The annual Solar Car Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway is underway with a record number of teams participating.
This year 36 teams are competing in the four-day competition at TMS, which makes the event the largest Solar Car Challenge in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1905 the Spanish writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez described the horrible conditions of day laborers in the vineyards outside Jerez. Barely paid, almost starving, and sleeping on hay, the day laborers in Blasco Ibáñez’s novel, La Bodega, stumble through life as “cadavers, with twisted spines and dry limbs, deformed and clumsy.”
http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/david-mcdermott-hughes-jobless-utopia
If you think pretending to rate dogs on the Internet while actually declaring that they all deserve an A+ is a funny way to earn money, well, creator Matt Nelson is right there with you.
A Buddha head entwined within the roots of a tree is seen in the ruins of the ancient city of Ayutthaya, Thailand July 14, 2016. Picture taken July 14, 2016. REUTERS/Jorge Silva – RTST1Z1
A collection of images of unusual, intriguing, and beautiful trees and forests around the world, from Madagascar to Poland, Scotland to Hong Kong, the United States, and more.
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/07/an-appreciation-of-trees/534153/
I really enjoyed Cory Doctorow’s new Walkaway. I think it goes a step beyond any of his previous books. It’s up there with, say, Stross’s Accelerando, Sterling’s Holy Fire, Gibson’s Neuromancer, and my Software. In the cyberpunk pantheon.
http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2017/07/19/cory-doctorows-walkaway/
Who says solar panel installations can’t be adorable? The Panda Power Plant in Datong, China is shaped like the country’s treasured animal – and the first phase offers 50 megawatts (MW) of clean energy. Panda Green Energy installed the array under an agreement with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to advocate for renewable energy. The first phase of the giant panda solar station was just connected to the grid.
https://inhabitat.com/worlds-cutest-solar-farm-in-china-is-shaped-like-a-panda/
The next couple of years promise to be quite interesting for electric cars.
A minimum of six new models are expected in that time period, all promising ranges of 200 miles or more—which until a few months ago had been the exclusive province of Tesla Motors.
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1109129_six-new-electric-cars-coming-for-2018-and-2019
Photographer Allison Joyce has spent the past two and a half years following a group of girls in Bangladesh who are learning how to surf. The girls, who usually work on the beach selling water, snacks, and homemade jewelry to support their families, have been learning from a local surfer, Rashed Alam, who started teaching surfing as a way to give back to children. Alam and his wife say they believe surfing will empower the girls and give them an outlet to become who they are — kids.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/katebubacz/these-photos-of-surfer-girls-in-bangladesh-will-bring-you-pu?utm_term=.ppenYbbRqN#.reG8Axxr01
SIDNEY — A birder and wildlife photographer who’s been documenting the strange case of a baby red-tailed hawk being raised by eagles says the adopted little bird is acting like its eagle “siblings” and devouring fish.
Hubert, Etc was too old to be at that Communist party.
After watching the breakdown of modern society, Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie Edmund Eli Wiley Marvin Ellis Espinoza—known to his friends as Hubert, Etc
https://www.tor.com/2017/03/20/excerpts-cory-doctorow-walkaway-chapter-1/
NASA has taken the next step in its bold mission to protect the planet from potentially lethal asteroids.
Known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the mission involves firing a fridge-sized projectile at nine times the speed of a bullet at an incoming asteroid.