Inspirational and good news.
The U.S. grocery-store chain Safeway plans to start using wind power. In something that can best be described as irony they will use wind power to supply energy to their gas stations in the U.S.
They will also use wind energy to power their corporate offices and even some stores in the San Francisco Bay area. A total of 270 gas stations and 15 grocery stores will be powered by wind.
The Register is reporting that “[r]esearchers in Singapore have developed a paper battery that is powered by urine. Despite sounding gloriously silly, the breakthrough promises a cheap and disposable power source for home health tests for things like diabetes.”
Go on and read more about the power your urine has.
A Stockholm-based company have been researching catalytic cement and concrete materials. Essentially they aim to make buildings and roads actually clean the air.
This is not a new idea but the technology being researched is newly discovered nanotechnologies.
“In Rome, the Dives in Misericordia church, designed by U.S.-based architect Richard Meier, is made of self-cleaning concrete that helps keep the surface shiny white. In Japan, several modern buildings including the Marunouchi Building in downtown Tokyo, are covered with photocatalytic tiles to reduce discoloring from pollution.”
The sprawling collection of Toronto suburbs in York Region are one day away from a new option in public transit. The new VivaYork system will provide frequent, comfortable and extremely well organized bus service on the Highway 7 and Yonge St corridors, two of York’s most important and congested arteries.
The initial phase will provide Viva buses with signal priority, allowing them to jump queues of traffic at red lights. Later phases are projected to include dedicated busways, LRT’s, and even a subway stretching into York Region. (Anything is possible if gas prices stay high!) With connections to the TTC’s Young Subway line, and a connection to the Sheppard line to come, this fast and reliable service could entice drivers in the heart of York Region to leave their cars at home. Here’s hoping.
You may see something odd crawling around the twisting, narrow streets of Cordoba, Spain. The GEM car, a small electric vehicle with a top speed of about 32kp/h, has found a useful home. Referred to as “blobjects,” the cars have the look of something out of mid-seventies sci-fi. Which is meant as a compliment.
The local Cordoba government has chipped in funding for tour operators to rent out GEM cars to tourists, much to the chagrin of local taxi drivers. The cars are fitted with GPS systems and computers that allow them to give guided tours of the city. However, there’s something that makes these cute little alternative vehicles even better: they’re powered entirely by open-source software. (It’s even made by Daimler-Chrysler, of all people!) Thank you to the BBC for the photo.