Paper-based disposable computer

Paper based computing is on the way, but iIf you look at one of the driving factors behind this technology then you may despair.

RFID is a way of creating 'smart' packaging. The idea is that producers will be able to monitor and track items a lot easier and accurately by including an RFID implementation into the packaging. This means exact tracking of every single packaged product will be possible. The green party would have a field day on this one (excuse the pun)... first of all, there's a lot of energy wasted by creating unnecessary household packaging - and the more you put into it (manufacturing-wise) the less likely it is that you can reuse or recycle. I assume that, by definition, RFID packaging can only be used once.

The upside is that development of the technology may lead to general computing devices made from materials that are easier to recycle. This obviously is probably a good thing, and almost certainly required as much of today's computing equipment consumes about 10 tmes it's weight in fossil fuels to produce. There's a need to create more environmentally friendly computing devices.

With some good uses for paper computers, e-paper books and the Earth getting greener there actually looks like there could be an exciting and better future ahead of us... but only if we focus on those things. Also, my flippant remarks about RFID packaging being bad because it is even less re-useable, more resource-consuming than today's packaging may be not looking at the holistic picture - what if RFID packaging meant a 5% efficiency gain in the distribution of goods and therefore a 5% reduction in the consumption of resources used to transport the goods but only contributed to a 1% increase in the overall resource consumption due to packaging.

It's a complex business, but we should always look at the whole picture.

Nuclear Fusion Real Soon Now

Sustainable nuclear fusion at only 500 trillion watts! My question is; who pays the electric bill for all those "lasers"?

Stop press! Cows flew past the moon.

Did cows land on Mars? I know this is a silly note, but is the fact that a certain amount of methane is sustained within the Martian atomosphere an amazing thing? They'll probably find that bacteria from one of the old Russian mars probes have colonised the place!

Seriously though... if there is methane produced somehow, doesn't that mean that there is oxygen and carbon being released from something? That's either caused by:

1. Volcanic activity (none found)
2. Some active form of life (is it too hard to find the source - if there's enough to be detected in the Martian atmosphere - a very big volume - then there must be a lot being released from somewhere.)
3. Some other, hitherto, unknown process...
4. Beagle done a poop and it's decaying.