Oil and gas fracking is big business in America, with added than two actor hydraulically burst wells beyond the country bearing 43 and 67 percent of our civic oil and gas outputs, respectively. These wells aswell about played a accessory role as nuclear decay accumulator sites, had the Atomic Activity Commission had its way with Project Plowshare.

Hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") is the action of pumping baptize abysmal into the Earth, accurately into underground oil and gas reserves, at amazing pressures in adjustment to breach afar the surrounding bedrock and chargeless the activity product, which can again be pumped out and used.

Gorgeous Aerial Photos Capture the Ironic Beauty of Fracking Gorgeous Aerial Photos Capture the Ironic Beauty of Fracking Gorgeous Aerial Photos Capture the Ironic Beauty o

Cities bustling up in the average of nowhere. Blackened landscapes of automated runoff, including… Apprehend added Read more

However in the mid 1950s, scientists from the Atomic Activity Commission and admiral from the U.S. Bureau of Mines began experimenting with an another adjustment of fracking, one that active nuclear bombs added able than annihilation we alone on the Japanese.

Dubbed Project Plowshare, this batty adventure explored two industrialized—or "peaceful"—applications for nuclear explosives:

Conceptually, automated applications consistent from the use of nuclear explosives could be disconnected into two ample categories: 1) all-embracing blasting and quarrying, area the activity from the access was acclimated to breach up and/or move rock; and 2) underground engineering, area the activity appear from acutely active nuclear explosives added the permeability and porosity of the bedrock by massive breaking and fracturing.

In 1967, the AEC teamed up with the U.S. Bureau of Mines and El Paso Accustomed Gas Company for what would be the aboriginal of a alternation of underground experiments. In a limited gas able-bodied alfresco of Farmington, New Mexico, advisers bargain the 29-kiloton "Gasbuggy" nuclear accessory 4,000 anxiety into the Earth and set it off. The after-effects were spectacular.

"The 4,042-foot-deep blast created a aqueous glass-lined cave about 160 anxiety in bore and 333 anxiety tall," according to the American Oil and Gas Historical Society. "It burst aural seconds. Subsequent abstracts adumbrated fractures continued added than 200 anxiety in all directions—and decidedly added accustomed gas production."

This antecedent success led to abundant added tests in the afterward years—27 abstracts and 35 nuclear explosions in total. While a lot of of the abstracts were small, above-ground explosions were detonated in Nevada with the ambition of basal craters and canals. Indeed, two added underground tests in '69 and '73 accepted even added massive than Gasbuggy.

In 1969, for example, at a gas able-bodied alfresco of Rulison, Colorado, the AEC set off a 43-kiloton nuclear bomb in an 8,500-foot abysmal well—but that was annihilation compared to the Rio Blanco analysis in which a leash of 3-kiloton bombs exploded at base of 5,838, 6,230, and 6,689 anxiety in a individual able-bodied abreast Rifle, Colorado, in 1973.

Rio Blanco would prove to be the final Plowshare agreement as accessible opposition, ecology concerns, and the acknowledged development of hydraulic fracturing all dissuaded any continuing efforts. Per the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information:

Although the technology was approved to be technically feasible, it could not be accepted that civic activity needs justified the busy procedures that would be required. Apropos about the abeyant of the tritium contagion of the gas that would aftereffect from nuclear atomic dispatch were aloft by Colorado and western accord agencies. These apropos and the abridgement of accessible abutment for the affairs fabricated it absurd that Congress would anytime accept a bartering collective government-industry venture.

By 1974, about 82 actor dollars had been invested in the nuclear gas dispatch technology affairs …. It was estimated that even afterwards 25 years of gas assembly of all the accustomed gas accounted recoverable, that alone 15 to 40 percent of the investment could be recovered. At the aforementioned time, alternative, non-nuclear technologies were getting developed, such as hydrofracturing. Consequently, beneath the burden of bread-and-butter and ecology concerns, the Plowshare Affairs was discontinued at the end of FY 1975.

While all three sites abide beneath the watch of the DOE's Office of Legacy Administration (which handles the cleanup of Superfund sites), a 2004 cleanup accomplishment at the Gasbuggy website fabricated a hasty discovery.

Crews begin that "liquid radioactive decay was injected into the atrium formed by the nuclear explosion; solid radioactive decay was removed to the Nevada Analysis Site," according to the DOE.

The aforementioned appears to be accurate at both Colorado sites, as well. They are commonly activated by both the DOE and the EPA to ensure radioactive actual isn't leeching into arena baptize food and all tests so far accept assured that the nuclear abstracts are blockage in place.

However, accustomed the ecology issues agriculture up with accepted hydraulic fracking—such as flammable tap water—nuclear fracking ability be assertive to accomplish a comeback. According to a abstraction presented at endure year's anniversary affair of the American Geophysical Union by Leonid Germanovich, a physicist and civilian and ecology architect at the Georgia Institute of Technology, aqueous nuclear decay could be acclimated as the fracking aqueous instead of water.

Since nuclear decay is added close than the bedrock it'd be injected into, the radioactive slurry would never acceleration aback to the Earth's apparent and thus—in theory—would never alloy the baptize table. "It's basal physics here—if it's added than rock, the breach will bear down," Germanovich explained at the conference. Instead, he hypothesizes, it would abide to bisect added into the crust, accouterment a agency of activity assembly and nuclear decay administration in one. In his eyes, it's a win-win. [Forbes–Live Science–Wiki–AOGHS 1, 2]

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Ok, so Rosie the Robot may still be a few iterations away, but the blow of your house, from your doorbell to your toaster, is about to get much, much, smarter.

The capital botheration with absolute home automation systems is that there is no agreed-upon standard. Most every aggregation in the bazaar employs a proprietary command arrangement aloft either a zigbee, z-wave, or wi-fi connection, none of which can interconnect. That agency unless you wish to body and affairs your own Arduino controllers, you're traveling to be ashore with affairs a accomplished agglomeration of disseparate, alcove systems—one to your acute doorknob/deadlock, accession for your home aegis system, accession for your smart barn door, and so on. Lowes appear today that it's rolling out a new all-in-one home aegis and automation system, dubbed the Iris, that will be able to accommodate with and ascendancy any home automation accessory that runs on at atomic one of the three industry standards.

No that's not Siri backwards—well, it is, but not intentionally—it's a acute phone-controlled, home-wide C&C system. But who's got the backbone and drive amplitude to install up to a dozen or added alone apps to ascendancy atypical functions in their house?

The Iris hub-based home automation system—which can command aggregate from your aperture locks and ablaze bulbs to pet doors and thermostats—is congenital off the cloud-based arrangement implemented by the UK-based Alert Me home ecology service. Iris comes in three varieties—the Safe & Secure package, which includes a programmable aperture lock, a brace of motion and acquaintance sensors, and bound keypad; the Comfort & Ascendancy system, which monitors the activity acceptance and accompaniment of the home's thermostat as able-bodied as alone accessories through the use of ability band internet affiliated "smart plugs"; and the Acute Kit, which combines both kits. The S&S and C&C kits retail for $180 apiece while the abounding kit goes for a solid $300. Anniversary set is congenital about a centra affiliated hub able of managing up to a hundred alone devices. At its release, the Iris kits includes appearance such as programmable lights and switches, bound thermostats and tweeting active doors, aegis cameras and motion sensors. In addition, every sensor aswell includes a temperature sensor to bigger define the alpha credibility of calm fires.

Beyond that, advancing ecology account is either chargeless for the basal akin or $10 a ages for the exceptional service. The aberration amid the two is that for the chargeless service, the homeowner can alone toggle the on-off accompaniment of an apparatus and adviser its activity usage. Exceptional users can not alone see if an apparatus is on but aswell behest its behavior (turn on at 6pm, off at 10pm, but about-face on behindhand if I my claimed key fob comes aural range).

While the automation options are somewhat bound at this point, Lowes affairs on rolling out a countless of additional, user-demanded functionality aural the next few months. That could cover home irrigation schemes, ancient affliction and monitoring, and reportedly even plug-n-play deployment (going camping? Unplug your home aegis arrangement and accompany it with you as an ad-lib buck perimeter). [Lowes]

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Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, batten to Barack Obama on Wednesday black to appeal explanations over letters suggesting that the NSA has been ecology her adaptable phone.

According to the Guardian, sources affirmation that Merkel, the arch of the German government, was "livid" over the reports. What's more, aptitude on German intelligence and investigations by the German account account Der Spiegel, she was allegedly assertive that the claims were "utterly substantiated".

That confidence of acceptance was enough to see her alarm Obama, cogent him that she accepted the Americans "to accumulation advice over the accessible calibration of such eavesdropping practices adjoin Germany and acknowledgment to questions that the federal government asked months ago."

The White House has insisted that Merkel's buzz has not been tapped. "The admiral assured the adjudicator that the United States is not ecology and will not adviser the communications of the chancellor," a White House agent explained. Whether that's abundant to allay Merkel charcoal unclear, but acutely the NSA beating isn't accomplishing a abundant accord for US-European relations. [The Guardian]

Image by Bundesregierung beneath Creative Commons license

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The Logitech Alert agenda video aegis arrangement comes with a host of goodies: motion-triggered congenital DVR, 130-degree wide-angle lens, 720p video. But what's got me a lot of aflame is the adeptness to watch the augment from appealing abundant anywhere.

The Logitech Alert 750i Adept Arrangement and its weatherproof cousin, the Logitech Alert 750e Alfresco Adept System, both cover the adeptness to watch recorded video and acclimatize camera settings from the web, through a smartphone app, and eventually even from your TV. You can use up to six cameras at already in concert, and the start-up seems to be a adequately aboveboard plug-and-play situation. They aswell appear with 2GB MicroSD storage, which is abundant to abduction up to a anniversary of video.

The accouterments costs $299.99 for the 750i and $349.99 for the 750e, while you'll apparently end up paying an added $80/year for the Logitech Alert Web and Mobile Commander. It would be nice to accept that bundled, but I'm academic whoever said you can't put a bulk on assurance never had to advertise it.

Introducing Logitech Alert Agenda Video Security:

Be There Even If You're Not

Logitech Alert Delivers Complete HD Video Aegis System, No-Hassle Setup, Motion-Triggered Alerts, That You Can Watch from Anywhere

FREMONT, Calif. - Aug. 3, 2010 - Logitech (SWX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) today alien Logitech® Alert™, a complete HD agenda video aegis arrangement that lets you accumulate an eye on what affairs most. Whether it's searching in on the abode while traveling, blockage in on the babyish while you're at work, or ecology your additional home, the Logitech Alert™ 750i Adept Arrangement and the weatherproof Logitech Alert™ 750e Alfresco Adept Arrangement with night-vision let you be there if you're not, by accouterment aggregate you charge to adviser your home central and out. The new Logitech Alert adept systems appear with a acute HD camera, able PC and Web software, and chargeless limited examination on a PC or Mac® computer, or smartphone.

To abutment simple expansion, Logitech aswell alien the Logitech Alert™ 700i Add-On Camera and the Logitech Alert™ 700e Alfresco Add-On Camera. And for those who are generally abroad from home, Logitech Alert™ Web and Mobile Commander is an alternative exceptional account that lets you watch video that is recorded and stored on your camera and administer settings and alerts from the Web or your smartphone. Logitech aswell affairs to accompany Logitech Alert to the TV after this year, by enabling Logitech Revue™ with Google TV™ barter to appearance who is at their foreground aperture or analysis in on the babyish in the crib, after abrogation their couch.

"The video aegis bazaar is characterized by expensive, hard-to-install and hard-to-use aegis systems, as able-bodied as poor-quality ecology cameras," said Eric Kintz, carnality admiral and accepted administrator of Logitech's video business. "As allotment of our eyes to accompany HD video to anyone, anywhere, Logitech is captivated to acquaint a absolutely new video aegis band-aid to consumers and baby businesses, which offers HD video superior and motion-triggered reside examination and recording at adorable bulk points."

No-Hassle Setup

Setting up your Logitech Alert aegis arrangement just takes account with a simple three-step action - install the Logitech Alert software, affix to your network, and bung in your camera. Logitech Alert appearance HomePlug® AV networking, which agency abutting your Logitech Alert camera is as simple as active in a toaster. There's no new base or networking hassles - HomePlug AV uses your absolute electrical base and outlets to affix your cameras to your network.

Motion-Triggered Alerts and Recording – Abduction Alone What's Important

Logitech Alert acute cameras aswell affection a congenital DVR (Digital Video Recorder) and automatically almanac video if motion is detected, absolution you abduction alone important events. The Logitech Alert Commander software lets you ascertain up to 16 motion zones, acceptance you to calmly pay absorption to analytical areas of your home while blank others – abbreviation apocryphal recordings. Logitech Alert cameras appear able with a 2GB MicroSD agenda for storage, eliminating the charge for your PC to be consistently on. The agenda can accord you abundant amplitude for up to a anniversary of video based on the bulk of motion-triggered recording in a archetypal home. The recorded video is automatically backed up if your PC is affiliated to your network.

Capture Added Clearly, Event at Night or in Any Condition

Every camera in Logitech's new video aegis calendar captures high-definition 720p video and appearance a 130-degree wide-angle lens, authoritative it easier for you to admit the faces of abeyant intruders or the authorization plates of apprehensive vehicles. The Logitech Alert 750e and 700e affection IP55 (International Protection Rating) certified, weatherproof alfresco cameras with able HD night-vision, acceptance you to adviser in complete black behindhand of acclimate conditions.

Watch From Anywhere

Logitech Alert Commander software allows you to calmly configure your video aegis system, watch reside video, annal recorded video on your PC and analysis the recordings captured by your camera. The Logitech Alert adept arrangement includes chargeless limited examination of reside video through a browser on a defended website from any Internet-connected computer or through Logitech's chargeless smartphone applications for iPhone®, Blackberry® and Android®. For ability users who would like added ascendancy on the go, the exceptional Logitech Alert Web and Mobile Commander accommodate you all the admission of your Logitech Alert PC software, even if you're abroad from home .

Easily Expandable

There's no charge to absolute your aegis advantage to a individual camera. Logitech Alert is advised to be calmly expandable. You can set up as abounding locations as you wish and mix and bout up to six Logitech Alert cameras per location- central and out.

Pricing and Availability

The Logitech Alert 750i Adept Arrangement and the Logitech Alert 750e Alfresco Adept Arrangement will be offered for a appropriate retail bulk of U.S. $299.99 and $349.99, respectively. The Logitech Alert 700i Add-On Camera and the Logitech Alert 700e Alfresco Add-On Camera will be offered for the appropriate retail bulk of U.S. $229.99 and $279.99, respectively. Logitech Alert Web and Mobile Commander will be accessible as a array with a seven-day chargeless balloon and a appropriate retail bulk of U.S. $79.99 per year. All articles are accepted to be accessible in the U.S. and France in August. Please appointment www.logitech.com/alert for added information.

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As the United Nations captivated up its 68th General Accumulation endure week, a aloft section of account about slipped beneath the radar: Designs for the UN Consolidation Tower, a 36-story architecture that will abut the address like an acquisitive little brother, apartment about 3,000 employees. But besides alms much-needed emergency overflow space, this new architecture could end up authoritative the UN added defended as a whole.

Designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, who will coact with bounded close FXFowle on the project, the architecture is still in absolute aboriginal architecture development—a ambiguous blah belfry that looks to actor the basal accommodation of the aboriginal UN. Sited anon south of Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer's aboriginal circuitous (and affiliated to it through an underground tunnel), the architecture will sit on acreage currently active by the Robert Moses Playground. It's scheduled for achievement in 2018—a apprenticed time frame, for a belfry in Manhattan that will abode some of the added security-sensitive spaces in the city.

What’s the rush? Aboriginal of all, the UN is currently beginning at the seams. Over 10,000 UN advisers plan in Manhattan, abounding of them in abetting barrio broadcast throughout the city. Add the actuality that the absolute address is ill-fitted to accord with abreast security—from its behemothic bottle blind bank to its layout, which was advised continued afore suicide bombers were all-over and even best afore avant-garde surveillance technology emerged.

What’s more, the architecture will be displacing a swath of accessible amplitude that represents an un-securable blackmail to the accepted complex. Like a anchorage or a aegis fence, the new belfry will accommodate a thicker barrier amid the anarchy of New York City-limits and the carefully-controlled anatomy of the UN.

The NYPD attendance at the General Assembly. Image by the United Nations Information Centres.

A Abeyant Command Center

Right now, a core of 17 accompaniment and federal offices in allegation of aegis during General Assemblies. The coalition—made up of the CIA, the NYPD, and added organizations—is answerable with ecology added than two thirds of the world’s leaders as they move through one of the densest, most difficult cities in the apple to secure. According to a attenuate behind-the-scenes attending into the affairs appear in 2011 on The Atlantic, the action is annihilation abbreviate of a logistical nightmare.

The Secret Service operates out of acting command posts amid abroad in the city, area they adviser attendees and appraise abeyant threats. Plenty of the planning action takes abode during the months arch up the Assembly, too, as aegis aggregation concocts dozens of crisis scenarios and develops agnate aborticide plans—no baby chore, on this traffic-clogged island.

Though the UN was clumsy to animadversion on how the new belfry will be acclimated by aegis personnel, it seems acceptable that it will accord this baby army of badge admiral and agents addition command centermost from which to baby-sit events.

NYPD barriers alfresco of the UN. Image by Roman Iakoubtchi

Escape From New York

“One of the things we apperceive is that if things go wrong, we’ve got to get 150 apple leaders and their spouses off the island in a hurry,” a appropriate abettor in allegation of the Secret Service acreage appointment told The Atlantic two years ago. That agency accepting safe houses, helipads and routes out of the city—of which there are few enough:

But aborticide is just the ideal scenario. In the accident of a crisis, allowance are acceptable that the UN's "precious cargo" could be ashore in Manhattan, either absolute from escape routes or beneath annoy in some form. A 2006 address (PDF) on the country’s a lot of difficult-to-evacuate cities gave New York an “F,” baronial it 35th out of 37 cities in total. That's mainly acknowledgment to the city's warren of bridges and tunnels, abstruse cartage routes, and close layering of accessible and clandestine space. Aegis armament aswell plan for what will appear if apple leaders are ashore in New Amsterdam—for instance, by advancing a medical aggregation led by agony able Dr. Maurizio Miglietta that's accessible to accomplish circuitous operations on-site if needed.

In that scenario, Consolidation Belfry could become a anchorage in a storm, confined as a much-needed command and communications abject for aegis armament in the accident of a crisis. Its underground adit would be a agency of shuttling leaders from the UN to the added defended new building. What's more, the belfry will sit anon aloft the Queens-Midtown tunnel—one of the added dependable routes off the island.

The UN's telecommunications digital dish. Image by United Nations Photo.

Defense Mechanisms

The accepted architecture aswell has its ecology shortcomings. In 2010, the UN was abandoned during a General Accumulation because of a “suspicious smell,” which angry out to be carrion overflow from the East River. Around the aforementioned time, a $2 billion renovation of the architecture got underway, aimed at convalescent the building’s activity ability as able-bodied as abolish asbestos that anachronous from the 1960s.

There was aswell addition important acumen abaft the overhaul: To strengthen the crumbling building's defenses adjoin attack. Workers installed new, blast-proof bottle forth the across-the-board bluff of the Secretariat Architecture (the tall, advanced one) which is now able of deforming up to ten inches after shattering—they aswell no best open. That's a footfall in the appropriate direction, admitting it's still not as ideal as architecture something ill-fitted to the needs of the UN from scratch. Admitting it's still aboriginal days, the Consolidation Belfry will acceptable be a archetypal for super-secure barrio all over the apple if it opens in 5 years.

In a way, it's a blue development: If a affiliation of International Style architects advised the aboriginal circuitous on acreage donated by John D. Rockefeller, the UN represented the optimism and celebrity of the post-War world. And its architecture reflects that: Smack dab in the average of Manhattan, absolutely transparent, and swathed in affable parklands. Much has afflicted in the abreast 70 years back then, and this new architecture is apprenticed to reflect that—helping to transform the UN from an accessible accumulation to a defended citadel.

Thus, the UN is ashore in the unenviable position of either getting accessible and transparent, as its mission account declares (and appropriately accessible to attack), or fortress-like and inaccessible, adjoin all that it stands for (and appropriately added acceptable to survive an emergency).

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Apple's kept the unibody aluminum casing of endure year, and overhauled the Mac Mini inside-only, with three options starting at $599. Notable in all three models is the new Thunderbolt port, for abutting assorted accordant articles with.

Apple's Unibody Mac Mini Apple's Unibody Mac Mini Apple's Unibody Mac Mini

There were rumors of a brace and today Angel delivered added than we were expecting: The mini gets … Apprehend added Read more

What Is Thunderbolt? What Is Thunderbolt? What Is Thunderbolt?

Along with abrupt Sandy Bridge processors and able-bodied GPUs, Apple's new MacBook Pros accept a… Apprehend added Read more

The abject akin begins with a Sandy Bridge 2.3GHz processor and 2GB of RAM, additional 500GB of storage, with the average advantage topping it with a 2.5GHz processor and 4GB of RAM. The server advantage may alone accept a 2.0GHz processor and 4GB of RAM, but it's loaded with bifold 500GB harder drives. All models run the new OS X Lion obviously, which is out today. [Apple]

CUPERTINO, California-July 20, 2011-Apple® today adapted the Mac® mini with next bearing Intel amount processors, new detached graphics, accelerated Thunderbolt I/O technology and Lion, the world's a lot of avant-garde operating system. The new Mac mini delivers up to alert the processor and cartoon achievement of the antecedent bearing in the aforementioned amazingly bunched and able aluminum design.* Starting at just $599 (US), the new Mac mini is accessible for adjustment today and in food tomorrow.

"Mac mini delivers the acceleration and expandability that makes it absolute for the desktop, active allowance or office," said Philip Schiller, Apple's chief carnality admiral of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With faster processors, added able cartoon and Thunderbolt in an abundantly compact, aluminum design, the new Mac mini is added able than ever."

At just 7.7-inches aboveboard and 1.4-inches thin, the new Mac mini maintains its bunched aluminum architecture while carrying amazing achievement and cartoon capabilities. Accessible in three altered configurations, barter can accept a Mac mini with the latest dual-core Intel Amount i5 or Intel Amount i7 processors, AMD Radeon HD 6630M detached graphics, or a quad-core Intel Amount i7 powered server configuration. Designed after an optical disc drive, Mac mini can admission the optical drives on added PCs and Macs, and works with the MacBook Air® SuperDrive®. Configure-to-order options cover up to 8 GBs of memory, a faster 7200 RPM harder drive and a 256GB solid accompaniment drive.

Mac mini now comes with Thunderbolt I/O technology for amplification possibilities never afore accessible to Mac mini users. With a Thunderbolt port, Mac mini can affix to peripherals such as high-performance accumulator devices, RAID arrays and the new Angel Thunderbolt Display, a beauteous 27-inch IPS widescreen affectation that's abundant for authoritative FaceTime® HD video calls, surfing the Web and examination movies and photos.

With ultra-fast Wi-Fi, you can wirelessly download apps from the Mac App Store™, get music and movies from iTunes®, aback up abstracts to Time Capsule® and allotment files with AirDrop, which makes appointment files quick and easy. Mac mini includes Bluetooth for wireless peripherals and four USB ports for simple connectivity for the active and wireless accessories you use every day.

The new Mac mini charcoal the world's a lot of activity able desktop, meets Activity Star 5.2 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.** Mac mini has a awful recyclable aluminum enclosure, PVC-free apparatus and cables, no brominated blaze retardants and appearance material-efficient arrangement and packaging designs.

Every new Mac mini comes with Mac OS® X Lion, the latest above absolution of Mac OS X, the world's a lot of avant-garde operating system, and iLife® apps for creating and administration abundant photos, movies and music. Lion introduces added than 250 new appearance to the Mac, including Multi-Touch® gestures and system-wide abutment for abounding awning apps; Mission Control, an avant-garde appearance of aggregate active on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best abode to acquisition and analyze abundant software; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a absolutely redesigned Mail app.

Pricing & Availability

The new Mac mini is accessible through the Angel Store® (www.apple.com) today and in Apple's retail food and Angel Authorized Resellers starting July 21.

The 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel Amount i5 Mac mini with 2GB of anamnesis and a 500GB harder drive starts at a appropriate retail amount of $599 (US), with options to add anamnesis up to 8GB and a 750GB harder drive.

The 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Amount i5 Mac mini with 4GB of anamnesis and a 500GB harder drive starts at a appropriate retail amount of $799 (US), with options to advancement to a 2.7GHz dual-core Amount i7 processor, up to 8GB of memory, and a 750GB harder drive with an advantage to add or alter with a 256GB solid accompaniment drive.

The 2.0 GHz quad-core Intel Amount i7 Mac mini with Lion Server, 4GB of anamnesis and bifold 500GB harder drives starts at a appropriate retail amount of $999 (US). Options cover abacus anamnesis up to 8GB, two 750GB harder drives, or up to two 256GB solid accompaniment drives.

*Testing conducted by Angel in July 2011 application preproduction Mac mini configurations. For added advice appointment www.apple.com/macmini/features.html.

**EPEAT is an absolute alignment that helps barter analyze the ecology achievement of notebooks and desktops. For added advice appointment www.epeat.net.

Apple designs Macs, the best claimed computers in the world, forth with OS X, iLife, iWork and able software. Angel leads the agenda music anarchy with its iPods and iTunes online store. Angel has reinvented the adaptable buzz with its advocate iPhone and App Store, and has afresh alien iPad 2 which is defining the approaching of adaptable media and accretion devices.

Mac OS X Lion: This Is Not the Approaching We Were Hoping For

It break our hearts to say this, but Mac OSX Lion's interface feels like a failure. Its declared mission was to abridge the operating system, to arrange it with the apple-pie acquaintance of iOS. That didn't happen. More »

I wish her best truck. Apprehend added Read more

What Is Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is in all of Apple's latest products. But what is the accelerated anchorage acclimated for, and why is it account caring about? More »

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If you anticipation the GE90 aircraft engine was a masterpiece of avant-garde engineering, just get a bulk of this beauty. General Electric's 9HA is the a lot of avant-garde and able gas agent accessible today and admitting it may not be able to lift a 787 off the ground, this almighty electricity ambassador can calmly ability a mid-size metropolis.

The World's Biggest Jet Engine Is Brawnier Than Alan Shepard's Rocket The World's Biggest Jet Engine Is Brawnier Than Alan Shepard's Rocket The World's Biggest Jet Engine Is Brawnier Tha

The Wright Flyer took off in 1903 powered by a beggarly 12 application straight-four. Little did… Apprehend added Read more

Nicknamed "Harriet", this agent is the artefact of added than a billion dollars of GE development. Anniversary agent is complete from cutting-edge abstracts like single-crystal fan blades and bowl cast composites—many of which were aboriginal advised for the 90x—built to accomplish beneath college temperatures (and accordingly aftermath added activity per assemblage of time) after breaking down, acceptance it to hit a amazing 61 percent activity assembly efficiency.

"This is industry arch technology," Mike Gradoia, artefact business administrator for Harriet, told GE Reports. "Fifteen years ago you would charge alert as abounding units to bear the aforementioned bulk of power. But they would accept been beneath efficient, afire added ammunition and accordingly breeding added emissions."

What's more, the 9HA is awfully acute for an automated mechanization. Anniversary agent is arranged with added than 3,000 mechanical, temperature, and bankrupt sensors which accumulate tabs on every aspect of the turbine's generation. This connected beck of abstracts is again fed into an adjoining ecology center, admitting GE is alive to accommodate the abstracts breeze into the beginning Automated Internet.

Since the 9HA takes just 10 account to ball up from a asleep stop to abounding power, it's an ideal band-aid for amalgam activity assembly schemes—say, bond one of these with a solar or wind array—because it can bound appear online to augment the billowing assembly amount of the renewables. And by active the 9HA into the Automated Internet, it would be able to acknowledge to alteration altitude after the charge for animal guidance. [GE Reports - GE]

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Speculation for months about area Tesla would accomplish the batteries to ability its Model 3 EV electric cars has assuredly ended, with acceptance today that Elon Musk has absitively area to arrect his Gigafactory. The big winner? Nevada.

​What You Need To Know About Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory ​What You Need To Know About Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory ​What You Need To Know About Tesla's Nevada Gi

Elon Musk abutting Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval in Carson City to advertise the alternative of Nevada… Apprehend added Read more

Although Nevada has been accounted to be the destination, Tesla captivated a columnist appointment today announcement the decision. Musk aswell appear that the accompaniment has proposed a $1.25 billion tax allurement for the automaker. The branch will accomplish batteries for an estimated 500,000 cars by 2020 and will reportedly be a "net-zero energy" accomplishment center, with the advice of Panasonic.

The losers today are New Mexico and Arizona, which were aswell considered to be front-runners for Musk's dollars. And it's aswell a apricot day for California, which capital to aftertaste the Tesla abstract so abominably it was about to abandon its ecology regulations. Although I accept that's a win for the environment. [Jalopnik]

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We apparently should accept apparent this coming. At the Ivanpah solar ability bulb abreast Las Vegas, a massive ablaze acreage of 170,000 barn door-sized mirrors reflects sunlight. And all those mirrors are authoritative flying near Ivanpah not so fun—or safe.

The Clark County Department of Aviation sent a letter beforehand this anniversary advancement the plant's designers to do something about the glare, reports KCET. The letter included two abstracted complaints from August 2013, afore the bulb even opened.

One pilot describes aerial abreast Ivanpah was like "looking into the sun." An air cartage ambassador aswell describes accepting connected complaints but getting told, chillingly, that annihilation was to be done:

Daily, during the backward morning and aboriginal afternoon hours we get complaints from pilots of aircraft aerial from the northeast to the southwest about the accuracy of this solar farm. They usually ask us what it is because they don't know. On this accurate morning, an air carrier complained about the accuracy and common that it was "nearly blinding." I appear this to Management and was told that they were traveling to do annihilation about it. They again appropriate that I acquaint the pilot to address it through the assurance advertisement arrangement that they accept and to address it myself. I accept no abstraction what can be done about this situation, but getting a commuter on an aircraft that flew through this airspace and saw it for myself, I would say that something needs to be done. It is acutely ablaze and distracting.

At Ivanpah, the 170,000 mirrors about-face to clue the sun beyond the sky, absorption ablaze assimilate three 45-story building that aggregate the solar energy. Environmentalists and engineers had been annoying that Ivanpah could dark pilots even afore the bulb was built. Aside from planes, added aerial altar are faring even worse in Ivanpah. The concentrated beams of sunlight fries birds who aback fly through them.

As ablaze and even admirable Ivanpah looks in photos, activity for massive solar projects like this accept waned, in allotment due to its ecology impact. California afresh rejected a agnate project due to affair for the birds. Meanwhile, it charcoal to be apparent what will appear at Ivanpah. [KCET]

Photos: Ethan Miller/Getty

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The new Mac Pros fit up to two (Westmere) 4-core Xeon processors, sure, but if you've got the inclination, you can amount up on bifold 6-core Intel Xeon processors, or 12 cores of power. As for the design? That's unchanged.

In simpler-speak, the big amend is that the Mac Pro confused from 45nm Nahalem processors (other than in the $2,500 abject model) to 32 nm Westmere processors. Those captivation out on the processor bearing jump to buy a new Mac Pro, it looks like that time has come.

CUPERTINO, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today apparent a new Mac® Pro band with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater achievement than the antecedent generation.* Featuring the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI cartoon and the advantage for up to four 512GB solid accompaniment drives (SSD), the new Mac Pro continues to bear amazing achievement and expandability for the a lot of ambitious consumers and professionals.

"The new Mac Pro is the a lot of able and configurable Mac we've anytime made," said Philip Schiller, Apple's chief carnality admiral of Worldwide Artefact Marketing. "With up to 12 cores, the new Mac Pro outperforms our antecedent top-of-the-line arrangement by up to 50 percent, and with over a billion accessible configurations, our barter can actualize absolutely the arrangement they want."

At the affection of the new Mac Pro's achievement are next bearing quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors active at speeds up to 3.33 GHz. These multi-core processors use a individual die architecture so anniversary amount can allotment up to 12MB L3 accumulation to advance adeptness while accretion processing speed. These systems affection an chip anamnesis ambassador for faster anamnesis bandwidth and bargain anamnesis latency; Turbo Addition to dynamically addition processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz; and Hyper-Threading to actualize up to 24 basic cores. The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 cartoon processor with 1GB of anamnesis and barter can configure-to-order the even faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.

For the aboriginal time, Mac Pro barter accept the advantage to adjustment a 512GB SSD for the ultimate in believability and lightning fast performance. With the adeptness to install up to four SSD drives in the system's centralized drive bays, the new Mac Pro can accommodate ultra accelerated deejay bandwidth and accidental deejay performance, two times faster than the boilerplate achievement of a accepted deejay drive.** Mac Pro aswell now appearance two Mini DisplayPorts and one dual-link DVI port. The added Mini DisplayPort achievement allows barter to affix two LED Cinema Displays after an added cartoon agenda or adapter and the dual-link DVI anchorage supports bequest DVI-based displays up to a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Every Mac Pro comes with Apple's avant-garde Magic Mouse and barter can aswell adjustment Apple's new Magic Trackpad as an option. The Magic Trackpad brings the automatic Multi-Touch™ gestures of Mac anthology trackpads to the desktop. With its bottle surface, the wireless Magic Trackpad allows users to annal calmly up and down a page with inertial scrolling, compression to zoom in and out, circle an angel with their fingertips and bash three fingers to cast through a accumulating of web pages or photos. The Magic Trackpad can be configured to abutment individual button or two button commands and supports tap-to-click as able-bodied as a concrete click. Magic Trackpad is accessible alone for $69.

Continuing Apple's charge to the environment, Apple's desktop calendar is a baton in blooming design. The Mac Pro meets acrimonious Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.*** The Mac Pro asylum is fabricated of awful recyclable aluminum and the autogenous is advised to be added material-efficient. The Mac Pro uses PVC-free centralized cables and apparatus and contains no brominated blaze retardants. The new Angel Battery Charger provides a acceptable and environmentally affable way to consistently accept a beginning set of batteries for your Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. The Angel Battery Charger is accessible as an advantage for $29 and comes with six continued shelf activity rechargeable batteries.

Every Mac aswell comes with Mac OS® X Snow Leopard®, the world's a lot of avant-garde operating system, and iLife®, Apple's avant-garde apartment of applications for managing photos, authoritative movies and creating and acquirements to play music. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X addition and success with hundreds of refinements, amount technologies and out of the box abutment for Microsoft Exchange. iLife appearance iPhoto®, with advance means to adapt and administer your photos by who appears in them and area they were taken; iMovie® with able easy-to-use appearance such as Precision Editor, video stabilization and avant-garde annoyance and drop; and GarageBand® which offers a accomplished new way to advice you apprentice to play piano and guitar.

Optional Angel able applications cover Aperture®, Final Cut® Express, Final Cut Studio®, Logic® Express and Logic Studio®.

Pricing & Availability

The new Mac Pro will be accessible in August through the Angel Store® (www.apple.com), Apple's retail food and Angel Authorized Resellers.

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a appropriate retail amount of $2,499 (US), includes:

* one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;

* 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, abundant up to 16GB;

* ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;

* two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) anchorage (adapters awash separately);

* 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s harder drive active at 7200 rpm;

* 18x SuperDrive® with double-layer abutment (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);

* four PCI Express 2.0 slots;

* 5 USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;

* AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;

* Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and

* Angel Keyboard with after keypad and Magic Mouse.

The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a appropriate retail amount of $3,499 (US), includes:

* two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 accumulation per processor;

* 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, abundant up to 32GB;

* ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;

* two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) anchorage (adapters awash separately);

* 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s harder drive active at 7200 rpm;

* 18x SuperDrive with double-layer abutment (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);

* four PCI Express 2.0 slots;

* 5 USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;

* AirPort Extreme 802.11n;

* Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and

* Angel Keyboard with after keypad and Magic Mouse.

Configure-to-order options include:

* one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;

* one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;

* two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;

* two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;

* two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;

* one ATI Radeon HD 5870 agenda with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;

* up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM anamnesis for the quad-core Mac Pro;

* up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM anamnesis for the 8-core Mac Pro;

* up to four 512GB solid accompaniment drives (SSD); or

* up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA harder drives active at 7200 rpm;

* Mac Pro RAID card;

* dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and

* up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.

Accessories include: Magic Trackpad, Angel Battery Charger, active Angel Mouse, wireless Angel Keyboard, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, the AppleCare® Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server; iWork®, Logic Express 9, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 3. Complete options and accessories are accessible at www.apple.com/macpro.

*Testing conducted by Angel in July 2010 application preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units and shipment Mac Pro 8-core 2.93 GHz units, all configured with 6GB of RAM. Based on cede achievement of Maxwell Cede 2.0.3 application Benchwell's sculpture.mxs. Achievement tests are conducted application specific computer systems and reflect the almost achievement of Mac Pro.

**Testing conducted by Angel in July 2010 application preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units configured with 6GB of RAM, 1TB 7200-rpm harder deejay drive and 512GB solid-state drive. Testing conducted application Iometer 2006.07.27 with a 30-second ramp-up, 5-minute run duration, 128KB appeal size, 8 outstanding IOs, and 150GB analysis file. Boilerplate rotational media achievement affected by creating the analysis book on the outer, average and close sectors of the drive and averaging the after-effects from all three measurements. Achievement tests are conducted application specific computer systems and reflect the almost achievement of Mac Pro.

***EPEAT is an absolute alignment that helps barter analyze the ecology achievement of notebooks and desktops. Articles affair all of the 23 appropriate belief and at atomic 75 percent of the alternative belief are accustomed as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT affairs was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 accepted for Ecology Assessment of Claimed Computer Products. For added advice appointment www.epeat.net.

Apple designs Macs, the best claimed computers in the world, forth with OS X, iLife, iWork, and able software. Angel leads the agenda music anarchy with its iPods and iTunes online store. Angel is reinventing the adaptable buzz with its advocate iPhone and App Store, and has afresh alien its bewitched iPad which is defining the approaching of adaptable media and accretion devices.

© 2010 Angel Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Angel logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Snow Leopard, iLife, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Aperture, Final Cut, Final Cut Studio, Logic, Logic Studio, Angel Store, SuperDrive, FireWire, Airport Extreme, AppleCare and iWork are trademarks of Apple. Added aggregation and artefact names may be trademarks of their corresponding owners.

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Touchscreens (and screens in general) are awesome. So sleek! So dynamic! So futuristic! Yeah, able-bodied what if they're fundamentally ambagious and dangerous, too?

View arcade »

It sounds like heresy, but I couldn't advice apprehensive that afterwards seeing the rows and rows of concrete buttons, gauges, and readouts that Russian technicians use to run this nuclear ability plant. Built post-Chernobyl, the bulb boasts a "30km-wide aegis area about the bulb itself, abounding with all sorts of sensors and ecology accessories that admeasurement the action of the ambiance to address any aboriginal aberration from accustomed radiation doses." But what about all those clunky, straight-outta-Star-Trek knobs and lights — what if they're a assurance feature, too? The bulb was completed in 1990, so blush computer screens, mice, and "normal" high-tech user interfaces were absolutely available. How could a dizzyingly close filigree of artificial buttons be bigger than a individual awning that can change to affectation alone what the artisan needs at any accustomed moment?

Well, here's the thing, as Christopher Mims at Technology Review blithely credibility out: blow is a powerful, able thing. And not the sterile, characterless adaptation that passes for "touch" on your iPad. I'm talking about the physical, primal, ultra-high-res sensorium that you acquaintance from interacting with accustomed altar in the absolute world. Our accuracy and easily acquired they way they did for a reason, and virtual displays and interfaces artlessly don't "click" with the affectionate of infomation-processing we've acquired to do so well. Deep, spatial sense-memory — "colored THING in THAT area that feels like THIS and STAYS there" — is how our savannah-dwelling ancestors navigated their ambiance and abhorred accepting killed, and it's still accurate today.

So while there were absolutely added factors influencing the Russian nuke-designers' UI aesthetics (economics getting a huge one), it's harder not to admiration if they shied abroad from screens on purpose. When you're consistently one amiss command abroad from addition Chernobyl, it pays to play by the brain's congenital rules — not Steve Jobs's.

[All photos by Ilya Varlamov; Hat tip to Technology Review]

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It ability not attending like the acceptable batt your grandmother fabricated for you, but that's because the IM Blanky is abstract with sensors, resistors, and conductive fabrics authoritative it self-aware. So it knows absolutely how it's been folded, crumpled, or arranged.

Created by the University of Toronto's Responsive Architecture at Daniels school, the absolute incorporates 104 bolt angle sensors advised to attending like flowers with the petals fabricated of a conductive material. These are again affiliated to a beyond arrangement application conductive cilia basic a ample filigree of hexagons accoutrement the absolute blanket. Which after-effects in a different arrangement that's as anatomic as it is stylish.

The alone angle sensors broadcast their acclimatization to a axial Arduino-powered computer which is again able to account the slopes amid the assorted flowers and pedals on the blanket. Resulting in a 3D representation of its appearance no amount how its laid out. So in theory, already the e-blanket's technology is aesthetic to the point area the sensors awning every endure aboveboard inch, axis a concrete archetypal into a 3D representation could be as simple as just wrapping it in fabric. Or, ecology a patient's breath amount could be done by just casting a absolute over them.

[University of Toronto - RAD via Domus]

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The government is claiming that authorities should be accustomed to adhere GPS tracking accessories to any vehicle—and again adviser its movements—without any anatomy of warrant.

Wired reports that the Obama administering is advancement the arguable stance, admitting the actuality that the Supreme Cloister disqualified endure year that such a action amounted to seek adequate by the Constitution. An address case, to appear after today, will see the administering action endure year's decision.

The capital advance of the argument? That accepting warrants can arrest the advance of bent investigations. In fact, cloister filings even call how such a action could get in the way of agitation investigations:

Requiring a accreditation and apparent could could cause afore admiral may attach a GPS accessory to a vehicle, which is inherently adaptable and may no best be at the area empiric if the accreditation is obtained, would actively impede the government's adeptness to investigate biologic trafficking, terrorism, and added crimes. Law administration admiral could not use GPS accessories to accumulate advice to authorize apparent cause, which is generally the a lot of advantageous use of such devices. Thus, the acclimation of law administration interests with the minimally advancing attributes of GPS accession and ecology makes bright that a assuming of reasonable suspicion suffices to admittance use of a ‘slap-on' accessory like that acclimated in this case.

A adventurous claim—and one that, if advised sensible, could change the way authorities are able to clue and aisle citizens. It'll be absorbing to see which way the adjudication falls. [Wired]

Image by Tischenko Irina/Shutterstock

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To be honest, they're not absolutely marriage rings. But! The chain rings are ridiculously small. These two annular rings of DNA, barometer alone 18 nanometers in size, were fabricated by a guy who got affiliated while alive on this agreement (thus the name).

The men abaft the rings, Professor Alexander Heckel and his doctoral apprentice Thorsten Schmidt (the one who got married), accept the rings could prove advantageous in nano-machines or atomic motors:

From a accurate perspective, the anatomy is a anniversary in the acreage of DNA nanotechnology, back the two rings of the catenan are, as against to the majority of the DNA nanoarchitechtures that accept already been realized, not anchored formations, but – depending on the ecology altitude – advisedly pivotable.

Whatever the absolute apple use, it's a cool glossy move by Schmidt for getting a adventurous and advertence his plan with his wedding. Wifey must've been pleased. [EurekAlert via MSNBC Cosmic Log]

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Last ages we advised the Fitbit Zip, which was basically a adored pedometer. The Fitbit One is the Zip's big brother, and almsman to the absolute accepted Ultra line. Is the feature-filled apparatus account a hundred bucks?

Fitbit Zip Review: The Tiny Anti-Flab Motivator Fitbit Zip Review: The Tiny Anti-Flab Motivator Fitbit Zip Review: The Tiny Anti-Flab Motivator

I've been walking about with a Fitbit Zip in my abridged for the endure week, a lot of of the time… Apprehend added Read more

What Is It?

It's a tiny exercise adviser that counts the accomplish you take, the stairs you climb, and the calories you burn, and even advance the superior of your sleep.

Who's it For?

People who ambition abstracts about how abundant exercise they get throughout the day.

Design

It's a smooth, ellipsoidal pebble. One button lights up the LED awning and allows you to annal through your stats. It comes with a blow you abrasion while alive out, and a wrist bandage for cutting it as you sleep.

Using It

Just backpack it all day and it'll clue your activity. The abstracts wirelessly syncs if you're abreast your computer, and again you can appearance all sorts of archive and graphs online. You abrasion the One in a wristband as you sleep—just alpha the timer if you lie down and stop it if you deathwatch up.

The Best Part

The altimeter. Added exercise monitors calculation steps. But a footfall on akin arena is not the aforementioned as traveling up stairs or aggressive a hill. The Fitbit One's altimeter considers that and estimates the calories burned.

Tragic Flaw

The beddy-bye ecology is buggy. If you don't manually ascribe the times, it guesses. One day, it said I went to bed at 8:07pm and woke up at apex the next day. I wish. (In fact, I was out at a bar until 3:00am and again got up at 7:40am.) Yet I couldn't manually ascribe my absolute beddy-bye times.

Update: You can manually start/stop beddy-bye tracking by long-pressing the button. That's nice, but A) it's absolute simple to forgot to alpha and/or stop it, abnormally if sleepy, and B) it's duplicate from the anxiety feature, which is affectionate of weird. We adopt a arrangement that just knows if you've gone to beddy-bye and knows if you've gotten up, like the Basis B1 band.

This Is Weird...

You can set a bashful anxiety that'll deathwatch you up but leave your bedmate undisturbed. Set the time online, accompany it, put the One in the wristband, and canyon out. A alternation of cavernous pulses all-overs your wrist if it's time to acceleration and shine. I anticipation I'd collapsed comatose with my buzz in my hand—but it auspiciously woke me up after activation my girlfriend. Weird, but cool.

Test Notes Because it isn't absorbed to your physique (like, the Nike Fuelband) it's simple to overlook to accumulate it on you. Every time I afflicted pants, I forgot to about-face it out. For tracking sleep, you allegation to yield it out of your pocket, put on a wrist band, again put it in the wrist band, again alpha recording. It can be a nuisance.Paradoxically, the actuality that you don't abrasion it could aswell be a above affairs point to some. People who dress up a lot ability not ambition to accept a blue elastic armlet on all the time.We absolutely like the design. The aluminum backplate makes it feel acutely solid. The button has nice bang to it, but it doesn't feel like it will be accidentally depressed in your pocket.One of the bigger advances is the display. It's a lot brighter and added pixel abutting than the Fitbit Ultra was, which abundantly improves readability.You can aswell clue abstracts with smartphone apps. The iPhone 4S and 5 can accompany abstracts anon with the One. The Android app can't accompany anon with the One (because no Android accessories currently abutment the low-power Bluetooth protocol), but you can use it to appearance your data, add meals, and being like that. Both apps are absolute acceptable looking.Another awe-inspiring affair about beddy-bye monitoring: You can baddest Normal or Sensitive modes. On Normal, it thinks I'm absolutely comatose 92 percent of the time that I'm in bed. On Sensitive, it thinks I'm alone comatose 52 percent of that time! The accuracy has got to lie about in between, but that's such a gigantic allowance of absurdity one has to accept this abstracts is about unusable. Above bummer, as this was the affection I was a lot of searching advanced to.Really solid array life. You should get abutting to a anniversary of use on a individual charge, and it accuse bound with the included USB adapter.The screens in the app are: Steps, Distance, Calories burned, Floors climbed, a Clock, and a accessible anxiety that you can start/stop by long-pressing the button. A little Flower grows and shrinks based on your contempo activity. It aswell displays a greeting if you aces it up. Adorable.The Fitbit dashboard on the website is absolutely a blend to navigate. Things are not allegedly laid out. For example, to add an alarm, you accept to apperceive to bang on your device, go into the settings, and again acquisition the alarm. It's visually pleasing, but it needs some reorganizing.Through the website, you can accept to accept all your abstracts auto-sync to added programs like RunKeeper, Endomondo, and others. Should You Buy It?

If you're because the Fitbit Zip, again sure. It's absolutely better, due to the altimeter, bigger screen, and recharability. And the bashful anxiety is a air-conditioned feature. It's aswell $40 more, but the $40 is account it for the added functionality. And it's $50 beneath than the Fuelband.

As for the flaws, to be fair, the accessory doesn't address until aboriginal November, and they accept been sending out firmware updates throughout the endure week. In added words the beddy-bye functions may get better. Even if they don't, though, this is still a appealing appropriate section of kit. [Fitbit]

View arcade » Fitbit One Specs

• Radio: Bluetooth 4.0 • Size: 1.89 x 0.76 x 0.38 inches • Weight: 0.28 oz. (8 grams) • Screen: LED • Colors: Black, Burgundy • Splash-proof: Yes • Battery: Rechargeable Li-Po • Price: $100 • Giz Rank: 3.5 stars

Introducing Gizrank Introducing Gizrank Introducing Gizrank

Hey assumption what: We're appraisement being now! AREN'T YOU EXCITED?? I am. I'm so excited… Apprehend added Read more

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At the admonition of abounding medical experts, I'm abrogation the afterward article, in which I'll altercate my claimed probabilities of ache based aloft my genetics, unsigned.

While the 2008 Abiogenetic Advice Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) protects individuals from getting denied bloom allowance or application based aloft their abiogenetic code, bloom insurers can still counterbalance your analysis adjoin your transaction determinations. Plus, the implications to activity insurance, affliction insurance, abiding affliction allowance and even the fate of my added ancestors associates are yet unknown.

I'm decidedly afraid about getting denied abiding care, as my analysis after-effects chillingly announce that I could advance a adverse degenerative disease.

This point of anonymity aside, I intend to allotment with you the a lot of affectionate abstracts of myself—namely, all the armament that ability one day annihilate me (if I'm advantageous abundant not to clean myself out afore from chancy behaviors or arduous clumsiness).

* * * * * *

Several weeks back, I mailed off two vials of my spit. One went to a aggregation alleged 23andMe, the added to a aggregation called Navigenics. Abreast from some differences in branding, both companies are cut from the aforementioned mold. Using a specialized dent that's set to clue abandoned specific genes, anniversary examines an atomic allocation of your genome, yes, but hopefully one ample abundant to yield advantage of what the world's advisers accept decoded (of importance) apropos animal genetics.

(Given that the costs of mapping your absolute genome still runs in the six figures, searching at this atom of cipher allows 23andMe and Navigenics to accumulate costs to $420 and $1000, respectively.)

Each sets you up with a login to their site; anniversary offers a accessible UI to appraise yourself; anniversary calculates the anticipation of you developing diseases all-embracing and in allegory to your peers; anniversary brings you to the accordant analysis abetment their claims with a few button presses.

For a lot of diseases, it's not as simple as, "Oh, you'll accept diabetes!" Instead, users are larboard with something added like, "You're advised top accident for developing blazon 2 diabetes. You're in the top 30% of the citizenry a lot of decumbent to this risk. Your all-embracing accident is 2%. This abstracts is based aloft this cardboard by Harvard Medical."

In added words, it's a bold of percentages ample on percentages, all assorted levels of accurate based aloft research, all confounding.

So now that you accept how these casework work, let's move on.

This is me—the me according to 23andMe.

I don't apprehend you to apperceive what all this agency just by searching at it, so acquiesce me to explain a few of the highlights.

On the top is 23andMe's analytic report—the items for which they accept a cogent bulk of research. They're afraid about a few things. I'm at "elevated risk" for Crohn's Disease—there's just a 1.5% adventitious that I'll advance this GI amplitude disorder, but it's advised animated accident because, based aloft the aggregate of 12 accompanying markers (or genes) that I have, I'm about 3X added acceptable to advance Crohn's than the boilerplate being of European descent.

The numbers are agnate for Blazon 1 Diabetes, my abandoned added animated accident in 23andMe's analytic reports. Overall, my accident of developing the ataxia ancient in my activity is 1.3%. For a lot of of the population, it's 1%.

The additional address 23andMe offers is my analysis report—the items for which the account is advertisement after-effects based aloft what they've accounted beneath reliable analysis for one acumen or another. I accept abounding added animated risks in this class than clinical. Ulcerative colitis (great, added base disease), hypertension, asthma—nothing you wish to see, but none of my numbers assume that alarming unto themselves.

Heroin addiction. Wow. I'm at animated accident on that one, too. I've backward bright of the stuff, and accustomed my ability to its dependence, I'll be accidental on its accidental use at parties and clubs. We've abstruse from a abstraction of 309 Swedes and their specific OPRM1 genotype (which seems to affect how the academician responds to morphine), I'm 2.9X added acceptable to become absorbed to heroin than the baseline person.

But so far, so good. 23andMe says I'm a appealing freaking advantageous guy, which confirms my constant suspicions. I haven't developed affection of Crohn's, which about manifests in humans about my age group. Chances are, I'm in the advantageous 99% there. Blazon 1 diabetes, asthma, hypertension, ulcerative colitis? Right now, I attending to be in the clear. Heroin? I can stick to poppy berry bagels and accede myself a insubordinate from the assimilation of carbs alone.

But one added top accident agency has apparitional me back account the report. Booze dependence.

I apprehend that warning—conveniently accent in red for me—and advised the endure day I'd gone afterwards accepting not abandoned one drink, but about two or more.

The Journal of the American Medical Association defines alcoholism as:

A primary, abiding ache with genetic, psychosocial, and ecology factors influencing its development and manifestations. The ache is generally accelerating and fatal. It is characterized by connected or periodic: broken ascendancy over drinking, captivation with the biologic alcohol, use of booze acceptance adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, a lot of conspicuously abnegation .

Does my behavior fit in that belief of alcoholism? I absolutely abatement abbreviate of its a lot of acute interpretations.

Alcohol has by no agency destroyed the relationships of my life, but things I've said (drunk) accept damaged a few friendships—which I assumption accomplish the class of "adverse consequences." Accustomed that I can be a bit aloof in person, I acknowledge its action as a amusing lubricant. Accustomed that I can be a bit fatigued at the end of a workday, I acknowledge its use as an over the adverse all-overs medication—both of which may authorize as "preoccupation(s)" with the substance.

Alcoholic or not, there's no agnosticism that I booze frequently and await on the actuality on added than a accidental basis. I knew that afore my 23andme results, and I was appealing OK with myself about it.

But something about seeing that trait, one that I aforetime snickered at as voluntarily self-destructive, mapped to a specific gene…well, the accomplished convenance chock-full activity so adolescently charming, yet I haven't abstemious my bubbler one bit.

Then, afterwards all this introspection, I looked at my after-effects further, blockage the absolute genotypes I had in question. According to the abandoned after-effects listed by 23andMe, I was at accustomed risk.

Bamboozled! I've searched through every section of abstracts 23andMe has on me, and I can't acquisition what acquired what I'm bold was an absurdity on my analysis report. I fabricated this mistake, and I'm academy educated, scientifically absorbed and, heck, appealing accomplished (at this point) at account the after-effects of my abiogenetic tests compared to the boilerplate person. (UPDATE: 23andMe contacted us, acceptance the formatting absurdity in alcoholism and administration affairs for a fix.)

And the abundant account is, no amount how abundant I booze now, my genome in hand, I apperceive I'm not dependent!

So that's the 23andMe me—a guy with abdomen problems, diabetes, ability for actuality corruption and "wet" earwax.

This is the Navigenics me:

Navigenics lays out my bigger risks by raw percentage, which is a bit altered than how 23andMe presents their abstracts (as able-bodied as added clear). Get accomplished that, and you'll agenda some actual similarities. Crohn's Disease. Is that bifold trouble? Two altered groups acicular it out!

No. It's just an overlap in their testing. Navigenics cited the aforementioned abstraction with the aforementioned 1% all-embracing anticipation of developing the disease.

Lactose Intolerance. 95% of the citizenry is at beneath accident than me to advance the condition. (23andMe in actuality begin this, too.) That's abominable to me because I blot down added milk and cheese than a lot of cows. A solid 6 inches taller than the blow of my family, I'm basically a walking "milk does a physique good" commercial. Screw soy milk. I wish to blot on a udder with one ancillary of my aperture while advance beginning cheese curds into the other.

I'm not lactose intolerant, which brings us to the huge botheration with these allowance numbers. Intrinsically, they're a apperception fuck because cipher reads a 95% adventitious as a accurate 95% chance. You apprehend annihilation over 85% as 100%, just as you apprehend annihilation beneath 15% as a 0% chance.

Of course, maybe I am lactose intolerant, or at least, I would be if I anytime chock-full arresting dairy or didn't so consistently eat probiotic yogurt. Maybe the actuality that I was breastfed helped about-face the tables. Maybe the science isn't as simple as we think. Maybe I'm allotment Asian—my genotype about guarantees Europeans lactose bent while Asians accustomed it can be in the clear. (And 23andMe advance my affectionate ancestor to cartography that alcove into axial Asia.)

But none of these theories are all that abating adverse what is, for me, the a lot of alarming basic of my results.

It's Alzheimer's. Or it could be. I don't know.

There are three specific APOE markers for Alzheimer's that flesh has unraveled so far. You accept to accept two (since you accept one from mom, one from dad). I accept one ApoE3 and one ApoE4. (Navigenics letters them in your after-effects while 23andMe does not.)

The ApoE3? Not a big deal. You see, you can abandoned acquire ApoE2, 3 or 4 alleles (somehow abiding in a pair). An ApoE2 allele would put me at low accident for Alzheimer's. I don't accept any E2s. The E3 puts me at accustomed accident for Alzheimer's. The E4 that complements my E3? That's the bad one.

The attendance of these markers puts me at a 20% accident for developing Alzheimer's ancient in my lifetime. In allegory to the blow of the population, I'm in the accomplished 26%. (At atomic according to the sample citizenry that's the base of this accurate section of research, "60 Americans of European ancestry."

My cast could be worse, as my wife, who knows a bit on the affair for affidavit I will not divulge, explained to me. We were in the boilerplate of a continued weekend banquet at home involving too abundant wine and lots of laughter. It was one of those bewitched yet accustomed evenings you ability see on an agitable bartering for appliance or carpeting. Then, out of nowhere, the absolute atmosphere changed.

"When you told me you were demography these tests, you never told me they'd be testing for the APOE-4 gene," she said. "You just don't realize, do you? If you had two of those, it would accept been bad. Really bad. Like, we aces up and change the way we reside our lives from actuality on out, bad."

The a lot of adverse affair I abstruse afterwards two DNA samples was that I'd approached this absolute agreement as aboveboard as a child.

* * * * * *

The irony of it all, of course, is that abreast from an accessible ability for melodrama, my greatest all-embracing risks are for affection disease, blubber and osteoarthritis—something Navigenics is able to point out admitting 23andMe skirts the issue—which is aswell what any doctor would acquaint me afterwards a concrete exam, based aloft absolute apple statistics. (Based aloft two accident markers, I'm 10% beneath acceptable to accept a affection advance than the boilerplate bear, but there's still a 32% accident that it will appear some time during my life...possibly catastrophe it.)

In added words, as abashed as I am of the alien secrets ambuscade abysmal aural my body's blueprints, we already apperceive what we should be a lot of afraid about:

Heart ache is the amount one killer. Infectious ache is the amount two killer. Cancer is the amount three killer. (2008)

But none of this is of abundant abundance if it comes to accident your apperception to the abstract amateur of anatomical probability.

Not to aces on anyone, but 23andMe markets analysis as amusing networking, a abode to be, a hip fun affair you should share. Hey, even host a "spit party"-–your friends, some of whom are about to accept adverse news—will adulation it!

Aside from the actuality that administration your abiogenetic advice could could cause so abounding massive repercussions to your allowance coverage—and still, you're encouraged to allotment your after-effects with a community—your analysis are not a fucking change for cutesy marketing, just as a video of anyone accident his apperception in an assisted active ability isn't something you'd upload to YouTube. Both 23andMe and Navigenics accept the power, admitting limited, to accord you the affliction account of your life. Humans afterwards medical training (and some statistics skills, too) by and ample don't apperceive how to yield this information. To accept it in such a casual, even amusing manner, seems adverse to its purpose, not fun or even pro-active, as it's pitched.

Call me old fashioned, but if I'm experiencing a algid F U from abysmal in my evolutionary past, I like that to be in a sterile, afflictive hospital allowance that's bare of smiles.

All in all, I attending at my results, and I'm larboard with the consequence that my DNA is strong, but that's abandoned based aloft a about baby sample of studies searching at a baby sample of markers. There's just so little we apperceive about our genome. In 5 or ten years, not abandoned will the casework be a accomplished lot cheaper; they'll be decidedly added detailed, hopefully presenting after-effects in a agency that's simpler to decipher.

Having said that, I feel advantageous to accept accomplished a small, if humbling, blink into what may be in my future—pure science fiction just 20 years ago. And if you are dying to apperceive your DNA better, I'd advance bifurcation over the $1000 for Navigenics rather than the $420 for 23andMe—mainly because I adopt Navigenics' interface and forth with their abridgement of assiduous burden to allotment my clandestine abiogenetic in a apple that could accident my banking abundance down the line.

* * * * * *

We sat there for a moment. My wife had remained calmly cold apropos my abiogenetic after-effects until Alzheimer's came up, and for the aboriginal time in our relationship, I absurd a activity in which I, the appreciative male, was the physically weaker one, in which we staved off an about assured burglary of my academician starting who knows when.

But there was no bedlam it off, so instead I chose to shrug. I dodged the ammo of one APOE brand abandoned to be hit by another. Whether or not that bullet, irremovable from my DNA, in actuality injures me is something I'll consistently anguish about—keeping an ear to the arena on the latest researches of prevention, and acquisitive that 20% consistently circuit down to 0%.

Image of DNA on lotto admission by DNA11

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There's tech in the works by the association at Green Peak that could about-face your battery-eating limited ascendancy into an energy-efficient accessory aces of a accurate "green" ecology label. Couch potatoes rejoice!

Better yet, in accession to accepting a ability antecedent that lasts the activity of the device, the new radio technology powering these ancestor remotes is aswell bargain to boot. Oh, and the limited would accept an added ambit as well, authoritative it able up to 100 feet—even through walls. Triple threat!


Contrary to accepted belief, there are no bewitched gnomes ambuscade central Green Peak's limited controls. Instead, central the limited you'll acquisition a brace of bargain lithium ion button batteries. Using these instead of AA or AAA batteries could go a continued way against eliminating some of the 8 billion batteries that arch to landfills anniversary year.

Today, Green Peak is harder at plan casting the tech to big name companies like Sony, Samsung and Philips, for use in their RF remotes this fall. There was no curtailment of accessible TVs and Blu-Ray players from those companies at CES this year, anniversary with their own remote, so this is the affectionate of tech that could absolutely accomplish a difference. [DVICE]

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Crappy earbuds are killing music. It's true. The botheration is that acceptable earbuds, like speakers, aren't cheap.

Giz Explains: The Aberration Amid $100 and $100,000 Speakers Giz Explains: The Aberration Amid $100 and $100,000 Speakers Giz Explains: The Aberration Amid $100 and $10

A apostle arrangement can amount as little as $35. Or as abundant as $350,000. As a accustomed person, you… Apprehend added Read more

We're gonna be talking in-ear earbuds—canalphones, really, or in-ear monitors, if you're snooty—since all the acceptable being goes abysmal into your adored earholes. We aren't talking about headphones because abundant headphones aren't the a lot of alert things around—can't defeat physics, children. Unless you acquire some ailing amusement from jogging with a brace of behemothic cans anchored to your head, earbuds are the way to go.

It's All About the Drivers—No, Not Those Kind

Whether you're talking about headphones or earbuds, they work a lot like loudspeakers, just miniaturized. The key aspect in both are drivers, admitting earphone drivers are a lot smaller, and do a lot beneath plan to accomplish the aforementioned music.

There are two capital types of drivers: The a activating driver works just like a acceptable one in big ol' speaker. The account of the activating disciplinarian is that it produces a nice bass response, admitting it can be harder to miniaturize.

A balanced armature driver is appealing accepted in austere in-ear monitors, back it's simple to compress down. Originally begin in audition aids, it houses a alluring armature that moves if an electric accepted runs through the coil, putting burden on the diaphragm, creating sound. It can be, and generally is, commutual with a activating driver.

Most earbuds just accept the one driver, admitting added and added accept assorted drivers. That costs added 'cause it's harder to charge added than one into a tiny case meant to blow gravity-free in your ear. With assorted drivers aswell comes a "crossover network," chip meant to bisect music into altered frequencies and avenue them to the adapted drivers, an added burden to being into that bound space. Once all that is awash in, however, multi-driver earbuds about complete bigger than single-driver ones, because the woofer, tweeter and mid-range horn are added innately able to handle their own domains of sound—from boomy bass to sizzly treble.

Among the atomic big-ticket multiple-driver earbuds are Apple's adherent $80 in-ear earbuds, which use two drivers, a tweeter for highs, and addition for aggregate else. It gets added big-ticket as you edge up. Shure's three-driver SE530 lists for $500 (but can be begin for abundant less). Ultimate Ears' UE-11 Pro, which will run you a antic $1150, appear with a appropriately antic four drivers. That's one for mid-range and one for highs and two for bass.

Some companies opt for a individual disciplinarian because they anticipate it's better, back there aren't complications with crossover networks, aggravating to get all the drivers to plan calm to aftermath seamless sound. On the added hand, with a individual driver, you're allurement one disciplinarian to do everything: highs, lows and mid-range, says Stereophile chief accidental editor Michael Fremer Fremer. (Yes, that Michael Fremer.) That's why , FutureSonics, for instance, makers of pro ecology gear, accuse so abundant for their single-driver earbuds. "A absolutely acceptable single-driver can complete absolutely good," says Fremer.

Why We Need Audiophiles Why We Need Audiophiles Why We Need Audiophiles

This is Michael Fremer. He's alert to "Avalon" by Roxy Music on his $350,000… Apprehend added Read more

What It's Fabricated Of, How It's Made

Besides added drivers, what you get in pricier earbuds is (surprise, surprise) bigger materials, bigger body superior and a added focused design. Michael Johns, headphones administrator for Shure—known for earbuds with MSRP alignment from $100 to $500 but rarely bifold digits—told me that a lot of of the absolutely bargain ($20) headphones on the bazaar are basically rebranded applesauce from no-name factories, and that if you buy those with appropriate retail appraisement amid $50 and $100, you're mostly paying for style, not sound. The top-tier brands, of which there are many, tend to architecture and architect their own headphones. The amount of that is, unfortunately, anesthetized on to you.

The amount of raw capacity is aswell anesthetized to you—the cable material, the allurement abaft the diaphragm, the diaphragm actual itself, the all-embracing superior of the driver, and the enclosure. (Again, all of the being that jacks up the amount of college superior loudspeakers too.) None of that stuff, if it's able-bodied made, is cheap. Fremer says, for instance, that bigger headphones in fact use stronger magnets than cheaper headphones. As you ability guess, the added able the magnet, the college the cost.

The Fit

With accepted in-ear buds, fit affairs a lot, because the allowance is critical. Not alone does a acceptable allowance beggarly beneath ambient babble infiltrates your ears—allowing you to accumulate your aggregate low while still communicable the abounding activating range—but an closed allowance is how you get appropriate bass response. And you wish something shoved abysmal down central your ear to be comfortable, as able-bodied as fit, so there's a lot of altered kinds of tips earbud makers accept appear up with. Besides the accepted elastic bulb, there's squishy foam, and the Christmas tree-lookin' triple-flange sleeves. What works best generally comes down to your own aerial and claimed preference, which is why bigger earbuds appear with a ton of tips.

What Do I Buy?

So, uh, what's the candied atom amount for abundant headphones? If Shure and Fremer had their way, everybody would absorb upwards of $200 on their earbuds, but if you aberration their arm, they'll accede that $100 is area buds alpha accepting decent. The absolute trick, according to Fremer, is just accepting humans to "spend that aboriginal hundred bucks."

The law of abbreviating allotment tends to bang in aloft that point: The aberration amid $300 set of buds and a $400 brace is boilerplate abreast the jump from $20 to $100. Even abate is the aberration in models amid generations. The best amount on the bazaar ability be a previous-gen adaptation of Shure's 500 alternation buds at a cut amount ($290), but if you can acquisition $100 earbuds for 70 bucks, it's even better.

Interestingly, Fremer says what you're searching for in abundant earbuds is "a almost collapsed abundance acknowledgment so no abundance is accentuated aloft another," so "the artefact that sounds the best is usually the one that impresses you the atomic at first." Buds that acclaim big bass, for instance, don't in fact accept better bass, just more of it. (You can consistently acclimatize the EQ if you wish added bass.)

Whatever you do, for Christ's sake—and yours—ditch the iPod earbuds. Click to view

Ultimate Cut-The-Crap In-Ear Headphone Battlemodo Ultimate Cut-The-Crap In-Ear Headphone Battlemodo Ultimate Cut-The-Crap In-Ear Headphone Battlemodo

Why do music lovers put up with bargain banal earbuds? You've spent hundreds of dollars on an… Apprehend added Read more

Still something you wanna know? Send questions about buds, tips or hot waitresses who deserve big tips to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the accountable line.

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Felix Baumgartner is traveling to jump from the bend of space. If successful, he's traveling to become the aboriginal man in history to go supersonic after any automated propulsion aid whatsoever. He's now accepting ready.

Update: the barrage was aborted. You can watch the video of the arrest and the after-effects here.

He will breach abounding records. One of them was set by United States Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger on August 16, 1960. Kittinger jumped from the Excelsior III balloon, which at the time was aerial at 102,800 feet-that's 19.47 afar or 31 kilometers up in the sky. Felix will do at atomic 120,000 feet, 23 miles.

More importantly, if aggregate goes right, he will be the aboriginal man to go supersonic after any propulsion aid. That has to hurt.

REFRESH YOUR BROWSER FOR UPDATES

6:15PM Here's a photo of Felix accepting out of the capsule:

2:28PM Just added a video of the abort. Closing the reside advantage until the next barrage window. Thank you all for account and watching, and godspeed Felix! Next time it will be the acceptable one.

2:06PM Mission ascendancy hasn't told us if the barrage will be resumed, but with the acclimate accepting worse over the next brace days, it will accept to adjournment at atomic until Friday. Stay acquainted for updates.

2:04PM Once again, the barrage has been aborted because of abundant winds, which started just as they were accessible to roll. The botheration with abundant apprehension at barrage is that they can accomplish the abridged animation around. The inherent risks in that for both the abridged and its pilot are obvious.

2:01PM Kittinger looks sad at arena ascendancy too.

1:49PM They are demography him out of the capsule.

1:48PM Felix looks pissed off.

1:46PM The acclimate is traveling to adulterate over the next two days, which is why they were blame for a barrage today.

1:43PM The apprehension accept added just now and mission ascendancy says they accept to abolish the launch.

1:42PM Oh no. The barrage has been cancelled!

1:38PM For those who asked, yes, Felix can pee in his suit. He has a appropriate UCD accessory that will acquiesce him to do this safely. That will abstain any Alan Shepard situation at the barrage pad of his Freedom 7 mission.

1:37PM AND IT STARTS! All systems ready.

1:31PM We accept time for the fourth almanac to be torn today if aggregate goes as planned: Felix will acquaintance the longest chargeless abatement in history, an accepted 5 account and 35 seconds. The accepted almanac aswell belongs to his coach Kittinger: 4 account and 36 seconds.

1:29PM Official advertisement has been delayed 5 added minutes.

1:25PM Felix is beggared in the abridged now. His words to arena control:

"I am beggared into the capsule, and I am accessible to go."

That reminds me of the launch arena from Contact. "OK to go!" We are accessible too.

1:19PM Here's Felix just afore accepting aloft into the capsule:

1:15PM Or maybe he's calm and concentrated. Remember that he has done basic all-overs before, afar from his acquaintance jumping from acute places like the Petronas towers, so he knows what he is doing. Still, the accomplished supersonic acceleration and the parachute deployment is still a big catechism mark, as it has never been accomplished before.

1:14PM This guy is such a badass. He's apparently just thinking: "I may end up burst or in pieces, but what a ride this is traveling to be."

1:07PM Aggrandizement of the airship has begun.

1:00PM Felix is entering the capsule! Here's an angel of him abutting the vehicle:

12:56PM They accept pushed the advertisement alpha to 1:30PM EDT. This is killing me.

12:50PM I anticipate Felix is traveling to accept a ride even added animating than an absolute rocket flight to space. While it accept to be amazing to feel the barrage of a Soyuz and afresh reside in orbit, the adventure and adrenalin blitz of this amplitude jump accept to be off the charts. What do you think? Address your thoughts in the comments.

12:49PM All systems nominal. 10 account till the official advertisement starts. 25 account till launch! Oh boy.

12:41PM Aback to the acceleration record, cipher absolutely knows what's absolutely traveling to arise if Felix goes supersonic. Some humans accept that, accepting such a baby accumulation and the atmosphere accepting so thin, he will not ache (much).

The clothing will be ecology him, sending abstracts to the arena and befitting oxygen and burden levels so he survives the fall. Hopefully, it will all plan appropriate and his physique will sustain the acute distance he is traveling to go through.

Things will get agitated up there. Watch this. While this is a dramatization from the cine The Appropriate Stuff, Yeager's almanac was absolutely a ride.

12:35PM Acclimate still good. South wind is alone 0.8mph (1.3km/h).

12:30PM Reminder: Felix is pre-breathing, accepting adapted to the distance in the abridged down actuality on Earth. Look at him, sitting there so calmly. I admiration what's traveling through his head.

Someone on Twitter: "They are replacing his claret with Red Bull."

12:24PM If successful, this will be the aboriginal time in history that any animal alcove the acceleration of complete after automated propulsion. The aboriginal animal to ability that acceleration application a even was the allegorical Chuck Yeager: he bankrupt the complete barrier on October 14, 1947, aerodynamics the Bell X-1:

12:23PM The third almanac will be speed. Felix is accepted to ability and beat Mach 1, the acceleration of sound. That's an amazing 690MPH. The accepted almanac belongs to Kittinger, who accomplished 614MPH, Mach 0.9.

12:17PM Aggregate is proceeding as expected.

12:09PM By the way, there's a challenge to assumption area Felix will land. You can play it here and get a Zenith El Primero Stratos Flyback Striking 10th watch. Not bad.

12:01PM Felix is accepting accessible now to pre-breathe.

11:59AM Ok, people, this is happening. I'm starting to aberration out now. Felix is now accepting assisted as he puts his clothing on. Aggregate is traveling as planned. Here's a photo of the moment, taken a few abnormal ago:

11:57AM Countdown is aback up. Accepted barrage time: 11:15AM MDT (1:30PM EDT)

11:54AM Here's a photo of Kittinger's jump. This is what Baumgartner is adverse today, the a lot of alarming skydive you can imagine:

11:45AM So while we adjournment for the aggregation to arrange the balloon, here's the additional almanac that Felix is traveling to break: the freefall from the accomplished altitude. The antecedent almanac was set by United States Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger on August 16, 1960. His all-overs were acute for the amplitude program. That day he jumped from 102,800 feet. The Austrian charlatan will jump from a minimum of 120,000 feet.

Kittinger is one of Felix's advisors. His acquaintance has been acute for this flight. This is Felix and Joe next to a photo of the closing about the time of the aboriginal almanac amplitude jump.

11:35AM Look at the airship aggregation deploying it reside now.

11:32AM The airship that will yield the abridged up to 120,000 anxiety (or higher) is absolutely huge: 30 actor cubic aboveboard feet!

11:29AM Things assume to be traveling according to plan now. I'm accepting aflame again.

11:07AM Airship blueprint has started in alertness to aggrandizement and launch. Here's a photo of the airship aggregation accepting it accessible for deployment:

11:06AM Mission has been resumed. Acclimate seems bright and mission ascendancy will accord an amend soon.

10:07AM The abridged is on the flight band and cat-and-mouse for the next amend by the mission meteorologist. The flight has not been cancelled. Still cat-and-mouse for acclimate change.

9:34AM Mission astrologer Don Day says that they are cat-and-mouse for the wind to calm down.

9:27AM Another adjournment acquired by acclimate conditions. This time 11:30AM MDT (1:30PM EDT) is the ancient launch. We will accumulate updating. What a let down. Come on weather, bright up!

9:09AM Barrage has been delayed now: 8:30AM MDT (10:30AM EDT).

9:02AM This is a photo of Prather and Ross in the Stratolab-V. Compared to Stratos' top tech capsule, it looks like a aerial head laminated with foil.

8:56AM If aggregate goes right—and accomplish no mistake, there are affluence of affairs of things traveling wrong—Felix will breach four apple records. The aboriginal is the accomplished manned ballon flight: at atomic 120,000 feet. It could go college than that. The accepted almanac belongs to Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather Jr. and US Navy Reserve Captain Malcolm D. Ross, who climbed up to 113,740 anxiety in May 4, 1961.

8:49AM This analogy shows absolutely the action and annal that Felix will break, four in total. On the left: one of Felix's endure training sessions in a photo from Sunday, October 7. Click on the images to aggrandize them to abounding screen.

8:41AM Here's the man and his suit:

8:38AM It's account acquainted that this is accepting done not just for the stunt: Felix's clothing is loaded with sensors that will accommodate actual admired abstracts to NASA and added amplitude agencies. Cipher has jumped afore this top and this fast.

8:36AM I mean, he has done a few basic jumps, but this one is traveling to breach the complete barrier. What will arise then?

8:35AM Ancient barrage is now 8:00AM MDT (10AM EDT). There's not reside complete from the site. I'm not jumping and I accept a bond in my stomach, cerebration about what Felix accept to be traveling through now.

8:33AM We got complete for a few seconds. Things arise to be affective on.

8:27AM Here's how it will all happen: The 41-year old Austrian Baumgartner will jump from an distance of 23 afar (120,000 anxiety or 37 kilometers), accepting abutting to the bend of the stratosphere. If he does that, he will abatement for an estimated 5 account and 30 seconds, breaking the acceleration of complete in the process. After aerial at Mach 1 for a while, he will accessible his parachute at one mile (about 1,500 meters). If aggregate goes ok, he will ability the arena 10 account later.

8:18AM Felix said bygone that abhorrence was a acceptable acquaintance of his, as it fabricated him go "not too far." I achievement he's not bubbler a lot of Red Bull as they altercate acclimate distance at the site. Here's Luke Aikins and the blow of the Stratos aggregation searching at the acclimate distance over Roswell.

8:14AM In the meantime, you can watch the aurora in Roswell, New Mexico. Pretty.

8:08AM The mission is now on acclimate hold, but things are accepting ready. Here's an angel of the airship that will yield Felix 23 afar up in space.

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