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Build Your Own Solar-Powered Scooter
An anonymous reader writes "CBC is reporting that the Biomod company in Montreal has released plans for building your own solar scooter for only $1600 (in Canadian funds, no less!) Hopefully the engineering community will take an interest, and add brakes to the blueprints..."
That's almost enough reason to go outside sometime.
Agile Artisans
I will buy one when it runs on my cynicism and comes with an ipod holder.
solar-powered headlights?
why are there linux penguins on an msn page?
from their message board:
Well BioModers' - Yesterday we did it! - For the first time on Earth (as far as we know), a SOLAR ELECTRONIC VEHICLE traveled over 100 kilometers in one day - on the streets and roads of this planet!
... A Black family took offense at our efforts to hook up with a neighbors' socket after a deserted factories outlet had suspiciously failed. Earlier, an African electrician cab driver had examined the vehicle during a brief stop, and rushed away vibrating with revealed inspiration, a Chinese family as well. After a short hop, we got permission from a factory gardener to use his outlet, with a good sun exposure - and then the cops showed up! They claimed that someone had hopped over a nearby fence! But the rattled OIL OCCUPATION ARMY was no match for the assembled prayers of native circles meeting yesterday around the world!
...So there we were, in the gathering darkness, BLINDED by the oncoming lights of S.U.V.s', going the WRONG WAY down a one-way highway - right through the RED LIGHTS of major urban cross-highways, wiggling through and between oncoming traffic of the acursed MOTOR CARS and TRUCKS - to their complete SHOCK! ....I wouldn't have had it any other way! (emphasis mine)
link to the post quoted
also, it looks like you have to log in to access the "files" part of their site.
Instead of a huge rickshaw-like contraption, perhaps a standard bicycle might be the answer? There are many available for less than $1600. This looks like a solution looking for a problem to solve. :)
How would an efficient hydrogen-powered fuel cell solve all our problems? Do you believe that an even more efficient (approaching 100%) internal combustion engine would solve all our problems? Yes, it'd mean we'd be using 1/4th as much gas as we do now which would head-off our dependency on Middle East oil for some time (possibly rather short, given we'd probably just expand our power desires with that increase efficiency).
But the truth of the matter is, oil isn't a renewable resource. Hydrogen isn't either (do you see any natural generators lying around?). Sun-based mechanisms might be the answer (a la the pig fart/methane of Mad Max). But, that's where the real "solution" begins. Even a rather utterly inefficient engine with a limitless fuel source (well, reasonably limitless) is better than very efficient engine with a limited fuel source, in the long run.
It sounds like you're just focusing on the short-term solution to get people interested in finding a long-term energy source. The thing is, without a cheap long-term energy source, the current inefficient engines and their cheap short-term source will continue to look more attractive. I think this counts as the cart before the horse.
Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h