There has always been a huge fight between media companies and the internet.  The internet makes it so easy to access productions by these companies that many people just find what they want online rather than buying it.  In some ways, music or videos illegally downloaded can be superior to any version one could buy; download a movie from iTunes and you have one severely limited file type that may dissapear if you do the wrong thing.  Torrent a movie and you can have it in any format you want, no restrictions.  This creates a huge problem for the media companies, and they have spent years trying to stop it.

These companies have made a new attempt to inhibit illegal downloading.  They have convinced Google to censor some torrent related searches. Sound like the end of an age, right?  No more freedom on the internet?  Wrong!

The censorship Google has placed might not even be there.  All that has been done is that certain words or phrases (such as bittorrent) will not auto complete.  I tested this out myself, and Google even instructed me to hit enter to see the results.  However, when I put in "illegal download Avatar," it gave me a ton of options to pick from (and even auto completed it for me).  The entire thing seems like just a political struggle.  I imagine a conversation between the media companies and Google.

The MPAA says, "Hey, your helping people steal from us, and if you don't, you are going to make an enemy you don't want!"

So Google says, "Ok," and then precedes to do as little as possible just to say that they tried.

It isn't like this censorship is a first.  Google has censored inappropriate topics from auto completing in the same way to shelter people from accidentally winding up with something on the screen that they didn't want.  The difference is that the only people who will be looking to download a movie or cd will know what they are looking for, and simple censorship like this does nothing.  The only thing it is doing is creating over dramatic reactions; read some of the comments in the original articles.  This situation could cause some concern about future censorship (one thing leads to the next), but I doubt the scene will even be anywhere near what it is now by the time it gets to that point.

Original article:
Google Begins Soft Censorship Of Arbitrary Piracy-Related Queries

I was surfing through Popsci when I came across an article about a new kind of expanding aluminum.  The process starts with manufactured powder that when heated, creates a tough foam that is strong but light.  The aluminum foam was developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Chemnitz in Germany.  This foam (along with other materials of course) could be used to make lighter hulls for cargo ships.

Whats the big deal with that?  This could significantly reduce the CO2 emission coming from these giant ships.  I searched the internet to see how much the ships put out, and they put out about as much as 50 million cars annually.  With all the buzz about making cars more efficient, it is easy to overlook the fact that most carbon emission comes from the transportation of goods rather than people.  To reduce CO2 emissions, technologies like lighter materials or more efficient engines for large vehicles (rather than private vehicles) are a must.

Article about aluminum foam: New Foaming Metal Could Form Lighter Hulls For Cargo Ships

Information about cargo ship emissions: One Container Ship Pollutes As Much As 50 Million Cars