Tales from Rohan

Most Wednesday nights in Santa Cruz there is a “Circus Jam” where folks can drop in and mess around with aerial acrobatics, AcroYoga, juggle, hula hoop, poi and generally act like circus freaks.

Here is a video of some really fun AcroYoga in foreground. However it shows the spirit of the whole jam because you can see three other pairs doing AcroYoga, some hula hoop action and aerial flying in the background. Enjoy!

Most Wednesday nights in Santa Cruz there is a “Circus Jam” where folks can drop in and mess around with aerial acrobatics, AcroYoga, juggle, hula hoop, poi and generally act like circus freaks.

Here is a video of some really fun AcroYoga in foreground. However it shows the spirit of the whole jam because you can see other pairs doing AcroYoga, some hula hoop action and aerial flying in the background. Enjoy!

I went to CES (the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas) last week. As usual there were way to many enormous TVs and not much substance. The coolest thing I saw last week was in the tiny section reserved for “green” products where a handful of companies showed off solar gadgets (mostly useless) or some very innovative stuff.

Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies really impressed me. These guys are doing exactly what I thought we should be doing when I first learned about PEM fuel cells in the early 90s. I rode in a fuel-cell powered hydrogen car with metal hydride storage at the 1991 Willits Solar Expo and Rally and I have been waiting for good quality commercially available fuel cells and credible hydrogen storage ever since.

Horizon has PEM fuel cells from 12w to 5kw. They have tiny 10 and 20 liter hydrogen storage containers for small applications and they talked to me about custom much larger storage they had done for their jet project and for a car-sized vehicle. Finally they have a sodium hydroxide based storage system with integrated fuel cell called HydroPak that they use as a portable power system.

They are doing interesting stuff in so many areas. I thought the hydrogen powered e-bike with a 300km range was another nice touch.

Finally the guy I spoke with mentioned a vehicle they were working on with another company that had all the elements I would have put in my spec sheet: carbon fiber body panels, PEM fuel cell, 3-phase inverter, in-hub electric motors, regenerative braking, etc.

Also nice to see was the flexible solar panel folks PowerFilm Solar that Google helped fund making commercial progress.