A Gardner's Discovery Solves The Stonehenge mystery

The Stonehenge mystery solved by a gardener is making news headlines this week, and it makes many people wonder why a gardener is solving a Stonehenge mystery that eluded archaeologists and historians. There are many mysteries surrounding the Stonehenge. This week’s so-called amazing discovery is discussing the question as to whether Stonehenge was once a complete circle or not. According to a Slate report on Sept. 4, “dry weather and a short hose may have revealed one of the prehistoric monument’s secrets.”

While many people have always believed that Stonehenge used to be a complete circle (before someone needed a few of the stones for something more useful), historians were not quite as convinced.

“Historians have long debated whether Stonehenge was a full or incomplete circle, with some arguing a lack of stones in the south-west quadrant is proof it was never complete,” reports the BBC. “Previous scientific techniques such as geophysics failed to find any evidence.”

But who needs archeologists or historians to solve one of the mysteries of Stonehenge if you have a gardener? According to a scientific paper published in the latest issue of the journal Antiquity, “a chance appearance of parchmarks” discovered by a gardener provides evidence that Stonehenge was once a complete circle.

The “parchmarks” were discovered by gardener Tim Daw whose job was to water the grass around the stones during the driest weeks of the summer. In July of last year, gardener Daw had to use a water hose that did not reach the south-west quadrant of Stonehenge.

Coincidentally (or was it?) this was also the part where there was a gap in the otherwise Stonehenge circle. Daw recalls the moment when he noticed something that apparently had eluded historians so far:

“I was standing on the public path looking at the grass near the stones and thinking that we needed to find a longer hosepipe to get the parched patches to green up. A sudden light-bulb moment in my head, and I remembered that the marks were where archaeologists had looked without success for signs that there had been stone holes, and that parch marks can signify them. I called my colleague over and he saw them and realised their possible significance as well. Not being archaeologists we called in the professionals to evaluate them. I am still amazed and very pleased that simply really looking at something, that tens of thousands of people had unwittingly seen, can reveal secrets that sophisticated machinery can't.”

The Stonehenge mystery solved, or at least one of the mysteries, by a gardener instead of archaeologists is somewhat hard to believe. Wouldn’t historians have taken a closer look at those missing spots during the past decades and maybe even dug up some of the grass which might explain the signs of dry patches? However, archaeologists are apparently stunned by the gardener’s keen observation and admit that they were unable to discover what Tim Daw did by merely looking at the site. In September's issue of the journal Antiquity, British archaeologist Mike Pitts explained the impact that the gardener's discovery has on the scientific community and Stonehenge:

"This is a wonderful piece of serendipitous research, highly productive and promptly published. If anyone remained unconvinced that new, targeted excavation at Stonehenge is needed, surely any doubts must now be dispelled?"

Video. Stonehenge mystery solved

Arriving Somewhere But not Here by Porcupine Tree

Another masterpiece by Porcupine Tree - Arriving Somewhere but not Here. It is part of Album Deadwing which is part of a wide project that in the intention has been lead to a film on the subject treated.

King Crimson's Adrian Belew plays the second guitar solo on Arriving Somewhere But Not Here.

The complete concept and story of Deadwing of which Arriving Somewhere But not Here is part has never been entirely announced by Porcupine Tree, and this is likely due to Steven Wilson's intentions of attempting to turn this into a movie, and not wanting to spoil any portions of the story.

Wilson said it is a surreal "ghost story," and "the idea's ultimately that this album will form a kind of companion with the feature film."[10]He stated that David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick were major influences for the filmscript.

Video. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here Live

 

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here Lyrics

Never stop the car on a drive in the dark
Never look for the truth in your mother's eyes
Never trust the sound of rain upon a river
Rushing through your ears

Arriving somewhere but not here

Did you imagine the final sound as a gun?
Or the smashing windscreen of a car?
Did you ever imagine the last thing you'd hear as you're fading out was a song?

All my designs, simplified
And all of my plans, compromised
All of my dreams, sacrificed

Ever had the feeling you've been here before?
Drinking down the poison the way you were taught
Every thought from here on in your life begins
And all you knew was wrong?

Arriving somewhere but not here

All my designs, simplified
And all of my plans, compromised
All of my dreams, sacrificed

Did you see the red mist block your path?
Did the scissors cut a way to your heart?
Did you feel the envy for the sons of mothers tearing you apart?

Biodiesel is now Sustainable thanks to new Fuel Cells

A new fuel-cell concept, developed by an Michigan State University researcher, will allow biodiesel plants to eliminate the creation of hazardous wastes while removing their dependence on fossil fuel from their production process.

The platform, which uses microbes to glean ethanol from glycerol and has the added benefit of cleaning up the wastewater, will allow producers to reincorporate the ethanol and the water into the fuel-making process, said Gemma Reguera, MSU microbiologist and one of the co-authors.

“With a saturated glycerol market, traditional approaches see producers pay hefty fees to have toxic wastewater hauled off to treatment plants,” she said. “By cleaning the water with microbes on-site, we’ve come up with a way to allow producers to generate bioethanol, which replaces petrochemical methanol. At the same time, they are taking care of their hazardous waste problem.”

The results, which appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, show that the key to Reguera’s platform is her patented adaptive-engineered bacteria – Geobacter sulfurreducens.

Geobacter are naturally occurring microbes that have proved promising in cleaning up nuclear waste as well in improving other biofuel processes. Much of Reguera’s research with these bacteria focuses on engineering their conductive pili or nanowires. These hair-like appendages are the managers of electrical activity during a cleanup and biofuel production.

First, Reguera, along with lead authors and MSU graduate students Allison Speers and Jenna Young, evolved Geobacter to withstand increasing amounts of toxic glycerol. The next step, the team searched for partner bacteria that could ferment it into ethanol while generating byproducts that ‘fed’ the Geobacter.

“It took some tweaking, but we eventually developed a robust bacterium to pair with Geobacter,” Reguera said. “We matched them up like dance partners, modifying each of them to work seamlessly together and eliminate all of the waste.”

Together, the bacteria’s appetite for the toxic byproducts is inexhaustible.

“They feast like they’re at a Las Vegas buffet,” she added. “One bacterium ferments the glycerol waste to produce bioethanol, which can be reused to make biodiesel from oil feedstocks. Geobacter removes any waste produced during glycerol fermentation to generate electricity. It is a win-win situation.”

The hungry microbes are the featured component of Reguera’s microbial electrolysis cells, or MECs. These fuel cells do not harvest electricity as an output. Rather, they use a small electrical input platform to generate hydrogen and increase the MEC’s efficiency even more.

The promising process already has caught the eye of economic developers, who are helping scale up the effort. Through a Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization grant, Reguera and her team are developing prototypes that can handle larger volumes of waste.

Reguera also is in talks with MBI, the bio-based technology “de-risking” enterprise operated by the MSU Foundation, to develop industrial-sized units that could handle the capacities of a full-scale biodiesel plant. The next step will be field tests with a Michigan-based biodiesel manufacturer.


Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113153782/fuel-cell-concept-makes-biodiesel-sustainable-052314/#tGpZtUysDUk4Vzo5.99

Summer the New Hit by Calvin Harris

Looking for Calvin Harris new Hit? That is Summer the new song by Calvin Harris. I'm sincere: I never heard before the Calvin Harris name (I know, I'm the only one around the whole World!). But this song has caught my imagination. Not for the beautiful girls who populate the official video, but for how Summer is constructed in melody and rhythmic. I think that is a Masterpiece of the genre.

Look at the

tutorial: How to play Summer Calvin Harris. Maybe what i'm trying to explain would be clear

The Song Summer by Calvin harris is composed of 3 parts well defined. An intro, a more Melodic part and the Rhythmic. Perfect the Masterpiece is here! Summer by Calvin Harris.

Everything is seasoned with the voice sober and essential by Calvin Harris!

Gallery. Beautiful Girl taking part to the Video Summer by Calvin Harris

...

Video. Official Video Summer By Calvin Harris

 

Lyrics. Summer By Calvin Harris

When I met you in the summer
To my heartbeat sound
We fell in love
As the leaves turned brown

We could be together baby
As long as skies are blue
You act so innocent now
But you lied so soon
When I met you in the summer

When I met you in the summer
To my heartbeat sound
We fell in love
As the leaves turned brown

We could be together baby
As long as skies are blue
You act so innocent now
But you lied so soon
When I met you in the summer

Tin-Based Solar Cell The Photovoltaics of The Future

Using readily available equipment, researchers at from Northwestern University have developed a new type of solar cell based on tin instead of lead perovskite, according to a new report in Nature Photonics.

“This is a breakthrough in taking the lead out of a very promising type of solar cell, called a perovskite,” said study author Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist at Northwestern. “Tin is a very viable material, and we have shown the material does work as an efficient solar cell.”

When made with lead, the perovskite structure has about 15-percent efficiency in converting solar energy into electricity. The Northwestern researchers said their new tin-based cell should be able to eventually equal and potentially surpass that level of efficiency. Being hailed as the new frontier of solar energy technology, perovskite cells have been increasingly researched in recent years.

“Our tin-based perovskite layer acts as an efficient sunlight absorber that is sandwiched between two electric charge transport layers for conducting electricity to the outside world,” said study author Robert P. H. Chang, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern.

The solid-state tin cell is comprised of five levels, with each level being a crucial component. The first layer of the novel cell is electrically-conductive glass, which permits sunlight to get into the cell. The next layer, Titanium dioxide, is placed onto the glass and the two first layers act as the front contact side of the solar cell.

Next, the light-absorbing tin perovskite layer is laid down. This is carried out in a protected environment called a nitrogen glove box that prevents oxidation.

The next level is the hole transport layer, which is necessary to close the circuit and achieve a functional cell. This layer demands exact chemistry to prevent destroying the tin below. This essential chemistry was determined by learning the reactivity of the perovskite structure. This level also is put down in the glove box. The nearly-completed cell is then enclosed and can now be exposed to the air.

A slim layer of gold is used to top off the solar cell and act as the back electrode. Once completed, the entire device is approximately one to two microns thick.

The scientists then analyzed the device under simulated full sunlight and documented an efficiency of 5.73 percent. They added that the tin cell can absorb the majority of the visible light spectrum and the perovskite salt can be dissolved – reforming upon solvent removal.

“Other scientists will see what we have done and improve on our methods,” Kanatzidis said. “There is no reason this new material can’t reach an efficiency better than 15 percent, which is what the lead perovskite solar cell offers. Tin and lead are in the same group in the periodic table, so we expect similar results.”

The researchers said their cell offers the possibility of both higher efficiency and lower fabrication costs while being environmentally friendly.

“Solar energy is free and is the only energy that is sustainable forever,” Kanatzidis said. “If we know how to harvest this energy in an efficient way we can raise our standard of living and help preserve the environment.”

Source redorbit.com

Green Mobility Vision at BYD Auto Co. 5-4-2 initiative.

BYD, at the Beijing Auto Show, announced its “5-4-2” initiative, which sounds to us like an announcement linked to more PHEVs and EVs in the future. 

“5-4-2” is a performance standard, in which 5 represents the maximum of 5 seconds in acceleration from 0 to 100km/h (0-62 mph). 4 is for number of wheels under power and 2 stands for number of liters of gasoline maximum that shall be consumed for 100 km traveled in a BYD car. 

The first car that meet “5-4-2” is all-new Tang, all-wheel-drive plug-in SUV.

BYD Qin is selling in high volumes in China, but for now its seems to be outside of “5-4-2”. According to BYD, sales in just two Chinese city markets (Tianjin and Shanghai) makes Qin the top selling New Energy Car in China with sales of just under 2,000 units per month now (3,000 sales achieved in the first 3 months of 2014).

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu announced that when the Tang launches in Beijing this year, there will be a race with other cars.

For 2016, scheduled for BYD is the reveal of a super-hybrid, the “Ming”, which will be powered by four in-wheel motors with torque-vectoring. BYD has some experience in this area, as all BYD electric buses have in-wheel motors.

Chariman Wang stated:

“This is not just a dream. In the electronic era, we can do things we couldn’t do in the mechanical eras.”

But first, in 2015, we will see the Han, which just like Ming will meet the “5-4-2” standard.

Interesting times these are for BYD.

The Great Beauty won the Oscar while Mullholland Drive has not

The Great Beauty, the italian film by Paolo Sorrentino has been awarded by foreign language Oscar i.e. Academy Award. Personally I did not like the movie. I found it lacking in content, poor in acting, but the film was honored with an Oscar.