Firestrike: World’s First Solid-State Battlefield Laser Now Available – “Northrop Grumman has just announced that the first ever high-energy, solid-state lethal laser for actual war applications is now available for ordering. This means that you can pay now a few millions and get yours for Xmas. The new Firestrike units offer 15 kilowatts of power, but can be combined to offer 100 kilowatts of technological terror, capable of actually destroying the enemy…”

Are Our Brains Becoming “Googlized?” – “The objective of the study was to see if regular internet usage was more effective than other intellectually stimulating tasks in keep the brain limber in aging test subjects….”

40 Years Later, It’s Moon Race 2.0 – “By 2015, to hear NASA tell it, a new manned spacecraft–the evocatively named Orion–will be carrying crews to Earth’s orbit. By 2020, Orion will be paired with the lunar lander Altair. That same year, fresh American bootprints will be made on the lunar soil–the first since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972…”

Scientists scratch heads over why we itch – “As many as 10 percent of the people in the world endure chronic itching, said Ben Maddison, a researcher at Unilever, a multinational consumer-product corporation…”

10 Futuristic Concept Laptop Designs – “Compiled below is a list of the most futuristic concept laptop designs, some of which have won achievement awards while the rest are just too cool to know about…”

Adaptive Reuse: 20 Brilliant Recycled Buildings – “Recycling discarded materials into new buildings and adapting disused structures to new uses is not just about sustainability – it is also about savvy innovation and stylish adaptation. Some architects build modular wonders from existing units (such as shipping containers). Others draw from recycled, found and local materials (or entire old buildings) to create aesthetically amazing designs that brilliantly blend old and new…”

Detecting Disease In Less Than 60 Seconds – “Chemists and immunologists devised a new rapid system for detecting and identifying viruses. It uses surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy to measure the frequency of near-infrared laser light as it scatters off viral DNA and RNA. After a swab of a person’s nasal passage, the technique can detect individual virus particles quickly and identify many types…”

Tech Watch: Nukes In Your Yard and Fuel Cells In Your Pocket – “Two companies are doing two very different things to address the energy problem in America. How about a mini-reactor giving your neighborhood nuclear power? Or would you like thin fuel cell chips to give your gadgets juice?”

Why Apple is great at interfaces when others are not – “That Apple thinking is still apparent: it’s why the Mac metaphorically shakes its head at you when you get a password wrong. Similarly it’s why the iPhone’s icons wobble when you want to uninstall something…”

Race on to build world’s first space elevator – ” AUSTRALIA could play a key role in the 21st century space race, with competition heating up between Japan and the US to build the world’s first “space elevator”…”

The Floating Aerohotel: A Modern Aquatecture Marvel – “As fears of global warming induced population displacement are steadily realized, the allure of waterborne aquatecture becomes more and more enticing. Designed by Alexander Asadov, this incredible floating Aerohotel features a lighter-than-air aesthetic that sits serenely atop an elegant system of supports. Conceived as an elevated aquatic structure replete with hanging gardens, the space-age floating island preserves the entire extent of the ecosystem beneath it, contrasting with man-made islands that disrupt their immediate environment with tons of gravel fill…”

66 vehicle mods for better fuel economy … – “Below is a list of well understood mods you can do to your vehicle to squeeze more distance from each drop of fuel. They range from mild to wild, free to expensive. Some admittedly split hairs, while others can make a significant fuel economy difference. EcoModder members have done most, if not all of these…”

Star Trek trailer

Deleting your digital past — for good – “Can you erase your tracks online? We tried to get a few bad mentions off the Net forever. Here’s how we did…”

iPhone Rideshare App To Cut 73.6 M Tons of CO2 Annually – “In an attempt to save the planet—and possibly just to piss off Canada—the company Mapflow is bringing a ridesharing app to the iPhone. The app is called Avego and Mapflow hopes it will help save the world. Hey, they had me at pissing off the Canadians…”

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