am trying this post with a different set of HTML tags to improve the spacing. tell me what you think. actually tell me anything you can, I honestly think no one but my very close friends read this and they do it to keep me from bugging them.
On to what i am reading and reading into this morning/noontime.
Did you know that in Trinidad and Tobago it is customary to answer the phone "hello, good-morning" in the morning (normal for most english speaking countries) and "hello, good-afternoon" and "hello, good-night" at the other times of the day? Its a little off-putting the first time you hear it at night cause it makes yout hinkt he person has just said hello and goodbye all at once. In the opening pages of 'The Hobbit', Tolkien undertakes a short discussion of the uses of Good-Day as "hello" "how may i help you" "good bye" and "go away".
onward:
Some items from Gizmag:
1) February 28, 2005 A renewable energy device that captures vibration to produce electricity looks set to replace or complement small conventional batteries for a range of every day applications and enable the reliable powering of new technologies. The Kinetic Energy Cell is a micro renewable energy source able to generate electricity from vibration or motion such as from cars, trucks and even people. This means that so long as there is access to movement or vibration the cell produces energy. Because the cell can replace standard and alkaline batteries in some applications, it is a non-polluting solution to small power requirements. Six billion dry cell batteries are produced annually by the world's largest manufacturer.
Don't believe all the hype in that but it is an interesting item with great potential.
2)March 2, 2005 The Bertone Villa originates from the desire to break the rules, to rebel against the homogeneity of the contemporary car, to search for a new balance between design and emotion. And the risk of breaking a consolidated balance transforms itself into a creative opportunity. So the Bertone Villa interprets the concept of the car of the future in an original way, and proposes a surprising perspective to the exterior design, focusing attention on the side, in particular, the access into the vehicle, and on a new concept of interior luxury. Developed on the basis of the Cadillac SRX, the Villa was shown for the first time today at the Geneva Auto Show. basically a really cool car design. Won't go anywhere but its cool all the same.
3)
Get set for the comeback of the humble billycart. The gravity powered vehicle which inspired a million motor racing dreams looks set to become the star attraction of a new world series - the Extreme Gravity Racing Series. Extreme Gravity Racing events are currently being staged only in the United States, but the ambitious plan calls for an international series of Extreme Gravity Machines (aka billycarts) racing downhill in beautiful settings around the world - essentially a silent version of Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One circus - the biggest drawcard in international entertainment. basically racing cars without engines... interesting.
4)and here is the entire article on eco-award for vehicles from gizmag: Shell Eco-Marathon winner averages 9737mpg
The Shell Eco-Marathon is an annual fuel economy competition held in the UK with competitors ranging from 11 year-old students through to senior university academics and semi professional independent teams.
The rules are simple - build a machine which uses the least fuel possible while averaging averaging more than 15mph around a circuit. Beyond engine efficiency, there are many related design considerations which influence the final fuel economy returned, such as aerodynamics, rolling resistance and driving techniques to achieve the highest.
Last year saw a new world economy record set during the event when Team MicroJoule achieved an average fuel consumption of 10,705 mpg - to put that in perspective, that's the distance from London to Melbourne, Australia on less than one gallon of fuel!
The French team beat their own previous world fuel consumption record by nearly 500mpg, their previous record having been set during the 2001 Eco-Marathon UK.
This year the event was held over two days of intense competition at the Rockingham Motor Speedway, Corby, Northants, and the French Microjoule, team from St Sebastien, again took the top step on the podium with an average fuel consumption of 9737 mpg.
The team won despite many problems over the weekend, suffering a broken chain and then mechanical problems which necessitated an overnight engine rebuild, but they still managed to beat their nearest rival by over 2000mpg.
While the best competitors in the Shell Eco-Marathon continually push the limits of the internal combustion engine, there are many classes and categories which encourage students to put theirknowledge into practice.
Overall results:1st - Microjoule (France): 9737mpg2nd - Team Callo (France): 6952mpg3rd - BSMM (Finland): 5667mpg
Class Awards:Best University - Eco Veiculo (Portugal): 4699mpgBest School - Newland House School (UK): 1645mpgBest UK - Team Green (Bath, UK): 5296mpgBest LPG - Team Green (Bath, UK): 3683mpgBest Hydrogen - PAC Car (Switzerland): 5718mpg
thats it for gizmag. On to other things:
The russian spy's common sense guide to london. This is actually a cool read and when you think of it much of it is just common sense. Don't stand out, know the customs, and don't make silly spy-movie-like attempts at craftiness. There was a similar item written by American's about moscow. In that book they mentioned an interesting problem/opportunity with how the KGB worked. If an american was being tailed by the KGB, the KGB agents would get in trouble only if they lost track of the target for more than 45 minutes. So the Americans would make certain to lose the tail, do their meeting, and pick up the tail again in less then 45 minutes. As long as they were back inside of 45 minutes the main office would not note the disappearance and no one would investigate who the american might have been meeting with. Made things a lot easier.
Lets look at the middle east:
Democracy is spreading like a disease.... mutating too. Lebanon, once the jewel of the mideast, playground of the european wealthy and elite. Destroyed by the civil war that was started by ....whats that you say.... started by the PLO???!?!?!!!! for sure not, they assure us they are only after peace and peaceful resolutions to their problems. But yes, when the PLo based themselves in lebanon they started to make trouble, they were asked to leave and so they fomented a civil war that killed thousands and destroyed the country, allowing Syria to come in and take control under the guise of making peace. In the end the Israelis had to kick Arafat and his 'peaceful' PLO out of the country. but back to lebanon. They may actually be trying for a real government, real democracy and real peace..... I wonder what they will do if they get it all?
Oh yeah, one small side note on the Palestinian way of doing things: Rice Urges Palestinians to Dismantle Terror Groups..... I'll let you think on that.
Tech stuff and things
An interesting concept in magazines and design.
A new look at invisability
The Ipod Firmware has been hacked
SCIENCE TIME:
I like spiders. I think they are DAMN cool. I also whole heartedly believe they are smarter than we often give them credit for. This one is special in that it is the worlds largest spider. Just thought I would point it out.(heres a bit more on it)
As I have stated many time I like to keep up to date on articles involving the status of the global environment and what is being done to help/hurt it. So here is a nice little page from new scientist discussing the climate and global warming. Very informative. Along those same lines, here is an article about the political wrangling going on with the Clean Air Act and Clear Skies amendment to it.
Onward to more interesting science, how about the return of the sail for large cargo ships? is that interesting enough? actually this is not really the return of the sail, but an ida to let huge kites help pull ships along, not completely replacing their engines. But i think this is a step in the right direction. Allow me to put one of my ideas on the web and see what happens. I have mentioned once before that America once dominated the shipping industry and through bad business and bad policy America lost its shipping to higher tech lower cost shippers on the other side of the world. That would in theory mean that somewhere in the US are a large number of older low tech cargo ships slowly dying of old age. A smart business man would buy them up. Retrofit them with the new steerable electric pods but before you do that remove the engine completely. Remove the engine? But how will you power those pods? thats where these ships will be made to make money where they didn't the first time around. remove the power plant... and the living quarters .... and the entire bridge/forecastle.... replace it with space to hold containers/cargo. Hook three of these monsters together, linked by power and control cables to a power plant ship. That ship will have living quarters and whatnot, and a single engine large enough to power the pods on all the ships. Maybe that one will also take cargo. A good computer program can correct for the relative position of the ships, and because no single ship is larger than standard, they can use all those older ship yards that have not yet been retrofitted to handle the current breed of super tanker/cargo ship out there these days, but cary as much cargo in each go. If a really horrible storm shows up on the high sees, release the cables and the pods go to 24 hours of backup power that just keeps them afloat. Pick them up again when the storm passes. Work this like the discount airlines do, getting good deals to use smaller out of the way ports that the larger ships cannot touch. Best of all, if someone is dumb enough to try to steal anything other than the power plant, they will be stuck on a non-moving boat that will respond to control signals ONLY from the original power plant (you would not believe how big a problem piracy is on the high seas these days). Anyway, thats my idea, someone go make millions with it and buy me a nice car as a thank you. If you want more details on how to make this work, i have those too.
Well I am not certain if this falls into science or politics but it makes a good segway from one to the other: UK to stockpile drugs against bird flu pandemic which hopefully means that another country is taking this seriously but I doubt it.
POLITICS:
I know we covered this before but..... heres more.
Good news for America, the land of the free must live up to its name: White House Must Charge or Free Suspect in the dirty bomb case which means that maybe we will have to stand up and follow our own laws where they concern civil liberties. This country was created to protect liberty and freedom. Declaring that in order to protect them they must be destroyed is the exact argument that got a number of army officers thrown in jail during vietnam (we had to destroy the villages in order to protect them from the vietcong). Course arguments against bad legislature in the security arena don't fly when idiots do things like this.
On the note of America, here is how we are currently going to hell in a hand basket. First off the lives of Federal Judges and their families are now in danger. Thats the kind of thing that happened in the 1920s and in south american countries.... how the hell is it happening here and now? Secondly, only in America would the news report on a made for TV movie about a court case that has not yet completed, specifically about how the lead character is being portrayed by the perfect actor.
thats it for now. sorry this took so long to get on the web, most of it is old news by this point. I will try not to let work get in the way again.
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