New research from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands suggests that Dutch dog food company “Energique”:http://www.energique.nl/content/index_act_en.asp?lang=en has eliminated the waste from dog food. Apparently the all-meat diet is absorbed almost completely by the dog, leaving a “a smell-free dry pellet that can be picked up by hand in a tissue” and little more. As if it couldn’t get any more unnatural, Enerqigue will also reduce the amount of times a dog has to drop one from three times a day to once a week.
Thanks to Regina’s “del.icio.us feed”:http://del.icio.us/regine#2007-04-13 once again for another intriguing story.
Tag Archives: technology
Ever wanted to know how to power your moon colony?
My good friend Mike McCambridge (second from the right in the picture below), a senior at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, has been working with several peers on an amazing senior capstone project: designing a power plant that takes advantage of the moon’s particular thermodynamic characteristics in order to generate power.
The basic idea involves using a large, reflective panel to collect solar energy, heating a fluid to great temperatures, and transmitting the heated fluid to power a turbine. The group traveled to Huntsville, Alabama to speak with scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and trade ideas about the particulars of such a system.
Read more about this project “here”:http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=590355. It is amazing what brilliant projects and ideas can be generated even by undergraduate research.
Roomba TV
Roomba, autonomous vacuum cleaner and primary reason to hate everything about American society. These little suckers are just plain odd, and so is this. An overenthusiastic Roomba owner has attached a spy cam to the front of his which can be found streaming live vacuum-packed action “here”:http://www.vacuumcleanerlive.com/. Obviously most of the time the stream shows nothing but wall as the Roomba recharges, so he has also put up these “older videos”:http://www.vacuumcleanerlive.com/video.htm/. Thank God for the free market.
X Prize for auto efficiency
The “X Prize Foundation”:http://xprize.org has announced a new competition to achieve automotive efficiency. Arguing that competition breeds success and citing Lindbergh’s prize-winning trans-Atlantic flight, the X Prize foundation shocked the world with the original “Ansari X Prize for space flight”:http://www.xprize.org/xprizes/ansari_x_prize.html by making space tourism a reality. Now it seems the group’s target is more terrestrial with the multi-million dollar prize going to the first group that can make a car that, among many other things, gets 100 miles per gallon. Read the full list of “guidelines”:http://auto.xprize.org/xprize/guidelines.html if you’re interested.
Originally found through “this article”:http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006420.html at “World Changing”:http://www.worldchanging.com
Greenpeace releases latest "green electronics" rankings
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/chinese-company-tops-greenpeac the third in the series, represents the good side of one the ugliest businesses for the environment. Electronics are some of the more environmentally destructive products consumed in this world, full of toxic chemicals and harsh non-biodegradable plastics. Realizing that our appetite for the latest and greatest isn't going to just go away, Greenpeace has put together this consumer guide based on simple rankings addressing the way technology companies deal with the waste they produce.
It should be noted that Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo has the highest ranking while uber-chic Apple maintains its last place standing. If you are an Apple user and you'd like Steve Jobs and co. to do something about making Apple more green, check out the "Green My Apple campaign.":http://www.greenpeace.org/apple/
Further reading can be found at the Greenpeace site "here":http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-up or you can read the full reports from this and the previous two evaluations "here.":http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/guide-to-greener-electronics
On The Path to Universal Blood
It used to be the case that in the event of needing a blood transfusion you could only get specific types of blood. For certain people that could be a worse thing than others, but it could all be a thing of the past thanks to scientists at the University of Copenhagen led by Henrik Clausen. The Danish team have developed a way to scrub the antigens (sugars that give blood its “type”) from blood cells, effectively transforming it into the universally-accepted type “O”. The process uses two enzymes, one of which is found in the human gut and the other commonly causes opportunistic infection.
??The A and B antigens, which give blood groups their name, are sugars carried on the surface of red blood cells. Human red blood cells can carry one of these antigens, both, or neither; giving four blood groups: A, B, AB and O, respectively.??
For more about this amazing discovery, read this “article”:http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11508&feedId=online-news_rss20 in the “New Scientist”:http://www.newscientist.com/ . Credit goes to the “American Red Cross”:http://www.givebloodredcross.org for the blood-type chart used above.
French Shatter High-Speed Record for Trains w/ Wheels
A modified TGV (Train de Grande Vitesse / Train of Great Speed) with two engines called the V150 attained a record speed of 581 km/hr (361 mph) on the run between Paris and Strasbourg. The record for all trains belongs to the mag-lev trains of Japan. Of course, none of this helps me get to Spain any faster as there are no direct connections between the countries owing to a difference in rail gauges.
A “BBC article”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6521295.stm with the same AFP photo.
A Custom Network for Everyone
 take 5% of the revenue. In addition to the prospect of revenue sharing, Sonopia would appeal to potential clients by providing the opportunity to sell custom handsets and yet another way for non-profit groups to contact donors.
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http://www.sonopia.com/mvc/network/main.html?html=/mvc/network/start.html . A "Business Week":http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070402_894285.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily article on the company.
More Free Wireless Internet – In the Amazon!
“CNN reports today”:http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/03/30/amazon.internet.ap/index.html that Brazil is looking to use a satellite to project an internet signal to over 150 communities deep in the Amazon, many of which are accessible only by boat. Brazil intends to crack down on illegal logging in the Amazon by creating the opportunity for communities to report such activities via the internet. What a progressive way to address an environmental hazard that results in the “destruction of hundreds of square miles of rainforest”:http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html each year.
WiFi on the river Thames
Global Reach Group has entered the wireless internet game in a big way by making the whole of the London’s river Thames a giant hotspot. It’s a free project and is available to absolutely anyone with a wireless device and £2.95/hour, £5.95/day or £9.95/month. Admitting that one can’t really make much bob providing just wireless access, the mesh network is also providing service to CCTV networks, river traffic regulators and emergency services. The network currently runs along the river and its banks all the way from the Millennium Dome at Greenwich in the east to the Houses of Parliament in the west. That’s most of downtown London covered by one provider!
“Link”:http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2007/gb20070329_814918.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily to Business Week article.