Tag: WATER

Gearheads with cash to burn might want to bid on this amphibious, 762-horsepower HydroCar, which is currently listed for $777,000 on eBay. Rick Dobbertin spent nine years and more than 18,000 hours personally building the HydroCar, which can go from driving on land to floating on water by lowering and extending a pair of giant pontoons. Despite all that work, Dobbertin never could figure out how ...

After years of work, an MIT scientist has perfected a cheap way to convert and store clean energy using sunlight and water -- much as a plant does during photosynthesis. According to Fast Company, professor Daniel Nocera used solar power captured during the day to split a water molecule into its basic elements -- oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen gas is stored in a fuel cell, which is used to ...

We don't want to insult any of our loyal readers when we say that water sculpture, in general, rarely attains an aesthetic value exceeding the fine objets available in your monthly SkyMall catalog. (Maybe you have one? Send pics!) Perhaps Peter Barnum, Srinivasa Narasimhan and Takeo Kanade -- researchers at Carnegie Mellon University -- also enjoy the aesthetic of cheaply produced, disco ...

While many gadgets don't fare well near water, BladeFish's Pool Jet is one that's designed strictly for summertime swimming. This scaled-down water scooter is similar to the larger ones you might have seen divers like Jacques Cousteau holding while they glide through the ocean. However, the $128 Pool Jet scooter is safe enough for kids to use, and is designed to work in the confines of a swimming ...

We've always been told that water and electricity don't play nice together, but designer Yuki Yamamoto has come up with a beautifully novel, and harmonious, collaboration between the two. Presented at this year's Design Tide Tokyo show, Spica is a relatively simple concept. From what we can tell, water and light are married within a tall glass container, with the speaker below. The ...

All is not necessarily lost if your cell phone ends up in the drink. If your phone gets doused, do the following as quickly as possible: First off, do not try to turn on the phone if it's already off, or if it's acting funky. Pop out the battery. Dry off the outside as much as possible. Some sources recommend not shaking the phone, as that can actually cause water to travel inside the ...

With those rotating, germ-infested metal bars, plain old turnstiles are so yesterday. When it comes to keeping wanderers out of subway stations, amusement park rides, and office buildings, water jets are apparently the way of the future. Thanks to a new invention that uses a jet stream to create a barrier at a turnstile, the Wicked Witch of the West will never again enter your space without ...

In this economy, people are coming up with some inventive ways to pinch pennies. Social network TapIt, which was created in 2008, is a group of cafes that partnered to offer free water to the thirsty public. Not only does clean water help folks save money (the site claims it saves users about $500 a year), but it also reduces waste by cutting down on the number of used plastic water bottles. ...

Environmentalists would have you believe that leaving the faucet running while you brush your teeth puts an unnecessary drain on the environment. We always disagreed, and if Jin Woo Han's concept Mini Hydro Turbine ever goes into production we might finally have something to back up our argument. The device would capture the "free" energy of your tap to spin a little generator, in theory ...

On the environmental tip, Mayor Bloomberg has announced that New York City will install 826,000 wireless water meters by 2011. Under the new system, readings will be sent to a network of rooftop receivers throughout the city every six hours, enabling the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to bill property owners every month with exact water usage -- with the bill available online. ...

Sure we've seen glorified dehumidifiers like this before, but we're a sucker for any aquatic wonder which claims to solve the world's drinking water shortage. The wall-mounted Watermill from Element Four is the latest "water from thin air" contraption and produces up to 3.2 gallons of water a day, pumped through a trusty ultraviolet sterilizer. But more importantly, it offers to hydrate your ...

Yep, just like we'd heard, the Phoenix rover has identified water in a soil sample it collected in Mars earlier, and NASA's extended the mission for another 90 days to go look for more. There's no analysis of the ice yet, but it doesn't look like there's any organic materials in the sample, and it'll take another three to four weeks before there's any more data to reveal. Hopefully that means ...

Modern conveniences and technology allow us to do many things while driving. We can navigate our way along unfamiliar highways, avoiding traffic and finding random points of interest. We can save fuel by motoring along on steam. We can even juice the stereo in our car to the point that it turns all components and passengers into something resembling tapioca pudding. But none of these ...

What if it's not enough to have your own private suite (see image above) on your flight from New York to the Middle East? Leave it to Emirates Airlines, out of Dubai, to top its own first-class offering. The airline has announced its new Airbus A380 jets will be the first in commercial use to provide first-class passengers with an in-flight shower. Sounds like a nice, refreshing way to improve ...

You've just spilled your afternoon coffee all over your laptop. What you do in the next couple of seconds could be the difference between a speedy recovery and the laptop graveyard. In the above video, you'll find the emergency rescue steps you need to take right this moment. Next >> 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer Now Related Links: How to Save a Wet Cell Phone A ...