Manually operated windshield wiper

(FoxNews) – The reign of the windshield wiper could be coming to an end.

The McLaren automobile company is working on a vibrating windscreen
designed to clear away water and debris,

McLaren chief designer Frank Stephenson says the design is based on
fighter plane technology that uses high frequency sound waves to repel
rain, bugs and other potential obstructions.

The windshield wiper was invented in 1903, and the concept has changed
very little since its introduction.

Originally a hand-cranked device, electric motors were soon added, but
major advancements since have been limited to intermittent systems and
rain-sensing capabilities, none of which has affected the basic idea of the
wiper blade itself.

By removing traditional wipers, the aerodynamics of a vehicle can be greatly 
improved and its weight reduced.

But while it sounds very advanced, one expert tells the Times that it could
require only a small transducer to send 30 kHz sound waves across the
glass and cost as little as $15 per car.

No word on when it will be put into production, or details if it would work
effectively at low speeds or just on the highway and racetracks, but the
first cars that use it aren’t likely to be cheap.

McLaren’s current lineup of supercars runs from around $230,000 to
$1.15 million, although it is working on one said to be in the $125,000
range.

Mary Anderson (1866- 1953)

The Inventor is credited with devising the first
operational windshield wiper in Nov. of 1903. 

                Joan Fontaine (Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland) 
                        (22 October 1917 − 15 December 2013)

CARMEL, Calif.(AP) –  Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine has died
at the age of 96.

Longtime friend Noel Beutel says she died in her sleep in her Carmel
home Sunday morning.

Fontaine won an Academy Award as a naive wife in Alfred Hitchcock’s
thriller "Suspicion" and also starred in Hitchcock’s "Rebecca," which won
the Oscar for best picture. Her other films included "The Women," `’Jane
Eyre" and "Born to be Bad."

Fontaine was the sister of fellow actress Olivia de Havilland.

1940

Peter Seamus Lorcan O’Toole (2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013)

LONDON (AP) –  Peter O’Toole, the charismatic actor who achieved instant
stardom as Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and was nominated eight times for an
Academy Award, has died.

O’Toole died Saturday after a long illness, according to his agent Steve Kenis
in a brief statement Sunday. 

   Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013)

LOS ANGELES (AP) –  Actress Eleanor Parker, a three-time Oscar
nominee who played the scheming baroness in "The Sound of Music,"
has died at age 91.

Family friend Richard Gale said Parker died Monday morning due to
complications from pneumonia.

Gale told The Associated Press the actress "passed away peacefully,
surrounded by her children at a medical facility near her home in Palm
Springs."

The red-haired actress had best-actress Oscar nominations in 1951
and 1952 for her roles as a prison inmate in "Caged" and as Kirk
Douglas’ frustrated wife in "Detective Story."

Her third nomination was for the challenging role of polio-stricken opera
singer Marjorie Lawrence in "Interrupted Melody."

The 1965 "Sound of Music," in which her character loses Christopher
Plummer to Julie Andrews, was her last major film role.

Eleanor Parker in Naked Jungle (1954)

Bob Dylan “went electric” when he plugged in his Fender Strocaster guitar for the
first time at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. The guitar was sold Friday at auction
for a record $965,000. It had been in the possession of a New Jersey family for 
nearly 50 years. Dylan left it on a private plane piloted by the owner’s late father.

Five lots of hand- and typewritten lyric fragments found inside the guitar case were
also sold.

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