A Tip for Saving Gas: Reduce Weight
By Mike | March 31, 2007
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The Tata MiniC.A.T. Air Car
By Mike | March 19, 2007
Many respected engineers have been trying for years to bring a compressed air car to market, believing strongly that compressed air can power a viable “zero pollution” car. Now the first commercial compressed air car is on the verge of production and beginning to attract a lot of attention, and with a recently signed partnership with Tata, India’s largest automotive manufacturer, the prospects of very cost-effective mass production are now a distinct possibility. The MiniC.A.T is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fibreglass. The heart of the electronic and communication system on the car is a computer offering an array of information reports that extends well beyond the speed of the vehicle, and is built to integrate with external systems and almost anything you could dream of, starting with voice recognition, internet connectivity, GSM telephone connectivity, a GPS guidance system, fleet management systems, emergency systems, and of course every form of digital entertainment. The engine is fascinating, as is and the revolutionary electrical system that uses just one cable and so is the vehicle’s wireless control system. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators etc
There are no keys – just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket.
Most importantly, it is incredibly cost-efficient to run – according to the designers, it costs less than one Euro per 100Km (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where the 80% of motorists drive at less than 60Km. The car has a top speed of 68 mph.
Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 1.5 Euros (approx. US $2), the car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometres.
As a viable alternative, the car carries a small compressor which can be connected to the mains (220V or 380V) and refill the tank in 3-4 hours.
Due to the absence of combustion and, consequently, of residues, changing the oil (1 litre of vegetable oil) is necessary only every 50,000 Km.
The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0 - 15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.
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Hyundai QarmaQ’s Plastic Skin: Reduces Weight, Saves Gas
By Mike | March 11, 2007
Any concept vehicle with a name derived from the word the Inuit’s use for their dwellings made of Earth, whalebone, and animal skins is bound to be interesting. Hyundai Europe’s Design and Technical Center in Russelsheim, Germany partnered with GE Plastics in the Netherlands to create the QarmaQ – a quirky looking Crossover Coupé concept.
One of the QarmaQ’s key features is its innovative use of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles to create a large portion of the vehicle’s skin. GE says the use of plastics, instead of more traditional metal and glass, gives the vehicle a 130-pound weight savings. That weight loss equates to 20 gallons a year savings in gas, not to mention fewer plastic bottles clogging up the local landfill. These numbers are nothing to scoff when you think of all the cars on the road.
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Child-Safety Experts Call For Restrictions On Childhood Imagination
By Mike | February 26, 2007
Child-Safety Experts Call For Restrictions On Childhood Imagination
WASHINGTON, DC—The Department of Health and Human Services issued a series of guidelines Monday designed to help parents curtail their children’s boundless
imaginations, which child-safety advocates say have the potential to rival motor
vehicle accidents and congenital diseases as a leading cause of disability and
death among youths ages 3 to 14.
…“Remember, if you see a single sparkle of excitement in their eyes, you haven’t done enough.”
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What Windows Vista is Really Like
By Mike | February 24, 2007
She gets out of bed and stretches, perfect curves sliding under silky lingerie and momentarily making me forget about breakfast, meatloaf, and whoever it was I was married to before last night. She seems to know this, and smiles at me again, but apparently she’s serious about making breakfast. She turns and strides confidently from the room. As she does, I see for the first time the large Microsoft logo splayed across her back. My stomach lurches as I suddenly remember everything.
Windows Vista. I bought a new computer yesterday… and it came with Windows Vista.
http://chalain.livejournal.com/43015.html
*Almost* makes me want to take the Vista plunge
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Picking A Masterlock No.3
By Mike | February 15, 2007
Masterlock No. 3’s are everywhere, but they’re not very secure. This is one of the first locks I learned to open.
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How A Turbine Is Raised
By Mike | February 14, 2007
Pretty neat time-lapse video of a turbine being assembled on-site. Isn’t it amazing how humans can build things many times their size?
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Happy Valentines Day
By Mike | February 14, 2007
Forget the red roses, gimme one of these:
Oops, so much for conservation.
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Out With The College Stuff
By Mike | February 6, 2007
With the college application process pretty much winded down, I thought it was about time I went through my college mail (and clean my room in the process). It turned out to be quite an undertaking, because of the sheer volume of a year’s worth of college mailbox spamming. But the reason it took three hours was because I had to sort through the mail, decide which letters to keep, and “gut” the envelopes to recycle the paper. Hey, every bit of green helps!
“Gutting” an envelope involves ripping out those pesky plastic windows that allow the address to peek through, throwing out the plastic (heck, recycle those if you want to, but I don’t think the mixture of plastic film, glue, and residual paper is good for the recycling centers) and recycling paper part of the envelope. You can also reuse the letters inside the envelopes as scrap paper (a stack seen on the bottom of the picture).
In the end, the stack of college mail made a pile about 2 feet high and warranted its own recycling box. Now, some acceptance letters would be nice…
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World Wide Web
By Mike | January 30, 2007
An interesting thought I came across on Wikipedia:
“The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it’s short for.”
– Douglas Adams, The Independent on Sunday, 1999
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