Model Airplanes

After 10 years of study,  a group of researchers announced that they developed a digital slice of  brain’s almost 40 million synapses and 2,000 connections between each brain cell type. The digitized brain shows the circuitry of a sand-grain-sized piece of rat brain.

Some experts claim that the recent discoveries in the project could be use to eventually upload human brain into a computer.

The research was supported by the Human Brain Project, a more than $1 billion project that involves 10-year European research program.

Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, lead author of the study, said the simulation would provide deep insights about how brain works.

The brain simulation project involved more than 80 researchers from 12 different countries. The model shows a tiny region of circuits in the rat’s somatosensory cortex, part of the brain that receives sensory information from the whiskers and other parts of the body.

Authors of the study explained that the digital brain can be manipulated in ways that are difficult to observe during actual experiments. The simulation can provide insights about  how individual cells contribute to the overall function of brain.

The digital reconstruction of rat’s brain began by developing 3D model of neurons. Using an algorithm, researchers placed the neurons at their designated spot. After putting neurons at their exact place, researchers connected it to  have simulated brain of rat.

For Cori Bargmann, from Kavli Neural Systems Institute at Rockefeller University, she said the digital brain is an “amazing tour de force” of data.

However,

Article source: http://www.dailytimesgazette.com/scientists-successfully-created-digital-brain/30211/

Roland “Bud” Pater of Racine celebrated his 100th birthday Oct. 8 at a surprise party with fellow veterans and friends at Malicki’s Piggly Wiggly’s Veterans Café.

Pater was born Oct. 11, 1915, in Racine.

After graduating from Park High School in 1933, Pater worked several jobs until 1939 when he joined the U.S. Army and served in the United States and Europe. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge with the 36th Fighter Group, was an aircraft inspector in Belgium and was at the landing on Omaha Beach where his unit was missing in action for two days.

After the war, Pater was married to the former Evelyn Lamire at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. She died in 1996.

Pater worked at several jobs before establishing a Harley-Davidson dealership in Racine in 1962. He stayed there until 1975 when he lost the franchise and then did repairs and parts, retiring in 1977.

Pater’s hobbies include fishing and model airplane building. One of his designs sold more than 100,000 copies. He enjoys socializing with fellow veterans at the cafe.

Pater’s children are: Mary Smith of Menominee and the late Valerie Touchette. Pater has four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Article source: http://journaltimes.com/lifestyles/relationships-and-special-occasions/pater-th/article_3c5d4891-e785-58e0-8954-332c4da71e48.html

How do you build an airplane from scratch?

You put it together carefully and over a long period of time, according to a group of teens and adults constructing a small plane in a hangar at Brighton Airport in Brighton Township.

The teens, some of their parents and mentors with experience building planes are roughly six months into building a RV-12 light-sport aircraft. It is a “kit” plane, which is sold by Van’s Aircraft. The kit includes all the parts and detailed step-by-step instructions. Their guess is that it will take them a year total.

The pressure is on to build it safe to fly.

“Our plan is that people who are helping to build it will eventually at least get to ride in it. Hopefully, some will be able to take flight instruction in it,” hangar owner and BrightonBuildAPlane coordinator Jack Haviland told the Livingston Daily Press Argus ( http://bit.ly/1hm7F8e ).

“There are jokes (that) we hope we put it together right,” Haviland said. “But these are safe airplanes. They are constructed very strongly.”

He said a Federal Aviation Administration official would inspect it first, and “before you can take any passengers, you have to fly the airplane for a certain number of hours to make sure all the systems work correctly.”

The local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association No. 384 is sponsoring BrightonBuildAPlane supported by money Haviland put up.

“It’s our project to give kids and adults who may have an interest in aviation a chance to see what it’s like to build a

Article source: http://www.sunherald.com/news/business/technology/article38088876.html

It seems not so long ago that the great Chinese ascent into modernity was the world’s greatest hope for economic recovery and perhaps even a new golden age of prosperity.

Today, however, that prospect is eroding.

Last month, we got to see firsthand what happens when mere hints of Chinese instability filter down to the mainstream media and onto the masses (and specifically retail investors).

If the market were a human body, the response to evidence that the Chinese economy isn’t the mighty giant we once thought and that growth projections are exaggerated is nothing short of catastrophic arrhythmia — severe enough to cause cardiac arrest unless immediate measures are taken.

But that’s not news to anybody anymore. The markets took that hit and restabilized as the headlines once again shifted back to our own hemisphere with talk of interest rate hikes and a flurry of hypothetical proposals on what to do with taxation come next year’s election cycle.

The real problem with China isn’t shadow banking or even the Communist party’s strict regulation of economic news.

It goes deeper than that, right into the heart of the culture.

To Copy is Divine

It’s been said that the only thing real in China are the counterfeiters (my colleague, Jimmy Mengel, loves this particular quote).

And while that may sound like a cliché or even a joke, as somebody who’s spent a good amount of time there, I can attest that it is anything but.

Yes, you can get a $20 Rolex at just about any corner or alley of any major Chinese city.

Yes,

Article source: http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/fake-substandard-parts-in-american-airliners/6294

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3-D printers are becoming pretty common and affordable these days, from the small, inexpensive $1,400 MakerBots up to the huge $750,000 Fortus machines. As you would expect, you can print one-piece prototypes of your rigid plastic parts, but did you know there is a whole spectrum of other things you can accomplish with your machine? Vertically integrated companies, such as mine, use the FDM process from product design to end-use parts in our factory.  This variety of needs has inspired us to push the limits of our printer and I want to share with you some of the solutions to interesting problems we have encountered for use in your own foray into the 3D printing world.

3D Printing Tips and Techniques: Printing the First Layer

3D-Printed Sternum Retrofits to Patient’s Anatomy

Alcoa Takes Investment Plunge into 3D Printing of Metal Parts

First, let’s look at some issues that come up with making the prototypes of molded parts that were likely the justification for your machine in the first place. Often times, your part is larger than your machine’s build size allows. What to do? The solution is pretty easy—break your model into smaller pieces in your CAD program, and add tabs for locating and gluing on the hidden side of split faces.

Now you can appreciate the savvy of the designers of those plastic model airplanes you may have built as a kid!  Another option we have used, mostly when we are working on the form or aesthetics of

Article source: http://machinedesign.com/contributing-technical-experts/get-most-out-your-fdm-3-d-printer