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Mystery as spiral blue light display hovers above Norway – “A mysterious light display appearing over Norway last night has left thousands of residents in the north of the country baffled. Witnesses from Trøndelag to Finnmark compared the amazing sight to anything from a Russian rocket to a meteor or a shock wave – although no one appears to have mentioned UFOs yet…”
A Blueprint For A Quantum Propulsion Machine – “The quantum vacuum has fascinated physicists ever since Hendrik Casimir and Dirk Polder suggested in 1948 that it would exert a force on a pair of narrowly separated conducting plates. Their idea was eventually confirmed when the force was measured in 1997. Just how to exploit this force is still not clear, however. In recent years, a new way of thinking about the quantum vacuum has emerged which has vastly more potential. And today, one physicist describes how it could be used to create propulsion…”
Can my iPod make this airplane explode? – “For years we’ve been told that gadgets produce EMI—electromagnetic interference—that cause glitches in an aircraft’s avionics. A cellphone could interrupt communication between pilots and the tower for a crucial second, or a child’s Game Boy could cause a light on a flight computer to go on the fritz…”
Google the New Power Utility? – “Could Google do for the electrical grid what it’s done for the Internet? “PG&E’s greatest fear, and they won’t say it publicly, is Google,” says VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall in his interview of Google’s Ed Lu, who oversees the search giant’s PowerMeter program.”
Solar power technology takes its next step – “”Laboratory tests are showing we can get to module efficiencies of about 22-23%, with traditional materials,” he said. “The next generation of materials it looks in the laboratory to be moving towards 30%, and in some specialist applications even 40%,” he added…”
Google Introduces Real-Time Search – “Google said Monday it will begin indexing much of the web in real time, and marry those results with its relevance-ranking technology to make sense of the torrents of information being published via Twitter, Facebook and blogs…” See also: 3 Reasons Google’s Real-Time Search Blows Away Bing
Bolivia has Enough Lithium for 4.8 Billion Electric Cars! – “Bloomberg has a very interesting feature piece on Bolivia’s lithium reserves, and the obstacles that it faces to actually create a lithium mine there (the country has so far rejected investment offers, but that might change if it can’t raise the money on its own), but the most interesting piece of information to me was that these lithium reserves would be enough for about 4.8 billion electric cars…”
Seagate Goes Solid State with Pulsar Drive – “Seagate tosses its hat into the solid state drive (SSD) market today with the unveiling of its Pulsar drive, a unit aimed at enterprise-level blade and server applications. The new drive stores up to 200GB of data in a 2.5-inch form factor with a SATA interface…”
Networks Lights Turns Your Keyboard LEDs Into Activity Indicators – “You squeeze every bit of customization and productivity out of your computer, why let those lazy keyboard LEDs sit idle? Put them to work as network activity indicators…”
AMD to showcase new stereoscopic Blu-ray standard at CES – “Though the technology is far from perfect, large strides have been made recently to improve the viewing experience. Currently, the most impressive of stereo technologies, such as Real3D, is still reserved for the theater experience. AMD plans on bringing that big time HD stereo tech to your home very soon…”
Date-rape drink spiking ‘an urban legend’ – “The study, published in the British Journal of Criminology, found three-quarters of students identified drink spiking as an important risk – more than alcohol or drugs. More than half said they knew someone whose drink had been spiked. But despite popular beliefs, police have found no evidence that rape victims are commonly drugged with such substances, the researchers said….”
Science Fiction Movie Accused Of Patent Infringement – “Famed author Arthur C. Clarke once explained that he never patented the the concept of geostationary communications satellites, which many say he invented, because a lawyer told him the concept was “too far-fetched to be taken seriously.” But what about things going in the other direction?”
flyontime.us – “Find the most on-time flight between two airports or check how late your flight is on average, in good weather and bad, before you leave…”
2009 Technical Excellence Awards – “What are the most interesting, important and innovative technology achievements of 2009? I polled the PCMag staff to find out what made our jaws drop….”
Five ways to revolutionise computer memory – “So where is the technology that can store our high-definition home cinema collection on a single chip? Or every book we would ever want to read or refer to? Flash can’t do that. In labs across the world, though, an impressive array of technologies is lining up that could make such dreams achievable….”
Super Strength Substance (Myostatin) One Step Closer to Human Trials – “The National Children’s Hospital interest in myostatin is not to create super strong children, but to help those children whose muscles have already atrophied. Muscular Dystrophy (MD) affects thousands of children in the US who slowly lose muscle and rarely survive into adulthood. Follistatin gene therapy could serve as a method to extend their lives or perhaps even reverse the symptoms of their conditions. Likewise, the eldery are susceptible to several diseases that lead to a loss of muscle strength and coordination. By blocking myostatin, we may all be able to live with the strength of our youth even as we age into our 80s….”
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