"100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
This thread is for "future news stories" that look back on our time as a retrospective, in the vein of the old '50 years ago today' stories we used to see in ADQ.
Come up with your own links in stories and be imaginative! "Constantly in motion is the future", so anything goes in imagining the future events that tie-in to your story... Quote:
I'm going to give it a shot with an automotive tech story here in a sec... |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
February 13, 2113 – 100 years ago today
New in-car GPS tech uses motion sensors for accurate, autonomous city driving While no modern duelist who wants to live very long would trust the driving of his vehicle to a computer brain, the crowded masses of yesteryear apparently did not mind the idea turning over their vehicles to Master Control. Completely disarmed cars travelling at combat speeds, with no human at the controls – what could possibly go wrong? One wonders what they would have done differently had seen our time. OK so I'm not that good at it, but I'd love to see ya'lls' ideas! |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
December 17, 2112 – 100 years ago today
Brain implants let paralyzed woman move robot arm “This technology, which interprets brain signals to guide a robot arm, has enormous potential that we are continuing to explore…” Woman uses Brain Computer Interface to move a giant robotic arm to grasp and eat a chocolate bar. Hungry cyborgs may be nothing new now, but it’s interesting to see the genesis of these interfaces. “One small nibble for a woman, one giant bite for BCI.” Indeed. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Researchers bioengineer a new kidney.
http://m.voanews.com/a/1642933.html This isn't the best link, so others should feel free to add a more detailed or interesting link re: cloning. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
How GEV jockeys relax in their spare time...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmel...ver-golf-cart/ Man...I want one! D. (Ogre, not Car Wars, but still cool!) |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Could be the one type of grenade that is not yet in the system...
Malodorant missiles kick up a stink "IMAGINE being hit by a smell worse than anything you've ever encountered. It combines the reek of sewage with pungent rotting meat. It is nauseating, and so intense that you rush for the door... Stink bombs do not cause injury, but the intense, unfamiliar foul smells affect the amygdala and trigger an unthinking fear reaction that causes the target to flee... Among them is the US Navy initiative for malodorant grenades, which can be thrown, or fired from a grenade launcher. The aim is to... deliver a payload that could clear a 5-metre-square room... It remains to be seen whether malodorants will be effective for combat, or whether simple countermeasures, like gas masks, could neutralise them... In [the] future war really will stink." |
Threats to Humanity
Food for thought for the 6e "future history" -- apparently academics are also studying the cataclysms that may befall us:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22002530 Perhaps more of a twist on some of the ideas people have already come up with. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Hacked Twitter Account "Shakes" Market: Computers are scary things.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...-shakes-market http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...treet-freefall "There were also concerns over what many suggested was the lurking menace of trading algorithms that scan the news and trade quickly, causing "flash crashes"." |
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
WARNING: Linked page starts playing an ad. Find the ad and kill it!
Stop killer robots before it's too late, Human Rights Watch says (VIDEO) http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...tch-says-video "The group — a collection of non-governmental organizations — is calling for the ban of all “fully autonomous weapons” that exclude humans in their decision making." |
Bacteria Make Biofuel
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Drones
So here's a piece of technology you wouldn't expect to totally disappear over the next 100 years: drones.
"It is the idea of being able to use a machine to kill other human beings from the comfort of a chair thousands of miles away, using a screen reminiscent of a video game..." Not killer robots or AI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22250664 Just drones used for surveillance, dropping bombs, and other targeted killings: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22320767 While operated from hundreds of miles away: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-22320275 Or maybe just used to spy on your neighbor: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22134898 Or protect wildlife from poachers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-22075311 Now, I'm not suggesting that Car Wars would be a better game if you could sit at home in your simrig and drive the vehicle over yonder in the arena (yawn). But... Wouldn't every convoy deploy a drone a mile down the road to scout for ambushes? Also not arguing it should be part of the core game, but it could be a sensible expansion. You've got to think with better battery/motor technology they'd only get *more* popular. Plus with cameras so small a pretty decent one fits in your 1/4" cell phone, I don't think a surveillance drone would even need any real payload capacity to be useful. Makes you wonder how small they could get. Probably small enough the cycle gang would never spot it. Hmm. Edit: Rail network to fight graffiti with drones. Maybe good for patrolling oil pipelines in the distant future? |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Well, perhaps some ridiculously cheap technology makes drones nearly useless, like the laser towers that keep long-range nukes from being effective in OGRE. For example, a little box with sensors and a low-power laser that spots drones and blinds their cameras, or some ECM technology that prevents them from reliably relaying signals back to the operator?
Or maybe someone has perfected the art of training pigeons to take them out. =] (pigeon kamibombs?) |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
More on current Drone tech: http://gizmodo.com/5979372/watch-the...mera-in-action
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Drones are one of several technological advances in our Real World that ought to be considered in 6e. I wonder if hybrid engines are another.
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
The thing with drones is that all the stuff is already in the rules -- it's just the 1980 version. There's infrared, radar, radar detectors, radar jammers, radar-guided weapons, the bollix, and so on. You can create a helicopter (or off-road buggy) with a vehicular camera and a remote-control guidance system, it's just atrociously big and expensive. As far as miniaturization goes, I'm fine if 6e doesn't include nanotechnology, but you can't walk through a shopping mall in 2013 without getting buzzed by a remote-control helicopter on display. And as I said, cameras are already tiny and battery tech will supposedly be much more advanced. Denying that drones would exist in such a world is sort of like saying the world has forgotten how to make cell phones. (OK, maybe the satellites were all trashed so you don't get signal outside the city, but still... are kids going to be too mature to be texting and shooting photos to their friends in 100 years?)
Now I'm fine if Chassis & Crossbow drones are as in the present rules -- perhaps the finer details of manufacturing have been lost. But I don't think that's what the main edition of the rules will be targeting. I guess the question is where to draw the line so that Car Wars doesn't become cyberpunk. So I'm OK if the decision is made to eliminate some things. But it would be pretty disconcerting if the 1980 version is included while other tech advances 100 years. I would be totally OK if there was an "electronics" type expansion and all the camera/radar/infrared/jamming/drones/etc. was deferred to that -- certainly it would be an easy way to prevent any of it from showing up in the arena ("everything in this book is restricted from arena usage"). Anyway, two more links: Tiny robot flies like a fly: http://www.nature.com/news/tiny-robo...-a-fly-1.12926 A proposed drone-detection system (article mentions others): http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...ection-system/ An photo overview of military ground drones: http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10017023.html |
GPS
And I guess GPS is another post-1980 technology that should be considered -- though it would be easy enough to eliminate if part of the future history is that the satellites were all whacked or went un-maintained until they died a natural death.
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
The simple counter vs. Drones, and GPS is a Bollix.
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Don't need a full clone activation? Gold Cross still has you covered!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-0...-parts/4666886 |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
I know squat about building cars, but this has a few interesting notes about high-performance gas engine accessories:
Ten fastest production cars 5/13: http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-10863_7-10016810.html Numbers one and four use four turbochargers. Numbers two, three, six, seven, and eight use two turbochargers. Number five uses "a unique combination of a supercharger and turbocharger". Number 10 is a hybrid. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/...-food-printer/
What would you like our chef to print for you today? |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
$1,400: Extreme Driving Class trains Car vs. Car and Car vs. Pedestrian Tactics, 2003.
"At Bill Scott's anti-terrorist driving school, students learn to spin, shoot, and ram their way through any auto-borne attack." http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2...eapon-survival By completing the training, the creator of the class claims that you raise your chances of survival from 10% all the way up to 60%... What would be the odds if you armed and armored your vehicle? ;) |
Phones
It seems minor, but... do phones work? Are they smaller yet more advanced? Does the whole phone fit in the bluetooth earbud and do everything via voice command? Do they only work around towns/cities because it's still too unsafe to maintain cell towers in the wasteland? Or has the world reverted to chunky satellite phones? (Not that anybody necessarily maintains satellites...) Or is an LD Radio seriously your only option?
Smartphones outsell dumb phones worldwide in 2013 (and first did in the US in 2011 -- 3news.co.nz) Edit: CWC 2.5: Portable Earth Station: "When deployed, it automatically tracks the best available satellite for world-wide voice and data communications." Computer Navigator: "It ties into the satellite network and local transponders to determine exact positions." Obviously that suggests satellites are still operational. Though if we fast-forward from the 80s to today, I'm not sure whether we'd say the cell net is still operational because you can maintain it without spaceflight, or the satellites are still operational because nobody can vandalize them. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
The cell net is almost as fragile as the GPS system. Besides, there's a certain tough-guy cachet about the CB. :)
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Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is coming:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57...ented-reality/ On the one hand, it would have a sort of cheesy cyberpunk feel if every Car Wars driver tooled around in AR glasses. But something has to be done beyond 1980's computers plus a "wristcomp." |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Algae. It's Not Just Food - It's Fuel!
http://www.algaeliquor.com/home/index.php With the company name, one would figure that 'algae shots' would come into play... but alas, no. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
We are not going to run out of fuel
http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?p...1-a31100a83461 The new Free Oil States should be Canada, Montana, and North Dakota - you know they're plotting against us! lol The end of easy oil production will be destabilizing though... and extracting oil from shale and tar sands will be extremely dirty, possibly creating a smoggy polluted dystopia where gas is $40/gallon ... ;) |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Yeah, according to the EIA (note: different than the IEA), "the US would change from the world's leading importer of oil to a net exporter over the next five years."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22850607 Still, I find it easy to believe that fracking and shale and tar extraction technologies and equipment and expertise would be lost during the apocalypse (whatever it's exact nature may be). Especially if you cut off access to foreign suppliers, and there are food riots where the refineries are, I can believe that the remaining oil in north america would get pretty stinking expensive until the recovery catches up enough. It's plausible to me that a coal mine would be easier to keep operating, and therefore electricity would be a better deal. Bottom line, I think the fundamental "gas is really expensive" effect could be maintained with a small change of the flavor of stuff that justifies it. But it also wouldn't be bad to model electric engines as more powerful but with more limited range (e.g. batteries having higher space/weight per mile of range provided than gasoline). Especially if fewer people are traveling long distances due to intervening wastelands, and if the few stable interstates have regular fortified truck stops for recharging, I can believe that electric cars would be attractive even if the gas shortage isn't as acute. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Or define the 'electric' engine as a fuel cell engine. This would require to change the 'charging' to 'hyrdrogen refueling'. Or the system completely captures the used fuel and you hook into a 'recharge station' to crack your spent fuel back into hydrogen, less losses. The later however only works if it cost more to manufacture new hyrdogen or hyrdocarbon fuel supplies than to save the used remains for recycling. I've seen compressed natural gas as one source, easier to store than pure H2.
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
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One fascinating variant discussed recently is that the "consumable" for an electric car can be a plate of aluminum, which is "recharged" by tossing the end product back into an arc refinery. It's certainly the most inert storable fuel concept of the current crop; and some distant places already export electrical power indirectly by importing ore, refining it with plentiful local power (geothermal, hydro, etc.), and exporting the aluminum. An interesting open-cell variant, originally proposed for use on Mars, is cracking carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide + oxygen (2x CO2 -> 2x CO + O2). You can recombine them in a fuel cell for direct electrical power, burn them in a turbine for thermal kinetic power, or burn them in a nozzle for rocket booster (or welding torch) power... but none of them really quite as well as other things. It's advantage is you just need one infrastructure for doing a bunch of related things, and your inputs are an air intake and some kind of power. |
Faster than waiting for a recharge...
If you don't want to wait for your batteries to charge at the truck stop:
90-second EV Battery Swap [news.com] |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
This entertainer is flat out 100 years ahead of his time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Op1...layer_embedded |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
A minor point, but if the setting/backstory is going to be updated... The ADQ history of Philadelphia mentions taking over and using the resources of NAS Willow Grove. But the base was very nearly closed, and ultimately transferred to the National Guard and renamed, while something like 80% (including the runways) will be redeveloped. I guess that's the hazard of specifically naming a facility in the future history. :)
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
For me, the Golden Age of CW is the 2030s, set in an alternate timeline that happened as listed starting from the mid-80s...
So Texas is independent now, in my world. This "100 years ago today" thread is more specifically for the wacked out future of 6e... which is pretty much un-specified past 2040 or so at this point, and even what's there is undefinite I think. but mostly it's to have fun with, and imagine what today's tech could transform into after a hundred years of humans and robots messing with it. i loved your pyrotechnic bagpiper punk artist link, btw - that rocked. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
DuelTrucks of Libya:
What people do when the need mobile firepower and aren't too worried about defensive armor... http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2011/11/...ation-7706096/ From 2011. |
What happens when you lose a tire vs. a wheel?
Forget finicky rules... just combine the tire and wheel and forget about it. Bonus -- no air for tire spikes to puncture:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...to-flat-tires/ |
Re: What happens when you lose a tire vs. a wheel?
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Cops can now shoot GPS tracking beacons that stick to the back of your car:
http://www.starchase.com/ Maybe not much Car Wars application, but cool anyway. It is a "gun" in the grill of a cop car, anyway! |
Blended Body Armor
For the fashion-conscious duellist...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...all-arms-fire/ I guess this falls into the "and up" part of the price range for blended body armor... |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Sadly it also leaves some of the more vulnerable parts of the torso exposed.
This is perhaps why most body armour doesn't come in a V-neck ;) |
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When 2-Day Shipping Just Doesn't Cut It
So we've all read or seen the stories with universal electric cars or flying taxis or whatever.
But which futurist predicted that UPS and FedEx would be obsoleted by private companies operating their own fleet of flying delivery drones? http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-576...livery-drones/ |
Re: When 2-Day Shipping Just Doesn't Cut It
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Windup Girl
So long as Windup Girl has been mentioned as a possible inspiration for a future Car Wars Setting...
"If policymakers are to achieve their goal of limiting global warming to 2 °C, 60 to 80 per cent of proved reserves of fossil fuels will have to remain in the ground unburned." http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l#.UrSanWQYawE "China has rejected 545,000 tons of imported US corn found to contain an unapproved genetically modified strain." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25461889 "Tests at two wastewater treatment plants in northern China has revealed antibiotic-resistant bacteria New Delhi Metallo-Beta-Lactamase (NDM1) were not only escaping purification but also breeding and spreading their dangerous cargo." http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...astewater-ndm1 |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Electric Car adds Titanium Armor Plating
Sure, they started with 'battery protection' but this armor will prove to be useful for protecting all sorts of other components in the FUTURE. ... like the driver/gunner stations, Vulcan Machine Guns, Mine Droppers... http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/28/55...-battery-fires |
A Step on the Path toward Cloning?
They don't mention anything about downloading the consciousness into another body, but nevertheless it seems like a step on the path toward Gold Cross:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...and-death.html |
Infrastructure Vulnerabilities
Because I'm not that keen on the new edition carrying on with nuclear warfare, hacking your enemy's infrastructure might be more plausible:
Holes in critical infrastructure: https://threatpost.com/hacking-traff...d-chaos/105789 http://www.cnet.com/news/serious-hol...ware-says-u-s/ http://www.cnet.com/news/u-s-warns-o...oftware-holes/ http://www.cnet.com/news/maker-of-sm...iscloses-hack/ http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2...-SCADA-systems ... Also in clean power infrastructure: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05...rt_free_money/ Cyberwar is the new normal: http://www.cnet.com/news/chinas-cybe...ew-normal-faq/ A cyberwar scenario, and the preparations that are actually underway: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/...tal-arms-race/ Just one flaw in one piece of software (Heartbleed) caused experts to recommend that every user change every password, everywhere. But only once you've confirmed that every site you use has fixed it (as if). What if it had been used in anger before it was found? http://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-prot...eartbleed-bug/ |
And a couple more links for good measure...
High Frequency Trading: Wall Street gone mad
http://www.theguardian.com/business/...-street-insane That Genetically Modified stuff all sounded so innocent when it started (...and we thought, what could ever go wrong?) http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-04-2...t-dengue-fever Plant-based food that taste like chicken ("meatless meat"): http://www.today.com/food/today-puts...ken-1D79579619 Japan has plans for an orbital power station: http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/...tal-solar-farm |
"Get ready for carbon fiber construction to become truly mainstream"
Maybe a CA frame isn't that outlandish after all?
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...t-carbon-plant (And maybe in the new edition it won't quadruple the cost of your suspension? :) |
Wondering how they build those custom arena cars so fast?
Here it is: the dawn of the 3D printed car. And I'm not talking about a scale miniature, either.
http://www.cnet.com/news/3d-printed-...ers-announced/ And it turns out 3D printed parts are already in use in actual vehicles: http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...parts_are_made |
More on cloning
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...man-limbs.html
Sorry I don't think it gives you the whole article. But the gist is this: Some animals can regrow limbs, tails, even heads. Based on observing that, the biologist who's interviewed is working on recreating the correct conditions to cause entire hands/limbs/whatever to regenerate (ultimately, for people). Other than repairing damage, he mentions an anti-aging strategy of regenerating aging parts throughout your lifespan. It ends with: "I am not certain when or how we will be able to overcome the challenges to get the [regeneration] technique into medicine. But as to the approach as a whole -- I'm very optimistic." |
Fortress Towns? How about Dome Towns!
Just announced for Dubai:
http://io9.com/dubai-to-build-the-wo...1601731394/all Is this a good idea? http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dub...ting-to-happen |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Airplane with Electric Powerplant and Ducted Fans -- reminds me of most of my designs:
http://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/ai...fan-production . |
In-wheel Electric Motors
Not sure how you'd handle a tire shot vs. a power plant hit, but...
An overview article of an in-wheel electric motor offering: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/...electric-motor And the manufacturer's page: http://www.proteanelectric.com/en/ With some visuals: http://www.proteanelectric.com/en/im...mg=715&gal=714 |
Is cloning really *that* far away?
Whole organ grown from scratch:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28887087 Granted it says it "won't be easy" to apply the technique to humans... But it didn't say "won't be possible". :) |
Buy Dream Now! - Pilotable Robots
"Hello Human"
From a developed prototype in 2012, the Japanese company Suidobashijuko brings us KURATAS, the world's first human-ride-robot. This upright vehicle, w/ wheeled legs and a humanoid-ish turret body, has many possible configurations from an "Iron Crow" claw hand to a 40k-bolter-like Kuratas handgun, to upgrade-able armor, cup-holders, and an iPhone3. The weapons system can be triggered to auto-track targets and fire when the pilot smiles. "Be careful not to start a shooting spree by smiling too much!" The one I built was only $1,845,600. see the intro article here |
Solids
Doesn't necessarily look like they have 12 DP yet, but these tires seem to be moving in the right direction...
http://www.cnet.com/news/out-with-th...eumatic-tires/ |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
It's getting harder and harder to envision a Car Wars future that doesn't feature drones prominently:
goo.gl/F4v6PE |
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Drone counter measures should probably proliferate also.
A simple point defence pistol calibre weapon would probably be fairly effective and should take up less than a single space. They should be as vulnerable as pedestrians (and therefore take damage from hand weapons and burst effects). That would probably bring CW back to the more organic level we are used to (rather than the fully cyberpunk level it would escalate to if drones were common). |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Curiously, there was an article on the BBC's site today, warning of their possible use for "malign purposes".
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
The biggest limit on drones will probably be how well they work if their data link is cut or spoofed. Workable and reliable AI may show up tomorrow, or never.
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
If it was desired to limit the impact of drones in the world of Car Wars (which I think would be a good idea), an increase in EM radiation might do the trick. Of course that would also play havoc on computers too. Which might not be a bad thing also.
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Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Encoding and hardening your data stream is pretty straightforward (otherwise we wouldn't be seeing military UAVs now). Of course that pre-supposes some comms infrastructure. In my game I assume that comms have to be brought in and operated dynamically and are not a persistent fact in the game world.
CW drones are already quite possible, we have micro-planes and copters, we have RC control, what else do you need? Limiting factors are the inherent control issues with RC, and the extortionate cost compared to risking a warm body. Life is cheap. If we want miniature UAVs, then they shouldn't be able to carry weaponry, they should be fragile and they could therefore be cheaper. They still need a dedicated RC controller and a hard disruption (bollix) will still badly mess them up. Background EM shouldn't be an issue though as it isn't necessary and adds more complications. |
First "Electric Superbike" Delivered to Customer
http://www.cnet.com/news/electric-su...treet-drivers/
Faster than gas, and cheaper to operate. How 'bout them apples? |
More on Electric cars
Tesla is now producing the Model S with two seperate axes of engine options:
You can have more range or less range, controlled by the size of battery installed (60 kWh vs 85 kWh). And you can separately have more or less power/speed: You can have one motor or two (one per axle), and they're also using three different sizes of motors (221hp, 380hp, 470hp). OK, they're not making every combination available (at least, not yet). Still, the options for electric sound eerily like configuring a gas engine: you pick your engine size, and separately pick the amount of fuel on board. http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/dual...-and-autopilot http://www.teslamotors.com/models/design |
Lasers on Ships
http://news.yahoo.com/watch-u-navy-l...173218470.html
Not quite the pew-pew effect - Looks more like how X-Ray Lasers were described in Car Wars. -John |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?...c-a81f10c16c77
"CHICAGO (AP) — All the burglars use the same audacious tactics: A vehicle crashes through a storefront in the wee hours and up to six people in dark clothing and ski masks pour out, grabbing whatever they can with the speed of a NASCAR pit crew." And this is why every "bike gang" has a pickup or van. :) |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Surprise! Magnets used to plant drugs under cars from Mexico
http://www.komonews.com/news/nationa...289531781.html The Associated Press and KOMO TV 4 Seattle January 22, 2015 Drug smugglers are turning "trusted travelers" into unwitting mules by placing containers with powerful magnets under their cars in Mexico and then recovering the illegal cargo far from the view of border authorities in the United States. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
The armored mini-fridge is no longer only considered a damage sink. The item has been shown it is more accurately classified as a one-shot dropped weapon.
Police Chased Tractor-Trailer 34 Miles, Dodged Thrown Fridge http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStor...hrown-28988039 ABC News and Associated Press February 15, 2015 |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
"PEW pew! For a week last November an internal combustion engine hummed away in a lab near Chicago. Why the excitement? This particular engine sets fire to fuel with lasers instead of spark plugs, burning fuel more efficiently than normal."
Lasers Set to Zap Engines into Running More Efficiently http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ficiently.html New Scientist 20 February 2015 Gas Engine Accessory? Maybe +2 mpg (only +1 if it started below 10 mpg), add 15% to engine cost? |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
I am mentioning this blog post because of one reader's comment.
Bikers Attack SUV in NYC . . . Cops Nowhere to be Found http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2013/10/0...re-to-be-found Dvorak Uncensored October 01, 2013 jim g says: 10/1/2013 at 8:40 pm Mutants on bikes got ya down? Be sure to visit Uncle Albert’s Auto Stop and Gunnery Shop: Your One-stop source for vehicular weaponry since 2028! Flamethrowers, paint sprayers , mine droppers! Need a recoilless rifle? They got ‘em! No job too small, remember Uncle Al, the Auto duellist’s pal! |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
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-John |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Surprised that this one hasn't been posted yet:
"Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE: LMT] 30-kilowatt fiber laser weapon system successfully disabled the engine of a small truck during a recent field test, demonstrating the rapidly evolving precision capability to protect military forces and critical infrastructure." Turning Up The Heat: Latest Evolution Of Lockheed Martin Laser Weapon System Stops Truck In Field Test http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/new...ena-laser.html Lockheed Martin Media Release March 03, 2015 Lockheed Martin's laser can stop a truck from over a mile away http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/04/l...r-athena-test/ Engadget March 04, 2015 Early heavy lasers were fired from fixed emplacements. It was a number of years before vehicle-mounted versions became practical. |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
^^ "laser in the 30kW range" is pretty cool, K-Slacker, nice one. It took them "a few seconds" of focus to melt the engine back then!
Here's a fun blast-from-the-past, the IMI Combat Guard; the humongous tires seem to beg for a bonus to-hit, or a chance to get hit when aiming a normal shot at the side or front. The article ends with a promotional video link. I love how everything about it is termed "Defensive" when it obviously should be used as an Offensive vehicle. No mention is made of the exposed 54" tires' protection, I'd figure they have to be some kind of Run-Flat, Solid and/or Kevlar lined to not be destroyed by any random pistol shot. I like how the announcer guy says "lithe-ality" instead of leathality... http://www.supercompressor.com/rides...-like-minivans |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
With the new laws in place, many commuters began enforcing the "left lane" rule themselves (with extreme prejudice). This led to British Columbia having the fastest-flowing motorways on the continent.
B.C. to give police more power to ‘crack down on left-lane hogs’ http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03...ong-motorists/ National Post March 03, 2015 |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
(I wasn't kidding about the fast roads. That's 75mph for the metrically-challenged.)
Speed limits on some B.C. highways to hit 120 km/h http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...km-h-1.2694277 CBC News July 02, 2014 |
Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
Quote:
I've been seeing more signs for staying out of the left lane unless you're passing, too. I don't think they're enforcing it more than usual, but they are announcing it more. Perhaps greater enforcement will come later. Perhaps more militant enforcement of traffic regulations is a precursor to the Car Wars era. |
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