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Japan's New Green Car Push - With no ceiling to gas prices in sight, things are heating up even more with hybrid car planning. As this article details, there are plans for better gas-electric hybrids, plug-in versions, lithium-ion batteries, fuel cell hybrids, more intensive battery research, and all kinds of new thinking. It surprises me a bit that people are so surprised by the trend; it's been coming on strong for ten years now, as near as I can figure. That the US automakers were caught so unaware, while still mired in manufacturing behemoth SUVs and trucks, is shameful.Labels: green power, transportation
—Mike @ 21:45
Floating Solar Island Concept - According to this article, "each island would generate hundreds of kilowatts of electricity that would be almost five times cheaper than current electricity rates... full production of these islands could begin as soon as 2011."Labels: green power
—Mike @ 00:01
Aerial photos even better than Google's - Check out some of your favorite addresses at Live Search Maps -- you can zoom and rotate the photos to see the view from four different perspectives -- very impressive!Labels: maps
—Mike @ 00:59
Dot-this and dot-that - The rules on what's a valid top-level-domain name on the internet (like the familiar .com, .net, .org and .gov) are about to be drastically relaxed.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 19:03
Electronic Bermuda Triangles - I'll have to remember to bring tin foil if I ever need to park my Prius near the Empire State Building! This article explains how that area, along with downtown Tampa, both wreak havoc with car electronics and alarms. Apparently there's so much RF interference from a combination of technologies that things just go haywire. Other reports claim that the On/Off button used by Toyotas and some other cars, with their proximity key, can be completely shut down in those areas, causing the cars to be unstartable until moved away from the blanket radiation. Yikes!Labels: communications, haha, technology
—Mike @ 15:15
I always see something in baseball I've never seen before - While watching a minor league game on TV the other night between the Brooklyn Cyclones (a Mets farm team) and the Staten Island Yankees, it came down to the bottom of the ninth with two outs. The guy in the on-deck circle is a switch-hitter, and he's deciding which way he's going to bat, because the guy who's pitching is a switch-pitcher. It's unusual, but the pitcher can throw either righty or lefty, and has a six-fingered glove to accommodate his thumb going into either end. Meanwhile, the pitcher is eyeing the guy in the on-deck circle to see which way he is swinging the bat, to decide which way he's going to pitch to him. The conventional wisdom is that there's an advantage to pitch righty to a right-handed batter, and lefty to a left-handed batter. But now, what happens when both the pitcher and the hitter can switch sides? And what do the rules say about when you have to commit to one side or the other? Now that you've got the setup, watch the video clip!
—Mike @ 12:20
The 30-year-old shed in our backyard was falling apart -
...so it was time for a new one! It was built on-site today. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
—Mike @ 21:21
Eye-popping balloon-popping - Pretty impressive! As near as I can figure, the Jack Russell Terrier in this video clip pops almost 70 balloons in under 30 seconds... not something you see every day (unless, perhaps you own a Jack Russell? ;-)
—Mike @ 23:26
Quote du jour -If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito--Dalai LamaLabels: quotations
—Mike @ 15:25
Life with a robot - Diane has generously gifted us with our very own iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner. What a riot. This thing is more fun than a pet (what pet cleans up after itself?) Provides hours of endless entertainment, as we watch its seemingly random passes over our flooring, sucking up dirt we didn't even know we had. It's driven by its proprietary algorithms that are designed to ensure full coverage (even though the lines in the carpeting end up looking like the Nazca Lines in Peru), spot cleaning where needed, and automatic re-docking in its power station when done. A few times we actually couldn't find it, until we realized it was quietly but busily at work far underneath some of the furniture. We're considering names for it; I'm kind of patial to Astro (the dog from The Jetsons ;-) Thanks, D!Labels: haha, home, technology
—Mike @ 22:34
Quote du jour -What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.--Robert F. Kennedy
(November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968 [forty years ago today])Labels: government, politics
—Mike @ 23:03
132,320,807 miles / 89,863 tanks / 6,814 cars / 1 database - It's the Hybrid Mileage Database at GreenHybrid.com, a comparison of the median lifetime fuel economy of all hybrid cars, taken from real owners' data. [Thanks, Eric!] While driving a group of co-workers to lunch today, we had a lengthy discussion about mileage, driving habits, grades of gas, etc. I’ve been taking more local roads than highways this week, and my mileage on this tank of gas has increased about 3 mpg over my usual blend of highway/local roads. I’m currently getting between 50 and 51 mpg, which is a bit higher than the GreenHybrid chart shows as the average for the Prius model 2. I love having more than 100 miles clocked on a tank of gas and not seeing the fuel indicator move off of full yet.
Meanwhile (as expected), GM has officially announced the concept Chevy Volt electric car has been funded for full production, for delivery in late 2010 (Not soon enough if you ask me; I'm sure GM would like to be producing them right now as well!) And it looks like the Hummer's days are numbered (condolences to the wannabe soldiers on the roads). Consumer expectations have (finally) changed drastically.Labels: green power, transportation
—Mike @ 23:02
8 reasons to rejoice when gas hits $8/gallon - Short term pain? You bet. But the long term gain is what this excellent article is focusing on.Labels: currentEvents, green power, transportation
—Mike @ 10:29
The 3 Meter Clock - I don't pretend to know how to make one of these (even with the instructions provided; I never did finish that Cleveland Institute of Electronics correspondence course as a teenager), but it's definitely one of the coolest and most inventive clocks I've run across. [Thanks, Rob!]Labels: time
—Mike @ 23:07
I was actually starting to sweat while watching this video - To fully experience the insanity, watch this in full-screen mode. Apparently, this walkway was built more than a century ago (easy to believe). Reminds me of a recurring nightmare I have.Labels: videos
—Mike @ 17:44
521 bicyclists and 10-20,000 spectators - filled our downtown today for the 65th annual Tour of Somerville, "one of the largest free sporting events in the country".
—Mike @ 21:20
Memorial Day Weekend Photos -
It was a houseful at the lake for the holiday this year, as Dennis & family were returning from a vacation in Quebec and joined us for the weekend. Click the photo to view the full album.
—Mike @ 20:07
Energy from the sea - According to this article from ecogeek.org,Recently Marine Current Turbines successfully completed the installation of the world's first megawatt-scale tidal turbine. And now we've got the first images of the turbine installed to prove it. The 1000 ton SeaGen tidal turbine was secured to the seabed and linked with Northern Ireland's electric grid. MCT will now spend about 12 weeks testing the capabilities of the turbine before regularly feeding power into the grid.It's estimated that this technology has the potential to supply 20% of the energy used by the US.
Tidal power has several advantages over wind. The power generation is more predictable (since you always know when the tide will turn) and it is believed that they will have less ecological impacts.Labels: green power
—Mike @ 09:05
New Jersey's best beaches - In this survey, Wildwood was named NJ's best beach. I would've voted for Wildwood Crest myself, always our favorite -- wide, free and clean. But it did come in at #2, so I can't complain.Labels: NJ
—Mike @ 00:02
Imagine being the first human to ever see a star go supernova - This actually happened to a Princeton astronomer, who happened to be looking in the right place, at the right time, with the right telescope.The star is 88 million light-years from Earth and is closer to this planet than any supernova ever observed.Amazing.Labels: space
—Mike @ 17:48
Exciting news - Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center report the development of a vaccine that triggers an immune response to the amyloid-beta peptide protein in animal testing. In other words, the vaccine prevents Alzheimer's from forming in the brain. To satisfy regulatory requirements, it could be at least three years before human trials of the vaccine can take place.Labels: medical
—Mike @ 21:10
A quick history of cell phones - Click here to view the video clip.Labels: communications, technology, videos
—Mike @ 10:35
More? - There's additional reading available in the Archives.
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