MIT researchers have come up with a way to texture the surface of glass to solve many problems of glare and dirt.
From Engadget: Amazon to collect sales tax, create 2,500 jobs in Texas
If Amazon’s been your internet safe haven from the ravages of sales tax, you may want to sit down. As part of a settlement with the great state of Texas, Bezos’ baby will start collecting the state’s requisite 6.25-percent sales tax on July 1st. The settlement resolves the online retailer’s ongoing dispute with the Lone Star state, which claimed that Amazon owed $269 million in back taxes. In addition to taking up collection, Amazon has agreed to create at least 2,500 jobs and invest a minimum of $200 million in capital investments, though it admits no fault, and believes “the assessment was without merit,” according to its latest SEC filing. Grouped in with Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota and Washington, this agreement makes Texas the sixth state to collect sales tax from Amazon — and California, Nevada and Arizona will join the collection club in due time. Check out the source links below for the Texas Comptroller’s official statement and more reading on Amazon’s tax agreements across the nation.
Amazon to collect sales tax, create 2,500 jobs in Texas originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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from Engadget
From Engadget: Space travel coming to an airport near you? Maybe, if Skylon keeps its cool
Want to get from New York to Perth in under 4 hours, or maybe just head to outer space on a lark? Reaction Engines’ “Skylon” mach 5 spaceplane might be your chariot — or not. Its scheme of ingesting oxygen from the atmosphere instead of stowing it like a 50-year old modern multi-stage rocket sounds good, but the project’s fate may hang on critical new tests. Failure is still a possibility, but if the high-speed, superhot gases can be cooled enough for the hybrid Sabre engines to work, and if Reaction Engines Limited can secure another round of funding, punching your space-ticket could soon be a very real possibility.
from Engadget
From Ars Technica: Going organic hurts veggies, OK for legumes
How could organic stuff not be better? Eschewing pesticides and fertilizers is better for consumers, farmers, the environment, and all the denizens of the ecosystems that comprise it—everyone knows that. Even ask Prince Charles.
Yet, like many ideas that seem to be straightforward, this one turns out to be somewhat complex. If organic agriculture has lower yields, it will require more land to generate the same amount of calories as conventional farms. It will thus cause more deforestation and the loss of biodiversity that accompanies it—hardly environmental boons. To find out how things balance out, researchers at McGill and the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota have performed a meta-analysis comparing the yields of organic and conventional farming. Their results are published in Nature.
from Ars Technica
From Gizmodo: Distracted Girl On Cellphone Plunges Into a Sinkhole
This is why you don’t text and drive!! >.<
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We’ve seen people take some serious spills because they’re all walking and talking or texting and not paying attention, but what happens to this poor girl is just horrible. That had to hurt. More »
from Gizmodo
From Gizmodo: Mysterious Rainbow River of Pills Appears In China
From Gizmodo: All Modern American Rockets and Spaceships Compared
This is a very neat graphic: all modern American rockets and spaceships compared, from XCOR’s Lynx—a two-seat space transport vehicle—to NASA’s next-generation Space Launch System. And of course, the classic Saturn V added for good measure. More »
from Gizmodo