Monthly Archives: October 2006

TV 45 Light Years Away

Slashdot reported that a television company is broadcasting for an audience of alien species.

“The two naked hosts will present their own unclothed bodies as examples of our physical embodiments, and will tell about daily human existence. Music, art, and our own personal messages will be transmitted as well as discussions from sociologists, scientists, and space experts. This project is the brainchild of the French-based Centre National D’etudes Spatiales and is rooted in seriousness as a natural extension of the gold-plated ambassador disks of Pioneer 10. “

Pig Poo + Distillation = Pigoline

Since it is Friday and we try to cover more ridiculous news, here is a gasoline made from pig poo.

A NASCAR feul specialists has found a way to take run of the mill pig waste and turn it into a high-octane adventure! Dean Gokel says he can produce 110 octane “pigoline” that is indistinguishable on a molecular level from petroleum-based additives.

“Here’s how it is supposed to work: First, he prepares the waste, turning it “into the consistency of a milkshake,” and then pumps it into the reactor. The hogs, kindly, do much of the hard work, breaking food into the big carbon-based molecules found in manure. Gokel’s process fractures long carbon chains and ring structures into chemicals closer to gasoline, such as C10 or better yet, C8 (basically, octane). Those smaller molecules are distilled off as a vapor, which is collected and eventually used as a fuel additive. The amines–nitrogen products–left behind can then be packed off and sold as commercial chemicals. Gokel is only running five-gallon batches, but there is no significant waste from it. The process takes about three hours.”

Dial-a-Meal

Over at OneWorld South Asia they are running this neat story about a dial-a-meal program:

“Hunger Helpline allows hungry in Gujarat to dial-a-meal. Poor and hungry and living in Gujarat? A meal is just a phone call away, if the state’s food and civil supplies department, which is launching a Hunger Helpline, is to be believed

A novel Hunger Helpline in Gujarat, initiated by the state government in collaboration with civil society organisations (CSOs), aims to connect poor people in need of a meal with food donors through the telephone.

The brainchild of the state’s food and civil supplies department, this first-of-its-kind service aims to ensure than no person in the state goes hungry, either during a natural calamity or even on an ordinary day.”

Bio-Solar Home

solar
In Bangkok there is a house that uses solar power and some bio-power to keep everything running. It is a great example of how individual houses can supply their own existence. This particular house was made by the very architect who lives there.

“The Bio-solar home’s energy is generated entirely through solar panelling. A sufficient water supply is maintained collectively via rain, dew and condensation from a cooling system which can also be recycled and used to replenish the garden”

This hose reminds me of living off the gird in a mobile home.

Smoking Bans Help Workers’ Health

A new study points out how banning smoking in bars is really really good at improving the health of bar workers. I assume the same goes with barflies. This particular study was done in Scotland with a before and after look at people’s health.

“The findings show that smoking bans such as those in effect in Ireland, Norway, Sweden and 11 U.S. states are an effective way to quickly improve workers’ health, University of California at San Francisco researcher Mark Eisner wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.”