Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels 14/03/2012

Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels  – extremetech.com

“When all’s said and done, if you buy Twin Creeks’ equipment, it is promising a cost of around 40 cents per watt, about half the cost of panels currently coming out of China (where the vast majority of solar panels are made). At that price, solar power begins to encroach on standard, mostly-hydrocarbon-derived grid power — but, of course, we still need to create batteries that can store solar power over night.”

Venger Wind Turbine 25/04/2011

Looks promising…

Ig Nobel Prize 2009 winners 04/10/2009

There are great winners of the lg Nobel Prize this year, here link: Ig Nobel Prize Winners 2009

They are all fantastic this year, but I especially like the veterinary medicine prize which went to Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless…

For those who are unfamiliar with the Ig Nobel Prizes, here a description from the founders, Improbable Research:

Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.

http://improbable.com/

the venus project and the zeitgeist movement 24/05/2009

It came to me that when I know highlight development of high tech solutions to society’s problems (see post from this morning), I almost have to link to one of the really grand visionaries in this matter: Jacque Fresco and his Venus Project. The Venus Project is also closely connected to the very interesting Zeitgeist Movement – I might write some more about this movement in the future.

Peter Joseph, who started this movement and made the enlightening films Zeitgeist: The Movie and Zeitgeist: Addendum, also published this film here below in March this year. It describes the basic ideas of The Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project:

The Zeitgeist Movement: Orientation Presentation

you’ll find more on Peter Joseph incl interviews @ zeitgeistmovie.com

I remain unconvinced about that these people offer the right solutions to our problems, although they have some interesting and bold ideas. But they are definitely asking the right questions and thus they have good idea about what our main problems are. And I love the fact that they aim for finding solutions and getting other people involved in that mission, instead of just pointing out what is bad in the world.

Grand Green Paris 24/05/2009

You can say what you want about Sarkozy, but he has a thing for grand visions about the future, sometimes for the bad I guess, but also for the good. Last year he gave ten architects the mission to create vision of a new Grand Paris – a vision of a future green and environmentally friendly, high tech, comfortable, healthy and wealthy Paris. Altough I get the chills when people talk about “building away poverty”- where do the poor people go then? Do they disappear if they cannot afford living anywhere?

One has a reason to get weary about such expressions, knowing how Sarkozy at one stage wanted to clear the streets of the rioting suburban youth with high-pressure water cannons before he became president and married Bruno…

But some of the ideas are very inspiring, more green, something which they call “active forests”, fast trains, etc.  The visual presentations are nice, check out four of them in this Swedish paper here Här är det nya, gröna Paris – DN and read more here Le Grand Paris exhibition – e-architect.co.uk.

amazing people making fantastic projects which are saving the world 20/05/2009

People are amazing, just look at this

SHORT FILM BY POST MODERN TIMES ON THE WORK OF PH D JIM FOURNIER

AND THIS SIMPLE BUT INGENIOUS INVENTION FROM PEEPOOPLE

the peepoo bag