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PROVIDENCE, RI, January 30, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street movement threw condoms on Catholic schoolgirls, refused to allow a Catholic priest to give a closing prayer, and shouted down a pro-life speaker at a Rhode Island right to life rally on Thursday, according to its organizer. The event marked the third time protesters associated with the movement have disrupted a pro-life meeting in a week. About two-dozen members of Occupy Providence hiked from Burnside Park to the 39th Annual Pro-Life State House Rally organized by the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee on Thursday. Protesters...

2011 saw huge advances in solar, wind and other renewable energy sources, and these advancements will continue into 2012. In fact 2012 could be the year that renewable energy sources start to seriously compete with traditional fossil fuels, at least that is the hope in the battle to reduce carbon emissions and our dependence on dwindling oil stocks. However a major problem with renewable energy sources is that they can rarely provide consistent power levels, due to a myriad of factors outside of human control. Eric Wesoff, an industry analyst with Greentech Media, explains that, “A wind farm only works...

Second iPhone 'explodes' in a week by Agencies 04:28 PM Dec 02, 2011 For the second time in the past week, an iPhone 4 has reportedly exploded, website Mashable reported. In the latest incident, which happened in Brazil on Wednesday morning, the Apple smartphone short-circuited and started to burn about 40cm from a man's face as he slept. Ayla Mota said he awoke to see the iPhone 4, which was plugged in for an overnight charge, sparking and emitting smoke. "At dawn, I woke up seconds before witnessing the burning of my iPhone when I saw a lot of sparks...

does anyone know of one made that can be recharged? all the ones I own (and ones sold in stores) are sealed . if they are left in a cold place(like an unheated garage), they become just as dead as the battery in the car you're trying to start.

Apple on Thursday released an update to iOS 5 that addressed issues many users were having with poor battery performance.The Cupertino, California-based company had been testing the solution for some time, even uncharacteristically reaching out to affected end-users and having them install the potential fix to test its effectiveness. Despite Apple’s determination that iOS 5.0.1 resolved issues related to battery life, however, not all users are finding that to be the case.“After upgrading to 5.0.1 my iPhone is draining the battery even faster,” one user posted to Apple’s support forum. A number of other iPhone owners have taken to Apple’s...

While the most common device for converting light into electricity may be photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, a variety of other devices can perform the same light-to-electricity conversion, such as solar-thermal collectors and rectennas. In a new study, engineers have designed a new device that can convert light of infrared (IR) and visible wavelengths into direct current by using surface plasmon excitations in a simple metal-insulator-metal (MIM) device. The researchers, Fuming Wang and Nicholas A. Melosh of Stanford University, have published their study on the new device in a recent issue of Nano Letters. “The greatest significance thus far is to...

Toyota Motor has developed a secondary electric car battery that can last up to 1,000 km per charge, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Monday. That is five times the energy storage capacity of existing batteries. Toyota came up with the prototype in collaboration with the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization. The new battery is based on a solid core and its simplified structure means it does not require fire-retardant materials. It eliminates the disadvantages of lithium-ion batteries, which are based on an easily heatable and combustible liquid core. Toyota plans to improve the battery...

Plans to build a high speed railway line from London to Birmingham could be threatened by a small colony of bats, the Government’s environmental advisers have warned... the bats could be a “show-stopper” ...

A team from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI), led by principle investigator Dr Xie Xian Ning, has developed the world's first energy-storage membrane. Electrical energy storage and its management is becoming an urgent issue due to climate change and energy shortage. Existing technologies such as rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors are based on complicated configurations including liquid electrolytes, and suffer from difficulties in scaling-up and high fabrication costs. There is also growing public concern and awareness of the impact of traditional energy sources on the environment, spurring a continued search for alternative, green, sustainable energy sources....

A group of gear heads from Croatia has produced a car designed to show that “electric vehicle” doesn’t have to mean “something my granola-eating neighbor drives.” Rimac Automobil, named for its founder, Mate Rimac, unveiled the Concept_One at the International Auto Show in Frankfurt. Designed as a sleek sports car it is powered entirely by batteries, and can, the company says, hit 62 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds, and reach a limit of 190 mph. The batteries carry 92 kilowatt-hours, or enough to power an average American home for three days -- or drive the car 372 miles, enough...

A stretchy binder material that's compatible with existing factories could help electric cars and portable electronics go 30 percent longer. A stretchy binder material that's compatible with existing factories could help electric cars and portable electronics go 30 percent longer. One approach to the problem is to structure these anodes in a totally different way, for example growing shaggy arrays of silicon nanowires that can bend, swell, and move around as lithium enters and exits. This approach is being commercialized by Amprius, a startup in Palo Alto, California. But growing nanowires requires new processes that aren't normally used in battery...

A Pittsburgh company says its battery has the long life and cheap cost needed to be practical for energy storage. Utilities need cheap, long-lasting ways to store the excess energy produced by power plants, especially as intermittent power from solar and wind farms is added to the mix. Unfortunately, the batteries available for grid-level storage are either too expensive or don't last for the thousands of cycles needed to make them cost-effective. A new battery developed by Aquion Energy in Pittsburgh uses simple chemistry—a water-based electrolyte and abundant materials such as sodium and manganese—and is expected to cost $300 for...

A binding agent found in everything from ice cream to cosmetics could let lithium-ion cells hold much more energy. Lithium-ion batteries could hold up to 10 times as much energy per cell if silicon anodes were used instead of graphite ones. But manufacturers don't use silicon because such anodes degrade quickly as the battery is charged and discharged. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Clemson University think they might have found the ingredient that will make silicon anodes work—a common binding agent and food additive derived from algae and used in many household products. They say this material...

A beautiful Brazilian soap star has the lead role in her own daytime drama, which casts George Soros, the billionaire financier of lefty causes, as a heavy who not only broke her heart, but also reneged on a promise to give her an Upper East Side apartment worth $1.9 million. The drama will be staged in Manhattan Supreme Court, where 28-year-old Adriana Ferreyr yesterday filed a blockbuster $50 million suit charging, among other things, that the frisky octogenarian slapped her around while they were in bed discussing his real-estate betrayal. The sultry actress and the mogul, who's worth some $14.5...

A Japanese research group has developed a solid state lithium battery that appears to perform just as well as conventional liquid lithium ion batteries. The group has published their results in Nature Materials and claim to have found a solid electrolyte that performs on a par with current liquid technology, and does so over a much broader temperature range and because it’s solid should be more compact as well as less sensitive to physical damage and fire hazard. Lithium ion batteries are currently used in a wide variety of consumer electronics (and electric vehicles) due to their energy density, re-chargeability...

DEER ISLE, Maine — Before May 17, Kacen Pedrucci was a normal 15-month-old boy. At his Deer Isle home, he was beginning to talk and was walking around happily, exploring his surroundings and putting things in his mouth as toddlers do. He always had a smile and a sweet disposition. One of his favorite books was The Lion King, which was a “talking book” — by pushing a button on the side of the page, jungle sounds could be heard. But for the last three months, Kacen has been at death’s door, in and out of doctors’ offices, emergency rooms...

GM and Nissan tout systems to reuse the expensive battery packs. At $10,000 a piece, electric-car batteries are too expensive to throw out or recycle into scrap materials. And even after a decade of use, when they can't perform well enough to meet the vehicle's demands, they could still be valuable for other uses. Nissan and GM have both recently announced ways they might make some money from them. Many issues remain unresolved, not the least of which is whether the automakers would need to buy back the batteries from car owners, or whether dealers would simply lease the battery...

A combination of two ordinary materials – graphite and water – could produce energy storage systems that perform on par with lithium ion batteries, but recharge in a matter of seconds and have an almost indefinite lifespan. Dr. Dan Li, of the Monash University Department of Materials Engineering, and his research team have been working with a material called graphene, which could form the basis of the next generation of ultrafast energy storage systems. “Once we can properly manipulate this material, your iPhone, for example, could charge in a few seconds, or possibly faster.” said Dr. Li. Graphene is the...

Modified carbon nanotubes can store solar energy indefinitely, then be recharged by exposure to the sun. A novel application of carbon nanotubes, developed by MIT researchers, shows promise as an innovative approach to storing solar energy for use whenever it’s needed. Storing the sun’s heat in chemical form — rather than converting it to electricity or storing the heat itself in a heavily insulated container — has significant advantages, since in principle the chemical material can be stored for long periods of time without losing any of its stored energy. The problem with that approach has been that until now...

Trapping sulphur particles in graphene cages produces a cathode material that could finally make lithium batteries capable of powering electric cars Lithium batteries have become the portable powerhouses of modern society. If you own a phone, mp3 player or laptop, you will already own a lithium battery. More than likely, you will have several. But good as they are, lithium batteries are not up to the demanding task of powering the next generation of electric vehicles. They just don't have enough juice or the ability to release it quickly over and over again. The problem lies with the cathodes in...

University of Minnesota engineering researchers in the College of Science and Engineering have recently discovered a new alloy material that converts heat directly into electricity. This revolutionary energy conversion method is in the early stages of development, but it could have wide-sweeping impact on creating environmentally friendly electricity from waste heat sources. Researchers say the material could potentially be used to capture waste heat from a car's exhaust that would heat the material and produce electricity for charging the battery in a hybrid car. Other possible future uses include capturing rejected heat from industrial and power plants or temperature differences...

One of Barack Obama's favorite fantasies is that Americans will soon abandon their SUVs and pick-ups in favor of battery operated cars. Implementing energy policies to "boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" is part of his overall plan to force us to go green. The supposed upside is the standard line of worshippers of the green god – reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a cleaner environment. But, like so much of the hope-and-change agenda, the electric car idea isn't off to a very good start, and new research finds it may not be so green after all either.Obama...

TAMPA — Stefani Hernandez was walking her two Weimaraners outside her apartment complex near International Plaza when she got a weird feeling, like someone was behind her. "I turned around," the 26-year-old remembers, "and there he was, inches from me." He told her she had nice dogs. Qingnong Xiao, 48, is an associate professor at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science, earning $108,344 a year. He is a hurricane expert with publications in scientific journals. Hernandez didn't know any of that. She didn't know him. But she knew he made her nervous. So she went inside her...

Silicon Valley startup gives details about its technology for making highly efficient yet inexpensive solar cells. A startup that has been working in stealth mode for several years says it has achieved a record solar-cell efficiency of 28.2 percent, nearing the theoretical maximum of 33.5 percent. The mark is roughly 2 percentage points higher than a record set last year—a major advance in an industry that typically measures improvements in tenths of a percent. Alta Devices, founded in 2007 and based in Santa Clara, California, says its innovative techniques lend themselves to large-scale manufacturing. Improving efficiency is essential if solar...

Punches aren’t the only thing a Bonita Springs woman is accused of throwing Monday night. Deputies say she also threw pancakes at men in a McDonald's parking lot. Mariel G. Goodrich, 21, of the 8800 block of Colonnades Court, was arrested Monday by Collier deputies at the 700 block of Vanderbilt Beach Road. According to a Collier County Sheriff’s Office report: While a few unidentified men were purchasing food from a McDonald's drive-through, they began a conversation with Goodrich and her friend who were sitting in a gray Honda Ridgeline truck. Goodrich then threw her pancakes out the car window...

To speed along the success of the electric car, improvements in battery chemistry will matter as much as the price of oil. Batteries are now "part of the clean-tech boom, with all the dewy and righteous credibility of thin-film solar and offshore windmills," Seth Fletcher asserts in Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy. Righteous? Surely. Credible? Maybe. As Mr. Fletcher tells it, the history of batteries over the past 100 years is basically a series of failed efforts to power automobiles, with a recent fruitful detour into electronic gear. For a century we have been trying,...

A startup hopes to commercialize a novel design that features fluid electrodes. Last year, the battery startup A123 Systems spun out another company, called 24M, to develop a new kind of battery meant to make electric vehicles go farther and cost less. Now a research paper published in Advanced Energy Materials reveals the first details about how that battery would work. It also addresses the challenges in bringing the battery to market. A big problem with the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids is that only about 25 percent of the battery's volume is taken up by...

New energy-storage technology could surpass today's batteries in capacity and durability. A startup called Nanotune says its ultracapacitor technology could make electric cars cheaper and extend their range. The company, based in Mountain View, California, has developed a way to make electrodes that results in ultracapacitors with five to seven times as much storage capacity as conventional ones. Conventional ultracapacitors, which have the advantage of delivering fast bursts of power and can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times without losing much capacity, are too expensive and store too little energy to replace batteries. Nanotune, however, which has raised $3...

A new process could let your laptop and cell phone recharge a hundred times faster than they do now. A new way of making battery electrodes based on nanostructured metal foams has been used to make a lithium-ion battery that can be 90 percent charged in two minutes. If the method can be commercialized, it could lead to laptops that charge in a few minutes or cell phones that charge in 30 seconds. The methods used to make the ultrafast-charging electrodes are compatible with a range of battery chemistries; the researchers have also used them to make nickel-metal-hydride batteries, the...

Kia Motors Corp unveiled the "Naimo (KND-6)" electric concept car at Seoul Motor Show 2011, which opens for the public from April 1 to 10, 2011, in Seoul, South Korea. The electric vehicle (EV) has a lithium-polymer (Li-polymer) rechargeable battery with a capacity of 27kWh under its trunk. Its drive range is about 200km per charge. Its battery cells seem to be manufactured by LG Chem Ltd. The release date of the EV has not been determined yet. The Naimo has a permanent magnet synchronous motor in the front side of the vehicle. The maximum output and maximum torque of...

SIM-Drive Corp, a Japan-based start-up, announced that it has developed the "SIM-LEI" electric vehicle (EV). The four-seat EV is expected to be released in 2013. It is equipped with a lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable battery with a capacity of 24.9kWh, and its drive range is 333km under the JC08 test mode. It measures 4,700 (L) x 1,600 (W) x 1,550mm (H) and weighs 1,650kg. The SIM-LEI uses in-wheel motors, motors that are for driving and stored in wheels. Unlike normal electric vehicles that use inner rotors and outer stators, the new EV uses outer rotors and inner stators. In 2004, Hiroshi...

A new approach to alkali batteries, in which the cathode is dissolved in water that flows through the system, could overcome the limitations of currently available batteries, scientists in the US say. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have revolutionised the mobility of small electronics, but their limited capacity means they don't stretch easily to bigger jobs such as running automobiles or storing power for national grid networks.Ordinarily, lithium ion batteries contain a solid anode, which gives up electrons, and a solid cathode, which receives them. The two are divided by an organic fluid electrolyte. This strategy depends on a cathode that can expand to...

When fresh water rivers flow into the sea the concentration difference leads to a change in entropy. US researchers have developed a battery that generates power from that entropy difference.Yi Cui's team at Stanford University, California, extract energy with 74 per cent efficiency using manganese dioxide nanorods and silver electrodes1. 'What we have really demonstrated that this idea can work,' says Cui.Cui's team estimate that if the technology was used on all world's rivers this renewable energy technology would hypothetically generate 2 TW, or approximately 13 per cent of current global consumption.Entropy based power generation has been done before but is most reliably done today...

Interesting news from General Motors today that's resulted in some puzzled expressions at Engadget HQ. We've learned that the Volt, which Chevrolet has been making quite a fuss about calling an "extended range electric vehicle," is actually just a traditional hybrid with some... potentially misleading marketing behind it. Since the concept stage the company has been saying how the onboard internal combustion engine was just to charge the batteries, that only the electric motors (there are two) are actually connected to the drivetrain. Indeed that's what we were told in person when we test drove the thing back in March....

The governor and others are suggesting that a $383 million government-subsidized battery plant for Livonia will jump start the state's struggling economy and create jobs. This is likely a highly exaggerated claim, according to two University of Michigan experts familiar with the battery industry. But while the U of M experts still see some merit in the project, the chief lobbyist for Michigan's small businesses says it exposes Michigan's job providers to more bad economic and tax policies. Peter Adriaens, the Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, says that the worthwhile investment...

You’ve got to be kidding?… Barack Obama hailed the opening of a Michigan battery plant today that produces car batteries that cost $33,000 each and go up to 100 miles before needing a charge. This is Barack Obama’s stimulus success story. He obviously didn’t learn much about the free market system from his socialist mentors during his community organizing days. This is supposed to be a Stimulus Bill success story. A $33,000 battery. (A123 Systems) The AP reported: President Barack Obama celebrated the opening of an advanced battery plant in Michigan on Monday as a critical boost for hybrid and...

Leigh Krietsch Boerner/Boston, US Mitochondria, often called the powerhouse of the cell, have been harnessed in a new battery-like device that could one day power small portable devices like mobile phones or laptops. Mitochondria convert fatty acids and pyruvate, formed from the digestion of sugars and fats, to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cell's energy supply. Along the way a tiny electrical current is generated, and Shelley Minteer and coworkers from Saint Louis University in Missouri, US, have now harnessed those flowing electrons to put them to work in a new biological battery device.  Speaking at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Boston, US, Minteer described how her team has...

Attacks mar Iowa State Fair Posted: Aug 25, 2010 10:01 AM CDT Updated: Aug 25, 2010 10:01 AM CDT Des Moines police are investigating a string of attacks at the Iowa State Fair, and say they may be racially motivated. Police say in the latest attack on the fair's final night, Sunday, 30 to 40 teens roamed the fairgrounds looking for trouble. Some teens had been yelling, "IT'S BEAT WHITEY NIGHT." State Troopers say they tried to disperse a crowd of teens Sunday night near the main gate at the fairgrounds, but once the teens left the grounds, they started...

Sources familiar with the police report tell us ... the alleged victim claims White allegedly punched her in one of her breast implants while they were driving on Pacific Coast Highway two weeks ago, with an infant in the car. We're told, she claims when they got home White allegedly slapped her, and pushed her into a toilet so hard it broke the tank. Sources connected with White's baby mama, Bridget Hardy, tell TMZ Hardy is in fact the alleged victim. We're told she did not report any injuries. The alleged victim filed a report with the LAPD Tuesday. The...

"As KMJ News was first to report Friday, the city of Fresno has agreed to pay a woman $150,000 to settle her claim that a former Fresno police officer touched her inappropriately during an investigation."

TEPCO installs long-life sodium-sulfur batteries for distribution network applications. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has established large-scale power generation facilities, including base-load nuclear power plants and high-efficiency thermal peak-load generators, to supply the peak summer demand, which exceeds 60 GW. The utility provides electrical energy to Japan's capital city, Tokyo, an area of dense domestic and industrial customers. To meet the 60-GW summer demand, TEPCO has installed load-leveling technology in the form of pumped storage hydroelectric plants to improve system utilization, but there is now a shortage of suitable sites for these peak-load generation plants. One solution to the...

Interesting, and it's been reported at other forums, too; however, I have only linked the Apple Support forum thread. First post of that thread: I was having the same as everyone else... loosing 1% every 3 minutes...I took email complety off and still was loosing 1% every 8 minutes...called apple restore..didnt resolve...went to the Apple store and they swapped my phone out. Hello 3.1.3 And there are dozens and dozens of other reports like that, in just that thread.

SEATTLE -- Seattle police are investigating what they call an assault of an officer in South Seattle. However, a police officer is seen punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during the incident captured by a video camera on Monday. According to Seattle police, the incident began when an officer spotted a man jaywalking in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. at approximately 3:10 p.m. The man was some 15 feet away from a pedestrian overpass, police said.

"A jury this morning found two Fresno Bulldog gang members not guilty of aggravated mayhem for inking a gang tattoo on a 7-year-old boy during Easter break 2009."

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- U.S. authorities have charged a man with attempting to board a flight from Puerto Rico with weapons including a stun gun, a switchblade knife and four box cutters. ~ snip ~ Pol was scheduled to take a JetBlue flight to Boston when he was arrested on Monday. In addition to the knives agents found pepper spray and a flight simulator program in his luggage.

Police search for group of teens who viciously beat a 73-year-old man in Ohio

LOS ANGELES – A prosecution spokesman says Sean Penn has reached a plea deal in a case in which he was videotaped kicking a photographer. Penn entered a no contest plea to vandalism through his attorney Wednesday morning. City attorney's spokesman Frank Mateljan (Mah-tell-JIN') says Penn was sentenced to three years of informal probation and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service. Mateljan says those hours can be completed through Penn's earthquake-relief efforts in Haiti.

In a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago. The prize is the culmination of 10 years of research and testing -- a new generation of deep-storage battery that's small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home. It promises to nudge the world to a paradigm shift as big as the switch from centralized mainframe computers in the 1980s...

Just over a year ago, and spurred by an article in Time, I wrote a post on the possible global supply of lithium, which is used in renewable batteries, and a major choice for use in the batteries of electric vehicles, such as the Chevy Volt. Since the story has acquired more recent interest this week, and with new information, it is worth re-visiting the topic. Since we also look at processing, I became curious about where and how the lithium is mined. Recently, however, h/t to JoulesBurn, there was an article by Jack Lifton explaining some additional production issues....

Just over a year ago, and spurred by an article in Time, I wrote a post on the possible global supply of lithium, which is used in renewable batteries, and a major choice for use in the batteries of electric vehicles, such as the Chevy Volt. Since the story has acquired more recent interest this week, and with new information, it is worth re-visiting the topic. I began the original post by noting that our first introduction to these batteries was in our role as an Explosives Lab when we found out - in a series of experiments a long...