Energica Ego electric motorcyle

energica-egoWith oil consumption facing the dual threats of concern over climate change, and uncertain availability of fossil fuels in the future (BP estimates we’ll exhaust current reserves in 53 years), electric motorcycles like this gorgeous Ego from Energica may become more and more common!  Its 11.7kWh battery provides 60-120 miles of range, and the rider can enjoy a massive 144lb-ft of torque (134hp).  There’s no gear shifting, which will further enhance reliability and ridability.   Regenerative braking is a user-configurable feature (you can even shut that off entirely); a fast charger can give you an 80% charge in 30 minutes.  At $25,000 it won’t be cheap, but I can see this being a perfect commuter vehicle in many large metropolitan areas.  Test rides are being scheduled now; the bike is making stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York later this money (see this link for the schedule and how to reserve a test ride).

(via Gizmag)

iCloak Stik – portable online anonymity tool

2e245a5325c4cff073637ca24910227b_largeThe iCloak Stik is a promised to be a portable anonymity tool, turning any computer into a private, safe, and untrackable way of accessing the internet.  It’s basically just software on a USB flash drive that boots when you reboot your 64-bit Windows or Mac computer, and promises to completely mask your IP address (using TOR or I2P), let you choose what country you’d like to appear to be surfing the ‘net from, creates a random MAC address for your computer (the physical ID of your network interface circuit), browse anonymously, wipe all trace of your online activity, prevent malware/spyware infections, and encrypt usernames and passwords.  Oh, and you can store files on the USB stick too (but I don’t think these get encrypted).  It’s really like booting into a separate, scaled-down OS – you won’t be using your normal computer apps.

In case you haven’t been following the news, it turns out the NSA has been spying on Americans regardless of whether or not they’re suspected of doing anything wrong.  The latest Snowden leak showed that of 160,000 intercepted messages, only 10% were from official targets.  Devices like the iCloak are targeted at people who view this as a violation of their freedoms and fourth amendment rights.  Of course, note that with Kickstarter, the names and cities of all backers is public information…so I wouldn’t be surprised that if you choose to be a backer, you’ll end up on an NSA watchlist somewhere.  Paranoid?  Not really.  People who followed links to articles on Boing Boing about Tor and Tails ended up on such a list.  Still, I figure by even writing about the iCloak I’ll get on that list…so I might as well buy an iCloak while I’m at it!

You can check out their Kickstarter page here.

Fracking linked to earthquakes in Oklahoma

Fracking has been shown to be responsible for the big increase in seismic activity in Oklahoma since 2008.  It’s not the fracking itself that is to blame, but rather the process of injection toxic wastewater back into the ground.  It sounds like so far, it’s not to the point where we’re looking at major structural damage and such, so is really more of an annoyance…but I wonder how the residents in those areas are coping?  You can read the study here or at Salon.

Researchers create pandemic-level H1N1 virus variant

In an effort to learn more about how viruses work and how to help design new vaccines, researchers used a natural selection type of process to create a virus based on H1N1, but one that would be resistant to vaccination.  The sort of thing that, if it escaped the labs, could likely create a global pandemic.  Yikes.  I really question this line of research…though what scares me more is the potential for the same techniques to be used by sinister minds.  Science is awesome…but we must maintain our respect for nature.

Read more about it here.

Electric cars show big improvement at Pikes Peak

Greg-Tracy-breaks-the-EV-record-at-Pikes-Peak-2014Gasoline powered cars still dominate the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, but electric cars are showing big improvement and may be challenging fossil fuel cars in the near future.  The Mitsubishi shown here cut 38 seconds off of last year’s electric car time, and was only a few seconds behind the overall winner’s time (but almost a minute slower than the course record set last year by Sebastian Loeb).  Will 2015 be the year that an electric race car beats a gasoline one?  I can’t wait to find out!

Also in electric car racing news, Formula E has its first race in September of 2014!  Another milestone in automotive history as those battery-powered race cars take to the track for a one hour race.

via AutoWeek

Supreme Court rules against Aereo

In a big blow to cord-cutters, the Supreme Court ruled against Aereo, essentially dealing the small startup a death blow.  If you’re not familiar with Aereo, they had equipment installed in major cities with one antenna per subscriber.  Each subscriber could tune their antenna to record any over the air TV signals, and then stream that data to their computers or mobile devices over the internet.  Aereo’s position was that the one-antenna-per-subscriber made them different than a traditional cable company, but the Court ruled otherwise in a 6-3 decision.  Bummer.

Read more at TechCrunch or SlashGear.

The Wil Wheaton Project

So, if you’re a true geek, you probably know by now that Wil Wheaton has his own weekly TV show now, called, you guessed it, The Wil Wheaton Project (I hope they didn’t spend too long thinking up that name…).  If you didn’t already know about it…it’s a weekly look into geek culture, and is, so far, not bad!  My one complaint is that he talks about Game of Thrones…which I still haven’t caught up on (but that’s my own fault). Wil has a long blog post about the history of the show that’s worth reading, too.

Cord-cutters won’t have an easy time watching the show as it’s not available in iTunes.  You can find it on Bittorrent of course, or if you have family members that have cable or satellite and are willing to share their login with you, you can watch episodes on SyFy.com the day after they air.  There’s also a SyFy iPad app that works the same way (you need a cable/satellite login)…but allows you to then play that video on your TV via an AppleTV.

Walking boosts creativity

silhouette-man-walkingA recent study has found that walking boost creativity by about 60% compared to sitting.  Surprisingly, it didn’t matter whether study participants were walking on an indoor treadmill, or walking outdoors, both were beneficial.  The mental boost continued for around eight minutes after sitting down.  So, get out there and walk!

You can read more about the study at The Entrepreneur.

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