Green GT Electric Supercar

Up-and-coming Swiss auto company GreenGT recently unveiled plans for a fully-electric vehicle that is heralded to be the most powerful and cutting-edge electric race car ever built. Designed with the famous Le Mans race in mind, their Twenty-4 vehicle is currently undergoing development and will boast two 100-kw electric engines that provide 350-400 horsepower and a top speed of 171 mph.

 

Thanks to Jorge Chapa for posting this update to the inhabitat.com website, and for slashdot for running a link to it.

C’s Work at Badasht

Found these on Youtube:

 

It takes something special to prepare 10 devotional programs for six days, then flex each program on-the-spot to fit the individual talents and abilities and aged of  each group. C certainly has that gift.

Rutgers Robotic Atlantic Crossing Attempt

A team of students at Rutgers University have a project underway in which they’re attempting a robotic crossing of the Atlantic. You can find out more here:

http://rucool.marine.rutgers.edu/atlantic/

We have customers at Rutgers who order boards from us. I really don’t know if this is a project we’ve got boards in or not… not that I really care, to be honest. There’s something else going on here that I think is particularly cool

Not only is this research project full of ‘first time in the world’ chutzpah, and loaded with real-time tracking so that their success or failure is in full, realtime public view, but – best of all – the team looks to be 50% female.

Robotics and engineering disciplines NEED more women in their ranks, without doubt. I’m cheering for the Rutgers team. You should too.

Batteries That Use Air

This article posted to the UK paper, The Telegraph, and covered by slashdot, indicates some new technology for making sustainable battery technology.

The cells are charged in a traditional way but as power is used or 'discharged' an open mesh section of battery draws in oxygen from the surrounding air.

This oxygen reacts with a porous carbon component inside the battery, which creates more energy and helps to continually 'charge' the cell as it is being discharged.

The applications are in longer-lasting batteries and smaller battery payloads needed to support an electric device, whether a cell phone or a car.

[link] to the article

Oregon Unemployment Numbers for April

From the Portland Tribune

"Oregon’s unemployment rate in April hit 12 percent, only a slight increase from March’s adjusted numbers, a possible good omen for the state’s faltering economy."

The rest of the article goes on to discuss that the rate of joblessness may still go up over the summer, but that the overall pace is on the decline. In other words, we seem to be slowing month-to-month toward zero.

dfd

Curve Ball Pitches Don’t Break; They Just LOOK Like They Do….

I found this originally on BoingBoing, but wanted to capture it here.

This flash app is the first price winner of the 2009 Best Visual Illusion of the Year award. The flash app demonstrates why the Curve Ball seems to ‘break’.

Check out the page. I wonder if others come to the same conclusion that, knowing the curve ball is an optical illusion, the knowing doesn’t make the curve any easier to hit!

[link here]

Baha'i Scouting??

I sat in on a meeting tonight. Not that my presence at a meeting is special, but the agenda for this particular meeting sure was: the potential charter of the first Baha'i sponsored Boy Scout troop in North America. Here in Portland. It's a novel idea, with lots of win-win built into it.

• First, the Baha'i Junior Youth and Youth can plug into a complementary program that isn't just Baha'i, but Baha'i influenced.
• Second, the St Johns area is painfully short on troops. There is an apparent pent up demand for Scouting in the neighborhood.
• Third, St Johns is a highly diverse neighborhood, a gateway into America for a number of immigrant communities. Scouting could offer a way to develop citizenship separate from the street gangs.

And so, here I am. Helping start a Boy Scout troop.

R is assimilating well with Troop 22. He may not wish to move to the new troop. I fully intend to honor his preferences. It is, afterall, his first career in scouting. Not mine. I've already had my first career in Scouting. I may find myself embarking on my second career in scouting, though. We will see.