From Ford:
A highly efficient 3.5-liter V-6 engine delivering at least 263 horsepower and E85 compatibility is 25 percent more efficient than the 4.6-liter Single Overhead Cam (SOHC) V-8 offered in the current Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.
Plus, an all-new 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 twin-turbocharged, direct-injection engine will deliver at least 365 horsepower and 350 ft.-lb. of torque across a broad rpm range.
A high-capacity six-speed SelectShift Automatic transmission delivers the power of EcoBoost to the road via the sophisticated torque-sensing all-wheel-drive system.
Again, Ford and other American automobile makers are on a very strong rebound, especially due to the current Toyota Recall. The computers in these cars should also have the technology to control and launch mobile UAV's.
The Bunker Busting Robot
This Robotic Underground Munition [RUM] is being developed by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to drill deep underground into enemy bunkers then explode, creating a very expensive one time use.
Our Last Defense Against Earthquakes
The Stanford University "Quake-Catcher" has been available since 2008, but due to current frequency and intensity of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, they have experienced many new users that will allow the earthquake predictor to work with more efficiency. Using accelerometers built into many new laptops, the software takes note if many laptops are all shaking in the same area and uses this information to track the earthquake.
My only problem with technology like this is that it uses expensive laptop sensors that are expensive and not available in the areas that will be most affected by "increased frequency and intensity" of storms and geothermal activity [Taken from my notes in Prof. Gary Yohe's class and the IPCC Report], most notably the "third-world."
Sources: [Smart Planet] [Gizmodo] [Engadget]
If you took the earthquake laptop technology and used it in iPhones, Wii controllers, and all other devices that can measure shaking then you would have a pretty accurate depiction of the earth shaking.
ReplyDeleteIf you put sensors in the ground all over the earth you would have the exact same notion as well though.