Batteries that Run on Glucose Fuel

Cyborg evolution may have taken a great burp forward with the recent announcement from Sony that they’ve designed a battery that eats glucose. So far, the batteries don’t offer much for their digestive process (about 50 milliwatts per glucose-guzzling cell), but it’s only a matter time, only a matter of time before we’re all joining The Collective and serving a Borg Queen.

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Back to school special

Lifehacker has a nice round-up of very useful software tools for the returning student, from printable graph paper, to socially networked class notes, to Google Book Search and Google Scholar. Forget school kids, *I* plan to make use of a bunch of this stuff. I would add JetEye to this list. I continue to find it a very useful tools for building up databuckets of info, images, notes, etc.

Batwing Ceiling Fan

Do you think if I put these fan blades up in my bedroom it would freak out anybody who ends up ensnared in my lair o’ dark sensuality? Yeah, probably. I am SO ordering a set! Actually they’d look great up in the clearstory ceiling of the ol’ Street Tech Lab offices. They’re only US$40 a set. [Via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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Introducing MAKE Vol. 11

MAKE Vol. 11 is out. I just got my contributor’s copy on Friday. There’s the typical embarrassment of DIY riches in it. It’s an alternative transpo issue, with lots of cool bike and car hacks. Mr. Jalopy is on the cover with his Mobile Drive-In Movie Projector. But the thing I’m most excited about in this issue is that *I* kick it off! I wrote the “Welcome” editorial piece. I’m truly honored and flattered n’ junk. The piece is an edited version of my “Makers vs The Blob” piece I wrote here, my wrap-up of the SF Maker Faire. You can read the longer original piece here.

Speaking of Maker Faires, I’ll likely be at the Austin Faire (Oct 20-21). I’d love to see some of my Street Tech compadres there.

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And Today’s Vaporware Generator Squeezes Out A… “Skycar”

Somewhere, there must be a “Stories of the Future” news copy generator that cranks out the same techno-futuro, gee-whiz, Jimmy crap at regular intervals. This generator lives right next to the one that spits up the “dangers of the Internet” falderal. I think they’re programmed to work together, on odd and even months. This month, it’s a Gernsbackian fan favorite, the Moller Flying Car, in this case, their M200G model, a.k.a. the Flying Saucer.

Moller’s skycars have garnered tremendous amounts of ink and electrons (and oodles of magazine covers) for nearly four decades. And they’re always billed as coming to a blue sky near you, any day now. Dr. Paul Moller even got himself into some hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the ’90s when he suggested to investors that 10,000 of his skycars would be in the air by 2002. But according to this BBC piece, NOW is the time. It’s happening. Really. Forget all those other previous predictions. The M200G skycar will allegedly go on sale in a few months, and Moller plans on cranking out 250 in a year.

So, months away from production, eh? And yet, check out this video on their website. It shows an M200 still under tether and a very tentative, not very graceful flight (and a lot of nervous looking natives scurrying beneath it). This is the best they could come up with for trying to convince potential buyers to fork over between $90-450K? And could you possibly hone that price point down a little finer? Silly.

Is it just me, or are we ripe for another PaPeRo announcement from NEC? I can hear the story generator cranking out the breathless prose now…

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