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It was 40 years ago today that Sony, not Apple, revolutionized the way we listen to music. The Walkman, a portable cassette player that, for the first time, let us take our music with us without bothering our neighbors, hit the market on July 1, 1979. The portable cassette player revolutionized how people listen to music. The Walkman wasn't the first of its kind, but it was the first affordable and manageable portable music player -- others like the German Stereobelt were too clunky and expensive, so they never took off.

By John Gever, Senior Editor Military doctors can use a portable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing device to diagnose novel H1N1 flu infections in troops overseas, the FDA announced. The emergency authorization was approved "to better protect our troops," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, in a statement. The device, called JBAIDS (Joint Biological Agent Identification and Diagnostic System), is a rugged, suitcase-sized instrument that can run PCR-based molecular diagnostic tests. It has been under development for several years by a consortium of military health research centers, the CDC, and academic medical laboratories. The development program began in the...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2008 – Frequent military relocations can take a toll on spouses’ careers unless they have a portable skill, which is exactly what one foundation has set out to provide them. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation has partnered with the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education to offer military spouses a chance to earn the “accredited financial counselor” credential. The credential gives spouses the ability to work in financial counseling, nationwide, either on or off military installations, said Gerri Walsh, associate vice president of authority’s office of investor education. “It is a well...

Millennium Cell Inc. and Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies announced today the completion of a pre-production version of the HydroPak™ portable power generator that incorporates a unique water-activated cartridge system. The HydroPak™ product combines Horizon’s fuel cells with Millennium Cell’s Hydrogen on Demand® storage technology to offer a clean and quiet power generator for use by consumers and professionals for emergency and recreational purposes. Millennium Cell's HydroPak fuel cell This power source is a high energy alternative to lead acid battery packs and portable generators. The HydroPak™ system, together with each cartridge:\ Provides infinite shelf life and enough energy to recharge an...

New technology takes on energy crisis.The portable nuclear reactor is the size of a hot tub. It’s shaped like a sake cup, filled with a uranium hydride core and surrounded by a hydrogen Invented by scientist Otis Peterson, Hyperion’s patent for a hydride reactor is still pending. atmosphere. Encase it in concrete, truck it to a site, bury it underground, hook it up to a steam turbine and, voila, one would generate enough electricity to power a 25,000-home community for at least five years. The company Hyperion Power Generation was formed last month to develop the nuclear fission reactor at...

June 4, 2007 We've long been excited by the possibilities offered by wearable micro-screens. The ability to mount a miniature display in a set of glasses opens up a whole new portable video experience where any seat on the bus can be a personal movie theatre and you'll be able to enjoy your video in complete privacy. Now, with the anouncement of a volume manufacturing facility in Dresden, Germany, MicroEmissive Displays (MED) is ready to step beyond the prototype and bring commercial microscreens into the mass market. They'll start things off with mass production of the eyescreen ME3204, a 320...

Not literally of course, but a new service in the US promises to provide Internet access from motor vehicles on 95 percent of US roads. Autonet Mobile (www.autonetmobile.com), which bills itself as the first Internet service provider for cars, will debut its new service at ShowStoppers during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company also promises to announce an agreement with a world leading car rental company to offer a portable, wireless Internet service by the end of the first quarter of 2007. It says the service will let passengers check email, surf the web, game or communicate...

Magnetic resonance imaging no longer requires a roomful of equipment – including superconducting magnets that must be cooled to extreme temperatures. A multidisciplinary team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, and the University of California, Berkeley, both in the US, developed a highly sensitive laser detector that produces magnetic resonance images at room temperature using low-power, off-the-shelf magnets. MRI works by measuring minute magnetic signals from atomic nuclei whose "spins" have been aligned using external magnetic fields. As different atoms react differently, this provides a unique way to image tissue inside the human body or analyse many other materials....

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - A U.S. government delegation worked Tuesday to convince Nicaragua to destroy about 1,000 surface-to-air missiles left over from the 1980s Contra war. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed that a U.S. team was in the Nicaraguan capital to renew efforts to have the portable SAM-7 missiles destroyed. The team's leader, Rose Likins, the acting assistant secretary for political and military affairs, did not comment as she arrived in Nicaragua. U.S. officials have been trying to convince Nicaragua to give up the missiles, which were supplied by the Soviet Union when the former Sandinista government...

Series of EmergencyNet News Reports Concerning the Threat of Usage of Shoulder-fired Anti-aircraft Missiles: 31 May 2002 to 01 June 2002 From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Saturday, June 1, 2002-Vol. 8 - 152U.S. COUNTERTERRORISM OPERATIONS:U.S. Forces Capture Cache Of Portable Missiles In AfghanistanAFGHANISTAN: The Washington Times was reporting on Saturday that U.S. military forces in Afghanistan confiscated a cache of 30 anti-aircraft missiles as a new general took control of the U.S.- led campaign there. A Pentagon official said that the missiles were described as a Chinese-made version of the SA-7 surface-to-air missile. Disclosure of the missile...

News reports say that al-Qaeda terrorists may have smuggled shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles into the United States. We give you the full rundown on what these weapons can do, how they work, where they may come from, and how they might be used. It's all here for you, on Winds of Change!