21Nov

World Bank Group Co-Finances Morocco’s Ouarzazate 500 MW Solar Thermal Power Project

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World Bank Co-Finances Morocco's Ouarzazate 500 MW Concentrated Solar Thermal Power

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The World Bank approved $297 million in loans to Morocco to support construction and operation of Morocco’s 500-megawatt (MW) Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, one of several large scale solar power projects in various stages of planning or development across the solar energy rich Middle East-North Africa region.

Upon completion, the Ouarzazate parabolic trough CSP plant would be one of the largest CSP plants in the world. A group of seven international lenders has committed $1.435 billion dollars to build and develop the project. Ouarzazate is seen as a key milestone for Morocco’s national Solar Power Plan, which was launched in 2009 with the goal of deploying 2000 MW of solar power generation capacity by 2020.

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19Nov

Secret to Facebook’s green data center? Water misters

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Secret to Facebook's green data center Water misters

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by Martin LaMonica

Facebook’s state-of-the-art data center houses awesome amounts of computing power, but the biggest technical challenge has been the air handlers.

The company said today that its Prineville, Ore., data center received LEED gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating varies between 1.06 and 1.1, making it a data center that consumes about half what a building simply built to code would use.

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17Nov

Video: 35-Foot Robot Snake Weighs a Ton, Causes Nightmares

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35-Foot Robot Snake Weighs a Ton, Causes Nightmares

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This is Titanoboa, a 50-foot long robotic snake weighing over 2,000-pounds that was modeled after the actual prehistoric snake of the same name and size. I say we kill it and turn it into cowboy boots. Or lady’s handbags — I don’t f***ing care, the important thing is that it’s killed.

The final product will have a more polished-looking skin and, if all goes well, be able to move underwater. Eventually, Titanoboa will support a rider, just like its relative, the Mondo Spider, which was built by the same group.

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16Nov

Robothespian humanoid robot delivers human-like stage performances

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Engineered Arts Ltd.’s Robothespian is probably one of the first professional robotic actors who made it into the real world (sorry, T-1000). Its elegant movements, extraordinary body language and emotion-conveying skills make it a great communicator. It may not be capable of helping the elderly, it’s not nearly as agile and athletic as Boston Dynamics’ PETMAN, and it’s unlikely to be of any use during eye surgery. But that’s OK. Robothespian is an artist. A robot burdened with the task of exploring the ephemeral territory of the arts and claiming it for his robotic brethren. And it seems it is extremely well equipped to get the job done.

Thanks to LCD eyes that convey emotions and feelings to match what is being said, along with emotive LED lighting in its body shell, Robothespian has become proficient at the art of mesmerizing its audience. If you need a captivating story-teller, just hire a professional voice-over artist once and then leave Robothespian to deliver the same powerful act over and over again.

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16Nov

Is Technology Destroying Jobs?

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For all the benefits of living in a connected world, there is one huge disconnect: the economy seems to be growing, but it is not creating jobs. This disconnect is not a temporary blip that will disappear with a full economic recovery. It is part of a longer-term structural change in the economy.

Yesterday at the Techonomy conference, I moderated a debate (which you can watch above) between two economists, Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT’s Sloan business school and Tyler Cowen of George Mason University, about whether or not technology is the engine of the economy or whether, in fact, it is destroying jobs.

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14Nov

Miniature robot rides bicycle like a pro

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Robot creator Masahiko Yamaguchi has demonstrated a robot which can balance, steer and correct itself while riding a fixed-gear bike.

“A feature of this robot is, it pedals the bike with its own feet, and keeps its balance just by using the handlebars. I think this is probably a world first.”

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12Nov

Japanese Company Develops a Robot Guide Dog

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It might be some time before one of these is bounding through the local park but a new ‘robo-dog’ could make life easier for blind people.

The robot was created by Japanese developer NSK, along with the University of Electro-Communications, and uses a Microsoft Kinect image and distance sensor to create a 3-D visualisation of obstacles ahead.

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10Nov

Humanoid plant workers wow crowds at iRex

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Humanoid plant workers wow crowds at iRex

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Robots were out in force in Tokyo today as the International Robot Exhibition (iRex) kicked off with sophisticated humanoid industrial robots thrilling visitors.

With nearly 300 companies and groups taking part, iRex 2011 has the usual large-footprint booths by major robot makers like Fanuc and Yaskawa. With the power shortages that followed the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis, energy savings is a prominent theme, as it was at the Ceatec 2011 high-tech show here last month.

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31Oct

Free Energy from Air Heat Pumps – is that Magic?

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Moving back to my native New Zealand this year, I had the chance to try a different kind of heating system for our house here. One of the most intriguing technologies I’m hearing about here is something I never heard of – an air heat pump.

I was familiar with the very eco correct “geothermal” or ground heat pump, only because I write about green building. This pumps air through pipes that loop through your house and down about 5 feet underground where the temperature is a relatively constant 55 degrees F, summer and winter, from Maine to Miami, bringing up a moderate temperature, even though above-ground temperatures can veer from  below 0 to over 100 through the seasons. Staying at a moderate 55 F year round makes it a lot easier to make up the difference (with heating or cooling) to the comfortable 65 or so that we humans evolved to like best.

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19Sep

8 Current Technologies That Will Shape Our Future

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Rick Chin is the director of product innovation at SolidWorks, where he develops new products and researches how technology will make us smarter, simplify daily tasks and seamlessly fit into our everyday lives.

In 20 years our technology will reach a level of personalization that will enhance every moment of our lives. We’ll be more physically comfortable with the furniture we sit on and the products we hold; only the most relevant and personalized information from friends and family will reach us; and our movement in the digital world will be near telepathic.

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