Bjorn Carey

SciKu, PopSci.com's recently refined art form, is back with a satisfyingly disgusting contribution from Bjorn.

In the age of mp3s, most people have a lot of old CDs lying around. Instead of throwing them in the trash, though, you can put them to use in a way that's both eco-friendly and healthy. Thread the discs onto the ends of a thin metal rod and secure them in place with bolts to make a usable (and cool-looking) dumbbell. Tape up the middle of the rod to provide a comfortable grip, and you'll be all set for a workout.

Santa’s leaving his workshop at the North Pole a little later this year, two hours later to be exact, according to reports out of NORAD. Have that many kids landed on his naughty list? No, says Naval Lieutenant Desmond James, spokesman for Santa tracking at the North American Aerospace Defense Command. “Kids are staying up later nowadays, so in past years Santa has had to double back a few times to make sure he’s hitting houses after they’ve gone to bed,” he says, citing an inside source at the North Pole. “He’s just streamlined his efforts.”

Uno
Cost to Develop: $45,000
Time: 2 years
Prototype | | | | | Product
Just before his plane dipped into the clouds above Beijing International Airport two years ago, Ben Gulak caught the last clear view of the sun that he would see for two weeks. On the ground, the 17-year-old, who was on a family trip to China, quickly spotted a source for much of the thick haze hanging over the city: smog-spewing motorbikes. Thousands of them, everywhere. “Right then,” he says, “I decided that I wanted to create an alternative mode of transportation, something clean and compact.”

Apples flagship store in San Francisco is out of iPhones? Online orders will take five to seven business days? Retail stores around the country are reportedly running extremely low or, in many cases, just plain out of iPhones. This shortage may simply be due to Apples shortsighted estimate of demand. But many believe it to be an early indication that they're trying to clear product to make way for a (clouds part, sun shines, choir sings) 3G iPhone.

When the GeoEye-1 surveillance satellite comes online this spring, its advanced optics will produce more-detailed images than any commercial satellite, capturing objects as small as home plate on a baseball diamond and filling in the fuzzy spots on Google Earth.

Here's one for your "only in California" file: A judge has ordered a Sunnyvale couple to cut down two of the eight redwood trees on their property because they block sunlight access to their neighbor's solar panels.

About six years ago, Mark Vargas complained that eight redwood trees on Richard Treanor's and Carolyn Bissett's property were blocking sunlight to the $70,000 worth of solar panels he built to power his house in 2001. To protect his investment, Vargas cited the obscure Solar Shade Control Act that requires homeowners to keep their trees from shading more than 10 percent of a neighbor's solar panels between 10am and 2pm, peak hours for collecting sunlight. The judge ruled in favor of Vargas, although he decided against fining Treanor and Bissett the up to $1,000 a day in violations allowed by the law.

We told you about a new ultra-black material back in January and guess who was the first group to come knocking on the researchers' door?

Once upon a time, the only fielding statistic listed on the back of baseball cards was fielding percentage, a simple calculation of the number of assists and putouts a player records divided by total chances.

During a presentation on the next steps for developing a successor to the Space Shuttle, I was smacked with a crazy set of stats. The Airbus A380, the massive passenger airliner that runs more than $300 million, costs a scant $400 per pound of dry hardware put into the beast. I say scant—by comparison the Space Shuttle costs $21,000 per pound. Even more impressive, at $1,600 per pound, each BlackBerry 8000 series phone costs slightly more than an Apache attack helicopter.

When NASA's Phoenix lander parachutes from orbit and touches down on the outskirts of Mars' northern polar ice cap on May 25, it will join the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers as NASA's active roster on the planet's surface. And, as is typical of the youngest child, Phoenix will receive the majority of NASA's attention during its mission.