Netherlands passes net neutrality law, first among EU nations. Ritz-Carlton Launches iPhone App. Hotel chain Ritz-Carlton has launched a mobile app that incorporates QR codes and location-based services, designed to provide users with special in-hotel offers and experiences. Expanding upon basic hotel search and reservation functionality, the new app integrates with other social platform, such as Foursquare and World Concierge, and provides location based recommendations. Some of our favorite functionalities include the “Presidential Tips” section, a specially-curated selection of tips from Herve Humler, company president and COO. The Ritz-Carlton App is available for both Android smartphones and Apple iPhones.
Along with its release, the hotel chain also debuted its QR code on-property experience tours at 20 of its locations. They include a wine pairing tour in Hong Kong’s Highest Hotel in the world, as well as a cultural art tour at the Kapalua location. The free app is available on both Apple and Android platforms. Organic Farming Isn't Always Sustainable; Another Threat to Bees. The Top Five Anti-Environment Objectives of ALEC. Connecticut Fears Monsanto - Bill to Label GM Ingredients Dead Due to Lawsuit Worries. Millions Against Monsanto/CC BY 2.0 Remember all the cheering when Connecticut legislators proposed a bill requiring the labeling of genetically modified ingredients in food? Well, you can start booing. Loudly. As the Fairfield Green Food Guide reports, legislators have gotten cold feet, removing the entire part of the bill requiring labeling of the GM ingredients, fearing lawsuit by the big corporate behemoth Monsanto.
Representative Richard Roy, one of the bill's original sponsors says, The labeling provision was eliminated from the bill due to fears that it opened the state up to a lawsuit. Weak willed trembling nebbishness, your epitome is here. Protecting the welfare of the state? Recently, Vermont had planned on labeling GM ingredients but too backed off over threat of lawsuit of Monsanto. As the oft-shared Facebook protest photo proclaims, if Monsanto is so proud of it's genetically modified products why are they afraid to label them? Make no mistake who controls the United States.
Top 10 Tech Stories This Week: DIY solar lawn mower, Pinterest and the cloud, hydropower for kids and more! Solar Stella Cigar Box Amp Is An Awesome Project for Musicians. © John Wilson Maker and crazy-awesome craftster John Wilson designed the Stella amp awhile back and has recently made an improvement: solar power. He writes on Crazy But Able, "When I designed the Stella amp a couple of years ago, I realized that I could make the amp run at 3 volts. I knew right then that I wanted to make a solar powered version of the amp. A few months ago, I grabbed one off the shelf and picked up everything I needed from Adafruit to make it happen.
" Turns out, the ingredients list is short -- just a solar panel, a solar charging circuit, a battery and a thermister which helps protect the battery in extreme temperatures. Another important ingredient, of course, is a cigar box which works as a handy holder that doesn't require much effort in the woodworking department. Here is a video of the Solar Stella hard at work during a music session: So if you're a musician and like being handy with tools and alternative energy sources, we recommend this as an afternoon project! 100,000 Solar Charged LEDs Mimic Floating Fireflies in Tokyo Festival. Iron-Eating Magnetized Bacteria Could Make Faster Computers. Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH/Public Domain We write a lot about biomimicry, technology that mimics nature. This British-Japanese research project takes things a step further: it has made technology from nature itself. A newly created type of bacteria ingests iron, creating magnets inside itself, the BBC reported.
These "naturally" created microscopic magnets could be used to create high-speed hard drives on a nano scale. The project is the work of researchers at the University of Leeds and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, who recently published a study in the journal Small. The new bacterium is based on Magnetospirilllum magneticum, which are naturally magnetic and align themselves along the Earth's magnetic fields.
Ordinary manufacturing methods aren't fine enough to create hard drives on a microscopic scale, so biology is stepping in. New Study Predicts Frack Fluids Can Migrate to Aquifers Within Years. A new study has raised fresh concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, concluding that fracking chemicals injected into the ground could migrate toward drinking water supplies far more quickly than experts have previously predicted. A Cabot Oil and Gas hydraulic fracturing site on Jan. 17, 2012, in Springville, Pa. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Scientists have theorized that impermeable layers of rock would keep the fluid, which contains benzene and other dangerous chemicals, safely locked nearly a mile below water supplies.
This view of the earth's underground geology is a cornerstone of the industry's argument that fracking poses minimal threats to the environment. But the study, using computer modeling, concluded that natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus, exacerbated by the effects of fracking itself, could allow chemicals to reach the surface in as little as "just a few years. " "This would be a huge fracture porosity," Engelder said.
Gasification & Pyrolysis the Answer for U.S. Waste Plastics? SPI Solar to Build 6.4 Megawatts of Solar at Mountain Creek Resort. ROSEVILLE, Calif. –(BUSINESS WIRE)–SPI Solar (“SPI”) (OTCBB:SOPW) a leading vertically integrated photovoltaic (“PV”) solar developer, today announced that it has entered into an engineering, procurement and construction (“EPC”) agreement with a subsidiary of KDC Solar (“KDC Solar”) to design and build multiple solar energy facilities (“SEF”) for KDC Solar at the Mountain Creek Resort and Grand Cascades Golf Resort in Vernon, New Jersey. KDC Solar will own and operate the SEFs. The SEFs being developed at the resorts will include a mixture of fixed ground mount and custom designed solar parking canopies and car ports located at three separate sites at the resort. The three SEFs will provide more than 8,000,000 kW hours of solar electricity generation per year to help power the resort’s operations.
The project is yet another large-scale solar installation for SPI as a result of its preferred provider agreement with KDC Solar. About SPI Solar (OTCBB:SOPW): Safe Harbor Statement: BP Oil Spill Photos Posted By Greenpeace Following Freedom Of Information Request. Over two years after the disastrous BP oil spill wreaked havoc on the Gulf, Greenpeace has received photos of the destruction inflicted on marine life in the area. According to a Greenpeace press release, the environmental group filed a Freedom of Information request in 2010 for the photos -- their request was one of over 50 FOIA requests submitted by Greenpeace to various agencies regarding the oil spill.
The spill occurred after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers on April 20, 2010. Far surpassing BP's initial estimates, about 50,000 barrels per day flowed from the well over the course of three months, according to a government-organized scientific team. The Greenpeace press release states that the photos, many focused on oil-covered sea turtles, "appear to be part of the effort to collect evidence for the prosecution of BP and others.
" The trial to assign damages for the oil spill has been delayed until January 2013. Loading Slideshow. Orangutans Use IPads To Communicate At Miami Zoo Jungle Island (VIDEO, PHOTOS) An orangutan works with an IPAD at Jungle Island in Miami. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter) MIAMI — The 8-year-old twins love their iPad. They draw, play games and expand their vocabulary.
Their family's teenagers also like the hand-held computer tablets, too, but the clan's elders show no interest. The orangutans at Miami's Jungle Island apparently are just like people when it comes to technology. The park is one of several zoos experimenting with computers and apes, letting its six orangutans use an iPad to communicate and as part of a mental stimulus program. Linda Jacobs, who oversees the program, hopes the devices will eventually help bridge the gap between humans and the endangered apes. "Our young ones pick up on it. Jacobs said she began letting the orangutans use iPads last summer, based on the suggestion of someone who had used the devices with dolphins. The devices have been a great addition to the enrichment programs Jungle Island already does with the orangutans, Jacobs said. Online: Great Pacific Garbage Patch: Plastic Debris In Ocean Impacting Marine Life.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — An increase in plastic debris floating in a zone between Hawaii and California is changing the environment of at least one marine critter, scientists reported. Over the past four decades, the amount of broken-down plastic has grown significantly in a region dubbed the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch. " Most of the plastic pieces are the size of a fingernail.
During a seagoing expedition, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that a marine insect that skims the ocean surface is laying its eggs on top of plastic bits instead of natural flotsam like wood and seashells. Though plastic debris is giving the insects places to lay eggs, scientists are concerned about the manmade material establishing a role in their habitat.
"This is something that shouldn't be in the ocean and it's changing this small aspect of the ocean ecology," said Scripps graduate student Miriam Goldstein. The garbage patch cannot be seen by satellite. Online: Also on HuffPost: Mowing down the competition: Supermileage Team aims to break fuel barriers.
(Phys.org) -- Can a car really get 3,300 miles to the gallon? The University of Michigan's Supermileage Team is on its way to proving it can—with a lawnmower engine. "We are taking something that is in your backyard and turning it into something that's sleek, modern and high-performance," said mechanical engineering senior Laura Pillari, project manager and co-founder of the team. The new student team will compete in its first competition this summer, the SAE International Supermileage Challenge, in Marshall, Mich.
The competition challenges student teams to design and construct a single-person, fuel-efficient vehicle with a small four-stroke engine. The team's goal this year is to beat the North American record of 3,169 miles per gallon, and to better it by reaching 3,300 mpg. "Fuel efficiency is one of those issues prevalent in society today," said chief engineer and co-founder Brett Merkel, a senior in mechanical engineering. In fact, that process has already begun. w00t w0000t...Hybrid Train - Next Year. Solar Energy in South Africa - Cleantech Solutions. South Africa is endowed with abundant renewable resources in the form of solar and wind energy. The Government’s White Paper on Renewable Energy Policy, released in 2003, supports the development of alternative energy systems with an ambitious target of generating 10,000GWh green electricity by 2013.
The growing climate change concerns related to burning fossil fuels is also providing an impetus to renewable energy initiatives in South Africa. Not surprisingly, Eskom is financing 100MW solar and 100MW wind energy projects to jumpstart the renewable energy market in South Africa. Cleantech investments soared to US$ 125 million in 2009, a welcome sign for fast-paced developments in South African clean energy sector. The renewable resource with the greatest potential in South Africa is solar energy. The high level of solar radiation enables solar water heating technology to be the least-cost means of meeting the national renewable energy target. Share! Related Articles: Homemade Chicken Coop with Beer Can Shingles Was Built in 10 Hours for $40.
© Matt Pike Here's an inspiring story for aspiring DIYers: Matt Pike, a contractor living in Marshall, North Carolina, realized just last weekend that he needed to build a coop for the quickly growing 20 chicks that call his farm home. Luckily for Matt, he was in the process of building two homes (for his family and his next door in-laws). So he dived into the scrap pile and got to work. The coop is made up of two 4' by 8' pallets, a salvaged tin roof purchased at a flea market, assorted lumber, and shingles made from empty beer cans.
Matt bought the chicken wire and the latches for the gates, and spent less than $40 on the whole shebang, which he built in less than ten hours. The coop is hardly a work of art, but it's functional. Beauty aside, it goes to show that it doesn't take a big investment of money or time or an overly fancy design to get the job done. If you're interested in building your own coop, it's not especially hard- Sami lays out how to go about it here. Solar iPad Case Extends Battery Life to 10 Days. © Wireless NRG In what is starting to be a competitive field, Wireless NRG has released a solar-powered iPad case called the KudoCase that offers protection and extra juice for your battery from the sun. The case is made of a hard, biodegradable corn-based plastic and features solar panels on the front cover that generate energy from indoor and outdoor light sources. The solar panels charge the case's built-in battery, which in turn slowly trickles energy to your iPad, topping it off and letting it go up to 10 days before it needs to be recharged (based on two hours of use per day).
Logitech also recently released a solar-powered case that will be sold through Best Buy that is outfitted with a small section of solar panels that power the attached keyboard only. The jury is still out on whether the Logitech case carries any environmental benefit, but it seems unlikely.