We aren’t sure why you would want to block all cell signals in your home. Maybe if you are a super villain or a spy this would come in handy. Maybe you just want people to stay off the phone and focus.

Anyway, this cell phone jammer is disguised to look like a generic painting of some boats. People will just think you buy crap art and they will stop visiting you because you live in a dead zone. It will cost you $150. Hey, art uglier than this costs a lot more.

Typically a battery functions with lithium ions flowing between a negatively charged anode, usually graphite, and the positively charged cathode, usually cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate. But three years ago, an MIT team reported that it had engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire. The “virus batteries” have the energy capacity and power performance similar to rechargeable batteries.

The prototype battery is a coin battery, but the idea is that cell and larger batteries could be made from this process and that one day it will power cars, boats and everything else. As it stands right now, it can go at least 100 charges before performance goes down. That will change of course.

Maritime Flight Dynamics wants to make high speed travel on the seas practical, safe, fuel-efficient and hell, while they’re at it, comfortable too. Their vehicle of choice? The SeaPhantom. It’s fast enough to get you from Key West to Cuba in 45 minutes! It uses an airfoil to fly above the crests of the waves, thus reducing drag.

The propeller remains in the water, while the body of the SeaPhantom is above the sea’s surface. Apparently this reduces hydrodynamic drag and in doing so, requires less power and uses only a fraction of the fuel compared to conventional fast boats. And we may have a chance to ride in one ourselves very soon since the Sea Phantom has moved from prototype to the actual ocean. It looks like a robot killer whale.

If cell signals drop like a stone in your home, you probably need a mobile cellular booster to help bring your bars back up. Renasis, a developer of wireless communications products, is offering one such new product in the form of the Renasis MCB-819.

The Renasis MCB-819, which has no pricing or availability information at the moment, offers dual band compatible service (CDMA/PCS) can be used in home or office to enhance cellular signal in areas which typically drop calls, such as in basements or “dead” spots.

Some California residents might be receiving electricity from a more novel, environmentally friendly and source in the coming years. PG&E has announced that it is going to team up with Finavera Renewables to build a “wave farm” off the coast of California in order to generate electricity.

The wave farm consists of “wave energy converters”, or basically large buoys like Finavera’s Aquabuoy pictured here. As the buoy moves up and down on top of the waves that pass by it drives a piston which is anchored on the ocean floor. The piston creates pressure which drives a turbine and in turn creates electricity. A single full-scale Aquabuoy can generate 250 killowatts which can power approximately 80 homes. The initial plan is to create a farm of these buoys that will generate 2 megawatts of electricity by 2012, and if things go well they will ramp up the farm to produce 100 megawatts.

At a press conference this morning here at the LA Auto Show the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid was named as the Green Car Journal’s 2008 Green Car of the Year. The 2008 Tahoe is the first vehicle from General Motors that uses the new (and expensive) two-mode transmission hybrid system.

The Tahoe receiving this award may come as a surprise to many since most would not picture a full-size SUV when someone talks about hybrid vehicles or fuel-savings. But in reality, many people still buy large sport utility vehicles in order to pull boats and campers, haul around a large family or take trips and a vehicle like this gives them the opportunity to make a smaller environmental impact with their SUV.