June 29, 2011

Good Morning,

President Obama has set his sights on a robotic American
future. This is not joke, although the article reads like
some mock news story in a to-be 'Terminator 9'. I can just
feel all the SkyNet conspirators readying all those "I told
you so" speeches. Check out the first article for the
details on this futuristic policy shift.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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U.S. shifts focus to multipurpose robots

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has launched an new initiative that aims to shift focus on to robotic research and development to help Americans in all sectors, including defense and security, to interact with advanced technologies. The $70 million Robotics Initiative, announced by President Barack Obama this week, will concentrate military and technological minds across a sector that is deemed to be fragmented and poorly uncoordinated. The White House said the initiative would give top priority to developing robotics that could be deployed both for civilian and security uses. "You might not know this, but one of my responsibilities as commander in chief is to keep an eye on robots," Obama said Friday in a speech at the Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center. "And I'm pleased to report that the robots you manufacture here seem peaceful. At least for now." The president said the initiative would aim "to accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside, or cooperatively with, people." The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which was involved in framing the new initiative, listed several reasons to make robotics a priority. It said robotics could address a broad range of national needs such as advanced manufacturing, logistics, services, transportation, homeland security, defense, medicine, healthcare, space exploration, environmental monitoring and agriculture.


New comet could put on 2013 show

HANA, Hawaii - U.S. scientists say a newly discovered comet could provide an astronomical spectacle when it swings through the solar system in 2013. The comet was detected by the asteroid-hunting Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii, which spotted the distant cosmic snowball in the overnight hours of June 5-6, SPACE.com reported. Some astronomers have suggested it could become the celestial sight of the decade. The comet's closest approach to the sun, called its perihelion, will occur April 17, 2013, when it will be just 33.8 million miles from the sun and just 118 millions miles from Earth. Scientists say orbital data suggests the object is a "new" comet in a parabolic orbit that has possibly never passed near the sun before. However, astronomers caution that the orbital data is preliminary and cannot guarantee that comet C/2011 L4 will live up to expectations as a celestial light show.


Cellphone 'attachment' studied

MANHATTAN, Kan. - People who become attached to their cellphones find them more fun than functional, more about
entertainment than about communication, a U.S. researcher says. "The cellphone's no longer just a cellphone; it's become the way we communicate and a part of our life," said Esther Swilley, a Kansas State University researcher in technology and marketing. To gather data, Swilley observed how Kansas State students use and respond to their phones and surveyed students in her marketing course. She measured people's level of attachment to their cellphones, something she calls mobile affinity. Her survey of participants between ages 19 and 24 found that 99 percent owned a mobile phone. "Honestly I'm surprised this wasn't 100 percent," Swilley said. "People share other devices like computers, but cellphones are an interesting thing because we each have our own. That individual ownership is a really big deal for people." With the adoption of more smartphones and the introduction of apps, Swilley says for many owners their phone's entertainment factor has become a source of pride and joy -- similar to that of a lovable new pet. "It's sort of similar to when people had those Tamagotchi pets as children; cellphones are just the adult version of that," Swilley said. "People don't turn them off, are constantly playing with them, and want to show off the neat things the phone can do."


July 8 date set for final shuttle launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After a flight readiness review, NASA says it has set a launch date for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-135 mission of July 8, with blastoff at 11:26 a.m. EDT. "We had a very thorough review," said Bill Gerstenmaier, assistant administrator for space operations, of the review conducted at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "This flight is incredibly important. The cargo that is coming up on this flight is really mandatory for space station," he said in a NASA release Tuesday. "Atlantis is in great shape out at the pad," Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director said. "Team Atlantis is feeling good about the flow and the launch countdown and hope we'll be able to get her off the ground on Friday the 8th as scheduled." The STS-135 mission to the International Space Station will be the final flight of NASA's space shuttle program after almost 30 years of launches.


Inkjet printing could create solar cells

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Ink jet printers may aid future of solar energy by reducing raw material waste and lowering the cost of producing solar energy cells, U.S. researchers say. Engineers at Oregon State University say the low-cost technology that in recent decades has revolutionized home and small office printing could create high-performance, rapidly produced, low-cost, thin film solar electronics. "This is very promising and could be an important new technology to add to the solar energy field," said Chih-hung Chang, an OSU professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering. "Until now no one had been able to create working CIGS solar devices with ink jet technology." CIGS stands for copper, indium, gallium and selenium elements in a compound called chalcopyrite that shows great promise in solar cells, the researchers say. "Some of the materials we want to work with for the most advanced solar cells, such as indium, are relatively expensive," Chang said. "If that's what you're using you can't really afford to waste it, and the ink jet approach almost eliminates the waste." Researchers have been able to create an ink that could print chalcopyrite onto substrates with a power conversion efficiency of about 5 percent. With continued research they should be able to achieve an efficiency of about 12 percent, they said, which would qualify as a commercially viable solar cell.

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