Sod Off!

sod wheelSome enterprising grad students at Dalhousie in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have taken the park on the road. The architecture students were exploring the concept of public and green space and came up with this groovy way to always walk on the grass!

“”We’re looking at the idea of green space in the city,” said grad student Kevin James. “Even in the Public Gardens, you’re not allowed to walk on the grass.”

Halifax Downtown Coun. Dawn Sloane says they’re right, except for the Public Gardens statement. In fact, playing on the grass is allowed in the children’s area, but the problem is nobody knows about it.

“I think our biggest issue right now is that not only is our green space being utilized for some of the wrong reasons, but they’re under- utilized by the communities, and we do need more,” she said.”

The concept isn’t perfect because when the sod is over your head dirt falls on you. If the concept really dries up then maybe they’ll turn it into a hot tub.

Internet Hunting Banned

The internet fad of hunting living animals in the wild through a website is losing momentum. Recently “Louisiana has joined 21 other states in banning Internet hunting,” which is nice to see. Banning internet hunting will obviously make it easier for animals to keep living.

Thanks Kate for letting us know about this, and remember that anyone can submit news through our handy submit form

Wind Powered Boats

It looks like the more things change the more they stay the same. A German company, SkySails, is going to start selling a new style of sail to help large freighters move through the ocean faster.

“SkySails’ system consists of an enormous towing kite and navigation software that can map the best route between two points for maximum wind efficiency. In development for more than four years, the system costs from roughly $380,000 to $3.2 million, depending on the size of the ship it’s pulling. SkySails claims it will save one third of fuel costs.”

Ion Catching Device

When it comes to anything quantum I tend to only have a loose idea of what is going on, but I know this much: ion catching is good

“Ions (electrically charged atoms) are promising candidates for use as quantum bits (qubits) in quantum computers. The NIST team, one of 18 research groups worldwide experimenting with ion qubits, previously has demonstrated at a rudimentary level all the basic building blocks for a quantum computer, including key processes such as error correction, and also has proposed a large-scale architecture. “.

Mad Cow Test for Humans

A new test has been created to test for the human form of mad cow disease, CJD. The new test for CJD is predicted to be a great step forward for finding a cure!

“Screening the population could energise the search for vCJD treatments, since drug companies are reluctant to carry out research on treating a disease that has caused about 150 deaths, with the numbers of cases declining from a peak in 2000.”