Model Airplanes

The technology for 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has existed in some form since the 1980s. However, the technology has not been capable enough or cost-effective for most end-product or high-volume commercial manufacturing. Expectations are running high that these shortcomings are about to change.

Several technology trends are feeding these expectations. An emerging class of mid-level 3-D printers is starting to offer many highend system features in a desktop form factor at lower price points. Printer speeds are increasing across the product spectrum; at least one high-end system under development could print up to 500 times faster than today’s top machines. And key patents are about to expire, a development likely to hasten the pace of innovation.

In a recent PwC survey of more than 100 industrial manufacturers, two-thirds were already using 3-D printing. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1: Prototyping has driven the adoption of 3-D printing so far. Future opportunities 3D printers chiefly used for prototyping

Most were just experimenting or using it only for rapid prototyping, which has been 3-D printing’s center of gravity for most of its history. Canalys, a market research firm, anticipates changes ahead and predicts the global market for 3-D printers and services will grow from $2.5 billion in 2013 to $16.2 billion in 2018, a CAGR of 45.7 percent.¹

Despite these trends, the 3-D printing industry faces

Article source: http://www.engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/8687/The-Road-Ahead-for-3D-Printing.aspx

Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people, and the number of cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone is growing rapidly. We don’t know how many will ultimately die. But we do know that unless the world takes broader, more coordinated steps aimed at anticipating outbreaks like Ebola and controlling them early, we’ll be vulnerable to this and other devastating diseases.

This vulnerability reflects a world that is increasingly interconnected and susceptible to potentially pandemic viruses that are transmitted to humans from wild…

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/nathan-wolfe-no-more-ebola-whac-a-mole-1413241442

Rich Harrison prepares the first 737 MAX fuselage stringer to enter a “joggle press.” The press applies up to 100 tons of pressure to form small indentations, or “jogs” in the metal, according to specifications.

‘Literature is a corpse and cold at that.’ Lars Iyer says in his ‘literary manifesto after the end of literature and manifestos’, a title which perfectly captures the spirit of his work — a playfulness around and downright contempt for topics often considered to be the most serious of all. We’re all doomed and that’s what makes it all so funny. His new book Wittgenstein Jr is his first ‘novel’ following his trilogy — Spurious, Dogma and Exodus — which all began life as a blog, detailing the conversations between a fictionalised version of himself and his friend W. (Will Large another philosopher and Blanchot scholar). Sometimes thought-provoking, often hilarious and almost always insulting, their ruminations on death, philosophy, rats and idiocy made the apocalypse more fun than it has been in a long time and Wittgenstein Jr is no different.

The novel centres on the relationship between a group of Cambridge students and their professor who they have taken to calling Wittgenstein. A cast of archetypes that provide a chorus of voices to confound and infuriate their mentor, the student’s don’t seem able to ‘get’ Wittgenstein’s classes. Nor does he want them to. Written in Iyer’s now unmistakable musical prose Wittgenstein Jr provides a wonderful character study of one of the greatest philosophers of modern times, a hilarious take on modern life inside academia, a set of profane t-shirt slogans and a whole lot more besides.

Simply: why Wittgenstein? What is it

Article source: http://thequietus.com/articles/16433-lars-iyer-wittgenstein-jr-spurious-interview