Amazing Things
Rinspeed Squba electric car/submarine
It's not often nowadays that you see a product that really makes you wonder about the sanity of its creators.
Meet Rinspeed Squba, an electric Lotus Elise that goes up to 75 mph on land ... up to 5mph on water and up to 2mph submerged.
This is one item where you really have to see the video to be impressed. Check out the second one where the intrepid Top Gear magazine reporter takes a drive ... and a dive.
Like the Tesla Roadster it's based on the versatile Lotus Elise. An open model. If they closed the cockpit it would have to weigh tons to offset the bouyancy of the cabin!
Practicality factor about zero, cool factor off the charts. 750,000 British pounds (about $1,250,000) buys you one.
Filed under: tesla, squba, rinspeed, electric car, and submarine
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Video: The Race for the Electric Car
Tesla Motors has the venture funding and the chic beautiful Roadster ... but GM is trying to fight back with the Volt. We talk to both Elon Musk of Tesla and Bob Lutz of GM and get a good idea of what's going on in Silicon Valley, Detroit and elsewhere in the race for the electric car.
Filed under: tesla, volt, and electric car
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Energy from the waves at the bottom of the sea
We go to a lot of unhospitable regions, like Alaska, to get our energy today, so how about the warm, welcoming waters of Australia?
This is a story about a company that's switching from oil to energy from the sea ... because it's infinite, completely renewable and nonpolluting. Every scrap of energy is going to be needed, says the company's founder .. including that from the oddest places.
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Kids learning science ... through video games!
Constance Steinkuehler has an interesting job: She researches how kids approach video games.
She found that if they were given a challenging task like managing raids on tough targets, they would spontaneously collaborate, collecting data about the targets, finding out their strong and weak spots, and use that information to attack. They even plotted this information using an Excel spreadsheet and created mathematical models to predict what would happen.
They were learning the scientific method, in a setting that gave tangible rewards for learning.
Intriguingly to the researcher, these were the same students that shunned traditional, boring science courses. She believes schools should embrace games as a way to teach people about science in a way that makes them motivated to learn.
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Electric car ... or UFO?
Is this a solar car ... or a UFO?
Some drivers thought the latter was a sure bet ... and reported it to police!
But it was just Canadian Marcelo da Luz striking his own blow for a solar powered, carbon free future.
Filed under: electric car, ufo, and police
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Grow your own home?
After a major storm or earthquake or other disaster, trees keep standing when even our strongest structures fall. So why not make a house out of trees?
Certain trees have bendable roots which can be grown in air, forming into shapes roughly resembling a house. The roots are then guided into soil and harden to create a solid structure. This can be supplemented by metal framing to create architectural spaces.
Looks like a cool idea, but I wonder if you lose the advantages of the tree once you add metal. And the tree bends, does it not? Not sure if you want a bending house.
At the very least, the park bench with built in shade from its included tree is a pretty cool idea.
But if you do ... this link's for you.
Filed under: trees, houses, and architecture
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Architecturally significant sandcastles!
Some people create their amazing things with sand ... and then watch them wash away ...
Filed under: sandcastles and summer
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Solar powered plane stays in the air for over 3 days!
Through a combination of solar cells and battery power, the Zephyr experimental plane recently flew for three days straight. Using super-lightweight solar cells and super-efficient batteries, the plane is powered and charged by day, and then the batteries provide power at night.
Like a lot of amazing research, including the Internet, this was funded by the military, in this case to provide a new generation of spy planes.
Filed under: zephyr, solar flight, solar plane, endurance, and military
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"Blue Screen of Death" hits Olympic opening ceremony
Guess they should have used a Mac. They chose Windows XP instead, because they thought it would be more reliable, and look what happened!
Lenovo chairman, Yang Yuanqing, was quoted as saying that because of the complexity of the IT functions at the Games, it was decided to not use the the more recent operating system. "If it's not stable, it could have some problems," he said.
Oops.
Filed under: mishaps, bsod, blue screen, and windows xp
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Quest for the $1 per Kilowatt Solar Cell
A new company appears to have cracked one of the major obstacles towards full-scale adoption of solar power: Cost.
Its cells can generate power at a price approaching "grid parity" - that is, the same acquisition cost over their lifespan that it would cost to buy power from a normal electric company. It turns out that cost is about $1 per killowatt of capacity.
Previous solar cells cost about $2-4 per killowatt, so this is huge cost savings over the previous technology.
Read the full story at the link.
Filed under: solar power, cheap, and grid parity
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World's Most Dangerous Airports
Yes, that's a 747 landing right on the beach.
Oddly enough, there has never been a major incident at the airport!
Check out the site for video and more dangerous airports.
Filed under: 747, beach, dangerous airports, and travel
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Rotten Tomatoes visits Pixar!
Old news to some of you, perhaps, but it's never too late to enjoy a peek into the Pixar universe, about when point Wall*e was released.
I particularly liked the sign on the server room, like a 24-hour diner.
Filed under: Pixar, rotten tomatoes, wall-e, and tour
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Gadget guide to watching the 2008 Olympics
If you're like me, issues from Internet censorship to heavy air pollution make this year's Olympics look like an unfortunate mistake. The Chinese seem poor at living up to their word ... but they're still going to put on a spectacular show.
If you still want to watch, you want to have the right gadgets to do it, so instead of paying a Chinese airline for flights, you can pay American gadget makers, who then hire Chinese contract manufacturers to build their stuff. So I guess the Chinese still win, no?
Here's some great stuff for you to buy, or drool over, in anticipation of the Games. And if nothing else, they should make the upcoming Football season truly spectacular ...
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Boing Boing TV Presents Richard Branson & Friends and their new spaceship
Virgin's Richard Branson and friends board their new plane, "My Other Ride's a Spaceship" for a trip to their partner Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, and the beginnings of a new era in space, starting with launch vehicle White Knight.
"I'm old enough to have seen the moon landing ... I've wanted to go into space when I saw the moon landing ... I've never had that opportunity ... and ... it will be one of the most exciting things I've done in my life." --Richard Branson
Filed under: space, scaled composites, virgin, richard branson, and burt rutan
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Electric Plane takes the skies!
Continuing our coverage of Oshkosh, here's an electric plane that can fly for 1.5-2 hours at 70mph. The engine takes about two hours to recharge, which is a great flight to charge ratio, and a charge only consumes about $0.75 worth of electricity.
Flying thrills for less than $ 0.50 an hour ... I call that amazing!
Filed under: flight, electric plane, plane, and electric
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Report From Oshkosh: Personal jet to John Travolta's personal 707
The world's largest general aviation show in Oshkosh, MN, wraps up this week. Here's a best in show roundup from Popular Mechanics. I liked the Cirrus single-engined personal jet, but John Travolta's antique 707 is pretty cool too.
Filed under: oshkosh, general aviation, airplane, and jet
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World's Most Expensive Oil Change
This black and gold Lamborgini - black and gold, no doubt, as in oil being called black gold - was airlifted from Qatar to the UK at a cost of roughly $40,000 for an oil change and service, itself costing about $7,000. Then it was sent back to Qatar and delivered to its rather obviously filthy rich owner.
You can say this was perhaps the ultimate in excess, and you would be right. But I find it funny that "the little guy" takes offense, because a lot of that money was used to employ honest, hard working mechanics and airline workers of all stripes. Just because it was a bit silly to do this doesn't mean the money spent evaporated; it helped all the people involved in transport, and I'm sure the mechanics in the UK were happy for the work.
Still, I had to laugh when I read the quote from an airport worker: “This car doesn’t have a carbon footprint – more of a crater."
Still, a nice example of how the upper 0.00001% lives.
More at the link.
Filed under: lamborgini and oil change
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New GPS provides escape hatch from traffic
Are you stuck in traffic all the time? Want a way out? And do you live in a major US metropolitan area?
The Dash GPS could be just your ticket out. It continuously measures road conditions where you are and transmits them back to a central server. So with a few hundred Dash devices often traversing similar routes, it has a comprehensive view of traffic speeds, from the worm's eye view on up.
This is far superior to other devices with traffic features, because the large number of Dash units already sold (at least in Dash friendly places like San Francisco and Los Angeles) mean far more sensor points, and far more accurate speed indicators than the old fashioned way relying on sensors built into only major roads.
An interesting review and experiences in the article.
Filed under: Dash, traffic, and navigation
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Hate exercise? A new drug might be just your ticket
Testing of a new drug on mice has shown that it can simulate the effects of exercise - without requiring any of that tiresome running, jumping and stepping!
"We have exercise in a pill," said Ron Evans, an author of the study. "With no exercise, you can take a drug and chemically mimic it."
Long term testing is needed to find out if this works on humans, and if it is consistently safe for the long term use that would be required for effectiveness.
For people like me, who absolutely loathe exercise, and the larger group of people that can't exercise due to severe pain, this drug could really be just what the doctor ordered.
More at the link, of course.
Filed under: exercise, drug, and simulation
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Homemade Russian telescope being readied for eclipse
This telescope, said to have shown such astonishing sights that it cured one observer of his Russian-scale drinking habit, has been lying abandoned since its creator's death in 2002.
It is being given a new lease in life during the upcoming eclipse this August. I like the improvisational nature and look of it; it looks like something out of the crazy but heart-filled Topanga neighborhood near LA. I wish its owners luck in restoring it on time!
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Emirates Air presents ... showers in first class!
As the peons of air travel become less and less comfortable, more and more imagination gets poured into new amenities for the top 1% of air travelers.
Such as the lucky few who get to fly First Class on Emirates Air's new Airbus A380 jets ... five minute showers! Hardly sounds as luxurious as the real thing on ground, which can last considerably longer, but still an intriguing treat.
But no, you can't share the shower with a special friend ... it can only fit a single person. Or can it? We look forward to the experimentation.
Filed under: air travel, showers, first class, and emirates air
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Australian inventor unveils "Jetpack"
Many have dreamed of a way for them to soar above the ordinary in a flying device strapped to their body ... and many have failed.
An Australian inventor decided to buck the odds, and his bizarre creation - more a "proppack" than a "jetpack" - is to be unveiled at the legendary Oshkosh private flight event.
He even used his wife as a guinea pig, and - here's the amazing part - she loved it!
Filed under: jetpack and personal aviation
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Hopeful signs about global warming
Will the world heat up like a furnace or cool down like an icebox? Scientists are divided, and recently there has been more doubt on this issue than ever.
But it's reassuring that in places where the climate is warming, birds and people are adopting to the new conditions. A University of Oxford stufy, for example, showed that some birds are laying eggs earlier to take advantage of the earlier emergence of caterpillars.
In Iceland, meterologist Tómas Jóhannesson says “It’s not surprising that the warming effects of climate change can be beneficial for a cold country like Iceland".
I think that's true of the United States as well. Most of the US could use warmer winters.
Filed under: winter, iceland, global warming, and energy
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The largest ... and most deserted ... mall in the world
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Martin lets fan test his Tesla
Another review of the Tesla Roadster, this one of Martin's personal car, delivered at last, by one of the most active posters on the independent Tesla forums.
Filed under: tesla motors, martin eberhard, and
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The Eerie Beauty of Labs at Night
The scientists have gone home and yet in the lab cells keep dividing, machines keep humming, and all is quiet and spookily peaceful. Visit this spooky photo collection of labs after hours.
Filed under: photos, labs, and after hours
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Lightning gives Tesla a run for its money
Today, the Lightning car company of the UK introduced a new electric supercar, in many ways similiar to the Tesla Roadster. There are two great things about the new entrant.
First, it has absolutely stunning styling - it looks like those absolutely stunning long-hooded Jaguar XK coupes you still see floating around and falling apart.
Second, you can charge it in an instant - under 10 minutes - which is a huge advantage compared to the multi-hour charge regime required by the Tesla.
But there are two little problems.
First, the price of 120,000 pounds seems in line with the Tesla's 110,000 US dollars ... until you realize a UK pound is worth about $2. So the LIghtning costs a whopping $240,000. Ouch.
Second, the ten minute charge is only if you have 480 volt three phase power, which you have in your home only if it's one of those giant compounds on ten acres in the Malibu hills. Alas, if you have a more normal 110 or 220 volt service, a charge will take about as long as a Tesla.
The company wants to offer public charging stations in Tesco stores, but given that their car is $240,000 it doesn't seem like the company wouod be interested. (Tesco is a large-scale grocery chain, a bit classier than Wal*Mart but the same basic idea.)
So this looks like a very interesting entrant into the elite electric car stakes. I wish both them and Tesla the best.
Filed under: tesla, lightning, electric car, and sports car
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The New Area 51: Airplanes and rockets and experiments oh my!
The legendary Area 51 may not be a place of mysterious alien missions ... but it is certainly a place for experiments, for success and failure, joy and horror. Popular Mechanics explores the latest going-ons in the flight test fields of the Mojave Desert.
Pictured: The Proteus, created by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites
Filed under: area 51, mojave, and test flight
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Tesla motors' founder finally takes delivery
This is a story I've been following for what seems like years. Tesla Motors, the innovative Silicon Valley startup that promised to deliver a no-excuses electric sports car, has finally delivered Production Model 2 to founder Martin Eberhard.
Martin put his heart and soul into the car and was then tossed out by the main investor Elon Musk when they couldn't come to terms on the company's future direction. I thought Martin's management was first rate. Of course he made some mistakes, but surprisingly few for a project where nearly everything was new and original.
But like Jim Jannard of RED Digital Cinema, Martin and partners founded Tesla largely to build the car of their dreams, and now Martin drives his dream. A brilliant achievement, and I hope he can get back into the car biz soon.
Filed under: tesla, tesla motors, martin eberhard, and cars
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Starting your own country on the open sea
How would you start your own country, with its own government, low taxes and a civilized way of life? With freedoms eroding around the world, with speed cameras and invasive laws, this seems like a key question.
Patri Friedman, grandson of legendary economist Milton, puts it like this:
"Government is an industry with a really high barrier to entry," he said. "You basically need to win an election or a revolution to try a new one. That's a ridiculous barrier to entry. And it's got enormous customer lock-in. People complain about their cellphone plans that are like two years, but think of the effort that it takes to change your citizenship."
Previous efforts at starting micronations have run afoul of nearby governments, and plopping your new country into the San Francisco Bay Area, with some of the highest living costs in the nation, seems a bit cheeky. Surely that is US territory, not the high seas.
But one thing for sure: Government is ossified, corrupt and dysfunctional pretty much everywhere. Having a world of floating platforms where you could change your government as easily as motoring to another location seems like a compelling way to organize society.
But as a threat to existing governments, it's cheeky ... and likely to be prosecuted vigorously.
Read the article for more
Filed under: country and micronations
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World's first submersible speedboat
It goes up to 45 mph on the water and can dive deep down into the ocean.
This was accomplished through a higher reliance of water ballast than traditional subs. Old style subs have most of their hull underwater and this makes top speeds very slow. This boat/sub planes (flies above the water) in high speed mode and goes underwater when needed.
Filed under: sub
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Porsche 911 converted to be run on electricity
It was done about ten years ago. Fortunately, battery technology is a lot better today, since his range was between 8 and 15 miles - barely enough to get to the market in most communities!
But I still admire his tenacity, hard work and good taste in choosing a 911 instead of something drab and dull.
The car is now for sale on eBay; hopefully a new owner will pick up the torch and improve range and power.
Filed under: 911 and electric car
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SenseSurface lets you add real knobs to a display
If you've used digital audio software like Logic or Garage Band, one thing you may have missed is the look and feel of real knobs or buttons. Sure, you can have a screen with enough knobs, dials and controls to fly a 747, but they just don't look right if you can't physically twist or slide them.
In comes SenseSurface, providing a special matrix for the bck side of a laptop display that lets you stick a controller on the front and use it just like a real knob.
The picture gives you a pretty good idea of how this works. I must say this seems pretty cool since I've always loved the feel of real knobs and buttons. How well will it work?
Stay tuned
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Sizzle, a faux documentary about global warming
"We want to make this film, about global warming, and we're very, very upset about it, we just don't know why we're upset."
Looks like an interesting idea. The trailer's at the link.
Filed under: global warming, film, and sizzle
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The UK's WhatCar? magazine tests electric cars
So what are they like, the available electric cars? WhatCar magazine decided to do a group test, between a Fiat, a NICE Mega City, a G-Whiz and a Smart.
The Fiat wast most car-like and had the best range, but blew a fuse or two on the way and was by far the most expensive at 30,000 pounds, or almost $60,000. Top speed is a nearly civilized 75mph.
The Smart was easily the best built, garnering very good crash ratings, had the second best range (but that's only 71 miles) and reaches a top speed of 60 mph.
The other cars made those figures look good.
A video of the test is at the link. The testers clearly looked forward to the more advanced American products, the Tesla Roadster and the Chevy Volt. Either car would make those look laughable, but unfortunately the Tesla's production line seems to have stalled, and the Volt won't be ready for another two years yet.
Filed under: smart, g-wiz, nice mega city, fiat doblo, electric cars, test, and tesla
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San Francisco parking spaces gain a brain
In San Francisco, the fight for parking spaces has often turned ugly. Fortunately, a new company now lets you find empty spaces by turning to your cellphone. Ask your phone for a space and it will track down the nearest empty one thanks to sensors embedded in the spaces (see picture).
Filed under: parking, sensors, san francisco, and driving
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Ever wonder what Arab sheiks are doing with their oil wealth?
Why creating hotels like the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE, of course, where your every visual fantasy is made real.
Most hotel rooms I've seen are considerably smaller than the bathroom of the Presidential Suite.
You're seeing the gorgeous atrium to the left ... and there's more at the link.
Filed under: emirates palace, hotel, uae, and Abu Dhabi
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Do the cornstarch dance!
Put a little cornstarch mixed with a bit of water on a piece of paper.
Set the paper on a subwoofer
Play some music and watch it dance, dance, dance!
Filed under: cornstarch, subwoofer, and dance
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The 10 Worst Aircraft
From a personal hovercraft to the world's first supersonic plane, aviation has had its share of innovative, bizarre duds. Here are ten of the most interesting -- and unworkable.
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What's it like to live on Mars?
These photos of the surface of Mars gives us a good idea of the possible real estate on offer, if we can ever figure out how to cost-effectively get people over there.
Filed under: mars and real estate
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Ever wonder what it takes to assemble your own fighter?
The formerly classified instructions were released. Of course I'm sure you would have no trouble getting "29,036 pounds of composite, aluminum, titanium and miscellaneous alloys for the fuselage".
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Are you ready for the total solar eclipse?
It's coming ... on August 1, 2008!
If you want to see it, prepare to go a long way and endure hazardous conditions, political strife and much more.
But those who go say it's ... simply amazing.
As well as the link, also see this Wired article with details on how to see it.
Filed under: solar eclipse and travel
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Cheap Power for tomorrow: Five promising projects
This CNN article lists five promising future energy projects, from solar panels on top of Google's office buildings (left) to harnessing the ocean's tidal forces.
All these could someday power your Tesla Roadster or GM Volt.
Filed under: energy, power, and electricity
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VW plans production of 235 mpg car
And it's not bad looking, either.
The entire car is made of carbon fiber to keep weight down, and obviously it's extremely streamlined to limit drag. Unfortunately this also makes it very expensive, but VW expected the price to come down to a level at which it makes sense to build the car by 2012. Thanks to sky high gas prices, they now think it makes sense to build starting two years from now, in 2010.
It uses an 8.5 horsepower diesel; the production model may have about twice that amount of power to satisfy consumer's desire for acceleration.
No word on what the acceleration will be but the car looks very cool and I think a lot of people will want it -- even at the anticipated prices of about $30-50k.
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Happy Belated Fourth of July!
Here's the best picture i got of today's fireworks in Monongahela, Pennsylvania.
How were your fireworks? Any pictures to share?
Filed under: fourth of July, fireworks, monongahela, and pa
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Eco-Friendly Fireworks will make the Fourth of July Green
Just like everything nowadays, fireworks are bad for you.
Explosions, strange chemical combinations, danger, all that sort of thing.
So what can we do about it, while retaining some semblance of Fourth of July fun?
This article tells all.
At the end, of course, it admits that fireworks are not that bad a pollution problem compared to all the others we already have ... but every little bit helps.
Filed under: fireworks, green, and environment
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Man's Ultimate Guide to Fireworks
It's that time of year again, and this guide should help keep you out of trouble -- or get into the trouble you always wanted to get into!
Filed under: fireworks
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Gene editing can prevent AIDS from taking a foothold
The research began by asking whether certain promiscuous gay men were able to have sex with AIDS carriers without getting the disease themselves.
The AIDS virus, like other disease carriers, needs a foothold in the body in order to invade cell and do its destructive work. A certain gene pattern, carried by the aforementioned gay men, made this foothold possible.
By removing that gene pattern, scientists were able to run successful experiments on mice. When they were injected with HIV they did not get the disease.
Even people who already have AIDS may be helped. By injecting cells with the new gene pattern into the body, they may be able to overwhelm the existing AIDS-carrying cells and reduce the impacts of the disease.
Further research will, of course, be necessary but this is a very promising field of inquiry.
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It isn't what you drive that matters ... it's how you drive it.
Top Gear magazine of the UK pitted a BMW M3 against a Toyota Prius for fuel economy.
An easy win for the Toyota, right?
Turns not, no, not if the Toyota is driven as fast as possible. If you're trying to get the most performance out of your car, it's better to drive the performance car.
In their test, the Toyota got 17.2 miles per gallon and the BMW 19.4.
So if you want to drive fast, don't buy an economy car. You'll get just as bad economy and have less fun.
The hilarious video is at the link.
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Earlier, we mentioned technology that used microbes to convert biological junk like wood chips into an oil-like substance that was both non-polluting and usable in today's gas tanks.
Today we talk about invasive species like Kudzu, that grow like crazy and choke up native plants, and how they can be used as fuels.
Put this all together and tomorrow's fuels of the future look pretty exciting.
Now if we can just get through the present ...
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BuzzBall provides the roller-coaster experience ... in your own back yard!
Well, if you have a big enough back yard, that is. Two electric motors propel the beast, and you can roll around your yard, creating the same vertiginous effects as a coaster.
The project is in development, and there's video at the link.
Filed under: roller coaster, buzzball, and backyard
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Review: Wall*e
One of the amazing things about Pixar is that they deliberately seem to seek a challenge. Who would want to see a film, however brilliant, about a fish looking for his son? A rat chef? Or, in their latest venture, a trash-collecting robot who can't even talk?
Well, I did, and the odds are you will too.
There are too many reviews of Wall*e out for me to detail the plot, but I'll mention a few things I think others have missed.
First, one of the few flaws of the plot is that I think I liked the dystopian world of the shiny BuyNLarge ship better than the dystopian, trash-strewn, worn out earth. Why would you want to leave the glittering ship for that?
Second, Andrew Stanton said the film wasn't meant to be political, even though it was about BuyNLarge Corporation taking over the world. I think his critique of our society is much more about lifestyle choices like getting fat and becoming a sedentary nation of TV watchers and computer users. The sequences where people on the ship were made to ignore the telescreen and see each other were great. "Hey, I didn't even realize this ship had a pool!" was a great line.
BuyNLarge is an obvioius Wal*Mart parody although I wonder if we would ever trust Wal*Mart to take over space exploration and public transport.
It's amusing that even though we have a dystopian future where things don't quite work out as planned, once we are in the ship all the technology works flawlessly.
No question, Pixar has created a brilliant, hilarious hit with heart, again. Go see it!
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Gizmodo visits "Lego Cathedrals"
Otherwise known as the giant, automated warehouse that looks like something out of a big-budget science fiction movie. It's complete with robots that move smoothly in the vast expanse of Lego.
Check out the video at the link for more.
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Future of Biofuels
We covered this about a week ago, but this article has more detail on how environmentally friendly biofuels from genetically engineered bacteria will work.
"By swapping natural genes in yeast and bacteria for synthetic ones, scientists have tricked the microbes into producing hydrocarbons—creating, in essence, billions of tiny refineries to turn simple sugars into environmentally friendly diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and biocrude."
This looks like an exciting breakthrough - fuel that works just like gas or diesel in a car, but is non-polluting and based on renewable resources.
We do live in interesting times and sometimes, unlike the Chinese proverb, that's GOOD news.
Filed under: biofuels, diesel, energy, and generic engineering
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Dubai's rotating skyscraper creates an ever-changing skyline
The latest uber-extravagance in Dubai, the most extravagant city on the planet, is a new rotating skyscraper which constantly changes views and the skyline.
Apartments range from a humble $3.6 million to a dazzling $36 million!
Filed under: rotating skyscraper and skyscraper
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The Shadowy Organizations that Rule the World
Up today is a firmly tongue in cheek guide to all those strange organizations you hear about from the guys in the tinfoil hats.
What's Masonry? the Trilateral Commission? The Order of Skull and Bones? And more?
What's behind the vague names of all these meeting groups of the powerful?
Find out at the link.
Filed under: Trilateral commission, freemasonry, skull and bones, bilderberg, world economic forum, and davos
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National Geographic presents the Snow Leopard
At this point, probably more people have heard of Snow Leopard as the name of Apple Inc's new operating system release than have heard of the animal itself.
So what's a Snow Leopard like? This beautiful set of photos from National Geographic Magazine, shows us the life of these magnificent animals, their endangered status, and their threatened future.
Filed under: snow leopard and apple
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NASA Plans Visit to the Sun
The Corona, the outer edge of the sun's atmosphere, is hundreds of times hotter than the sun's surface.
Why?
NASA is determined to find out, with its new Solar Probe +, designed to withstand the intense heat and million mile an hour solar wind ...
What will it find and will it survive?
We'll have to wait until 2021 to find out ... in the mean time, check out the article for more.
Filed under: solar probe +, sun, exploration, and corona
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Club4Climate takes the Power of Dance literally
Traditionally, a nightclub is a giant energy sucking machine, with its powerful sound system and thousands of watts worth of flickering lights.
Club4Climate decided to change this - up to 60% of the energy used by the club comes from spring-filled floors set up to generate power!
It's a cool idea but looks a little hypocritical - that remaining 40%, after all, comes from good old fashioned generators.
I still admire the idea, but the promoters could be a shade less sanctimonious about it. Perhaps that's why Friends of Earth refused a donation -- they claim the Club encourages international flights.
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It pays to read license agreements
License agreements, those annoying blocks of text that go on forever, and that you have to agree to in order to use the software you've purchased or downloaded, are a staple of modern life.
So how many people read them? One developer decided to find out, by offering "consideration" to anyone who read the agreement. After 3,000 downloads of the software, someone finally emailed the special address in the agreement.
He was promptly mailed a check for $1,000.
I assume the offer is now closed :-(.
Click on the link for the full story about license agreements and the nasty things you've probably agreed to
Filed under: software, licensing, and agreements
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Compressed air powered car gets 125 mile range, $2 fillup
This compressed air powered car is a cool innovation from India. You can fill the tank at filling stations with special compressed air pumps for about $2 or fill it with a home air compressor in about four hours. It doesn't say how much that is, but it sounds comparable to an electric car which is very, very cheap.
How cheap? At $2 to fill up and a 125 mile range, it would cost about $0.016 per mile in fuel. A Toyota Prius feels like a fuel hog - at $4 per gallon and 50mpg, it would cost $ 0.08 per mile in fuel.
And if you didn't guess already, compressed air is, well, compressed air and so there is no tailpipe and no emissions. Cost in India is about $12,700.
Unfortunately this car is made of extremely lightweight materials that would not be durable in crashes and so it's unlikely to be legal in the US.
At least not yet.
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Whale Sharks soar, dive like giant birds
Want to know what whale sharks, which are not really sharks but rather the world's biggest fish, do when nobody's looking?
Researcher Rory Wilson of Swansea wanted to know and so he attached sensors to the giant beasts that recorded their movements.
He was amazed to see that they behave like birds of the sea, soaring up to the top of the ocean and diving deep below, in playful movements ... of a creature the size of a truck!
Filed under: whale sharks, soar, and dive
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Humanoid robots battle to the death in RoboGames
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Here at amazing.com, we try to highlight the strangest, most eccentric and bizarre stuff around. But usually what we show off is meant to be useful.
The Sat-Nag is none of these things, but it's a hilarious concept: A fake GPS that spits out the occasional nagging message like "I know you're a man, but it's been 35 minutes now, so can you please admit you're lost and ask someone the way"
I guess with the competition from the 3G iPhone's GPS, GPS makers had to think up something new.
It made me laugh, so here it is.
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Robot band picks out the tunes
If you're lazy and fear performing, why not design a bunch of little robot players to produce a live performance whenever you want it?
"The Trons" did exactly that, and at the link we have a video of one of his performances. He even named the individual robot players so they have personalities, of a sort.
Filed under: robot band and music
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Wii fit women leave path of household destruction
The Wii Fit, an add-on for the Nintendo Wii game console, is encouraging people all over to jump and gyrate in response to commands from the popular device.
Unfortunately, there are some interesting side effects: Bumped furniture, upturned flower pots, and kicked televisions.
Apparently exercising in close quarters isn't such a great idea after all.
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Genetically engineered bugs munch wood chips, excrete oil
We're all worried about gas prices, which seem to hit new highs every day. Scientists have discovered how to synthesize fuel using waste biological materials, like grass and wood chips, into usable oil and gas.
It turns out that many biological raw materials are just a few steps away from oil, and the digestive system of microbes can be genetically engineered to turn them into oil.
The biologically generated fuel consumes greenhouse gases, so unlike regular fuels the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will actually go down.
The images to the left shows some of the lab equipment used to do the conversion on a small-scale, experimental basis.
The cost: About $50 per barrel, or less than half today's prices.
In short, our cars may no longer excrete greenhouse gases in the future, and the fuel on which they run will be much cheaper. So maybe the SUV has a chance for a comeback.
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Russian time exposures turn people into roiling clouds
What happens when you set up a camera in a crowded place and take a long, long time exposure of the scene?
They turn into roiling clouds, or ghosts, as bits and pieces of them pile up into a haunting whole.
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Reverse Graffiti project makes art out of a grimy city
Is your city dirty? Grimy? Gloomy? You're ready for the reverse graffiti project, which creates beautiful images from scrubbing off dirt, making the dirty clean, and making us wonder about how bad things look.
The movie at the link was done by a professional filmmaker and is really fantastic, beautiful and worth the 3.5 minutes of your time it takes to watch.
The image is part of a frame from the film, which shows the finished image. The white parts are clean parts; the black parts were left untouched.
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Equal opportunity robot:Sega's EMA sports a glamorous body, smooches
Are you sick of all the cool male robots wandering around? Think it might be time for some equal opportunity action?
Check out Sega's EMA, which features a glamorous body, walks like a lady, and kisses on command.
Come to think of it, it sounds like a male designer's idea of a lady.
Maybe someone should hire Gloria Steinem to design a robot?
D
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Pleo, meet pet. Pet, meet Pleo
Increasingly, real pets are sharing the household with robotic ones ... and considering them threats.
From dogs chasing Roomba robot vacuums to cats sniffing Aibo the robot dog's tail, the intriguing stories are all here, in this story from the WSJ.
The picture shows Ugobe's new robot dinosaur Pleo (left) interacting with a real flesh and blood pet. "That dog really believes it's another animal and, apparently, a frightening animal." Shortly after the picture was taken, Pleo found a new home at the owner's fiancee's mother. who "fell in love with it and treats it like a pet".
Robot pets attracting love? Amazingly common - people name their Roombas and empathise with their struggles with furniture.
See the article for many more great robot/pet stories.
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The key to all optical illusions
A new theory proposed by researchers gives us some fresh ideas about why optical illusions occur.
Because it takes about 1/10th of a second for the brain to process images flooding in from the eyes, the brain has learned to try and "look forward" for that 1/10th of a second so that what we see is actually what is happening 1/10th of a second later.
So when it sees something it thinks could be moving, it tries to project that movement in the future, meaning that some innocuous patterns can make you think they are moving without actually doing so.
The scientist hopes this theory will stand up under further study, but believes it is promising because it explains a very large range of illusions.
For more details, and more illusions, follow the link.
Filed under: optical illusions
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Ever thought your scanner could make music?
Someone decided to enter a Radiohead remix contest using a comgination of the strangest musical instruments ever -- old scanners, hard drives, dot matrix printers and ancient computers!
Don't be too spooked by the computer at the beginning - the better parts come to those who are patient.
Here's another link with more videos.
Filed under: music, ancient hardware, dot matrix, scanner, and hard drives
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How the Web was won
Have you ever wondered how the amazing creation we call the Internet came to be?
From its obscure beginnings in research labs to the Browser Wars and early successes and failures, it's all here, in an oral history. We hear directly from the pioneers who beat new paths in this weird and wonderful world.
The picture is of the very first IMP, a device that connected the huge mainframe computers of the time to the Internet, and its creator.
Filed under: internet, history, and oral history
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RepRap machine makes itself!
A story I read many years ago had an alien civilization drop a "matter duplicator" down to us, with a cryptic warning saying that it could break the very fabric of civilization.
The management of a small department store bought a set of two, and struggled with the fascinating reprecussions - merchandise marked down 90%, and "no duplicators in the store".
We now have the beginnings of that technology today. It looks young, gangly and awkward like a new child.
RepRap is a machine that fabricates plastic parts you can use to build your own inventions.
Today, the company issued a press release showing that the machine can make itself - or at least all of its plastic parts. In the picture you can see the machine and on the right you can see the new machine it made.
Filed under: duplicator and fabrication
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Control a robot with two iPhones
Clever and simple if you can afford two iPhones (or iPod Touches).
The robot reads the color of light coming out from the iPhone placed on the robot, and you control the robot with another iPhone that sends the proper color to the robot's unit.
A pretty amazing, albeit expensive way to do a remote control.
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How to win a car show for less than $100
Don't have a car to enter in a car show?
Rent one!
This guy rented a Hummer H2 for $75 a day, detailed the heck out of it and won First Prize!
I wonder what the reaction was from the rental car company when it was returned in better condition than when it was taken out?
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Tired of watching your Roomba vacuum? Make it into a cylon!
Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner, has been around for a long time. We've seen Roombas patiently rolling through our houses, making them spic and span. We've called our Roombas pet names, and mourned them when they've broke.
But what else can you do with a Roomba? Well, you can put a cylon face to it and make it look just like the creature from Battlestar Galactica!
You can also get it to sing, play Pac-Man and much more, at the link.
(Be sure to check out the video at the very end of the linked page to see the full terror of Cylon Roombas).
Filed under: roomba and robot vacuum
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The fall of Steve Jobs ... and his rise
Scanned articles from a 1985 issue of Fortune magazine detail the tragic fall of Steve Jobs within Apple ... and, in a casual mention of Pixar, the seeds of his meteoric rise a decade later.
Filed under: apple, steve jobs, and fortune
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Make a macro (close-shooting) lens out of an ordinary 50mm!
Want to get into macrophotography - like the stunning image to the left - but can't afford $600-odd for the special lens needed?
No problem - convert an old standard 50mm - which can be had for very little used or less than $100 new - into a macro lens using the instructions in the article.
Filed under: macro, photography, and lens
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Team Cringley to the Moon!
The Lunar X-Prize was supposed to be so simple - an array of teams fighting their way to the moon, with a $20 million prize at the end.
But Robert Cringley of PBS saw something more interesting - a way to make an actual profit going to the moon. Mission cost: $5 million. Mission prize: $20 million. Not a bad return.
But bureaucracy got in the way ... or was that bureaucrazy?
Team Cringley wanted to use the media rights to help raise the money for the prize. The Prize foundation required the media rights to itself, to be shared between teams.
Team Cringley wanted to create small, light rovers ... the Prize foundation required a large payload that couldn't fit.
So Cringley is going to go to the moon on his own ... and more power to him!
Filed under: moon, cringley, pbs, and to the moon
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Military uses Xbox-style game controllers for weapons system
Are you really good at that video game?
You may have already started your military training -- because the military is increasingly using Xbox-style game controllers to run their most advanced weapons.
The game sector is such a huge market that it dwarfs even the massive sums spent by the Department of Defense. So they have the money to do all the ergonomic research needed to make a truly effective weapon control system.
