The F-35

On April 29, 2011March 28, 2011 By A.P.In Engineering, Government, WarLeave a comment

Washington intends to buy 2,443 of these highly advanced fighting systems, at a price tag of $382 billion.

The Government Accountability Office estimates that an additional $650 billion will be needed to operate and maintain the aircraft.

Thus, the total cost reaches a staggering $1 trillion, the most expensive defense program in history.

We’re spending more on this plane than Australia’s entire GDP ($924 billion).

Read about it here: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/03/the-f-35-a-weapon-that-costs-more-than-australia/72454/

Thanks to Kedmobee for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Will Solar Power Solve Our Problems in 20 years?

On March 25, 2011March 25, 2011 By A.P.In Engineering, Science, Solar Energy, Technology, The FutureLeave a comment

Ray Kurzweil, noted futurist and inventor, thinks it will. We receive 10,000 times more sunlight than we need to meet 100 percent of our energy needs, and Kurzweil holds that the technology needed for collecting and storing solar energy is about to advance exponentially in accordance with his Law of Accelerating Returns.

Read here: http://www.livescience.com/4824-solar-power-rule-20-years-futurists.html

Ice Hotels

On February 27, 2011February 7, 2011 By A.P.In Engineering, TravelLeave a comment

Hotels made entirely of ice, rebuilt every year…

Read this for an account of the experience (http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/ice-hotel.htm), and see below for links to individual hotels.

http://www.simply-sweden.com/icehotel/?gclid=CL260tmuzqYCFcpQ2godIgwiJg

http://www.icehotel.com/

http://www.icehotel-canada.com/index.php?action=&langue=en

http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS358US358&q=Ice+Hotel&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=Pxk7TYW_JsL78AbEn7TBCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CGQQsAQwBA&biw=1900&bih=769

A bionic arm controlled by the patient’s own nerves

On February 18, 2011February 17, 2011 By A.P.In Engineering, Health, Medicine, Science, Technology, The Future, The SingularityLeave a comment

After an amputation, the nerves are left like programmed data cables floating in space. Dr. Todd Kuiken, director of the Center for Bionic Medicine and director of Amputee Services at The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, has led a team that has made prosthetic limbs that utilize the body’s own remaining limb-controlling nerves after an amputation to allow them to control prosthetics just by thinking. The person thinks about what they want to move, which send impulses to the salvaged nerves that have been implanted into chest muscle. The resulting tiny changes in chest muscle activity are then translated into electical impulses that move the limb in the same manner that the person was thinking to move it.

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/17/bionic-arm-gives-hope-for-amputees/?hpt=C1

Garage collpase in San Antonio

On February 17, 2011February 16, 2011 By A.P.In EngineeringLeave a comment

On February 14 a six-story parking garage being constructed at the University Hospital in San Antonio collapsed, injuring 2 workers, one critically. Workers reported hearing rumbling, and then air horns prompted the evacuation of 120 construction employees. The collapse brought down 1,500 tons of concrete and steel into a two-story pile of rubble. “We heard a big old bang and then looked across the street and saw beams coming down and clouds of smoke,” said Laura Moreno, an employee at Wheelchairs Plus, which faces the garage. “The workers were all running away from the building. It was a scary sight.”

Watch the collapse here: http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Video-shows-hospital-parking-garage-collapse/kKxBwI6ppEKwAOyXzE2eYw.cspx

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Category: Engineering