UDS, a Subsidiary of Delivery Technology Solutions, Inc. Announces Extension of the SUBWAY(R) Washington, DC Pilot Agreement

Large Hadron Collider to uncover dark secrets soon

Beauty with antimatter bottom' created out of pure energy

LHCb has reconstructed its first Beauty Particle! The Beauty Particle (called B⁺) is composed of an anti-quark b (that has a very short lifetime of 1.5 thousandth of a nanosecond!) and a quark u.

Since the disappearance of primordial antimatter cannot be explained by the current Standard Model theory, it is clear that we have to look for something new. Scientists are exploring different avenues but, given the fact that what we observe represents only about 4% of the total energy and matter that the Universe is made of, one can guess that part of the key to solving the antimatter mystery could be held in the yet unknown part of the Universe.

Hitachi unveils new CinemaStar hard drives

Hitachi announced two new CinemaStar hard drive models. The new 3.5-inch hard drives are the CinemaStar 7K1000.B and the CinemaStar 5K320 which are intended to be used in digital video recorders (DVRs). The CinemaStar 7K1000.B is available up to 1TB capacity, while the CinemaStar 5K320 has 320GB storage capacity.

The 5K320 uses CoolSpin technology which Hitachi claims is one of the most power efficient and quiet hard drive available in the market today. CoolSpin technology consists of a motor that is speed optimized for low power and quiet operation.

Hitachi says that the 1TB CinemaStar 7K1000.B can store up to 247 hours of MPEG-4 encoded high definition video and support up to ten simultaneous data streams. The CinemaStar 7K1000.B will be available in August and the 5K320 will ship in September.

Google attempts to produce renewable energy cheaper than coal

Search giant Google on Tuesday pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make renewable energy cheaper than coal.

The push to mitigate the effects of climate change through clean energy falls squarely into Google.org's missions to improve human health and alleviate poverty, said Larry Brilliant, the executive director of Google.org.

The effort, dubbed RE Technologies created by Google will likely be used by Google, whose data centers are voracious consumers of electricity. The company envisions either selling electricity from renewable sources or licensing technology on terms that would promote broad adoption, according to company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Its overarching goal is to produce 1 gigawatt of electricity from renewable sources--enough to power the city of San Francisco--faster than the current pace of green-technology development.

"The main crux of this is that we believe that you can do it cheaper than coal...and we want to make it happen now," said Page, Google's president of products. "Most people who are doing this now are trying to do it less expensive than people before, but they are not trying for that goal which will have a significant effect on the world."

Investments in other companies will be funded by Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, which has about $2 billion worth of Google stock available to it.

In particular, Google will be investing in solar-thermal technology, wind power, and geothermal systems. Its target is to fall below the price of coal power generation, which can be as low as 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, said Bill Weihl, Google's green-energy czar.

Google said it's already working with eSolar, a solar-thermal company building systems for utilities to generate electricity from heat. It has invested in Makani Power, which is pursuing electricity generation by harnessing wind at high altitudes.

As part of the effort, Google will be hiring experts in the energy field. It expects to hire 20 to 30 people into its clean-energy division in the next year. More substantial investments will come as energy projects come online, Weihl said.

Although an ambitious plan, Google's impact on the clean-tech market segment in the near term is likely to be more psychological than financial, said Paul Clegg, a senior equity analyst who follows clean tech at Jefferies.

"Tens of millions of dollars is not a small number, obviously, but you're spreading that over things that a lot of other companies are attacking on an individual basis with more money going at it," Clegg said. "I think they'd have to invest a lot more money to get the next Manhattan Project going."

However, Google's initiative is significant in that it could indicate how corporations will start addressing their energy needs and climate change going forward, he said.

Eclipse enthusiasts rejoice in August

	The March 29, 2006 eclipse seen from Accra, Ghana. View related photos
Olivier Asselin / AP

A material made mainly natural or synthetic fibers. Modern textile production may be prepare from number of combinations of fibers, foams, furs, or leather, yards, films, sheets,. They are found in apparel, household and commercial furnishings, vehicles, and industrial products. See also Manufactured fiber; Natural fiber.
Cloth as a thin, flexible material made from yarns; yarn as a continuous strand of fibers; and fiber as a fine, rod like object in which the length is greater than 100 times the diameter. The bulk of textile products are made from cloth.

The natural progression from raw material to finished product requires: the cultivation or manufacture of fibers; the twisting of fibers into yarns (spinning); the interlacing (weaving) or interloping (knitting) of yarns into cloth; and the finishing of cloth prior to sale.

The process of weaving allows a set of yarns running in the machine direction (warp) to be interlaced with another set of yarns running across the machine (filling or weft). The weaving process involves four functions: shedding (raising the warp yarns by means of the appropriate harnesses); picking (inserting the weft yarn); battening (pushing the weft into the cloth with a reed); and taking up and letting off (winding the woven cloth onto the cloth beam and releasing more warp yarn from the warp beam;

Construction design for plain weave; filling yarns pass under and over alternate warp yarns, as shown at right. When fabric is closely constructed, there is no distinct pattern. (After M. D. Potter and B. P. Corpsman, Fiber to Fabric, 3d ed., McGraw-Hill, 1959)
Construction design for plain weave; filling yarns pass under and over alternate warp yarns, as shown at right. When fabric is closely constructed, there is no distinct pattern. (After M. D. Potter and B. P. Corpsman, Fiber to Fabric, 3d ed., McGraw-Hill, 1959)

Three-shaft twill. Two warp yarns are interlaced with one filling yarn. (After M. D. Potter and B. P. Corpsman, Fiber to Fabric, 3d ed., McGraw-Hill, 1959
Three-shaft twill. Two warp yarns are interlaced with one filling yarn. (After M. D. Potter and B. P. Corpsman, Fiber to Fabric, 3d ed., McGraw-Hill, 1959)

Interlocking yarns of (a) course and (b) wale in a Jersey knit cloth. (After B. P. Corpsman, Fiber to Fabric, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 1975)

Single-warp (one-bar) tricot knit. (After B. P. Corpsman, Fiber to Fabric, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 1975)
Single-warp (one-bar) tricot knit. (After B. P. Corpsman, Fiber to Fabric, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 1975)

Newly constructed knit or woven fabric must pass through various finishing processes to make it suitable for its intended purpose. Finishing enhances the appearance of fabric and also adds to its serviceability. Finishes can be solely mechanical, solely chemical, or a combination of the two. Those finishes, such as scouring and bleaching, which simply prepare the fabric for further use are known as general finishes. Functional finishes, such as durable press treatments, impart special characteristics to the cloth. For discussions of important finishing operations See also Bleaching; Dyeing; Textile chemistry; Textile printing.