The Rising of the Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Rises is the most anticipated movie of 2012. It will hit theaters in Sri Lanka on the 20th of July, which is also the worldwide release date. The movie will be screened at an EAP cinema theater, so its most likely to be either Liberty Cinema or Savoy Wellawatte. This is great news to movie fans in Sri Lanka who have been waiting impatiently for this epic finale to Christopher Nolan's batman trilogy.

With Batman Begins in 2005, Christopher Nolan set a new standard in movies based on comic books. The darker tone and realistic take of the batman mythology was very effective and led the movie to success. It provided a good origin story and paved the platform for an all new DC cinematic universe.

The second installment, The Dark Knight which was released in 2008 was a tremendous success, surpassing its predecessor. Heath Ledger's brilliant performance as the Joker itself makes it a worthy watch. The acting, story and the action sequences were well put together and everything that was good in the first movie was improved in The Dark Knight, making it a fine summer blockbuster.

Although director Christopher Nolan has shown concern about directing a third in the series before the production of The Dark Knight Rises was confirmed, it seems it will follow the pattern shown by the previous movies. Viral marketing campaigns and other propaganda carried out have been effective because according to IMDB, the tickets to the film's midnight IMAX screenings at New York sold out six months in advance. With Bane being the villain and parts from the trailer showing batman extremely beaten up, it looks like this movie will be a fitting finale to an epic trilogy.

Official Site : http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/

UPDATE : This movie will be released at an EAP movie theatre on the 10th of August 2012

LATEST UPDATE : The release date of Dark Knight rises in Sri Lanka has once again been postponed to the dismay of many movie fans. According to current information Dark Knight Rises will be screened at an EAP theater from the 27th of August and at the Liberty Lite Cinema, from the 1st of September - more than a month since its worldwide release. However looking at what happened before, whether the film will actually be released on these dates is uncertain..

Mining Asteroids

Industries based on space exploration have received a lot of attention lately. Companies are already in the process of introducing commercial spaceflights to the general public. Among these new "space age" industries, is a new start up called Planetary Resources that focuses on mining Asteroids. Although it seems like a far fetched idea, the recently founded company Planetary Resources claim that they have a plan. They also have got some serious investors like Larry Page, co founder of Google to back them.

Asteroids are found in abundance in space and contain vast quantities of valuable minerals and metals. Asteroids also contain large amounts of water in them. Being much smaller than planets, the minerals in  an asteroid are distributed evenly throughout the entire body of the asteroid, unlike in planets where the large gravitation causes the heavier minerals to sink towards the core of the planet. This makes it easier to mine because deep excavation will not be necessary to access the resources of an asteroid.

Although the idea of mining asteroids for useful resources has been around for quite some time, this is the first time that it is actually being attempted. According to Planetary Resources, the final goal of the company which is mining asteroids commercially will take about a decade to accomplish. Despite this fact the company is set to generate revenue during the process, even before the actual mining takes takes place. In fact, one of its co-founders has claimed that Planetary resources is already a "positive cash-flow company".

Planetary resources plans to mine asteroids in 4 stages. The first stage is the "Arkyd Series100" in which a set of space telescopes known as "Leo space telescopes" will be launched. These telescopes which will be in low earth orbit and will be used to gather data about asteroids. The telescopes can also be pointed at other objects in space such as the moon  and planets as well as the earth itself. This capability gives the company the opportunity to rent out these telescopes to universities and other private and government organizations for research purposes. This is one avenue the company aims to profit in.

The second stage is the "Arkyd Series 200" also known as the interceptor in which further developed telescopes will be stationed in a higher orbit to obtain better access to asteroids and to gather data. These telescopes will also be equipped with micro propulsion mechanisms enabling them to move into different positions.

The third stage - "Arkyd Series 300" AKA Rendezvous Prospector will incorporate swarms of spacecraft capable of communicating with each other to move on to more distant asteroids and obtain specialized data regarding constituents, size shape, rotation etc while orbiting the asteroid. The technology developed during this stage is expected to generate revenue for the company by providing means of inter-planetary space flight to interested parties such as NASA and other agencies.

The fourth and final Stage is the Asteroid Mining itself. Mining will also be done using swarming robots with the ability to communicate and coordinate like in the previous stage. Several technological challenges will have to be addressed in this stage. For example whether the the processing of mined material is done on site or brought to earth before being processed. Both these methods have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the mineral to gangue ratio in the mined ore. Furthermore asteroids being situated at quite a distance from the sun, exploiting solar energy would be difficult. This creates the need for improvement of existing solar technology or the use of some other energy source. In addition to the technological issues, the legal matters pertaining to mining from outer space will have to be considered.

Planetary Resources plans mainly to extract platinum group metals and water from asteroids. Extracting water from asteroids can be very useful in future manned spaceflights and space stations because taking water from earth will not be necessary. Also the chemical constituents of water, Hydrogen and Oxygen if separated can be used as fuel for the space craft as well. This could lead to fueling stations in space and ultimately reduce the cost of space flight significantly.

The founding of Planetary Resources has redefined the limits of possibilities in the field of energy and resources. If it turns out to be successful it is bound to be the beginning of a revolutionary and extremely profitable industry while opening the doors to colonization in space. Most importantly it will be a great achievement of the human race.

images from : planetaryresources.com

Satellite Altimetry

The seafloor is not a smooth and uniform place. It has as many topographical features as on land. From the Continental Shelf through to the continental slope, the continental rise, the abyssal plane, mid oceanic ridges, seamounts, guyouts and trenches the seafloor varies and plays a vital role in the dynamics of the planet. For this reason, the seafloor and its features are extensively studied. The topography of the ocean floor is given the name Bathymetry.

In order to map and study the bathymetry, several methods are used. The earliest method of doing this was to get depth measurements at different points in the sea and plot submarine contour lines using them. This was a tedious process. With the development of technology new methods such as, echosounding, multibeam methods and seismic refraction and reflection methods are used today. The latest method of mapping the seafloor is Satellite Altimetry.

Like the name suggests this method uses satellites in orbit to map the seafloor. These satellites measure the slight differences of the sea level, and not the depth. Then how can it be used to map the seafloor? The way it's done is, the slight changes in sea level actually represent the topography of the seafloor. The undisturbed surface of the ocean represents the geoid - the gravitational equipotential surface. This means that at seamounts and ridges where there is a higher mass and thus higher gravitation, The sea-level would be higher and places such as trenches where the relatively lower mass lessens the gravitation, the sea level would be lower. Therefore by measuring the differences in sea level, the bathymetric features can be identified. This bathymetric data is used to plot bathymetric maps as shown below

bathymetry of the the indian ocean

The Amazing Spiderman to be the next attraction at MC Superior 3D

It looks like MIB 3 will not be shown in 3D at MC superior, although many movie fans including myself thought it would after the avengers finished its run. The next attraction at MC Superior 3D is, The Amazing Spiderman which also is a movie that all of us were waiting to watch. Having only one 3D cinema in Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan moviegoers don't have the luxury to select which movie they wan't to see in 3D and which to see in 2D like in other countries. It is unfortunate if movies that you really wan't to see in 3D will not be shown at all. However having one 3D cinema is far better than not having any at all, and the management of the cinema does an excellent job at bringing "good" movies like Avengers and Spiderman for the benefit of movie lovers in the country.

The Amazing Spiderman will be screened from the 13th July onwards at MC Superior 3D. Since it is a film that is actually shot in 3D and is not a post conversion, a good 3D experience can be expected. This spiderman movie is a reboot of the franchise and explores the story in a different angle than the previous Sam Raimi's Spider Man trilogy. Unlike in the previous movies, Spiderman in this movie shoots webs with artificial web-shooters like in the comic books. It stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Peter's love interest. It is directed by Marc Webb.

images from : http://www.theamazingspiderman.com/

UPDATE : The Amazing Spiderman will be screened in 3D at the Platinum Cinema of the Majestic Cineplex

LATEST UPDATE : MIB 3 has finally hit MC Superior 3D after quite a long wait.

Charge your Phone while walking

Imagine never having to worry about your mobile phone battery running too low. This day might be closer than we think because very soon, we'll be able to charge our phones just by walking. Scientists at Cranfield University, University of Liverpool and University of Salford have developed a wearable device that produces electricity using the knee movements of the wearer. This device is known as the pizzicato knee-joint energy harvester and can be worn on the knee joint. It relies on a pizoelectric plucking mechanism to generate electricity. While still in the prototype phase it generates two milliwatts of power. The scientists behind this device claim that it can be improved in the future to harvest up to 30 milliwatts. Expected uses of this technology include, powering heart rate monitors, electronic equipment carried by military personnel and hikers and of course, charging your mobile phone by taking a quick walk!

Source : http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/06/pizzicato-knee-joint-energy-harvester-converts-potential-energy-into-kinetic/

MIB 3 at MC superior 3D?

The third installment of the Men In Black franchise is already being screened in two theaters in Sri Lanka. The movie kicked off at MC Platinum and Liberty Lite on the 8th of June. The big question is, Will the movie be shown in 3D at the MC superior? If it will, then its worth the wait because with all the CGI aliens, cool gadgets and weapons, MIB3 in 3D is going to be awesome. Also, according to cinemablend.com, it is worth to watch it in 3D as it gives the movie a "3D score" of 32. That is even higher than The Avengers which had a score of 27.

Men in Black 3 is the first movie of the series to be released in 3D. The first movie was released back in 1997 and later a sequel "Men In  Black II" was released in 2002. It took 10 years after that for this latest installment to be released. Although MIB 3 is a post converted 3D movie, cinemablend.com reports that the conversion to 3D has been performed well to provide a rich 3D experience.

As of now there is no way to know for sure whether it will be shown at MC superior, but I've decided to wait in case it does. There is a possibility that it will be shown after "The Avengers" has finished its run, although how long it will take is not known. I will update this post as soon as I get any news about this.

image from wikipedia

Management of Mining Machinery

Mining for resources from the earth has increased steadily over the past few decades and at present is a multi-billion dollar industry. The machines used in mining operations are usually very big and expensive. Therefore in order to make a mine productive and profitable, the machines have to be managed in an effective and efficient manner.

To do this it is a mine managers duty to make sure that,
- The machines give continuous service (availability of machines)
- The machines do not fail frequently (reliability of machines )
- optimize the machines so that they operate at maximum efficiency

In order to satisfy these criteria, machines of good quality have to be obtained. When acquiring machines for a mine, several things need to be given consideration. First, the cost of the machine should be considered. Naturally machines with a lower price are likely to be of poor quality and will fail often, while machines with a higher price generally are (but not always) of high quality. Therefore in this situation the purchase price alone is not taken into account. Instead the "life cycle cost" is calculated. The life cycle cost includes the purchase price, cost of maintenance as well as the cost of disposal of the machine. This gives a good measure of the usefulness of the machine during the operation period of the mine.

Next the performance of the machines must be considered. To assess the performance of the machines, key performance parameters such as Availability, Utilization and Efficiency and Reliability are defined as given below.
- Availability = available hrs/scheduled hrs
- Utilization = utilized hrs/available hrs
- Efficiency =  productive hrs/utilized hrs
- Reliability is the probability of operating without failure.
Failure of mining machinery is a somewhat common occurrence and leads to significant losses. This is a fact that needs attention because if maintained properly, failure can be almost avoided completely. This is not impossible because aircraft and ships are maintained so well that a failure of an aircraft or ship is a rarity these days. Therefore with proper maintenance, mining machines can also reach a situation like this.

Maintenance of machines needs to be carried out with a proper maintenance strategy plan. Several approaches can be taken in this regard. They are
- Preventive maintenance  - maintenance with a schedule based on time
- Predictive maintenance  - maintenance based on current condition and future predictions drawn from it
- Proactive maintenance  - maintenance based on the root cause of possible problems
- Reactive maintenance  - continue to run until component fails and then replacing.
Maintenance costs includes the cost of spare parts as well as the losses due to any delay in aquiring the spare parts. Therefore the availability of spares also needs to be considered.

Managing mining machinery is a continuous and cyclic process and if done in the proper manner, it can improve the operating efficiency of the mine and make the mine a more profitable venture.

image from : wikipedia