Link Collection

I think that it is a GREAT idea that the Navy's new amphibious assault ship Makin Island uses a hybrid electric kind of like what is used in cars! The electric motor is used at low speeds and the engine only needs to be used during the 25% of the time that the ship moves at high speeds. Not only is this a great way to reduce emissions, but it reduces our military's dependence on foreign oil and the Navy predicts it will save $250 million in fuel costs!
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/15/navy-goes-green-new-hybrid-ship/?uniontrib

The US lost control of one of its Predator UAVs when it was flying above Afghanistan and a manned US fighter jet had to shoot it down:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/15/killer_robot_killed_by_fighter_jet/

With the Air Force about to begin a study looking at options for an entirely new UAV with faster speed and stealth technology, all of the big defense contractors are preparing their systems. Lockheed just publicly re-entered the UAV market, showing a concept aircraft for a stealth UAV:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/09/lockheeds-debuts-concept-for-stealthy-drone/

Sandia National Laboratory's new hopping robot may soon be in combat helping to reduce US troop casualties. The robot can hop over as many as 30 obstacles that are 40-60 times its size, and hopping has been shown to be 5x more efficient than hovering and allows longer operation with the same amount of fuel:
http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2009/hopping-robot.html

Militants shot motars into the Green Zone in Baghdad while VP Biden was there today:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58E58V20090915?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Current CDC recommendation is for people with the swine flu to stay at home from work and school until after their fever ends...unfortunately, a new study found that a person can still spread the swine flu for days after a fever goes away:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gYDsaLjbKHLVu5v0Z5S73VqEliAQD9ANC7BO0

Globs of human fat removed during liposuction are being called "liquid gold" because that fat contains versatile cells that are more quickly and easily converted to stem cells than the skin cells most often used by researchers. It takes 3+ weeks to grow skin cells in the lab before they can be reprogrammed, but liposuction leftovers are ready to be used right away, plus liposuction leftovers do not need mouse-derived "feeder cells" that current skin cells require. Plus, this avoids the worry about mouse-derived cells being used for humans and patients probably won't mind giving up some fat cells to cure their diseases!
http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2009/september/fat-cells.html

The world's first full-scale floating wind turbine (capacity of 2.3 megawatts) was inaugurated in Norway. They will study it over the next two years to figure out how to reduce costs so that they can commercialize floating wind power:
http://www.ecoseed.org/index.php/general-news/greentech-news/product-development/4347

Biochemists warn that if unregulated methane extraction continues in Rwanda that it could trigger an outburst of carbon dioxide that could kill many of the 2 million people who live near Lake Kivu:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327254.500-methane-mining-could-trigger-killer-gas-cloud.html

Maine passed a law against "distracted driving". This doesn't just ban driving while using a cell phone, it bans anything not necessary to the operation of the vehicle...for example, no eating putting on makeup while driving:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2009/09/13/maine_outlaws_distracted_driving/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Local+news

Lori and I *love* the roller coasters and water rides at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park, and soon it will be even better with a Harry Potter-themed area opening in the Spring:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/15/us-harry-potter-park-091509/?nation&zIndex=166199

This article has a nice summary of the LTE plans for the US carriersincluding the plans MetroPCS just announced:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/metropcs-selects-ericsson-samsung-lte-vendors/2009-09-15?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Sprint's stock jumped 14% yesterday on rumors that it might be acquired by Deutsche Telekom, but Deutsche Telekom quickly shot down the rumor and said that it has no plans to acquire Sprint soon:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSWEA102120090915

A company in South Africa proved that it was faster to transmit data via *carrier pigeon* than to send it using the country's leading internet service provider:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32772500/ns/world_news-weird_news/

The lowest-paying college majors are: Social work, special ed, elementary education, home economics, music/dance, drama, leisure studies, philosophy, art, and audiology:
http://encarta.degreesandtraining.com/articles.jsp?article=featured_5_lowest_paying_majors_and_what_you_can_do_about_it&gt1=27001