Category Archives: Good Fact

UK Gives Big OK to Massive Wind Farms

ure-2.pngThe UK is going to expand their wind farms so that half of their energy will come from wind. Interestingly, they are taking a purely economically-driven take on this. I hope that people like Harper and Bush will soon start to notice that saving the planet creates jobs and helps create an economy that can prosper; after all, the Brits are doing it.

“The UK is now the number one location for investment in offshore wind in the world and next year we will overtake Denmark as the country with the most offshore wind capacity.

“This could be a major contribution towards meeting the EU’s target of 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2020.”

Hutton made clear the scale of the plans. The “first round” of offshore wind farms, in 2001, comprised a few small demonstration projects. The “second round” in 2003 limited development to the Thames estuary, the Greater Wash and the northwest.

And the BBC reports on the wind farm:

Business Secretary John Hutton says he wants to open up British seas to allow enough new turbines – up to 7,000 – to power all UK homes by the year 2020.

He acknowledged “it is going to change our coastline”, but said the issue of climate change was “not going away”.

Open Source Translation from Lingro

lingro
Boing Boing has a post on Lingro, which is a new tool that makes any word on a webpage clickable and translatable. It can also help you learn a langauge!

Find out more about Lingro.

“It works with English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Polish (with more on the way) and if you find a missing word, you can add a definition.

“Our goal is to make the coolest language learning tools, build community, and build open content dictionaries that anyone (even our competitors) can use in their projects (licensed under the FDL and Creative Commons licenses).”

SkySails Start Sailing to Save Fuel

skysailFootball field sized sails are finally hitting the waves, last year we mentioned SkySails initiative to sell their sails to large tanker fleets. December will see the first ship equipped with the extra-large sails head out on its maiden voyage.

The SkySails system consists of a towing kite with rope, a launch and recovery system and a control system for the whole operation. The control system acts like the autopitot systems on an aircraft, the company says. Autopilot software sends and receives data about the sail etc to make sure the sail is set at its optimal position.

The company also says it provides an optional weather routing system so that ships can sail into optimal wind conditions.The kites typically fly at about 1,000 feet above sea level, thereby tapping winds that can be almost 50% stronger than at the surface.

Vinegar to Solve all Problems

Vinegar is one powerful cleaning agent, and one that can be sued for almost anything it seems. People ought to use vinegar instead of all those freaky chemical based cleaning solvents.

Here’s a list of the powers of vinegar:

– Clean the microwave by boiling a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar until it steams up. Wipe clean.

– Add vinegar to a hand-pump compressed-air sprayer to kill weeds and grass growing in crevices in a patio and walkways.

– Make any dried bean dish less gassy or stinky by adding 1/4 cup vinegar to the soaking water.

– Make catsup and other condiments last longer when the bottle is almost empty by adding a little vinegar and shaking.

– Spread a cloth soaked in vinegar over a price tag you want to remove and leave overnight.

– Get rid of fruit flies by setting out a small dish of vinegar—it will attract and drown them.

Don’t Make Your Bed

To protect your health, it’s best not to make your bed.

Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies.

A Kingston University study discovered the bugs cannot survive in the warm, dry conditions found in an unmade bed.

The average bed could be home to up to 1.5 million house dust mites.