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College students unveil the Kiira EV, Uganda’s first electric car (video)

shaun — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:14:20 +0000

Take a good look at that lime green hornet pictured above, because it may just herald the dawn of a new era in Ugandan transportation. Known as the Kiira EV, this plug-in was designed by students at Makerere University in Uganda, where electric cars, as you might imagine, are something of a rare commodity. In fact, local media outlets are heralding the Kiira as the first EV ever produced within the central African country, and it’s not too shabby, either. On Tuesday, after nearly three years of development, the two-seater successfully completed its first test run, reaching a top speed of 65 kilometers per hour and nimbly making its way up a 55-degree incline. According to Paul Isaac Musasizi, who oversaw the project, the Kiira is capable of maxing out at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, and can run for up to 80 kilometers on a single charge. Aside from its steering wheel and other accessories, every other component was designed and constructed domestically.

Perhaps more important than the Kiira EV’s specs, however, is what it symbolizes for Uganda. “When we started the project, we wanted to demonstrate that Uganda has as good talent as that in the US or Germany,” Musasizi told Uganda’s Daily Monitor. “Now that this is over, we expect and want it to be taken up.” It remains to be seen whether the Kiira actually enters production anytime soon, but Musasizi says his team is already working on a 28-seat EV for public transportation, underscoring their commitment to bringing green technology to their country. Hum past the break to see video of the momentous occasion, along with coverage from Uganda’s NTV.

[Thanks, Roger]

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College students unveil the Kiira EV, Uganda’s first electric car (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dremel User Allegedly Proves CD-ROM Speed Limit

everyjoe — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:30:29 +0000

My only experience with a fast-spinning CD threatening to cause damage was when I repeatedly pushed the eject button of a (CD-only, this was at least 7 years ago) optical drive that seemed unwilling to spit out my media. Then suddenly for some reason, the tray extended, and before I knew it, the CD—still spinning at top speed—actually flew upwards! I swear this anecdote is true!

Courtesy PowerLabs.org

In any case, a recent experiment theorizes that spinning a CD way faster than 56 times a second (or 56x, I assume) carries its own set of dangers. According to the experimenter, going above that speed magnifies the tiniest imperfection on a CD, potentially causing enough wobbling to damage the rotating mechanism. So of course he decided to test a CD with a Dremel, running it at over 35000 RPM. At those speeds, the edge of CD moves at nearly 800 kilometers per hour! (Or 792 kph, to be exact).

So what happened when a Dremel took a CD for a spin? Well, “the CD hummed and whined in a very menacing manner”. Scary, but it still took “quick jerk at the tool” to make the CD a projectile. Experimenting dude recounts what came next:

…the CD slid out of the holder and contacted the carpet whilst spinning at ungodly speeds. It peeled out a bit in front of me and proceeded to make its way to the door at a very high speed. On contacting the closed door, the CD did a most unexpected thing: it first bounced back a few inches, and then, when it hit the door again, it jumped straight up the door and struck the ceiling, exploding into thousands of fragments which rained down on the entire room. This first experiment was unfortunately not videoed, but it served to get everyone in the room to put glasses on and cower away behind pieces of furniture, whilst people in the hall corridor quickly made their way to my door to ask what was going on.

In other words, spin a CD-ROM really really quickly, launch into a hard surface, and you’ll get a pretty wicked disc that potentially creates deadly shrapnel. The experiment page (link below) contains multiple videos for download, if only to satisfy your visual curiosity and help you resist the temptation to try this at home.

PowerLabs High Speed CD-Rom Experiments

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Make your own Google Street View rig

crave — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Ragsdale hooked his camera up to a jeep and drove around West Point at up to 100 kilometers per hour capturing images. He programmed his rig to take one set of images every 20 seconds, and in an hour had 300MB of data.

(Credit: IEEE Spectrum)

Google Wave is getting …

Robot Runs in Place Before Charging Towards You at 7 kph

everyjoe — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:30:32 +0000

The video below is a demo of a robot running at 7 kilometers per hour, constructed and developed by Toyota R&D.

I’ve always wondered why Toyota and Honda have been working on motive robots for the last decade or so. Will future models be more reminiscent of Mechwarrior or Heavy Gear? If so, I want in, even if large humanoid robots are totally impractical for transportation or even combat—coolness outweighs sensibility any time!

Anyways, we are signing over our independence to machines that are slowly becoming more autonomous and capable than us, but at least there are warning signs. Some are more obvious than others, like in the case of the running robot.

Once if starts jogging place, you know it’s about to charge towards you, at a deadly speed of 7kph. That gives you just enough time to solidly shove it on the chest as it nears, and prevent yourself from turning into robot-induced roadkill.

That is, of course, until newer, better, more lethal runners make their debut.

Post from: The Gadget Blog