The Geek Church

So, here’s some interesting transportation! This is from BOXX Corporation, and it certainly looks like a skinny box.

What you are seeing is something about one yard long, and weighs in at 120 pounds. The top speed is about 35 miles, and carry about 300 pounds.

You should be able to get it with traction control, anti-lock brakes, and LED lights. Other information from my source includes the price. I believe that $3,995 will get a 40-mile range model, and $599 can get a CORE 2 box. You can also get the $349 1-hour charger and the $149 heated seat.

Oh, I love it, and I wonder what it rides like.

What you are seeing here is not a prop for the next Jaws movie, but a small submarine. I honestly think that it would be good to own a submarine, but I’m not certain whether I would want the SeaBird.

The problem is the SeaBird isn’t really a submarine per se, but it does have the propellers required to go up and down. The problem is that you cannot go forwards or backwards, unless the SeaBird is hitched up with a two line.

The good news is that the line can go up to 400 feet, so there is a maximum depth of 300 feet, but I’m not certain if the boat it is attached to can go at any speed at a depth that deep. The SeaBird can go at speeds of 40 miles per hour.

Man, I would love to try this, and my Source says that someone could spend up to three days in this drag-on submarine. I don’t think I would want to spend that long in this, and the SeaBird costs about $210,000.

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Recently, a defense contractor named Northrop Grumman was given a project to develop combat airships for the U. S. Armed Forces. These aerial vessels will be used specifically for deployment in Afghanistan to keep a constant watch on the country.

Furthermore, these combat airships will be housed and launched from an massive air base designed to float continuously over Afghanistan. This air base is called the Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV), which seems to be resemble an aircraft carrier. The air base is intended to float over certain global locations of interest like Afghanistan at a height of 20,000 feet and monitor the landscape with a series of sensors. The LEMV’s sensory view is designated as the campaign view. Meanwhile, combat airships are also designed for surveying combat areas and their view is known as the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) view. Lastly, foot troops with helmet cams and embedded sensors will be responsible for the First Person Shooter (FPS) view.

Of course, the idea here is to gather more information for making better decisions during military operations on every level of personnel to achieve greater mission success and lower casualties in active duty. Personally, I have to wonder how realistic it is to be developing combat airships to be deployed from a huge, flying fortress. I’d hate to think how much Americans will have to pay in taxes to cover the cost for all that high-tech equipment.

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Currently, the BP oil spill remains at large as a serious threat to the natural environment surrounding it in the Gulf Coast. Right now, more than one hundred and fifty gallons of oil is still flowing out of control. Although beaches are likely to be affected first, the wetlands of Louisiana are also in considerable danger. In comparison to sand, swamp areas and weeds would be greatly contaminated by the oil spill with little hope of ever being cleaned up. However, designers at a firm in Florida called Greenboat Scientific have devised a solution to oil pollution in swamps.

They’ve developed a watercraft called the Weedoo workboat. Initially, this vessel was created as a eco-friendly alternative to the gas-powered airboats commonly used in the South. The watercraft has been redesigned to carry several times its own weight in oil-soaked weeds, surface oil and other forms of swamp contaminants.

The Weedoo is made of ten foot lightweight fiberglass and foam and runs on a propulsion system powered by a rechargeable battery. Furthermore, this watercraft is operated with fingertip joystick controls, allowing it to maneuver through the shallow areas of the wetlands with great ease. The vessel actually works like a farm tractor. It has a quick-change system that’s able to connect to a variety of additional equipment as attachments, which include the extractor conveyor system, a forklift and a swing-arm cutter.

Greenboat is preparing to mass produce Weedoo waterboats by the hundreds and they expect to make one per day at this time. In addition to stopping oil pollution in the swamps, mass production of the watercraft would also provide employment for Florida residents afflicted by the oil spill. Thus, the creation of the Weedoo seems to be a big step in the right direction for solving the oil spill crisis.

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Flying cars, drill machines that take people underground, rocket boats and cars that turn into submarines. These types of vehicles have long been products of a writer’s imagination shown in literature, television, action flicks and movies of science fiction. In the real world, we just don’t have the technology to create such things in this present age. But the constant advance of research and experimentation seem to point us to a future with many possibilities. For example, what if you could have a yacht that was also a submarine for traveling underwater?

Recently, some designers conceived such a concept. They call it the U-010. According to its design, this vessel would be 66.5 meters long, made in the style of a regular yacht and it would be powered by diesel and electric propulsion.

Of course, it’s just an idea on the design table. However, the technology might become available to actually build the U-010 someday. As human beings, we do tend to consider the future and wonder about the things that are to come. Nevertheless, I think concepts like this yacht submarine are better off being considered things of literature, television and film. After all, just because designers conceive a new idea doesn’t mean it’s eventually going to become a reality?

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If you consistently follow the latest news in conceptual and recently developed technology, then you’re probably familiar with the idea of an electric-powered bicycle. Many electric bikes have been developed in Japan before. But according to Crunch Gear, the design of most of those models usually end up being ugly or unattractive. However, Yamaha just unveiled a new model called the PAS Brace-L, which is intended for young and older male consumers.

According to Yamaha, this new model was conceived for guys who want an electric bike for their personal enjoyment but never got one since most designs for existing models are physically unappealing. Furthermore, a truly desirable electric bicycle could serve as a trendy way to exercise or get to work.

The PAS Brace-L runs on an 8.1Ah/25.2V lithium-ion battery and features options such as an assisted travel range of 47km in its standard mode and 37 km in its power mode. The battery itself takes at least four hours to fully charge. This new electric bicycle will be available in Japan on July 15 for $1,630.

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Hey thrill seekers, adventurers and adrenaline junkies, you like vehicles that go fast, right? Of course, I’m talking about things like sports cars, fighter planes, water jet skis and motorcycles. You know what I mean, dudes! These vehicles represent speed, tricky maneuvers, intensity, fearlessness and that certain element of danger. You already know this firsthand if you’ve ever been out riding in one of them. So, how would you feel about riding a motorcycle that runs only on electricity? It actually does exist.

This electric, motorized “chopper” is called the MotoCzysz E1pc. The bike is capable of speeds up to one hundred and forty miles per hour. Furthermore, its motor can generate about five hundred volts of electrical power. The motorcycle is a fully-functional, electrical marvel that moves just like a regular, gas-powered one.

This week, the MotoCzysz E1pc is scheduled for an extensive test run of twists and turns on a 37.7 mile trip. The setting for this test run will be the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. If this electric “chopper” becomes a successful product and hits the mainstream market, you could possibly find yourself on an electric-powered Harley in the near future.

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If you’re familiar with Ford’s Sync system, then you know that it’s a very handy application to have if you’re a 2011 Ford or Lincoln owner. The Sync features navigation, access to traffic information, voice command capability, Internet radio and a 911 Assist mode for emergencies on the road. The 911 Assist mode actually gives dispatchers an approximate location for your vehicle through signal triangulation or your phone’s GPS if it’s connected to the system. Now Ford has updated the 911 Assist mode in its Sync system with a new GPS module.

This GPS module was added to the 911 Assist mode to make it more accurate. Thus, enabling emergency dispatch to be more effective in sending assistance for quicker response to an accident. Furthermore, the Sync system itself will continue to be a subscription-free service, even with this update. Sync is free for Ford and Lincoln owners in the United States and Canada. You only need a Bluetooth cell phone in order to use it. The GPS module allows the Sync system to give exact coordinates for finding accident victims since the module functions as a GPS receiver to provide the right location. The 911 Assist mode is also designed to send a customer’s cell phone call directly to a priority emergency line instead of a call center and gives the location information to emergency service providers through the GPS module. The 911 Assist mode is designed to alert an emergency service operator in the event of an airbag being triggered or emergency fuel pump shutoff as well.

This weekend, Ford will make an appearance at the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) 2010 conference in Indianapolis to announce this GPS module update for the Sync system. This update for the 911 Assist mode is available for Sync-equipped 2011 vehicles, which include the Ford Taurus, Focus, Flex, Fusion, Escape and F-150 as well as the Lincoln MKS, MKZ and MKT. In addition to the GPS module, Ford is also offering customers a variety of emergency service options such as a priority emergency screen. This feature will provide location information and quick-touch access to In Case of Emergency (ICE) contacts after a 911 Assist call is made. Ford is currently working with nonprofit organizations such as NENA and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International as it seeks to continue making improvements on the 911 Assist feature.

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In this modern age, researchers, scientists and inventors continue to explore the possibilities of technology to find new ways of doing ordinary, regular things. For example, there is ongoing research to replace oil, gas and coal with solar, wind and hydro power as environmentally safer and easily renewable sources of energy. Now there is a concept for a car that has absolutely no need for a steering wheel.

This concept developed by designer Yanchao Wang is called The Swing Beginner and it is meant to increase the effectiveness of using space inside of a vehicle while making driving easier. In this conceptual design, a configuration of three seats can be adjusted to one seat, the trunk is retractable for extension or shortening and the car door is located on the front of the vehicle. Furthermore, a rocking chair equipped with joysticks on the armrests and gravity sensor pedals was designed to guide the car’s directional motion. Thus, a regular car’s need for a steering wheel would be obsolete. Similar to a video game controller, the rocking chair and joystick armrests would be used to move the vehicle forward, backward and making turns. The Swing Beginner car would also have non-rotation, radius wheels and a large dome acting as windows to make driving possible with only the simple movements of your body.

As its name implies, the Swing Beginner concept car is intended for new drivers to make operating a motor vehicle less difficult and complicated. This design also features the ability to use the backrest as a wearable backpack. Personally, I don’t think a car seat’s backrest was ever meant to be a backpack and the design of this car concept looks like something out of the Jetsons cartoon. This design idea may have potential as a car of the future but right now it seems as realistic as making a flying car.

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In the development of new technology, making better vehicles is one of the goals that researchers seek to achieve. Of course, this leads to projects in which new vehicles are designed to be faster, more fuel efficient, easier to operate and safer for the user. Thus, the Air Force made a recent achievement in aviation when one of their scramjet engines set a new record for hypersonic flight yesterday.

The test vehicle they used is called the X-51A Waverider, which reached a speed of Mach 5 in 200 seconds. Now this is the longest recorded hypersonic flight in history since NASA’s X-43 was the former record holder in 2004 and the X-51A flew ten times longer than the X-43. In its test flight, the unmanned X-51A Waverider was launched from a B-52 plane over the Pacific Ocean and the X-51A used a rocket booster to reach Mach 4.8. Then the booster was jettisoned and the X-51A’s SJY61 scramjet engine did the rest of the work, generating supersonic combustion to make a shockwave that the jet used for propulsion. After setting its historic flight record, the X-51A crashed into the Pacific Ocean, abandoned as a lost vessel.

However, three other X-51A Waveriders have been scheduled for future test runs later this year. According to Air Force X-51A program manager Charlie Brink, the record setting flight was a big day in aviation technology. He also went on to say that the development of the scramjet engine is an achievement equal to the innovation of jet engines replacing propeller planes after World War 2. Considering that the X-51A was unmanned during its test flight, I wonder how long it will take the Air Force to ensure that hypersonic planes are safe for human pilots and passengers in the future.

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