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Thursday, February 25, 2010

"Death is a warm cloak. An old friend. I regard death as something that comes up on a roulette wheel every once in a while."
Gram Parsons, July 1973.

Not "We'll sweep out the ashes in the morning" but still awesome.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010


“In the quest to dispose of nuclear waste, the government and private companies have disregarded and broken treaties, blurred the definition of Native American sovereignty, and directly engaged in a form of economic racism akin to bribery,” says Bayley Lopez of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He cites example after example of the government and private companies taking advantage of the “overwhelming poverty on native reservations by offering them millions of dollars to host nuclear waste storage sites.”

When one considers the advantages of algal fuel, it’s a wonder it came so late to the alternative energy mix. The humble, one-celled organisms that compose algae are extremely efficient at converting sunlight to energy. Where corn ethanol produces about 250 gallons of fuel per acre per year and sugar cane produces 450 gallons, algae could yield more than 2,000 gallons.

And algae thrive on carbon dioxide (CO2), which means that cultivation can function like a sink to reduce greenhouse gases. Some imagine algae cultivation around coal plants, sucking up CO2 before it can begin its deadly journey into the atmosphere.

Algae can also remove nitrogen and phosphorus from rivers and lakes, and convert agricultural runoff into “a much cleaner product,” says Darzins.

There is one drawback, however: The effects of mass cultivation of genetically modified strains of algae are unknown. Darzins wonders about the “environmental impact of growing a certain species of algae” over thousands of square acres where it may release into the wild.

Electrical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have formed carbon molecules into tiny springs that store as much electricity as same sized lithium-ion batteries but can maintain a charge while dormant for years and work well in temperature extremes. Stanford University researchers have created ink made from carbon nanotubes that can be drawn onto paper where it serves as a high-capacity rechargeable energy storage medium. And University of Maryland scientists have created nanostructures able to store and transport power at 10 times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries.

Other technologies in development include batteries using zinc-air, lithium-air and other combinations of elements to provide longer run-times between recharges. Others still are working on prototype nuclear batteries, the trick being to make them small enough to be practical, let alone safe.

Of course, the accelerating growth of nanotechnology itself, which has not yet been thoroughly tested to evaluate potential down sides, has some health advocates worried. Animal studies have shown that some nanoparticles, if inhaled or ingested, can harm the lungs and also cross the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain from toxins in the bloodstream.

And then there are fuel cells, created in 1839 but only recently commercialized. Not batteries per se, fuel cells generate, store and dispense power by forcing a reaction between a fuel (hydrogen from water, methanol) and oxygen, creating usable non-polluting electricity. One major hurdle for fuel cell makers is making them small enough to be able to work in laptops and other small personal electronics.

Bloom Box
It has taken Bloom Energy ten years to develop the Bloom Box, and CEO K.R. Sridhar told 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl that he had originally developed the technology for NASA—with the aim of producing oxygen on Mars to make that planet habitable.
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Koobface don't mess about
.
Just like The Fifth Element.

Squeezed into an over-crowded Hong Kong where space is a luxury, this ultra hip 330 square foot apartment features a futuristic sliding wall system that creates up to 24 different room combinations.

The Cessna is a bit much.
Aliens sleep good up there.






























Shant we live like this.