July 18, 2012

Good Morning,

Malaysia builds a "high-tech" village that is aimed at modeling a society conscious of its future; a good gesture, yet the question I still have is will anyone heed the advice? Check out the details in the first article.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Malaysian 'smart village' described

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A high-tech "smart village" built in Malaysia is a potential global template for addressing rural poverty in a sustainable environment, experts say. Built northeast of Kuala Lumpur, Rimbunan Kaseh consists of 100 affordable homes with high-tech educational, training and recreational facilities, and a closed-loop agricultural
system designed to provide both food and supplementary income for villagers, attendees at a meeting in San Jose, Calif., of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council heard. The council consists of international and Malaysian experts in sustainable development. The village includes an aquaculture system to raise tilapia, a fish that provides a source of affordable protein. Fish tank wastewater is then used to irrigate trees, grain fields and crops. In addition to access to reliable food supplies, the system allows villagers to augment their monthly income by an estimated $400 to $650, experts said. The village's energy-efficient homes of about 1,000 square feet take about 10 days to construct at a cost of about $16,000 to $20,000. Malaysia is looking to repeat the smart village initiative at as many as 12 sites in the near future, a release from the Malaysian Industry-Government Group on High Technology, or MIGHT, said. "This model offers a great opportunity to create holistic change for people in the worse circumstances in Malaysia and other nations as well,"
said Ellis Rubinstein of the New York Academy of Sciences, which is affiliated with the council along with MIGHT.


Japanese smartphone aimed at elderly users

TOKYO - Japanese electronics firm Fujitsu says its new smartphone for elderly users has a unique touchscreen and a simplified Android interface. Japan's aging population is the target of the new F-12D phone from Fujitsu's RakuRaku line, from the Japanese for "easy" or "comfortable," SlashGear reported Tuesday. Fujitsu said it collaborated with Google to design a phone that would not overwhelm or confuse elderly users while using it, with a simplified user interface featuring larger text and buttons and only vertical scrolling. The touchscreen was specifically designed for first-time users who aren't yet used to the technology, Fujitsu said, as their tests found many elderly users found the typical touchscreen difficult and frustrating to use. As a result, the touchscreen on the F-12D has been designed to give a little when pressed, to give the feeling of pressing a physical button. The phone will go on sale in Japan in August from NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest carrier, and Fujitsu said it is looking at the global market as well.


Barnes & Noble puts e-books on the Web

NEW YORK - Barnes & Noble says it's giving customers a way to read e-books from its catalog in a browser rather than on a dedicated e-reader, tablet or smartphone. NOOK for Web will run in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer, with instant access to any book in a customer's NOOK library and the ability to pick up reading from where a reader leaves on a NOOK Tablet or similar device, Barnes & Noble said on its Web site. The company is offering six bestsellers free of charge for those signing up to the NOOK for Web service before July 26. Registration for the Web service is free, and will offer the same purchase option for books as a NOOK reader, the company said. Readers can adjust font and text size in the Web reader, and can share details on what they're currently reading through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.


World's lightest material is created

HAMBURG, Germany - German researchers say they've created the lightest material in the world, a network of porous carbon tubes they've dubbed "Aerographite." Scientists of Kiel University and Hamburg University of Technology said the tubes, three-dimensionally interwoven at the nano and micro level, create a material that weighs just 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter -- which means ordinary Styrofoam is almost 400 times heavier. "Our work is causing great discussions in the scientific community. Aerographite weighs [a fourth of the] world-record-holder up to now," co-author Matthias Mecklenburg of the Hamburg university said in a release Tuesday. Aerographite is jet-black, remains stable and is electrically conductive, ductile and non-transparent, the researchers said. While most super-lightweight materials can withstand compression but not tension, Aerographite features both an excellent compression and tension load, they said. Possible uses of the material could be to create very lightweight batteries, to give electrical conductivity to synthetic materials such as plastic, or in electronics for aviation and satellites because they have to endure high amounts of vibration, researchers said.

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