Author: John

Replica Submarine Make Waves

Photo credit: ABC NewsYou just have to love New York…

A man in a Revolutionary War-era submarine was cited by the U.S. Coast Guard for drifting into a security zone, and for unsafe sailing in New York’s East River near the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner, the Coast Guard and New York City Police Department said Friday.

I remember when I first saw a drawing of the famous ‘Turtle‘ I was fascinated by the entire concept. It’s a good thing that I didn’t live around any lakes or I might not have survived my childhood.
I applaud the artist for making such a cool contraption I have to wonder why he didn’t think of the obvious repercussions of taking such a craft into a busy water way. Lights, reflectors, having a line to a boat… I’m all for the coolness of an adventure like this but you have to use some common sense and think about safety.
(sorry about the headline, it was such an obvious joke I just had to do it)
ABC News: NYC Man Cited for 1775 Submarine
Adventures With an Egg – Flickr photoset
Duke Riley home page

Transmission of Power via Long Range Induction

Wireless powerThis demonstration never fails to be a crown pleaser. However, this one was quite a bit more practical.

The idea of transmitting energy wirelessly isn’t new. For almost two centuries, scientists have known that rapidly changing magnetic fields, such as those produced by an alternating current flowing through a wire, can induce an electric current in another wire. That’s how the coils inside power transformers transmit energy from one coil to another without touching. But this form of induction usually works efficiently only when the two coils are very close to each other.

[via boingboing]
The Power of Induction: Science News Online, July 21, 2007

Wind to Light, Art In Motion

Wind to lightThis is a, excuse the pun, brilliant use of micro wind turbines:

the installation is custom built, using 500 mini wind turbines to generate power, which illuminates hundreds of mounted leds, creating firefly-like fields of light, with wind visually interpreted as electronic patterns across the installation.

Go have a look at the video of the installation in action. This is great meshing of art and technology, I can’t wait to see what Jason Bruges comes up with next.
[via core77]
Wind to light