Nigel, Author at The Red Ferret JournalThe Red Ferret Journal

Eco Friendly November 27, 2022 posted by Nigel

Hydrogen Retrofit Reduces Diesel Engine Emissions By 85%

A team of engineers from UNSW Sydney have successfully converted a standard diesel engine to run as a hybrid diesel hydrogen engine. The resulting hybrid reduces CO2 emissions by 85%, and increases output efficiency by around 26%. The team, led by Professor Shawn Kook, spent some 18 months developing the direct injection dual fuel system. The retrofitted engine runs using 90% hydrogen. Professors Kook believe that the new tech could significantly reduce the emissions from the trucking industry and the…

cool tech October 30, 2022 posted by Nigel

EMF Radiation Blocking Hoodie Keeps You Safe. Maybe.

This EMF Radiation Blocking Hoodie from Bon Charge looks like it’s just the ticket for these warm winter nights. And when we say warm, you know we’re not just referring to the temperature, right? According to some very sensible people, over exposure to high levels of electromagnetic radiation can be a very not good thing.

A.I. October 17, 2022 posted by Nigel

This Demo Clearly Shows Artificial Intelligence Is About To Steal Our Jobs. And Sooner Than We Think!

Twitter user ‘Progen’ just released a short video proudly showing Artificial Intelligence acting like a digital design assistant for some basic everyday tasks. The A.I. in question is not one entity, but three tools – two of which are open source – working together to deliver a scarily competent service to their human.

Eco Friendly October 5, 2022 posted by Nigel

Ascend Elements – Atomic Upcycling Promises Infinite EV Battery Recycling

Most people will agree that while electric cars and renewable technology is great, a big problem is the huge amount of ugly unsustainable mining that’s needed for batteries. Digging the material out of the ground is very carbon intensive, dirty and sometimes downright toxic. So anything that promises to provide a decent recycling route gets our vote. Now a clever company based out of the US has come up with a new recycling technology they claim can recover up to…

hmm..interesting September 25, 2022 posted by Nigel

Solein – Yet Another Impossible Food From The Minds Of Boffins

So another day, another wonderous technological development. Solein, from Finnish startup Solar Foods, is being billed as a ‘nutritious protein made out of thin air’. Whoa, that’s just what we need to feed the hungry billions. The marketing is extremely slick. There’s lots of gorgeous shots of food, processed product and laboratory stuff, all wrapped in some enticing copywriting. The concept is pretty simple. Take some random microbe, add in carbon (CO2), nitrogen and a couple of other bits, mix…

Electric Cars September 18, 2022 posted by Nigel

Zeekr 001 – First 1000 Kilometer range EV Goes Into Production In China. Deliveries Q2 2023?

According to this report from New Atlas, the first 1000 km EV coming off the production line is going to be the Zeekr 001 in Q2 of next year. You’ll remember a few weeks back we talked about the cool new CATL battery technology which is promising massive range and ridiculously short charge times? Well this is the first fruit of that development cycle. It’s not clear exactly what the charge time will be on the Zeekr 001, but it…

general September 11, 2022 posted by Nigel

Supercharging Science: The Dangers Of Inflating Scientific Research To Hype Vaporware

We recently came across an interesting article in New Scientist magazine which looked very exciting. The headline read ‘Supercharging tweak could fill electric car batteries 90% in 10 mins’. Wow, that sounded like it could really change the EV market significantly. Naturally we started our typical process of due diligence (learned over 20 years of publication) to learn the background to this seemingly revolutionary new tech. Yeah well, about that…

Eco Friendly August 31, 2022 posted by Nigel

Olefy – quantum leap in plastic recycling promises to save the oceans and our landfills

The world is literally swimming in waste plastic. We produce around 300 million tons of the stuff a year, of which a mere 9% gets recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, oceans and inside poor creatures who mistake it for food (and usually die). So what to do? Well there may be a real hope on the horizon. A Finnish company called Olefy Technology claims that after 40 years of development and testing it can now recycle almost any…

Electric Cars August 15, 2022 posted by Nigel

Qilin 1000 km EV Battery From CATL Will Revolutionize The Motor Industry (No Joke)

The world’s largest EV battery maker, CATL, released a ground breaking 1000 km (620 mile) range battery back in June which set the EV world alight. The new Qilin (pronounced cheeling) battery not only offers mind blowing range and energy density, but features a bunch of other cutting edge tech which will speed up charging to the point where it rivals filling up at a gas station. The first iteration of the battery uses ‘rapid thermal control with a quadruple…

cool tech August 6, 2022 posted by Nigel

Trouble Sleeping? New Temperature Controlled Mattress/Pillow Combo Promises Better Sleep All Round

We all know how important a good night’s sleep can be to our health and well-being. But research shows that between 10% and 30% of adults in the US suffer from chronic insomnia, with up to 48% of older adults affected. Now an enterprising team from the University of Texas at Austin has come up with an innovative solution which might help us all. Their temperature managed mattress and pillow combo is designed to hack the body’s natural circadian rhythms…

Eco Friendly August 2, 2022 posted by Nigel

Samsung Finally Releases Official Repair Parts For Galaxy Phones

Well it looks as though the constant legal pressure is starting to pay off. Samsung is the latest mega-manufacturer to announce a DIY repair option for some of their smartphones. Samsung Self Repair, which is being run in collaboration with ifixit.com, will now provide spare parts for repairing screens, back glass and charging ports. No news on replacing batteries alas, but any news is good news when it comes to DIY repairs for electricals.

Bookmark This! July 20, 2022 posted by Nigel

QuackQuackGo – Google Search Done Like The Good Old Days

Why is Google so awful nowadays? You used to be able to do a search and quickly find stuff. Now you have to wade through adverts, spammers and all kinds of junk results. Well if you’re fed up and can’t take it any more, QuackQuackGo has got your back. It’s basically Google Search with a new front end and results page. It’s like stepping back in time to the early days of simple, accurate and valuable search. Wonderful!

A.I. July 18, 2022 posted by Nigel

The Google AI Engineer is a Whistleblower. We Ignore His Message at our Peril

(images created by AI via @nightcafe studio) The recent ruckus over Google engineer Blake Lemoine and the LaMDA AI has generated a fair amount of buzz in the world’s media. But now the fuss has subsided, it’s probably a good time to ask what Mr Lemoine was hoping to achieve with his outlandish claim. Things may not be as simple as they appear.

Electric Cars July 15, 2022 posted by Nigel

Paralyzed robo-taxis don’t bode well for the future of autonomous driving

Reports of a mass stranding of Cruise robotaxis in the center of San Francisco a week or so ago have triggered a lot of speculation by the media corps. The upshot is that these VRE (vehicle retrieval events) are happening fairly regularly at the moment, as the company struggles to keep the autonomous car fleet working properly.

Awesome July 12, 2022 posted by Nigel

First James Webb Space Telescope image is mind-blowing!

(click on the image above for a larger version) The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived and it’s an absolute beauty. Up above we’ve created a little montage to give you an idea of how sensational this new piece of equipment is. Top left is the new deep space image from the Webb. Top right is the famous Hubble deep space image taken a few years ago. You can immediately see the difference in resolution of…

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