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ScienceDaily (May 14, 2012) ? In order to test the new “smart” protective vest, an experimenter wearing one has jogged several kilometers on the treadmill in a climate-controlled chamber at Empa. During the jog he lost 544 grams in weight through sweating — but thanks to the vest’s integrated cooling system this was still 191 grams less than if he had been wearing a conventional garment.

Functional sportswear is taken for granted nowadays. It is quite unexceptional for a sports jacket, for instance, to be both waterproof and breathable. In the case of working clothes, the functionality is mostly restricted to personal protection against fire, sharp objects, chemicals and so on, with wearer comfort (mostly) not being significance top priority. Bullet-proof vests made of Kevlar, as their name suggests, hold off bullets but they are also impenetrable for water vapor. Thus police personnel who must wear such gear under their uniforms sweat profusely when the weather is warm. A situation that is merely uncomfortable when working in the office negatively affects the physical performance of police officers on duty.

Empa has now, together with its industrial partners, developed a “smart” protective vest with an integrated cooling system based on the Coolpad technology, originally designed for use in cooling garments for medical applications. The Coolpads built into the vest are filled with water, which is allowed to evaporate through the membrane, cooling down its surroundings. A mini fan blows air though a fabric spacer behind the pad, providing further cooling.

Integrating such an A/C into a garment proved to be quite tricky. It required a novel fabric spacer, which was stable under pressure yet also flexible and soft to the touch, and which offered very little resistance to air flow. A suitable spacer was developed together with Swiss textile manufacturer Eschler. Likewise, there were no fans on the market, which were small enough to be built into the vest; so Empa engineers designed a miniaturized version themselves. Two units including batteries and control electronics now provide the cooling air circulation in the vest. Similarly, the cool pads used till then proved unsatisfactory — since in the protective vest they were mechanically quite stressed they frequently leaked water. A new technique for welding the ultra-thin pad membranes using diode lasers proved to be much more reliable than the conventional method, with the seam remaining soft and flexible. In addition the Empa specialists were able to increase the evaporation rate and therefore the cooling ability.

But that wasn’t all. In order to simplify refilling the cool pads with water they developed a portable filling station that can be attached to the vest with a quick-release fastener. During the same “pit stop,” the mini fans can be exchanged for those with freshly charged batteries. Then the vest is ready once again for three to four hours of duty.

Comparative measurements show that the new vest is significantly lighter and also cools much better than systems currently on the market. And in practical use, too, the vest has proven its worth. Staff of the Z?rich City police force tested the vest over several warm summer days and gave the new innovation the thumbs up. The first small series of the novel under-uniform protective vest will be produced in the near future by project partner Unico swiss tex GmbH. The “smart” cooling technology is, however, also suitable for protective suits worn over normal clothing, uniform jackets, camouflage suits and even for rucksacks. Developments along these lines are already in progress.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Empa, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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You need to employ your personal colorado real estate active broker to represent you. An active broker that functions for each the buyer and also the seller can possibly possess a conflict of interest. Ask buddies to suggest an active broker to you. Interview a number of agents and be sure you are comfy using the individual you select. A knowledgeable active broker is an invaluable resource.

When trying to sell a property, make sure that it is ready at any point in time for a showing. You never know when the Realtor is going to call because someone wants to see it. You want to be sure that it is in perfect condition all the time.

When pricing a house to sell, keep in mind that it?s as much as you to name the asking cost, not your colorado real estate active broker. You have to personal your cost to be able to really feel comfy with it. Your active broker is there merely to provide ideas and guidance of what modifications to create when the house does not sell.

Selling a home in today?s market is going to be far more difficult than it has been in past years. The home values are not as they used to be so if you are trying to sell your home at the prices that the assessor tells you it is worth, there is a good chance that you will be stuck with it for a while. Reduce the price a bit and you should be able to move on.

Focus on growing storage space as a way to make your house sell faster. Buyers are usually searching for a sufficient quantity of storage space, and inside a pre-owned house that may be hard to come by. Consequently, this function may be the figuring out element in whether or not or not somebody makes an provide on your residence. Consider adding shelving to closets or putting an island inside your kitchen.

Performing a couple of basic tasks inside your kitchen will help you to sell your house. Try painting the walls and replacing the hardware on the cabinets. For rooms that need a bit more work, you can change out the appliances and replace the sink. This may give your kitchen a fresh appearance and leave purchasers having a favorable impression of your residence, because the kitchen is among the biggest selling points of a home. In some cases, renovations done to a kitchen can give you a 500% return on your investment.

Find out when your home?s buyer needs to close. Learning that they have a particular deadline to finish the deal can give you an advantage during negotiations. On the other hand, try to avoid providing your reasons for selling as it could put you at the disadvantage during the selling process.

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Watch out for falling prices! Verizon Wireless just cut the price of the RAZR Maxx to an attractive $199. That puts it on par with the iPhone 4S and Galaxy Nexus, making the 32GB iPhone 4S and BlackBerry Bold 9930 as Verizon’s only phones north of $199. Interestingly enough, even though the standard-strength RAZR was on sale for $99 the last two weeks, Verizon Wireless actually raised the price back to its MSRP of $199. However, that might be changing rather quickly according to our sources.

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Sony might not have taken long to find a new date in the TV scene after breaking up with Samsung late last year: if you believe Nikkei, Panasonic is the belle of the ball. The two Japanese firms are reportedly hoping to speed up the development of cheap, mass-produced OLED TVs by sharing each other’s design techniques, including a Panasonic method for printing OLEDs on a scale that lets the company avoid $9,000 price tags. Neither Panasonic nor Sony has confirmed the talks, of course, and there’s no guarantee a partnership will emerge even if it truly gets hot and heavy. Still, if real, we’ll be on the lookout for a PanaSony OLED TV at CES in the future.

Panasonic, Sony purportedly entering into OLED TV team-up, torrid love affair originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 May 2012 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t say it’s striking us as any sort of surprise, but the seemingly destined-to-fail LightSquared just might be out of options. After getting a high-five from Sprint and plenty of attention for its initiatives in bringing yet another wireless option to America, those blasted GPS interference issues (or “supposed” issues, depending on who you ask) eventually became too much to overcome. According to a breaking report out of The Wall Street Journal, Philip Falcone’s venture is seriously teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, as “negotiations with lenders to avoid a potential default faltered,” according to the ever-present “people familiar with the matter.” Purportedly, the two sides have until 5PM tomorrow to strike a deal that’ll keep the firm out of bankruptcy court (if you’ll recall, it owes over $1.6 billion dollars to various entities), but given just how far apart these sides remain, its fate seems all but sealed. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for more, but don’t go placing bets on yet another debt-term violation waiver.

WSJ: LightSquared ‘preparing’ for bankruptcy protection filing, final decision coming tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 May 2012 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan warned Friday that the US and Europe were not doing enough to resolve the core causes of the global economic slowdown.

The global economy remains deep in crisis and Europe and the United States are doing little to resolve its core causes, Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Ali Babacan warned Friday.

Skip to next paragraph

Mr. Babacan, a former foreign minister and Turkey?s point-man for economic policy, said neither the US nor the eurozone countries have yet to deal with the underlying causes of the global economic slowdown: a weak financial sector, weak corporate balance sheets, risky public financial positions.?

Speaking at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Babacan warned that this year will be a year of reckoning for the European Union, and he pointed to the recent collapse of the Dutch government over the budget austerity measures as a harbinger for Europe?s coming fiscal battles.?

?2012 will be test year for European countries,? he said. ?2013 will be test year for American economy. After the elections [the new administration] will find very difficult decisions on the table right away. There has to be serious fiscal adjustment and a medium term plan to deal with the deficit. So far, there is no credible plan to deal with deficit.?

Babacan said developed countries need to undertake serious structural changes including reforming social security and labor markets: ?It is absolutely necessary for serious reforms, especially in many European countries, absolutely necessary and urgent.?

Babacan is a founding member of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan?s Justice and Development Party and considered a leading member of the ?Neo-Ottomanism? movement, moving Turkey?s foreign policy away from a predominantly Western focus to integration and activism in its immediate neighborhood ??the territories of the former Ottoman Empire.

Babacan contrasted the Western economic turmoil, with Turkey?s booming economy which he said grew at 9.2 percent growth rate in 2010, and 8.5 percent in 2011.

?We entered this crisis with a strong banking system and strong public financial structure. During the crisis when many countries were asking for fiscal stimulus programs.? We followed a very different route. We did just the opposite. We announced fiscal consolidation program. And we overperformed,? he said.

He said Turkey?s economy was far more open than many European countries, which had made Turkish companies more dynamic and more competitive in global markets. And he argued that Turkish growth was more sustainable because he said it didn?t come on the back of government spending, but rather private sector growth.

In the coming years, he said, ?We will have lower growth ??though better than everywhere else in Europe ??but slower than before. Growth is high, but it?s also sustainable growth.?

?Tight fiscal policies will continue, in good days or in bad days,? he said, ?but we don?t believe in economic growth through public spending.?

Islam, democracy, and capitalism

Turkey has shown how Islam and democracy and capitalism can cooexist peacefully, Babacan said.?

?When people observe a functioning example, people are more encouraged to ask for more in their own countries,? he said. ?We have been talking with leaders: Change is coming, you can no longer have a closed regime with an open society ??satellites, social media, the Internet ??you have this kind, this kind of society moving forward and you are running this closed regime, this is not sustainable, this cannot continue.?

?We have advised these leaders to lead this change, or you will be pushed by change anyway,? he said. ?

Babacan addressed several of the long-running disputes in the region, such as the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, the status of the split island of Cyprus, and the violence in neighboring Syria. He said Turkey was strongly supportive of the six-point peace plan pushed by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, but he said Turkey was strongly against any sort of military intervention or sending weapons to the embattled Syrian opposition forces.

He also said the Syrian opposition is coalescing into a viable alternative to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

?We need to see visible, verifiable, and indisputable change in the country,? he said. ?The primary responsibility to end the violence will rest with the Syrian regime.?

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If social media mattered in elections, Ron Paul would have a realistic shot at being the Republican nominee and Barack Obama would be on track to crush Mitt Romney in the biggest landslide in American history. Despite the hype over follower counts, a new study shows that there’s no credible evidence that Twitter can be used to predict how elections will turn out. “It can be concluded that the predictive power of Twitter regarding elections has been greatly exaggerated,” writes computer science professor, Daniel Gayo-Avello, in an unusually strident rant (for an academic). Gayo’s conclusions are intuitive: social media users are an unrepresentative slice of voters, and tweets may not accurately reflect how voters behave.

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Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a twin terror attack in Norway last July, claims to be a member of a reborn ‘Knights Templar.’ What’s the symbolism?

One of the highlights of today’s testimony in the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused of the murder of 77 people during a bombing and shooting rampage in Norway, was the prosecutor’s efforts to challenge Mr. Breivik’s purported membership in the “Knights Templar.”

Skip to next paragraph A sociologist for the defense talks about Andrew Breivik’s world view.

Breivik claims to have helped “refound” the ancient military order as a force to fight immigration and multiculturalism in Europe. But why turn to a long-gone Christian order to symbolize his agenda today?

The Knights Templar, or “Templars,” were a Christian order founded in the 10th century. Named for the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Templars initially protected pilgrims traveling through the Holy Lands, but eventually evolved into a powerful military force that waged war against the Muslims during the Crusades.

The Templars became so powerful, however, that European leaders grew to distrust the order. Early in the 1300s, King Philip IV of France launched a crackdown on the Templars that, with the help of Pope Clement V, eventually spread Europe-wide, destroying the order. Many members were tortured and tried for heresy by the Catholic Church.

But despite, or perhaps because of, their ancient history and sudden demise, the Templars still hold a solid grip on modern imaginations and pop culture. They are frequently depicted as the mysterious controllers of the world in books like Umberto Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum” and movies like “National Treasure.” “The Da Vinci Code” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” set the Templars up as secret keepers of the Holy Grail. They even appear as the enemies in video games like “Assassin’s Creed.”

Certainly, the organization that Breivik claims to be a member of is equally mysterious. Breivik describes the organization as “a leaderless network, made to be self-driven cells.? He said that ?For militants, [Knights Templar] is meant to be a version of Al Qaeda.” He has yet to name another member of the group, claiming that to do so would risk their being caught, though he has indicated that his “English mentor” can be found in London and that a Serb “war hero” living in Liberia is among the group’s ranks.

Whether or not the Templars in which Breivik claims membership are real, the name is likely meant to evoke both the mysterious nature of the original Templars and their open war against Muslim forces during the Crusades. The historical Templars’ modern reputation and supposed influence makes a strong symbolic counterpoint to terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.

Monitor guest blogger James Bosworth suggested that the use of the name may also be meant to legitimize the group as a moral one.

Last July, Mr. Bosworth noted that Breivik was not the first violent criminal to invoke the Templars: A Mexican criminal gang has also adopted the name and some of the associated symbolism. But Bosworth concludes that “The Mexican Knights Templar code of conduct appears to be a false appeal to Mexico’s citizens,” something that could also be argued of Breivik’s use of the Templar mythology. “The Knights Templar label is a failed attempt to grant historical legitimacy to a violent act that truly has no justification,” Bosworth wrote.

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