• Technology

    Green Skies at Mach 5

    By Posted on 1.23.2008 24 Comments

    Modern air travel is a marvel. It's also a source of endless delay, annoyance and planet-killing greenhouse gases. A proposed hydrogen-powered hypersonic airliner could change all that. The plane is Reaction Engines's A2 concept, a Mach-5 (3,400mph) craft for 300 passengers funded in part by the European Union's Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies project (Lapcat). Lapcat wants an airliner that can fly from Brussels to Sydney in less than four hours. If built, the A2 will do just that—without producing a trace of carbon emissions.

    4.18.2008 at 06:54pm - Comment by DaJBags

    probably wings I agree with all who said this is not green. We are just concentrating the carbon footprint into our nuclear plants which are causing their own problems with waste disposal. I think ideas such as hydrogen fuel planes could be related to electric cars. I just don't think we could have an electric plane but then again I don't design planes. Also, I think that the screens are great ideas. One they have a choice to watch a movie (or show, internet, etc.) of their choice or look at what is out side. But if you are going to create an artificial environment such as that, what is stopping us from changing the seating arrangements. Lets put some tables in there. (I don't know if they do rows for safety or efficiency, or both.) -JBags

  • Gadgets

    The Ultimate Swiss Army Knife?

    By Posted on 4.15.2008 6 Comments

    When we spoke with Peter Segal—director of the upcoming film Get Smart—for our Sci-Tech Summer Movie Guide, he knew straight off that he had to play up the technology in the comedic spy caper. "We knew getting into this that the gadgets are really important," he says. He couldn't tell us about all the tech tools in the film, but there's a clever update of the infamous "cone of silence," and the movie features exploding cuff links and dental floss, plus a tooth radio.

    4.15.2008 at 06:13pm - Comment by DaJBags

    really?

  • Cars

    Traffic Jams on Open Highways

    By Posted on 4.1.2008 11 Comments

    The only thing more frustrating than creeping your way toward the site of a bottleneck on the highway only to discover the accident is on the other side of the median are the times when you make it through and discover, as far as you can tell, nothing was holding up the traffic. Japanese researchers have now demonstrated that the "nothing" may in fact be the traffic crossing a threshold of density of cars on the road. Too many cars means that small slow downs by a few drivers equals up to big backups miles away.

    4.15.2008 at 06:12pm - Comment by DaJBags

    I don't believe that these people are any less intelligent than you. These are the average drivers put in a circular track. When I think about it, there is human reaction rates, thinking time/processing time, and so on that makes a process, that is simple in theory or for a machine, hard for humans. You have to wait for the car in front of you to pull up and then hit the gas only to find he is beginning to slow down so you start to slow down, then he speeds up so you speed up only to find...you get the point. So maybe the problem isn't that we are stupid but really we are just humans with free thinking and processing capabilities. Perhaps, if we had the technology to let computers drive us around, we could travel much faster and safer (if the technology is just as reliable...which apparently isn't that reliable).

  • The Environment

    Welcome to Masdar City

    By Posted on 3.4.2008 3 Comments

    The United Arab Emirates is a small federation of seven states on the southern end of the Persian Gulf. Its reserves of oil and natural gas have allowed the nation to prosper economically. In recent years, the country has seen a boom in massive constructions: The world's tallest skyscraper is scheduled to be completed in late 2008. Other superlatives include the world's largest mall, an indoor ski slope and a series of man-made islands off the coast made from dredging hundreds of millions of tons of sand from the Gulf's bottom.

    Article Rating:
    3.16.2008 at 03:31pm - Comment by DaJBags

    I can almost be certain that the UAE will be able to do this and have the technology to get it done. I do feel like it will not be the utopia they might be anticipating. That means that everything that they use must be capable of complete disassemply and reuse of material if they are going to "recycle garbage". I don't know if we have the technology to do that with everything (computers chips, plastic bottles with printed labels, white paper with ink, etc.) As far as having the capital to make an incredible community, they have plenty of funds available. This, suspiciously, makes me think they are using this to experiment with investments in greener practices. Either way, I don't foresee any bad outcomes in these plans.

  • The Environment

    Where's the Beef? It's in My Lawnmower!

    By Posted on 3.6.2008 2 Comments

    Two-stroke engines are simple, light, and powerful. Unlike a four-stroke engine (the kind you find in a car), they can be operated at any angle. That's why you find them in lawnmowers, leaf blowers, chainsaws, and on boats as outboard motors. They come with significant disadvantages, however. They are terribly inefficient with fuel. They don't have a dedicated lubrication system and so burn the oil they use (if cars used two-stroke engines, they would burn a gallon of oil every 1,000 miles). And worst of all, they leak fuel through their exhaust by design.

    3.16.2008 at 03:18pm - Comment by DaJBags

    CAFO's oil...look it up before you think it is green and less harmful (or atleast the production of it)



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