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POPSThe Last Victorian Leviathan Steam Ship Alas, the end of the Eastern came with more of a whimper than bang. After suffering far too many accidents, and far too many money troubles, the Eastern passed from one hand to another until eventually the largest ship in the Victorian world came to a humiliating end, first as a floating billboard in Liverpool and then finally broken up and sold as scrap. - It took two full years just to dismantle this ship (gives you an idea how big it was). - A mysterious dead body was found inside the special double hull (one can only imagine the desperate story of that stowaway...) At least Brunel didn't see the sad and pathetic end to his magnificent Great Eastern, though he didn't live to see its majesty either. Brunel died only four days after the great ship's first sea trial.
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POPSIsland "born" It's pretty astonishing. First sand floating on a water and then new island coming under the water. You must see this
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POPSHYPERPOLITICS (AMERICAN STYLE) A Talk By Mark Pesce The power redistributions of the 21st century have dealt representative democracies out. Representative democracies are a poor fit to the challenges ahead, and 'rebooting' them is not enough. The future looks nothing like democracy, because democracy, which sought to empower the individual, is being obsolesced by a social order which hyperempowers him.
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POPSThe power and the glory The market for energy is huge. At present, the world’s population consumes about 15 terawatts of power. (A terawatt is 1,000 gigawatts, and a gigawatt is the capacity of the largest sort of coal-fired power station.) That translates into a business worth $6 trillion a year—about a tenth of the world’s economic output—according to John Doerr, a venture capitalist who is heavily involved in the industry. And by 2050, power consumption is likely to have risen to 30 terawatts.
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POPSIdeas for Clipmarks - Part 2 So my last clip was not a big hit but the one before had good number of comments. I know I have not been using Clipmarks much lately (the clipdaddies wants me to use Amplify and the Clipmarks' original steam has been stolen by Twitter, two big distractions, but no love has been lost no matter how many old timers have jumped off the boat). But there's a lot going on here on daily basis (minus the spammers) and I'm sure you must have your list of things you like to see CM implement or change. I feel Clipmarks needs rebranding and relaunch with more focus on social-networking aspect. Off top of my head, I can't think of anything new I wish to see here except perhaps the landing page for visitors should be their My Guides' Mix page. More through the comments .... you add yours as well.
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POPSResearchers Generate Hydrogen Without The Carbon Footprint Grimes and his team produce hydrogen from solar energy, using two different groups of nanotubes in a photoelectrochemical diode. They report in the July issue of Nano Letters that using incident sunlight, "such photocorrosion-stable diodes generate a photocurrent of approximately 0.25 milliampere per centimeter square, at a photoconversion efficiency of 0.30 percent." "It seems that nanotube geometry is the best geometry for production of hydrogen from photolysis of water," says Grimes
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POPSThird Annual Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year The Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008 competition is now over and the winner has been selected. In the final 712 Wikimedians voted, of which 74 voted for the winner, Horses on Bianditz mountain. With 71 votes Fire breathing takes the second place. The third place is for Steam locomotives in the roundhouse with 46 votes. Clicking on the picture will take you to the description and larger size.
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POPSThe Atomic Age Enters a New Dawn Current nuclear technology is still suffering from problems of safety and waste management. The forced economic investment in nuclear power at present, is diverging present and future resources from finding cleaner and safer solutions.
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POPSFocus fusion: Is it the next big thing in energy production? A 20MW focus fusion reactor may cost around $500,000 and produce electricity for 1/20th of a cent per kWh. This is a hundred times less than current electric costs. Fuel costs will be negligible because a 20MW plant will require only twenty pounds of fuel a year.
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POPSInventions - the 19th Century Many of these seem so much part of life, others seem so primitive in comparison to our time, and yet they were invented not so long ago. A full list on source.
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POPSOpium addiction ravages Afghan families "Beg says that for him all hope is lost. Even after he is buried, it'll take 70 years for the opium to ooze out of his bones. His hope, he says, are his grandkids — the only people in the family who are not yet addicts. As Beg is getting high on a recent morning, the 1-year-old crawls over and starts playing with the opium pipe. He picks it up and shakes it, as if it were a rattle. Then, imitating his grandfather, he raises the pipe to his mouth."
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