The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn't Just More -- More Is Different The new availability of huge amounts of data, along with the statistical tools to crunch these numbers, offers a whole new way of understanding the world, suggests Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson.

A new NASA-French space agency oceanography satellite launched recently from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a globe-circling voyage to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. The mission will return a vast amount of new data that will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.

Mike Strizki has not paid an electric, oil or gas bill--nor has he spent a nickel to fill up his Mercury Sable--in nearly two years. Instead, the 51-year-old civil engineer makes all the fuel he needs using a system he built in the capacious garage of his home, which employs photovoltaic (PV) panels to turn sunlight into electricity that is harnessed in turn to extract hydrogen from tap water.

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NATO Undersea Research Center have developed an "acoustic time reversal" technique that boosts underwater wireless broadband speed by up to three times, or extends the range up to 3500 km.

Japan's second largest telecoms group KDDI Corp is partnering Nippon Express Company to enter the domestic telegram market in Japan, in a bid to break Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp's (NTT's) stranglehold on the segment, the Nikkei daily reports. From 1 July KDDI will launch a telegram service via nine delivery centres across the country.