Better Place unveiled its battery swap system today and said the $500,000 gadget can replace a dead battery and get you back on the road in less time than it takes to fill your gas tank.

The prototype revealed in Japan is the first of what the Silicon Valley startup promises will be countless automated battery exchange stations that will one day dot our cities. The technology will make it possible to travel long distances in an EV without the hassle of stopping to recharge your battery, company founder and CEO Shai Agassi said.

Check out the video!

Better Place Unveils an Electric Car Battery Swap Station | Autopia | Wired.com

On Jan. 15, 2009, a few Canadian geese with bad timing became snarge, a steely pilot became a hero, and the world became fascinated with images of a jet splashing into the Hudson River and then floating calmly as passengers crowded its wings.

But until now, few people have seen the equally surprising pictures of the second half of this story: when a salvage team used the biggest floating crane on the East Coast to pluck the ill-fated Airbus A320 from the frigid water.

Photographer Stephen Mallon was at a happy hour with his wife on the evening US Air Flight 1549 made the news. As people in the bar chatted about what was going on, he realized that he knew exactly who the authorities would turn to for help. Mallon specializes in documenting industrial subjects, and had been photographing the work of maritime contractor Weeks Marine, a company that had been hired to dump derelict subway cars into the ocean to create artificial reefs.

The Unlikely Events of a Water Landing: New Photos From Flight 1549

The French National Assembly on Tuesday approved a plan by President Nicolas Sarkozy to punish digital pirates with the possible suspension of their Internet connections, a little more than a month after the same body had rejected the proposal in a surprise vote.

France Approves Crackdown on Internet Piracy - NYTimes.com

Seven astronauts blasted off for one last dance with the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday.

Shuttle Lifts Off for Final Trip to Telescope - NYTimes.com

Software companies could be held responsible for the security and efficacy of their products, if a new European Commission consumer protection proposal becomes law.

EC wants software makers held liable for code | Tech News on ZDNet

1972 - Dennis Ritchie invents a powerful gun that shoots both forward and backward simultaneously. Not satisfied with the number of deaths and permanent maimings from that invention he invents C and Unix.

One Div Zero: A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages

The Department of Energy announced on Thursday that it will restart its program to make plutonium-238. Spokeswoman Jen Stutsman said the agency has proposed $30 million in next year's budget for preliminary design and engineering. The National Academy's study shows why it is needed, she said.

Fuel for deep space exploration running low - Space- msnbc.com

The project, spearheaded by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, would use power produced by a windmill and solar energy cells to run a machine called an electrolyzer that splits water molecules into its base elements of hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen, in turn, would be used as fuel for specially-equipped buses.

Hydrogen Fuel Made Using Green Energy: Discovery News

The Obama Administration today announced the launch of an independent review of planned U.S. human space flight activities with the goal of ensuring that the nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space. The review will be conducted by a blue-ribbon panel of experts led by Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, who served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under Democratic and Republican presidents and led the 1990 Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program and the 2007 National Academies commission that produced the landmark report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, as well as a number of other high-profile national commissions.

The "Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans" is to examine ongoing and planned National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) development activities, as well as potential alternatives, and present options for advancing a safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable human space flight program in the years following Space Shuttle retirement. The panel will work closely with NASA and will seek input from Congress, the White House, the
public, industry, and international partners as it develops its options. It is to present its results in time to support an Administration decision on the way forward by August 2009.

The new administration may kill Ares.

U.S. Announces Review of Human Space Flight Plans | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

Paul Graham:

Adults lie constantly to kids. I'm not saying we should stop, but I think we should at least examine which lies we tell and why.

Lies We Tell Kids