Comet Elenin is coming, but it’ll miss us
On Oct. 16, Comet Elenin will come within about 22 million miles of Earth. NASA scientists describe it as a “modest sized icy dirtball.” Inspiring. SpaceRef
“Hang on a second. Hello? Hi. Sorry I gotta take this.”
A study by the Pew Research Center found that 13 percent of cell phone users pretended to use the phone so they didn’t have to interact with someone. Nice people use their phones to text and surf the web — 73 and 44 percent respectively — but not the nasty 13 percent. Wired’s Epicenter
First offshore wind turbine to be in Texas
Despite all the attention paid to the Cape Wind project off Nantucket, it seems that the Lone Star state may get the first offshore wind turbine. This is not entirely surprising given that Texas is the turbine capital of the U.S. Coastal Point Energy plans to test a turbine off the coast of Galveston by the end of the year. Fast Company
(Ed. As a clever reader notes below, it is the first offshore turbine in the U.S.)
Flying car falls short of aesthetic ideal
A 72-year-old Russian man has built a flying car out of a 1987 ZAZ Tavria (think Geo Metro). The car goes airborne at about 60 miles per hour and can stay airborne for 600 feet at an altitude of 10 feet. Neat, but not really what futurists dreamed of in the last century. Discovery Channel
Top image: Comet Elenin. Courtesy NASA