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Mittwoch, 4. August 2010

Eclipse Shadow Cone Over Patagonia

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.
Eclipse Shadow Cone Over Patagonia
Credit & Copyright: Daniel Fischer (Cosmic Mirror)

Explanation: Sometimes, during a total eclipse of the Sun, a strange shadow of darkness can be seen stretching off into the distance. Called shadow cones, they are visible because the Earth's atmosphere is not completely transparent, scattering sunlight and hence appearing blue during the day. Shadow cones are particularly dramatic for eclipses near the horizon, as geometry creates a long corridor of sun-blocked air. Visible above is a shadow cone caught during a sunset total solar eclipse visible last month from Patagonia, Argentina. The eclipsed Sun itself still appears bright around the edges of the Moon because of light from the surrounding corona. A few minutes later, the Moon began to move away from the Sun as both set behind distant Andes mountains.

China's '3D Fast Bus' Straddles the Road So Cars Can Drive Under

China's '3D Fast Bus' Straddles the Road So Cars Can Drive Under


china straddling bus photo
Photos: Chinanews

Too Expensive to Go Under? Go Over...
What if there was a way to get most of the benefits of a subway, but without the costs of digging up all those tunnels? The Chinese company Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co. thinks it might be able to do just that with a concept it calls the 3D Fast Bus (which has also been called the straddling bus), and kind of giant bus/train that straddles the street and allows cars to drive right under it. This means that it isn't slowed down by traffic and it doesn't add to traffic either. Read on for more details and a video showing a rendering of the 3D Fast Bus in action.

The presenter in this video is Song Youzhou, chairman of Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., the company that is proposing the 3D Fast Bus. Chinahush has a translation of what is said at the bottom of this post. Here are some highlights:

What you can see from the video is traffic jams, what you can hear is noise, and there is also invisible air pollution. At present, there are mainly 4 types of public transits in China: subway, light-rail train, BRT, and normal bus. They have advantages and disadvantages, for example, subway costs a lot and takes long time to build; BRT takes up road spaces and produces noises as well as pollution to the air. How to develop environmental-friendly public transportation? Straddling bus provides a solution. Let's watch a demonstration.

The straddling bus combines the advantages of BRT, it is also a substitution for BRT and subway in the future. As you all know, the majority vehicle on the road is car, the shortest vehicle is also car. Normally our overpass is 4.5-5.5 m high. The highlight innovation of straddling bus is that it runs above car and under overpass. Its biggest strength is saving road spaces, efficient and high in capacity. It can reduce up to 25-30% traffic jams on main routes. Running at an average 40 km/h, it can take 1200 people at a time, which means 300 passengers per cart. [...]

The bus can save up to 860 ton of fuel per year, reducing 2,640 ton of carbon emission. Presently we have passed the first stage demonstration and will get through all of the technical invalidation by the end of August. Beijing's Mentougou District is carrying out a eco-community project, it has already planned out 186 km for our straddling bus. Construction will begin at year end.

Compromise Between BRT and Subway
It's certainly a very interesting idea. Now we'll have to see if it can be pulled off without too many cost overruns and technical problems (though we might never know, China isn't exactly transparent about that stuff). Most cities would probably still be better off with a BRT, but in places where land is at such a high premium that you can't spare extra lanes for buses, and where it would just be too expensive and take too long to build a subway, this type of technology might be a good compromise.

Via Chinahush, Engadget

More Green Tech
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DIY Electroluminescent Bike is Perfect Project for Paranoid Pedaler

Good news for the car drivers. This will be an easy target for you!!

DIY Electroluminescent Bike is Perfect Project for Paranoid Pedaler


glowing bike photo

A few other bikes-with-beaucoup-lights we like include a highly logical wind-powered light, the self-powered laser concept that lights up a circle around the bike and rider so cars know not to cut too close, and of course the obxoniously bright bike that is wrapped in reflective tape so it looks black during the day but like a thing from another solar system at night.

Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

More on Bike Safety
Cycle Superhighways, or BlueWashed Bike Paths? (VIDEO)
Green Box Biking and Safety: It's All in Our Heads
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Islands of Garbage Filling China's Three Gorges Dam

Islands of Garbage Filling China's Three Gorges Dam


three gorges dam photo
Image via China Daily

Torrential rain in China has caused extreme flooding, affecting at least 134 million people in 28 provinces. But many more could be impacted due to another major issue caused by the rain. Massive islands of trash are threatening the Three Gorges Dam area, with some patches so thick people can actually walk on it. Nearly 3,000 tons of garbage is being collected daily from the dam, but it might prove to be too much for limited equipment and workers.

According to China Daily, the amount of garbage in the river has been decreasing in the last few years, but the downpour brought loads of it washing into the Yangtze River, including everything from domestic garbage to plastic to tree branches. The mess started with a layer nearly two feet thick and covering about half a million square feet began to form at the front of the dam in July as the rainy season began. The recent rainstorms have caused much more junk to pile up.

"The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the miter gate of the Three Gorges Dam," Chen Lei, director of the key water project department under the China Three Gorges Corporation, told China Daily. "Such a large amount of debris could damage the propellers and bottoms of passing boats," he said. "The decaying garbage could also harm the scenery and the water quality."

WATCH VIDEO: G Word Shorts: Three Gorges Dam

With over 150 million people living near the dam and upstream, many will be affected as only a handful of boats are able to help with clean up and most people are simply adding to the problem by dumping household garbage directly into the river. On a average year, the China Three Gorges Corporation spends around $1.48 million to clean up floating waste that gathers at the dam, the world's largest hydropower project that environmentalists expected for years to be a problem in terms of sewage and industrial pollution backing up, along with other ecosystem issues. It looks like this year could be much more expensive -- and much more problematic considering most efforts will not be focused on the imperiled dam but on the 9.61 million people who have been evacuated so far, the 875,000 homes have been destroyed, and 22 million acres (8.76 million hectares) of crops ruined.

Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

More on China's River Pollution
What's It Feel Like to Swim the Yantze? Big River Man Shares His Story (Interview)
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Toxic Spill at Chinese Copper Mine Kills Nearly 1,900 Tons of Fish
10 Million Tons of Chemical Fertilizer Discharged into China's Water Every Year



birth dogs

Hello you lovely lot

and another day has come :) and it is already far over, and I feel it is time for me for a nap. LOL

I was preparing breakfasts this morning, half past 6, and afterwards, when I finally was home again, I did enjoy the last piece of the home made applepie -sigh- where did that go? lol.

Now all the official work is done and it is time for some relaxation, but not before I dump the cat into your mailboxes.

Have a wonderful day you all, take care and til next Cat
TT f N




Hallo allemaal

Zo, de dag is alweer ver om, ik heb alles gedaan wat ik moest doen, dus is het nu tijd voor wat rust in de tent, en ik denk er sterk over even een klein tukkie op de bank te doen. Ja, dat moet kunnen he, ik doe dat eigenlijk nooit, maar vandaag.. ach waarom niet?

Het was nog geen 7 uur vanmorgen en toen had ik al 50 broodjes gesmeerd, ;) eenmaal weer thuis alles gedaan wat ik moest doen, dus... nu is het goed rusten.
Tot de volgende Kat!


Dienstag, 3. August 2010

lionfish

this is art!!

Photo: Lionfish and baitfish

A venomous lionfish breaks into a huge ball of swirling baitfish.

About phone calls and cats


Goede middag allemaal.

De dag schiet alweer aardig op, het is prachtig zonnig weer hier en ik heb een hoop dingen gedaan, een paar die echt MOESTEN (dus een opluchting dat ze gedaan zijn), en een paar die gewoon moesten (huishouding,haha).
Kortom, de dag is weer niet spectaculair, maar wel heerlijk. Geen vervelende teelfoontjes of opdrachten van wie dan ook :) haaaa, houden zo!

Ik wens jullie ook een fijne dag, zonder vervelende opdrachten!

Tot de volgende Kat
---------

Good afternoon lovely world

I hope you have a wonderful day, just like mine is. I did a few things that were a HAVE TO DO, so a relieve now they're finally done, and a few things that were a must, hmm household, argh.. :)

In short, the day is nice and not spectacular, and so is the weather as well. No orders from bring me this or that, ha! that's the way it should be.

I wish you a nice (rest of) the day, and we meet with next cat again
TT f N



Week in Pics: The News In Review Avatar Trees: Right Here On Earth Back to School: Great Green Gear th top picks International Transport Expert Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Wuppertal Institute for Climate,... ED Eugene, OR Civil Liberties Defense Center Energy Efficiency Specialist Santa Cruz, CA (San Mateo, Mountain View) Ecology Action Internship Oakland, CA Bay Localize LEED/Commissioning Consultant Jefferson, AR NRDC Water, EJ, and Energy Program... Santa Monica, CA NRDC See more jobsPost your job here Powered by JobThreadGet your own job board Ant Colony Living in a Scanner Is Recorded Over 5 Years

ants in scanner image
Image via Make

Ants are amazing creatures. When we stop to really take a look at them, their status bumps up from pest to anything from hero to inspiration for biomimicry. So it's no wonder some people like to keep ant farms for a close-up look at how these phenomenal insects work. But one ant keeper, Fran�ois Vautier, took their farm a step further. The colony was placed inside a scanner, where the nest was scanned each week for five years! Check out a time lapse video of the ant farm after the jump.

ANTS in my scanner > a five years time-lapse! from fran�ois vautier on Vimeo.

Watching the construction and remodeling of an ant colony over time is fascinating. And hopefully it lends a greater appreciation for the capabilities of these tiny beings.

Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

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Patten Pond - Maine

the winning picture in a photo contest

I am jealous! All that hair! :D:D

Photo: Girls flipping wet hair back

Montag, 2. August 2010

900 Foot Offshore Wind Turbine Mimics Spinning Sycamore Seeds

900 Foot Offshore Wind Turbine Mimics Spinning Sycamore Seeds


sycamore biomimicry turbine photo
Image via Dezeen

The mantra of offshore wind turbine design seems to be "Bigger! Bigger!" in order to get more power out of single turbines. But going hand in hand with making turbines bigger is that they become heavier. British engineers are hoping that a new design that mimics the way sycamore seeds spin through the air will help lighten up the weight of offshore turbines. While the challenge remains to boost efficiency and durability while making it ever lighter, the new design looks promising -- and big. Check out a video of the next wave of wind power.

Daily Mail reports, "British engineers are working on a design for the Aerogenerator which would rotate on its axis and would measure nearly 900 feet from tip to tip, generating up to 10MW."

The new Aerogenerator X was revealed by London architects Grimshaw and engineers Arup, which back the design by British company Wind Power.

sycamore biomimicry turbine photo
Photo via mrpbps

The turbine has two blades that form a V-shape, with sails along their length -- much the way a sycamore seed has a "sail" attached that makes it spin in the breeze to travel farther before landing. Wind passes over the sails, generating lift which can turn the structure at around three revolutions per minute.

The engineers behind the design say that the turbine could be scaled up to produce as much as 20MW or more, but that's after perfecting the design to balance weight and efficiency -- this newest design, the Aerogenerator X, is twice the power and half the weight of Wind Power's original design. The first iterations of the new turbine design could be up and running as quickly as 2013.

10MW Aerogenerator X � Wind Power Limited & Grimshaw from Wind Power Limited on Vimeo.

Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this

More on Biomimicry in Alternative Energy
Biomimicry Breakthrough: Butterfly Wings Could Lead to Better Solar Panels
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Squirrel: A Sustainable Meat, and "Tastes Lovely"

how about a suirrel sandwich? LOOOOLLL :)


Squirrel: A Sustainable Meat, and "Tastes Lovely"



Squirrel The Other White Meat photo
Photo credit christophercarfi @ flickr.

Move over kangaroo, horse, and nutria - there's a new meat on the supermarket shelves at Budgens in the UK - it's squirrel. Squirrel has been eaten in the U.S. south for ages, and Budgens owner Andrew Thornton told the Guardian that he sells as many as 15 squirrels a week. Rather than cull these furry animals that abound on urban streets, Thornton said he thinks it is more sustainble....

to eat them. The UK's animal protection group Viva calls this a "wildlife massacre."

The question of whether or not we should be eating meat - grass-fed versus factory farmed just one of the debates - has never been more discussed than it is now. That's because most people in older civilizations simply ate what they could hunt, grow, or domesticate. It is only now that our society has matured and the true costs of meat eating have been exposed in books like Jonathan Safran Froer's Eating Animals that we are all forced to examine our ethics and our choices around meat.

Thornton said squirrel is a better meat choice than beef. Why - because raising a beef steer requires 15 tons of grain, he said, to produce one ton of meat, and also because the squirrels would probably be culled anyway.Squirrel meat is provided to Budgens by a wild-game supplier.

The U.K. has an ongoing battle with squirrel populations, with the grey North American squirrels invading the habitat of the British red squirrel.

Eating squirrel is actually not entirely new to the Brits, who have seen a campaign aimed at saving the red squirrel by eating the grey squirrel since 2006. Many British chefs and cooking are serving squirrels (which are said to be very difficult to skin).

The idea is not so different from the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) and U.S. oceans agency NOAA's joint campaign to get chefs interested in the lionfish, which is invasive to Carribbean waters and threatens stocks of grouper and snapper. "Eat Them to Beat Them" is NOAA's slogan.

In this Voice of America article, however, Dan Simberloff of the University of Tennessee said that campaigns to get people to eat invasive species haven't fared well, He cites the example of New Orleans chefs attempting to get people to start eating the nutria, a rat-like mammal that is invasive and destructive to U.S. wetlands.

Simberloff says getting people to eat new things is just too difficult, and shouldn't be depended upon as a conservation measure.

What do you think? Should we try to conserve certain species by extensively hunting others?

Read more about the Eat-Them-To-Save-Them theory at TreeHugger:
Eat Kangaroo To Save the Planet: Australian Study Says
Eat a Camel, Save Australia's Environment
Eat the Enemy; Invasive Squirels Introduced as Ethical Food in UK Butcher Shops

Prometheus Creating Saturn Ring Streamers

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.
Prometheus Creating Saturn Ring Streamers
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

Explanation: What's causing those strange dark streaks in the rings of Saturn? Prometheus. Specifically, an orbital dance involving Saturn's moon Prometheus keeps creating unusual light and dark streamers in the F-Ring of Saturn. Now Prometheus orbits Saturn just inside the thin F-ring, but ventures into its inner edge about every 15 hours. Prometheus' gravity then pulls the closest ring particles toward the 80-km moon. The result is not only a stream of bright ring particles but also a dark ribbon where ring particles used to be. Since Prometheus orbits faster than the ring particles, the icy moon pulls out a new streamer every pass. Above, several streamers or kinks are visible at once. The above photograph was taken in June by the robotic Cassini Spacecraft orbiting Saturn. The oblong moon Prometheus is visible on the far left.

Sonntag, 1. August 2010

Dwarf Minke Whale

Dwarf Minke Whale


ahh what an incredible beauty again..




Venus' Once Molten Surface

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.
Venus' Once Molten Surface
Credit: E. De Jong et al. (JPL), MIPL, Magellan Team, NASA

Explanation: If you could look across Venus with radar eyes, what might you see? This computer reconstruction of the surface of Venus was created from data from the Magellan spacecraft. Magellan orbited Venus and used radar to map our neighboring planet's surface between 1990 and 1994. Magellan found many interesting surface features, including the large circular domes, typically 25-kilometers across, that are depicted above. Volcanism is thought to have created the domes, although the precise mechanism remains unknown. Venus' surface is so hot and hostile that no surface probe has lasted more than a few minutes.

Lake of the Moon, India

watch out for your -sea-food :)

Nederladns onder het engels

Hello you lovely lot, wishing you a wonderful rest of the weekend, hopefully it is as relaxing for you as it is for me. The weather is fine, not too hot, and the pancakes were fine too LOL.

I guess the only one who has a bit to complain might be our cat, now with the fish-shock, I love his new look.
also, that's my news, pancakes today, other than that there's nothing to say. After this poem in pocket format there is nothing else to do as sayying bye bye for now, also TT f N :)
The song under the pic, has NOTHING to do with food anyway, just a cool song
-------

Hallo allemaal

Een heelrijk ontspannen zondag, heerlijk weer, heerlijke pannenkoeken en een heerlijke Garfield. Arme kat, zelfs het eten keert zich diit weekend tegen hem..
In elk geval, HIER is het een heerlijk weekend, hopelijk bij jou ook en ik zeg dan maar weer, tot de volgende kat!

Overigens heeft het liedje niets te maken met voedsel, het is gewoon een super-lied!