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SECAUCUS, NJ -- 05/07/09 -- Panasonic, a leader in High Definition technology, announced today that the critically-acclaimed, 103-inch Plasma Full High Definition 1080p Display -- the world's largest Plasma commercially available -- will now be priced at $50,000. When it debuted in December 2006, the made-to-order HD Display was priced at $69,999.95. With widespread acclaim for its size and picture quality, Panasonic's 103-inch Plasma has become the industry's leading high-impact, large-format display for a wide range of commercial and home theater applications -- from digital signage and entertainment, to high-end home theater, command and control and higher education. Since its...

THE plasma TV isn't dead yet -- but it looks like it's not long for this world. Like the Betamax videotape format and laser disc DVD before it, the plasma TV set -- the favorite of techies -- is losing out to the more popularly priced LCD TV. Pioneer and VIZIO -- the nation's No. 2 set maker -- say they're abandoning the plasma business. With a 22 percent sales drop in the first quarter of 2009 compared to last year -- when the sale of flat-screen TVs overall is sky rocketing -- "the writing is kind of on the...

In their continuing quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state regulators have uncovered a new villain in the war on global warming : your big screen TV Couch potatoes, beware. The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market — most of them 40 inches or larger. (snip) Affordable big screen TVs will still be available under the new standards, spokesman Adam Gottlieb said. In fact, he said the regulations will save you money....

In preparation for Sunday's Super Bowl showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, many football fans this weekend will buy or rent the biggest-screen TV they can get their paws on. Most of them, however, will be focusing on the picture quality rather than the impact on their electric bills of having an energy-guzzling mega-screen in their living rooms. But they might have no choice come this time next year: The California Energy Commission this summer is expected to adopt rules that would require retailers by 2011 to sell only TVs that meet federal Energy Star program standards, according...

Does Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket sound like science fiction to you?

Short on cash, some put a price on themselves Lean times spurs interest in payment for sperm, eggs, plasma — even hair By JoNel Aleccia Fri., Dec. 5, 2008 Before this fall, it might not have occurred to Michael Aylesworth to swap his sperm for money. But faced with rising bills, a dwindling budget and a fractured economy, the 30-year-old Seattle man took stock of some very personal assets — and decided to sell. “I did it because I’m a student and I’m always broke,” said Aylesworth, who spent several delicate minutes in a small room at the Seattle Sperm...

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed the microplasma transistor by integrating a conventional microcavity plasma device with an electron emitter. Kuo-Feng (Kevin) Chen and Professor J. Gary Eden, Director of the Laboratory for Optical Physics and Engineering, published their study in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters. As Eden explained, a plasma transistor could one day have certain advantages compared with conventional transistors. "As you might imagine, this first plasma transistor has not yet been engineered to the degree necessary for a commercial product," Eden told PhysOrg.com. "Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that a microplasma transistor...

Professor Gary Friedman (left) and Alex Fridman, director of the Drexel Plasma Institute, demonstrate a plasma generator being tested for use in medicine. A few years ago, a researcher at Drexel University accidentally cut his finger and exposed it to plasma, a fourth state of matter created by ionizing gas. To everyone’s surprise, the blood from the cut coagulated. “We said, ‘OK, this is very interesting, maybe we can help somebody with this,’” said Gary Friedman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and a professor of surgery at Drexel, who was working with the researcher at the time....

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Flying saucers may soon be more fact than mere science fiction. University of Florida mechanical and aerospace engineering associate professor Subrata Roy has submitted a patent application for a circular, spinning aircraft design reminiscent of the spaceships seen in countless Hollywood films. Roy, however, calls his design a “wingless electromagnetic air vehicle,” or WEAV. The proposed prototype is small – the aircraft will measure less than six inches across – and will be efficient enough to be powered by on-board batteries. Roy said the design can be scaled up and theoretically should work in a much larger...

A Sacramento city councilwoman visited a Japanese energy plant last week to watch plasma torches vaporize garbage at temperatures hotter than the sun's surface. She returned more confident that the technology could help her hometown solve its garbage dilemma. "It's clearer than the Campbell's Soup plant," said Lauren Hammond, comparing the puff of white steam coming out of the Ushanti plasma gasification plant with that of the landmark factory on Franklin Boulevard. The Sacramento City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to continue negotiating with a Sacramento firm that wants to make California's capital the first American city to use...

May 19, 2008 There’s at least one reason to look forward to the InfoComm 2008 conference in Las Vegas this June with next-generation large-screen display manufacturer Shinoda Plasma announcing plans to exhibit a flexible, 1-millimeter thick, 125-inch film-type prototype display that can be used as a curved or wrap-around screen. At a low-key unveiling on May 15, Shinoda Plasma announced plans to exhibit the 3 x 1 meter, (9 feet 10-inches x 3 feet 3-inches) plasma tube array (PTA) display, which consists of 3 seamlessly integrated 1 x 1 meter square sub-modules and offers a resolution of 960 x 360...

Million-Degree Plasma Found in Orion 01/19/2008 The Orion nebula, an object of beauty to stargazers (picture, Hubble view) is pervaded by plasma heated to two million degrees Kelvin, reported astronomers in Science.1 Two funnel-shaped regions of x-ray emitting plasma in the extended nebula were observed by astronomers using the X-Ray Multi-Mirror (XMM)-Newton satellite. “The energy requirement to heat the large-scale x-ray emitting plasma is severe,” they said. What could heat up gas to emit 55 billion trillion trillion ergs per second? Not the molecular flows of gas in the nebula. Not the microjets from numerous young stars. Their suggestion: “The...

A woman who was angry because her husband wanted her to turn up the heat pulled out a gun and shot their flat-screen TV while he cowered behind a pillow, Macomb County authorities say. The 65-year-old man called 911 Sunday night from the basement of their Washington Township home, about 25 miles north of Detroit. "My wife's got a gun. She's shooting at me," ... He told the operator that Cheryl Grucz, 61, was angry because he wanted the heat turned up. She fired a round while he hid his head in a pillow, striking the plasma TV, then went...

I'm in the market to buy a big screen H.D.T.V. I don't know squat about them. What's the difference in plasma and LCDs? Which is best? What is the best brand for the money? I'm looking for at least a 42 inch set. Do I need to buy a convertor box to get the signal from my cable company? Do I have to pay extra to my cable company for the service? Thanks

All current plasma TVs and many LCDs could be removed from sale by 2011. (File photo) (Reuters/Las Vegas Sun: Steve Marcus) A report commissioned by the Federal Government says there is a growing demand for plasma and LCD televisions, which use more power than traditional TV sets. It says energy rating labels are needed to tell consumers about the performance of the TVs. But under a proposed six-star rating system, most current plasma TVs do not meet the requirements and could be removed from sale. The report also suggests "minimum energy performance standards" be introduced which would eliminate the worst...

THE Conservatives will propose banning plasma screens and other energy-guzzling electrical goods in a report to be unveiled next week. The proposals target white goods like fridges and freezers, as well as TVs, personal computers and DVD players that use too much energy or operate on stand-by. The ideas come from a Conservative group set up by David Cameron to develop policies to protect the environment and although the measures to make household electrical appliances more energy efficient are not binding on Mr Cameron, they are thought likely to be warmly received by the Tory leader. The group will also...

Calling Blood Type AB Donors We have received an urgent request from the United States Department of Defense for type AB plasma. We will be shipping them 100 units a week thru mid-August. We ask for your help at this time. As a blood type AB donor, the plasma in your body is universal – it can go to anyone of any blood type. Who uses plasma? Burn patients, trauma patients, even our troops wounded in battle. Type AB is also rare. Only 4% of the population is type AB, so you can imagine how in-demand your plasma must be....

physicist says multiple factors affect picture quality. If you own a high-definition TV, don't read Edward Kelley's new tipsheet for folks in the market for plasma, LCD and other high-end displays. He doesn't want to ruin your day. Kelley is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Flat Screen Display Laboratory in Boulder. He wrote most of what one in the industry called "a bible" for the industrial testing and certification of flat-panel screens. Kelley's tipsheet opens sternly, with an all-caps warning. "SOME PEOPLE HAVE FOUND THAT THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL HAS REDUCED THEIR ABILITY TO ENJOY THEIR...

Governments should tax plasma screen televisions because of the large amount of energy they consume, according to a leading expert on climate change. Professor Paul Ekins, who studies the economics of climate change, said taxing plasma screens would reflect their "greater climate change burden". This would encourage development and take-up of more energy efficient diode screens, Professor Ekins said. He said government could label energy hungry appliances as a first step. Plasma televisions, which are 50% bigger than their cathode-ray tube equivalents, consume about four times more energy, according to the government-funded Energy Saving Trust.

Imagine a car that accelerates from zero to sixty in 250 feet, and then rockets to 120 miles per hour in just one more inch. That's essentially what a collaboration of accelerator physicists has accomplished, using electrons for their racecars and plasma for the afterburners. Because electrons already travel at near light's speed in an accelerator, the physicists actually doubled the energy of the electrons, not their speed. The researchers—from the Department of Energy's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering—published their...