PUTTING CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY IN CONTEXT

PUTTING CARBON CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY IN CONTEXT

Wind and solar power were once considered expensive and were not widely deployed. Today, skeptics say the same about technology to capture, use and store carbon dioxide emissions (CCUS or carbon capture).

So what lessons can we draw from the experience of the wind and solar industries as they’ve become more mainstream to facilitate a faster and broader deployment of carbon capture technology?

Wind Energy

The cost of wind energy has declined by more than 60 percent since 2009 and average nameplate capacity increased 180 percent between 1998-99 to 2015. These improvements have led to an installed wind capacity of 74,821 MW in the United States, enough electricity to power nearly 20 million average U.S. homes every year.  

These wind energy milestones in cost reduction, performance improvements, and scale of deployment were supported by the Production Tax Credit (PTC), a federal deployment incentive. It’s reasonable to assume that the PTC would have been even more successful if it had been maintained consistently instead of experiencing periods of uncertainty regarding its fate, leading to boom-and-bust wind power development cycles.

Ongoing federal research and development (R&D) also spurred improved wind industry technology. For example, in 2007, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory initiated the Gearbox Reliability Collaborative in response to industry-wide technology challenges. That research led to improved gearbox designs, reducing the overall cost of wind energy and showing how collaborative industry efforts and federal support for R&D can resolve performance challenges.  

Solar Energy

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies experienced similar dramatic cost declines due to economies of scale and improved manufacturing and performance. The cost of utility-scale solar has fallen more than 54 percent since 2011. The efficiency of all PV cells steadily improved between 1975 and 2010, supported by multi-decade R&D programs like the Department of Energy’s Thin Film PV Partnership.

These cost declines and performance improvements were facilitated by the Investment Tax Credit, another federal deployment-focused incentive, and the Section 1603 Treasury program, a federal loan guarantee mechanism to support project financing. Strong state policies like the California Renewables Portfolio Standard enabled developers to enter into above-market power purchase agreements. The experience of utility-scale solar PV demonstrates that overlapping policies are essential to achieve financing for first-of-a-kind projects.

Lessons for carbon capture

We can draw three key conclusions from wind and solar energy’s experience:

Stable, long-term deployment incentives that build on previous public and private investments in technology research, development and demonstration (RD&D) are essential to facilitate a large volume of projects;

As more projects are deployed, costs are reduced through economies of scale, learning from experience, and technological innovation;

Ongoing government support for RD&D can deliver cost reductions by supporting innovation and overcoming performance challenges.

In contrast to wind and solar, the U.S. lacks an effective federal incentive for commercial deployment of CCUS—despite being a world leader in public and private RD&D for early stage technology demonstration. Fifteen commercial-scale CCUS projects are operating globally; eight of those are in the United States. But that’s not nearly enough to meet our mid-century climate goals.

Carbon capture can be used at coal- or natural gas-fired power plants, which are baseload generation resources. It’s also the only way to reduce carbon emissions from some industrial plants, such as facilities producing chemicals, steel, and cement.  Also, over the long-term, we’ll need to integrate biomass energy systems with carbon capture (BECCS). Combining the capture of photosynthetic carbon from biomass with CCUS can enable negative emissions.

While first-of-a-kind, commercial-scale CCUS projects are expensive, we know that as more projects come online, they will become cheaper. SaskPower estimates it could cut costs by up to 30 percent on the next unit to be retrofitted following its current experience operating the world’s first commercial-scale, coal-fired power plant carbon capture project. Developers are exploring novel approaches, including the Exxon and Fuel Cell Energy partnership and the Exelon-supported NET Power project, that have the potential to reduce costs still further. 

It’s essential to extend and expand tax incentives for carbon capture, update state laws to include CCUS technology in clean energy standards, and fund continued carbon capture  RD&D, among other things, if we are going to reach our emissions-cutting goals. 

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Energy-efficient BLDC ceiling fan

Energy-efficient BLDC ceiling fan

ROHM Semiconductor launches brushless DC motors

BENGALURU, SEPT 22:

  

ROHM Semiconductor, the Indian arm of Japan-based ROHM Group, has launched its BLDC (brushless DC) motors.

These are ‘Made in India’ and the company executives said that it will halve the power consumption of home appliances and industrial equipment.

These solutions, compared with the less expensive AC induction motor, are easy to control and around 50 per cent more efficient, thereby reducing power consumption, said ROHM Semiconductor India Managing Director Daisuke Nakamura.

The solutions are designed with features to reduce the design time and hence enable a faster time to market. These drivers along with the easily customizable reference designs will propel local design, which is the key to manufacturing locally.

In 2015, India had manufactured around 40 million ceiling fans, with around 10 per cent growth, according to industry watchers.

“If every single ceiling fan manufactured from here on is made into an energy-efficient BLDC ceiling fan, rough calculation indicates that, by 2025, the country can reduce peak-power capacity addition by around 10 GW, which is equivalent to saving around 5 midsized power plants,” said Nakamura

Source:The Hindu BusinessLine

Delete user data until September 25 when you change privacy policy: Delhi HC to WhatsApp

Delete user data until September 25 when you change privacy policy: Delhi HC to WhatsApp

Information shared via WhatsApp messenger after September 25 will be allowed to be shared as per the new policy.

In a significant ruling related to privacy on social media, the Delhi High Court today directed Internet messaging service WhatsApp to delete all data and information of all users from its servers up until September 25 when its new privacy policy comes into effect.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal observed that it was “always open to the existing users of WhatsApp who do not want their information to be shared with Facebook to opt for deletion of their accounts,” and has directed WhatsApp to delete all data/information/details on their servers of all users until September 25, for both the users who choose to delete the application as well as those who retain the application on their mobile phones.

Source:The Indian Express 

Samsung Pay gains support for iris scanning in latest update

Samsung Pay gains support for iris scanning in latest update

Samsung is currently rolling out an update to its mobile payments app. Once you get Samsung Pay version 2.3, you'll be able to buy even more gift cards and add more of your membership cards into the app.

The most notable new feature, however, is iris scanning support. This will let you authenticate yourself in the app with an iris scanner, so for now it's only useful for owners of the Galaxy Note7. But who knows, maybe the Galaxy S8 from 2017 will get an iris scanner too.

Additionally, Samsung Pay now supports restoring all of your membership, gift, and Samsung Reward cards when you sign back into the app - say after you've bought a new device. This will obviously make switching from one supported smartphone to another that much easier.

To get the update, open Samsung Pay, tap the More button in the top right, then Announcements, then go to What's new in 2.3, and after the changelog is up just tap anywhere on it - and the update page will finally load. If you don't have the app yet, download it from the Play Store.

Source:gsmarena

Pay Your Attention :Students develop e-learning solutions

Pay Your Attention :Students develop e-learning solutions

A group of postgraduate students of the Department of Information Sciences and Technology in Anna University are developing personalised e-learning solutions for various subjects.

The students use Bloom’s Taxonomy, which follows a pyramid structure, where remembering concepts forms the base and creating ideas and programmes form the tip.

The solution was the brain child of G.V. Uma, controller of examination, who has been working in the field of software development process models for the past 20 years. “The content supplements what students learn in the classroom. For them to remember concepts, we have to provide intelligence-based personalised e-learning content that they can access at any time. It has to be deployed in a cloud that students can use at any time,” Ms. Uma said.

Five of her students are currently working on various subjects that students both in PG and undergraduate engineering can use.

Such knowledge management solutions will be especially helpful to newly placed students. Even as the students learn from the training programmes offered by the company they can learn in parallel by using these e-learning solutions, she said.

Such solutions have already been offered to students of music and sportspersons, Ms. Uma said.

“Each sportsperson’s physiological constraints are different. A coach can use the e-learning solutions to arrive at the best training module for each person,” she explained.

Similarly, each student’s level of assimilating knowledge varies. A personalised solution would help each of them perform well and improve their ability, she added.

Source:The Hindu

What is climate change?

What is climate change?

Climate is usually defined as the "average weather" in a place. It includes patterns of temperature, precipitation (rain or snow), humidity, wind and seasons. Climate patterns play a fundamental role in shaping natural ecosystems, and the human economies and cultures that depend on them. But the climate we’ve come to expect is not what it used to be, because the past is no longer a reliable predictor of the future. Our climate is rapidly changing with disruptive impacts, and that change is progressing faster than any seen in the last 2,000 years.

According to the report, Preparing for a Changing Climate, rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere have warmed the Earth and are causing wide-ranging impacts, including rising sea levels; melting snow and ice; more extreme heat events, fires and drought; and more extreme storms, rainfall and floods. Scientists project that these trends will continue and in some cases accelerate, posing significant risks to human health, our forests, agriculture, freshwater supplies, coastlines, and other natural resources that are vital to Washington state’s economy, environment, and our quality of life.

Because so many systems are tied to climate, a change in climate can affect many related aspects of where and how people, plants and animals live, such as food production, availability and use of water, and health risks. For example, a change in the usual timing of rains or temperatures can affect when plants bloom and set fruit, when insects hatch or when streams are their fullest. This can affect historically synchronized pollination of crops, food for migrating birds, spawning of fish, water supplies for drinking and irrigation, forest health, and more.

Some short-term climate variation is normal, but longer-term trends now indicate a changing climate.

Our state and societies around the globe need to reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to avoid worsening climate impacts and reduce the risk of creating changes beyond our ability to respond and adapt. Washington state is addressing this challenge and has adopted policies to reduce energy use, limit greenhouse gas emissions, and build a clean energy economy. Some changes in climate — and impacts on our state — are unavoidable, even if we reduce greenhouse gas emissions today. But we can take more actions to reduce progressively worsening impacts.

How is weather different from climate?

Weather can change from hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. It may rain for an hour and then become sunny and clear. Weather is what we hear about on the news or weather report. It includes wind, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, sunshine and precipitation (rain or snow).

Climate is the average weather for a particular region over a long time period. Climate describes the total of all weather occurring over a long period of years in a given place. This includes average weather conditions, regular weather seasons (winter, spring, summer, and fall), and special weather events (like tornadoes and floods). Climate tells us what it's usually like in the place where you live. Historically, San Diego is known to have a mild climate, New Orleans a humid climate, Buffalo a snowy climate, and Seattle a rainy climate.

A simple way of remembering the difference is that 'climate' is what you expect (cool, wet winters) and 'weather' is what you get (a foggy morning with afternoon sunshine).

Are climate change and global warming the same thing?

Not exactly, but they’re closely related and some people use the terms interchangeably. Global warming causes climates to change. "Global warming" refers to rising global temperatures, while “climate change” includes other more specific kinds of changes, too. Warmer global temperatures in the atmosphere and oceans leads to climate changes affecting rainfall patterns, arctic ice (and the northern jet stream that drives our weather), frequency and intensity of storms and droughts, growing seasons, humidity, melting polar and glacial ice, and sea level.

Also, while “global warming” is planet-wide, “climate change” can refer to changes at the global, continental, regional and local levels. Even though a warming trend is global, different areas around the world will experience different specific changes in their climates, which will have unique impacts on local plants, animals and people. A few areas might even get cooler rather than warmer, and extreme weather events can include snowstorms as well as heat waves.

Source:http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/whatis.htm

Climate change means land use will need to change to keep up with global food demand, say scientists

Climate change means land use will need to change to keep up with global food demand, say scientists

London, Sept 20 : A team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham warns that without significant improvements in technology, global crop yields are likely to fall in the areas currently used for production of the world's three major cereal crops, forcing production to move to new areas.

With a worldwide population projected to top nine billion in the next 30 years, the amount of food produced globally will need to double.

A new study led by researchers from the University of Birmingham shows that much of the land currently used to grow wheat, maize and rice is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This could lead to a major drop in productivity of these areas by 2050, along with a corresponding increase in potential productivity of many previously-unused areas, pointing to a major shift in the map of global food production.

The study, published today in Nature Communications, uses a new approach combining standard climate change models with maximum land productivity data, to predict how the potential productivity of cropland is likely to change over the next 50-100 years as a result of climate change.

The results show that:

Nearly half of all maize produced in the world (43%), and a third of all wheat and rice (33% and 37% respectively), is grown in areas vulnerable to the effects of climate change

Croplands in tropical areas, including Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and the Eastern US, are likely to experience the most drastic reductions in their potential to grow these crops

Croplands in temperate areas, including western and central Russia and central Canada, are likely to experience an increase in yield potential, leading to many new opportunities for agriculture

While the effects of climate change are usually expected to be greatest in the worlds poorest areas, this study suggests that developed countries may be equally affected.

Efforts to increase food production usually focus on closing the yield gap, i.e. minimising the difference between what could potentially be grown on a given area of land and what is actually harvested. Highly-developed countries already have a very small yield gap, so the negative effects of climate change on potential yield are likely to be felt more acutely in these areas.

Our model shows that on many areas of land currently used to grow crops, the potential to improve yields is greatly decreased as a result of the effects of climate change, says lead researcher and University of Birmingham academic Dr Tom Pugh.

But it raises an interesting opportunity for some countries in temperate areas, where the suitability of climate to grow these major crops is likely to increase over the same time period.

The political, social and cultural effects of these major changes to the distribution of global cropland would be profound, as currently productive regions become net importers and vice versa.

Of course, climate is just one factor when looking at the future of global agricultural practices, adds Pugh.

Local factors such as soil quality and water availability also have a very important effect on crop yields in real terms. But production of the worlds three major cereal crops needs to keep up with demand, and if we cant do that by making our existing land more efficient, then the only other option is to increase the amount of land that we use.

Source:New Kerala

Most Popular People Born In 1974

Most Popular People Born In 1974

Leonardo DiCaprio

There really is an app for everything as monkey teaches its baby how to use a TABLET

There really is an app for everything as monkey teaches its baby how to use a TABLET

This adorable footage shows the old phrase, 'monkey see, monkey do', brought to life as a simian dad teaches his youngster about modern technology

This adorable footage shows the old phrase, ' monkey see, monkey do', brought to life as a simian dad teaches his youngster how to use a tablet computer.

Tablets like the iPad are marketed as the user-friendly alternative to traditional computers , but even their designers could not have envisaged this scenario.

The pair swipe and scroll on the screen in a way that eerily shows just how closely related they are to humans.

They are even dressed in human clothes as the father cradles its baby.

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Monkey Types 12 Words per Minute With Brain-to-Keyboard Communication

Monkey Types 12 Words per Minute With Brain-to-Keyboard Communication

“To be or not to be. That is the question.” That is also the text that Monkey J typed out using a brain implant to control a computer cursor. 

To be clear, the monkey didn’t know it was copying Shakespeare, and it had no deep thoughts about Hamlet’s famous monologue. Monkey J and its colleague, Monkey L, were both trained to use their neural implants to move a cursor over a computer screen, hitting circles as they turned green. Stanford University researchers placed letters on those targets to simulate the typing task. So to tap out the line from Hamlet, first the “T” circle was illuminated, then the “O,” and so on.

What was the point of this exercise? Was it simply an excuse to let journalists trot out the “infinite monkey theorem”? Because here we go: This probability theorem states that if you give a monkey a typewriter and infinite time, its random keystrokes will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare. (If you’d rather goof off than read about science, please enjoy these excellent cartoons.)

No, the bioengineers had a more practical motivation. By simulating this typing task, they demonstrated that their brain-computer interface could greatly benefit people who can’t communicate otherwise. That category includes people in the late stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which leaves the mind intact but gradually paralyzes the body, including the mouth and other face muscles.

This experiment set a new record for typing-by-mind, with one monkey tapping out 12 words per minute. “To our knowledge, this is the highest communication level ever achieved,” says Paul Nuyujukian, a researcher at Stanford’s Neural Prosthetics Translational Lab. Nuyujukian is coauthor of the paper describing this research, published today in Proceedings of the IEEE.

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Extent of Arctic sea ice reached its low point of the year Sunday, the second lowest ever

Extent of Arctic sea ice reached its low point of the year Sunday, the second lowest ever

British adventurer/explorer Ben Saunders spent a lot of time in the Arctic. On foot. Hauling his stuff behind him. He started in 2001. After three years, he could give a firsthand report that the Arctic was getting warmer. In May 2004, he gave up a ski trip from Russia via the North Pole to Canada in May because it was too hot: the average temperature was just -1.4°F, compared to -21.4°F just three years before. 

NASA reported similar results. That same year, researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at my alma mater, the University of Colorado, reported that the extent of Arctic ice had hit a record low.  Also in 2004 the Arctic Council’s International Arctic Science Committee issued its 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment showing a grim future for the circumpolar Inuit people as a result of climate change. All four of these assessments were ridiculed by climate change deniers and pretty much ignored by the media. All four were right.

Read More ...DailyKos.com 

IIT-Madras files 248 patent applications, the most among all IITs in India

IIT-Madras files 248 patent applications, the most among all IITs in India

NEW DELHI: Leading  the pack of the country’s premier educational institutes in terms of patents, the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (IIT-M) has filed applications for, and secured, the most number of patents among IITs.

According to the Human Resource Development Ministry, IIT Madras has filed 248 patent applications thus far, of which 13 have been approved, indicating a robust research ecosystem in its campus.

Having been awarded 10 patents out of a total of 205 applications, IIT Bombay comes in a close second, followed by IIT Delhi with 100 patent applications. In all, 453 patent applications have been filed by the 16 IITs across the country.

In terms of research publication – a key factor for acquiring global recognition – IIT Kharagpur leads the way with 4,719 publications to its credit, followed by IIT Bombay with 4,488 publications and IIT Delhi with 4,344. In all, the IITs have 25,164 research publications to their credit.

Significantly, IIT Roorkee, which had hogged the limelight for striking dozens of first-year students off its rolls for low grades, has 3,766 research publications to its credit, of which 1,896 research papers have been published in international journals.

But as far as research fellows are concerned, the institute has 4,062 of them – way below IIT Bombay which has 9,117 research fellows.  IIT Kharagpur comes third with 3,640, followed by IIT Delhi with 2,298. This is one domain where IIT-Madras fares rather poorly, with a mere 187 research fellows.

Source:The Indian Express

Why buy when the same can be cooked at home, new mantra of Indian consumers

Why buy when the same can be cooked at home, new mantra of Indian consumers 

NEW DELHI: While same store sales of western style foods have slowed down to less than 5 per cent over the past two years, companies which supply and sell western condiments such as speciality sauces, mayonnaise, dips, olive oils and other similar cooking aids are witnessing retail sales growth of anywhere between 25 per cent and 60 per cent over the past 12 months depending on the category, industry players said, quoting data from researcher Nielsen and internal industry estimates. 

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‘Use social media for objective analysis of Cauvery issue’

‘Use social media for objective analysis of Cauvery issue’

In a context where social media is extensively used to spread rumours and false information, Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission chairman T.N. Prakash Kammaradi on Tuesday said it should instead be used to do an objective analysis of the Cauvery issue and unite people. The “enlightened” people of Bengaluru, comprising both Kannadigas and Tamilians, should do this, he said.

Mr. Kammaradi said the water issue should be analysed not only from the point of irrigation but also by taking into account water requirement for forest, ecology, wells and groundwater recharge, and drinking purpose in the basin. The IT sector in Bengaluru should come forward for an objective analysis through social media. He told The Hindu that in reality the common people of both States do not know the water level in the KRS or Mettur dam. Information on this should be shared through photographs in the social media.

Meanwhile, several stars of the Kannada film industry took to social media platforms to appeal for peace. Actor and former Mandya MP Ramya tweeted, “Violence is not the solution to the problem. Violence begets violence.”

Actor Ganesh in a video on Facebook said he was pained by the violence. He appealed to people to maintain peace and harmony.

Let us not allow fringe elements to hijack our peaceful fight towards our rightful share of Cauvery waters.

Yash,actor

Source:The Hindu 

Donald Trump’s Newest Adviser Says Global Warming Is a Huge Threat to National Security

Donald Trump’s Newest Adviser Says Global Warming Is a Huge Threat to National Security

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey has signed on as a senior adviser to Donald Trump—even though the two men's views are oceans apart on an issue very close to Woolsey's heart: climate change.

For years, the former CIA director has been an advocate for cleaner energy and has called for addressing global warming from a national security perspective. He argues that our current energy sources put us at "the whims of OPEC's despots" and make us more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. He wants the United States to shift from its reliance on coal and oil to renewables and natural gas. "There's enough consensus that human-generated global warming gas emissions are beginning to have an effect," he said in an interview in 2010. "Next year might be cooler than this year but that doesn't mean the trend isn't there." (Indeed, the world keeps getting warmer.

In 2013, Woolsey was one of dozens of national security experts who signed a statement declaring that climate change represents a "serious threat to American national security interests." The "potential consequences are undeniable, and the cost of inaction, paid for in lives and valuable US resources, will be staggering," read the statement. "Washington must lead on this issue now."

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The $3.7-billion pipeline that became a rallying cry for tribes across America

The $3.7-billion pipeline that became a rallying cry for tribes across America

Native American protests of an oil pipeline under construction in North Dakota began this spring with a handful of people praying in a makeshift camp on a nearby Indian reservation.

Months later, after legal wrangling, celebrity endorsements and, most importantly, the arrival of thousands more Native Americans to join the opposition, the issue has exploded into one of the most contentious and high-profile environmental battles in the nation. It involves climate change, tribal rights, the energy economy and jobs. It also wades into delicate issues of how Native Americans have been treated by the federal government for years.

What is the Dakota Access pipeline?

The pipeline would carry more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Bakken and Three Forks production regions of North Dakota. The pipeline, 30 inches in diameter, would travel 1,172 miles, passing through South Dakota and Iowa before connecting with an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill. Its developer, Energy Transfer Partners, based in Texas, says its total cost is $3.7 billion.

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Singapore to focus on vector control as Zika cases cross 300

Singapore to focus on vector control as Zika cases cross 300

As Singapore confirmed 333 cases of Zika, including of eight pregnant women, the city-state's Health Minister on Tuesday outlined measures to tackle the mosquito-borne virus, including focusing on vector control and monitoring of babies born to infected women.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, in a statement in Parliament, said that over 500 blood samples a month were tested for Zika from January this year. Close to 4,000 blood samples were tested between February and August, before the first confirmed case was reported on August 27, he said.

He said the government will not isolate or hospitalise Zika patients.

Gan said the ministry has worked with National Environment Agency's Environmental Health Institute to put in place a surveillance program for Zika two years ago, Xinhua news agency reported.

The sudden surge of Zika infected cases from August 27 to August 28 was due to the "active back-tracing process". He said the ministry only confirmed the first locally transmitted Zika case on August 27, and then released information the same evening.

To manage Zika in the long-term, Gan noted that efforts were now focusing on vector control. The ministry will monitor babies born to pregnant women with Zika over time.

The minister reiterated that subsidised Zika testing was extended to all Singaporeans beyond the affected clusters.

These infection involved seven clusters, with slightly more than 80 per cent of the total cases from the main cluster in Aljunied, Sims Drive and Paya Lebar Way.

Source:Business Standard

July was Earth's hottest month in modern times: NOAA

July was Earth's hottest month in modern times: NOAA

Rising temperatures could increase Antarctica's snowfall, says study

Rising temperatures could increase Antarctica's snowfall, says study

Pay Your Attention :how should you breathe in freestyle?

Pay Your Attention :how should you breathe in freestyle?

Freestyle breathing technique

Developing a good breathing technique is perhaps the biggest challenge for beginner and intermediate swimmers. Problems with breathing can easily knock on into other parts of the stroke. For instance, breathing can cause scissor kicks, poor body position, cross-overs and lop sided strokes.

Many swimmers have a problem with their stroke that is related to their breathing technique without realising that their breathing is the cause of the problem.

Below we're going to take a quick look at good breathing technique and common problems. We'll also give you 7 tips to improve your breathing, try them even if you don't think you have a breathing problem - you may be surprised!

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How Does Attention Work?

How Does Attention Work?

Attention is not just about the things we focus on – it also concerns all the things we manage to tune out. We know that attention is both selective and limited in terms of capacity, but how exactly do we filter out unnecessary information and shine the spotlight of our attention on things that actually matter?

Many theories of attention tend to concentrate on how we focus our attention, but fail to address exactly how we manage to ignore all the stimuli around us competing for attentional resources.

A few recent studies have focused on the neuroscience behind this process, shedding some light on the possible processes that influence how we tune out distractions.

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How Does Selective Attention Work?

How Does Selective Attention Work?

At any given moment, we are subjected to a constant barrage of sensory information. The blare of a car horn from the street outside; the chatter of your friends; the click of the keys as you type a paper for school; the hum of the heater as it keeps your room warm on a brisk autumn day.

But in most cases, we don't pay attention to each and every one of these sensory experiences. Instead, we center our attention on certain important elements of our environment while other things blend into the background or pass us by completely unnoticed.

So how exactly do we decide what to pay attention to and what to ignore?

Imagine that you are at a party for a friend hosted at a bustling restaurant. Multiple conversations, the clinking of plates and forks, and many other sounds compete for your attention. Out of all these noises, you find yourself able to tune out the irrelevant sounds and focus on the amusing story that your dinner partner shares.

How do you manage to ignore certain stimuli and concentrate on just one aspect of your environment? This is an example of selective attention. Because our ability to attend to the things around us is limited in terms of both capacity and duration, we have to be picky about the things we pay attention to.

Attention acts somewhat like a spotlight, highlighting the details that we need to focus on and casting irrelevant information to the sidelines of our perception.

"In order to sustain our attention to one event in everyday life, we must filter out other events," explains author Russell Revlin in his text Cognition: Theory and Practice.

"We must be selective in our attention by focusing on some events to the detriment of others. This is because attention is like a resource that needs to be distributed to those events that are important."

Source:VeryWell.com 

Coal rises to become one of hottest commodities

Coal rises to become one of hottest commodities

For all the predictions about the death of coal, it's now one of the hottest commodities in the world.

The resurrection may have further to run.

A surge in Chinese imports to compensate for lower domestic production has seen European prices jump to near an 18-month high, while Australia's benchmark is set for the first annual gain since 2010.

At the start of the year, prices languished near decade lows because of waning demand from utilities seeking to curb pollution and amid the International Energy Agency's declaration that the fuel's golden age in China was over.

Now, traders are weighing the chances of extreme weather hitting major producers and China further boosting imports as factors that could push prices even higher.

"It's a commodity that's been on a slippery slide for the past four years and it's making a remarkable recovery," said Erik Stavseth, an analyst at Arctic Securities in Oslo, who's tracked the market for almost a decade. "There's a strong pulse."

What could light up the market further is the occurrence of a La Nina weather pattern. Last time it happened in 2010 and 2011, heavy rains flooded mines in Australia and Indonesia, the world's two largest exporters.

While some meteorologists have toned down their predictions for the weather phenomenon forming and having a lasting impact "another strong forecast" would cause prices to rise further, according to Fitch Group Inc.'s BMI Research.

La Nina systems can last for as long as two years, occurring when the surface of the equatorial Pacific cools, shifting weather patterns across the world.

Named by fishermen in Latin America, La Nina is the "The Girl," which often follows an El Nino, or "The boy."

The Japan Meteorological Agency said Friday a La Nina has already set in and that there's a 70 percent chance that it will continue into the winter.

That's in contrast to the U.S. Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center which on Thursday downgraded the chance of the event happening to 35 to 45 percent, compared with as high as 75 percent in June.

Australia rates the possibility at 50 percent.

The U.S. and Japan have disagreed about the state of the Pacific in the past. In 2014, Japan declared an El Nino had started while the U.S., along with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, said it hadn't.

While zinc is this year's best performing commodity, climbing more than 41 percent, coal is not far off. Contracts for delivery next quarter to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp gained 30 percent this year, while Australian benchmark contracts rose 40 percent.

That compares with the Bloomberg Commodities Index of 24 raw materials, which rose 7.9 percent this year. Coal isn't in the gauge.

Back in February 2011, Australian prices were almost double today's level as the last La Nina caused havoc to production and transport of the fuel from Australia to South Africa.

In an "extreme" La Nina scenario, prices for the next two quarters in Europe may jump as much as 18 and 27 percent, according to Diana Bacila, an analyst at Nena AS, an Oslo-based energy consulting firm.

Source:Sltrib

Asians are now the fastest-growing group in U.S. as Latino population slips, study finds

Asians are now the fastest-growing group in U.S. as Latino population slips, study finds

Source:latimes