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19-Year-Old Develops Cleanup Array To Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From Oceans

19-Year-Old Develops Cleanup Array To Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From Oceans
Another young creative mind working towards bettering our world. 19-year-old Boyan Slat has revealed his plans to the world regarding his Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The revolutionary device consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel. It all began when Boyan Slat launched a project that analyzed the size and amount of plastic particles in the ocean’s garbage patches. Once built, it is estimated that the entire clean-up process would take about five years to complete. Related:  ideasZeitheistOur Environment, despite all that, Improving

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Eco-city Inside a One Kilometer Crater in Siberia Eco-city 2020 is a proposal for the rehabilitation of the Mirniy industrial zone in Eastern Siberia, Russia designed by the innovative architectural studio AB Elis Ltd. The project would be located inside a giant man-made crater of more than one kilometer in diameter and 550 meters deep that used to be one of the world’s largest quarries. The idea is to create a new garden city that will be shielded from the harsh Siberian environmental conditions characterized by long and severe winters and short hot summers. The new city would attract tourists and residents to Eastern Siberia and would be able to accommodate more than 100,000 people.

Cleaning air the natural way Making neighbours happy: The photochemical accelerator removes foul smells from the recycling of oil and waste water at the Jysk Miljørens plant in the harbour area of Aarhus, Denmark. (Photo: Matthew Johnson) Metal sections have been mounted on the roof of the company Jysk Miljørens in Aarhus, Danmark which literally are making the owners breathe easier. Until now the company’s neighbours have been protesting the big stink it made. But the stench is now history. Several advantages Variations of the purifier can be put to use cleaning emissions and recycling polluted air indoors ‒ in factories as well as homes. The purifier has several advantages. Certain factories can avoid building tall chimneys to disperse polluted discharges high above the heads of immediate neighbours. Death zone The new technology was first presented to the public in the autumn of 2010. In getting there, the researcher had to pass what he calls the “death zone”. “We crossed the death zone with a prototype. Ozone

These People May Have Lost a Limb, but Not Their Sense of Style Dec 10, 2013 Bespoke Innovations was founded in 2009 by Industrial Designer Scott Summit and Orthopedic Surgeon Kenneth Trauner. Their mission is to ‘bring more humanity to people who have congenital or traumatic limb loss’ [source]. Bespoke Innovations build and design fairings, specialized coverings that surround an existing prosthetic leg, accurately recreating the body form through a process that uses three-dimensional scanning to capture the unique leg shape. Fairings are designed for, and with, the amputee. The wearer is invited to choose from a library of patterns and graphics, and can even add customized text and detailing. Typical costs range between $4000 – $6000 usd and a standard fairing weights about 6.6 ounces (187 grams). Below you will find an amazing gallery of custom designs that were tailored to meet the requirements of each individual. [via veronique_m on reddit] Founder and CTO Scott Summit at TEDxCambridge 2011

Robot tests on nuclear sites as UK ramps up research 30 June 2014Last updated at 22:34 ET The UK will copy US Grand Challenges which focus research efforts on tough tasks Robots could soon be roaming over decommissioned nuclear sites and abandoned coal mines in the UK to test their ability to work autonomously. The proposal to create the test sites is one strand of a broad plan that seeks to co-ordinate UK robot research. Drafted by the Technology Strategy Board, it calls for "grand challenges" which see researchers compete to make robots that complete specific tasks. The UK could lead the world in robots, said the authors behind the plan. Cash call The proposals come as Science Minister David Willetts unveils how the Technology Strategy Board will spend the £400m in funds allocated to it over the next year. "Robots have often been positioned as a thing of the future, but today's strategy-launch emphasises the fact that they are very much of the here and now," Mr Willetts is expected to say during a speech on 1 July.

Asteroid Dust Cloud Could Act As Sunshade, Fight Climate Change On Earth, Researchers Suggest By: Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor Published: 09/29/2012 09:22 AM EDT on LiveScience To combat global warming, scientists in Scotland now suggest an out-of-this-world solution — a giant dust cloud in space, blasted off an asteroid, which would act like a sunshade for Earth. The world is warming and the climate is changing. Although many want to prevent these shifts by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that trap heat from the sun, some controversially suggest deliberating manipulating the planet's climate with large-scale engineering projects, commonly called geoengineering. Instead of altering the climate by targeting either the oceans or the atmosphere, some researchers have suggested geoengineering projects that would affect the entire planet from space. For instance, projects that reduced the amount of solar radiation Earth receives by 1.7 percent could offset the effects of a global increase in temperature of 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C). Shading Earth Related on HuffPost:

Creative Compulsive Disorder: Remembering Zina Nicole Lahr This short clip about artist and maker Zina Nicole Lahr may be as tragic as it is beautiful. Earlier this fall Lahr approached her friend Stormy Pyeatte and asked if they might shoot a quick video for her portfolio. The video was shot and edited in just two days and demonstrates Lahr’s insatiable desire to build, invent, and “bring life to something inanimate,” a process she called her “creative compulsive disorder.” Almost unthinkably, Lahr was killed in a hiking accident in Colorado on November 20th, a few weeks after this was shot. I didn’t know Lahr, but if this brief glimpse into her life is any indicator it’s clear she possessed an extremely rare spirit that feels completely genuine and infectious.

US aviation authority clarifies model aircraft laws 30 June 2014Last updated at 08:55 ET According to the FAA, some toy model aircraft are now illegal Hobbyists are concerned new US Federal Aviation Administration guidance classifying first-person-view model aircraft as drones will ground toy planes unless they have a permit. The FAA hopes its list of "dos and don'ts" will make model aircraft safer. But David Schneider, of the IEEE Spectrum, said a child's toy such as the Hubsan FPV X4 Mini RTF Quadcopter would now require a permit to fly. Models must be visible at all times, without vision-enhancing devices. These include: binoculars night-vision goggles powered vision-magnifying devices goggles that give a "first-person view" from the model "Such devices would limit the operator's field of view thereby reducing his or her ability to see and avoid other aircraft in the area," the guidance says. The guidance also states model aircraft can be flown only for recreational - not commercial - purposes. Model aircraft must also weigh 55lb or less.

Shell to Test Capturing of Carbon in Canada Associated PressAn oil sands mining operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta. HOUSTON — In a bid to make oil sands production less polluting, Royal Dutch Shell announced on Wednesday that it would go forward with the first carbon capture and storage project ever tried in the fields of western Canada. The announcement of the Quest project after years of study comes just months before Washington will reconsider whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline to increase imports of heavy oil from the oil sands. Environmentalists have fought the project, arguing that refining and burning oil from the oil sands emit far more carbon than conventional oil. The project, which is scheduled to begin operations by 2015, is intended to capture and permanently store underground more than a million tons of carbon dioxide a year, which Shell estimated was equivalent to taking 175,000 cars off the road. Mr. “We know the world is watching,” Ken Hughes, Alberta’s energy minister, said at the news conference.

HACKERSPACES | Ossoil – Open Source Community Enabler IOssoil was established 2010. Ever since the beginning we have been building communities, consulted several companies and alike. We don’t just tell what to do, we do it ourselves too! Purpose Ossoil exists to provide fast, reliable assistance to companies on Open source related business. Vision By providing fast response, informed expertise, and consistently high quality solutions, Ossoil generates enough satisfied repeat customers to provide a stable retainer base. Mission We provide leading edge community management solutions and knowledge.

Robot hand and arm gets official approval 12 May 2014Last updated at 06:32 ET WATCH: A volunteer puts the device to the test - Footage courtesy of Darpa A robot arm capable of picking up delicate objects has been approved for use by US medical authorities. The Deka Arm has fingers that can move much like real ones making it easier for amputees to feed themselves, zip up clothes and unlock doors. The arm has a much greater range of movement than existing devices many of which are based around metal hooks or designs more than 100 years old. US Army veterans helped to test and refine the prosthetic limb. The Arm was developed with $40m (£24m) of research cash provided by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). While prosthetics have improved in recent years, much of the development work has been done on legs rather than replacements for lost arms and hands. Currently, officially approved designs for replacement arms are often based around split metal hooks - a design first drawn up in 1912.

Can tiny plankton help reverse climate change? – David Biello ‘Call me Victor,’ says the mustachioed scientist as he picks me up from the airport on a brisk, fall afternoon in Germany. Victor Smetacek is an esteemed marine biologist, but he’s decided to spend his golden years on an ambitious new pursuit. He has devised a plan to alter the mix of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, in order to ward off climate change. He is, in other words, an aspiring geoengineer. I came to the ancient city of Bremen to ask Smetacek about an extraordinary experiment he performed more than half the world away, in a forbidding sea seldom visited by humans. Popular now These are my two Baltimores, black and white Will human sexuality ever be free from stone age impulses? Magical thinking still haunts all our thoughts Since the 1980s, Smetacek has taken regular expeditions from his home port of Bremerhaven to the Southern Ocean aboard the sturdy icebreaker Polarstern. That these tiny creatures could affect such massive change is not as unreasonable as it sounds. 1 July 2014

Architecture Student Bought a School Bus and Turned It Into Cozy Mobile Home As a graduate architecture student, Hank was tired of seeing architecture projects that never left the drawing board. So when it came time to come up with a final project, Hank did what was obviously the only logical solution – he bought an old school bus and, together with his brother and a friend, spent 14 weeks converting it into a modern, well-designed mobile home that can host up to 12 people complete with beds, a kitchen, a bathroom and two skylights. Most of the furniture in the bus is modular, so it can be moved, stowed away or converted to different functions. The queen-sized bed can be made into a seating or dining area, and most of these modular pieces of furniture also include storage space. Hank designed his modern take on the RV as an impulsive, last-ditch effort to come up with something for his graduate thesis project. Source: hankboughtabus.com | Photos: Justin Evidon (via)

NSA 'targets' Tor dark web servers and users 4 July 2014Last updated at 07:32 ET Scrutiny of the NSA's surveillance was started by whistleblower Edward Snowden The NSA has been targeting the Tor anonymising system to spy on its users, suggests a report. German public broadcaster ARD said two Tor servers in Germany were actively being watched by the US spy agency. Citing information given by official sources, ARD said almost anyone searching for Tor or installing it could be watched by the NSA. Tor hides users' location and identity by randomly bouncing data through some of the machines making up the network. Data is encrypted during the hops to better conceal who is visiting which page. Information passed to ARD suggests the NSA has tapped into traffic to and from two German directory servers used by Tor to scoop up the IP addresses of people who visited it. Data passing in and out of these servers was vulnerable because it was unencrypted. Sites offering several other anonymising and privacy tools were also watched, said the ARD report.

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