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T. Boone Pickens demonstrated someone getting in too far over their head too fast in this market. I really wish he would explain to everyone what went wrong with his plans. Who knows? The cement for the bases could get too expensive?

He tried to change Texas law so that the water supply corporation he owned in the Texas panhandle would be able to use eminent domain to take land on a corridor to Dallas/Fort Worth, so as to convey the wind power. Oh, and he could use the same corridor to convey water from the panhandle to DFW as well.

In all those wind power ads and interviews you saw, he never did mention the fact that he owned significant water rights in the Texas panhandle, and just needed a route to pipe that water to major cities to sell it. Do you recall that part?

When Texas balked about letting him pump the panhandle dry and flood (literally) the DFW market with his water, he stopped his ruse of caring about the environment.

http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/071008/loc_302185743.shtml

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4275059.html

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/TimothyCarney/T_Boone_Pickens_wants_your_water.html

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_25/b4089040017753.htm

> "And, where will the necessities of modern life come from?"

Where does free software come from? Or music put under a Creative Commons license? Well, where that comes from, so can other things come from.

> "If people only do the work they want to do, who will do the dirty jobs?"

Seriously, what percentage of jobs are there that are "dirty"? 1%?

People who think they need to be done. Do you ever vacuum your house or take out the trash or clean up after dinner? If no one wants to do them, then we can either re-engineer the work to be fun, we can re-engineer it to not be needed, or we can re-engineer it to be automated.

If, for example, no one liked working on cars, we could probably re-engineer them to require less maintanence effort, or design them for automated maintenance by making them more modular. Electric cars may require much less maintenance, for example.

> "Who will collect the trash?"

Well, what about home recycling systems based on nanotech disassembly? Or what about robotic garbage trucks which pick up standard containers (see the DARPA Grand Challenge to see how trucks can drive themselves)?

Besides, why not just create a public logistics system for moving packages, where the same trucks or robotic vehicles or subway tubes that bring stuff to the homes take unwanted stuff away?

> "Who will work in the sewer plants?"

Well, John Todd developed biological sewage treatment plants that are pleasant greenhouses. Lots of people like working in nature. Just because you can force desperate people to work in today's chemical monstrosities of water treatment systems does not mean their are not alternatives.
http://www.oceanarks.org/

> "Who will raise the crops and slaughter the animals?"

Most US crop land is used for animal production and people would be healthier with a mostly vegetarian diet. That would reduce the amount of people working in agriculture from about 1% to maybe 0.1% of the workforce. Lots of people like working with growing plants, especially with machines and robots to do the hard work. As for actually slaughtering the animals, people are learning how to grow meat in vats, so that won't be needed.
"Lab Meat: Tastes Like a Million Bucks"
http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/04/lab_meat_tastes.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat
Not perfect yet, but closer every year. One by one, all these assumptions about scarcity and labor are becoming untrue.

> "Who will mine and smelt the ores?"

Even decades ago we had all the technology to do this almost entirely automatically much more safely. This has been resisted by unions who are stuck in the same economic paradigm you are endorsing.

> "Who will work on the assembly lines doing the same three things for hours on end?"

Robots. Also, you can print things fully assembled with 3D printers.
"Jay Leno's 3D Printer Replaces Rusty Old Parts"
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4320759.html

And we can design things to be easier to assemble and to recycle. Like in the South before the Civil War, or like in Ancient Greece, the presence of slaves, either formal slaves or wage slaves, reduces the motivation to build better tools and better processes.

> "Who will do anything, especially anything even slightly unpleasant, if they can sit around doing nothing and get the same return?"

People who sit around and do nothing are unhealthy and mentally ill. As James P. Hogan points out in "Voyage From Yesteryear", it is the collective responsibility of society to take care of such mentally ill people. The only reason people in the USA aspire to that is because our collective socie

The only significant value of resources in space is to use them in space (and maybe to send back information through their use). To use resources in space, we need to better understand manufacturing. Hydrocarbons being imported back to Earth? Solar panels are a lot easier, as are windmills and lots of other things. Even a large amount of energy use can have a minimal impact on the Earth with the right renewables. The biosphere captures and uses many times more energy than our industry and has for millions of years. Check out this, by the way:
    "Jay Leno's 3D Printer Replaces Rusty Old Parts"
    http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4320759.html
Also:
"3d Printing multiple materials with Objet "
http://www.feedingedge.co.uk/blog/2009/06/26/3d-printing-multiple-materials-with-objet/

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html?page=5

http://www.debunking911.com/pull.htm

please check your data.
4. --> http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/home_journal_news/4217864.html
    wikipedia and other sites have the same conclusion : less mercury in the environment for CFL's than for incandescent.
LED's : I don't think they contain that much dangerous chemicals. dertainly not if you aalso consider life expectancy of LED's (50K-100K hrs ...)

please read this :
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4215199.html
"The results surprised us. Even though the incandescent bulb measured slightly brighter than the equivalent CFLs, our subjects didn't see any dramatic difference in brightness. And here was the real shocker: When it came to the overall quality of the light, all the CFLs scored higher than our incandescent control bulb. In other words, the new fluorescent bulbs aren't just better for both your wallet and the environment, they produce better light."

replacing much more

absolutely not in my experience.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4284188.html

No doubt that the TD is a more established technology and has many benefits over hybrids, but it does lose out in mpg in a big way when driving in the city.

I agree that the data and code should be made public. Fortunately, NASA has been doing this for some time, as have many other researchers. Gavin Schmidt at NASA has put together a list of links to global warming data and code that is available online.

If you are interested in the scientific context of this story and the emails, I would recommend reading Gavin's posts on context at Real Climate as well.

There have also been interviews with Gerald North who led the NAS investigation into the hockey stick controversy a few years ago, and Peter Kelemen, prof at Columbia, explaining why this hack will not affect the science. Basically, global warming theory is supported by many lines of evidence from many different sources, and does not depend on the credibility of any one source. Furthermore, there is nothing in these emails or data that actually disproves any of the published research.

If this is the best skeptics can do, I think they're in for a rough time. The skeptical argument has little scientific support, so they resort to a silly PR stunt like this hoping to get a draw in the public debate. It has been great to see prominent deniers like Inhofe in the senate going way out on a limb, claiming this proves global warming is a hoax and so forth. There will hopefully be full investigations, at which point they'll probably end up looking pretty foolish when the science is vindicated.

So was the Crunchpad the most award winning vaporware product of all time?

WTC 7 was NOT a hardened building. It was constructed in the early 80s as a run of the mill office building. The only thing unique about it was the unusual arrangement of the load-bearing members. This was needed because the thing was constructed on top of a massive utility vault. The Emergency Command Center was shoehorned into the building and not everyone thought the location made any sense for obvious reasons. (It was located there AFTER the '93 bombing)

As for the collapse, it looks "controlled" because buildings don't usually fall down for any reason other than controlled demolition. That's the only point of reference most people have. That aside, physics ensure that buildings tend to fall straight down, or twist a little and then fall straight down.

But if you want more in-depth detail about how stresses were distributed and how the building was comprimised, then check out this link or or this one.

iirc, the next gen carriers will be using EM rails for launch and recovery, rather then steam and mechanical wire brakes.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4321136.html?page=2

Oh really? Payback period: The Energy Information Administration lists average U.S. residential electricity prices at 11.23 cents per kwh, as of February 2009. A turbine that puts out 2000 kwh a year saves $224.60 annually at that price, making the payback period just under 20 years on a $4500 panel. (The government rebate would lower the payback period to about 14 years.)" 3.5.4 Payback
"The detailed analysis done regarding the payback shows that with good wind resource at the installed site, the payback for a 15kW wind turbine will normally be about 10 years. Further with the usage of additional storage facilities like battery would increase an additional payback period of 13 years."

Meanwhile the nuclear power industry is Hooked on Subsides. "How do France (and India, China and Russia) build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Governmental officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Nuclear power appeals to state planners, not market actors."

Falcon

Right, the rest is covered by use taxes on commercial trucks and shipping services. Just like they would be under a free market. Individuals would be able to use the road for little or no cost, perhaps a hundred dollar a year pass (which they would save in gas).

Wrong, fuel tax, taxes on commercial trucks, and shipping services does not fully cover the costs of roads. Here's a page from the Oregon state government: Road User Fee Task Force. In it they propose using a mileage fee to cover the cost of the roads. From Popular Mechanics, Should the US Tax Mileage or Fuel?: Guest Analysis. Heck some of the so called stimulus money is going to roads. A few miles from me a road is being repaired and there are signs all along it saying the work is being supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, notice how core investments are being made in roads

Falcon

FEMA camps sound scary ... until you read some of the facts http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4312850.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4298625.html

It just not so bad that theres any need for something as expensive as the shuttle yet. No immediate crisis for government action, and certainly no profitability for the private sector.

No crisis? So there was no problem when China used a "ballistic missile to destroy one of its defunct weather satellites"? And the experts are all wrong? It was just a mirage when an American commercial satellite and a Russian retired satellite collided? " Close calls in orbit happen all the time--scientists estimate that launch vehicles and other objects come within striking distance of one other over 1000 times a day." That article says how the collision of the two satellites created a cloud of debris that spread around the world in a few hours. Further it says "The junk was in the orbital path of the Hubble Space Telescope and just 250 miles higher than the orbit of the International Space Station."

there really isn't that much salvage value in most of the stuff floating around

There isn't? The Pop Mechanics article above says that best possible space-junk solution: salvage isn't allowed by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. It prevents businesses from salvaging defunct crafts. I don't know if without the treaty it would be profitable now or not, but when one or more critical crafts collides with space junk people will think differently. Personally I think those who put the junk in space should be responsible for it, but because the US put a lot of it there I doubt that will happen. Nor do I think Russia or China will agree.

Falcon

You sound very sure. I'm curious, how would a Patriot (traveling at its top speed of Mach 5) overtake and intercept something traveling at the same (or greater) speed given that the latter has a rage of 600 nautical miles and the former has a range of 99 miles?

Are you sure that stealth is a priority given the X-51's intended mission?

The X-43 already did mach 9.68.
This is actually a bigger step towards making a mach 6 missile rather then a mach 6 plane....

This appears to be more about the development of a hypersonic cruise missile than an actual aircraft.

Quantum G points out that popular mechanics point this out below: For anyone who would like to read a good article about SpaceX http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4328638.html check out that link. And it's not just SpaceX that will be delivering cargo to the station under COTS, there's also Orbital Sciences. Just thought it would be better pointed out under the call to false then buried way down below.

For anyone who would like to read a good article about SpaceX check out that link. And it's not just SpaceX that will be delivering cargo to the station under COTS, there's also Orbital Sciences.

Citation please. Common sense tells me you are probably misrepresenting this. Most likely the battery housings are the same and the electrolyte and plates have been replaced, making it a "remanufactured" original battery at best.

Thomas Edison invented the alkaline battery. My Baker still has some original alkaline batteries. These have lead plates and use acid; we wash them out and refill them regularly and I'll use them indefinitely. But even Edison realized the future of the automobile was elsewhere. Legend has it that back in 1896, at a dinner party, he passed a note to his friend Henry Ford. Essentially it said, "The electric car is dead."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/4215940.html?nav=RSS20

If you're not going to do the most basic research before you respond, why even bother? It's a full 10 year, 150,000 mile warranty, as required by California law to meet pzev criteria. Leno's Baker Electric does run on its original batteries. Tell me your "personal experience" with nickel-iron and lithium iron phosphate batteries. Go on, give me the complete rundown. Every last detail. I'm waiting. While you're at it, go ahead and explain how your "personal experience" with large, actively-cooled 50% DoD NiMH packs explains why so many people are deluding themselves into thinking that they never had their Prius pack replaced.

After all, your experience with high-DoD, non-cooled 18650 cobalt cells and similarly managed lead-acid batteries has oh so much bearing on actively cooled nickel-iron, LiP, manganese spinel, or NiMH packs with low DoD.

Tell we where I can go buy one of these cars with the 10 year battery warranty?

Obviously the Volt is not on sale yet, but you can get a Prius today with an 8 year warranty and a near-zero battery failure rate.

You should update to 1920's tech:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doble_steam_car
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/1302916.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4324941.html

Second video down.

I have to admit that I'm a little underwhelmed by the video.

Same here, I didn't think much of the video. However someone posted a link to a video of the inside. I saw that and said that's more like it.

Falcon

Here's another link of a dining room, but this time it's for the wooden building in the article. Last post was a link for a different building test.

Unverifiable links by anonymous authors citing anonymous sources are no better than science fiction. At least Isaac Asimov signed his work.

There is jack and shit for evidence of intelligent alien life as of today. I'm sure the Russian hacker THOUGHT he could find images... where is the proof he did? Did he disseminate any of them? Any that cannot be easily dismissed as various atmospheric and interference phenomena? I mean, there are people who still think the moon images were faked, even though there have been extensive experiments and study done on them to verify them.

Oh, and about the astronauts acknowledging (way to use spell-check there, sparky) alien contact? Bullshit. With a capital fucking B. Lying does NOT help your credibility.

Face it. There is no alien life near us, we really did land on the moon, and the government is NOT all powerful and able to keep a secret of that magnitude. Suggesting anything else is pure lunacy.

I think you're wrong.

I think you're wrong. If we were stuck with 1999 era hardware, we'd put a lot more work into optimization, and we'd get a lot more done with the same hardware. And, if you can find a carpenter who can build a timber frame house without nails, you're likely to get a much better quality house, but of course, more expensive.

If someone told me I was stuck at a text console from now on, I'd be OK (if grousy) about it. Until that day comes, I'd just as soon let this computer look pretty and provide nice (and, shock!, fun) features

See, here you're agreeing with the guy. A GUI is a convenience, and nothing more. You can get along without it, but would rather not. That's pretty much the definition of a convenience. A CLI on the other hand is a necessity if you want to use your computer as anything more than an appliance.

I'm not too keen on bragging about how much of my computer's work that I do for it.

I don't think anyone is. It's just not the case that not using a GUI == doing the computers work. Many times using a GUI creates more work. After all, you can't grep a GUI.

The mercury thing is a highly over-rated problem. Yes, CFL's contain mercury, but the amount is less than the amount released by burning the coal required to power an incandescent bulb, and since modern CFLs mostly use solid mercury (mercury amalgam, the same material that's in your fillings), the dangers to the environment are greatly reduced. See this article from Popular Mechanics for more info.

almost all the American parts of the ISS are being made by the Russians. i think your view is a little warped by cold-war propaganda. Russians are always very strict on quality, and their shuttles have a better track record than the American ones. cough, cough, wakeup call: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/1285356.html

There is a good story about the only armed ground robot ever used "in theater" being pulled from Iraq at Popular Mechanics. This robot made the cover of Popular Mechanics in March 2008. Some details about the robot, SWORDS, and other versions of military robots in production can be found at Foster-Miller's website.

It also might explain their findings - perhaps being 10% dimmer made a significant difference in the subjective light quality. They probably should have compared with a 90 watt incandescent to make the comparison more apple-to-apples.

Make hay while the sun shines. Boliva should establish the resource fund and take gringos' money as long as it lasts. In 10 years, the carbon nanotube ultracapacitors may blow lithium storage out of the water. Any leftover from mining 5.4 million tons of lithium would still treat a lot of bullet-resistant glass and bipolar cases... Schindall [2006] said. ``Then in 10 years, you begin to see the cost crossover point," when capacitors become as cheap as standard rechargeable batteries. Still progressing: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4252623.html, 2008, http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/21938/?nlid=1646&a=f, 2009

But no doubt a slow, intrusive Bolivian governement will then blame their lack of further sales on los norte americano diablos.

In other words, none of these are worthwhile unless you absolutely can not throw up one big windmill instead of five small.

I'd like to know how the Windbelt would fair in this test.

Popular Mechanics article on the Windbelt.

BS! People have been building off the grid since the beginning of civilization. Only those who do it today have electricity. Offgridders use various sources of alternative energy including geothermal, solar, wind, and microhydro along with others.

producing your own needs for electricity is great
but its a VERY SMALL amount of the world's total energy consumption.

Today off grid applications are small but it can easily be expanded. Solar, wind, and other systems can quickly be added. Solar panels can be placed of roofs for instance. Farmers can erect, or have erected, wind gennies on towers. They don't take up much space and they'll create a new source of income for farmers.

But the first thing offgridders do though is to reduce energy use, conserve electricity. Instead of using 75 watt incandescent lights, they'll use 15 watt CFLs or LEDs under 10 watts. For hot water, tankless instant on water heaters are more efficient. Solar hot water heater systems can bee used themselves, or can preheat water for instant on heaters. Passive solar designs can reduce any need for heating and cooling of indoor space, and with insulation with high R values heating and cooling can be eliminated. But even if heating is needed or wanted geothermal heating can be used. And by reversing the system when hot it can cool space as well.

There are many things that can be done to reduce energy consumed.

Falcon

Hmm, looks like 5-10% was a very pessimistic estimate. If this article is correct (thanks, Aceticon!), up to 35% could be saved. You do the math.

SkySail: using the a computer controlled parasail to improve fuel efficiency. Article http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/boating/4235055.html

Surface doesn't use FTIR, it uses a vision-based system. It was detailed by Popular Mechanics.

Also, for landing on Mars, NASA takes some precautions against contamination. This page talks a little bit about the bio-barrier around Phoenix's arm: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4265740.html?page=7&series=35

Adam Savage (from Mythbusters), wrote an article in Popular Mechanics a few months ago talking about science the US education system.

Jamie Hyneman endorsed Linux. If you don't know who he is, you might as well get started now.

That is easy to counter.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenarios/4297384.html

Coal is not the sweet innocent thing people make it out to be.

Contrary to what the poster above says, CFLs generally emit a broad spectrum of light, and in most cases it's actually broader than incandescents. That said, not all CFLs are created equal, so it's possible you picked a poor model. A comparison is available here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_to/4215199.html?nav=hpPrint&do=print

In any event, a CFL certainly DOES NOT use more energy, so if you think they do based on some past experience, then your test methodology was flawed. Plug your lamp into a wattmeter and try again. If your generator was using more fuel, then something else was on.

There is an interesting link on Solar Thermal power at the bottom of the article. I think it is worth reading in relation to photovoltaic power options.

Solar Thermal

Blog Post on the articles.

Ethanol can be obtained from a myriad sources, not only corn and sugarcane. It can be obtained from algae for example. Not cheap yet but hydrogen fuel cells aren't cheap either.

This and this are examples of the genre.

I've yet to see much in the way of technical breakdown of the issue; but it is unequivocally the case that they, deliberately, added proprietary secret sauce to the iPod video out process, in order to capture a larger percentage of accessory revenue.

This article is also worth a look. I doubt that they are doing anything illegal; but Apple is anything but a fuzzy friend of standards with respect to the dock connector.

Thats Ok, but I think this is better http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4224764.html?series=37 of course I'm not exactly unbiased.

You are a moron. By the way, I'm keenly aware of the fact that people who post as AC (even though they have a user account) actively monitor the threads they post in, looking for some validation of their views. Here's a tip: stop being a coward, post under a registered account, and get some Vagisil for that nasty problem you've got in your southern regions. HAND.

In TFV in TFA, it looks more like there is some metal sheet in the bottom of the tank which is obviously the opposite electrode. Which makes me wonder if this is really that practical - would there be any net propulsive with both electrodes on the vessel?

Due to the nature of surface tension I don't see this also scaling up to well, beyond something insect sized. I also wonder about efficiency, which may not beat a spinning propeller.

There have already been wave-powered boats powered by vertical motion, that have been sucessfully shown to work - no egines or sails - especially well in a head wind!.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4254404.html