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POPSSilver nanorod microscopy The proposed device is based on a phenomenon called plasmonic resonance, which refers to the collective excitation of free electrons that occurs when light falls on a metallic surface. As well as amplifying the light waves in the near field, these resonances can be propagated through the metal. However, in the materials developed to date, the energy transmitted decays rapidly as it moves away from the surface.
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POPSFree-piston engine could be twice as fuel efficient as combustion engines In conventional internal combustion engines, multiple pistons are connected via rods to a crankshaft that, via the transmission, drives the wheels. Free-piston engines do away with the crankshaft: the pistons aren't connected to anything. Instead, two opposing pistons just shuttle back and forth inside a chamber. To generate electricity, the pistons could be equipped with rows of magnets that shuttle past metal coils to create an electrical current.
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POPSMaking meals in a rice cooker We have a Zojirushi fuzzy-logic rice cooker that we love. It was pricy when we bought it -- $140 or so -- but we use it all the time. If we calculated it as a per-use cost, it'd be down to pennies per meal. The cheapo $20 or $30 rice cookers we'd had before we never used. This was $140 well spent.
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POPSShipping Containers Converted into Homes for Urban Poor "Finally, a home of our own" - the foundation of PFNC, whose goal is to provide housing to those who most desperately need it around the globe. PFNC utilizes surplus shipping containers resulting from the United States' consistent trade deficit. The containers serve as the building block of PFNC housing, after an extensive conversion process to make them a home. They designed a galley-style kitchen with a stove, sink, refrigerator and dinette, and a 48 sq. ft. bathroom with a pedestal sink, shower and commode, a bunk area for children; separate sleeping quarters for the owners. A half million people could benefit from such homes in Juarez, Mexico alone. Affordable for the average worker at manufacturing plants in Mexico along the U.S. border...instead of a cardboard shack, a real home, offered as a employee benefit in "a work to own" housing program. PFNC doesn't intend just to build shelter: it wants to build communities.
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POPSAlaska Chooses Largest Gold Mine Over Clean Water Suggest you read it all--Sarah Palin supported this minin project--ooops, there go the Salmon in that area...some more info on the "Independent" Alaskan voters: But on Aug. 26, Alaskans voted down a ballot measure that proponents had cast as crucial to the future survival of Bristol Bay salmon. Ballot measure 4, which survived a challenge that went all the way to the state Supreme Court to remain on the state's primary ballot, would have prohibited large metal mines from contaminating salmon streams and drinking water sources. Though by law the ballot measure couldn't name a specific project, everyone knew it was aimed at the proposed Pebble Mine, which if developed as planned would be North America's largest open pit gold mine, also mining copper and molybdenum (a crucial element in steel).
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POPSFarewell to Coney Island's Astroland Coney Island's Astroland, one of the city's historic (and affordable) attractions, was shut down yesterday. It meant different things to different people and this story brings that out well.
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