Wired: Solar Tents and Death Cars

Grok Headline matches for Wired: Solar Tents and Death Cars

Wired News: Drivers Want Code to Their
Cars

Wired News: Drivers Want Code to Their
Cars 06/01/2004 02:27 AM
Drivers Want Code to Their Cars .. wired

wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,63615,00.html
track this site | 4 links

The Solar Death Ray

The Solar Death Ray 03/23/2005 08:06 PM

Solar Death Ray

Solar Death Ray 03/22/2005 04:46 PM

Straight out of a (low-budget) Bond flick is the Solar Death Ray, a combination of particle board, 112 mirrors and, of course, Sol. Each of the mirrors are pointed towards one area, focusing the sun's rays onto a target easily heated up to 930-1100 degrees Fahrenheit. The project page contains bunches of science facts and enough instruction to build your own, Popular Science style. In all seriousness, though, watching it melt through some of the "targets" in their gallery is a bit disconcerting as I imagine hundreds of maladjusted youth attempting to build their own as an easy yet tragic way to score a new cat.

Project Page [SolarDeathRay via MAKE:Blog]

Update: Alexander reminds us that giant fresnel lenses are also affordable.

"Solar death ray"

"Solar death ray" 03/25/2005 11:36 AM

Wired News: Twisted Tale of Art, Death,
DNA

Wired News: Twisted Tale of Art, Death,
DNA 06/05/2004 01:33 PM
Wired News: Twisted Tale of Art, Death, DNA

wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,63637,00.html
track this site | 4 links

"technology makes new cars too expensive
to repair, which may lead to disposable
cars"

"technology makes new cars too expensive
to repair, which may lead to disposable
cars" 04/21/2004 10:19 AM

Tow Truck Drivers Push Cars into
Tow-Away Zone then hold cars for ransom

Tow Truck Drivers Push Cars into
Tow-Away Zone then hold cars for ransom 03/22/2005 04:59 PM
Mark Frauenfelder: Tian says: "On March 7th, I took photos of a tow truck driver that damages a vehicle then tries to get away in Phoenix.

Sunday night (March 20th), Phoenix news channel 15 used a bait car and discovered that local tow truck company(s) would actually push cars into tow-away zone first, then held the cars as "hostages" for ransom."

I just watched it. The TV crew set up a white SUV as a bait car, and parked it legally. Time and time again, tow trucks would push the car into a red zone, snap a photo, and tow it away. Of course, when the TV crew showed the owner of the tow truck company how his drivers had pushed the car into the red lane, the owner denied responsibility. "I didn't push it," he said.

Arizona lawmakers have been half-heartedly writing legislation to stop this (isn't it illegal to do this already) but the tow truck has so far been able to convince them not to ruin the good thing they've got going. Link to RealMedia file. The segment starts about 20:15 into the broadcast.

Texting lights up Glasto's tents

Texting lights up Glasto's tents 06/26/2004 01:18 AM
BBC Jun 26 2004 5:01AM GMT

Mourning Pilgrims Pitch Tents in Rome
Streets (Reuters)

Mourning Pilgrims Pitch Tents in Rome
Streets (Reuters) 04/04/2005 04:31 PM
Reuters - Pilgrims spilled out of packed trains and buses and camped on church steps in Rome on Monday as they tried to push through to the Vatican to pay their respects to the late Pope John Paul II.

Wired 11.12: WIRED TOOLS 2K3

Wired 11.12: WIRED TOOLS 2K3 12/03/2003 03:46 PM

Not Life After Death -- Email After
Death

Not Life After Death -- Email After
Death 09/25/2004 09:08 PM

Fun with rc-cars

Fun with rc-cars 03/19/2003 10:26 PM
So, last fall we bought some pretty expensive radio-controlled cars, and we decided to bring one of them out again...

When cars fly

When cars fly 09/01/2004 04:07 AM
David Pescovitz: It's time again for the mainstream media's semi-annual report on flying cars of the future. Guess what! According to this Associated Press article, we're still decades away from George Jetson-style jaunts. (Surprise!)

The problem is, those ideas have generally required both a lot of money and the skills of a trained pilot. And melding cars and planes hasn't always been very successful.

"When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that's hard to use," said Mark Moore, who heads the personal air vehicle division of the vehicle systems program at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

Link

Three More Solar Flares

Three More Solar Flares 11/04/2003 02:27 PM
Evil Adrian writes "Space.com reports that the sun shot off three more solar flares on Monday. This is quite a historic period for solar activity." The article ...

solar system

solar system 11/15/2003 09:57 AM
sola r system [note: requires anark plugin]

Solar Style

Solar Style 12/22/2004 01:36 AM

I was writing a column this month and mentioned the upsweep of
solar-powered gear the last few months and my editor's editor (why do I love blogging again?) was all huh?. And yes, okay, solar power isn't anything new, but the new high-efficiency panels are really starting to happen, like this entire new 'Solar Style' line of gear called the 'PV Solar Chargers." You've got yer solar bag, yer flip-out notebook charger, ya gotcher cell phone case with a charger—this stuff is taking off.

The Solar style gear doesn't seem to be quite ready for retail yet, but you can order a 'sample kit' for 200 bucks, which I'm guessing includes a few different units to try out. The press release lists my arch-enemy AirWater Corporation, though, so these might be a force for evil. Be careful. (Thanks, Kelly!)

Press Release [Yahoo]

Solar sails

Solar sails 08/10/2004 08:03 PM
Space age origami. JAXA successfully launched and unfurled two solar sails in space.

Solar Clock

Solar Clock 03/24/2005 07:55 AM
License Change

Solar Empire

Solar Empire 04/18/2004 10:53 PM
New release - 2.2 available

Solar Pursuit

Solar Pursuit 04/10/2005 09:34 PM
Web Page

Solar Saga

Solar Saga 10/29/2003 08:15 PM
Design needs futher work

Solar Gadgets

Solar Gadgets 06/06/2004 12:48 PM

Wired News has a short regurgitation from Reuters about the increasing number of gadget users who are turning to solar power to keep them mobile. It's not perfect, of course -- cloudy days can still easily double the recharge time of batteries -- but as the efficiency of solar cells improve, we may well see increased ubiquity of solar power for all our devices, especially as flexible, wearable panels become available.
Read [Wired]

Solar Roller

Solar Roller 08/30/2004 10:33 AM
Dave Johnson: It's official. Roller is now my full time job. I just accepted a job with Sun Microsystems to "design, develop, and deploy the primary blogging system for Sun in conjunction with other engineers" and to evangelize blogging both inside and outside of Sun.

solar deathray

solar deathray 03/23/2005 10:53 PM
solar deathray

Solar Discord

Solar Discord 02/10/2004 06:40 PM
coding to begin soon

Solar to Keep Army on the Go

Solar to Keep Army on the Go 06/29/2004 05:45 AM
Seeking ways to keep troops more mobile and harder to detect, the U.S. military is leaning more and more on solar technology. By John Gartner.

Yet Another Big Solar Flare

Yet Another Big Solar Flare 10/30/2003 03:48 PM
philthedrill writes "CNN is reporting that the sun has fired another large solar flare towards Earth. This one could arrive as early as Thursday (Oct. 30th) ...

Etech05: Cars

Etech05: Cars 03/17/2005 03:50 AM

(Etech05: Cars, originally uploaded by etech)

Something folks have been talking about for months now: a mac mini embedded in a car dash, running an entertainment OS

counterfeit cars?

counterfeit cars? 03/23/2005 05:26 PM
At the CCC, we're dedicated to putting an end to the victimization associated with purchasing a counterfeit MINI Cooper.

Electric Cars that Pay

Electric Cars that Pay 07/29/2004 07:01 PM
Giving back to the grid... looks like the idea that AC Propulsion has of empowering owners of electric cars to send energy back into the grid (like wind and solar consumers) is getting noticed.

Sirius gets into new cars

Sirius gets into new cars 03/23/2005 08:13 PM
Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz are plugging the satellite radio service into dashboards on 2005 models.

four stars, two cars...

four stars, two cars... 03/13/2003 10:22 AM

Scott finally posted about his new song, and I've been waiting to say something about it. It absolutely blows me away that someone with a desktop PC and a few guitars can create this kind of music all by themselves, in their home.

Cars as Investments

Cars as Investments 04/12/2004 02:20 PM
Don't count on becoming rich by buying cars -- they're not great money-makers.

NYT On Flying Cars

NYT On Flying Cars 09/26/2004 03:29 PM

Are New Cars Too Expensive To Fix?

Are New Cars Too Expensive To Fix? 04/19/2004 01:30 AM
With all the expensive safety equipment, electronics, sensors and gadgets in new cars, it's getting to the point where it's increasingly less reasonable to fix them if they've been in an accident. The article includes an example story of a relatively new BMW that was flipped: despite a lack of serious structural damage, the car was considered totaled by the insurance company, in large part due to the cost of replacing all six airbags (including the sensors and pyrotechnics) that went off in the accident. Even fancier lighting is causing problems. Xenon headlights have become quite popular among thieves - but can cost thousands of dollars to replace, especially when additional body damage is done by the thief. Some are even saying that we're creating "disposable" cars that are simply too expensive to repair when things go wrong.

PCs should get out of cars and walk
alone

PCs should get out of cars and walk
alone 01/02/2005 09:36 PM
The Times Jan 2 2005 11:25PM GMT

Solar Powered Toothbrush

Solar Powered Toothbrush 12/22/2004 01:36 AM

< img src="http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/solar_toothbrush.jpg" alt="solar_toothbrush.jpg image" width="119" height="200" class="right border"/>For those with pasty white gums, this Soladey solar-powered toothbrush will provide a loving bronzing that even George Hamilton's dentist will love. Or it will convert light into negative ions to attract positive ions from acidic dental plaque or something—it's Japanese; I hold myself to no accuracy. It's part of a selection of green hygiene products on Treehugger, including a prototype ceramic-bladed razor that wouldn't have needed sharping or replacement blades, but was rubbed out when it was discovered to allow cars to travel 200 miles on just a single gallon of gas.

T op Five - Personal Care [TreeHugger]

Rulers of the solar system

Rulers of the solar system 01/16/2004 11:02 AM
Back to the archive, one tape at a time. A new old episode of previously missing Doctor Who has turned up. It's episode two of The Dalek Master Plan which means we've now got three of the twelve parts that make up that story. Nine to go... (a clip with lots of Daleks in can be seen here).

Spinach Solar Power

Spinach Solar Power 06/29/2004 03:53 PM

If Marc Baldo has his way, we might be using spinach to power our future gadgets. He and other at MIT have developed a process that isolates photosynthetic proteins from spinach and puts them between two layers of conducting material, causing a small electric current to be generated when light was shone on it -- the same proteins that form the chloroplasts inside the plant's leaves, which convert light into energy via photosynthesis. The biological solar cells aren't perfect, as they give up the ghost after around 21 days. Surprisingly, though, they're already hitting a 12 percent efficiency of conversion -- that's as good as many conventional solar cells today.

I predict the biological stability of the spinach cells will increase when married to a fixed solution of olive oil.
Read [Nature]

Grok Description matches for Wired: Solar Tents and Death Cars
GrokA matches for Wired: Solar Tents and Death Cars

Wired: Solar Tents and Death Cars

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