- DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been able to extract oil from algal ponds at $2 per gallon and says they will soon be able to implement large-scale refinement of that oil into jet fuel for less than $3 per gallon.
- This project stemmed from the US military being the nation's single largest energy consumer at 60-75 million barrels of oil per year.
- Pros to algae-based fuel:
- Algal farms don't threaten food supplies (unlike corn-based ethanol).
- Algal strains can be grown on household waste or other unsanitary water supplies.
- Algae absorbs CO2 during its growth (theoretically making the fuel carbon-neutral before procession & transport).
- It's amazing how research to reduce military costs could end up being America's saving grace for an affordable renewable energy source.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/13/algae-solve-pentagon-fuel-problem
- Google is developing software which combines current technologies which would allow for foreign language translations over the phone in real time.
- There is already Google Translate for translating written text, and a voice recognition system for conducting web searches from spoken commands, so it's only a matter of time before a combination of the two is optimized to create a 'phone interpreter'.
- A giant leap for universal communication or a death wish for foreign language? Only time will tell.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article7017831.ece
