Hop aboard the biomethane bus
A team from the University of East Anglia has adapted a single decker midi bus to run on biomethane and diesel. The bus can run for at least 60 percent of the time on gas from landfill or special anaerobic digesters.
Daily archives: September 15, 2009
Boldly going sideways because we can’t find reverse
If I ever get the budget to do a film with a car chase in it I’m going to see if Terry Grant’s available to choreograph it. Here’s his list of the top 5 cars to do stunts in.
Dangerous toys
Wired has visted the Defence Systems and Equipment International exhibition in London and had a look at some of the more interesting items on display. Of particular interest to me are the mini and micro UAVs that are being developed- I want to put one in a sequence in the space comic, amongst other things.
The coming energy gap 2
The government’s new energy adviser has warned of a potential energy shortage by 2016, as old coal and oil power stations are taken out of use. He blames public opposition to new wind farms, nuclear plants etc. for slowing the building of renewable energy sources.
I’ve got a solution for this, which I have put forward before. It’s partly a bribe, but it’s also a way of cutting the national energy bill and promoting renewables. The government should extend its schemes for subsidising houseowners’ efforts to cut consumption and begin microgeneration. As more people become eligible for insulation or solar grants they will see the benefits of lower consumption in their bank accounts. Not only will this go viral and convince ever more people that they need to work toward energy independence, it will make them more open to larger renewable energy schemes.
Paying out more, and larger, grants to homeowners will be more expensive in the long term than just trying to force through wind farms or nuclear against current levels of opposition, but it will also have more immediate positive effects. Those who take advantage of the schemes will see a benefit in their fuel bills within a quarter and a large proportion of the money paid out will go to small companies, keeping them afloat in the recession and finding its way back into the economy faster than a huge sum to a big construction conglomerate would.
The placebo effect is destroying the pharmaceutical industry
As drug companies strive to treat ever less well defined problems they’re finding that sugar pills are often as effective as their wonder drugs. Scientists are investigating the placebo effectand learning more about how state of mind affects health. Obviously you can’t just give someone an inert tablet and hope you can convince them to get better- that’s called homeopathy- but it seems that improved communication and a good bedside manner can make a pescription more effective.
Animals with lightsabers
Animals. With lightsabers. It does exactly what it says on the tin.
RIP Patrick Swayze and Keith Floyd
Patrick Swayze has died of pancreatic cancer aged 57.
Keith Floyd, famously boozy TV chef, has died following a heart attack.
The internet is going to be overloaded with YouTube’d Dirty Dancing clips today. So here, as a counterbalance, is Keith cooking duck for Matt Dawson-