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Except he forgot about this .

Someone forgot to tell this guy that modern lumber harvesting is not a job that has no skill required. Like operating a crane, working a harvesting machine is an art. http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/logging-spider.jpg

Whichever clock resets the Big Bang (and time itself..)

http://www.impactlab.com/2007/02/13/dangerbomb-alarm-clock-for-that-explosive-morning-wakeup/

ok, so maybe not that big, but at 7am all bangs are big...

we here in turkey are surprised that noone can use any seeds but monsanto's, an american company's today. even the seeds farmers had been keeping for generations have been banned, through bought out laws. and how it takes filthy underhanded measures to kill competition through any means possible, to the extent of going the way of modifying its own seeds to kill out any plant from the same species not genetically modified by monsanto.

http://www.impactlab.com/2009/12/14/a-global-horror-story-how-monsanto-owns-and-manipulates-the-worlds-food-supply/

http://www.google.com/search?q=monsanto+horror&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

in a sidenote, some states in usa also have banned monsanto seeds, because they found out what monsanto was doing.

all because you americans have adopted a stupid, beyond logic approach to 'unregulated' business, and ended up not only being a bitch of your own corporations yourselves, but also making them a major problem plaguing the entire world.

well excuse me, but, you people in u.s. have no right to complain over ANYthing. in the end, this was the political ideology you adopted (hands off businesses so they can screw everyone, everything), and those were the people you voted for.

in your terms 'you get what you pay for'. enjoy.

The electrical field under high voltage lines is enough to light an 8 foot flouresent bulb in many places. it's off the scale on most EMI meters. http://www.impactlab.com/2009/04/10/field-of-flourescent-bulbs-powered-by-ambient-electricity/

an 802.11abg access point on the other hand emits so little power there is no way outside of sticking the antenna into your ear and to keep pushing until it embeds the tip in your brain that anyone can be affected by it.

Like the TV show Heroes? It's fun to watch but certainly not realistic.

Disclaimer: The use of parent as an example is in no way an attack on the author in any way. The author simply provided perfect fodder for this example.

Having written and published (badly) some stuff that could be considered "Sci Fi" by some folks, I will say my impression is that the critics are the real killers in this case. People who complain that it's "Not realistic enough" and "Breaks all the rules" are the folks who are killing the genre and the will of the writers in the genre.

Back in the old days of Sci Fi, we didn't have everybody and their brother who were "internet experts" on anything and everything. A concept could break ideas that the average person knew at that time and still be accepted, since the high end scientists learned more about these ideas and "rules" as we went forward in ways that made these outrageous concepts from Sci Fi a decade ago completely normal now. People enjoyed Star Trek because it was FUN. We didn't have a massive group of people who wanted... ahem... "...SCIENCE fiction, with emphasis on the science...". Sure, we don't have communicators that will chirp and allow an instant communication link from orbit, but current cell phones are pretty darn useful and a lot of them are very similar. So we end up with real things that are inspired by the outrageous things.

Improvements in technology and "Sci Fi" writing do go hand in hand, but the moment the writer gets slammed by 'edumacated' folks who seem to think that the scientific rules are a box to stay in and not inconveniences to find a solution around, they give up on these people and don't write.

For example: How can Sylar pick-up a person and throw him against a wall? Newton's Law dictates that Sylar should be pushed backward with an equal force (recoil). Also where is the energy coming from? Sylar must eat 50,000 calories a day* to maintain that level of "toss people against walls" energy output.

This is a box. A person who thinks only this way will have zero success at furthering current technology. A person who sees the facts and rules above and then decides to figure out a way to make it work anyway is the person who will bring about great advances in Science Reality. Will they succeed at accomplishing that specific thing? Maybe. Probably not. But the work they do to try might just have some interesting side effects that are good.

The problem is that there are more and more people who can't think outside the box and slam Sci Fi writers who try to for not being realistic enough to today's box. Creative folks are not easy to come by (which is why copyright law is considered so important to try to help encourage creativity). Slam them and discourage them out of what they were doing and suddenly you've got the loss mentioned above.

"Nonpolluting straw-burning furnaces"? Given that wood-burning has a pollution profile as bad as coal burning (the exact amount of different pollutants in each case varying depending on pollution controls), I seriously doubt straw burning is all that clean.

You don't have to interpret this as "straw-burning furnaces, which by nature of burning straw, are clean...". What you could just as easily interpret is "straw-burning furances, which have been modified to burn cleanly..".

Wood can burn horribly, generating thick black plumes of carcinogenic smoke, for example, when it's too wet. However, under controlled environments, wood can burn *very* cleanly. Take a look at a pellet stove - basically a wood burning stove, with the wood pellets providing a much more optimal burning profile that produces dramatically fewer pollutants.

On the flip side, you can purposefully create smoke, and use it as fuel in an internal combustion engine. This is called "wood gassification" and it's being used right now to drive a truck across the country. The Mother Earth News (magazine) built one more than 25 years ago back when the memory of the 70's oil embargo was still fresh and painful.

Nearly all have a self-contained power supply and transmitter inside a sealed case. Since GPS watches are now available, these units are becoming extremely small:

GPS devices on cars

Yes, "too good to be true" is exactly the description that I gave it five years ago when I ran into it. It doesn't help much that very few of the authorities on the subject will even recognize its existence, although most psychiatrists accept that the concept is sound.

However, both the scientific and anecdotal evidence supports it. Of the seventy or so studies that have been performed with naltrexone and alcohol, they all either support or at least fail to contradict the results. There are currently numerous people who have taken up the process since the release of the book, and their success rate does seem to fall in the range of 4 out of 5. There are literally tens of thousands in Finland who have undergone the treatment with the same results.

The concept of it being usable for any addiction is close but not quite correct. It's been demonstrated to be usable for opiate addictions, and for endorphin based behavioral issues like kleptomania and gambling addiction. Smoking, however, isn't on the list because nicotine addiction is acetylcholine based.

That's an interesting example. Here's another version of the same image:

Yours:
http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/body-scanners-372.jpg

Original:
http://osaka.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/pic_body02lg.jpg

Now why would they feel the need to photoshop out they guy's junk like that?

He call that porn ? http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/body-scanners-372.jpg ...
If it's this kind of result, I really don't know why he's calling this "porn"...

That presumes that they can sublimate their urges with the piece of paper. I'm no expert but I've seen precious evidence of that(or the opposing view that seeing the piece of paper makes them more likely to act out). Humans are just too complicated to agree on a reaction to a single stimulus.

http://www.impactlab.com/2008/01/06/internet-porn-shown-to-decrease-incidence-of-rape/

desert rover

Texas:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197072,00.html

http://www.houstonfreeways.com/modern/2007-01-07_80mph_west_texas.aspx

And Utah is considering it as well:

http://www.impactlab.com/2007/01/18/utah-considers-80-mph-speed-limit/

Thank you for your scepticism, as it tests ideas and either validates or refutes them. Please see the following links: http://www.impactlab.com/2007/03/14/prius-outdoes-hummer-in-environmental-damage/ http://www.evworld.com/library/rmi_hummerVprius.pdf http://thesocialage.com/blog/2007/09/10/better-for-the-environment-hummer-or-prius/ and two articles that support your point of view: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9750840-1.html http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/10/01/forbes-says-prius-ben-and-jerry-s-ice-cream-bad-for-the-environme/ My contention is that several factors should go into whether to buy a hybrid or not.

...is how much more environmentally damaging *creating* the batteries is. According to this, and this, the damage caused is greater than that of a Hummer.

How this could happen is pretty simple, really. While internal combustion is inherently polluting, it's been one of the most developed products for the last one hundred years, and so the production processes are super streamlined. Battery and hybrid technology is new, and so it has a few kinks still to be worked out.

People need to be careful about jumping on this 'green' bandwagon without thinking, because there's a lot of stuff out there designed to take advantage of the near-maniacal devotion to curbing our carbon emissions, even though there's no way to conclusively prove that our output (which is 3% of total output, rotting vegetation contributing to the vast, vast majority) is actually doing anything at all.

Believe what you will, but please do investigate both sides of the matter first, and remember that it's not what you drive, it's HOW you drive.

The implants I have seen consisted of a plastic sheet with probes. The probes would be connected to a plug in the skull (not very flattering). I guess use in humas would include some transmitter in the skull (f.i. near the ear). the implant would have to be on the top right inside the skull (primary or perhaps secondary motor cotex), and if not fixed to the skull it could damage the brain. Right now it actually looks like this.. http://www.impactlab.com/2006/07/12/bionic-man-uses-brain-power-to-control-tv/

I'm an Opera man, but I'm looking forward to downloading Firefox 3 (maybe after 3.1). I'm all for getting the word out, but stop with the silly gimmicks.

I don't know of the current state of the plan, but there was news awhile ago that they are opening a second office Denver. LINK

Well, here you go.

Engadget ran a caption contest on these - my favorite was, "Hello, Onstar?"

I don't buy that it would be constitutional. You can't punish somebody for refusing to give evidence against themselves.
"The [Illinois Supreme Court] said in a 1992 opinion that the statutory "right" to refuse to take a blood-alcohol test does not derive from a constitutional protection such as the right against self-incrimination. Instead, the court said any such right of refusal is "simply a matter of grace" bestowed by the Legislature."
http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&fil e=article&sid=10794

I've found it myself: http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&fil e=article&sid=11001 And I Quote "Through a study by CNW Marketing called "Dust to Dust," the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid. The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it. ". (The article mentions more cars, so go read it. If it is true, that not yet verified of course)

"If knowledge is power, then the intellectual-horsepower rating of tomorrow's vehicles is going to be tarmac-shreddingly high."

"And European culture is generally more tolerant of restrictions on individual freedom. A case in point: In a European Airbus, if the pilot pulls the stick back so far that the plane is about to stall, the stick effectively locks up. If an American-made Boeing jet is about to go outside the envelope, a cockpit alarm sounds, but the stick still responds."

Just a couple of quotes that seem custom-made for this discussion from an interesting review of technologies for intelligent cars in Popular Science.

And a review from Impact Labs describes some details of actual hardware and software solutions currently being developed with a goal "to be able, within the next two years, to drive from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles with 100 percent autonomy--without any human intervention whatsoever."

When will they cover the Coca Cola Pesticide counter-myth?

Could be. It seems to be compatible with their business plan.

I think Forbes was lacking in the Technology Dept.

Lightsabers
Not possible? I think most StarWars geeks, physics buffs, and George Lucas already understood the properties of light. That's why most techie sites refer to it as an "wave arc" weapon. Meaning it's not a "laser sword" more of some kind of energy/matter stream that loops onto it self. More probable, yes? PS, with all the ILM technology, why are not the lightsaber shadows removed, hmm?Do a google search on building a lightsaber, lightsaber physics. You'll find ton's of pages.

Hyperdrives
So so SO many theories on this one. Most won't work. Some are really really probable. Yes, look at the Physics of Star Trek. Read Michio Kaku. Do your homework!

3D Spacial Holograms Not Possible?! WHAT! Like almost here! A guy has already built a floating 2D projection monitor. Read this article
IO2 Techlology
FogScreen Inc.

We all know the real point of this - to let you see through clothes like the infrared video cameras that came out a few years ago.

So, if we're going to ban porn because of its addictiveness are we going to ban news, too?

I'm an information addict. I spend half my day browsing various news sites (no, not pornographic) and forums to read new information. I rarely remember what I read, I just read for reading's sake. I barely get to do anything else and when I do I often want to stop pretty soon and get back to the information. If you spend your leisure time reading Slashdot (or other news sources) instead of doing other things you usually love to do (e.g. play games if you're a gamer) you are another victim.

Sources: 1, 2 (NYTimes, reg or circumvention required), 3

There might be a connection between these two forms of addiction, after all porn is a form of information, too, right?

While this article is dated today (2/22/04) in the guardian, it appeared at least a couple of other places a couple of weeks earlier:

And in the NY Times 2/8/04 ($ required):

Mark