ZUMTHOR VALS. Solar-Powered 3D Printer Turns Desert Sand Into Glass. The sun's rays can be harnessed to power everything from homes to gadgets, but one graduate student is using the sun to create a super-printer capable of printing elaborate glassware. Markus Kayser took his graduate project all the way to the sands of the Sahara in Egypt to create his innovative idea dubbed the 'Solar Sinter'.
The incredible design uses a 3D digital printer and the sun’s rays to turn the sand into incredible glass bowls and sculptures that are out of this world. The Solar Sinter is made up of seven stations: a photovoltaic panel, the focal point for drawing the sun’s rays, a sun tracker, fresnel lens (for magnifying the rays), a battery, controlling electronics, and finally a silver tent dubbed the “office,” where Kayser can shield himself from the hot sun, while monitoring the process.
Dragging the mini-station far into the desert, Kayser utilizes the abundant natural energy. . + Markus Kayser Via Engadget. GreenPowerIsland. Afghanistan's Amazing DIY Internet. The Afghan city of Jalalabad has a high-speed Internet network whose main components are built out of trash found locally. Aid workers, mostly from the United States, are using the provincial city in Afghanistan's far east as a pilot site for a project called FabFi.
It's a broadband apart from the covert, subversive "Internet in a suitcase" and stealth broadband networks being sponspored by the U.S., aimed at empowering dissidents, but the goal isn't so different: bringing high-speed onilne access to the world's most remote places. Residents can build a FabFi node out of approximately $60 worth of everyday items such as boards, wires, plastic tubs, and cans that will serve a whole community at once. While it sounds like science fiction, FabFi could have important ramifications for entire swaths of the world that lack conventional broadband. FabFi is an open source project that maintains close ties to MIT's Fab Lab and the university's Center for Bits and Atoms. [Images: Courtesy FabFi] DIY internet spreading through Middle East and Africa : The Thin Green Line.
Did you know that people in Kenya, Afghanistan and Pakistan are building their own wireless networks out of found materials? Just $60 of everyday items such as wood, cans, plastic tubs, wires and car batteries can provide internet service for hundreds of people. It’s like the “telephone” of your youth and the best MacGyver episode ever, all rolled up into one. Courtesy MIT’s Fab Lab It works like this: A single commercial wireless router is mounted on radio frequency reflectors and covered in metal mesh.
Another router/reflector pair is set up at a distance. The goal is simply internet access for all. It’s an open-source project, so if you’re interested in building a DYI network here in the shadow of Silicon Valley, just hit up the wiki. Hat tip to Fast Company for this awesome story. The Carbon Neutral Emax Excalibur Hybrid Yacht is Covered in Solar Panels. The Emax Excalibur solar hybrid luxury yacht isn’t shy about its carbon neutral status: it is literally covered in solar panels from prow to stern. The green vessel, built by Sauter Carbon Offset Design and the Ned Ship Group, is built from kevlar and carbon and is completely carbon neutral.
But the coolest thing about this new ship is that you can plug it in and return energy to the grid–over 50 megawatts per year. According to Sauter Carbon Offset Design, “The plug-in Emax Excalibur has a top speed of 30 knots and can harvest enough energy per year to offset up to 3,000 nautical miles of carbon-neutral cruising at 18 knots.” Richard Sauter, head of design, said of the new green ship, “The Emax Excalibur is the world’s first carbon-neutral yacht built from molds in order to produce a semi-custom series, which represents a revolutionary first step in the maritime industry towards the production of post-carbon yachts.
. ” + Sauter Carbon Offset Design + Ned Ship Group. Nico Jara's Pedal-Powered Potenza Concept Vehicle Stores Kinetic Energy. The Potenza, a vehicle by Argentinian designer Nico Jara, is simple in concept: a human-powered four-wheel bike that stores energy from pedaling and later converts it into kinetic energy. It is designed for use in large cities as a zero-emissions way to get around without using a traditional bicycle. The elegant design features four spoked wheels and a canopy up top to protect drivers from the elements. There’s no doubt that the bike is beautiful, but how efficient is it? This design would have to be tested to see how practical it is and how much energy normal pedaling would store for later use, but the concept is so simple that we could see it being made.
Via Coroflot. Solar Impulse Airplane Makes Public Debut at Paris Air Show. The one-seater solar aircraft is similar in size to a large plane, but it only weighs as much as a regular car. It is powered by 12,000 solar cells that cover the plane’s wings. They absorb the sun’s energy, and in turn charge batteries that power the 10-horsepower motors that spin the plane’s four propellers. The Solar Impulse proved itself with last summer when it conducted a 26 hour, 10 minute, 19 second flight over Switzerland. Since then it has also flown between Geneva and Zurich in commercial airspace. . + Solar Impulse Via Sky News. Green Power Island Could Power Copenhagen Sustainably. The proposed Green Power Island off the coast of Copenhagen seeks to be an alternative energy super center for the country.
Designed by Gottlieb Paludan, the massive man-made island will utilize wind power, solar power, seawater pumps, and produce marine biomass for biofuel. Improving on the pumped hydro-renewable energy concept, Green Power Island could become Copenhagen’s alternative energy center, providing energy for all of the country’s residents around the clock. Wind power is an incredible resource, but when the wind doesn’t blow, neither do the turbines. The design solution integrates a combination of alternative energy collectors, as well as pumped hydro. The system, which is based off the energy of water being pumped from two reservoirs of varying heights has been adapted for the island. Rather than building two reservoir tanks, Paludan proposes a lagoon within the island. . + Gottlieb Paludan + Green Power Island Via Earth Techling.
Scientists Developing Talk-Powered Cell Phones. Attention, chatterboxes of the world: one day you may be rewarded for your talkativeness with power to juice up your cell phones. Researchers in Korea have figured out a way to turn the main ingredient in calamine lotion (zinc oxide) into a material that converts sound waves into electricity — and eventually, it could be used to power up cell handsets.
In a study, the scientists fashioned a piezoelectric material (nanowires sandwiched between electrodes) out of zinc oxide that generates 50 millivolts of energy. That’s not enough to power a cell phone — most handsets require a few volts — but the researchers have high hopes that they will be able to generate more power from future versions of the piezoelectric material. So eventually, the more we talk on the phone, the more battery life we’ll have. Via Network World.
Solar Energy Cogeneration Solution from SolarWall. Solar photovoltaics are, depending on the day, between 8-15% efficient meaning much of the sun’s energy’s is lost as heat. While solar thermal systems offer a way to harvest this heat energy for heating water or interior spaces, this option has usually displaced the electricity generating PV on rooftops.
A new system from SolarWall, the SolarDuct PV/T, offers a combination of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal in one assembly providing a means to heat and power from the sun with one product. The system is an evolution of the SolarWall system, a vertical mounted solar thermal and heat recapture system that transfers heat into or away from a building’s HVAC mechanicals depending on the season. The SolarDuct PV/T is based on the same principle of capturing heat from the sun and heat generated from excessive solar gain on buildings. The new system adds photovoltaic over thermal ducts to maximize energy efficiency. + SolarWall. Kinect / iPad hack should help you get Obi-Wan's attention (video) Harry Kewell in pictures. Create your own US and UK address and shop online! Pack your bags - we'll be gone for 100 years.
I don’t think it’s at all suspicious that the supergeeks of DARPA, the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which brought us flesh-eating robots and Project Orion – “the spaceship powered by atomic-bomb turds”, is now calling for papers for its 100 Year Starship Study. I think it’s awesome! Especially because there’s a lazy half million in prize money for the best idea.
No way is a secret cabal of US shadow government operators in league with a faction of proto fascist Big Brother style multinational corporations to abandon the planet because they know the climate data they’ve been suppressing is, like, about a hundred times worse than even Bob Brown imagines. Nope. They’re just doing this because it's totally freaking cool.
Advertisement So, long story short, September this year, the space nerds with best ideas for getting off this soon-to-be toxic lump of rock, will gather in DARPA’s underground lair inside a mountain somewhere. We will proceed thusly. Online retailing: retailers' mark-ups under threat. As a shopper, have you ever pondered what sort of mark-up the retailer has slapped on to the pair of Levi jeans or adidas runners that you're about to try on? Turns out consumers reckon a 35 per cent mark-up by the shop would be fair in order to make a profit, according to a survey by the Australia Institute out today. See list of mark-ups here For many goods, though, the retailer's take is often much higher than you think. Advertisement "In reality, the average mark-up for items such as clothes and shoes is 142 per cent, and around 40 per cent for popular online items like DVDs and music," said Richard Denniss, executive director of the Australia Institute.
The boom in online retailing is well known, with the rise of the Australian dollar over the past year often cited as the main culprit as shoppers find cheaper goods accessible on overseas websites. Less understood, though, is how Australia's high-cost retail sector is going to accelerate the flight to online shopping. Perceptions. Aussie Shoppers Ripped off by Retailers: Choice | Online Shopping. Australian shoppers ripped off says Choice Choice tells retailers they can't put up walls to keep the Internet away P 27, 2011 Global companies with a presence in Australia prevent local customers from taking advantage of cheaper prices offered on their overseas websites, consumer group Choice says. In its submission to the Productivity Commission's retail inquiry, Choice says Australian retailers must explain why they charge huge mark-ups on products that cost half as much from overseas internet companies.
A strong Australian dollar should enable local retailers to pass on savings to their customers, Choice said. Australians are paying more for everything from computer games to motorcycles, Choice says. It has found that a pair of Nike running shoes costs $240 at a major Australian sports retailer while consumers can buy the same shoes for $134 from an online store based in the US.
Advertisement. Notification: Policy: URL Filtering. To some people, maybe it doesn’t. To others, it matters a whole lot. The logging policy can be viewed symbolically: a VPN’s commitment to logging as little as possible is representative of their respect for your privacy and how seriously they approach the issue of protecting your data. For example, for a lot of people, a VPN logging exactly what time they turn the VPN on or off might not be a matter of much concern: but our unwillingness to do even that hopefully signals just how earnestly we protect the data that is generally viewed as more sensitive. Bearing in mind that it takes considerable effort to reduce logging, and even costs us a not-inconsiderate amount of money to pull off, the value of underlining our commitment to your privacy comes down to illustrating our principles as much as bolstering our marketing.
It’s proof that we mean what we say and say what we mean. Notification: Policy: URL Filtering. Anonymity Online. How to stop rip-off retailers. iTunes' current top seller, Lady Gaga's Born This Way (bonus track version) sells for $22.99 on Australian iTunes and for $15.99 ($AUD 14.95) on US iTunes. Do you know why we pay more for games, for books, for clothes, for pretty much everything in this country? It's not just a matter of distance, or an industrial system that provides a much better basic wage for low income earners than, say, the US.
We also pay way over the odds so that guys like Gerry Harvey don't see their fortunes and business model eaten away from the inside by small, fast-moving internet retail startups. There is a Productivity Commission inquiry into all this right now, and it got some publicity last week because Choice finally made their submission, pointing out that Emperor Gerry and his big retail mates had no clothes on. They're walking around naked, turkey slapping us in the high street, just because they can. Advertisement Go read the piece. But that doesn't mean we have to bend over and take it. Lighthouses of Australia Project - JUN 01 BULLETIN. Dear Friends Features Deal Island 1999 - The Snapshot Restored Roofs at Wilsons Promontory Letters & Notices Department of Scrounge New Pages & Links New Pages for Australia New Links for Australia New Links for World Australian News AMSA Outsources Navigational Services Queensland Lighthouse Service Reunion Deal Island Diary is a Great Idea!
Join Lighthouses of Australia Inc Thanks To Text Only eMail Past Bulletins Subscribe Dear Friends Deal Island Month Hi folks, this months issue is very much dedicated to Deal Island. Then in News we find out all the formation of the Deal Islanders and a great new web page called the Deal Island Diary. Which is all very appropriate as we have the privilege of having Christian Bell speaking at the Lighthouses of Australia Inaugural Dinner on the 16th of June in Melbourne. If you wish to attend then join up and become a member and register for the Dinner. Lighthouses of Australia Inc. Other Feature and News Features Deal Island 1999 - The Snapshot. Haptic Compass gives you sense of direction, not style. This Surreal Lake Full of Frozen Bubbles Is Actually in Planet Earth. Thk127. Interesting Websites. Tutorials. Secret-Internet.