October will become the longest month of the year when several countries across the globe will adjust their clocks one hour backward a week from now.
“Typically, clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted one hour backward in autumn,” say experts from the State Metrology Center which is mainly done on the last Sunday of March and on the last Sunday of October.
Sandford Fleming, a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor had proposed worldwide standard time zones.
His gained support of the US government in 1883, and 26 countries signed the time zone agreement in Washington DC in 1884.
A time zone is a region on Earth, more or less bounded by lines of longitude, that has a uniform, legally mandated standard time, usually referred to as the local time.
Time zones are adjusted seasonally into standard and daylight saving(or summer) variants. Daylight saving time zones (or summer time zones) include an offset (typically +1 hour) for daylight saving time. The daylight saving time idea was put forward by US statesman Benjamin Franklin.
Nowadays, 110 out of 192 countries adjust their clocks twice a year.
A big concern on top of urban transportation planner’s mind is how to speed up the traffic: putting more buses on the road will jam the roads even worse and deteriorate the air; building more subway is costly and time consuming. Well, here is an cheaper, greener and fast alternative to lighten their mind up a bit: the straddling bus, first exhibited on the 13th Beijing International High-tech Expo in May this year. In the near future, the model is to be put into pilot use in Beijing’s Mentougou District .
Proposed by Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd, the model looks like a subway or light-rail train bestriding the road. It is 4-4.5 m high with two levels: passengers board on the upper level while other vehicles lower than 2 m can go through under. Powered by electricity and solar energy, the bus can speed up to 60 km/h carrying 1200-1400 passengers at a time without blocking other vehicles’ way. Also it costs about 500 million yuan to build the bus and a 40-km-long path for it, only 10% of building equivalent subway. It is said that the bus can reduce traffic jams by 20-30%.
Here is the presentation by Song Youzhou, chairman of Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd.
“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.
Another strength of straddling bus is its short construction life cycle: only 1 year to build 40 km. Whereas building 40-km subway will take 3 years at best. Also the straddling bus will not need the large parking lot that normal buses demand. It can park at its own stop without affecting the passage of cars. This is what the interior looks like: it has huge skylight that will eliminate passengers’ sense of depression when enter.
There are two parts in building the straddling bus. One is remodeling the road, the other is building station platforms. Two ways to remodel the road: we can go with laying rails on both sides of car lane, which save 30% energy; or we can paint two white lines on both sides and use auto-pilot technology in the bus, which will follow the lines and run stable.
There are also two ways in dealing with station platform. One is to load/unload through the sides; the other is using the built-in ladder so that passengers can go up and to the overpass through the ceiling door.
Straddling bus is completely powered by municipal electricity and solar energy system. In terms of electricity, the setting is called relay direct current electrification. The bus itself is electrical conductor, two rails built on top to allow the charging post to run along with the bus, the next charging post will be on the rails before the earlier one leaves, that is why we call it relay charging. It is new invention, not available yet in other places.
The set here is super capacitor, a device that can charge, discharge and store electricity quickly. The power it stores during the stop can support the bus till the next stop where another round of charging takes place, achieving zero toxic gas throughout the process.
About the ultrasonic waves put forth from the end of the bus, that is to keep those high cars or trucks away from entering the tunnel. Using laser ray to scan, cars get too close to the passage will activate the alarm on the bus end. Inside the bus, there are turning lights that indicate a the bus is intending to make a turn to warn the cars inside. Also radar scanning system is embedded on the walls to warn cars from getting too close to the bus wheels.
Nowadays many big cities have remodeled their traffic signaling system, to prioritize public buses, that is to say when a bus reaches a crossing, red light on the other side of the fork will turn on automatically to give buses the right of way. Our straddling bus can learn from this BRT method. The car can make the turn with the bus if that is the direction it wants to go too; if not, the red light will be on to stop the cars beneath while the bus take the turn.
The bus is 6 m in width and 4-4.5 m high. How will people get off the bus if an accident happens to such a huge bus? Here I introduce the most advanced escaping system in the world. In the case of fire or other emergencies, the escaping door will open automatically. I believe many of you have been on a plane. Planes are equipped with inflated ladder so people can slide down on it in emergency. I put the escaping concept into the straddling bus. It is the fastest way to escape.
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.
Well, everybody living here in Kuwait how hot it is when the government declares the official temperature as 50 deg. A couple of minutes on a bad glass is enough to start a fire, as we saw the Sawaber Complex incident.
In this time, it is very imperative that we manage the power prudently and not waste it on unproductive work.
In order to overcome the power crisis, what the govt authorities have suggested is to reduce the govt work timing to 12 noon. So that reduces the official working hours to 5, including the breaks of all kinds.
What I am trying to emphasize is that to beat the power crisis, the government is not focusing on generating power from the resources which are plentiful and requires minimum efforts to tap, namely SOLAR ENERGY. People talk of having a nuclear power plant, as if it can be built over a year.
We need to concentrate on tapping the solar energy to beat the power crisis. A community power plant may take longer to materialize; hence individual houses can tap this energy to beat the power crisis. In this regards, the govt should form a committee to promote the SOLAR energy to all by giving incentives and facilitating easy import of solar panels that can be incorporated into the homes easily.
Well just to make a start, why don’t we get this small, pocketable, foldable solar charge that can charge your mobiles, iPods, etc.
Japanese firm ambienTec has a smart and fashionable solution. They make the 2W, 5V USB Solar Fold and Solarfan portable chargers SC001P1-01BK which can provide 3 hours of listening time on your ipod (or 3 minutes of mobile phone talk time) for every 10 minutes of sunlight exposure. The 186g Solar Fold has dimensions of 195×69×22(mm) looks like a fan when maximize.
It’s a nice sunny summer day and you’re out at the beach watching nice Japanese babes in their bikinis listing to your ipod. The battery is running out of juice and you have no spares and no recharger – what can you do? Japanese firm ambienTec has a smart and fashionable solution. They make the 2W, 5V USB Solar Fold and Solarfan portable chargers ソーラーフォルド SC001P1-01BK which can provide 3 hours of listening time on your ipod (or 3 minutes of mobile phone talk time) for every 10 minutes of sunlight exposure.
The 186g Solar Fold has dimensions of 195×69×22(mm) looks like a fan when maximized
A senior Iranian cleric has claimed that dolled-up women incite extramarital sex,causing more earthquakes in Iran,a country that straddles several fault lines,newspapers reported on Saturday.Many women who dress inappropriately, cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes, Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Tehran during Friday prayer. “Calamities are the result of peoples deeds”, he was quoted as saying by reformist Aftab-e Yazd newspaper.”We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers.” – Arab Times
Dear Mr. Cleric,
We have been witnessing heavy rains and thunderstorms in Kuwait for the past couple of days. Can you please explain the cause for it and enlighten us?
The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland that has thrown up a six-km (3.7-mile) high plume of ash and disrupted air traffic across northern Europe shows no signs of abating after 40 hours of activity. Located under Iceland’s fifth largest glacier, the volcano has erupted five times since the area was settled in the 9th century. Eyjafjallajokull has a 2.5 km-wide volcanic crater, covered in ice. Fissure-fed lava flows occur on its eastern and western flanks of the so-called stratovolcano, which is built up from alternating layers of ash, lava and rocks ejected by earlier eruptions. When the volcano began erupting in late March it opened a 500-m fissure producing lava fountains along the vent. The ash cloud has been formed through a process called fragmentation which occurs in several stages. First, magma travelling under pressure through underground conduits is broken up into pieces by expanding gases. As pressure decreases closer to the surface, the magma turns into fine volcanic ash which breaks into even smaller particles when it makes contact with glacial ice on the surface of the crater. The fine dust melds with steam rising from the crater to to form a dark, billowing plume. “It’s like a soda bottle when you take the top off,” said Icelandic vulcanologist Armann Hoskuldsson, describing what happens to magma as it travels to the surface.
A Japanese co. called Konarka Technologies has come up with a nice concept of a Solar power charging laptop bag. It can also be adapted to charge multiple portable devices. So next time you go outing, don’t forget this bag.
Twenty seven million flowering plants were planted throughout Dubai in 2009 meaning the Emirate is getting greener every year according to Dubai Municipality a week before the start of IPM DUBAI 2010, the Middle East’s only event dedicated to the horticultural industry.
It is highly commendable that Dubai getting more environmental conscious. GCC is basically dominated by deserts lanscapes and there is urgent need to make it more green, so as to avoid the ’round-the-year’ sandstorms that the residents face. It good that the government is taking the initiative and should also encourage public participation in the ‘go-green’ drive.
Out here in Kuwait, we haven’t such a vision. Probably there is, but nobody knows or cares about it. Nor is there any intitiave to involve the people to get involved in such a movement.
Its high time that something be done for Kuwait to ‘GO-GREEN’.
Every September 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that we don’t have to accept our car-dominated society. (Kuwait ???)
But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to “normal” life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change to benefit pedestrians, cyclists, and other people who do not drive cars.
Let World Carfree Day be a showcase for just how our cities might look like, feel like, and sound like without cars…365 days a year.
As the climate heats up, World Carfree Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and put it on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile.
I wonder how many from Kuwait would not only like the idea, but also follow it in full spirit.
How’d you like a desktop computer that works without any physical keyboard or monitor? That’s what industrial designer Paulina Carlos envisions with her Dell Froot concept PC.
Instead of connecting to a traditional monitor or USB keyboard, the Froot features a pair of projectors – one that casts the keyboard on a tabletop, and the other one that projects the computer screen on the wall. Besides the small projection hump in the middle, the left-hand side contains the ports, and the right has a slot-loading DVD drive.
Paulina conceived the Froot for a Dell sustainable design contest, and if ever produced, its colorful case would be made out of a biodegradable starch-based polymer. And, of course no monitor or keyboard means fewer raw materials, and less junk in the landfill when you eventually move on to your next computer.
A very nice concept. I would love to own one. Anybody else, who wants one, as a test sample?
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