technology

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"Tourist Trophy eXtreme Grand Prix". TTXGP is not a motorcycle race but the motorcycle race: the first, the most famous, and by far the deadliest. So it's all the more surprising that in the week before the race, a dark horse emerges, freaking out all the factory teams. The fastest bike in the TTXGP prelims - two qualifying runs around the island - turns out to be from Team Agni, a total unknown, a mere privateer. Millions of American research-and-development dollars find themselves chasing the tail of a no-money ratbike engineered in India. Cedric Lynch’s first electrical motor was made from flattened soup cans. His latest powered the Team AGNI machine to a historic TTXGP victory around the famous Isle of Man Mountain Course. Born in December 1955, Cedric Lynch developed a fascination with anything electrical or mechanical which turned into a life obsession.

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Shocking gigantic sight of ocean debris is found in the Pacific. The Texas-sized Pacific Ocean garbage patch is a vortex formed by ocean currents & collects human-produced trash. Plastic sea trash doesn't biodegrade and often floats at the surface. Bottlecaps, bags and wrappers that end up in the ocean from the wind or through overflowing sewage systems can then drift thousands of miles. "Seeing that influence just floating out here in the middle of nowhere makes our power painfully obvious, and the consequences of the industrial age plain." Plastics have entangled birds and turned up in the bellies of fish, and one paper cited by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates 100,000 marine mammals die trash-related deaths each year.  read more »

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*update*
Moon trees are trees grown from 500 seeds taken into orbit around the Moon by Stuart Roosa, the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.

July 20, 1969 saw the first human footsteps on the moon. John F. Kennedy remarked, "we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard." Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, after he snapped the historic Earthrise photo on December 1968, said, "we came all this way to explore the moon and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth." Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper, took with him tree seeds from a Loblolly Pine, Sycamore, Sweet Gum, Redwood, and Douglas Fir. After Roosa's return to Earth, the original seeds were germinated by the U.S. Forest Service and the result was "moon trees." Moon trees now grow in many places. A Moon Sycamore also shades Roosa's grave at Arlington National Cemetery.  read more »

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It is in 1752, Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment in connection with electricity charged clouds. He flew a homemade kite during a thunderstorm. The kite was made of a silk cloth mounted on a wooden cross, with about one foot of iron wire protruding above the kite. A key was tied to the end of metal string connected with the kite and the other end of the key was tied to a silken ribbon which Benjamin held while flying the kite. A bolt of lightning struck the kite wire and traveled down to the key causing a spark. This proved that lightning is electricity from charged clouds that can be brought to earth. There was a time when high-rise buildings were destroyed quite frequently by lightning. Benjamin Franklin invented lightning rod for the safety of buildings.

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An F/A-18F Super Hornet hits the speed of sound. As the plane pushes air away, the temperature drops and water vapor in the air forms a ring cloud around it.

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Photos courtesy of Christopher Pasatieri / Reuters

Original Source: Reuters, Time, and F-18 SUPER HORNET BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER

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*update* 2019
Street cleaning cost doubled in 5 years from $33.4 million (2012-2013), to $65.4 million in the current 2017-2018 budget.

4,200 foot long main suspension span
clearance above high water averages 220 feet (67 m)
2 towers rise 746 feet (191 feet taller than the Washington Monument)
length: 8,980ft (2,737m), or 1.7mi (2.7 km)
Width: 90ft (27.4m), 6 lanes, pedestrians and bicycles
opening in 1937, then both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world

The iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, turned 72 years old on Wednesday. The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beautiful, and most photographed, bridges in the world. Its 4,200 foot long main suspension span was a world record that stood for 27 years. It is still the second longest in the United States after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which links Staten Island to Brooklyn in New York. The bridge's two towers rise 746 feet making them 191 feet taller than the Washington Monument.  read more »