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Let's find all the coal, say mining experts

American coal experts want more information. And they want the U.S. government to pay for it. Today the National Research Council issued a call for more federal money to find and assess America's coal deposits.

Currently over half of the U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal. But there is uncertainty about future use and availability of coal. And there is the issue of CO2 emissions and other pollution from coal-burning power plants. Plus the U.S. must now compete with China and other nations for use of the world's coal.

In short, says the Council'… Read more

Google acquires Zenter, online slideshow tool

Google has just announced its acquisition of Zenter, a small company that makes software for creating online slideshows--a much rumored, and fully confirmed product Google's CEO Eric Schmidt officially announced a few months ago at the Web 2.0 Expo.

Zenter joins Tonic Systems, another presentation-creation service Google picked up back in April.

Zenter first unveiled its service in mid-March and has since stayed fairly quiet. The service lets users import Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, as well as grab bits of content from all over the Web for making presentations that can be viewed and shared in the Web browser. … Read more

Stay juiced even while camping

It's almost summer, and we know how popular camping is with Cravers. We think it ranks right up there with a root canal.

But fear not, CrackBerry addicts, there's at least a glimmer of hope in the "Eureka N!ergy Tent." It may not save you from bears, mosquitoes and snoring camp mates, but GeekSugar says it does have three 12-volt plugs that can be connected to a separately sold power pack to keep all your gadgets juiced no matter how remote the wilderness.

Be warned, though: The large size is supposedly designed for eight people (… Read more

Power Plate

There is nothing new about whole body vibration technology, the Russians started using it back in the 50?s and 60?s to train their Olympic athletes and their cosmonauts. Dr. Vladimir Nazarov was a member of the soviet gymnastics team and chair of sports and biomechanics at the State college in Minsk. Dr. Nazarov started testing vibration technology in competitive sports and realized the benefits in developing strength and power.

This technology has been around in many forms for quite sometime but only now has the fitness community started to develop vibration machines that are becoming fixtures in Gym?… Read more

Perfect for Any Garage: The Jet-Engine Go-Cart

As I sit here and consider how I should begin telling you about this wonderful piece of machinery, I first wonder just how great it would be to see this sucker sitting in my garage. Imagine the rush you feel in knowing that you own the fastest go-cart in the world. Not bad, if I should say so myself.

The go-cart not only features a gas turbine engine that you would find in a US Navy A7 Corsair carrier aircraft, it spews some pretty serious afterburn. With a press of the fuel injection button, followed by the ignition button, the … Read more

For new Sanyo projector, short is better

In our remote-driven society, distance is often considered a good thing. The farther away a gadget can work, the better.

So in this sense, a new projector from Sanyo is somewhat counter-intuitive: Its biggest selling point is how close it can be positioned to the image it's projecting. The LP-XL40 has an "ultra-short-focus lens" that can project the equivalent of an 80-inch screen from just 3.15 inches away, according to Akihabara News.

Why is this a good thing? Think about all the tight spots where it can work--such as mounted on a wall directly above the … Read more

A laptop case for paramilitary missions

Now this is a laptop case that makes sense to us. There are PCs, keyboards and even USB drives designed to withstand all manner of assault, but our needs aren't so ambitious. In fact, given our sedentary nature, the only time we really worry about damage to our computers is when they're packed away for the car or plane. Which is precisely where RadTech's "MacTruck" comes in.

The aluminum-alloy case, which the manufacturer claims is "rugged enough to drive a truck over," has two steel latch bars to provide maximum protection for a … Read more

Historic Pearl Brewery to become solar gem

Amid all the fermentation in the alternative-energy sector, the historic Pearl Brewery in San Antonio is poised to become a showcase for solar power.

And it'll be a big one, to boot. CPS Energy and renovator Silver Ventures want to turn the former brewery into the largest solar energy installation in Texas: a 200-kilowatt array of panels will crown a 67,000-square-foot warehouse that's being rehabbed for mixture of office, retail and residential use as the Full Goods Building. The project will provide approximately one-quarter of the building's total energy needs, according to CPS Energy, the municipal … Read more

Google's PowerPoint viewer goes live

Gmail users who get Microsoft PowerPoint attachments in their in-boxes can now view them without having PowerPoint installed on their machines. Google appears to have flipped the switch to allow this feature as of last night. We originally reported on this last month, although at that time it appeared that only a handful of accounts had access. This option now shows up on all accounts.

Also, somewhat related: today is the unofficial "Day without Google," a challenge that asks people to try doing their searches on alternate search engines outside of the "Big 5" which includes … Read more

Slide show roundup: Coby MP-C7082, Blue Raven MediaMate 7000, and Sony MEX-BT2500

Today we have some pictures of a bad, bad MP3 player. So bad our editors gave it a 2.3 rating. Poor thing. It looks so sleek and spacey. We also have pics of a gigantic wide-screen PVP with built-in DVR capabilities, as well as a slide show of a good entry-level car stereo. And we have two slide shows on the Canon PowerShot S5 IS. One shows its features and design, and the other presents some image samples. Check them all out below.

Photos: Coby MP-C7082

It is a rare day indeed that we come across a piece of … Read more