From DSC:
Check out this very cool news from my friend and Bible Study fellow — Mr. Patrick Mohney, President of SEA Biofuels, LLC

 

SEA-BiofuelDotCom-march2013

This is really amazing.

First of all, people in the developing world, even today, use either campfires or some other smokey cooking system.  This type of cooking is the norm for three billion people today, this leads to millions of deaths per year, as well as a leading contributor of greenhouse gases.  Also, I learned that in some parts of the world, women that normally collect the cooking fuel, are the subject of physical violence and rape as they collect fuel in a territory that another clan, family or tribe feel belongs to them.  I hear these things and think, “Seriously, we have to fix this!”

We could fix this, if we had a clean and environmentally friendly alternative fuel that they could afford.  Now we have just that.  We make fuel from excess agricultural waste like rice husks, coconut shells or almost any woody bio-material.

The stove-fuel combo is the most efficient in the world, but the reason that I am excited about it, is that it is less expensive to operate for the consumer than the alternative fuels.  As it turns out, people that use wood or charcoal to cook with, usually pay for it, and it is not cheap.  Our fuel is usually half to three quarters of the price of the status quo fuel at retail to the consumer.  This is why our stove and fuel is presently the only option that is scale-able and can help millions, or billions of people.

I know you are busy, but we can solve this for half of the worlds people, if you could just pass this on or make some noise.  Like us on FB.

Our mission statement is, “Be a Blessing to others and you will be Blessed”.

God Bless you and your family.

Patrick Mohney
President
SEA Biofuels, LLC

 


From DSC and Patrick:
Contribute something today — make the world a better place to live in.

 

Future Scapes: Imagining technologies for a sustainable 2025

 

Welcome to FutureScapes: What do you think life will be like in 2025?

FutureScapes is an exciting collaboration project that aims to explore the potential of technology and entertainment to create a better, more sustainable world in 2025. It’s not about predicting the future so much as imagining the possibilities. We face an infinite number of possible futures ahead of us. But one thing is clear: the world of 2025 will be very different from the one we live in today.

Since September 2011, the FutureScapes collaboration has brought together some of Europe’s best thinkers, doers, writers and inventors. Their brief was to explore how technology can help us live better, more sustainable lives in 2025. After an extensive research capture phase, specific concepts were developed in two workshops, one in Paris and one in London, and have since been refined by design and innovation partners Superflux, The Pipeline Project and Engage by Design.

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20 most impressive science fair projects of all time — from onlineuniversities.com
 

School of art brings a new slant to the rooftop garden — from gizmag.com by Bridget Borgobello

 

School of art brings a new slant to the rooftop garden

 

The School of Art, Design & Media at Nanyang Technological University campus in Singap...

 

School of art brings a new slant to the rooftop garden

 

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MIT’s new liquid flow batteries — from trendbird.biz
MIT’s new liquid flow batteries could make refueling EVs as fast as pumping gas

 

 

Also see:

  • Enerkem raises $60M to transform garbage into fuel — from trendbird.biz
    Canadian company Enerkem has devised an innovative plan to transform garbage into a source of fuel, and today it received $60 million in new financing to bring its technology to the mainstream.

 

Also see:

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Do you know how plastic bottles are actually recycled? The amount of energy that goes into it is pretty insane, as you’ll see in this video below of the Ecostar recycling facility in Wisconsin. The amount of steps—not to mention electricity, water and manpower—that need to be taken to go from a bale of plastic bottles into safe, useable material is pretty staggering.

What’s even more staggering is that as energy-intensive as recycling is, it still gives off only half the carbon that’s produced when creating virgin materials. It makes you wonder why we don’t spend more time looking at more efficient ways to convey fluids, or if our current system of plastic bottles is really the best thing mankind can come up with.

 

Also see:

 

 

Also see:

 

 

Addendum 6-11-11 — also see:

 

Solar Array

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Wi-Fi enabled smart lighting ecosystem– TrendBird

Excerpt:

What if every light bulb had its own unique Internet IP address? The possibilities are endless: You could monitor, manage and control every light bulb from any Internet-enabled device – turning lights on and off individually, dimming or creating scenes from your smartphone, tablet, PC or TV – to save energy as well as electricity costs.

Your “smart lighting” network could have dozens or even hundreds of appliances connected through a wireless network designed for maximum energy savings, communicating information about their environment, about power consumption levels, and alerting you to any problems. Today, NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI) is introducing itsGreenChip™ smart lighting solution that makes the Internet-enabled, energy-efficient lighting network a reality – not only for businesses, but also for consumers trying to make the most of energy savings in the home.

Beginning tomorrow at LIGHTFAIR International, NXP and partners TCP and GreenWave Reality will be showcasing a consumer-ready, Internet-enabled Smart Lighting network powered by the GreenChip smart lighting solution in the NXP booth (no. 2823) and TCP booth (no. 2659).

NXP’s GreenChip smart lighting solution opens an entirely new dimension in energy efficient lighting


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[2008/09] Study: Hands-on projects may be best way to teach engineering and technology concepts — from Purdue University as reported by Kim Medaris

From DSC:
This study focused on 126 eighth graders from Indiana; it presents one perspective on teaching STEM-related topics.

ABSTRACT:
Exploring the Effectiveness of an Interdisciplinary Water Resources Engineering Module in an Eighth Grade Science Class

Jody L. Riskowski, Carrie Davis Todd, Bryan Wee,
Melissa Dark, Jon Harbor

Engineering education has historically been given little attention in U.S. K-12 classrooms even though engineering incorporates scientific and mathematical concepts into meaningful, everyday applications. Including engineering and design projects in K-12 science and mathematics classes may improve student interest and comprehension, while also reaching a broader range of students than traditional lecture-based classes.  For this study, the authors implemented an engineering design project focusing on water resources in 8th grade science classes. Students were exposed to either an engineering project (treatment) or a more traditional format (control) and their knowledge of water resource issues was evaluated using a pre-post assessment tool. Overall, students in the treatment classes showed statistically significant improvement in two areas – they displayed higher levels of thinking on open-ended questions and greater content knowledge. This research indicates the effectiveness of engineering in enhancing student learning and supports its inclusion in the middle school science curriculum.

Also, potentially relevant here is:

 

40 for the next 40: A sampling of the drivers of change that will shape our world between now and 2050 — from gerdleonhard.typepad.com and Toffler Associates

From the foreword:

We are in the midst of an accelerating, revolutionary transformation. Change is happening everywhere – in technology, business, government, economics, organizational structures, values and norms – and consequently affects how we live, work and play. As industry and government leaders, we must acknowledge that this change demands new ways of governing and of running our organizations. The ways in which we communicate and interact with each other will be different. The methods through which we gain and process information will be different. The means by which we earn and spend money will be different. Through the culmination of these and other changes, organizations will be radically transformed.

This change is not unexpected. Forty years ago, Alvin and Heidi Toffler recognized that the pace of environmental change was rapidly accelerating and threatened to overwhelm the relatively slow pace of human response. Through Future Shock, the Tofflers persuaded us to consider the future by imagining drivers of change and preparing for a wide range of resulting future environments. Now as we look towards the next 40 years, we continue to use these time tested methodologies, our founders’ legacy to Toffler Associates, for understanding the forces of future change. We focus on the convergence and interdependence of seemingly orthogonal aspects to connect the dots and develop strategies for future success. In this way, we recognize, as the Tofflers did, that preparation is the best defense against the future (emphasis DSC).

Here is a sampling of 40 drivers of change that – we believe – will shape the future.

From DSC:
Includes sections on Politics, Technology, Social, Economics, and the Environment.

Public Poster

Public Poster— from Tuvie.com

Also see:

From DSC:
What if you could take your iPhone and aim it at a particular area of a “board” and then download that piece of information? As easily as when iPhones trade contact info via “bumping”, one could quickly obtain a piece of information on a bulletin board.

IBM’s 5-in-5

Toward a Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project

Toward a Great Lakes Offshore Wind Project — from FastCompany.com by David Zax

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An Obama administration-hosted event in Chicago this week asked the question: What will it take to bring offshore wind projects to the Great Lakes?

The U.S. wants wind power. The Great Lakes are windy. It should be a match made in heaven–so why don’t we see legions of wind farms floating off the shores of Lake Michigan? The Obama Administration hosted a “Great Lakes Offshore Wind Workshop” in DC on Tuesday and Wednesday in Chicago, seeking to answer that question and figure out how to realize the vision.

From DSC:
Hmmm…this is a tough one for me. I support sustainability, yet I know how beautiful the shores of Lake Michigan are. If they move forward with this, I hope they do so wisely and somewhat sparingly…preserving the beautiful vistas and sunsets of Lake Mich.

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Surviving the Future

From biotech visionaries growing new body parts, to in vitro meat, from a global sensor web that monitors the health of the earth’s biosphere, to a massive effort to reverse-engineer the human brain, Surviving the Future takes a disquieting and astonishing look at some of science’s most radical new technologies.

The film also takes a hard look at the ‘new normal’ of the climate crisis, as we balance our desire to be environmentally responsible—to ‘do the right thing’—and still participate in the consumer economy that is, for better or worse, the basis of our society.

Surviving the future is an unsettling glimpse into the human psyche right now, as our culture staggers between a fervent belief in futuristic utopian technologies on the one hand, and dreams of apocalyptic planetary payback on the other.

Thought provoking and visually stunning, Surviving the Future looks at the stark and extreme choices facing our species as we prepare ourselves for the most challenging and consequential period in our history.

From DSC:
These are some of the things I was alluding to in my post here…I’d be more comfortable with many of these things if the state of the heart were in better condition.

© 2024 | Daniel Christian