You are hereArchive - Mar 4, 2009
Archive - Mar 4, 2009
MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team unveils sleek 90-mph car, will compete in World Solar Challenge in Australia
(quote)
MIT's Solar Electric Vehicle Team, the oldest such student team in the country, has just finished construction of its latest high-tech car and unveiled it to the public this Friday. "It drives beautifully," said George Hansel, a freshman physics major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the team. "It's fun to drive and quite a spectacle." With six square meters of monocrystalline silicon solar cells and improved electronic systems and design, the car can run all day on a sunny day at a steady cruising speed of 55 mph. The car will be competing in October in the World Solar Challenge race across Australia, and in preparation for that the team plans to drive the car across the United States over the summer. About a dozen team members are expected to go to Australia for the race, although only four will drive the solar car in the competition.
Sea gypsies: the Samah who live in the Sulawesi Sea off Malaysia's state of Sabah
(quote)
(Above) Two boys from a community commonly known as sea gypsies paddle their boat close to their home.
The Samah are an indigenous ethnic group from Malaysia and the Philippines who live a sea-based lifestyle in the Sulawesi Sea off Malaysia's state of Sabah.
The Sabah are one of a number of groups collectively known as Bajau, or sea gypsies.
Although sea gypsies are Muslims, they also revere the gods of the sea and make offerings when a large catch is brought in.
Originally the sea gypsies lived a nomadic lifestyle in boats. Nowadays most live in small communities, building houses on stilts in the coastal shallows without fresh water or electricity.
(unquote) read more »