China's bank lending grows in May from April
Shanghai (AFP) June 12, 2014 -
China's bank lending rose in May from the previous month, the central bank said Thursday, as the government activates a "mini-stimulus" to spur economic growth.
New yuan loans extended by domestic banks hit 870.8 billion yuan ($143 billion) in May, up from 774.7 billion yuan in April, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) said in a statement.
The May figure was also higher than the 733.3 bil ...
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Flight MH370 families get $50,000 in first payouts
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) June 12, 2014 -
Malaysia Airlines' insurer has begun paying the families of passengers onboard Flight MH370 $50,000 each in initial compensation three months after the jet disappeared, a government official said Thursday.
So far six Malaysian and one Chinese family have received the advance payment, to which all the families of the 239 passengers and crew onboard are entitled, said Malaysian deputy foreign ...
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US invests in technology to make electric grid more secure
Washington (UPI) Jun 12, 2013 -
The U.S. Energy Department said it was investing more than $10 million on advanced computer technology to make the nation's energy grid more secure.
Patricia Hoffman, assistant secretary of energy reliability, said advanced sensors and monitoring devices will help providers "make decisions that may prevent power outages before they happen and adeptly respond to changing grid conditions ...
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Tesla gives up patents to 'open source movement'
Washington (AFP) June 12, 2014 -
Electric carmaker Tesla announced Thursday it was giving up its patents to "the open source movement" to help spur electric vehicle technology.
The unusual move comes with Tesla enjoying huge success, but against a backdrop of multiplying legal squabbles among technology firms over patents.
"All our patents belong to you," Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in a blog post.
"Yesterd ...
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Viewing deeper into the quantum world
Barcelona, Spain (SPX) Jun 13, 2014 -
One of the important tasks for quantum physics researchers and engineers is designing more sensitive instruments to study the tiny fields and forces that govern the world we live in. The most precise measuring instruments devised to date, such as atomic clocks or gravitational wave detectors, are interferometric in nature and operate according to the laws of quantum mechanics.
As with all ...
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More than just food for koalas -- eucalyptus -- a global tree for fuel and fiber
Berkeley CA (SPX) Jun 13, 2014 -
From antiseptic oils to the construction of didgeridoos, the traditional Australian Aboriginal wind instrument, the eucalyptus tree serves myriad purposes, accounting for its status as one of the world's most widely planted hardwood trees.
Its prodigious growth habit has caught the eyes of researchers seeking to harness and improve upon Eucalyptus' potential for enhancing sustainable biofu ...
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The Inflatable Concrete Dome
Vienna, Austria (SPX) Jun 13, 2014 -
When concrete shells are constructed, they usually have to be supported by elaborate timber structures. A revolutionary technique developed at the Vienna University of Technology now uses inflatable air cushions instead. Large shell structures made of concrete or stone are hardly ever built any more. The reason is that their construction requires large, expensive supporting structures.
At ...
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New computer program aims to teach itself everything about anything
Seattle WA (SPX) Jun 13, 2014 -
In today's digitally driven world, access to information appears limitless. But when you have something specific in mind that you don't know, like the name of that niche kitchen tool you saw at a friend's house, it can be surprisingly hard to sift through the volume of information online and know how to search for it.
Or, the opposite problem can occur - we can look up anything on the Inte ...
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Charging Portable Electronics in 10 Minutes
Riverside CA (SPX) Jun 13, 2014 -
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a three-dimensional, silicon-decorated, cone-shaped carbon-nanotube cluster architecture for lithium ion battery anodes that could enable charging of portable electronics in 10 minutes, instead of hours.
Lithium ion batteries are the rechargeable battery of choice for portable electronic dev ...
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Long-range tunneling of quantum particles
Innsbruck, Austria (SPX) Jun 13, 2014 -
One of the most remarkable consequences of the rules in quantum mechanics is the capability of a quantum particle to penetrate through a potential barrier even though its energy would not allow for the corresponding classical trajectory. This is known as the quantum tunnel effect and manifests itself in a multitude of well-known phenomena.
For example, it explains nuclear radioactive decay ...
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