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The BMW Welt was designed by architects Coop Himmelb[l]au in five thematic blocks: Hall, Premiere, Forum, Tower, and Double Cone, where areas have been reserved for car production, exhibition space, restaurants, shops, and even a business center. Coop Himmelb[l]au, not unfamiliar with designing large and complex spaces, developed a totally integrated and ecologically friendly air system combining both low and high tech methods to create optimal air circulation.

The multifunctional Hall, which sits as the centre point of the complex, was designed as a solar-heated, naturally ventilated sub-climatic area, removing the normal requirements for building heating and ventilation. Instead, a natural air supply is generated by thermal currents, wind pressure and turbulences when air accumulates in the area of the façade and roof projection. Air intake and outflow take place through automatically controlled and strategically placed vents providing the Hall with all its air needs.

The system proves to be especially beneficial to the Premiere section where BMW Welt produces its cars, and which directly opens up to the Hall. Because of the intensive exhaust gases that are released during the delivery process, and the subsequent energy heavy regulation typically required for air cleanup, the system was further fine-tuned to adjust the volume of air intake and outflow and to extract the exhaust fumes directly and pump in fresh air. A considerable feat given that BMW assumes a turnover of about 40 cars per hour, for a total of 250 cars per day.

On top of all this, the Forum, Tower and Double Cone are definitively public spaces, and have specially incorporated air systems to meet the comfort needs of their occupants while utilizing natural ventilation when possible.

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It has been more than 35 years since they were first used on a chewing gum packet, but they are going to be replaced by radio-frequency technology (Rfid), which uses radio waves to codify and store data in transponders. The EPC (Electronic Product Code) uses a chain of numbers to identify the label, product and an exclusive serial number for each article. This chain of numbers will be recorded on the Rfid chip sticker. Experts consider it a “revolution for selling places, businesses and homes around the world.” This was the message transmitted at the Innovation & EPC Forum celebrated in Málaga (Spain).

Rfid labels contain a chip that send a radio signal with a unique unrepeatable identifier which will be read as the article is intercepted by the reception antennae. It will be possible to send the information read by these antennaes to the EPCglobal network and compare any database. Among other things, it will also be possible to manage an on-line stock, verify replacement positions or misplaced articles, know customer preferences and obtain unlimited complementary information associating the EPC number to a database.

The EPC will allow a precise follow-up on each product without the need of visual contact, as with barcodes. This way, stores will be able to know each product’s moves and, if it was lost, at which precise moment, thanks to the simultaneous reading of all of the transported and delivered products in each movement.

Seven hundred firms have become familiarized with the Rfid technology’s mode of operating at the non-profit Aecoc/GS1 Spain testing center in Barcelona.

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The United States NAE has made public a list of which would be the main engineering challenges in the 21st century. Here are the 14 challenges:

• Reaching the goal of making solar energy accessible
• Supplying energy from fusion
• Developing methods for capturing carbon dioxide
• Managing nitrogen cycle problems
• Supplying access to drinking water
• Restoring and improving urban infrastructures
• Advancing in computer catalogs in health
• Designing better medicines
• Reverse-engineering the brain
• Preventing nuclear terror
• Protecting cyberspace
• Enriching virtual reality
• Advancing in personalized learning
• Designing tools for scientific discovery

Within these challenges is human learning and artificial intelligence, which awakens a great interest in the general public. Delving into the functioning of the brain will help the development of artificial intelligence, while at the same time new medicines should be developed to check the expansion of new viruses and dangers of terrorist origin. Also, the consequences of natural disasters will have to be confronted and the infrastructures of cities and services will have to be renovated, preserving the fragile ecological equilibrium.

Robert Socolow pointed out that this list has been elaborated in part so that the public could be aware of it and could understand to what point investments in science and engineering can improve human life.

DualBIOS was already present in some Gigabyte motherboards but only on the high-end models. Today all motherboards will enjoy this technology, which gives the motherboard the true QUAD experience. This technology includes Dual BIOS and the Express BIOS Rescue Technology, a combination that gives a security mechanism that contains four copies of BIOS distributed between Flash ROM, hard drive and the CD driver.

This technology isn’t new. Gigabyte used it for the first time in 1999. It’s a very easy system: two ROM chips are used for the motherboard’s BIOS. The main one is the one that is habitually used, while the other one is a copy that will enter automatically into action when the main one fails or isn’t capable of turning on.

After a refreshing of failed BIOS or after that extreme overclock session in which the motherboard refuses to start, the motherboard won’t be left useless.

I120IConventional electronic chips are made of a small piece of silicon, which is made by cooling pure melted silicon that then solidifies into a crystal. These plates are chemically “doped” with impurities to improve their ability to conduct electricity.

The type of impurities affects the direction of the electrical charge. However, the weakness of the silicon chips is that they are very sensitive to heat. This is a factor that makes the use of fans and other cooling elements necessary, which in turn limits the future miniaturization of computers.

The physics Yulin Chen and Zhi-Xun Shen tested the behavior of the electrons on bismuth telluride, the previously mentioned compound. The results, published in the last online edition of Science Express, show a clear signature of what is called a topological insulator, a material capable of encouraging the free flow of electrons on its surface without losing energy. The advance is more significant since these researchers have proved that capacity at room temperature.

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Metro Buddy is Norwegian technology’s new revelation, an electric car for urban use, with the premise of not emitting hardly any contaminating elements. While it has reduced dimensions, it can reach between 80 and 120 kilometers of autonomy with just one charge of its nickel (NiMH) or lithium rechargeable battery, reaching a speed of 80 kilometers an hour. It’s a three-seater vehicle.

It’s projected for the market in December 2009, and, while it’s price is yet undecided, it’s predicted to be affordable.

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I110I The new Toyota Prius has bodywork that’s 15 mm longer and 20 wider. The height and the distance between the axels have not varied. The tires can be 15 or 17 inch in diameter. The electronic direction now has an adjustable-depth steering wheel. The steering diameter is 10.4 meters.

I111I Additionally, the Toyota Prius has improved in its capacity to maintain speed on long steep slopes thanks to the motor’s greater torque, which comes accompanied by a reduction in average mileage to 3.9 liters per 100 km, which is equivalent to 89 g per km of CO2 emissions. These figures greatly more improved than the current model’s and the competitor’s. But the best thing from the driver’s point of view is that the car gains in reaction, since it only takes 9.8 seconds to reach 100 km an hour – 1.1 seconds less than before.

I112I Toyota intends to increase its Prius sales in Europe to 60,000 units per year. In Spain, 2,325 Toyota Prius were sold in 2008, and in 2010 the goal is to reach 3,000. For 2009, the objective is just 2,000, of which 1,200 should be this new model.

The Toyota Prius will arrive in September at some very adjusted prices that could be almost 3,500 euros less than the current Toyota Prius.

It has a battery that can last up to five hours, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a dual integrated microphone for calls and videoconferences, and a dual-layer DVD player with capacity up to 8.5 GB. The AMILO Si 2636 incorporates Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi compatible with the new 802.11n standard, besides having an HDMI port, SP/DIF and multiformat card reader.

Impressive. But besides all this, it supports Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to T7500 and 2 GB of memory, to which 1 gigabyte more of Intel Turbo memory can be added that accelerates the access the hard drive of up to 250 GB. The chassis has been designed in a combination of matte red and shiny black, and, to protect it and avoid scratches, it’s delivered with a soft cover. It can be bought from December for 1,299 euros.

For these reasons, ACTIU was first awarded the recognition of Best 2008 Work by the Federation of Public Works of the Province of Alicante (FOPA) and then the Construye (“construct”) prize for the architecture of its installations. This last prize was organized by the firm Napisa and the Madrid School of Architecture, with the support of the College of Architects.

The contest had two categories: the first consisted of projects developed by architecture students, and the second by practicing professionals. On June 4, Luis Maldonado, the director of the Madrid School of Architecture, presented the award to Vicente Berbegal, the president of ACTIU. Numerous representatives from the construction, architecture and engineering sectors and some of Valencia’s government officials attended the event.
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They can be strategy, manager or fighting games that we may have played all our lives, but this time around they are online, competing against other users in real time. Most of these games require constancy, perseverance and, additionally, the surprise factor.

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These games are usually connected with each other through advertising and all of them have something to hook you. If you want to become one of the bet players, you can use extra resources that can be obtained through SMS messages.

Here are some of the games or websites:

Travian and Ikariamare strategy games.

Imperia Online and Evony are medieval strategy games.

Urban Rivals is a fighting trading card game.

is a game to create your own F1 team.

What’s more, all of them are in multiple languages, depending on the web domain, so that you can always play in your own language.