74 million Number of African children that the World Health Organization hopes to vaccinate this October and November in an attempt to eradicate the polio virus before 2005


11 Number of months, beginning in August 2003, that the Nigerian government halted polio immunizations amid rumors that the vaccine was spiked with the AIDS virus


1,148 Polio cases contracted worldwide during that time period

Favorable winds weren’t the only thing that helped Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and co-pilot Brian Jones pull off the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight in 1999. The trip also required burning nearly four tons of propane fuel, a fact that never sat well with the environmentally
conscious adventurers.


So now Piccard has dreamed up a greener—and far gutsier—aviation milestone to conquer: circling the globe in a solar-powered plane. “It would be the purest way to fly,” he says. Pure, yes; easy, no, notes engineer Paul MacCready

Diabetics are finger-prickers by necessity, but a reprieve may be in store for their sore digits. A bean-size sensor, slipped under the skin and read wirelessly, could take the pain and hassle out of blood-sugar monitoring. The system “listens to the vibrations of the sensor inside you” to measure glucose levels, says the inventor, Craig Grimes, an electrical engineer at Penn State University.

Imagine switching on your wireless Pocket PC device one day and finding your address book wiped clean. Or getting a call from the police, who want to know why your cellphone has been dialing 911 all night.


You’d tell the cops what many tech gurus have long expected: Viruses are going airborne. In June the underground virus lab known as 29A created Cabir, which is believed to be the first cellphone virus, and a few weeks later the same group wrote Dust, the first virus capable

If Washington ran procurement programs the way it did the Lockheed YO-3A project, the words "billions" and "dollars" would never again have to be used by the Department of Defense in the same sentence.


But then I'll bet you've never heard of the YO-3A.

You have $1,700 for a laptop. You could pick an IBM with a 7.5-hour battery life or an HP that burns through its charge in under two hours—and they’re both great machines.


Why the disparity? The HP excels at gaming and editing video, but the requisite components chow power. Displays account for 30 to 40 percent of battery drain, and this one’s huge.

PORTABLE VIDEO PLAYERS

Guzzler:
Archos AV480
Specs: 80GB hard drive (320 hours of TV), 3.8-inch screen
Life: 4.5 hours playback on internal Li-ion
$800; arcos.com

Sipper:
ZVUE
Specs: SD-card video storage, records video on PC, 2.5-inch screen
Life: up to 8 hours playback on AAs
$150; zview.com

DIGITAL CAMERAS

Guzzler:
HP Photosmart R707
Specs: 5.1MP, 3x optical zoom, 1.5-inch LCD, 7.2 ounces
Li

Search result: 11 for batteries suck


From: Rodolfo Gallego
Newsgroups: rec.photo.digital
Subject: The Batteries Saga!!!


Hi group,

ALKALINE DISPOSABLES

They still exist because of convenience, not chemistry: You can buy them—for a pittance—from New York to Nepal. Perfect for occasional-use devices, such as smoke detectors and TV remotes, because of their long shelf life.


NICKEL-CADMIUM (NiCd)

Good for 1,000 discharge cycles. They’re toxic and suffer “memory effect,” when damaging crystals form if the cell isn’t often fully discharged. NiCds are rare except in power tools; their high discharge rates suit big-current draws.

1. Pick up a USB charging adapter. In a pinch, you can siphon power from a computer to revive dead cells.


2. Charging AA or AAA cells can take 15 minutes with Rayovac’s NiMH rechargeable system, which equalizes internal pressure. $40; rayovac.com

3. Buying a digital camera? Check the shots-per-charge spec from the Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) for an apples-to-apples comparison.