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BBSpot.com’s
11 Ways Geeks Would Prepare for an Apocalyptic Asteroid Impact

11.     Start a “preparing for armageddon” blog.
10.     Calculate force at which asteroid will hit Earth and compare it to power of Vorlon planet killers.
9.     Wait patiently for Ford Prefect.
8.     Go crazy with the credit card at the Apple store.
7.     Start post-apocalyptic movie marathon and take notes.
6.     Encase yourself in carbonite for preservation.
5.     Point out that we should’ve listened to Hawking and gotten off the planet.
4.     Blame it on Microsoft.
3.     Buy one of those crank-powered laptops.
2.     Find location of impact on Google Maps.
1.     Start cranking out more SETI units in hopes of finding an alien civilization that can save Earth.

From
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2008/01/top-11-apocalyptic-asteroid-impact.html

“Fed up with folding tiny paper cranes, a team from Japan’s Tokyo University has crafted the highest of flyers: a paper plane that will be launched from the International Space Station and then descend to earth… eventually… hopefully…”

I have to admit that other then that, I didn’t really get any useful information about this idea.  There are a number of problems with the idea, both technical, and logistical.  As the Space Shuttle zips along over the Earth, it travels at nearly Mach 20, or 15,200 miles per hour.  A paper airplane hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at that speed would burn up.  The Space Shuttle is covered in all that foam and heat resistant tiling so that it can survive and NOT burn up returning to Earth.  If the paper airplane does happen to catch fire though, here’s some good news : Most of the Earth is covered in water.  If any charred paper fragments survive, it’s more likely that they’ll land in water (lake, ocean, etc.) then they will on dry land.  So at least the burning paper fragments will be extinguished.  Even if the paper airplane manages to land on solid ground, how would it get returned to its owner?  Its a paper airplane. . . .How much room do you need to print an address, and “postage guaranteed” in every language on Earth?

I don’t mean to be cynical of the idea. . .I mean, being able to launch a simple paper airplane from space, and get it back down on Earth would be amazing.  I’d throw one from the ISS just to see how long it would survive, or if there was any way to track it.  I mean, it sounds like a very cool idea, something innovative, and fun.  I just think that there are a few hurdles that haven’t quite been overcome yet for the idea to work.

Read the full article, and see the website here :

http://inventorspot.com/articles/origami_rules_paper_airplane_set_9997

I was doing my usual poking around online, when I came across this webapge : a single Hydrogen atom, done to scale, to show just how much empty space there is in the universe.

The big blue dot to the right of the text is a proton, or the center of an atom.  The electron is the little particle that circles around the proton.  (This is the basic structure of all atoms.  Some just have more electrons, and more stuff inside the proton.)  This proton is is 1,000 pixels across.  The electron, is 1/1000th the size of the proton – or one single pixel.  And it just happens to be, to scale, 50,000,000 pixels away.  50 MILLION pixels away.  Thats 11 MILES of webpage.  And this web page is 50 million pixels wide.  49,999,999 of those pixels are completely empty.

From the creator of the website : “I recommend trying to scroll from here to the right a screen at a time,
just to see how long it takes the little thumb in the scrollbar to move
visibly. True masochists can try to scroll through the whole eleven
miles – but the scenery along the way is pretty bleak.”

It’s pretty amazing how everything we consider “solid” has so much empty space in between. . . .
View the webpage, diagram, and a better explination of atoms and the space in between them here :
http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/atom/

“A group of researchers from Stanford University found out that nanowires
made of silicon allow to considerably enhance the output of Li-ion
batteries. A laptop that can work on its common rechargeable battery
for two hours will be able to run for 20 hours with the help of the new
technology.”

Sounds like a really good advancement here. . . .It would be really nice if my iPod didn’t have to be charged so often, or my power tools could be really cordless, not “limited to two hours until I need an electrical outlet to re-charge the battery.”  As the article states, this technology could also be very useful for a new generation of electric cars.  Electric motors have been small, powerful, and energy-efficient for many years.  The only real problem has been finding a battery large enough, with enough charge cycles, to power an electric car for any useful distance at a reasonable speed.

“The electrical storage capacity of a Li-ion battery
depends on how much lithium can be held in the battery’s anode, which
is typically made of carbon. Silicon has a much higher capacity than
carbon, but also has a downside.

Silicon placed in a battery swells as it absorbs
positively charged lithium atoms during charging, then shrinks during
use (i.e., when playing your iPod) as the lithium is drawn out of the
silicon. This expand/shrink cycle typically causes the silicon (often
in the form of particles or a thin film) to pulverize, degrading the
performance of the battery.

The new battery pushes this problem aside with the
help of nanotechnology. The battery stores lithium in silicon
nanowires, each with the diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a
sheet of paper. The wires inflate four times as they absorb lithium,
but they do not fracture like other silicon-made shapes.”

Read the full article here :
http://english.pravda.ru/news/science/16-01-2008/103438-silicon_nanowires-0

Although not exactly a computer tech post, I think this is at least just as important, if not more so
Besides, a computer is only as good as the commands and programs that the end users tries to run on it.

“New research conducted by brain researcher Avi Karni of the University
of Haifa in Israel explores the possibility that naps help lock in
sometimes fleeting long-term memories. A 90-minute daytime snooze might
help the most, the study finds.

“We still don’t know the exact mechanism of the memory process that
occurs during sleep, but the results of this research suggest the
possibility that it is possible to speed up memory consolidation,”
Karni said. “In the future, we may be able to do it artificially.”"

Read more about these promising developments, and what you can currently do to help improve your memory, and feel better and more awake, here :
http://www.livescience.com/health/080107-90-minute-nap.html

Random info for the day. People have translucent concrete. Its not CLEAR….but still pretty cool. When they make the concrete, optic fiber is somehow set into the concrete so that light can pass from one side. The other side though, is fully opaque. One can imagine a concrete dome that is sunlit, and yet solid from the outside. The company claims that the optical fibers are only 4%, and allows concrete to keep its stability. As io9 puts it…that supposedly means that “Pretty light shine through, house not fall down”
I can’t really see anything *groundshaking* pop up from this development, but it would make for an interesting experience to be able to roughly see outside through concrete
Check out the pics on io9

Resurrect this feature. As a preface…this photo was taken and submitted into a “Science as Art” competition. It also goes to show….we humans…will always be trying to blow something up. This image is an electron scanning micrograph of the smallest explosion ever seen. On a nano scale. It is a photo…of nano-wires exploding. Cheers!

Thank you Fanny Beron from École Polytechnique de Montréal

Introducing…the usb chargable batteries. Useful especially if their charging times are as quick as they claim. “A few minutes provides extra hours of instant use for most devices” Of course…by most devices…they could mean an itty bitty led
But, who knows? This could be quite nice. Comes in AA, AAA, 9 volt forms, and other sizes. Usbcell batteries

I did some reading when I happened across this link for a new type of light-emitting material that will glow for 12 years, with no batteries or outside power.  It’s like the glow-in-the-dark materials that glow when you hold them under a light for a while, except you don’t need to hold this new material under a light, and it keeps glowing for 12 years.  The technology is currently patent pending, although I’ve got some questions as to exactly HOW this technology works. . . .There’s a similar effect that can be created using some mildly radioactive materials (Tritium), although these materials are highly regulated by the US government, and can’t be used in just anything.  (Apparently its considered a “frivolous” use of nuclear materials.  So you couldn’t make a glowing keychain out of the stuff because it’s not allowed.  It’s possible, and its been done overseas, but not in the US.)  I like the idea of a new non-nuclear 12-year glowing light paint/material, but I’m skeptical as to the technology used to make it happen.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/new_light_glows.php?q

“SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc.
is expanding into alternative energy in its most ambitious effort yet
to ease the environmental strain caused by the company’s voracious
appetite for power to run its massive computing centers.

As
part of a project announced Tuesday, the Internet search leader and its
philanthropic arm will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a
quest to lower the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun.

If Google realizes its goal, the cost of solar power should fall by 25 to 50 percent, co-founder Larry Page said in an interview.

The Mountain View-based
company initially hopes to harvest cleaner-burning electricity to meet
its own needs and sell power to other users or license the technology
that emerges from its initiative, dubbed “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than
Coal.”"

. . .

“Google aims to produce one gigawatt of power from renewable energy at
prices below the rates of electricity generated at coal-burning plants.
One gigawatt power would be enough to supply the needs of a city the
size of San Francisco.”

Well, it sounds like Google is jumping on the renewable energy bandwagon, and I think it’s a good thing.

(This is my opinion on global warming, then I’ll get back to the article at hand : I’ve been reading a bit about global warming, and what its causes are – is it man-made, or is it just part of a natural cycle of the Earths temperatures?  I’m not sure which one I believe.  Either way, the important thing is that the Earth is getting warmer.  It’s not important why.  If its man-made, then we should be working to slow down what we’re doing.  If it’s natural, the flooding and rising of the sea will still pose a problem for millions of people worldwide, so we might want to try and slow down the Earth’s warming anyways.)

So Google is working on ways to generate energy that are cheaper then coal, and can be sold at prices lower then the current market rate.  Global Warming or not, if it’s cheaper, who ISN’T interested?  Yes, coal has been a reliable power source for years and years.  But what’s to say that we can’t use something better?  Electricity can and will play a huge role in almost every aspect of our lives.  We use it to power computers.  I’m using my laptop and a desk lamp right now.  I’ve been reading some cool things about electric cars, and car makers are beginning to roll out plug-in hybrids that get charged from the wall outlet in the garage overnight.  True, these electric cars don’t have any emmisions, but there’s still a power plant somewhere burning something to get the electricity.  What if that electricity could be generated with almost no emissions at all?  Forget global warming, just think of the potential to improve air quality in and around major cities.  What’s to say that these renewable ways of generating electricity can’t be applied to other areas, or even other countries, that don’t have large amounts of coal, or places that don’t warrant running power lines hundreds of miles, and can’t afford to build power plants?  Is electricity the be-all and end-all of all our power needs?  No.  We need to make some other advances, like even more efficient electric motors, and better-still batteries, with longer life, and safer materials.  Is Google doing its part to start the electric ball rolling : Yes.

One other thing I’m wondering is weather or not there’s any way to get power from the heat generated by all of Google’s computers and servers.  I know that all that electricity and processing power generates vast amounts of heat, that must be dissipated, carried away, or cooled.  Is there any way to take the heat generated from all these servers and use it for something productive?  I know you can have sun-heated hot water.  How about server-heated hot water?  Is there any way to use this hot water to generate electricity?  I know that it probably shouldn’t be hot enough to boil, but there’s gotta be SOMETHING you can use this extra heat for.

Read the full article on Google’s renewable power efforts here

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071127/ap_on_hi_te/google_green_power_6;_ylt=AhBJXqqUN5nUDfIWfO2cW8wE1vAI