Model Airplanes

A recent development promises to allow larger, more efficient, and durable wind turbines by mitigating unsteady aerodynamic forces that generate fatigue and extreme loads on blades. Developer Aquanis Inc says the device requires minimal modifications to a new blade.

Aquanis’ Chief Technology Officer, John Cooney, holds a model-scale prototype of a plasma actuator.

The design features a blade-mounted plasma flow actuator, a software controlled, solid-state electrical device that is simple and inexpensive. When a blade-embedded sensor detects deflection, software would signal the device to generate plasma that modulates the aerodynamic lift and drag forces, similar to the effect of trailing edge flaps in airplane wings.

Each device weighs only a few ounces and would be placed on the outer 20 to 30% of the blade length near the tip. An electronic driver weighing a pound or two would mount inside the blade and provide 8 to 12 kV signals to the plasma generators. The device is based on patented technology developed at the University of Notre Dame. Aquanis has an exclusive license to the patent portfolio for the wind energy field of use.

All remedies tried to date use moving parts and are costly and complex to implement. “The simplicity of our plasma actuator technology provides the basis for an inexpensive, no-moving-parts control system that will let wind turbines react instantly to changes in the wind,” said Aquanis CEO Neal Fine. And an improvement in aerodynamic

Article source: http://www.windpowerengineering.com/featured/blade-mounted-flow-actuator-promises-greater-turbine-power-production/

ABOUT THIS STORY: TCPalm has published two investigations revealing how Florida threatens protected waters by allowing farms to dump tons of only semi-treated human waste on their fields for fertilizer, but the nitrogen and often unneeded phosphorus can run off and feed toxic algae blooms. Today, we explore proposed solutions.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates put his mouth where his money is.

Standing in front of an industrial behemoth in Dakar, Senegal — with a crowd and cameras watching — an engineer turned a valve that poured a clear liquid into Gates’ drinking glass. He wore a nervous smile as he took a sip.

After all, just five minutes earlier, the liquid had been raw sewage.

“It’s water!” Gates declared in a video on Janicki Bioenergy’s website.

The multibillionaire’s charitable foundation backs the sanitation and waste management company based in his home state of Washington. Gates is banking on the company’s Omni Processor technology revolutionizing how cities dispose of human waste, while providing clean energy and drinking water.

There are many worldwide companies developing technologies to recycle all kinds of waste into clean energy and drinking water — yard, food, biosolids, wastewater and used cooking oil among them. But none have the richest man in the world backing them. Few have successfully turned solid human

Article source: http://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/investigations/2017/04/26/bill-gates-foundation-backs-janicki-bioenergy/99452498/

It’s official. It’s the Ford Lauderdale Air Show, even if the papers sometimes call it the Fort Lauderdale Air Show. After all, the catchy name is what attracted Allan Young in the first place. In fact, it was his idea. 

Young is chairman of the board for the South Florida Ford Dealers, consisting of 28 dealers from Fort Pierce to the Florida Keys on the east coast, from Naples to Port Charlotte on the Gulf Coast. He is also the owner of Wayne Akers Ford in Lake Worth. The man is a born promoter. His office walls attest to his group’s community involvement. There are shots of Miami sports figures and teams, and there is a framed Miami Dolphins jersey, all representing teams with which Young has worked with at one time or another.

Indeed, it was through another major community sponsorship that Young became aware of the opportunity to be a title sponsor for this year’s revived air show. He was at a meeting with the Winterfest Boat Parade committee, of which Ford is a sponsor, when he learned that the air show was searching for a title sponsor.

It needed one. Recall that when the show was launched spectacularly in the mid-1990s, it was called the Shell Air and Sea Show per Shell Oil Company. That was a good corporate fit. Airplanes need gas. And so was the later sponsor, McDonald’s, with its wholesome family image. Then, due to circumstances beyond the control of the sponsor, the show, although increasingly successful, was suspended

Article source: http://www.floridatrend.com/article/22047/ford-lauderdale-air-show-turns-south-florida-skies-into-a-grand-spectacle

These are the opaque decisions made for us all day, every day, by computer programs–algorithms that dictate the fate of so much of what we see. And now, the U.K. studio If has a concept proposing how we could look inside this software to understand why we’re seeing what we see.

Developed for the U.K. government’s open call to make its digital services more transparent, If presents several straightforward bits of user interface that can clarify esoteric, automated processes.

This first workflow shows how much money will be paid by the government for a health checkup, how much will need to be paid by the client, and for what reasons. Note how the designers associate the simple color orange with the act of getting more information. It underlines the word “why,” it highlights that a key decision was made by a computer, and it’s even the color used in the “X” bullet points that detail why someone has been penalized. Orange becomes an unconscious cue to find out WTF is going on with this bill, with full transparency as to when a human or machine has made a decision.

A second workflow, for appointments, gives the user an even deeper look into the algorithm. Tapping into an appointment date that’s been set by the machine, the user can see the “insights” that led the software to make this decision–including where a person lived,

Article source: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90111242/its-this-easy-to-look-inside-an-algorithm

It’s official. It’s the Ford Lauderdale Air Show, even if the papers sometimes call it the Fort Lauderdale Air Show. After all, the catchy name is what attracted Allan Young in the first place. In fact, it was his idea. 

Young is chairman of the board for the South Florida Ford Dealers, consisting of 28 dealers from Fort Pierce to the Florida Keys on the east coast, from Naples to Port Charlotte on the Gulf Coast. He is also the owner of Wayne Akers Ford in Lake Worth. The man is a born promoter. His office walls attest to his group’s community involvement. There are shots of Miami sports figures and teams, and there is a framed Miami Dolphins jersey, all representing teams with which Young has worked with at one time or another.

Indeed, it was through another major community sponsorship that Young became aware of the opportunity to be a title sponsor for this year’s revived air show. He was at a meeting with the Winterfest Boat Parade committee, of which Ford is a sponsor, when he learned that the air show was searching for a title sponsor.

It needed one. Recall that when the show was launched spectacularly in the mid-1990s, it was called the Shell Air and Sea Show per Shell Oil Company. That was a good corporate fit. Airplanes need gas. And so was the later sponsor, McDonald’s, with its wholesome family image. Then, due to circumstances beyond the control of the sponsor, the show, although increasingly successful, was suspended

Article source: http://www.floridatrend.com/article/22047/ford-lauderdale-air-show-turns-south-florida-skies-into-a-grand-spectacle