Micro Fuel Cells, and other new tech stuff!

[Jack Ruby]

I will refer JV to this letter from the Mayor of Tall Afar in northern Iraq thanking the US forces:

"In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment,
who have changed the city of Tall? Afar from a ghost town, in which
terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing
with life.

To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of
terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets
for many months.

To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us
restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and
gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and
stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi.
The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our
schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our
streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were
barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every
corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the
city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses
of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order
to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their
young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and
delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry
Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi?s followers
after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the
remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas,
where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and
Avgani finally destroyed them.

I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they
are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The
God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC
Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and
wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and
character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have
accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the
finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly
deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was
clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the
enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the
terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.

God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated
these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the
families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the
families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all
bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their
sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their
souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never
be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that
which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in
every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the
world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.

Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave
Regiment, I haven?t the words to describe the courage of its officers
and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these
legendary heroes and their brave families."

NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall ?Afar, Ninewa, Iraq

[Rookie One.pl]

I always get the impression that people who use such pathos when speaking are not telling the truth.

[Jack Ruby]

When I read it I had the feeling that he was a truly truly grateful man, imagine what he might have seen and survived if he is speaking truthfully, that letter has been around a while, if it was untrue I am sure someone would have picked holes in it already.

I hope his situation continues to improve.

[Trash Can Man]

so let's just have a shoot first ask questions later policy for that country.

Ehh isn't that what's already happening?

for going off topic, let's talk about fuel cells again

I would like to see improvements in Battery cells for electric cars. With all the technology that's available I'm sure we could make batteries last longer than the current ones available today.

[lizardkid]

Whether the war was justified beforehand or not, a stereotypical tyrannical evil was purged.

kinda.

so yeah, fuel cells look pretty awesome, i remember seeing a documentary on this sort of thing, looks like a SWEET alternative.

[Devil_Dog]

OK, so to sum this all up...We need better fuel sells to kill people with!
Sorry, couldn't resist that. And think posatively, if the ozone is deteriorateing, that just makes solar energy more efficient! As to the ice caps, they are melting, have been ever since the last ice age, when they melt enough, another ice age, and again, and again...

Personaly, I'm waiting for the methonal to take off. I want my car running on the same fuel as IRL cars! Maybe cleaner, more efficient...but most important, sounds cool."My car runs on Indy Car Gasoline!"

[tltrude]

Another thing I have been watching is LED light bulbs. You may have see the commercial for that "shake-to-charge" emergency flashlight on TV. Well, it uses a new, brighter type of LED (light emmiting diode) bulb. As you can guess, these bulbs run on very little power and last almost forever! So, now they are putting together 18+ LED bulb clusters to make replacements for incandescent bulbs. These bulbs use from 1 to 3 watts of power, have the brightness of a 20 to 60 watt bulb, and last more than one hundred times longer than an incandescent--10+ years.

[Rookie One.pl]

Wow! How expensive is that? I would love to exchange all my lightbulbs for these if they make 100W equivalents.

[tltrude]

The one above is only about 25W and cost around $40 dollars. They'll pay for themselves in about three years because you'll save on electricity. It will be a couple of years before you see LED light bulbs at building supply stores. Click on the image in my last post to read more about them. Another good thing about them is that they are cool to the touch.

Here is something Philips is working on.



The Chameleon is a lamp shade that changes to match any color you 'show' it... A traditional bulb at the centre of the lamp provides white light above and below the lamp, while an LED ring around this light projects a selected color into the shade, while at the same time preventing the white light from diluting the color being projected. It will match any mood required in an instant. The user simply picks up a piece of fabric or any other colored object, holds it to the sensor on the lamp stand and this color will be projected onto the inside of the shade automatically, changing the lighting mood of a room.

[hogleg]

yea there on stop lights down here. I've seen on big rigs the last couple of years.



Thats all I've done the last 9 years is work with LED's, I built a led light for my disc so I could play golf at night, I attached a led to a micro swith and mounted that on a flat 3.3v battery, wired it under a microscope and mounted it in the center of my disc.
way cool watching that fly 350 feet over a canyon at 1:00 am with that red glow.

[tltrude]

Nice, but is it a computer disc or a frisbie? It would be cool to mount a bunch of white LEDs on a model airplane and fly it at night. UFO!!!

[Mj]

LED Throwies

=)

[tltrude]

Gees, that would get expensive real quick. Add an organic solarcell recharger to each one and they could be mounted to something that floats out to sea!



Yes, that is right. They have invented a non-silicon solarcell! Once fully developed, organic solar cells could revolutionize the power industry. Their flexibility and minimal weight will allow them to be placed on almost anything from tents that would provide power to those inside, to clothing that would power personal electronic devices.

[Jack Ruby]

I like that organic solar cell idea,

I am thinking that say we covered large areas of the planet with it, would that help to slow down global warming as the heat is transformed to electricity, now just this second as I type im wondering do solar cells get their power from heat or the photons energy, do we even receive radiated heat from the sun or is the heat a product of the photons energy, im confusing myself.

How do solar cells work?

[tltrude]

The radiation from the sun is in a wide spectrum, from X-ray to ultraviolet. Visible light (photons) is just part of it. Yes heat (radient heat) does come from the sun, but the ultraviolet light is what will burn your skin if you don't use sun block on the beach. Radient heat just gives you sun stroke (cooks your brain).

You can look up how solarcells work on the internet. But, if you don't undestand how atoms work, you'll give up reading by about the third paragraph. Basically, a solarcell is a battery with no charge. Photons enter the crystalline structure of the cell and knock loose electrons to make the current flow. However, silicon cells are very poor at converting all the light that hits them to electricity--only about 24%. And, they are expensive and laborious to make--they have to grow the crystal, slice it, polish it, coat it, and bake it many times. They are also fairly fragile.

These new organic cells are made with pentacene (nanocrystal) and C60, a form of carbon more popularly known as ?buckyballs,?. They are about 5-10% efficent so far. And, as you can see in the picture, they are flexable. They're also way cheaper because they are made with special printers (kind of like a computer chips) at a fraction of the cost of silicon cells.

I don't think solarcells can stop global warming. But, someday they may end the need for what caused global warming!