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Arts and Literature have given us Soylent Green and
The Matrix, suggesting human bodies as raw material. Usually this makes people grimace and shiver. But in the Swedish town of Halmstad, it will soon make people warm and cozy. Halmstad officials required improvements at the local crematorium after environmental monitoring indicated too much smoke was going out the chimneys. After planning for the improvements started, well...one thing just lead to another. ...
Photo via prince_tigereye
We know that shade-grown coffee is much easier on the environment than sunny coffee plantations. They require less fertilizer, prevent soil erosion, require fewer or zero pesticides, the list goes on. NPR's Science Friday has a cool podcast up about how shade-grown coffee farms also help with the upkeep of biodiversity of the areas, with a higher number of native tree species flourishing in the areas....
Photo credit to
Willrad
Well folks, another basic function of life has now been taken away from us, as if we were stumps on a log not able to think and function for ourselves. But perhaps Ford is right. Maybe the public has forgotten the art of parallel parking......
When energy experts periodically promote
combined heat and power (CHP) (sometimes referred to as "cogeneration" or "district heating,") generally speaking, it '
don't get no respect.' This
needs to change, as CHP's potential to increase energy efficiency is very high; and the technology offers returns for investors and municipal taxpayers.
Perhaps CHP is commonly overlooked because it lacks novelty and is hard to explain in a sound-byte. Also, because the engineering and layout requirements for CHP often require collaboration among public and private sectors, the US media has no celebrity figure to characterize it with (like the
Pickens Plan does, for example). Finally, CHP historically has been more of a downtown thing, rarely found in the exurban setting. Hopefully with US President-elect being from Chicago, where there are plenty of CHP examples,
like this one, there will be a greater follow up. Look below for details....
After the Tesla Model S, Here Comes BYD's F3DM...
It was only a couple weeks ago that
BYD's F3DM plug-in hybrid went on sale in China. At that time, BYD still said it had plans to "bring the F3DM to the US in 2010", but that has now changed without much in the way of explanations. Read on for more....
The Amazing Shrinking car
It seems like Toyota has learned quite a bit from building the
Toyota iQ (follow link for photos), the "
Smallest Four-Passenger Car in the World". But the question really was, if they can fit 4 people in a car that small, how many people could they fit in a car that is still small, but slightly bigger.
It seems like we're getting an answer, because Toyota has unveiled in Japan a 7-passenger MPV that will be about the size of a Yaris (compact car)... Read on for more....
Image from Patent Application
EEStor may not be having much luck getting their ultracaps into cars, but Lockheed is working hard at getting them into your pants. They have made a patent application to build them into armoured clothing. According to
BariumTitanate, it is:
a new form of utility garment that includes body armor among other things. Specifically, the application discusses that the electrical energy storage unit "substantially conforms to an armour plate." The plate in turn may be "contoured to better fit a person wearing armor."
...
Image via
iGo
iGo Technologies provides solutions for charging up gadgets more efficiently by ditching standby power. They’re debuting a few more cool looking products at the upcoming CES. Read on for a glimpse of what tech we’ll get to see in just a couple weeks. ...
2008 was a banner year for green tech start ups. While the economy crashed, investments in clean technology stayed relatively strong. We're taking a look at the top techy start-ups to follow as the new year begins....
Photo credit: geishaboy500 @ Flickr
Here's a nice story, in the spirit of Christmas and the goodwill of man.
TechShop, in Menlo Park, Calif., is "a 15,000 square-foot membership-based workshop that provides members with access to tools and equipment, instruction, and a creative and supportive community" -- many readers will recognize that as a
product service system, or PSS, where you purchase the service of a product, rather than the product itself (learn what
makes a good PSS if you haven't heard of them before. Anyway, when TechShop first started, there was a concern that some of the tools available for use would follow their users home. The reality, as it turns out, is that the exact opposite is true. ...
John Laumer wrote earlier about shale oil in Colorado, that finding the energy to both heat oil shale to 700 degrees while simultaneously freezing the surrounding rock with 30 feet of ice was not a big problem, but finding the water to do it all is. But he forgets that
Science Will Save UsTM and that technology like the Big Squirt can easily shoot all the water they need down from the Great Lakes. ...
Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Solar-powered air conditioning just makes so much sense; it is usually hottest when the sun shines brightest. Now piano maker Steinway has installed an 80 ton absorption chiller that is powered by hot water from tracking solar panels. In the winter, the solar collectors provide water for heating.
...
Oil Shale Specimen. Image credit: Los Angeles Times, Michael Brands
One estimate has oil shale extraction needing 10 barrels of water per barrel of oil produced. And, with Colorado's proposed oil shale operations at full capacity, by mid-century, the industry could require as much as 14 times more power than currently generated by the state's largest power plant. These estimates are very imprecise, because the technology is unproven. You might wonder, "Why so much water and energy? And what do do about it?" See the illustration and answer below....
Photo credit
I'mClaude
Part of creating the ultimate sustainable planet will be our ability to find sustainable energy sources in a variety of means, such as
sunlight,
water flow,
wind, and yes, even rain. We are of course speaking of the kinetic energy which can be harnessed from rain, which up until a few months ago, was not being considered for use in a consumer product...
...
Filling the coal-fired stove in Sugarloaf, PA; Laura Pedrick for the NYT
The New York Times
covers the return of coal as a heating source in American houses.
Problematic in some ways and difficult to handle, coal is nonetheless a cheap, plentiful, mined-in-America source of heat. And with the cost of heating oil and natural gas increasingly prone to spikes, some homeowners in the Northeast, pockets of the Midwest and even Alaska are deciding coal is worth the trouble.
John Taplin noticed this in the same edition as Elisabeth Rosenthal's
article on passivhaus designs in Germany, and wondered:
Isn’t it rather embarrassing that we are falling back on 19th Century dirty technology while the Europeans are embracing 21st Century methods of keeping themselves warm?
...
Photo credit: keone @ Flickr
Broken bone? Soon, you'll be able to have the break superglued back together, all thanks to sandcastle worms and biomimicry. Researchers at the University of Utah have been inspired by the sea worms, who secrete their own natural glue that they use to build underwater houses; the researchers have been able to copy and synthesize the glue, and hope it can someday replace pins, screws and such in mending broken bones....
Graph from “Pocket World in Figures” via the Economist
This interesting graph from the 2009 "Pocket World in Figures" shows the level of computer ownership per person worldwide. It has some rather surprising results....
Does your college have a B.A. in Sustainability?
IPOS, the Intensive Program on Sustainability is an educational course on global sustainability in Asia. This course stared in 2004, looking at Asia as the key region in achieving global sustainability:
On one hand, solutions to Asia's regional problems are an essential requisite for global sustainability. On the other hand, Asian traditions and perspectives should be introduced to other parts of the world and contribute to global sustainability much more. IPoS is a challenge to develop an educational program that enables such goals.
A great way for students to get together to discuss important issues that will shape our future here in Japan, China, India - and a lot of other great places to live, if you are ready to make the leap....
photo: (CC) Gaetan Lee
I admit that this one isn’t the deepest piece of news out there, but I find it too funny (and somehow interesting) to pass up repeating.
The Guardian is reporting that
NASA wants its rubber duckies back. And if you happen to be a sailor, fisherman or cruise passenger in the Arctic could you please send any you find bobbing out at see back to them. Oh, there’s a $100 reward for the first person to find one.
That’s the funny part; this is how the US space agency lost 90 bathtub toys:...
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