Category: Transport
ECCENTRIC BRITISH HEROES: Neil Laughton driving/flying his Skycar from London to Timbuktu
Adventurer and after-dinner speaker Neil Laughton’s customised dune buggy can fly. So he’s going to fly it – taking off from London this Wednesday, and landing/rolling up in Timbuktu approximately 42 days later.
The buggy comes with a detachable ParaWing (parachute/aerofoil thing) and has a fan on the back of it, allowing it to take off into the sky when it hits 45mph – and it can then cruise at 70mph at a possible and terrifying maximum altitude of 15,000 feet…
Twitterer liveblogs his own plane crash
On Saturday night in Denver, Colorado, Continental Airlines flight 737 slid off the runway during takeoff. One of the engines caught fire, but passengers escaped out of the opposite side on slides. Although 38 people were hurt, thankfully no-one was killed.
However, one of the passengers was Mike Wilson, aka @2drinksbehind. He live-Twittered the crash(!), and so if you’re phobic of flying on planes, then you might not want to click over the jump.
Glasgow tube stations get O2 phone reception today
That nice gentleman up there has probably just fainted with delight, after discovering that today he’s able to use his O2 mobile on the tube in Glasgow. We’ve known about it for a while, but today, O2 has brought phone reception to the five busiest platforms on the Glasgow subway – Buchanan Street, St Enoch, Partick, Hillhead and Govan.
The move is just a trial, but if it goes well, then you can bet your bottom dollar, or pound, that it’ll show up in London, and any other subway systems around Britain. Get ready to ask loud people to shut up underground, as well as on buses and trains.
Are you in Glasgow and on O2? What’s the service like – perfect? Or a bit patchy? Let us know in the comments.
O2 Press release (via O2UKOfficial Twitter)
Related posts: O2 brings mobile reception to the UK underground | The other first mobile phone use in the UK underground?
Petrol-powered Snowboard is snow joke
Okay, in reality this bears as much resemblance to a regular snowboard as a petrol-powered, three seater lawnmower with cupholders does to a hand-pushed traditional lawnmower, but bright yellow paintwork aside, doesn’t it look awesome?
It’s got a 6.5 horsepower engine, and can carry up to 250lbs as fast as 18mph. That might not sound fast if you’re used to cars, but when you’re whizzing along millimetres from the snow, it feels a damn sight faster than is comfortable. You steer by – *gulp* – leaning to one side, and it’ll run for two hours on three quarters of a gallon of petrol. The cost? A slick US$2,000. At that price, I’ll stick to my skis.
Hammacher Schlemmer (via OhGizmo!)
Related posts: Sno-Baller: huge tongs for making perfectly spherical snowballs | 20,000MW Speakers made of snow
The Novus Mini Coyote – happily exploiting a legal grey area to give drivers real-time speed camera updates
The Novus Mini Coyote lets drivers radio in the location of hidden, newly-placed and mobile speed cameras, compiling a central database that will alert aggressive BMW drivers to when they need to slow down.
It isn’t illegal – but presumably soon will be. We can’t imagine THE LAW putting up with this sort of anti-social, rule-flouting behaviour for long. Here’s how Novus describes its all-seeing, all-warning anti-radar machine…
Russian car dashboard Eee PC hack
Check out this very-professional-looking hack of an Asus Eee PC 701 into a car dashboard. It’s the work of a young Russian named Dali, who also added a touchscreen, camera, bluetooth, GPS unit, USB hub, card reader, wireless keyboard and a joystick mouse. Phew…
The end of the line of Oyster cards – all change, please
Poor old Oyster looks set to have its name ripped from our mini-wallets and cast back into the sandy estuaries from which it came with Tfl announcing that they’re looking for a new London transport ticketing system…
eBay Nutcase of the Week: American town attempts to sell massive steel bridge
If you happen to be in the market for a massive, ready-made steel bridge, the mayor of Winchendon, Massachusetts has a deal for you.
He’s stuck the local bridge on eBay, for a starting price of $100. If you have the relevant insurance and equipment to move a 90-foot steel bridge, it’s yours. Winchendon doesn’t need it any more as it’s fixing up the area…
World about to get lighter and stronger thanks to "buckypaper" and the magic of nanotubing
Buckypaper is similar in concept to papier mache – layer it up thick and it gets stronger. So strong, in fact, that aeroplanes and rockets and even common household chairs could all be made from buckypaper in distant some future world. We are therefore calling it papier mache 2.0.
The invention of scientists at Florida State University’s High-performance Materials Institute (headed by Ben Wang, pictured), buckypaper is a simple way of compositing…
Self Balancing Unicycle – no clown skills required
The only thing ridiculous about unicycling is having to constantly pedal backwards and forwards to keep yourself on the thing. So how about a unicycle where you don’t have to pedal? Ladies and gentlemen, meet the self-balancing unicycle…
