ABC News: Experimental Hybrid Cars Get Up to 250 Mpg

Engineers Modify Hybrid Cars to Squeeze Extra Energy Out of Them, Boost Gas Mileage Up to 250"

Aug. 14, 2005 - Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.

It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.

Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.

A new Brin blog. David Brin is the Science Fiction Writer and Futurist. Contrary Brin

People love those cheap iBooks

iBook sale erupts in chaos, stampede, 17 injuries.

PolySciFi Blog has great news for moderate drinkers.

eyes wide apart is a good artist

Three years and over 10,300 posts later I am still blogging.

man dies after 50 hours of computer games

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on August 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

"We presume the cause of death was heart failure stemming from exhaustion," a Taegu provincial police official said by telephone.

Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported after interviewing former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe.

After he failed to return home, Lee's mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.

He died a few minutes later, it said.

Oh, so it is stopping playing computer games that is dangerous.

Ani Difranco may not be so angry anymore but her body may slow or stop her touring.

Just the Right Digital Camera for You

Secrets - You may want two and you don't have to spend that much or get super high resolutions. Look at the lens and the zoom. The most important thing I am finding is never stated on the box - lag time. Some cameras can take seconds to start up or even over a second between the time you press the button and it takes the picture. A very good short review from the New York Times.

Bottled Water usually tastes no better, is no purer, and is damn expensive.

Hacking your elevator.

Ever wanted an express elevator in a crowded building? Press the "Door Close" and "Floor" button at the same time and many elevators will go into express mode and go straight to your floor. Some building managers have turned this off when it becomes widely known.

Micro Gas Turbines for Power

A micro gas turbine engine could run for ten or more hours on a container of diesel fuel slightly larger than a D battery; when the fuel cartridge ran out, a new one could be easily swapped in. Each disposable cartridge would pack as much energy as a few heavy handfuls of lithium-ion batteries.

What you need to know about Firefly and Serenity - Photo Essay.

WHAT IS A PLANET?

Astronomers are disagreeing and one proposal would add the largest asteroid and two, now three, Kuiper Belt objects - and probably more. Other astronomers want to kick out Pluto. Meanwhile the extra-solar astronomers are disagreeing about brown dwarfs and super-Jupiters. With possible planets being discovered every week the situation is chaotic.

This is especially relevant today as an object bigger than Pluto has been discovered in a distant orbit.

2005 Results of Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.

Dan McKay
Fargo, ND

A 43-year-old quantitative analyst for Microsoft Great Plains is the winner of the 23rd running of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. A resident of Fargo, North Dakota, McKay is currently visiting China, perhaps to escape notoriety for his dubious literary achievement.

His entry, extolling a subject that has engaged poets for millennia, may have been inspired by Roxie Hart of the musical "Chicago." Complaining of her husband's ineptitude in the boudoir, Roxie laments, "Amos was . . . zero. I mean, he made love to me like he was fixing a carburetor or something."

Other winners.

How To Get My Job by Jerry Pournelle, Science Fiction and Technology Writter.

Good news for dark chocolate-lovers - dark chocolate lowers your blood pressure.

The study, published by the
American Heart Association, joins a growing body of research that show compounds found in chocolate called flavonoids can help the blood vessels work more smoothly, perhaps reducing the risk of heart disease.

"Previous studies suggest flavonoid-rich foods, including fruits, vegetables, tea, red wine and chocolate, might offer cardiovascular benefits, but this is one of the first clinical trials to look specifically at dark chocolate's effect on lowering blood pressure among people with hypertension," said Jeffrey Blumberg of Tufts University in Boston, who led the study.

"This study is not about eating more chocolate," Blumberg added. "It suggests that cocoa flavonoids appear to have benefits on vascular function and glucose sensitivity."

Wired - Time's Up, Einstein

What is time? A college dropout's physics paper accepted in a peer reviewed journal questioning the real existence of time has rocked the physics world.

Guns Germs & Steel - Why Europeans conquered the world - One, by the end of the Ice Age it was predestined that different societies would develop at different speeds.

Guns, Steel, and Germs - Two, how a few hundred men could destroy empires.

Why Africa is the poorest continent - Three, how Central Africa society was destroyed in two generations.

This PBS series on the book ignores Asia but is great for understanding world history and the influence of geography. The transcripts of the entire shows are not too long - 1, 2, 3.

And the book is very good.

A few photos from Apollo Con 2.


Apollo Con Next Year June 23 - 25 2006.

One of the groups connected to this is the Houston Book Exchange Network.