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Solar Roadways – Roads in the Future

WorldInFuture — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:24:56 +0000

Free energy is everywhere around us. There are many ways to generate and collect energy from various sources like sun, wind, water etc. but somehow people always tend to make things more difficult by not using these renewable sources of energy. In last few years there is a great amount of new ideas for generating energy. People suddenly realized that everyday stuff can be a source of energy, riding a bike, running or just walking, sun rays hitting our roofs etc. But, is there any other option, something so obvious that we practically can’t imagine that being used for collecting energy. We simply have to change our way of thinking if we want to change the world.

So how about solar roadways? Are they a roads of future? Why use roads just for driving and collecting tolls, why don’t we use them for collecting energy. Of course, nowadays roads can’t be used for collecting energy but Solar Roads could.

Solar Roadway

US Department of Transportation recently awarded $100,000 to Solar Roadways to build prototype of first ever Solar Road Panel. So how does these future world roads work?

“The Solar Road Panels will contain embedded LEDs which “paint” the road lines from beneath to provide safer nighttime driving, as well as to give up to the minute instructions (via the road) to drivers (i.e. “detour ahead”). The road will be able to sense wildlife on the road and can warn drivers to “slow down”. There will also be embedded heating elements in the surface to prevent snow and ice buildup, providing for safer winter driving. This feature packed system will become an intelligent highway that will double as a secure, intelligent, decentralized, self-healing power grid which will enable a gradual weaning from fossil fuels.

Replacing asphalt roads and parking lots with Solar Roadway panels will be a major step toward halting climate change. Fully electric vehicles will be able to recharge along the roadway and in parking lots, finally making electric cars practical for long trips.”

It is estimated that is will take roughly five billion 12′ by 12′ Solar Road Panels to cover the asphalt surfaces in the U.S. alone, That amount of Solar Road Panels can produce three times more power than U.S. ever used.

We just can’t wait to see more of these roads all over the world in the near future.

Source: Solar Roadways

End Of World 2012: 7 Predictions How The World Will End

WorldInFuture — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:42:46 +0000

Websites and people all over the world are talking about December 21st, 2012, when all life on the planet could well finish. Some are asserting it will be humans that set it off. Others believe a natural phenomenon will be the cause. And the religious people are saying it’ll be God himself who presses the stop button! Here we come with 7 predictions of 2012 scenario.

1. Mayan Calendar Declares End Of World on December 21st, 2012

The first to envision December 21st, 2012 as the end of the planet were the Mayans, a race that were good at building highly correct astrological hardware out of stone.

Mayan Calender Prophecy For 2012

Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar envisions the Earth will end on December 21 2012. Given that they were pretty near to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the planet right as well.

2. Solar Flares On December 2012

Solar pros from across the world monitoring the sun have made a startling discovery : our sun is in a bit of struggle. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic, and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, fresh solar typhoons have been bombarding the Earth with so much radiation energy, it’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites.

Solar Flares could threaten electrical grid

This activity is expected to get worse, and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime around December 21st, 2012.

3. The Bible and the I Ching

If having scientists caution us about the end of the planet isn’t bad enough,religious people are getting in on the act as well. Interpretations of the Christian Bible show the date for Armageddon. The final battle between Good and Evil has been set down for 2012.

Religions are full of predictions

The I Ching, also called the Chinese book of Changes, claims a similar thing, as do numerous sections of the Hindu teachings. There are at least 12 ancient cultures from across the globe with such predictions for major earth changes around the same time.

4. Super Volcano Threats

Yellowstone State Park in the US is feted for its thermal springs and Old Unswerving geyser. The reason for this is easy – it’s sitting on top of the world’s biggest volcano, and geological experts are beginning to get frightened sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we’re many years overdue for an explosion which may fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the Earth into a chilly winter that could last 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the massive bang.

5. The Physicists Calculate We’re Behind Schedule For Massive Destruction

This one’s a case of simple mathematics. Physicists at Berkeley University have been crunching the numbersÂ and they’ve determined that the Earth is well overdue for a major disastrous event. Even worse, they’re claiming their calculations prove, that we are all going to die, very shortly – while also pronouncing their prophecy incorporates a certainty of 99 percent- and 2012 just turns out to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

Massive Destruction

6. Pole Shift

We all know the Earth is encircled by a magnetic field that sheilds us from almost all of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call north and south have a nasty habit of swapping places each 750,000 years or so – and at this time we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have spotted the poles are drifting apart approximately 20-30kms each year, much quicker than ever, which points toward a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is underway, the magnetic field is disrupted and will at last vanish, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV out of doors to crisp your skin in seconds, murdering everything it touches.

And one more reason to be concerned about December 21st, 2012 :

7. Planet X Nibiru Fly-By Scenario

According to Ancient Sumerian texts the Earth (“Tiamat”) was struck by a large planet “Nibiru”, which moved it into its present orbit, and made the Moon and the Asteroid Belt. The Sumerians wrote that this planetary “god” Nibiru, “remade our solar system and remakes the Earth on its near passages.” If their calculations are correct, then Nibiru (sometimes called Planet X) will be on a collision course with the Earth in on Dec 21 2012.

So, where will you be on December 22nd 2012?

Extremely disturbing book about 2012 on this link

Creative Way To Prevent World Hunger In the Future

WorldInFuture — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:58:39 +0000

In article named Would You Like To Drink The Air? we talked about the problem of lack of drinking water even with fact that 70% of Earth is covered by water. Food is even a bigger problem. By the year 2050, the human population will count 9 billion people approximately. That is 50% more people than today. More people equals more food, but there is over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops (world wide) in use today (sources: FAO and NASA). So, by today’s standards, if we use current techniques, there will be not enough food for whole world population (even today we have huge problems in Africa and in some other parts of the world ).

Vertical Farm Project offers a solution:

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world’s urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

Designs

Piramid Farm by Eric Ellingsen and Dickson Despommier

"The Living Skyscraper: Farming the Urban Skyline" by Blake Kurasek

Zabeel Park Vertical Farm

"VF - Type O" by Oliver Foster

Source: Vertical Farm Project

Car For The Entire World

WorldInFuture — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:55:31 +0000

Weather conditions can significantly affect the way that we drive our cars. Sometimes you need to change tires to adopt to different weather conditions. It would be interesting to go to Italy with your car and then “drive” with that same car to streets of Venice. This will probably be possible in the world of the future. And very common!

Amphibious Hybrid is one of the possible answers. It is a concept vehicle that was created by Janne LeppÃ¤nen, Tuulia Miettinen, Roope Kolu, Tiemen Stelwagen, and Jaap Van Der Voort.

Amphibious Hybrid

It can be used on land, ice and on water. So how is this possible?

“The wheel exists of movable parts which can increase traction or even transform in a paddle wheel to propel the vehicle in the water. The wheel is controlled by terrain sensors which decide when more or less traction is needed. This system provides the vehicle with more safety because it can answer to different kind of terrains. Inside each wheel is an electric engine, which has energy from batteries.”

Amphibious Hybrid - ready for water

Amphibious Hybrid

Source: Amphibious Hybrid

Top 5 Predictions For Life in the Future 25 Years

WorldInFuture — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:46:05 +0000

How will the world look like in the future 25 years is very thought-provoking question, and editors of THE FUTURIST magazine gave us interesting list to think about.

We selected the top 5 items from the list that have been most interesting for us:

1. Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030. By the late 2010s, ubiquitous, unseen nanodevices will provide seamless communication and surveillance among all people everywhere. Humans will have nanoimplants, facilitating interaction in an omnipresent network. Everyone will have a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Since nano storage capacity is almost limitless, all conversation and activity will be recorded and recoverable. -Gene Stephens, “Cybercrime in the Year 2025,” July-Aug 2008, p. 34

2. The car’s days as king of the road may soon be over. More powerful wireless communication that reduces demand for travel, flying delivery drones to replace trucks, and policies to restrict the number of vehicles owned in each household are among the developments that could thwart the automobile’s historic dominance on the environment and culture. If current trends were to continue, the world would have to make way for a total of 3 billion vehicles on the road by 2025. -Thomas J. Frey, “Disrupting the Automobile’s Future,” Sep-Oct 2008, p. 39 et seq.

3. There may not be world law in the foreseeable future, but the world’s legal systems will be networked. The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), a database of local and national laws for more than 50 participating countries, will grow to include more than 100 counties by 2010. The database will lay the groundwork for a more universal understanding of the diversity of laws between nations and will create new opportunities for peace and international partnership. -Joseph N. Pelton, “Toward a Global Rule of Law: A Practical Step Toward World Peace,” Nov-Dec 2007, p. 25

4. Professional knowledge will become obsolete almost as quickly as it’s acquired. An individual’s professional knowledge is becoming outdated at a much faster rate than ever before. Most professions will require continuous instruction and retraining. Rapid changes in the job market and work-related technologies will necessitate job education for almost every worker. At any given moment, a substantial portion of the labor force will be in job retraining programs. -Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies, “Trends Shaping Tomorrow’s World, Part Two,” May-June 2008, p 41

5. Urbanization will hit 60% by 2030. As more of the world’s population lives in cities, rapid development to accommodate them will make existing environmental and socioeconomic problems worse. Epidemics will be more common due to crowded dwelling units and poor sanitation. Global warming may accelerate due to higher carbon dioxide output and loss of carbon-absorbing plants. -Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies, “Trends Shaping Tomorrow’s World, Part One,” Mar-Apr 2008, p. 52