Most environmentalists != scientists, it's about time journalists & politicians realised this before bending over to support whatever they dream up this week. How many times have Greenpeace bullied the world into things only to change their minds? Biofuel was the last one that springs to mind - "It's the future, we should all do it!" then just as the world starts to do it "It's destroying the rainforests, don't do it!" Unfortunately they will just shrug and play their "get out of jail free" card that lying about stuff is justified by "drawing attention to the issue". The sad thing is all this just gets in the way of people understanding/caring about/acting on the real issues which might actually benefit the planet.

Those insenstive Japanese bastards are too busy playing with their nuclear meltdown and fishing corpses out of the rubble to think about the impact this has on decent hard-working Americans. I mean, hundreds of tons of scrap steel will probably only just cover the cost of towing it away. You're welcome, world!

Um... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219133226.htm "ScienceDaily (Feb. 20, 2008) — Purdue University engineers have developed a new aluminum-rich alloy that produces hydrogen by splitting water and is economically competitive with conventional fuels for transportation and power generation. "We now have an economically viable process for producing hydrogen on-demand for vehicles, electrical generating stations and other applications," said Jerry Woodall, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue who invented the process. The new alloy contains 95 percent aluminum and 5 percent of an alloy that is made of the metals gallium, indium and tin. Because the new alloy contains significantly less of the more expensive gallium than previous forms of the alloy, hydrogen can be produced less expensively, he said."

A good digital camera and a copy of OziExplorer will get you GPS'ing your way round Ye Olde Mappes on your computing device of choice. http://terraperfecta.com/frontmap.php makes calibrating the maps a point & click jobby.

My god, a man talking sense rather than rushing off into wacky techno solutions...

For my 2p's worth I'd ask what's wrong with a £50 laptop off eBay with wireless, and then plug the line out into either some small & cheap PC speakers, or a reasonable amp & speaker combo depending on the required volume / quality.

If they can laser etch messages then the next step is using it to remove blemishes, enhance the appearance, and effectively "photoshop" food to make it appear more photogenic.

Then again, am I the only one who thinks this could be the next step in tattoo art - never mind some hairy goth with a needle, give me a CNC laser that can print my choice of design onto my arm at 1200dpi and I might consider it.

But we go to places where there is no signal. Not just no cell signal, but no TV or FM radio, nothing. In the woods, in RF-unfriendly geographies, even SiRF-III GPS can struggle to get a lock. Also - what about planes & boats? No GSM base stations at sea, well, not without a dedicated satellite uplink. What about military apps where a mobile phone could easily be detected & targetted by the enemy?

If you live in the US, then yes you probably want to be looking it up about now.

I'm in the UK so have enough police state bollocks to worry about locally.

As it's illegal in the US to argue over the accuracy of DNA evidence. Despite the flaws in traditional DNA profiling, and stuff like this, you are not actually allowed to point any of this out in court as part of your defence.

Because a universal microcontroller (such as Freescale s08 series) is cheaper than a dedicated keyboard chip.