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Sunday, January 18, 2009
Instead of a wind farm that no one seems to want built near their homes, how about a hot-air balloon farm to generate renewable energy?
New Scientist reports that “Ian Edmonds, an environmental consultant with Solartran in Brisbane, Australia, has designed a giant engine with a balloon as its 'piston'. A greenhouse traps solar energy, providing hot air to fill the balloon. As the balloon rises, it pulls a tether, which turns a generator on the ground. Once the balloon has reached 3 kilometres, air is released through its vent and it loses buoyancy. This means less energy is needed to pull the balloon back down again, resulting in a net power gain.”
For those merely interested in hard numbers, calculations show that “a large 44-metre-diameter recreational balloon could generate 50 kilowatts, enough to supply energy to about 10 homes.”
For us, we want to see some fantastic, unrepentantly beguiling images showing vast tracts of land (or the ocean) planted with boldly colored balloons bobbing up and down, a strange buoyant forest unfurling and retreating during the day, fully resting at night.
Taking cues from Ken Smith and Kathryn Gustafson, urban parks everywhere will have their own aerial installations, generating power for the park itself, if not for the surrounding neighborhood.
Or in the urban periphery of foreclosed suburbs, now bulldozed and eradicated, reformatted as energy fields, electrifying cities and hopefully not tragically impeding bird migrations.
The New Ferrari Zobin Concept is a design study of a single-seater aerodynamic sportscar inspired by Ferrari Formula 1 cars. The author is Iranian engineer Siamak Ruhi Dehkordi.The Zobin design study by Iranian engineer Siamak Ruhi Dehkordi is an aerodynamic single seater with compact dimensions (4,114mm long and 1,855 mm wide).
So, if this new Ferrari Zobin concept release in the market, would you buy one?I bet it gets high bid from those rich deep pocket Ferrari fans.I just love Ferrari's car design especially when the car is red, just like my own Red MYVI SE car!
When Bugatti started production of the Veyron back in 2005, it was supposed to build 300 examples. For a long time, that total seemed pretty ambitious considering the seven-figure price tag on the most super of contemporary supercars, but according to Molsheim, all but 50 have been built and sold. Add to that another 150 examples of the Grand Sport roadster version and you've got 450. Whether special editions like the Pur Sang, Sang Noir and Hermes are counted as part of the original production figures or considered supplemental specials is insignificant, considering that only a handful of each are to be built.
The one wrinkle that has us wondering about all of these million-dollar supercars is that it was only last March when it was announced that Bugatti had sold 220 cars (of which only 132 had been built). Given how long it took them to get to 220, that seems like one heck of an order ramp-up, particularly given the state of the global economy.
The bottom line is that if you've been dragging your feet over whether to spend that extra million on a Bugatti or not, better make your mind up fast. Like, Veyron fast.
[Source: Autotelegraaf via Autogespot]
The Pagani Zonda did something incredible. It proved that the supercar world did not revolve around Ferrari and Lamborghini. So to commemorate Horacio Pagani's achievement, the hypercarmaker has created one last version of the Zonda before its replacement arrives next year.
After 24 months of development, and at the urging of an unnamed Italo-American customer that already owns three Zondas, the Pagani Zonda R was created as a lightweight, track-only variant of the iconic coupe. Production is limited to ten examples with a price tag of 1.4-million euro.
Although the carbon fiber exterior is deceiving, the Pagani Zonda R only carries over 10% of its structure from its predecessors. The wheelbase has grown by 47mm, the overall length is 394mm longer and the track has been widened by 50mm.
An all-new carbon fiber monocoque resides underneath the wind-tunnel tested body, along with a forged aluminum suspension, new six-speed sequential gearbox and four aero-spec fuel pumps that feed a Mercedes-Benz AMG-sourced 6.0-liter V12. Pagani claims the new heart – nestled into the 2,425-pound R – will produce 750 hp at 8,000 rpm and 524 lb-ft of torque, for a 0-60 time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 248.54 mph. Air is fed into the bent-twelve through a carbon fiber air intake system, while an Inconel manifold and "F1-style" exhaust releases spent hydrocarbons and keeps engine temps in check.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
For a few seconds this week, in between the live feeds of the spectacle in Washington, D.C. and on the Hudson River, CNN went silent. When reports of possibly another round of shelling in Gaza, its anchors and reporters had the bright idea to stop talking and let viewers simply listen in on whatever that could be heard from yet another live video feed, this one peering into the war zone from afar. No international journalists are allowed inside, so it was the best that CNN could do at breaking news reporting from the trenches.
“Is that some kind of a humming noise?” the anchor asked the foreign correspondent, breaking the silence.
We didn't hear a humming noise; we heard something droning. But was it from a surveillance UAV or the movement of tanks sonically reverberating through holy bedrock? Or was it something coming from our heating vent? Could it have been the running motor and refrigerator fans of the delivery truck parked outside our HQ? Was it coming from here or from thousands of miles away?
This apparent and quite accidental conflation of sonic and physical space led us to imagine a temporary sound installation, which would go something like this:
1) Overlay a scaled map of Gaza City on a map of Chicago.
2) Set up microphones throughout Gaza City.
3) Network these microphones individually to their own speakers in Chicago.
4) The locations of the microphones and speakers should match on the superimposed maps.
When the next major conflict erupts, turn them all on, and Chicagoans will eavesdrop on the aural landscape of another city: the whirring blades of helicopters, the whistling of mortars as they streak across the sky, the roar of burning buildings, metal grating on metal grating on rocks and dirt, the sorrowful cries and vengeful wails of widows and orphans, the crackling statics from a speaker disconnected to an obliterated mic.
Of course, where Chicagoans might listen in will depend on the orientation of the maps.
Perhaps this twinning results in one speaker getting sited on a school playground, and so the joyous screams of children there will mingle with those of telepresent children playing during the brief lulls in the fighting.
How about a speaker on Federal Plaza, right on the same block as Obama's Miesian HQ? Its counterpart in Gaza is actually on a prime location to pick up the thundering shockwave of Israeli jets crossing the sound barrier. The plaza would thus come under similar sonic attack, turning it into a battlescape. Moreover, as there is no way of knowing when it gets blasted again, the plaza becomes an anxious landscape, wherein, after several exposures, federal employees acquire post-traumatic stress disorder.
Will one of the city's Olmsted parks be serenaded by the natural soundtrack of war?
Of course, most speakers will likely be on the streets and inside buildings, embedded into the sidewalk pavement and office walls, adding to the ambient noise of the city. Is that a mortar explosion or a car backfiring? Is that a malfunctioning siren humming in B-flat or the hum of the HVAC system?
Two soundscapes melting into each other.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
"China is a country of enormous tensions and cleavages beneath the surface.... The question is whether policy actions to date will do enough to stem a socially and politically dangerous slowdown in the economy. Whichever way the Chinese leadership responds, future generations may remember 2009 less for its global economic and financial crisis than for the momentous transformation it will have caused in China."
Dan Drezner also raises a number of excellent points concerning China, as well as several other "known unknowns" from the current financial mess. He thinks we can expect countries like China to begin de-coupling by using their fiscal stimulus plans to target domestic firms and encourage the growth of domestic markets to offset declining demand abroad. That's a roundabout way of suggesting that protectionism in on the rise and the gains in political cooperation that come from economic interdependence are on the decline. I would argue that this situation, along with the macroeconomic imbalances problem, calls for more international cooperation, not less, but is Drezner's prediction more likely?
- Russia and the Ukraine have signed a deal to resume gas flows under the supervision of international authorities. Is Russia's plummeting ruble going to make the country more or less aggressive over its energy supply policies. Or maybe: is Russia's weakening economic situation going to embolden countries like the Ukraine to provoke them even further?
Monday, January 12, 2009
The 2008 Limited Edition Boxster and Boxster S are priced at $49,000 USD and $59,900 USD respectively. Only 500 of the Limited Edition Boxster and Boxster S models will be made available throughout US and Canada on September 28, 2007.
Add to that standard 18-inch black alloy wheels (19-inch for the Boxster S) and additional black trim pieces on the exterior, and you’ve got a fairly stunning exterior package that overshadows a garden variety Porsche Boxster with ease.
The idea of locating a compact, freerevving engine midship gave the Porsche a nimbleness no sports car had ever possessed. The Boxster shares this boldly intelligent approach to sports car design.
The Limited Edition Boxster and Boxster are to be clad in a stunning orange paint which was previously featured in the track-ready Porsche 911 GT3 TS. The Limited Edition Boxster is an impressive piece of work that includes a special “Limited Edition” plaque on the glove compartment. And that’s not all! Even the gray shift pattern on the gear shift lever was also tinted with orange.
After a few years of experiencing press events hosted by European, Asian, and American manufacturers, it's become clear to me that the Germans have a flair for the flamboyant. At the rather dower 2009 Detroit Auto Show, BMW's showmanship was a welcomed relief.
The world-wide reveal of the 2009 BMW Z4 began with an acrobat doing Olympic stunts on a white curtain that looked to have been stolen from a lobby of some trendy South Beach hotel. Your humble author never quite figured out what the antics had to do with the Z4, but the new hardtop roadster is striking. The previous Z4 lost all the beauty possessed by the Z3. Some of it seems to have returned. An interesting detail is that the top lowers in only 20 seconds.
Preceding the BMW Z4 was the introduction of the Active Hybrid 7-Series. This "concept" car is a mild hybrid utilizing a 20-horsepower electric motor that is integrated into the transmission (likely an eight-speed unit built by ZF). Lithium ion batteries store power provided by regenerative braking. We're not sure why BMW showed this as a concept, because the company promised the release of an Active Hybrid (BMW's name for a mild hybrid) sometime in 2009.
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster even more exclusive and individual? Brabus proves that the topless Mercedes supercar can be made even sportier and more exciting with its sophisticated customization program.
To give the two-seater even more striking looks while at the same time minimizing lift on the front axle, the Brabus designers have developed a front spoiler that attaches to the production bumper. The spoiler is made from exposed carbon fiber and its shape was fine-tuned in the wind tunnel. It is especially lightweight and extremely tough. A corresponding Brabus rear diffuser made from exposed carbon fiber can replace its production counterpart.
The sporty Brabus outfit for the SLR Roadster is dominated by Brabus Monoblock VI 20-inch wheels that fill the wheel houses perfectly. The fully polished multi-piece wheels feature six double spokes and are mounted on the sports car in size 9.5Jx20 in front and size 11.5Jx20 on the rear axle. High-performance tires in sizes 255/30 ZR 20 and 305/25 ZR 20 are supplied by Brabus technology partners Pirelli and Yokohama. This low-profile tire/wheel combination is custom-tailored for the SLR coupe and roadster and benefits not only the car’s appearance but also its handling.
Thus equipped the topless SLR is ready for some additional power provided by Brabus engine tuning. The power tuning for the supercharged 5.5-liter engine consists of special camshafts, a fuel cooling system and a high-performance exhaust. With Brabus tuning, power output of the V8 compressor engine increases by 23 hp to 641 hp at 6500 rpm.
Brabus also offers a special clutch-type limited-slip differential with a locking rate of 40 percent. It further optimizes traction and improves acceleration performance of the super sports car. The tuned roadster sprints to 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds and reaches a top speed of 209 mph.
Precision handwork down to the last detail characterizes the exclusive Brabus interior design for the two-seater. The company-own upholstery shop specializes in fulfilling just about any request from discriminating SLR owners when it comes to customizing the interior. That includes a multitude of leather types and colors as well as custom upholstery designs.An unusual Brabus specialty is the waffle-patterned leather carpeting in the SLR’s footwells. Some 7,800 meters (25,600 feet) of the finest thread are sewn with utmost precision for it alone.
A sporty and functional Brabus option is the ergonomically shaped sport steering wheel that is flattened on the bottom for markedly easier entering and exiting of the vehicle. The steering wheel features integrated buttons for manual shifting of the SLR’s automatic transmission.
Sporty Brabus carbon-fiber applications for dashboard, center console and door trim transfer the racing look of the Brabus body components into the interior. The exposed carbon-fiber trim can be color-coordinated with the leather color of the interior.
According to J.D. Power and Associates, Ford F-Series dived nearly 3.6 percentage points across the nation to hold 30.7 percent of the market. In Texas, the models lost 5.5 points to fall to 31.9 percent, reported the Michigan-based R.L. Polk & Co. In comparison, the Tundra, sources divulged recorded nearly 3.5 points nationwide and 3.7 in Texas in its first year since a major redesign.
“Those numbers might not seem huge, but when you consider truck buyers are second only to luxury buyers in terms of loyalty, Ford’s drop and Toyota’s climb are significant,” said Lonnie Miller, the director of industry analysis at Polk. “There’s no doubt been a very aggressive push by Toyota.”
“We certainly had a lot more full-size pickups traded in for Tundras in ‘07,” said Tom Shopoff, the director of truck support for Gulf States Toyota, a network of dealerships that includes statewide Tundra best-seller Fred Haas Toyota World in Spring. “We have a tremendous product.”
But Shopoff predicted the Tundra would see a bubble burst. “You’ve seen the big bubble,” he noted.
Increased competition from Toyota comes at a time when auto sales in general and pickup sales in particular, are down, according to Houston Chronicle. Auto sales in 2007 fell 2.4 percent, and large pickups were down 2.7 percent, Libby said in an interview.
“That means more competition, which in turn means more incentives and lower prices,” Libby concluded. “The winner in all this is the consumer.”
