Sunday, 24 March 2013

Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Woody-Tailgate Trailer takes tailgate parties upmarket




The Neiman Marcus fantasy gift guide is famous for offering extravagant items for the person who has everything – last year's guide included the Jetlev flyer and a special editionMcLaren 12c Spider, for example. Also on the list was an item that at first glace might seem a bit pedestrian in comparison – a caravan. But the Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Woody-Tailgate Trailer is luxury all the way, unfolding into a luxury rolling bar complete with a giant ice chest and leather appointments that ensure it will add a touch of class to any tailgate party... Continue Reading Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Woody-Tailgate Trailer takes tailgate parties upmarket

Section: Outdoors

Tags: Alcohol, Caravan, Luxury, Trailer

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Saturday, 23 March 2013

Earth Hour 2013



It's Earth Hour tonight, when all worshipers of Blessed Gaia are urged to switch off Thomas Edison's Instrument of Satan and sit smugly in the dark for 60 self-righteous minutes while the utilities fume over the damages caused by the spiking domestic demands.  To mark the occasion  we present our nomination for the theme song for the event.




So, turning off the lights involves turning on a lot more lights so people can boogie? Something's wrong here.

Sorry, lads, but if you're really serious about this, you shouldn't be switching off lights, you should be promoting fracking and a massive expansion of nuclear power. But that's a bit too much like progress for some tastes.

Pricing and production numbers for E Type-inspired Lyonheart K announced




Last year, we covered Lyonheart’s take on the classic Jaguar E Type, the Lyonheart K. Not much has been heard of it since then, but thirteen months later, the Coventry-based car maker has resurfaced with an announcement of the Lyonheart K CoupĂ©, including Convertible prices and production numbers. .. Continue Reading Pricing and production numbers for E Type-inspired Lyonheart K announced

Section: Automotive

Tags: Cars, Jaguar, Lyonheart, Sports Cars

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Thursday, 21 March 2013

Sun will cause pause in Mars exploration in April


Graphic showing the Sun/mars Conjunction (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA is taking an enforced holiday of sorts in April as it suspends Mars exploration missions for 17 to 21 days. This isn't due to budget cuts, but rather because Mars will be in conjunction with the Sun during April, which will make direct communications with the probes difficult, if not impossible. .. Continue Reading Sun will cause pause in Mars exploration in April 

Section: Space 

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PEER 1 creates interactive map of the internet




Maps of the internet have been around in one form or another since the late 1990s, but most of these tend to be static, two-dimensional affairs. PEER 1 Hosting of Vancouver, British Columbia, is adding bit of depth to internet charting with its Map of the Internet app for iOS and Android devices that provides an interactive 3D representation of the online world. It’s purpose is to act as an educational tool showing the evolution of the internet from 1994 to the present, with projections going forward to 2020... Continue Reading PEER 1 creates interactive map of the internet

Section: Mobile Technology

Tags: Education, Interactive, Internet, Smartphones, Touchscreen

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Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Quad-copter versus Tesla coil



No more needs to be said.

Jeff Bezos recovers Apollo F-1 engines from the ocean floor




Amazon.com founder and the man behind Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, has recovered parts of the F-1 rocket engines used in the Apollo missions. Recovered by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) from the multi-purpose offshore vessel Seabed Worker, they were brought up from a depth of over 14,000 feet (4,267 m) over a three week period. Bezos has been working on the project for over a year in hopes of recovering the engines used to launch Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. However, the serial numbers for the recovered engines are missing or partly missing, so identifying which mission the rockets are from will be difficult... Continue Reading Jeff Bezos recovers Apollo F-1 engines from the ocean floor

Section: Science and Education

Tags: Apollo 11, Historic, NASA, Rocket, Space

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Voyager 1 leaves the Solar System?



Has Voyager 1 left the Solar System? Is it officially the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space? It depends on whom you ask. NASA says no, but W.R. Webber of the New Mexico State University Department of Astronomy and F.B. McDonald of the University of Maryland Institute of Physical Science and Technology say yes. They contend that the unmanned, nuclear-powered probe left the Solar System on August 25, 2012 at a distance of 121.7 AU (18.2 billion km) from the Sun when its instruments on board detected a major shift in cosmic ray intensity... Continue Reading Voyager 1 leaves the Solar System?

Section: Science and Education

Tags: NASA, New Mexico State University, Solar System, Space, Spacecraft, University of Maryland, Voyager

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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sees GRAIL's lunar impact




NASA has released images and findings from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which witnessed the impact of NASA's twin GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) spacecraft as they struck the Moon near the North Pole in a controlled impacton Dec.17, 2012. The unmanned orbiter sent back before and after images of the impact sites and used its Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument to study the plume of dust and gas thrown up by the double impact, producing new insights into the processes going on in the interior of the Moon... Continue Reading NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sees GRAIL's lunar impact

Section: Science and Education

Tags: GRAIL, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Moon, NASA, Space, Spacecraft

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Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Fujitsu uses facial imaging to measure pulse





Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a technology to measure a person’s pulse from a facial image taken by scans from the built-in camera in a PC, smartphone or tablet. Fujitsu’s goal is to help people to track their health data in real-time and store it in the cloud for later analysis. .. Continue Reading Fujitsu uses facial imaging to measure pulse

Section: Health and Wellbeing

Tags: Fujitsu, Health, Monitoring

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British fleet's new radar system can detect a supersonic tennis ball 25 km away



If you've ever worried about the threat from supersonic tennis balls, then BAE Systems’ Artisan medium-range Type 997 3D surveillance radar should put you at ease – it can detect one traveling at Mach 3 (1,980 mph, 3,186 km/h) at a distance of 25 kilometers (15.5 mi). The new radar, developed for the Royal Navy’s Type 23 Duke-class frigates, is designed to simultaneously detect 900 targets smaller than a bird, against background noise equivalent to 10,000 mobile phone signals at ranges from 200 meters (656 ft) to 200 kilometers (124 mi)... Continue Reading British fleet's new radar system can detect a supersonic tennis ball 25 km away

Section: Military

Tags: BAE Systems, Radar, Royal Navy

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Saturday, 16 March 2013

Boeing outlines additional safety features for 787 batteries




Boeing has announced improvements to the lithium-ion batteries for its 787 Dreamliner. A series of modifications to the batteries and their casings were made in response to battery fires in mid-January aboard two 787s in Boston and over Japan that resulted in all 50 of the planes delivered to customers being grounded. According to a company press release, the modifications along with improved testing regimes should prevent a repeat of the incidents. Read More

Friday, 15 March 2013

Tactus Technologies develops forklift simulator



Workplace safety is a major concern, but training to avoid accidents often involves little more than reading manuals and watching videos before getting behind the controls of a potentially dangerous machine. University of Buffalo spinoff Tactus Technologies’ 3D Forklift Trainer uses gaming technology and software to produce a virtual environment, where beginner forklift drivers can practice without racing about a warehouse in a very heavy vehicle with prongs on it... Continue Reading Tactus Technologies develops forklift simulator

ESA and Roscosmos partnering for Mars missions



ESA and the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, have entered into a project to jointly explore the planet Mars. During a ceremony on Thursday (Mar. 14) at ESA Headquarters in Paris, the two agencies formed a partnership for ESA’s ExoMars program when a formal agreement was signed between ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin. This agreement covers shared responsibilities for two missions involving three spacecraft in 2016 and 2018... Continue Reading ESA and Roscosmos partnering for Mars missions

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

R.I.P. RSS? Google to shut down Google Reader

R.I.P. RSS? Google to shut down Google Reader:
Google announced that it's shuttering the Google Reader RSS service on July 1 (tombstone i...
For well over a decade, Rich Site Summary (RSS) has been one of the easiest ways to keep track of your favorite websites. The most popular RSS service – by a longshot – has been Google Reader. But as people turn more to social networks and content-curating apps like Flipboard for news, RSS has become an endangered species. On July 1, Google will accelerate its extinction by putting the nail in Reader’s coffin... Continue Reading R.I.P. RSS? Google to shut down Google Reader

Section: Personal Computing

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Zalando concept car spots fashions, transforms into changing room

Zalando concept car spots fashions, transforms into changing room:
The  Zalando Fashion Car converts into a changing room
The Geneva Motor show isn't just about supercars. There’s also room for a bit of lateral thinking. Online fashion retailer Zalando may seem an unusual participant in the show, but the company’s Zalando fashion car concept aims at merging motoring and shopping for clothes. The concept uses an iPad augmented reality app to spot, identify, order, and pick up fashions worn by passing pedestrians, and the car even morphs into a changing room to try on the items... Continue Reading Zalando concept car spots fashions, transforms into changing room

Section: Automotive

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Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Curiosity finds signs that life could have existed on Mars

Curiosity finds signs that life could have existed on Mars:
Artist’s concept of Curiosity (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has discovered a rock outcropping that may have been a suitable habitat for microbes in ancient times. Based on a sample collected by unmanned rover’s drill at the John Klein area in Gale Crater and analyzed using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments, the findings contribute to Curiosity's primary mission of seeking out areas of the Red Planet where life may have once or still could exist... Continue Reading Curiosity finds signs that life could have existed on Mars

Section: Science and Education

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Monday, 11 March 2013

NYC Mayor announces finalists in Reinvent Payphones competition

NYC Mayor announces finalists in Reinvent Payphones competition:
NYFI concept
Payphones may seem like yesterday’s technology, but they aren’t quite dead yet ... at least not in New York. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced semi-finalists in a competition designed to drag payphone infrastructure into the 21st century – the "Reinvent Payphones" Design Challenge... Continue Reading NYC Mayor announces finalists in Reinvent Payphones competition

Section: Telecommunications

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Exagon's 155 mph Furtive-eGT electric supercar

Exagon's 155 mph Furtive-eGT electric supercar:

Thursday, 7 March 2013

New Porsche 911 GT3 unveiled at Geneva

New Porsche 911 GT3 unveiled at Geneva:
The Porsche 911 GT3
The Porsche 911 has been around for 50 years. With its classic design and tendency to eat up racing trophies, it’s hard to miss, and Porsche is marking the anniversary at this month’s Geneva Motor Show by unveiling the latest 911 GT3. The new high performance race track version of the 911 features a newly-engineered boxer engine, transmission, body and chassis to create what Porsche calls the “sportiest 911” with “a highly emotional fun factor.".. Continue Reading New Porsche 911 GT3 unveiled at Geneva

Section: Automotive

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Giugiaro's Parcour concept – a Lamborghini-powered off-roader

Giugiaro's Parcour concept – a Lamborghini-powered off-roader:
The Giugiaro Parkour coupé is designed to fuse the high-performance of a track car with th...
This year marks the 45th anniversary of Italdesign Giugiaro opening its doors, and to celebrate the occasion the Italy-based design firm has premiered its Parcour supercar at this year's Geneva Motor Show. Taking its name from the obstacle-clearing sport of parkour and powered by the same powerplant found in the Lamborghini Gallardo, its creators have billed the vehicle as the first all-terrain GT, which fuses the high-performance of a track car with the go-anywhere capabilities of the 4X4... Continue Reading Giugiaro's Parcour concept – a Lamborghini-powered off-roader

Section: Automotive

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Wednesday, 6 March 2013

German robots could team up to explore lunar craters

German robots could team up to explore lunar craters:
The RIMRES project combines the hexapod CREX (red robot at middle) and its transporter, SH...
While Japan is gearing up to send a miniature humanoid robot to the International Space Station, the DFKI Robotics Innovation Center and the ZARM (Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity) are working on a pair of robots that may one day help explore craters on the Moon in search of water ice. The RIMRES (Reconfigurable Integrated Multi Robot Exploration System) project combines a six-legged robot that can be picked up and moved with a faster wheeled transporter... Continue Reading German robots could team up to explore lunar craters

Section: Robotics

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Monday, 4 March 2013

Robotic bat wing reveals flight secrets of bats

Robotic bat wing reveals flight secrets of bats:
The lesser dog-nosed bat and the robotic bat wing
Recently, we've seen a robotic ostrich. Now, there’s a robot bat – or at least, part of one. Joseph Bahlman, a graduate student at Brown University, with the help of Professors Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartz, has developed a robotic bat wing that mimics the ligaments, skin and structural supports of the real thing. The purpose of the motorized plastic bat is to gain a better understanding of how bats are engineered and fly. .. Continue Reading Robotic bat wing reveals flight secrets of bats

Section: Science and Education

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Taxation by whim


How to get businesses to relocate abroad and not trade with you?  Rolls Royce is learning that lesson.  THe company paid no corporate taxes and now MPs and the MSM are howling for its blood.

The strange thing about this is that there's no indication that Rolls Royce did anything illegal.  Surely if the government feels it should pay higher taxes, then it's the law that needs changing.

Unless, of course, Britain is now an openly Fascist Socialist state where the law is merely a pretense.

Land Rover introduces first 9-speed automatic gearbox

Land Rover introduces first 9-speed automatic gearbox:
The Range Rover Evoque, with the world's first 9-speed gearbox
Land Rover has announced that it will demonstrate the world's first nine-speed automatic transmission for a passenger car at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. The ZF HP9 9-speed gearbox has a higher top gear in a more compact design, in order to fit in the same space as conventional 6-speed transmissions. According to Land Rover, it will also provide smoother gear shifts with improved accelerations and lower fuel consumption... Continue Reading Land Rover introduces first 9-speed automatic gearbox

Section: Automotive

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Sunday, 3 March 2013

Dragon docks with ISS a day late

Dragon docks with ISS a day late:
Dragon CRS-2 berthed at the ISS (Image: NASA)
Today at 8:56 AM EST, the Spacex Dragon CRS-2 mission berthed with the International Space Station (ISS). The unmanned cargo ship was captured using the station’s robotic arm at 5:31 AM by ISS Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Tom Mashburn of NASA before being secured to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony module... Continue Reading Dragon docks with ISS a day late

Section: Science and Education

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Saturday, 2 March 2013

Dragon docking with ISS rescheduled after malfunction

Dragon docking with ISS rescheduled after malfunction:
SpaceX Dragon capsule visiting the ISS in May 2012 (Image: NASA)
SpaceX has announced that its Dragon spacecraft’s docking with the International Space Station (ISS) has been rescheduled for 6:01 AM EST (11:01 GMT). Today (Mar. 2), SpaceX managers and NASA gave clearance for the rendezvous, which will see the craft captured by NASA Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn using a robotic arm... Continue Reading Dragon docking with ISS rescheduled after malfunction

Section: Science and Education

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Friday, 1 March 2013

Dragon's thrusters now operational, but rendezvous with ISS delayed

Dragon's thrusters now operational, but rendezvous with ISS delayed:
All four of the SpaceX Dragon's thrusters now appears to be fully operational
At a teleconference today (Mar.1) at 3:00 PM EST (2000 GMT), SpaceX and NASA confirmed that the malfunction of three of the four thruster pods of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has been corrected. Though the cause of the failure remains unknown, a note received during the conference from Dragon mission control stated that all four pods are working nominally with two of the pods preparing to come online this afternoon... Continue Reading Dragon's thrusters now operational, but rendezvous with ISS delayed

Section: Science and Education

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SpaceX Dragon launches, but thrusters malfunctioning

SpaceX Dragon launches, but thrusters malfunctioning:
CRS-2 lifting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
This morning (Mar. 1), the SpaceX Dragon CRS-2 mission lifted off successfully from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 10:10:13 AM EST (1010:13 GMT) only to experience a major malfunction in Dragon’s thruster pods. SpaceX reported at 10:43 AM (1543 GMT) that three of the unmanned Dragon spacecraft’s four thruster pods have failed to activate – placing Dragon’s rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) in peril... Continue Reading SpaceX Dragon launches, but thrusters malfunctioning

Section: Science and Education

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