原创 Strange modes of transport and other "stuff"

Let's start this article with the fact that the folks at Scientific American have just finished digitizing all of the early issues from 1845 through 1909 – this involves more than 75,000 articles, which should keep us all busy. As they say:

This collection is a treasure trove that includes 65 years of scientific history, breakthroughs, inventions, and triumphs.

E-powered Multicopter
Generally speaking I really don't lust after anything. If someone has a huge house or a flashy car I feel happy for them, but I really don't care about having one myself. My wife keeps on trying to persuade me to purchase a "bigger, better" car, but I'm happy with my little Kia – not the least that it's paid off. I really only drive it into work and back, so even though I've had it for three years or so I only just passed 30,000 miles, which means I expect to be driving it into the ground for many years to come.

Having said this, if I were ever to win the lottery, I would be really tempted to one of those modern jet packs. Even today, when I'm driving into work, when I see things like big trees or interesting buildings or water towers I think to myself "I wonder what that would look like from above if I were flying my jet pack?"

And what prompted these meandering musings? Well, someone just pointed me at a YouTube video that claims to show the world's first e-powered multicopter flight.

This really is rather cool – I would love to have a play with it (but only to hold me over until I win the lottery and purchase my Jet Pack).

Riot Wheel (and friends)
Another really mega-cool mode of transport is the one-wheeled "Riot Wheel" vehicle thingy which – I believe – was first demonstrated at a Burning Man event (I really, REALLY want to attend that one year). I would LOVE to own one of these little beauties.

Actually, there are all sorts of weird and wonderful modes of transport out there, such as the Mono-Wheeled Bike, the Backwards Bike (peddle backwards to travel forwards), and the Orbit Wheels (which would be netter named "An accident waiting to happen," in my case).

Also, I just ran across an interesting Hover Board video (like a Skate Board, but if floats in the air). At first you think it's just music accompanying a still image from one of the Back to the Future films. But then, around the 25-second mark... well, I'll let you see for yourself...