Turbine Powered Batmobile…Batman Wishes He Had This Sweet Of A Ride [CARS]

We’ve seen fan-made Batmobiles before, but none have been like this. Created by Casey Putsch of Putsch Racing, this Tim Burton-era Batmobile is 20 feet long, uses a Military Boeing turboshaft helicopter engine and even throws in an iPad for good measure.

The helicopter engine was originally used by the US Navy but has now been repurposed for this Batmobile. It packs 365hp and uses its jet thrust to “internally propel turbine blades that spin an output shaft after going through a planetary reduction gearbox”. Which means, yes, this baby is turbine powered.

The Batmobile seats two in the cockpit where an iPad is set on its dashboard for no other reason than to have an iPad in a Batmobile dashboard. I’m sure Michael Keaton would even be impressed at how awesome this Batmobile replica is. Check out the video of it in action in the gallery. [Putsch Racing via Todd Cooper Rider via DVICE]

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Could Missouri Be The First State To Legalize Marijuana?

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri marijuana advocates want to ask voters next year to legalize the drug and regulate its medical use.

A group called Show-Me Cannabis filed its initiative request with the Missouri Secretary of State on Wednesday.

If the state approves the ballot language for the proposed Missouri constitutional amendment, supporters would need to collect enough signatures from registered voters by next May to get the question on the November ballot.

The measure would decriminalize pot use, possession and small-scale cultivation by Missourians age 21 and older. It would also require the state to issue retail licenses to sell the drug and oversee a medical marijuana program.

Sixteen states have medical marijuana programs. Activists are targeting several other states next year.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_97bfa8a2-a8d7-11e0-9919-001a4bcf6878.html#ixzz1RpSCCOsJ

Two measures which would regulate cannabis for adults in a manner similar to alcohol, allow medical use with the approval of a physician and create an agricultural hemp industry, were filed with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office in Jefferson City on July 6, 2011.”The state presently spends millions of tax dollars incarcerating citizens who use cannabis, depriving those imprisoned of the ability to earn a living, pay taxes and care for their families,” said Fred Raines, professor emeritus of economics at Washington University. “Meanwhile, the law of supply and demand continues to support an unending criminal enterprise. The social and economic costs of prohibition continue to far outweigh any benefits. It’s time we acknowledge that and move forward.”

Similar initiatives are expected to be on the ballot in November of 2012 in at least five other states including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington. Proposition 19, an initiative to tax and regulate cannabis in California, received the support of 46% of votes cast there in November 2010. Recent polling in Missouri shows a majority of voters support medical use and 47% support broader regulated legalization.

Last month, a bill was filed in the US Congress by Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul, M.D., and Democrat Barney Frank, which would repeal the federal criminal prohibition of cannabis, leaving regulation of the plant entirely in the hands of the states.

Show-Me Cannabis, an association of individuals and organizations including the Missouri Affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws; NORML chapters in St. Louis, Kansas City, Joplin and MSSU-Joplin and UM-Columbia;Students for Sensible Drug Policy at UM-Columbia and MSSU-Joplin and Sensible Missouri. This coalition filed the measures and hopes to promote a serious discussion of the merits of repealing the criminal prohibition of cannabis.

Initiative wording and more information regarding the cannabis plant and cannabis policy may be found online here. http://www.joplinindependent.com

Missouri marijuana legalization petition filed

picture from Patients 4 Medical Marijuana

 

MY COMMENTS 

All I have to say about this is look at the $ signs.  This could create thousands of legitimate jobs. If you are looking for an answer to cure the public school budget this is it.  It is already the number one cash crop in Missouri why not make it legally the number one crop. Taxes taxes taxes…. Think about the savings just from not having to prosecute all of the people in the state who get busted with a small amount. It might balance the police budget and allow them to concentrate on arresting DANGEROUS CRIMINALS instead of pot heads.

This New Military Humvee Is BOMB!

The FLYPMode was chosen out of a pool of over 150 viable designs that were submitted to the auto engineers at Local Motors. The concepts were submitted by various businesses, designers, and car lovers. After the community picked the winning blueprint — which netted the lucky designer a $7,500 prize from DARPA — it was up to Local Motors to take it from paper to pavement. They did just that, putting the total timeframe between request and prototype at just 1/5th of current defense contractor efforts.

 

If This Is Truly The Future Of Camping I Am Excited!

NAU’s Slick-Looking Take On the Future of the RV

Jack Loftus — Zero-emissions. Smooth lines right out of Tron: Legacy. Scenic, rendered vistas. Yup, sounds like a design firm’s taken a crack at the future of camping. Let’s have a peek. ORIGINALLY ON –> Gizmodo

This is a new concept idea for an rv.  It looks much sportier and way more fun to drive.

Above are the specs for the new RV.  You can see how they compare it to the actual RV in the bottom right hand corner.

Functionality of the RV.

What it looks like while it is open.

Top View.

Autopilot For Your Car, In The Near Future!

Volkswagen is currently testing an autopilot feature for their new line of cars possibly being released next year.  Through a combination of cameras, sensors, cruise control, GPS, and Guts… they are able to navigate the highway and stop and go traffic without the driver needed to do anything but sit back and relax.  Give this technology a few more years and you will be able to sleep in your car while it takes you to work or cross country on a road trip.

Excerpt from –> Volkswagen Autopilot Lets You Drive Hands-Free at 80 MPH

The temporary auto pilot technology uses adaptive cruise control, lane assist and a variety of sensors to track your speed, your location and all the cars around you. It’s a semi-automatic system so you need to continually monitor the car. You don’t have to keep your hands on the wheel, but you really shouldn’t be napping while the car is flying down the highway at 75MPH.

Give Up On The War On Drugs!

Hillary Clinton Anouced that we will give an extra $300,000,000 to Central America to help fight the war on drugs.  Aren’t we having an internal budget crisis in the USA right now? Shouldn’t we be spending that money to: Pay off debt? Fix inner city schools? Decrease medical costs for elderly? Wage war against the huge human trafficking market in the USA? Or How About we just hire 10,000 USA citizens at $30,000 a year to help turn around the economy?

My list of better uses for this money goes on and on and on… Not to mention with the full budget for the war on drugs in Central America now at $1,800,000,000 (1.8 Billion/$30,000 = 60,000 people getting paid $30,000 a year.) we could really start to take chunks out of our out of control deficit.

Excerpt from article below

Mrs Clinton told a regional security conference in Guatemala that the US would increase its aid by more than 10% to nearly $300m (£187m).

Analysts say the figure is still small, given that more than two-thirds of cocaine sent from South America to the US now passes through Central America.

In total, some $1.8bn was promised to support the region’s security.

The World Bank is to provide $1bn in the coming years, said Pamela Cox, the bank’s vice preident for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Inter-American Devleopment Bank (IADB) will also offer $500m over two years.

Announcing the increased US funding, Mrs Clinton said Washington was committed to helping the region.

Does Anyone else think that is a shit ton of money being wasted on a losing battle? Total Amount Mentions in Article = $3,200,000,000 (3.2 billion/$30,000 = 106,666 jobs making 30k a year)

Full Article here –> Central America drugs war: Clinton pledges more funds

10 Cars That Will Not Make It Into Production.

These are some sweet ride, most will remain one of a kind.

 Martin Grossinger — The future will be filled with technologies and designs we can scarcely imagine. These ten ludicrous visions of the future culled from our readers mindsobviously — as they’ve been imagined — won’t be happening. Thank God. Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our Jalopnik summer feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Auto Power Girl 

 

This is one BAMF Mercedes.

Flinstones type care with foot power and no windsheild

Or maybe not foot powered

The Astral was powered by a small nuclear reactor. It had only one wheel, but in proto-Segway fashion, it could gyroscopically balance on it, or hover just above the surface of land or water. It also had a protective energy shield (just like Star Wars) that would have made collisions impossible. Sound too good to be true? You’re right. It was. Only one was built, it never got it’s teeny-tiny Mr. Fission in the back seat, and that energy shield? Please, the car never even got glass all the way around. Studebaker should have pulled their heads out of the clouds.

Turbine powered car:

Curtiss-Wright had a concept for a car that travelled at incredibly high speeds on eight-lane highways on a cushion of air, provided by a downward-facing jet engine. GM had its Firebird concepts, powered by gas turbine engines. Dodge famously stuck a turbine engine in a couple of Darts in 1962 and drove them across the country. Today, Jaguar has its C-X75 concept car, powered (in theory) by turbine engines. It’s an idea that’s been played with for decades, and yet it’s just not made its way into real passenger cars. Someday…

The whole House Car (pod Car)

In the future, we may all be required to live in 100 square foot pods, and eat dinner in our car/living rooms. That’s not really a future I’m looking forward to. This doesn’t really look like that much fun to me. The packaging and design may be cool, but would you really want to live in a fancy-schmancy box? With what certainly will be a slow, boring, beige solar-powered box underneath you? I think not.

The Mood Ring Car (Honda PUYO)

In Japanese, “puyo” sounds like the phrase that means “touching the vehicle’s soft body.” Right. The PUYO looks like a Pac-Man ghost, which is convenient, because it’s controlled by a joystick, too. It also changes color depending on the driver’s mood. The interior of the car is completely covered in some sort of soft fabric that moves and changes shape, depending on the driver’s mood. Since when did cars that care how we feel become a thing? I don’t need my car to try to make me feel better! In fact, the only way I want to feel better behind the wheel of a car is when it’s so much fun to drive, a smile explodes all over my face.

The Mini Mini Mini Car (GM PUMA)

What happens when you take the already ridiculous Segway and put a semi-enclosed, horribly ugly body on it that can fit one-and-a-half people? You get this misguided GM experiment into human mobility. The PUMA is built on the guts of a regular Segway, yet somehow manages to make its riders look even more dumb than they did before. Yes, this is just the prototype (thank God) but the finished product wouldn’t look much better: it resembles a coffin on two wheels.

Wiener-mobile for everyone (Dymaxion Car)

In theory, the Dymaxion sounds great. Aerodynamic body, 11-passenger capacity, 30 miles per gallon, top speed around a buck-twenty. Unfortunately, in the real world, it wasn’t quite as impressive. It had three wheels, but steered from the single one in the back. This made it prone to rolling over, which it did at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The driver was killed and his two passengers were badly injured. Also, the car never got up to its supposed top speed of 120 miles per hour in the wild: it only ever reached 90. Though I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. Would you want to go 120 mph in a car steered by a single rear wheel?

Look Ma’ No Hands (Self-Driving Cars)

irst, they came for our Lotuses. I didn’t speak out because I didn’t have one. Then, they came for our M3’s. I didn’t speak out because I figured we’d be better off without them. Then, they came for our highways, and there was no one left to speak out, because there was nothing cool to drive on them anymore. It’s bad enough that folks don’t want to think about driving while they’re behind the wheel of their Camrys, Corollas and Prii, but it’s even worse when futurists bring up “self-driving” highways. No one with half a brain wants that. Give me the freedom to drive my own car on the highway, or give me death!

The Atomic Bomb Car

I know that the 1950’s were a different time and all, but it astounds me that nobody raised a red flag and said “Hey hold on guys. Is it really such a good idea to stick a nuclear reactor in the back of a car?” I mean, “A” for optimistic thinking, but “F” for considering the public’s driving ability, Ford. Putting a tiny reactor in the backseat is an idea right up there with putting people in flying cars and letting them loose. Can you imagine the highway closures we’d have to deal with while the EPA cleaned up a dozen tiny reactor leaks during rush hour? I’ll take a jetpack, but you can keep your Nucleon, Ford.

Looks pretty sweet though

Wheel Chair sports car (Toyota i-Unit)

The i-Unit looks like something that didn’t make the final cut of the new Tron movie. It’s a transformable personal mobility device, and it’s able to take one of two forms. First, the upright setup, where the driver is sitting up and able to interact with pedestrians and passers-by. Second it had the ability to recline for “high-speed” travel. Unfortunately, it looks ridiculous and is totally impractical.

Reminds me of what they ride around in in Wall-E  (the Disney movie)

BAMF Mobile (Mercedes-Benz Biome Concept)

Everything about the Biome is ridiculous. Theoretically, the car collects energy from the sun (somehow; we don’t see anything resembling solar panels) and stores it in a fluid called “BioNectar4534.” Mercedes also claimed to have developed a way to harness trees’ excess energy to convert to BioNectar4534, but strangely don’t go into much detail. The car itself is made out of BioFibre, which is stronger than steel when mature, but lighter than any other composites. It’s grown in their nursery. Some sort of “DNA” is enclosed in the Mercedes-Benz star on the front of the car, and that affects the way the car grows throughout its lifespan. The whole thing sounds like the basis for a bad horror movie about killer cars grown from trees.

Orginal story @Gizmodo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former US Attorney Pushing For Pot Legalization.

Honestly its about time someone who works in the government stepped up and spoke the truth about how much of a joke Marijuana prohibition is.  Full article here –> Former Seattle US attorney pushes pot legalization

John McKay spent five years enforcing federal drug laws as the U.S. attorney in Seattle before he was fired by the Bush administration in early 2007. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that laws criminalizing marijuana are wrongheaded because they create an enormous black market exploited by international cartels and crime rings.

“That’s what drives my concern: The black market fuels the cartels, and that’s what allows them to buy the guns they use to kill people,” McKay said. “A lot of Americans smoke pot and they’re willing to pay for it. I think prohibition is a dumb policy, and there are a lot of line federal prosecutors who share the view that the policy is suspect.”

New Approach Washington planned a news conference Wednesday to announce the effort. No state has legalized marijuana for recreational purposes in such a way, though some have decriminalized it, and the initiative would put Washington squarely at odds with federal law banning the drug.

Taxing marijuana sales would bring the state $215 million a year, conservatively estimated, Holmes said.

End The War On Drugs, Let Latin America Figure It Out On Their Own.

The 40th anniversary of Washington‘s war on drugs has sparked calls for the decriminalization of narcotics, but what may seem like common sense for the US could spell disaster for Latin America.

Pleas for reform have come from a wide variety of voices. David Simon, creator of the TV series “TheWire,” recently published an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder offering a new season of the popular show in exchange for a reconsideration of the war on drugs. In The New York Times, Charles Blow called the war “an unmitigated disaster, an abomination of justice, and a self-perpetuating, trillion-dollar economy of wasted human capital, ruined lives, and decimated communities.”

And, most notably, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which consists of 19 political and cultural titans from the US and other countries around the world,released a report on June 2 calling for the establishment of regulated marijuana markets and the decriminalization of recreational drugs.

Full Article –> Ending 40 years of drug war: the impact on Latin America

 

 

Magic Mushrooms Are Good For Your Soul, And Your Doctor Agrees.

This study is threatening to break down barriers between the recreational drug users and the prescription drug users.  A new study has found how to properly control the dosage of the active chemical in magic mushrooms so that it can be used to a positive affect without any side effects.

Most prescription anti depressants have close to 500 listed possible side effects, this would completely change the industry.

Article After the Jump –> Far out: Magic mushrooms could have medical benefits, researchers say

Quotes from the Article:

• “More important, 89 percent reported lasting, positive changes in their behavior–better relationships with others, for instance, or increased care for their own mental and physical well-being. Those assessments were corroborated by family members and others.”
• “I think my heart is more open to all interactions with other people,” one volunteer reported in a questionnaire given to participants 14-months after their session.
• “I feel that I relate better in my marriage,” wrote another. “There is more empathy — a greater understanding of people, and understanding their difficulties, and less judgment.”
• “I don’t think it was the drug that did it,” she said. “It was the drug that helped me find the clarity.”
• “When you see people undergoing that kind of transformation,” he added, “it’s really quite moving.”

As I have said all along its not what they help you seen on the outside that counts (even if it is fun), its what the chemical forces you to realize about yourself on the inside that makes the difference.