Actually (as I've pointed out before), the technology that is being used in these cars is being transferred into the mainstream. Things like Wheel Motors of efficiency ~96%, among other things, are making moden cars a lot more efficient.
Honda, Ford, Toyota and Nissan have all started to develop cars running on technology first utilised in solar cars, and, in fact, are employing former members of Solar Car Teams specifically to help in such projects.
Usually the battery packs are kept compartmentalised from the rest of the shell so that they can't spill onto the driver. There is also usually at least two driver's egresses built into each car (even if that egress means kicking out the bottom of the car).
The crashes that do happen are usually brought under control very quickly. The brakes on these things are usually quite good, and the cars are usually able to be salvaged (and of course the drivers are generally safe).
As long as the team is aware and treats their drivers nicely (there are some horror stories about, for example, seatbelts being tied to the chassis of the vehicle bit a couple of bits of wire), then the cars are actually quite safe.
I don't think solar cars will be a reality for the moment.. The cars themselves are just not able to be converted to commercial use so easily (most of the cars are very expensive, not exactly "safe", and cramped more than anything else).
But the technology developed as a result of the cars, is very applicable to everyday life. Even the research that goes into the aerodynamics, for example, is having an impact on commercial vehicles..
Most of the "power" for the solar cars actually comes from the batteries.. Queen's University's car, for example, in the '99 WSC could run at 70kph on the array alone, but at 120kph with the battery power as well.
So, yeah, they practically are a secondary form of power, but still.. The technology used there, goes on to more practical applications.
I used to be with Sunswift (and now work for CPVE at UNSW, where I'll be helping to cover the race). From what I've heard from the guys still with the team, they've got a very nice car put together. While I won't say who my money would be on, Sunswift is a strong contender..
You have no idea..;)
I used to live in an area in my country where it seemed the only times that the local representative actually was in the region was election time.
To make things worse, while we were one of the very worst representated electorates I know, the people consistently and overwhelmingly (~70%) voted for one political party, no matter what happened (automagical). So, in a two party system, one party didn't do anything for us because they knew that we would never vote for them, and the other didn't do anything because they knew, no matter what, we would still vote for them.
Want to be heard on the political level? Make your electoral region marginal.
Sanctions do not cripple leaders of rogue nations, they cripple their poorest people, while their leaders blame those who put down the Sanctions. In other words, the sanctions are against the people of Iraq.
ObL's followers (let's ignore him for a moment) are drawn from these and other people of the "Islamic State" who are angry at the US for having a foreign policy that is insensitive to the people of the middle east.
Was just looking for URL's to qualify my report.. Couldn't find anything anywhere.. Just this audio clip at CBC.
Other news items of interest are this (explaining the US change in motives) and this (showing the growing anti-US response worldwide) at smh.com.au. Otherwise unsurprisingly little except for how great the states is.
Bleh.
Just saw on the news that 4 UN Workers were killed, adding to the civillian casualties already taken. Native Afghanis who were employed by a company contracted by the UN to clear minefields.
Of course, the US has suggested that it was probably an attack launched on the ground which destroyed the building.
The US is hammering an already crippled nation into the ground. It no longer cares about Bin Laden, as it has realised that there is no hope of actually killing him (allowing him to sit back and plan attacks on the US from some other safe standpoint, note: I still have strong doubts that it was actually him). In fact, Bin Laden is probably loving it as the US has visibly galvanised the opinion in the minds of the ~1 Billion Muslims from West Africa to South East Asia that the US is nothing but an aggressor state out to punish every man, woman and child of Islamic descent for the crimes of a few fundamentalists (whether or not this is true).
The stance taken by the leaders of the US makes me sick to the core.
The Taliban denounced the attack within hours of it occuring. There was no satisfaction implied.
What they did, however, was point out that US Middle East policy is possibly the reason behind the attack. And for stating that, you label them as satisfied?
You bloody *idiot*. (sorry for the outright flame).
The people celebrating on the streets in Palestine were not celebrating the attack against the US. They were celebrating a local holiday, marking the death of one of their heroes. As soon as they were made aware that they were being misinterpreted, they were asked to stop by their government.
I used to run the webpage and some publicity stuff for a Solar Racing Team..
On our 100kg of our Pb Acid batteries (that weren't the most efficient in the race, but were cheapest), we could drive from Sydney to Melbourne with complete cloud cover all the way.
I'm assuming the system probably uses something a bit more complex, perhaps Li/Ion batteries, which would allow them to maintain power through conceivable lapses in sunlight. I wouldn't imagine that their power usage would be all that high (as relative to a Solar racing car) anyway.;)
What about the Crusades? Actually, personally, I see some of the modern branches of christianity to be fairly shocking in terms of morality. However, that is a separate issue that I won't go into as I don't want to be flamed too badly today (thankyou very much).
In fact, it's not really even Islam that's at fault. Islam, in it's proper form is rather peaceful, really. I don't actually have much experience with it (being more experienced in Asian religions and Judao-Christianity), however.
However, it's the same issue as with racism. There are always people in every religion that are going to be problematic. Many religions foster a fanatical closed-mind attitude.
Hmmm... Think about the racial paranoia that is going to stem from this tragic event.
People, unfortunately, look for excuses to target any group, and blame their woes on them. Whether they be economic (as is typical), or, in this case, terrorist. The Jewish people have long been scapegoats for Europe's woes. Even recently, with the Pauline Hanson issue, here in au, in years past, where migrants were blamed for the countries environmental and economic problems.
Now. A group has already been selected, pretty much by default and with no actual basis in fact (yet). People of Middle Eastern background.
Slashdot Mirror
Gutenberg has txt's of, beowulf and the icelandic sagas iirc..
Actually (as I've pointed out before), the technology that is being used in these cars is being transferred into the mainstream. Things like Wheel Motors of efficiency ~96%, among other things, are making moden cars a lot more efficient.
Honda, Ford, Toyota and Nissan have all started to develop cars running on technology first utilised in solar cars, and, in fact, are employing former members of Solar Car Teams specifically to help in such projects.
Actually, they're safer than that..
Usually the battery packs are kept compartmentalised from the rest of the shell so that they can't spill onto the driver. There is also usually at least two driver's egresses built into each car (even if that egress means kicking out the bottom of the car).
The crashes that do happen are usually brought under control very quickly. The brakes on these things are usually quite good, and the cars are usually able to be salvaged (and of course the drivers are generally safe).
As long as the team is aware and treats their drivers nicely (there are some horror stories about, for example, seatbelts being tied to the chassis of the vehicle bit a couple of bits of wire), then the cars are actually quite safe.
I don't think solar cars will be a reality for the moment.. The cars themselves are just not able to be converted to commercial use so easily (most of the cars are very expensive, not exactly "safe", and cramped more than anything else).
But the technology developed as a result of the cars, is very applicable to everyday life. Even the research that goes into the aerodynamics, for example, is having an impact on commercial vehicles..
Ummm. That's the solar cycle race. ;)
The solar car race is approximately 3,000km.
Most of the "power" for the solar cars actually comes from the batteries.. Queen's University's car, for example, in the '99 WSC could run at 70kph on the array alone, but at 120kph with the battery power as well.
So, yeah, they practically are a secondary form of power, but still.. The technology used there, goes on to more practical applications.
Actually a lot of the technology used in the WSC, such as wheel motors, and battery technology, are very well applicable to other vehicles.
I know that Aurora's entrant vehicle in the '99 WSC (which won) had a wheel motor of efficiency 98.4%! And that wasn't even the most efficient wheel.
I used to be with Sunswift (and now work for CPVE at UNSW, where I'll be helping to cover the race). From what I've heard from the guys still with the team, they've got a very nice car put together. While I won't say who my money would be on, Sunswift is a strong contender..
You have no idea.. ;)
I used to live in an area in my country where it seemed the only times that the local representative actually was in the region was election time.
To make things worse, while we were one of the very worst representated electorates I know, the people consistently and overwhelmingly (~70%) voted for one political party, no matter what happened (automagical). So, in a two party system, one party didn't do anything for us because they knew that we would never vote for them, and the other didn't do anything because they knew, no matter what, we would still vote for them.
Want to be heard on the political level? Make your electoral region marginal.
Sanctions do not cripple leaders of rogue nations, they cripple their poorest people, while their leaders blame those who put down the Sanctions. In other words, the sanctions are against the people of Iraq. ObL's followers (let's ignore him for a moment) are drawn from these and other people of the "Islamic State" who are angry at the US for having a foreign policy that is insensitive to the people of the middle east.
Was just looking for URL's to qualify my report.. Couldn't find anything anywhere.. Just this audio clip at CBC.
Other news items of interest are this (explaining the US change in motives) and this (showing the growing anti-US response worldwide) at smh.com.au. Otherwise unsurprisingly little except for how great the states is. Bleh.
Just saw on the news that 4 UN Workers were killed, adding to the civillian casualties already taken. Native Afghanis who were employed by a company contracted by the UN to clear minefields.
Of course, the US has suggested that it was probably an attack launched on the ground which destroyed the building.
The US is hammering an already crippled nation into the ground. It no longer cares about Bin Laden, as it has realised that there is no hope of actually killing him (allowing him to sit back and plan attacks on the US from some other safe standpoint, note: I still have strong doubts that it was actually him). In fact, Bin Laden is probably loving it as the US has visibly galvanised the opinion in the minds of the ~1 Billion Muslims from West Africa to South East Asia that the US is nothing but an aggressor state out to punish every man, woman and child of Islamic descent for the crimes of a few fundamentalists (whether or not this is true).
The stance taken by the leaders of the US makes me sick to the core.
The fact remains that it was one of their holidays and that is why they were celebrating. Where the photos came from, I have no idea.
The Taliban denounced the attack within hours of it occuring. There was no satisfaction implied. What they did, however, was point out that US Middle East policy is possibly the reason behind the attack. And for stating that, you label them as satisfied?
You bloody *idiot*. (sorry for the outright flame). The people celebrating on the streets in Palestine were not celebrating the attack against the US. They were celebrating a local holiday, marking the death of one of their heroes. As soon as they were made aware that they were being misinterpreted, they were asked to stop by their government.
I used to run the webpage and some publicity stuff for a Solar Racing Team.. On our 100kg of our Pb Acid batteries (that weren't the most efficient in the race, but were cheapest), we could drive from Sydney to Melbourne with complete cloud cover all the way. I'm assuming the system probably uses something a bit more complex, perhaps Li/Ion batteries, which would allow them to maintain power through conceivable lapses in sunlight. I wouldn't imagine that their power usage would be all that high (as relative to a Solar racing car) anyway. ;)
What about the Crusades? Actually, personally, I see some of the modern branches of christianity to be fairly shocking in terms of morality. However, that is a separate issue that I won't go into as I don't want to be flamed too badly today (thankyou very much).
In fact, it's not really even Islam that's at fault. Islam, in it's proper form is rather peaceful, really. I don't actually have much experience with it (being more experienced in Asian religions and Judao-Christianity), however.
However, it's the same issue as with racism. There are always people in every religion that are going to be problematic. Many religions foster a fanatical closed-mind attitude.
No. I don't know.
Hmmm... Think about the racial paranoia that is going to stem from this tragic event.
People, unfortunately, look for excuses to target any group, and blame their woes on them. Whether they be economic (as is typical), or, in this case, terrorist. The Jewish people have long been scapegoats for Europe's woes. Even recently, with the Pauline Hanson issue, here in au, in years past, where migrants were blamed for the countries environmental and economic problems.
Now. A group has already been selected, pretty much by default and with no actual basis in fact (yet). People of Middle Eastern background.
Unfortunately, there will be ramifications.