Archive for the 'Energy' Category
Libya’s Former Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem Found Dead in Danube River
April 30th, 2012Via: BBC: The body of Libya’s former Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem has been found in the Danube River, Austrian police say. A spokesman said there were no signs of violence to Mr Ghanem’s body, which was in the river that flows through Vienna. The former prime minister, 69, worked as a consultant for a Vienna-based […]
AUSTRALIA: BREAKTHROUGH IN SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY
April 24th, 2012Via: University of Sydney: Low cost solar cells suitable for rooftop panels could reach a record-breaking 40 percent efficiency following an early stage breakthrough by a University of Sydney researcher and his German partners. With Australian Solar Institute support, Associate Professor Tim Schmidt from the University’s School of Chemistry, together with the Helmholtz Centre Berlin […]
IBM Creates Lithium-Air Battery with 15 Times the Power Density of Lithium-Ion
April 20th, 2012Via: ExtremeTech: As part of its Battery 500 project — an initiative started by IBM in 2009 to produce a battery capable of powering a car for 500 miles — Big Blue has successfully demonstrated a light-weight, ultra-high-density, lithium-air battery. In IBM’s lithium-air battery, oxygen is reacted with lithium to create lithium peroxide and electrical […]
Liquid Metal Battery
April 20th, 2012Via: MIT: MIT Professor Don Sadoway, an expert in materials chemistry, brought his astonishing battery idea to the recent talks at TED 2012: Full Spectrum. While most new battery inventions target spaces inside smartphones or electric cars, Sadoway’s idea is big. Gigantic, in fact. He and his team have invented a Liquid Metal Battery that […]
Prototype Wind Turbine Condenses 1,000 Liters of Water a Day from Desert Air
April 19th, 2012Via: geek.com: Marc Parent, founder of Eole Water, realized that he could extract water from the air after noticing how much water an air conditioner unit collected. He decided to combine a green energy source with the necessary components for condensing water directly from the air. The end result after 10 years of R&D is […]
‘Factor in taxes, transportation costs, clothing and lunch — what is the true net that you bring home after salary?”
April 18th, 2012Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World by Kelly Coyne “What if the millions of so-called dropouts are onto something?” Via: CNN: After factoring in the rising cost of child care, the daily commute and other work-related expenses, a growing number of […]
Human-Made Earthquakes Reported in Central U.S.
April 18th, 2012Via: Reuters: The number of earthquakes in the central United States rose “spectacularly” near where oil and gas drillers disposed of wastewater underground, a process that may have caused geologic faults to slip, U.S. government geologists report. The average number of earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in the U.S. midcontinent – an area that […]
Photos of Daily Life in the U.S. Government’s Secret Atomic City
April 17th, 2012What does this sign mean? Via: io9: In 1942, the US government acquired the town of Oak Ridge in eastern Tennessee. From then on, Oak Ridge was just like any other town — except for the fences, the guards, and the top-secret uranium separating facility. Related: DOE-Oakridge’s Photostream Flashback: The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study […]
Radioactive Particles from Fukushima Disaster Were Detected in Kelp Off Southern California
April 10th, 2012Via: San Francisco Chronicle: Kelp off California was contaminated with short-lived radioisotopes a month after Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant accident, a sign that the spilled radiation reached the state’s coastline, according to a new scientific study. Scientists from CSU Long Beach tested giant kelp collected off Orange County, Santa Cruz and other locations after […]
Situation at Fukushima Has Potential to, “Destroy the World Environment and Our Civilization”
April 8th, 2012Via: Akio Matsumura: Japan’s former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei Murata, was invited to speak at the Public Hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on March 22, 2012, on the Fukushima nuclear power plants accident. Before the Committee, Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4—with […]
