The bicycle is the undisputed king of human powered speed. However, even the uber-high tech recumbent bicycles suffer from a basic in-effeciency. They are only powered by your legs.
Enter the HyperBike. This monstrous contraption claims that by utilizing legs, arms and torso in an upright stance, the rider can 'swim' along at speeds of 50 mph!
I'm skeptical this things will be agile enough for parks or city street, but on the larger roads were traffic is allowed to travel over 80km/h, this thing would rock! Lean the rider forward a bit and put some carbon fibre fairings around the unit, and full on highway speeds should be quite doable.
Here's to hoping we actually start seeing some of these get made!
Last night was Halloween. A stressful holiday for people who prefer to shun evil. We chose to enjoy the fun side of the evening. My daughter, dressed up as a princess (with bright purple hair), and I went out for about 45 minutes and hauled in quite a pile of loot!. My son, who prefers the familiar (we just moved into the city), dressed up as SpiderMan (I believe he is one of the few SuperHeros whose super powers are not specifically lethal) and handed out candy to the kids coming to our house. We all had fun.
There are definetly things about the holiday that people take too far. Like trying to out do the neighbour in making your house look as scary / evil as possible. The vanalism is also really lame - grow up people.
Anyway, this morning, I find this article, which helps explain how we got to where we are.
Warning: While not being overtly offensive, it's not overly kid friendly.
Summary: An Irish nerd who really likes his Guiness beer writes a snarky history of how we went from pagans in northern Europe celebrating their New Year to people handing out candy to kids in costumes.