Cameras Capture How Safely Cyclists Cruise

It’s clear that car drivers don’t comprehend cyclists, and often I hear drivers complain that bicyclists aren’t safe and tend to be “dangerous” on the road. It turns out that cyclists are safer than cars, cause way fewer collisions, and are amazingly great at avoiding a collision.

To reach this conclusion that bicyclists are safe riders researchers used cameras mounted on bicycles (and riders) accompanied by other observations.

In total, 127 hours and 38 minutes of usable footage was obtained. 54 ‘events’ were captured on film – two collisions, six near-collisions (where rapid evasive action by the cyclist was needed) and 46 other incidents (where some collision avoidance was required).

The cameras also recorded the road position and behaviour of the cyclists – including head checks, reactions and manoeuvres. The aim was to identify risk factors for both cyclists and motorists.

In 88.9% of cases, the cyclist had been travelling in a safe/legal manner prior to the collision/near miss.

Read more at BikeRadar.

So car drivers please remember to share the road and be conscious of what’s around you.

Ontario Saves Experimental Lakes Area

The federal government of Canada is so anti-environment that it hurts everyone on the planet. Their unwavering support for the world-destroying tar sands, refusal to work with other countries to improve the planet, and their inability to acknowledge human influenced climate change is revolting and regressive. Now that I got that off my chest….

Their most recent insult to environmental science in Canada was to shutter the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario. Don’t worry, this is where the good news comes. Lucky, the provincial government understands the importance of monitoring our changing climate and stepped up to save the ongoing project.

The remote region of 58 pristine lakes has been used since the late 1960s for groundbreaking freshwater studies.

It became the subject of controversy when Ottawa announced last year that it was closing the area to save $2 million annually.

The Ontario government says it is working collaboratively with the federal government, the Manitoba government and others to keep the area operational this year and to ensure sustained longer-term operations.

It says the research performed in the area helps with pollution reduction strategies, understanding of climate change and how to protect our lakes and rivers in Ontario, across Canada and around the world.

Read more at the National Post.

Be Optimistic by Learning About It

The book Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Dr. Martin Seligman is not new, but it is to me. For others who have not heard about it before, it looks like an uplifting read. The central thesis of the book is to essentially learn what a worthwhile life is for you and to un-learn the other things: learn optimism.

‘Happiness’ is a scientifically unwieldy notion, but there are three different forms of it if you can pursue. For the ‘Pleasant Life,’ you aim to have as much positive emotion as possible and learn the skills to amplify positive emotion. For the ‘Engaged Life,’ you identify your highest strengths and talents and recraft your life to use them as much as you can in work, love, friendship, parenting, and leisure. For the ‘Meaningful Life,’ you use your highest strengths and talents to belong to and serve something you believe is larger than the self.

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Ultimately, Seligman points to optimism not only as a means to individual well-being, but also as a powerful aid in finding your purpose and contributing to the world:

Optimism is invaluable for the meaningful life. With a firm belief in a positive future you can throw yourself into the service of that which is larger than you are.

Read more about the book itself and see Brain Picking’s best books of 2011.

Bacteria Creates Fuel Compatible with Gasoline Engines

The need for a biofuel that can be used in standard automobiles is needed more everyday as the bloody global thirst for oil only increases. Thankfully researchers have engineered a bacteria that can produce a fuel substance that can be used in standard internal combustion engines.

To be used as a mainstream alternative to fossil fuels – desirable because biofuels are carbon-neutral over their lifetime – engines would have to be redesigned, or an extra processing step employed to convert the fuel into a more usable form.

To try to bypass that, John Love from the University of Exeter in the UK and colleagues took genes from the camphor tree, soil bacteria and blue-green algae and spliced them into DNA from Escherichia coli bacteria. When the modified E. coli were fed glucose, the enzymes they produced converted the sugar into fatty acids and then turned these into hydrocarbons that were chemically and structurally identical to those found in commercial fuel.

Read more at New Scientist.

The full text can be found here, thanks to Reddit!

Paris Marathon Runners Generated Energy to Power Event

At the recent Paris marathon the runners literally generated electricity. Pavegen put down a series of tiles that create an electric charge when compressed, so all they had to do was lay the tiles along the marathon route. The resulting energy generated by the runners was enough to power signs and screens during the event; the goal is to have the marathon fully powered by the runners themselves.

The flexible tiles made from recycled truck tires will span a portion of the Champs Elysees for about 25 meters (82 feet) of the 42.2-kilometer course, according to Pavegen Systems Ltd., the U.K. maker of the tiles. Each footstep generates as much as 8 watts of kinetic energy, which is fed back to batteries that can charge display screens and electronic signs along the route, the company said.

Schneider Electric SA (SU), the race sponsor, aims to eventually make the Paris Marathon an event that generates energy rather than consumes it, Aaron Davis, the company’s chief marketing officer, said in Pavegen’s statement. London-based Pavegen aims for its tiles to help cut carbon emissions and boost energy efficiency in cities around the world in the future, it said.

Read more at Bloomberg.