Successful test of rocket engine parts made by 3D printer in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-25

A model of the world's first 3D printed rocket on display at an office in
central London, Oct. 10, 2014. (Photo/CFP)

Amid the increasing use of 3D printing techniques in the global industrial sector, Europe and the United States have begun using 3D printed engine parts in to test rocket and aircraft engines. China has followed suit in this regard.

According to China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation, a research institute under the corporation recently recorded a successful engine test in which the engine included parts made using 3D printers, marking a breakthrough in China's ability to produce 3D printed rocket engine parts.

In order to address the complicated composition and high cost of engine igniters, the institute has experimented with adopting 3D printing techniques in the process of producing igniter enclosures, teaming up with local printing companies to create the first batches of the 3D printed enclosures.

The success came after a series of preparations, including extensive research into 3D printing, hundreds of samples and ignition tests, according to Chinese website Guancha Syndicate.

The institute will continue to expand the application of 3D printing techniques and use them in the production of various types of enclosures for igniters and other engine parts, in an effort to reduce costs in engine production.

Compared with traditional techniques, 3D printing techniques have the advantages of lower costs and better flexibility in molding and the techniques have caught the attention of the global aviation industry.

The use of 3D printing in the production of engine parts can meet the industry's need for speedy production, which means a significant step forward in China's engine design and production capabilities.

China plays a leading role in 3D printing techniques and has invented several different kinds of 3D printers. Such techniques have also been applied to the production of aviation materials.

For example, the use of high quality metal alloys can meet the needs of both the aviation and defense industries. So far, large-sized 3D printing equipment has been used in the defense industry, including in the production of China's indigenous J-15 and FC-31 fighters.

Changsha research team develops brain-controlled robot

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-20

Researchers from National University of Defense Technology test the
brain-controlled robot. (Photo/CCTV)

A Chinese research team has developed a robot whose movements can be controlled by the human brain, reports the Chinese-language Changsha Evening News.

The award-winning team of researchers at the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, the capital of south-central China's Hunan province, recently tested the self-made brain-controlled robot, which was able to move forward and backwards and make flexible turns with its body through brainwaves sent from an electrode cap worn by the controller.

According to Jiang Jun, a doctoral student on the team, the cap strengthens weak brainwaves before sending them back to their computers, which effectively reads the mind of the controller from the brainwave signals.

"The computer will turn human thoughts into control instructions and send them back to the robot through wireless facility so that we can control it to finish the movements, including moving forward and turning left and right," he said.

The experiment has been compared to the technology in the 2009 film Avatar, in which a paraplegic marine was able to control an alien avatar body with his brain.

It is hoped that the breakthrough will eventually allow people to drive cars without using their hands and for handicapped people to control their wheelchairs with just their minds. It could also make daily life more convenient by enabling people to open doors and operate kitchen appliances without physical interaction.

"We have combined human and cars through a brain-machine interface. On the one hand, we want to develop the preciseness of computer driving. On the other, we want to include human intelligence," said Liu Yadong, an associate professor at the university, who added that brain-controlled weapons and vehicles could one day be used in war.

China will continue to explore the power of the brain in the future after the "China Brain Project" received approval from the State Council. The project's three main aims are to learn how to better understand, protect and simulate the brain.

World's mountain of electrical waste reaches new peak of 42m tonnes

The biggest per-capita tallies were in countries known for green awareness, such as Norway and Denmark, with Britain fifth and US ninth on the UN report’s list

The Guardian, AFP, Sunday 19 April 2015

A fridge dump in Manchester. Almost two-thirds of global e-waste was made
up of discarded kitchen and laundry devices. Photograph: Phil Noble/PA

A record amount of electrical and electronic waste was discarded around the world in 2014, with the biggest per-capita tallies in countries that pride themselves on environmental consciousness, a report said.

Last year, 41.8m tonnes of so-called e-waste – mostly fridges, washing machines and other domestic appliances at the end of their life – was dumped, the UN report said.

That’s the equivalent of 1.15m heavy trucks, forming a line 23,000km (14,300 miles) long, according to the report, compiled by the United Nations University, the UN’s educational and research branch.

Less than one-sixth of all e-waste was properly recycled, it said.

In 2013, the e-waste total was 39.8m tonnes – and on present trends, the 50-million-tonne mark could be reached in 2018.

Topping the list for per-capita waste last year was Norway, with 28.4kg (62.5lbs) per inhabitant.

It was followed by Switzerland (26.3kg), Iceland (26.1kg), Denmark (24.0kg), Britain (23.5kg), the Netherlands (23.4kg), Sweden (22.3kg), France (22.2kg) and the United States and Austria (22.1kg).

The region with the lowest amount of e-waste per inhabitant was Africa, with 1.7kg per person. It generated a total of 1.9m tonnes of waste.

In volume terms, the most waste was generated in the United States and China, which together accounted for 32% of the world’s total, followed by Japan, Germany and India.

Waste that could have been recovered and recycled was worth $52bn, including 300 tonnes of gold – equal to 11% of the world’s gold production in 2013.

But it also included 2.2m tonnes of harmful lead compounds, as well as mercury, cadmium and chromium, and 4,400 tonnes of ozone-harming chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases.

“Worldwide, e-waste constitutes a valuable ‘urban mine’ – a large potential reservoir of recyclable materials,” UN under secretary-general David Malone said.

“At the same time, the hazardous content of e-waste constitutes a ‘toxic mine’ that must be managed with extreme care.”

Almost 60% of e-waste by weight came from large and small kitchen, bathroom and laundry appliances.

Seven percent was generated by discarded mobile phones, calculators, personal computers and printers.

Related Articles:

Toxic 'e-waste' dumped in poor nations, says United Nations

China's internet giants make inroads into auto industry

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-19

The internet and auto industry. (Photo/CFP)

Alibaba Group, the world's biggest e-commerce company, announced on April 8 that it has formed an automotive unit in partnership with nearly 50 car brands and 10,000 dealerships.

The Hanghzou-based company's aim is to provide O2O (online to offline) services and it will present its auto operations at the Shanghai auto show next week.

"Until now, buyers have had no more contact with auto companies once purchase is completed unless there are problems with the quality," said Peter Zhou, vice president of AutoNavi Software under the Alibaba Group.

That situation is about to change. Alibaba is currently working with SAIC Motor, China's leading car manufacturer, among others, to help it connect with existing and potential buyers and work with its cooperation partners to tap the B2B (business to business) services.

In March, Alibaba started a 1 billion yuan (US$160 million) fund with SAIC Motor to create a platform for the development and operation of Web-enabled cars.

Zhou said that Alibaba Group has data on 60 million car owners and 500,000 car showrooms and that its Tmall online marketplace could provide finance, payment and car insurance services.

Alibaba's automotive unit will provide "browse, select, purchase, use and sell" facilities all at the same time, Zhou said.

In addition to the Alibaba Group, fellow internet giants Tencent and Baidu have also been working with auto firms to make inroads into the industry.

Securities Times pointed out as the pace of output and sales of automobiles in China slows, and traditional car enterprises are facing the need to transform, it is time for the internet giants to make inroads into the auto market.

Bloomberg apologizes for crashed terminals after IT meltdown halts London trading

Financial software and data provider Bloomberg has apologized for an IT meltdown which affected its 320,000 users' terminals around the world. A weekly bond sale in London had to be delayed.

Deutsche Welle, 18 April 2015

The whole of the London trading day had passed before Bloomberg could announce the situation had been resolved.

Problems began on Friday morning in London as Asian markets closed and Europe's opened at 8.20 am London time. Trading screens were blank for most of the following two hours. By the time US markets opened, most Bloomberg terminals were back up and running.

Bloomberg's screens are used by traders of government bonds as well as shares and other financial instruments.

The company issued a statement explaining the problem: “We experienced a combination of hardware and software failures in the network, which caused an excessive volume of network traffic."

"This led to customer disconnections as a result of the machines being overwhelmed," Bloomberg explained.

"We discovered the root cause quickly, isolated the faulty hardware, and restarted the software. We are reviewing our multiple redundant systems, which failed to prevent this disruption," the company added.

The US firm said there had not been a cyber attack.

Around 4pm local time in London, Bloomberg tweeted: “Service has been fully restored. We apologise to our customers for the disruption.”

According to Fortune, 320,000 people worldwide use Bloomberg terminals, which cost about $20,000 (18,500 euros) a year. A significant number were affected by the IT problem on Friday.

The UK Debt Management Office postponed its weekly tender of Treasury bills on Friday morning, but was able to carry out the debt sale in the afternoon.

Telephone and Twitter

During the day, as traders were unable to use their terminals, they placed their orders by telephone instead. The volume of trading in German Bund futures during the two hour period when screens were blank was down by about a third compared with the same period in the previous Friday trading sessions. Traders also took to Twitter under the hashtag #bloombergdown:

Maybe it could be a Blockbuster #BloombergDown pic.twitter.com/8KTHconmNp
— Advisory Desk (@advdesk) 17 april 2015

The outage was a signal of how dependent traders have become on Bloomberg terminals, and the 'chat' facility for reaching their clients. It was also an indicator of Bloomberg's dominant place in the trading terminal market.

The Bloomberg data terminals are the center of the business empire that Michael R. Bloomberg founded in 1981. He returned to lead the company last year after serving three terms as mayor of New York City.

Bloomberg has become the world's biggest financial information provider, overtaking rival Reuters. The company is privately held and is not obliged to divulge financial information. In September it said revenue grew to more than $9 billion in 2014.

jm/bw (Reuters, AP)

WikiLeaks dumps data from Sony hacking scandal

Yahoo – AFP, April 17, 2015

WikiLeaks published thousands of documents from last year's Sony hacking
scandal, calling them an insight into the inner workings of a "secretive" firm

New York (AFP) - WikiLeaks published thousands of documents on Thursday from last year's Sony hacking scandal, calling them an insight into the inner workings of a "secretive" firm.

The website said the searchable data dump includes 30,287 documents from the US-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and 173,132 emails to and from more than 2,200 company email addresses.

The same data was released online after hackers attacked Sony Pictures last November and threatened the company over the release of the comedy film "The Interview," which depicts a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korea's leader.

The threats saw Sony cancel the public debut of the movie and led to the resignation of chairperson Amy Pascal. The leaks showed that Pascal had swapped racially insensitive jokes about President Barack Obama over email.

Washington blamed North Korea for the hack.

"Now published in a fully searchable format The Sony Archives offer a rare insight into the inner workings of a large, secretive multinational corporation," WikiLeaks said in a statement.

It said the original release was not searchable and was removed before the public and journalists could scrutinize them.

Sony data was released online after hackers threatened the company over the release
of "The Interview," which depicts a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korea's leader

WikiLeaks described Sony as an influential corporation with ties to the White House, able to impact laws and policies, and with connections to the US military-industrial complex.

"It is newsworthy and at the center of a geo-political conflict," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who lives at Ecuador's embassy in London to avoid prosecution for alleged rape in Sweden.

"It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there," the Australian former hacker said.

Sony condemned the re-release of the data, saying the private information does not belong in the public domain and WikiLeaks is helping the hackers' efforts to harm employees.

"The cyber-attack on Sony Pictures was a malicious criminal act, and we strongly condemn the indexing of stolen employee and other private and privileged information on WikiLeaks," Sony said in a statement.

The data indicates company CEO, Michael Lynton, dined with Obama and Sony employees raised money for the Democratic Party and incumbent Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, WikiLeaks said.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is a multi-billion-dollar US subsidiary of the Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. It handles film and TV production, acquisition and distribution.

Related Article:

Ben Affleck suppressed slave-owning ancestry, hacked Sony emails claim

Singapore tops global IT readiness report

Want China Times, Lin Kuo-pin and Staff Reporter 2015-04-19

Visitors at Taipei Computex, June 2, 2014. Taiwan ranked No. 18 in this
year's report. (Photo/Wang Ying-hao)

Taiwan ranked 18th in the networked readiness index (NRI) of the Global Information Technology Report 2015, which was released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on April 15, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Commercial Times. Singapore claimed the first place,

The NRI measures economies in terms of their capacity to prepare for, use and leverage information and communications technologies. In the 143 economies surveyed this year, Singapore moved up from No. 2 last year to overtake Finland as the world's most network-ready country.

Finland dropped to second after topping the ranking for two years in a row. Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the US were ranked third to seventh. The UK moved up one place to be No. 8 and Luxembourg moved up two places to No. 9. Japan advanced six places from last year to No. 10, only the second Asian country in the top ten.

Russia climbed nine places to 41 while China remained the same at No. 62. South Africa was ranked 75, Brazil 84 and India 89.

Taiwan was ranked 18, the lowest position since it was first evaluated in 2002. Taiwan's highest ranking was No. 6 in 2011 and No. 7 in 2006.

General Electric to cut finance arm, set share buyback

General Electric is ditching the lending business, despite it being a major profit generator. It's the latest move the US technology and industrial company is taking to reduce its holdings in the finance industry.

Deutsche Welle, 10 April 2015

General Electric announced Friday it intends to sell off most of its finance arm over the next two years, opting to shed a massive unit carrying its own set of risks and instead focus more on its industrial operations.

In addition to the sale of GE capital, the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company also set a share buyback plan of up to $50 billion (47.2 billion euros), which sent its shares up in premarket trading Friday.

Blackstone and Wells Fargo are buying most of the assets of GE Capital Real Estate valued around $23 billion.

The total deal is the biggest in the commercial property market, since Blackstone's acquisition of office landlord Equity Office Properties Trust in 2007 for $39 billion, including debt.

GE has been reducing its exposure in the finance industry following the global financial crisis, off-loading its consumer credit and banking divisions. The financial division generates almost half of the company's profit, but it's also a huge regulatory burden, causing anxiety for investors.

In addition, the company has been selling off its worldwide property investments in favor of focusing more on earnings and product sales, such as of jet engines, generators, electric grid gear and oil field equipment.

The US technology and industrial company said it expected earnings from its aviation, power and water and other industrial businesses to account for about 90 percent of total earnings by 2018. These units made up just over half of GE's profit in 2013.

GE added "market conditions were favorable" to sell most GE Capital over the next two years.

el/hg (Reuters, AP, dpa, AFP)

Aluminium battery can charge phone in one minute, scientists say

US scientists hail breakthrough in technology they say could provide safer, more convenient, greener alternative for laptops and mobiles

The Guardian, Press Association, Tuesday 7 April 2015

The researchers said their prototype battery achieved ‘unprecedented
charging times’. (Photograph: Alamy)

Scientists say they have invented a new battery that could fully charge a smartphone in just one minute.

The researchers have created an aluminium battery which they hope could replace the lithium models commonly found in laptops and mobile phones.

And as well as the “unprecedented charging times” of their aluminium prototype, the team said it was also safer than lithium-ion batteries as it was less prone to catching fire and more environmentally friendly than alkaline models such as AA and AAA.

Publishing the findings in the journal Nature, Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, hailed it as a breakthrough in battery technology that went further than previous attempts using aluminium.

He said: “We have developed a rechargeable aluminium battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames. Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.

“Millions of consumers use 1.5-volt AA and AAA batteries. Our rechargeable aluminium battery generates about two volts of electricity. That’s higher than anyone has achieved with aluminium.”

The prototype was said to be more durable, withstanding more than 7,500 cycles without any loss of capacity and surpassing previous aluminium batteries which died after just 100 charge-discharge cycles, while a typical lithium-ion battery lasts about 1,000 cycles.

“This was the first time an ultra-fast aluminium-ion battery was constructed with stability over thousands of cycles,” the report’s authors wrote.

Dai added that lithium batteries could “go off in an unpredictable manner” and cited a ban by US airlines Delta and United on bulk shipments on passenger planes.

And the new design could be used to store renewable energy of the electrical grid, the researchers suggested.

Meanwhile, co-author Ming Gong said: “Another feature of the aluminium battery is flexibility. You can bend it and fold it, so it has the potential for use in flexible electronic devices. Aluminium is also a cheaper metal than lithium.”

Smartphones have found their place in Dutch classrooms

DutchNews.nl, April 6, 2015

Smartphones have become an integral part of the Dutch education system, with 85% of secondary schools using them in lessons, broadcaster Nos said on Monday. 

Nos researched attitudes to mobile phones at 137 secondary schools and found that just 10% had banned smartphones from the classroom. 

In half of the schools questioned, smartphones are allowed in the classroom but can only be used with the permission of the teacher. In one in four schools there are no restrictions on smartphone use, Nos found. 

Almost all the schools which have incorporated smartphones into education allow pupils to use them to find information. A clear mrjority also use educational apps and have integrated smartphones into quizzes and tests. In one third of schools, teachers communicate with their pupils via smartphone. 

Concentration

Nevertheless, schools are still wrestling with the use of smartphones and only half believe they have enriched the education process. Only 15 of the schools questioned do not experience any problems with the use of mobile phones. 

More than half say pupils’ concentration has been hit by their use. One school in Oegstgeest noted: ‘pupils would rather be using Whatsapp all day and that cannot be reconciled with concentrating on education’. 

However, another school in Rotterdam said the mobile phone is no more of a distraction that ‘sending notes to each throughout the lesson or staring out of the window’. 

Some schools also said they have had to embrace mobile phones because there was no other way. Taking the phones off the children only resulted in ‘angry parents making a fuss’, one school in Groningen reported.

Dutch Bluetooth inventor honoured in US

DutchNews.nl, April 4, 2015    

Jaap Haartsen

Dutch scientist Jaap Haartsen, who invented the wireless communication system Bluetooth, is being included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the US. 

Haartsen, who now works for US company Plantronics in Emmen, is one of 12 people who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in May. Previous inductees include Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers and Henry Ford. 

Haartsen’s finding is used in over three billion gadgets worldwide and he is being recognised by the US because of the enormous impact his invention has had on society, the Volkskrant reported. 

The Dutchman, who studied at Delft University of Technology, invented the technology while working for Ericsson in Sweden in 1994 and the patent is in his name. 

He said in an interview with the Volkskrant that he had been asked by his bosses at Ericsson to develop something which allowed mobile phones to communicate with other equipment. 

Risk 

Haartsen told the paper that while he might have come up with the idea if he had been in the Netherlands at the time, he would not have been able to realise it because of the lack of risk-takers.

‘In the Netherlands, you have to put your house up as security if you want to take such a risk with your company,’ he said. 

‘The way in which much research is done here is more like a beauty contest,’ he said. ‘The people with the prettiest stories get the money.’

Dutch online advertising market reaches €1.4bn

DutchNews.nl,  April 2, 2015    The market for online advertising in the Netherlands reached €1.4bn in 2014, with mobile advertising growing by 82%, according to figures from Deloitte and the IAB. 

Online advertising is now heading for half the total Dutch advertising market as turnover for newspapers and magazines continues to decline, Deloitte said. 

In 2014, the online market rose 10% as a whole, adding to 8% growth rates in 2013 and 2012. 

The sharp growth in mobile advertising shows acceptance for this form of marketing is increasing, said Joris van Heukelom, chairman of IAB Nederland. 

‘This will open up enormous new possibilities in the coming years for new growth and will bring the digital and physical form of marketing, such as in retail, closer together,’ he said.

Obama authorizes sanctions to combat cyberattacks

US President Barack Obama has issued an executive order which will allow economic sanctions on US and foreign hackers. The move will enable authorities to punish individuals, as well as entities engaged in cyber attacks.

Deutsche Welle, 1 April 2015

In a statement issued by the White House on Wednesday, Obama said cyber threats pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges to the Unites States.

The US president also said he would "employ the authorities of my office and this administration, including diplomatic engagement, trade policy tools, and law enforcement mechanisms, to counter the threat posed by malicious cyber actors."

Freeze assets

Under the order, the US Treasury would be able to freeze or block assets belonging to those involved in cyber attacks on "critical" US computer networks, such as banking systems or electric power, or the theft of data such as credit card information.

"A new tool against cyber threats." —President Obama on @Medium: http://t.co/x6O38yRWEG #CyberSanctions
— WH National Security (@NSCPress) 1 april 2015

"Cyber intrusions and attacks - many of them originating overseas - are targeting our businesses, stealing trade secrets, and costing American jobs. Iranian hackers have targeted American banks," Obama said.

Sony Pictures hacking

In his statement on Wednesday, the US president also referred to the alleged North Korea cyber attack on Sony Pictures last November which disabled thousands of computers.

In December, the American FBI blamed North Korea for hacking the film studio over the release of Sony Pictures' satire film, "The Interview," which depicts a fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

A month later, Obama signed an executive order authorizing initial sanctions to punish Pyongyang over the alleged hacking, in addition to previous US sanctions which were directed at North Korea's nuclear program.

ksb/jil (Reuters, AFP)