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Alphabet quits work on its energy-generating kites
Alphabet's years-long involvement with energy-making kites is no more. The Google parent is ending its work on Makani's wind power technology, with X's Moonshot lead Astro Teller warning that the path to a viable business was "much longer and riskier" than expected. Alphabet liked Makani's environmental focus, but felt that it was important to pour effort into those areas where it believed it could "have the greatest impact."
Part of Scotland will soon be powered by kites
Name a method of generating power that's cheap, efficient, sustainable and sounds like something Mary Poppins dreamed up after downing 20 teaspoons of sugar. That's right -- kite power. One of the world's first non-experimental, kite-driven power stations will be established offshore in Southern Scotland, at the Ministry of Defence's West Freugh Range near Stranraer. UK company Kite Power Solutions plans to install a 500 kilowatt system that it expects will generate 'several hundred megawatts' of energy by 2025, Independent reports.
EE takes on Google and Tesco with £199 own-brand 4G tablet
Something told us that when EE unveiled an own-brand 4G smartphone, a similarly-equipped tablet wouldn't be too far behind. The UK's biggest operator today confirmed it's launching a new 8-inch Android slate, it's called the Eagle and it'll set you back £199 on a pay-as-you-go tariff or £49.99 if you sign up to a £15 pay monthly plan. For that, you'll get a 1280 x 800 display, 1.6GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage and a 5-megapixel rear camera. That puts it on a level footing with Tesco's £119 Hudl, a tablet that has already enjoyed over half a million UK sales. The Eagle has an ace up its sleeve, though, offering built-in LTE connectivity that takes advantage of EE's double speed 4G network to deliver download speeds of up to 60Mbps. While it may lack the power and speedy updates that the LTE-capable Nexus 7 enjoys, EE's budget slate costs £100 less than Google's top-end tablet.
EVE Evolved: Fitting Heavy Assault Cruisers in Odyssey 1.1, part 2
EVE Online recently revamped all of the Heavy Assault Cruisers in its Odyssey 1.1 update, in addition to buffing active shield boosters and armour repairers and rebalancing medium beam lasers and railguns. Last week I put together a new brawler setup for the recently revamped Deimos, a sentry drone sniper fitting for the Ishtar, an extremely effective anti-frigate Cerberus setup, and a sadly underwhelming railgun Eagle. This week I've turned my attention toward the Amarr and Minmatar HACs, with some surprising results. The Zealot and Sacrilege are still as powerful as ever, and the Muninn may see some use as a tactical frigate sniper, but this patch could see many players retiring their Vagabonds. The nano-fit Vagabond was once the unrivaled number one ship for lone pirates, able to speed-tank anything larger than a frigate and still deal over 500 DPS. It engaged safely from outside web range, moved too fast for turrets to track, and absorbed any attacks that did hit with its sizable buffer tank. When CCP made warp scramblers knock out microwarpdrives, Vagabond pilots adapted with dual propulsion module fits that use a microwarpdrive to approach the target and an afterburner to orbit. Unfortunately, the Vagabond didn't fare well in the Odyssey 1.1 patch and players aren't sure if they can adapt this time. In this week's EVE Evolved, I put together PvP setups for the at the Zealot, Sacrilege, Muninn, and Vagabond Heavy Assault Cruisers.
Helikite balloons can hoist emergency LTE network after natural disaster
We know, we know, Google has the whole hot air balloon thing covered. But this idea is a bit different. It consists of a group of "helikites," or small load-bearing balloon-kite hybrids, which can quickly be launched to form a network of LTE or WLAN masts up to an altitude of 2.5 miles, providing data coverage following an earthquake or tsunami. A standalone rugged suitcase, or "Portable Land Rapid Deployment Unit," contains everything needed for activation in tough conditions. Researchers behind the project, including German R&D firm TriaGnoSys, have even found a way to integrate the temporary network with existing cell towers that remain in tact on the ground -- a feature that makes the system suitable not only for emergencies, but also for expanding mobile coverage during planned events in remote locations. Of course, the helikites would eventually drift apart and lose connectivity, probably after around four days depending on the wind, but these things never travel quite as far as you'd expect.
Google Earth adds balloon and kite aerial imagery, invites you to contribute
Google Earth already offers quite a variety of ways to explore the planet, but the folks in Mountain View never seem content to leave things alone for long. Their latest addition is some aerial imagery of a slightly different sort -- images shot from ordinary balloons and kites. That initial batch of photos comes courtesy of The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, which is itself a grassroots effort that anyone can contribute to. And that's apparently what Google hopes folks will do in order to expand the aerial views available -- as Google notes on its Lat Long blog, all that you need to get started is a digital camera and about $100 in parts, plus a little initiative. Complete details on how to start your own DIY mapping effort, or simply explore the options now available, can be found at the links below.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: trains speed up, paint improves planes, and the CO2-scrubbing artificial trees
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. This week Inhabitat saw high-speed railways pick up steam around the globe as China announced plans to build a trans-continental railroad in South America and Japan began developing the world's fastest high-speed train. We also saw eco transportation reach new heights as a kite-powered car completed an epic 5,000km journey across Australia and researchers developed a nanotech paint that will increase the fuel efficiency of airplanes. The automotive world is also gearing up for the Geneva car show as Toyota is getting set to roll out an all-electric IQ and Porsche pulled back the curtain on its Panamera S Hybrid and Boxster EV. In other news, this week we brought you an exclusive video interview where celebrated environmentalist Stewart Brand argues that nuclear power could save the world. We also explored several other alternative energy sources that are decidedly less controversial - PurposeEnergy is transforming beer brewing waste into a source of clean-burning biofuel, and a design duo has proposed a series of beautiful solar-powered artificial trees that scrub CO2 from the air. Roughly one in every six people do not have access to safe drinking water, so we were excited to learn about a pedal-powered water purification system based on the bicycle that holds great promise for the developing world. Speaking of cleaning up dirty water, this week Stephen Baldwin sued Kevin Costner over the oil-separating technology that cleaned up the BP oil spill. And last but not least, we were wowed by this hydrofloor system, which can save space and energy by concealing a swimming pool beneath your living room floor!
IKAROS gets first burst of solar propulsion, wants more
Photons, man, it's all about the photons. Japan's solar sail-equipped IKAROS probe has recorded its first propulsion derived from the force of sunlight rays hitting its tender surface. The force generated is a truly minuscule 1.12 millinewtons, but that can go a long way (literally) in a frictionless environment like space. The kite's sails also soak up Sol's emitted light to generate electricity, making the most out of the one resource available to it. So now that we've figured out how to do all that, shall we get started on colonizing Mars or what?
MIT-based Grassroots Mapping mapping the oil spill with digital camera, kites
Grassroots Mapping, a project born out of MIT fellow Jeffrey Yoo Warren, is seeking to photograph and "map" the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Their project seeks to come up with cheap and easy to find tools for aerial photography. Their newest project is using cameras attached to kites to photograph the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in order to assess the damage and help along the response to it. The Gulf mapping project got under way on May 5th, and the project is now accepting donations to help fund its research. The results (which you can see above) are incredibly striking. A video is below -- hit up the source link for more images.
Breakfast Topic: Fun with kiting
The Spousal Unit came home from work the other day to find Overlord Mok'Morokk hanging out in Orgrimmar. He joined the fray for a couple minutes and then started the night's raiding schedule. Hours later, he found the ogre from Dustwallow Marsh still there. Though the battle had been kept up the entire time, the Overlord just couldn't be brought down. All of the bank alts in the AH were subjected to periodic AOE stuns and the constant sounds of battle while trying to conduct business. Of course, this isn't the first time someone has been kited into a major city for the sake of mayhem. Players have been doing this since the beginning of MMO time. It can be annoying but also breaks up the monotony of the atmosphere. Some, however, view it only as griefing. What is the most unusual NPC or creature that you've seen kited to a major city? Do you think this kind of activity is fun or annoying? Have you ever had the patience to kite something this far yourself? Edited to add: Link to a reunion of Jaina and Thrall.
Omen meet Orgrimmar, Orgrimmar meet Omen
The Lunar Festival is in full swing, and every once in a while Omen is no where to be found. I talked about killing him earlier in the week, but there is another strategy that's been popping up. Have you ever wondered what it's like to kite something across half a continent? Well, now's your chance!I've tried this with a few friends, and the trick is to keep Omen moving along with as many movement-impairing effects up on him as possible. We had a mage there slinging Frostbolts at him, a shaman shocking him with Frost Shock, and of course a hunter laying down his Concussive Shots and Frost Traps. I was there on my warrior issuing the occasional Taunt just in case one of the DPS made a mistake and got too close (this was never a problem).
Kite-assisted ship to set sail in January
If you thought a solar-powered ferry was far out, get a load of this. Reportedly, a 132-meter long vessel will be making its maiden voyage next month, but rather than chugging copious quantities of diesel while traversing the Atlantic, it'll be sipping down fuel and receiving a good bit of help from the computer guided kite attached to its bow. The $725,000 device will be tethered to a 15-meter high mast and will fly some 300 meters above the ship in order to catch enough wind to actually aid in its movement. It's suggested that the SkySails kite propulsion system will slash fuel consumption by "up to 20-percent," saving the operator some $1,600 per day and reducing carbon emissions all the while. 'Course, all the company has to do now is make sure the January trip is a success and it'll have a list of to-be owners a mile long.[Via Slashdot]
Gotta catch 'em all in trees
We were eating some Reese's Pieces the other day, and they were, you know ... okay, but we couldn't help thinking that they were missing something integral to the candy-eating experience. We couldn't quite decide what that was, but now we know: a tiny kite. With Pokémon characters on it. It's so obvious now!Unfortunately, this package no doubt includes, instead of Reese's Pieces, those tiny Smartie-esque things that are in all Japanese candy toy packages. But the little Pokémon Diamond and Pearl kites are pretty cool for when you need an emergency kite. Which is all the time, right?Next time you come upon a pleasant breeze, you can hold your tiny kite aloft, yell "Kite! I choose you!" and then carefully unroll the string as it possibly floats into the air.
The WindFire Cursor kite
We're holding out for the ever ubiquitous gloved-hand kite, but man, we really do need to get out of the house a little more often. And yes, the WindFire Cursor kite is real. Just don't wave it around too fast, you could put someone's window out with one of these. (Sorry, had to.)[Via MAKE: Blog]
Dining with Devilsaurs
Anyone who's ever ventured into Un'Goro crater has probably had a run-in with these beasts that didn't end well - and perhaps that's why I'm so amused by this attempt to walk one all the way into the Barrens. While some players are opposed to the disruption caused by kiting dangerous beasts into low level areas, you have to recognize that it takes some amount of patience and skill to pull off this sort of prank.
