Alpine have announced that they are parting ways with Jack Doohan ahead of the 2026 season, ending a whirlwind experience for the Australian at the team.
Researchers from the startup Overview Energy have successfully demonstrated beaming power from a moving airplane to the ground using near-infrared light. It marks the first step toward space-based solar power satellites that could someday transmit energy from orbit to existing solar farms on Earth. IEEE Spectrum reports: Overview's test transferred only a sprinkling of power, but it did it with the same components and techniques that the company plans to send to space. "Not only is it the first optical power beaming from a moving platform at any substantial range or power," says Overview CEO Marc Berte, "but also it's the first time anyone's really done a power beaming thing where it's all of the functional pieces all working together," he says. "It's the same methodology and function that we will take to space and scale up in the long term."
[...] Many researchers have settled on microwaves as their beam of choice for wireless power. But, in addition to the safety concerns about shooting such intense waves at the Earth, [Paul Jaffe, head of systems engineering] says there's another problem: microwaves are part of what he calls the "beachfront property" of the electromagnetic spectrum -- a range from 2 to 20 gigahertz that is set aside for many other applications, such as 5G cellular networks. "The fact is," Jaffe says, "if you somehow magically had a fully operational solar power satellite that used microwave power transmission in orbit today -- and a multi-kilometer-scale microwave power satellite receiver on the ground magically in place today -- you could not turn it on because the spectrum is not allocated to do this kind of transmission."
Instead, Overview plans to use less-dense, wide-field infrared waves. Existing utility-scale solar farms would be able to receive the beamed energy just like they receive the sun's energy during daylight hours. So "your receivers are already built," Berte says. The next major step is a prototype demonstrator for low Earth orbit, after which he hopes to have GEO satellites beaming megawatts of power by 2030 and gigawatts by later that decade. Plenty of doubts about the feasibility of space-based power abound. It is an exotic technology with much left to prove, including the ability to survive orbital debris and the exorbitant cost of launching the power stations. (Overview's satellite will be built on earth in a folded configuration and it will unfold after it's brought to orbit, according to the company). "Getting down the cost per unit mass for launch is a big deal," Jaffe says. "Then, it just becomes a question of increasing the specific power. A lot of the technologies we're working on at Overview are squarely focused on that."
[...] Many researchers have settled on microwaves as their beam of choice for wireless power. But, in addition to the safety concerns about shooting such intense waves at the Earth, [Paul Jaffe, head of systems engineering] says there's another problem: microwaves are part of what he calls the "beachfront property" of the electromagnetic spectrum -- a range from 2 to 20 gigahertz that is set aside for many other applications, such as 5G cellular networks. "The fact is," Jaffe says, "if you somehow magically had a fully operational solar power satellite that used microwave power transmission in orbit today -- and a multi-kilometer-scale microwave power satellite receiver on the ground magically in place today -- you could not turn it on because the spectrum is not allocated to do this kind of transmission."
Instead, Overview plans to use less-dense, wide-field infrared waves. Existing utility-scale solar farms would be able to receive the beamed energy just like they receive the sun's energy during daylight hours. So "your receivers are already built," Berte says. The next major step is a prototype demonstrator for low Earth orbit, after which he hopes to have GEO satellites beaming megawatts of power by 2030 and gigawatts by later that decade. Plenty of doubts about the feasibility of space-based power abound. It is an exotic technology with much left to prove, including the ability to survive orbital debris and the exorbitant cost of launching the power stations. (Overview's satellite will be built on earth in a folded configuration and it will unfold after it's brought to orbit, according to the company). "Getting down the cost per unit mass for launch is a big deal," Jaffe says. "Then, it just becomes a question of increasing the specific power. A lot of the technologies we're working on at Overview are squarely focused on that."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
De AEX-index op het Damrak is dinsdag licht hoger geopend en zette daarmee de opmars richting het historische niveau van 1000 punten voort. Rond tienen noteerde de index 999.45, maar tot op heden is de duizend nog niet gehit. Beleggers staren met eurotekens in de ogen naar de grafieken.
Maandag eindigde de Amsterdamse hoofdindex al op een nieuw slotrecord onder aanvoering van chiptoeleverancier Besi. Ook op Wall Street scherpten de Dow-Jonesindex en de S&P 500-index de recordstanden verder aan ondanks zorgen over de onafhankelijkheid van de Amerikaanse centrale bank.
De AEX noteerde kort na opening van de markt 0,4 procent hoger op 997,64 punten en scherpte daarmee de hoogste tussentijdse koers ooit verder aan. De index is nog minder dan 3 punten verwijderd van de historische grens van 1000 punten. De MidKap klom een fractie tot 956,09 punten. De beurzen in Frankfurt en Parijs verloren tot 0,2 procent. Londen won een fractie na het bereiken van een nieuwe recordstand op maandag.
ROTTERDAM (ANP) - "Het was een obsessie. Het beheerste uw leven." Dat zei de voorzitter van de rechtbank in Rotterdam dinsdag tegen Mels van B. (46) uit Barendrecht, verdacht van ernstig seksueel misbruik van tientallen jonge meisjes. De verdachte beaamde de observatie van de rechter.
Op de tweede dag van het zesdaagse proces tegen Van B. besprak de rechtbank opnieuw een aantal misbruikdossiers die de politie over de diverse slachtoffertjes heeft aangelegd. De dossiers bevatten door Van B. gemaakte foto's en video's van het misbruik. Veel van de meisjes werden door de verdachte gedrogeerd met dikwijls gevaarlijk hoge doseringen slaapmiddel, zoals temazepam.
Van B. beschreef dat hij in de greep verkeerde van een drang zich te vergrijpen aan de meisjes en daarvan beelden te maken. Achteraf schaamde hij zich diep, verklaarde hij, "maar had ik wel rust in mijn hoofd".
De verdachte ontdekte rond zijn twintigste dat hij op jonge meisjes viel. "Ik kon nergens naartoe", aldus Van B. "Niet naar mijn ouders, niet naar mijn vrienden."
Darren Schiller has added a photo to the pool:
30 Pirie Street, Adelaide CBD
The 30 Pirie Street, formerly Telstra House, is a high-rise building that is located in the Adelaide central business district on the northern side of Pirie Street. It rises 117 metres above the ground and has 23 floors.
Construction of the building began in 1984 and was completed in 1987. Upon completion, Telecom House became the tallest building in Adelaide at 104 metres (341 ft), but Westpac House overtook the tallest building position in 1988.
A major refurbishment of the building took place in 2019.
30 Pirie Street was originally owned by Telstra but later sold to Australian Unity. Telstra vacated the building in August 2023.
In December 2022, it was acquired by Quintessential (company), a privately owned property development company, for $73 million and rebranded as 30 Pirie Street.
Vermisten zijn vaak al binnen een dag weer terecht. Uit cijfers van de politie blijkt dat ongeveer tweederde binnen 24 uur wordt gelokaliseerd. "Dat aantal is de afgelopen jaren gestegen", zegt Izanne de Wit van het Landelijk Expertisecentrum Persoonsvermissingen. In totaal wordt meer dan 80 procent van de vermisten binnen een week teruggevonden.
