Report: Large Hadron Collider producing tons of awesome collisions originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumored Windows Phone 7 details surface ahead of MWC launch: Zune-like UI, no multitasking originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Philip Ross works with a mushroom farm called Far West Fungi. And on it they're growing your future house. Or at least the nontoxic, fireproof, mold- and water-resistant building blocks for it.

There are dozens of mushroom-filled shipping containers on this farm, but what Ross is after are the "fungi's thin, white rootlike fibers" also known as mycelium. He's after these fibers because they make great building blocks:

Mycelium doesn't taste very good, but once it's dried, it has some remarkable properties. It's nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It's also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete.

If you doubt how strong the material is, consider this: Ross "destroyed many a metal file and saw blade" while shaping 500 of these mushroom bricks into a six foot by six foot archway. He hopes to destroy many more tools by one day building entire homes out of mushroom bricks.

And my parents thought I was nuts when I told them I wanted to live in a mushroom just like the Smurfs.[Time via Futurismic]

Say Hello to Markos Calasan. He's nine years old and lives in Macedonia. He's also Microsoft Certified four times over and working on his fifth certificate. (And he prefers Bing.)

This is the type of story that warms your heart but also makes you feel a little bad about yourself. Why? Because still in his single digits, Markos is more computer literate than many of us will ever be. Here he describes his first memories of using a computer:

But my first memory is from when I was approximately 3 years old when I was making simple actions like personalizing Windows, then installing Windows, making remote desktop connections with workstations and servers on remote locations, and so on.

As someone who still struggles to get remote desktop working, that hurts. But still, good for the little guy, who has earned four certificates—MCP, MCDST, MCSA and MCSE—and is going for his fifth to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer. When asked about his plans for the next ten years, Calasan said he hoped to write Windows 7 instructional books for users of all levels. He also said that Bing is his preferred search engine.

When asked if he preferred Windows or OSX, Calasan held back from indulging his literal inner fanboy, explaining, "For everyone, the choice is different, so for me I use Windows because I am satisfied with its security, stability, scalability, productivity and many other good advantages of the Microsoft Windows operating system."

That diplomatic reponse to the enduring operating system debate might be an even more impressive display of precociousness than his certificates. [Network World]

Think of it as a friendly backseat driver with a remarkable mind for calculating risk and a keen ability to cut your fuel use and emissions. That’s kind of how 7-year-old startup GreenRoad Technologies’ tool works for improving driver behavior through real-time feedback.

GreenRoad’s system uses sensors, an accelerometor, GPS and customized algorithms to calculate the relative risk of different driving maneuvers, then communicates that to the driver by illuminating either a red, yellow or green light. Installed mainly on commercial fleet vehicles (80 fleets so far), the device can have its algorithm customized according to a customer’s priorities, and it communicates information via cellular networks to GreenRoad’s data center. “The brains are in the vehicle,” GreenRoad marketing chief Eric Weiss told me this week, so even in areas without cellular coverage, drivers “always get real-time feedback.”

Weiss commented that the “preoccupation” with banning texting while driving (an idea that’s gaining momentum in certain states and among U.S. policymakers), and the “legislative approach of cordoning off all the things you can’t do…is not effective for converting wrong to right.”

It also obscures a larger opportunity, he said, to transform driving habits using technology, or more specifically: real-time feedback for drivers (both positive and negative), constant data gathering and an online display showing potential savings and areas for improvement — similar to the energy management tools rolling out that monitor homeowners’ real-time use of electricity, natural gas and water, and present it in web-based portals and in-home displays.

Based in Redwood Shores, Calif., with offices in the U.S., UK and Israel, Greenroad is not alone in trying to seize that opportunity. A number of smartphone apps and after-market vehicle retrofits have emerged in an effort to meet demand for the real-time and cumulative data about fuel efficiency that hypermilers have come to love in the Toyota Prius display.

And more automakers are starting build these tools right into the vehicle. Ford, for example, has developed an instrument cluster that, as Grist put it recently, tells “the driver (nicely) whether to ditch the lead foot or keep the good times rollin’.”

For GreenRoad, backed by Virgin Green Fund and Benchmark Capital, among others, one of its main selling points to fleet operators is that the real-time risk assessments of different driving maneuvers help to improve safety, reduce wear and tear on vehicles and slash the number of accidents. But Weiss said that the company’s system has been installed in “two of the country’s largest truck fleets, primarily because of fuel saving.”

We’d like to see bigger cuts in fuel consumption than the 10 percent noted on GreenRoad’s web site, and the up to 15 percent that Weiss said the system can deliver (depending on the route, vehicle and driver). But the system represents one tool that’s relatively easy to implement and, in combination with other technologies, could help to reduce emissions from the transportation sector — the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country since 1990, and also one of the largest.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tesla Motors, the San Carlos, Calif.-based electric car startup, has just registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a $100 million initial public offering. This could be the biggest and possibly the first public offering for a U.S. car company since Ford Motor’s IPO more than 50 years ago.

The long-awaited IPO (rumors swirled last fall that the filing could come any day and the startup has discussed for years its intention to go public), if and when it goes through, will offer a test for whether the classic venture capital model (invest early and find a big exit in the form of an acquisition or an IPO) will be viable in the nascent green car market. Based on how the market responds to the offering from Tesla — a company with considerable buzz and funding from the Department of Energy, but so far not a single profitable year — will also serve as a gauge of public confidence in electric cars.

According to Tesla’s filing, the startup has accumulated net losses of more than $236 million since its inception, including $31.5 million for the first nine months of 2009 (down from $57.3 million in the same period a year earlier). Through the end of September 2009, Tesla garnered revenue of $108 million, most of it ($93.4 million) in 2009. The company anticipates “continuing losses for at least the forseeable future,” as a result of increased costs and expenses associated with design, development and manufacture of the Model S sedan, as well as ramped up marketing, new store openings and other expansion efforts.

While Tesla is now “almost entirely dependent upon revenue generated” through sales of the luxury electric Roadster, it sees its “future success” hinging on acceptance of the mid-range Model S — a project that holds many uncertainties for the startup despite $365 million in federal loans supporting this next-gen model. Tesla notes, for example, that its “production model for the non-powertrain portion of the Model S is unproven, still evolving and is very different from” that portion of the Tesla Roadster. We’ll have more tidbits from the S-1 coming up soon. In the meantime, you can check out the full document here.