Your tweeted complaints about this year’s summer heat wave could soon find their way to the TV screen: The Weather Channel and Twitter are launching a deep integration of tweets in the network’s on-air programming, its website and its mobile platform on Thursday.

The Weather Channel Social, as the collaboration is officially called, brings weather-related tweets to the airwaves as well as to Weather.com and the Weather Channel iPhone app. The Weather Channel is also launching 220 custom local Twitter feeds to update Twitter users about their city’s weather forecast.

Tweets displayed on the Weather Channel properties will be curated to filter out any swearing not suitable for broadcasting. The Weather Channel’s properties will also only display content relevant to the location of a particular weather forecast — it just doesn’t help to know that it’s cold elsewhere if you’re braving the high temperatures in Austin, TX.

But even with those caveats, the network still has a lot of material to use. On an average day, Twitter sees about 200 tweets per minute just about the weather. If it gets a little hotter or colder than usual, that rate raises to about 300 to 500 tweets per minute. And when it rains really hard, it also pours tweets: “Significant weather events” can provoke up to two million tweets per day, according to Twitter.

One of the biggest challenges of the integration was apparently to separate weather-related tweets from observations about all the other things that can be hot, cool and foggy in this world. The Weather Channel is relying on technology provided by the New York-based real time data specialists from Wiredset, which also runs Trendrr.com, to curate the Twitter firehose. Wiredset built an AI engine based on the Maximum Entropy Method of data analysis to make sense of all these tweets. Another challenge was that only three percent of tweets come with location information, which is why The Weather Channel is relying on Twitter profiles and location information within the actual text of each tweet, rather than geotagged data.

Other networks have occasionally experimented with the integration of tweets into on-air programming, but those experiments have so far mostly been based on single events like the MTV Music Awards. Making tweets a constant part of your programming is definitely a much bolder step, and The Weather Channel is placing an interesting bet on the power of citizen reporting with this integration.

Tweets about your average sunny day will be part of regular forecasts on Weather.com and featured during select on-air programming, but the social integration will play a much bigger role for the network when things go awry. In other words: The Weather Channel essentially just turned millions of Twitter users into field reporters, ready to be put into the spotlight and featured on air whenever severe or even catastrophic weather strikes parts of the U.S.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Dennis Jernberg.

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The death of a battery: we’ve all seen it happen. In phones, laptops, cameras, and now electric cars, the process is painful and — if you’re lucky — slow. Over the course of years, the lithium-ion battery that once powered your machine for hours (days even!) will gradually lose its capacity to hold a charge. Eventually you’ll give in, maybe curse Steve Jobs, and then buy a new battery, if not a whole new gadget.

But why does this happen? What’s going on in the battery that makes it give up the ghost? The short answer is that damage from extended exposure to high temperatures and a lot of charging and discharging cycles eventually starts to break down the process of the lithium ions traveling back and forth between electrodes.

The longer answer, which will take us through a description of unwanted chemical reactions, corrosion, the threat of high temperatures, and other factors affecting performance, begins with an explanation of what happens in a rechargeable lithium-ion battery when everything’s working well.

Lithium-ion Battery 101

In a typical lithium-ion battery, we’ll find a cathode, or positive electrode, made out of a lithium-metal oxide, such as lithium cobalt oxide. We’ll also find an anode, or negative electrode, which today is generally graphite. A thin, porous separator keeps the two electrodes apart to prevent electrical shorting. And an electrolyte, made of organic solvents and lithium-based salts, allows for the transport of lithium ions within the cell.

During charging, electric current forces lithium ions to move from the cathode to the anode. During discharging (in other words, when you use the battery), ions move back to the cathode.

Daniel Abraham, a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory leading research into how lithium-ion cells degrade, compared this process to water in a hydropower system. Moving water uphill requires energy, but it flows downhill very easily. In fact, it delivers (kinetic) energy, said Abraham. Similarly, a lithium cobalt oxide cathode, “does not want to give up its lithium,” he said. Like moving water uphill, it requires energy to take lithium atoms out of the oxide and load them into the anode.

During charging, ions are forced between sheets of graphene that make up the anode. But as Abraham put it, “they don’t want to be there. When they get a chance, they’ll move back,” like water flowing downhill. That’s discharging. A long-lasting battery will survive several thousand of these charge-discharge cycles, according to Abraham.

When Is a Dead Battery Really Dead?

When we talk about “dead” batteries, it’s important to understand two performance metrics: energy and power. For some applications, the rate at which you can get energy out of the battery is very important. That’s power. In electric vehicles, high power enables rapid acceleration and also regenerative braking, in which the battery needs to accept a charge within a couple seconds.

In cell phones, on the other hand, high power is less important than capacity, or how much energy the battery can hold. Higher capacity batteries last longer on a single charge.

Over time, the battery degrades in a number of ways that can affect both power and capacity, until eventually it simply can’t perform its basic functions.

Think of it in terms of another water analogy: Charging a battery is like filling a bucket with water from a tap. The volume of the bucket represents the battery’s energy, or capacity. The rate at which you fill it—turning the tap on full blast or just a trickle—is the power. But time, high temperatures, extensive cycling and other factors end up creating a hole in the bucket (dear Liza, dear Liza…).

In the bucket analogy, water leaks out. In a battery, lithium ions are taken away, or “tied down,” said Abraham. Bottom line, they’re prevented from going back and forth between the electrodes. So after a few months, the cell phone that initially required a charge only once every couple of days now needs a charge every day. Then it’s twice a day. Eventually, after too many lithium ions have been tied down, the battery won’t hold enough of a charge to be useful. The bucket will stop holding water.

Why does this happen? Well, in addition to the chemical reactions that we want to happen in the battery, there are also side reactions. Barriers arise that impede the motion of lithium ions. So the electric car that went, say, zero to 60 in five seconds off the lot, will take eight seconds after a few years, and maybe 12 seconds after five years. “All the energy is still there, but it can’t be delivered fast enough,” said Abraham. The ions run into roadblocks.

What Breaks Down and Why

The active portion of the cathode (the battery’s source of lithium ions) is designed with a particular atomic structure, for stability and performance. When ions are removed, sent over to the anode, and then inserted back into the cathode, we ideally want them to return to the same spot, in order to preserve that nice stable crystal structure.

Problem is, the crystal structure can change with each charge and discharge. An ion from Apartment A doesn’t necessarily come home but could instead insert itself into Apartment B next door. So the ion from Apartment B finds her place occupied by this drifter and, not being one for confrontation, decides to take up residence down the hall. And so on.

Gradually, these “phase changes” in the material transform the cathode to a new crystal structure, with different electrochemical properties. The particular arrangement of atoms, which enabled the desired performance in the first place, has been altered.

In hybrid vehicle batteries, which only need to provide power during acceleration or braking, noted Abraham, these structural changes occur much more slowly than in electric vehicles, because only a small fraction of lithium ions in the system move back and forth in any given cycle. As a result, he said, it’s easier for them to return to their original locations.

Problem of Corrosion

Degradation can occur in other parts of the battery as well. Each electrode is paired with a current collector, which is basically a piece of metal (typically copper for the anode, aluminum for the cathode) that gathers electrons and moves them to an external circuit. So you have slurry made from an “active” material like lithium cobalt oxide (which is ceramic and not a very good conductor), plus a glue-like binder painted over this piece of metal.

If the binder fails, the coating can peel off the current collector. If the metal corrodes, it can’t move electrons as efficiently.

Corrosion within the battery cell can result from an interaction between the electrolyte and electrodes. The graphite anode is highly “reducing,” which means it gives up electrons easily to the electrolyte. This can produce an unwanted coating on the graphite surface. The cathode, meanwhile, is highly “oxidizing,” which means it easily accepts electrons from the electrolyte, which in some cases can corrode the aluminum current collector or form a coating on the cathode particles, Abraham said.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Graphite — the material commonly used to make an anode — is thermodynamically unstable in an organic electrolyte. What that means is the very first time our battery is charged, the graphite reacts with the electrolyte. This forms a porous layer (called a solid electrolyte interphase, or SEI) that actually protects the anode from further attacks. This reaction also consumes a little lithium, however. So in an ideal world, we would have that reaction occur once to create the protective layer, and then be done with it.

In reality, however, the SEI is a sadly unstable defender. It does a good job protecting the graphite at room temperature, said Abraham, but at high temperatures or when the battery runs all the way down to zero charge (“deep cycling”) the SEI can partially dissolve into the electrolyte. (At high temperatures, electrolytes also tend to decompose and side reactions accelerate.)

When friendlier conditions return, another protective layer will form, but this will eat up more lithium, giving us the same problem we had with the leaky bucket. We’ll have to recharge our cell phone more often.

Now, as much as we need that SEI to protect the graphite anode, there can be too much of a good thing. If the layer thickens too much, it actually becomes a barrier to the lithium ions, which we want to flow freely back and forth. That affects power performance, which is, as Abraham emphasized, “extremely important” for electric vehicles.

Building Better Batteries

So, what can be done to make our batteries last longer? In the lab, researchers are looking for electrolyte additives to function like vitamins in our diet, enabling the battery to perform better and live longer by reducing harmful reactions between the electrodes and electrolyte, said Abraham. They’re also seeking new, more stable crystal structures for the electrodes, as well as more stable binders and electrolytes.

Engineers at battery and electric car companies, meanwhile, are working on the battery pack and thermal management systems to try and keep lithium-ion cells within a constant, healthy temperature range. The rest of us, as consumers, can avoid extreme temperatures and deep cycling, and for now keep grumbling about those batteries that always seem to die too soon.

Image courtesy of Argonne National Labs, felixtsao, warrenski, MitchClanky2008, bizmac.

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Cooler Master Notepal X2 Notebook Cooler R9-NBC-4WAK-GP

• Blue LED shines through center mesh when notebook cooler is powered on
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With efficient functions and superb silent concept in mind, the NotePal X2 creates optimal comfort for laptop users. Either on a desk or on the lap of an on-the-go user, the NotePal X2 takes air from a bottom intake and cools down high temperatures with its 140 mm silent fans, dissipating the high temperatures generated by the CPU and GPU trapped inside the laptop housing.

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All the small business owners out there are trying to put away money to save. They seek to cut any costs they can. If you are a small business owner and you are looking for a printer for your office, then you’ll find that the best way to save money is with a monochrome printing unit. Using a monochrome printer is more efficient than a color printer because of its cheaper printing costs. A specific model that you would be interested in is the Samsung SCX 5530FN printer.  This device, using the exceptional Samsung SCX 5530FN toner, will produce exceptional appearing documents in every mode.   

Monochrome printing works by using a laser to beam images off of a rotating mirror, indirectly onto the drums within the printer. Toner is attached to that image and then melts at high temperatures to relay the image onto your paper through the printing device. So whatever you saw on some cartoon about cavemen is certainly no longer the case due to the high technology that we have today.

It’s a multifunction printer with an automatic document feeder for entering multiple pages into the built in scanner. This can be great for sending large faxes or importing large projects into your system.

Another great thing about this Samsung model is the installed memory that they placed within it. It is essential for your office if you are frequently using memos and spreadsheets, or any other office document, and you’ll have no problem handling the traffic of up to five users at one time. While the speed of these types of units may be considered lower than some premium models, it will hardly affect your day to day office needs.

One of the other great things about this device from Samsung is that it has an installed memory.  Memory fills a huge need for any small business owner’s office that often use memos, spreadsheets, letter heads or any other type of office document. You can handle traffic of five users at once or less. Even though the speed of these units is considered lower than other premium models it will barely have an effect on your offices needs.

This printer with everything rolled into one easily gets rid of the need for fax machines and scanners that are not connected to this printer. This is great if you are trying to straighten the flow of traffic in your network. It’s also great to free up space in your offices, or areas where you need more room to expand. Studies have more than often shown that having a clean office space leads to having a more lucrative working environment.

Another great thing about this printer is that this model has a high paper capacity and an auto feeder, which is ideal for any small business. So when you are working on much bigger tasks that need to have a lot of prints, having this printer will save you a lot of time by eliminating the need of having to constantly reload the paper to keep printing. It also saves you lots of money on printing costs as well. Printing cartridges are a lot cheaper than color inkjet or laser printers.

The Samsung SCX-5530FN printer is also wonderful for your networking needs. With excellent Ethernet connectivity you will have no problem keeping your network up to speed. Use this feature in conjunction with the appropriate external devices and you can easily handle networking traffic of up to hundreds of users. These are just some of the many useful features available to you with this model of monochrome printer. Used properly you should see big savings in your small business’ printing costs in no time.

The savvy business owner will also appreciate the quality and affordability offered by Samsung SCX 5530FN replacement toner.  Ordering Samsung printer toner cartridge online will show these owners great prices on laser toner that will save money every time an order is placed.

Sony has developed a new type of lithium ion batteries that you want. Serious. These things are impressive.

Sony press release

The Olivine-type lithium iron phosphate used in this new battery is extremely suited for use as a cathode material due to its robust crystal structure and stable performance, even at high temperatures. By combining this new cathode material with Sony’s proprietary particle design technology that minimizes electrical resistance to deliver high power output, and also leveraging the cell structure design technology Sony accrued developing its current “Fortelion series” lithium ion secondary battery line-up, Sony has realized a high power density of 1800W/kg and extended life span of approximately 2,000 charge-discharge cycles.

Didja get that? Nope. Who cares about the technology behind it.

All you should care about is that these suckers can be 99% recharged within 30 minutes and can provide an 80% capacity after 2,000 charge-discharge cycles. Sony is aiming to put these batteries within power tools and such, but maybe we’ll eventually see them available for purchase in AA form. John is always complaining that he can’t use his “toys” because his rechargeables are forever slow.

NEC has developed a shape-memory plastic that can be formed at room temperature . The plastic can be heated and cooled, remaining pliant for for several minutes during which it can be processed.

The usual problem with shape-memory plastics is differences in temperature. Shape-memory plastics that needs to be hardened at high temperatures may burn users, while those that need be kept at low temperatures lose their shape when exposed to heat.

NEC says their material is made by mixing polybutylene succinate (a bio-degradable, “eco-friendly” plastic) with other organic substances. Users need to heat it up to 90C and then let it cool off to up to 20C before being able to use their hands to form the plastic.

The company aims at commercializing the plastic to makers of wearable electronics and medical devices, among others. NEC’s Japanese website isn’t mentioning the invention, which is why I had to put the pic of the sex plastic man up there.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]