October 2015 Newsletter
APD Debuts Anti-Theft Device
Alcoa Police will debut a novel new tracking system that allows police to more easily retrieve stolen property at today's Alcoa Police and Fire Night Out. Alcoa Police Sgt. Detective Kris Sanders said APD will be the first police agency in Tennessee to employ the Anti-Theft Dots tracking system. The system will be available at an APD booth at Police and Fire Night Out, 5 to 8 p.m. at New Midland Plaza.
Anti-Theft Dots is a system whereby users place small labels on valuable property - electronics, tools, bicycles, etc. "Each one is what they call a 'DNA label,'" Sanders said. "It has a unique number on it." When items go missing, police agencies using Anti-Theft Dots tracking can access a national database. That means a bicycle stolen in East Tennessee could be retrieved and returned by police in locales all across the country who use the Dots technology.
Sanders said APD is providing the Dots free of charge. He said it's a user-friendly system - after placing the Dots on their property, users go onto the company database and register the property, on a special page set up for Alcoa's police district. Dots tamper-proof The Dots are tamper-proof, too, Sanders said. If thieves try to remove the Dots, the labels leave a residue encoded with the property owner's number. Police can then use an ultraviolet light and a special mobile app to identify the stolen property. Sanders said this is the kick-off of the Anti-Theft Dot program for APD.
The department will employ a number of outreach programs in the coming months to see more Alcoa residents make use of the technology. "We're looking forward to making it a successful program here, Sanders said. Alcoa Police and Fire Night Out is a public event, begun last year by Alcoa's police and fire departments to jointly recognize both the National Night Out police event and National Fire Prevention Week.
The free event will feature food, entertainment and various displays from both emergency departments, as well as Tennessee Air National Guard, American Red Cross, Blount County Sheriff's Office, Blount County Rescue Squad, Rural/Metro Ambulance and Blount County E-911. The event will also feature various children's activities, including bounce houses, face painting and a petting zoo.
E-mail: mikeg@thedailytimes.com
Article Source: http://www.thedailytimes.com/news/apd-debuts-anti-theft-device/article_f1f9eef4-6261-5466-b494-998336e24175.html
Energy from Cars Power Homes Using East Tennessee Technology
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are looking at energy-efficient and money-saving ways to live, and they're thinking outside the walls of a typical house.
"What if we didn't have to build houses the same way we've been building them for hundreds of years?" Asked ORNL's Roderick Jackson. It's a question that's being answered with plastic. "Right behind me is one of the first ever 3-D printed houses," said David Danielson, assistant secretary of energy for the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
In case that's not enough, it also supplies its own energy, with the help of a car that's also made of plastic. "It's not just these two separate entities like we typically see it. We drive our car and we live in our home, but we share energy between the two," added Jackson who led the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy (AMIE) project. Here's how it works: these plastic houses and cars rely on solar power as their main energy sources, similar to the way a hybrid car does. The car can also connect to the house to use its energy for additional power and vise versa. So, appliances can run at night using the car's energy.
"The energy needs we have are not ten years off, they're tomorrow," said Jackson. These are the original models for the AMIE project, so they're not available for purchase yet. The technology is in East Tennessee now, and the way it's being made at Oak Ridge makes it affordable.
"We're also able to drive the cost down so that American consumers can actually buy houses that are really efficient," said Danielson. "Ultimately (we could) have no energy bill which is something I think we all would love to have. More than 20 industrial partners were part of the AMIE project, including University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design students.
Article Source: http://www.local8now.com/home/headlines/Energy-from-cars-power-homes-using-East-Tennessee-technology-328880231.html
Talks of City Ban on Unnecessary Vehicle Idling Resurface in Ann Arbor
Nearly four years after the Ann Arbor City Council decided against adopting a ban on unnecessary vehicle idling, talks are picking up again.
The city's Environmental Commission is recommending new regulations for both vehicle idling and the use of driveway sealants containing certain chemicals.
City officials are encouraging members of the community to attend the commission's meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday to give input on the recommendations.
The meeting will be held inside the City Council chambers on the second floor of city hall, 301 E. Huron St.
At the meeting, the commission will take comments on a set of recommendations to the City Council on regulating idling and the use of sealants with high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs. Members of the public will have three minutes to comment at the beginning and end of the meeting.
The new draft idling ordinance is based on a previously proposed version from early 2012 when the issue was last before the City Council. Based on feedback from the City Council and the community, the proposed ordinance language has been modified and narrowed in scope to focus on commercial vehicles and vehicles in designated no-idling zones.
It states that no operator of a commercial motor vehicle could allow the vehicle to idle for any period of time while the vehicle is unoccupied, or for more than five minutes in any 60-minute period while occupied.
Additionally, no operator of any motor vehicle could allow the vehicle to idle within a posted "no idling" zone for any period of time while the vehicle is unoccupied, or for more than five minutes in any 60-minute period while occupied.
Those regulations are aimed at reducing unnecessary idling by commercial trucks and by vehicles parked outside schools and hospitals.
The idling restrictions would not apply if a vehicle is forced to remain stationary because of an official traffic-control device, direction of a law enforcement official, or traffic conditions beyond the operator's control, including traffic congestion, railroad crossings, construction zones, security checkpoints, and vehicle queues for drive- through goods and services. The restrictions also would not apply if idling is necessary to operate defrosters, heaters, air conditioners or other equipment to prevent a safety or health emergency for human or animal occupants.
There are several other scenarios outlined in the proposed ordinance in which the idling restrictions would not apply as well.
Signage indicating "no idling" zones would be made available by the city to be placed at school and hospital loading zones as deemed appropriate.
Businesses and organizations also could request "no idling" signs from the city to be placed on their properties.
A violation of the anti-idling ordinance would be a civil infraction with a minimum fine of $100.
The Environmental Commission in June approved a resolution recommending the City Council adopt an idling ordinance and take steps to educate the public about negative effects of unnecessary idling on public health and non-renewable energy use.
The commission also voted in August to recommend the city develop an ordinance to restrict the application of pavement seal coats containing high levels of PAHs on driveways, roads and parking lots, arguing PAHs are toxic to aquatic organisms and present hazards for the Huron River and the citizens of Ann Arbor.
The Huron River Watershed Council has been collecting data on the extent of PAH contamination in sediment in the Ann Arbor area.
The Environmental Commission based its recommendation on the need to reduce human and aquatic exposure to PAHs.
"PAH compounds are toxic, mutagenic, teratogenic (causing birth defects) and/or probable human carcinogens," reads a memo shared with the City Council by the Environmental Commission, arguing PAHs are 1,000 times more prevalent in coal tar products (5% PAH) than in asphalt-based products (less than 0.005% PAH).
The commission is recommending an ordinance to restrict the application of pavement seal coats containing above 1% PAH.
"Asphalt-based seal coats are as effective as coal tar seal coats in places where they are commonly applied, such as driveways," the memo states. "Asphalt-based seal coats are readily available for purchase over the counter or through application contractors and a cost comparable to coal tar seal coats."
The commission notes the states of Washington and Minnesota, the District of Columbia, and dozens of municipalities throughout the U.S. have banned coal tar seal coats, and city, county and University of Michigan facilities already have reduced or halted use of coal tar seal coats.
Anyone with comments or concerns about the Environmental Commission's recommendations is encouraged to share thoughts with the commission by emailing Matt Naud, the city's environmental coordinator, at mnaud@a2gov.org.
Article Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/10/talks_of_city_ban_on_unnecessa.html
L.A. Show to feature 30 Global New-Vehicle Debuts
LOS ANGELES -- Promising equal parts traffic, sunshine, new cars and technology, next month's L.A. Auto Show will feature 30 global new-vehicle debuts, organizers said today.
The 2015 event will kick off with the Connected Car Expo on Nov. 17, followed by two press preview days, Nov. 18-19. It will be open to the general public Nov. 20-29.
"This year's news comes from many sources, and it's fascinating to witness the dramatic and swift changes that are transforming the automotive business, Lisa Kaz, the show's president, said in a statement.
Key vehicle debuts already confirmed include Buick's all-new LaCrosse sedan, a convertible version of Range Rover's Land Rover Evoque, a new 2016 Nissan Sentra, Porsche's GT4 Clubsport, and Mitsubishi's 2017 Mirage and 2016 Outlander Sport.
Other anticipated introductions: Fiat's Spider (a two-seat roadster based on the recent Mazda Miata), a new Mazda CX-9 crossover and a small Scion crossover expected to foreshadow a production model due next year.
Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volvo and Volkswagen will have global debuts, details of which will be disclosed at or just ahead of the press previews.
The 2015 L.A. show will also mark the North American debut of a number of German vehicles initially shown at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September and Japanese vehicles from next week's Tokyo Motor Show.
All told, including the North American unveilings, the show will feature more than 50 debuts.
But the event won't just be about shiny new cars. Organizers of the 2015 L.A. show are looking to highlight the rapid convergence of the auto industry itself and technology.
"It's not just about new vehicles anymore," Brendan Flynn, vice president of marketing for the L.A. Auto Show told Automotive News. "The underlying theme is where the auto industry is headed. It's going to be what the startup and the technology companies are doing and how manufacturers are changing how they look at their business model."
With this in mind, more than 40 exhibitors will showcase new technologies aimed at safety, connectivity, data gathering and efficiency. This includes tier-one suppliers such as Garmin, Faurecia and Qualcomm.
With emerging tech making factory-direct, over-the-air updates and servicing possible, the Connected Car Expo also will focus on what this means for dealers.
"They're going to have to reimagine their role as well," Flynn said. They're becoming services providers more and more so that's really something we'll look at the expo."
Car sharing companies and services will also be a hot topic, and John Zimmer, the co-founder and president of ride-share company Lyft, will be the keynote speaker the morning of the expo.
The L.A. show differs from other domestic auto shows in that it's not owned by a dealer association (it is endorsed by the Greater L.A. New Car Dealer Association). Instead it's privately owned by ANSA Productions
This independence allows the show to take a greater look at practices and companies pushing change in the automotive industry that might otherwise be excluded from such an event.