NASA preparing to launch 3-D printer into space

 

 

 

Project manager Matthew Napoli, left, and director of research and development Michael Snyder test a 3D printer which will eventually be used in space on Monday, Sept. 16, 2013, at Made in Space in Mountain View, Calif. One of the biggest obstacles to space exploration is that you need to bring everything with you: tools, equipment, spare parts, satellites. NASA is working with a Silicon Valley company to make specialized 3D printers that would allow astronauts to produce the things they need on-demand when they’re in space, allowing them to travel farther from the Earth. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

 

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (AP) — NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

The printers would serve as a flying factory of infinite designs, creating objects by extruding layer upon layer of plastic from long strands coiled around large spools. Doctors use them to make replacement joints and artists use them to build exquisite jewelry.

In NASA labs, engineers are 3-D printing small satellites that could shoot out of the Space Station and transmit data to earth, as well as replacement parts and rocket pieces that can survive extreme temperatures.

“Any time we realize we can 3-D print something in space, it’s like Christmas,” said inventor Andrew Filo, who is consulting with NASA on the project. “You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable.”

The spools of plastic could eventually replace racks of extra instruments and hardware, although the upcoming mission is just a demonstration printing job.

“If you want to be adaptable, you have to be able to design and manufacture on the fly, and that’s where 3-D printing in space comes in,” said Dave Korsmeyer, director of engineering at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, about 35 miles south of San Francisco.

For the first 3-D printer in space test slated for fall 2014, NASA had more than a dozen machines to choose from, ranging from $300 desktop models to $500,000 warehouse builders.

All of them, however, were built for use on Earth, and space travel presented challenges, from the loads and vibrations of launch to the stresses of working in orbit, including microgravity, differing air pressures, limited power and variable temperatures.

As a result, NASA hired Silicon Valley startup Made In Space to build something entirely new.

“Imagine an astronaut needing to make a life-or-death repair on the International Space Station,” said Aaron Kemmer, CEO of Made in Space. “Rather than hoping that the necessary parts and tools are on the station already, what if the parts could be 3-D printed when they needed them?”

When staffing his start up in 2010, Kemmer and his partners warned engineers there would be ups and downs — nauseating ones. In more than a dozen flights in NASA’s “vomit comet” reduced-gravity aircraft, Made In Space scientists tested printer after printer.

Last week at their headquarters on NASA’s campus, Made In Space engineers in lab coats and hair nets tinkered with a sealed 3-D printer in a dust free cleanroom, preparing the models for further pre-launch tests.

As proof of its utility, the team revisited the notorious 1970 moon-bound Apollo 13 breakdown, when astronauts were forced to jerry-rig a lifesaving carbon dioxide filter holder with a plastic bag, a manual cover and duct tape. A 3-D printer could have solved the problem in minutes.

“Safety has been one of our biggest concerns,” said strategic officer Michael Chen. Sparks, breakages and electric surges can have grave consequences in the space station. “But when we get it right, we believe these are the only way to manifest living in space,” he said.

Space-bound printers will also, eventually, need to capture gasses emitted from the extruded plastics, be able to print their own parts for self-repairs and have some abilities to recycle printed products into new ones.

Scott Crump, who helped develop 3-D printing technology in 1988 by making a toy frog for his daughter with a glue gun in his kitchen, said he never conceived how pivotal it could be for space travel. But he said that until metal becomes commonly used in 3-D printers, the applications will be limited.

“The good news is that you don’t have to have this huge amount of inventory in space, but the bad news is now you need materials, in this case filament, and a lot of power,” he said.

NASA and other international space agencies are pressing forward with 3-D printing. Mastering space manufacturing, along with finding and producing water and food on the moon or other planets, could lead to living on space.

Last month, the space agency awarded Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited $500,000 toward a project to use 3-D printing and robots to build massive antennas and solar power generators in space by 2020. It replaces the expensive and cumbersome process of building foldable parts on Earth and assembling them in orbit.

For Made In Space’s debut, when it’s shuttled up to the space station aboard a spaceflight cargo resupply mission, the initial prints will be tests — different small shapes to be studied for strength and accuracy. They’re also discussing with NASA about what the first real piece that they should print will be.

Whatever it is, it will be a historic and symbolic item sure to end up in a museum someday.

“It’s not something we’re discussing publicly right now,” said CEO Kemmer. Then, Jason Dunn, the chief technology officer, beckoned, dropping his voice as he grinned.

“We’re going to build a Death Star,” he joked softly, referring to the giant space station in the “Star Wars” movies that could blow up planets. “Then it’s all going to be over.”

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from California

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) – An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades before commercial satellite launch services begin later this year.

The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX,soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon (1600 GMT).

The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, its water vapor trail visible even as the rocket left the atmosphere.

“It went better than expected. It was incredibly smooth,” SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk told Reuters after the launch.

Nestled inside the rocket’s new 17-foot (5-meter) diameter nose cone was a small Canadian science satellite called Cassiope that initially was to fly on SpaceX’s now-discontinued Falcon 1 launcher in 2008.

“It’s certainly a huge relief to have successfully delivered Cassiope to orbit. It’s been weighing on me quite heavily,” Musk said.

Cassiope, which is designed to monitor the space environment around Earth and serve as a communications satellite, and five secondary payloads were delivered into their intended orbits, Musk told reporters on a conference call.

As an experiment, both of the rocket’s two stages were restarted during flight.

Musk is particularly interested in developing the technology to fly the Falcon’s first stage back to the launch site or have it gently splash down in the water so its motors can be recovered, refurbished and reflown. Currently, after delivering their payloads into orbit, the boosters tumble back toward Earth and essentially explode mid-air before crashing into the sea.

“The most revolutionary thing about the new Falcon 9 is the potential ability to recover the boost phase, which is almost three-quarters of the cost of the rocket,” Musk said.

Neither engine restart test went perfectly, but engineers were able to get enough data to plan on a demonstration flight next year.

“The most important thing is we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle,” Musk said.

The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics and software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.

Privately-owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.

Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.

SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly that United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.

SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.

Falcon 9’s next mission is to put a communications satellite into orbit for SES World Skies. The launch is targeted for next month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

“We accomplished a lot today,” Musk said. “We have a little bit of work to do obviously, but all-in-all I think it’s been a great day.”

5 Red Flags in Your Job History … And How to Combat Them

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When employers screen job applicants, they might spend as little as a few seconds scanning your résumé before moving on to the next. If they see red flags during that initial look, they’re likely to toss your application and move on to the next candidate – so it’s important to make sure that any red flags in your job history are addressed right up front.

Here are five of the most common job history red flags and how to combat them.

1. You have unexplained gaps in between your jobs.

Why it’s a problem: When employers see gaps of unemployment (of longer than a few months), they wonder what happened during that time. Did you leave the previous job with nothing lined up, and if so, why? Were you fired? Were you working somewhere that you’ve deliberately left off your résumé, and if so, what are you hiding? Gaps in your job history raise questions that you don’t want on a hiring manager’s mind.

How to combat it: Be prepared to explain what caused the gap and what you did with the time. Were you spending the time caring for a sick family member, traveling, or volunteering? Be ready to talk about it.

2. You look like a job-hopper who doesn’t stay at a job very long.

Why it’s a problem: If your résumé shows a pattern of leaving jobs quickly – meaning that you have repeated stays of less than two years – you’re going to raise alarm bells for most employers. They’ll assume you won’t stay long with them either, and they’ll wonder why you’re unable or unwilling to stay in one place for a more typical amount of time.

How to combat it: First, if any of those short stays were designed to be short from the beginning, like an internship, temp job or contract work, make sure that your résumé indicates that. Note “contract job” or another explanation next to your job title. But if you’re a true job hopper and those jobs that you left early were intended to be longer term, this is a harder problem to fix. You might need to rely on convincing hiring managers that (a) you’re ready for stability and want to find a company you can commit to for longer, and (b) you’re so great at what you do that you’ll be worth investing in.

3. You were fired from a job in the recent past.

Why it’s a problem: Employers will want reassurance that whatever caused you to be fired won’t be repeated if you work for them.

How to combat it: Practice an answer that briefly explains what you learned from the situation and what you do differently now as a result. Practice saying it out loud until you eliminate all traces of defensiveness or bitterness; employers are going to pay attention to how comfortable you are with your answer and whether it sounds like you’ve moved forward.

4. You don’t have much experience.

Why it’s a problem: While you might be able to do the job if given a chance, the reality is that employers have plenty of experienced candidates who have already worked in their field. As a result, they don’t have much incentive to take a chance on someone untested.

How to combat it: This is where a fantastic cover letter can really help you. That means a cover letter that doesn’t just regurgitate your résumé but instead really speaks to why you want this particular job and why you’d excel at it. In addition, try fleshing out your résumé with volunteer work, to establish a track record for employers to look at.

5. You’ve been unemployed for a while.

Why it’s a problem: Even in this economy, some hiring managers look at long-term unemployed candidates and wonder if there’s a reason that other employers haven’t hired them. Fortunately, many employers do understand that it can take time for even good candidates to find work in this market.

How to combat it: Make sure that you can show that you’ve been spending your time volunteering, building your skills or something other than watching TV and applying to jobs. Employers want to see that you’ve done something to keep up with your field during your time away.

Alison Green writes the popular Ask a Manager blog, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues.

She’s also the co-author of Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager’s Guide to Getting Results, and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.

Iran unveils short-range reconnaissance drone

 

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A handout picture released by Iran’s ISNA news agency shows the new Iranian-made highly mobile propellant-powered reconnaissance drone named “Yasseer”, in Tehran, on September 28, 2013 (AFP Photo/Amir Pourmand)

 

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Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s army unveiled a highly mobile propellant-powered reconnaissance drone on Saturday, according to local media.

The drone, named “Yasseer,” can fly for eight hours with a range of 200 kilometres (124 miles) and reach an altitude of 4,500 meters (15,000 feet), the reports said.

It resembles the American ScanEagle, an unmanned short-range aerial surveillance vehicle that Iran claimed to have captured in late 2012. However, Iranian officials did not mention the US drone on Saturday.

“Yasseer is capable of identifying targets… with its very powerful camera, and reporting them back to the base,” the chief of army ground forces General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan was quoted as saying at the unveiling ceremony.

According to photos provided to Iranian media, the drone is launched from a wedge catapult, enhancing its mobility. The reports did not provide further details.

Pourdastan also spoke of another newly produced kamikaze drone — called Ra’ad 85 — which he said was capable of identifying targets and attacking them.

He did not provide further details about the drone, and no pictures were released to the media.

Iran in recent years has boasted of capturing US drones it says have penetrated its airspace, vowing to reverse engineer them to make its own.

In December 2011 Iran claimed to have captured a large and sophisticated CIA stealth drone, a bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel. Tehran rejected a US request for its return.

On Friday, Iran put into service a long-range drone called Shahed 129, with a range of 1,700 kilometres (or 1,050 miles). The drone is capable of flying for up to 24 hours and carrying eight missiles.

The Shahed 129 was unveiled in September 2012.

Iran says it operates a large drone production programme, which is a source of concern for regional arch-foe Israel and Western nations at odds with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions.

Two V-8s, four superchargers, 1,200 hp combine for one massive hot rod

For a select group of custom car builders, there’s no such thing as too much power. As long as the final product can move on its own without killing the driver in an A-bomb sized fireball, then she’s good to go. Such cars are all about the challenge of building and engineering — like this homebuilt roadster from a New Zealand madman with one Ford body, two V-8, four superchargers and 1,200 horses barely contained by the frame.

Tronson once raced Funny Car dragsters, and has said the idea for the car he calls the Double Trouble came to him out of the blue. Built over six months with nothing fancier than welding equipment and bent metal, Tronson acquired two Ford 4.6-liter modular V-8 racing engines, and stacked two B&M superchargers atop a custom intake over each engine. Those tie into a Ford 3-speed via a self-designed bell housing, and the rest of the car — from its Corvette brakes to Jaguar rear-end and fiberglass body of a ’27 Ford — has a similar stirring of off-the-shelf parts with Tronson-built adaptations.

7 Financial Decisions Made in Your 30s That May Haunt You in Your 50s

Young women at Miami Beach, Florida (Photo credit: State Library and Archives of Florida)

People often say “life is short” as a justification to do or buy something immediately rather than waiting. But the truth is, life is not short. Life is long. The average life expectancy for an American male is 76.2 years, and 81 years for a female. A thirty-year-old discussing a short life may actually be looking at another 50 long years.

This is good news! And, financially speaking, a long outlook on life is important, because the decisions we make early on have a significant impact on the remainder of our lives. Specifically, these decisions can make or break our retirement plans.

[More from Forbes: 13 Ways College Students Waste Money And Opportunities]

Here are seven important financial decisions 30-year-olds make that could come back to haunt them in their 50s:

1. The company you work for. There are many things to consider when choosing a job, but the retirement benefits offered are vital to wealth-building in the long term. A 30-year-old who doesn’t carefully research his or her benefits and chooses to work for a company with no company match or retirement contribution could  be way behind someone who works for a company with robust benefits. For example, a 30-year-old making $75,000 a year who saves 10% of his or her income in a 401(k) and earns an 8% average return would have a balance of just under $600,000 at age 55.  Compare that to a 30-year-old who saves 10% at a company that matches 5% and adds a profit sharing contribution that averages 5% a year. He or she would have almost $1.2 million in their retirement account—double our first example’s amount—at age 55.

2. Your starting salary.  Even a slightly higher starting salary can jump start your earning potential. A study by George Mason University and Temple University showed that employees who negotiated their starting salaries averaged a $5,000 increase compared to those who didn’t negotiate. Due to the effects of compounding, the researchers estimate that an employee who starts his or her career with a salary of $55,000 instead of $50,000 (with 5% increases each year) would earn over $600,000 more in income over a 40-year career.

3. Your choice of a partner.  Who you marry is one of the most important financial decisions you can make. I’m not advocating you marry for money—quite the contrary. Marrying for love and staying together is a smart financial move. Whether the 50% divorce rate is an accurate statistic or not, we can all agree that when it happens to you, it is devastating both emotionally and financially. The divorce itself can be expensive and dividing financial assets unravels your financial planning. Just ask Robin Williams, who is returning to television after two expensive divorces!

Your choice of a mate isn’t only about love and commitment; it’s also about financial compatibility. If you and your partner are compatible money-wise and commit to setting up a financial plan to save, invest and build your future, you can enjoy life and create financial security at the same time.

[More from Forbes: 7 Financial Skills Every 20-Year-Old Needs To Know]

4. When you have children. Americans are delaying having children.  In fact, according toNational Health Statistics Report, more than one in three college-educated women will have children after the age of 30. In the past few decades, the average age of American first-time mothers has increased by four years, and first-time fathers are aging at the same rate. Since the recession in 2008, the only age group that has continued to have more babies than in years past is the “over 40” group.

In Sheryl Sandberg’s book, “Lean In,” she encourages women not to pass up promotions because of plans to have children. If you have plenty of support at home, this can be a great idea. Another way to look at it is, if you plan on having children, don’t wait because you are focusing on your career or waiting for financial security. There are advantages to having children earlier.

One reason has to do with timing of kids’ expenses. Consider a couple that has children when they are 25 years old. Before they hit their 50s, their kids are past the very expensive college years. These parents, still young themselves, have 15 years to focus on their own retirement savings if they plan to retire at 65. Couples that have children when they are 35 years old may not see the light at the end of the “empty nest” tunnel until they are 60—much closer to retirement age.

5. How you invest.  Investing in high-cost managed accounts can take a heavy toll on investment returns over time. According to Forbes contributor Rick Ferri, founder of Portfolio Solutions, those fees can add up to 40% of your return each year. Rick shares an example of how, with annual mutual fund management fees of 1.1% and an additional advisor fee of 1% (on the first $1 million of your assets), an investor trying to squeak out a return of 5.3% (the expected return) of a portfolio of 60% global stocks/40% U.S. bonds could actually pay 40% of that return in fees. Make sure you weigh the long-term impact of fees when investing; consider choosing low-cost mutual funds or index funds for retirement savings.

6. Whether you rent or buy a house.  There are instances when it is better to rent than to buy a house. If you need mobility, don’t plan on staying in your area for long or aren’t interested in potentially being a long-distance landlord, you may be better off renting. However, in the long term, owning your home can be a coup for pre-retirees. Without even taking home equity into account, a homeowner with a fixed-rate mortgage won’t have to worry about a rent increase. Having a fixed housing cost is increasingly important as you get older, since rents can increase with inflation and you are attempting to estimate future expenses. As a homeowner, the mortgage will eventually be paid off and your housing budget will only have to cover taxes and repairs, so there may be more money to enjoy during your retirement.

[More from Forbes: How To Retire At Fifty]

7. How you pay attention to your dollars.  If I could take back what I spent in the past twenty years on coffee, clothes I bought on sale but rarely wore and my “guilty pleasure” books, I’d be a wealthy woman. Tracking expenses to see where your money is going which you can do with your bank, Quicken, or in the LearnVest Money Center (*disclosure – I work for LearnVest Planning Services) and identifying blind spots can help you save more and spend less. First of all, when you are tracking expenses, you have a heightened awareness of your money and subsequently are more reluctant to part with your dollars. I hear clients exclaim all the time, “I had no idea I spend $600 a month on restaurants (or $800 a month on shopping). I am shocked!” When tracking, you can more easily identify areas for cost savings and put those savings toward your financial goals. 

Mickey Mantle said, “If I knew I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” I suggest that if 30-year-olds knew just how young they’d feel in their 50s and how much life is left to live, they’d take much better care of their finances.

Life is long. Make decisions accordingly.

Nancy L. Anderson, CFP ™ is a fee-only financial planner with LearnVest Planning Services and a blogger for Deer Valley Ski Resort. Company website is LearnVest.com (code Retire50).  Follow Nancy on Twitter.

The opinions expressed are those of the author and may not be the views of LearnVest Planning Services LLC (“LVPS”), a registered investment adviser. The advice provided is not personalized investment advice, may not be suitable for your individual situation, are not guarantees of future performance and may differ materially from actual events that occur.  The author and LVPS are not endorsing, sponsoring or responsible for errors or inaccuracies by third party sources and links on which the author reasonably relies. 

 

Science trumps the Force to create a real-life lightsaber

Science fiction or science friendship? (Credit: Wicked Lasers)

Researchers from MIT and Harvard create a new form of matter and teach us all a lesson about the power of quantum friendship.

By Eric Mack, CNET

In journalism, there’s something called a lede, which is just another word for the main or most important part of your story. Normally you want to lay it out for the reader in the first sentence or two. Obviously, I’m hesitating here.

That’s because I can’t decide if it’s more important that researchers at MIT and Harvard have just managed to create a previously unobserved form of matter by getting photons to bind together into molecules, or the fact that the result is basically a real-life lightsaber — that could be part of a quantum computer one day.

Actually, I think what this story is really about is…friendship.

See, photons — which are the elementary particles of light — tend to be massless and kind of aloof. If you shoot two laser beams at each other, the photons just pass right through each other without so much as a hello or a high five.

But when the researchers fired a few photons into a vacuum chamber with a cloud of extremely cold rubidium atoms to take advantage of an effect called a Rydberg blockade, the photons started hanging out and even left the chamber together as the first “photonic molecule” — a sort of quantum bromance — ever observed.

And it’s that bond between new particle bros that creates the new form of matter, which bears a resemblance to that most awesome weapon from a galaxy far, far away.

“It’s not an in-apt analogy to compare this to lightsabers,” said Harvard Professor of Physics Mikhail Lukin in a news release. “When these photons interact with each other, they’re pushing against and deflect each other. The physics of what’s happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies.”

 

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Proof that friendship is possible at the particle level. (Credit: Nature)

The team made no mention of the potential for weaponizing the new molecules to take on any Sith lords, but I suppose DARPA or any number of Jedi masters who follow Crave could come calling at any moment.

Photonic molecules would be more likely to advance quantum computing, according to Lukin: “Photons remain the best possible means to carry quantum information. The handicap, though, has been that photons don’t interact with each other.”

Until now. Turns out you just had to get some photons in the same place and introduce them to each other through some totally chill atoms, and they’ll actually hit it off.

Lukin says this new bond between photons could also have practical applications for contemporary chipmakers working to convert light into electric signals.

Most mind-blowing of all, he also suggests the breakthrough could one day lead to technologies that allow for the creation of complex 3D structures, like crystals, made out of light.

Dude, these Cambridge smarties didn’t just make “Star Wars” real, they’ve brought “TRON” to life at the same time! All because of the power of friendship … and science!

Spotting a Liar: The Health Effects of Deception

People who get away with cheating—when they suspect no one is hurt by their deception—are more likely to feel upbeat than remorseful afterwards, found a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In experiments conducted among more than 1,000 participants, researchers found that people experienced a “cheater’s high”after engaging in duplicitous behaviour.  These findings contradicted the predictions of participants themselves, who expected to feel guilty about their deceit.

In one of the experiments, participants tackled a series of math and logic problems using a computer. Some of them were given access to a “correct answer” button, which revealed the right response to any given question when clicked. Although they were asked to ignore the button, 68% of them used it during the test. Afterwards, those who clicked the button reported greater feelings of happiness than those who acted honestly.

Honesty linked to greater mental and physical health

In contrast to the findings above, researchers from the University of Notre Dame have recently linked honesty to greater physical and mental health. 

Over the course of ten weeks, 110 participants in the “Science of Honesty” study completed weekly health and relationship measures, as well as weekly polygraph tests. Half of the participants were asked to stop lying, while the other half acted as a control group.

When participants told fewer lies, they reported improvements in their close personal relationships and social interactions. They also reported fewer physical and mental-health complaints, including sore throats, headaches, and feelings of tenseness or melancholy.

Incredible Tattoos Inspired by Depression

Honesty may be a virtue, but lying is commonplace

Even people who champion truthfulness often cheat and lie. In fact, research suggests that dishonesty plays a large role in our lives. It occurs relatively commonly:

• When we’re short on time. People are more likely to resort to deception when facing time restraints, suggest recent findings published in the journal, Psychological Science. When given more time, they are more apt to do “the right thing.”

• In e-mail exchanges. People may be almost 50% more likely to lie when communicating by e-mail, compared to more traditional paper-and-pen methods, found a studypresented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management in 2008.

• Among caregivers. The vast majority of parents lie, report researchersworking in the United States and China. They often mislead their children in order to promote good behaviour, positive feelings, or belief in fantasy characters, such as the Tooth Fairy.

• Between lovers. Kisses and cuddles may mask feelings of discontent, according to a recent study published in Communication Quarterly. The investigators found that non-married couples expressed“deceptive affection” about three times a week, using loving gestures to hide negative feelings towards one another. Such acts of dishonesty may seem unethical, but they can have positive effects, helping to maintain romantic relationships

‘The Faces of Facebook’ displays all of Facebook’s 1.2 billion profile pics in one project

Facebook has over 1.2 billion users, and a new web project from programmer Natalie Rojas has brought them all together as a mosaic of user pics on The Faces of Facebook.
Visually impressive, the site loads up as a supposed view of Facebook’s 1.2 billion users. You can select any area of the picture to zoom in for a closer look at clusters of individual profile images, all chronologically ordered, according to Rojas. Hovering over a user’s picture will give you their name and “FACE #,” representing the order all profiles were created. Clicking a user’s picture will even launch their full profile page on Facebook.

 

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This is the overview of Faces of Facebook.

Of course, if a profile is marked as private, no information that isn’t publicly available is shown here or when following the link to the full profile. “Relax. We’re not breaking any Facebook privacy rule because we don’t store anyone’s private information, pictures or names,” Rojas writes.
“We’ve just found a harmless way to show 1,260,866,093 Facebook profile pictures and organize them in chronological order”
The Faces of Facebook experience is enhanced if you sign in to your Facebook account while visiting. The project will give you the FACE #s for you and your friends, and also point out the areas where you each lie on the overview.
So visit the page and see which of your friends has the longest Facebook tenure. Just understand that none of you have been around longer than Mark Zuckerberg – he is, naturally, FACE #1.

Just how dangerous is daydreaming while driving?

(Photo: Thomas Anderson | Flickr)

 

 

You might think you’re a good driver. But you, like all other drivers, tend to daydream behind the wheel. Why? It has to do with the way nature wired your brain.
Because millions of sensations bombard us every second, the brain sorts through them to allow only the most important ones to become conscious—for instance, you don’t notice what’s in your peripheral vision unless something moves there. It’s just the way the brain evolved to protect it from self-destructing. If it allowed too many sensations to get through, we would be paralyzed by the massive sensory overload. The downside to this is that your mind has a narrow attention span, so it likes to wander—a lot. That beer you’re thinking about having when you get home from work could distract you long enough to expose you to danger while behind the wheel. Daydreaming can’t be eliminated, only minimized.
Just how dangerous is daydreaming while driving? When the Erie Insurance Group studied 65,000 fatal crashes over a two-year span (2010–11), its researchers found that one in 10 were attributed to driver distraction, and 62 percent were blamed on daydreaming—five times as many as talking or texting on a mobile phone. The study was based on a nationwide database, kept by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, called the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS, that tracks all vehicle deaths. “The results were disturbing,” says Erie senior vice president Doug Smith.