Gizmodo: illinois

Instant Hot Tub? Just Add Water and Quicklime

AddyDugdale — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:40:00 EDT

This is how you make a hot tub, hillbilly style. Three guys from the prairies of Illinois turned an old stock tank sitting in the open air into a jacuzzi, and heated it up using quicklime, that scary caustic stuff that burns your skin off if you're not too careful. A video of how they did it, using gas masks, tin baths and a lot of ingenuity, is after the jump.

Rather like a reverse-Bain Marie, the guys floated three metal tubs, each containing fifty pounds of quicklime, in the "jacuzzi." When water was added to each container, the quicklime fizzed away, heating the 700 or so gallons of water to the perfect temperature, 100ºF. You've got to love the palm-tree background, set off by the Hawaiian shirt sported by one of the tubbers. [PopSci]

Father and Sons Build Electric Car—a Popemobile for Pharaohs

AddyDugdale — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:20:39 EST

Greg Zanis' Dream Car is a solar-powered pyramid on four wheels that he built at home with the help of his two sons. Deceptively fragile, this little one-seater weighs in at 8,000 pounds, but its 80 batteries powering four electric engines really make it shift. Find out how fast, and watch the video of it pootling along a wintry Illinois street, after the jump.

Greg claims he can get his dream car up to 45 mph. The vehicle can run for 80 miles on a single charge (it takes around four hours to juice the battery) and has all sorts of fabulous extras, such as an in-car heating system, electric brakes, gel-filled tires and lowrider-tastic neon lights.

The Dream Car cost the Zanises $60,000 in supplies, and who knows how many hours of their time. Now looking for financial backers, he says he needs $40,000 to build a Mark 2 prototype, and aims to get its range up to 500 miles. [Dream Car and YouTube via Treehugger]

Paranoid Home Owners Waging War on City-wide Wi-Fi

Louis Ramirez — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:09:39 EST

If New York got city-wide Wi-Fi, I'd be the happiest cat in town, which is why I don't get the people behind the Healthy Home Alliance in Naperville, IL. They're actually trying to shut down the city's attempts at blanketing the town with Wi-Fi. According to the HHA, "Wi-Fi transmitters function at 2.45 GHz, which is like being surrounded by a microwave oven without walls or doors." If that's the case, microwave me all you want. This is just as ridiculous as that Brit author who claimed she was prodded by her routers. – Louis Ramirez

Wi-Fi Killed My Baby! [Broadband Reports]