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The Science and Technology Thread
polaris_x
Posts: 13,559
I thought it would be good to share what's happening in innovation around the world ... partly because I believe that the solutions to many of our problems are already available and that moving towards these solutions is simply being blocked by self-serving interests ...
Net Zero House: This means that this house will consume as much energy as it produces. The beauty of this project is that it isn't some crazy looking house with millions of dollars pumped into it in the dessert in arizona. It's a suburban house in Toronto. The kind of house a lot of people already live in.
http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-p ... oring.html
Net Zero House: This means that this house will consume as much energy as it produces. The beauty of this project is that it isn't some crazy looking house with millions of dollars pumped into it in the dessert in arizona. It's a suburban house in Toronto. The kind of house a lot of people already live in.
http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-p ... oring.html
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An Electric Car For Wheelchair Users
For years, big, expensive converted minivans have been the norm in transportation for wheelchair users. Environmental responsibility hasn't always been the biggest priority. Luckily, a Hungarian company called Rehab Ltd. has developed the Kenguru, an electric car designed specifically for the disabled.
The vehicle has no side doors; instead the driver rolls in through a rear hatchback and over an automatically lowering ramp. The car is 85 inches long and 61 inches wide and has a range of about 35 miles at a top speed of 25 miles per hour.
Unfortunately, the vehicle hasn’t made it stateside yet, but it’s getting closer. Kenguru UK in England is launching this summer, and the company plans expansion to the U.S. in the near future, according to Green Car Journal.
Read more: http://www.utne.com/2008-07-24/Science- ... z26MTxlRJi
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://www.cxcsimulations.com/?gclid=CKzyyKzpsrICFahaMgodXBIAnA
Can anyone loan me $90K so I can get one? :P
You would never leave the house again.
That's incredible!
http://www.forbes.com/special-report/20 ... ience.html
Imagine if we expended the effort we put into celebrity worship, shopping, and boob tube viewing into science, medicine, and innovation!!!
http://www.wheels.ca/news/volvos-road-t ... he-future/
According to Volvo, some spiffy new driver technology is all set to reduce car crashing while also improving fuel efficiency. The Swedish car company said the innovation could be implemented within the decade – in Europe, at least.
Volvo said that its three-year project has seen the development of the next step in autonomous driving technology, or what might be better described as a different step. Since 2009, Volvo Car Corporation has declared itself the driving force behind the EU-funded SARTRE project (Safe Road-Trains for the Environment), bringing vehicle “platooning” technology one step closer to becoming a reality on Europe’s roads.
“Platooning” refers to a technology-assisted train of individual cars set to tailgating each other in a synchronized convoy that, thankfully, features computer-assisted diligence.
The technique aims to improve safety, efficiency, mileage, and travel time while also relieving traffic congestion and decreasing pollution.
Basically, it allows drivers of appropriately appointed passenger cars to join a “road train.” While that may sound like a 19-car pile-up waiting to happen, the train is led by a professional driver, and each car’s onboard computer measures the distance, speed and direction and adjusts to the car in front.
Volvo further explains that each vehicle remains self-reliant and can leave the procession at any time. However, once in the platoon, drivers can surrender control, relax, read a book, and do some work or absolutely nothing while the entire platoon proceeds towards its destination.
SARTRE is described as the only project of its kind to focus on the development of technology that can be implemented on conventional motorways without any change to current infrastructure.
Ironically, Sartre is also the name of a rather famous existentialist, Jean-Paul, whose philosophical thrust was that “people are condemned to be free.” Just saying.
Volvo Car Corporation predicts this type of technology will create significant improvements to traffic flow and journey times, as well as environmental benefits with energy saving potential of up to 20 per cent on journeys.
SARTRE asserts there are other significant safety benefits as well. For example, though fatalities due to car crashes in Europe have decreased over the last decade, a recent report revealed the EU’s roads saw over 30,000 fatalities in 2011. More than none, in other words.
Volvo has already made the improbable pledge that by 2020, it will have eliminated deaths or serious injuries in new Volvo cars, but adds the technology developed as part of the SARTRE project is helping to bring the company one step closer to recognizing its enchanting ambition.
The long-term vision of the SARTRE project in general, meanwhile, has been to create a transport system where booking, joining and exiting a road train will be a smoother experience than leaving your car behind and using public transport on long distance trips. With this latest demonstration of the technology on the road, the next stage is pressing for legislation to allow the technology to be employed as a matter of course.
“This technology is a promising example of an innovative approach to making transport greener, safer and smarter,” declared Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research and Innovation said. The commission has proposed a budget of nearly 7 billion euro for smart, green and integrated transport research for the “Horizon 2020″ programme.
That's awesome, and actually pretty necessary so those in wheelchairs can have more independence.
another example of why we don't need oil now ...
I always hate it when I buy something and half the packaging is Styrofoam.
most companies should have moved away from styrofoam by now ... but either way - the packaging of shit is ridiculous ...
http://www.thestar.com/business/article ... free-paper
Sixteen years ago actor Woody Harrelson decided to climb the Golden Gate Bridge with a bunch of environmental activists to protest the logging of redwood forests in Northern California.
The two-time Academy Award nominee thought it was pure craziness that, as a society, we’re fine with cutting down trees just so we can make products—namely paper—that are used once and then just tossed away as trash.
Since then, it has been Harrelson’s dream to find an economical, efficient and eco-friendly way to make paper that doesn’t rely on wood pulp.
“Maybe my name should have tipped me off to what my future would be,” the actor joked earlier this month during a phone interview from Atlanta, where he’s currently shooting the sequel to The Hunger Games.
“If you think about it, over half of all paper used is just used temporarily,” he explained, adding that much of it comes from ancient and threatened forests, including Canada’s boreal forest. “I’d like to see that changed.”
Harrelson, in fact, is more than just seeing that change. As co-founder of Canadian cleantech venture Prairie Pulp & Paper, he’s helping to lead it. The Winnipeg-based company has developed a cost-competitive approach to making paper out of wheat straw – the stuff that farmers often burn as left-behind field waste.
To Harrelson’s delight, Prairie P&P is starting to get some serious commercial traction after 14 years of working to perfect its patented recipe and process. In August, for example, the company’s “Step Forward Paper” – a mix of 80 per cent wheat straw and 20 per cent Forest Stewardship Council-certified sustainable wood – hit the shelves in Staples Canada stores as part of a partnership with environmental group Canopy.
Its next challenge was to show the broader marketplace the degree to which its paper is more sustainable. Earlier this year, the company commissioned a lifecycle environmental impact study from carbon management firm Offsetters.
The final report, publicly released today, found that the process of making Prairie P&P’s straw paper consumes on average half the energy as paper made from 100 per cent virgin wood. At the same time, it emits at least 40 per cent less greenhouse-gas emissions.
On most metrics – energy use, wastewater production, and emissions – it also beat paper made of 30 per cent recycled materials by a significant margin. Only 100 per cent recycled paper came close to matching the straw paper’s environmental footprint.
“In and of itself this product sets a new eco-standard for paper,” Jeff Golfman, co-founder and president of Prairie P&P, said in a recent interview.
So how did a famous Hollywood actor with the name Woody end up becoming the co-founder of a Manitoba company trying to reduce our use of wood? The seed of the venture was planted in 1998 when Harrelson began researching the market.
“I had a meeting with this engineer who is very knowledgeable about the making of non-wood pulp and paper mills,” Harrelson recounted. “I asked him who was the closest to making this happen in North America. He turned me on to Jeff.”
The engineer, it turned out, was working for Golfman, who had been travelling the world assembling a team of technical folks capable of making good on his own straw paper vision.
Golfman, an honours graduate in business administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business, is a self-described environmentalist and eco-entrepreneur who 20 years ago developed the Blue Box recycling program for the City of Winnipeg. After that, he started a company that manufactures “sweat shop free” furniture before moving on to tree-free paper.
“Woody heard about what I was up to,” recalled Golfman. “And literally 24 hours later I was on the phone with him chatting about it.” Two weeks later he was on a plane to Boston to meet Harrelson in person, and 48 hours after that they shook on a deal.
Harrelson became one of the company’s main investors. “We’ve been business partners ever since,” said Golfman, adding that funds have also been received through the federal and Manitoba governments, as well as Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
Harrelson, who in 2009 received an honorary degree from York University for his contributions to environmental education, described their first meeting as a “great talk” that convinced him of Golfman’s commitment to the project. “I could just tell with his energy and positivity that he was the guy who could move this paper forward.”
And move it forward he has. The company is working exclusively with a pulp and paper mill in India that has so far produced 40 million sheets of Step Forward Paper, which looks and feels just like any other printer-quality paper on the market.
Golfman’s plan over the next five years is to build a production facility in Manitoba capable of making paper that is 95 per cent wheat straw and 5 per cent flax, both of which would be sourced locally from the Canadian prairies.
At the same time, the company aims to build awareness of the product throughout Canada and the United States over the next two years, eventually moving into Central and South America. The Canadian facility will serve those regions, while the mill in India will continue to supply Asian, African and European customers.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Golfman.
Harrelson is hyped about the prospect of seeing paper come from farmers, not forests. “To me this is a big one,” he said. “This one has been a long-term dream and I’m excited about where it’s at right now.”
And he gives due props to his Canadian partner. “It’s incredible how far Jeff has come with this.”
If I donate 5 bucks to the cause, can I come over and play?
Wow that thing looks like a lot of fun, and that looks like a Gilles Villeneuve Ferrai on the left of the screen!
Wild!
q
solar is only getting cheaper and cheaper and will soon surpass coal and natural gas in price ...
http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqINWDYNR6l0A5XT7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBvcTJzcm5xBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDVjEzMQ--?p=nano+helicopters&vid=621671740056e45e6f2749299cb8599b&l=1%3A43&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DV.4561599883379332%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAiCFtmdrvHM&tit=Nano+Quadcopter+Robots+swarm+video&c=1&sigr=11auoq7k3&age=0&fr=yfp-t-900&tt=b
Hail, Hail!!!
it's like video games
they just flew a plane from san francisco to phoenix on SOLAR power ... ya - it took 18 hrs but this is clearly an indication that any notion that we are totally reliant on oil continues to look more and more archaic ... don't let the oil companies brainwash you anymore than they have ... we haven't needed the shit in a long time ...
This is good! Thanks for posting it polaris_x
We would do well to be wary of the various reports we hear about how fossil fuels are still plentiful. Take methane hydrates for example. You may read about how plentiful this fuel is but dig a little deeper and you'll find that, like tar sands, this is yet another act of desperation to keep the fossil fuel dinosaur alive. Fracking, methane hydrates, tar sands, "clean" coal- all desperate acts to resist the changes away from fossil fuels we will have to face while, in the meantime, we continue to heat up the climate with carbon emissions. The fossil fuel industry continues to go to great lengths to keep the wool pulled over our eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vxTh2eeOMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlnzcZj_rqU
and very cool,
Godfather.
A pocket of water some 2.6 billion years old the most ancient pocket of water known by far, older even than the dawn of multicellular life has now been discovered in a mine 2 miles below the Earth's surface.
The finding, announced in the May 16 issue of the journal Nature, raises the tantalizing possibility that ancient life might be found deep underground not only within Earth, but in similar oases that may exist on Mars, the scientists who studied the water said.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/ ... z2TTXrVAFJ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlnzcZj_rqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vxTh2eeOMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1IAvoPQPYY
Star Wars creator Lucasfilm tells the manufacturer of controversial Pro Arctic Laser that it will not proceed with legal action against the company.
When it comes to the wicked Spyder III Pro Arctic laser, described by the manufacturer as the "most dangerous laser ever created" and by others as something of a lightsaber, Lucasfilm, creator of "Star Wars," seems to have experienced a script change.
Enthusiasts of bellicosity might recall that Lucasfilm recently sent a cease and desist letter to Wicked Lasers, suggesting that its product was not only dangerous but also a little too similar to Luke Skywalker's weapon.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20012533-71.html
(They cost under 600 USD)
It's proven a car can be powered with fuel made from corn.
This fuel, is consumable to humans. The Government can't sell it fully because so many peeps will be trashed on $3.29 for a gallon. Humans will always need fossil fuels. In the same way we keep buying diamonds.
It's a clear rock?! Some alternate fuels are too combustible, and the electric things still suck power. Solar power won't charge in the dark. Reliable, Dependable or Reasonable... Oil is all of these.
We need more dinosaur goo...
It's a no winner type of situation.
The Inventor of the Segway died 2 years ago... he drove his Segway off a cliff.
It's EVOLUTION. Survival of the fittest. Or Darwin was an idiot.
4,000 miles per hour!?? ... NY to LA in 45 minutes? ...
I saw that...So badass.
official presser is at 4:30 pm EST today ...