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POPSBuilding 'The Matrix' Feynman envisioned, a general purpose, programmable quantum computer could itself carry out quantum simulations. But such machines are still decades away, most researchers say, while machines designed only for quantum simulations may become available sooner.
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POPSFree-piston engine could be twice as fuel efficient as combustion engines In conventional internal combustion engines, multiple pistons are connected via rods to a crankshaft that, via the transmission, drives the wheels. Free-piston engines do away with the crankshaft: the pistons aren't connected to anything. Instead, two opposing pistons just shuttle back and forth inside a chamber. To generate electricity, the pistons could be equipped with rows of magnets that shuttle past metal coils to create an electrical current.
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POPSProfessor Designs Plasma-propelled Flying Saucer The force created by passing an electrical current through this plasma pushes around the surrounding air, and that swirling air creates lift and momentum and provides stability against wind gusts. In order to maximize the area of contact between air and vehicle, Roy’s design is partially hollow and continuously curved, like an electromagnetic flying bundt pan. One of the most revolutionary aspects of Roy’s use of magnetohydrodynamics is that the vehicle will have no moving parts. The lack of traditional mechanical aircraft parts, such as propellers or jet engines, should provide tremendous reliability, Roy said. Such a design also will allow the WEAV to hover and take off vertically.
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POPSAncient Egyptian Ball Game Discovered A mixture of bowling, billiard and bowls, the game was played at Narmoutheos, in the Fayoum region, in a spacious room which appears to be the prototype of a modern-day bowling hall.
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POPS First Electronic Ink Magazine Cover Expected “The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.” Science fiction readers have been looking forward to this development for a long time, and can give us an idea of what this technology will look like in coming years. For example, writer Greg Bear had a very clear view of the Esquire E-ink cover in 2003 in "Darwin's Children." He wrote about e-paper covers with speaker chips.
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POPSFrance launches digital library... 12,000 public domain full-text documents but is set to have by 2010 over 6 million books, movies, photographs and other documents from across the European Union countries.
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POPSClocky, the SUV of Alarm Clocks An alarm clock with rubberized wheels. When you press the snooze button, it rolls away and hides so you have to get up to turn it off. Also see http://www.Clocky.net, plus this clip .
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POPSWireless at Fiber Speeds Richard Ridgway, a senior researcher at Battelle, says that the technique could be used to send huge files across college campuses, to quickly set up emergency networks in a disaster, and even to stream uncompressed high-definition video from a computer or set-top box to a display.
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POPSThe Dr. Seuss Many Didn't Know Dr. Seuss worked as an editorial cartoonist for the paper from 1941 to 1943, drawing cartoons that lambasted isolationism, racism, anti-Semitism, Hitler, Mussolini, the Japanese, and the conservative forces in American politics.
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POPSThe CO2 extractor Every living thing relies on CO2 being in the atmosphere. That said, why do environmental alarmists oppose the CO2 scrubber? The argument that it is inefficient just doesn't fly because all technology becomes cheaper and more efficient over time. I think we all know the reason why they oppose it. The CO2 scrubber does not allow them to control your life.
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POPSLet's get real about alternative energy The public discussion of energy options tends to be emotional, polarized, mistrustful and destructive. I hope that focusing attention on the numbers may make it possible to develop honest and constructive conversations about energy.
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