Other than being some of the largest mammals in the seas, whales area also known for their “voices”. Call it the whale song, it’s true that the whales may sing to court mates but not only. The biggest Romeo of them all, is the humpback whale which is known to produce repetitious sounds at varying frequencies. That’s a whale song.

So exactly, why do whales sing?

To Find Juliette. Researchers think that the male humpback whales sing to impress their mates. It’s like a beautiful underwater serenade, that we humans call flirting. Usually, only male humpbacks learn to sing because they’re the ones going after the “ladies” - who expect to get found (kind of like humans, right?). And whale singers put the best on the table.

As a communication tool. Even though it’s assumed to have an important role in mate selection, the singing is not just to establish identity and dominance before mating. Recent studies concluded that whales use singing more like a general communication tool to keep communities together. And a good example is when migrating. Singing helps navigate new locales and keeps the group together. Scientists also call it echolocation. It’s the biological sonar of most whales.

Imagine yourself underwater, trying to say something to a fellow diver. Unless you have a microphone, you’ll definitely need to make some noise, right?

Now that you know why whales sing, think twice about whaling. It could be Romeo …

Original images courtesy of gwoodford and Peat Bakke

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Daimler’s F-Cell Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle was parked at the 2008 SF Auto Show this week when I attended. Other than Toyota’s Fuel Cell car, well half of it, this was as close as I had come to the car of the future. Meaning the hydrogen fuel cell car will always be in the future.

Based on an extended version of the current Daimler A-Class chassis, the F-CELL has a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cell that powers the vehicle and sports 72kW (97hp). Of course there’s also an electric motor that outputs 65kW (87 hp) an drives the front wheels. With two onboard hydrogen fuel tanks pressurized at 350 bar (5000 psi) Daimler’s F-CELL goes for 177 km (111 miles) and reaches a top speed of 140 kph (87 mph).

Nothing but water vapors for emissions and unlimited resource in hydrogen. All we need is the infrastructure to support refueling and orders to justify mass production to the point of bring the price per unit.

The cars ARE ready and they don’t look bad at all.

I saw the 100 MPG Toyota Prius - Plug-in Hybrid Conversion in SF. What can I say? It’s a Toyota. It’s a Prius. It’s a hybrid. It goes a long long way on at tank of gas. Our local cheap gas stand is selling at $1.99/gal. One hundred miles for $2.00.

My first car was a 1960 VW Beetle. It got about 20 mpg or so and I paid about 30 cents for a gallon of gas. If my math is right, then my VW Bug in 1972 went about as far on $2 as this Toyota does 36 years later. And we wonder why Toyota is making money hand over fist while GM and Ford and Chrysler have their hands out.

I am a little slow sometimes. Okay, a lot slow. I spotted an eBox at the SF Auto Show. I thought to myself, “This car sure looks like something to me.” Duh…it’s a modified 5-speed Scion xB wagon.

The way it works is after buying a Scion for $15K “engineers will remove the internal combustion engine and related components, and install AC Propulsion’s electric drive and battery system composed of more than 5,000 small cells.” The cost of the conversion is $55K. At that price, we wonder why people aren’t knocking down the doors.

I wonder how much it’d cost to make the car from scratch? Why can’t we be Earth-friendly without breaking the bank?

They stuck the weird cars in a room off to the side . No matter, I found them - the cars that are meant to be Earth friendly, because I went looking just for them. Hanging out in a room with other cars with signs saying they’ll go 100 miles on a gallon of gas was a VW Jetta that runs on Biodiesel/VegOil Conversion.

I reckon I can buy a log at Safeway and stick it in the tank or stop by McDonald’s and ask for their left over vegetable oil. Sounds reasonable to me. Now as long as nobody uses gasoline to fry eggs we’re good to go.

Regular readers here at Greenpacks will know that I am putting up a bunch of post/pics from my recent gallivant to the 2008 San Fran Auto Show.

There was more than one display that kind of caught my eye. I was looking for a green cars, eco-friendly cars, that sort of thing. Cadillac had a rotating display of its Luxury Escalade SUV stating it was confident enough to talk about fuel efficiency in the same sentence as luxury, SUV and big big car. And no Britney Spears …

They claim that the world’s first full-size luxury hybrid SUV, their 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, gets better mileage than the Mini-cooper. With a 332 hp V8 engine that generates 367 lb-ft of torque at 4,100 rpm they claim they seat more than 4 adults luxuriously and still get 20mpg … in the city!

But, what about all the hardware that went into making this monstrosity? Never mind that I suppose. At least, Cadillac is using the right buzzwords and aiming in the right direction, eh?

The 100-Mile-Range Triac was potted at the 51st Annual International Auto Show in San Francisco.

The vehicle is 100% electric, goes up to 80mph (needs the speed/power to go uphill said the sales dude), has a structural steel cage and has a 100 mile range in one charge. That’s enough to get me to San Francisco and back from San Jose, and I can take the highway, by myself, in the carpool lane … after I shell out $22,995.

The super speed tricycle has an automatic transmission, 30kW AC PMSM elecric motor, 288 Volt lithium 90amp-h batteries, remote control alarm system, 2-tone paint, is MP3/iPod ready, has custom floor mats and eco-leather seats as well as electric A/C.

Doing the green thing, I carpooled with my wife half way to San Francisco. From her office, I took the train. After that I walked to the Moscone Center to attend the 51st International Auto Show. Once I got my press pass (sorta - the guy in charge had no clue what was going on, so he just waved me through) I headed for the escalator.

At the bottom … the Smart Car. You know, the little guy where if you had a magnetic handle it could double as a suitcase. Put it neutral and pull it around.

Base price - $11K. A year ago, you had to pay double just to get on the list to buy one. Now they are sitting in a show room in SF, the pretty little girl says. I tend to think that if I went there, the sales dude would ask for more or tell me to put my name on a list. I didn’t bother to go the show room. I did get a good look at the inside of the car … the very inside … and the out. Some 45+mpg rating … and super safe. My wife and son are shopping for cars now. Maybe … just maybe …

I got to attend the 51st Annual Auto Show in San Francisco. I went for the intent of seeing what’s going on in the green world. Being in Northern California, I expected to see a whole lot more than I did. Still, I saw some. Some pics will follow in subsequent posts, including a $455,000 Porsche.

Here I discovered the reason why Toyota expects its version of the Fuel Cell vehicle to not only have zero emissions but also to get really really good mileage.

Take a look and see if you can figure out why, too.

Nuclear energy is not all that bad if you know how to tap into its vast potential in a proper fashion and if you can find the right way to dispose off the toxic waste. Even though it is not the ideal alternate energy source, it still is in a certain sense far better than fossil fuel.

Jordan is one of the driest countries on the planet and is so woefully short on energy resources that the nation imports 95% of all its energy needs. The tiny Arab state is now looking in a new direction as it signed a deal with China which allows it to develop nuclear power using its vast Uranium reserves.

The country’s 1.2 billion tons of phosphate reserves are estimated to contain 130,000 tons of uranium and the government intends to start mining the radioactive ore to fuel its first nuclear plant that will go online by 2015. By 2030, Jordan wishes to produce 30% of its energy needs from nuclear power.

With rich Uranium deposits and right technical help from China (wonder how right that is), Jordan will also use the power for a desalination process that will bring the much needed drinking water. While this is indeed a positive step forward, one hopes that Jordan uses its nuclear know-how judiciously.

I wonder if they considered a solar plant in Jordan. That would be much cleaner!

Image courtesy of Christopher Chan