MDI releases the concept car AirPOD

MDI, the company created by the French engineer Guy Nègre, has releasedtoday a new vehicle to be "powered by compressed air", the AirPOD, aname that tries to associate the car with one of our days icon, theiPod, from Apple. As well as the MP3 device, MDI's AirPOD is compactand has an original design. We just can't say it is exactly elegant orbeautiful, especially considering it should be a car.



Besidesthe compressed air engine, the AirPOD has another unusual feature: ajoystick instead of a steering wheel. All controls, as the ones inVenturi Volage, are "by wire", with no mechanical connection amongcomponents.

Considering it is a 2.07 m long, 1.60 m wide and1.74 m tall covered car (it looks like a trike, but it has two hiddenwheels in the front end) with room for four people (three adults andone child), it had to save space for its passengers. Direction is givenby different speeds in each of the rear wheels, another similarity withVolage.

Very light (only 220 kg for the passenger version), itcan have its 175 l air tank recharged in a mere 1.5 minute (at 350bar!) and is able to run up to 220 km, with a top speed of 70 km/h forpeople with a driving license.

In France, there are vehiclesthat can be driven by children and people with no driving licenses inregular city traffic. For these people, AirPOD's top speed is limitedto 45 km/h.





MDIdeclares AirPOD will be the first car to be series-produced, by the endof the first quarter of 2009. It will join three other vehicles:OneFlowAIR, a convertible, MiniFlowAIR, a small city car a littlebigger than AirPOD and CityFlowAIR, a mid-sized vehicle able to carrysix people. Prices are said to be incredibly low when compared tosimilar sized vehicles, especially if they are electric.









Source: MDI

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TED Talks

This week on TED.com, listen to historian Doris Kearns Goodwinas she tells stories of American presidents. Studying the people who'veheld this critical job, she finds stories of decision-making, resolve,humor and great character -- and she shares lessons that have meaningfor all of us, in the US and around the world, in moments of crisis. Steven Johnson talks about the wisdom of self-healing systems like the Web and the city, and John Markoff talks about a few great tech stories that didn't make the front page but should've. James "AudioPoet" Burchfield spins up some tongue-twisting turntablism using only his vocal cords, and in a much-discussed TEDTalk, game designer David Perry asks if we've reached the point where video games are more satisfying than real life.

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Today is the Day - Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos

This evening, together with some very good friends, we are having a Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos.

• Aszú: This is the wine which made Tokaj world famous and is proudly cited in the Hungarian national anthem. The original meaning of the Hungarian word aszú was "dried", but the term aszú came to be associated with the type of wine made with botrytised (i.e. "nobly" rotten) grapes. The process of making Aszú wine is as follows:
  • Aszú berries are individually picked, than collected in huge vatsand trampled into the consistency of paste (known as aszú dough).
  • Must is poured on the aszú dough and left for 24-48 hours, stirred occasionally.
  • The wine is racked off into wooden casks or vats where fermentationis completed and the aszú wine is to mature. The casks are stored in acool environment, and are not tightly closed, so a slow fermentationprocess continues in the cask, usually for several years.

The concentration of aszú was traditionally defined by the number of puttony of dough added to a Gönc cask (136 liter barrel) of must.^[3] Nowadays the puttony number is based on the content of sugar and sugar-free extract in the mature wine. Aszú ranges from 3 puttonyos to 6 puttonyos, with a further category called Aszú-Eszencia representing wines above 6 puttonyos.Unlike most other wines, alcohol content of aszú typically runs higherthan 14%. Annual production of aszú is less than one percent of theregion's total output.

History

It is not known for how long vines have been grown on the volcanic soil of the fork of the rivers Bodrog and Hernád. This predates the settlement of the Magyar tribes to the region.^[3].According to legend the first aszú was made by Laczkó Máté Szepsi in1630. However, mention of wine made from aszú grapes had alreadyappeared in the Nomenklatura of Fabricius Balázs Sziksai whichwas completed in 1576. A recently discovered inventory of aszú predatesthis reference by five years.

Tokaji wine became the subject of the world's first appellation control, established several decades before Port wine, and over 120 years before the classification of Bordeaux.Vineyard classification began in 1730 with vineyards being classifiedinto 3 categories depending on the soil, sun exposure and potential todevelop noble rot, botritys cinerea, first class, second class andthird class wines. A royal decree in 1757 established a closedproduction district in Tokaj. The classification system was completedby the national censuses of 1765 and 1772.

In 1920, following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a small part of the Tokaj wine region (approx. 1.75 km²) became part of Czechoslovakia, while the rest became part of the Republic of Hungary. After World War II,when Hungary became a Soviet-influenced state, Tokaji productioncontinued with as many as 6000 small producers, but the bottling anddistribution were monopolized by the state-owned organization. Sincethe collapse of the communist regimes in 1990, a number of independentwineries have been established in the Tokaj-Hegyalja region. Astate-owned producer continues to exist and handles approximately 20%of the overall production.

Famous consumers of Tokaji

In 1703, Francis Rákóczi II, Prince of Transylvania, gave King Louis XIV of Francefrom his Tokaj estate Tokaji wines as a gift. The Tokaji wine wasserved at the French Royal court at Versailles, where it became knownas Tokay. Delighted with the precious beverage, Louis XV of France was offering a glas of Tokaji to Madame de Pompadourentitled "Wine of Kings, King of Wines" ("Vinum Regnum, Rex Vinorum").This famous sentence is used to this day as a marketing device forTokaji wines.

Emperor Franz Josef had a tradition of sending Queen Victoriaas a gift Tokaji Aszú wine every year on her birthday, twelve bottlesfor each year of her age. By her eighty-first birthday (1900), thistotalled an impressive 972 bottles.

Tokaji wine has received accolades from numerous great writers and composers including Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert and Goethe. The composer Joseph Haydn'sfavorite wine was Tokaji. Besides Louis XIV, several other Europeanmonarchs are known to have been keen consumers of the wine. Louis XVand Frederick the Great tried to outdo one another when they treated guests like Voltaire with Tokaji. Napoleon III, the last Emperor of the French, ordered 30–40 barrels of Tokaji at the French Royal Court every year. Gustav III, King of Sweden, loved Tokaji. In Russia, customers included Peter the Great and Empress Elizabeth of Russia. A newspaper account of the 1933 wedding of Polish president Ignacy Mościckinotes that toasts were made with 250-year-old wines, and goes on to say"The wine, if good, could only have been Essence of Tokay, and thecenturies-old friendship between Poland and Hungary would seem tosupport this conclusion."^{[citation needed]}

Read more about this incredible wine.

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Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

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Greg Palast on Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of the 2008 Election

BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast travels to New Mexico,Michigan and Colorado to investigate how both Democrats and Republicansare accusing each other of trying to steal the election. Palast alsodiscusses his new comic book Steal Back Your Vote, co-written with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Democracy Now!
http://realmailer.real.com/realmailer/form.html?lang=&cd=email&clipUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fplay.rbn.com%2F%3Furl%3Ddemnow%2Fdemnow%2Fdemand%2F2008%2Foct%2Fvideo%2FdnB20081009a.rm%26proto%3Drtsp%26start%3D10%3A41&clipTitle=Democracy%20Now

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Greg Palast on Vote Rigging and Suppression Ahead of the 2008 Election

BBC investigative journalist Greg Palast travels to New Mexico,Michigan and Colorado to investigate how both Democrats and Republicansare accusing each other of trying to steal the election. Palast alsodiscusses his new comic book Steal Back Your Vote, co-written with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Democracy Now!

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Le Nobel de littérature à Le Clézio, "explorateur de l'humanité"

La Depeche

Olivier Laban-Mattei AFP

L'écrivain français Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio a reçu jeudi laconsécration du Nobel de littérature pour une oeuvre dominée par lesthèmes du voyage, de l'exil et de la nostalgie des mondes primitifs.

L'Académiesuédoise" a expliqué dans ses attendus avoir récompensé avec Le Clézio"l'écrivain de la rupture, de l'aventure poétique et de l'extasesensuelle, l'explorateur d'une humanité au-delà et en-dessous de lacivilisation régnante".

Le Clézio, 68 ans, était considéré depuisdes années comme un lauréat potentiel et son nom circulait avecinsistance cette fois-ci dans les cercles littéraires suédois.

L'Académiesuédoise n'a pas donné d'autres raisons à son choix mais il est évidentque l'auteur de "Désert" avait de nombreux appuis parmi desacadémiciens sensibles à son idéalisme et ses critiques de lacivilisation matérialiste.

Connu en Suède où plusieurs de sesromans sont traduits, J.M.G. Le Clézio avait reçu en juin dernier leprix littéraire suédois Stig Dagerman qui lui sera remis le 25 octobreà Stockholm. Le romancier refera le voyage le 10 décembre pour venirchercher son Nobel.

"Je suis très ému et très touché", a-t-il ditdans une interview en français à la radio publique suédoise. "C'est ungrand honneur pour moi", a-t-il ajouté.

Les derniers lauréatsfrançais sont l'écrivain d'origine chinoise Gao Xingjian en 2000 etClaude Simon, grande figure du Nouveau roman, en 1985.

Né le 13avril 1940 à Nice, dans le sud de la France, d'une famille émigrée àl'Ile Maurice au 18e siècle, Jean-Marie Le Clézio est considéré commeun des maîtres de la littérature francophone contemporaine. Sonécriture est classique, simple mais raffinée, colorée.

Il a reçu entre autres le prix Renaudot en 1963 pour son ouvrage "Le procès-verbal". Il était alors âgé de 23 ans.

Influencéau début par le nouveau roman, Le Clézio va évoluer vers unelittérature plus spirituelle avec une attirance pour les thèmes duparadis perdu.

"Le point central de l'oeuvre de l'écrivain sedéplace de plus en plus en direction d'une exploration du monde del'enfance et de sa propre histoire familiale", note l'Académie dans soncommuniqué.

Il évoque notamment la figure de son père, un médecinde brousse anglais, dans l'Africain (2004). Son ouvrage précédent,Révolution (2003), traitait des grands thèmes de son oeuvre, l'exil, leconflit des cultures et les ruptures de la jeunesse.

Le romanciera beaucoup voyagé depuis sa jeunesse, Etats-Unis, Thaïlande en tant quecoopérant, Mexique et a été employé dans les années 70 par l'Institutd'Amérique latine en Amérique centrale.

J.M.G Le Clézio anotamment écrit "La fièvre", "L'extase matérielle", "Terra amata", "Lelivre des fuites", "La guerre", "Désert" (peut-être son chef d'oeuvre),"Le chercheur d'or", "Onitsha", "Etoile errante", "Le poisson d'or","Révolutions", "Ourania" et, en 2008, "Ritournelle de la faim".

Mariéet père de deux filles, il vit à Albuquerque dans l'Ouest desEtats-Unis mais vient souvent à Nice et dans sa maison bretonne de labaie de Douarnenez.

Ce nomade n'est pas un ermite. Il estnotamment membre du jury d'un des prix littéraires les plus célèbres enFrance, le Renaudot.

En couronnant Le Clézio, le Nobel delittérature a confirmé sa prédilection pour la littérature européenne.Au cours des 20 dernières années, les écrivains européens dominentlargement et c'est à la romancière britannique Doris Lessing que leprix avait été décerné l'année dernière.

Le Clézio recevra un chèque de 10 millions de couronnes suédoises (1,02 million d'euros).

Deuxautres Français ont reçu cette année un Nobel, les chercheurs LucMontagnier et Françoise Barré-Sinoussi en médecine pour leursrecherches sur le virus du sida.

1. Le site officiel de l'académie Nobel

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Copy Paste Character

Two weeks ago we (me and Konst & Teknik) launched copypastecharacter.com—asite to make it dead easy to copy those special characters whichotherwise can be hard to find. We just pushed an update and I realizedI hadn't mentioned it here.

The character you click will automatically get copied into your clipboard, thanks to the flash technique mentioned here.However, I wrote my own JavaScript class to handle the clipboard andthe buffer of clicked characters since you can hold down ‹alt› to copymultiple characters at once.

/Martin Ström

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Finally! Google to Offer RSS Feeds for Web Search Results

Arumor that's been floating around the web lately is that Google willoffer RSS feeds for new results in basic web search. Today Search Engine Land confirmedthat Google will "soon" offer this functionality. Why is this big news?Because there's no better way to keep track of new mentions of acompany, person or concept online than through RSS.

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The Bailout

How Big Is $700,000,000,000.00?

from AppScout by Geoff Fox

Seven hundred billion dollars. Congress voted not to spend$700,000,000,000.00 on Monday. It's still an amazing amount of money.But how big is it physically? You're in luck. Microsoft threw in acalculator with my copy of Windows (thanks Bill).

First,let's define our terms. A single bill of United States currency is 6.14by 2.61 by 0.0043 inches. That's .06890922 cubic inches, in case you'rethinking of renting a storage locker.

Stack a thousand and you've got a brick of bills 4.3 inches thick.One million dollars is one thousand times as thick--4,300 inches, or358 feet tall. Multiply by a thousand again and you've hit a billion.That's 4,300,000 inches or 358,333 feet or 67.866 miles tall.

Hold on. We're only at a billion. The bail-out call was for 700billion. One more trip to the calculator. Now we're at 3,010,000,000inches, 250,833,333 feet, or 47,506 miles tall. Turn the stack on itsside, and it will run from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida toHonolulu, HI ten times (The actual distance is 4,776 miles, so quicklymake friends with Warren Buffett for the extra 25 miles of money). Andsince a bill weighs about one gram, your $700,000,000,000 will weigharound 1,543,235,835 pounds, or 771,618 tons!

Because we often say million and billion and now even trilliontogether when speaking of government matters, it sounds like they'resimilar numbers. They are not. Is there even a comparison when amillionaire can stack his bills 358 feet tall while a billionaire'sstack goes nearly 68 miles!

No one's sure if Senator Everett Dirksen really said "A billionhere, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money," butit's worth bringing up now. Right now we're talking real money!

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LIVE McCain/Obama debate

BBC 

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Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neoliberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism

Watch it at Democracy Now! 

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Interview - Naomi Wolf - Give Me Liberty

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Another Frightening Show About the Economy

A MUST - Listen to This American Life podcast (Full Episode) and get a better understanding of the background of the mess we are entering into.

Learn more about CDS - Credit Default Swaps - a tool for financial speculation, specifically barred from regulation in the US Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

Read also this Time article from March of this year - Credit Default Swaps: The Next Crisis?

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The Environment

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Bill Maher Takes On Palin's Debate Performance

The good news is that Sarah Palin can complete a sentence...the bad news is that the rest of us have to listen to it, according to Bill Maher in his opening monologue on Friday night.

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