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Incandescents may not become obsolete after all
June 14th, 2009
pimg height=183 src=http://l.yimg.com/a/feeds/us/grn/green_ecogeek/incandescent.jpg width=468 //ppWith all the new developments in a href=http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2683/74/CFL/a, a href=http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2520/74/LED/a and a href=http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2045/74/HID/a technology and the fact that a href=http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2212/74/countries are lining up to ban them/a, it’s seemed certain that incandescents are on a death march. But wait! What if traditional bulbs could be made just as efficient as CFLs and keep their cheap price tag?/ppThat’s what scientists at the University of Rochester have discovered is possible and, yes, it involves lasers. A team of researchers have come up with a process that makes a 100-watt bulb consume less energy than a 60-watt bulb by creating nano- and micro-scale structures on the tungsten filament. The structures make the tungsten more effective at radiating light and the bulb much more efficient./ppThe structures are made on the filament by an ultra-intense femto-second laser pulse that lasts only quadrillionths of a second. The power of that minute burst of laser is equivalent to the entire grid of North America, yet the laser can be powered by a wall outlet, meaning implementing these lasers into manufacturing should be a simple task./ppThe process can be used not only to make the light brighter, but to also change the hue of the light by manipulating those nano-structures. If this process is commercialized, all those who want the efficiency of CFLs, but hate the color and price could finally have their perfect bulb.br /br /
via a href=http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3385University of Rochester/a/p
Global warming fraud
June 14th, 2009
The sudden abnormal change of climate is keeping the attention of the media and even the political grounds at a constant pace. This phenomenon called global warming is described as the sudden increase above the average temperature of the planet’s surface air. But there have been some glitches in the studies leading to the Kyoto Protocol, which in turn, created the idea of the global warming fraud.
Generally, the global warming has ill effects to the balance of nature like the sudden increase of sea level, extreme harshness of weather situations and may even affect the amount and pattern of rainfall. These abnormal complications in nature may lead to the extinction of the species and gradual glacier melting. But the misrepresented facts behind the growing global warming fraud has doubled because of the vague scientific definitions about the precise degree of the climate change that may pose threat in the future and how these changes will differ from every region in the globe. There has been an ongoing exchange of arguments in the political and public arena about the precise measures and actions to be taken to counter act the or in any way reverse the future global warming. While some scholars propose to simply deal and adapt to the consequences of the phenomenon, the governments from different countries have bonded and signed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This all the more created the malice behind global warming fraud because the war against the radical green has put into light the little attention the present environmentalist efforts actually contribute to the welfare of the environment itself. This simply concludes that the hysteria about the global warming effect is purely a political movement pushed by those who have self-seeking motives to manipulate the economic control of the world, to influence development and seek redistribution of the world’s wealth in general.
Global warming fraud is an example of an organized assault to the American people and the US economy. School for example have started to teach students about recycling; freon were stopped from manufacturing; the benefits of pesticides and similar stuff that keeps us safe from healthy are in the brink of being eliminated from the market. In general, everyone is being pressured to stick together in a single mold all because of one politicized lie that blinds us from the truth.
The case of global warming fraud over the issue becomes more apparent as scientists fail to provide concrete evidence that the world is truly warming up higher than the average temperature. In fact, a research conducted through the US satellites and the same balloon measurements has revealed that the temperature is actually cooling slightly and according to the pacing of Mother Nature.
The seven weirdest car fuels
June 14th, 2009
pThere’s no single answer to the fuel of the future, at least certainly not at this time. Part of the solution lies in reclaiming waste streams that now mostly end up in landfills. Some of these — like diapers — we don’t even want to think about, but it’s about time we did. And scientists are on the case, given the strange-but-true examples cited here./ppa href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/cellulosic-ethanol-47020701Cellulosic ethanol/a (made from sugar cane, wood waste or sweet sorghum) is probably the wave of the future, but here are some other ways we can — and probably will — make fuel from bio-materials./pp /ph2The really fast chocolate car/h2div class=image style=float:left;padding-right:8px;img alt=chocolate bio-racer height=175 src=http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/daily_green_driving/daily_green_driving-865607790-1244570258.jpg?ymSaDZBDkfJFgjFl width=300/br /em(Photo: Courtesy of University of Warwick)/embr /br //divpIs it possible to run a car on chocolate? Well, maybe not wholly on chocolate. /ppYour Hershey bar won’t get you home in an emergency, but a team from the University of Warwick in Britain a href=http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/an-eco-racecar-that-runs-on-chocolate/has built and is track-testing a Formula 3 race car/a, running on 30% biodiesel derived from chocolate waste. /ppThat’s not all; the steering wheel is partly made of carrots, and the mirrors and aerodynamic front wing are formed with potato starch and flax fiber./ppAccording to James Meredith, who heads the project at Warwick, Anything with a fat in it can be turned into diesel, and that’s what we’ve managed to do. The chocolate is waste from bad batches at Cadbury’s in nearby Birmingham. The researchers have managed to keep their fingers out of the chocolate vats. It’s waste, so I assume it’s no good to eat, Meredith said./pp /pp /ph2The coffee grounds car/h2div class=image style=float:right;padding-left:8px;img alt=coffee grounds height=212 src=http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/daily_green_driving/daily_green_driving-295690305-1244570258.jpg?ymSaDZBDnyV3A_ts width=300/br /em(Photo: Raychel Deppe / iStockPhoto)/embr /br //divpCoffee grinds are an unwanted waste product that fills up landfills and takes a long time to biodegrade. In Europe, however, household food scraps are considered a fuel source. /ppIn Germany and Switzerland, for example, a company collects and then ferments those scraps, producing both a natural gas fuel and compost. So could we actually power cars on biodiesel from coffee grounds? It’s a distinct possibility./ppYou know how coffee can sometimes look (and taste) slightly oily? That’s because it contains 10 to 15% of usable oil that can be refined into a biofuel. A study says a href=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/20/coffee-biofuel.htmlused cappuccino scraps can offset our imported oil/a — as much as 340 million gallons a year from the world’s 15 billion pounds of annual coffee production. /ppIt’s a simple two-step process, says Susanta Mohapatra, a University of Nevada, Reno, researcher who is a co-author of the study. Her team raided Starbucks to find the feedstock for the coffee fuel. We can definitely make a big impact on our environment with fuel made out of nature, she said./pp /pp /ph2The used diaper potential /h2pIt was bad enough when scientists figured out how to reclaim paper pulp from used disposable diapers, but they’re also saying they can make diesel fuel from them using a pyrolysis process. /ppA Canadian company called AMEC a href=http://www.thestar.com/article/271380is in the process of building a pilot plant in Quebec/a that will process the plastics, resins, fibers, and poop into a predictable mix of gas, oil, and char. /ppNow adult waste would work just as well, but we don’t collect it in handy sealed containers as we do baby waste. The great advantage, says AMEC, is that the raw material is not contaminated with anything else — it’s a rich, if aromatic, source of fuel. /ppThe company hopes to take in 180 million diapers a year — a quarter of Quebec’s output — to produce 11 million liters of diesel. Considering that diapers can take 100 years to decompose in a landfill, turning them into domestically produced fuel seems a good alternative./pp /pp /ph2Sawdust, wood chips, nuts?/h2div class=image style=float:right;padding-left:8px;img alt=sawdust height=235 src=http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/daily_green_driving/daily_green_driving-435105567-1244570259.jpg?ymTaDZBDFDISEGeT width=300/br /em(Photo: Max Blain / iStockPhoto)/embr /br //divpYes, we will soon be able to make gasoline — and diesel and jet fuel, too — a href=http://asiacleantech.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/japan-makes-biodiesel-fuel-from-grass-wood-chips/from everything from wood chips and sawdust to switchgrass/a. /ppCompanies around the country are doing this on an experimental basis, using a variety of methods, but the embryonic technology got a huge boost when the Obama administration a href=http://www.ngfa.org/print_this_article.cfm?story_id=http://www.ngfa.org/cache/story_40F817F4C646CA5B0760D7619F514936.htmlrevised the biofuel standards earlier this month/a to include a billion gallons of diesel fuel from biomass by 2022./ppBiomass gasoline won’t be much, if any, cleaner out of the tailpipe than current fuel, but when the lifecycle carbon reductions from growing the feedstock is taken into account, it’s a big winner./ppa href=http://www.allpowerlabs.org/ target=_blankAll Power Labs/a in Berkeley, California, is competing for the illustrious a href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/automotive-x-prize-contestants-461208Auto X Prize/a with a car that runs on wood chips. Specifically, we’re making carbon-negative, open-source fuel from basically garbage, says team member Tom Price. /ppThe process itself isn’t new: During World War II, when gasoline was unobtainable in Europe, there were more than a million cars using gasification technology — turning coal and wood chips into gas for internal-combustion engines. /ppPrice envisions using waste walnut shells, which normally release the potent greenhouse gas methane. We can crack the hydrogen out to run an Accord, Price says, then put the leftovers on the ground to grow more walnuts, which suck more CO2 out of the atmosphere, and the cycle continues./pp /pp /ph2Styrofoam cups in your tank?/h2div class=image style=float:left;padding-right:8px;img alt=styrofoam cup height=300 src=http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/daily_green_driving/daily_green_driving-429054399-1244570259.jpg?ymTaDZBDCF7gWT6q width=203/br /em(Photo: Ochelly)/embr /br //divpAccording to Robert Malloy of the University of Massachusetts, a href=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17066-plastic-cups-could-boost-auto-performance.html target=_blankused polystyrene coffee cups will make a great fuel component/a. Polystyrene (used to make disposable foam plates and cups) is very lightweight but also bulky, so it’s difficult and expensive to send out for recycling. /ppBut it could make a very effective fuel additive, a href=http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ef801110j target=_blanksays an Iowa State study last April/a. This study demonstrated that polystyrene-biodiesel blends could be successfully used in diesel engines with minor modifications to the fuel system and appropriate adjustments to engine operating conditions./ppAccording to Song-Charng Kong, a co-author of the Iowa study, polystyrene melts quickly in biodiesel, and fuel that is as much as five percent coffee cups does quite well. /ppAt higher concentrations (they tried up to 20%) it gets too thick. Right now emissions are a problem, but they’re working on it./pp /pp /ph2Turkeys: Lots of guts, plenty of glory/h2div class=image style=float:right;padding-left:8px;img alt=turkey height=300 src=http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/daily_green_driving/daily_green_driving-245716730-1244570259.jpg?ymTaDZBDCSkOKB.k width=250/br /em(Photo: John Cairns / iStockPhoto)/embr /br //divpAmericans consume an estimated 45 million turkeys on Thanksgiving, raising the impolite question: What happens to all the turkey guts? /ppA bunch of entrepreneurs in Carthage, Missouri, not only asked that question, they answered it, too, by a href=http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2921opening a plant that could process turkey waste/a (including feathers, using up everything but the gobble) into a fuel oil that could be processed into diesel, gasoline, or jet fuel. /ppThe process, known as thermo-depolymerization (TDP), is well known, and it works, The turkeys’ private parts break down under very high heat and pressure, yielding natural gas, fuel oil and minerals. The company says it could also produce light crude from hog and chicken waste — or onion byproducts and Parmesan cheese rinds, for that matter./ppThe big problem, however, is that the plant stinks, and it’s close to a residential area, prompting withering complaints. The company, Changing World Technologies, may seek greener pastures./pp /pp /ph2Cow power: High-octane gas/h2div class=image style=float:left;padding-right:8px;img alt=cow height=225 src=http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/daily_green_driving/daily_green_driving-258042391-1244570258.jpg?ymTaDZBDmEaDKbLH width=300/br /em(Photo: Gloria Dawson / The Daily Green)/embr /br //divpWow, according to the United Nations, the livestock industry (including the growing of all the cattle feed, the transportation to market, and energy for factory-farm operations) is responsible for 18% of global warming emissions — more than transportation worldwide./ppAnd it will get worse: Current projections show meat production more than doubling to 469 million tons in 2050. /ppOne of the main culprits is methane, a global warming gas that is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The world has 1.5 billion cows, and they produce methane out of both ends (belching more than flatulence). An estimated two thirds of the planet’s ammonia comes from cows, too. In New Zealand, livestock accounts for 34% of greenhouse gas emissions./ppPartly because they’re eating grain instead of the grass nature intended, cows can produce 50 to 130 gallons of methane every day. Suppose we could use that as a fuel, since methane burns very well. Eureka! /ppDairy farms such as Blue Spruce Farm in Vermont a href=http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3510src=are putting their cow waste in anaerobic (no oxygen) digesters for three weeks/a, producing methane, and then burning it in generators to produce electricity. This cow power is being sold to a nearby college, and it can also be fed back into the grid. The process also generates useful fertilizer./pbr /pstrongMore from The Daily Green/strong/pullia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/micro-cars-mpg-460409?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgThe Hottest New Cars Prove Small Is Beautiful/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/fuel-efficient-cars-47102201?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgThe 10 Most Fuel-Efficient Cars of 2009/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/save-gas-47031702?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdg10 Simple Ways to Save Gas/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/electric-bikes-460209?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgElectric Bikes: The Fun, Green Way to Get Around/a/lilia href=http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321?link=reldom=yah_greensrc=syncon=artmag=tdgWhat Do Recycling Symbols Mean?/a/li/ulpemReprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc/em/p
Recycle Guys Shopping PSA
June 14th, 2009
Author: earth911react
Keywords: PSA
Added: October 30, 2007
THE ALLY AND ABBY SHOW!!!!
June 13th, 2009
Author: allyandabbylive
Keywords: PICT0017
Added: June 11, 2009
