11 Oct 09 Commercial Fuel From Algae Still Years Away
chrnb sends along this quote from a report at Reuters: "Filling your vehicle's tank with fuel made from algae is still as much as a decade away, as the emerging industry faces a series of hurdles to find an economical way to make the biofuel commercially. Estimates on a timeline for a commercial product, and profits, vary from two to 10 years or more. Executives and industry players who gathered at the Algae Biomass Summit this week in San Diego said they need to push for breakthroughs along the entire chain — from identifying the best organisms to developing efficient harvesting methods. ... So far on the list: finding the right strain of algae among thousands of species that will produce high yields; designing systems where the desired algae can multiply and other species don't invade and disrupt the process; and extracting its oils without degrading other parts of the algae that can be made into side products and sold as well."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: commercial fuel, designing systems, biofuel, mdash, algae, ayers, hurdles, reuters, timeline, 10 years, lt, profits, decade, san diego, summit, tank, side products
05 Nov 09 Government Technologist: Vivek Kundra's Data Center Problem
The number of data centers belonging to the U.S. government has more than doubled in the past 10 years. Can Federal CIO Vivek Kundra put a stop to the trend? 
Tagi: vivek kundra, 10 years
10 Mar 10 Dot-Com Craze Peaked 10 Years Ago This Week
netbuzz writes "When the NASDAQ stock index hit its all-time high of 5,133 on March 10, 2000, it had more than doubled in a year and the dot-com bubble was already leaking in a big way. A week later the NASDAQ had fallen 9 percent. A year later it was below 2000. Gone were such poster children of the era as Pets.com, Kozmo, and — who could forget? — Whoopi Goldberg's Flooz. Here's a look back."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: nasdaq stock, whoopi goldberg, flooz, poster children, kozmo, mdash, stock index, 10 years, pets
16 Mar 10 China To Connect Its High-Speed Rail To Europe
MikeChino sends in this excerpt from Inhabitat: "China already has the most advanced and extensive high-speed rail lines in the world, and soon that network will be connected all the way to Europe and the UK. With initial negotiations and surveys already complete, China is now making plans to connect its HSR line through 17 other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe in order to connect to the existing infrastructure in the EU. Additional rail lines will also be built into South East Asia as well as Russia, in what will likely become the largest infrastructure project in history." They hope to get it done within 10 years, with China providing the financing in exchange for raw materials, in some cases.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: high speed rail, south east asia, infrastructure project, countries in asia, slashdot, eastern europe, raw materials, inhabitat, excerpt from, 10 years, russia, surveys, china
