Canadian gives berth to dragon

A DAY TO BE PROUD TO BE CANADIAN
Canadian Astronaut Gives Berth To Dragon Capsule
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield directs Canadarm2  for berthing the SpacE X Capsule

March 3, 2013

                                                                                                

"Canadarm2 holds Dragon by the nose, to drag it up and hook it on to a Station hatch,"

       - Chris Hadfield/Twitter

                     

The "arm in space" is one of Canada's greatest engineering achievements. And an expression of the best of Canada's soul: not flashy, not ostentatious, but useful, dependable, and willing to reach out and lend a strong but sensitive hand wherever one is needed, no matter how far-flung.  It is rated 5th out of 101 in the list of: 101 Things Canadians Should Know About Canada  survey.

  

                                CLICK for   101 list          

 

WIRELESS POWER FOR ELECTRIC

           CARS AND BUSSES 

Bombardier’s PRIMOVE technology provides wireless, contactless power for all types of electric vehicles including trams, buses, trucks and cars using the principle of inductive power transfer. This unique system allows electric vehicles to be wirelessly recharged either in motion (dynamic charging) or at rest (static charging) without affecting driving habits or journey times.                                 *from Bombardier web page
  This may well be an answer to the problem of recharging and limited range without stopping to charge the batteries. It is being tested in Germany by Bombardier. 

FAST CAR COMPARISON INFO

1) Chev Camaro:                          580 hp    60 mph in 4   sec 

2) Brabas modified BMW  V-12  800 hp   62 mph in 3.7 sec

3) Tesla S Electric Roadster:       299 hp    60  mph in 3.7 sec

THERE MAY BE A MESSAGE HERE ????

AND THEN THERE IS (lol)

4) Toyoto i-ROAD fully electric      2.7 hp        top speed  28 mph   31 miles on a 3 hr charge

 

Toyota's i-ROAD is a fully-enclosed, two-seater, three-wheeled, fully-electric, Personal Mobility Vehicle (PMV).

      It is designed to offer high levels of stability, safety and comfort.. "Active Lean" uses a lean actuator and gearing mounted above the front suspension member, linked via a yoke to the left and right front wheels. 

     A computer calculates the required degree of lean based on steering angle, gyro-sensor and vehicle speed information, with the system automatically moving the wheels up and down in opposite directions, applying lean angle to counteract the forces of cornering.  The system also operates when the it is being driven in a straight line over rough surfaces. The actuator automatically compensates for changes in the road to keep the body level.

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MUSCLE CARS VS ALTERNATE FUELS

MOST CARS CAN NOT DO A BACK FLIP

THE MINI COOPER JCW 2012 HAS DONE IT  (do NOT try this at home !)

WHAT IS COMING IN NEW (2014) CARS

Electric Cars 

     The Trans-Canada Highway is being billed as the “world’s longest greenest highway project”. Sun Country Highway founder  (Kent Rathwell) has provided FREE dedicated car charging stations located in businesses such as hotels and restaurants from coast to coast. According to their site on Jan 30th, 2013:

     "Currently the average distance is about 150 kilometers. We have stations every 1 to 230 kilometers across the entire country. Our next goal is to shorten that distance by creating a more dense infrastructure that will allow all EV's to travel coast to coast".

     To make a point, Rathwell drove an electric car in temperatures as low as minus 32 degrees from St. John’s to Victoria. O.K. – so he drove in a $125,000 Telsa with a large battery, but it still makes a point. 

     A charger is available that cuts recharging time for a Ford Focus electric from 15 hours to four hours. The range on a single charge is from a certified 75 miles (120 Km)  to 100 miles (160 Km)  depending on driving habits.

Click HERE to open an interactive page to find a Fueling Station
Locator for ELECTRIC (EV) charger plugins in Canada.
Click HERE for a page an Alternative Fueling Station Locator for USA filling
stations (Electric, LNG, Ethanol, Hydrogen, Propane, Bio-diesel).

Hybrid Cars 

       A hybrid car never needs to be plugged in for a recharge - whenever you step on the brakes, some of that energy is stored in the batteries. If the batteries get really low, the car can just run on gas until the combustion engine recharges them, so range is not an issue. For an explanation of hybrid cars, check out  How Hybrid Cars Work
     The Honda Accord Hybrid has a two-motor hybrid system for larger vehicles and competes with the Chevy Volt, Ford Fusion, and ToyotaCamry hybrids in the marketplace.

Hi-tech goodies

    In 2003, BMW set up a Group Technology Office in Silicon Valley to do technology research into connectivity to your music, navigation and favorite electronic devices and to develop a unique level of customization.

     In 2007 they joined GOOGLE in developing car computers to provide assistance in driving/parking. Most of the major car manufacturers have followed BMW in increasing card ability to detect pedestrians as well as other cars an to assist the driver in avoiding them.

AND THEN THERE ARE THE "MUSCLE CARS"

 (Street legal racing cars)

1) Chevrolet Camaro
      Thanks to a supercharger, the ZL1 now makes a whopping 580-hp, allowing it to hit 60 mph in under 4 seconds, 
     The magnetic ride control allows suspension settings to be adjusted up to 1,000 times per second. This allows the car to be as responsive as possible, and provides precision on the track, and comfort on the street.

2)  Ford Shelby GT500 
    It is a 550 horsepower Mustang with a supercharged 5.0 L V8, Brembo brakes and  white racing stripe.

3)  Ford Mustang Boss 302

     It puts out 24-hp more than the normal Mustang GT for a total power of 440 hp.

4) Taurus SHO

      Twin-turbo direct-injection 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 rated at 365 horsepower, 6-speed automatic and all-wheel drive with the practicality of a large sedan

5) Chevrolet Corvette
      The style of the beloved stingray returns for the 7th generation with:
     - added muscle in a  6.2L V-8 LT1 engine with over 450 horsepower

     - a nod to being eco-friendly by having half of the eight cylinders deactivated when
       not needed  (which I think could be most of the time)

    The car is not yet available so the price is not known, but it will be determined by a variety of optional goodies which are alluded to by the company's own words:

     "Controlling all this is the console-mounted Drive Mode Selector, which dials from Tour to Weather, Eco, Sport, and Track. It alters the operating parameters of the electronic differential (if equipped), cylinder deactivation, throttle mapping, stability control, traction control, launch control, auto transmission shift mapping, Performance Traction Management (if equipped), Magnetic Ride Control (if equipped), steering weight and ratio, and the gauge cluster display . . .  Performance Package, available Performance Traction Management offers five settings of torque reduction and brake intervention for more confident driving on the road. The machine serves the driver . . .  a precision-born machine."

      I have only the foggiest idea what all that actually means but it sounds impressive.   

A FEW INTERESTING PRODUCTS

1) LINITOL  (also called "muscle" or "magic" wire is a nickel titanium alloy)

          

     Nickel titanium alloys exhibit the unique property of shape memory. Shape memory is the ability to undergo deformation at one temperature and then recover its original shape upon heating above its "transformation temperature". 

     It is being used in the 2014 Corvette where a shape memory alloy wire opens the back hatch vent whenever the deck lid is opened in the rear of the car. Heat from an electrical current activates the small wire, which moves a lever arm to open the vent, allowing the trunk lid to close. Once closed, the current switches off, and the wire returns to its original shape.      This replaces a conventional motorized system that weighs approximately one pound more. Chevy points out that "there are about 200 motorized movable parts on the typical vehicle that could be replaced with lightweight smart materials". 
     The following "magic trick" video demonstrates how well Nitinol works. To purchase check eBay for good prices.



2)  LiveScribe, the creators of the Lernstift digital pen hope to bring handwriting into the 21st century by having the pen vibrate to indicate when the writer makes spelling and grammatical errors or exhibits poor penmanship.

(use <+> to magnify picture)

There are two modes for the pen: calligraphy and orthography. Calligraphy mode senses “if a letter is written wrong or illegibly,” according to the company, and then vibrates once to alert the user to the error. With the Orthography setting, “the pen vibrates once for a misspelled word and twice to point out grammatical errors in a sentence.” Note that the pen simply alerts the user that an error has been identified; it’s then up to the user to figure out the problem and correct it. It’s a teaching pen, not a spellchecker.

3) "LivesOn" App
          Soon (March?) you will be able to tweet after you die 
          Click on the link above - this is so weird on so many levels I am speechless.

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MODERN PROGRESS ??

The Swiss Army Knife

It has always been the ultimate survival tool. They hope to have a model available around September for under $3000 to bring their previous USB models up to 21st century standards with a one terabyte flash drive. For my low tech readers, one terabyte of storage is adequate for about 330,000 photos, 220 million pages of text, or two years of non-stop music – more than enough to survive any emergency situation.

Your data is safe from hackers with the drive’s AES256 technology and fingerprint security. And, to avoid heavy-handed attacks, it also has a self-destruct mechanism that burns the CPU and memory chip if there's any attempt to force the drive open.
An interesting addition to these drives is a small LCD display on the side probably for showing.

Zambonis

The 8.5 km ice trail on the Assiniboine and Red rivers in Winnipeg is maintained by a “Zamboni" (actually an Olympia) with a 6.5L turbo diesel engine fueled with used oil from cooking French Fries. It is reported to race at 80 km/hr when it is not cleaning the trail.
As an aside, both the Assiniboine River Trail and the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa are experiencing significantly shorter skating seasons. Also, people across Canada seem to be finding it impossible to maintain “back yard” skating rinks. A five year study at McGill and Concordia universities has found a “significant shortening of the out door skating season..

FYI – both Zamboni and Olympia have electric models of ice cleaners and they were used in the Vancouver Olympics.

 

MOBILE PHONE AS SELF PROTECTION (?)

You can now buy stun guns (tasers) disguised as cell phones for as little as $65.
It seems to be “common knowledge” that there are 4-shot  22 caliber cell phone guns available somewhere for the past 10 years. My research does not provide any site from which to purchase one. However, if someone points their cell phone at you, maybe you should look to see if there are four parallel holes in the end of it – they might be gun barrels.

If you aren’t concerned about getting through airport surveillance you might want to check out a gun disguised as a knife – maybe not the best way to disguise a gun.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JUSTIN BIEBER ON HIS 18th B.D.

                           (just one of our famous Canadian performers)

His Fisker Karma car (a gift from his manager) is expensive and fancy, and also tries to be environment friendly. It is a hybrid with solar panels, uses reclaimed, recycled and reusable materials throughout the interior cabin, and comes with either leather upholstery or with non-animal materials.
But if you are planning to buy me a car for my birthday, please consider the Telsa.  It does 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds,and goes 245 miles per charge. Any model would be fine but gull wing doors are always nice.