Beam Me Up episode 317 is now online

I speak for a moment about the loss of Author Ray Bradbury. Then we travel over to New Arden and it’s very special detective. In Plain Sight by Jason Kahn.

From the blog, new battery tech that talks about new battery tech that may allow three as much power through the battery with less material. Earth/ Sky has an article on asteroids that have the potential to do great harm to the Earth. The amount of these asteroids will astound and frightening. Nelson from New Farmer Films then joins us for an excellent review of the movie “the Avengers.

Finally I once again tap Ed McKeown for a great story. He certainly delivers well as is born out in part one of his story “There was a wild colonial boy” I will hazard a guess that this too is a great story.

Enjoy

New Battery Tech May Triple Battery Capacity

Battery chemistry may have improved battery performance. Iron, to alkaline, nickel-cadmium, nickel metal hydride to the various lithium variations. Weight and recharargability were the driving motives. However most of the improvements in live were centered around packing in more storage media or making high density batteries which often proved problematic
in it's own problem.

Now I read about battery researchers at Washington State University have figured out a way to make lithium-ion batteries using an anode made of tin instead of graphite. Graphite, while easy to form does not perform optimally under high current loads. Tin anodes on the other hand could support 3 times as much storage. The problem with tin however is that over time it grows what can commonly be called "whiskers". These whiskers can become so bad that they can short out electronics or batteries.

The researchers however have said, well if we can not remove the whiskers, why not put them to our benifit. The researchers have succeeded in forcing tin whiskers uniformly at the quantum level and they have been able to take these tin whisker anodes and electroplate them! One of the other gains is that the electroplated tin anodes can be made much less expensively. Plus they would last longer, and recharge much faster plus holding 3 times the charge!

Check out the full Dvice article here

Review: X-Files I want to believe DVD

Directed by Chris Carter

Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson,  Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet,

When I first saw this DVD on the discount shelf, I thought, well I never really got into the X Files on tvand here might be a way to gain some insight.  You see what I thought I had was a late 90s movie.  Not so, this was kind of a reboot, whats more it was from 2008!  Seems I had lucked into something original.

The film starts with an FBI search line  poking sticks in the snow, what an old many breaks through the line and runs ahead to start digging and finding a body part.  Then we are privvy to a couple of abductions that are seemingly unrealated.  From there on out we are treated to a rather odd character assortment.  I won't runin it for you by going into them all but take my word for it when I say that a pedofilic, physic preist is NOT the oddest of the bunch.

The movie is not bad from a horror movie perspective, but is that X File material?  Religious  quandary is perfectly honest grist, but X File?  There are evil scientists and evil experiments of maximum bizzarness that is bound to make you flinch but there are no aliens or evolutionary questionable lifeforms.  None of what I had come to believe that X Files were all about.  So I think it falls down on its theme, but otherwise is a flincherificmovie.  A good solid 6 for me.  just because it is suppose to be sci-fi  which it isnt  maybe sci-fi horror, but very VERY dated sci-fi.

Now extras.....LOADED UP!  Deleted scenes, diital copy, the works.  Which means yep...It was NOT a rental.  Yep, still mad about that!  So  extras?  9  for an overall 7.5...It was fun, It had alot of ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!  Plus it can be found cheap on the shelf.  
 

RIP: Ray Bradbury passes at 91

Don Smith sends in this article.

• Ray Bradbury died in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 2012. He was 91. 
• I remember his writings well, as Bradbury, Clark, and Asimov sent a lot of us down roads we may never have looked down without them. One thing of interest to note, is that this great author of speculate and science fiction never got a drivers license. Apparently he saw a horrific crash when he was young. 
• Even trying to start with any book or story written by him would lead to a list that could not be put on here. For me I guess it would be The Martian Chronicles, and Fahrenheit 451 that come to mind first. 
• But he was involved in so many screen plays, and adaptions that to pick a true favorite is almost impossible there. 
• He will be greatly missed by the sci-fi community and the world is just a bit lonelier now.

Don     I do not even in my wildest imagination think I could do a better job.  Or encapsulate my appreciation for the enjoyment Bradbury has brought me over the years.   Yes he most certainly will be missed and the science fiction/fantasy fields are so much worse for the absence.   

Click the article title for the wiki article

Don Pettit and the Space didgeridoo

Don Pettit, aboard the ISS, once again is putting water drops on his speakers. This time instead of constant tone from a signal generator, Don has fashioned a Didgeridoo out of materials at hand (which happen to be the station's vacuum cleaner hoses) with various attachments to change the tone and ultimately the behavior of the water drops on the speakers. Check out the video of Don
Oh and this is off time activities. He is not playing with hoses and water drops on NASA's dime. Check the video out.