February 6, 2015

Arthur C. Clarke, inventor of satellites, accurately describes the 21st century...in 1976

While other futurists predicted flying cars and robots everywhere, Clarke was more interested in where communication was headed, and his predictions are remarkably accurate decades later.

Eric Mack Cnet.com February 5, 2015


Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick

This week, AT&T released another Clarke video from its archives that was recorded at a conference in 1976. In a brief interview, Clarke expands on his vision of the time we're living in now, with a focus on communication. He nails almost everything, from the Internet and email to smartphones, Google and even smartwatches...


Clarke on the set of 2001

...A few things Clarke saw still have yet to come to pass. He imagined that our new telecommunications technologies would render all commuting moot. Both in 1964 and 1976, he talks about all travel being solely for pleasure rather than work or business..

Complete article: http://www.cnet.com/news/arthur-c-clarke-describes-the-21st-century-in-detail-in-1976/

Published on Feb 3, 2015

Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author and futurist, crossed paths with the scientists of the Bell System on numerous occasions. In 1945, he concurrently, but independently, conceived of the first concept for a communications satellite at the same time as Bell Labs scientist, John Robinson Pierce. Pierce too, was a science fiction writer. To avoid any conflict with his day job at Bell Labs, Pierce published his stories under the pseudonym J.J. Coupling.

In the early 1960s, Clarke visited Pierce at Bell Labs. During his visit, Clarke saw and heard the voice synthesis experiments going on at the labs by John L. Kelly and Max Mathews, including Mathews’ computer vocal version of “Bicycle Built for Two”. Clarke later incorporated this singing computer into the climactic scene in the screenplay for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the computer HAL9000 sings the same song. According to Bob Lucky, another Bell Labs scientist, on the same visit, Clarke also saw an early Picturephone, and incorporated that into 2001 as well.

In 1976, AT&T and MIT held a conference on futurism and technology, attended by scientists, theorists, academics and futurists. This interview with Clarke during this conference is remarkably prescient—especially about the evolution of communications systems for the next 30+ years.

The interview was conducted for an episode of a Bell System newsmagazine, but this is the raw interview footage.

February 4, 2015

BBC 11/23/01: Hijack 'suspects' alive and well

A man called Waleed Al Shehri says he left the US a year ago

BBC Sunday, 23 September, 2001

Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well.

The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt.

Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September. Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco.

He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports...snip



...FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt....Continued>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1559151.stm

(Note: An update on this story was published in October 2006 in the BBC News editors' blog)

9/11 conspiracy theory
Friday, 27 October 2006

A five-year-old story from our archive has been the subject of some recent editorial discussion here. The story, written in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was about confusion at the time surrounding the names and identities of some of the hijackers. This confusion was widely reported and was also acknowledged by the FBI.

The story has been cited ever since by some as evidence that the 9/11 attacks were part of a US government conspiracy.

We later reported on the list of hijackers, thereby superseding the earlier report. In the intervening years we have also reported in detail on the investigation into the attacks, the 9/11 commission and its report...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/theeditors/2006/10/911_conspiracy_theory_1.html


The hijack suspects

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has released the photos of the suspected hijackers of the four planes seized on 11 September...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1567815.stm

further reading
http://www.911review.org/Wiki/HijackersAliveAndWell.shtml

February 4, 2015

Jordanian student uses solar power to fuel hydrogen cars

2015-02-02 By Mohammad Ghazal in Amman


Engineering student Qais Sabra works on a design for his generator. Mohammad Ghazal/Al-Shorfa

The high cost of fuel in Jordan and an interest in renewable energy topics have inspired Jordanian engineering student Qais Sabra to design and invent a home solar-powered generator to fuel hydrogen-powered cars...

...Al-Shorfa : What was the genesis of the concept and how did it move into the design stage?

Qais Sabra : Since I began my engineering studies I have taken several courses on renewable energy, and have also constantly followed the latest developments in technology. In following the subject, it became apparent that while many auto manufacturing companies have begun producing hydrogen-powered cars, the high cost of establishing large refuelling stations for such cars was a challenge. Hence the genesis of the idea of a home generator that enables anyone who wishes to own this car to refuel it at home at the lowest cost. I began designing the generator and developing the concept last year after presenting the idea to several academics and experts at the university, who provided me with support to design it.

Al-Shorfa : How does the generator operate?

Sabra : The generator consists, firstly, of a module of photovoltaic cells, which captures the solar energy that is abundant in Jordan, then converts it into electricity to supply the generator with enough power to operate. By incorporating this module we dispense with expensive conventional fuel, and there is no additional cost to generating electricity from the sun. The module has a capacity of 800 to 1,000 watts...

Al-Shorfa : How much does the generator cost?

Sabra : The cost of the home generator ranges between 2,000 and 2,500 Jordanian dinars ($2,821-$3,526). But as demand increases and the concept gains wider acceptance the price will drop significantly. The generator has a life span of 25 years and this (translates) into huge savings especially as no additional costs are incurred after installation other than water consumption. The generator will become available during the current year, God willing...MORE

Full Article: http://al-shorfa.com/en_GB/articles/meii/features/2015/02/02/feature-02

***************

Solar Hydrogen: The Fuel of the Future
http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Hydrogen-Future-Mario-Pagliaro/dp/1849731950/

Not exactly a new thing



Twenty Hydrogen Myths by noted environmentalist Amory Lovins
http://www.rmi.org/Knowledge-Center/Library/E03-05_TwentyHydrogenMyths

Myth #3. Making hydrogen uses more energy than it yields, so it’s prohibitively inefficient.

Any conversion from one form of energy to another consumes more useful energy than it yields.
If it could do the opposite, creating energy out of nothing, you could create a perpetual-motion
machine violating the laws of physics. Conversion losses are unavoidable; the issue is whether
they’re worth incurring. If they were intolerable as a matter of principle, as Myth #3 implies,
then we’d have to stop making gasoline from crude oil...