http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/15/technology/disruptors_eestor.biz2/index.htm - Gentlemen, stop your engines EEStor's new automotive power source could eliminate the need for the combustion engine - and for oil.

We're getting closer.

Yet another perpetual motion machine. Only these days they don't call them that, they call them "miracle power sources" that "will replace gasoline engines". Same difference though.

>> According to a patent issued in April, the device is made of a ceramic powder coated with aluminum oxide and glass. <<

Sounds like it's a technology mix of aluminum electrolytic and sintered tantalum capacitors.

What they're claiming sounds like the battacitor from Jose Farmer's Riverworld novels (sucky movie, excellent books, btw).  Charges like a capacitor, discharges like a battery.

I haven't been paying close attention to the supercapacitor articles I've seen, isn't the "discharges like a battery" part still touch and go?  Yeah, it sounds like a capacitor - what happens if you short that baby out?

You know what happens to lithium ion batteries in laptops when you short them out? Well, multiply by 1000 and that's what happens to your car. :-)