A people's car designed under a rather more benign regime than the most famous one....It's nearly as cute and given its price it may well be as successful.

Of course there is another "peoples car" that it might also emulate.

Time will tell.

I'm rooting for the Tata's.
Wait...that's not what I meant!..er..to say out loud.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:26 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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    Airship Ventures is planning to begin operating a small Zeppelin out of Moffet Field for tours of San Fransisco Bay.

    The Zeppelin NT airships have had a superb saftey record thus far and are quite fuel efficient. 

They are also fricking Zeppelins...which makes them trancendentally cool.

    This type of Zeppelin is interesting because it generally operates slightly heavier than air. It gains the few hundred pounds of lift it needs from its fins or its vectorable propellors, though by dropping ballast it can float like a balloon if necessary. The design allows for far better foul weather performance and, as a bonus, a ground crew of as few as 3 which is a huge improvement over previous designs. Because of their rigid construction and compartmentation, Zeppelins are more robust than Blimps (which have no internal bracing).  

    If approved by the San Fransisco city council, this will be the first rigid airship to be based in the US since the decomissioning of USS Los Angeles (ZR3), and the first to be comercially operated.

    Besides the retrocool cool factor, Airships, because of their fuel efficiency have a lot of undevelloped potential for ultra low pollution comercial air travel, although they are slower than planes (about 120 kts max). They can also cary fairly heavy loads to remote areas and so have some potential as freightliners.

    On the military side, airships have great potential for Search and Rescue, Airborne Early Warning, Antisubmarine and mine clearance both at sea and, interestingly, over land using a big ground penetrating radar and other sophisticated sensors. The mines could be destroyed with cannon or if detected near a civillian dwelling a BD team could be landed. I read recently that one company (Airship Industries of the UK I think) did some considerable work in this arera but there were no takers. This last option gives the potential to clear large areas of  landmines quite efficiently.

Pic via Modern Airships which has scads of links concerning...well...modern airships.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Chizumatic links to this important development in super science.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wow...

Don't go roaming with the i-Phone.

I'm glad I'm not rich...or I'd be broke.

HT: Jerry Pournelle

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The sort of ads we never see anymore....

...probably because most of them just creeped people out.


HT: Rand Simberg

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No not really, but Lynn over at A Sweet Familiar Dissonance has stumbled on to a  seriously cool online store.

With a name like United Nuclear you know its gotta be good!

Europium paint!
Cloud chambers!
Aerogels!
Radioactive decontamination spray (?!)
FREAKING TESLA COILS!!!!*



And thanks to Don for pointing out her blog!

_{*tesla coils do not actually freak}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via Twentysided:

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Over at Paleofuture Matt has posted 3 retro-riffic screen savers!

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Rand Simberg takes this Popular Mechanics article to task for calling the rocket pack being marketed by Go Fast International a jet pack.

In fairness this is the name they give their product.

It is true that the terms were clarified in the 50s or thereabouts to refer to jets as air-breathers, and rockets as those that carry their own oxidants, the terms were once interchangeable  and  the propulsion  (as opposed to fuel details) are pretty much identical (turbofans notwithstanding). However the capabilities of the systems are vastly different. Rand is absolutely right that a real jet pack would be much cooler than this as it would have orders of magnitude more range.

I want one!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Rand Simberg has thoughts on both.

He is not enthused.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Mr Wizard has died.

HT: Jerry Pournelle

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via Instapundit comes this interesting take by SciFi author Charlie Stross on the what the future has to offer....or not.

One important point he makes, that many predictors overlook, is the track record of past predictions...which, as the absence of a jet pack in my closet and a flying car in my driveway attest...is spotty at best.

The privacy implications are troubling as is the prospect of disastrous single-point failures if things like driverless cars really are mandated, but read the whole thing.

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