- Much to the surprise on no one, the world’s
first solar bike lane is located in the Netherlands, where two-wheeled,
non-motorized vehicles are the norm and the populace looks the part of a fit
people who actually enjoy exercise on a daily basis. The green bike path connects
the Amsterdam suburbs of Krommenie and Wormerveer and it is a 70-meter stretch
of solar-powered roadway that officially opened today. Despite its short span,
the solar road costs nearly $5 million. It is the first step in a project that
the local government hopes will see the path being extended to 100 meters by
2016. Yes, they want to add a whole 30 meters to it. All of this is part of
Holland’s push to power everything from traffic lights to electric cars using
solar panels. The bike route will be useful for students and commuters who can
use it to make a very small part of their daily trip to and from work or
school. The path is expected to be used by as many as 2,000 cyclists daily and
it even has an awful name: SolaRoad. It was built and named by the Netherlands
Organization for Applied Scientific Research and is made up of rows of
crystalline silicon solar cells, which were embedded into the concrete of the
path and covered with a translucent layer of tempered glass. The surface of the road was treated with a special
non-adhesive coating and the road itself was built on a slight tilt in an effort to keep dust and dirt from
accumulating and obscuring the solar cells. The only catch is that the path is
stationary and therefore cannot be adjusted to the position of the sun, meaning
its panels well generate approximately 30 percent less energy than solar panels
on rooftops. Its tilted design
should aid
water run-off and achieve a better angle to the sun. Score another one for the
Dutch……….
- An elite athlete will do damn near anything to keep
himself on top of his game for as long as possible and extend his earnings
prime as much as he can. Kobe Bryant will go to Germany multiple times to have
his blood spun and re-inserted into his ailing knee to expedite healing. Lance
Armstrong will dope with every available drug and lie about it to the world
until someone uncovers his misdeeds. Rafael Nadal is no different and that’s
why his doctor
says the 14-time Grand Slam winner will receive stem cell treatment on his
ailing back. Angel Ruiz-Cotorro explained that ''we are going to put cells in a
joint in his spine'' during a procedure in Barcelona. Ruiz-Cotorro has worked
as a doctor for Nadal for the past 14 years and explained that the surgery is
meant to help repair his cartilage and is similar to stem cell treatment Nadal
received on his knee last year. Though the procedure seems in-depth, Ruiz-Cotorro
said Nadal is expected to return to training in early December. Nadal is far
from alone in getting this particular procedure, as several NFL and Major
League Baseball players have undergone it and Nadal's fellow Spaniard Pau Gasol,
a center for the Chicago Bulls, received stem cell treatment on his knee in
2013. Going under the needle became unavoidable when Nadal became significantly
hampered by severe back pain during the final of the Australian Open in January
when he lost to Stanislas Wawrinka. ''(Nadal) has a problem typical in tennis
with a back joint, he had it at the Australian Open, and we have decided to
treat it with stem cells,'' Ruiz-Cotorro said. In the procedure, stem cells are
extracted from the patient for a cultivation process to ''produce the necessary
quantities.'' Maybe this surgical magic will allow Nadal to win the four more
major titles he needs to pass Roger Federer and his all-time-best 17 major wins………..
- Karma is a b’otch, eh nature? Deer are a menace, one that
refuses to understand that it is not in charge and the beings with opposable
thumbs are. They gnaw on and kill trees, run in front of speeding cars and
cause accidents and crash through glass windows because they’re not smart
enough to know better. Sometimes, they even f*ck with Halloween candy when THEY
KNOW DAMN WELL THAT KING-SIZED SNICKERS BAR IS NOT INTENDED FOR THEM! So there
should be zero sympathy for a deer in Mentor, Ohio walking around with a
plastic Halloween pumpkin bucket stuck on its head. The deer is unable
to eat or drink and because city officials aren't equipped to handle this sort
of situation, they have turned the case over to the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources. Neighbors first spotted the troubled deer Wednesday and some locals
thought the animal might have an actual pumpkin stuck on its head, which probably
wouldn’t have been any less ridiculous. Some bleeding hearts even tried to help
the deer out by enticing the beast with food to get it close enough to knock
the plastic pumpkin off its head. The orange sphere is hooked around the deer’s
head with the black plastic straps commonly used to carry it by people with,
you know, hands and opposable thumbs and what not. Its entire mouth is covered
by the pumpkin and has been for an undetermined amount of time. When it was first spotted, the deer was
sitting on its haunches, trying to use its front legs to knock the pumpkin off
its head. Lettuce and cilantro have not been enough to lure the deer in, nor
were the efforts of two Mentor police officers who tried to apprehend the
animal. Penitentiary Glen Reservation, Lake Farmpark and other wildlife
authorities have been called to assist with the case and because deer are rightly
classified as nuisance animals, police have stopped trying to help the deer.
Let this one learn its lesson and maybe its furry friends will get the hint………
- Eminem is doing Eminem things again. He has a new album
coming out and as a music veteran who has sold tens of millions of albums over
the past decade-plus, Marshall Mathers realizes that the best thing he can do
ahead of a new project is say or do something outlandish to draw attention to
himself. Thus, his “controversial” threats to "punch Lana Del Rey twice in the
face" in a cypher released to promote his new album. Del Rey, a so-so pop
hack who just so happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, is an
unwitting promotional chess piece in the campaign to prop up the “Shady VX”
album, which is being released to mark the 15th anniversary of Eminem's Shady
Records imprint and will drop on Nov. 24. The cypher itself is easy to find
online and features Eminem freestyling alongside members of his Slaughterhouse
crew and Yelawolf. : "But I may
fight for gay rights, especially if they d*ke is more of a knockout than Janay
Rice/Play nice? Bitch I'll punch Lana Del Rey right in the face twice, like Ray
Rice in broad daylight in the plain sight of the elevator surveillance/’Til her
head is banging on the railing, then celebrate with the Ravens,” Eminem wraps
in the video. Those comments, of course, are a direct shot at the NFL’s fiasco
with former Baltimore Ravens star and always-domestic abuser Ray Rice knocking
out his then-fiancée in an ugly scene caught on a surveillance video and which
netted him a whopping two-game initial suspension from the league before
commissioner Roger Goodell doubled back under public pressure and upped it to
an indefinite ban. It was obvious fodder for an Eminem track, so the only
surprise is that it took this long…….
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