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India's air-powered car

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:41:30 GMT

clipped by: killer_bunny

The first commercial car to be powered by compressed air could be about to hit the production lines, as Indian automaker Tata Motors prepares to build ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre's design. We're not certain if it's the same air car that we hit just under three years ago, but if it is, it's about time! The City Cat runs on nothing but compressed air -- which can be refueled at "air stations," and overnight using a built-in compressor -- with a not too shabby top speed of 68MPH and a range of 125 miles. The Air Car designers are working on a hybrid version that can compress air while it's operating, potentially making cross-India journeys possible: Toyota Prius, eat your hybrid heart out. As EcoGeek points out, the game ain't up just yet for completely emissions free travel since the problem of the source of the electricity (usually acquired from fossil fuels) has yet to be solved. Plus, the fugly design really doesn't do it any favours: why does "green" have to mean "gah?"

Tags: car, automobile, green, india

Rare Book Room

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:19:20 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: An awesome reference site with a good collection of scanned rare books.

Clip Source: rarebookroom.org

Introduction

The "Rare Book Room" site has been constructed as an educational site intended to allow the visitor to examine and read some of the great books of the world.

Over the last ten years, a company called "Octavo" embarked on digitally photographing some of the world ’s great books from some of the greatest libraries. These books were photographed at very high resolution (in some cases at over 200 megabytes per page).

This site contains all of the books (about 400) that have been digitized to date. These range over a wide variety of topics and rarity. The books are presented so that the viewer can examine all the pages in medium to medium-high resolution.

Tags: books, rare books, reference

Rare dead star found near Earth

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:22:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Neutron stars form when massive stars exhaust their fuel

Astronomers have spotted a space oddity in Earth's neighbourhood - a dead star with some unusual characteristics.

The object, known as a neutron star, was studied using space telescopes and ground-based observatories.

But this one, located in the constellation Ursa Minor, seems to lack some key characteristics found in other neutron stars.

Details of the study, by a team of American and Canadian researchers, will appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

If confirmed, it would be only the eighth known "isolated neutron star" - meaning a neutron star that does not have an associated supernova remnant, binary companion, or radio pulsations.

Either Calvera is an unusual example of a known type of neutron star, or it is some new type of neutron star, the first of its kind

Robert Rutledge, McGill University

The object has been nicknamed Calvera, after the villain in the 1960s western film The Magnificent Seven.

Tags: space, neutron star, calvera, science

At The Airport, You Better Smile...

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:15:09 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: We now know the sound of George Orwell rolling in his grave.

"Here's where it gets really absurd. Apparently, these Behavior Detection Officers work in pairs. One scenario is that an officer might move in to "help" a passenger retrieve their belongings after they've been screened. And then the officer will ask where the passenger is headed. If the passenger's reaction sets off alarm bells in the officer's well-trained mind, another officer will move in and detain them."

"So while TSA employees are confiscating our scissors and water bottles, they're going to secretly be staring at us, looking for some telltale sign of terrorist intent in a grimace, a sigh, a crinkled nose? Who knows what? In the end, the Behavior Detection Officers are the ones who are really acting suspicious. Which is the truth of the matter anyway."

Clip Source: www.globalresearch.ca

It's a new level of absurdity for America.

"Specially trained security personnel" will be watching passengers for "micro-expressions" that will reveal treacherous agendas and insidious intentions at airports around the country. These agents, who may literally hold your fate in their hands have been given a lofty, Orwellian name: "Behavior Detection Officers."

In the study of "micro-expressions"-yes, it is actually a field of study and there are some who are arrogant enough to call it a science- it has been decided that when people wish to conceal emotions, the truth of their feelings is revealed in facial flashes.

The face police, in place at more than a dozen U.S. airports already, aren't identified as such. But the watcher could be at curbside baggage, the ticket counter or near the metal detectors and X-ray machines. The Transportation Security Administration hopes to have as many as 500 Behavior Detection Officers on the job by the end of 2008.

Tags: 1984, homeland security, airplane, airport, tsa

The Society to Save Rocks

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:35:44 GMT

clipped by: adamc

Clip Source: saverocks.org

The Society to Save Rocks aims to preserve and protect the spectacular ancient granite formations of the Deccan Plateau, India - a natural wonder of stony ridges and hillocks shaped into picturesque balancing forms.

To prevent the indiscriminate destruction of this natural, historical, and environmental heritage, a group of artists, photographers and environmentalists from Hyderabad* has been working for the protection of this rocky landscape since 1992.

Tags: rocks, india

Periodic Table of the Internet

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:15:46 GMT

clipped by: Twizted Paths

Clip Source: www.wellingtongrey.net

Tags: bizarre, funny, humor, instructions, strange, computers, weird, world

The Aquanaut's Home Under the Sea

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:01:07 GMT

clipped by: dorine

Clip Source: www.popsci.com

Batteries, a bicycle, a bathing suit, algae and sandwich delivery are all Lloyd Godson needs to live underwater

The BioSUB

Container: The two-ton, mostly recycled-steel box is moored to the lakebed by 28 tons of concrete.

Biocoil: A pump churns water and algae through a coiled tube. The algae absorbs carbon dioxide and supplies oxygen.

Dive Compressors: The algae-filled biocoil tube offers a nice experiment in human-plant sym-biosis, but 12-volt compressors floating on the surface above the shelter are Lloyd Godson's primary source of oxygen.

Generator: A modified exercise bike powers a laptop and the biocoil pump. Godson also drew power from onshore methane fuel cells and solar panels.

Air MonitorThis waterproof gas-detection device monitors oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.

PEDAL POWER
Godson's laptop draws power from a bicycle.

Tags: undersea, home, aquapod, technology

Amazing Crop Circles

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:59:00 GMT

clipped by: vampy2
clipper's remarks: A collection of amazing crop Circles more at sight.

Clip Source: photo.raelian.com

Tags: crop circles, art

Crazy surfer rides enormous glacial wave

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:27:07 GMT

clipped by: hudgal1
clipper's remarks: This guy is nuts!

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

It is not the easiest of pastimes to enjoy. First you have to find a glacier about to "calve," then wait for up to two weeks for a house-sized iceberg to break off before catching the monstrous wake after it hits the water from 500 feet high.

The reward: Sixty seconds of sheer exhilaration as you ride a 25-foot wall of ice-cold water filled with millions of shards of razor-sharp ice, mud, boulders and debris.

It is a long way from his usual haunt of Hawaii, but pro surfer Keali'i Mamala, 28, has just recorded the world's first one-minute glacial wave surf ride.

Waves 40 feet high were recorded when the glacier calved in 1993. The waves race across the broad channel before crashing into the opposite river bank, sending geysers of rocks, marine life and trees into the air.

Sometimes the "blast" from the ice hitting the water is so big that hunters find dislodged salmon in the tops of pine trees on the banks of the river.

Tags: surfing, extreme sports, alaska, glacier