>Video: Norman Foster Recreates Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Car

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http://vimeo.com/21160399

“I was privileged to collaborate with Bucky for the last 12 years of his life and this had a profound influence on my own work and thinking. Inevitably, I also gained an insight into his philosophy and achievements,” shared Lord Norman Foster.

Recreating the legendary futuristic Dymaxion Car, Foster’s No. 4 version was a lengthy and expensive two year project, but was obviously a labor of love. Buckminster Fuller’s futuristic three wheeled car was brief, with a mere three actually built. Incredibly efficient the streamlined body with long tail-fin averaged 35 miles to the gallon and could achieve 120 mph. The Zeppelin inspired design with a V8 Ford engine was intended to fly as well, Fuller’s vision of revolutionizing how people traveled.

via Video: Norman Foster Recreates Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Car | ArchDaily.

The Dymaxion car was a concept car designed by U.S. inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller in 1933.^[1] The word Dymaxion is a brand name that Fuller gave to several of his inventions, to emphasize that he considered them part of a more general project to improve humanity’s living conditions. The car had a fuel efficiency of 30 miles per US gallon (7.8 L/100 km; 36 mpg_-imp). It could transport 11 passengers. While Fuller claimed it could reach speeds of 120 miles per hour (190 km/h), the fastest documented speed was 90 miles per hour (140 km/h). – wiki

>Tornado closes Lambert-St Louis airport

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The US airport of Lambert-St Louis has been closed indefinitely after a tornado ripped through its main terminal.

The storm tore off a large section of the terminal’s roof, shattering windows and sending debris flying.

Several people were being treated for minor injuries.

The storm, one of a series to pass through central and eastern Missouri, also flattened homes in the area, felled trees and tore down power lines.

Lambert-St Louis airport said all flights were cancelled pending full safety assessments, and a clean-up was under way.

“We have all hands on deck here,” said Mayor Francis Slay, speaking at the airport.

‘Grown men crying’

St Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch, who was at the airport as the storm approached, said people watching the tornado suddenly had to scramble for safety.

“About the time we came into the building, the doors blew off,” he said.

“Literally 10 seconds later, it was over. It’s amazing to me more people weren’t hurt.”

Dianna Merrill, who was waiting for a flight to New York, said she had been looking out of the window hoping her delayed flight would arrive.

“Glass was blowing everywhere. The ceiling was falling… the wind was blowing debris all over the place,” she said.

“It was like being in a horror movie. Grown men were crying. It was horrible.”

via BBC News – Tornado closes Lambert-St Louis airport.

>Discovering the hidden DVD player in your Prius

>My GPS navigation system has a DVD player of its very own hidden in the car. I just found it today and popped out the disk.

Here is what it looks like.

I can read it in my computer and the version file matches the DATA ver.07.1 printed on the label.

The newest version from the dealer (10.1 with 11.1 due out “Fall 2011”) costs $200. I don’t want to spend that much. Also, I’ve heard some people had their map shifted by 100ft or more so the previous locations did not work and so the system gave wrong directions after the upgrade. (Just a rumor.)

With the 2009 Prius you are looking for a GEN 5 DVD. The GEN is your hardware generation and it doesn’t ever change for your car.

Some people are hacking these DVDs to unlock the GPS system so you can use it while in motion, and so you can play ordinary movie DVDs that show up on your NAV screen.

Both seem like bad ideas, but I like hacking things just to see if it can be done. For example, can I turn on the reverse video camera feed while moving forward? I totally want to do that.

I wouldn’t watch movies while driving, but there are times when I start rolling and I have one more number to enter for an address in the GPS and the system shuts off. I hate that. I would like to be able to override it.

Google for instructions, but heed this: if your Prius accelerates without warning and kills you after you hack it with a file downloaded from some Russian or Chinese web site, you’ll have only yourself to blame.

>First commercial jetpack is ‘months away’

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It has been the stuff of science-fiction legend for generations, but the era of futuristic personal space-age travel may have finally dawned.

After completing a gruelling seven-minute outside test flight, the longest ever by a jetpack, the world’s first commercial rocketman suit could be just months from hitting the shelves.

Reaching death-defying altitudes of more than 100ft, the Martin Jetpack’s flight last week brought 40 years of development near to a conclusion and the dreams of millions achingly close to reality.

Although limited to speeds well below its 60mph capacity, the remotely controlled test, using a weighted dummy pilot called Jetson, smashed records for altitude and air-time.

At its unveiling at a U.S. airshow in 2008, the aircraft did not go higher than 6ft – an arm’s reach from a watchful ground crew – or fly for longer than 45 seconds.

Given the success of the trial, the first ‘jet-ski in the sky’ could now be dispatched for solo flights by the end of the year at a price of around £50,000 ($75,000) per machine.

Designed to be the ‘simplest aircraft in the world’ the Martin Jetpack will be a breeze to fly, according to inventor Glenn Martin.

He said: ‘You just strap it on and rev the nuts out of it and it lifts you up off the ground.

‘It’s just basic physics. As Newton said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So when you shoot lots of air down very fast you go up and you’re flying.’

Mr Martin says 2,500 people have already signed up for to buy the jetpack, with inquiries coming from Middle Eastern royalty and U.S. millionaires.

The two-litre 200-horsepower gasoline engine powers two ducted fans that can soar across the skies at 60mph at heights of up to 160ft.

The jetpack, which produces up to 6000rpm (revolutions per minute), carries enough fuel to fly for 30 minutes.

Its makers are targeting tourism joy flights, pilot training and private recreational sales.

‘Some just want to dodge the rush-hour traffic and do it in style’, Mr Martin said.

But the invention’s immediate deployment is likely to be as a ground-breaking defence tool with the U.S. military, which first tested jetpacks in the 1960s, and U.S. border control the first organisations to take delivery of the device.

Mr Martin, a 50-year-old father of two, sees the military version of the jetpack being used in hard-to-access areas, war zones to patrol borders and, if unmanned, to make difficult deliveries by remote control.

It could also be used in counter terrorism operations, as an airborne missile platform and mobile surveillance unit. …

via First commercial jetpack is ‘months away’ after record-breaking 7-minute test flight | Mail Online.

UFO sightings predicted to soar, especially when they figure out how to run it in whisper mode.

>German ‘thought car’ could be driven on Sabbath, Rabbi says

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A German-designed car that can be driven by thought alone could allow Jews to drive on the Sabbath, a young Rabbi and artificial intelligence scientist says.Rabbi Dror Fixler, an electro-optics expert from Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, told The Local that the distinction between thought and action could mean that driving on the traditional Jewish day of rest was mutar, or permitted.

In October, scientists at Berlin’s Free University announced they had tested a “proof of concept” car that could be driven by thought. An electroencephalography headset with sixteen sensors measures the brain’s signals and sends them to a computer that operates the car.

Last week, Rabbi Fixler gave a lecture at the “Torah and Science Conference” at the Jerusalem College of Technology, during which he showed a video of the car being test driven at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin.

That lecture, he said, has sparked a debate in Israel about whether such devices that integrate the mind with machinery would be permitted on the Sabbath, when driving is typically forbidden.

“When you are making only thoughts, it is no action at all. There is a difference – if you are thinking, it is not the same thing, so you can’t say it’s forbidden,” he said. “That was what I asked the audience to think about. …

Fixler stressed he personally did not think driving thought-controlled cars should be permitted on the Sabbath, as it would destroy the whole purpose of having a rest day. …

via German ‘thought car’ could be driven on Sabbath, Rabbi says – The Local.

>Nuclear powered space ships target Mars after 2035

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An interplanetary spacecraft for a flight to Mars will be created not before 2025 and the maiden flight to the red planet will be possible only after 2035, said Russian space agency Roscosmos chief Anatoly Perminov Wednesday.

“The possibility of a flight to Mars needs to be combined with the construction of a spaceship having a new nuclear power propulsion unit, which will make it possible to reach the planet in a month,” Perminov said in Russia’s upper house of parliament.

He said the propulsion unit, which serves the purpose of changing the velocity of a spacecraft in the space, is to be built by 2019.

Some 7.2 billion rubles ($256 mln) are to be allocated as part of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom’s innovation development programme in 2010-2018 on the joint project with Roscosmos to create a nuclear power unit-based transport module for the future spacecraft.

Answering questions from senators in the Federation Council, the Roscosmos head called flights to Mars on board existing spaceships “absurdity,” and added that the prospective flight could only be organised on an international level.

Russia, as well as the US, have been developing technology to produce nuclear-powered spacecraft for decades. Roscosmos and NASA are planning to discuss the development of a nuclear-powered spaceship Friday during talks in Moscow.

via Mars flight possible after 2035.

>Sleeping air traffic controllers prompt FAA resignation

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A senior official at the Federal Aviation Administration has resigned after disclosures that US air traffic controllers have been sleeping on the job.Hank Krakowski’s resignation as director of air traffic organisation was accepted by the FAA administrator, Randy Babbitt, who said he was conducting a full review of operations.”Over the last few weeks, we have seen examples of unprofessional conduct on the part of a few individuals that have rightly caused the travelling public to question our ability to ensure their safety,” Babbitt said. “This conduct must stop immediately.”Two controllers were suspended this week in Nevada and Seattle for falling asleep on the job. One was out of radio contact while a medical flight was trying land. Two other controllers were found to have slept at work in recent months in Washington DC and Tennessee.The incidents have raised questions about adequate overnight staffing at air traffic towers. The FAA said in response to the latest incident, at Reno-Tahoe airport in Nevada on Wednesday, that it would add controllers at 27 towers.

via Sleeping air traffic controllers prompt FAA resignation | World news | The Guardian.

>Hawaii-bound plane returns to Sacramento after bird strike

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An Alaska Airlines flight headed from Sacramento to Hawaii turned around and landed safely after striking a bird this morning, airport officials reported.

Flight 869 reportedly had engine trouble after the bird strike, but no damage details were available.

The plane, which took off at about 10 a.m., landed safely at Sacramento International Airport and the passengers deplaned.

Inspection is underway, and no information is available on reboarding or rescheduling for the passengers.

via Hawaii-bound plane returns to Sacramento after bird strike – Sacramento News – Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee.

The flight was headed to Maui before the bird was ingested into the engine, Sacramento International Airport spokesperson Karen Doron said.

The plane landed safely and is being inspected by officials.

Passengers are waiting in the gate area. Doron said she is not sure if the passengers will travel on the same plane or not.

News10/KXTV

>Richard Branson Plans Deep-ocean Submarine Dives

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YouTube – Richard Branson Plans Deep-ocean Submarine Dives.

>Scientists steer car with the power of thought

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You need to keep your thoughts from wandering, if you drive using the new technology from the AutoNOMOS innovation labs of Freie Universität Berlin. The computer scientists have developed a system making it possible to steer a car with your thoughts. Using new commercially available sensors to measure brain waves — sensors for recording electroencephalograms (EEG) — the scientists were able to distinguish the bioelectrical wave patterns for control commands such as “left,” “right,” “accelerate” or “brake” in a test subject.

They then succeeded in developing an interface to connect the sensors to their otherwise purely computer-controlled vehicle, so that it can now be “controlled” via thoughts. Driving by thought control was tested on the site of the former Tempelhof Airport.

The scientists from Freie Universität first used the sensors for measuring brain waves in such a way that a person can move a virtual cube in different directions with the power of his or her thoughts. The test subject thinks of four situations that are associated with driving, for example, “turn left” or “accelerate.” In this way the person trained the computer to interpret bioelectrical wave patterns emitted from his or her brain and to link them to a command that could later be used to control the car. The computer scientists connected the measuring device with the steering, accelerator, and brakes of a computer-controlled vehicle, which made it possible for the subject to influence the movement of the car just using his or her thoughts. …

via Scientists steer car with the power of thought.

Future driving exams will include tests of your meditation skills.