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Actually ethanol burns worse than gasoline and (if you make it our way) takes more energy to make than you get from burning it, but that's ok because of, well, I have to really reach for this one -- JOB CREATION!

What I don't like is how ethanol is damaging for older vehicles. I know I have nothing to back it up, but ever since 10% ethanol started showing up at the pumps I'd swear I've had more trouble with my older car (difficulty starting, power, etc). Reading articles such as this one about the upcoming Ethanol-15 redouble my concerns.

It's the corn lobby and government subsidies that's driving adding ethanol into our gasoline, nothing else. I'm all for alternative-fueled cars designed to run on E85 (or E100 for that matter), but leave the stuff out of the "gas" pump.

This Popular Mechanics article definitely proves this point. Its not just for the customer, but probably of more use for the manufacturer to do QA as far as who they have ship their product. Ditto for the shipping companies themselves. Stuff leaves factory unbroken and gets to warehouses A and B ok, but somewhere between shipping hub C and D... Uh oh! Also if keeping tabs on impacts and such over time, it would even allow the shipping company to find out if some particular employee is dinging their packages by keeping tabs on shift hours and such.

It's nice to have it, but the recipient isn't the only customer of this particular tracking service. It would only make sense if the cell phone app to read the tag also reports all the data back home to a database where this info can be of greater use. Also not to mention everyone going through a similar supply line benefits despite not having these tags, provided problems in shipping are corrected promptly.

Tom Mueller was indeed head of several Pintle engine projects at TRW, but he was also working on a personal project in his garage when Elon came to talk to him. He was working on a project for a rocketry enthusiast club called Reaction Research Society. More details at this link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/4328638

Elon Musk disagrees.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/elon-musk-on-spacexs-reusable-rocket-plans-6653023

I think he wishes he had the choice to do that. But he doesn't, because that choice was taken from him by government do-gooders and the Federal electron police.

Sorry, could you clarify what, exactly he can't buy? Or did you mean these instead?

The "ban" doesn't work quite like most people think it does. We can still get crappy old low-efficiency lights, manufacturers just need to make them 30% less inefficient - Which they've known how to do for decades (just make them more insulating so they lose less energy as heat)... But, that costs a bit more (perhaps a buck each rather than a dozen for $1.99). So, everyone hating on the CFLs and now LEDs can still choose to "vote with their wallets".

The fellow to whom I responded, however (along with one amusing AC troll that replied to me), won't bother letting facts get in the way of their ranting. The Man stole their 100W bulbs, Nevar forgit!

I was under the impression that there's virtually no nuclear weapon risk from a thorium reactor

That was the original thinking, but there was a very recent analysis that suggested that a "minor tweak" in the process could be used to produce materials for bombs.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/nuclear/is-the-superfuel-thorium-riskier-than-we-thought-14821644
http://phys.org/news/2012-12-thorium-proliferation-nuclear-wonder-fuel.html

Not my subject, so I won't venture an opinion on whether this is a real problem, or scare.

and that there's no fear of a catastrophic meltdown.

Seems to be what people are saying. Again, not my subject, although I'd add the caveat is that nothing is ever quite foolproof, since fools are so ingenious.

Well, carbon composites aren't as durable as steel either.
I don't think there's much risk of empalement. I think they do act much like the composites, esp when coated in epoxy.

Random googling yields:
http://www.menziesbamboobikes.com/strength-and-durability-of-menzies-frames.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_bicycle
and
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/how-to-build-a-bamboo-bike#slide-1

A few of these claim greater durability than steel. I find that hard to believe, and I recall he was mentioning delaminating issues similar to carbon fibre.

http://durianrider.org/2011/05/28/bamboo-road-bike-review/
This review seems to claim better durability than the bikes he tries.
Although the bamboo pieces do look stockier than a carbon fibre.

"This is one bike you can really ride hard and not have to worry about chipping the 2mm carbon downtube"

So, dunno, actually sounds pretty cool.
I do know that steel frames are heavy and tiring to use.

There was an article in Popular Mechanics some time ago about the engine design lead.

Have you looked into using cable tubes or wraps (this sort of thing)? They can help a lot when you have multiple cables converging on the same point over space. There are also ties, mounts, and any number of cable management accessories for "under the desk" cables.

All in all, I've found the most useful practice to be labelling each cable or cord on both ends using masking tape and a marker. The tape provides a 'tab' I can write on, so if I need to unplug device X, I can just look for the cable with the X label and then pull it free from the other end.

I've also found the biggest culprit when my cables get messy is always my laziness, especially not removing devices, cables, and power cords that I am not currently using and packing them up until I need them again.

RIght until the price of helium skyrockets... http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/med-tech/why-is-there-a-helium-shortage-10031229

I got rid of my car about 1 year ago, and have never looked back.

I also remember those airport security problems professor Mann had. I have to wonder whether he might be the sort of person that unintentionally escalates these situations. Or at least fails to effectively de-escalate them.

Would it similarly be "escalation" for a paraplegic to refuse to remove his prosthetic leg for airport security? The policy says they shouldn't have to, after all. (Admittedly, a policy which is apparently not followed.)

Where did you hear that the Volt has two electric motors? That's one of the most bizarre claims I've heard yet. It has a single motor and a gasoline engine.

Don't like that site about the Volt? Here's some more. Good enough for you?

You act like there's a ton of Japanese manufacturers out there. Toyota is going induction. Nissan is going brushless. The other two, Mitsubishi and Subaru, are bit players in the EV field with really minimalist vehicles; I don't think Subaru even has anything that can go highway speeds. In the US, we have Tesla, GM, and Ford actually selling highway-speed EVs. Tesla: all induction. GM: induction on sale, with a prototype unveiled that uses a brushless. Ford: assuming it uses the same motor as their Focus FCV, the focus EV is induction (the EV transit connect definitely is). Others: Th!nk: induction. BMW: two "demonstration" EVs, one induction and one PM.

Yes, there were more permanent magnet ones out there than I realized. But the basic point is the same: the concept that rare earths are necessary to EVs is simply false.

I heard below 20% capacity or about 400,000 barrels a day it can become unsafe to operate in the winter. Its down to about 500,000 now.

I drove along the pipeline road from Valdez to Fairbanks 6 years ago. Its an amazing thing to see,

I need a giant electric pad in the garage so I can just drive over it and have the car charge itself...

You'll have to wait a couple years for it, but it's on it's way...
If you have Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt this might happen a bit sooner...

Replying to myself: Whoever marked my original message overrated as obviously never tried lionfish!

It's mostly in the difference of how diesel engines are regulatied, but here.
USA: .07 grams of nitrogen oxide per mile. 'Eastern Europe' is .29

As a result of such regulatory differences, including diesel taxes, there's far more diesel vehicles on the roads in Europe, which increases average MPG. Gasoline vehicles are normally pretty much the same on either side - as long as you test them to the same standard. European mileage testing regimes tend to be 'nicer' than US ones.

Indeed, the article is surprising, or more accurately, void of new information
But there is another, worrying implication that the Telegraph can disclose for the first time: that the errors committed by the pilot doing the flying were not corrected by his more experienced colleagues because they did not know he was behaving in a manner bound to induce a stall. And the reason for that fatal lack of awareness lies partly in the design of the control stick – the “side stick” – used in all Airbus cockpits.
For the first time ? As you said, this has been beaten to death in various reports. There has already been an almost full transcript of the cockpit voice recorder leaked in a book months before. The last and final report from the investigators is scheduled to come out in June. They have put in place a special panel composed of pilots to try to understand the reactions of the crew (including seemingly ignoring the stall warnings, the apparent lack of confidence in the instruments, etc), and have dug into the history of flights during which pitots tube froze at high altitude. I think their conclusions might be slightly more revealing than the Telegraph copying-and-pasting other websites.

This article has a brief discussion of the overall design of the plane. Not really a step-by-step how-to, but there's enough in there for someone with some physics knowledge and Googling skills to create something similar.

You missed this one http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/3319656

3 years old and as pertinent as ever. I know someone who works in a manufacturing sector for highly specialized parts, China is a customer. It was VERY interesting that they sent a team of 10 to visit their plant to "inspect" and were quite pissed when they weren't given free reign to look around and were only allowed to inspect product in a sanitary room....

Look, first generations of new technology are never about "saving money". Do you really think people bought the first iPhone because they could "save money"?

People buy the latest iGadget because they believe in the company as well as the technology. The technology of the Volt may be fine, but I think GM still has a stigma of being bad at product development.

A wise engineer once told me, "one blunder in the car industry takes decades of perfect execution to recover." The Volt may be a perfect car, but few will buy it based on GM's past mistakes.

Would "Privacy Star" compliance be more trustworthy than Energy Star? Remember when Congressional auditors got, among other things, a Gasoline-powered alarm clock an Energy Star certification?

I'm sure it had the lowest energy consumption of all gasoline-powered alarm clocks they tested!

Would "Privacy Star" compliance be more trustworthy than Energy Star? Remember when Congressional auditors got, among other things, a Gasoline-powered alarm clock an Energy Star certification?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/solar-wind/texas-to-cape-wind

Texas is in the race, too. They have a stronger history of offshore infrastructure thanks to drilling for oil in the gulf, not to mention fewer environmental regulations and the largest onshore wind-power industry in the nation. Still, a couple of Texas offshore projects have been saying they'll have the first offshore turbine within a year... for the past two or three years.

It sounds like Virginia is pretty far behind, if they're only just now predicting that it will take less than a year. ;)

I think it comes down to power to weight ratio... ...I do not understand why they haven't made a hybrid with a small (1 litre) efficient diesel engine that *only* kicks in to charge the batteries when they hit half charge.

Jaguar currently has a rather interesting hybrid concept car with a generator hooked to a turbine. Kind of interesting as a proof of concept. See here. One problem is that the turbine engine is a lot less efficient than the diesel engine, but you kind of make up for it in weight savings. Turbines weigh very little compared to a diesel. Obviously, this is not a daily driver, but hopefully they learn some stuff from just building it and it pays off.

What CEO are you aware of that's thinking long-term any more? They are ALL after short-term profits in the name of making some stupid reward goal so they get a big fat bonus, workers be damned! It makes the stock holders happy to see these numbers ala Apple but long term? Long term I think we're all going to have some BIG issues! I know guys that work in what little manufacturing still exists in the USA making things that are valuable to the Chinese and who refuse to source it over there knowing full well what will happen. So what happens? The Chinese INSIST on coming here to "inspect" how they do things and bring a team of scientists and engineers over to make sure that the product is "right". Yeah sure. Boy were they PISSED when they didn't get to see the plant or logon to any terminals. Instead they were shown to one bare room, fully escorted, and only allowed to inspect and measure the product.

Sadly, their networks were almost certainly penetrated afterwards but at least the scientists were kept away from the machinery during the visit. The Chinese are very very aggressive, it's scary.

Suggested reading -> http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/3319656

Calm down dude, and explain why WTC7 came down.

I can help you with that.

Questions and Answers about the NIST WTC 7 Investigation
World Trade Center Disaster Study
Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report

Sadly, these links never go out of style.

Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report
Questions and Answers about the NIST WTC 7 Investigation
World Trade Center Disaster Study

I think you're taking conspiracy theory 'debunking' a little too seriously, and doing it in a rather creep and non-sensical fashion............. While many people have some problems with the way the buildings collapsed I have never heard this stuff.

Um... you haven't spent much time on the internet, have you? Or noticed that it was enough to prompt a Popular Mechanics cover story.

Somehow, I doubt it.

Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report

Dancing Israelis

Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report

You're a nutter, and here's why. Keep in mind, I believed the same thing for a bit, let me show you a different way of thinking about it that makes far more sense.

First, the NIST and Popular Mechanics together have done a lot of coverage and explanation, there are links in the article and at the bottom for more reading. Take this information, buy the nearest structural engineer an expensive dinner, and let him/her explain, without interruption, why it is a valid conclusion.

The short version: jet fuel burns really hot, explosives powerful enough to bring the buildings down would have been heard, the fires alone were enough to cause progressive structural problems even without physical damage. Many myths are debunked here. In particular, This page explains the free-fall speed simply, to my satisfaction.

Now, that leaves use with the PNAC, identity theft, and Visa. I don't know about the Visa program, and nothing you've said makes me want to filter through any more nonsense. If you are a hijacker, it makes sense to go under an assumed identity if you've also been caught or monitored or basically would raise any red flags. The fact that you called it identity theft instead of claiming they were names picked from a hat to represent people who weren't actually on a plane is a little progress. Someone boarded the planes under those names. This is not evidence of anything.

PNAC is the most troubling, and by far the only factor in your post to be concerned about. The turf war between intelligence agencies allowed lots of things to happen which would not have been caught, and correcting that should have been the most action to come out of 9/11. At worst, you could claim this was intentional, and the attack was allowed to continue beyond the point that it was discovered, in order to support PNAC's goals. I am 100% certain that someone, somewhere, watched this unfold, and thought, there's our new Pearl Harbor. Whether they failed to act intentionally or not is entirely conjecture, and cannot be proven reliably either way.

So here's what you do. Suggest first that the reaction was assymetric, everyone will agree. Suggest second that this was a help to the goals of PNAC, and we have documents to support that. Third, suggest that it is not impossible that someone just didn't try hard enough to stop this, whether it was intnetional or incompetence. They don't have to buy the intentional PNAC part, just that someone didn't do everything they could (which is obvious from the infoturf wars).

At that point, you don't need a conspiracy theory to support the claim that the sum total of everything that happened was *in part* a logical extension of PNAC's goals of subjugating the citizens. Everything else is irrelevant. You can deal with the rest, how much was known and allowed vs. how much was just noise in a vast intelligence wasteland, however you want.

The power grab is complete, and didn't need a conspiracy to help. One rich pissed off Saudi who was trained, armed, and abandoned, gave them everything they needed *and more*.

You're a nutter, and here's why. Keep in mind, I believed the same thing for a bit, let me show you a different way of thinking about it that makes far more sense.

First, the NIST and Popular Mechanics together have done a lot of coverage and explanation, there are links in the article and at the bottom for more reading. Take this information, buy the nearest structural engineer an expensive dinner, and let him/her explain, without interruption, why it is a valid conclusion.

The short version: jet fuel burns really hot, explosives powerful enough to bring the buildings down would have been heard, the fires alone were enough to cause progressive structural problems even without physical damage. Many myths are debunked here. In particular, This page explains the free-fall speed simply, to my satisfaction.

Now, that leaves use with the PNAC, identity theft, and Visa. I don't know about the Visa program, and nothing you've said makes me want to filter through any more nonsense. If you are a hijacker, it makes sense to go under an assumed identity if you've also been caught or monitored or basically would raise any red flags. The fact that you called it identity theft instead of claiming they were names picked from a hat to represent people who weren't actually on a plane is a little progress. Someone boarded the planes under those names. This is not evidence of anything.

PNAC is the most troubling, and by far the only factor in your post to be concerned about. The turf war between intelligence agencies allowed lots of things to happen which would not have been caught, and correcting that should have been the most action to come out of 9/11. At worst, you could claim this was intentional, and the attack was allowed to continue beyond the point that it was discovered, in order to support PNAC's goals. I am 100% certain that someone, somewhere, watched this unfold, and thought, there's our new Pearl Harbor. Whether they failed to act intentionally or not is entirely conjecture, and cannot be proven reliably either way.

So here's what you do. Suggest first that the reaction was assymetric, everyone will agree. Suggest second that this was a help to the goals of PNAC, and we have documents to support that. Third, suggest that it is not impossible that someone just didn't try hard enough to stop this, whether it was intnetional or incompetence. They don't have to buy the intentional PNAC part, just that someone didn't do everything they could (which is obvious from the infoturf wars).

At that point, you don't need a conspiracy theory to support the claim that the sum total of everything that happened was *in part* a logical extension of PNAC's goals of subjugating the citizens. Everything else is irrelevant. You can deal with the rest, how much was known and allowed vs. how much was just noise in a vast intelligence wasteland, however you want.

The power grab is complete, and didn't need a conspiracy to help. One rich pissed off Saudi who was trained, armed, and abandoned, gave them everything they needed *and more*.

There's a better article here which includes some more information on the experiment. In particular the temperature was 0.5K.

Also the computerworld article claims that using an antiferromagnetic arrangement of atoms is an advantage because it pulls the atoms more tightly together. I'm not convinced that this is true but even if it is the effect would be completely negligible. The interesting aspect of this arrangement is that each atom cancels out the magnetic field of the atoms either side of it which should help with data stability (a similar effect is seen in perpendicular recording today).

Unrelatedly: have they/will they publish a paper on this? I can't find anything mentioning a paper in the press releases.

pilot error as in hiding a bug in airbus autopilot or it reading faulty gauges.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/27/air-france-flight-447-crash-report-airbus-autopilot-to-blame.html

What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447 tells the story as it stands after investigations. It's a rather chilling read. But it makes one thing clear: it was about human error. The plane was even fully operational when it crashed, as an anti-icing system had managed to bring air speed sensors back to operation before it.

Two years after the Airbus 330 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, Air France 447's flight-data recorders finally turned up. The revelations from the pilot transcript paint a surprising picture of chaos in the cockpit, and confusion between the pilots that led to the crash.

No, the Airbus FMSes go into alternate law when they lose speed data. In alternate law the FMS does not apply any envelope protections to control inputs - the pilots have unfettered control. This was the case in the AF447 crash. The reason for its crash appears to be that the 2nd co-pilot first stalled the aircraft at high altitude, and then continued to apply control-inputs that prevented the other pilot from recovering from the stall. AF447 was literally flown into the sea by the junior co-pilot. Sadly, because of the design of the controls, neither the more experienced co-pilot (acting as pilot-in-command in the left hand seat), and the captain (behind them, he came in once the plane was already stalled) had any idea that the junior co-pilot was applying inappropriate commands to the control stick.

Popular Mechanics had a good article recently on AF447, including detailed CVR extracts. One thing that needs to be changed though is that the Airbus average the control inputs from each stick, and does not give any feedback to either pilot that the other is applying a contradictory input. In older aircraft control yokes were mechanically linked, and it was entirely obvious to each pilot what the resulting command to the aircraft was, and what pressure was being applied. Airbus need to add this to theirs (and do Boeing do too perhaps?).

Given the transcript, it seems to be a issue of the chair expecting one outcome and the computer doing something else:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/what-really-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877

In particular the computer disabled all input limiters, allowing one of the pilots to hold one of the side sticks (basically a computer joystick, so no feedback to the other pilot as one find on mechanical systems) into climb.

They (Airbus), should have consulted the Russians or Ukranians, who have been flying the world's biggest and heaviest aircraft without any incidents.

You cannot appreciate this plane's size until you get close to this massive aircraft, which makes the Boeing 747 and A380 dwarfs to a degree.

You totally miss my point. Yes, if I'm at work, restrict me to your hearts content, I don't care. But on my personal device, stay the hell out of my way. If I mess things up, TFB for me, I will have to deal with the consequences of my actions (and BTW, in all probability learn something in the process). See this link to see how people can actually die because of hand-holding software, an extreme case yes, but in principle, an appropriate comparison. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/what-really-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877

Cheezburger network CEO Ben Huh may pull over 1000 domains from GoDaddy in protest of GoDaddy's support for SOPA. Gizmodo has a list of companies supporting SOPA. Jeff Epstein has instructions for bulk transfers away from GoDaddy.

Adam Savage has also warned that SOPA could destroy the internet as we know it. Reddit concurs that SOPA could destroy them.

Two congressional staffers, Allison Halataei and Lauren Pastarnack, who helped write SOPA/PIPA become entertainment industry lobbyists

Wow! The running back just took a hit and experienced a force of 150G's*! He was hit at a 5-degree angle and knocked back a whole meter...

* No lie.

Hmmm, knowing that I've seen this before, I decided to go lookabout http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/4277476 Ummm so what did they do? Apparently they emptied the thing of the sodium it had in 2009, either that or the 2009 article is in error.

Not sure if this is all that interesting, appears to just be a pr piece to help ensure people don't forget about them. Not sure why there is a time discrepancy. The show I saw before has some sort of sodium filled ball for measuring magnetic fields, and I assume that it's probably the same one. Since I watch most of my documentaries on Netflix now, I have to assume this thing is several years old.

Who would have thought a company producing this!:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/images/ib/aptera-8-doors-up.jpg
might go out of business.....

Y'now, cars are the shape they are for a reason. Or in fact many reasons.

I think there was a Penn & Teller episode on municipal recycling programs being a waste, though I didn't go fact check their conclusions or anything. iirc, the conclusion was that it's largely a psychological exercise where everyone gets to feel like they're doing something productive, but that the programs deal with a problem that's mostly "bullshit".

Yeah, that was an appropriate name for their show. Link

Let me fill you in on one of the real reasons recycling happens. Environmentally, recycling anything besides metal is not always all that green. For instance, recycling paper often involves a lot more power than making new paper, not to mention all of the nasty detergents and chemicals that can end up leaking into the water table.

A blog post written by a fifth grader is not a citation. Try this citation instead. And to your point about paper, even the juvenile essay you cited states that processing virgin wood pulp releases more toxic chemicals than recycled paper.

Penn and Teller did an episode of Bullshit! on recycling a few years ago. Their conclusion was that aluminum recycling (and some other scrap metals) was the only economical form of recycling (which was why you saw so many people dumpster-diving for cans). Every other form is just a money-pit. With most of this stuff, it costs more to recycle it than to make it new. It's just a feel-good thing for the most part. It's why no one will pay you for your used glass, plastic, and paper--but will for aluminum and some other metals.

I guess that's why their show is called "Bullshit." Link

Not true - you can still make a reasonable copy via component inputs if you so choose. There is no DRM on those, and the equipment is readily available.

So then the real issue becomes, if I can effectively do A but not B, when the net effect is the same, is B really illegal? (I know that the DMCA says it is, this is more a philosophical question) For instance, if I fill a water barrel from my tap versus capturing rain water it would seem insane

"but there is no shown proof yet."
Pay attention.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/25/60minutes/main6242498.shtml
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/3319656
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2011/09/26/amsc-spy-pleads-guilty.html

and so on.

private citizens have been able to get into space and even orbit

When has there been a private project which put a human into orbit? Did I miss a week's worth of headlines?

Yup, I think you did.

See: http://www.spaceadventures.com/

For future "private" spaceflights, see also: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/elon-musk-and-spacex-are-launching-a-new-era-of-private-spaceflight

Detroit is begging for any innovation that will put them ahead of the hybrid invasion.

[...]

Remember Detroit must average 35mpg by 2016 and 54mpg by 2025.

So how come European cars have been doing this for years and they don't know about it?

It wouldn't be anything to do with the cosy relationships between Detroit and the oil business, now, would it?