Markus Antonietti of the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces (whatever that means) in Germany
has pretty much figured out how to convert plant matter into coal without all
of the millions of years of waiting inherent in the traditional methods.
Basically, Antonietti sticks plant matter, water and citric
acid into an autoclave (pressure cooker) and then cooks the mixture at a few
hundred degrees for about 12 hours. The
result is coal, well…wet coal, which can be filtered and dried until it’s ready
to burn.
The amazing thing is, the process produces no excess CO2,
and all of the CO2 produced when the mixture is burned was recently fixed by
modern plants (so there’s no net CO2 increase.) Maybe not as impressive as The Doc's Mr Fusion home fusion generator, but a step in the right direction.
Antionietti says that there’s nothing standing in the way of
industrializing this process and creating a mine-free, carbon-neutral form of
coal. Of course, he also says, as he
rubs his faux coal between his fingers, that it has a strong masculine scent. The look in his eyes… is one of love.
Full article and Video available at DW-World
Takeo Fukui, Honda's CEO, is getting ready to take on Toyota, and the world, with a line of green vehicles that will surprise the world starting in 2009. Their two-seat Insight was the first ultra-high efficiency hybrid, and now they've converted their Civic to the technology as well. As the price of gas rose, so did Honda's market share. They're not looking to abandon the strategy.
In a monstrous article from Bloomberg, this strategy is laid out, all except for the parts that are kept top-secret by Honda.
Their research budget is the biggest in the car industry, more than $3,000 per vehicle sold, but it's not all going towards their 2009 diesel engine that will be 30% more fuel efficient than today's engines. They're researching robots, genetically engineering sugar cane for ethanol production, bio-plastics for airplane fuselages, and yes, fuel cells, hybrid technology and alternative hydrocarbons.
Honda is certainly on the forefront of the green revolution. So let's all take our hats of to Takeo Fukui who recently said, in an interview, "We'd like to have the brand image as the world's biggest contributor to the environment.'' So take some time to read a couple thousand words at Bloomberg. And if you're gonna invest in a car company, how about the one that invests the most in itself.
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{mosimage}Way back when, it was George Lucas who invented the all-zones-flooded movie merchandising blitz. From Darth Vader Coke cups in 1977 to pudgy Bail Organa action figures in 2005, film marketers have mastered the art of leveraging children's movies to sell nasty, industrially-produced fast food (and vice versa). Kids can't resist Ewoks or french fries. Together? Unstoppable. Considering the epidemic of obesity--particularly among the little porkers formerly known as children in the U.S.--this practice seems all the more sordid these days. Not to mention environmentally irresponsible. Fast food is the opposite of sustainable and responsible. So, it comes as welcome news, that Disney/Pixar have declined to renew a 10-year, $1 billion agreement with McDonalds to promote Pixar's CGI films. Hmmm. Steve Jobs owns Pixar. Pixar buys Disney. Steve Jobs is pescetarian. A few weeks later, Pixar/Disney say good bye to McDonald's. Coincidence? Not likely. This is Steve Jobs, the mercurial genius behind iPods and the Macintosh, striking an unambiguous blow for the EcoGeeky agenda. Cartoons and fast food must be de-linked. I've watched my nephew stare, glaze-eyed, at Toy Story roughly one million times. Woody and Buzz are like Baby Crack. Powerfully addictive stuff. Except, unlike crack, Pixar cartoons seem harmless. If anything, watching said nephew activate his Buzz Lightyear wrist laser while hollering, "to infiminitee anbedond!" suggests the emergence of a fun-loving and imaginitive mind. Pixar films entertain countless persons for countless hours and incur no greater material inputs than sustenance for a handful of intensely creative minds, a little electricity, and a few DVDs. Creativity, information, entertainment--these are the very essence of the EcoGeeky way forward. Harmless human gratification with a small ecological footprint.
McDonalds is the oppposite. A vast network of industrial food production, energy-intensive logistics, dubious animal husbandry, metastasizing cultural sameness--all of which is directed toward producing bland dog shit some call food that makes children fat, anxious, and probably stupid. Although I can't prove the latter two.
Thanks, Steve Jobs. You might be the world's most powerful EcoGeek.
Now please buy DreamWorks SKG before I have to watch Shrek and Grimace hawking Happy Meals.
London's got a big ol' population of beekeepers, and the hobby is on the rise. In addition to keeping people in touch with {mosimage}nature while surrounded by an urban envorinment, beekeeping produces delightful local honey. Furthermore, from the Independent online: "Surprisingly, smoggy urban streets are said to provide a purer honey than rolling fields."
"Huh?" you're saying. Read on:
"'The countryside seems green and clean, but the crops are often covered in pesticides,' explains James Hammill, a former actor turned owner of The Hive Honey Shop in south London, which stocks honey produced at the Hammills' 40 hives across London and southern England. 'Bees in cities produce more honey. We get 40 to 50 jars per hive every season in our country apiaries; in the city, we get more like 150 jars.'"
Crazy and delicious.
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Bill Joy, one of the founders of Silicon Valley giant Sun Microsysetms, was recently asked if there were going to be any more Googles. 
