Looks like the glass spray I described in “Get Ready To Eat and Wear Glass” is being joined by “hairy surfaces” in the war against consumable toxic cleaning products.
The first description of the invention I read was a Slashdot post, “New “Hairy” Material Is Almost Perfectly Hydrophobic.”
According to the Science Daily article being quoted, “Water […]
Bill Gates was in the news a few weeks back taking climate change deniers to task.
I must admit I lean to the skeptical side myself. I’m for off-grid power for reasons such as the probable coming oil famine and hyperinflation. But I don’t have the expertise and inclination to go on a crusade on either […]
DVD at Amazon
From Kurzweil AI comes a summary of a Physorg report that must be read completely about Turkish scientists creating a revolutionary glass spray that promises to “make cleaning obsolete” and even serve as a non-toxic barrier to pests for food crops.
“The liquid glass coating is breathable, which means it can be used on […]
I’ve heard the Lifesaver bottle advertised on The Survival Podcast, but was not excited about it until I saw this TED Talk video from 2009 of Lifesaver’s inventor and CEO Michael Pritchard’s presentation at Oxford, England.
The Lifesaver system filters out contaminants larger than 15 nanometers. It’s 100% effective against the 25 nanometer sized polio virus […]
A recent WorldChanging article, which came to my attention in this TreeHugger article, complains about the alleged “Dark Side of Transition Thinking,” and thus bashes a growing movement active throughout the world.
The author, Alex Steffen, wrote in “Transition Towns or Bright Green Cities?” that “All over the world, groups of people with graduate degrees, affluence, […]
Conscientious Projector is hosting a free showing of Dirt the Movie in Tustin, CA this weekend (Sun., Nov. 9, 5 pm), which I plan to attend.
Here’s the Soul at Home location website with the Tustin address if you’re nearby and want to see the film.
There will also be a showing Wed., Nov. 18, 2009 […]
www.veggievan.org
According to a Houston Business Journal story, “Rice report weighs biofuels and water resources,” as the title suggests, Rice University released a report, “The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue?.”
While petroleum and nuclear are shown in the report to use a few hundred liters per defined energy unit, irrigated corn and soybean […]
After catching up on an old Eco-Tech episode on my DVR, I was inspired to link to new media clips about the “Garbage Into Gold” company TerraCycle.
Products include Worm Poop fertilizer and eco friendly Fire Logs from a biodiesel process byproduct, some garbage, with each log wrapped in used newspapers as part of the […]
An ARS Technica article titled “Google: 15,000 searches = 1 cheeseburger (hold the fries)” discusses the problems of Google’s analysis of the energy used to produce its internet search results, but otherwise praises the educational value of its Clean Energy information page.
“Early this year, a newspaper story made the rounds when, after extrapolating from some […]
LifeHacker has a story about Kamal Meattle’s TED talk video on three common houseplants that clean indoor air.
Some wit remarked at the YouTube video page that a simpler way is to open the window. But seriously, if you’re in the bowels of a high rise cube farm, there ain’t no stinkin’ window.
And at a place […]
YouTube video of SolTrekker RV tour in Portland, Oregon on Earth Day, 2009, according to the video description at the creator’s channel.
The green SolTrekker RV uses photovoltaics, contains no PVC, burns biodiesel but no petroleum or propane, and of particular interest on Thirst Day, collects rainwater and has a super insulated solar water heating system.
ARS Technica had some rare good news about the state of the sea in an article titled Ocean conservation success stories.
“(Some) good news does exist, though, which is important for those working in the field, according to Dr Nancy Knowlton, one of the session’s moderators. As Knowlton put it, students aren’t interested in “writing ever-more […]
The Simpsons MovieAbby Cohn at Berkeley Innovations describes a test by the City of San Francisco to convert brown grease, which normally plugs up sewer pipes, into biodiesel in an item titled From Bacon To Biofuel.
Innovations is the website of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, hence the plugs for its alumni in the article.
” […]
BBC News website’s Environment correspondent, Richard Black, reported an example of a bleak world situation, where “For nearly one billion people, clean drinking water is still a mirage,” in an article titled “Where clean water is a pipedream”.
If you want a graphic demonstration of the health impacts of poor drinking water, look no further than […]
Wildman Steve Brill
A Slashdot post reports that Space Energy, Inc. claims to have a rock solid business model for their plan to beam down power via microwaves from solar energy collectors in space. I’ll get to survivalism and foraging in a minute, stay with me.
In a page linked from that article, at Universe Today, “aerospace […]
Kurzweil AI post.
The supreme Chancellor says he loves democracy and will give power back to the Old Republic. Oh wait, this isn’t Star Wars, Sarah Connor, or Battlestar. This is real life.
Ray Kurzweil is the Chancellor of a new interdisciplinary college called Singularity University.
“The Singularity University aims to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of […]
Mother Earth News reports that a DIY homebrew car, “MAX Wins 800-mile Race, without Gas.”
The challenge was to drive from Berkeley to Las Vegas without using petroleum based fuel, and without buying any fuel directly. This is a step in the MAX team’s attempt to win the $10 million automotive X-Prize for a 100 MPG […]
http://www.worldwater.org
Times Online UK story, “Ecologists warn the planet is running short of water” references a Pacific Institute press release about their most recent publication, The World’s Water 2008-2009.
The WorldWater.org site has plenty of excerpts and data charts to illustrate their “peak water” scenario. The following is from the introduction to The World’s Water 2008-2009:
“In many […]
Here’s a searchable directory of bike co-ops from bikecollectives.org. They even had an exhibit in Las Vegas at the bicycle industry’s trade show, Interbike.
One of the listings led me to the following about a Bike Over Borders conflict:
“. . .we learned first hand that the policies of “free trade” are made for corporations, not for […]
BBC reports that the SeaGen tidal power generation project has reached its full power goal in a system test on December 18th. A Belfast Telegraph article headline proudly proclaims its local achievement “Northern Ireland tidal turbine breaks world energy record”.
Also, a front page item on Digg links to a CleanTechnica blog post titled “SeaGen Shatters […]
From the UK’s Isle of Wight comes this Ventnor Permaculture post about making your own Laundry Gloop. The author, Angie, explains why in this excerpt:
“. . .laundry products are often the worst in health terms as they are in constant contact with your skin. I have been making and using Laundry Gloop for years as […]
I’ve been on the road helping a friend move his stuff from the house he sold in Culver City, CA to his new home in Pahrump, NV. But while I haven’t posted here for a week, I have been taking notes about all things sustainable.
The first item is the most recent. During yesterday’s Ed Schultz […]
This Oregonian article about Ty Adams describes his conversion of a recreational vehicle into a sustainability demonstration.
“It runs on biodiesel, has solar panels for its electricity and hot water, a composting toilet and channels to catch rainwater.”
See Ty’s website at SolTrekker.org or watch his SolTrekker Intro video (also embedded below) and see the Portland TV […]
VaPooRizer.Com
Front page Digg item about a new garbage treatment plant that uses plasma to vaporize trash while generating energy.
But where does the poo go?
Excerpt from the inhabitat story linked from Digg:
“Recently St. Lucie County in Florida announced that it has teamed up with Geoplasma to develop the United States’ first plasma gasification plant.
The plant will […]
After reading an article about a new Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) initiative, I thought back to the off-grid Seasteading project, started by one of PayPal’s founders.
In their new book in progress, Seasteading: A Practical Guide to Homesteading the High Seas, by Patri Friedman, Wayne Gramlich, and Andrew House, under a section called “Technological […]
You can greatly exceed the $1 per watt price of new wind power systems by building your own homebrew wind turbine generator. [Update: I really meant that you can get the same value for a fraction of the price, but you probably understood that anyway. Typical small scale retail systems are more like $4 per […]
Great photos from the opening of Josh Tickell’s award winning documentary film, Fuel, may be seen at The Fuel Film website. The FAQ page introduces a variety of alternative energy methods and their advantages.
The trailer for Fuel’s previous incarnation as Fields of Fuel is no longer available, but unless I’m misunderemembering, the new one takes […]
Professor Marc A. Baldo in video in which he explains a new window building material that is tolerant of defects (unlike today’s photovoltaic cells), should be inexpensive to make, and is expected to double the efficiency of solar electric systems because it concentrates sunlight at any angle towards its edges, thus does not need sun […]
In an email message titled “watch the two videos,” Geo. McCalip wrote:
“The Algae Bioreactor Video and the HDVG Video are about 2/3 of the way down the page.”
“http://www.valcent.net/s/Home.asp”
This Google Video of a 22 minute Bloomberg interview with the Valcent founder back in June might be more accessible to various media players.
The vertical growth bioreactors […]
A Kurzweil AI report (with photo) of an article from New Hampshire’s Union Leader tells of Segway (and more successful projects) inventor Dean Kamen’s new role in automobile manufacturing.
The Stirling cycle is an external combustion design, has safety, efficiency, and energy source flexibility advantages over traditional internal combustion engines. Stirlings aren’t as susceptible to altitude […]
J. Kent Hastings
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