Category: Sci/Tech
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Solar Upgrades
Researchers at MIT have figured out a way to increase the effectiveness of existing solar panels (or create solar power from windows). Here’s a description from the article on just what is happening: The dye-based organic solar concentrator functions without the use of tracking or cooling systems, greatly reducing the overall cost compared to other…
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Just in Time for the Clan Invasion of the Inner Sphere
Gizmodo brings me this little bit of terror…apparently someone wants to make HUGE Forest Fire fighting robots. With MASSIVE SAW BLADES at the ends of the arms. But of COURSE it will NEVER be used for any sort of military purpose, right? And it will stay perfectly within our control, at all times. Okay! I’m…
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Ultra-fast, Ultra-intense Laser Kills Cancer, Bonds Metal to Bone
Researchers at the University of Missouri are testing practical applications of a UUL (Ultra-fast, Ultra-intense Laser), or femtosecond laser. Because it’s pulses last one quadrillionth of a second, there is little transfer of heat to the areas surrounding the target.
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Tailrace – Niagara Falls' Hidden Tunnel
the Vanishing Point has a very interesting article on ‘Tailrace‘, a series of tunnels under and around Niagara Falls from a long abandoned power plant built by the Toronto Power Company. It’s 10 stories underground, and only accessible by a trap door set in the ceiling 30 feet above the floor. There are some great…
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100 Things We Didn't Know Last Year
The BBC News site has a list of 100 things we didn’t know last year. Here are some of my favorites: 5. Cloudy apple juice is healthier than clear, containing almost double the antioxidants which protect against heart disease and cancer. Hmm, exactly the opposite of urine. 17. Two cups of spearmint tea a day…
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Nanosolar 'Prints' First Flexible Solar Panels
It really seems like these guys are the real deal, and not one of the many ‘look at this cool tech!’ companies who gather interest (and investors) and disappear to the vaporware wastes with Duke Nukem 4ever and flying cars.
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Wave Power
Pacific Gas & Electric with Finavera Renewables for 2 megawatts of power, provided by wave-powered turbines. Here’s a snippet on how the tech works: Finavera makes a device called the Aquabuoy, a buoy connected to a long underwater piston. As the buoy bobs up and down on the waves, it pushes the piston, which pressurizes…
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PopSci's Best of What's New
The very cool Nanosolar Powersheet tops the list of Popular Science’s Best of What’s New. There’s a few obvious choices (iPhone) but other wise some amazing tech. The company produces its PowerSheet solar cells with printing-press-style machines that set down a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil, so the…
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Colossus, Reborn
The BBC has a story about the rebuilding of the Colossus…not the big stone guy, but the code-cracking computer that was h4x0ring the Germans during WWII. Tony Sale led a 14-year project to rebuild the device in an effort to preserve this bit of computing history. Colossus is widely recognised as being one of the…
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PriceDrop – Firefox Extension
Here’s more fun found at Lifehacker: PriceDrop. It lets you track items on Amazon for price drops, and the advantage is all the details are stored locally, not on an external website. Very useful to keep an eye on items for price guarantees. There’s a somewhat similar web-based app called PriceProtectr that works for a…
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Best When Used By
If you are the sort of person who wants to make maximum use out of the food you buy, but always end up throwing your perishables away because of spoilage, check out Best When Used By. Plug in the food you buy, the expiry date, and it will keep you up to date on how…
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Automated defense weapon kills 9
Holy crap. An automated anti-aircraft gun went berserk in South Africa, and by the time it fired off it’s full complement of high-explosive rounds, 9 soldiers were dead. The gun, a Swiss/German Oerlikon 35mm MK5 twin cannon started firing wildly during a shooting exercise. They are not yet sure what caused it to happen.