MEDOLOGY

• Ripshaw EV2 is the tank that offers luxury
• Glowing paper may be way forwards for flexible electronics
• James Cameron gives his wife giant solar sun flowers
• Chinese Businessman Spends £100 Million To Make His Company Look Like Star Trek's Enterprise
• Cow Poo-Powered Bus Breaks Speed Record

Ripshaw EV2 is the tank that offers luxury The Peacemaker that was seen in the latest blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road was a modified version of the Ripsaw off the road vehicle from Howe and Howe Technologies in Maine USA. The difference being that the vehicle in the movie featured the body of a car on top of it and the military version comes open-topped. The company has now revealed a new enclosed version of the Ripshaw EV2 and they have described it as being a high end luxury super tank. [Image Courtesy of Ripsaw] There isn't much available about the specs of the Ripshaw EV2 and this is down to the fact that the vehicle can be customised by the buyer. The vehicle is made specifically to the specs of the buyer and this is just one of the ways that the tank is a luxury. It's not every day that you can have a tank made to your own requirements. [Image Courtesy of Ripsaw] What we do know about the Ripshaw EV2 is that is comes with a power winch, has gull wing doors, 12 inches of suspension travel, a light bar that is high intensity and a diesel engine offering 600 horsepower and it's the fastest dual-tracked vehicle. It also comes with a cabin that would right at home in a Batman movie. [Image Courtesy of Ripsaw] The Ripsaw EV2 is going to be made available in a limited edition and each of the vehicles will take around six months to build. There is no price tag on the vehicle but it is expected to be many hundreds of thousands depending on how luxurious you high performance you want it. [Image Courtesy of Ripsaw] Via [Ripsaw]

Glowing paper may be way forwards for flexible electronics Bendable displays on smartphones are said to be the next big thing from companies such as LG and Samsung. Both companies have been talking about the displays for years but the reality is that they have to rely on components internally that are not flexible. Now it is looking as though universities in China could be about to solve this issue. They have come up with a first, light emitting glowing paper that is transparent and flexible. [Image Courtesy of ExtremeTech] The majority of attempts at making electronics that are flexible have relied on petrochemicals. However the materials that the scientists at the universities made shows a lot of promise as it is made from flour, wood and tiny biocompatible quantum dots. The process is termed suction-filtration and it is said to have virtually no impact on the environment. Quantum dots is a term to describe any crystalline semiconductor small enough to show quantum effects. They may be used in computing, biological research, photodetection technology and light generation. The very tiny semiconducting crystals in the glowing paper have been made from selenium and zinc and this means that it will not harm the environment after the material has been disposed of. At the moment electronics on the market need to be recycled properly so as not to contaminate the environment. [Image Courtesy of ExtremeTech] The nanocellulose paper glows when it has been kept at room temperature and the scientists say that the paper can be rolled and unrolled for many times and it doesn't tear or crack. When the paper is in the sunlight it is completely transparent and the scientists believe that it could be turned into a flexible display that behaves like paper and feels like it. For now it is a work in progress as the glowing paper would have to be capable of showing an image instead of a single colour if it is to be used in technology. However the scientists have shown that it is possible to come up with a material that has the properties to be turned into a flexible electronic component with no toxic chemicals in sight. Via [ExtremeTech]

James Cameron gives his wife giant solar sun flowers While the majority of men give their wives chocolates and flowers as gifts, James Cameron is the exception as he has given his wife five giant solar sun flowers as a gift and they will be powering her sustainable SoCal school. Well technically they are actually flowers, aren't they? [Image Courtesy of Stefanie Keenan] Cameron presented the five photovoltaic sun flowers for the MUSE School grounds in southern California. The flowers have been developed over a period of three years and will be a great step forward for the sustainable school. The MUSE School nurtures environmentally responsible education and the solar sun flowers were given to Suzy Amis Cameron on the annual gala of the school. Cameron said that it was vitally important to show children just how important the relationship is with the planet. [Image Courtesy of Stefanie Keenan] Suzy Cameron was said to be very impressed with the gift and it was the best bouquet of flowers that she had ever received. James Cameron designed the solar sun flowers himself. They have 14 solar panels which represent the petals and they have been designed so that they move to face the sun, this is in the same way as a real flower does in order to get the maximum solar power every day. The sun flowers will offset the power usage of the site by around 75% to 90%. Cameron has made the solar powered sun flowers open source and will be making the plans for them available online so that other people can make their own. Via [Inhabitots]

Chinese Businessman Spends £100 Million To Make His Company Look Like Star Trek's Enterprise Do you sometimes look around your office thinking that some changes in  it would be a good idea? That's probably what Liu Dejian was thinking, except he took things to a whole new level. The Chinese businessman, founder of NetDragon Websoft and huge fan of "Star Trek" took his passion for science fiction to the extreme by designing the company's headquarters in the shape of the famous USS Enterprise, the spaceship in Star Trek. The galactic office building is located in the coastal city of Changle in China's southeast Fujian province, and was built with the legal permission of the american media company "CBS", which owns the rights to "Star Trek". "That was their first time dealing with issue like this and at first they thought that it was a joke," the company informed The Wall Street Journal. "They realized somebody in China actually did want to work out a building modeled on the USS Enterprise only after we sent the relevant legal documents." The Enterprise replica cost about one billion yuan (US $ 490 million) and has the size equivalent to three football fields. Liu, 43, was a pioneer in the video game industry in China and currently holds the 320th position in the list of the richest businessmen in the country, prepared by "Forbes" magazine. With its characteristic oval shape with rear turbines, the ship has popped up on screen since the first season of the "Star Trek" series in the mid-60s. The popularity of the Enterprise is so great that the US space agency (NASA) has decided to baptize their first ship with the same name, which traveled into space in 1977. Source: The Wall Street Journal

Cow Poo-Powered Bus Breaks Speed Record A bus powered by cow poop recently hit a speed record in the UK. Powered by biomethane, the Bus Hound reached a top speed of 123 km/h on Bedford's Millbrook Proving Ground, the fastest speed ever recorded even by a conventional bus. According to the BBC, the Bus Hound which operates speed-limited to 90km/h within the city of Reading in southeast England, had its mechanical speed limiter removed in order to reach it's top speed. The engineer responsible for the project, John Bickerton, states that the company broke the record to prove the quality and capacity of buses running on biomethane. "We wanted to get the image of bus transport away from being dirty, smelly, and slow. We're modern, fast, and at the cutting edge of innovation," Bickerton told BBC. "It was an impressive sight as it swept by on the track. It sounded like a Vulcan bomber – the aerodynamics aren't designed for going 80mph." The Bus Hound, named after the British Bloodhound supersonic car, uses compressed natural gas created from cow dung through a process called anaerobic digestion. The gas is liquefied and stored in tanks on the bus roof. Another group of researchers are also working on an experimental bus powered by the feces of 32,000 local residents in the city of Bristol, England. Known as Bio-Bus, the vehicle uses pretty much the same technology as the Bus Hound, transforming the process of bacteria digestion of the feces into fuel. According to the researchers, a human poop gas tank guarantees 300km of autonomy for the bus. Images courtesy of Reading Buses Source: BBC