…iPod Suit, Stealth Switch, Machines Making Mini-Big Bangs, a Bulletproof Server and More!

Happy Anniversary…
…military tanks. Although Leonardo da Vinci first conceived of some kind of armored battlefield chariot and, in 1904, HG Wells wrote of steam-driven “land ironclads,” tanks have been with us for less than a century. And their 90th anniversary is today.

Ninety years ago, on Sept. 15, they were first deployed against German troops during the latter stages of the battle of the Somme, reports a military historian at BBC News.

Interestingly, early tanks came in two varieties: Male, with a naval cannon mounted on each side and no turret; and Female, with machine guns. The crew of eight had to communicate by hand signals, so loud was the 105 hp Daimler engine inside.

Of the 49 first delivered for battle, 31 broke down before or just after the attack started; of the 18 that rolled into action that September morning (at three mph), six bogged in the cratered ground, eight were hit by shellfire and two caught fire. The remaining two broke through, one going on to capture a strongpoint and the other waddling through a nearby village, behind German lines.

PSA: Think of the French Fries and Texas Easy Chili
We’ve got a major problem, folks. The popularity of biodiesel — made from vegetable matter instead of fossil fuels — “will tighten the supply of vegetable oils,” said William Camp, executive vice president of Archer Daniels Midland, during a presentation at the ThinkEquity Partners Growth Conference in San Francisco.

Because agricultural prices typically fluctuate with supply levels, the vegetable oil shortage could cause food prices to rise, reports CNET News.

Vegetable oil prices have declined in the past three weeks because projected demand for biodiesel has come down from the speculative levels achieved a few weeks ago. Nonetheless, lowered levels of projected demand still seem destined to make supply difficult.

This is your friendly public service announcement. The corndogs depend on you.

And if the iPod Doesn’t Suit You…
…suit the iPod.

A suit designed by Bagir and Eleksen transforms the suit’s lapel into a control panel for controlling iPods. The iPod suit uses Eleksen’s ElekTex smart fabric touch pad technology to carry out the iPod manipulation. As the photo shows, simply make the mob’s universal gun-reach gesture to control the iPod. The iPod suit — which, by the way, is machine-washable and wrinkle-resistant — will be available in November for around $280.

Alternative Motorcycles, Pt. I
Carl Vogel, a Long Island, N.Y. inventor-entrepreneur, has modified a Harley-Davidson chassis so that it houses 560 lbs. of lead-acid batteries and an electric motor — capable of reaching 85 mph, but sounding like an electric golf cart, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Vogel’s bike resembles a regular motorcycle, but the lack of a gasoline engine, and the electric solar panel behind the seat, are immediate signs that it’s a very different animal.

The electric motorcycle can be plugged into an electrical wall outlet and recharged in three hours. It can travel about 60 miles, at 55 mph, on a single charge. The bike also has a diesel engine, mounted in a sidecar, that can recharge the batteries during driving time. The accessory engine runs on vegetable oil or biodiesel fuel made from soybeans. The motorcycle’s plastic gas tank holds wires and electronics, rather than gasoline.

Vogel hopes to begin manufacturing electric motorcycles in 2007.

Machines Making Mini-Big Bangs? What’s the Worst that Can Happen?
The Large Hadron Collider — a 17-mile-long (27-kilometer-long) circular particle accelerator — at the CERN experimental facility near Geneva will smash protons into each other at unimaginable speeds, trying to replicate in miniature the events of the Big Bang, reports Reuters.

“We are going to make mini-Big Bangs. There has never been such a jump in particle physics. It will go into an area that we don’t really understand,” Brian Cox of Manchester University told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The fundamental goal of the massive machine is to answer the basic but crucial question of how matter was created at the birth of the universe. If the theories are correct, the machine will create tiny black holes that evaporate.

Alternative Motorcycles, Pt. II
Harold Benich, an auto mechanics teacher at a Pennsylvania prison, has converted a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy chassis so that it sports a diesel engine that runs on vegetable oil, according to the same Journal Sentinel article above. Benich is building a small manufacturing plant to produce the bikes in Cranesville, Pa., starting in January.

Benich used an industrial diesel engine for his motorcycle, which sounds something like a big garden tractor. The bike is less powerful than a stock Harley, but its fuel mileage is up to 115 mpg when ridden conservatively.

“Normally, I get about 80 or 90 miles per gallon,” Benich said.

He plans to quit his teaching job in January to pursue full-time manufacturing of diesel motorcycles selling for between $29,000 and $40,000.

And yes, we realize the oxymoronic hyphenating of “mini” and “Big”…it seems unavoidable.

World’s First Hydrogen-Drive Luxury Performance Car Announced
BMW this week announced the introduction of the new BMW Hydrogen 7, “the world’s first hydrogen-drive luxury performance automobile for everyday use,” reports The Auto Channel.

The car — which has undergone the regular Product Development Process — is equipped with an internal combustion engine capable of running either on hydrogen (which is available in virtually infinite supply) or on gasoline and based on the BMW 7 Series. Running in hydrogen mode, the car essentially emits nothing but vapor. With all the comforts and amenities of a non-hydrogen BMW 7 Series, the BMW Hydrogen 7 is powered by a 260 hp 12-cylinder engine and accelerates from 0-62.1 mph in 9.5 seconds. Top speed is limited electronically to 143 mph. The BMW Hydrogen 7 also features a dual-mode power unit — that can switch quickly — at the touch of a button — and conveniently from hydrogen to conventional premium gasoline.

The car’s dual-mode drive provides an overall cruising range of more than 400 miles and enables the driver to enjoy virtually unlimited mobility, even when far away from the nearest hydrogen filling station.

Ditch Dump, Generate Electricity and Build Roads…by Vaporizing Garbage
A $425-million facility to be built in Florida plans to vaporize 3,000 tons of garbage at temperatures hotter than parts of the sun. Lightning-like plasma arcs would turn trash into gas and rock-hard material. It would be the first such plant in the nation and the largest in the world, says The L.A. Times.

No byproduct will go unused:

• Synthetic, combustible gas produced in the process will be used to run turbines to create about 120 megawatts of electricity a day that will be sold back to the grid;
• About 80,000 lbs. of steam per day will be sold to a neighboring juice plant to power its turbines; and
• Sludge from the county’s wastewater treatment plant will be vaporized, and a material created from melted organic matter — up to 600 tons a day — will be hardened into slag and sold for use in road and construction projects.

County officials estimate that their landfill, which holds 4.3 million tons of trash collected since 1978, will be gone in 18 years.

Stealth Switch Reduces Stress
We’re not saying you don’t work. Nor are we admitting that we sometimes find ourselves sitting at the computer and checking personal e-mail or skimming the latest movie releases at IMDB or checking football scores at ESPN.com or doing any number of things online we probably shouldn’t be doing while on the clock. Unfortunately, bosses aren’t sympathetic to the amount of occasional recreational Web surfing needed to break up the day’s work, which can be a problem when they sneak walk up behind you without you hearing.

Enter Think Geek’s Stealth Switch. Install software and then plug in the hidden foot switch (either between the keyboard and computer or into an available USB port). And a quick tap of your foot and any windows you haven’t specified as “safe” disappear from view. The Stealth Switch can also mute the sound and hide the taskbar and desktop icons. Another tap when the coast is clear and you’re back to work, er, play.

Really, we see this device as good for your health: Too many close calls can lead to unnecessary office stress.

Machines & Mythology: Dragons/Helicopters, Oxen/Tractors
PRAVDA On-Line does not jump to conclusions regarding such hot-button questions as, “Did robots exist in ancient times?” Rather, the online Russian paper takes a closer look at the ancient mythology from the point of view of historical retrospect to make a case for robotic machines in Ancient Greece and China.

A legend about a “dragon” of China’s first emperor, Huang Ti, says that the “dragon” had a pair of wings and its body shone the color of metal. The flights of the “dragon” depended on weather conditions. One day Huang Ti climbed “aboard” the creature, yet the latter failed to take off due to a hurricane—despite dragons having been the protectors of rain and wind. This anomaly, according to PRAVDA On-Line, “can be understood once we assume that the ‘dragon’ stands for a prototype of some flying machine.” The legend says the “dragon” could hold up to 70 passengers who boarded it by climbing on its “whiskers.” The newspaper concludes the dragon “may as well refer to a helicopter equipped with a movable gangway.”

According to the myth of the search for the Golden Fleece (You know this one.), during one of his labors Jason was told to plow the field “dedicated to Ares” using a couple of “oxen having copper-plated legs and mouths that breathe out fire.” Two roaring oxen appeared and charged the hero vehemently, then began spouting fire. The copper-legged oxen that spout fire, the news source concludes, “look very much like some mechanisms capable of moving about independently.” Taking into account the reference to the use of creatures in agriculture, not to mention the presence of copper “parts” and “great flames thrown out their mouths,” “we might as well arrive at certain points of similarity between the legendary oxen and present-day tractors.”

Bulletproof Server
This video shows the resilience of modern storage arrays, including server processor units. Hewlett-Packard contracted National Technical Systems to take a rifle to an HP storage server at NTS’ Ballistics Test Center. Watch what happens to the server and the fish-tank test assistant.

Cheers.