OpenSky jet-powered glider inspired by Japanese anime

OpenSky jet-powered glider inspired by Japanese anime: "In the Japanese animated film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the protagonist explores a post-apocalyptic world riding on a jet-powered glider called a Möwe (also called a mehve in English). When the movie was first released in 1984, a vehicle like that seemed like it could only exist in science fiction, but today one artist is determined to make it a reality. Kazuhiko Hachiya has spent the past decade designing and testing his own single-person glider and recently unveiled a full-sized model with a working jet engine."

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Mercedes' golf cart concept would get you around the links of the future in style

Mercedes' golf cart concept would get you around the links of the future in style: "Mercedes has been looking into the future lately, sharing its "crystal ball" visions with the world. In addition to forward thinking production vehicles like the SLS AMG E-Drive, it has gone even deeper into the future, providing a look at what off-road utility vehicles might look like in a decade, for instance. Now, it's gone a little smaller, giving its vision of the golf cart that might be buzzing around local country clubs in a generation or two."

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Gizmag goes inside the world's largest tunnel boring machine

Gizmag goes inside the world's largest tunnel boring machine: "On Saturday, a tunnel boring machine (TBM) so large that it looks like something out of Thunderbirds was dedicated in the city of Seattle. “Bertha,” as it’s known, is the world’s largest TBM and will spend the next 14 months boring a 1.7 mile (2.7 km) tunnel under the city as part of a US$3.1 billion project to replace a viaduct damaged in a 2001 earthquake. As part of a press tour, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) allowed Gizmag inside the giant machine."

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NASA photos show Earth from vantage point of Saturn, Mercury | Cutting Edge - CNET News

NASA photos show Earth from vantage point of Saturn, Mercury | Cutting Edge - CNET News: "Most all of us have seen photographs in which Earth looks like a big, blue marble, but what about a tiny, blue one?
That's basically what you'll see in new, stunning images NASA released on Monday."

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Goodyear replacing its current blimp fleet with zeppelins

Goodyear replacing its current blimp fleet with zeppelins: "The iconic Goodyear blimps are a common sight in the skies over stadiums at sporting events in the US, serving as an aerial billboard and television camera platform to provide aerial views. In 2011, Goodyear announced plans to replace the current fleet of GZ-20 class blimps first introduced in 1969 with three new Zeppelin NT airships. Goodyear says this new design will be longer, faster, and more maneuverable than the current fleet, while also being less expensive to operate"

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Ultimate Adventure Bucket List 2011 -- National Geographic Adventure

Ultimate Adventure Bucket List 2011 -- National Geographic Adventure: "Here they are. The 20 most extreme, hair-raising, legendary adventures on the planet, daunting even for the world's elite athletes. If you've got the mettle, add these to your lifetime to-do list. Not quite ready? Check out the 20 next-best adventures—and start planning. —Kate Siber"

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The Open Championship: Leaderboard

The Open Championship: Leaderboard:

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Honda's Mean Mower hits 130 mph

Honda's Mean Mower hits 130 mph: "Sporting a 1000cc engine borrowed from a Honda VTR Firestorm and wearing all-terrain rubbers, the one-off Mean Mower from Honda UK and its British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) partner, Team Dynamics, just turned grass removal into an extreme sport."

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Hubble finds tiny new moon orbiting Neptune

Hubble finds tiny new moon orbiting Neptune: "The small moon orbits Neptune every 23 hours at a distance of around 65,400 miles (105,250 km). It was discovered almost by accident when Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, extended his analysis of the faint ring-arcs of Neptune beyond the ring system itself, and noticed a small unidentified dot between the orbits of the moons Proteus and Larissa."

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Hyperloop design to be revealed next month

Hyperloop design to be revealed next month: "If like us, you've been eagerly anticipating more details on Elon Musk's proposed Hyperloop high-speed transport system, the wait is almost over. Musk has revealed via Twitter that the initial design will be published on August 12."

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Britain invests £60 million in Skylon spaceplane

Britain invests £60 million in Skylon spaceplane: "The British government announced on Tuesday that it has authorized an investment of £60 million in Reaction Engine’s Skylon spaceplane. The funding boost comes after a successful feasibility test of a core component of the spacecraft’s revolutionary engine managed by the European Space Agency (ESA) last November and will be used to further develop the revolutionary SABRE engine, which is designed to power the Skylon into orbit and back without the need for outside boosters or tanks."

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Steerable paper planes and maple seeds the basis for life-saving, disposable UAVs

Steerable paper planes and maple seeds the basis for life-saving, disposable UAVs: "The term "UAV" generally leads us to think about expensive, high-tech military drones like General Atomics' Predator, but a Robotics team led by Dr. Paul Pounds at Australia's University of Queensland has created a pair of UAVs that are so cheap and easy to manufacture that they'll literally be disposable, single use items. One's basically a high-tech paper plane, while the other follows the form factor of a maple seed with both designed to help save lives in the event of a forest fire."

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