California utility company rides wave power

by Josh Loposer
Jan 4th 2008 @ 8:05AM

Filed under: Local, Alternative Energy, Climate Change

If you've spent much time at the beach lately, you might have noticed how many of us stare blankly at the constantly moving waters, occasionally drooling at the vastness of the ocean. Apparently, some people are able to get past this vexation and see a raw, untapped resource. That seems to be the case with San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric, the first US utility company to invest in the power generating potential of the oceans.

Teaming up with Vancouver-based hydro-power experts Finavera Renewables, PG&E will be building a "wave park" 2.5 miles off the coast of Eureka, CA. The park will consist of 8 buoys that harness the up and down motion of the water to operate a sort of piston pump system -- sending power via an underwater cable to a PG&E substation.

The immediate effect of the buoys would be rather small, producing 2 megawatts -- enough to power about 1500 homes. Obviously, this experiment isn't going to save the world, but it may generate a significant interest in generating energy from the motion of the ocean. PG&E didn't disclose how much this project would cost -- probably because it would make you sick.

Related Link

2008 forecasted to be in the top ten warmest years

by Patricia Mayville-Cox
Jan 4th 2008 @ 9:56AM

Filed under: Climate Change

Here's more New Year's predictions for ya; 2008 will be among the top 10 warmest years on record since 1850, according to forecasters at the Met Office and the University of East Anglia.

Why? Does this mean that global warming has finally tapered off? Nope. According to the researchers, 2008 will be slightly cooler than recent years due to other factors, including El Nino and La Nina . The researchers warn that this should not be taken as a sign that global warming is on the wane.

The past ten years from 1998 to 2007 were the hottest decade on record according to the World Meteorological Organisation.

Related Link

Video: Kenguru, specialized electric car for disabled people

Posted Jan 3rd 2008 7:38PM by Lascelles Linton
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Transportation Alternatives, Green Daily

The video above is all about the Kenguru, an electric car specifically designed for a wheelchair. Kenguru has a large door at the back that opens by remote control, so a person in a wheelchair can easily enter the car. The Hungarian company Rehab Ltd. designed the Kenguru, which has a 35-mile range and a top speed of 25 miles per hour. The car is free in Hungary for qualified people and is expected to come to the United States for $14,500.

Related:

• Videos: Toyota's MR, Segway wheelchair

[Source: YouTube]

Microsoft Patents Frustration-Detection System

Posted by Zonk on Friday January 04, @09:12AM
from the would-you-like-to-buy-a-handgun-dave dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Microsoft has patented a frustration-detection help system that would monitor your computer use and biometrics to figure out when you were frustrated. It could then offer to pair you up with someone else doing exactly the same thing who might be able to help you out. Interestingly, they don't appear to use speech recognition to detect abnormal levels of swear words, but that could be due to their past difficulties with speech recognition. 'Physical responses aren't the only things that could trigger this event--taking an abnormally long time to complete a task would do so also--but the biometric aspect is certainly the most unusual. Is this patent a harbinger of a dystopian future where computer users' biorhythms will be monitored to increase efficiency? Unlikely. The idea, which was birthed at Microsoft Research, is simply a more advanced version of user focus group testing that Microsoft (and most other software companies) have been doing for years now.'"

Yapta helped me get cheaper flights

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a free service called Yapta, which stands for "Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant" (get Yapta now, or read my previous post about Yapta). Shortly after I started using Yapta, I bought a couple of plane tickets for a family trip and used it to watch the fares to see if they dropped. My tickets were about $760 each when I paid for them (yep, I know - pricey).

What does Yapta do?

The way Yapta works is that you can tell it what trips you're shopping for, or which tickets you've already bought. From there, Yapta starts monitoring the prices and lets you know when they drop (you can set how far they need to drop before you're notified). If the price drops, most airlines will either give you a refund or issue a travel voucher (depending on their policy) if you contact them before the price goes back up again (you've gotta act fast - those fares change quickly).

Yapta can track fares from the following airlines (currently US-heavy), but they have been adding more to the list:

• AirTran Airways
• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• ATA Airlines
• Continental
• Delta Airlines
• Frontier Airlines
• JetBlue
• Midwest Airlines
• Ted Airlines
• United Airlines
• US Airways

Well, did Yapta work?

About a week ago, I got an email from Yapta on my Blackberry saying the fare had dropped, and I was elegible for a voucher from United Airlines for the difference. They even told me where to call and what to say to get my voucher (pretty cool). I called United, and the price had dropped to $601 per ticket so I got vouchers in the amount of $308.

Now that is what I call an amazing personal travel assistant. It's free - what are you waiting for?

Guitar Wizard: Guitar Hero with a real guitar

Posted Jan 3rd 2008 8:09PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: CES, Misc. Gadgets

Nothing ruins a Guitar Hero or Rock Band party faster than that one guy who's constantly asking why everyone doesn't just learn to play a real instrument, but a company called Music Wizard Group is getting ready to change that with a new teaching tool called Guitar Wizard. The package comes with a real Washburn guitar, MIDI pickup and the Guitar Wizard software -- which is the same app used in Mattel's popular I Can Play Guitar toy -- and the company claims players will be rocking out and reading music in just minutes. Of course, since we've been shredding since we were just small change, we'll let the haters get their fret buzz on while we keep jamming with our modded Strat Guitar Hero controllers.

Westinghouse Digital Wireless HDMI HDTV to debut at CES

Posted Jan 3rd 2008 12:34PM by Richard Lawler
Filed under: CES, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless

We didn't have to wait for CES to begin to find out the UWB camp's response to WirelessHD 1.0, Westinghouse and Pulse-Link plan to demo the first "fully-integrated" wireless HDTV Saturday. The Westinghouse Digital Wireless HDMI HDTV should hit the B2B digital signage marketplace in the second quarter, and could see release to consumers by the end of the year. If wired HDMI is just too complicated, Pulse-Link's CWave Wireless HDMI promises 40 foot range with no loss of quality. No word yet on exact price, or what kind of Monster accessories we can expect to enhance our wireless viewing experience, but this seems a lot more tangible than the Philips wireless HDTV technology vaporware from CES '07.

Cocaine Vaccine In the Works

Posted by kdawson on Thursday January 03, @12:15PM
from the runnin-round-my-brain dept.

martyros writes "Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine are performing clinical trials of a vaccine that teaches the immune system to attack cocaine, preventing it from giving a high. The vaccine is made by attaching inactivated cocaine molecules to the outside of inactivated cholera proteins. When the immune system attacks the cholera proteins, it also 'learns' the cocaine molecules as well. The result is that the immune system 'recognizes the potent naked drug when it's ingested. The antibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it normally would generate the highs that are so addictive.'" An earlier story from The Star notes that human trials for vaccines against both cocaine and nicotine are well under way.

Airport Profilers Learn to Read Facial Expressions

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 03, @07:50AM
from the you-look-guilty dept.

nldavepc writes "There has been a rather scary development in airport security. Airport profilers are watching people's facial expressions for clues of terrorist intent. According to the article,"Travelers at Sea-Tac and dozens of other major airports across America are being scrutinized by teams of TSA behavior-detection officers specially trained to discern the subtlest suspicious behaviors.""

[+] facecrime, security, transportation, smileplease, alphacomplex (tagging beta)

Students sniff poop...for science

by Jonathon Morgan
Jan 2nd 2008 @ 3:01PM

Filed under: News

Ah, the noble organic farmer -- letting his animals freely roam the pasture, and working the earth in the way nature intended. Sounds perfect, but you might feel differently if you lived down the street -- namely, because farm animals stink.

To ease this potential tension between farmers and their neighbors, one Purdue University professor is measuring the smells produced by barns filled with livestock, and working out methods to make them more palatable for nearby residents.

The best part, is that he's paying grad students to help with the study -- giving them $30 a session to sit around smelling animal excrement. With an olfactometer that he shoves up their noses, the prof is able to test different techniques he's developed for diluting the offensive odors. I can't imagine being so broke that I'd take such a crappy job (pun totally intended), but apparently it's not so bad.

Says one sniffer: "Grad students are kind of poor. I've done worse than this."

Dreams Actually Virtual Reality Threat Simulation?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday January 02, @01:12PM
from the fighting-the-forces-of-evil-in-your-underwear dept.

Time Slows Down writes "Psychology Today has an interesting story on a new theory of why we dream. Finnish psychologist Antti Revonsuo believes that dreams are a sort of nighttime theater in which our brains screen realistic scenarios simulating emergency situations and providing an arena for safe training. 'The primary function of negative dreams is rehearsal for similar real events, so that threat recognition and avoidance happens faster and more automatically in comparable real situations,' he says. We have 300 to 1,000 threat dreams per year — one to four per night and just under half are aggressive encounters: physical aggression such as fistfights, and nonphysical aggression such as verbal arguments. Faced with actual life-or-death situations — traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, street assaults — people report entering a mode of calm, rapid response, reacting automatically, almost without thinking. Afterward, they often say the episode felt unreal, as if it were all a dream. 'Dreaming is a sensitive system that tries to pay much attention to the threatening cues in our environment,' Revonsuo says. 'Their function is to protect and prepare us.'"

[+] news, science, dreams, generalize, vr (tagging beta)

Molten Salt-Based Solar Power Plant

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday January 02, @05:26PM
from the would-you-like-fries-with-that dept.

rcastro0 writes "Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of United Technologies, announced today that it will start to commercialize a new type of solar power plant. A new company called SolarReserve will be created to provide heat-resistant pumps and other equipment, as well as the expertise in handling and storing salt that has been heated to more than 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. According to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla 'Three percent of the land area of Morocco could support all of the electricity for Western Europe.' Molten Salt storage is already used in Nevada's Solar One power plant. Is this the post-hydrocarbon world finally knocking?"

[+] power, science, isthisbe, believeitwheniseeit, !new (tagging beta)

Beer can house: Recycled brew makes for bitchin' bachelor pad

by Jonathon Morgan
Jan 2nd 2008 @ 4:02PM

Filed under: Home

Those of you still recovering from your especially festive New Year's Eve reveling might appreciate this. After what must have been dozens of killer parties, someone took all those empties and constructed a house. A house.

Granted, this probably isn't everyone's dream pad (and I'm sure the neighbors aren't all that excited about what a beer-can house does to their property values), but it's definitely a novel way to keep those cans out of the garbage.

Plus, by the looks of it, the project wasn't too difficult to realize -- so with a few friends, a little determination, and a drinking problem, you can try this at home!

For more inspiration, go here to see some larger images.

[via Ecofriend]

Related Link

Turning dirty diapers into fuel

by Patricia Mayville-Cox
Jan 2nd 2008 @ 3:32PM

Filed under: Alternative Energy

The diaper debate still looms large for new parents, causing much green guilt for those that use disposables.

But how about if you could transform your baby's dirty disposables into a synthetic diesel fuel? AMEC, of Quebec, Canada, has been working to build a facility near Montreal that will use a process known a pyrolysis to convert diapers to diesel. The process will involve heating up the diapers up to 600C without air, breaking the carbon chains down into the fuels.

One of the challenges with this process that the input is can be so variable, particularly with regular trash. Not so with diapers which are "a very consistent input" according to an engineer on the project.

The initial plan is convert abut 30,000 tons of diapers, or about one-quarter of the diapers that end up in landfills in Quebec yearly.

[Via Ecochild's Play]

The 5 Coolest Hacks of '07

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 02, @07:47PM
from the still-no-pencil-hack dept.

ancientribe writes "Nothing was sacred to hackers in '07 — not cars, not truckers, and not even the stock exchange. Dark Reading reviews five hacks that went after everyday things we take for granted even more than our PC's — our car navigation system, a trucker's freight, WiFi connections, iPhone, and (gulp) the electronic financial trading systems that record our stock purchases and other online transactions."

[+] it, security, slashdotted (tagging beta)

Paris "about to launch" a cheap rental service featuring 2,000 electric cars

Posted Jan 2nd 2008 12:31PM by Lascelles Linton
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Transportation Alternatives, Legislation and Policy, Renault, European Union

The Times reports, the Mayor of Paris is "about to launch" Bertrand Delanöe, a rental system that includes a whopping 2,000 electric cars. The system is based on Automobiles-en-Libre-Service, which allow subscribers to pick up a car, without booking, at dozens of sites and leave them anywhere in the city. The cost of the system is just a few euros per hour which has gained the scheme the nickname Voiturelib or free car. Two electric cars are being considered: the Blue Car project, a three-seater with 156 mile range and Cleanova which is based on the Renault Kangoo van and was developed by the Dassault aviation firm. The electric car rentals will complement the very popular Parisian bike rental, Vélib.

Plastic recycling is a sham

by Kelly Leahy
Jan 2nd 2008 @ 11:04AM

Filed under: Food, Health, Home

Our city-wide recycling program only took plastics labeled #1 or #2 which left #3 - #7 destined for the trash can. I was excited when a new recycling program popped up that accepted all plastics and I have dutifully been placing them all in my blue recycling bin. I have recently found out that very little of my waste gets recycled and much of it gets shipped off the third world countries where it is burnt as fuel or simply dumped in a landfill. Imagine the air quality from all of that burning plastic. Yum.

The truth is that only plastics #1 and #2 are easily recycled domestically and even then they have a limited life as a bag or lumber. Plastics #3 - #7 are generally not recyclable with the exception of Recycline's efforts to turn plastic #5 into toothbrushes, razors and kitchen gadgets. The rest gets shipped overseas.
Additionally, if a bale of "good" #1 or #2 plastic gets tainted by a #3 or #4, the whole thing is no good and becomes rubbish. There simply is not enough of a demand in this country for recycled plastics as long as virgin materials are plentiful and less expensive to process.

So, what options do we have as consumers? Many of our readers have said it again and again: waste less. This means making smart choices when bringing anything into our homes. Reuse containers, buy in bulk and if you must buy a new jar, go for glass.

Related Link

California to be altered drastically by climate change

by Patrick Metzger
Jan 2nd 2008 @ 9:06AM

Filed under: Polit-eco, Climate Change

California dreaming could become a lot more surreal in the next few years, if climate change predictions come true. Scientists are predicting that the state which has the widest range of microclimates and ecosystems in the country is also likely to be the most affected by global warming. Already the ski season is getting shorter at California ski resorts as temperatures soar and the snow disappears. While the state can get by without snowboarding, more significant is the fact that the Sierra snowpack provides 35% of California's water supply, which bodes ill for a growing and thirsty population. In Southern California, climate change will mean that movie star's Malibu homes which don't get torched in more frequent wildfires will stand a good chance of being inundated by rising sea levels. If you're not worried about what happens to Mel Gibson's house, consider the possible loss of the California wine country as temperatures and drought make the area unsuitable for vineyards.

Beyond the cost to humans, the potential exists for incaluable losses of marine, plant and animal life in the region. The solution is straightforward, by the way, if not easy - stop global warming.

Housewives are greener than college students

by Jonathon Morgan
Jan 2nd 2008 @ 1:02PM

Filed under: Kids and Parenting, News, Activism

Think that 19-year-old, hemp-wearing, bike-riding, vegan college student is the greenest person in your postal district? Maybe. But chances are that local housewives do more for the planet than most of his classmates.

That's according to a new study by the University of Granada -- which found that those who receive the most education about their environmental impact (like college students), aren't necessarily the ones working hardest to fix the problem. Even when it came down to the simple task of separating glass from other garbage (so it could be recycled), it turned out that housewives were more likely to engage in this eco-friendly habit than their collegiate counterparts.

Apparently a few of those "activists" on campus are too busy going to class, sticking it to the man, and playing Frisbee in the quad to do anything about their carbon footprint. I guess we'll just have to wait until they get a little older, get married, and move to the suburbs -- then the planet will be saved!

New year, new bans: Berlin, Hannover and Cologne banning non-catalysed cars

Posted Jan 2nd 2008 8:19AM by Xavier Navarro
Filed under: Diesel, Legislation and Policy, Germany

Starting on the first day of this new year, three German cities (Berlin, Hannover and Cologne, pictured) have applied a complete ban on all vehicles that have no catalysers or DPF (Diesel Particulate Filters) in the city centers. To enter, cars must have a windshied sticker stating the installation of such devices.

German authorities try to keep city centers as clean as possible. The extension of these areas differs (we're speaking about very different cities here) but they include more than the historical city centers. Drivers can purchase identification labels for their vehicles and, in Berlin's case, it's estimated that 80 percent of the city's 1.2 million vehicles already have these labels. For now, Berlin's enforcement will be flexible; it's not until the end of January that drivers without such identificators will be fined. But from then on, the fine is 400 EUR.

Similar plans are currently being applied in cities around Italy (with mixed results). Other cities in Europe are also thinking about similar bans.

[Source: Agencia EFE via El Economista]

Gen Y Hits the Library the Most -- But Not For Books

Posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @04:27AM
from the checking-out-cuties dept.

Lucas123 writes "More than half of all Americans visited a library this past year and, of those, most were from Generation Y, the tech-loving young adults aged 18-30 years, according to a recent survey. The reason most cited for visiting their local public archive? Not books. Most were seeking gaming software programs, characters in the Second Life virtual world and online help with homework."
Another way to think about the results: about 47 percent of Americans didn't visit a library even once last year.

Introducing Magnet-Responsive Memory Foam

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 02, @03:31AM
from the had-this-stuff-in-my-head-for-years dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently reported that two research teams have developed a new porous foam of an alloy that changes shape when exposed to a magnetic field. The NSF states that this new material is able to remember its original shape after it's been deformed by a physical or magnetic force. This polycrystalline nickel-manganese-gallium alloy is potentially cheaper and lighter than other materials currently used in devices ranging from sonar to precision valves. It also could be used to design biomedical pumps without moving parts and even for space applications and automobiles."

Neat little Vid Clip on employee engagment

Cartographers: man is altering the map

by Josh Loposer
Jan 2nd 2008 @ 7:00AM

Filed under: News, Climate Change

Thanks to Magellan and Google Earth, there aren't as many unexplored regions on the earth's surface as there used to be. That being the case, you might think that cartographers would get sick of drawing the same old maps all the time. Not true, due to man's constant tinkering with land and water, geographic features that were at one time considered static are being to change dramatically.

Some of the biggest changes fall under the category of diverting water for agriculture -- i.e. consuming a seemingly unsustainable amount. Rising seas are also beginning to show an effect on areas of Alaska and low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean. Here are the top 4 drastic changes:

• Lake Chad in N. Africa is 95% smaller than in 1963
• The Aral Sea has shrunk by 75% since 1967
• The Dead Sea is 50 feet lower than in 1957
• The Rio Grande & the Colorado Rivers sometimes dry out and don't reach the ocean

Exploit Found to Brick Most HP and Compaq Laptops

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday December 20, @08:01PM
from the cool-looking-paperweight dept.

Ian Lamont writes "A security researcher calling himself porkythepig has published attack code that can supposedly brick most HP and Compaq laptops. The exploit uses an ActiveX control in HP's Software Update. It would 'let an attacker corrupt Windows' kernel files, making the laptop unbootable, or with a little more effort, allow hacks that would result in a PC hijack or malware infection.' The same researcher last week outlined a batch of additional vulnerabilities in HP and Compaq laptops, for which HP later issued patches."

[+] !bricked, security, activex, thatsallfolks, windowsbugfix (tagging beta)