I said “cable-laying,” get it? Anyhoo, if you’re in the market for a huge remote controlled submersible robot that weighs 50 tons and can bury oil and gas pipes at the bottom of the ocean, look no further than the Ultra Trencher 1 by a company called SMD. It uses propellers to submerge itself to depths up to a mile and then uses ninja-like high-pressure “jet swords” to cut a trench in the ocean floor. Pipes can then be safely buried out of the way of shipwrecks, fishing equipment, and currents. A Deeply Impressive Bit of Kit; World’s Biggest Subsea Robot [RedOrbit] via ZDNet → Read More
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline will conduct a test flight at the end of the month wherein a Boeing 747 will fly from London to Amsterdam using an 80/20 blend of conventional fuel and biofuel, respectively. The plane will carry no passengers but will be “the first time a commercial aircraft has flown on biofuel,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. → Read More
Man oh man, do I miss Snickers. When I worked in an office, I used to eat one (and only one) each day. Yum. Now that there’s going to be a Snickers bar infused with caffeine, taurine, and B vitamins, I’m going to have to seriously reconsider starting up my Costco membership again. → Read More
That’s Mavericks, a world class big wave spot in Half Moon Bay. Oil prices are getting out of hand. Wind and solar power are somewhat unpredictable and apparently they ‘cost too much’. A few weeks back I saw Southland Tales and the movie was about the end of the world and all this other crazy stuff. What was intriguing about the film other than Sarah Michelle Geller being a porn star was the fact that alternative energy was being pumped from the ocean. It’s not rocket science (or maybe something close to it), but I’d imagine building a huge turbine of some sort would produce massive amounts of free energy, right? Well, Finavera Renewables has this thing called the Aquabuoy that’s a buoy connected to an underwater piston. Can you figure out how it works? No? Ok, fine. As swells roll through, the buoy goes with the flow and goes up and down. This in turn gets the piston running, which pressurizes a chamber that’s inhabited by seawater. Said pressure gets the turbine running, which if you haven’t figured it out by now produces electricity. That’s cool but so what? → Read More
Continuing with Biggs’ “down with Big Oil” mantra from earlier today, check out this suspicious (and yes I know, old old old) video that I originally heard about on Opie & Anthony. It’s a news report of a man who supposedly invented a water fuel cell capable of powering all sorts of vehicles. The catch is, he was mysteriously poisoned before he get his device on the market. Think of how different the world would have been if this invention came to light (if it were ever real to begin with). Powering your car and heating your home with a couple gallons of water? Oh, what could have been. Maybe we should change our name to ConspiracyGear. Water fuel cell [Wikipedia] → Read More
As someone who sits at home in front of a computer all day every day, I can — like Richard to Tommy in Tommy Boy — actually hear myself getting fatter. So the thought of sitting all day every day in an apparatus that forces me to expend energy in order to provide power to my lifeline to the outside world and device by which I earn money for food, shelter, and clothing is intriguing to me. Such is the "pedal-powered laptop" being developed by a group of MIT students. I live near MIT and every time I’m over near the campus, I like to look at all the people and try to figure out who’s legitimately an insane homeless person and who’s a genius that’s been working on a project like this and hasn’t slept or showered in a week. If you’re one of the latter, nice work! The students "predicted that a bicyclist should be able to produce up to 75 watts continuously–far more than the 30 watts needed to power the laptop." Students get charge out of pedal power [MIT News] → Read More
Sure, you could build your own similar device for far less than $4.4 million (Australian) but would it look nearly as awesome as the vest that the bad mamma jamma on the left is wearing? My position is “no, it would not.” The aforementioned money was given to Australia’s national science agency as a grant in the hopes that it could develop an “electrojacket” that “uses what are called Piezoelectric materials to transform kinetic energy into storable power.” Its intended use will be for military personnel and will (hopefully) allow them to eschew all the little battery packs needed to power the many various gadgets they have strapped to them while in the field of battle. The energy that’s created by the soldiers’ movement will theoretically power many of those devices. The technology could also have practical applications in the private and medical device sectors as well. A jacket to keep you warm and powered [bit-tech.net] → Read More
A few TV manufacturers and broadcasters have joined forces to develop 10 minutes of boredom as a standard way of measuring energy use. Apparently energy consumption varies based on the genre so the clip combines all of them into one including soap operas, sports, and nature programs. It would be assumed that porn uses up the most energy and as a result we encourage everyone to cut back and go outside. You know, for the sake of the environment and all. The clip will become an International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard and will be used to measure the efficiency of TV’s world wide. World’s most boring TV show to measure energy use [Reuters] → Read More
Neon signs will always looks cool when one is inebriated, but what happens when these signs get old and die? They go out to the deserts of Las Vegas, where they remain still in time forever. Some are beautiful, some are ugly, all are old and overused. Quite beautiful actually. Neon Graveyard [Cool Hunting] → Read More
Across the pond at the University of Southampton, a teeny-tiny generator powered by ambient vibrations could be the next big thing for pacemaker-packing patients. The less-than-one-cubic-centimeter device is said to be 10 times more efficient than current devices and eliminates the need to change out the batteries, something that’s long-been a tricky task. In a pacemaker, the device would draw power from the vibrations created by the beating of the human heart. Unreal. By removing excess wires and batteries, these devices are now able to be placed in previously hard-to-reach places and can be fitted with larger sensors. Beyond the benefits to the pacemaker crowd, these devices could also be used to monitor structural conditions in roads and bridges. Although in its current state this generator is only able to produce mere microwatts of electricity, one would think that eventually this technology could be used to power all sorts of low-energy devices like the keyfob that you use to unlock your car or maybe even your TV’s remote control. Good vibes power tiny generator [BBC News] → Read More
Jadoo Power Systems announced today that it has received a contract to develop advanced fuel canisters for use with hydrogen fuel cells. Using a proprietary digital interface technology called N-Stor, the new canisters can utilize a chemical hydride derived from ammonia borane. This process drastically reduces the weight of the new canisters, making it ideal for space objectives. Jadoo → Read More
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