Near term Improved batteries will enable commercialized flying cars

Technologies are maturing and converging to make small, affordable airplanes feasible says Brian German, an aerospace researcher at Georgia Tech. German argues that lighter and more powerful electric motors, batteries that can store more energy, and more sophisticated aviation software could transform the market for small aircraft. Each time batteries improve, electric airplanes can be …

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Science advances towards improved quantum technology

Andrea Morello and colleagues report a demonstration of Bell’s inequality violation for a pair of qubits embedded in silicon. Bell’s inequality was introduced by physicist John Stewart Bell during the 1960s. A violation of the inequality by a pair of quantum objects placed far apart from one another is a demonstration of the nonlocal nature …

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Over 100 tons of sodium cyanide at Tianjin warehouse explosion area

The Beijing News on Saturday said all people within a 3-kilometer radius of the Tianjin warehouse explosion site are being forcibly evacuated from the area because of a possible chemical contamination. Sodium cyanide was detected east of the site, according to police cited by the paper. China confirmed Sunday that sodium cyanide, a toxic chemical, …

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Forbes covers repeated failure of Blacklight Power to commercialize and cites Nextbigfuture

Forbes Michael Lynch reviews Blacklight Power as an example of potentially revolutionary energy technology that has failed to deliver on commercialization. Forbes linked to Nextbigfuture where in 2014 we had updated the claims made by Blacklight Power. There is a July 29th, 2014 audio interview. Sterling Allan, the host of Greater Things on the Rense …

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US Navy 30 year ship building plan update

2015 Congressional Research report – Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress The Navy’s proposed FY2016 budget requests funding for the procurement of nine new battle force ships (i.e., ships that count against the Navy’s goal for achieving and maintaining a fleet of 306 ships). The nine ships include two Virginia-class …

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Lockheed 30kw combat blasts a truck from over a mile

A 30-kilowatt fiber laser weapon system from Lockheed Martin successfully disabled a vehicle engine from a distance of more than one mile. In the test — said to represent the highest power ever documented by a laser weapon of its type — the beam from the Advanced Test High Energy Asset, or ATHENA, quickly burned …

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CNES Partners with Google to deploy Global 100,000 Internet Loon Ballon Networks

The French space agency, CNES, on Dec. 11 said it is partnering with Google on the Google X Project Loon to deploy more than 100,000 balloons in the stratosphere to provide high-speed Internet to regions without it. CNES has maintained an active balloon launch program for studies of upper-atmospheric air currents, the chemical composition of …

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Looking ahead to being ten times richer and looking back at being ten times poorer

Nextbigfuture described a future where China helps build out the infrastructure that the rest of the developing world needs over the next few decades. The shortfall of infrastructure is lowering the potential GDP growth by 2-3% in many countries. An extra 2% GDP growth globally would accelerate the arrival of a world with a quadrillion …

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Ad Block Plus uses more memory and slows computer more than ads

Adblock Plus (ABP), which is by far the most popular add-on for Firefox and Chrome, is actually increasing the amount of memory used by your web browser, rather than decreasing it. Furthermore, ABP also increases the amount of time (and CPU cycles) required to render a website. Instead of making web surfing more responsive, ABP …

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