| Razor Electric Punk bicycle/scooter
The pedalless Razor Electric Punk bicycle/scooter ($180) packs plenty of zip into 27 pounds of steel and lead-acid, rechargeable battery. Kids ages 7 and up (but under 120 pounds) can push off to walking speed, pull a little red handlebar switch, and then zoom past their buddies at up to 9 miles per hour. .
Biking becoming big in Blacksburg
It's OK to use this as an excuse to snuggle up to strangers on the Blacksburg Transit and blast the car heat on the commute to campus and around town. However, with spring in the near future, some are embracing the thriving biking scene in Blacksburg. "People don't realize how easy it is to get on a bike," said Yusef Messallam, senior electrical engineering major and founder of the Blacksburg Bicycle Cooperative. "You can do your grocery shopping, commute to work or to school, anything really." A recent push for Americans to reduce their ecological footprint has led many to pull out their bikes and commute. According to the Energy Information Administration, about 28 percent of energy Americans use goes into transportation, and biking instead of commuting is a step toward going green.
Boarder slapped with hefty fine for sidewalk skating
HAYWARD Mason Francouer would have had to be driving a car pretty fast to earn the kind of ticket he picked up last fall for riding through downtown on a skateboard. The 17-year-old's first brush with the law happened after school one day. He was rolling down a B Street sidewalk when a police officer on a bicycle pulled him over and fined him $560. "I was going like 3 miles an hour and, I don't know, I got a ticket. It was kind of lame," said Francouer, a shaggy-haired high school senior who has been plying downtown on wheels since seventh grade. His parents were infuriated by the ticket, and his father, electrician David Francouer, took several hours off work to join his son in court. "We just thought it was kind of bogus," the teen said. "I don't mess up the sidewalk.
Tian Liang pays for cashing in on fame
Tian Liang knows what it is like to be at the heart of China's secretive state-run sports sector. Plucked from the long-jump pit on the school playing fields of Chongqing at the age of 7 and sent to the swimming pool, he was carefully nurtured to become one of the country's most successful divers. During a 20-year career he won three world titles, 15 World Cups, two Olympic gold medals and a bronze. The 28-year-old also knows what it is like to be cast out of the system. Despite his two-medal haul in Athens in 2004, he was kicked off the national team in 2005 for endorsing everything from electric bicycles to seafood snacks. His coaches, who demoted him to a provincial team despite his continued superiority, said that he had been "violating team regulations concerning commercial activities ...
Design team taps WKU student
A college senior from Western Kentucky has been selected to work on a global design project to create a wind-powered water purifier to benefit impoverished areas that lack electricity. Zach Pearl, who is studying mechanical engineering at Western Kentucky University, is part of the five-member team contributing to the project from around the world. "Something like this could possibly be used where there isn't a safe source of drinking water," Pearl said. "This could save lives." The research is still in early stages, he said, but the group is using computer-generated conceptual drawings to examine the possibility of harnessing wind power. It's not Pearl's first attempt to design a water purification system. Last year he was part of a team that created a water purification system powered by pedals on a bicycle.
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