Month: August 2006

Minnesota Travels Hybrid-Style

- Adam Clare

Minnesota leads the other American states when it comes to using biofeuls, and they have taken one more step to maintain their lead. The state government is going to provide 150 hybrid busses for public transit.

“Our environment, Greater Minnesota’s economy and our transit budget all benefit when we use alternatives to regular gasoline and diesel,” Governor Pawlenty said. “Metro Transit’s ‘Go Greener’ initiative is a nation-leading effort to reduce tailpipe emissions and reliance on foreign oil, while also achieving fuel savings.”

Metro Transit also intends to double the biodiesel content of its fuel supply from 5 percent – the standard implemented by Metro Transit on July 1, 2006 – to 10 percent in mid-2007. The State of Minnesota requires a 2 percent bio-additive in diesel fuel sold in the state.

“We have already begun an operational test of 20 percent biodiesel in a portion of our fleet,” said Peter Bell, Metropolitan Council Chair. “This could be a precursor to even higher concentrations of soy esther, further boosting the use of this renewable energy supply.”

TorGame: Waking City

- Adam Clare

Toronto is becoming more and more interesting, and this time a group of people are doing something truly amazing. TorGame is a puzzle game kinda like the Da Vinci Code, but with no religious undertones. You explore the city and interact with people (or something) around the city. A great way to explore the urban space of Toronto.

The game is starting to get a lot of press coverage so you should register your teams soon. The game starts mid-September. There is also an info session this coming Thursday.

(I am volunteer with TorGame)

ADB Dislikes Corruption

- Adam Clare

divulge large expenditures to ensure that governments are transparent. Hopefully then, governments will be held accountable for their actions.

“ADB today launched a government and anticorruption action plan which aims to improve the effectiveness of ADB’s development assistance and to contribute to poverty reduction throughout the region.

ADB is committing $4 million to support initial implementation of the new plan, which follows a comprehensive review of the implementation of ADB’s first action plan, adopted in 2000, and will enable developing member countries in partnership with ADB to design and deliver better quality projects and programs.”

Gold in the Landfill

- Adam Clare

tyresBusiness Week is running a great article on innovative green entrepreneurs. The article is appropriately titled From Garbage to Gold, and is an easy read to make your weekend good.

“For a slew of new entrepreneurs, garbage is not just a matter of personal opinion, it is, ahem, their business. In other words, they’re creating new companies out of other people’s junk.
…
Reich says he is looking to broaden his product line and expand his distribution channels. “After we started the company, I didn’t see a lot of other recycling [products],” he says. “I’ve learned quite a bit about companies taking similar innovative approaches to product design. It’s a niche now, but it’s a growing field. People are becoming more aware of what products are made of and where they go after they are done owning them.””

Uranium Chewers

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

radioactiveReaders of ThingsAreGood know that bacteria can make dangerous heavy metals a lot less dangerous. Now scientists have found out how the bacteria can eat away at uranium with no harm done to it.

“Assembling a battery of evidence, scientists have for the first time placed the bacterial enzymes responsible for converting uranium to uraninite at the scene of the slime, or “extracellular polymeric substance” (EPS), according to a study led by the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in today’s advance online edition of PLoS Biology.”
Even after reading the article I’m still confused about how this actually works.

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