Mini CAT - The Car that runs on Air

Will it be the next big thing?

Tata Motors of India thinks so.

What will the Oil Companies do to stop it?

It is an auto engine that runs on air. That's right; air not gas or diesel or electric but just the air around us. Take a look.

Tata Motors of India has scheduled the Air Car to hit Indian streets by August 2012

The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. For Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons and make the car go.

The Air Car, called the "Mini CAT" could cost around 365,757 rupees in India or $8,177 US.

The Mini CAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis, a body of fiberglass that is glued not welded and powered by compressed air. A Microprocessor is used to control all electrical functions of the car. One tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, turn signals and every other electrical device on the car. Which are not many.

The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.

There are no keys, just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees per 1 00 KM, that's about a tenth the cost of a car running on gas. It's mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car, a factor which makes it a perfect choice for city motorists. The car has a top speed of 1 05 KM per hour or 60 mph and would have a range of around 300 km or 1 85 miles between refuels. Refilling the car will take place at adapted gas stations with special air compressors. A fill up will only take two to three minutes and costs approximately 1 00 rupees and the car will be ready to go another 300 kilometers.

This car can also be filled at home with it's on board compressor. It will take 3-4 hours to refill the tank, but it can be done while you sleep.

Because there is no combustion engine, changing the 1 liter of vegetable oil is only necessary every 50,000 KM or 30,000 miles. Due to its simplicity, there is very little maintenance to be done on this car.

This Air Car almost sounds too good to be true. We'll see in August. 2012

Microsoft Launches Internet Explorer 9

SAN FRANCISCO: Software giant Microsoft has officially released Internet Explorer 9 to the public. Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) will be available for download in 30 languages at beautyoftheweb.com. "It's a really good day for the Web," Microsoft corporate vice president Dean Hachamovitch said.

IE9 is built to make the most of Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7, as well as graphics processing chips that can power videos, games, graphics and other stunning visuals.

The long list of partners that have adapted websites to IE9 includes Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Hulu, and Yahoo!, according to Microsoft.

"We have worked with partners reaching a billion active Internet users," Hachamovitch said. "All of these partners are using IE9 to make a more beautiful Web, starting today."
More than 40 million copies of IE9 have already been downloaded as part of the process leading up to its official release, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft showed off a lean, muscular new Internet Explorer crafted to spotlight slick websites and beat back competition from Firefox and Google in the Web browser arena.
Microsoft director of web services strategy Ari Bixhorn booted up an Apple MacBook Pro laptop running the latest version of Firefox for a side-by-side comparison at a radio station website with rich interactive graphics.

A laptop powered by Windows and using IE9 smoothly zipped through cascading images illustrating top tunes while the opposition slowly worked its way along.

"The Web as we know it is taking a huge step forward today," Bixhorn said.
While Microsoft doesn't charge separately, the browser is included with Windows software and it is in the technology giant's interest to keep users happy and devoted to its products.

"A browser is important to Microsoft because browsing is the top activity people do on their PCs (personal computers)," Hachamovitch said. "We want browsing the Web to be a great experience so people keep choosing Windows to do it."

Windows operating systems are at a core of Microsoft's software empire. The Redmond, Washington-based technology colossus claims more than one billion Windows customers.
Microsoft seems to have hit the mark with IE9, according to analysts.

"The browser is the stage and the websites are the stars of the show," Hachamovitch told AFP during an earlier demonstration.

Once a website is reached, the browser seems to step out of the way and almost vanish to spotlight the content.

IE9 promised to be another hit release for Microsoft, which has seen market successes with Windows 7 operating system and a Kinect motion-sensing controller accessory for Xbox 360 video game consoles.

Open-source browser Firefox had been gnawing away at IE's dominance, but that eased as a new rival arrived in the form of Chrome by Internet titan Google.

Telescope finds Ghosts of the Future

Cambridge, MA: Astronomers using the South Pole Telescope report that they have discovered the most massive galaxy cluster yet seen at a distance of 7 billion light-years. The cluster (designated SPT-CL J0546-5345) weighs in at around 800 trillion Suns, and holds hundreds of galaxies.


An infrared/optical representative-colour image of a massive galaxy cluster located 7 billion light-years from Earth. This cluster weighs as much as 800 trillion Suns. Galaxies with "old" stellar populations, like modern-day elliptical, are circled in yellow; galaxies with "young" stellar populations, like modern-day spirals, are circled in blue. Credit: Infrared Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Brodwin (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) Optical Image: CTIO Blanco 4-m telescope/J. Mohr (LMU Munich)

"This galaxy cluster wins the heavyweight title. It's among the most massive clusters ever found at this distance," said Mark Brodwin, a Smithsonian astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Brodwin is first author on the paper announcing the discovery, which appeared in the Astrophysical Journal.

Redshift measures how light from a distant object has been stretched by the universe's expansion. Located in the southern constellation Pictor (the Painter), the cluster has a redshift of z=1.07. This puts it at a distance of about 7 billion light-years, meaning we see it as it appeared 7 billion years ago, when the universe was half as old as now and our solar system didn't exist yet.

Even at that young age, the cluster was almost as massive as the nearby Coma cluster. Since then, it should have grown about four times larger. If we could see it as it appears today, it would be one of the most massive galaxy clusters in the universe.

"This cluster is full of 'old' galaxies, meaning that it had to come together very early in the universe's history - within the first two billion years," stated Brodwin.

This optical image of the new found galaxy cluster highlights how faint and reddened these galaxies are due to their great distance. The cluster remained hidden until the South Pole Telescope spotted it by looking for distortions in the cosmic microwave background. (Such distortions are called the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.) The blue streak is a satellite passing through the field of view during the timed exposure. Credit: CTIO Blanco 4-m telescope/J. Mohr (LMU Munich)

Galaxy clusters like this can be used to study how dark matter and dark energy influenced the growth of cosmic structures. Long ago, the universe was smaller and more compact, so gravity had a greater influence. It was easier for galaxy clusters to grow, especially in areas that already were denser than their surroundings.

"You could say that the rich get richer, and the dense get denser," quipped Harvard astronomer Robert Kirshner, commenting on the study.

As the universe expanded at an accelerating rate due to dark energy, it grew more diffuse. Dark energy now dominates over the pull of gravity and chokes off the formation of new galaxy clusters.

Brodwin and his colleagues spotted their quarry in the first 200 square degrees of data collected from the new South Pole Telescope. The SPT is currently completing its pioneering millimeter-wave survey of a huge swath of sky covering 2,500 square degrees.

They're hunting for giant galaxy clusters using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect - a small distortion of the cosmic microwave background (a pervasive all-sky glow left over from the Big Bang). Such distortions are created as background radiation passes through a large galaxy cluster.

Astronomers using the South Pole Telescope report that they have discovered the most massive galaxy cluster yet seen at a distance of 7 billion light-years.

Surveying for this effect has significant advantages over other search techniques. It works just as well for very distant clusters as for nearby clusters, which allows astronomers to find very rare, distant, massive clusters. Further, it provides accurate measurements of the masses of these clusters, which are crucial to unraveling the nature of dark energy.

The main goal of the SPT survey is to find a large sample of massive galaxy clusters in order to measure the equation of state of the dark energy, which characterizes cosmic inflation and the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Once this distant cluster was found, the team studied it with the Infrared Array Camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope to pinpoint galaxies within the cluster. Detailed observations of the galaxies' speeds with the Magellan telescopes in Chile proved that the galaxy cluster was a heavyweight.

The team expects to find many more giant galaxy clusters lurking in the distance once the South Pole Telescope survey is completed.

"After many years of effort, these early successes are very exciting. The full SPT survey, to be completed next year, will rewrite the book on the most massive clusters in the early universe," said Brodwin.

Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Google TV to Debut This Month

Google Inc's TV service, debuting this month on Sony Corp and Logitech International SA devices, will include content from Time Warner Inc's HBO, General Electric Co's NBC, Netflix Inc and Twitter Inc.

Google, which first announced the service in May, also will feature TBS, TNT, CNN and the Cartoon Network channels, and an application from the National Basketball Association, according to a blog posting. In addition to Sony and Logitech, Dish Network Corp has said it plans to deliver the service.

"This is just the beginning," Google said on the blog. "Over the next few weeks, you can expect to hear from more sites that are enhancing their Web content for the television."

The companies aim to capitalize on growing demand for content that combines Internet features with television programming. For Google, the world's most popular search engine, the TV service provides a new way to sell advertising, which makes up most of its revenue.

NBC will provide CNBC Real-Time, an application that combines stock information and financial news. HBO will contribute a service called HBO GO, which lets users access shows on-demand. Other Web content partners include the New York Times Co, Pandora Media Inc and Amazon.com Inc's Amazon Video on Demand, which will offer access to more than 75,000 titles.