, about the way houses have lost half their value and about the big cuts to salaries and social services that make life harder. But there is another painful Irish spectre that is not getting as much airplay - forced emigration.
Emma and Eoin Monaghan are typical of those hardest hit by the crash. They have regretfully decided that they must leave the country if they and their children are to have a future. He is 35 and works as a thermal insulator; she is 29 and works part-time as a make-up artist. They have two children, five-year-old Jamie and baby Maleah, nine months, and live in a Celtic Tiger-era housing estate at Donabate, on the edge of Dublin.
They did what they thought was the responsible thing and bought a house before they had children, at a time when prices were rising fast, because they feared they might not get into the market at all if they dithered.
"The day we actually bought, there was a big queue," Emma says. "They said if you didn't bring your deposit within 24 hours you would lose your place. We were so frightened that we wouldn't even get on the property ladder."
They were conservative, for the time; they took a mortgage of 100 per cent, when all around them people were borrowing even more than that to add on a car, or a renovation. Between 1998 and 2008, Irish banks borrowed 300 billion to fund loans for property speculation, which amounted to 2 times the country's gross domestic product.
Their folk memory turns on the stories of the potato famine of the 1840s, when starving people were evicted from their homes by English landlords and died by the roadsides with grass stains around their mouths.
Even today, says Professor Barrett, of Trinity College, Dublin, "in the social collective consciousness, losing your property and eviction are the worst things that can possibly happen."
This has led to a national preoccupation with property ownership, agrees Professor Piaras Mac Einri of Cork University, "We have an obsession with land. Owning your own land is the biggest thing you can do.''
Which partly explains what has happened with traditionally frugal, hard-working Ireland. In the 15 years to 2008 the country boomed, proclaimed as "the Celtic Tiger". On a surge of prosperity and optimism, and turbo-charged by low interest rates, Ireland spent billions building roads, luxury hotels, golf courses, and a gleaming, futuristic, 600 million (A$783 million) international airport, T2. The Irish also borrowed heavily to buy into a feverish local property market.
Barrett, who is on secondment from Ireland's Economic and Social Research Institute, says: "If you asked anybody what was the big benefit of the Celtic Tiger, I think a lot of people would have answered that for the first time ever, if you were born in Ireland you could assume that you could live and work in Ireland for the rest of your life."
But the Celtic Tiger is now a mewing kitten. Last month marked the first anniversary of Ireland's humiliating bailout by the troika of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, without which it would be bankrupt. Ireland has also just suffered its fourth consecutive austerity budget, this time one that provides an "adjustment" of
3.8 billion through increased taxes and slashed spending. It follows cuts of 4 billion last year.
The Irish are talking about unemployment tripling to 14.5 per cent with 450,000 now jobless, about the way houses have lost half their value and about the big cuts to salaries and social services that make life harder. But there is another painful Irish spectre that is not getting as much airplay - forced emigration.
Emma and Eoin Monaghan are typical of those hardest hit by the crash. They have regretfully decided that they must leave the country if they and their children are to have a future. He is 35 and works as a thermal insulator; she is 29 and works part-time as a make-up artist. They have two children, five-year-old Jamie and baby Maleah, nine months, and live in a Celtic Tiger-era housing estate at Donabate, on the edge of Dublin.
They did what they thought was the responsible thing and bought a house before they had children, at a time when prices were rising fast, because they feared they might not get into the market at all if they dithered.
"The day we actually bought, there was a big queue," Emma says. "They said if you didn't bring your deposit within 24 hours you would lose your place. We were so frightened that we wouldn't even get on the property ladder."
They were conservative, for the time; they took a mortgage of 100 per cent, when all around them people were borrowing even more than that to add on a car, or a renovation. Between 1998 and 2008, Irish banks borrowed 300 billion to fund loans for property speculation, which amounted to 2 times the country's gross domestic product.
2011年12月13日星期二
Anchorage blown away by extreme weather
On the edge of what other city in North America can you get knocked flat by hurricane-force winds in a blizzard roaring up the suburban neighborhood street you've boldly started down in an effort to find out what caused the power outage?
And where else in the country would they knock on the door of a neighbor to tell him the high-voltage lines carrying power across the valley have been torn completely off the pole next to his house, leading him to look at you and ask, "You'll do anything for a cheap thrill, won't you?'' And then laugh as another gust hit, and his house shook, and the adjacent power line whipped around like it was going to crack?
But then Brian Roberts had been through this a few times before.
He noted that only a week earlier, the hurricane-force winds that rolled across the Anchorage Hillside tore a separate insulator loose from the same power pole and left the line bouncing and swaying in the wind. Chugach Electric Association (CEA) came out to fix it a few days later, he said. It was a different line from the one that tore an insulator out of the cross bar this time. That line then hit another, caused a whole lot of sparks, and kicked out a breaker.
Neighbor Richard Murphy got a spectacular light show. Shortly after the power went out, he called by cell phone from the only corner of his house that has decent cell coverage to offer a situation report. Daughter Katie was by then sitting at the dining room table studying for her GRE, a requirement for admittance to some post-graduate universities, by the light of a headlamp. It was time to fire up the trusty, old Coleman lantern.
Everyone in Anchorage should own a Coleman lantern or some equivalent, as this is a city vulnerable to power outages either by wind or earthquake.
Rogers and his girlfriend had candles lit when I dropped in. On up the hill, Murphy had an old-fashioned kerosene lantern burning. We sat in his kitchen enjoying it's glow for a while, sipping a nice Pinot Noir, enjoying some crackers and cheese, and feeling the whole house shake in the big gusts. It would go on like that for hours.
Afterward, everyone would compare notes on the power of the wind. This is something of a neighborhood sport. A week earlier, Tim Kelley had registered 105 mph on his anemometer. He reported another neighbor closer to the Potter Creek ravine had 107 mph. My wind gauge said 100 mph. The semi-official report from the National Weather Service, recorded at yet another home in the neighborhood, was 97 mph.
When I met neighbor Mark Shasby, the interim director of Alaska Climate Science Center, out hiking on a neighborhood trail, he wondered if the big blows might be linked to the warming off the ocean. Storms generate significantly more energy over warm water than cold.
And where else in the country would they knock on the door of a neighbor to tell him the high-voltage lines carrying power across the valley have been torn completely off the pole next to his house, leading him to look at you and ask, "You'll do anything for a cheap thrill, won't you?'' And then laugh as another gust hit, and his house shook, and the adjacent power line whipped around like it was going to crack?
But then Brian Roberts had been through this a few times before.
He noted that only a week earlier, the hurricane-force winds that rolled across the Anchorage Hillside tore a separate insulator loose from the same power pole and left the line bouncing and swaying in the wind. Chugach Electric Association (CEA) came out to fix it a few days later, he said. It was a different line from the one that tore an insulator out of the cross bar this time. That line then hit another, caused a whole lot of sparks, and kicked out a breaker.
Neighbor Richard Murphy got a spectacular light show. Shortly after the power went out, he called by cell phone from the only corner of his house that has decent cell coverage to offer a situation report. Daughter Katie was by then sitting at the dining room table studying for her GRE, a requirement for admittance to some post-graduate universities, by the light of a headlamp. It was time to fire up the trusty, old Coleman lantern.
Everyone in Anchorage should own a Coleman lantern or some equivalent, as this is a city vulnerable to power outages either by wind or earthquake.
Rogers and his girlfriend had candles lit when I dropped in. On up the hill, Murphy had an old-fashioned kerosene lantern burning. We sat in his kitchen enjoying it's glow for a while, sipping a nice Pinot Noir, enjoying some crackers and cheese, and feeling the whole house shake in the big gusts. It would go on like that for hours.
Afterward, everyone would compare notes on the power of the wind. This is something of a neighborhood sport. A week earlier, Tim Kelley had registered 105 mph on his anemometer. He reported another neighbor closer to the Potter Creek ravine had 107 mph. My wind gauge said 100 mph. The semi-official report from the National Weather Service, recorded at yet another home in the neighborhood, was 97 mph.
When I met neighbor Mark Shasby, the interim director of Alaska Climate Science Center, out hiking on a neighborhood trail, he wondered if the big blows might be linked to the warming off the ocean. Storms generate significantly more energy over warm water than cold.
2011年12月12日星期一
New '3-D' Transistors Promising Future Chips
Researchers from Purdue and Harvard universities have created a new type of transistor made from a material that could replace silicon and have a 3-D structure instead of conventional flat computer chips.
The approach could enable engineers to build faster, more compact and efficient integrated circuits and lighter laptops that generate less heat than today's. The transistors contain tiny nanowires made not of silicon, like conventional transistors, but from a material called indium-gallium-arsenide.
The device was created using a so-called "top-down" method, which is akin to industrial processes to precisely etch and position components in transistors. Because the approach is compatible with conventional manufacturing processes, it is promising for adoption by industry, said Peide "Peter" Ye, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue.
A new generation of silicon computer chips, due to debut in 2012, will contain transistors having a vertical structure instead of a conventional flat design. However, because silicon has a limited "electron mobility" -- how fast electrons flow - other materials will likely be needed soon to continue advancing transistors with this 3-D approach, Ye said.
Indium-gallium-arsenide is among several promising semiconductors being studied to replace silicon. Such semiconductors are called III-V materials because they combine elements from the third and fifth groups of the periodic table.
"Industry and academia are racing to develop transistors from the III-V materials," Ye said. "Here, we have made the world's first 3-D gate-all-around transistor on much higher-mobility material than silicon, the indium-gallium-arsenide."
Findings will be detailed in a paper to be presented during the International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C. The work is led by Purdue doctoral student Jiangjiang Gu; Harvard doctoral student Yiqun Liu; Roy Gordon, Harvard's Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Chemistry; and Ye.
Transistors contain critical components called gates, which enable the devices to switch on and off and to direct the flow of electrical current. In today's chips, the length of these gates is about 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. However, in 2012 industry will introduce silicon-based 3-D transistors having a gate length of 22 nanometers.
"Next year if you buy a computer it will have the 22-nanometer gate length and 3-D silicon transistors," Ye said.
The 3-D design is critical because the 22-nanometer gate lengths will not work in a flat design.
"Once you shrink gate lengths down to 22 nanometers on silicon you have to do more complicated structure design," Ye said. "The ideal gate is a necklike, gate-all-around structure so that the gate surrounds the transistor on all sides."
The nanowires are coated with a "dielectric," which acts as a gate. Engineers are working to develop transistors that use even smaller gate lengths, 14 nanometers, by 2015.
However, further size reductions beyond 14 nanometers and additional performance improvements are likely not possible using silicon, meaning new designs and materials will be needed to continue progress, Ye said.
"Nanowires made of III-V alloys will get us to the 10 nanometer range," he said.
The new findings confirmed that the device made using a III-V material has the potential to conduct electrons five times faster than silicon.
Creating smaller transistors also will require finding a new type of insulating layer essential for the devices to switch off. As gate lengths shrink smaller than 14 nanometers, the silicon dioxide insulator used in conventional transistors fails to perform properly and is said to "leak" electrical charge.
One potential solution to this leaking problem is to replace silicon dioxide with materials that have a higher insulating value, or "dielectric constant," such as hafnium dioxide or aluminum oxide.
In the new work, the researchers applied a dielectric coating made of aluminum oxide using a method called atomic layer deposition. Because atomic layer deposition is commonly used in industry, the new design may represent a practical solution to the coming limits of conventional silicon transistors.
Using atomic layer deposition might enable engineers to design transistors having thinner oxide and metal layers for the gates, possibly consuming far less electricity than silicon devices.
"A thinner dielectric layer means speed goes up and voltage requirements go down," Ye said.
The work is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Semiconductor Research Corp. and is based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park. The latest research is similar to, but fundamentally different from, research reported by Ye's group in 2009. That work involved a design called a finFET, for fin field-effect transistor, which uses a finlike structure instead of the conventional flat design. The new design uses nanowires instead of the fin design.
The approach could enable engineers to build faster, more compact and efficient integrated circuits and lighter laptops that generate less heat than today's. The transistors contain tiny nanowires made not of silicon, like conventional transistors, but from a material called indium-gallium-arsenide.
The device was created using a so-called "top-down" method, which is akin to industrial processes to precisely etch and position components in transistors. Because the approach is compatible with conventional manufacturing processes, it is promising for adoption by industry, said Peide "Peter" Ye, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue.
A new generation of silicon computer chips, due to debut in 2012, will contain transistors having a vertical structure instead of a conventional flat design. However, because silicon has a limited "electron mobility" -- how fast electrons flow - other materials will likely be needed soon to continue advancing transistors with this 3-D approach, Ye said.
Indium-gallium-arsenide is among several promising semiconductors being studied to replace silicon. Such semiconductors are called III-V materials because they combine elements from the third and fifth groups of the periodic table.
"Industry and academia are racing to develop transistors from the III-V materials," Ye said. "Here, we have made the world's first 3-D gate-all-around transistor on much higher-mobility material than silicon, the indium-gallium-arsenide."
Findings will be detailed in a paper to be presented during the International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C. The work is led by Purdue doctoral student Jiangjiang Gu; Harvard doctoral student Yiqun Liu; Roy Gordon, Harvard's Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Chemistry; and Ye.
Transistors contain critical components called gates, which enable the devices to switch on and off and to direct the flow of electrical current. In today's chips, the length of these gates is about 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. However, in 2012 industry will introduce silicon-based 3-D transistors having a gate length of 22 nanometers.
"Next year if you buy a computer it will have the 22-nanometer gate length and 3-D silicon transistors," Ye said.
The 3-D design is critical because the 22-nanometer gate lengths will not work in a flat design.
"Once you shrink gate lengths down to 22 nanometers on silicon you have to do more complicated structure design," Ye said. "The ideal gate is a necklike, gate-all-around structure so that the gate surrounds the transistor on all sides."
The nanowires are coated with a "dielectric," which acts as a gate. Engineers are working to develop transistors that use even smaller gate lengths, 14 nanometers, by 2015.
However, further size reductions beyond 14 nanometers and additional performance improvements are likely not possible using silicon, meaning new designs and materials will be needed to continue progress, Ye said.
"Nanowires made of III-V alloys will get us to the 10 nanometer range," he said.
The new findings confirmed that the device made using a III-V material has the potential to conduct electrons five times faster than silicon.
Creating smaller transistors also will require finding a new type of insulating layer essential for the devices to switch off. As gate lengths shrink smaller than 14 nanometers, the silicon dioxide insulator used in conventional transistors fails to perform properly and is said to "leak" electrical charge.
One potential solution to this leaking problem is to replace silicon dioxide with materials that have a higher insulating value, or "dielectric constant," such as hafnium dioxide or aluminum oxide.
In the new work, the researchers applied a dielectric coating made of aluminum oxide using a method called atomic layer deposition. Because atomic layer deposition is commonly used in industry, the new design may represent a practical solution to the coming limits of conventional silicon transistors.
Using atomic layer deposition might enable engineers to design transistors having thinner oxide and metal layers for the gates, possibly consuming far less electricity than silicon devices.
"A thinner dielectric layer means speed goes up and voltage requirements go down," Ye said.
The work is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Semiconductor Research Corp. and is based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's Discovery Park. The latest research is similar to, but fundamentally different from, research reported by Ye's group in 2009. That work involved a design called a finFET, for fin field-effect transistor, which uses a finlike structure instead of the conventional flat design. The new design uses nanowires instead of the fin design.
2011年12月11日星期日
Winter weather wonder wears
I’ve already mentioned my disdain for classic thick winter jackets. Unless you cruise along at walking pace, riding simply generates too much heat for most of them to cope with.
The Rapha replaces those silly, bulky monstrosities with a wonderfully tailored, fuzzy thermal jersey. The fabric used has more of an emphasis on keeping heat in than wind or water out, though the surface is moderately wind resistant. And because it’s cut like a jersey, it doesn’t flap or bulge. You feel faster and sleeker in the Winter Jersey than in a jacket, but you’re just as warm.
The material isn’t very stretchy, so pay close attention to fit. The medium I’ve been using fits around my torso very well, but the arms could be just a tad longer to prevent gaps in between sleeve and glove.
Fit is great in the riding position, and looks quite silly when off the bike. The high front slides up to your belly button when standing, and the long tail drops down to your thighs. Bend over on the saddle and everything sorts itself out perfectly, though. An elastic drawstring keeps the bottom in place.
Styling is quintessential Rapha — you either love it or you hate it. I like the understated logos and classic lines, personally.
The two enormous pockets are great for stashing food for a long ride, or other layers to be put on later.
Have I mentioned this thing is WARM? I took it out on Wednesday just as the cold snap here in Boulder broke (temps went from 2 to 27) with only a thin base layer underneath and thin vest over top (see next page) and was perfectly comfortable. The Winter Jersey works down to about 35 on its own (with a base layer… always wear a base layer!) and well below that with another shell or vest over top.
Two under-arm mesh vents can be opened up, which, combined with the mesh-backed pockets, allow for comfy riding up to about 50-55 or so. They’re not quite pit-zips — instead, Rapha has moved them forward a bit to catch more air when in the riding position. This makes them even more effective.
The Rapha replaces those silly, bulky monstrosities with a wonderfully tailored, fuzzy thermal jersey. The fabric used has more of an emphasis on keeping heat in than wind or water out, though the surface is moderately wind resistant. And because it’s cut like a jersey, it doesn’t flap or bulge. You feel faster and sleeker in the Winter Jersey than in a jacket, but you’re just as warm.
The material isn’t very stretchy, so pay close attention to fit. The medium I’ve been using fits around my torso very well, but the arms could be just a tad longer to prevent gaps in between sleeve and glove.
Fit is great in the riding position, and looks quite silly when off the bike. The high front slides up to your belly button when standing, and the long tail drops down to your thighs. Bend over on the saddle and everything sorts itself out perfectly, though. An elastic drawstring keeps the bottom in place.
Styling is quintessential Rapha — you either love it or you hate it. I like the understated logos and classic lines, personally.
The two enormous pockets are great for stashing food for a long ride, or other layers to be put on later.
Have I mentioned this thing is WARM? I took it out on Wednesday just as the cold snap here in Boulder broke (temps went from 2 to 27) with only a thin base layer underneath and thin vest over top (see next page) and was perfectly comfortable. The Winter Jersey works down to about 35 on its own (with a base layer… always wear a base layer!) and well below that with another shell or vest over top.
Two under-arm mesh vents can be opened up, which, combined with the mesh-backed pockets, allow for comfy riding up to about 50-55 or so. They’re not quite pit-zips — instead, Rapha has moved them forward a bit to catch more air when in the riding position. This makes them even more effective.
2011年12月8日星期四
FDSOI less 'risk' than FinFETs, says SOI body
The SOI Industry Consortium, and industry body for proponents for silicon-on-insulator manufacturing, reckons it's got fresh evidence in favor of using the fully-depleted version of its technology FDSOI instead of the FinFET style of manufacturing favored by Intel.
The consortium said that collaborative research recently completed by STMicroelectronics, IBM, ARM, Globalfoundries and other semiconductor companies had confirmed equivalent performance to FinFETs at 28-nm and 20-nm nodes but with a simpler manufacturing process.
The joint research was performed by using an FD-SOI process to fabricate 28nm chips. Test results on these chips were in line with predictions from computer-based models previously developed to benchmark FD-SOI device performance, confirming the models' reliability, the consortium said.
"Not only do the benchmarking results show that FD-SOI can deliver the power and performance of FinFET as early as the 28-nm and 20-nm technology nodes, but FD-SOI's ability to accommodate planar architectures presents much lower manufacturing risk than FinFET," said Horacio Mendez, executive director of the SOI Industry Consortium.
"This makes FD-SOI an easy-to-implement solution for cost-sensitive applications that require high performance and low power consumption in standby and active modes, including mobile electronics such as smart phones and tablet computers."
The simulations, which are now believed to hold true, show the feasability of running all digital device designs, including SRAMs, at Vdd voltages down to 0.6-V, the consortium said.
The SOI Industry Consortium did not address directly the issue of its starting cost disadvantage, from the use of SOI wafer. But said that a study published in July 2011 had showed that the cost of fabricating 20-nm SOC devices on FD-SOI wafers will be comparable to using planar bulk transistors - and more economical than using FinFETs.
Nor did the SOI Industry Consortium pass any comment on the process technology being proposed by SuVolta Inc. (Los Gatos, Calif.) which is claimed to have many of the same planar benefits of FDSOI without the expense of starting with SOI wafers.
Back in May 2011 Intel released details of its 22-nm process called 1270 that uses FinFETs. The first wafers were due to come out of the D1D research fab in Oregon with volume production due to start at the F32 fab in Arizona in the second half of 2011.
The consortium said that collaborative research recently completed by STMicroelectronics, IBM, ARM, Globalfoundries and other semiconductor companies had confirmed equivalent performance to FinFETs at 28-nm and 20-nm nodes but with a simpler manufacturing process.
The joint research was performed by using an FD-SOI process to fabricate 28nm chips. Test results on these chips were in line with predictions from computer-based models previously developed to benchmark FD-SOI device performance, confirming the models' reliability, the consortium said.
"Not only do the benchmarking results show that FD-SOI can deliver the power and performance of FinFET as early as the 28-nm and 20-nm technology nodes, but FD-SOI's ability to accommodate planar architectures presents much lower manufacturing risk than FinFET," said Horacio Mendez, executive director of the SOI Industry Consortium.
"This makes FD-SOI an easy-to-implement solution for cost-sensitive applications that require high performance and low power consumption in standby and active modes, including mobile electronics such as smart phones and tablet computers."
The simulations, which are now believed to hold true, show the feasability of running all digital device designs, including SRAMs, at Vdd voltages down to 0.6-V, the consortium said.
The SOI Industry Consortium did not address directly the issue of its starting cost disadvantage, from the use of SOI wafer. But said that a study published in July 2011 had showed that the cost of fabricating 20-nm SOC devices on FD-SOI wafers will be comparable to using planar bulk transistors - and more economical than using FinFETs.
Nor did the SOI Industry Consortium pass any comment on the process technology being proposed by SuVolta Inc. (Los Gatos, Calif.) which is claimed to have many of the same planar benefits of FDSOI without the expense of starting with SOI wafers.
Back in May 2011 Intel released details of its 22-nm process called 1270 that uses FinFETs. The first wafers were due to come out of the D1D research fab in Oregon with volume production due to start at the F32 fab in Arizona in the second half of 2011.
2011年12月7日星期三
Research offers new pathway of multiple sclerosis
Working together, researchers at Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic have for the first time examined early multiple sclerosis (MS) brain lesions in the cerebral cortex. These lesions are thought to be critical to MS progression and the researchers found that the lesions are distinctly different than previously speculated, giving clues to better disease management.
The long-accepted theory has been that MS begins in the myelin on the inner layers of the brain, also known as white matter. However, the findings of this collaborative study show the opposite -- that the disease likely can move from the outer (cortical) layers of the brain toward the white matter, offering new insight into the progression of MS.
"For patients, the key idea of this research is that we have discovered an entirely new concept of how MS may start," said Richard Ransohoff, M.D., Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center of the Department of Neurosciences at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, who co-led the study. "This research shows that a non-inflammatory form of MS is much less likely, and the prevailing research path has been going in the right direction."
While the causes of MS remain undetermined, it is thought to be a disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys its own myelin, a fatty insulator of the crucial nerve fibers that are responsible for communication between different sections of the brain.
However, in autopsy tissues of MS patients, lesions in the cerebral cortex show demyelination without inflammation, raising a challenging issue: if cortical lesions form entirely without inflammation, then cortical demyelination would not be explainable by current theories of MS nor treatable by current MS therapies.
The present study, published in the December 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, was a collaborative effort by Dr. Ransohoff, also a staff neurologist at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at Cleveland Clinic's Neurological Institute, and by Claudia Lucchinetti, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic's Department of Neurology.
The study involved examination of 563 brain biopsies resulting in the diagnosis of inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, with 138 being determined to have sufficient cortex for study. Of these, 77 cases provided long-term follow-up data, with 58 cases (75 percent) going on to develop verified MS. The vast majority of biopsies were performed at community hospitals with the brain tissue being sent to the Mayo Clinic for neuropathological consultation services. Dr. Lucchinetti leads the National MS Society's MS Lesion project housed at the Mayo Clinic. This study was funded in part by that project as well as the National Institutes of Health.
MRI neuroimaging studies in early multiple sclerosis can't detect cortical lesions but have revealed cortical abnormalities, suggesting that the cortex may be damaged near the time of disease onset. The current research shows that the cortex harbors inflammatory lesions accounting for MRI indicators of damage.
"The next step in this research is to study the lesions to uncover new molecular targets for treatment. We also need to push forward to develop imaging techniques to view these cortical lesions," said Dr. Lucchinetti. "In that way, effects of treatment can more easily be measured."
The long-accepted theory has been that MS begins in the myelin on the inner layers of the brain, also known as white matter. However, the findings of this collaborative study show the opposite -- that the disease likely can move from the outer (cortical) layers of the brain toward the white matter, offering new insight into the progression of MS.
"For patients, the key idea of this research is that we have discovered an entirely new concept of how MS may start," said Richard Ransohoff, M.D., Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center of the Department of Neurosciences at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, who co-led the study. "This research shows that a non-inflammatory form of MS is much less likely, and the prevailing research path has been going in the right direction."
While the causes of MS remain undetermined, it is thought to be a disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys its own myelin, a fatty insulator of the crucial nerve fibers that are responsible for communication between different sections of the brain.
However, in autopsy tissues of MS patients, lesions in the cerebral cortex show demyelination without inflammation, raising a challenging issue: if cortical lesions form entirely without inflammation, then cortical demyelination would not be explainable by current theories of MS nor treatable by current MS therapies.
The present study, published in the December 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, was a collaborative effort by Dr. Ransohoff, also a staff neurologist at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at Cleveland Clinic's Neurological Institute, and by Claudia Lucchinetti, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic's Department of Neurology.
The study involved examination of 563 brain biopsies resulting in the diagnosis of inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, with 138 being determined to have sufficient cortex for study. Of these, 77 cases provided long-term follow-up data, with 58 cases (75 percent) going on to develop verified MS. The vast majority of biopsies were performed at community hospitals with the brain tissue being sent to the Mayo Clinic for neuropathological consultation services. Dr. Lucchinetti leads the National MS Society's MS Lesion project housed at the Mayo Clinic. This study was funded in part by that project as well as the National Institutes of Health.
MRI neuroimaging studies in early multiple sclerosis can't detect cortical lesions but have revealed cortical abnormalities, suggesting that the cortex may be damaged near the time of disease onset. The current research shows that the cortex harbors inflammatory lesions accounting for MRI indicators of damage.
"The next step in this research is to study the lesions to uncover new molecular targets for treatment. We also need to push forward to develop imaging techniques to view these cortical lesions," said Dr. Lucchinetti. "In that way, effects of treatment can more easily be measured."
2011年12月6日星期二
Homeless in San Diego Hit Hard by Cold Weather
With nighttime temperatures dipping into the 40s, the city of San Diego's winter shelter for homeless adults is in need of blankets, the head of the organization that runs the facility said Monday.
The chilly weather is expected to continue through the week, according to the National Weather Service.
The shelter, in a large tent at 16th and Newton avenues in Barrio Logan, accommodates 220 people and staff, and has to turn away 50 to 60 others nightly, said Bob McElroy, CEO of the Alpha Project.
Those who don't make it into the shelter are given blankets or plastic sheeting, which works as an insulator, McElroy said. He also said staff exchanges dry blankets for wet ones.
"We're really lacking in blankets," McElroy said.
The blankets and plastic are also given out at the Neil Good Day Center on 17th Street, and volunteers roam the streets looking for people in need of warmth.
"We're just trying to keep people alive," McElroy said.
He said women are not turned away from the shelter. Because of the recent cold snap, the female population there has climbed from an average of about 50 per night to 65, he said.
The tent is usually much warmer than the outside air, he said.
The NWS forecast calls for low temperatures in the low 40s through Saturday morning in downtown San Diego, where nighttime conditions are usually warmer than the rest of the county. Lows through the week will be in the 30s in the inland valleys the rest of the week, according to the NWS.
The chilly weather is expected to continue through the week, according to the National Weather Service.
The shelter, in a large tent at 16th and Newton avenues in Barrio Logan, accommodates 220 people and staff, and has to turn away 50 to 60 others nightly, said Bob McElroy, CEO of the Alpha Project.
Those who don't make it into the shelter are given blankets or plastic sheeting, which works as an insulator, McElroy said. He also said staff exchanges dry blankets for wet ones.
"We're really lacking in blankets," McElroy said.
The blankets and plastic are also given out at the Neil Good Day Center on 17th Street, and volunteers roam the streets looking for people in need of warmth.
"We're just trying to keep people alive," McElroy said.
He said women are not turned away from the shelter. Because of the recent cold snap, the female population there has climbed from an average of about 50 per night to 65, he said.
The tent is usually much warmer than the outside air, he said.
The NWS forecast calls for low temperatures in the low 40s through Saturday morning in downtown San Diego, where nighttime conditions are usually warmer than the rest of the county. Lows through the week will be in the 30s in the inland valleys the rest of the week, according to the NWS.
2011年12月5日星期一
Superconducting Qubits Are Getting Serious
Bigger is better. Rather interestingly, this mantra appears true for superconducting quantum bits (qubits), which are considered one of the most attractive physical realizations of quantum logic elements for quantum information processing. Reporting in Physical Review Letters, Hanhee Paik, at Yale University, and colleagues demonstrate a novel implementation of a superconducting qubit with dimensions of up to almost 1 millimeter (about a factor of 10–100 larger than typically used), exhibiting some of the longest coherence times measured to date . The results carry with them several important messages. First, the results do not just shed light on which decoherence mechanisms play a limiting role for superconducting qubits, but they also show one that does not: Small Josephson junctions apparently do not pose any limit at this stage in the game—contrary to many expectations. Second, superconducting qubits can now be made with coherence times that approach what is necessary for fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Superconducting qubits are made of inductors, capacitors, and Josephson junctions (JJ) , where a JJ consists of a thin layer of insulator between superconducting electrodes. A quantum circuit consisting only of inductors and capacitors gives rise to parabolic energy potentials exhibiting equally spaced energy levels, which are not practical for qubits. The JJ provides the necessary nonlinearity to the system, leading to nonparabolic energy potentials with unequally spaced energy levels such that two out of several energy levels, serving as the qubit states |0 and |1, can be isolated. The first demonstration of such a qubit in 1999 showed coherent oscillations with coherence times on the order of about 1 nanosecond (ns) , more than skeptics had anticipated but far too short for fault tolerant quantum computing, which would require coherence times of at least several tens of microseconds, as discussed a bit later. In the years since, various research groups discovered and reduced the impact of numerous decoherence mechanisms, all of which helped increase coherence times to be reliably near 1–5 microseconds (s) (see, for example, Refs. and references therein). This represents a factor of over 1000 improvement in just 10 years! This progress is also illustrated in Fig.
One of the significant contributors to decoherence is dielectric loss [7]. It has been suspected that dielectric loss at device interfaces (metal/air, metal/substrate) plays a limiting role. Because the interface thickness stays constant even as the overall device is physically made larger the impact of the surface loss can be reduced. The recent work at Yale University [1] takes this to the extreme, where the team fabricated a shunting capacitor 10–100 times physically larger than conventionally used. In order to prevent such a large qubit from radiating energy away like an antenna, which would lead to decoherence, it is placed inside a three-dimensional waveguide cavity. Typically, the qubit interacts with the lowest frequency mode of the cavity, which is necessary to manipulate and read out the qubit. A three-dimensional waveguide cavity also has a well-defined, reduced electromagnetic mode density in frequency compared with two-dimensional resonators on a chip, which have generally been used thus far for superconducting qubits. This helps reduce unwanted coupling to higher modes, which could reduce decoherence times. The resulting device now exhibits energy relaxation times of up to T1=60s and dephasing times T2=20s, which is yet another factor of 20–60 improvement in coherence times over state-of-the-art.
To what extent any particular loss mechanism has been reduced the most is not clear. The fact is that this implementation of superconducting qubits gives reliable long-lived qubits. The implications that arise from this work are deep and profound. The results show that coherence times of superconducting qubits are not limited by losses in the ultrasmall JJ, at least up to about 60s. It is speculated that even the current limit is not due to the JJ but likely other sources of decoherence that will need to be understood. Finally, measured coherence times are now getting close to reaching what is necessary for fault tolerant quantum computing using recently developed quantum error correction schemes [8], assuming realistic two-qubit interaction times near 30–100ns. Of course, the goal is to exceed the threshold to reduce the overhead associated with error correction. By how much is still a question that needs more concrete answers. But even if the field must exceed this number by a factor of 10 or even 100, this does not appear so scary. Recall that the latest result is an improvement over the first results from 1999 by a factor of about 60,000!
Superconducting qubits are made of inductors, capacitors, and Josephson junctions (JJ) , where a JJ consists of a thin layer of insulator between superconducting electrodes. A quantum circuit consisting only of inductors and capacitors gives rise to parabolic energy potentials exhibiting equally spaced energy levels, which are not practical for qubits. The JJ provides the necessary nonlinearity to the system, leading to nonparabolic energy potentials with unequally spaced energy levels such that two out of several energy levels, serving as the qubit states |0 and |1, can be isolated. The first demonstration of such a qubit in 1999 showed coherent oscillations with coherence times on the order of about 1 nanosecond (ns) , more than skeptics had anticipated but far too short for fault tolerant quantum computing, which would require coherence times of at least several tens of microseconds, as discussed a bit later. In the years since, various research groups discovered and reduced the impact of numerous decoherence mechanisms, all of which helped increase coherence times to be reliably near 1–5 microseconds (s) (see, for example, Refs. and references therein). This represents a factor of over 1000 improvement in just 10 years! This progress is also illustrated in Fig.
One of the significant contributors to decoherence is dielectric loss [7]. It has been suspected that dielectric loss at device interfaces (metal/air, metal/substrate) plays a limiting role. Because the interface thickness stays constant even as the overall device is physically made larger the impact of the surface loss can be reduced. The recent work at Yale University [1] takes this to the extreme, where the team fabricated a shunting capacitor 10–100 times physically larger than conventionally used. In order to prevent such a large qubit from radiating energy away like an antenna, which would lead to decoherence, it is placed inside a three-dimensional waveguide cavity. Typically, the qubit interacts with the lowest frequency mode of the cavity, which is necessary to manipulate and read out the qubit. A three-dimensional waveguide cavity also has a well-defined, reduced electromagnetic mode density in frequency compared with two-dimensional resonators on a chip, which have generally been used thus far for superconducting qubits. This helps reduce unwanted coupling to higher modes, which could reduce decoherence times. The resulting device now exhibits energy relaxation times of up to T1=60s and dephasing times T2=20s, which is yet another factor of 20–60 improvement in coherence times over state-of-the-art.
To what extent any particular loss mechanism has been reduced the most is not clear. The fact is that this implementation of superconducting qubits gives reliable long-lived qubits. The implications that arise from this work are deep and profound. The results show that coherence times of superconducting qubits are not limited by losses in the ultrasmall JJ, at least up to about 60s. It is speculated that even the current limit is not due to the JJ but likely other sources of decoherence that will need to be understood. Finally, measured coherence times are now getting close to reaching what is necessary for fault tolerant quantum computing using recently developed quantum error correction schemes [8], assuming realistic two-qubit interaction times near 30–100ns. Of course, the goal is to exceed the threshold to reduce the overhead associated with error correction. By how much is still a question that needs more concrete answers. But even if the field must exceed this number by a factor of 10 or even 100, this does not appear so scary. Recall that the latest result is an improvement over the first results from 1999 by a factor of about 60,000!
2011年12月4日星期日
Winter’s Intellectual Blizzard
Today the snow came to Minnesota. The neighborhood is full of people with shovels, snow blowers, and other winter apparatus who must clear the snow from roads, driveways, and sidewalks. The first snow is usually welcomed; it virtually guarantees a “White Christmas” and serves as a beautiful sound insulator. A meteorological calmness settles in. Outside activities, while enjoyed by many people, keep most of us inside for most of the time. With the change in daylight savings time, it gets dark very early and the days grow shorter and colder. We northerners are “cooped up” inside for several months.
We can watch television for five months, hang out in bars, or we can turn to intellectual pursuits such as reading, writing, and (yes) thinking. In places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and Michigan, for those of us who don’t spend a lot of time before the television, winter is the season for intellectual activity. Hence, I’ve coined the term “Intellectual Blizzard” for the increased intellectual activity that occurs from December through March.
I don’t have any proof that intellectual activity is positively correlated to the weather cycle, but I’ve got some anecdotal evidence that I’ve noticed as a college professor.
1. A lot less partying goes on in college towns when cold weather comes early in the fall.
2. A lot more partying goes on in college towns when spring comes unusually early.
3. Students are much more distracted prior to major exams when the weather is warm.
4. During the dead of winter students appear more lethargic, but are less distracted from studies.
When winter comes to Winona I try to find activities that keep me outside, but it isn’t long before I’m in the chair reading academic material or even a good novel. There must be thousands like me in this state. Hopefully some great wisdom will come as a result of our brain-busting efforts!
We can watch television for five months, hang out in bars, or we can turn to intellectual pursuits such as reading, writing, and (yes) thinking. In places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and Michigan, for those of us who don’t spend a lot of time before the television, winter is the season for intellectual activity. Hence, I’ve coined the term “Intellectual Blizzard” for the increased intellectual activity that occurs from December through March.
I don’t have any proof that intellectual activity is positively correlated to the weather cycle, but I’ve got some anecdotal evidence that I’ve noticed as a college professor.
1. A lot less partying goes on in college towns when cold weather comes early in the fall.
2. A lot more partying goes on in college towns when spring comes unusually early.
3. Students are much more distracted prior to major exams when the weather is warm.
4. During the dead of winter students appear more lethargic, but are less distracted from studies.
When winter comes to Winona I try to find activities that keep me outside, but it isn’t long before I’m in the chair reading academic material or even a good novel. There must be thousands like me in this state. Hopefully some great wisdom will come as a result of our brain-busting efforts!
2011年12月1日星期四
Building a better world
A growing number of environmentally conscientious homeowners are renovating their houses to save energy and cash. Cheng Anqi reports.
While Jack Frost has been knocking at Beijingers' doors for weeks, Du Xiangsi sends him packing. This has been made possible by the aluminum corridor Du has constructed in front of his house's main entrance. "It protects my family from cold in winter and heat in summer," he says. "It works better than an air conditioner." He can even turn off his storage heater on sunny days. Du is among the growing ranks of "green builders", who believe the value of apartments should be judged less by size and interior design than by energy efficiency. The 60-year-old lives in an old dazayuan, or tenement courtyard, in Xicheng district. His neighborhood comprises a dozen ramshackle homes with poor heating and insulation.
"Even the heater offers little protection from cold in winter," Du says. "It's a waste of energy."
He explains he used to dread receiving his heating bill until the NGO Friends of Nature included his among the 21 homes that underwent energy-saving renovations though the organization's Good Houses Save Energy project.
Du's corridor acts as an "insulator", Tsinghua University's professor of energy saving technology and project consultant Qiu Jizhe says.
The house's south-facing windows can warm it until sundown.
"So the house's interior heat is retained in winter while the summer's heat moves around the corridor to flow out the open windows and keep the inner rooms cool," Qiu says.
Weatherizing makes the house comfier. It blocks drafts and creates a more uniform temperature inside, Qiu says.
Friends of Nature assistant director Zhang Hehe adds, "We want our trial households to have diverse income levels and situations."
There are incentives to using less electricity, other than protecting Mother Earth, Qiu explains.
"Saving energy directly translates into saving money," he says.
Buildings consume up to 30 percent of the country's energy supply, Ministry of Construction figures show. Most of that goes to heating and cooling.
"Most people want energy-efficient homes but don't know where to start," Qiu says.
Energy efficient lighting is a bright start, he explains. Customers should start by thinking about brightness and color, and then decide between compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs), Qiu explains.
LED bulbs cost from 50 yuan to 300 yuan but last up to 30 years, Qiu says.
Wang Yuan recently replaced five traditional incandescent bulbs with LEDs. The 29-year-old had paid about 15 yuan ($2.3) a month for 200-watt bulbs. But the 60-watt LEDs enabled her to reduce her electricity bill to 5.4 yuan a month.
"LEDs are expensive," Wang says. "I hope prices will drop as more products enter the market."
Other items that are helping homeowners like Kong Qingling save money and energy include "green switches". These are power strips that operate on a timer that shuts off power to appliances - especially "energy vampires", which are items like water heaters that suck power even when turned off.
"The energy a TV uses when it's on standby is simply wasted," Kong says. "A green switch allows you to save a lot of energy without unplugging anything."
Kong filters bursts of dirty air shot into her apartment by the trains that traverse Haidian district's Sidaokou stop across from her apartment with 30 potted plants.
She has considered buying an air purifier.
"But if nature can help freshen air, why not use it?" she says.
"Gardenia can contribute visual appeal to a room, and its fragrance can bring clarity of mind."
Magazine editor Luo Huixin finds joy in tending the vegetable garden she cultivates on her balcony.
The hydroponic setup has produced its third batch of green beans. A timer-operated system drips a nutrient solution through tubes to each plant. Excess is collected in a reservoir for reuse.
Buying goods certified as produced in an ecologically friendly way plays a vital role, Beijing Biechu Space Design Studio engineer Guan Huilong says.
"People like internationally certified furniture but don't realize it creates vast amounts of carbon dioxide as it's transported by air and train," Guan says.
"Buying products made with local materials and labor reduces pollution and prices."
This is advice Li Xiaolin took to heart when redecorating her home according to a low-carbon plan.
She had her old traditional Chinese cabinet polished and repaired rather than buy a new one, she says.
"It has become the living room's centerpiece," she says.
"All of our guests praise it and ask where we bought it."
While Jack Frost has been knocking at Beijingers' doors for weeks, Du Xiangsi sends him packing. This has been made possible by the aluminum corridor Du has constructed in front of his house's main entrance. "It protects my family from cold in winter and heat in summer," he says. "It works better than an air conditioner." He can even turn off his storage heater on sunny days. Du is among the growing ranks of "green builders", who believe the value of apartments should be judged less by size and interior design than by energy efficiency. The 60-year-old lives in an old dazayuan, or tenement courtyard, in Xicheng district. His neighborhood comprises a dozen ramshackle homes with poor heating and insulation.
"Even the heater offers little protection from cold in winter," Du says. "It's a waste of energy."
He explains he used to dread receiving his heating bill until the NGO Friends of Nature included his among the 21 homes that underwent energy-saving renovations though the organization's Good Houses Save Energy project.
Du's corridor acts as an "insulator", Tsinghua University's professor of energy saving technology and project consultant Qiu Jizhe says.
The house's south-facing windows can warm it until sundown.
"So the house's interior heat is retained in winter while the summer's heat moves around the corridor to flow out the open windows and keep the inner rooms cool," Qiu says.
Weatherizing makes the house comfier. It blocks drafts and creates a more uniform temperature inside, Qiu says.
Friends of Nature assistant director Zhang Hehe adds, "We want our trial households to have diverse income levels and situations."
There are incentives to using less electricity, other than protecting Mother Earth, Qiu explains.
"Saving energy directly translates into saving money," he says.
Buildings consume up to 30 percent of the country's energy supply, Ministry of Construction figures show. Most of that goes to heating and cooling.
"Most people want energy-efficient homes but don't know where to start," Qiu says.
Energy efficient lighting is a bright start, he explains. Customers should start by thinking about brightness and color, and then decide between compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs), Qiu explains.
LED bulbs cost from 50 yuan to 300 yuan but last up to 30 years, Qiu says.
Wang Yuan recently replaced five traditional incandescent bulbs with LEDs. The 29-year-old had paid about 15 yuan ($2.3) a month for 200-watt bulbs. But the 60-watt LEDs enabled her to reduce her electricity bill to 5.4 yuan a month.
"LEDs are expensive," Wang says. "I hope prices will drop as more products enter the market."
Other items that are helping homeowners like Kong Qingling save money and energy include "green switches". These are power strips that operate on a timer that shuts off power to appliances - especially "energy vampires", which are items like water heaters that suck power even when turned off.
"The energy a TV uses when it's on standby is simply wasted," Kong says. "A green switch allows you to save a lot of energy without unplugging anything."
Kong filters bursts of dirty air shot into her apartment by the trains that traverse Haidian district's Sidaokou stop across from her apartment with 30 potted plants.
She has considered buying an air purifier.
"But if nature can help freshen air, why not use it?" she says.
"Gardenia can contribute visual appeal to a room, and its fragrance can bring clarity of mind."
Magazine editor Luo Huixin finds joy in tending the vegetable garden she cultivates on her balcony.
The hydroponic setup has produced its third batch of green beans. A timer-operated system drips a nutrient solution through tubes to each plant. Excess is collected in a reservoir for reuse.
Buying goods certified as produced in an ecologically friendly way plays a vital role, Beijing Biechu Space Design Studio engineer Guan Huilong says.
"People like internationally certified furniture but don't realize it creates vast amounts of carbon dioxide as it's transported by air and train," Guan says.
"Buying products made with local materials and labor reduces pollution and prices."
This is advice Li Xiaolin took to heart when redecorating her home according to a low-carbon plan.
She had her old traditional Chinese cabinet polished and repaired rather than buy a new one, she says.
"It has become the living room's centerpiece," she says.
"All of our guests praise it and ask where we bought it."
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