Eclipse Shadow Cone Over Patagonia

Eclipse Shadow Cone Over Patagonia
Credit & Copyright: Daniel Fischer (Cosmic Mirror)

Explanation: Sometimes, during a total eclipse of the Sun, a strange shadow of darkness can be seen stretching off into the distance. Called shadow cones, they are visible because the Earth's atmosphere is not completely transparent, scattering sunlight and hence appearing blue during the day. Shadow cones are particularly dramatic for eclipses near the horizon, as geometry creates a long corridor of sun-blocked air. Visible above is a shadow cone caught during a sunset total solar eclipse visible last month from Patagonia, Argentina. The eclipsed Sun itself still appears bright around the edges of the Moon because of light from the surrounding corona. A few minutes later, the Moon began to move away from the Sun as both set behind distant Andes mountains.

China's '3D Fast Bus' Straddles the Road So Cars Can Drive Under

Photos: Chinanews

Too Expensive to Go Under? Go Over...
What if there was a way to get most of the benefits of a subway, but without the costs of digging up all those tunnels? The Chinese company Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co. thinks it might be able to do just that with a concept it calls the 3D Fast Bus (which has also been called the straddling bus), and kind of giant bus/train that straddles the street and allows cars to drive right under it. This means that it isn't slowed down by traffic and it doesn't add to traffic either. Read on for more details and a video showing a rendering of the 3D Fast Bus in action.

The presenter in this video is Song Youzhou, chairman of Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., the company that is proposing the 3D Fast Bus. Chinahush has a translation of what is said at the bottom of this post. Here are some highlights:

What you can see from the video is traffic jams, what you can hear is noise, and there is also invisible air pollution. At present, there are mainly 4 types of public transits in China: subway, light-rail train, BRT, and normal bus. They have advantages and disadvantages, for example, subway costs a lot and takes long time to build; BRT takes up road spaces and produces noises as well as pollution to the air. How to develop environmental-friendly public transportation? Straddling bus provides a solution. Let's watch a demonstration.

The straddling bus combines the advantages of BRT, it is also a substitution for BRT and subway in the future. As you all know, the majority vehicle on the road is car, the shortest vehicle is also car. Normally our overpass is 4.5-5.5 m high. The highlight innovation of straddling bus is that it runs above car and under overpass. Its biggest strength is saving road spaces, efficient and high in capacity. It can reduce up to 25-30% traffic jams on main routes. Running at an average 40 km/h, it can take 1200 people at a time, which means 300 passengers per cart. [...]

The bus can save up to 860 ton of fuel per year, reducing 2,640 ton of carbon emission. Presently we have passed the first stage demonstration and will get through all of the technical invalidation by the end of August. Beijing's Mentougou District is carrying out a eco-community project, it has already planned out 186 km for our straddling bus. Construction will begin at year end.

Compromise Between BRT and Subway
It's certainly a very interesting idea. Now we'll have to see if it can be pulled off without too many cost overruns and technical problems (though we might never know, China isn't exactly transparent about that stuff). Most cities would probably still be better off with a BRT, but in places where land is at such a high premium that you can't spare extra lanes for buses, and where it would just be too expensive and take too long to build a subway, this type of technology might be a good compromise.

Via Chinahush, Engadget

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Good news for the car drivers. This will be an easy target for you!!

DIY Electroluminescent Bike is Perfect Project for Paranoid Pedaler

A few other bikes-with-beaucoup-lights we like include a highly logical wind-powered light, the self-powered laser concept that lights up a circle around the bike and rider so cars know not to cut too close, and of course the obxoniously bright bike that is wrapped in reflective tape so it looks black during the day but like a thing from another solar system at night.

Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

More on Bike Safety
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Islands of Garbage Filling China's Three Gorges Dam

Image via China Daily

Torrential rain in China has caused extreme flooding, affecting at least 134 million people in 28 provinces. But many more could be impacted due to another major issue caused by the rain. Massive islands of trash are threatening the Three Gorges Dam area, with some patches so thick people can actually walk on it. Nearly 3,000 tons of garbage is being collected daily from the dam, but it might prove to be too much for limited equipment and workers.

According to China Daily, the amount of garbage in the river has been decreasing in the last few years, but the downpour brought loads of it washing into the Yangtze River, including everything from domestic garbage to plastic to tree branches. The mess started with a layer nearly two feet thick and covering about half a million square feet began to form at the front of the dam in July as the rainy season began. The recent rainstorms have caused much more junk to pile up.

"The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the miter gate of the Three Gorges Dam," Chen Lei, director of the key water project department under the China Three Gorges Corporation, told China Daily. "Such a large amount of debris could damage the propellers and bottoms of passing boats," he said. "The decaying garbage could also harm the scenery and the water quality."

WATCH VIDEO: G Word Shorts: Three Gorges Dam

With over 150 million people living near the dam and upstream, many will be affected as only a handful of boats are able to help with clean up and most people are simply adding to the problem by dumping household garbage directly into the river. On a average year, the China Three Gorges Corporation spends around $1.48 million to clean up floating waste that gathers at the dam, the world's largest hydropower project that environmentalists expected for years to be a problem in terms of sewage and industrial pollution backing up, along with other ecosystem issues. It looks like this year could be much more expensive -- and much more problematic considering most efforts will not be focused on the imperiled dam but on the 9.61 million people who have been evacuated so far, the 875,000 homes have been destroyed, and 22 million acres (8.76 million hectares) of crops ruined.

Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

More on China's River Pollution
What's It Feel Like to Swim the Yantze? Big River Man Shares His Story (Interview)
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birth dogs

Hello you lovely lot

and another day has come :) and it is already far over, and I feel it is time for me for a nap. LOL

I was preparing breakfasts this morning, half past 6, and afterwards, when I finally was home again, I did enjoy the last piece of the home made applepie -sigh- where did that go? lol.

Now all the official work is done and it is time for some relaxation, but not before I dump the cat into your mailboxes.

Have a wonderful day you all, take care and til next Cat
TT f N

Hallo allemaal

Zo, de dag is alweer ver om, ik heb alles gedaan wat ik moest doen, dus is het nu tijd voor wat rust in de tent, en ik denk er sterk over even een klein tukkie op de bank te doen. Ja, dat moet kunnen he, ik doe dat eigenlijk nooit, maar vandaag.. ach waarom niet?

Het was nog geen 7 uur vanmorgen en toen had ik al 50 broodjes gesmeerd, ;) eenmaal weer thuis alles gedaan wat ik moest doen, dus... nu is het goed rusten.
Tot de volgende Kat!

lionfish

this is art!!

A venomous lionfish breaks into a huge ball of swirling baitfish.

About phone calls and cats

Goede middag allemaal.

De dag schiet alweer aardig op, het is prachtig zonnig weer hier en ik heb een hoop dingen gedaan, een paar die echt MOESTEN (dus een opluchting dat ze gedaan zijn), en een paar die gewoon moesten (huishouding,haha).
Kortom, de dag is weer niet spectaculair, maar wel heerlijk. Geen vervelende teelfoontjes of opdrachten van wie dan ook :) haaaa, houden zo!

Ik wens jullie ook een fijne dag, zonder vervelende opdrachten!

Tot de volgende Kat
---------

Good afternoon lovely world

I hope you have a wonderful day, just like mine is. I did a few things that were a HAVE TO DO, so a relieve now they're finally done, and a few things that were a must, hmm household, argh.. :)

In short, the day is nice and not spectacular, and so is the weather as well. No orders from bring me this or that, ha! that's the way it should be.

I wish you a nice (rest of) the day, and we meet with next cat again
TT f N