Engineering News

From Wired Top Stories:

n the grand scheme of human space programs in Russia and the United States, catastrophic failures are relatively rare. But they are often quite spectacular and make a big impression on the public and on the funding for space exploration. The explosions in the videos we've assembled here were very costly, some in terms of life, some in terms of lost equipment and all in terms of progress of the space programs.

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From NYT > Science:

Recognizing that giant new flat-panel televisions have become major power guzzlers, California on Wednesday became the first state to impose energy efficiency standards on them. The California Energy Commission voted unanimously to apply the standard, which would take effect in 2011. There is no federal energy-efficiency standard for televisions.

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From Discover Magazine | rsslist:

With NASA's manned space flight program in tumult, it's an open question when/if human boots will tramp on Martian soil. But the space agency has provided a virtual way for humans to explore the red planet, with its new "Be a Martian" program.

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From Discover Magazine | rsslist:

#1: If At First You Don't Succeed… Sell to Venezuela?

Former government physicist P. Leonardo Mascheroni, an outspoken critic of U.S. nuclear strategy, is in the FBI's crosshairs. In October, the feds raided his home, seizing computers, documents, books, and cell phones. The FBI hasn't publicly stated what it's investigating, but Mascheroni maintains that he's been wrongly accused of nuclear espionage because he gave a CD with sensitive information to the Venezuelan government. ...

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From Gizmodo:

According to Van Tillburg, it looks more like a Cold War submarine than a WW2 ship, build for high speed underwater travel. The I-401 was its sister vessel. That one was located in 2005, and it was capable of carrying 144 people through 37,000 miles, it was three times the size of modern submarines. Japan wanted to use these ships to launch aerial attacks in the continental United States. To do this, it used three Aichi light bombers, each capable of carrying an 800-kilogram bomb. When their mission was complete, the bombers returned to the submarine, landing on the water using floats. The Japanese also had a dirty trick in their pockets: Use the submarines to drop big cans full of rats infected with the plague and insects loaded with cholera, dengue, and typhus. They never were able to put that in practice, however. The Americans delivered a big can full of atoms to them first. According to Dr Hans Van Tillburg, "[the I-201 submarine] was nothing like anybody had in the Second World War. It had a streamlined body and conning tower and retractable gun." They just found it in Hawaii. These two submarines were so advanced that, after being captured and inspected by the United States, they were sunk so the Soviets couldn't inspect them. The Japanese were the pioneers in developing advanced aerial attack technology for submarines. The sea-to-air cruise missile was developed later, during the Cold War period. Nowadays, the US Navy is working on submarine-launched drones, which can take off from underwater.

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