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Well this doesn't seem too flimsy:

First working 3D-printed firearm built

What about Hawaii's "old" NELHA 220 kW Ocean Thermal Energy conversion plant off the Kona coast ?

OTEC solutions are apparently still alive in Hawaii, as a project and funding for building another more powerful OTEC plant off Maui's coast was awarded in 2010 to Lockheed Martin, and NELHA is aiming to build a second plant by 2014.

But if you do have decent insolation and greater than 2mph average windspeed, you have options. If you can only do a roof-mounted wind turbine, then there is this:

Honeywell Wind Turbine

If you have an average windspeed of greater than 8.5 mph then you could also do one of these units, which can be mast-mounted for greater than rooftop-level windspeeds:

Windtronic Wind Turbine

Whatever works for you, it's worth considering that traditional, fossil fuel-generated grid power has and will continue to rise a lot for the forseeable future. For example the cost per kwh in the Pittsburgh increased 10% in the last year alone. In NYC, it's currently greater than $0.30/kwh for the end user. It doesn't take much of that to get your personal break-even under 5 years (not that long when you consider most people own their homes for 30+ years).

Maybe because of this?

http://www.gizmag.com/son-of-concorde/23118/

Some big names working on a replacement? They maybe have reduced or solved the problem of sonic booms; maybe they did something about fuel and maintenance requirements as well?

It's almost identical to Buzz's suit.

* Green on the chest piece
* Green at the elbows
* Green around the crotch
* Green around the hands
* Bubble dome
It's just missing the decals and wings.

Just for comparison:
NASA
Pixar

Not a tree, a rock, a cathedral, a road, a car, a plane?

http://www.gizmag.com/apple-iphone-micro-usb-adapter/20094/ and http://www.mobilemag.com/2012/05/30/iphone-5-might-feature-micro-usb-as-a-standard/ to answer your question.

All this automation is great and everything but when does it actually translate into a benefit for humanity in general? I'm so glad some business can now churn out more crap to purchase at cheaper prices.

Are custom-made prosthetics for the disabled not 'noble' enough for you?

Ok. Here's something to make housing more affordable.

What else were you complaining about? Oh, yes. Humanity's presence in the solar system. Well, they've printed airplanes, so with a modicum of imagination, you can imagine printing space shuttles.

I'll leave examples of "reducing the environmental footprint" as an exercise for the reader.

I'm talking about inductive AC synchronous motors.

Please understand that "induction" and "synchronous" are two distinct motor types. Asynchronous AC motors use induction; synchronous AC (aka brushless DC) motors use permanent magnets. There are no "inductive synchronous motors".

GM does not use a permanent magnet motor. I linked to a GM site for you, where they quite clearly say it's an induction motor.

There are two machines in the volt. One is absolutely a permanent magnet machine, and I see conflicting reports on the web about the second (larger) machine. You linked to a dealer site that is overflowing with other errors, so far from authoritative. It may be an induction motor, in which case it would be the first modern example not descended from ACP technology.

The Leaf (and apparently the ActiveE, hadn't checked out their motor tech) are the only modern highway-speed EVs with permanent magnets in its motor. Is that clear enough?

Sure, but that's a lot of cars, and a far cry from your earlier claim that "Brushless DC motors are history as far as EVs go." You also overlooked GM's permanent magnet motor in the Spark, and practically everything coming out of Germany and Japan, with the exception of the RAV4EV (using Tesla tech) and an eventual induction-powered Prius.

"However, though the potential national security benefits of such a powerful laser are clear, NIF also provides unique opportunities for wholly scientific pursuits." (article @ )

Yeah, I'm not sure what they plan on doing about that. Seems like it could be a major issue. They might not even have a solution to that yet, although TFA seems to be thinking this is going to be used for Flash memory, rather than CPU transistors, which makes heat considerably less of an issue.

http://www.gizmag.com/ibm-supermuc-supercomputer/23086/

Any other questions?

-AI

Are you sure? Macs are usually able to take larger memory modules than were available at the time of release.

He probably bought a pre-Sandy bridge MPB just over a year ago. Pretty sad for a not-even-18-months-old line to be limited to 8GB, but that's Apple for you.

It must suck so hard to be you

Anyone in the market for one of Apple's new Thunderbolt-equipped 2011 MacBook Pros would be forgiven for thinking the machines only support up to 8GB (2 x 4GB) of RAM since that's what's listed on the tech specs and is the maximum build-to-order option available through Apple. However online store OWC says the new 2011 MacBook Pro models can actually support up to 16GB (2 x 8GB) and is selling the 8GB sticks you'll need to make it happen.

Panasonic 20" 4K2K demoed at CES.

Panasonic 20" 4K2K demoed at CES.

Hi guys, welcome to 2009, only it's done with air instead of fluid.

Which genius thought liquids built into electronics was a good fucking idea?

Um. No. My phone works just fine. I also disconnected the line which should have terminated the call immediate, but the scammer was still talking when I reconnected the line. (I figure they were using some override built into the POTS.)

...Which is precisely why man invented the airhorn. Next time those bastards grab your line and won't let go, give them a really, really fucking loud reason to.

Like the Hornster http://www.gizmag.com/hornster-worlds-loudest-bicycle-horn/22457/

I think I'll wait until a few more "successful" test flights have been performed.

Good idea. From a previous article.

Copenhagen Suborbitals planned the test for last year, though it failed because of a malfunctioning hairdryer

O_o

Nano-particles are going to be a mixed bag. Some are likely good for you: Diet of buckyballs nearly doubles rat lifespan

http://www.gizmag.com/nanocrystalline-silicon-nanoshell-photovoltaics/21391/

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/39887/

From Polaris rover "Already, Astrobotic has reserved the use of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle to send a spacecraft containing Polaris on a trajectory toward the Moon, for a planned 2015 prospecting mission. That spacecraft should be able to deliver the robot safely to the lunar surface, using a system that allows it to automatically avoid landing hazards such as large rocks or craters â" ", so it's already being addressed

> Diesel engines are higher, up to 50% thermal efficiency.
Not even close.

>

Actually, diesel can. Diesel can even exceed 50%, but I'd love to see you shoe horn this thing into your car. For any car engine, you are correct. Not even close.

I find it useful to know exactly which diesel engine people are talking about when they start talking about how efficient diesel can be.

It has been done but is not very widely adopted.

I've never experienced a car equipped with it first hand, so I can't give any insight as to why it's not more widely deployed.

http://www.gizmag.com/noise-cancellation-improves-fuel-efficiency/19826/

GM quality is mostly crap all around (though that's generally true for all US manufacturers), and they've got a long, long way to go beyond "innovative" ideas to demonstrate otherwise. There's not even a US car in the Top 10 most reliable cars, and not a single GM vehicle on the list. The price point is really just adding insult to injury.

And I say this as a die hard fan of the Corvette and GM muscle cars of the past.

The journalist is making it harder to understand what is going on.

IANAP but here's how I understand it thanks to google.

First, 85 tesla have been generated for very short instants in the lab so the article is wrong in saying 60 tesla is higher than ever achieved.

Graphene forms a two-dimensional lattice surface like a chicken wire fence.
For each molecule of graphene a single electron sticks out from the surface.
These electrons are free to hop around to other atoms.
In fact they act just like particles that have no mass and can travel at 1% of the speed of light. These quasiparticles are called massless dirac fermions. A fermion is a particle with certain properties, the nucles of a helium atom being one kind of fermion.
Electrons travelling at relativistic speeds is not earth shattering since that is what happens in gold atoms too. But the point is the electrons are free to sweep through the lattice without hindrance, and that if you can control the way the electrons move, you can control the apparent properties of the quasiparticles.

In 2010 Francisco Guinea in Madrid predicted that stretching graphene along all the axes of it crystal structure will make the electrons act as if subjected to a magnetic field.
http://www.gizmag.com/straining-graphene-creates-strong-pseudo-magnetic-fields/15891/
http://physics.berkeley.edu/research/zettl/pdf/386.Science.329-Levy.pdf

In July 2010 Michael Crommie proved the prediction, by growing bubbles of stretched graphene that stick up like pyramids from the platinum surface they were grown on. The electrons acted as if they were subjected to 300 tesla fields.
This technique works at room temperature.

The paper mentioned by the OP talks about designer Dirac fermions which means that you can create quasiparticles possessing the characteristics you desire by simply moving atoms around so they make electrons move in the way necessary to make the quasiparticles appear to exist. You can thereby freely mess with simulated mass, electrical and magnetic fields, etc. which might be very useful.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7389/full/nature10941.html

The technique used in the OP experiment is low temperature and nanoscale. But based on Crommie's work it should not be hard to imagine processes in the future that could allow similar structures to be built quickly on a larger scale.

This is an exciting a relatively new field of research apparently but breathless reports using terms like designer babies or designer electrons when it is really designer quasiparticles, and saying that the fabric of reality is being messed with, is just distracting and does not help people who are not prepared to dive into the actual research paper to find out what is going on.

Way back in January 2008, in a comment slashdot user mike449 proposed using the built-in camera to detect gamma-radiation by "look[ing] for bright dots". It actually happened last year. Who says comments are useless?

Indeed, the proper thing to do is use a voice jammer not a cell phone jammer.

But this time other trends set in motion by the last oil shock that sent gas above $4/gallon may trump all that. If you've been paying attention the last 4 years, nearly every major car company has been working on and rolling out production model hybrids and EVs. Tesla, despite the scoffing ICE fans, has not only survived but is about to release its 3rd generation of vehicles. And what's more, EV delivery vehicles are starting to hit the scene; Ford is rolling out its own. Another smaller one called Mia has another.

The delivery vehicles are a significant one because if you could spend $1.34/60 miles to make your deliveries vs. $20/60 miles paying for gas at $4/gallon, 12mpg, you'd be insane as a business owner to not be all over that. Trucking is an extremely competitive business where fuel costs and the means to shave them are a major concern. And that's the thing, if delivery vans break the ice with commercial use of EVs, then you can bet the long-haul guys won't be far behind clamoring for semi-versions of EVs.

So, on the consumer and commercial fronts the options have developed to give everyone a real window to jump from the ICE ship. 2/3rds of American oil consumption goes to transportation, so if the price spike last time was enough to get people to abandon SUVs, then this time, if the spike is severe enough, especially in a down economy, we might all wake up in 2013 in an America where the oil industry is 1/3 its former size. That is the definition of a sea change.

found this link on the same page as TFA: http://www.gizmag.com/biological-fuel-cells-use-blood-sugar/19261/

It's really interesting that if you look at the arguably real shot of the test firing, it seems to look almost like a rendering from a game! It probably means that fire/smoke rendering in games is getting good, or perhaps nature is just recently slacking in presenting itself to us :)

The link at the bottom indicates that running one particularly large cargo ship supposedly pollutes as much as 50 million cars each year (likely a gross exaggeration but still worth considering) http://www.gizmag.com/shipping-pollution/11526/

Read what you link to. That article is about dirty bunker oil producing sulphur oxides and other nasty stuff. Obviously burning that produce much more poison than low-sulphur oils, or relatively clean gasoline. Which all has very little relation to the amount of CO2, which is what we're talking about. Cargo ships could burn cleaner fuels if they were compelled to -- near most ports they are.

"So far, the technology only works from a distance of about three or four feet (about one meter), although NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly hopes that its range can ultimately be extended to at least 25 meters (82 feet).

The plan is for the scanner to be mounted on a van, then used on suspects who would otherwise have to be physically searched." ( - http://www.gizmag.com/nypd-portable-gun-scanner/21147/ )

If it gets to the point that a van is allowed to scan past clothing at 25 meters, at the whim of a policeman, I think that the 4th amendment implications are grave, however, I don't think it's infringing on the rights of CCP owners directly, as it would only help enforce a law - a law you could more astutely claim is infringing on 2nd amendment rights. (Welcome to the shall/may state debate!)

Given that I don't live in a state that issues CCPs to citizens, it's already a moot point. I don't carry a gun because it would be a felony to do so, and this only allows the police to actually start cleaning up the guns carried by those who don't worry as much about felony violations. (i.e. The concept works under the presumption that we're all supposed to be unarmed.)

"New York gives wide latitude to the county authorities in issuing pistol licenses. In New York City, a concealed pistol license is allowed by law, but detractors have claimed it takes a large degree of wealth, political influence, and/or celebrity status to obtain.[33] In contrast, many rural Upstate New York counties are effectively Shall-Issue in their licensing policies, and some rural upstate counties have policies that allow unrestricted concealed carry after one has obtained a state carry permit." ( - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_carry_in_the_United_States )

Given that New York isn't completely may-issue solid it might not make the same amount of sense in application, and provides a glimpse into the de facto decisions of the enforcement on this issue - implications that may bother some gun owners in New York.

(It should be clear, but I wanted to make sure to mention, IANAL.)

I was not a fan of Cowen's arguments in two episodes of Econtalk, but there was a lot about his TED talk Be suspicious of stories that I really liked.

The first was that overuse of the good vs evil story mode lowers your IQ by ten points.

The second was that over-reliance on the story "we need to get tough with ..." is nearly as bad.

Here's Cowen being an idiot:
Cowen on the Great Stagnation
And here's the rebuttal, fresh off the press:
Ion Proton sequencer decodes DNA fast and on the cheap

The space program is big and impressive and you can pick up chicks by sneaking them into the JPL and letting them steer the Mars rovers. However, the entirety of the space program, IMHO, is bupkis in significance compared with sequencing the human genome and the era of proteomics now unfolding. Stagnation my ass.

In a terrorist society, only psychopaths commit crimes, of which there are plenty, as the society conspires to drive them to it.

What drives me nuts about this story is the tacit concession to escalationism. If you shoot at someone and later they stumble over your corpse, you can't say you didn't have it coming.

Urination = Disrespect
Bullets = Terminal Contempt

The urine perps should be disciplined, no question, but it's hardly legitimate fodder to order another cargo ship of Chinese machetes.

Drones still have to be piloted, they're just piloted remotely.

Not strictly true anymore. Say "hello" to the Northrop-Grumman X-47B. Say it nicely, though.

http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/index.html

http://www.gizmag.com/x-47b-first-flight-the-era-of-the-autonomous-unmanned-combat-plane-approaches/17817/

Strat

How about this one:

http://www.gizmag.com/rochair-lever-rowed-wheelchair/20128/

Human powered, and more maneuverable than a standard wheelchair.

The Rochair is far from a universal solution. The biggest problem with it is that anyone without excellent trunk control is going to fall over forward on the "pull" stroke. This excludes many paraplegics or individuals with compromised trunks from using it.

Seem like you can order one for about $5K: http://rotamobility.com/rochair/index.html I suspect it's unlikely you can get insurance to assist in funding the purchase of one.

So it fills a niche, of able-enough chair/scooter users looking for mechanical advantage in propulsion, but don't expect it to replace the norm.

How about this one:

http://www.gizmag.com/rochair-lever-rowed-wheelchair/20128/

Human powered, and more maneuverable than a standard wheelchair.

Not the best for health

Actually, the latest science suggests you may outlive us all (provided you're eating vitamins, iron and minerals etc.)

http://www.gizmag.com/dietary-restriction-aging-and-disease/13436/

The original system has already been upgraded, at least twice. Here is the most recent : http://www.gizmag.com/go/2708/

This thing was already made 5 years ago for military applications. http://www.gizmag.com/go/5325/

Yeah! And it's not like Apple patents things that are unoriginal. I mean I can't find a single item anywhere that didn't have round corners before the iPod/iPhone/iPad. It was like living in a MineCraft world! And it's not like Apple would intentionally write their patents all vaguely so they could sue anybody for anything vaguely similar, I mean it's never happened before has it?

OK, sorry about that. I completely understand what you are trying to say but you're talking about what the patent system claims to be and what it should be, but the reality is it is not those things and Apple has continually abused that fact.

Oh and fuel cells in phones and music players have already been developed and produced: http://www.gizmag.com/go/4609/ and fuel cell cars already exist and are on the market (I rode in a fuel cell taxi two weeks ago!), so when you say "might be used to power your phone... or car" it's already here and Apple didn't do it. Won't stop them from trying to sue people who try to do it from now on.

Better than that it has already been done http://www.gizmag.com/go/5325/ . Do people at the patent office not know how to Google an idea,

Hello. I for one would like to see your bullet points for "Better than that has already been done." Your comment inspired me to read both articles, and now that I have wasted my time I expect some satisfaction. Just what the fuck are you talking about? Are you suggesting that you know more than the sparse, truncated information written in TFA and in the link you provided? What I would like to know is why the US Patent Office doesn't simply close its doors and forward all applications to you, because apparently you are omnipotent and everyone else is an idiot.

Better than that it has already been done http://www.gizmag.com/go/5325/ . Do people at the patent office not know how to Google an idea, cause i'm betting the apple innovation department knows how. Its not something that's even deserving of a patent if they actually invented a new type of fuel cell then sure give them a patent but just putting the word it infront of laptop is the reason the whole patent system is a joke.

So, you're going to do something about it, like send a copy of that publication to the Examiner under 37 CFR 1.99, right? Or are you just going to complain impotently?

The general concept may not be patentable, but specific working implementations may very well be innovative and patentable.

There, a working implementation from 2006 and as far as I remember it was not the first one.

Better than that it has already been done http://www.gizmag.com/go/5325/ . Do people at the patent office not know how to Google an idea, cause i'm betting the apple innovation department knows how. Its not something that's even deserving of a patent if they actually invented a new type of fuel cell then sure give them a patent but just putting the word it infront of laptop is the reason the whole patent system is a joke.

Possible, merely theoretical solutions that have no basis in what would happen:
* Confiscate Cameras: http://www.infowars.com/cops-confiscate-cameras-at-ohio-congressmans-town-hall/
* Delete data: http://www.pixiq.com/article/chicago-police-delete-journalism-professors-video-footage
* Destroy phone/camera: http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2011/06/miami_police_destroy_cell_phon.php
* Use of a live streaming/storage to avoid confiscation/destruction? There's tech for that:
** http://inventorspot.com/articles/spy_technology_how_disable_a_cell_phone_15035
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_jammer
* Wiretapping laws: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/05/1954216/Leave-a-Message-Go-To-Jail?from=twitter
* Camera blocking devices:
** http://www.gizmag.com/norte-photoblocker-club-beer-cooler/20820/
** Unable to find it, but I'm sure I remember Kipkay having a video showing how to make glasses that would blind any camera sensitive to infrared.

Some of this, such as the wiretapping cellphone case, has been overturned. I believe. This is just off the top of my head. I'm sure there is more for real cynics with time to list.

Japan has been using UAVs for agriculture for years. Pretty cool stuff.
http://benpheneverything.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/robotic-crop-dusting-in-japan/
http://www.gizmag.com/go/2440/

More likely, I think, that they have just bought some large polystyrene blocks and cut bricks out of them to the required size using run of the mill polystyrene cutting tools. From the picture in the gizmag.com article, the blocks used in the construction look like they are all regularly shaped and sized "bricks", so I doubt that the per brick cost would be all that much, and almost certainly no way near a dollar each.

You know, it's always assumed that the Antikythera mechanism's housing looked something like this:

http://images.gizmag.com/inline/hublot-antikythera-mechanism-first-computer-watch-14.png

But who says the corners couldn't have been rounded?

The ancient Greeks will have some serious royalties to cough up after all this time...

Libraries should use this system and set it up exactly the way it is setup for printed books: limited number of available copies, queues, limited checkout time for hot books, free use.

They do!

You're issue isn't with electric or gas, your issue is with energy storage/refueling ability. How about a vehicle with electric motors that run off a gas generator? That would do exactly what you ask for and still be much more efficient. Sort of like how diesel electric locomotives work. The electric motors are MUCH more efficient that ICE's, so you use a gas generator to power the electric motors.

That is an idea I would be open to, though I'd be leery aobut it in a car I have to depend on every day to get to work. I don't like the added complexity and maintenance vs. the simple vehicles I currently own that are cheap to own, operate, and repair. I find the technology very interesting though and would consider a diesel/electric for my boat. Epic is the only boat manufacturer making sucha system for wake boats. Have a look:

http://23e.epicboats.com/

http://23e.epicboats.com/

http://www.boatingmag.com/boats/sport/epic-23e

http://www.gizmag.com/epic-23e-electric-hybrid-sport-boat/11107/

Epic has a truly usable design that can replace tradition gas wake boats. I'm not rich so I don't own waterfront property. That means I trailer to the water and will be out for 4-10 hours typically. It's not convenient to just go out for an hour or two due to all the work getting the boat ready, hooked up, towed to water, cleaned up afterwards, etc. It'll burn about 6-7 GPH and has a 46 gallon tank. So if I'm out all day, and go far from the ramp, say, down to the city to get lunch on the water, I might need to refuel. I can stop anywhere along the river and refuel quickly and easily. With Epic's hybrid design I could use the boat the same way... So it's a practical replacement... Granted, new wake boats are in teh $50k-$80k range and I could enver afford one. I'm sure the 23e is another $30k at least. The problem becomes figuring the break even point for someone who can afford to spend over $100k on a new wake boat. Will it save them money in the 1-5 years your typical new boat buyer will own it? Or is it cheaper for them to just run a conventional gas engine boat? If the latter, these hybrids will never get on the used market where guys like me might consider them.

Nautique has made an all electric towboat. While a neat idea, it's not a wake boat and isn't suitable to run ballast and put out a large wake. It's a slalom boat and can only do a couple pulls through a slalom course before needing to be charged for 4 hours. This is the biggest problem with electric vehicles. This type of boat would be alright for someone who lives on the water, typically takes a couple quick sets in teh morning before work or in the evening after work, and has a dock with 220v power to it (most places you can't do this as local government or Army Corps won't let you run 220v to your dock or shoreline, or have lots of restrictions on it). It's not practical for how the vast majority of watersports enthusiasts use their boats since it won't even get a couple hours from a charge. This type of electric vehicle is an expensive novelty.

I could turn this statement around and say, Oil/Gas might be ok for now, but they will run out. Let alone the environmental damage they are doing. So we can either spend the time twiddling our thumbs until fossil fuels are much more expensive, or we can start investing and researching in electrics now so that the time when they do 'get there' gets here quicker and we don't have to pay $10/gallon for gas.

I'm not worried about this. We won't run out in my lifetime and I think any environmental damage is overstated. It's a concern to me of course, and I deal with that concern by riding my mo

There's no force-feedback yet. You can interact with object in the environment, but you can't feel them. So this is of no interest to Picard, or the porn industry, for now.

Not on this one, but the University of Tokyo is coming closer to force feedback using ultrasound:

http://www.gizmag.com/tactile-holographic-display/12466/