I think this discovery increases the chance that when the Terrestrial Planet Finder satellites go into orbit probably after 2016, we will quickly find a rocky crust planet circling a nearby star (up to 500 light years away) with an atmosphere very much like Earth's. If that is true, then this could be the confirmation that life COULD exist on planets orbiting nearby stars.
Can you imagine the current 3.5-liter V-6 engine from the Acura TL Type-S--which is rated at 286 bhp (SAE 08/04 net)--in the DeLorean? That will make the DeLorean quite fast, to say the least.
I think two things killed the EV-1: 1) the charge time was ridiculous at 7-8 hours for a full charge and 2) the range of the EV-1 was just too short for a full charge (only about 70-80 miles at best).
However, MIT's recent announcement of research into supercapacitors made with carbon nanotubes could solve both problems at once. We could see a drastic reduction in the size of the battery pack and much longer range, and unlike NiMH or Li-On batteries, the charge time for a supercapacitor battery pack is measured in ones of minutes, not hours! I wouldn't be surprised by 2011 we start seeing electric vehicles about the size of a standard B-segment automobile (e.g., Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, Mazda2, Nissan Versa, Renault Clio, Toyota Yaris, or VW Polo size) that will run around 400 km (248 miles) in regular driving and you can charge the battery pack to full power in about the same time you need to fill up a 11-gallon fuel tank at a standard gas station fuel pump!:-)
As a user of an iPod nano (2G 4 GB model) for nearly six months, I don't have the type of usability issues you mentioned. In fact, I actually like the Click Wheel interface because you can completely control the iPod from that interface. If you've used other MP3 players note that their interfaces are not as easy to use as the iPod Click Wheel. Sandisk's E200 series players come the closest, but the mechanical wheel is nowhere as smooth compared to an iPod.
Mind you, I do think Apple should have written a good first-time user guide for the Click Wheel, though.
Krugman forgets that because of the population density of Europe, Japan and South Korea, this justifies the enormous cost of doing wiring up everyone for broadband. Because much of the population in the USA is more sprawled out, that increases tremendously the cost of setting up hardwired cable or ADSL broadband connections, especially the so-called Last Mile connection to the home. In fact, it wasn't until early 2005 I could get DSL in my home (I finally switched from dial-up to DSL in September 2005).
In the end, much of the USA will probably get broadband through wireless means such as WiMAX, since with a few transceiving towers you can cover a large swath of area without the expense of hardwiring the connection into the home.
It is true that there have been some impressive advances in adult stem cell technology.
And some of them are already in use for various types of therapies. Like I said earlier, why aren't the private pharmaceutical firms and big investors putting their own money into embryonic stem cell research, instead of waiting for a government development grant? Given the meager results from embryonic stem cell research done in Europe and Asia so far, is it small wonder why people object to government-funded embryonic stem cell research, which could turn into an expensive boondoggle?
A moron President, pandering to the vocal minority that constitutes his base, has cut off the largest source of potential funding for a line of research that looks far more promising, at least to the large majority of professionals who study stem cell therapies.
Ahem--if embryonic stem cell research is promising all the private pharmaceutical firms (and big-time investors like Warren Buffett and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) would put up lots of money without government help to fund such research. As such, it appears adult stem cell research has shown major promise (some 80+ therapies based on adult stem cell research are now in serious development), while embryonic stem cell research has pretty much come up "squadoosh."
You want a machine with bare minimum 2 GB of RAM and a very fast CPU to run Vista Home Premium edition properly. Meanwhile, Windows XP Professional works quite well with as little as 768 MB of system RAM with an Intel Celeron 466 MHz CPU. My current home machine running an AMD Athlon CPU clocked at 1.664 GHz and 1.5 GB of RAM runs Windows XP Pro extremely well, and I don't see the point of upgrading to Windows Vista.
There are still *FAR* too many sites that have IE-only components.
That is particularly true if you use the right-click mouse command to download media files from a webpage. That's why I'm hoping that the Mozilla Foundation offers an add-on for Firefox 1.5x and 2.0x versions that allow you to do a right-click media download (particularly bad is ESPN.com's Podcenter, which uses Andomedia media servers).
I think people also forget that dual-layer blank discs that can copy almost everything on a standard two-layer DVD are still quite expensive on a per disc basis, and decent dual-layer recorder drives are still fairly expensive (over US$90 retail for a really good one that works off the Serial ATA connection).
It's more than just applications. How about FULL hardware support in drivers?
I mean, can you get a Linux driver that supports the full 3-D acceleration functionality of a recent nVidia graphics card chipset? Or a driver that supports the full functionality of a modern sound card like the Creative Audigy series?
However, with faster and faster broadband connections and rapidly improving storage capacity for portable music players, Compact Discs could face competition from digital formats such as FLAC and the Apple Lossless format, which offer the same sound quality as a Compact Disc but with 45-55% smaller file sizes compared to the original CD encoding format.
Also, both MP3 and AAC compression at 256 kbps VBR are already very good, good enough that you need extremely expensive stereo equipment to tell the difference between the original CD and the 256 kbps VBR version.
Thanks for explaining why some diesel engines will need minor modifications to work well with biodiesel fuel.:->
Actually, I don't think we'll have 100% biodiesel due to issues with the fuel coagulating at low temperatures. It's more like we'll get a B50 (50%) biodiesel fuel, with "normal" diesel fuel mixed in with special low-temperature stabilizers so the fuel can still flow even at very low temperatures.
Algae making diesel would seem to bypass a lot of these problem. It can be grown off croplands, in many cases using sea water or brackish water. And it's easy to separate the oils from the water. the product has a higher energy value than Ethanol per volume and per weight. And it does not produce as much toxic waste in the production process (ethanol uses acid treatment and produces loads of crap to dispose of).
A company called GreenFuel Technologies has been working on "feeding" vertical tanks of oil-laden algae with the exhaust gases from coal-fired and natural gas-fired powerplants. The big advantages of this process are:
1) You reduce the powerplant's CO2 output 50% and NOx output up to 86%, way beyond Kyoto Protocol standards. 2) Because oil-laden algae grows very fast when "fed" these exhaust gases, you can "harvest" the algae many times per year. 3) A 200-acre farm of these vertical tanks of algae can produce several million gallons of biodiesel fuel/heating oil per year. 4) The "waste" from the oil extraction process can be further processed into animal feed, plant fertilizer or ethanol fuel.
GreenFuel is not the only company working on turning oil-laden algae into motor fuels. Solix Biofuels in Colorado is doing research with a different method of growing oil-laden algae, and several other companies are working on this idea, too.
Actually, the biodiesel route is a far more practical one because most diesel engines only need minor modifications for run biodiesel fuel. With modern particulate traps, new exhaust catalyst designs to reduce NOx output, and urea gas injection to reduce NOx output even further, today's diesel engines with their common-rail pressurized direct fuel injection are quiet, powerful and don't generate the bad exhaust of older diesel engines. Also, diesel fuel is full compatible with the current fuel distribution network for gasoline/diesel fuel, which is not true for delivery of E85 fuel and hydrogen for fuel cells.
For example, the new BMW 123d hatchback/coupé just announced now offers a 200 ps (197 bhp) dual-turbo turbodiesel engine that gives the car true high performance, yet can get around 40 mpg in normal limited-access motorway driving in the 100-120 km/h (62-75 mph) range. With today's new emission controls, that same engine could probably meet even the stringent EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 emission standard for automobile engines; the new Euro 5 emission rules will be similar to this EPA standard.
While I do agree that this research is still preliminary, the technology has the huge potential to finally overcome two major hassles in terms of electric power storage, namely charge times (after all, capacitors charge way quicker than any NiMH or Li-On battery pack) and density of storage.
This could open the way for two things:
1) A decent means to storage power generated by solar panels and wind turbines so it can be used when the Sun is not up and wind velocity is low. That could make it possible for true distributed power generation, where every home generates its own electricity and shares the excess with other people in the neighborhood.
2) A true, practical electric car. With supercapacitor batteries, we could dramatically increase the range of the electric car, reduce the size of the battery pack so it rarely inteferes with interior space, and charge the battery pack in about the same time you fill up a 20-gallon fuel tank!:-)
That's why I think people are still underestimating MIT's announcement of nanotube-based supercapacitor development. It could potentially make the whole idea of fuel cell power superfluous.
Also, we now know that the CIA and DoD actually kind of encouraged reports of UFO's to divert attention from classified aircraft seen by the public. That was how they passed off sightings of the U-2 and the A-12 (the predecessor to the SR-71), and probably passed off sightings of the Northrup Tacit Blue and Boeing Bird of Prey stealth research planes.
Flame me all you want, but I think Apple blew it by going with Cingular/AT&T for the iPhone.
Apple should have gone with Verizon Wireless, which would have given the iPhone the ability to access EVDO wireless networking that has data transfer rates in the 350 to 800 kilobits per second range. In that case, the iPhone would have actually been a truly useful device to access the Internet and corporate email systems.
Don't laugh--a number of companies are looking at various means of heating up oil shale and oil tar sands so they could pump out the liquefied oil in situ without the expense and environmental costs of actually mining out the shale/tar sands. That was what a division of Royal Dutch Shell did in 2005 to oil shale in Colorado. Once they lower the cost there is enough recoverable oil in North America to make the ENTIRE Middle East seem like a minor player.
Maybe, but the true "mines" of the 21 Century will be gigantic farms of vertical tanks growing oil-laden algae and techniques to recover and process methane hydrates from the oceans. The former will provide a completely renewable process to make diesel fuel, heating oil and possibly kerosene and gasoline; the latter will make the world's known natural gas reserves seem like a drop in the bucket.
I think manufacturers better be very careful over this because if they establish a price floor you could see MAJOR incentives to try to undercut this price floor. That is why the RIAA member companies experienced sales drops nowadays--they priced album-length CD's way too high and that resulted in too much economic incentive to pirate music.
This deliberate price fixing could end up being the downfall of OPEC, as overpriced oil will result in consumer conservation and major economic incentive to find alternatives. What will OPEC say when 20 years from now most of the world's motor fuels are processed and refined from renewable oil-laden algae and there are massive solar array farms and wind turbines everywhere?
The Apple iPhone will likely work far better in Europe, where 3G cellular coverage with higher-speed data transfer dramatically improves the usefulness of the device. Here in the USA, the iPhone's functionality will work if you're near a WiFi hotspot, which makes accessing the Internet reasonably tolerable.
I'm hoping future version of the iPhone will include support for the Verizon and Sprint networks with its vastly faster EVDO wireless data network.
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Two things I immediately noticed that made me openly wonder why this bridge was so vulnerable:
1) The spindly structure makes it apparent that the whole thing will come down even with one minor structural stress problem.
2) The surprisingly small size of the bridge supports.
I personally expect the replacement bridge to be a writ large size version of 10th Avenue Bridge nearby with its thick, concrete structures.
I think this discovery increases the chance that when the Terrestrial Planet Finder satellites go into orbit probably after 2016, we will quickly find a rocky crust planet circling a nearby star (up to 500 light years away) with an atmosphere very much like Earth's. If that is true, then this could be the confirmation that life COULD exist on planets orbiting nearby stars.
Can you imagine the current 3.5-liter V-6 engine from the Acura TL Type-S--which is rated at 286 bhp (SAE 08/04 net)--in the DeLorean? That will make the DeLorean quite fast, to say the least.
I believe it was insurance liability issues that forced GM to destroy all the EV-1's built.
I think two things killed the EV-1: 1) the charge time was ridiculous at 7-8 hours for a full charge and 2) the range of the EV-1 was just too short for a full charge (only about 70-80 miles at best).
:-)
However, MIT's recent announcement of research into supercapacitors made with carbon nanotubes could solve both problems at once. We could see a drastic reduction in the size of the battery pack and much longer range, and unlike NiMH or Li-On batteries, the charge time for a supercapacitor battery pack is measured in ones of minutes, not hours! I wouldn't be surprised by 2011 we start seeing electric vehicles about the size of a standard B-segment automobile (e.g., Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, Mazda2, Nissan Versa, Renault Clio, Toyota Yaris, or VW Polo size) that will run around 400 km (248 miles) in regular driving and you can charge the battery pack to full power in about the same time you need to fill up a 11-gallon fuel tank at a standard gas station fuel pump!
As a user of an iPod nano (2G 4 GB model) for nearly six months, I don't have the type of usability issues you mentioned. In fact, I actually like the Click Wheel interface because you can completely control the iPod from that interface. If you've used other MP3 players note that their interfaces are not as easy to use as the iPod Click Wheel. Sandisk's E200 series players come the closest, but the mechanical wheel is nowhere as smooth compared to an iPod.
Mind you, I do think Apple should have written a good first-time user guide for the Click Wheel, though.
Bingo.
Krugman forgets that because of the population density of Europe, Japan and South Korea, this justifies the enormous cost of doing wiring up everyone for broadband. Because much of the population in the USA is more sprawled out, that increases tremendously the cost of setting up hardwired cable or ADSL broadband connections, especially the so-called Last Mile connection to the home. In fact, it wasn't until early 2005 I could get DSL in my home (I finally switched from dial-up to DSL in September 2005).
In the end, much of the USA will probably get broadband through wireless means such as WiMAX, since with a few transceiving towers you can cover a large swath of area without the expense of hardwiring the connection into the home.
It is true that there have been some impressive advances in adult stem cell technology.
And some of them are already in use for various types of therapies. Like I said earlier, why aren't the private pharmaceutical firms and big investors putting their own money into embryonic stem cell research, instead of waiting for a government development grant? Given the meager results from embryonic stem cell research done in Europe and Asia so far, is it small wonder why people object to government-funded embryonic stem cell research, which could turn into an expensive boondoggle?
A moron President, pandering to the vocal minority that constitutes his base, has cut off the largest source of potential funding for a line of research that looks far more promising, at least to the large majority of professionals who study stem cell therapies.
Ahem--if embryonic stem cell research is promising all the private pharmaceutical firms (and big-time investors like Warren Buffett and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) would put up lots of money without government help to fund such research. As such, it appears adult stem cell research has shown major promise (some 80+ therapies based on adult stem cell research are now in serious development), while embryonic stem cell research has pretty much come up "squadoosh."
The ridiculous hardware requirements.
You want a machine with bare minimum 2 GB of RAM and a very fast CPU to run Vista Home Premium edition properly. Meanwhile, Windows XP Professional works quite well with as little as 768 MB of system RAM with an Intel Celeron 466 MHz CPU. My current home machine running an AMD Athlon CPU clocked at 1.664 GHz and 1.5 GB of RAM runs Windows XP Pro extremely well, and I don't see the point of upgrading to Windows Vista.
There are still *FAR* too many sites that have IE-only components.
That is particularly true if you use the right-click mouse command to download media files from a webpage. That's why I'm hoping that the Mozilla Foundation offers an add-on for Firefox 1.5x and 2.0x versions that allow you to do a right-click media download (particularly bad is ESPN.com's Podcenter, which uses Andomedia media servers).
I think people also forget that dual-layer blank discs that can copy almost everything on a standard two-layer DVD are still quite expensive on a per disc basis, and decent dual-layer recorder drives are still fairly expensive (over US$90 retail for a really good one that works off the Serial ATA connection).
It's more than just applications. How about FULL hardware support in drivers?
I mean, can you get a Linux driver that supports the full 3-D acceleration functionality of a recent nVidia graphics card chipset? Or a driver that supports the full functionality of a modern sound card like the Creative Audigy series?
However, with faster and faster broadband connections and rapidly improving storage capacity for portable music players, Compact Discs could face competition from digital formats such as FLAC and the Apple Lossless format, which offer the same sound quality as a Compact Disc but with 45-55% smaller file sizes compared to the original CD encoding format.
Also, both MP3 and AAC compression at 256 kbps VBR are already very good, good enough that you need extremely expensive stereo equipment to tell the difference between the original CD and the 256 kbps VBR version.
Thanks for explaining why some diesel engines will need minor modifications to work well with biodiesel fuel. :->
Actually, I don't think we'll have 100% biodiesel due to issues with the fuel coagulating at low temperatures. It's more like we'll get a B50 (50%) biodiesel fuel, with "normal" diesel fuel mixed in with special low-temperature stabilizers so the fuel can still flow even at very low temperatures.
This is the type of thing that should have been done by M5 Industries (the company behind Mythbusters) like years ago. :-)
Algae making diesel would seem to bypass a lot of these problem. It can be grown off croplands, in many cases using sea water or brackish water. And it's easy to separate the oils from the water. the product has a higher energy value than Ethanol per volume and per weight. And it does not produce as much toxic waste in the production process (ethanol uses acid treatment and produces loads of crap to dispose of).
A company called GreenFuel Technologies has been working on "feeding" vertical tanks of oil-laden algae with the exhaust gases from coal-fired and natural gas-fired powerplants. The big advantages of this process are:
1) You reduce the powerplant's CO2 output 50% and NOx output up to 86%, way beyond Kyoto Protocol standards.
2) Because oil-laden algae grows very fast when "fed" these exhaust gases, you can "harvest" the algae many times per year.
3) A 200-acre farm of these vertical tanks of algae can produce several million gallons of biodiesel fuel/heating oil per year.
4) The "waste" from the oil extraction process can be further processed into animal feed, plant fertilizer or ethanol fuel.
GreenFuel is not the only company working on turning oil-laden algae into motor fuels. Solix Biofuels in Colorado is doing research with a different method of growing oil-laden algae, and several other companies are working on this idea, too.
Actually, the biodiesel route is a far more practical one because most diesel engines only need minor modifications for run biodiesel fuel. With modern particulate traps, new exhaust catalyst designs to reduce NOx output, and urea gas injection to reduce NOx output even further, today's diesel engines with their common-rail pressurized direct fuel injection are quiet, powerful and don't generate the bad exhaust of older diesel engines. Also, diesel fuel is full compatible with the current fuel distribution network for gasoline/diesel fuel, which is not true for delivery of E85 fuel and hydrogen for fuel cells.
For example, the new BMW 123d hatchback/coupé just announced now offers a 200 ps (197 bhp) dual-turbo turbodiesel engine that gives the car true high performance, yet can get around 40 mpg in normal limited-access motorway driving in the 100-120 km/h (62-75 mph) range. With today's new emission controls, that same engine could probably meet even the stringent EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 emission standard for automobile engines; the new Euro 5 emission rules will be similar to this EPA standard.
While I do agree that this research is still preliminary, the technology has the huge potential to finally overcome two major hassles in terms of electric power storage, namely charge times (after all, capacitors charge way quicker than any NiMH or Li-On battery pack) and density of storage.
:-)
This could open the way for two things:
1) A decent means to storage power generated by solar panels and wind turbines so it can be used when the Sun is not up and wind velocity is low. That could make it possible for true distributed power generation, where every home generates its own electricity and shares the excess with other people in the neighborhood.
2) A true, practical electric car. With supercapacitor batteries, we could dramatically increase the range of the electric car, reduce the size of the battery pack so it rarely inteferes with interior space, and charge the battery pack in about the same time you fill up a 20-gallon fuel tank!
That's why I think people are still underestimating MIT's announcement of nanotube-based supercapacitor development. It could potentially make the whole idea of fuel cell power superfluous.
Also, we now know that the CIA and DoD actually kind of encouraged reports of UFO's to divert attention from classified aircraft seen by the public. That was how they passed off sightings of the U-2 and the A-12 (the predecessor to the SR-71), and probably passed off sightings of the Northrup Tacit Blue and Boeing Bird of Prey stealth research planes.
Flame me all you want, but I think Apple blew it by going with Cingular/AT&T for the iPhone.
Apple should have gone with Verizon Wireless, which would have given the iPhone the ability to access EVDO wireless networking that has data transfer rates in the 350 to 800 kilobits per second range. In that case, the iPhone would have actually been a truly useful device to access the Internet and corporate email systems.
Don't laugh--a number of companies are looking at various means of heating up oil shale and oil tar sands so they could pump out the liquefied oil in situ without the expense and environmental costs of actually mining out the shale/tar sands. That was what a division of Royal Dutch Shell did in 2005 to oil shale in Colorado. Once they lower the cost there is enough recoverable oil in North America to make the ENTIRE Middle East seem like a minor player.
Maybe, but the true "mines" of the 21 Century will be gigantic farms of vertical tanks growing oil-laden algae and techniques to recover and process methane hydrates from the oceans. The former will provide a completely renewable process to make diesel fuel, heating oil and possibly kerosene and gasoline; the latter will make the world's known natural gas reserves seem like a drop in the bucket.
I think manufacturers better be very careful over this because if they establish a price floor you could see MAJOR incentives to try to undercut this price floor. That is why the RIAA member companies experienced sales drops nowadays--they priced album-length CD's way too high and that resulted in too much economic incentive to pirate music.
This deliberate price fixing could end up being the downfall of OPEC, as overpriced oil will result in consumer conservation and major economic incentive to find alternatives. What will OPEC say when 20 years from now most of the world's motor fuels are processed and refined from renewable oil-laden algae and there are massive solar array farms and wind turbines everywhere?
The Apple iPhone will likely work far better in Europe, where 3G cellular coverage with higher-speed data transfer dramatically improves the usefulness of the device. Here in the USA, the iPhone's functionality will work if you're near a WiFi hotspot, which makes accessing the Internet reasonably tolerable.
I'm hoping future version of the iPhone will include support for the Verizon and Sprint networks with its vastly faster EVDO wireless data network.