• The Environment

    Watershed Moment

    By Posted on 6.11.2008 5 Comments

    This frothy flume is what 300,000 gallons of water per second looks like. A 60-hour surge of almost 75 billion gallons, it’s part of an effort to revitalize the ecosystem of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Teams from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Grand Canyon Trust and 25 other agencies have been working together since 1995 to develop a plan that will mimic natural flooding to redistribute sediment that would normally wash downriver.

    6.10.2008 at 02:12pm - Comment by DotNetProgrammer

    LA Times reports that during the simulated flood there is reduced flow through the hydroelectric turbines. So what is the net carbon footprint for the water that is released? They also report a 10 year $80 million study before it was approved. That would pay for a lot of solar panel rebate checks.

  • Science

    School Official Sues Facebook

    By Posted on 5.12.2008 6 Comments

    This probably seemed really funny until they heard about the court order. A few anonymous Facebook users—most likely students—created a fake profile for the dean of Roncalli High School, a Catholic prep school in Indianapolis, then sent out messages and images from the account to other students. The profile has since been pulled down, but the dean sued Facebook to find out who created it.

    5.12.2008 at 04:29pm - Comment by DotNetProgrammer

    Impersonation and defamation are considered crimes if printed in a news paper or in other forms of media. Facebook is wrong to protect the identities and attempt to the hide behind the free speech cloak. Facebook's idiocy will only contribute to the impetus to further regulate the internet with laws instead of common sense.

  • Cars

    Avoiding Pedestrians With the Help of Lasers

    By Posted on 4.28.2008 16 Comments

    Hanyoung Lee wants you to be seen. The South Korea-based product designer devised a prototypical warning device to prevent pedestrian strikes along roadway crosswalks. It's called the Virtual Wall, a visual barrier created from plasma laser beams.

    4.29.2008 at 06:24am - Comment by DotNetProgrammer

    @davepr - Thank you for confirming what I suspected. My confusion with this site is that articles are not represented as blog fodder or "conversation starters". Most of us arrive here via to web searches and external links. We incorrectly assume that what we are reading is an extension of the edited and reviewed Popular Science Magazine. In fact it is not. All I ask is that a disclaimer be displayed that informs the reader of this. Without proper framing articles damage the Popular Science brand.

  • Cars

    Avoiding Pedestrians With the Help of Lasers

    By Posted on 4.28.2008 16 Comments

    Hanyoung Lee wants you to be seen. The South Korea-based product designer devised a prototypical warning device to prevent pedestrian strikes along roadway crosswalks. It's called the Virtual Wall, a visual barrier created from plasma laser beams.

    4.28.2008 at 07:38pm - Comment by DotNetProgrammer

    Looks like 1970's a video game. How many points do we get for hit-and-run on a virtual pedestrian? @tddavies - This isn't the old Popular Science that we grew up with. These little web articles are just cut and pasted from press releases and web sites. There doesn't seem to be any editorial oversight. There should be a disclaimer at the top of every article.

  • Cars

    THiNK Electric Car Maker Again Sets Sights on the US

    By Posted on 4.24.2008 16 Comments

    A Norwegian electric-vehicle manufacturer best known for a Y2K-era commuter-car venture with Ford is plotting a solo return to the states. Flush with cash from Silicon Valley angel investors RockPort Capital Partners and Kleiner Perkins, Caulfield and Byers, THiNK North America plans to start selling a version of its 95-percent-recyclable City car to US buyers starting in 2009. The company also plans to introduce the larger Ox (pictured) by 2010/2011.

    4.25.2008 at 09:23am - Comment by DotNetProgrammer

    What is the price? When will it be available? What is the battery lifetime? Instead of cutting and pasting text from the company's press releases and web site, why not interview a some company officers and provide some useful information? We're getting sick of all these "green" pipe dream reports. Give us something REAL.

  • Technology

    Darpa's New Goal: A Plane That Flies for Five Years

    By Posted on 3.6.2008 10 Comments

    The highest-endurance aircraft currently flying is Northrop Grummans Global Hawk UAV, which can stay aloft for up to 40 hours. Now Darpa—which, to its credit, is never short on outlandish ideas—wants to beat that endurance record more than 1,000 times. The goal of Darpa's recently launched Vulture Program is to build a kind of atmospheric satellite that can stay aloft for five years at a time with little or no maintenance.

    3.10.2008 at 01:54pm - Comment by DotNetProgrammer

    The altitudes these fly at make them ideal for commercial applications like inexpensive voice/data communication networks, enhanced precision location services, broadcast services, ... Platforms like these would allow for much more efficient uses of wireless and broadcast bandwidth. I can't wait for these to get airborne.



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