热度 14
2011-11-13 15:30
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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...