philgross - Slashdot User

Submission + - MIT: Plug-in Hybrid Cars Will Save the Grid

Submitted by

shorebird

on Tuesday December 26, 2006 @04:29PM

shorebird writes: "Tech. Review has a fascinating and suprising discussion of the implications of widespread adoption of the widely promised, and well-hyped, plug-in hybrid vehicle technology. http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17930/page1 /
From the article's opening paragraph: "Major automakers and the Department of Energy are pouring money into research on plug-in hybrid vehicles... Although critics have warned that the vehicles could put too much pressure on an already strained electrical grid, experts are now arguing that rather than being a strain on the grid, plug-in hybrids may actually help prevent brownouts, cut the cost of electricity, and increase the use of renewable energy."
Also from the article, according to the DOE's Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory, "there is enough excess generating capacity during the night and morning to allow more than 80 percent of today's vehicles to make the average daily commute solely using this electricity. If plug-in-hybrid or all-electric-car owners charge their vehicles at these times, the power needed for about 180 million cars could be provided simply by running these plants at full capacity.""

Submission + - Leakey fights creationists over pre-human fossils

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03, 2006 @08:38PM

An anonymous reader writes: Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is fighting Kenyan Church leaders in a battle over the display of pre-human fossils. The Church leaders are demanding that the museum's large collection, including the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus, be hidden from view because it doesn't agree with their creationist doctrines. "They cannot be allowed to meddle with what is the world's leading collection of these types of fossils," says Leakey.

Submission + - The Google/YouTube Come-On

Submitted by

mikesd81

on Sunday December 03, 2006 @08:33PM

mikesd81 writes: "Business Week has an article about Google and YouTube dangling nine-figure sums in front of major programming and network players — that is, the Time Warners, News Corp, and NBC Universals of the world. From the article: "Google calls these monies licensing fees, according to executives who've been involved in the discussions. But some of them characterize the subtext like this: Don't sue us over copyrights. Take this (substantial) payment, and trust us to figure out how we'll all make serious money once we get advertising and revenue sharing worked out."

To make matters more interesting, no publicly traded media company today is in a position simply to dismiss, say, $100 million. One executive privy to the discussions says: "The reality is, if they are able to lock in major media [companies] for three years, then by default YouTube is the place to go" for Web video. Such fears may be what's spurred several major media players to mull assembling a cross-company Web video destination — a YouTube killer of their very own. "The theory is that if you were to aggregate enough exclusive content in one place, you could actually change viewing patterns," says an executive familiar with the cross-company talks. Perhaps anticipating my jumping all over the fallacy of "exclusive" in an open online ecosystem, he concedes "it's really tough," though not impossible. Media execs familiar with the YouTube offer won't discuss it publicly. Neither will Google. But it's interesting that no programming giant has sued YouTube yet. Presumably those guys won't unleash the lawyers until certain talks are played out"

Submission + - Video websites makes jump to TV

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03, 2006 @08:20PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Sumo TV channel, available on Sky Channel 146, will show clips from the Sumo TV website. Every time a clip is broadcast, the originator of the content will receive a percentage of the revenues generated. Which clips are broadcast will be down to how popular they prove online. All content will be closely monitored by Cellcast, the interactive TV company behind the channel. Viewers of Sumo TV will also be given the chance to participate in live TV shows, via text messaging, webcams, video messaging and 3G streaming.

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