Inspirational and good news.
Here’s some good news for all you chocolate lovers out there: a chocolate byproduct can provide fuel!
North western English firm Ecotec has taken waste from the chocolate manufacturing process, turned it into bio-ethanol and mixed it with vegetable oil to produce biodiesel.
Some biofuels have come under fire for either diverting much-needed food crops or leading to massive deforestation as land is cleared to grow crops specially for biofuel production.
I love bikes, and I love it when places embrace the wonderful invetion, Portland Oregon has arguably done the best job of bike-loving in North America. The International Herald Tribune has a really nice article about what has made Portland the mecca of bike culture in North America.
Mia Birk, a former city employee who helped lead Portland’s efforts to expand cycling in the 1990s, said the original goals were rooted in environmental and public health, not the economy.
“That wasn’t our driving force,” Birk said. “But it has been a result, and we’re comfortable saying it is a positive result.”
Birk now helps run a consulting firm, Alta Planning and Design, which advises other cities on how to become more bicycle-friendly. In a report for the City of Portland last year, the firm estimated that 600 to 800 people worked in the cycling industry in some form. A decade earlier, Birk said in an interview, the number would have been more like 200 and made up almost entirely of employees at retail bike stores.
Thanks Aidan!
The blistering sun that shines down on the people down under will be lighting more than jsut heir sky. A small town in Australia’s north is going to make a 10-megawatt solar power plant that uses the power of the sun, and not in any regular way. Indeed, to make themselves unique, the town will be using solar energy by reflecting 8,000 mirrors at some graphite, then pour water on the stone, thus making steam. The steam will then power turbines; as a result, the power plant can run all day and night.
The Queensland state government said on Sunday it would build the A$7 million ($6.5 million), 10-megawatt power station as part of a push to make Cloncurry one of the first towns to rely on solar power alone.
“The town of Cloncurry has long claimed the title of having recorded Australia’s hottest day — 53 degrees (Celsius) in the shade in 1889, so I reckon we’re on a winner,” Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was quoted as saying by Australian Associated Press.
Solar thermal power differs from photovoltaic panels that make power directly.
Windup radios already exist and now the company that makes them has created windup light bulbs so people can create their own light!
As part of its LifeLight Project the Freeplay Foundation has drawn up designs for a charging base unit that would be able to power up several detachable lights that can be used around a home.
The Foundation aims to train women to sell and maintain the lights
“They could use them for study or for safety – to help them if they go somewhere at night,” said Ms Pearson.Working prototypes are now being made that will be tested with families in Kenya to refine the design.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is upon was again!
Get your plots out and your writing hands ready to write your novel in one month – remember that it’s quantity not quality!
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
We also mentioned NaNoWriMo last year.