Genetic engineering is coming to the forests.
While the practice of splicing foreign DNA into food crops has become common in corn and soy, few companies or researchers have dared to apply genetic engineering to plants that provide an essential strut of the U.S. economy, trees.
We hope y’all enjoyed our live tweets covering the Apple iPad event on Wednesday. As promised, we’re giving away an 4GB iPod Shuffle to one of our faithful followers — none other than Regina Wysocki (@regwysocki)! Congratulations to Regina; we’re going to send that Shuffle out to you right away. Don’t let it talk back to ya.
Thanks to everyone who followed, retweeted and replied to our feed during the iPad event. Or anytime for that matter. Stay close to our Twitter feed for more chances to win. Winning is fun.
Psst! Want the best mouse in the universe for a price that’s a steal? The Logitech MX 1100 is an $80 mouse, but the company is now selling MX 1100 mice for $37. The catch? Logitech says they’re brand new and in perfect condition, but their boxes are “dented.”
Whoa. We love this mouse, especially its hyperscrolling capability that lets you go from top to bottom of a huge document at blazing speed. Highly recommended, especially for $37. Just enter the coupon code logi_mx1100_12910 on the Logitech website, and it’s yours. Last we checked, there were still some left.
Logitech, via CrunchGear
Buildings are getting higher, and nobody wants to stand around waiting for an elevator. Hitachi aims to fix that with its latest elevator, a 40.26 mph rocket that’s the fastest in the world.
It’s installing the new 1,080 m/min lift in the 698-foot G1Tower, a building constructed by Hitachi in Hitachinaka City, Japan specifically for testing elevators. The tower’s construction will be completed in April.
The new elevator goes so fast it needs its own air pressure control. Maybe they could use one of these in the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa (formerly Burj Dubai). But maybe not, the Burj’s elevators are almost as fast, flying at 40mph. Time for a race.
Via JCN Network
Behold the hilariously named White Goat (no relation to your humble narrator) we told you about last year, a paper-hungry machine that poops toilet paper. In development for years, now it’s about to actually go on sale. Or so they say.
Pop in 40 sheets of regular paper, and a half-hour later, out comes a roll of toilet paper. It’s pretty cheap, too, costing about dime per roll to perform this alchemy. But wait a doggone second. The machine itself costs $100,000.
What were they thinking? At an average cost per roll of about 60 cents, our calculations show you’d have to crank out 200,000 rolls of TP before it pays for itself. Maybe this is an early April fool’s joke? No. Here’s the video proof:
Controlled nuclear fusion just got a whole lot closer to reality. This week, researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory fired up 192 gigantic lasers to a mind-boggling level of 1 megajoule for the first time, approaching the hellish situation needed to ignite a controlled nuclear fusion reaction for the first time.
Now that they’ve broken the megajoule barrier, when will they reach that elusive goal of creating the first human-controlled sun? Could be as early as this summer, when they start shooting this immense energy at targets consisting of pencil-eraser-sized gas-filled capsules.
Keeping things under control, the scientists hope to start the fusion reaction with these uber-lasers, taking out many times more energy than they put in. After that, they need to make this practical enough to place on the back of a Delorean, and voilà! Mr. Fusion!
Physorg, via Fast Company
Trains are an integral part of American history, and, until the turn of the 20th century, they were the main mode of long distance transportation for most people… hence the reason why owning all four railroads in a Monopoly game is awesome. But trains aren’t what they used to be, at least in this country. [...]
Trains are an integral part of American history, and, until the turn of the 20th century, they were the main mode of long distance transportation for most people… hence the reason why owning all four railroads in a Monopoly game is awesome. But trains aren’t what they used to be, at least in this country. We lack a real, innovative, high speed train system.
That might just change though as the Obama administration announced $8 billion in grants to over a dozen states to build, upgrade, and otherwise improve rail systems. But is it going to be enough?
Last week I talked about how fast is fast enough, and that one of the easiest ways to save fuel was by simply going slower. Well rejoice! Apparently all of America heeded my advice, and American drivers, on average, drive below the posted speed limit.
Ok, obviously this has nothing to do with me. According to [...]
Last week I talked about how fast is fast enough, and that one of the easiest ways to save fuel was by simply going slower. Well rejoice! Apparently all of America heeded my advice, and American drivers, on average, drive below the posted speed limit.
Ok, obviously this has nothing to do with me. According to Tele Atlas, the mapping unit of GPS maker TomTom, anonymously collected data from millions of GPS devices shows that most Americans are driving under the speed limit. So why don’t I get that feeling when I am on the highway?
According to an Autocar UK story, Tele Atlas says that no state tops 70 mph as an average highway speed. The fastest highway in the country is the stretch of I-15 between Utah and Nevada, with average speeds of 77.67 mph, even though the speed limit is 80 mph. This baffles me. I-15 is a road that pretty much runs through mostly desert. Why wouldn’t you go the speed limit?
This clever little portable freezer is able to keep your food nice and cold as long as its charged up. And since it’s got a couple of solar panels in the top, it can get charged far away from any outlet.
The panels can also flip over to act as lights, in case you need to brighten up your campsite. It can also juice itself up by plugging into the cigarette lighter in your car. Pretty clever stuff.
Via Yanko Design
Now here’s a clever way to make guns safer: only allow them to work for the right person. This new Armatix .22 comes with a custom wristwatch. When the gun is within a few inches of the watch, a green LED on the back lights up, meaning it’s armed and ready to fire.
Put it in someone’s hands who isn’t wearing the watch, however, and the LED turns red, indicating that it cannot fire. I can see this becoming a standard feature on police weapons, ensuring that no danger comes from their guns if they fall into the wrong hands. Cool stuff.
Via Danger Room
Earth’s stratosphere is a cold, dry place, above the troposphere–the bottom layer of the atmosphere we breathe on a daily basis. Ruled by winds and hosting everything from bacteria to long-distance jet travel, about the only way that water gets into this high-altitude layer 10 kilometers above the Earth’s surface is when it billows up from the humid tropics, rising from the troposphere via the atmospheric interface known as the tropopause. But since 2001 there has been less water vapor in a narrow, lower band of the stratosphere thanks to cooler temperatures in the tropopause, and that may just be holding back global warming at ground level, according to new research published online in Science on January 28. [More]
Sure, 3D TVs aren’t available yet, nor are 3D Blu-ray discs. But hey, if you’re in the market for a new Blu-ray player, you might as well buy one that’ll work with that stuff when it does eventually roll out.
Samsung’s BD-C6900 (catchy!) is the company’s first 3D Blu-ray player, and you can now pre-order it for yourself on Amazon. It might seem silly now, but if you every want to get on board with 3D in the home, it’ll be even dumber to have to buy another Blu-ray player in 18 months because you didn’t right now.
In October 2009 the government of Italy announced that a wreck discovered off the southwestern tip of the country is the Catania , a passenger vessel sunk during World War I–and not the Cunski , a cargo ship loaded with radioactive waste, as alleged by district authorities from nearby Calabria. Few locals are reassured, says Michael Leonardi of the University of Calabria. He and others maintain that the putative Cunski is still out there and is just one of numerous ships full of poisonous garbage that a crime syndicate has scuttled in the Mediterranean Sea. Such a startling allegation, if true, would not only damage the tourism and fishing industries along this idyllic coast but also compromise the health of Mediterranean residents.
Processing and safely storing waste from the chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars per ton–which makes illegal disposal highly profitable. According to the Italian environmental organization Legambiente, some waste shippers that have operational bases in southern Italy have been using the Mediterranean as a dump. While acknowledging that “no wreck has yet been found that contains toxic or radioactive waste,” physicist Massimo Scalia of the University of Rome, La Sapienza, who has chaired two parliamentary commissions on illegal waste disposal, argues that other vidence makes their existence “beyond reasonable doubt.”
Max is a cute little chap with some of the most amazing markings. He isn’t very happy in kennels and desperately needs a new family of his own. He is a sweet loving dog who adores people, including children, and gets along with other dogs. He would make a wonderful addition to the family!
This week’s obsession with all things touch interface enabled may have obscured the fact that there are still some left who prefer the tactile comfort of the QWERTY keyboard. South Korea-based Mobience has come up with a new solution designed to address the needs of those smart phone users longing for traditional button inputs.
The smallQWERTY keyboard is a concept design the company came up with to wirelessly connect and input text into your touch interface smart phone. No technical details have been released regarding how the system works, but you can see video of the device in action here.
Via Aving
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden participates in a wreath laying ceremony as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Friday, Jan. 29, 2010, at Arlington National Cemetery. Wreathes were laid in memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Americans eat more fish than ever. We now gobble up more than two million tons of seafood a year compared to just half a million at the dawn of the 20th century. Not only are there more of us, we’re also eating more fish–globally.
That’s led to a global collapse of many fisheries , such as cod in the North Atlantic. To help forestall this ecological catastrophe a variety of sustainable-seafood certification schemes have emerged. And the Monterey Bay Aquarium released its first seafood wallet card in 2000.
William is really hoping that he can regain his slimline figure with help and support from his new family. It will take time and patience to carry on the good work already started by the rescue in helping him to lose weight, but the rewards will be a loyal, loving, affectionate friend who will be eternally grateful for having a second chance at a proper doggie life
Where there are fishery boats docking after a day’s catch, there are usually seabirds hovering in hopes of lifting scraps. Discards from fisheries supplement the diets of these flying scavengers, but it is less clear how commercial fishing affects the foraging behavior of birds when they are out at sea and out of sight. [More]
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