‘Battery technology may not make you swoon, but it is the missing link in getting the planet off carbon-based energy’.
‘John Goodenough is 94, and his current work could be the key to Tesla’s future—much as, decades ago, his efforts were an important part of Sony’s era of dominance in portable gadgets’.
‘Goodenough announced in early March that he and his team at the University of Texas at Austin had invented a glass-based battery that blows away the performance of every previous kind of battery’,
‘including lithium-ion batteries—which were invented in the 1980s by’…
‘him’.
‘So right now, Goodenough’s technology is powering your smartphone, laptop, electric toothbrush, Tesla and any other rechargeable electronic thing you own’.
‘Lots of inventors claim they’re working on breakthrough types of batteries. Goodenough is the only one who can also say he’s done it before’.
‘Goodenough’s new battery can store three times more energy than a comparable lithium-ion battery, according to the very serious Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)’.
‘The new battery also solves some other lithium-ion troubles. Like, it won’t catch fire, so a hoverboard won’t suddenly melt your kid’s Vans as she scoots across the playground’.
‘The IEEE also reports that Goodenough’s batteries seem to be able to soak up in minutes as much charge as a lithium-ion battery gets in hours’.
From : http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/how-a-94-year-old-genius-may-save-the-planet/
‘Note first that emissions are greater in the industrialized northern hemisphere, which probably explains why the Arctic is melting first’.
‘Then note the difference between winter emissions in the north, which remain airborne, and summer emissions, which are partially withdrawn by growing vegetation’.
‘The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports that 2015 will set (or already has set) a variety of worrisome climate records due to manmade carbon pollution’:
“This is all bad news for the planet,” noted WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. In particular, crossing the 1°C (1.8°F) means we are halfway to the 2°C (3.6°F) threshold that world’s top scientists and governments have identified as the defense line past which climate impacts become very dangerous and then catastrophic’.
‘Last week, NASA data made clear that 2015 was going to crush the record for hottest year. On top of the underlying human-caused warming trend is the short-term warming caused by a very strong El Niño’.
‘As the top chart shows, global temperature records tend to be set in El Niño years, and those records just get higher and higher over time because of carbon pollution’.
‘Indeed, last month was not merely the hottest October — by far — in the 135-year temperature record of NASA’.
‘It was the highest divergence from the mean temperature ever recorded in the 1,600-month temperature record of NASA. NOAA reported that October 2015 bear the previous record set in October 2011 by a whopping 0.31°F (0.17°C)’.
‘As this NOAA chart shows, the warming since January is so high that it is now a certainty 2015 will smash the record for hottest year set just last year’.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/25/3725792/hottest-5-years-record/
‘We can expect a totally different kind of trick-or-treater this coming Halloween. A rather large asteroid—discovered less than three weeks ago—is set to to fly past the Earth at a distance not seen in nearly a decade’.
‘The asteroid, dubbed 2015 TB145, was discovered on October 10 by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS telescope’.
‘When 2015 TB145 makes its closest approach on October 31, it will zoom past the Earth at a scant 0.0032 AU, or 1.3 lunar distances’.
Note* – The actual distance of the Moon varies over the course of the orbit of the moon, from 225,622 mi at the perigee and 252,088 mi at apogee.
‘This will be the closest object to flyby Earth since 2006 when NEO 2004 XP14 flew past at 1.1 lunar distances’.
‘After the Halloween flyby, no object will come as close again until August 2027 when NEO 1999 AN10 will approach within 1.0 lunar distance’.
‘NASA says that 2015 TB145 will safely pass by the Earth and continue to following along its exceptionally eccentric and high-inclination orbit—which may explain why it wasn’t discovered until only a few weeks ago’.
From : http://gizmodo.com/unexpected-asteroid-to-zip-past-earth-on-halloween-1737383028
‘Every photo ever taken by Apollo astronauts on moon missions is now available online, on the Project Apollo Archive’s Flickr account’.
‘That’s about 8,400 images, grouped by the roll of film they were shot on’.
‘You can finally see all the blurry images, mistakes, and unrecognized gems for yourself’.
‘The unprocessed Hasseblad photos (basically raw scans of the negatives) uploaded by the Project Apollo Archive offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at the various moon missions…as well as lots and lots (and lots) of photos detailing the surface of the moon’.
‘Because a lot of light scatters off the Earth’s atmosphere, the moon will not look completely dark but have a coppery red color — hence the blood moon moniker’.
‘What’s actually happening is a confluence of three things. The moon will be full and in its closest point in its orbit around the Earth, making it a so-called supermoon’.
‘Supermoons appear 14% larger and 33% brighter than other full moons’.
‘In addition to this, a lunar eclipse will occur. In other words, the Earth will line up directly with the sun and moon, directly between the two, so the “moon will completely fall in the shadow of the Earth.”
From : http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/25/blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-super-moon-need-to-know/72790162/
JEB! (Don’t Call Him Bush) :
““The way you create a focus on protecting the natural environment and the creatures that are divinely inspired – which is the pope’s view, he’s not a scientist, he’s a religious leader – is to create economic growth to generate revenues to be able to help people.”
The Pope :
“Any harm done to the environment … is harm to humanity,” Francis said after noting that the environment holds intrinsic rights of its own.
“We human beings are part of the environment. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect.”
“The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species.”(2)
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(2) : http://www.people.com/article/pope-francis-un-address-climate-change-social-justice