January 18, 2012

Good Morning,

If anyone is wondering why Wikipedia's U.S. web service is down today, the first article will bring you up to speed. I strongly suggest visiting the website today and following the call to action that has replaced the normal website. This is a monumental day in the revolution of web-based information.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Web opposition to SOPA growing

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of Web sites say they'll go dark late Tuesday to protest anti-piracy bills currently making their way through Congress. Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing and even IcanHazCheezburger are among the sites shutting down in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S. House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, the Los Angeles Times reported. "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a statement Monday. "While we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world." Internet search giant Google said it would join the protest by linking to anti-SOPA information on the firm's United States home page, Ars Technica reported. Other sites announcing plans to join the protest include Wordpress, TwitPic, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The White House weighed in on the issue last weekend, calling for Congress to go back to the drawing board and saying any new legislation must target specific lawbreakers rather than broadly punishing Internet intermediaries. Asked about the administration's position, White House press secretary Jay Carney said: "It's a serious problem that requires serious legislative responses. But we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative, global Internet."


U.S. backs plan to produce algae crude oil

WASHINGTON - Raw algae can be converted into a crude oil that can be processed at existing petroleum refineries before distribution as a substitute for gasoline and other processed fuels, new research has found. The innovative use of algae, including the common seaweed, for large-scale renewable fuel production takes the quest for economically feasible environmentally friendly fuel a few steps further, easing pressure on agricultural alternatives that are often criticized as a potential threat to global food resources. Algae comprise from one cell to many cells, as in giant kelp, and are seen as a potential solution to global energy needs. The U.S. Department of Energy and OriginOil Inc. of California plan to work together to develop the idea to a point where algae growers can be enabled to grow their businesses and enter the renewable crude market. Brazil has been leading research into alternative sources for renewable fuel in South America but has faced criticism that some of the renewable fuels produced from feedstock and various grains threaten to undermine agriculture for food. Algae biofuel has the potential to meet the world's growing energy demand, an OriginOil spokesman said. "Due to its high productivity, algae represents a sustainable pathway for helping to reduce capital and operating costs of algae production, due to its high productivity, sequestration of CO2, and broad co-product portfolio." OriginOil says algae has the potential to yield greater volumes of biofuel than other biofuel sources. Algal biomass has been recognized as a promising alternative source of raw material for continuous renewable biofuel. The company will launch an algae production workshop Jan. 30 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and has begun a partnership with Idaho National Laboratory to support algae growers' entry into the oil market. Both sides will work toward developing an integrated system for direct conversion of raw algae into a renewable crude oil. "We believe this is a major breakthrough for OriginOil and a major step forward for the algae industry," OriginOil Chief Executive Officer Riggs Eckelberry said. "We already lead the industry with our chemical-free, low-energy, continuous high-flow harvesting system," he added. "From there it's a natural step to helping algae growers make a direct crude oil replacement right on site, giving them direct access to the existing world market for transportation fuels, including jet fuel. That's an instant upgrade from what is now a niche market, to the immediate 86 million-barrel-per-day global crude oil market." OriginOil says its planned Biocrude System will integrate its own harvesting system with state-of-the-art biomass processing technology that is developed to convert raw algae into barrels of renewable crude oil. The company said obtaining the renewal crude oil will be a much cleaner alternative to hydrocarbons. Renewable algae crude could also be blended with other biomass sources to improve their performance, OriginOil said. "Algae is a high energy biomass and can function as a force multiplier to blend in other biomass waste such as from forestry and agriculture into a uniform renewable crude oil substitute," Deborah T. Newby, project manager at the Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory said. "This may well support the U.S. military's strategic fuels diversification program." INL has been researching sustainable energy and strategically important alternatives to conventional energy sources since 1949.


'Microtweezers' work at nanoscale level

WEST LAFAYETTE - U.S. researchers say they've have created a new type of microtweezers to manipulate objects to build up tiny nanoscale structures. Scientists at Purdue University say the new tool could be used in nanotechnology, to print microcoatings to make advanced sensors, or to grab and position live stem cells for research. Structures in micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, could be assembled like microscopic Lego pieces moved individually into place with the microtweezers, mechanical engineering professor Cagri Savran said in a Purdue release Tuesday. "We've shown how this might be accomplished easily, using new compact and user-friendly microtweezers to assemble polystyrene spheres into three-dimensional shapes," he said. The new tool has three main parts: a thimble knob from a standard micrometer, a two-pronged tweezer made from silicon, and a "graphite interface" which converts the turning motion of the thimble knob into a pulling-and-pushing action to open and close the tweezer prongs. While other types of microtweezers have been developed and are being used in research, the new design is simpler both to manufacture and operate, Savran said. "We currently are working to weigh single micro particles, individually selected among many others, which is important because precise measurements of an object's mass reveal key traits, making it possible to identify composition and other characteristics," Savran said. "This will now be as easy as selecting and weighing a single melon out of many melons in a supermarket."


'Lost' Charles Darwin fossils rediscovered

KEYWORTH, England - A collection of fossils lost for 165 years, including some collected by Charles Darwin, have been rediscovered in a British vault, scientists said. The fossils were found by chance in the vaults of the British Geological Survey headquarters near Keyworth by a paleontologist. Howard Falcon-Lang of the University of London said he spotted some drawers in a cabinet marked "unregistered fossil plants." "Inside the drawer were hundreds of beautiful glass slides made by polishing fossil plants into thin translucent sheets," Falcon-Lang told the BBC. "This process allows them to be studied under the microscope. Almost the first slide I picked up was labeled 'C. Darwin Esq.'" On the slide was a piece of fossil wood collected by Darwin during his famous voyage on HMS the Beagle in 1834, during which he first started to develop his theory of evolution. After their return to Britain the fossils became "lost" because of a failure to have them numbered in a formal specimen register, and the collection was moved several times and eventually forgotten, scientists said. "This is quite a remarkable discovery," John Ludden, executive director of the Geological Survey, said. "It really makes one wonder what else might be hiding in our collections."

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